Senso-ji Temple Asakusa Shrine
The Sensoji (also known as the Asakusa Kannon Temple) is a Buddhist temple located in Asakusa, one of the most colorful and popular temples in Tokyo.
History
Legend has it that in the year 628, two brothers caught a statue of Kannon, the goddess of mercy, in the Sumida River and that, although they put the statue back in the river, it still came back to them. Therefore, the Sensoji was built nearby for the goddess Kannon. The temple was completed in 645, making it the oldest temple in Tokyo.
Sensoji Temple (浅草寺) is the oldest Buddhist temple in Tokyo. Located in the Asakusa district, it is dedicated to Kannon, the deity of mercy. Legend has it that it was built here when, in the seventh century, two brothers found a statue of Kannon in the Sumida River and decided to enshrine it in a small temple so that all the inhabitants could venerate it.
This story attracted the attention of many pilgrims from all over Japan, and the temple gradually gained fame and importance. In the Edo period, when the Yoshiwara Pleasure district was created near Asakusa, the temple continued to gain popularity. It was then that the third Tokugawa shogun built the vast majority of the buildings that make up the temple complex that we see today.
However, many of these buildings were destroyed during the World War II bombings that reduced much of Tokyo to ashes and rubble, and were therefore rebuilt years later. But some of the original buildings still remain intact.
When approaching the temple, visitors begin with the Kaminarimona, the outer door of the Sensoji Temple and the symbol of Asakusa and the entire city of Tokyo.
A commercial street of more than 200 meters, called Nakamise, leads from the outer gate to the second gate of the temple, the Hozomon. In addition to typical Japanese souvenirs such as yukata and folding fans, various traditional local snacks from the Asakusa district are sold along Nakamise. The shopping street has a centuries-old history.
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Beyond the Hozomon Gate is the main temple hall and a five-story pagoda. The buildings were destroyed during the war and are relatively recent reconstructions. The Asakusa Shrine, built in 1649 by Tokugawa Iemitsu, is located a few tens of meters to the left of the main temple.
Various events are organized throughout the year in the Sensoji Temple area. The most important of them is the Sanja Matsuri, the annual festival of the Asakusa Shrine in May. Other events include the Asakusa samba carnival in August and the Hagoita-ichi (Hagoita market), where decorated wooden paddles used in the traditional game of hanetsuki are sold.
How to get to the temple
Opening hours: Main hall: 6:00 to 17:00 (from 6:30 from October to March)
Temple locations: Always open
No closing days
Open every day, no opening hours Admission: free
Sensoji Temple is a short walk from Asakusa Station, which is served by the Ginza Subway Line, the Asakusa Subway Line and the Tobu Railways.
From Tokyo Station
Take the JR Yamanote line to Kanda Station (2 minutes, 140 yen) and change to the Ginza subway line to Asakusa (10 minutes, 170 yen).
From Shinjuku Station
Take the JR Chuo orange line at Kanda Station (10 minutes, 170 yen) and change to the Ginza subway line in Asakusa (10 minutes, 170 yen).
2 Chome-3-1 Asakusa, Taito City, Tokyo 111-0032, Japan
https://goo.gl/maps/wUikikznydA54ptNA
Detailed visit of the Sensoji Temple
Here is a walking tour of the Sensoji Temple complex. You will be able to enjoy all its corners and buildings. Of course, you can visit the temple as you wish, but this route will allow you to see all the most important buildings.
Kaminarimon Gate
There are many ways to access the Sensoji Temple, but the most typical and certainly the most recommended is to go through the Kaminarimon Gate (雷門). It is the outer door of the temple and an authentic symbol of the Asakusa district and the city of Tokyo. Its official name is Furaijinmon (風雷神門), derived from the name of the two gods who flank it at its entrance.
The gate, 11.7 m high, was built in 942, although it was not located exactly in the place where we see it now. It was moved to this place in 1635, when it is believed that the statues of Raijin and Fūjin, the gods of thunder and wind respectively, were added.
