Trees In the Town

Virtual Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage (the South) #10 Hosho-ji Temple

 

     It is unknown when Hosho-ji Temple was founded in Oyaba Village, Adachi County, Musashi Province.

     The Oyaba Kitchen Middens in Urawa City consist of 6 small kitchen middens scattered in irregular shapes at the end of the Omiya Plateau facing the Ancient Great Tokyo Bay.  In one kitchen midden, a large dwelling site with 9-meters length and 6-meters width was discovered.  In another kitchen midden, another large dwelling site with the length of 8 meters and the width of 6 meters was excavated.  These residential sites are the largest of the residential sites excavated to date.  A house with this large area would have been able to accommodate around 10 to 20 people, which is equivalent to 2 to 4 houses found in other kitchen middens. It is hard to imagine that the Oyaba Kitchen Midden alone supported 60 to 120 people simultaneously.  The 6 residences and kitchen middens could have been built in succession, with each one supporting 10 to 20 people living as a family.

     It is also a mystery that extremely few animal bones have been excavated in the kitchen middens.  Their life centered solely on shellfish.  They might not have been good at hunting.  Was the Oyaba people's origin completely different from that of the other people living in the Omiya Plateau?

     When Mamiya Kotonobu (1777-1841) compiled the New Topography and Chronology of Musashi Province at the beginning of the 19th century, Oyaba Village had over 60 households with 2 temples: Hosho-ji Temple and Tokusho-in Temple, which was the shrine temple of Oyaba-Hikawa Shrine.  Hosho-ji Temple's main deity was Acalanatha.  It had 2 Kannon-do halls: One enshrined Thousand-Armed Sahasrabhuja and the other enshrined Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses.  Its precincts also had a Bhaisajyaguru hall.  Tokusho-in Temple's main deity was Amitabha.

     Today, Hosho-ji Temple enshrines Ksitigarbha wooden standing statue, whose history is unknown.  The statue is 64.4 centimeters tall.  Its body and head is carved out of one timber.  Its inside was carved out to make it lighter and easier to handle.  Its arms, hands, legs, and feet were made of another timber.  Its orb, stick, halo, and pedestal seem to have been added or replaced during the Edo Period (1603-1867).  It has a mild and gentle look on its face while its body and clothes are realistic.  It shares the features of the golden age of the Fujiwara Clan (884-1086) and the Kamakura Period (1185-1333).  It is presumed to have been made at the beginning of the Kamakura Period.  The statue seems to have been made by a first-class Buddhist sculptor.

     The temple also enshrines the 105-centimeters-tall wooden standing statue of Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses.  Although its many parts have been added or replaced, its face and main part of its body keep their original Song-Dynasty style, which was popular in the Kanto Region in the Southern and Northern Courts Period (1336-1392) and the beginning of the Muromachi Period (1336-1573).  It is the temple's main deity today, replacing Acalanatha, which stands beside the Arya Avalokitesvara statue.

     The temple also enshrines the Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha standing wooden statue, which 71.5 is 71.5 centimeters tall.  Its body and head was carved out of one wood.  The statue is supposed to have been damaged either in flood or fire.  Many parts of the statue seem to have been fixed or replaced at the beginning of the Edo Period.  Still, it keeps the Song-Dynasty style well.  It might have been carved in the latter half of the Kamakura Period.  The statue seems to have been made by a local Buddhist sculptor.

     The 3 Buddhist images were made when samurai's days were on the rise.  They survived the Warring States Period and welcomed the Pax Tokugawana.  Were they built by the family with the same bloodline?  Or, as different bloodline families arrived at Oyaba, each made their own Buddhist image?  The first one seems to have the best quality.  Does that have something to do with the political and economical conditions corresponding to the samurai families?  Deeper and wider research may teach us the dynamism of local samurai society.

     The two temples were both abolished in 1871, 3 years after the Gods and Buddhas Separation order was issued by the Meiji Restoration Government in March, 1868.

     In 1955, the area was rezoned and all the Buddhist images were gathered in the site of Hosho-ji Temple, which was then revived and registered as a religious corporation in 1979.  Today, it is the only Buddhist temple in the ex-Oyaba-Village area.

Address: 2 Chome-13-4 Minamihoncho, Minami Ward, Saitama, 336-0018

Phone: 048-822-1964

Clouds Over the Town

Kodaji Journal and the Shiokawa Family

      The Shiokawa Family was based in Tada Manor in Settsu Province.  What was the manor like?

