Kogetsuin Temple: Matsudaira Tombs
Kogetsuin is the Matsudaira family temple and was responsible for conducting funeral rites for the family’s dead. This status guaranteed it a significant degree of protection and funding from the time of Matsudaira Chikauji (d. 1394?), the first head of the family, until the fall of the Matsudaira-descended Tokugawa shogunate in 1867.
The Matsudaira family tomb is located on a small hillside terrace at the back of the temple grounds, beyond the graves of Kogetsuin’s former priests. The three tombstones there are for Chikauji (center), his successor Yasuchika (right), and the mother of Nagachika, the fifth head of the family (left). All three are thought to be monuments rather than actual repositories for remains.
Only the first two generations of the family had their funerals at Kogetsuin because the Matsudaira left their ancestral homeland following territorial gains made during the time of Nobumitsu (1404–1488), the third head of the family. Nagachika’s mother’s tombstone was likely moved to Kogetsuin after one of her other sons became the temple’s abbot.