Virtrual Shinobu Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #12 Shogen-ji Temple

 

     It is unknown when Shogen-ji Temple was founded, but it was revived by Priest Shinsai, who died at the beginning of the 1570's.  As its sango is Inariyama, the temple might have had something to do with Arai-Inari Shrine nearby.  The temple has a Kannon-do Hall out of its precincts, and the hall has a graveyard but the temple doesn't.  The relations between the three is unknowable.  Anyway, what happened before the temple's revival?

     In 1558, the Eiroku Great Famine started.  In 1559, the sun blazed down and it didn't rain even in the rainy season.  Paddy fields dried up and were cracked.  Smallpox raged.  In the winter of 1560, after the harvest time, to relieve his domestic famine, Uesugi Kagetora (1530-1578) invaded the Northern Kanto Region. After the year, he invaded the region for 7 years to relieve his domestic famine.  In 1569, Takeda Harunobu (1521-1573) invaded the eastern part of the Kanto Region to relieve his domestic famine.

     The Kannon-do Hall and its graveyard are closer to the Hoshi River, which used to be part of the Minuma Substitute Irrigation Canal.

     Ina Tadaharu (1606-1653) changed the watercourse of the Old Ara, Old Tone, and Old Watarase Rivers under the Tokugawa Shogunate.   To save Edo from floods, Ina Tadaharu first stopped the Aino River, which was a bypass of the Old Tone River.  In 1621, he finished digging a canal to make the Old Tone River flow into the Watarase River, and started separating the Kinu and Kobai Rivers.  In 1629, he made the Old Ara River flow into the Iruma River, and the New Kinu River started running.  In 1630, the New Kobai River started running.  In 1635, he started building the Edo River and finished it in 1641.  Do you follow what I have said?  I wonder how many people understood his ultimate end.  Finally in 1654, 1 year after his death, the New Tone river ran east directly to the Pacific Ocean.

     Rerouting these rivers threatened that their original basins could have water shortages.  In order to secure irrigation water for the surrounding area, in 1629, Tadaharu built a 870-meter-long dam across the Shiba River, and created the Minuma Reservoir.

     In the 18th century, the Tokugawa Shogunate developed new rice fields to increase its revenues.  Izawa Yasobe (164-1738) reclaimed the reservoir and dug the Minuma Substitute Irrigation Canal instead.

Address: 185 Arai, Konosu, Saitama 365-0011

Shogenji-Kannon-do Hall

Address: 190 Arai, Konosu, Saitama 365-0011

Arai-Inari Shrine

Address: 226 Arai, Konosu, Saitama 365-0011

Phone: 048-542-7293