Gokoku-ji Temple

Bunkyo-ku Ootsuka.
  • This is the Gokoku-ji Temple here.
  • The fifth general Tsunayoshi Tokugawa built for his mother.
  • Good son.
  • Who is his mother?
  • She is Keisyoin.
  • The front street of Gokokuji is Otowa Street.
  • Otowa is cute name.
  • It is a maid's name.
  • Keisyoin liked her.
  • What was she like?
  • She succeeded in the world.
  • The success in life of the woman is called Tama no koshi.
  • Tama no koshi mean marry into the purple in English.
  • Like Cinderella?
  • Yeah. She was totally Cinderella.
  • Tell me more about it.
  • General Tokugawa had to bear offspring in Edo era.
  • Therefore he had a lot of wives.
  • Is that a polygamy?
  • A little wrong.
  • A wife is alone.
  • There were lovers elsewhere.
  • Lovers are called Sokushitsu or Mekake in Japanese.
  • Are they the second wife?
  • Her social position was a servant not a wife.
  • But when she gives birth to a boy, her social position changes.
  • A son lets his mother succeed in the world.
  • If a son becomes a general, his mother succeeds, too.
  • Is it Keisyoin?
  • Yes, she was.
  • Keisyoin was the third general's Sokushitsu.
  • The third general's wife's son became the fourth general.
  • But the fourth general didn't have a son.
  • Were there his Sokushitsu?
  • His Sokushitsu was not able to have a child.
  • His body was delicate.
  • He died at 40 years old.
  • There was not his inheritor.
  • His brothers succeed general.
  • The eldest son died.
  • Second son?
  • The second son and the third son died.
  • Is there a fourth son?
  • Yes, it is Keisyoin's son Tsunayoshi.
  • He is the fifth general.
  • What did he do?
  • He established the ordinances of animal protection.
  • He is the famous stupid lord.
  • He executed a person for a dog.
  • It is misunderstanding.
  • There were many abandoned children at this time.
  • And excessive animal killing.
  • Therefore, he wanted to prevent it.
  • We know that he was stupid.
  • Only his bad stories were recorded.
  • Why is this?
  • There is a superstition that
  • the natural disaster is the wrath of Heaven to politics.
  • Mount Fuji erupted in this time.
  • The lord doesn't vomit lava.
  • The bad rumor extended to his mother Keisyoin.
  • It was said that she was the birth that had low social position.
  • Somebody said that She was a daughter of the kimono shop.
  • Does the kimono shop have low social position?
  • I don't know.
  • Somebody said that She was a daughter of the tatami maker.
  • There was the person who said that she was a foreigner.
  • There were many adopted children in old days.
  • If she was really a daughter of merchant, it is great success in the world.
  • Why is it Tama No Koshi?
  • When a woman marries into a house having high social position,
  • She gets on the thing called Koshi.
  • Koshi mean the sedan chair in English.
  • What mean Tama?
  • When she was a girl, she was called Tama.
  • Miss.Tama on the Koshi.
  • This story is over.
  • Do you know the company that a samurai of the Edo made?