Virtual Iruhi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #19 Mitsuzo-in Temple

 

     Cave catacombs were made in the south side of the hills along the Oppe River in the 7th century.  At the turn of the 8th century, kilns were built to make tile roofs.  Hikawa Shrine was opened in 1384 by Uesugi Norikata (1335-1394), the head of the Yamauchi-Uesugi Family and the Regent of the Kanto Deputy Shogunate.

     When Wakatarashihiko was the Emperor in the 4th century, he appointed governors in remote provinces and put up warehouses of tax rice there.  Etakehi, who was from Izumo Province, was dispatched to Musashi Province.

     In Izumo Province, today's Shimane Peninsula used to be an island in the Jomon Period (BC 14000-BC 10th century).  The Hi River filled the shallows between the Old Shimane Island and Honshu, and the Izumo Plain was formed about 10,000 years ago.  Rice growing arrived, and people there accumulated experience to change marshes and swamps into rice fields.  With this experience, Etakehi arrived at Musashi Province.  There, he or his offspring founded Hikawa Shrine, namely Hi River Shrine.  Presumably, he tried to control the floods of the Ara and Iruma Rivers.

     In the Jomon Period, Muashino Plateau's east side faced the sea. and the Ara and Iruma Rivers ran into the sea at the foot of the plateau.   The Hiki area used to be just 10 kilometers upstream from the mouth of the Ara River.  Etakehi , his offspring, his successors, and/or his followers tried to change marshes and swamps in the estuary of the Ara and Iruma Rivers into rice fields, and invited the god of Hikawa Shrine to their new rice fields.

Later, the god of Hikawa Shrine came to be regarded also as a god of irrigation, and Hikawa Shrine was invited to where people had to collect rainwater in a pond to irrigate their rice fields.  Akanuma was one of them.  Presumably, the Yamauchi-Uesugi Family dispatched the parishioners of another Hikawa Shrine to Akanuma to develop rice fields there.

     Mitsuzo-in Temple was founded as the shrine temple of Hikawa Shrine in Akanuma, and was abolished after the Meiji Restoration, when the Shinto became the state religion.

     As the temple's record was so badly handwritten that some say the temple was not Mitsuzo-in but Hozo-in.

Juro Cave Catacombs

Address: Ishizaka, Hatoyama, Hiki District, Saitama 350-0311

Hatoyama Kilns Site

Address: 1482-2 Akanuma, Hatoyama, Hiki District, Saitama 350-0321

Hikawa Shrine

Address: 894 Akanuma, Hatoyama, Hiki District, Saitama 350-0321