     In the southern part of Inagawa-cho Town, the Tamba Belt, which was composed 150-250 million years ago, is exposed.  In the northern half, the Arima Belt, which was formed with volcanic ashes and lava caused by the volcanic activities 70-75 million years ago, covers the Tamba Belt.  When the lava contacted or penetrated the Tamba Belt, they formed hydrothermal deposits which became the veins of the Tada Silver and Copper Mine.  Before humans arrived, both the belts were densely covered with forests.  Accordingly, the main human industries there have been forestry and mining.

     In the mythical times, the god of Sumiyoshi Shrine incarnated as a young man, and sent wood through the Ina River to build the shrine building.  His brilliant figure charmed the goddesses of the Rivers Ina and Muko.  The two fought hard to be his wife.  The Ina Goddess threw stones against the Muko Goddess, defeated her, and extracted all the dropwort along the Muko River.  Hence, the Ina River has dropwort but no big stones, and the Muko River has big stones but no dropwort.  The legend suggests that the Ina River was used to send wood even from the prehistoric times.

     In legendary times, Okinagatarashi, a legendary empress, was said to have made a military expedition to Silla in the Korean Peninsula.  A historical record of the Three Kingdoms of Korea (Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla) recorded 14 organized piracies by Wa, the Japanese kingdom, by the end of the 4th century, and Okinagatarashi’s expedition to Silla might have been one of those piracies.  For her expedition, Okinagatarashi counted on the arts of shipbuilding and those of navigation of the people living along the north coast of today’s Osaka Bay. When she was going to leave Japan, she followed the suggestion of the local people living around today’s Amagasaki City and built warships with Japanese cedars in the upper reaches of today’s Ina River.  It could have been with the ceder trees in the Tada area that Okinagatarashi had built her warships.

     The central part of Inagawa-cho used to be called Yanai-zu, which is called Ki-zu (literally Wood Port) today, and which might have been a point to gather wood and to send them out through the river.  Gyoki (668-749), who helped building Todai-ji Temple, is said to have built Yanaizu-in Temple there, whose successor could be Tentaku-ji Temple today.  When the Tada Silver and Copper mines supplied copper to build the Great Buddha of Todai-ji Temple, they might have provided some wood to the mines.  

     In the 8th century, there lived the Yanaizu-muraji Family, who governed the forestry there.  The wood was sent presumably through the Ina River to Itami, and was processed by the Ina-be Family there.

     Even today, the forests cover 80% of Inagawa-cho.

     In Japan, the local administration system with provinces and counties was organized under the central government in the 7th century.  At first, there only used to be Kawabe County under Settsu Province.  In the 8th century, Nose County got independent from Kawabe County.  It was those days that copper mines were developed in the area.

     In 708, the first copper was mined in Chichibu, Musashi Province.  Only a couple of decades later, before the middle of the century, copper mining started in Tada.  Legend says it that the copper mined in Tada was used for the Great Buddha of Todai-ji Temple.  Legend has it that Minamoto Mitsunaka (?-997) started living in Tada, and also mined copper there.  The oldest written records date back only to 1037, when the mining-copper office was organized at Noma, Nose County, Settsu Province.  They started keeping books there.

     The Tada Manor was owned by the Minamoto Clan at large.  After the Jokyu War in 1221, it belonged to the Kamakura Shogunata.  After the collapse of the shogunate in 1333, its ownership was unstable and the local powerful families became independent samurai.  In the Warring States Period, the Shiokawa Family was the top of the samurai families in the manor.

     Shiokawa Nagamitsu (1538-1586) became the head of the family a couple of years before Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) advanced to Kyoto in 1568 with Ashikaga Yoshiaki (1537-1597) as a puppet shogun.

     In August, 1568, Nagamitsu dispatched his vassal, Shiokawa Magodayu, to Omi Province to find out political and military situations.  Magodayu was reasoned by Tanemura Okura, a vassal of Rokkaku Yoshikata (1521-1598), into going back to Tada.

     In 1569, Magodayu was killed in battle in Awa Province, with his surviving child, Yorikazu, adopted by Nagamitsu.

     Anyway, Nagamitsu became subject to Nobunaga after he advanced to Kyoto.  After Nobunaga was assassinated in 1582, Nagamitsu became subject to Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598), who set his eyes on the Tada Silver and Copper Mine.  From 1583 to 1586, Hideyoshi took away Nagamitsu's territory step by step.  Finally in 1588, Nagamitsu was dismissed and lost his whole territory.

     Yorikazu's son, Motomitsu, celebrated his coming of age in 1616.  A vassal of Motomitsu's ia supposed to have compiled Kodaiji Journal.

