Virtual Adachi Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage (the South) #13 Nyoirin-ji Temple
Nyoirin-ji Temple's history is totally unknown. It could have been the shrine temple of Tajima-Ontake Shrine, which was founded in April, 1295, in Tajima Village, Adachi County, Musashi Province, by inviting Kuni-no-Tokotachi, who is one of the two gods born from "something like a reed that arose from the soil" when the Earth was chaotic, from Mt. Ontake in Shinano Province.
In Mt. Ontake, Yoshida Kanetomo (1435–1511) regarded Kuni-no-Tokotachi as the primordial god of the Universe. In 1785, Ascetic Kakumei (1718-1786) from Kasugai County, Owari Province, overcame the objection of conservative religious groups and opened the Kurosawaguchi pilgrimage route and succeeded in popularizing light pilgrimage climbing. Ascetic Fukan (1731-1801) practiced asceticism in Tajima-Ontake Shrine in the 1780's and opened Otakiguchi pilgrimage route in 1792. As the syncretism of Shinto and Buddhism was general in the Edo Period (1603-1867), Fukan could have visited Nyorin-ji Temple.
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, in times of war, 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. A 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 a samurai and a horse. 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-cencerate 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.
Presumably, Tajima Village was developed on a small island in the Ara River in those days. Tajima literally means Paddy Island.
Nyorin-ji Temple enshrined Cintamanicakra, who usually has 6 arms and holds chintamani (a wish-fulfilling jewel) in one of the six. The temple was abolished, only with the Cintamanicakra statue, whose nick name is Tajima-Kannon, and the temple's graveyard left.
Tajima-Kannon-do Hall
Address: 3 Chome-28-22 Tajima, Sakura Ward, Saitama, 338-0837
Ontake Shrine
Address: 3 Chome-28-30 Tajima, Sakura Ward, Saitama, 338-0837
Phone: 048-862-1025
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