Virtual Musashino 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #6 Zenryu-ji Temple

 

     Namiki Yasumatsu (?-1647) founded Zenryu-ji Temple in Kiyoto Village, Tama County, Musashi Province, inviting Priest Ochin (?-1613) from Joboku-in Temple, supposedly at the beginning of the Edo Period (1603-1867).  Under the Tokugawa Shogunate, every family was supposed to belong to an official Buddhist temple.  The villagers needed an official Buddhist temple.

     Kiyoto Village is supposed to have been developed in the Warring States Period (1467-1568).  Nakajima Nobutaka invited God Oyamakui to the village and founded San'o-sha Shrine in 1579.

     Zenryu-ji Temple enshrines the wooden image of Sitting-on-Lotus-leaf Avalokitesvar.

     Tosa Hidenobu (?-?) published Butsuzo-zui (Illustrated Compendium of Buddhist Images) in 1783.  In the compendium, he listed 33 popular subjects of Buddhism Avalokitesvara drawings and paintings: #1 Holding-Willow-Spray Avalokitesvar, #2 Naga Avalokitesvar, #3 Holding-Buddhism-Scripture Avalokitesvar, #4 Halo Avalokitesvar, #5 Sitting-on-Cloud Avalokitesvar, #6 Pandara Vasini Avalokitesvar, #7 Sitting-on-Lotus-leaf Avalokitesvar, #8 Looking-at-Cascade Avalokitesvar, #9 Listening-to-Stream Avalokitesvar, #10 Holding-Fish-Cage Avalokitesvar, #11 Virtuous-Lord Avalokitesvar, #12 Looking-at-Reflected-Moon Avalokitesvar, #13 Sitting-on-Leaf Avalokitesvar, #14 Blue-Head Avalokitesvar, #15 Great-Commander Avalokitesvar, #16 Life-Prolonging Avalokitesvar, #17 Relief-from-Ruination Avalokitesvar, #18 In-Cave-with-Venom Avalokitesvar, #19 Wave-Reduction Avalokitesvar, #20 Anavatapta Avalokitesvar, #21 One-Knee-Drawn-Up Avalokitesvar, #22 Leaf-Robe Avalokitesvar, #23 Holding-Lapis-Lazuli-Censer Avalokitesvar, #24 Tara Avalokitesvar, #25 Sit-in-in-Clam Avalokitesvar, #26 Twenty-Four-Hour Avalokitesvar, #27 Universal-Benevolence Avalokitesvar, #28 Celestial Beauty Avalokitesvar, #29 Putting-Palms-together Avalokitesvar, #30 Controlling-Thunderbolt Avalokitesvar, #31 Peaceful-Vajrapani Avalokitesvar, #32 Holding-Lotus-Flower Avalokitesvar, and #33 Sprinkling-Purified-Water Avalokitesvar.  Some subjects came directly from Lotus Supra Chapter XXV, some were based on folklore in China, and others were created in Japan.  He put stronger emphasis on the number 33, and might have considered the 33 subjects to be artistically more meaningful manifestations of Avalokitesvara, at least in Japan.

     Kiyoto Village was divided into 3 villages in the middle of the 17th century.  When Mamiya Kotonobu (1777-1841) compiled the New Topography and Chronology of Musashi Province at the beginning of the 19th century, he couldn't find the offspring of Yasumatsu in Shimo-Kiyoto, Naka-Kiyoto, or Kami-Kiyoto Villages.

     According to tradition, Joboku-in Temple was founded by Yasutasu, who was the lord of Hachioji Castle, in 1444.  The castle was, however, built in the 16th century.  Yasutatsu and his offspring could have had something to do with the castle.

     When Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) laid siege to Odawara Castle, Hojo Ujiteru (1542-1590) was holding Odawara Castle with his main force.  Hachioji Castle, whose lord was Ujiteru, was guarded by a local garrison, with farmers including women and children, about 3,000 in all.  Hideyoshi’s allies from the Hokuriku Region, the armies of Maeda Toshiie (1538-1599) and Uesugi Kagekatsu (1555-1623), flooded to Hachioji Castle with a force 15,000 strong on June 23rd.  The garrison fought back.  The women and children either committed suicide by the sword or were killed around nearby waterfall, Goshuden Fall.  The stream turned red for 3 days.

     Hachioji Castle was cleverly built to defend its keep.  The trail up to the keep was guarded by independent plots.  The attacking armies had to seize plots one by one to reach the keep.  The ingenious structure, however, led to the annihilation of the garrison.  When the attacking armies reached the keep, they had killed almost all the garrison.

     Ujiteru's wife, Hisa (1547-1590), who was from the Oishi Family, was in the keep.  Oishi Terumoto, who was Hisa's relative, and who was given the latter half of Ujiteru's name, made a suicide attack to buy Hisa time to flee.  The attacking armies had their own motivation to kill more.  They were competing with each other for the number of beheaded.  The Maeda Army beheaded 280 and the Uesugi Army 273.  Toshiie won the competition in serving Hideyoshi.  The Hokuriku armies displayed the heads of the garrison, women, and children in front of Odawara Castle, which fell on July 5th.

     Joboku-in Temple has a stone monument which says Hisa killed herself  there on June 23rd. She might have realized she had nowhere to go.  Ujiteru killed himself on July 11th.   Yasumatsu could have been a survivor of the battle.  Where did he or his offspring, if any, go?

     For your information, Hisa's daughter had died on August 26th, 1588.  The daughter had married Yamanaka Yorimoto (?-1590), who died on November 16th, 1590, about 4 months after his father-in-law, Ujiteru.

Address: 1 Chome-524 Nakakiyoto, Kiyose, Tokyo 204-0012

Phone: 042-491-0020

Joboku-in Temple

Address: 1 Chome-3-4 Daimoncho, Higashikurume, Tokyo 203-0011

Phone: 042-471-0019

Hachiōji Castle Ruins

Address: 3 Chome Motohachiojimachi, Hachioji, Tokyo 193-0826

Phone: 042-620-7265