Trees In the Town

Virtual Shimokita 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #19 Chofuku-ji Temple

 

     Abe Hirafu, the governor of Koshi Province, commanded 180 ships and attacked Mishihase in 658.  After the attack, he held a banquet for cooperative and helpful northern foreigners, including those from Iburi-Sae.  Some identify Iburi-Sae to be Sai in Shimokita Peninsula.  Hirafu also offered the central government 2 alive bears and 70 bear hides.  In 659, he attacked Mishihase and offered the central government 49 captives.

     In 660, the central government finally dispatched Abe Hirafu so that he could command 200 ships and attack Mishihase.  He ordered the northern foreigners in Mutsu Province to board the ships, and got to the southern riverbank of a large river.  At that time, 1,000 northern foreigners in Watari-jima were encamped on the other riverbank.  2 of them proceeded and shouted out, “Many of Mishihase’s ships and soldiers are coming.  They are going to kill us.  We’d like to cross the river and work for you.”  Abe sent a ship and asked the two where the enemy was hiding their ships and how many ships they had.  The two pointed at a place and said, “More than 20 ships.”  Abe sent a messenger to the enemy, but they denied coming.  They also refused Abe’s appeasement policies, and held the fortress in Herobe Island.  They were defeated by Abe, and killed their own wives and children on the island.  Abe offered the central government 50 captives.

     Sai Village has Kosai, namely Old Sai, and Osai, namely Big Sai, areas.  Between the 2 areas, there is a hill on which Yanemori-Hachiman-gu Shrine stands.

     Shokai-ji Temple was founded in Osai at the foot of Yanemori-Hachiman-gu Shrine, which was founded in 1062.  The temple could have had something to do with the shrine, and was abolished after the Meiji Restoration Government issued the Gods and Buddhas Separation Order in 1868, with its Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha image moved to Chofuku-ji Temple, which had been founded in 1112, when Minamoto Yoriyoshi (988-1075) defeated the Abe Clan in Mutsu Province.  It is, however, unknown if Yoriyoshi's power reached the northernmost tip of the province.

Address: Kosai-112 Sai, Shimokita District, Aomori 039-4711

Phone: 0175-38-2298

Yanemori-Hachiman-gu Shrine

Address: Hachimando-37 Sai, Shimokita District, Aomori 039-4711

Phone: 0175-38-2259

Trees In the Town

Virtual Shimokita 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #18 Horin-ji Temple

 

     Gamanosawa Village was located on the right bank of upstream Tanabu River.  From sometime in Heian Period (794-1185) to Kamakura Period (1185-1333), Yamadate Fortress was built in Shishibashi Hamlet of the village.  Samurai could have supported the foundation of Horin-ji Temple as it belongs to Caodong Chan School.

     Tradition says that the village produced some gold and silver.

Address: Muranaka-33 Gamanosawa, Higashidori, Shimokita District, Aomori 035-0004

Phone: 0175-27-2936

Trees In the Town

Virtual Shimokita 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #17 Shinko-ji Temple

 

     Shinko-ji Temple was founded in 1647 in the south of Ohata Hachiman-gu Shrine by Priest Shin'nyu, the 5th priest of Daisen-ji Temple in Morioka, the capital of the Morioka Domain, which was ruled by the Nanbu Clan.

     It is unknown when Shinzan Shrine was founded.  The shrine had Hachiman-gu Shrine in its precincts.  In 1617, it burned down.  Hachiman-gu Shrine was revived by being moved to its present place in 1648.  Miyama Shrine was rebuilt in 1654.

     The neighborhood might have been rezoned as a religious zone.

Address: Minamimachi-28 Ohata, Mutsu, Aomori 039-4401

Phone: 0175-34-3483

Daisenji Temple

Address: 1 Chome-14-1 Honchodori, Morioka, Iwate 020-0015

Phone: 019-651-5766

Ohata-Hachiman-gu Shrine

Address: Minamimachi-46 Ohata, Mutsu, Aomori 039-4401

Phone: 0175-34-3636

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Virtual Shimokita 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #16 Ohira-Shinmei-gu Shrine

 

     The lowlands between Oara and Koara Rivers used to be called Onabedaira.  When Nakatsugawa Shichiroemon dotted 58 place names and 46 samurai names on his rough map of Shimokita Peninsula in August, 1455, the place name Onabedaira was mapped without any ruler's name or a fortress name.

     Presumably after Nanbu Masatsune, the 13th head of the family, ousted Kakizaki Nobusumi in Kakizaki Fortress in 1457, the Takehana Family was either sent by the Nanbu Family or was promoted locally.  They built the Shiritaka Fortress.  Takehana Inaba used Eleven-Faced Ekadasamukha image as his helmet's front ornament.  In 1560, he founded Shintaka Kannon-do Hall and enshrined the image in it.  In 1617, Shinmei Shrine was invited to Onabedaira.  Sometime between 1661 and 1673, Noguchi Kiyoyasu developed Ohira Village in Onabedaira.

