Virtual Saitama City Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #6 Someya-Kannon-do Temple

 

     Yakumo Shrine was founded in Someya Village, Adachi County, Musashi Province, in 1441.  Later, a Kannon-do hall was built in its precincts.

     In 1438, the Eikyo War broke out between Ashikaga Mochiuji (1398-1439), the4th Kanto Deputy Shogun, and Uesugi Norizane (1410-1466), the Regent of the Kanto Deputy Shogunate, in the Kanto Region.  The central Shogunate in Kyoto supported Norizane, and Emperor Go-Hanazono issued an order to suppress and punish Mochiuji as the enemy of the Imperial Court.  Such an order hadn't been issued for 60 years.

     Mochiuji was cornered to commit suicide by the central Shogunate and thus the Imperial Court.  His eldest son, Yoshihisa (1423-1439), also killed himself.  Yuki Ujitomo (1402-1441) sheltered 2 of Mochiuji’s younger sons, Shun'o-maru (1430-1441) and Yasuo-maru (1431-1441), in his castle, and rebelled against the central Shogunate in 1440. On April 16th, 1441, his castle fell and he and his son were killed in fighting.  Shun'o-maru and Yasuo-maru were arrested and were to be transferred to Kyoto, but, on their way, at Tarui, Mino Province, they were killed, with their death poems left:

“Summer weeds,

Their flowers blooming in Aono Field

Who knows their future?” (Shun'o-maru) 

“Who knows the future?

Our lives are to be limited today

Here away from home.” (Yasuo-maru)

     Someya Village might have been developed in those days.  To put it another way, Someya Village was one of newly developed villages in those days, and the development and the increase of rice production caused fighting among samurai.

Yakumo Shrine

Address: 1 Chome-288 Someya, Minuma Ward, Saitama, 337-0026