Virtual Old Tsugaru 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #32 Okidate-Kannon-do Hall

 

     Legend has it that Nandikesvara and Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha were enshrined where Karatake River runs out of hills to Tsugaru Plain in 791.  If so, they might have been enshrined by northern foreigners.  They were revived in 1007.  In those days, from the latter half of the 10th century to the 11th century, archaeologically speaking, the Satsumon Culture, which started in the 9th century in Hokkaido, spread in the northern part of Honshu, which left from the hegemony of the Imperial Court.  The Satsumon Culture people built Fukushima Castle or its prototype before the 11th century.

     Nandikesvara and Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha were revived again in 1294.

     In 1263, the Mongol Empire took control of the lower reaches of the Amur River, subjugating the Jurchen and other peoples.  The empire encountered the iron-culture peoples in Sakhalin a year later, in 1264.  In 1265, the iron-culture peoples attacked and killed some local people who had allied with the empire.  The two were to clash against each other in Sakhalin.  The empire sent out an expedition to Sakhalin to subjugate the iron-culture peoples in1273, but they failed to make it across the strait.  In 1284, waiting for the strait freezing over, the empire crossed the strait in the winter.  In 1285, the empire deployed a troop strength of 10,000 and attacked the iron-culture peoples.  In 1286, the empire deployed 10,000 soldiers and 1,000 ships and overwhelmed the iron-culture peoples.  They reached the southernmost tip of Sakhalin, and built a castle there.  Although they were once defeated, the iron-culture peoples kept trying to advance into the Amur River basin on the continent in 1296, 1297, and 1305.  In 1297, they crossed the sea into the lower reaches of the Amur River, and tried to abduct hawk hunters.  As hawk and eagle feathers used to be typical exports from north to Japan, they were trying to gain control over exporting the feathers.  They finally became obedient to the empire by paying tribute of hides and fur to the empire.  Paying tribute also meant a kind of barter trading for them.

     Konoe Iezane (1179-1243), who became the Prime Minister, had 10 sons.  His 4th son, Kanehira (1228-1294), started the Takatsukasa Family.  After the Onin War, which lasted from 1467 to 1477, in 1479 precisely speaking, Takatsukasa Masatomo and his wife, Kimasu, who was the daughter of Nijo Naoyuki, gave up living in the capital and arrived at Hiraka County.  The 2nd son of Kujo Michiie (1193-1252), Yoshizane (1216-1271), had started the Nijo Family.  Masatomo and Kimasu built Okidate Fortress, brought sericulture and silk weaving, and probably built a hall for Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha.  Some say that Masatomo eloped with Kimasu, who was the wife of his elder brother.  Their son, Kazumichi, founded Shinmei-gu Shrine, and his offspring is the Shinto priest of the shrine even today.

Address: Miyazaki-266-3 Okidate, Hirakawa, Aomori 036-0141

Phone: 0172-44-3671

Fukushima Castle Ruins

Address: Aiuchi, Goshogawara, Aomori 037-0401