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By Paul Clarke
By Paul Clarke
Senso-ji is Tokyo's oldest Buddhist temple, and one of its most famous. It draws millions of visitors each year, from all over the world.
Original construction began on the temple in the year 645 A.D. The main hall( pictured to the right) was built in the 17th century by Tokugawa Iemitsu, but was later destroyed in the March 1945 Tokyo air raids. It was rebuilt in 1958. Many of Senso-ji's eight halls have been similarly burned down and rebuilt many times over the years. Through all of that, the temple has remained a popular destination and an important center for Buddhism.
The Temples origin legend goes that two fisherman were fishing one March day in 628 AD, and they brought up in their net a statue of the bodhisattva Kannon, an important figure in Buddhism. When they brought it to the leader of his village, it caused him to devote his life to Buddhism. The place where he enshrined the statue eventually became Senso-ji.
There is still a hall, komogatado, that is said to be in the same location of the original statue. It has an image of Kannon, and is open for viewing once a month, unfortunately not on the same day we are going.
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