Virtual Kodama Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #4 Gyokuzo-ji Temple

 

     The certain date of the foundation of Gyokuzo-in Temple is unrecorded.

     In ancient times, there used to be the Musashi Seven 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 corps on the plateaus in the province: Yokoyama, Inomata, Murayama, Noyo, Tan, and Nishi Corps.

     Arimichi Koreyoshi was a subject of Fijiwara Korechika (974-1010), who lost to his uncle, Fujiwara Michinaga (966-1028), in political strife.  When he died on January 28th in despair, he said to his son, Michimasa (992-1054), "You should become a priest rather than follow others."  He also told his 2 daughters never to humiliate him by serving in the Imperial Court.  Koreyoshi might have eavesdropped on their conversation and kind of followed Korechika's advice.  Or did he exercise his frontier spirit?  After Korechika's downfall, Koreyoshi left Kyoto down to Musashi Province.

     Somehow or other, Koreyoshi's son, Koreyuki (?-1069), succeeded in organizing another corp, Kodama Corps.  He seems to have been involved in the management of the Aguhara Stock Farm.  In 933, the Aguhara Stock Farm was nationalized.  It is unknown whether Koreyoshi or Koreyuki was dispatched to the stock farm as a local administrator or married into a local powerful family who actually ran the farm.  The number of Royal Stock Farms in Musashi Province increased from 4 to 6, and the number of annual tax horses increased from 50 to 110 accordingly.  Judging from the mean value, the Aguhara Stock Farm provided 30 horses to Kyoto every year.  Anyway, Koreyoshi and/or Koreyuki developed paddy fields in Kodama County, and became their owner.

     Kodama Corps had 100 branches including those with different Chinese characters with the same pronunciation: Kodama, Sho, Honjo, Asaba, Asami, Shinjo, Araya, Izumi, Sakaki, Inajima,  Nissai, Iwata, Ise, Imai, Urakami, Kozuke, Okawara, Osawa, Otsuka, Orui, Obuchi, Ohama, Oku, Okudaira, Okutsuka, Okazaki, Obata, Ogawara, Omino, Katayama, Kanesawa, Kashiwajima, Katsura, Kashiwazaki, Kita, Kuroiwa, Kurisu, Aoda, Kuragano, Kugezuka, Gugezuka, Gokan, Shodai,Konakayama, Koma, Shioya, Shimana, Shimakata, Shirakura, Komoda, Omoda, E, Edouchi, Ogose, Shimana, Takao, Takayama, Tako, Takezawa, Tachikawa, Hata, Chichibu, Tomita, Tomino, Toshima, Torikata, Yoshiasano, Naoshita, Nakajo, Nagatsuka, Nagaoka, Naruse, Nagura, Naito, Nishi, Niwa, Fukuda, Yasuo, Horikago, Hirukawa, Makino, Mashimo, Miyata, Mizokami, Mina, Musha, Makishi, Yajima, Yamada, Yamakoshi, Yamana, Hitoyoshi, Yoshizumi, Yoshijima, Yoshida, Yomota, and Shioten Families.

      Nitta Yoshisada (1301-1338) raised his army in Ikushina Shrine in Kozuke Province with 150-strong cavalry on May 8, 1333.  He was to meet the 100,000-strong cavalry of the Kamakura Shogunate somewhere between Kozuke and Sagami Provinces.  When he arrived at Tone River, the number of his cavalry increased to 7,000 strong.  After crossing the river, the number jumped to 207,000, including those of the Kodama Corps.  On May 11th, his army encountered 30,000-strong cavalry of the Kamakura Shogunate with Hojo Sadakuni (1287-1333) as a general, and with Nagasaki Takashige (?-1333), Nagasaki Yasumitsu, and Kaji Jirozaemon as vice generals.  Over 300 of Nitta's and more than 500 of the shogunate's were killed in the battle.  Both armies were exhausted.  Nitta's army retreated to Iruma River, and the shogunate's army pulled out to Kume River.

     Yoshisada defeated the garrisons of the Kamakura Shogunate along the Iruma River, and along Kume River.  On the 15th, he carried out a forced crossing of Tama River, the strategic point for both, in the face of the 100,000-strong cavalry of the shogunate.  He outnumbered the shogunate, but his cavalry was not well-organized.  On the 16th, Yoshisada made another forced crossing with 10,000-strong cavalry at Bubai Riverbank, and defeated the garrisons of the Kamakura Shogunate.  On the 18th, Yoshisada tried to make a forced crossing across Kashio River at Muraoka just out of Kamakura in vain.  Instead, he took a sea shore route, and finally seized and captured Kamakura on the 22nd.

     After the war, the Kodama Corps built a war memorial in Hachimanyama, Kodama County, Musashi Province.  Later, they enshrined Salvation Avalokitesvara, and founded Gyokuzo-ji Temple.

     In the 1460's, the Yamanouchi-Uesugi Family built Kijigaoka Fortress and moved Gyokuzo-ji Temple to its present place.  In 1467, the family appointed Natsume Sadamoto (?-1492) as the lord of the fortress.

     Salvation Avalokitesvara isn't listed as a metamorphosis of Avalokitesvara.  The idea of salvation became popular in the Heian Period, when the belief in Saddharma-pundarika Sutra spread widely.  The Sutra is often mentioned in the Anthology of Tales from the Past, which is a Japanese collection of over one thousand tales written during the late Heian period (794–1185).

Address: 196 Kodamacho Kodama, Honjo, Saitama 367-0212

Phone: 0495-72-3597

Kijioka Fortress Site

Address: 446 Kodamacho Hachimanyama, Honjo, Saitama 367-0217

Phone: 0495-25-1186