Virtual Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #3 Ryuzan-in Temple

 

     Priest Tokuken (?-1457) changed a hermitage into a temple and named it Ryuzan-in.

     In 1423, Ashikaga Mochiuji (1398-1439), the 4th Kanto Deputy Shogun, stayed in the temple on his way back from suppressing Oguri Mitsushige (?-1423).  Who was Oguri Mitsushige?

     In the Muromachi Period, whose central government was located at Muromachi in Kyoto, 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 samurais to be directly feudatory to them.

     Those directly feudal to the central shoguns were called Kyoto Servants.  Although they resided within the jurisdiction of the Kanto Deputy Shogun, they neither had to serve the Kamakura office nor were supposed to be under the command of the Kanto Deputy Shogun.  

     The Kyoto Servants in Kanto included the Takeda Family in Kai Province, the Yamairi, Oguri, Makabe and Daijo Families in Hitachi Province, and the Utsunomiya, Nasu, and Onodera Families in Shimotsuke Province.  They often took anti-Kanto-Deputy-Shogun movements, and the central shogunate criticized them ostensibly but was actually pulling strings.  That, of course, irritated the Kanto Deputy Shoguns.

     In 1423, the 4th Kanto Deputy Shogun, Ashikaga Mochiuji (1398-1439), finally destroyed Oguri Mitsushige and his family as a warning to other Kyoto Servants.

     In 1438, Mochiuji raised his army against the central shogunate and advanced to Koan-ji Temple from 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 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)

     Someone built a hermitage in Kami Village on one of those days.

     When the Kyotoku War broke out in 1455, Ashikaga Shigeuji (1438-1497), the youngest son of Mochiuji’s and the 5th Kanto Deputy Shogun, beat back off Uesugi Fusaaki (1435-1466), the Regent of the Kanto Deputy Shogunate.  The war led the Kanto Region into the Warring States Period.  Presumably, Ryuzan-in Temple was founded at the beginning of the war.

     In the Jomon Period, the Omiya Plateau used to be a peninsula which stuck out into the sea.  The Old Watarase River ran along the eastern side of the peninsula, and the Old Tone River ran along the western side of the peninsula.  In the meanwhile, the ongoing process of the Kanto Plain's tectonic extension continued and the plain's central region gradually sank.  Finally, the Old Tone River broke the peninsula around today's Kazo City to the east.  The rivers and their alluvium made the peninsula a triangle plateau in the Kanto Plain.  In ancient times, Adachi County was organized under Musashi Province around the plateau.  Presumably in the early medieval days, Old Okegawa Village, which used to be far larger than the Okegawa area today, was developed.  Although the area is in the middle of the Kanto Plain, Okegawa means Offshore Side.  The village was developed on the offshore side of the Omiya Plateau.  In the 14th century, the greater Okegawa Village already had several branch villages in it.  Kami Village was one of those branches.  When Tokugawa Ieyasu moved to the Kanto Region in 1590, Nishio Yoshitsugu (1530-1606) followed him and built his residence in Kami Village.

     Yoshitsugu was born in 1530 to Kira Mochihiro (?-1539), the lord of Tojo Fortress in Mikawa Province.  Mochihiro married a younger sister of Matsudaira Kiyoyasu (1511-1535) and tried to maintain his power.  On December 5th, 1535, Kiyoyasu was assassinated by his vassal, The Imagawa Clan in Suruga Province and the Oda Clan in Owari Province competed against each other too put Mikawa Province under their hegemony.  The two Kira Families in Mikawa Province, Tojo Kira and Saijo Kira, who had fought against each other, made peace.  Since Yoshitsugu was very young, the Tojo Kira Family adopted the Saijo Kira's son Yoshiyasu (1536-1569), and Yoshitsugu was sent as a hostage to Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582).  When Yoshitsugu came of age, he became subject to Nobunaga.  After Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) became subordinate to Nobunaga, Yoshitsugu became the liaison between the two.   When Ieyasu sent a letter to Nobunaga, he addressed Yoshitsugu to convey his intentions.  In 1582, Yoshitsugu was ordered to entertain Ieyasu in Sakai.  The Honnoji Incident occurred on June 2nd and Nobunaga was assassinated.  Yoshitugu rushed to report it Ieyasu, became one of the 34 escort samurai, delivered Ieyasu safely to the Ise Bay, and became Ieyasu's vassal.

Address: 463 Kami, Ageo, Saitama 362-0001

Phone: 048-771-6951