Chapter 37: The Shrine's Chance Encounter

  Standing at the foot of a rather inconspicuous Mount Saru, Yamamoto Kanetsugu introduced to Kira Manshirōmaru: "There are many shrines in Mikawa Province, but we warriors worship most at Sarutō Shrine. When you come to Kakami County, you must visit Sarutō Shrine. Let's climb the mountain together and take a look, Honorable Master."

  Following the direction pointed by Yamamoto Kan no Suketsune, you can see a red torii gate among the lush green mountains, which is Sarutahiko Shrine of Mikawa Province, also known as Tarui Shrine.

  Ichinomiya refers to the Shinto shrine with the highest rank in a region, usually referred to as Ichinomiya, which often refers to one of the Kokufu shrines. Although there is no literature that stipulates the criteria for selecting an Ichinomiya, it has semi-official shrine status functions. Shrines ranked below Ichinomiya are called Nionomiya, and those ranked next are called Sanomiya. A few provinces also have Yonnomiya and Gonomiya.

  Treading the approach to Sarutahiko Shrine, since ancient times the roads of great shrines have been of the highest grade, even those of distant provinces would not be inferior to those in Kinai. Among the many shrines in Mikawa Province, there are four major ones that were ranked as the top four palaces, namely: Ichinomiya Sarutahiko Shrine, Ninomiya Chiryu Shrine, Sanomiya Atsuta Shrine, and Yonomiya Ishinomiya Shrine. He had no interest in which one was ranked first among these four shrines, this time he just wanted to visit as an ordinary mountain climber.

  Beyond the torii gate of the shrine, we were greeted by the chief priest himself. Under his warm hospitality, Kira Yoshinaka and his group of dozens used some sweets in the shrine, then followed the chief priest to tour the scenic spots inside the shrine. As a rural shrine, Ibukiyama Shrine is actually very small, looking less than one-tenth the size of Honke-ji Temple. In several rooms, they worshiped legendary figures that only appear in "Kojiki" and "Nihon Shoki".

  The main deity is ōbiko no Mikoto, also known as ōbiko no Miko. This ōbiko no Miko was the son of the 12th Emperor Keikō and died an unlucky death on Mount Sarashi due to snake poisoning. The shrine was built by imperial decree during the reign of Emperor Chūai. As for this dubious myth, Kira Yoshinaka had always kept his distance from it. This time he simply paid a visit to the wooden statue and sent a few ryō of Eiraku coins as an offering.

  He doesn't care about the shrine, but inside Sarutahiko Shrine, there are many things dedicated by court nobles and samurai families throughout history, such as Japanese swords, armor, and surprisingly, important books like "Chunqiu Jingzhuan Jie", "Lunyu Jijie" and "Shiji Jijie".

  Among them are the "Emperor's Model" written and printed by Emperor Taizong of Tang himself, and the "Minister's Track" written and printed by Wu Zetian herself. In addition to these, there is also the "Wen Xuan" from the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Bai Juyi's "Bai Shi Wen Ji" and other famous books. Many of the stored books come from the Tang Dynasty, which also shows that this shrine has a long history.

  "It is said that the name of Kamo County comes from the shrine territory of Hata no Kokoro Okami Shrine, and the chief priest of the shrine is still a middle-aged man with the surname Hata, but it is not known whether he has any connection with the Hata clan in Kyoto." Kiryu Manmaru felt disgusted by the chief priest who always wore a flattering smile on his face, thinking that he didn't look like a shrine priest at all.

  Under Kirishima's urging, the worship ceremony was finished in less than half a watch, and Homa looked like he hadn't had enough of chatting with Yamamoto Kan no Suke, but he didn't care what they were talking about. Now he just wanted to hurry back and wash off the dust and sweat on his body, his bangs stuck to his forehead, this feeling was really unbearable.

  It wasn't even a day since the rain had passed and the big sun brought back the scorching heat. As they descended along the mountain path, he heard Yamagami Zenzaburou quietly complaining to him: "On such a hot day, we've been riding horses for half a day, and after drinking only a few cups of tea, we're already at this Sanmei Shrine, is that really okay? But then again, the Hotada Shrine seems to be just one of the three shrines, yet it's very famous, which is quite strange. I wonder how these shrine families evaluate their ranking system?"

  Yamagishi Zenjirō was full of complaints, and the horseback riders following behind him were also calling out in distress. Riding horses on a hot day like today wasn't a pleasant thing to begin with. Just now he had been thinking about staying at the shrine and deepening his relationship with the beautiful young miko, but now he was being roasted like a boiled rabbit, almost sticking out his tongue to catch his breath.

