Virtual Kodama Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #6 Jogan-ji Temple

 

     It is unknown when Jogan-ji Temple was founded.  In 1492, Jogan-ji Temple was revived by Natsume Sadamoto (?-1492), who had been appointed to be the lord of Kijigaoka Fortress in 1467.

     The Chokyo War was fought in the Kanto Region from 1487 to 1505 between the Yamanouchi-Uesugi Family, who were based in Kozuke Province, and the Ogigayatsu-Uesugi Family, who were based in Musashi Province.  The revival of the temple might have had something to do with the war.  Sadamoto was subject to the Yamanouchi-Uesugi Family, but Kijigaoka Fortress was located at the northernmost tip of Musashi Province, or at the forefront of the battle against the Ogigayatsu-Uesugi Family.  The temple could have been destroyed in battle.

     When Maeda Toshiie (1539-1599) attacked the fortress, the temple was also burned down.

     The temple has the grave of Honjo Fuichi (1798-1846).

     Fuichi was born in Honjo as the second son of Honjo Masatoshi, a doctor in Honjo Stage.  He studied in Edo under Hododa Suiran, a doctor of the Numazu Domain.  He traveled around the country, visited famous doctors in various places, asked about cures and secret medicines.  He devoted himself to saving the sick.  He also copied Hanaoka Seishu's diagram of breast cancer surgery.  Around 1825, he arrived in Nagasaki, studied Dutch medicine, and operated on the eye disease of a Chinese, which even Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold (1796-1866) could not cure, and gained national fame as an ophthalmologist.

     Fuichi took the hybrid style of Western medicine and Chinese medicine, and traveled to Kyoto, Kawagoe, and other places for treatment.  He returned to Honjo around 1827 to practice internal medicine, surgery, and ophthalmology.  While teaching many disciples, he published Ganka Kinno, namely Ophthalmology Silk Bag, in 1829, and the sequel of it in 1837.  This series of books became the ophthalmologist's bibles in 19th century Japan.  He also wrote several other books.

     Fuichi had a wide range of friendships, ranging from Western-style scholars to Confucian scholars, and had been on friendly terms with Yoshikawa Hazan, a Confucian scholar of the Oshi Domain.  Their friendship started when Fuichi had studied in Edo.  In February, 1846, a large fire broke out in Honjo.  He was burned out of his home, and died in November of the same year at the age of 49.  It's a coincidence that he was buried as an eye doctor in Jogan-ji Temple as the temple's name literally means Cleanse Eyes.

Address: 375 Kodamacho Hachimanyama, Honjo, Saitama 367-0217