Virtual Eastern Edo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage #1 Senso-ji Temple

     Haji Matsuchi, Hinokuma Yamanari, and Hinokuma Tekenari were netting fish in the estuary of the Miyato River (nearly Sumida River today) in 589.  They caught an Arya Avalokitesvara statue out of the river.  Matsuchi persuaded Yamanari and Takenari, and they wove a small shed with wild spinach canes, and put the statue in it.

     What persuasion was it like?  In Ancient Japan, things drifted ashore were understood to belong to the sea shore residents.  The statue must have been found in a wrecked boat.  Yamanari and Takenari might have insisted on reselling the statue.  Matsuchi might have persuaded them to keep it from his religious mind.

     By the way, where was the original destination of the Arya Avalokitesvara statue?  In 587, Emperor Hatsusebe ascended to the Chrysanthemum Throne.  That means in the political and military dispute between the pro-Shinto Mononobe Clan and the pro-Buddhist Soga Clan, the latter emerged victorious.  Local powerful families such as Kamitsuke Okuma, who drank a bitter cup in the Musashi Disturbance in 534, could have been competing to purchase Buddhist images.

     Then, Yamanari and Takenari might have suggested forwarding the statue to the original destination.  And it was Matsuchi who was blinded by selfish desires.  It is always hard to tell good from evil.

     Anyway, Matsuchi’s persuasion worked.  Senso-ji Temple has been the most popular spot in Edo, and later in Tokyo.  Their descendants have enjoyed the benefits of the statue.  Until the pandemic of the novel coronavirus, though.

     In 645, Priest Shokai built a small hermitage for the Arya Avalokitesvara statue, and Taira Kinmasa, the then governor of Musashi Province, made it a real temple.

     Taira Kinmasa was one of the 8 samurais who defeated Taira Masakado (?-940) in 940.  Soon, he was appointed as the governor of Awa Province, and later as that of Musashi Province in 942.

     On March 18th, 945, Avalokitesvara appeared Kinmasa's dream and said to him, "If you have blue seaweed, red seaweed, and black seaweed off Senso-ji Temple, you will be in perfect health, enjoy better luck, and attain the state of Buddhist enlightenment in your after life."  He followed the divine message, gathered seaweed, and ate them.  They tasted very good, and were good for his health too.  As he followed Avalokiteshvara's "nori" (teachings in Japanese), he named the seaweed "Asakusa (the other pronunciation of "Senso") Nori (Laver)".  Believe it or not.

     The Azuma Kagami, which was compiled after 1266 under the directive of the Hojo Clan, and which was a record in diary form of events occurring in Japan at the beginning of the Kamakura Shogunate, recorded that 50 monks were living and training in the temple in 1251.

     However, Fujiwara Seika (1561-1619), a famous Confucian at the beginning of the Tokugawa Shogunate, reputed that, due to the battles and disorders during the Warring States Period, many of the temple buildings were half collapsing and the fences were partially broken, when Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) moved to Edo.

     In 2008, 1.9 million foreign sightseers visited the surrounding area.  The number reached more than 9.5 million in 2018, but decreased to almost nil in the COVID-19 pandemic.

     Even the Arya Avalokitesvara statue has experienced ups and downs.

     Senso-ji Temple is also #1 of the Old Edo 33 Kannon Pilgrimageand and the Modern Edo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage. 

Address: 2 Chome-3-1 Asakusa, Taito City, Tokyo 111-0032

Phone: 03-3842-0181