Daily Archives: 10 September, 2018

Nakamise-Dori (Tokyo, Japan)

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Nakamise-Dori

After our visit to Senso-ji Temple, we proceeded to the approximately 250 m. (880-ft.) long Nakamise-dōri (仲見世通り), the best place in Tokyo to buy souvenirs.  One of Japan’s oldest streets, this shopping street leads, from the gorgeous Kaminarimon (“Thunder Gate”), to Sensō-ji temple itself.  Items sold here range from outrageously cheesy items to authentic and useful souvenirs.  For centuries, Japanese pilgrims and tourists who visit Sensō-ji every year flock here to shop at its small stores.   This stone-paved pedestrian street, retaining the feeling of old downtown Edo and the cultural florescence of the Meiji era, started during the Genroku and Tempo periods of the Edo era when horse carriage operators were granted the right to set up shops next to the east side of Niomon as compensation for cleaning the temple compound through forced labor.

Shops near the Kaminarimon Gate of Senso-ji Temple

In the early 18th century, Nakamise-dōri (translated as “inside street”) was said to have come about when neighbors of Sensō-ji were granted permission to set up shops on the approach to the temple. However, on May 1885, the government of Tokyo ordered all shop owners to leave but, on December of that same year, the area was reconstructed in Western-style brick. During the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, many of the shops were destroyed.  In 1925, the shops were rebuilt using concrete, only to be destroyed again during the bombings of World War II.

The surrounding area had around 89 small traditional shops, many of them run by the same family for many generations.  I admired the shutters painted with different seasonal vistas. Stores sold traditional Japanese items such as chopsticks, yukata, geta, wooden combs, maneki neko cat statuettes (a traditional good luck charm), hair accessories, elegant fans of all colors and sizes; handmade umbrellas; geta (traditional footwear), masks, folding fans, ukiyo-e (woodblock prints); kimono and other robes; samurai swords; and Buddhist scrolls.  You can also shop here for Godzilla toys, t-shirts and mobile phone straps. The shops at both sides of the last stretch near the temple sell official Senso-ji merchandise – omamori amulets, scrolls, incense to burn at the huge burner in front of the temple’s stairs, books about the temple (in Japanese) and o-mikuji fortunes.

 

Nakamise-Dori is a good place for visitors to try tabearuki (“walk-and-eat”) and enjoy Japanese street food such as tempting traditional kibi dango (sweet and soft rice cakes in a stick covered with millet flour), oden, (a winter snack), imo yokan (sweet potato jelly), odango (a sweet snack), kaminari okoshi (sweet puff rice crackers), colorful candies sold in beautiful traditional patterned cases; ningyo yaki (little sponge cakes filled with red bean paste and shaped like dolls, birds and the famous Kaminarimon, Asakusa’s symbolic lantern), deep-fried manju (a bun stuffed with red-bean paste), kibidango (a millet dumpling), freshly toasted sembei crackers, juicy fried meat croquettes, sweet melon pan bread, cooling matcha green tea ice cream and other green tea-flavored treats.

Trying out vanilla ice cream in a melonpan at Asakusa Sakura

Vanilla ice cream in a melonpan bun

There are also eating places that feature traditional dishes (hand-made noodles, sushi, tempura, etc.). For lunch, we dined at Tatsumiya Restaurant. Here, we were seated in a traditional Japanese setting – no shoes and on low tables with mats.

Check out “Restaurant Review: Tatsumiya Asakusa“

Dining, Japanese style, at Tatsumiya Restaurant

During the holidays, the arcade is decorated with seasonal trappings – silk plum blossoms and kites during New Year’s Day, bright foliage during fall and cherry blossoms in spring. Running perpendicular to Nakamise-Dori is Shin-Nakamise (“New Nakamise”), a covered shopping arcade lined by various shops and restaurants.

Shin-Nakamise (New Nakamise)

Nakamise-Dori: 1 Asakusa, Taitō-ku, Tokyo, Japan. Open daily, typically from 10 AM to 7 PM but hours depend on the individual shops.

How to Get There: Nakamise-Dori, a 2 minute walk from Asakusa Station, is served by the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, Toei Asakusa Line and Tobu railway lines. It is also a 10-min. walk from Tawaramachi Station on the Ginza Line. Take A3~A5 exit for Nakamise. This shopping street is traditionally approached via the Thunder Gate.

 

Asakusa Shrine (Tokyo, Japan)

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Torii (Japanese gate) leading to Akasusa Shrine

The Asakusa Shrine (浅草神社 Asakusa-jinja), one of the most famous Shinto shrines in the city, is also known as Sansha-sama (Shrine of the Three gods, san means “three” and sama means “shrine”). The shrine. popular among the public, stands only a few dozen meters to the left of the main hall on the east side of Sensō-ji Temple, down a street marked by a large stone torii.

