Virtual Musashino 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #21 Kosho-ji Temple

 

     Kosho-ji Temple was founded by Kaneko Chikanori (?-1220) in Bushi Village, Iruma County, Musashi Province.  Priest Zuitaku moved the temple to its present place in the 1520's.  The temple was authorized by the Tokugawa Shogunate in the middle of the 17th century.

     The temple is located at the north foot of Kaji Hills.  It means it is located in the Iruma River Basin but not in the Old Tama River Basin.  That means the area could have had more rice fields.  No wonder the Kaneko Family became a powerful samurai.

     The Kaneko Family belonged to the Murayama Corps and based in Kaneko Village, Iruma County, Musashi Province.

     Taira Yukinaga emigrated to Koma County and started calling his family Kaneko in 962.  One of his descendants, Kaneko Ietada (1138-1216), was a member of the Murayama Corps.  Who were the Murayama Corps?

     The most part of Musashi Province was plateaus deeply covered with volcanic-ash soil, which was suitable for stock farming, not for rice growing.  In ancient times, many of the naturalized Silla people then were sent to Musashi Province, and engaged in the stock farming.  That stimulated people there, and many stock farms were set up, including 6 imperial stock farms.  The custodians of those farms later formed small-scale samurai families.  By marriage, those samurai families composed 7 corps on the plateaus in the province: the Musashi Seven Corps.  The Murayama Corps was one of the 7.

     Murayama Yorito's 5th son, Iehira, came to live in Kaneko Village, and started the Kaneko Family of the Murayama Corps.  Chikanori was a son of Iehira and lived in Bushi.

The precincts of Kosho-ji Temple have 5 itabi dated 1246, 1250, 1268, 1351, and 1452.

     When Mamiya Kotonobu (1777-1841) compiled the New Topology and Chronology of Musashi Province in the 19th century, he wrote about the 1351-dated itabi but not about the other itabi.  Were they gathered from other places?  After the latter half of the century?

     Kosho-ji Temple keeps the Buddhist memorial tablets of the following family members:

Kaneko Ietada's wife, who was a daughter of Hatakeyama Shigeyoshi, died on March 21st, 1201; Ietada died February 17th, 1216; Kaneko Chikanori died on May 25th, 1220; Chikanori's younger sister, who married Yamana Shigekuni, died on March 5th, 1224; Takeda Nobuyoshi's daughter died April 17th, 1225; Kaneko Iehiro, the eldest son of Ietada, died on April 13th, 1229; a daughter of Hirayama Sueshige (1140-1212) died on June 18th, 1234; Kaneko Ieshige, a grandson of Ietada, died on October 16th, 1262; and a daughter of Chiba Naritane (1155-1218) died on November 9th, 1266.

     Except Ietada, the founder of the Kaneko Family, they could have lived, married, and died in Bushi.

     For your information, Hatakeyama Shigeyoshi was the founder of the Hatakeyama Family.  Chichibu Shigehiro belonged to a branch family of the Chichibu Clan.  Shigehiro’s 1st son, Shigeyoshi, lived in Hatakeyama Manor, Osato County, Musashi Province, and started calling his family Hatakeyama.  Minamoto Ryukomaru held his coming of age ceremony at Takeda Hachiman-gu Shrine in Kai Province in 1140, at the age of 13, and changed his name to Takeda Nobuyoshi.  When the remnants of the Minamoto Clan started their avenging battles in 1180, Nobuyoshi demonstrated his excellent leadership at first, but was replaced by Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199) later because Nobuyoshi was already in his 50's.  Yamana Shigekuni was based in Yamana Village, Tago County, Kozuke Province.  The Yamana Family became the 4 most important branches of the Minamoto Clan next to the Ashikaga Families, in the Muromachi Period (1336-1573).

     Who was Hirayama Sueshige?

     The most part of Musashi Province was plateaus deeply covered with volcanic-ash soil, which was suitable for stock farming, not for rice growing. In ancient times, many of the naturalized Silla people then were sent to Musashi Province, and engaged in the stock farming. That stimulated people there, and many stock farms were set up, including 6 imperial stock farms. The custodians of those farms later formed small-scale samurai families. By marriage, those samurai families composed 7 corps on the plateaus in the province: the Musashi Seven Corps. The Nishi Corps, who were based in the Tama River Valley, was one of the 7.

     In Ancient times, Funakida Manor was developed along Asa River, which is a branch of Tama River. The manor belonged to the Fujiwara Clan in Kyoto. A family based around the meeting point of the Asa and Tama Rivers in the manor became powerful, called themselves Hirayama, and came to belong to the Nishi Corps.

     The Hirayama Family advanced to the upper reaches of the river, conquering the mountain people there and developing rice fields on the fluvial terraces along the Asa River. Gradually, they became samurai as other members of the Musashi Seven Corps did.

