Asakusa shrine
The Asakusa Shrine ( Japanese 浅 草 神社 , Asakusa-jinja ) is a Shinto shrine next to the Buddhist temple Sensō-ji in the Asakusa district of the Taitō district of Tokyo in Japan . It was built by Tokugawa Iemitsu in 1649 .
The three men who are said to have been responsible for building the neighboring Sensō-ji are venerated in it. Legend has it that two of them, the fisher brothers Hinokuma no Hamanari ( 檜 前 浜 成 ) and Takenari ( 檜 前 竹 成 ), found a statue of the Bodhisattva Kannon in the Sumida River in 628 . The fishermen are said to have thrown the statue back into the river, but it is said to have reappeared every time. The village chief Haji no Atai Nakatomo ( 土 師 真 中知 ) or Haji no Nakatomo ( 土 師 中知 ) is said to have recognized their holiness and then built the temple around them and converted the two brothers to Buddhism.
Many festivals ( Matsuri ) are held in the shrine , including one of the three largest Matsuris in Tokyo, the Sanja-Matsuri, which takes place over a period of three to four days on a weekend in May each year. At its peak, around 100 portable shrines ( mikoshi ) are carried through the streets of the neighborhood.
Moving with a Mikoshi as part of the Sanja-Matsuri
Mikoshi on Sensō-ji in Sanja-Matsuri
Kids mikoshi
Web links
- Official website of the shrine - Japanese and English
Coordinates: 35 ° 42 ′ 53 ″ N , 139 ° 47 ′ 48 ″ E
Individual evidence
- ↑ 浅 草 寺 本尊 示 現 会 （3 月 18 日） に つ い て . Asakusa Shrine, accessed October 20, 2013 (Japanese).
- ↑ 浅 草 寺 に つ い て . (No longer available online.) Sensō-ji, archived from the original on October 29, 2013 ; Retrieved October 20, 2013 (Japanese).