Virtual New Mutsu 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #1 Jogaku-ji Temple

 

     Legend has it that an Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha image was washed up on Yuriage Beach in the 7th century.  Jogaku-ji Temple was founded at the foot of a nearby hill to enshrine the image.

     As the beach is on the sea route between Kashima Jingu Shrine and Tagajo Castle, it is highly probable that a ship on its way to the castle was wrecked off the beach and the image it was carrying was washed ashore.

     Kashima Shrine was officially considered and actually worked as the gateway to invade the Tohoku Region, the northeastern part of Honshu, which was later called Mutsu Province, or to subdue and rule northern foreigners who were not subject to the Imperial Court.  As Tagajo Castle was built in 724, it was still under construction when the image was washed ashore.

     The Imperial Court and its predecessor, the Royal Family, basically invaded the Japanese Archipelago by sea.

     Ugaya, whose ancestors had come from somewhere else which got called Takamagahara later, was ruling Hyuga Province in the eastern coast of Kyushu Island.  He had been abandoned by his mother in his infancy, and raised by his aunt, his mother’s younger sister.  When he came of age, he married the aunt, and had 4 sons, Itsue, Inahi, Mikenu, and Sano.

     Inahi drowned himself in the sea to see his mother.  Mikenu left eastward, that is, to the sea, for the land of the dead.  Itsuse left northward with his youngest brother, Sano.  The reason for the family breakdown is unknown and unknowable now.

Itsuse first arrived at Usa in Buzen Province, and stayed at another place in the province for a year.  He moved on eastward along the Seto Inland sea to Aki Province, and stayed there for 7 years.  And then to Kibi Province, and stayed there for 3 to 8 years.  He finally reached the eastern end of the Seto Inland sea only to be faced by Nagasune, who was hostile against him.  Itsuse was shot, flew, got to O Port in Ki Province, and died there.  He was buried in Mt. Kama near the port.

     Itsuse’s younger brother, Sano, continued their eastward quest, and arrived at Kumano in the province.  Tempted by a local tribe, who had the token of a crow with 3 legs, he went upstream along Totsu river, crossed Yoshino River, beat his way through the bush, and reached Uda in Yamato Province.

     The 3-legged-crow tribe helped Sano rival other local tribes there, and successfully split one tribe.  Sano’s men committed an underhanded murder of another local tribe.  Sano also maneuvered pork-barrel politics against other tribes, and established his ruling in Iware.  He was later called Iware, related to his domain name.  Until the end of World War II, the series of events was widely believed in Japan to have taken place more than 2 millennia before.

     Sano’s offspring eventually unified Yamato Province, and formed the Royal Family.  They even further continued the brothers’ eastward quest.  After Kumano, they reached Ise.  They built their advanced base at the southern end of the Ise Plains, Ise Shrine.  Next, they invaded Nobi Plains, and built another advanced base at the mouth of a river in Owari Prefecture, Atsuta Shrine.  They moved further east, got to an inland sea at the eastern end of the Kanto Plains, and built another advanced base at the southern shore of the sea, Katori Shrine.  Across the inland sea, at the northern shore, they also prepared another advanced logistics base, Kashima Shrine, to invade Northern Japan. 

     

Address: Nishimasaka-17 Takadateyoshida, Natori, Miyagi 981-1242

Phone: 022-382-3872

Yuriage Beach

Address: Higashisuka Yuriage, Natori, Miyagi 981-1213

Kashima Jingu Shrine

Address: 2306-1 Kyuchu, Kashima, Ibaraki 314-0031

Phone: 0299-82-1209

Katori Jingu Shrine

Address: 1697 Katori, Chiba 287-0017

Phone: 0478-57-3211

Site of Tagajo Castle

Address: Ichikawa, Tagajo City, Miyagi 985-0864

Phone: 022-368-1141