Virtual Kodama Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #10 Jikisho-ji Temple

 

     It is unknown when the original temple of Jikisho-ji Temple was founded.  As its precincts have an itabi dated 1311, its foundation must be older than that.  In 1652, Toda Naomasa (1618-1656) changed the temple into their family temple and renamed it Jikisho after his name's another pronunciation.

     It is unknown who was buried under the itabi dated 1311.  By coincidence, Hojo Morotoki (1275-1311), the 10th Regent of the Kamakura Shogunate, died on September 22nd.  The 9th Regent, Sadatoki (1272-1311), died on 26th next month.

     On April 22nd, 1293, Taira Yoritsuna (1241-1293), the Butler of the Hojo Clan, was killed by his lord, Hojo Sadatoki (1272-1311), in the chaos caused by the Kamakura Earthquake, which itself killed 23,024 people.  Sadatoki replaced Yoritsuna with Hojo Munekata (1278-1305), who belonged to a branch family of the Hojo Clan.  However, Munekata was suspected of having an ambition to become the Regent of the Kamakura Shogunate and was killed by Sadatoki.  Munekata’s child  was put in a cage and was sunk in the sea.  Sadatoki tried to revive the power of the head family of the Hojo Clan.

     In the Middle Ages, samurai’s territories were divided among children, including women, but they were not necessarily equally inherited.  There were many cases in which the male who had the ability to lead the family inherited the main part.  This successor was regarded as the family head.  The remaining territories were divided among the other men and women.  While they lived independently, they gathered under the family head to form combat groups in times of war, and participated in ancestral and family rituals sponsored by the family head in peacetime.  What was inflicted by the shogunate and/or manor lords was imposed through the family head.  The family head exercised the authority to maintain and manage family rights documents, as well as inspect the territories of other family members.  For the family head, the power of other family members was indispensable to secure the necessary military strength as a fighting group and to expand the territory by newly developing wilderness, etc.  The Kamakura shogunate controlled samurai in remote provinces through samurai groups under the family head system.  Rewards were also given via the family head.  The family head system was closely related to the system of inheritance at the time.

     In the latter half of the Kamakura period (1185-1333), however, the territories of the samurai groups, which were given as rewards, began to disperse, and the blood relationship between the head family and the other branches became weaker.  Some branch families even became independent and chose their own family head.  In some cases, the family head system became a complicated double or triple structure from the point of view of the shogunate.  In addition, as territories were subdivided, each territory became too narrow to support a samurai family, who was supposed to deliver at least a samurai and a horse in times of war.  As the development of new land became difficult, it also became impossible to expand inherited tiny territories.  Under these circumstances, the family head took steps to re-concentrate divided territories.  One-generation inheritance was even created for the family head to get the dividedly inherited land back.  In opposition to such moves by the family head, branch families applied to the shogunate for recognition of their independence from the family head on the grounds, for example, that they were far away from the family head's location.  Many lawsuits were filed both by the family head and by branch families.  Some branch families tried to become subordinates of the Hojo Clan, the highest authority samurai clan in the shogunate, to eliminate the pressure from the family head, who was a direct vassal of the shogunate.  The confrontation between the family heads and their branch families deepened.

     As Itabi-style graves were popular among samurai in the Kanto Region, the people buried under the above-mentioned itabi must have been a samurai.  What did he see as a contemporary of the 2 regents?  Anyway, his offspring saw the shogunate and the Hojo Clan destroyed in 1333.

     Who was buried under the itabi?

     When the Taira Clan and the Minamoto Clan were fighting against each other severely, Akiyama Mitsutomo (?-1185) from Kai Province fought under Minamoto Yoshitsune (1159-1189) in the Battle of Yashima on March 22nd, 1185, and in the Battle of Dan-no-ura on April 25th.  On his way to the battlefields, he married a daughter of Taira Shigemori (1138-1179), without reading the situation.  After the Taira Clan was destroyed in the Battle of Dan-no-ura, Yoshitsune and his elder brother, Yoritomo (1147,1199), who later established the Kamakura Shogunate, were soon at odds with each other.  Mitsutomo didn't read the situation, and was put to death by Yoritomo in Kamakura for plotting treason against Yoritomo.

