Virtual Old Akita 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #26 Hoshitsuji Shrine

 

     The Oga Peninsula is a land-tied island which projects west into the Sea of Japan from the coast of Akita.  The Ando Pirates used it as a base for trading through the Sea of Japan.

     Legend has it that Sakanoue Tamuramaro (758-811) found a hot spring at the north-east corner of the peninsula and founded Hokushin Shrine to enshrine Myoken sometime between 758 and 811.  Myoken was deitification of the northern pole star and/or the Big Dipper.  As Tamuramaro was busy fighting in Mutsu Province, he hardly had a chance to visit the peninsula to soak himself in the hot spring.  Then, did the Imperial Army found the shrine?  If they had done so, they would have invited a god such as Amaterasu or Susano.  Myoken isn't one of genuine Japanese gods and goddesses.  Hence, Hokushin Shrine was forced to change its name to Hoshitsuji Shrine after the Meiji Restoration.

     Then, did northern foreigners found a kind of shrine for the northern pole star?  There is little possibility that the domestic northern foreigners did.  They tended worship things close to them.  Then, who did it?  The northern pole star was important to cross the Sea of Japan.  If you sail south checking your direction with the sun during the day time and with the northern pole star at night, you can get to the Japanese Archipelago from the continent.  If you sail north checking your direction with the sun during the day time and with the northern pole star at night, you can return to the continent.  It must have been sea people that founded Hokushin Shrine or its prototype.  Hokushin or the northern pole star indicates where their homeland was.

     Ancient Japanese people seemed to have classified northern peoples into Emishi and Mishihase.  Emishi lived just north of where Japanese people lived, in the Tohoku Region and in Hokkaido.  As they allocated Chinese characters of Sushen for Mishihase, the ancient Japanese people might have assumed Mishihase to be from somewhere further from where Emishi people lived.  Sushen was an ancient half-legendary tribe in the Amur River basin in an ancient Chinese history book. In Japan, Mishihase was a sea people.

     Abe Hirafu commanded 180 military dugout canoes and advanced north, doing piracy along the Sea of Japan in 658.  He even fought against Mishihase.  After the piracy, he offered the central government 2 alive bears and 70 bear hides.  In 659, he attacked Mishihase and offered the central government 49 captives.  In 660, the central government finally gave Hirafu an official order to command 200 military dugout canoes and attack Mishihase.  He ordered Emishi people in Ideha Province to board the canoes, and arrived at the southern riverbank of a large river.  At that time, 1,000 Emishi people in Watari-jima were encamped on the other riverbank.  2 of them proceeded and shouted out, “Many of Mishihase’s ships and soldiers are coming.  They are going to kill us.  We’d like to cross the river and work for you.”  Hirafu sent a canoe and asked the two where the enemies were hiding their ships and how many ships they had.  The two pointed at a place and said, “More than 20 ships.”  Hirafu sent a messenger to the enemies, but they denied coming.  They also refused Hirafu’s appeasement policies, and held the fortress in Herobe Island.  They were defeated by Hirafu, and killed their own wives and children in the island.  Hirafu offered the central government 50 captives.

     Hirafu mistook Lake Tosa at the mouth of Iwaki River to be a large river, and those Mishihase people escaped into one of the sandbank islands between the Sea of Japan and Lake Tosa.

     In 630, the Tang Dynasty had conquered Turkic people in the north of China, and had directly come into contact with Mohe tribes, who lived in the Amur River basin.  In the middle of the 7th century, when Abe Hirafu invaded Mishihase, the Tang Dynasty started invading Goguryeo in the northeast of Korea Peninsula.

     In the 7th century,  the name of the tribes who lived in the Amur River basin was transcribed in the then Chinese language.   The two Chinese characters for the tribes’ name are pronounced Mohe in modern Chinese, more specifically in the Beijing dialect.

     Let’s go back, linguistically, to the tribes' history.  In the 5th and 6th centuries, the tribes’ name was transcribed as Wuji, in the modern Chinese pronunciation of course.  The then Chinese people, more specifically those living in Changan, might have pronounced the two Chinese characters for Wuji somewhat like Mjutkjit.  Both syllables had consonant stops.  Japanese people have pronounced a Chinese character with a consonant stop as if it had 2 syllables, with the consonant stop as the consonant of the second syllable.  Does Mjutkjit sound like Mishihase?  

     Later, when the Tang Dynasty ruled China, the tribes’ name was transcribed as Mohe, in the modern Chinese pronunciation.  The then Chinese people, those living in Changan, might have pronounced the two Chinese characters for Mohe somewhat like Mathat.  Does Mathat sound like Mishihase?

     What are the probabilities that what the tribes pronounced could have sounded like Mjutkjit or Mathat to the then Chinese people, and that it could have sounded like Mishihase to the then Japanese people?

     Anyway, it could have been Mishihase that founded Hokushin Shrine or its prototype.

The migration from the northern coast of the Sea of Japan to the peninsula was not impossible or improbable.  Oga City in Akita Prefecture has Akagami Shrine, which has passed down a migration-related legend.  Either in 72, 80, or 81, Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty brought 5 ogres to the village.  To drive them out, villagers made a promise with the ogres.  If ogres were to build one thousand stone steps to Akagami Shrine within a night, the villagers would marry their daughters to the ogres.  If not, the ogres should leave the village.  When the ogres finished building 999 stone steps, a villager copied crows of a rooster.  The ogres kept their promise and left the village.  If it had really happened when Wu ruled China, it should have happened in the first century B.C.  It is quite improbable that the legend has been handed down since the 1st century.  At the beginning of the 8th century, Ideha Fortress was built in today’s Yamagata Prefecture.  In 733, it was moved further north to today’s Akita Prefecture to suppress northern foreigners living there.  Akagami Shrine should have been built after the 8th century.  Then how about King Mu (?–737), who was the second king of the Balhae?  Wu and Mu use the same chinese character.  Anyway, someone tried to immigrate to Japan from the continent.  I wonder why the villagers didn't accept the ogres who were competent enough to build 999 stone steps in such a short time, and who had such good manners to keep promises.

Address: Kakuredai−34 Kitaurayumoto, Oga, Akita 010-0687

Phone: 0185-33-3268

Akagami Shrine Goshado Yohaiden

Address: Haraikawa−28 Funagawaminato Honzanmonzen, Oga, Akita 010-0535

Phone: 018-833-7132

Akagami Shrine Goshado

Address: Haraikawa−35 Funagawaminato Honzanmonzen, Oga, Akita 010-0535

Phone: 0185-24-9141