Virtual Shonai 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #11 Entsu-ji Temple

 

     Kannon-ji Temple was founded in where the Arase River runs out of mountains in 865.  It was given the status, Jogakuji, next to the provincial temple.  The Jogakuji system started in 716 to strengthen the state control over religions.  The system practically ended in 990, although Hojo Sadatoki (1272-1311), the 9th Regent of the Kamakura Shogunate, asked the Imperial Court to give Jogakuji statuses to Engaku-ji and Kencho-ji Temples in Kamakura.

     Kannon-ji Temple was renamed Entsu-ji in 1418 by Priest Zenjo, who was from Ryutaku-ji Temple, which had been founded by Baisan Monpon (?-1417).  Zenjo was supported by the Kisugi Family, whose head had the job title Dewanokami, the guardian samurai of Izumo Province, for generations.

     The Kisugi Family was first based in Ichijo (Ichijo, Sakata, Yamagata 999-8232), which was located 2 kilometers east of where Ideha Provincial Government is supposed to have been located.  The place name Ichijo suggests the place belonged to the Jori system.  In the 8th century, rice fields were rezoned by the unit of 11,881 square meters.  Horizontal 6 units were called Jo, and vertical 6 units were called Ri.  Accordingly, the rezoning system was called the Jori system.  Kannon-ji Temple was founded at the eastern end of the Jori system area.

     As ancien regime broke down, many peasants escaped from the Jori-system areas to throw off the yoke of ancient slavery.  "Public" rice fields were devastated and were wasted.  Provincial governments were in a financial crisis.  Some provincial officers and officials became samurai and some local samurai became locally hired provincial officials.  They both appropriated the devastated "public" fields as theirs and re-redeveloped the fields.  The Kusugi Family might have been one of those embezzlers.

     Ichijo is on the left bank of the Arase River.  Later they built Odate Fort, namely Big Fort, on the right bank as their stronghold.  The Warring States Period started in the middle of the 15th century.  In 1570, the family built Kannonji Fortress about 0.5 kilometer east in Mt. Tateyama.  The place Odate Fort had been located came to be called Furudate, namely Old Fort.  Yawata Elementary School is located there.

As we climb

We look back to the foot of the mountain

Oh, let's hurry and quicken our pace to Bodhi.

     The Shonai Coastal Sand Dunes are 35 kilometers long and 1.6-3.2 kilometers wide.  They shut the estuaries of Gakko, Nikko, Mogami, and Aka Rivers.  Accordingly, the estuaries used to form a large lagoon with marshes and swamps, and were often struck by floods.  Their orifices and openings were sometimes changed by natural disasters and artificial works.

     When Tosui composed the Buddhist tanka poem above, and when he looked back at the foot of the mountain, he didn't see swamps or marshes any longer.  Then, what did he see instead?

     Before the Warring States Period, the Shonai Coastal Sand Dunes were once covered with broadleaved forests.  The flames of wars reduced the forests.  In the early Edo period, the Shonai Domain government imposed salt tax on coastal villages, so salt production was actively carried out in each coastal village of the domain.  The salt production method at the time required large amounts of firewood to boil the seawater, so in addition to driftwood, trees of the sand dunes were cut and used.  Around the middle of the Edo period, or the 18th century, the deforestation reached its peak, with sand blown up from sand dunes that had lost their vegetation, fields and ditches being filled up by the blown sand, and people's lives becoming impoverished due to annual flooding as the river mouths were silted.  Some farmers were forced to abandon their homes and villages.

Address: Tatenokoshi-50 Fumoto, Sakata, Yamagata 999-8231

Phone: 0234-64-2163

Ryutaku-ji Temple

Address: 10-12 Misunoo, Awara, Fukui 919-0747

Phone: 0776-74-1733

Yawata Elementary School

Address: Furudate-1-1 Kannonji, Sakata, Yamagata 999-8235

Phone: 0234-64-3737

Kannonji Fortress Ruins

Address: Tatenokoshi Fumoto, Sakata, Yamagata 999-8231