Trees In the Town

Virtual Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage (the South) #9 Futatsu-do Temple

 

     Shiba Village was developed in the wetland at the foot of the Omiya Plateau presumably after Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) moved to the Kanto Region in 1590.  In the village, the Suga Family was the most powerful.  When the villagers built their Kannon-do hall in 1624, the Suga Family built their own with Thousand-Armed Sahasrabhuja enshrined and the other villagers built another with Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses.  Later, the two were connected, and the connected hall looks symmetrical as the halls had the same shape and the same size.  Futatsu-do literally means Twin Halls. Its (Their?) symmetrical appearance is very rare.

     The Avalokitesvara statue was listed as the #9 deity of the Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage (the south).  A majority decision?

Address: 2 Chome-18-12 Shibatsukabara, Kawaguchi, Saitama 333-0856

Trees In the Town

Virtual Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage (the South) #8 Fukuju-in Temple

 

     Oyaguchi Village became independent in the first half of the 17th century.  The village used to have a Kannon-do Hall, which enshrined Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses.  The hall became obsolete with its Arya Avalokitesvara statue left in Fukuju-in Temple, which is also no more than a local assembly hall.  It is unknown when Fukuju-in Temple was founded.

Address: 2295 Oyaguchi, Minami Ward, Saitama, 336-0042

Clouds Over the Town

Virtual Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage (the South) #7 Kannon-in Temple

 

     Kannon-in Temple was founded in 1366.

     Ashikaga Motouji (1340-1367) became the 1st Kanto Deputy Shogun in Kamakura in 1349. To suppress the samurai who supported the Southern Court in the northern part of the Kanto Region, he had to reside in the south bank of the Iruma River, which runs between the Musashino and Omiya Plateaus, from 1353 to 1361.  He overwhelmed Utsunomiya Ujitsuna (1326-1370) in 1362.  Kannon-in Temple was founded in momentary peacetime.

     After about 2 centuries, when Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) burned Enryaku-ji Temple in Mt. Hiei on September 12th, 1571, Priest Ekai fled from the temple with the image of Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses, and arrived at Kannon-in Temple.  He enshrined the image in the temple.

     Yanagisaki Village became independent in the first half of the 17th century with its own Hikawa Shrine, and Kannon-in Temple became its shrine temple presumably in 1649.

Address: 4 Chome-11-30 Yanagisaki, Kawaguchi, Saitama 333-0861

Yanagisaki-Hikawa Shrine

Address: 5 Chome-20-1 Yanagisaki, Kawaguchi, Saitama 333-0861

Trees In the Town

Virtual Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage (the South) #6 Saitai-ji Temple

 

     Saitai-ji Temple is said to have been founded by Ennin (794-864).  Its precincts have the grave of Nun Kenshoin. Who was she?

     Lady Sanjo (1521-1570) was a Japanese noblewoman and was the wife of the warlord, Takeda Harunobu (1521-1573).  She gave birth to 5 children.  Her second daughter married Anayama Nobutada (1541-1582), who went over from the Takeda Clan to the Oda Clan in 1582.  Unluckily for Nobutada, Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) was assassinated in Kyoto on June 2nd, 1582.  Nobutada was killed in the chaotic aftermath of the assassination on the day or a few days later.  Unluckily, Lady Sanjo's second daughter became a war widow and became a Buddhist nun with her Buddhist name Kenshoin.  Many of the leftover samurai of the Takeda Clan became subject to Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616), who allied with Nobunaga but, unlike Nobutada, survived the chaotic aftermath.  Kenshoin also became under the patronage of Ieyasu.

     Hoshina Masayuki (1611-1673) was a love child of Tokugawa Hidetada (1579-1632).  His mother, Shizu (1584-1635), was a daughter of a carpenter and was a lady's maid.  In those days in the Tokugawa Clan, if a lady's maid became pregnant, she needed the lawful wife's permission to become a concubine for the purpose of maintaining the status order.  It was customary for an illegitimate child not to be given birth within Edo Castle.  Shizu gave birth in the house of her sister's husband, Takemura Sukebe in Kanda-Shirogane-cho.  After the spring in 1613, Kenshoin raised the child as a samurai.

     The foundation and Kenshoin's stories might have helped to earn faith.  The precincts have 351 Koshin Stone Monuments, which were based on the Koshin folk faith in Japan. The faith is a mixture of Taoism, Buddhism, and Shinto. According to the faith, "Three Corpses" or "Three Worms" are demonic creatures that live inside the human body, and they seek to hasten the death of their host.  The Koshin monuments were built to prevent their activities.

     Some monuments were built in 1783 and the others were built in 1860.

     Mt. Asama erupted on July 8th, 1783.  Its pyroclastic flows, landslides, volcanic ashes, and the floods of the Azuma River caused by them killed more than 1,400 people in Kozuke Province alone.  Even in Kodama County, Musashi Province, a gigantic quantity of volcanic ashes covered fields so thick that they buried their original shapes and borders.  As the Azuma River is a branch of the Tone River, muddy water flew into the Tone River.