     Mitsumasa (?-1351) was the 7th descendant of Mitsumoto.  As he was the second son of Mitsusuke, he moved to Akiyama Village, Kodama County, Musashi Province.  As we have many Akiyama's as place names, it isn't clear if the place was named after him or if it was just a coincidence.  He appeared in the Taiheiki, Chronicle of Great Peace, which is a Japanese historical epic written and compiled in the late 14th century.  Taiheiki covers the period from 1319 to 1367, when battles and wars occurred one after another.  He was such a big name that the Akiyama villagers founded a shrine for him in 1638, nearly 3 centuries after his death, presumably for village revitalization.  So, they could have named their village Akiyama after Mitsumasa to boost their village's tourist industry.  After all, some 33 Kannon Pilgrimages were organized for the same goal.

     If Mitsumasa was the first immigrant among the Akiyama Family, the buried wasn't a member of the family, and the offspring of the buried could have been overpowered by Mitsumasa.

     Who was Toda Naomasa, the founder (?) of Jikicho-ji Temple?  To know who he was, we first look for Toda Munemitsu (1439-1508) and Toda Genba.  The Toda Family was from Toda, Ama County, Owari Province.

     Ashikaga Harutora was born on June 13, 1394.  At the age of 9, he entered Seiren-in Temple, on June 21, 1403.  On March 4, 1408, he became a priest, and was named Gien.  Ashikaga Yoshikazu (1407-1425) and Yoshimochi (1386-1428) died of a disease one after another, and the shogunate became vacant.  Chief vassals assembled at Iwashimizu-Hachiman-gu Shrine and decided the next shogun by lot on January 17, 1428.  And Gien became the sixth shogun, Yoshinori (1394-1441).  Yoshinori killed his younger brother, Priest Gisho (1404-1441).  He also killed his powerful vassals, Isshiki Yoshitsura (1400-1440), Toki Mochiyori (?-1440), and others.  Finally, he was assassinated by his vassal, Akamatsu Mitsusuke (1381-1441) on June 24th.  Ogimachisanjo Sanemasa (1409-1467) was accompanying Yoshinori, but narrowly escaped from being killed although he was seriously injured.  Sanemitsu, who said he belonged to the Ogimachisanjo Family, fled to Toda Village, Ama County, Owari Province, presumably seeking for safety, and called his family Toda.  Sanemitsu's son, Munemitsu (1439-1508), moved to Ueno Village, Hekikai County, Mikawa Province.  He further moved to  Otsu Fortress in Atsumi County in the same province.  in 1477, he took over the county's governorship.  Since then, he expanded his power over the county.  He first occupied Tahara Village, and built a fortress in 1480.  He built Nirengi Fortress in 1493.  The Toda Family's advance stopped there.  They faced the Makino Family, who were based in Hoi County, across the Toyo River.  In the meantime, Imagawa Yoshimoto (1519-1560) advanced to Mikawa Province in 1540's, and the Toda Family was basically destroyed in the middle of the 1540's.  After many battles, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) unified Mikawa Province in 1560's, and the survivors of the Toda Family became subject to him.  Yoshimitsu (?-1568), for example, survived.  He became subject to Ieyasu in 1564.  His 2 sons, Shigesada (?-1564) and Tadashige (?-1567) were both killed in battle.  Tadashige's child, Torachiyo (1562-1633), survived.  7 years after his father's death, Torachiyo celebrated his coming of age, married Ieyasu's sister by a different father, and was renamed Matsudaira Yasunaga.  As Ieyasu moved to the Kanto Region in 1590, so did the Toda Family.  Toda Genba had belonged to the same generation as Munemitsu, and his 4th generation descendant was Naomasa.

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