Virtual Kawabe 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #28 Bokusen-ji Temple

 

     Minamoto Mitsunaka (912-997) founded a Buddhist temple in Arioka Manor, Kawabe County, Settsu Province.  It is uncertain if its original name was Bokusen-ji.  Its original location is also uncertain.  The precincts became part of Arioka Castle Town.  Araki Murashige (1535-1586) became the lord of the castle in 1574.  When the castle was attacked by Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) from July, 1578, to October 19th, 1579, the temple was burned down in battle.  As Bokusen-ji Temple in Kyoto declined in Edo Period (1603-1867), the Karai Family, who used to be subject to Nakagawa Kiyohide (1542-1583), who was a cousin of Araki Murashige (1535-1586), moved it to the site of Jorozuka Fort, which used to be a branch fort of Arioka Castle.

     After Arioka Castle was seized, Murashige's kin: 33 women and 3 men, were beheaded. 122 women and children of the castle were crucified.  388 females and 124 males were forced into 4 houses, which were set on fire.  The temple's precincts have a stone monument for the burned females.  Presumably, the Karai Family had something to do with the females.

     Anyway, Bokusen-ji Temple in Kyoto lasted.  The Tokugawa Shogunate's religious policy is strict and Bokusen-ji Temple in Itami faced difficulty in the continuation.  Sometime between 1661 and 1672, the temple in Itami found the way to become a branch of Daiko-ji Temple, and, sometime between 1704 and 1711, it finally became an official Buddhist temple with Unho, the 16th head priest of Daiko-ji Temple, as its founder.

     Today’s main hall was built after the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake.

Address: 6 Chome-3-3 Central, Itami, Hyogo 664-0851

Phone: 072-772-2764

Arioka Castle Ruins

Address: 1 Chome-12 Itami, Hyogo 664-0846

Phone: 072-784-8090

Jorozuka Fort Site

Address: 6 Chome-2 Central, Itami, Hyogo 664-0851

Bokusen-ji Temple

Address: 741 Sumizomecho, Fushimi Ward, Kyoto, 612-0051

Phone: 075-642-2675

Daiko-ji Temple

Address: 2 Chome-5-16 Ayaha, Ikeda, Osaka 563-0051

Phone: 072-751-3433