Virtual Shimokita 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #16 Ohira-Shinmei-gu Shrine

 

     The lowlands between Oara and Koara Rivers used to be called Onabedaira.  When Nakatsugawa Shichiroemon dotted 58 place names and 46 samurai names on his rough map of Shimokita Peninsula in August, 1455, the place name Onabedaira was mapped without any ruler's name or a fortress name.

     Presumably after Nanbu Masatsune, the 13th head of the family, ousted Kakizaki Nobusumi in Kakizaki Fortress in 1457, the Takehana Family was either sent by the Nanbu Family or was promoted locally.  They built the Shiritaka Fortress.  Takehana Inaba used Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha image as his helmet's front ornament.  In 1560, he founded Shintaka Kannon-do Hall and enshrined the image in it.  In 1617, Shinmei Shrine was invited to Onabedaira.  Sometime between 1661 and 1673, Noguchi Kiyoyasu developed Ohira Village in Onabedaira.

     It is unknown what happened to the Takehana Family.  Usually, that type of helmet front ornament was passed down to his successor.  Enshrining it could have meant that the family became farmers.  However, the timing is somewhat weird.  There were no big political and/or military changes in the Shimokita Peninsula in the middle of the 16th century.  Was he tired of or fed up with being a samurai?

     After the Meiji Restoration Government issued the Gods and Buddhas Separation Order in 1868, Shintaka Kannon-do Hall was abolished with its Ekadasamukha image moved to 

Address: 53-4 Odairacho, Mutsu, Aomori 035-0083

Phone: 0175-29-3314

Daikaku-in Kumano Shrine

Address: Shinmachi 50−2, Mutsu, Aomori 035-0051 

Phone: 0175-22-2682