Virtrual Shinobu Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #9 Kasahara-Kannon-do Hall

 

     In 534, Kasahara Omi and his cousin, Kasahara Oki, competed for the hegemony in Musashi Province.  Omi was afraid that Oki would kill him with help from Oguma in Kozuke Province.  Omi flew to the central capital, and asked the central government for help.  The government destroyed Oki.  Omi offered 4 manors, Yokomi, Tachibana, Tama, and Kuraki.

The Kasahara Family might have been based in Kasahara.

     The iron Inariyama burial-mound sword was excavated at the Inariyama Burial Mound in Gyoda City, Saitama Prefecture, in 1968.  The inscription gives a date of 471 and the name of the person buried in the tomb as Owake, and also mentions a person whose name was Ohatsuse-Wakatakeru-no-mikoto.

     Emperor Wakatakeru is supposed to have mounted the throne either in 456 or 458.  It is clear that Wakatakeru gave the sword to Owake, but it isn't evident whether Owake was buried under the mound or not.  A contemporary sword was excavated from the Eta Funayama Burial Mound in Kumamoto Prefecture in 1873.  The sword was given to a civil officer while Owake was a military officer.  Owake might have been buried under the mound, or the sword could have been passed to someone who was buried there. 

     It is unknowable if the Kasahara Family was the offspring of those who were buried under Inariyama Burial Mound.   It is also unknown if the family has something to do with the place name Kasahara as Kasahara is a very common place name in Japan.  We used to have several Kasahara Villages even after the Meiji Restoration. 

     Shimo-Kasahara Village, namely Lower Kasahara Village, was developed along the north bank of of the Old Ara River in Sakitama County, Musashi Province.  The locals enshrined the Buddhist image of Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses.

     When Mamiya Kotonobu compiled the New Topography and Chronology of Musashi Province, the hall was owned by Shinobu Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #8 Kannon-ji Temple.  I wonder how many Avalokitesvara statues the area had.

Address: 1710 Kasahara, Konosu, Saitama 365-0023