Edifice of the Week: Senso-ji Temple

Senso-ji is located in Asakusa, a neighborhood in Taito-ku, in the northeastern part of Tokyo. The oldest and most popular temple in Tokyo, Senso-ji swarms with visitors. Unlike the Meiji-Jingu Shrine (see "Edifice of the Week: Meiji-Jingu Shrine"), which was a Shinto religious site, this is a Buddhist holy place (though there is an adjoining Shinto shrine). In Japan, shrines are Shinto: temples are Buddhist (or LDS).

It is said that this temple began when in the year 628 AD, two fishermen working in the nearby Sumida river netted a golden image of Kannon, the Buddhist god of mercy. They tried returning it to the river, but it kept reappearing among their things. So they took it to their master, who made his house into a temple in honor of Kannon, featuring the stubborn relic. In time, Senso-ji, a proper temple was built.

Senso-ji owes its popularity to the historical popularity of Asakusa. In a long-ago civic improvement effort, when Edo (Tokyo) became the center of Japanese government, the shogunate banished the local brothels to a rural area north of the city. Asakusa was about halfway to that rural spot, and became the place to stop for food and lodging on the way to or from. Later, when Kabuki theater was also cast out of Edo, it made its home here, making Asakusa the entertainment center of the city. Asakusa retained this title for centuries (even after Kabuki was re-allowed in Edo), and lost it only in the wake of WWII.

Throughout all this time, Senso-ji was widely used. Damaged from time to time by earthquakes and other natural disasters, it was given a major overhaul in 1649, after which time it looked much as it does today. During World War II, it burned down (along with the rest of Asakusa). But not many years afterward, it was rebuilt according to the previous design.

The outer gate to the temple is called the "Kaminarimon" (Thunder Gate) in the picture above. The gate was constructed elsewhere, but moved here probably in the late 1300s, when the statues (below) of Fujin, the wind god and Raijin, the thunder god were placed within it.

People have been making religious pilgrimages to Senso-ji for about fourteen hundred years. In older times, pilgrims needed lodging, food, supplies, and so forth at the end of their trek. To meet that need, vendors lined the route to the temple with stalls and shops. This tradition is kept alive today along the Nakamise Dori, the street leading from the Kaminarimon to the temple.

Here you can buy just about anything Japanese. If you're hungry, there are all kinds of food stalls. You can even get cherry-blossom flavored ice-cream cones at this time of year (my choice on a recent visit, though the "fully mature melon" flavor intrigued me). Souvenirs run the gamut from traditional hand fans (300-yen) to modern five-foot gundam action figures (300,000-yen).

Once you've made it through the shops, you end up at an even bigger gate, Hozomon (Treasure House Gate). It is currently being refurbished, and is all wrapped up.

After coming through Hozomon, you are in the religious heart of the temple complex. On your right is a place you can buy fortunes. You pay your money, and are given a cylindrical container full of sticks. The cylinder has one small hole in one of the ends; through it you shake out a random stick. The stick has a number on it directing you to one of a bank of small drawers, from which you remove a slip of paper containg your fortune.

There are a number of types of blessings, including "big luck," "medium luck," "small luck," "small bad luck," "big bad luck," "future luck," and so on. "Future luck" is actually the most desirable; "big luck" can imply that you are about to reach your peak of luck in life, leaving the long-term future looking pretty bleak. If you get a good fortune, you take it with you; if you get a bad one, you can tie it to a rack near the drawers, and it will not be able to follow you.

After the fortunes place is a window where you can buy incense. You use a lighting stand to ignite it (don't be alarmed by the symbol on the stick; in Japan, a backwards swastika is the symbol for "temple"). You take your stick to the big incense burner in the middle of the courtyard, and stick it upright in the sand. Standing next to the burner, you use your hands to waft the scent over you, breathing it in.

After the incense, you can go to the fountain for ritual washing. This is done in the same way as described earlier at the Meiji Shrine. Following this, you can climb the steps into the temple, make an offering, and say a prayer. You can also linger to look at the beautiful artwork, or look down over the temple courtyard.

There is so much more to see here than I can cover in a blogpost. A nearby five-story pagoda towers beautifully above traditional gardens.

At Senso-ji, what has been blends with what is and what will be. On the steps of a wedding hall, in the shadow of the temple, the future shines from the faces of Japan's newest married couple.