Virtual Saitama City Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage #13 Kichijo-ji Temple

 

     Ennin (794-864) founded Kichijo-in Temple, enshrining Ksitigarbha, in 825 in Kizaki Village, Adachi County, Musashi Province.  The temple burned down in battle.  Priest Raijo revived it, enshrining Amitabha as its main deity.  Nakao Village, where Kichijo-ji Temple was located, became independent from Kizaki Village at the end of the 17th century.

     When Mamiya Kotonobu (1777-1841) compiled the New Topography and Chronology of Musashi Province in the 19th century, the temple's main deity was Ksitigarbha, with Amitabha standing by.

     Edo-stationed royal princes, who were actually held hostage by the Tokugawa Shogunate, visited Gyogan-ji Temple.

     Through the Tokugawa Period, one of the royal princes entered the Buddhist priesthood under the title Rinnoji-no-miya. He served as abbot of Rin'o-ji Temple in Nikko and Kan'ei-ji Temple in Edo.  The Tokugawa Shogunate counted them as hostages and planned to set one of them up as their own emperor in case the Imperial Court became hostile against the Tokugawa Shogunate.  The plan worked somehow once.

     During the unrest of the Boshin War (1868-1869) to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate, Prince Yoshihisa (1847-1895) fled north with the survivors of those who supported the Tokugawa Shogunate, and became Emperor Tobu, whose planned era name was believed to have been either Taisei or Enju.  On his way to the north, he stayed in Kichijo-ji Temple for a while.

     Following the Meiji Restoration, in 1873, Emperor Meiji recalled all imperial princes currently serving as Buddhist priests back to secular status. That same year, Prince Yoshihisa became the second head of the new princely house of Kitashirakawa-no-miya.

Address: 1410 Nakao, Midori Ward, Saitama, 336-0932

Phone: 048-873-7280