Banshoin

• Japanese: 万松院 (Banshouin)

Banshôin in Izuhara, on Tsushima Island, is the family temple (bodaiji) of the Sô clan, lords of Tsushima domain. Sô Sadakuni (r. 1468-1492) and all Edo period lords from Sô Yoshitoshi (r. 1588-1615) onwards are buried there.

A lengthy set of stone stairs known as hyakugangi leads up to two levels of gravesites. About halfway up the stairs is the "central mausoleum," or naka otamaya, a space including the graves of Sô Sadakuni and other earlier lords of Tsushima, as well as of their wives and children. At the top of the stairs is the "upper mausoleum," or kami otamaya, featuring the graves of Edo period lords and their wives and children, from Sô Yoshitoshi through to 20th century heads of the family such as Count Sô Takeyuki (1908-1985; grandson of second-to-last lord of the domain Sô Yoshiyori).

References

• James Lewis, Frontier Contact between Choson Korea and Tokugawa Japan, Routledge (2003), 95.
• Explanatory plaques on-site.[1]