     At the end of the ancient times, the Taira Clan, one of samurai clans, overpowered the Fujiwara Clan.

     Hirayama Sueshige (1140-1212) fought for Minamoto Yoshitomo (1123-!160) in the Hogen War in 1156, and in the Heiji War in 1159. After Yoshitomo was defeated and killed by the Taira Clan. He followed the Taira Clan and lived a peaceful life as a local samurai. However, when Yoshitomo's son, Yoritomo (1147-1199), who had been exiled to Izu Province, raised an army in 1180, Sueshige fought for Yoritomo. When Yoritomo dispatched his younger brother, Yoshitsune (1159-1189), to Kyoto to hunt down the Taira Clan, he followed Yoshitsune and achieved outstanding military service in 1184 and 1185.

     After the war, Sueshige was given a government post by the Cloistered Emperor Goshirakawa (1127-1192). As Sueshige was appointed without permission of Yoritomo, he got angry. Yoritomo criticized Sueshige along with other samurai who were appointed without Yoritomo’s permission, saying, “Hirayama Sueshige has a fluffy face and got an outrageous appointment.” In spite of giving up his government post, he was appointed by Yoritomo as the steward of Harada Manor, Mikasa County, Chikuzen Province.

     In 1189, Sueshige participated in the Battle of Mutsu with his son, Shigemura. He did a distinguished war service there and became a senior statesman of the Kamakura Shogunate.

     During the Kamakura Period (1185-1333), the Hirayama Family survived the conspiracy of the Hojo Clan, and kept advancing to the upper reaches of the Asa River.

     Chiba Naritane (1155-1218) was the 6th head of the Chiba Family, who were based in Shimousa Province.  In 1179, Tamba Motoaki was appointed to be an acting governor of Shimousa Province and Tachibana Nobutsugu was appointed to be an assistant to be the third-ranking officer of the province.  They could have named a local powerful samurai as an agent instead of leaving Kyoto.  When Minamoto Yoritomo raised his army in 1180, Naritane attacked the agent on September 13th.  On April 18th, 1189, when Hojo Tokifusa (1175-1240) celebrated his coming of age, Naritane served Tokifusa 3 cups of sake.  Later, Tokifusa's daughter married Chiba Tokitane (1218-1241), the 7th head of the family.  On November 27th, 1193, Naritane escorted Yoritomo with his sword on.  On December 15th, 1209. Naritane was appointed to be the Guardian Samurai of Shimousa Province.  On July 2nd, 1212, Naritane was ordered to rebuild the office of the Board of Retainers.

     In the Kamakura Shogunate, the second Shogun, Minamoto Yoriie (1182-1204), was imprisoned and assassinated in 1204, and Minamoto Sanetomo (1192-1219) was installed as Shogun by the Hojo Clan.  On February 15th, 1213, Monk Annen, younger brother of Aoguri Shichiro, who was a subordinate Izumi Chikahira, visited Chiba Naritane and asked for his cooperation in the rebellion against Hojo Yoshitoki (1163-1224), the second Regent of the shogunate.  Naritane captured Annen and took him to the regent.  Yoshitoki reported to Sanetomo, and after consulting with Oe Hiromoto (1148-1225) and others, he ordered Nikaido Yukimura (1155-1238), Kanakubo Yukichika, and others to interrogate Annen.  The following day, on the 16th, Annen's confession revealed that Chikahira had been plotting to overthrow Yoshitoki since 1211 by setting up Yoriie's bereaved son, Senjumaru (1201-1215).  It turned out that there were over 330 samurai sided with Chikahira, if you believe Yoshitoki.  Naritane did.

     When Wada Yoshimori (1147-1213) rebelled against Yoshitoki on May 24th in the same year, Naritane hurried from Shimousa Province to Kamakura to support Yoshitoki.

     Naritane died of illness around noon on April 10th, 1218, at the age of 64 as a middling samurai.  His ordinariness and mediocrity might have enabled his daughter to marry a middling samurai, presumably Ieshige, to live with her parents-in-law, presumably Iehiro and Sueshige's daughter, and to live out her natural lifespan.  She died 48 years and 209 days after her father, giving or taking about 12 hours.  When she married, her grandmother-in-law, presumably Nobuyoshi's daughter, and her grandaunt-in-law, presumably Chikanori's younger sister, was still alive.  What had happened to the grandaunt-in-law?  Had she divorced Yamana Shigekuni and come back to her parents', or her elder brother's, house?  Or had she come back nostalgically to her hometown after her husband's death?  Anyway, they lived happily ever after the marriage of Naritane's daughter till their death did them part one by one.

     Kosho-ji Temple enshrines Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses.

Address: 1511 Bushi, Iruma, Saitama 358-0053

Phone: 04-2932-0954