Virtual Honjo Domain 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #18 Shojo-ji Temple

 

     Shojo-ji Temple was founded in 866, 12 years before the uprising of northern foreigners around Akita Castle, near the estuary of Koyoshi River, which is located a little more than 30 kilometers south of Omono River.

     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.

     It is unknown who founded Shojo-ji Temple for what.

     In 1358, Koyoshi Village was presented to Omonoimi Shrine by Kitabatake Akinobu (1320-1380).

     In medieval days, the temple became the family temple of the Koyoshi Family, who claimed that their ancestors came from Shinano Province.

      In 1399, Koyoshi Shurinosuke started ruling the village.

     The size of the Koyoshi River is the 3rd largest in Akita Prefecture after the Omono and Yoneshiro Rivers.

Address: Fujishiro-131 Fujisaki, Yurihonjo, Akita 015-0047

Phone: 0184-22-0914