Virtual Hiki Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #12 Renge-in Temple

 

     Renge-in Temple was founded in Igusa Village, Hiki County, Musashi Province, in unknown time.  It is also unknown when it was abolished.

     The temple is located in the lowest reaches of Kawajima Island among the member temples of the Hiki Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage, as low as the residence of Mionoya Juro, which used to be located at where Kotoku-ji Temple is.  In Japanese, "mio" means a waterway in a shallow sea along the extension of a river.  The waterway functioned as a navigable body of water.  Mionoya means the waterway's valley.  We can guess what type of land the Mionoya Family developed and settled in.

     Hojo Masako (1157-1225), the wife of Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199), who established the Kamakura Shogunate, changed Juro's residence into a temple and named it Kotoku-ji to pray for the comfort of Juro in the other world.

Who was Mionoya Juro?

     The Tale of the Heike Chapter 11 tells us about him:

In 1185, a small force led by Minamoto no Yoshitsune lands on the island of Shikoku. Yoshitsune plans a surprise attack from the rear (one more time after the Battle of Ichi-no-Tani) on the Taira stronghold at the Battle of Yashima. The Taira, thinking that main Minamoto forces attack them, flee to their boats in panic. The Taira warriors shoot arrows at the Yoshitsune's forces. Taira no Noritsune, Kiyomori's nephew and a commander of the Taira, shoots at Minamoto no Yoshitsune, but Tsuginobu, Yoshitsune's retainer, dies protecting him from arrows.

In a famous passage, a Taira lady in a boat holds a fan as a challenge to the Minamoto warriors and Nasu no Yoichi, a skillful young Minamoto archer, hits the fan with his arrow. Then, there broke out a small combat between the Taira and Minamoto armies:

Then from the Heike side, still disinclined to rest under their discomfiture, there came three warriors, one armed with a bow, the second carrying a shield, and the third a halberd. Springing on shore they dared the Minamoto army to come on, whereat Minamoto Yoshitsune called out to know who of the younger of his best horsemen would try conclusions with these insolent fellows. Then there rode forth Mionoya Juro of Musashi Province, and his two brothers, Shiro and Toshichi, Nibu Shiro of Kozuke Province and Kiso Chuji of Shinano Province, five warriors in all.  As they charged forward shouting to the onset, however, the archer behind the shield loosed a great lacquered shaft, feathered with black wing feathers, which pierced the horse of Mionoya.

Juro in the left breast right up to the notch, so that it collapsed like an overturned screen. The rider at once threw his left leg over the animal and vaulted down to the right, drawing his sword to continue the fight, but when he saw the warrior behind the shield come to meet him flourishing a huge halberd, he knew that his own small sword would be useless, and blew on a conch and retreated. The other immediately followed him, and it looked as though he would cut Juro down with the halberd, but instead of doing so, gripping the halberd under his left arm, he tried to seize Juro by the neckpiece of Juro's helmet with his right. Three times Juro eluded his grasp, but at the fourth attempt his opponent held on. For a moment Juro could do nothing, but then, giving a sudden violent wrench, Juro parted the neckpiece from the helmet, escaped, and hid behind his four companions to recover his breath. The other four, wishing to spare their horses, had taken no part in the combat, but stayed a short way off looking on. The Taira warrior on his part did not follow Juro any further, but sticking the neckpiece on the end of his halberd, shouted out in a loud voice : 'Let those afar off listen; those who are near can see. That's the way we fellows of the Capital declare ourselves. I am Akushichibyoye Kagekiyo of Kazusa Province!'  And, having thus delivered himself, he retired again behind the shield.

     Were all the Minamoto samurai weak?  Not really.  Later, "Yoshitsune, incensed at this, with Tajiro in front, Saburo behind, Goto father and son on his left, and the Kaneko brothers on his right, put himself at the head of eighty horsemen and charged down on the Taira army shouting, whereupon the Taira army, who were mostly on foot and few mounted, thinking they could not stand against horsemen, quickly retired and re-entered their boats, leaving their shields kicked about here and there like the sticks of a fortune teller."

     The Mionoya brothers were only those from Hiki County and that were depicted in the Tale of Heike.  If Juro was the second strongest among samurai from the county, just second to Hiki Yoshikazu (?-1203), who had been adopted to the Hiki Family as its head because of his strength, the weakness of other Hiki samurai can be easily guessed.  No wonder, once Yoshikazu was assassinated, the family was massacred in a day.

     Anyway, why was Masako so grateful to Juro?  Did he help her destroy the HikiFamily, who were the rival of her parents' family, Hojo?

Kotoku-ji Temple

Address: 76 Omote, Kawajima, Hiki District, Saitama 350-0133

Phone: 049-297-3560