Page 132 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Japan

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SENSO-JI

浅草寺
 L3 § (03) 3842-5566 (information)  Asakusa Stn, Ginza, Tobu Skytree
EXPERIENCE Northern Tokyo Popularly known as Asakusa Kannon, this is Tokyo’s most sacred
& Toei-Asakusa lines £ Tobu-Asakusa Stn, Tobu Skytree line; Asakusa
Stn, Asakusa Express line # Temple: 6am–5pm daily (from 6:30am Oct–
Mar); Nakamise-dori: 9:30am–7pm daily (individual hours vary)
and spectacular temple, as well as the city’s oldest. Although the
buildings are impressive, it is the people following their daily
rituals that make this place so special.

In AD 628, two fishermen pulled a
nearby in 1657, the temple became
small gold statue of Kannon, the
Buddhist goddess of mercy, from the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter moved
even more popular. Senso-ji survived
Sumida River. First, their master built the 1923 earthquake but not World
a shrine to Kannon, then, in 645, the War II bombing. Its main buildings are
holy man Shokai built a temple to her. therefore relatively new, but follow the
Senso-ji’s fame, wealth, and size grew original Edo-era layout. Today, incense
until Tokugawa Ieyasu bestowed upon still wafts through the air and people
it a large stipend of land. When the teem in Nakamise-dori’s shops.
The Garden

2

1
1 The Five-Story Pagoda,
containing the ashes of the
Buddha, is a 1973 replica of
the original structure.
2 Built of reinforced concrete
in 1964, the two-story
Hozomon Gate has a treasure 3
house upstairs holding a
number of 14th-century
Chinese sutras.
The Kaminarimon Gate, or
3 The shops lining the “Thunder Gate,” is topped by
expansive Nakamise-dori guardian statues of Fujin (right)
sell obi sashes, haircombs, and Raijin (left), which have
fans, dolls, and kimonos. elderly heads and young bodies.
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