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!
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