Virtual Hiki Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #21Chokei-ji Temple

 

     Hatakeyama Shigetada (1164-1205) was based in Hatakeyama Village, Obusuma County, Musashi Province, and had another house in Sugaya Village, Hiki County in the same province.

     Banri Shuku (1428-?), a monk of the Chan Buddhism, mentioned Sugaya Village in his travelogues to the Eastern Provinces in Chinese, Baika Mujinzo, namely Inexhaustible Apricot Blossoms, which was finished writing in 1506.

     Chokei-ji Temple was founded near the residence.

     Hojo Tokimasa (1138-1215), the father-in-law of the first Shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate, cornered Shigetada.  On June 19th, 1205, Shigetada left his hometown in Obusuma County with 130-strong cavalry to answer the emergency call from Kamakura.  When he arrived at the Futamata River, what he faced was an army of tens of thousands strong.  He realized he was trapped.  Instead of retreating, he made up his mind to die with a good grace.  After Shigetada's death, the residence in Sugaya was abandoned and the temple declined.

     Buddhist prayers shut themselves up in a Buddhist hall for a thousand days to realize their special wish.  To accept those prayers in Hiki County, Sennichi-do Hall, namely Thousand-Day Hall, was built on the site of Chokei-ji Temple.

     In the 1660's, when the Tokugawa Shogunate ordered all the people to belong to Buddhist temples, the hall was changed into a temple and was named Tosho-ji.  After about a century, people in Godo Village needed another temple.  Due to a technical merit, they revived Chokei-ji Temple and moved it to its present place.  Or, to pu it in another way, they founded a new temple in their village with the registered trademark of Chokei-ji.

Address: 1678 Godo, Higashimatsuyama, Saitama 355-0066

Phone: 0493-35-4301

Hiki Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #26 Tosho-ji Temple

Address: 11-3 Sugaya, Ranzan, Hiki District, Saitama 355-0221

Phone: 0493-62-2687

Hatakeyama Shigetada Memorial Park

Address: 510-2 Hatakeyama, Fukaya, Saitama 369-1107