Virtual Shonai 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #10 Jichi-in Temple

 

     The Kamachi Family ruled Kominato Port in Akumi County, Dewa Province.  They invited Priest Rigen from Eitoku-ji Temple, which was founded by Priest Doai, who was from Dewa Province, in Isawa County, Mutsu Province, to found Jichi-in Temple in 1395.  Rigen was a second son of a branch of the Kasai Family and was from Isawa County.

     In 1189, after destroying the Northern Fujiwara Clan, Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199) appointed Kasai Kiyoshige (1161-1238) as Mutsu General Magistrate on September 22nd, and returned to Kamakura on the 28th.  In Mutsu Province, the land of the samurai who had been subordinate to the Northern Fujiwara Clan was confiscated, and many samurai from the Kanto Region, including Kiyoshige, were given the position of manor steward.

     The Kamachi Family was destroyed on October 7th, 1445, presumably by the Yusa Family, who were based in Yusa Manor in the same county.  The Yusa Family had been a steward of the manor which was owned by the Fujiwara Clan in Kyoto.  The Yusa Family also destroyed the Tojoji Family, or the Sakata Family, in 1466.  There is, however, a possibility that the Kamachi Family was destroyed by the Ando Pirates, who had built the Tosui-kan Office in Sakata Port in 1274 supposedly to handle trading along the western coasts of the Japanese Archipelago and even across the Sea of Japan.  Tosui literally means Eastern Water.  Why did the Ando Pirates use the phrase Eastern along the western coast?  If you see the office from the Asian Continent's point of view, the naming sounds very reasonable.

     Nichiren (1222-1282), a Buddhist priest, wrote an autobiography in 1276 on his behaviors from 1268 to 1275.  In the autobiography, he mentioned Ando Goro, a legendary founder of the Ando Pirates.  According to Nichiren’s narration, Goro was beheaded by Ezo.  His narration sounded that the case was widely known among the readers.

     Who were the Ando Pirates and Ezo?

     Archaeologically speaking, the Satsumon Culture spread in the northern part of Honshu Island, the southern part of Hokkaido Island, and Sakhalin.  The Okhotsk Culture spread from the Amur River region to Sakhalin, northern Hokkaido Island and other lands surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk.  The two cultures were coexisting, maybe in peace or maybe in rivalry.  It was at that time that the iron culture started spreading northward from Honshu Island.  The spread of the iron culture meant the spread of iron arms.  And it was at that time that the Mongol Empire was invading the Amur River basin.  The empire had, as a matter of course, the most advanced weapons at the time.  Peoples with iron culture and the empire were competing against each other for natural resources in the Amur River basin:  mainly hides and fur of Amur tigers and Amur leopards and probably feathers of hawks and eagles.

     In 1263, the Mongol Empire took control of the lower reaches of the Amur River, subjugating the Jurchen and other peoples. The empire encountered the iron-culture people in Sakhalin a year later, in 1264.  In 1265, the iron-culture peoples attacked and killed some local people who had allied with the empire.  The two were to clash against each other in Sakhalin.  The empire sent out an expedition to Sakhalin to subjugate the iron-culture peoples in1273, but they failed to make it across the strait.  In 1284, waiting for the strait freezing over, the empire crossed the strait in the winter.  In 1285, the empire deployed a troop strength of 10,000 and attacked the iron-culture people.  In 1286, the empire deployed 10,000 soldiers and 1,000 ships and overwhelmed the iron-culture people.  They reached the southernmost tip of Sakhalin, and built a castle there.  Although they were once defeated, the iron-culture peoples kept trying to advance into the Amur River basin on the continent in 1296, 1297, and 1305.  In 1297, they crossed the sea into the lower reaches of the Amur River, and tried to abduct hawk hunters.  As hawk and eagle feathers used to be typical exports from north to Japan, they were trying to gain control over exporting the feathers.  They finally became obedient to the empire by paying tribute of hides and fur to the empire.  Paying tribute also meant a kind of barter trading for them.

     Who were iron-culture peoples?  They might have been those who belonged to the Satsumon Culture, the Okhotsk Culture, and probably Japanese, more specifically the Ando Pirates, which might have been formed by the mixture of Balhae, Tiei, Emishi, Ainu, and Japanese people.  Then, what happened around the iron-culture peoples?

     In 1305, the Kagen Rebellion, or the Rebellion of Hojo Munekata (1278-1305), broke out at Kamakura, the samurai capital in Japan.  It was armed infighting within the Hojo Clan, who were actual rulers of the Kamakura Shogunate.  It ceased within 3 months, but shook the foundation of the clan’s authority and power.  The iron-culture peoples in northern Honshu and Hokkaido might have found the Mongol Empire to be better trading partner.

