Virtual Musashino 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #26 Shoden-in Temple

 

     Shoden-in Temple was founded in Koma County, Musashi Province, in 751.

     Koma County was established in 716 by 1799 immigrants from Gogulyeo, which had been destroyed by Tang China and Silla in 668.  The immigrants had first settled in 7 provinces in Tokaido Region: Suruga, Kai, Sagami, Kamiusa, Shimousa, Hitachi, and Shimotsuke Provinces.  The first governor of the county was Yagwang.

     Yagwang first visited Japan in 666 as a vice leader of a diplomatic mission dispatched from Gogulyeo.  He seemed to have gone into exile in Japan after the collapse of Goguryeo.  As he was given the Konikishi title by the Japanese government in 703, he had been a member of the royal family of Gogulyeo.

     After Yagwang’s death, Priest Seungle (?-751) planned to build a temple to enshrine the Vighnesvara statue, which he had brought from Gogulyeo, and to pray for the comfort of Yagwang in the other world.  However, the priest died before realizing his plan.  It was Yagwang's 3rd son, Seong’un, who founded Shoraku-ji Temple, the #32 temple of the Koma 33 Kannon Pilgrimage, with the assistance of his nephew, Hong’in, who was a son of Yagwang’s elder brother, Gajung.  Both Seong’un and Hong’in were apprentices of Seungle.

     Sometime between 1624 and 1645, the temple burned down, and was later revived by Priest Shukai, who also changed the temple from the East Asian Yogacara School to the Chisan Sect of Shingon Buddhism.

     The precincts have 2 old itabi.  One is dated 1244 and the other 1289.  The temple also keeps an old copper bell which is dated 1261.  Presumably, the temple flourished under the Kamakura Shogunate.

     Presumably, the area was developed in the Warring States Period (1467-1568), and came to be called Niihori, namely New Trench, after Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) moved into the Kanto Region in 1590.  It was first documented in 1597.

Address: 990-1 Niihori, Hidaka, Saitama 350-1243

Phone: 042-989-3425