     It is unknown what happened to the Takehana Family.  Usually, that type of helmet front ornament was passed down to his successor.  Enshrining it could have meant that the family became farmers.  However, the timing is somewhat weird.  There were no big political and/or military changes in the Shimokita Peninsula in the middle of the 16th century.  Was he tired of or fed up with being a samurai?

     After the Meiji Restoration Government issued the Gods and Buddhas Separation Order in 1868, Shintaka Kannon-do Hall was abolished with its Ekadasamukha image moved to 

Address: 53-4 Odairacho, Mutsu, Aomori 035-0083

Phone: 0175-29-3314

Daikaku-in Kumano Shrine

Address: Shinmachi 50−2, Mutsu, Aomori 035-0051 

Phone: 0175-22-2682

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Virtual Shimokita 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #15 Daikai-ji Temple

 

     Jikan-an Hermitage was founded in Hebiura Village presumably as a shrine temple of Orito Shrine in 1649.  Hebiura was called Hebinuma when the Kakizaki Family was ousted by the Nanbu Family in 1457. Akita Gaiki and Kujo Saburobe were stationed in the village.  In 1647, the village was documented as Hebiuta.

     In 1939, Priest Rindo lived in the hermitage, and changed it to a temple in 1968, renaming it Daikai-ji.

     The temple's main deity is Shakyamuni Tathagata, with the statues of Arya Avalokitesvara, who is the human-figure prototype of the other 6 metamorphoses, standing on both sides.  Usually, when a Shakamuni image was enshrined with 2 other Buddhist images on both sides, 2 different Buddhist images were enshrined.  It is, accordingly, supposed the two Arya Avalokitesvara images were added later.

     Mt. Orito is the northernmost mountain in Honshu.  Winds blow there at an average speed of 8.6 meters per second.  Locals might have felt something sacred, and Orito Shrine was enshrined on the top of the mountain in 1617.  Inari Shrine was invited to Hebiura Village in 1687.  Presumably for the convenience of the locals, Orito Shrine was invited to Inari Shrine sometime between 1716 and 1736.

     In 1881, the village exported kelp, funori seaweed, dried squid, and dried abalone, and imported rice, sake, salt, sweets, etc., resulting in an export surplus according to a survey of the import and export of goods for the previous year submitted to the governor of Aomori Prefecture by middleman Suzuki Sobei in 1882.  A report to the county governor, Kawanishi Sukushi, in 1883, stated that "the village is rich in marine products and is generally wealthy," and a report to the county governor, Shiba Taichiro, in 1886, stated that people made a living from fishing and working away from home, with neither rich nor poor.

Address: Hebiura-44-1 Hebiura, Kazamaura, Shimokita District, Aomori 039-4503

Phone: 0175-35-2828

Orito Shrine

Address: Akahira-24 Hebiura, Kazamaura, Shimokita District, Aomori 039-4503

Phone: 0175-35-2171

Oritoyama

Address: Orito Hebiura, Kazamaura, Shimokita District, Aomori 039-4503

Trees In the Town

Virtual Shimokita 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #14 Choju-in Temple

 

     It is unknown when Choju-in Temple was founded in Chogo Village.  The village was located at the mouth of Chogo River and was first documented in 1647.  In the 1780's, the village had no rice fields and had 6 households.

     Matsuura Takeshiro (1818-1888) kept the East Mutsu Coast Journal when he explored the coast of today's Aomori Prefecture for 5 times from 1844 to 1849.  According to the journal, the village's main industry was fishing and woodwork, and many young men went to Hokkaido to work.

     In 1754, Higuchi Asaemon came from Yamagata and stayed in Sai Village.  He found a copper vein in Chogo.  In 1785, Maruyama Shozaemon, a local merchant, undertook and opened the Chogo Copper Mine.  The mine produced Galena, Sphalerite, Chalcopyrite, Pyrite, Quartz, and Baryte till 1801.

     Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide.  Sphalerite is a sulfide mineral with the chemical formula S. It is the most important ore of zinc.  Chalcopyrite is a copper iron sulfide mineral and the most abundant copper ore mineral.  The mineral pyrite, or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula FeS₂.  Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral.  Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue give it a superficial resemblance to gold, hence the well-known nickname of fool's gold.  Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica.

Address: Chogokawame-52-2 Chogo, Sai, Shimokita District, Aomori 039-4712

Trees In the Town

Virtual Shimokita 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #13Toden-ji Temple

 

     It is unknown when Toden-ji Temple was founded in Ikokuma Village.

     Ikokuma and Metaki Rivers' mouths form a small plain.  The plain was ruled by Kitagawa Totsuroken, who was subject to Kakizaki Nobusumi, when the Kakizaki Family was ousted by the Nanbu Family in 1457.

     The Khitan people's name Turburur was documented in Chinese characters, which are pronounced Tulubu in Chinese and Totsurohu in Japanese.  Totsuroken, which is pronounced Tuluxian in Chinese, sounds somewhat like Kitan.  Northern foreigners could have had various origins.

     Ikokuma Village was first documented in 1647.

Address: Ikokuma-31-2 Ikokuma, Kazamaura, Shimokita District, Aomori 039-4502

Phone: 0175-35-2807