Virtual Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #9 Mon'ju-in Temple

 

     It is unknown when Mon'ju-in Temple was founded by Priest Den'yu in Joko Village, to which Hikawa Shrine was invited in 1444, between the Old Ara River and the Akabori River. 

     In the Muromachi Period (1336-1573), the central government was located at Muromachi in Kyoto, and the Kanto area was half-independent and was governed by the regional government in Kamakura, which was ruled by the Kanto Deputy Shogun.  Both the central shoguns and the Kanto deputy shoguns were from the Ashikaga Clan.  The both rather rivaled each other and some Kanto deputy shoguns even tried to become central shoguns.  To check the rivaling attempts, the central shoguns appointed some powerful Kanto samurai to be directly feudatory to them.  Those directly feudal to the central shoguns were called Kyoto Servants.

     In 1438, the 4th Kanto Deputy Shogun, Ashikaga Mochiuji (1398-1439), raised his army against the central shogunate and left Kamakura.  The shogunate in Kyoto was well-prepared.  They moved the Kyoto Servants and had them seize Kamakura.  Losing where to return, Mochiuji was cornered into a suicide, with his 3 sons left very young.

     Yuki Ujitomo (1402-1441) sheltered Mochiuji’s 2 elder sons, Shun’o-maru and Yasuo-maru, in his castle, and rebelled against Yoshinori in 1440.  That was the Yuki War.

    On April 16th, 1441, Ujitomo's castle fell and he and his eldest son were killed in the fighting.  Shun’o-maru and Yasuo-maru were arrested and were to be transferred to Kyoto.  But on their way, at Tarui, Mino Province, they were killed, with their death poems left:

“Summer weeds,

Their flowers blooming in Aono Field

Who knows their future?” (Shuno-maru)

 

“Who knows the future?

Our lives are to be limited today

Here away from home.” (Yasuo-maru)

     Mochiuji’s  youngest son, Eijuo-maru (1438-1497), survived.  His wet nurse escaped to An’yo-ji Temple in Iwamurada, Saku County, Shinano Province.  Her brother was a priest in the temple.  Oi Mochimitsu, the lord of Oi Fortress near Iwamurada, protected Eijuo-maru.  As Shinano Province was a remote area compared to Yuki Castle, which was located in the northern half of the Kanto Plain along the Kinu River, Michitsuna as well as Eijuo-maru was not involved in Kanto politics.  In 1449, Eijuo-maru changed his name to Shigeuji and became the 5th Kanto Deputy Shogun.

     Joko-Hikawa Shrine was founded, it means Joko Village was developed, when the Kanto Deputy Shogunate was vacant and in turmoil.  To put it another way, the development of rice fields in the estuary of the Old Ara, Old Tone, and Watarase Rivers aroused the greediness of samurai in the Kanto Region and that caused the turmoil in the region.  The irony is that the more rice didn't mean the better welfare of farmers and peasants but meant the more battles and wars.

     Mon'ju-in Temple was abolished presumably after the Meiji Restoration, owned by a private citizen, and surrounded with pear orchards.

     Its present main hall was newly built in 1980, when Japan was in the midst of an economic bubble.

     The Joetsu Shinkansen Railway Line became in service in 1982, connecting Tokyo and Niigata.  As the line runs through Joko, part of the orchards sold at quite a good price.

     Photos suggest that it still has its graveyard.

Address: 1332 Joko, Konosu, Saitama 365-0024