Akasusa Shrine

Part of a larger grouping of sacred buildings in the area, the shrine honors the three men who founded the Sensō-ji. According to legend, on May 17, 628, two fishermen brothers, named Hinokuma Hamanari and Hinokuma Takenari, picked up a bosatsu Kannon statuette of Sensoji Temple caught in a fishing-net in the Sumida River.  Hajino Nakatomo, the third man, was a wealthy landlord who, upon hearing about the discovery, approached the brothers.

Shrine Pavilion

He delivered an impassioned sermon about the Buddha to the brothers who were very impressed and subsequently converted to the Buddhist religion and devoted their lives to preaching the way of Buddhism. Nakatomo consecrated the Kannon statue in a small temple. These three men are worshiped here as Sanja Gongen.

The shrine, commissioned by Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty, was built in 1649 during the Edo Period.  It was integrated with Sensoji Temple until the Edo period.  However, when the Gods and Buddha separation ordinance was promulgated in the Meiji period, it was separated from Sensoji and renamed Asakusa Shrine. Its beautiful, vermillon-lacquered shrine pavilion was built in the same style as the Nikko Toshogu, in the gongen-zukuri style of Shinto architecture.

Statue of Lion-Dog (Kumainu)

Unlike many other structures in the area, including the Sensō-ji Temple, the shrine, along with the Nitenmon Gate, where the only two buildings in the area to survived the  World War II Tokyo air raids of 1945.  In 1951, because of this rich and long history, both were designated as an Important Cultural Property by the Japanese Government.

Nitenmon Gate

The Niten-mon Gate, located to the east of the main hall and to the right of Asakusa Shrine, was erected in 1618 (the current gate was said to have been rebuilt in 1649) as a shrine gate, with statues of Toyoiwamado no Mikoto and Kushiiwamado no Mikoto placed on either side.

Ablution Fountain

The gate was left standing after the deity enshrined in Toshogu was moved to Koyozan, inside of Edo Castle. After the separation of the Buddhist and Shinto religions during the Meiji Restoration, Shinto deities were removed to Asakusa Shrine. In their place, a statue of Tatenmon was enshrined, but this has subsequently been lost. This massive, 8.13 m. wide (at the beam) structure has 8 pillars and was built in the mitsumune zukuri style with a tiled roof in built in the kiritzuma zukuri style.

Prayer Wall

The shrine‘s annual,  popular Sanja Matsuri festival, one of the Three Great Festivals of Edo (the old name of Tokyo), is held in late spring for 3 days (Friday to Sunday) every third weekend of May. which takes place over 3–4 days .  During the festival, the surrounding streets are closed to traffic, from dawn until late evening.  Well known for the “soul swing,” the festival vividly demonstrates the traditional Edo style, depicted in the old saying “fights and fireworks are Edo’s flowers.” During the festival, portable shrines called mikoshi are wildly swung around in a wild parade, reaching a climax when three mikoshi called ichi-no-miya, ni-no-miya and san-no-miya leave and return to Asakusa Shrine.  The procession includes 120 mikoshi from a total of 44 parishioner associations affiliated with Asakusa Shrine, making it Tokyo’s most spectacular festival.

A mikoshi (portable shrine) on display at Asakusa Station

Asakusa Shrine: 2-26-1, Asakusa, Taitō-ku, Tokyo 111-0032, Japan. Tel: 03-3844-1575.  Website: www.asakusajinja.jp/english/

How to Get There:  The shrine is a 7-min. walk from Asakusa Station (Toei Asakusa Line, Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, Tobu Isesaki Line, Tsukuba Express.

Sensō-ji Temple (Tokyo, Japan)

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Senso-ji Temple

It was our last day in Tokyo but we still had time for sightseeing before departing on our evening flight back to Manila, so we visited the Sensō-ji (金龍山浅草寺 Kinryū-zan Sensō-ji) Kannon temple, an ancient Buddhist temple dedicated to Kannon Bosatsu (the Bodhisattva of compassion who is believed to take away the people’s suffering and make their wishes come true).

Jinrikisha (Ricksaw)

“Senso” is an alternative reading for Asakusa and “ji” means temple. Asakusa (浅草) is the center of Tokyo‘s shitamachi (literally “low city”), one of Tokyo’s districts.  Here, an atmosphere of the Tokyo of past decades is said to survive. From our hotel, we walked to the nearby Akasaka-Mitsuke Station and took the train to Asakusa Station. The trip took all of 30 mins.

