Virtual Kubota Castle Town 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #12 Seigan-ji Temple

 

     Priest Mongei built Gennyo-an Hermitage somewhere around Tsuchizakiminato Chuo, Akita, 011-0946.  He was a disciple of Banzuii.  When Satake Yoshinobu (1570-1633) built an Amitabha hall in Kubota Castle, Mongei performed a Buddhabhiseka service to consecrate the Amitabha image.  In 1605, he founded Seigan-ji Temple in Teramachi in 1605.

     Banzuii (1542-1615) was a Japanese Buddhist monk and scholar of Pure Land Buddhism from the late Warring States Period (1467-1568) to the early Edo Period (1603-1867).  He was appointed as the head priest of Chion-ji Temple in Kyoto in 1601.  In 1603, he was invited by Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) to Edo and founded Shin Chion-ji Temple, later known as Banzui-in Temple, for the protection of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

     It is interesting Mongei and Banzuii contemporaneously or even almost simultaneously performed their religious activities.  Each of Mongei, Banzuii, and Yoshinobu might have had their own intentions.  Or was it the Tokugawa Shogunate that had their own intention?

     In 1613, at the age of 72, Banzuii was ordered by Ieyasu to travel to Kyushu to convert the Christians of the region to Buddhism.   Later, on July 18th, 1624, 32 Christians were martyred in Kubota Castle Town.  This was the beginning of more than 100 Christians being martyred in the Kubota Domain in the same year alone.

     The beginning of Christianity in Akita dates back to the beginning of the 17th century, when Otomo Yoshimune (1558-1605) was banished to Akita.  Yoshimune became a Christian with his Christian name Constantino in April, 1578.  When the Bateren Edict was issued by Toyotomi Hideyoshi on July 24th, Yoshimune gave Christianity up.  Some say that he became Christian again in his place of exile.

     From 1604 to 1605, Pedro Hitomi baptized 200 people in Senboku County.  The Christianity spread to the high-ranking samurai in the Kubota Castle Town, and even Nishinomarudono, the concubine of the domain lord, Satake Yoshinobu (1570-1633), also converted to Christianity.  Christians who fled persecution in the central part of Japan began to flow in one after another, and missionaries also came along with them.  Systematic oppression had not yet been imposed in Dewa and Mutsu Provinces.  The Innai silver mine was frequented by people from other countries, and the extraterritorial nature of the mine at the time provided a hiding place for many Christians.  Among the missionaries who secretly infiltrated and traveled around the provinces are Father Jeronimo Angelis and Father Diego Calvario.  In the meantime, Christian religious groups called the Confraria were organized.  The president of Kubota Castle Town was Juan Kawai Kiemon, and those in Innai were Luis Otsu Saburoemon and Juan Iwami Sandayu.  They strengthened the unity of the believers.

     In 1610, Pope Paul V sent a letter of consolation to Japanese believers.  A reply written by representatives of believers from 5 regions is now preserved in the Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana in Rome.  It is dated August 14th, 1621, and reads, "In Senboku County, Akita, which is under the rule of Yoshinobu -- teachings spread --."  Of the 17 people who signed it, the fifth was Juan Kawai Kiemon.  Kiemon was a samurai who took part in the Siege of Osaka in 1614.

     At that time, Kubota Castle Town had a church and was the center of Christianity in Dewa Province.  Yoshinobu was initially tolerant of the Christians who had flocked to the mine.  He even ordered that they be refrained from hasty executions and expulsions, considering them an important source of labor for the development of the mine.  However, under strong pressure from the shogunate, he appointed Umezu Noritada (1572-1630) as the Christian control magistrate, to launch a systematic crackdown on Christians in Kubota Domain in 1624.

     According to the document of Societas Iesu, 32 Christians were burned at the stake at the execution ground outside Kubota Castle on July 18th, 1624.  They were 21 samurai including Kawai Kiemon, their mothers, wives and children.  They refused to convert from Christianity and chose the path of martyrdom.  Kiemon's second son, Kitaro, also shook off the official's hands and sacrificed his life at the age of 13 along with his father and brother.  On that day, the hill in front of the execution ground was filled with spectators from Kubota Castle Town, and its surrounding area.  When the 32 were led to the execution ground, they were tied to pillars one by one, and soon firewood was piled up around the pillars and set on fire.  The 32 believers called out the name of the Lord in unison.  "Have mercy on us.  Lord, have mercy on us..."  Their prayers reverberated all around, but soon their cries were lost in the burning flames.  For 3 nights from that night onwards, residents of a nearby port saw mysterious lights shining in the sky.

     Umezu Masakage (1581-1633) wrote in his diary, "1. 32 Christians burned at the stake, including 21 men and 11 women.  1. The weather is good."

     8 days later, on July 26th, they beheaded another 50 people: 25 of them samurai and 25 of them Christians from the Innai silver Mine.  Furthermore, on August 16th, they beheaded 13 people from Senhata Village (Tsuchizaki, Misato, Semboku District, Akita 019-1541).  On September 14th, they beheaded 14 people from Terasawa Village (TerasawaYuzawa, Akita 019-0203).  On the 18th of the same month, they beheaded 4 people from Usui Village (Omonogawamachi Usui, Yokote, Akita 013-0481).  As for missionaries, Girolamo de Angeli (1567-1623), who had often infiltrated into the Kubota Domain, was burned at the stake in Edo on December 4th, 1623, and Diego de Carvalho (1578-1624) was martyred in a pit filled with the icy waters of the Hirose River in Sendai on February 22nd, 1624.  Angeli and Carvalho had even visited Hokkaido to spread Christianity there.  They might have been a pain in the backside of the shogunate’s colonizing Hokkaido.

Address: 1 Chome-5-28 Kyokunan, Akita, 010-0925

Phone: 018-862-7436

Hyakumanben Chion-ji Temple

Address: 103 Tanaka Monzencho, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto, 606-8225

Phone: 075-781-9171

Banzui-in Temple

Address: 3 Chome-37-1 Maeharacho, Koganei, Tokyo 184-0013

Phone: 042-381-0978