Today, I'd like to continue the story of the refugee Samurai princess "Matsu" whom I wrote about in my previous post on April 10th. She was born in 1561, during the Warring States Period of Japan, as the fourth daughter of a historical Samurai lord Shingen Takeda. He was a very powerful lord called "Tiger in Kai state" leading unstoppable mounted troopers. "Kai state" is the old place name of Yamanashi prefecture area.
However Shingen Takeda collapsed by a sickness in 1573. It might be the start of disasters for princess Matsu's life because although a son of Shingen Takeda took over his position and the powerful troopers, but the son was defeated by another powerful lord Nobunaga Oda in 1582. Then all Takeda troopers were routed and princess Matsu also had to run away. The 450-year history of Takeda family as a Samurai lord ended in the year 1582.
As I mentioned in my previous post, princess Matsu went over mountains and finally reached Hachioji. Then she became a Buddhist nun and established a temple there. Her temple still exists in Hachioji City. The building was rebuilt and it looks splendid now as you can see in the upper left hand side photo. In front of the entrance of the temple there is a statue of princess Matsu with travel clothes as she arrived in Hachioji as in the upper center photo.
Apparently, even though she barely escaped with her life and arrived in Hachioji, she was with her little nieces. She raised her nieces by spunning silk yarns and weavibg silk fabrics by herself, and taught her knowledge and techniques to the locals. Thus she made a great contribution to the development of Hachioji city which became famous as a textile town later.
Therefore she was respected by the local people and survivors of Takeda troopers until she died in 1616. Today, we can find her grave inside the temple ground which has been well taken care of as shown in the lower left hand side photo and the lower center photo. Her grave is standing quietly under a big pine tree. The grave stone has a wooden roof with her family crest decorated by flowers. Now it became a registered historical site by Hachioji City.
Recently there was a local festival commemorating Princess Matsu. The festival was held on April 16th and called "Princess Matsu 400th Anniversary Festival". The young woman in the upper left hand side photo who played the role of princess Matsu, is wearing an old-fashioned Kimono just like her statue and taking girls who played roles of her nieces in the festival parade. Also a local sweets shop is selling sweets which are associated with her. The traditional sweet buns shown in the lower right hand side photo have her family crest on top. Hachioji people still love princess Matsu.
In addition, if you are interested in taking a tour to this historic site, please feel free to contact me!
I introduced previously on my post of April 1st, during the later of the Warring States Period of Japan a daughter of a famous historical Samurai lord, Shingen Takeda, who ruled Yamanashi prefecture area, settled in Hachioji city, Tokyo after her family was defeated by Nobunaga Oda, who was also a powerful Samurai lord back then. Her name is Princess Matsu, and she reached Hachioji as the consequence of her run away trip and became a Buddhist nun.
Even now the temple established by her in Hachioji is kept well as you can see the photos above. Since she taught silk fabric making skills in Hachioji and dedicated her life to the development of the town, she has been loved by the locals. The seed she planted had grown big and Hachioji became prosperous by the textile manufacture for many years after that. This year 2016 is the 400th year of her death and a festival "Princess Matsu 400th anniversary" will be held at the temple.
Actually the princess is also known by a tragic love story. She was born in 1561, and when she was 7 years old, her father, lord Shingen Takeda, arranged an engagement for her to get married to the oldest son of lord Nobunaga Oda, whom I mentioned in the beginning of this post. Since both of the lords were very powerful it was clearly a marriage of convenience. However, it was Nobunaga Oda who attacked and conquered her family later. Thus the engagement was vanished and she had to run away.
However, according to old records even after her family was conquered she said that she'd like to remain faithful for the son of Nobunaga Oda since they were once formally engaged. Therefore she became a Buddhist nun after she arrived in Hachioji and established a temple shown in the photos, and spent her later days praying for her family and vassals who died in the battle against the Oda family. Apparently she was still 22 years old at that time.
There are cherry blossom trees in her temple so it is a nice place to visit in spring season and visitors would be able to turn their thoughts to her tragic story as they see her statue at the entrance and her family crest which is displayed on the gate.