      The volcanic activities had continued for about 3 months.  A large amount of ejecta had accumulated on the mountainside.  They could not withstand the vibrations of the explosion and eruption, and collapsed.  This became a large-scale debris avalanche that rushed toward the north at high speed.  The huge flow sped up and flowed down, gouging out the earth at the foot of the mountain.  It flowed into the Azuma River and became a large mudflow, swallowing villages along the river along with their fields and houses.  It flowed down the river and into the main river, the Tone River.  This caused major flooding in various parts of the Tone River basin.  The Tone River carried all that was washed away downstream, and the mudflow also flowed into the Edogawa River, which was the original mainstream, and many bodies were washed up in the Edogawa River.  The large mudflows flowed down the Tone River, and flowed into the Pacific Ocean the next day.

     From 1858 to 1860, cholera raged.  In Edo, about 280 thousand people are estimated to have died of cholera in 1858 out of its estimated population of 1 million.

Address: 5 Chome-18−9 Higashiurawa, Midori Ward Saitama 336-0926

Phone: 048-873-1520

Trees In the Town

Virtual Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage (the South) #5 Mimuro-do Hall

 

     A Kannon-do hall was built in Banba Hamlet, Mimuro Village, Adachi County, Musashi Province, on unknown date.  The hall is used as Banba Assembly Hall.  It still has a graveyard.  The Banba locals, however, might have wanted to have their own graveyard and a hall to watch the graveyard.  Banba didn't become an independent village, and the hall didn't become an official temple.

     The hall enshrines Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses.

Banba Assembly Hall

Address: 2 Chome-9-7 Banba, Midori Ward, Saitama 336-0912

Trees In the Town

Virtual Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage (the South) #4 Fumon-ji Temple

 

     It is unknown when Fumon-ji Temple was founded.  Its precincts have a stone Ksitigarbha standing image dated 1656.  The temple could have been older than that.

     Daitakubo Village was along the Toemon River and it's a rather long and narrow area which resembles a footprint of Daidarabocchi, a Japanese gigantic monster.  Kubo means a hollow, so the village's name means the hollow Daidarabocchi made.  Believe it or not.  If you want to see what Daidarabocchi looked like, why don't you check Prince Mononoke?

     Fumon-ji Temple enshrines Thousand-Armed Sahasrabhuja.  The temple doesn't have a priest and is maintained by the locals.

Address: 4 Chome-9-10 Daitakubo, Minami Ward, Saitama, 336-0015

Clouds Over the Town

The Return of Shen Menggang and Hu Funing to China

 

     Shen Menggang and Hu Funing sailed presumably from Sakai Port toward Guangzhou.  Unluckily, they were interrogated off ChaoZhou.  The documents they had, presumably including the reply from the Miyoshi Regime, were discarded and they were imprisoned.  When Zheng Shungong heard of their imprisonment and tried to contact them, they had already been executed.

     What determined the destiny of Zhen Shungong, who was imprisoned but wasn't executed, and Shen Menggang and Hu Funing, who were executed?  Maybe, due to the arbitrary rulings of prosecutors.  Perhaps, whether they went too far or not.  In the case of Jiang Zhou,who was imprisoned but wasn't executed, his companion, Chen Keyuan, returned from Goto Islands and wasn't charged.  Possibly, the information they could offer mattered.  When Zhen Ruoceng wrote and compiled Chouhai Tubian, as he had never been to Japan, he probably depended on the information Jiang Zhou had through his experience in Japan.  Zheng Shungong wrote and compiled Riben Yijian for himself.

Trees In the Town

Virtual Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage (the South) #3 Motobuto-Kannon-do Hall

 

     It is unknown when Zuigan-ji Temple was founded in Motobuto Village, Adachi County, Musashi Province.  Its precincts had a Kannon-do hall. The temple was abolished after the Meiji Restoration, with its Kannon-do hall left. 

     The hall has a wooden seated statue of Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses.  The statue is 65.7 centimeters tall in total and 31.1 centimeters wide from knee to knee.  Its hands and fingers gesture dhyana mudra.  The body is seated on the lotus base with the hem of its Buddhist robe hanging long in front of the pedestal.  It is made with a wooden mosaic and has jade eyes.  The statue is thought to have been made during the Southern and Northern Courts Period, but its halo and some features are thought to have been added later in the Edo Period.  Its pedestal seems to have been another statue's.  This type of statue is a typical example of late Tang-style sculpture produced in large numbers in the Kanto Region, especially around Kamakura, from the Northern and Southern Courts Period to the Muromachi Period.  The head of the statue is rather small, its body is long, and the bottom of the statue is not carved. The statue can be said to be a masterpiece of the hanging-robe-style in those days.

