Old Akita 33 Kannon Pilgrimage

 

     The Akita 33 Kannon Pilgrimage was organized in Ogachi, Hiraga, Senboku, Kawabe, Akita, and Yamamoto Counties in Ideha Province sometime between 1040 and 1043 by Urabe Yasumasa.  That means Yasumasa excluded Yuri County in the northern half of Ideha Province.  The county was under the influence of Mount Chokai, which had 6 entrances.  4 out of the 6 were located at the northern foot of the mountain in Yuri County.

     What was Ideha Province like in those days?

     In 746, over 1,100 Balhae and Tiei people arrived in Ideha Province along the seacoast of the Sea of Japan in the Northeastern part of Honshu Island.  The number implied it was rather a big migration than 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.  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.  Their experience and knowledge enabled Tosa Port to flourish from the beginning of the 13th century to the middle of the 15th century.  With the knowledge of navigation, it might have been Balhae and Tiei people 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.  Eventually, the Ando Pirates were formed, based in Tosa Port.

     On January 11th, 802, the Imperial Court ordered 4000 young people from Suruga, Sagami, Kai, Musashi, Kazusa, Shimousa, Hitachi, Shinano, Kozuke, and Shimotsuke Provinces to emigrate to the Tohoku Region as farmer-soldiers.  They might have moved north with their eyes glaring on colonial profit.

     They sent 4000 young men from the Kanto Region to the Tohoku Region.  That could bring about significant imbalances in the proportion of young women and men in the 2 regions.  Wartime sexual violence and the slave traffic was inevitable.

     On New Year's Day in 811, Emperor Takatsugi made an unprecedented New year's speech.  appealed to those who fled to barbarian territories to return.  If they returned, their taxes would be exempted for 3 years.  The northern foreigners who had surrendered to the central government were originally excused from taxes, and were given food and clothes for their local products.  The royal speech suggested some of them had been deprived of their privileges.  The  Imperial Court changed their policy against or for northern foreigners, especially those of them who lived in Japanese territory, from suppression to assimilation.  On June 2nd, 812, they ordered communities of northern foreigners to choose their own chiefs.  On November 21, 813, they appointed a governor specialized in the problems of northern foreigners.  On the 24th, they ordered each province to have a vice governor to handle its problems with northern foreigners.

     On December 1st, 815, Emperor Saga (786-842) ordered that officers, officials, and people should not call surrendered northern foreigners in a derogatory term "Ifu" but should call them with their names and, if any, with their post names and ranks.  In other words, northern foreigners should be treated as humans.

     It wasn’t recorded how the communities of northern foreigners chose their own chiefs, but chief-ships became hereditary and that made powerful families more powerful.  Eventually, those powerful families in Ideha Province formed the Kiyohara Clan.

     No speech could stop colonists' greediness.  No assimilation policy could relieve or even reduce the pains of the conquered.  In 2 generations, their discontent exploded into rage.

     Due to the years of harsh administration by Yoshimine Chikashi, the officer of the Akita Castle, the dissatisfaction of subordinate foreigners reached its peak.  In March, 878, they rose up and raided Akita Castle, and Chikashi was unable to defend the castle and fled.  The subordinate foreigners set fire to the surrounding area, and the Governor of Ideha Province, Fujiwara Okiyo (817-891) also fled.

     In April, the Imperial Court received a courier from Chikashi and ordered Kozuke and Shimotsuke Provinces to conscript 1,000 soldiers each.  On the 19th, Tomo Sadamichi, the officer of Mogami County, was killed in battle.

     In May, the Imperial Court appointed Fujiwara Kajinaga as commandant and dispatched 1,000 cavalry and 2,000 infantry from Mutsu Province to suppress the rebel forces.  Fujiwara Noritsuna, Fun'ya Arifusa, and Ono Haruizumi also led 2,000 Ideha soldiers to join Kajinaga.  In June, the rebel forces attacked Akita Castle again in large numbers, and the central army suffered a crushing defeat.  Kajinaga fled back to Mutsu Province.  The castle was robbed of 300 pieces of armor, 700 koku of rice, 100 bedding, and 1,500 horses.  The rebellion expanded and 12 villages around Akita Castle,Kamitsuno, Hinai, Sugibuchi, Noshiro, Kahoku, Wakimoto, Hoguchi, Okawa, Tsutsumi, Aneto, Katagami, and Yakioka, came under the rebell's control.  In the northern part of Ideha Province, only the foreigners of 3 villages, Soekawa, Habetsu, and Sukegawa, belonged to the province.  Furthermore, the northern foreigners of Tsugaru and Toshima supported the uprising.

     In May, the Imperial Court appointed Fujiwara Yasunori (825-895) as the Governor of Ideha Province to carry out subjugation operations.

