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