Address: 2 Chome-23-5 Motobuto, Urawa Ward, Saitama, 330-0052

Trees In the Town

Where did Shen Menggang and Hu Funing go?

 

     Zheng Shungong said that he sent Shen Menggang and Hu Funing to Kyoto.

     According to Kodaiji Journal, which was compiled by the Shiokawa Family:

In July, 1556, the messenger of Great Ming, Zheng Shungong, arrived at Bungo.  He wrote to Kyoto.  He complains that the pirates in Kyushu intrude into the remote areas of Great Ming.  A reply was sent.

     First of all, the Ming Dynasty named Ashikaga Shoguns as King of Japan.   Zheng Shungong must have written to the then shogun.

     Ashikaga Yoshiteru (1536-1565) was in reign from 1547 to 1565 as the 13th Shogun of the Muromachi Shogunate.  However, Yoshiteru fled to Kuchiki, Omi Province, in 1553, pressured with the military force of Miyoshi Nagayoshi (1522-1564).  Yoshiteru stayed there till 1558.  That is, in July, 1556, the Shogun, or the King of Japan, was not in Kyoto.  Nagayoshi formed the Miyoshi Regime, putting Ashikaga Yoshitsuna  (1509-1573), who was the second son of Yoshizumi (1481-1511), the 11th shogun, as shogun.  Zheng Shungong's letter as well as Shen Menggang and Hu Funing must have sailed from Bungo Province through the Pacific Ocean to Sakai Port.  As Yoshitsuna stayed in Awa Province in July, 1556, there was quite a high likelihood that the letter was handled by the Miyoshi Regime.  Presumably, Otomo Yoshishige (1530-1587) knew quite well about the state of affairs around Kyoto.  He must have forwarded Zheng Shungong's letter with Shen Menggang and Hu Funing knowingly to Miyoshi Nagayoshi.  Yoshishige had his own expectations and motives.

Trees In the Town

Virtual Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage (the South) #2 Kakushin-ji Temple

 

     In the old days, a Nembutsu-do hall, a hermitage to chant prayer to the Buddha, was built in Harigaya Village, Adachi County, Musashi Province.  After Koriki Kiyonaga (1530-1608) died, his vassal, Nakamura Yoshiteru (?-1622), changed the hermitage into a temple and named it Kakushin-ji after Kiyonaga's posthumous Buddhist name, Kakushin, inviting Priest Manrei (?-1646), who had been born to the Fukai Family.

     Kiyonaga was born in Mikawa Province.  After Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) was taken hostage to the Imagawa Clan in Suruga Province in 1549, Kiyonaga was sent to the province to support Ieyasu in 1552.  After countless ups and downs, Ieyasu became the ruler of the whole nation, and Kiyonaga rose to lord.  If Yoshiteru followed Kiyonaga from Mikawa Province, he had a good reason to build a temple for Kiyonaga.  

     Who were the Fukai Family?

     The Later Three-Year War was fought in the northeastern part of Japan in the late 1080s.  It was a kind of internal strife within the Kiyohara Clan.  First, Kiyohara Iehira (?-1087) and Kiyohira (1056-1128) fought against Sanehira (?-1083).  After Sanehira’s death, Iehira clashed against Kiyohira.  From the central government, Minamoto Yoshiie (1039-1106) intervened in the conflict.  The intervention brought victory to Kiyohira.  In the war, Kamakura Kagemasa fought for Yoshiie brilliantly at the age of 16.  In a battle, Chokai Yosaburo shot Kagemasa’s right eye.  Not wavering, Kagemasa shot Yosaburo back dead.  In Yoshiie’s camp, Kagemasa was suffering with the arrow in his right eye.  His comrade, Miura Tametsugu, ran up to Kagemasa and stepped on his face to pull out the arrow.  Kagemasa got furious and slashed at Tametsugu, saying, “A samurai would be satisfied if he died with an arrow wound.  But it’s humiliation to be stepped on the face.” Later, he developed Oba Manor in Koza County, Sagami Province.  One of his offspring, Kagehiro, lived in Nagao Manor, Kamakura County, Sagami Province, and called his family Nagao.

     On June 5th, 1247, when Miura Yasumura (1184-1247) lost to the Hojo Clan, he and 500 of his family members, relatives, and subjects committed suicide in the Old Kamakura 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #8 Hokke-do Temple.  The Nagao Family was almost completely destroyed in the incident.  A few survived.  When Prince Munetaka (1242-1274) became the 6th Shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate in 1252, the Uesugi Family followed him.  The offspring of the Nagao Family's survivors became subject to the family.

