Virtual Shonai 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #20 Kokoku-ji Temple

 

     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 floods.

     After the collapse of the Kamachi Family in 1445, people in Kominato, namely Old Port, moved to the south bank of the Mogami River little by little.  Tozen-ji Fortress was built in 1478 by the Daihoji Family on the north bank of the river to resist the Sagoshi Family's expansion southward.  In 1492, the Sakata Port's relocation from the south bank of the Mogami River to its north bank started. Priest Chigyo founded a Kannon-do hall in the west of Tozen-ji Fortress sometime between 1504 and 1521, enshrining an image of Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses.  Finally in 1521, the 36 powerful merchant families moved to the north bank.

     According to Abe Chikato, who worked for the Shonai Domain in the latter half of the Edo Period (1603-1867), the Mogami River used to flow into the Sea of Japan at Kominato.  Then, it meandered southward and changed its mouth to its present place.  Floods and piling-up earth along the south bank unabled the bank to function as a port.  Those natural shifts occurred simultaneously, but their correlative timings are unknown.

     Tozenji Fortress utilized Niida River as its north defence moat.  As Sakata Port thrived, the opposite bank of the Niida River was developed.  The area newly developed from 1657 to 1682 was named Imamachi, namely Now Town, which eventually became an entertainment district.  As its population increased, townspeople needed a Buddhism Temple since every family was supposed to belong to an official Buddhist temple under the religion policy of the Tokugawa Shogunate.  Kokoku-ji Temple was founded to meet the needs.

Looking back on

the rise and fall of the fortress,

It's miraculous to see this prosperity.

Address: 1 Chome-3-8 Hiyoshicho, Sakata, Yamagata 998-0037

Phone: 0234-22-1653

Kamegasaki Fortress Ruins

Address: 1 Chome-3 Kamegasaki, Sakata, Yamagata 998-0842