Shimohiraya (下平屋)
Shimohiraya was a village in Kitakuwada-gun, Kyoto Prefecture.
History
It is recorded that, when visiting the Hokuriku area from the capital to preach, Rennyo Shonin (a famous priest of Jodo-shu Sect in the Muromachi period) used a road that passed this village, and made many villagers in villages along the road changed their religious sects from Shingon-shu Sect or Nichiren-shu Sect to his Jodoshin-shu Sect. Saijo-ji Temple changed its religious affiliation from Shingon-shu Sect to Jodoshin-shu Sect.
In the shoya (village headman) residence in this village, there still remains a document in the Oshio Heihachiro-no-ran (the rebellion of Oshio Heihachiro), which was issued and distributed by the bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun) to arrest him.
It is said that, when adjacent village of Kukigasaka-mura (九鬼ヶ坂村) was destroyed by a big fire in the Edo period, the village inherited the honzon (principal object of worship at a temple) of the temple in Kukigasaka-mura and the village of Kamihiraya-mura the land of the Kukigasaka-mura.
On April 1, 1889 when the City-town-village system was enforced, the villages of Shimohiraya, Kamihiraya, Agake, Nozoe and Nagano (Kyoto Prefecture) merged into Hiraya village.
The former elementary school of this village originated in the terakoya (temple school) at Saijo-ji Temple in this village, which is related to Shinshu Honbyo Temple (Higashi Hongan-ji Temple of the Otani school of Shin-shu Sect), and the priest of Saijo-ji Temple assumed the post of the first schoolmaster after it was converted to a public school.
Now, the area remains as Shimohiraya, Hiraya district, Miyama-cho, Nantan City.
Location
Shimohiraya is the first community found along the Sonobe Hiraya Line of Kyoto Prefectural Route 19 when driving along the road from Kamihiraya to Sonobe-cho. Located adjacent to Kamihiraya.