     The Kamakura Shogunate or the dictatorship of the Hojo Clan was destroyed in 1333.  Under the Ashikaga Shogunate in Kyoto, the Kanto Deputy Shogunate was established in 1349, and Uesugi Noriaki (1306-1368) became the first Regent of the Kanto Deputy Shogunate.  That was the start of the Nagao Family's good luck.  As the Uesugi Family spread their power across the Kanto Region, the Nagao Family's branches spread across the region.

     Nagao Kagetaka (?-1533) was born in Fukai Village, Adachi County, Musashi Province, and called his family Fukai.  His son was Kageyoshi, and Kageyoshi's son was Yoshihide (?-1605).  Manrei could have belonged to the next or the next-next generation.

     Kakushin-ji Temple's main deity, a sitting Amitabha statue, which is supposed to have been made at the beginning of the Kamakura Period (1185-1333), used to be enshrined in Osaka castle.  After the Siege of Osaka Castle in 1615, Yoshiteru brought it to the temple.

     Yoshiteru's wife presented a Ksitigarbha image to the temple.

     Its precincts have an itabi dated 1324.  Its original hermitage might have been built in the Kamakura Period (1185-1333).  Was it built when the Nagao Family was almost destroyed in 1247?

Address: 3 Chome-15-22 Kitaurawa, Urawa Ward, Saitama, 330-0074

Phone: 048-831-6963

Trees In the Town

Virtual Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage (the South) #1 Kannon-ji Temple

 

      Kannon-ji Temple was founded as a shrine temple of Omiya-Hikawa Shrine.  It was abolished after the Meiji Restoration Government issued the Gods and Buddhas Separation Order in 1868, and its membership of the Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage (the South) was moved to Manpuku-ji Temple.

     What is Hikawa Shrine?

     In Izumo Province, today's Shimane Peninsula used to be an island in the Jomon Period (BC 14000-BC 10th century).  The Hi River filled the shallows between the Old Shimane Island and Honshu, and the Izumo Plain was formed about 10,000 years ago.  Rice growing arrived, and people there accumulated experience to change marshes and swamps into rice fields.  With this experience, Etakehi arrived at Musashi Province.  There, he or his offspring founded Hikawa Shrine, namely Hi River Shrine.  Presumably, he tried to control the floods of the Ara and Iruma Rivers.

     In the Jomon Period, Muashino Plateau's east side faced the sea. and the Ara and Iruma Rivers ran into the sea at the foot of the plateau.   The Hiki area used to be just 10 kilometers upstream from the mouth of the Ara River.  Etakehi , his offspring, his successors, and/or his followers tried to change marshes and swamps in the estuary of the Ara and Iruma Rivers into rice fields, and invited the god of Hikawa Shrine to their new rice fields.

     Manpuku-ji Temple was founded in 1282 by Priest Koun (?-1312).

     The Second Mongol Invasion of Japan was carried out in 1281.  Their Eastern Route Army arrived at Hakata Bay on June 23rd with 17,000 sailors, 10,000 Korean soldiers, and 15,000 Mongols and Chinese. Their Southern Route Army consisted of 100,000 men on 3,500 ships.

     The foundation of Manpuku-ji Temple might have had something to do with the invasion.

Manpuku-ji Temple is the #33 member temple of the Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage (the North).  As you finish the Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage (the North), you are at the start of the Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage (the South).  So what?

Hikawa Shrine

Address: 1-407 Takahanacho, Omiya Ward, Saitama 330-0803

Phone: 048-641-0137

Manpuku-ji Temple

Address: 2 Chome-1003 Nisshincho, Kita Ward, Saitama, 331-0823

Phone: 048-663-6503

Clouds Over the Town

Was Zheng Shungong really supported by Yang Bo and Yang Yi?

 

     Yang Bo (1509-1574) was born in Pu County, Shanxi Province.  He was a politician in the Ming Dynasty.  He became the Secretary of the Minister of War, and then the Grand Master of the Crown Prince.

     In 1529, he became the Magistrate of Yusi County.  Yang Bo was later appointed as the Chief of the Arsenal Department of the Ministry of War.  In 1546, he inspected the Gansu Region. In 1554, the Mongolian King, Daraisung Guden Khan (1520-1557) plundered Jizhen. Yang Bo resisted the enemy and the Mongolian army could not break through.  The next year, Daraisung Guden Khan attacked Yichang again and was repulsed.  After that, Yang Bo overhauled border defense facilities, improved people's livelihood, and restored military order.  Emperor Jiajing named him the Grand Master of the Crown Prince.  In 1573, Yang Bo resigned and returned home.  He died of illness the next year.