     If the Ando Pirates were trading bear hides, they were trading with the people in Hokkaido, and Ando Goro might have been killed by the people there.  If they were trading tiger and leopard hides, they were trading with some people in the continent, and Goro might have been killed by Mongolians.

     In 1308, when the iron-culture people and the Mongolian Empire compromised with each other, Prince Moriyoshi was born in Japan, who would be later one of the major leaders to end the Kamakura Shogunate.

     In 1263, Kubilai Khan, the fifth ruler of the Mongol Empire, took control of the lower reaches of the Amur River, subjugating the Jurchen and Nanai peoples as well as the Nivkh, who dwelt near the mouth of the Amur and across the strait on Sakhalin. According to the Yuan Shi, the official history of the Mongol-ruled Yuan Dynasty China, Kubilai’s army conquered the Kugi people of Sakhalin a year later, in 1264. The history claims that the Mongols attacked the Kugi when the Gilimi people, who had already submitted to the Mongol armies, complained that the Kugi had invaded their territory.  Kugi might have been either Ainu or Japanese.

     Gilimi was the Sinicized pronunciation of Gillemi, the name that the Nanai people of the lower Amur used to refer to the people who called themselves the Nivkh.  (The Russians who explored the region in the seventeenth century called them the Gilyak.)  Even today there are still approximately 4,500 Nivkh around the mouth of the Amur and in northern Sakhalin.

     Kugi was the Sinicized pronunciation of Kughi, the Nivkh name for the Ainu.  Among the Tungus peoples of the lower Amur, the name was pronounced Kuyi, a pronunciation that was borrowed into Chinese and written Kui during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644).  Approximately 2,500 Ainu lived on southern Sakhalin during the second half of the Edo Period (1603–1868).  From 1905 to 1945, when southern Sakhalin was under Japanese control, the Ainu population was about 1,500.

     In the 1320’s, Ando Suenaga was based in Fukaura Port and his cousin, Ando Suehisa, was based in today’s Aomori City.  They were rivals within the Ando Pirates, and it was Suenaga, who controlled Tosa Port, and, accordingly, who was more interested in the direct trade with the Mongol Empire.  Suehisa, according to the geographical location of his stronghold, preferred the transit trade through Ainu or Kugi people.  To make the matter worse, the Hojo Clan appointed Suehisa local administrator in Ezo.  The rivalry became rebellion.

     It was recorded that Kudo Sadasuke, who was from Suruga Province, was dispatched in 1326 to suppress the revolt of the Ando Pirates.  He arrested Suenaga, but it didn’t solve any problem.  Utsunomiya Takasada, who was from Kozuke Province, and Oda Haruhisa (1300-1352), who was from Hitachi Province, were dispatched in 1327.  That solved no troubles again, and finally in 1328, "reconciliation between Suehisa and Suenaga" was reached.  The Hojo Clan was forced to admit that Hisanaga was ruling Fukaura and surrounding areas.  The Hojo Clan exposed their incompetence to handle the situation as the Regent of the Kamakura Shogunate.  In 1333, the shogunate collapsed as well as the regency.

     In 1570 and 1583, the Ando Family invaded Sakata Port.  As they withdrew quite soon, their purposes weren't to rule the area or own rice fields surrounding the port.  They might have just tried to eliminate those who stood in their way.  For them, securing their searoute was what mattered.

     After the collapse of the Kamachi Family, people in Kominato moved to Sakata Port little by little, and Jichi-in Temple also moved to Jichiin-koji Alley, Sakata, in 1459.  In 1570, it moved to Taku-machi Town, today's Nakamachi.  In 1759, it was moved again to its present place.  Why did the temple move so often?  The Mogami River flooded once every 7 years during the Edo Period.  Some floods even caused its watercourse to change.  The watercourse was also artificially changed to control floods.  In addition, gales sometimes caused great fires.  All things are in flux.

     In 1714, Priest Tosui composed a Buddhist tanka poem for Jichi-in Temple:

An saint's walking stick

Grew up to be an old cherry tree.

We can rely on its thriving forever!

     Two hundred and ten years later, however, we can see no such cherry tree.  Existence is void; void is existence.

Address: 1 Chome-4-38 Hiyoshicho, Sakata, Yamagata 998-0037

Phone: 0234-24-1164

Eitoku-ji Temple

Address: Monzen-1 Nagasakae, Kanegasaki, Isawa District, Iwate 029-4505

Phone: 0197-44-3171