Virtual Kubota Castle Town 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #27 Rinsho-in Temple

     Rinsho-in Temple was founded by Nukada Yoshitsura, the 9th head of the Nukada Family, sometime between 1329 and 1332 around Nukada Fortress.  When the Satake Family was moved to Akita, the temple followed them and moved to Rokugo Village, Senboku County, Dewa Province (today's Rokugo, Misato, Semboku District, Akita 019-1404).

      When the Satake Family was shunted to Akita, Satake Yoshishige (1547-1612) was based in Rokugo Fortress.  As Nukada Fortress had been seized by Yoshishige in 1591, it couldn't have been Nukada Akimichi, who was the 17th and last head of the Nukada Family, and who tried to attack Yoshishige from south in response to the expanding-southward policy of Date Masamune (1567-1636), that moved Rinsho-in Temple to Rokugo.

     Who was it then?  As for Akimichi, he fled to Masamune, then was subject to Matsudaira Tadateru (1592-1683).  After Tadateru was dismissed in 1616, Akimichi served to the Mito Tokugawa family, and changed his name Kyube.

     The temple was moved to its present place in 1627 as part of the development of the Kubota Castle Town.

     The elder sister of Satake Yoshitaka (1609-1672) married Satake Yoshinao (1612-1656), her cousin.  After his death, she changed Rinsho-in Temple into her family temple.

     Rinsho-in Temple's graveyard has the graves of historic figures:

     Goto Keikichi (1825-1878) was a samurai of the Kubota Domain.  He was ordered by the domain government to study Western gunnery in Edo and to learn Dutch in Nagasaki.  In 1860, he became a naval ship officer and studied navigation in Hakodate.  He later became a professor at the domain's gunnery school.  During the Boshin War from 1868 to 1869, he carried out naval bombaring to the Tsuruoka Domain Army.  He died on July 26th, 1878, at the age of 54.

     Ogitsu Katsuaki (1821-1915) was born in the Kubota Castle Town.  In 1839, at the age of 19, he was stationed in Edo.  There, he studied Kano School painting under Hyodo Rinsen, and Tenryu swordsmanship and bojutsu, an art of fighting with a staff, from his father.  He also served in the Boshin War.  He was not only an accomplished painter and renowned kyoka poet but also an appraiser of calligraphy and paintings.  He continued painting until the day before his death in 1915 at the age of 95.

     Kin Dainoshin was sent to Shiroishi Castle to take part in the meetings there to make the Ouetsu Reppan Domei, or the Alliance of the Domains of Mutsu, Dewa, and Echigo Provinces.  The alliance was formed on May 3rd, 1868.

     Sato Tokinosuke (1821-1871) was a samurai in Kubota Domain.  He advocated loyalty to the Emperor during the Boshin War and served as the treasurer of the Kubota Domain.  At the time, the domain was surrounded by the pro-shogunate domains and was isolated and struggling.  Even before that, the domain's finances were already in dire straits and it was unable to raise funds for the war.  The domain government privately minted coins to get out of its predicament.  In December, 1868, he was dismissed from his post, but in September of the following year, 1869, he became treasurer and, in November of the same year, junior councilor.  He was dismissed the following month.  In July, 1871, he was arrested and died in a Tokyo prison of unknown causes in November at the age of 51.  He was sentenced to death in December of the same year, posthumously, for making counterfeit coins.

Address: 6-35 Kyokuhokusakaemachi, Akita, 010-0922

Phone: 018-862-3298

Nukada Fortress Site

Address: 258 Nukadaminamigo, Naka, Ibaraki 311-0107

Phone: 029-298-1111

Shiroishi Castle

Address: 1-16 Masuokacho, Shiroishi, Miyagi 989-0251

Phone: 0224-24-3030