     Yang Yi (1495-) was born in Hengshui County, Zhending Prefecture, near the capital.  He was a politician in the Ming Dynasty.

     In 1523, he became the Magistrate of Weixian County. In 1530, he was appointed vice-inspector general of Shandong Province, and later changed to the inspector general of Henan Province. In 1546, he became the Manager of Nanjing Grain Reserve. In 1550, he served as officer of the Nanjing Censorate.  In 1554, he was appointed an officer of the Ministry of Household Affairs in Nanjing and managed the grain storage.  In 1555, he served as an officer of the Nanjing Ministry of War, and governed the military affairs in Nanjing Metropolitan, Zhejiang Province, and Fujian Province.  In 1556, due to defeat in the war, he was dismissed from his post, returned to his hometown, and retired.  Hu Zongxian replaced him.

     The entry in April, 1559, of Ming Veritable Records of Emperor Jiajing records that Seiju came to Ningbo with Zheng Shungong, who was sent by Yang Yi.  As Hu Zongxian's idea is also recorded there, Yang Yi's involvement might have been testified by Hu Zongxian.  Zheng Shungong, however, claimed in Riben Yijian that he had been supported by the Minister of War.

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Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage (the South)

 

     Preceding the Adachi BAndo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage, which was organized by Priest Joten in 1760, another Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage had been organized in 1705 by Takahashi Gentaro, who was from Tsukagoshi Village in the same county.  As Gentaro wasn't a priest, the area of the pilgrimage he organized was  rather small.  The why didn't Joten merge it as part of his new pilgrimage?

     Takahashi Shingoro, Jr. (1791-1857) was the founder of Tsukagoshi Yukiori.  He was a businessman and inventor at the end of the Edo period.

     He was born in Tsukagoshi Village, Adachi County, Musashi Province.  His name was Kunitaro.  His father, Shingoro Takahashi I (1766-1816), was the fourth generation of the Takahashi Family.  As a thread merchant dealing in cotton and tinsel, he supplied thread to areas such as Ashikaga and Oume, where the textile industry was thriving.  When Kunitaro became the fifth generation head of the Takahashi family, he came to call himself Shingoro.  In the middle of the 180's, he improved looms and began producing blue-stripe fabric.  After that, the scale of production was expanded, and, by 1837, the business had expanded to have 102 looms and 130 indigo vats.  This was later referred to as an example of manufacture at the end of the Edo period.  After his death, he and his wife were enshrined at Hataso Shrine, and in 1924, he was posthumously awarded an aristocratic rank of Jugoi.  Hataso Shrine became a part of Tsukagoshi-Inari Shrine with its name shortened, Hata Shrine.

     Why didn't Joten reorganize the Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage, including, for example, a few member temples of the Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage, which had been organized by Gentaro?  Instead the priest made the #1 member temple of the Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage, which had been organized by Gentaro, #1 member temple of the Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage, which he newly organized.  That could have been his way of showing his respect to the Takahashi Family.

Hata Shrine c/o Tsukagoshi-Inari Shrine

Address: 3 Chome-2-14 Tsukagoshi, Warabi, Saitama 335-0002

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Zheng Shungong’s Return to China

 

     Zheng Shungong left Japan in December, 1556.  Otomo Yoshishige sent Priest Seiju, who had studied in Daitoku-ji Temple in Kyoto, with Zheng.  It took about 40 days to sail back to Guangzhou.  Zheng and Seiju were arrested and sent to Zhejinag.  Zheng was sentenced to 7 years in jail.  Seiju was prisoned in Hangzhou for 4 years and then exiled to Sichuan for life in August, 1561.  Zheng started writing and compiling a book of 3 volumes, “Riben Yijian” (A Look at Japan), in jail.  He finished it presumably by the end of 1560’s or by the beginning of 1570’s.  It is unknown whether he was in jail or out of jail when he finished it, which was never published in either case.

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Virtual Kodama Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #33 Daikofusho-ji Temple

 

     Daikofusho-ji Temple was founded by Prince Shotoku (574-622) in the Asuka Period (593-622).  It was revived by Ennin (794-864) during the reign (833-850) of Emperor Ninmyo (810-850) and he presented the Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha statue.  Priest Ryogen (912-985) stayed in the temple and presented his self-portrait sculpture.  In the Kamakura Period (1185-1333), Priest Gokai revived the temple.  In the Warring States Period, the temple got donations from Hojo Ujikuni (1548-1597), the lord of Hachigata Castle, and Nagai Masami (?-1590), the lord of Mitake Castle.

