Virtual Shinobu Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #5 Genso-ji Temple

 

     Fujii Utanosuke (?-1630) built a hermitage in Osato County, Musashi Province.  Priest Genso changed the hermitage to a temple and named it  Genso-ji sometime between 1645 and 1648.  The change was supported by Takei Nobutake.

     Utanosuke was from Hirado, Matsuura County, Hizen Province, and named where he lived Hirado.  It is unknown why and when he came to Musashi Province.  However, he was a powerful figure in the village in 1608.  In the first half of the 18th century, the Fujii Family owned one fourth of the lands in the village.

     Priest Genso had the sitting statues of Bhaisajyaguru and Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses, built in the method of something like parquet or marquetry in 1662.  The method was started in the latter half of the 10th century, and was refined and sophisticated in the 11th century.  They are 3.5 meters tall and the tallest or biggest in Saitama Prefecture among those which were built in the method.  They were decorated with gold leaves and lacquered over the leaves.  We can easily guess how rich Utanosuke and the Fujii Family were.  The source of his richness is, however, unknown.

What was Hirado like in those days?  It belonged to Matsura County, Hizen Province.

     We can know what the ancient Matsura area was like through the Records of the Three Kingdoms, a Chinese historical text which covers the history of the Late (East) Han Dynasty (BC184-AD220) and the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280).  The 3 kingdoms included Wei, Shu, and Wu.  Volume 30 of Book of Wei has Biographies of the Wuhan, Xianbei, and Dongyi.  The Dongyi biography has the entry about Wa, today’s Japan.

     Himiko, the queen of Wa, sent ambassadors to Wei in 238, 243, 245, and 247.  The return ambassadors of Wei described Japan.

     To reach Yamatai Country, where Himiko lived, they crossed the Korea Strait via Tsushima and Iki Islands, and arrived at the north-west coast of Kyushu.  The area was called Matsura Country.  The country was covered with weeds and trees so dense that they could not see people walking in front of them.  The people living there were good at catching fish and abalones not only in the shallow sea but even by diving into the deep sea.

     The Matsura people were sea people, and later became sea samurai, or pirates in short.  They were called Matsura Corps.  In the battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185, they fought for the Taira Clan.  They fought against the Mongol invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281 for the Kamakura Shogunate.  Under the Muromachi Shogunate, they worked as escorts for missions to Ming.  In the latter half of the 15th century, one family became more powerful than others.  They called themselves the Matsura Family, and formed the Matsura Clan with themselves the head family.  In the 16th century, the Hirado Family, one of the branch families of the Matsura Clan, became powerful.  When the family was riding the boom, Takanobu (1529-1599) succeeded the headship of the family in 1543.  In 1565, he forced the Matsura Family to adopt his third son, practically took over the Matsura Clan, and called himself Matsura Takanobu.  In 1568, his eldest son, Shigenobu (1549-1599), succeeded the headship of the clan.

     The Hirado Family became powerful through trading with foreign countries, or through smuggling from the official point of the view of the central government.

     In 1550, a Portuguese ship first visited Hirado.  From 1553, one or two Portuguese ships came to Hirado annually.  That brought prosperity to Hirado, but Takanobu didn’t like their missionary work.  Under the tension, the captain and 13 other crew members of a Portuguese ship were killed in 1561, and Portuguese merchants moved to Nagasaki.

     In 1609, 2 Dutch ships visited Hirado, and opened a trading house, although it moved to Dejima, Nagasaki, in 1641.

     In 1613, an English ship came to Hirado, and set up a trading house, which was closed in 1623 because of their poor trading performance.

     Anyway, Hirado enjoyed its prosperity through trading, or smuggling, with western countries for more than half a century.  However, its downfall was creeping up on Hirado.  In 1613, the lord of Hirado Castle burned the castle down himself to show his loyalty towards the Tokugawa Shogunate.  In 1639, the former vassal of the Hirado Domain, Ukihashi Mondo, accused the domain of harboring Christians.  The Tokugawa Shogunate dispatched Matsudaira Nobutsuna (1596-1662) to inspect the suspects.  The suspicion was cleared up, but Nobutsuna was surprised with the wealth the domain had accumulated through trading with foreign countries.  In 1641, the shogunate ordered the closing of the Dutch Trading Office in Hirado.  The Hirado Domain lost the huge profit through trading with foreign countries and fell into financial hardship.

     Utanosuke seems  to have left Hirado when the Tokugawa Shogunate started its political pressure on the Matsura Clan.  Was he against the shogunate?  Then, why did he came to the outskirts of Edo, the stronghold of the shogunate?  Or did Utanosuke have something to do with the shogunate's schemes?

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