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Words-and-Pictures:
Honsenji
(as seen on September 6th, 2001,
on the Old Tokaido stage of the Aki
Meguri)
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| Note:
This lovely Buddhist temple is between
Shinagawa in Tokyo Prefecture and Kawasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture, which
are Stations #1 and 2 respectively (from Nihombashi in Tokyo) on the
Old Tokaido Highway. You can read about my visit to Honsenji in my
Logbook.
You may also choose to start reading about my Tokaido
journey at the beginning, or start at the top of my Aki
Meguri pages.
I visited Honsenji again in
the summer of 2004 as part of a pilgrimage to the Edo Roku-jizo
(Six Jizos of Edo). An account of this will eventually be posted
elsewhere on The Temple Guy.
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Honsenji's charming
front gate. |
| This large statue is just outside the
gate. It is one of the Edo Roku-jizo--one of the
six statues of Jizo surronding Tokyo to protect it. Jizos
often come in sixes, one for each "world" in one form
of Buddhist cosmology. Finding six jizo together by the roadside
is quite common out in the country. |
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The stairs to the shoro (bell
tower). There is a true story about this bell being lost
and returned--a common motif in Japanese religious legends. |
| The beautiful Chinese-style Hondo (main
hall) contains a hidden image of "Suigetsu
(water-moon) Kannon." Though she can't be seen, her
image is one of a Kannon sitting by water, gazing at the moon's
reflection in it. |
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This small Benten-do
(a hall dedicated to Benten, patroness of music and the only
female in the popular shichifukujin or "Seven Lucky
Gods") also reflects Chinese style. |
| Honsenji also has its own homepage. |
HISTORY
