Senso-ji, Asakusa

According to the temple, on 18 March 628 two fishermen, the brothers Hinokuma Hamanari and Takenari, drew a statue of Kannon from the Sumida River in their net. The village headman, Haji no Nakatomo, turned his home into a temple to venerate it. In 645 the priest Shokai built a hall for the image and, following a revelation in a dream, concealed it; the temple says it has never been shown publicly since. In the mid-ninth century Ennin made a replica for occasional display.

Shoguns, warriors and writers supported the temple over the centuries, and in 1590 Tokugawa Ieyasu made it a place of prayer for the shogunate. In the Edo period, devotion to Kannon spread among ordinary people and Asakusa became a centre of popular culture, later of theatre, film and vaudeville. The main hall built under Tokugawa Iemitsu was destroyed in the 1945 air raids and rebuilt in 1958; the Kaminarimon was rebuilt in 1960, the Hozomon in 1964 and the five-storied pagoda in 1973. JNTO notes that the temple has been rebuilt almost 20 times, each time with donations from across Japan.

Senso-ji is woven into the rhythm of Asakusa. Shopkeepers on Nakamise-dori have sold sweets such as rice crackers and small cakes to pilgrims for generations, and rickshaw pullers wait near the Kaminarimon. The temple's calendar is full of events, including the celebration of the appearance of Kannon in March and a year-end market of decorated hagoita paddles in December. In late spring the Sanja Matsuri, one of Tokyo's largest festivals, fills the streets around the temple and the neighbouring Asakusa Shrine.