In addition, if you are interested in taking a tour to this historic site, please feel free to contact me!
I introduced two historical sites in Hachioji Tokyo in my previous post on April 5th. As I wrote in the post the history of Hachioji city is long, and the place was already developed in 16th century. So there are many historical sites of varied era.
Besides, Hachioji is not only a historical city, but is also known as a major farming area of Tokyo. Moreover, even rice paddies can be seen there and you can buy good rice grown in Hachioji as shown in the photos above. There are several rivers going through the city, and people have been growing rice using the abundant water supply since old times.
Therefore, rice paddies in Hachioji have been established for a long time. Apparently some of them have been handed down for more than 10 generations, and it would mean the history of the rice paddies goes back to around 1600. Perhaps the historical Samurai lords and Samurai soldiers who were in the historical castles introduced in the previous post were also eating the rice grown in these rice paddies shown in the photos?
The paddies may look like dried up fields now, but farmers will start planting rice seedlings in May. It will be beautiful rice paddies again soon!
On April 1st I introduced a story of Princess Matsu who is a daughter of a famous Samurai Lord "Shingen Takeda" during the Warring States Period of Japan.
As I wrote previously, Princess Matsu settled in Hachioji city in her later days and established a temple named "Shinshoin" that is still remaining. However in addition to the temple you can see more historical sites of the Warring States Period of Japan in Hachioji city.
Especially the two castle remains called Hachioji Castle Ruins and Takiyama Castle Ruins, shown in the upper row and the middle row of the photos are major historical sites in Hachioji.
Both of them are fort castles from 16th century, and the lord of the castles was Ujiteru Hojo. He is a member of Hojo Family, a powerful Samurai lord house in that era. The head family of Hojo was living in Odawara castle in Kanagawa prefecture.
Although Odawara castle shown in the bottom row of the photos is a much more famous tourist spot and people can enjoy Samurai style castle there, the building was actually reconstructed in 1960. The current building is the later style of the Samurai era in 18-19th century.
During the Warring States Period of Japan in 16th century buildings and castles were a lot more simpler. Unfortunately there is no actual buildings remaining at these two castle ruins in Hachioji since the castles existed too long ago, but If you'd like to enjoy imagining how the castles in those days might have been, the two spots in Hachioji would be nice places!
If you are interested in taking a tour to Hachioji Castle Ruins or Takiyama Castle Ruins, please take a look at my "Tour and Fees" page or feel free to contact me!
This is a display of a famous historical Samurai Lord from the 16th century. His name is Shingen Takeda who ruled Koushu State which is now Yamanashi Prefecture. He is one of the most popular Samurai Lords during the Warring States Period of Japan because he was a great commander, and his troopers were known as the strongest troopers at the time.
His battles motto, which his troopers always carried on their flags, is also famous written in four Kanji characters (Chinese characters) as "風林火山 (Fu Rin Ka Zan)". It means "Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain" and it is an abbreviation of "As quick as a wind, as quiet as a forest, as aggressive as a fire, and as stable as a mountain".
However, unfortunately he collapsed by a sickness on the road to unite Japan under his sway, and although his son took over, they were conquered by a Samurai Lord named Nobunaga Oda who later united Japan.
This display was temporarily at Hachioji station located in west edge of Tokyo. It may seem there is no connection between the Samurai Lord in Yamanashi prefecture and Hachioji in West Tokyo, but actually there is a big connection.
One of the oldest national roads, "Koshu-Kaido (Koshu Rd.)" connects Hachioji and Yamanashi prefecture. After the Takeda troopers were defeated, one of Takeda Shingen's daughters named Princess Matsu reached Hachioji as the consequence of her runaway trip. She settled in Hachioji and became a Buddhist nun. Historical records indicate that she established a temple and dedicated her time to the development of Hachioji by teaching techniques of producing silk fabrics. She was loved by the locals and had a peaceful life until she died.
This year 2016 is the 400th anniversary of her death. In this month there will be events held at her temple "Shinsho-in Temple" located in Hachioji.