It has been destroyed several times throughout history and the current structure actually dates from 1960. I hope it will stay up for many, many years.
At the Kaminarimon gate there are four statues of Buddhist mythological gods. On the front, we find Fūjin on the right or east, who is the god of the wind, and Raijin, the god of lightning, thunder and storms, on the left, on the west side.
At the back of the door are also the other two statues, that of the god Tenryū on the right, on the east side, and that of the goddess Kinryū on the left, on the west side.
But the centerpiece of the Kaminarimon, which attracts hordes of local and foreign tourists armed with cameras at almost all hours of the day, is undoubtedly the giant bamboo-framed paper lamp (chōchin in Japanese).
This magnificent lamp is 4 meters high and 3.4 meters in circumference. To give you an idea of its size, it weighs 670 kilos.
Of course, this lamp is not an original, but a restoration offered by the founder of Panasonic in 2003 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the beginning of the Edo period.
On the front is written in Kanji the name by which the door is commonly known, namely Kaminarimon (雷門), while on the back is written the official name of the door, Fūraijinmon (風雷神門).
Under the lamp, we can see a dragon carved in wood. If you visit Asakusa and pass in front, don’t just look at the sides and the lamp, also look below.
This door is very curious to see during the Sanja Matsuri, one of the three most important Shinto festivals in Tokyo, which takes place on the third Saturday in May.
In addition to being full of people, we can see how the lamp “folds”, so that the festival participants wearing their mikoshi can pass under the door.
Yes, we are talking about a Shinto festival while the door and its figures are Buddhist, but next to the Sensō-ji there is also a Shinto shrine, something very typical of the religious syncretism of the country despite the attempts to separate the two religions in the Meiji period.
By the way, if you are a tourist and you want to take a photo in front of the lamp, there are so many people doing the same thing around you that it is very easy to get your photo taken.
Nakamise Street
After passing through the Kaminarimon gate, we reach Nakamise or Nakamise-dori Street (仲見世通り). This is a 250-meter-long shopping street that leads from the Kaminarimon gate to the second gate of the temple, the Hanzomon Gate.
The street has small shops and stalls selling everything from souvenirs such as kimonos and fans to ningyoyaki biscuits, agemanju buns and sembei rice biscuits, all typical of Asakusa.
Nakamise Street is one of the oldest shopping streets in Japan and seems to have its origin in the significant increase in population that Tokyo – then Edo – experienced when the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu came to power and settled in the city.
There are shops selling all kinds of souvenirs such as yukata, traditional kanzashi, fans, Japanese dolls and all kinds of tourist souvenirs such as postcards, magnets, etc.
As a curiosity, the shutters of the shops are decorated according to the season of the year, it is also pleasant to walk along Nakamise Street when the shops are closed: you can walk more quietly, without the crowd of tourists shopping, and enjoy the decoration of the shutters of the shops.
Around Nakamise Street, you will also find a multitude of souvenir shops and traditional objects such as kimonos, fans or pottery, in an area that recalls the authentic atmosphere of a shitamachi or an old city center.
We also recommend visiting the street at night. This is when the shops close and you will be able to see beautiful patterns and decorations on their metal curtains.
Hozomon Gate
At the end of Nakamise Street is the second gate of the Sensoji Temple: the Hozomon Gate (宝蔵門), which was originally called Niomon Gate (仁王門) and was the main gate of the temple.
Like the Kaminarimon Gate, the Hozomon Gate also has two guardian statues that would have been modeled in the 1960s after the sumo wrestlers Myobudani Kiyoshi (right) and Kitanoumi (left).
The large waraji straw espadrilles that you see on the other side of the door are the work of the inhabitants of Murayama (Yamagata Prefecture).
They were given to the temple in gratitude for letting a sculptor from their city take care of the protective statues of the gate.
The espadrilles are changed every two years and weigh 2.5 tons each, so don’t let them down!
