Sensoji

The pagoda and hôzômon ("Treasure House Gate") of Sensôji.

• Established: 645
• Other Names: 金龍山 (Kinryuuzan), 浅草寺 (Asakusa-dera), 浅草観音 (Asakusa Kannon)
• Japanese: 浅草寺 (Sensou-ji)

Sensô-ji is the oldest Buddhist temple in Tokyo. Originally founded in XX, it forms the center of the Asakusa district, and served to defend the shogunal capital of Edo (and now Tokyo) from the unlucky northeastern direction. It formerly belonged to the Tendai sect of Buddhism, but is today the head temple of its own branch of Shôkannon Buddhism.

History

The temple is said to have been founded after peasants discovered a statue of the bodhisattva Kannon floating in the Sumidagawa (Sumida River), and built a temple to enshrine it.

Sensô-ji was restored and re-established in the Heian period by Ennin, and in the Edo period became a tutelary temple of the Tokugawa clan.

Grounds

The temple is approached via two large gates. The Kaminarimon ("Thunder Gate"), famous for its massive paper lantern, is said to date to 942. It was first built by Taira no Kinmasa, at a different location, but was moved here in 1635 and rebuilt and expanded in 1649 by the shogunate. The gate has been destroyed time and again, as have most of the city's sights; the current reconstructed version of the gate dates to 1960. The gate is more formally known as Fûraijin-mon ("Gate of the Wind and Thunder Gods"); both names are written large on a paper lantern hanging under the gate.

Beyond the Kaminarimon is a large market area extending to the left and right of the central pedestrian path to the temple, known as Nakamise-dôri. This street leads directly to the second of the two major gates, the Hôzômon ("Treasure Store Gate"), which in turn opens up onto the chief central plaza of the temple, and the central worship hall. This plaza is flanked by two small buildings where omikuji, omamori, and the like are sold; a large incense burner sits in the middle of the plaza, issuing purifying smoke.

Sensô-ji's five-story pagoda stands just outside this central plaza, to the left of the main worship hall.

Behind the central plaza, the temple complex opens up, incorporating a great number of small structures, sculptures, and greenery scattered across the grounds, including Asakusa Shrine, the main Shinto shrine protecting the temple.

One of the many tiny buildings on the temple grounds is the Yôgôdô, built in 1994, on the occasion of the 1200th anniversary of Ennin's birth; the Yôgôdô contains a statue of Kannon, and of twelve Buddhas, each associated with a different year in the zodiac cycle.

Another of these small sub-temples is called Zenidzuka Jizô-dô. It is said that a peasant family discovered a small hoard of kan'ei tsûhô coins, but, they feared that enjoying the benefits of this wealth without having worked for it would bring them misfortune, so they reburied the coins, and built this worship hall to the bodhisattva Jizô over the coin mound; it was rebuilt in 1964 after the temple's destruction in WWII.

A temple gate called Nitenmon is all that remains of a Tôshôgû that once stood within the grounds of Sensô-ji. Originally built in 1618, the Tôshôgû shrine was destroyed by fire in 1631 and 1642, but the gate survived intact. In the 19th century, a pair of 17th century statues from Kan'ei-ji, depicting Jikokuten and Zôchôten were installed within the gate, giving the gate its new name, Nitenmon ("two dieties gate"). The Nitenmon was declared a National Treasure in 1946, and an Important Cultural Asset in 1950.

The temple grounds also include a Bentendô (Benten Hall), known as rônyo Benzaiten, or "old woman Benzaiten" for her white hair. It is counted as one of the Three Benten of the Kantô region, along with that of Enoshima, and one located in Kashiwa city, in Chiba prefecture; it is said that this particular Benten statue was worshipped strongly by the Hôjô clan of Odawara. A bronze bell housed within the Bentendô dates to 1692, after being recast when earlier bells were destroyed. Measuring 2.12 meters tall and 1.52 meters in diameter, it served as the main bell announcing the time for the Asakusa district, taking its cues from the Hongakuchô bell. The bell is immortalized in a haiku by Matsuo Bashô, and continues to be rung today, every morning at six o'clock, by one of the monks of Sensô-ji.

Another small hall on the grounds is called the Kume-no-Heinai-dô. Kume no Heinai (d.c. 1683) was a samurai who lived at the temple, performing devotions and Zen meditation, praying for the souls of those he killed in swordfighting duels. It is said that before he died he asked his followers to carve a statue of him and bury it near one of the gates to the temple, so that countless people would step on it, helping to expiate the sins of his life. The statue was eventually recovered and enshrined within a hall on the temple grounds, where for some reason it came to be worshipped as a deity for a good marriage. The hall was destroyed in 1945, and rebuilt in 1978.

A pair of bronze bodhisattva statues just to the right of the central plaza depict Kannon and Seishi. They date to 1687, when it is said they were donated by a Takase Zenbee from what is today Gunma prefecture, in thanks for the help he received from a rice broker's family.

Another famous bronze sculpture on the grounds depicts Ichikawa Danjûrô IX, one of the most famous and popular kabuki actors of the Meiji period.

References

• "Sensôji." Digital Daijisen. Shogakukan.
• Plaques on-site.