One of the amazing things about living in Tokyo is that I still regularly discover something new about my adopted city, if not my immediate neighborhood.
Tokyo is a city that reveals itself slowly; to the unsuspecting, yes, but it is a place that favors those who take the initiative to explore. By wandering around back alleys, following interesting sounds and smells and bursts of color. By listening to the people around you: "Did you know...?, Have you heard...?. You should..."
A while ago I heard about a Buddhist temple, Kogenin, that was near-ish to my apartment. It was pretty, as temples went, so I put a pin in it and decided that if I ever had a free afternoon I would make the 40-minute walk there and check it out. Cue the passing of some months and, finally, the advent of Golden Week.
Some of you might remember my Golden Week adventures last year, when I took advantage of the series of consecutive national holidays that fall annually around this time to visit Nikko, Kawagoe, the Ushiku Daibutsu, and Kamakura with Troy. This year's Golden "Week" is an unprecedented 10 days long since extra one-time national holidays were added due to the abdication of the emperor and ascension of his son, the crown prince, in his place. I certainly am not complaining about the time off work, but since it's functionally impossible to travel anywhere during this period without paying exorbitant amounts of money, I'm essentially spending it in Tokyo, bar one brief trip to Chiba and Gunma (more on those adventures in future blog posts).
Since I suddenly had all this relatively unplanned time off, I decided to finally check out Kogenin. But it turns out Kogenin is just one temple in the Karasuyama Teramachi (Temple Town), a district of 26 historic Buddhist temples, many of them transplants from other areas of the city following the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake. Optimistically, the area is also branded as "Setagaya's Little Kyoto."
It feels a bit like I should have known this sort of cultural history was within spitting distance of the station I use for my daily commute! But the temples are best-accessed from the opposite exit I use to get to my apartment and, without already knowing they were there, I would have had no reason to wander in that direction. So thank goodness for knowledgeable local friends!
I didn't make it to all 26 temples this past Sunday, but I made it to perhaps 20 of them. Of that not insignificant number, here are my favorites:
No. 20: Kogenin. It was moved to Karasuyama in 1926 and in the middle of its pond (which has many, many turtles in it) is this smaller shrine, Ukigodo.
No. 17: Myojuji. This temple, which was originally in Yanaka, was moved to Karasuyama in 1924. It had such a righteous bloom of azaleas and wisteria, not to mention a small bamboo grove and an absolutely gorgeous guest room, which was originally part of Prince Nabeshima's house. I love how the glass windows reflect all the greenery.
No. 2: Tamonin. The actual temple itself was nothing special to look at (though there was some mysterious--at least to me--chanting and bell-ringing coming from inside the shuttered doors). What intrigued me was a stone monument just to the right of the main temple structure, which depicted what looks like an emaciated pre-enlightenment Buddha and an animated skeleton. Apparently this temple (which was originally in Nishishinjuku until it burned down in World War II; the grave and main temple were moved to Karasuyama separately) has a 3-meter-tall "grave of 658 unknown people" who died in the 1782-88 Great Tenmei Famine, and I have a suspicion this stone thing is it...
No. 18: Senkoji. Again, fairly unremarkable temple building, but the grave of well-known ukiyo-e artist Kitagawa Utamaro is located here.
Tokyo is a city that reveals itself slowly; to the unsuspecting, yes, but it is a place that favors those who take the initiative to explore. By wandering around back alleys, following interesting sounds and smells and bursts of color. By listening to the people around you: "Did you know...?, Have you heard...?. You should..."
A while ago I heard about a Buddhist temple, Kogenin, that was near-ish to my apartment. It was pretty, as temples went, so I put a pin in it and decided that if I ever had a free afternoon I would make the 40-minute walk there and check it out. Cue the passing of some months and, finally, the advent of Golden Week.
Some of you might remember my Golden Week adventures last year, when I took advantage of the series of consecutive national holidays that fall annually around this time to visit Nikko, Kawagoe, the Ushiku Daibutsu, and Kamakura with Troy. This year's Golden "Week" is an unprecedented 10 days long since extra one-time national holidays were added due to the abdication of the emperor and ascension of his son, the crown prince, in his place. I certainly am not complaining about the time off work, but since it's functionally impossible to travel anywhere during this period without paying exorbitant amounts of money, I'm essentially spending it in Tokyo, bar one brief trip to Chiba and Gunma (more on those adventures in future blog posts).
Since I suddenly had all this relatively unplanned time off, I decided to finally check out Kogenin. But it turns out Kogenin is just one temple in the Karasuyama Teramachi (Temple Town), a district of 26 historic Buddhist temples, many of them transplants from other areas of the city following the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake. Optimistically, the area is also branded as "Setagaya's Little Kyoto."
It feels a bit like I should have known this sort of cultural history was within spitting distance of the station I use for my daily commute! But the temples are best-accessed from the opposite exit I use to get to my apartment and, without already knowing they were there, I would have had no reason to wander in that direction. So thank goodness for knowledgeable local friends!
I didn't make it to all 26 temples this past Sunday, but I made it to perhaps 20 of them. Of that not insignificant number, here are my favorites:
No. 20: Kogenin. It was moved to Karasuyama in 1926 and in the middle of its pond (which has many, many turtles in it) is this smaller shrine, Ukigodo.
No. 17: Myojuji. This temple, which was originally in Yanaka, was moved to Karasuyama in 1924. It had such a righteous bloom of azaleas and wisteria, not to mention a small bamboo grove and an absolutely gorgeous guest room, which was originally part of Prince Nabeshima's house. I love how the glass windows reflect all the greenery.
No. 18: Senkoji. Again, fairly unremarkable temple building, but the grave of well-known ukiyo-e artist Kitagawa Utamaro is located here.
No. 7: Shinryuji. This temple was originally a prayer hall for the Tokugawa family and was moved to Karasuyama after it was damaged in the 1923 earrthwake. I mostly loved it for the tricolored woven rope hung by its offerings box and the fearsome dragon spout dripping water.
No. 24: Jofukuji. This temple has been around since 1511! To be honest the building is pretty heinous, but the statues of humorous tanuki (raccoon dogs) make this a pretty intriguing pit stop.
Overall, this was an incredibly soothing way to spend a few hours. Most of the temples were completely deserted, giving me ample time to wander around, peer at details, and take photos without having to wait for people to get out of the way. While these temples don't have the same grandeur of other more famous locations such as Sensoji, they more than make up it in sheer tranquility.
So here's a few more shots of other gorgeous facades to close out the blog. Maybe some other weekend I'll return to check off the remaining 5 or so I didn't make it to.
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| No. 9: Shooin |
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| No. 10: Myoyuji |
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| No. 5: Joeiji |
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| No. 19: Eiganji |
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| No. 23: Genshoji |
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