Virtual Edo Bando 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #8 Seson-in Temple

     Seson-in Temple was founded in 1695 by Den (1658-1738), who was a daughter of Kotani Masamoto, who was a concubine of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646-1709), and who gave birth to Tsuruhime (1677-1704) and Tokumatsu (1679-1683).  Her elder brother, Gontaro, was killed due to a quarrel over gambling in 1682.  In 1683, she lost her young son, Tokumatsu.  She dedicated Seson-in Temple to her parents.  That means she had lost her parents sometime before 1695.

     The main deity of Seson-in Temple was said to have been made by Jocho (?-1057).  He perfected the yosegi technique, or the assembled-wood method, of sculpting a single Buddhist figure out of many pieces of wood.  In Japan, a lot of Buddhist images were made of wood.  First, they were carved out of a piece of wood.  When you carve a piece of wood to sculpt a Buddhist image, you can hardly modify or amend what you have sculpted.  Harmonizing its details required sculptors' tension and strain.  The yosegi technique not only released them from the tension and strain but also made it possible to do group work to make Buddhist images.

     Seson-in Temple is also the #26 member temple of the Ueno Oji Komagome 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.

Address: 1 Chome-22-30 Sendagi, Bunkyo City, Tokyo 113-0022

Phone: 03-3828-4280