A Fall View Of Shingen-in Temple Where Refugee Samurai Princess Matsu Finally Found Herself At

This temple is located in Hachioji City, Tokyo. There are many Japanese maple trees (Momiji) around the temple building and they turn into beautiful red color in fall season. The ground were covered by lots of red maple leaves, golden ginkgo leaves and Japanese camellia (Sazanka) petals, so it looked like a natural potpourri spread by trees.

According to the temple's record, this Buddhism temple is the place where the refugee Samurai princess, Matsu, whom I introduced several times on last April 10th and April 28th. (Please click the date to read the previous posts). 

She was a daughter of a powerful Samurai lord who ruled Kai State (current Yamanashi prefecture) during Japanese Warring States Period (14th-15th Century). Although her father's troopers, Takeda Troopers, were famous as "The strongest troopers" at that time, after the father collapsed by a sickness the Takeda clan weakened and were defeated by other powerful Samurai lord. 

Princess Matsu managed herself to escape from the downfall of the clan, and reached Hachioji at the end of a long runaway trip over mountains. Later she established her own temple as I introduced in my previous posts, but apparently this "Shingen-in Temple" was the first place she arrived at and became a nun with a help of monks at the temple.

Actually "Shingen" is her father's name. Even though the written Chinese characters (Kabji) are different, it is a completely same pronunciation. After fearful runaway trip, she found a temple with her father's name. Maybe, that was one of the reasons she became a nun here? Anyway, it was hundreds years ago, and now the temple stands quietly surrounded by beautiful trees.