Asakusa Kwannon
(Asakusa Senso-ji)

(Above:) [Untitled.] This ca. 1930 aerial view of Asakusa Senso-ji is inscribed: "'Her statue is only 1.8 inches, but she is the head of offertory-workers in Japan. How wonderful she is!' Such a saying is a pride of Edokko (Tokyoite), and they respect her deeply at the Asakusa-kwan-non temple."

Historically, Asakusa has accommodated both the pious and the profane. A stones' throw from the licensed red-light district of Yoshiwara, and bordered by a bawdy theater district and the rowdy sideshow atmosphere of Hana-Yashiki, Asakusa served as a magnet for those in search of pleasure -- carnal or otherwise -- and redemption. For a period far longer than any other worship ground in Tokyo, Asakusa has attracted more of the religiously devoted (and reilgiously curious) than it has the morally suspect even into the modern era. A late-Meiji perioda survey indicated over 130 temples and shrines in just Asakusa-ku [Ward] alone.

The largest temple in the ward, and by far the oldest in the city, is Asakusa Senso-ji -- more popularly known as the Asakusa Kwannon for its diminuitive occupant. The first temple was established in 628 B.C.E. when a castaway figurine, only 2-inches tall, was netted from the Miyato River by two fisherman brothers. Their find was recognized as the Kwannon, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. Senso-ji gained additional importance, and popularity, too, when, during the rule of the first Tokugawa Shogun, Ieyasu, it was designated a family prayer temple. The Tokugawa clan became great patrons of the temple during their 250-year regime.

Other temples and small shrines surround the Kwannon. The second-most prominent structure was the 5-Story Pagoda, originally located in the southeast corner of the temple grounds.