Virtual Musashino 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #8 Enjo-in Temple

 

     Enjo-in Temple was founded by Priest Ken'yo (?-1159) in Megurita, Tama County, Musashi Province.  Meguritaya, namely Surrounding Fields, was developed around Futasu-ike Pond, namely Two Ponds, one of which is still conserved.

     The Okura Battle broke out on August 16th, 1155, when Minamoto Yoshihira (1141-1160) attacked Minamoto Yoshitaka (?-1155), who was based in Tago County, Kozuke Province in the Northern Kanto Region at the end of the Heian Period (794-1192).  Yoshihira’s father, Yoshitomo (1123-1160), was based in Kamakura, Sagami Province, in the Southern Kanto Region.  Yoshitaka married a daughter of Chichibu Shigetaka (?-1155), who was based in Chichibu County, Musashi Province, which belonged to the Southern Kanto Region, and built Okura Fortress in Hiki County, Musashi Province, to advance to the Southern Kanto Region.

     Yoshitaka’s advance was a political and economical threat to Yoshitomo and Yoshihira.  Yoshihira killed Yoshikata and Shigetaka, who happened to stay in Okura Fortress on that day. The battle, the dispute over the family reign of the Minamoto Clan, the central samurai clan, involved local samurai in the Kanto Region.  The Governor of Musashi Province, Fujiwara Nobuyori (1133-1160), condoned the battle among the Kanto samurai, which even shook the central politics in Kyoto and caused the Hogen Battle there.  At the end of the ancient times, samurai were revealing their significance, without awareness though.

     It was in those days that Priest Ken'yo founded Enjo-in Temple

     In 1608, Enjo-in Temple was moved from the ravine to its present place at the foot of the hills.

     Its precincts have an itabi dated 1307.

     On April 22nd, 1293, Taira Yoritsuna (1241-1293), the Butler of the Hojo Clan, was killed by his lord, Hojo Sadatoki (1272-1311), in the chaos caused by the Kamakura Earthquake, which itself killed 23,024 people.  Sadatoki replaced Yoritsuna with Hojo Munekata (1278-1305), who belonged to a branch family of the Hojo Clan.  However, Munekata was suspected of having an ambition to become the Regent of the Kamakura Shogunate and was killed by Sadatoki.  Munekata’s child  was put in a cage and was sunk in the sea.  Sadatoki tried to revive the power of the head family of the Hojo Clan.

     In the Middle Ages, samurai’s territories were divided among children, including women, but they were not necessarily equally inherited.  There were many cases in which the male who had the ability to lead the family inherited the main part.  This successor was regarded as the family head.  The remaining territories were divided among the other men and women.  While they lived independently, in times of war, they gathered under the family head to form combat groups in times of war, and participated in ancestral and family rituals sponsored by the family head in peacetime.  What was inflicted by the shogunate and/or manor lords was imposed through the family head.  A family head exercised the authority to maintain and manage family rights documents, as well as inspect the territories of other family members.  For the family head, the power of other family members was indispensable to secure the necessary military strength as a fighting group and to expand the territory by newly developing wilderness, etc.  The Kamakura shogunate controlled samurai in remote provinces through samurai groups under the family head system.  Rewards were also given via the family head.  The family head system was closely related to the system of inheritance at the time.

     In the latter half of the Kamakura period (1185-1333), however, the territories of the samurai groups, which were given as rewards, began to disperse, and the blood relationship between the head family and the other branches became weaker.  Some branch families even became independent and chose their own family head.  In some cases, the family head system became a complicated double or triple structure from the point of view of the shogunate.  In addition, as territories were subdivided, each territory became too narrow to support a samurai family, who was supposed to deliver a samurai and a horse.  As the development of new land became difficult, it also became impossible to expand inherited tiny territories.  Under these circumstances, the family head took steps to re-concentrate divided territories.  One-generation inheritance was even created for the family head to get the dividedly inherited land back.  In opposition to such moves by the family head, branch families applied to the shogunate for recognition of their independence from the family head on the grounds, for example, that they were far away from the family head's location.  Many lawsuits were filed both by the family head and by branch families.  Some branch families tried to become subordinates of the Hojo Clan, the highest authority samurai clan in the shogunate, to eliminate the pressure from the family head, who was a direct vassal of the shogunate.  The confrontation between the family heads and their branch families deepened.

     In 1297, Hojo Sadatoki ordered that retrials should not be accepted and that land should be given back to its original owner.  He tried to re-strengthen the family head system.  What was he worried about when he was the head of the Hojo Clan?  Many branch families of other clans tried to become subordinate to the branch families of the Hojo Clan, which was easier for them, and which deepened the confrontation between the clan head and the branch families.

     It is unknown how the samurai buried under the itabi lived and died in those days.

     Why was Enjo-in Temple moved to its present place, at the foot of the hills?  About 200 meters east of the temple, 15 itabi were dug out in 1830's by a farmer, Mano Mitsuemon, who was developing a hill in front of his house.  12 of them were dated: sometime between 1312 and 1317; 1316; sometime between 1375 and 1379; 1382; 1392; sometime between 1394 and 1427; 1397; 1411; 2 1415's; 1451; and 1490.  In the 16th century, something disastrous happened, something wiped out not only samurai who were leaders of the area but also their relatives and followers who wouldn't mind taking care of the samurai's graves.

Hojo Ujiyasu (1515-1571) Ujiyasu's military success, however, brought his finances in critical condition, and imposed heavy burden on his people.  In 1549, a great earthquake hit the Kanto Region, and many peasants in his domain gave up their fields and abandoned their villages.  Ujiyasu had to reduce taxes.

     In 1558, the Eiroku Great Famine started.  In 1559, the sun blazed down and it didn't rain even in the rainy season.  Paddy fields dried up and were cracked.  Smallpox raged.  In the winter of 1560, after the harvest time, to relieve their domestic famine, Uesugi Kagetora (1530-1578) invaded the Northern Kanto Region. After the year, he invaded the region for 7 years to relieve his domestic famine.  In 1569, Takeda Harunobu (1521-1573) won the hegemony over the Northern Shinano Province against Kagetora.  In 1569, to deflect people's criticism of famine, both Harunobu and Hojo Ujiyasu (1515-1571), the lord of the Southern Kanto Region, became priests, in name only though.

     Natural disasters, famines caused by greedy regimes, and, of course, wars: in the Warring States Period (1467-1568), anything could happen to wipe out a village or two.  After the people at the foot of the hills were wiped out, people from the upper stream moved to the vacancy.  Finally, in 1608, after the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1603, they buried the old itabi of former inhabitants and moved Enjo-in Temple to their new hometown.  The stories about the prehistory of the area were forgot.  The buried itabi were dug out after over 2 centuries.

     Enjo-in Temple enshrines Cintamanicakra, who usually has 6 arms and holds chintamani (a wish-fulfilling jewel) in one of the six, but its Cintamanicakra image has only 2 arms.

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Futatsuike Park

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