Virtual Kubota Castle Town 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #2 Tenshin-ji Temple

 

     Tenshin-ji Temple was founded in 1613 during the early Edo period (1603-1867).  Satake Yoshinobu (1570-1633), the 1st lord of the Kubota Domain, built it to pray for the comfort of his late father, Yoshishige (1547-1612).

     Yoshishige was a warlord known as "Demon Yoshishige" during the Warring States Period (1467-1568).  Surrounded by the Date Clan, Hojo Clan, and others, he fought to expand the Satake Clan's territory.

     After his clan was moved to Akita in 1602, he lived in Rokugo Fortress (Kodate-156 Rokugo, Misato, Semboku District, Akita 019-1404) as a key location in the southern part of the domain.  On April 19th, 1612, he fell off his horse and died.  He was originally buried at Tentoku-ji Temple, but was reburied the following year when Tenshin-ji Temple was founded.

     Tenshin-ji Temple became one of the Satake 6 Temples under Tentoku-ji Temple.  As a training center for successive head priests of Tentoku-ji Temple, it produced many famous Buddhist monks.  When the Kubota Domain was abolished in 1871, the temple lost its backing and was abandoned.  It was revived 10 years later.

     The stone statues of Vajrapani at the temple gate were originally located at Shodo-in Temple, which used to be located in Osawa Tegata, Akita, 010-0851.  Shodoin is the posthumous Buddhist name of Yoshinobu's wife, who mysteriously killed herself at the age of 24 in 1590, when Yoshinobu joined the seizure of Odawara Castle by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) but the wife's brother, Nasu Sukeharu (1557-1610) didn't.

     Shodo-in Temple was abolished after the Meiji Restoration.

     The Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha statue of Tenshin-ji Temple is a cultural asset designated by Akita City.  The temple's precincts have graves for Yoshishige and many of his family members and retainers.

     Tenshin-ji Temple also has the grave of Shibukawa Naomasa, who belonged to Kubota Domain's Sukekawa Yoshinoshin corps, who fought against the Tokugawa Shogunate, and who was killed on August 13th, 1868, in Kakumagawa Village (today's Kakumagawamachi, Daisen, Akita 014-1413).

     The Kubota Domain initially participated in the Ouetsu Reppan Alliance, the pro-shogunate alliance of the Domains in Mutsu, Dewa, and Echigo Provinces, at the time of the Boshin War.  The alliance fought for the shogunate.  A pro-Imperial anti-foreign faction that followed the ideology of Hirata Atsutane (1776-1843) had formed within the domain, the domain government executed emissaries from the Sendai Domain and annulled the alliance.

     The central figure of the pro-Imperial anti-foreign faction was Yoshikawa Tadayasu (1824-1884), who founded Raifu Gijuku, a private school for Hirata's studies.  Tadayasu preached the idea of reverencing the emperor in his "Kaika Sakuron," and the 12th lord, Satake Yoshitaka (1825-1884), accepted it.  That led to the participation of the Imperial army. It was regionally isolated and fought against the alliance army alone.  With the help of Saga Domain soldiers dispatched by the anti-shogunate alliance, it held out till the anti-shogunate alliance nationally overpowered the pro-shogunate alliance.

Address: Hebino−89, Tegata, Akita 010-0851

Phone: 018-832-8828

Tentoku-ji Temple

Address: 10-1 Izumimitakene, Akita, 010-0812

Phone: 018-868-1700