Virtual Hiki Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #2 Jofuku-ji Temple

 

     The Ichino River is a branch of the Ara River.  When the estuary of the Ara River was being developed by Etakehi , his offspring, his successors, and/or his followers, the Ichino River might have directly run into the sea.  It is unknown when Jofuku-ji Temple was founded by Priest Sonkaku.  At the time, the river wasn't a branch of the Ara River but that of the Iruma River.

     The temple was built in the hill on the opposite side of Matsuyama Castle.  It isn't clear when Matsuyama Castle or Matsuyama Fortress were built, but Ono Takamura (802-853), Minamoto Tsunetomo (?-961), Minamoto Yorinobu (968-1048), Taira Nobukiyo, who was a son of Taira Nobusue (1144-1179), and Nitta Yoshisada (1301-1338) are said to have lived, based, or deployed their troops in the site.  As its castle town was developed on the side of Jofuku-ji Temple, the temple might have been founded after the construction of the castle.  Anyway, presumably, the area was the end of a navigable waterway in the 9th century, and was the end of the dry enough land for horses to run in samurai's days.

     In 1629, Ina Tadatsugu (1550-1610) dammed the Old Ara River and made its water flow into the Iruma River through Ichino River.

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