Virtual Shonai 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #25 Ryugu-ji Temple

 

     Ryugu-ji Temple was founded in Kamo Port, Tagawa County, Ideha Province in July 857.  It is the oldest temple in the port town.  For your information, the second oldest is Gokuraku-ji Temple, which was founded sometime between 1190 and 1199, in the Kamakura Period (1885-1333).

​     Ryugu literally means Dragon Palace.  There could have been a Dragon Palace legend, which can be found in many parts of Japan, in Kamo when the temple was founded.

     According to tradition, Kamo Port  was built sometime between 708 and 715 by immigrants from Noto Province.

     Kamo Port first documented in Fuboku Waka Sho, or Fuboku Tanka Extracts, which was compiled by Fujiwara Nagakiyo in 1310, in the late Kamakura Period:

I stand in Kamo Port for a long time,

And miss you so much

As my longing rolls in every day.

     Kamo Port seems to have been widely known in medieval days.

     Fuboku Tanka Extracts is a collection of privately selected Japanese tanka poems compiled in the late Kamakura period. The compiler was Fujiwara Nagakiyo (year of birth and death unknown), a local samurai.

     It is a collection of waka poems that were excluded from the Manyoshu and from the Imperial Anthologies of tanka poems.  It is a huge collection with 17,387 tanka poems and about 970 composers.  It consists of 36 volumes, which are divided into 591 categories by subject. It contains many tanka poems whose original anthologies or collections no longer exist.

     Nagakiyo went to Kyoto and studied under the poet Reizei Tamesuke (1263-1328), mastering tanka poetry and compiling the extracts.  Nagakiyo was a devotee of Jishu Buddhism and studied under Ippen's disciple, Priest Taa (1237-1319).  Nagakiyo visited Taa in 1310 and held a tanka poem competition.  It is estimated that the extract was completed around that time.  He compiled a collection of tanka poems even though he was a local samurai.  A case like this was very rare.

     The tanka poems are classified into 591 themes in the extracts.  First of all, they are divided into Four Seasons and Miscellaneous, with 18 volumes for each.  The extract has a total of 36 volumes.

     The Four Seasons section includes Spring (Volumes 1 to 6), Summer (Volumes 7 to 9), Autumn (Volumes 10 to 15), and Winter (Volumes 16 to 18).  That is similar to the Imperial Anthologies.

     The Miscellaneous section (Volumes 19 to 36) is divided into 10 categories, from celestial and terrestrial matters to human ethics and human affairs.  The selection includes many rare tanka poems about animals and plants.

     The extracts became a reference book for the compilation of tanka anthologies and poetry at large in later generations.

     In 709, Ideha County, whose pronunciation was changed to Dewa later by the end of the 12th century, was established at the northern end of Koshi Province.  Ideha Fortress was supposedly built around that time at the estuary of Mogami River.  Ideha County was separated from Koshi Province and was promoted to province in 712.  In 733, Ideha Fortress was relocated north, or advanced, to Akita at the estuary of Omono River at about 100 kilometers from its original place.  To the north of Akita, there lay Emishi lands.  About 50 kilometers north of Akita, there was Nushiro Port, which was later pronounced Noshiro, at the estuary of Yoneshiro River.  And about another 100 kilometers north of Nushiro Port, there lay Tosa Port at the estuary of Iwaki River.  The two ports might have been visited by Abe Hirafu in the 7th century on his way to attack the Mishihase people, who were assumed to be sea people.

     In 727, the King of Balhae, Da Muye (?-737), launched a delegation of 24 envoys led by Gao Len-i.  The delegation arrived in the land of Emishi in Northern Japan by misfortune.  16 envoys, including Gao Len-i, were killed by Emishi.  The other 8 escaped under the provisional leadership of Gao Je-deog, and reached Ideha Province.

     It occurred 6 years before the advance of Japanese power to Akita.  The envoys found either the estuary of Omono River, that of Yoneshiro River, where Nushiro Port was located, or that of Iwaki River, where Tosa Port flourished centuries later.  In those areas, at that time, Japanese and Emishi powers were clashing head-on.  The envoys might have been unfortunately mistaken for Japanese sea forces, and were attacked.  The surviving envoys left Japan next year, with the information that the archipelago was divided into the north, which was sparsely populated and less advanced than the south, and the south, which was densely populated and less advanced than Balhae and which were willing to offer many products of fabric as presents.

     In 739, Balhae sent another delegation to Japan.  This time again, they got plenty of fabric products  in exchange for hides.   Those pieces of information from the 2 delegations might have interested especially the Tiei tribe.  In 746, over 1,100 Balhae and Tiei people arrived in Ideha Province.  The number implied it was rather a big migration to be just envoys.  After getting some clothes and food as they might have expected, they were deported.  They left Ideha Province.  But to where?  They might have continued to sail north.  First, they might have invaded the estuary of Yoneshiro River, outnumbered the local Emishi people, and occupied Nushiro Port.  And then some of them might have continued to sail further north, reached the estuary of Iwaki River, outnumbered the local Emishi people, and occupied or built Tosa Port there.  With the knowledge of navigation, it might have been they who also built 2 ports to wait for better winds.  One was in Onga between Akita and Nushiro, and the other was in Fukaura between Nushiro and Tosa.  Those ports made the navigation across the Sea of Japan safer and more secure.

     Ideha Fortress in Akita came to be called Akita Castle by 761.  The Akita area at the time was sparsely populated, and no large-scale villages were found.  The fortress was in the front line.  A kind of farmer-soldiers were sent to the area mainly from Koshi and Shinano Provinces, and a kind of a small “castle town” was formed by the fortress.  The villagers consisted of immigrant farmer-soldiers and “subordinate Emishi”, who had surrendered themselves to Japan.

     In 771, 325 people took 17 separate ships and unusually sailed against south winds to Japan from Balhae in June (in August by Gregorian Calendar).  They arrived at Nushiro Port in "barbarian lands" of Ideha Province.  It is “surprising” that such a big fleet at the time orderly sailed, yet orderly strayed north, and orderly arrived at a port town in “barbarian lands.”  It was more than likely not a coincidence. In calculation, about 20 people were on board a ship on average.  If about 40 people were abroad on an envoy ship as usual, many of the other 16 ships could have been smaller, just as small as fishing boats.

     Let's take a different perspective on the issue.  They might have avoided the winter when winds and waves were too hard for small fishing boats, although they had to row.  The envoy ship led the other fishing boats so as that they could get to the sparsely populated area safely.  Another 285 people stayed in Nushiro Port to engage in fishing and smuggling, and inhabited there, probably with their senior colleagues who had arrived there about a generation before.  It was a deliberate and coordinated migration plan to add human resources to their colony port towns.

     Then, who were the immigrants to Kamo?  What were they like?  For them, Balhae, their homeland, might have been Dragon Palace.

     In the medieval days, the route for transportation from Tsugaru and Dewa Provinces and further north was to land goods at Tsuruga or Kominato (today's Kohama), travel overland to Lake Biwa, take a boat across the lake to Otsu, and then transport overland to Kyoto.  Since the Muromachi period, when the shogunate was also located in Kyoto, this inland waterway route became the mainstream for logistics from north of Wakasa Bay.  Kamo thrived as the port of Tsurugaoka Castle.

     However, if Nagakiyo hadn't salvaged the tanka poem about Kamo Port, the port could have been forgotten for half a century.

Dragon Palace salvages even fishes

At the bottom of the sea.

It surely will relieve us.

Address: Benkeizawa-195 Kamo, Tsuruoka, Yamagata 997-1204

Phone: 0235-33-3879