Ishikawa Prefecture is located in the centre of Japan’s land mass, on its northern flank.
The prefecture is long and narrow from north to south, including a peninsula protruding from the Sea of Japan, with Kanazawa City in the middle. It is the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture and is also a famous tourist destination.
The area was once a thriving samurai community, and many historical sites and old townscapes remain, including “Kenrokuen Garden” and “Kanazawa Castle Park”.
This year (2024) the ‘Hokuriku Shinkansen’ line has also been extended and improved, making it more accessible from the Tokyo area.
Kanazawa has seen an increase in overseas tourists in recent years, but did you know there is a “Ninja Temple” in this part of town?
“Ninja Temple” !? Are there temples where ninjas live?
Unfortunately, no, ninjas do not live there. Temples are places to practise Buddhism, and it is only the monks who live there.(^_^;)
It is only called “Ninja Temple” in common parlance.
Then why is this temple called “Ninja Temple”?
This is because the temple has a very unusual structure.
The main hall of the temple, which appears to be an ordinary two-storey building, has four floors and seven levels inside, including a ‘hidden passageway’ and a ‘hidden room’.
The ‘decorative roof’ at the top of the roof is equipped with a glass window, which was rare at the time, and was used to monitor the surrounding area and to communicate with Kanazawa Castle by lamps.
In other words, the temple was a structure so full of gimmicks that it seemed like a ninja hideout, hence the name “Ninja Temple”.
Now, that “Ninja Temple”.
Its official name is「Myoritsu-ji（妙立寺）」.
How did such a strange temple come to be built?
There are two different versions of this legend.
One of these was at the beginning of the 1600s…
Tokugawa Ieyasu was the hero of his time, bringing together the 100-year-long Warring States period and establishing a stable government that lasted for 260 years, but he was also the chief vassal of the Toyotomi regime to which he had been subordinate, but who had betrayed it.
The Toyotomi regime, which lasted for more than a decade, calmed the war-torn world and promoted an economy-oriented society, but when its head, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, passed away due to old age and illness, a rift developed within the regime over time.
Tokugawa Ieyasu was quick to form factions to increase his own power, leading to tensions with the old Toyotomi vassals.
This was followed two years later by the ‘Battle of Sekigahara’ and eventually led to the ‘Battle of Osaka’ in 1614, which resulted in the downfall of the Toyotomi family.
In this way, Tokugawa Ieyasu looks like a very vicious traitor, but I suppose that is the way it is with power struggles among the rulers of any time and in any country. After the Great War, which marked the end of the Warring States period, the era entered a period of stability…
Nevertheless, even after seizing power, for the time being, there will be residual grudges and residual forces from the old regime. Even if the opponents belonged to the old regime, if they were all destroyed, the management of the state itself would be hindered.
Until the foundations of the new regime were stabilised, there must have been a fair amount of bargaining between Ieyasu and the old powers, involving bounties and coercion.
The lord of Ishikawa Prefecture, then known as Kaga Province, ‘Maeda Toshiie’, was a close friend of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and head of the former regime’s cabinet.
Naturally, he was Ieyasu’s biggest and strongest rival, and the Toshiie side kept a close eye on him. However, age was no match for him and he passed away the year after Hideyoshi’s death. It can be said that Ieyasu’s major action was triggered by Toshiie’s death.
Ieyasu plotted to overthrow the old regime, gaining one ally after another…
The Kaga Maeda family, which had lost its great first leader, was succeeded by his son, Maeda Toshinaga, but the times were already tilting towards the Tokugawa era.
Having assessed the situation, Toshinaga expressed his reverence to Ieyasu and sought to ensure the security of the land and the family honor.
As a result, Toshinaga’s decision was successful and the Kaga clan was established. The Maeda family maintained a line of life that survived from the samurai era and beyond the Meiji era.
However, Ieyasu’s wariness of the Kaga Maeda family was not completely wiped out.
The reason Ieyasu was both relieved and wary of Kaga Province was that it was a country of such high national power and military might.
The tension between the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Maeda family of the Kaga Domain continued into the reign of Maeda Toshitsune III, and the「Myoritsu-ji」was built against the backdrop of such delicate public conditions.
Many temples were grouped together near the opposite bank of the Sai River as ‘temples town / Tera-machi’.
‘Temples town’ is a plot form found in castle towns across the country, but it was also intended as a defence base in case of emergency.
As its central facility, Myoritsu-ji was originally a temple near Kanazawa Castle, which was moved and remodelled to the opposite bank of the Sai River.
As mentioned above, the internal structure differed greatly from the exterior. Hidden rooms, hidden passages, rooms where dozens of warriors could be stationed, and even defensive walls and pitfalls were built around the castle. It was given the function of a last line of defence in case the enemy closed in on Kanazawa Castle.
Although not confirmed, there is also a legend that an underground passageway connects the ‘Myoritsu-ji’ well to Kanazawa Castle…
Fortunately, the Myoritsu Temple did not fulfil its hidden function. This is because, over time, times have drifted in the direction of peace and co-existence rather than suspicion and conflict.
Today, Myoritsu-ji has a strong image as an oddly structured building and a curious tourist attraction, but behind it lies a history filled with tension.
Temples that were given this military role can be found in ‘temples towns / Tera-machi’ throughout Japan, as well as ‘Kanei-ji / 寛永寺’ in Tokyo, ‘Chosho-ji / 長勝寺’ in Aomori and ’Zenko-ji / 善光寺’ in Nagano, but ‘Myoritsu-ji’ is a particularly rare example of this type of temple.
We devise ways to defend ourselves, and this is the same in all countries at all times, but hopefully we live in a world where we don’t have to worry about such things.
So, next time… I would like to send you a very different lore about the formation of this Myoritsu-ji, which is completely different from the military objectives… (^^)