Asakusa and Sensō-ji 「浅草・浅草寺」

Today- Tuesday, 15 July, 2008- we woke up late, had breakfast, had showers-- the usual. Our destination for the day: Asakusa.

Asakusa is a town on our train line, close to Akihabara (see first post). It contains Sensō-ji.

Sensō-ji is an ancient Buddhist temple located in Asakusa, Taitō, Tokyo. It is Tokyo's oldest temple, and one of its most significant.

The temple is dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon. According to legend, a statue of the Kannon was found in the Sumida River in 628 by two fishermen, the brothers Hinokuma Hamanari and Hinokuma Takenari. The chief of their village, Hajino Nakamoto, recognized the sanctity of the statue and enshrined it by remodeling his own house into a small temple in Asakusa, so that the villagers could worship the Kannon. The first temple was built on the site in 645, which makes it the oldest temple in Tokyo.

During World War II, the temple was bombed and for the most part destroyed. It was rebuilt later and is a symbol of rebirth and peace to the Japanese people. In the courtyard there is a tree that was hit by a bomb in the air raids, it had regrown in the husk of the old tree and is a similar symbol to the temple itself.

Outside the shrine compound, there are tons of little stalls and a few little shrine-type things. One is dedicated to mothers, another to a Buddhist deity (God(dess) of mercy I think) and another to a samurai named Kume-no-Heinai.

Kume-no-Heinai was a samurai in the early Edo period (17th century). He is said to have passed away in 1683, but there are many stories about his life, and not many facts are known for certain.

According to oral records, Heinai excelled in the martial-art of sword-fighting (Kenjutsu), killing many people throughout his early and middle-years. Later in life he is said to have lived in a small temple within Sensō-ji, where he devoted himself to Zen-Buddhism and held services in honour of the people he had slain.

It is said that just before his death, he ordered his followers to carve his figure on stone and bury it near the temple gate, because he wanted his statue to be stepped on by as many people as possuble as a way to expiate him of the crimes he had committed in his life.

Further away from the shrine, a lattice of undercover alleys provides an excellent shopping opportunity, with a more traditional array of gifts than we've found in Tokyo so far. Many of the stores sell clothes (light kimono, yukata, shoes and so on), wigs in styles found in the Edo-period, beautiful hand-painted fans, katanas (swords) and shuriken (throwing stars) and a variety of Japanese cakes, biscuits and sweets-- all of which are immaculately presented.

Among the not-so-traditional shops found in the area are a plethora of pachinko and slot-machine parlours, a couple of game arcades with rooms devoted to purikura (wacky Asian photo booths) and many restaurants.

We spent a few hours meandering the streets before heading back home. Taka's mum picked us up from the station (like always) and the three of us went to a little restaurant and had ramen for dinner. A plate of gyoza (pan-fried dumplings) as a side dish compliments the ramen nicely.