Twice ToldEdo meishoki (1662), vol. 1, chapter 10 Kanda Myōjin: the head flies, and the shrine is founded
- Language
- Japanese
- Reading
- transcribed from the page image
- Translation
- ours
- Retrieved
- 15 October 2026
Edo meishoki (江戸名所記, “Record of famous places of Edo”) is a guidebook in seven volumes by Asai Ryōi, printed in Kyoto in 1662. We read it in the typeset reprint of 1916 in the Edo sōsho series, which prints the 1662 wording with readings beside the characters (left out here); the running head on the page reads 江戸名所記 巻一. The chapter below is the tenth of the volume.
十 神田明神 この社は將門の靈なり、いにしへ桓武天皇六代の後胤、陸奥の鎭守府前將軍從五位下平朝臣良將が次男、相馬の小次郎將門といふ人あり、朱雀院の御宇、承平二年にあたつて、總州相馬郡にありて、つはものをあつめ、むほんをおこし、伯父鎭守府の將軍良望、後には常陸の大椽國香と改名す、かれをうちほろぼし、關八州をなびかし、みづから相馬郡に都をたて、平親王とあふがれ、天下をうばひとらんとす、やうやく東國をせめしたがへ、そのいきほひ大に成て、駿河國までうつてのぼる、こゝに天慶三年庚子に、國香が子平貞盛、大將軍の宣をかうぶり、藤原の忠文朝臣、俵藤太秀郷副將軍としてはせむかふ、秀郷はかりごとをもつて、將門を打けるところに、その首とんで空にあがり、雲に入りしが、此處におちとゞまりしを、都にのぼせて獄門の木にかけられしに、その首更に死なずして、たゝりをなし、この首を見る人、たちまちにみなわづらひけるゆへに、さま〱御きたうありしかども、しるしなし、ある人この首のほとりに來りて、
まさかとは米かみよりぞきられける、たはら藤太がはかりごとにて
とよみければ、此首から〱とわらひて、それより目をふさぎ、たゝりをなさゞりけり、かくて此所にをけり、けだし御たくせんの事によりて社をたていはひしづめ奉りければ、靈驗あらたにおはしませり、
地はやふる神田の宮井年ふれど、いのるしるしは猶あらたなり
Translation
This shrine enshrines Masakado’s spirit. Long ago there was a man called Masakado, Kojirō of Sōma, a descendant six generations on from Emperor Kanmu and the second son of Taira no Yoshimasa, of junior fifth rank, lower grade, former general of the Chinjufu in Mutsu. In the Jōhei era, in the reign of the Suzaku emperor (the print says the second year), he was in Sōma district in Sōshū, gathered soldiers and rose in revolt. He destroyed his uncle, the Chinjufu general Yoshimochi, later renamed Kunika, the Hitachi daijō (a provincial secretary; the print writes the second character as 椽, for 掾), bent the eight Kantō provinces to his will, set up a capital of his own in Sōma district, was hailed as Prince Taira, and tried to seize the realm. He gradually conquered the east, and his power grew so great that he marched as far as Suruga.
Then in the third year of Tenkyō (the year kanoe-ne), Kunika’s son Taira no Sadamori received an imperial commission as commander-in-chief, and Fujiwara no Tadafumi and Tawara Tōta Hidesato, serving as deputy commanders, hurried to the fight. Hidesato struck Masakado down by a ruse, and his head flew up into the sky and went into the clouds. It came to rest and stayed at this place, was then sent up to the capital and hung on the tree at the prison gate, and still did not die. It cursed, and everyone who saw it at once fell ill, so many prayers were said, to no effect. Then someone came by the head and made a verse: “Masakado was cut down at the temple of his head, by Tawara Tōta’s trick.” The head laughed out loud, shut its eyes from then on, and cursed no more. So it was left in this place. Presumably because of a divine oracle, a shrine was built to honour and calm him, and its miraculous answers have been plain.
(A poem follows: “Though years pass at Kanda’s shrine, prayers still bring manifest results.”)
Notes
- The sentence about the flight is the first place we found, in an Edo guidebook, where the head flies at all. In the Taiheiki (book 16) the head stays at the prison gate in Kyoto.
- Order of events: the flight comes first, then the head is “sent up to the capital” and hung at the prison gate, then the verse. The text does not say how the head got from Kanda to Kyoto. We read 此處 (“this place”) as the Kanda shrine’s own ground, since the chapter is about that shrine and ends with “so it was left in this place”.
- The verse is the Taiheiki’s, with きられける for the Taiheiki’s 斬られける and 米かみ (kome-kami) as the pun on こめかみ, “temple”. The translation gives only the sense, not the pun.
- The oracle (御たくせん, 御託宣) is not explained in this chapter. けだし (“presumably”) is the writer’s own hedge.
- The closing poem opens 地はやふる, with 地 as the print has it for the stock epithet ちはやふる (a pun on 地, “earth”); we kept the print’s character.
- 宮井 in the closing poem is read by us as 宮居, a shrine, and the poem opens with the stock epithet ちはやふる, which we have not translated.
- Readings of a few small kana (いきほひ, わづらひ) follow the sense; the print has them spelt ゐ・ひ in places.
- This is the Edo sōsho reprint, not the 1662 print itself; we have not compared them.