Japan - Day 6 (Part 2)

Japan – Day 6 (Part 2)

27 May 2024

Senso-ji (‘Senso’ is an alternative reading for Asakusa and ‘ji’ means temple) is Tokyo’s most famous and popular temple. Built in the 7^th century, it is also one of its oldest, although the current buildings are post-war reconstructions. Asakusa Shrine, also known as Sanja-sama, was built during the Edo Period and survived the WW2 air raids of 1945. The shrine’s festival, the Sanja Matsuri, is one of Tokyo’s most spectacular and popular. The festival takes place in late spring and sees the surrounding streets closed to traffic throughout the day. It is held every year on a weekend in mid-May, with the last festival taking place from 19 to 21 May 2024.

The first thing that greets you is the Kaminarimon which is the outer of two large entrance gates that ultimately leads to the Senso-ji. It has a huge lantern in the middle, just under 12 m tall and 11.5 m wide. The Kaminarimon was first built in 941 by Taira no Kinmasa, a military commander. It was originally located near Komagata but was reconstructed and placed in its current location in 1635. At this time it is believed that the statues of Raijin (God of Thunder on the left) and Fujin (God of Wind on the right) were first placed on the gate. The gate has been destroyed many times throughout the ages. Four years after its relocation, the Kaminarimon burned down, and in 1649 Tokugawa Iemitsu rebuilt the gate along with several other of the major structures in the temple complex. The gate burnt to the ground in 1757 and again in 1865. The Kaminarimon’s current structure dates from 1960.

On the other side of the same gate is the statue of Kin-Ryu (a goddess, 2.74 m high and weighing about 200 kg), and Ten-Ryu (a god, 2.93 m high and weighing about 250 kg), who are both personifications of the dragon god symbolizing Senso-ji. They are believed to be the guardian deities of Senso-ji.

The second or inner gate is known as the Hozo-Mon Gate, also said to be first built in 942 by Taira no Kinmasa. Two wooden Nio (Deva Kings) statues are installed on the left and right sides. Because of this, the gate is also sometimes called the Nio-mon (Deva Gate). The statue on the left is known as Ni-Ou opened mouth style, whereas the statue on the right is known as Ni-Ou closed mouth style. Both are made of cypress and are 5.45 m tall and weigh about 1,000 kg each.  They are also guardian deities of Senso-ji. This gate was also burned down and rebuilt many times. The temple gate rebuilt in 1649 was a two-storey tower gate, but was unfortunately burned down during the air raids in 1945.

The shrine itself was lovely and I said a prayer for what it was worth. There was also a beautiful pagoda, a smaller bronze pagoda built based on a Buddhist text called the Sutra of Casket Seal Dharani, as well as a bronze seated Buddha known officially as the Bronze Seated Amida Nyorai Statue, said to be the Buddha who teaches Buddhism to those who have passed away and attained rebirth in the Pure Land, the Western Paradise of Ultimate Bliss.

From the outer Kaminarimon to the inner Hozo-mon, lies the Nakamise-dori shopping street. It stretches over approximately 250 m lined by almost 90 shops, which offer local specialties and the usual array of tourist souvenirs. Of course none of them were opened at the ungodly hour of 7.30 am so while I missed the opportunity of buying some last-minute souvenirs, perhaps it was a blessing in disguise that I missed the opportunity of buying some last-minute souvenirs.

From this street I could catch a glimpse of the Tokyo Skytree, a broadcasting and observation tower which at 634 m, is the tallest tower in Japan and the third tallest structure in the world after Merdeka 118 (678.9 m – I didn’t even know this!) and the Burj Khalifa (829.8 m).

Then I carefully retraced my steps and arrived back at the hotel without once getting lost, neither depending on technology nor human help. I am indeed very proud of myself. I bought some food and continued writing and to my horror, realised that my blog has also been possessed because some parts turn out as it usually does, but some other parts have a white background for no good reason, and despite my best efforts (including cursing the evil spirit back to damnation) nothing worked. So my blog entries for Japan are unfortunately a strange combination of black and white backgrounds which is not pretty, but at least still readable.

And then, all too soon, it was time for me to say goodbye to Japan! With all my initial misgivings and false starts, it turned out to be quite an enjoyable trip, and for this I have to thank myself for being the eternal explorer with adventure in her heart!