Five-storey pagoda
Crossing the Hozomon Gate, we finally enter the central esplanade of the temple. On your left, you will see the imposing five-storey pagoda.
The original pagoda was built in the tenth century, but it was destroyed and rebuilt several times before finally being destroyed during the bombings of the Second World War. Thus, the building we see today is a modern reconstruction, although it still looks so impressive.
The pagoda is not open to the public, because it functions as a kind of cemetery, in the sense that we understand it, since it contains the funeral tablets of thousands of families, as well as some relics of Buddha.
Access path to the main room
If you continue walking towards the main hall, you will find other shops selling temple products such as omamori amulets, incense sticks to burn, gosuin calligraphy made by the monks of the temple, and many stands of omikuji luck paper.
Here, for 100 yen, you shake a metal container from which you take out a stick with a number and get your omikuji by opening one of the drawers with that number… it’s a lot of fun!
Near the stairs leading to the main hall we find the incense sticks burning area and the temizu-ya or ablution area.
We recommend that you buy incense sticks in one of the nearby shops and come here, light them and do what the Japanese do: carry the smoke on the parts of your body that hurt you or that you want to improve. If you look closely, you will see that many Japanese people take the smoke to the head ?
On the other hand, you can go next to the temizu-ya and, in addition to doing the ablution ritual, you can take a look at the very detailed bronze statue of a dragon that you will find here… it’s beautiful!
The main hall of Hondo
The most important building of the temple is the main hall Hondo (日堂), sometimes also called Kannon-do (観音堂), because it is there that the statue of Kannon found by the two fishermen 1400 years ago is supposed to still be buried.
The 1,150-square-meter main hall, a national treasure, is divided into two parts: the inner shrine (naijin) with a tatami floor and the outer shrine (gejin) with a concrete floor.
In the center of the inner shrine is a replica of Kannon, which is on public display every December 13, as well as other statues of Buddhist deities.
The Hondo Hall is open from 06:00 to 17:00, and it’s worth going up the stairs to see some of the most beautiful works of art in the Sensoji Temple, especially on the ceiling and walls of the main hall.
Bentendo Room
At the southwestern end of the temple is the Bentendo Hall (弁天堂), where the Benten deity is enshrined, although it is usually closed. Next to it, we can see the huge bell that rings every day at 06:00 and a beautiful garden filled with statues, including two Boddhisatvas from 1687: Seishi on the right and Kannon on the left.
By the way, although the bell tower was destroyed during the Second World War and rebuilt in the 1950s, the bell from 1692 survived and this is the one we see today
Nitenmon Gate
Just to the right of the main hall is the Nitenmon Gate (二天門), which was built in the early seventeenth century as an access gate to the Toshogu Shrine inside the temple. A few years later, the shrine was destroyed by a fire, but the door survived and was used as a side door of the Sensoji Temple.
Like the Kaminarimon and Hozomon gates, the Nitenmon gate also has two protective statues on the left and right: Jikokuten and Zozhoten, two Buddhist deities (hence the name of the gate, which literally means “gate of the two protective deities”).
The Nitenmon Gate is one of the few structures of the Sensoji Temple that survived the bombings of the Second World War.
Asakusa Shrine
At the northeastern end of the main hall is the Asakusa Shrine (浅草神社), a Shinto shrine dedicated to the fishermen who found the statue of Kannon and the old man who decided to erect the temple in his honor. The coat of arms of the sanctuary therefore consists of three fishing nets.
The entrance to the sanctuary is marked by a stone torii built in 1727. Like the Kiyomizudera Shrine in Kyoto, it is another example of a Shinto shrine inside a Buddhist temple.
Yogodo Room
To the left of the main hall is the Yogodo Room (影向堂), inside which there is a statue of Kannon accompanied by eight Buddhas protecting the animals of the zodiac, but perhaps the most striking element is a small but magnificent Japanese garden where we can see the oldest stone bridge in Tokyo, dating back to 1618.