Strolling into Asakusa

Outside Asakusa Station was a number of jinrikisha (literally “man powered vehicle”). A 30-min. tour, for two persons, on board these rickshaws costs around JP¥9000.  The temple was a short 10-min. walk from the station.  Surprisingly, even for a Monday, there were lots of people on the street.  Adjacent to the temple is a five-story pagoda, a Shinto shrine, the Asakusa Shrine, as well as many shops with traditional goods in the Nakamise-dōri. Some visitors buy the charms sold at the temple.

Check out “Asakusa Shrine”

The author at the temple grounds

The temple’s official name is Kinryuzan (Mountain of Golden Dragon), but it is also known as Asakusa Kannon and the residential building is called Denpo-in.  During the 10 March air raid on Tokyo in World War II, the temple was bombed and destroyed but was rebuilt later.  Today, it is a symbol of rebirth and peace to the Japanese people. In the courtyard there is a tree that is a similar symbol to the temple itself.  During the air raid, it was hit by a bomb but has regrown in the husk of the old tree.

Residents in traditional kimonos

Here are some interesting trivia regarding this temple:

  • Founded in 645 AD, it is Tokyo’s oldest temple and one of its most significant. In the early years of the Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa Ieyasu designated Sensō-ji as tutelary temple of the Tokugawa clan.
  • According to legend, two fishermen, the brothers Hinokuma Hamanari and Hinokuma Takenari, found a statue of the bodhisattvaKannon (Avalokiteśvara) in the Sumida River (Miyato River) in 628. Hajino Nakamoto, the chief of their village in Asakusa, recognized the sanctity of the statue.  To enshrine it, he remodeled his own house into a small temple so that the villagers could worship Kannon.
  • Formerly associated with Hiezan Enryakuji, the head temple of the the Tendaisect of Buddhism, it became independent as the head temple of the Seikannon sect after World War II.
  • With over 30 million visitors annually, Sensoji is the second most widely visited spiritual site in the world after the Vatican.
  • In the New Year, it ranks among the top 10 temples in Japan for the number of visitors.

Kaminarimon Gate

Dominating the entrance to the temple is the vermillon Kaminarimon (“Thunder Gate.”)  In 942, it was built as the main gate of Sensoji Temple by Kimimasa Taira in Komagata, rebuilt in 1635 but burned down in 1639. In 1649, Iemitsu Tokugawa donated the main hall, Niomon Gate (Hozomon), the five-story pagoda, and Kaminarimon Gate. Over the years, Kaminarimon Gate was destroyed by fire several times, the last time in 1866.

Nakamise-Dori heading towards Kaminarimon Gate

The existing gate dates from 1960. Konosuke Matsushita, a founder of Panasonic Corporation, contributed to its reconstruction.  An imposing Buddhist structure, its official name is Fujin- Raijin Gate.  It features a chochin, a massive paper lantern dramatically painted in vivid red-and-black tones, suggesting thunderclouds and lightning. When facing front, on the left is the statue of Rajin-sama, the god of thunder and lightning, while on the right is the statue of Fujin-sama, the god of wind. Facing the rear, on the left is the statue of Tenryu while on the right is the statue of Kinryu, both dragon gods in human form.

Hozomon Gate

Beyond the Kaminarimon is Nakamise-dori, with its shops, followed by the two-storied, dynamic Hōzōmon  which is bigger than Kaminarimon Gate and provides the entrance to the inner complex. The Hozomon, called Niomon Gate since the olden days, was destroyed by fire in 1631, rebuilt by Iemitsu Tokugawa in 1636 but burned down in the massive air raids of 1945.  In 1964, it was rebuilt with a donation from the late Eitaro Otani, third chairman of the Asakusa Tourist Federation.

Check out “Nakamise-Dori“

Cochin of Hozomon Gate

It houses a pair of Ni-Ou figures in front, both guardian deities. It is said that the models for these fierce looking deities where 1960’s sumo wrestlers Kitanoumi (on the left) and Myobudani Kiyoshi (on the right).

Ni-Ou

The chicken wire keeps people from touching the statues.  The gate’s upper storey houses the temple’s Buddhist sutras that include Hokke-kyo (Lotus Sutra), which is designated as a National Treasure, and the Issai-kyo, a complete collection of Buddhist scriptures that is an Important Cultural Property. This is why the gate is called Hozomon Gate (“Treasure House Gate”).

