in the dark of the night, senso-ji continues to be illuminated with lights showing vivid reds and golds and white accents, very eye catching motifs of buddhist temples. senso-ji is the oldest temple in tokyo, located in the asakusa district of taito ward. i have briefly talked about this temple in my nightwalker series below:
| i have become a night walker: June 13 2024 |
senso-ji (浅草寺)
often called senso-ji temple, although that i think is a naming redundancy as "ji" (寺) already means temple in japanese, is an ancient temple. and when i say ancient i meant built in the year 645 ancient. but the history came way earlier at 628 according to a legend which says that two fisherman caught a statue in their nets one morning as they went fishing in the nearby sumida river. they then realized that it was a statue of Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion. (in buddhism, a bodhisattva is a person who is on the path towards awakening or buddhahood.) the village chief then devoted his life to buddhism, and remade his house into a temple and housed the statue they found. check more of the history in their website here.
senso-ji is a wide temple complex with lots of important buildings and structures built over the times. most buildings where actually destroyed in several occasions and the whole complex suffered heavy destruction during the second world war. as i visited the place in one of my nightwalker series, there were a couple of closed areas. here are a few of those viewable structures even at night.
let me start of with hozomon, the inner of two entrance gates leading to the main hall. first built in 942, the current flame resistant building rebuilt in 1964 houses important temple and national treasures in the second floor. of course we are not allowed to even catch a glimpse of those, but we can see the two guardian nio statues on each side facing outwards, a 400 kg main lantern at the center with two lanterns beside each weighing approximately 1000 kg. on the other side facing the main hall are two large straw sandals which weighs 400 kg each. this is how strong this current building is.
the main hall, otherwise called as kannon hall, enshrines the principal image of the temple, Bodhisattva Kannon. as with most of the structures in the temple complex, this too was destroyed in the seconds world war air raid, and was later rebuilt in 1958 from donations. the main hall was actually re-roofed with titanium tiles in 2010 making it lighter and more sturdy. in front is hanged a giant lantern weighing approximately 600 kg. the main hall is beautifully decorated with calligraphies and ceiling paintings which is sadly closed at the time i went. and at the very center is an "altar" or a "palace" which houses the original Kannon statue which was eternally locked from anyone's view.
in every buddhist temple, one is required to purify before praying. and this purification is done in a water pavilion where water is continuously flowing for everyone to wash their hands and mouths. the water pavilion in senso-ji has an ink painting of a dragon at the ceiling carefully installed upon the structure's installation in 1964. the water basin currently has a statue of a dragon god on top which was originally placed at the fountain behind the main hall from 1903.
originally built in 942, this five-storied pagoda towers the night sky. located southwest of the main hall, the pagoda has suffered various destruction by fires, the last was during the war. the current one was rebuilt as a steel framed reinforced concrete building in 1973 at a little over 53 meters in height. on the fifth floor, it houses the sacred buddha relic which was officially brought over from sri lanka.
another tower is also clearly visible in the temple complex, the tokyo skytree, just located from across the river. just read my previous article regarding this tower from below to learn more.
| framed and famed tokyo skytree |
from the inner gate, a shopping street, the nakamise is one of the oldest in japan. varieties of shops lined the streets but as you can see, they are all closed by 8pm. this straight street leads to the last of the buildings i visited.
the outside of the two large gates, the kaminarimon or the thunder gate is the most popular with the tourists. this is the main gate seen from the streets and that giant red lantern is indeed eye catching. and that is heavy too at approximately 700 kg in weight. on both sides were statues of raijin (the god of thunder, which was sadly covered by the pillar) and fujin (the god of the wind). this area is always crowded even at night but it was first built in 942. it has always burned down over the years, the last of which was in 1865 from a massive fire in the neighboring district. the current structure has remained in place since 1960.
there are still many buildings inside the temple complex but most were close or not lighted at night making it hard to document by this nightwalker. i have tried to walk you through this historic area with as much care as possible but it is so much better to experience the site firsthand. most likely, you will be visiting in day light, this area will be bustling with people and colors and sounds by then which will be a totally different experience.
as always, AMPING KANUNAY!
all content is by yours truly unless otherwise specified
all photos are taken with a galaxy s23 ultra
Congratulations, your post has been added to WorldMapPin! 🎉
Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!
Want to have your post on the map too?
Dito po ako na-amazed. Sana all. 😁😁
Ang ganda po ng temple, di po ba nakakatakot pumunta kapag gabi? Baka may multo po.😅
may mga tao pa din naman. of course di mo pa din alam kung totoong tao ba tlga ang mga nakikita mong naglalakad. hihihi.
Hahaha, kaya nga,, from the looks of it, may horror talaga.😁
ahahaha. di naman siguro sila mangangagak, sumasanib lang. hihihi
Pag uwi mo sa Pinas? Who you ka? 😅😅
Amazing that something that was built in year 645 has been taking such good care of, and is so beautiful.😊
Your night walking photo tour is awesome !👍
thanks my friend. my next post is a mountain hiking one. just not sure how to present all the pics. ahaha
That sounds nice, I'll be looking forward to that post!!👍😀
Hiya, @ybanezkim26 here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Top 3 in Travel Digest #2249.
Your post has been manually curated by the @worldmappin team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!
Become part of our travel community:
I made a wish here at Sensoji Temple, swerte daw ako. hahaha.
wew. congrats naman sa swerte oi. kung may coin sana ako nakapag bunot din sana ng swerte.
I have photo ng nabunot ko hahanapin ko pa XD
Congratulations, your post has been added to the TravelFeed Map! 🎉🥳🌴
Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!
Want to have your post on the map too?
- Go to TravelFeed Map
- Click the create pin button
- Drag the marker to where your post should be. Zoom in if needed or use the search bar (top right).
- Copy and paste the generated code in your post (any Hive frontend)
- Or login with Hive Keychain or Hivesigner and click "create post" to post to Hive directly from TravelFeed
- Congrats, your post is now on the map!
PS: You can import your previous Pinmapple posts to the TravelFeed map.Opt Out
Wao, beautiful architecture. Thanks for sharing.
i'm just happy to share what i saw
What an amazing site. The temple looks amazing at nighttime. I was always so struck by how the Japanese took care of their ancient sites and respected them.
wait for my next post, it is not only ancient sites that the japanese know how to take care of.
I am giddy just waiting.
the creative mind is still out of order though. i wonder how to get it started? ahaha
I think the key is just to keep jotting down ideas and creating drafts. I know that works for lots of people on Hive.
oh my. hope that helps. my mind has been drifting elsewhere for the past hours
maybe its time for a break then.
Congratulations @itz.inno! You received a sweet smile from TravelFeed. We love your work so keep up the good job. 😊
Thanks for using TravelFeed!
@for91days (TravelFeed team)
PS: Did you know that we have our own Hive frontend at TravelFeed.com? For your next travel post, log in to TravelFeed with Hive Keychain or Hivesigner and take advantage of our exclusive features for travel bloggers.
wow! ganda naman ng shots 😍 madami akong dream shots sa place na yan, mdalas nakikita ko sa instagram.
salamat po. go go go shot mo na yan.
ang dami lang tlga tao kaya hirap din magpicture
Empi shot puno!
ay oo madalas ko nga makita na dinudumog ng tao jain, pero good idea rind na gabi ka nagpunta.
kahit gabi may mga tao pa nga din. pero kung umaga pa yan, punoan.