Virtual Akashi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #30 Komyo-ji Temple

 

     Komyo-ji Temple was founded in Mino County, Harima Province, sometime between 1321 and 1324 by Priest Shin'yo.  Ogasawara Tadazane (1596-1667) started building Akashi Castle and its castle town in 1617 and Komyo-ji Temple was moved to its present place in 1619 to form the castle town.

     However, there is still another Komyo-ji Temple in Miki City.  It is unrecorded when the Komyo-ji Temple was founded in Miki Castle Town, Mino County, Harima Province.

     In 1578, the Bessho Family held Miki Castle against Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598).  By January, 1580, food supplies in the castle had already run out, and the "starvation of Miki" continued.  Meanwhile, Hideyoshi attacked the subsidiary fortress and forts of the castle, capturing Miyanoue Fort, which was defended by Bessho Tomoyuki (1560-1580), on the 6th, and Takaoyama Fortress, which was defended by Bessho Yoshichika (?-1580), on the 11th, leaving only the main castle.  On the 14th, Bessho Shigemune (1529-1591), who sided with Hideyoshi, advised the castle's samurai that the castle lord's family would commit seppuku suicide to spare the lives of the other samurai.  The Bessho Family accepted this, and on the 17th, Nagaharu (1558-1580) and his family committed seppuku suicides, ending the siege that had lasted for one year and ten months.  After the war, when Hideyoshi developed the Miki Castle Town, Komyo-ji Temple was one of the 13 temples he permitted to found, and its founder passed away in 1601.

     The 2 Komyo-ji Temples belong to Pure Land Buddhism, and it is unknown whether the 2 have something to do with each other or not.

     The Akashi 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #30 Komyo-ji Temple’s Buddhist tanka poem is:

How reliable Komyo-ji Temple is!

The sea of ​​life and death is close,

But the light of the temple clearly tells the boundary.

Address: 5-20 Kajiyacho, Akashi, Hyogo 673-0884

Phone: 078-911-3928

Komyo-ji Temple

Address: 1 Chome-4-5 Fukui, Miki, Hyogo 673-0433

Phone: 0794-82-0781

Miki Castle Ruins

Address: 5 Uenomarucho, Miki, Hyogo 673-0432

Phone: 0794-82-2000