Virtual Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #22 Saiko-ji Temple

 

     Sempuku-ji Temple had 2 branches in its precincts: Saiko-ji Temple and Toko-ji Temple, namely West Light Temple and East Light Temple.  As Toko-ji Temple is located about 2 kilometers east of Sempuku-ji Temple, Saiko-ji Temple might have been located about 2 kilometers west of Sempuku-ji Temple, where the old waterway of the New Ara River ran. Saiko-ji Temple might have been lost in floods or the construction of the New Ara River.

     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.

     When Mamiya Kotonobu (1777-1841) compiled the New Topography and Chronology of Musashi Province at the beginning of the 19th century, Saiko-ji Temple had been already abolished, with Shinmi-do-Hall left about 1 kilometer east of Sempuku-ji Temple.  Later, Toko-ji merged Saiko-ji.

Shinmi-do Hall

Address: 1171-1 Kawataya, Okegawa, Saitama 363-0027

Toko-ji Temple

Address: 1176 Kawataya, Okegawa, Saitama 363-0027

Phone: 048-787-0615

Sempuku-ji Temple

Address: 2012 Kawataya, Okegawa, Saitama 363-0027

Phone: 048-787-0206