O-Waraji (Straw Slipper)

At the back of the gate is a huge, 4.5 m. high pair of o-waraji (traditional straw slippers) weighing 2,500 kgs. Symbolic of the power of Ni-Ou, they are charms against evil. Before visiting the Main Hall, cleanse your hands and mouth at the ablution fountain of the Omizuya (generally called as Chozusha). It has a bronze statue of Sakara, the King of Water, designed by Kotaro Takamura.

Ozimuya

Within the precincts are a stately, eye-catching five-storey pagoda (Gojunoto) built, together with a lecture hall, in the new toinzukuri style in 1973; and the main hall (Hondo, also called Kannondo), devoted to Kannon Bosatsu.

Five-Storey Pagoda

The 53.32 m. tall pagoda is the second highest in Japan after the 56-m. high pagoda of Toji Temple in Kyoto. The original pagoda, built in 1648 on a different site, was destroyed by an air raid in 1945. The top of the pagoda houses Buddha’s ashes ceremonially transferred from a temple in Sri Lanka. You can’t go inside the pagoda as it is a graveyard that contains memorial tablets of thousands of families and individuals.

Main Hall (Hondo)

The impressive Main Hall, with its high-pitched roof, enshrines a principal image of Buddha, known as Kannon Bosatsu (Kannon Bodhisattva). Built in 1644, it was destroyed in 1945 and rebuilt with the same design as the old one in 1958.

Jokoro, the main incense censer, is a large bronze vessel filled with sand and ash. Bundles of incense sticks, about 2 cm in diameter and 15 cm long, are lit here. Pilgrims stop here to wave the cleansing smoke, “the breath of the gods,” over their face and body.

Giant vase with a gold Buddhist manji cross.  It is the reverse of the right-facing German swastika.

On the west side of the Main Hall is Yogodo Hall where Buddhist divinities who support Kannon Busatsu are enshrined.  At the left side of the hall is a hexagonal building (Rokkakudo), the oldest wooden structure (it was built in the 16th century).

Yogodo Hall

The Yogodo’s quiet contemplative garden, kept in the distinctive Japanese style, features an old stone bridge, the oldest in Tokyo (it was built for the Asakusa Toshogu Shrine in 1618), that spans a small pond stocked with colorful koi and fed by a rushing stream.

Stone bridge (the oldest in Tokyo) over a koi-filled pond

At many places on its approach and within the temple itself are o-mikuji stalls where, for a suggested donation of JP¥100, visitors may consult the oracle and divine answers to their questions.

Maigo-shirase Sekihyo (Mark Stone for Lost Child). Carved with “Namu Daijihi Kanzeon-bosatsu Mayoiko-no Shirube,” it had been used for exchanging information about lost children in the Edo period.

Querents shake labelled sticks, from enclosed metal containers, and read the corresponding answers they retrieve from one of 100 possible drawers.

An 8 m. high, bronze Hokyoin-to, a tiered tower or pagoda, was cast by Fijiwara Masatoki in 1761. The largest one left in Tokyo, it was damaged during an earthquake in 1855 but was restored in 1907 to commemorate Japan’s victory in the Russian – Japanese War.

Saibutsu Itabi, raised from the late Kamakura period to the early Muromachi period, measures 217.9 cm. high and 46 cm. wide. It is the largest Aoishi Toba (blue stupa) in Tokyo.

Statue of Amitabha Tathagata

The Tori No Ichi Fair, held for over 300 years in front of Sensoji on the days of the rooster in November (according to the Chinese zodiac calendar), is an interesting special event held to sell kumade bamboo rakes which are supposed to be lucky for business.

Seated bronze statue of Kannon Bodhisattva, attendant of Amida Buddha, sitting on lotus pedestal.

The Clock of Peace, a gift of the Lions Club International, originally had a square Seiko clock mounted on the pagoda but has been replaced by an ordinary National Panasonic clock.

Attracting a large number of local small business owners, when a rake is sold, the buyer and seller perform a tejime (a ritual hand clapping ceremony) together.

Hato Poppo Song Monument. Hato Poppo, is a children’s song written by Rentaro Taki and Kume Higashi. Kume came up with the lyrics for the song as she observed children play with pigeons on the grounds of Sensoji Temple. In 1962, a monument was raised at Sensoji in honor of this famous Japanese nursery song. The monument is inscribed with the words and the score for the song, with lifelike bronze pigeons resting on top.

Sensō-ji Temple: 2-3-1 Asakusa, Taitō-ku, Tokyo, Japan. Open daily, 6 AM to 5 PM (6:30 PM, October to March).  Admission is free.

How to Get There: The temple is a 10-min. walk from Asakusa Station which is served by the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line, Toei Asakusa Line and Tobu railway lines. It is also a 10-min. walk from Tawaramachi Station on the Ginza Line.