  Walking down the mountain along the approach to Sarutahiko Shrine, I happened to meet a group of over 20 people coming from the opposite direction. The leading grandmothers were wearing Japanese clothing and carrying waist swords, while the more than 20 riders were all dressed in Kiryū's horseback riding attire. The two groups silently eyed each other for a moment before passing by, seemingly also on their way to worship at Sarutahiko Shrine, but with unfamiliar faces from Mikawa.

  The Kiryū group waited politely on the side of Yumiyama for the people climbing up to pass, until this group of climbers gradually disappeared into the Sanmichi path. It was then that Yamamoto Kan no Suke said: "They are people from the Kamo district who were given to the Matsudaira family and the Takiwa-Matsudaira family. These two families are the main forces in the Kamo district that oppressed the Nakajō family, and more than 20 villages lost by the Nakajō family were divided up between these two families."

  "Oh! That's the Matsudaira clan, said to have unified the country after living past 30 years, I remember now! It seems that the Matsudaira family claims to be descendants of the Hata clan, right?" Kiryū Matsuomaru suddenly recalled an interesting anecdote about Tokugawa Ieyasu changing his surname later on. The Tokugawa family, who claimed to be from the Minamoto clan, changed their surname to Tokugawa, first claiming to be descendants of the Fujiwara clan's branch family, the Tokugawa family, and later claiming to be descendants of the Seiwa Genji's new branch family, the Nitta school's lower-ranking family, the Sekiguchi school's family, and finally becoming part of the Matsudaira family through marriage. The cat's paw is really intriguing.

  "Yes! The Matsudaira family is indeed a branch of the Kyoto Hatakeyama clan. Matsudaira Nobumitsu served as a vassal of Ise Sadachika, who was the shogun's administrative officer, and was dispatched to Mikawa Province by Ise Sadachika one year before the outbreak of the ōnin War to assist Mikawa's governor, Hosokawa Katsumoto, in managing the public lands that had been confiscated from the defeated Ikko-ikki rebels. This marked the beginning of the establishment of the Matsudaira clan at Okazaki."

  The Kira family looked down on the Matsudaira family, who had rebelled and then surrendered, to the point where no one in the household wanted to mention them. However, he was also vaguely aware of the short history of the Matsudaira family. In 1493, the Nakajo family and the officials launched a pincer attack on the Iwatsu Matsudaira family at the Battle of Idano, but were defeated with 4,000 against 2,000. Since then, the Nakajo family had been in decline.

  In 1508, the Imagawa clan's army led by Ise Sōzui attacked Iwatsu Castle, but ultimately lost due to the exhaustion of troops and logistical difficulties. The castle was defended by Matsudaira Nagachika, who joined forces with eight members of the Toda clan to defeat Ise Sōzui. This Ise Sōzui later became Hōjō Ujiyasu, the founder of the Late Hōjō clan.

  Although defeating the teacher Tōdō's expedition does not prove that Matsudaira Nagakane has the ability to compare with the first generation of Hōjō, it is still a capital worthy of pride for the Matsudaira family. The Kiryū family dislikes the Matsudaira clan very much, but this will not affect Kiriyama Mimasaka's judgment.

  As for the family that contended for the throne, how could they not be taken seriously? Unfortunately, the situation within the Matsudaira clan was very complicated. Although there were still several families that belonged to the lower Kira house, there was hardly any news coming out of this clan, and the Matsudaira family had no old affection for their former lord, the Kira clan, who they once served under.

  Kira Kanzaburou thought for a moment and said, "In that case, the Matsudaira family is indeed descended from the Hata clan, and the Oda family of Owari is descended from the Imbe clan. The Tsuwano family of Tsuwano District, and the Aso family of Kyushu are also descended from the Miyauchi Otomono family, yet they were able to overthrow their superiors and take over their domains. It's truly unbelievable."

  The Kira family generally worshiped at their own Hachiman Shrine and rarely visited other shrines. They had little affection for the great shrine or palace officials, let alone any close relationships. For example, this time they didn't give face to Oda's household, which made Oda Nobuhide very angry.

  "The master will get used to it slowly." Yamamoto Kan no Suke smiled at Kirishima Mantarō, who looked uninterested, and gazed at the sunset in the distance: "There are still two hours before sunset, we need to hurry back, or Butsuma Den will scold me again."