     Fujiwara Yasunori (825-895.4.21) had governed his provinces wisely. First, in Bizen and Bicchu Provinces in succession, he suppressed pirates.  Yasunori categorized pirates into two classes.  First, “Most leaders are not local registered people, but dropouts from Kyoto.  Some are young members of good families who have pursued means of support.  Some others are officers’ valets who have married local women.  They have made the remote provinces their hometowns.”  The other class was made up of “those who don’t have atrocious minds but have been goaded by hunger and frost.”  Yasunori’s angle on the social polarization among pirates might have enabled his good governance and suppression over rebellions.

     Yasunori requested the appointment of Ono Harukaze, and in June, Harukaze was appointed as the General of Mutsu and Ideha Provinces.  He went to Ideha Province with Sakanoue Yoshikage, great-grandson of Tamuramaro.  3 northern foreigners came to their camp and demanded that the area north of the Omono River be designated as "their own territory" beyond the direct control of the Imperial Court.

     Yasunori ordered Fun'ya Arifusa and Minamibuchi Akisato, a commandant of Kozuke Province, to prepare 600 Kozuke soldiers and 300 subordinate foreigners.  Furthermore, since Yasunori had only a small number of troops, he requested permission from the Imperial Court to mobilize 2,000 soldiers from Hitachi and Musashi Provinces.  After completing these military measures, he tried to placate the northern foreigners by delivering concealed tax rice.

     Rumors of Yasunori's generous and gentle policies spread and the hostility of northern foreigners subsided.  In August, northern foreigners came to Akita Castle one group after another and surrendered.  Yasunori allowed them to come.  In January, 879, however, the Imperial Court ordered a forced subjugation, and, in response, Yasunori reported on the current situation in Ideha Province.  He had the opinion that the best policy was to implement a lenient policy and to encourage the return of the subjugated foreigners who had fled due to the harsh governance.  The Imperial Court accepted the opinion and, in March, dissolved the subjugation army.

     A ceasefire was accepted, and Omono River became a cease-fire line.

     There must have been the leaders who organized a wide range of northern foreigners, and who submitted their demands in writing to the Imperial Court.  In those days, it meant they were able to write Classical Chinese.  These leaders' names was not recorded.  They learned a lesson from Aterui's misfortune.  In 915, a large eruption of the Lake Towada volcano occurred in the northernmost of Honshu, the largest natural disaster in 2000 years, but this eruption and the wide range of natural disasters that must have followed the eruption were not documented by the Imperial Court.  The request of northern foreigners was granted, and the north of the Omono River became an area controlled by the northern foreigners.  The Imperial Court was unable to intervene nor was able to even collect information.

     In 801, Hotta Fortress was built in the upper reaches of Omono River.  Even though it was used as an extremely large-scale fortress in Senboku County, no records remain of the fortress.  Who controlled the fortress, independent of the central management?

     In the Wamyo Ruijusho, namely Japanese Names for Things Classified and Annotated,  which was a Japanese dictionary compiled in 938, lists Japanese place names from south to north.  In the Japan Sea side, no place names are recorded as north of Omono River.

     The record of the rebellions is based on the Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku.  Nihon Sandai Jitsuroku, literally the True Record of Three Reigns of Japan, is a history text officially mandated by Emperor Uda (867-931) to compile.  It was compiled by Fujiwara Tokihira (871-909), Sugawara Michizane (845-903), Okura Yoshiyuki (832-921), and Mimune Masahira (853-926), and covers the years from August 27th, 858, to August 26th, 887, corresponding to three imperial reigns: Seiwa (850-881), Yozei (868-949), and Koko (830-887).  The compilation was completed in 901.  According to the compilers, some parts were omitted because their materials were missing.  Although, for example, there were many victims on the side of the Imperial Court, their names were not all recorded.  Presumably, they might have covered up some inconvenient and unfavorable facts, especially those inconvenient and unfavorable to those in the positions of power, frankly speaking, the Fujiwara Clan.  Was only Yoshimine Chikashi to be blamed?  Wasn't Fujiwara Okiyo responsible?  Weren't there any more Fujiwara Clan members in Ideha Province?

     From the end of the 9th century to the 10th century, Akita Junirin kilns and Aomori Goshogawara kilns appeared one after another in the areas where the northern foreigners ruled.  Iron mills also appeared in the Noshiro area.  Therefore, northern foreigners did not need to obtain pottery or iron from the Imperial Court.

      Around 1,000 B.C., Primorsky was already in the Iron Age.  It isn't surprising if the northern foreigners introduced iron manufacturing across the Sea of Japan.  In addition, the Mokusawa Iron Manufacturing Site in Tsugaru is estimated to date back to the 10th century, but its excavation suggests that the site had been built above the older iron manufacturing site.  That means their operation can date back to the 9th century, when the northern foreigners forced back the Japanese Imperial Army.

     The first 33 Kannon pilgrimage in Japan, Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage, was started by Priest Tokudo, who worked for Hase-dera Temple in today’s Sakurai City, Nara Prefecture, as early as in 718.  The pilgrimage was restarted by Emperor Kazan (968-1008), who got the idea of revitalizing the pilgrimage when he confined himself in Seiganto-ji Temple in Kumano.

