「平塚神社と御神紋」
Do you know about Japanese shrines? The Hiratsuka Shrine’s crest is unique and has an interesting origin. At 4T-AMKY, Teachers and Students write about Japanese culture, food, history, many spots to visit, and other stuff. Enjoy reading and knowing about deeper Japanese culture!
Hiratsuka Shrine and the sacred crest
Origin
Hiratsuka Shrine is located in Kaminakazato, Kita Ward, Tokyo.
Chikayoshi Toshima built a castle tower (Hiratsuka castle) at this place in the Heian era. It is said that at the end of the Heian era Hatchimantaro Yoshiie Minamoto stayed in the castle with his two brothers on his triumphant return from the conquest of Oshu, and they were treated with great hospitality, so in return, Yoshiie gave him a suit of armor and a statue of the eleven-faced Kannon. Chikayoshi buried the armor he had received in clean ground and built a mound to serve as a guardian for his castle.
The mound was called an armor mound and was also called Hiratsuka because of its lack of height. (In Japanese hira means flat and tsuka means mound. This mound still remains at the back of the shrine, but it is not open to the public.) Chikayoshi also built a shrine and had wooden statues of the three brothers, Yoshiie, Yoshitsuna, and Yoshimitsu, made to worship as Hiratsuka Sanjo Daimyojin. That was the beginning of the Hiratsuka Shrine.
When I visited this shrine, the thing that caught my attention the most was the sacred crest on the money box. The sacred crest was the same as the temple crest I had first seen at Satakeji Temple in Ibaraki Prefecture, and it was a crest that left a great impression on me.
According to the explanatory board of Hiratsuka Shrine, Yoshimitsu Minamoto who is one of the deities of Hiratsuka shrine is the ancestor of the Takeda, Satake and Ogasawara clans. I was convinced that it was no wonder that the crest of the shrine dedicated to Yoshimitsu Minamoto, the ancestor of the Satake clan, and the temple crest of Satakeji Temple, which flourished as a place of prayer for the generations of the Satake clan, were the same.
Furthermore, I looked into the family crest of the Satake clan. It is said in the Azuma Kagami that when Takayoshi Satake followed Yoritomo to the battle of Oshu, he brought a plain white flag with him, but he was ordered to attach a fan to the white flag because it was confusing since it was equal to Yoritomo’s flag.
This fan depicts the moon, and it is said that the Satake clan came to use the “moon on a fan” as their family crest. In general, it is often called the “Hinomaru fan”. Later, I talked to the priest of Satakeji Temple, and he told me that the circle is not the sun but the moon, and the red one is the red moon.
There was one more thing that I understood from the explanatory board.
It says on the explanatory board that the elder of the three brothers who are the deities of Hiratsuka Shrine, Yoshiie Minamoto, was called Hachiman Taro because he went through the genpuku (Coming of Age) ceremony at the Iwashimizu Hachimangu Shrine in the suburbs of Kyoto, the second brother, Yoshitsuna Minamoto, was called Kamo Jiro because he went through the genpuku ceremony at Kamo-jinja Shrine in Kyoto, and the third brother, Yoshimitsu Minamoto was called Shinra Saburo because he went through the genpuku ceremony at Shinra Myojin (Onjo-ji Temple) in Otsu.
I have been familiar with the name Hachiman Taro Yoshiie since I was a child, but this was the first time I understood the reason behind it.
「平塚神社と御神紋」
由来
平塚神社は東京都北区上中里にある神社です。
平安時代に豊島近義（としまちかよし）が、この場所に城館（平塚城）を築きました。平安後期に八幡太郎源義家公が御兄弟とともに、奥州征伐の凱旋途中この館に逗留し、手厚くもてなされ、そのお礼に鎧と十一面観音像を下賜したと言われています。近義は拝領した鎧を清浄な地に埋め、塚を築き、自分の城の鎮守としました。
塚は甲冑塚（かっちゅうづか）と呼ばれ、高さがないために平塚とも呼ばれました（この塚は現在も社殿裏手に残されていますが、非公開となっています）。さらに近義は社殿を建てて、義家・義綱・義光の三兄弟の木像を作らせ、平塚三所大明神として祭りました。それが平塚神社の始まりということです。
この神社を訪れて一番目を引いたのは、賽銭箱に描かれた御神紋でした。その御神紋は、以前に茨城県にある佐竹寺で初めて目にした寺紋と同じもので、とても印象に残っている紋章でした。
平塚神社の説明板によると、平塚神社の御祭神の一人である源義光は、武田氏、佐竹氏、小笠原氏の先祖であるということです。佐竹氏の先祖である源義光を祀る神社の神紋と、佐竹氏代々の祈願所として栄えた佐竹寺の寺紋が同じなのは、何ら不思議ではないと納得しました。
更に、佐竹氏の家紋について調べてみました。佐竹隆義が頼朝に従って奥州合戦に加わった際に、無地の白旗を持参したところ、頼朝の旗と等しかったことから紛らわしいとの理由で、扇を白旗の上に付けるよう命じられた、と『吾妻鏡』にあるそうです。
この扇は月を描いており、以後、佐竹氏は家紋として「扇に月」を用いることになった、ということです。一般的には「日の丸扇」と呼ばれることも多いようです。後日、佐竹寺の住職さんにお話を伺ったところ、丸は太陽ではなく月であり、赤いのは赤月だ、ということでした。
もう一つ説明板から納得したことがあります。
御祭神である三兄弟の兄、源義家は京都郊外の岩清水八幡宮で元服したので八幡太郎（はちまんたろう）と呼ばれ、次弟、源義綱は京都の賀茂神社で元服したので賀茂次郎（かもじろう）、三番目の弟、源義光は大津の新羅明神（園城寺）で元服したので新羅三郎（しんらさぶろう）と呼ばれた、と説明板には書いてありました。
子供の頃から八幡太郎義家という名前はとても馴染みがありましたが、その謂れが初めてわかりました。
Ikuyo.K.
