Virtual Shinobu Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #16 Gyokudo-in Temple

 

     Gyokudo-in Temple was founded by Kaneko Iesada (?-1587) in Menuma Village.

     The Kaneko Family belonged to the Murayama Corps and based in Kaneko Village, Iruma County, Musashi Province.

     Taira Yukinaga emigrated to Koma County and started calling his family Kaneko in 962.  One of his descendants, Kaneko Ietada (1138-1216), was a member of the Murayama Corps.  Who were the Murayama Corps?

     The most part of Musashi Province was plateaus deeply covered with volcanic-ash soil, which was suitable for stock farming, not for rice growing.  In ancient times, many of the naturalized Silla people then were sent to Musashi Province, and engaged in the stock farming.  That stimulated people there, and many stock farms were set up, including 6 imperial stock farms.  The custodians of those farms later formed small-scale samurai families.  By marriage, those samurai families composed 7 corps on the plateaus in the province: the Musashi Seven Corps.  The Murayama Corps was one of the 7.

     Murayama Yorito's 5th son, Iehira, came to live in Kaneko Village, and started the Kaneko Family of the Murayama Corps.

     At the beginning of the Edo Period (1603-1867), Ishikawa Noriyuki (1634-1707) married a daughter of Umezono Sanekiyo (1609-1662), an aristocrat in Kyoto, presumably when he was promoted to the lord of Yodo Castle in Yamashiro Province.  His first son, Masayoshi (1658-1682), died young without being the head of the family.  In 1690, Masayoshi's mother and his younger brother, Yoshitaka (1659-1710), presented a Buddhist bell to Gyokudo-in Temple.  It is unknown why they chose the temple.

     In 1598, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) died in Fushimi Castle.  In 1599, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1546-1616) moved into the castle to "support" the Toyotomi Regime, and since then the castle became Tokugawa's foothold against the regime in Osaka.  In 1623, Yodo Castle was built and Tokugawa's foothold was moved nearer to Osaka.

     On February 25th, 1669, Ishikawa Noriyuki was promoted to the lord of Yodo Castle.

He was a well-educated man, and served as the academic mentor of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646-1709), the 5th Shogun.  He wrote many books.  He discovered a famous artist, Hanabusa Iccho (1652-1724), who was a son of his domain's physician, and ordered him to become a disciple of Kano Yasunobu (1614-1685).

     The Umezono Family operated as a buke-jikkon-shu, a samurai escort, who escorts samurai to the Imperial Palace.  While a buke-tenso, a samurai communicator, was a high-ranking officer, buke-jikkin-shu was a lower-ranking official.  There could have been a connection or two between Noriyuki and Sanekiyo.  As the sankin-kotai, alternate attendance system, was installed in the 1630's,  Noriyuki's wife should have stayed in Edo.  We could, however, hardly find any connection between Noriyuki's wife and Gyokudo-in Temple yet.

     During the Kamakura Period (1185-1333), the Asukai Family, the Ano Family, the Jimyoin-Ichijo Family, the Reizei Family, and the Anenokoji Family moved from Kyoto to Kamakura to serve the Kamakura shogunate.  During the Muromachi Period (1336-1573), when the Ashikaga Shogunate was based in Kyoto, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408), the 3rd Shogun of the Muromachi Shogunate, became Grand Minister of State and organized his vassals among the aristocrats.  The buke-jikkon-shu, the aristocratic non-samurai direct vassals of the shogunate, was established around the time of the 6th Shogun, Yoshinori (1394-1441).  During the Muromachi Shogunate, eight families, the Karasuma Family, the Hino Family, the Hirohashi Family, the Asukai Family, the Kajuji Family, the Kami-reizei Family, the Takakura Family, and the Ogimachi-Sanjo Family, were treated as such.  The Shirakawa Family and the Ano Family were treated in this way for only one generation.  They served at the Muromachi Shogunate Palace, accompanied the Shogun on outings, and assisted buke-denso, Samurai Communicator.  After the 15th and last Shogun, Yoshiaki (1537-1597), Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) and Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-15989, who took over the shogunate and temporarily organized their regimes, did not form buke-jikkon-shu.

     When Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) was appointed as the first Shogun of the Edo  Shogunate, the families who had been in the Muromachi Shogunate's buke-jikkon-shu attended Ieyasu's visit to the Imperial Palace, and the buke-jikkon-shu was formed again.  The Ogimachi-Sanjo Family was removed and the Yamashina Family and the Tsuchimikado Family were added.  In the reign of the third Shogun, Iemitsu (1604-1651), the buke-jikkon-shu consisted of 14 families: the Karasuma Family, the Hino Family, the Hirohashi Family, the Asukai Family, the Kajuji Family, the Kami-Reizei Family, the Takakura Family, the Yamashina Family, the Tsuchimikado Family, the Shijo Family, the Rokujo Family, the Funabashi Family, the Yanagihara Family, and the Sanjonishi Family.  Later, the Kawa Family and the Umezono Family were added.

     When Ieyasu visited the Imperial Palace, buke-jikkon-shu would meet Ieyasu in front of the palace and see him off when he left the palace.  In addition, they taught the etiquette and knowledge required for the shogun's visit in advance, and would also visit Edo Castle to offer services such as greeting the shogun at the beginning of the year.  However, after Iemitsu until the end of the Edo Period, the shoguns did not go to Kyoto so often, buke-jikkon-shu played the role of sending letters to the shogun and as such.  In Short, buke-jikkon-shu became intellectuals, and that's where the Umezono Family had connections with the Ishikawa Family.

     Was it really Ishikawa Noriyuki who was a well-educated person?  Or wasn't it his wife that provided him such intelligence?

     Gyokudo-in Temple has Entsu-kaku Hall, which enshrines Cintamanicakra, who usually has 6 arms and holds chintamani (a wish-fulfilling jewel) in one of the six.

Address: 2485 Menuma, Kumagaya, Saitama 360-0201

Phone: 048-588-1159.