     In 718, Priest Tokudo, the founder of Hase-dera Temple, died.  At the entrance of the netherworld, he met the great king of the Buddhist Hades.  The king had a kind of triage crisis and complained that he had to sort too many people into hell.  “Japan has 33 Avalokitesvara precincts.  People there can reduce their penalty points by going on a pilgrimage to the precincts.”  Thus he gave Tokudo a written pledge and 33 precious seals, and sent him back to the world.  Tokudo chose 33 precincts and advised people to visit them.  People, however, didn’t believe it (as a matter of course), and the pilgrimage didn’t become popular.  He stored the seals up in a stone case in Nakayama-dera Temple.  He died at the age of 80, and the pilgrimage got forgotten.  This time, what conversation did he have with the king?

     One day, Emperor Kazan (968-1008) was shutting himself up in Mt. Nachi, Kishu Province, after his abdication in 986.  The god of Kumano appeared in his dream, and advised him to revive the pilgrimage Priest Tokudo had organized.  The emperor found the 33 seals in Nakayama-dera Temple, asked Priest Shoku (910-1007) in Enkyo-ji Temple to cooperate.  The priest recommended Priest Butsugen in Eifuku-ji Temple instead.  With Butsugen’s guide, the retired emperor went on the pilgrimage to the 33 precincts, and even composed a tanka poem for each temple.  That was the start of go-eika, Japanese tanka poem chants for pilgrims.  The 33 precincts were called Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.

     Urabe were craft groups or bodies whose occupations were to tell fortunes by the shape of the cracks that appeared when the tortoise shell was burned.  Each province seems to have had its own Urabe.  Among them, Urabe in Izu, Iki, and Tsushima were appointed as officials of the Department of Divinities.  The Izu Urabe was appointed as the vice-minister of the department.  5 from Izu, 5 from Iki, and 10 from Tsushima were appointed as lower-ranking staff members, who were all excellent in telling fortunes.

     It is unknown whether Yasumasa was born in Ideha Province or in Kyoto.  He visited the Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage and asked Jocho (?-1057) to make 33 Avalokitesvara images.

     Jocho (?-1057) perfected the yosegi technique, or the assembled-wood method, of sculpting a single Buddhist figure out of many pieces of wood.  In Japan, a lot of Buddhist images were made of wood.  First, they were carved out of a piece of wood.  When you carve a piece of wood to sculpt a Buddhist image, you can hardly modify or amend what you have sculpted.  Harmonizing its details required sculptors' tension and strain.  The yosegi technique not only released them from the tension and strain but also made it possible to do group work to make Buddhist images.

     Let me form a hypothesis:

     Yasumasa was born in Hiraga County, where Kanezawa Fortress was located.  The fortress was the base of the Kiyohara Clan, who had hegemony in Ideha, and whose head was Mitsuyori at the time.  Takenori sent Yasumasa to Kyoto to study there.  Visiting the Saigoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage, Yasumasa learned about the syncretism of Shinto and Buddhism.  Yasumasa formed the idea to syncretise local holy places into Buddhism through the 33 Kannon pilgrimage.  He sold the idea to Mitsuyori.  Mitsuyori had Yasumasa purchase 33 Avalokitesvara images from Jocho and list up 33 local holy places in his own territory and his sphere of influence.

     It is open to dispute whether the Kiyohara Family was the chief of subordinate northern foreigners or the offspring of a dispatched aristocrat such as Kiyohara Yoshimochi.

     In May 878, in order to suppress the rebellion around Akita Fortress, Yshimochi went to Ideha Province as the third officer of the province under the Guardian Shogun, Ono Harukaze.  In July, under the instructions of Fujiwara Yasunori (825-895), the Deputy Governor of Ideha Province, he set up camp on the south bank of the Akita River with Fun'ya Arifusa, also the third officer, to prevent the northern foreigners from crossing the river.  In December of the same year, when 200 northern foreigners brought 22 armors that had previously been plundered from the provincial government army and asked for surrender, Yoshimochi raised concerns about a false surrender because the armors they had brought was too few compared to the number of people surrendering.  He expressed his opinion that surrender should be allowed after having them bring more armor.  However, after inspecting the enemy situation himself, Harukaze came up with the opinion that northern foreigners' surrender was genuine and that the fact that they had come all the way through the frost and snow was evidence of their strong desire for surrender.  In the end, Harukaze's opinion was adopted and the surrender of the northern foreigners was accepted.  Yoshimochi, along with the second officer, Fujiwara Munetsura, Arifusa, and others, was dispatched to the surrendered northern foreigners and held a feast to appreciate their surrender.  After the rebellion was quelled, Yoshimochi became the acting lord of Akita Fortress, and took on the role of head of the subordinate northern foreigners.  As Yoshimochi returned to Kyoto in the 880's, if the Kiyohara Family was his offspring, their first-generation mother must have been a local, whether or not a northern foreigner.