Address: 667-1 Ninomiya, Kamikawa, Kodama District, Saitama 367-0233

Phone: 0495-77-2382

Hachigata Castle Museum

Address: 2496-2 Hachigata, Yorii, Osato District, Saitama 369-1224

Phone: 048-586-0315

Mitake Castle Ruins

Address: Wataruse, Kamikawa, Kodama District, Saitama 367-0301

Trees In the Town

Jiang Zhou’s Return to China

 

     Jiang Zhou left Hirado to China in April, 1557, with Wang Zhi; Yoshishige’s messengers, Tokuyo and Zenmyo; and Yoshinaga’s messenger, Ryuki.  The ship Wang Zhi was on board dropped in at Ryukyu and was late.  Jiang Zhou and Tokuyo arrived at Ningbo in July, but were imprisoned because they led an illegal mission to Ming China.  Hu Zongxian (1512-1565) didn’t stand up for Jiang Zhou because Jiang didn’t observe the tributary principle.  He was sentenced to death, but was defended and pardoned.  He provided Zheng Ruoceng  (1503-1570) with his primary information on Japan through his experience.

     Zheng Ruoceng finished writing and compiling “Chouhai Tubian” (Maritime Strategy and Charts) in 1561.  It was published in 1562 under the support of Hu Zongxian.

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Virtual Kodama Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #32 Kofuku-ji Temple

 

     Kofuku-ji Temple was founded by Priest Hoso in 1459.

     The Kyotoku War lasted for 28 years from 1454 to 1482.  During the war, Ashikaga Shigeuji (1438-1497), the Kanto Deputy Shogun in Kamakura, relinquished Kamakura and moved to Koga in 1457.  In 1458, the Muromachi Shogunate sent out another deputy shogun, Ashikaga Masatomo (1435-1491), from Kyoto for Kamakura, but he couldn’t enter Kamakura and stayed in Horikoshi, Izu Province.  From then on, there were Koga Kanto Deputy Shogun and Horikoshi Kanto Deputy Shogun in the Kanto Region.  In short, the temple was founded when the Kanto Region was in chaos.

     In 1457, for example, Uesugi Fusaaki (1435-1466), the Regent of the Kanto Deputy Shogunate, built Ikakko Fortress between the Onnabori River in the north and the Oyama River in the south.  The 2 rivers meet just downstream, and the fortress was located on the river terrace of the 2 rivers.  The location itself was a natural fortress.  The fortress was a stronghold of Fusaaki to fight against Shigeuji, the Kanto Deputy Shogun.  It was something like that a vice president was fighting against a president.

     Kofuku-ji Temple was built in 1459 upstream along the Koyama River.  Was it a coincidence?  Or did the temple have a function or two to support the fortress?

     Kofuku-ji Temple enshrines Ksitigarbha as its main deity and also enshrines 1000-armed Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha.  Or is it 11-faced Thousand-Armed Sahasrabhuja?

Address: 1471 Kodamacho Oda, Honjo, Saitama 367-0254

Phone: 047-341-0728 c/o Io-ji Temple

Trees In the Town

Virtual Kodama Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #31 Chosen-ji Temple

 

     Chosen-ji Temple was founded in 1474 either by Uesugi Akisada (1454-1510), who was the 11th head of the Yamanouchi-Uesugi Family and who was the Regent of the Kanto Deputy Shogunate, for himself or by Uesugi Norifusa (1467-1525), who was the 13th head of the Yamanouchi-Uesugi Family and who also became the Regent of the Kanto Deputy Shogunate, for Akisada.

     The Kyotoku War lasted for 28 years from 1454 to 1482.  During the war, Ashikaga Shigeuji (1438-1497), the Kanto Deputy Shogun in Kamakura, relinquished Kamakura and moved to Koga in 1457.  In 1458, the Muromachi Shogunate sent out another deputy shogun, Ashikaga Masatomo (1435-1491), from Kyoto for Kamakura, but he couldn’t enter Kamakura and stayed in Horikoshi, Izu Province.  From then on, there were Koga Kanto Deputy Shogun and Horikoshi Kanto Deputy Shogun in the Kanto Region.  In short, the temple was founded when the Kanto Region was in chaos.  However, the years between 1473 and 1475 were the lull between battles.

     The temple has bulletin boards issued by Takeda Harunobu (1521-1573) and by Hojo Ujikuni (1541-1597).  It means the area was sometimes ruled by the Takeda Clan and the other times by the Later Hojo Clan.

     Chosen-ji Temple is known for its beautiful Japanese wisteria flowers.  The oldest one has been found out to be over 650 years old.  It means the tree took root about a century before the foundation of the temple.

     The temple's main deity is Sakyamuni.  It also enshrines Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha.

Address: 901 Kodamacho Takayanagi, Honjo, Saitama 367-0224

Phone: 0495-72-3122

Trees In the Town