白山 • 小石川
HAKUSAN/KOISHIKAWA AREA
Koishikawa was a separate ward of Tokyo until 1947 when it was merged with Hongō to form Bunkyō Ward. The principal attractions here are the large gardens that were once daimyō property and variety of temples and shrines with interesting historical connections. The area is hilly. Arriving at Hauksan station, you may want to start your stroll with the Koishikawa Botanical Garden, moving southward so that the rest will be mainly downhill.
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Enjōji 圓乘寺
In Five Women Who Loved Love by Ihara Saikaku, there is an account of an unfortunate young woman connected with this temple. Oshichi was the daughter of a greengrocer whose family had temporarily evacuated to the temple after a fire. There she fell in love with a young novice priest. Later, in the hope of being reunited with him, she tried to set fire to the family home and was caught. The punishment for arson at that time was being burned alive and she was duly executed by that means. Next to her memorial stone is a statue of Jizō, where flowers and incense are commonly left. She gained much sympathy and her story can be found in plays, stories, and woodblock prints. In Hiroshige’s print series The Hundred Poets Compared, poem number 45 by Fujiwara no Koretada is accompanied by an image of Oshichi.
Hakusan Jinja 白山神社
This shrine was established in 948 and moved to this location in 1655. It is not particularly flashy; rather this is the kind of simpler place with a certain elegance that I enjoy visiting in Japan. The main hall has some nice carvings. It is particularly known among flower lovers for its hydrangeas and in mid-June holds a major hydrangea festival. Behind the shrine, next to Hakusan Park, is a nice fujizuka in a gated enclosure. When I first visited, the gate was locked and other visitors had left coins as offerings on the gate. Kikurihime is enshrined here and people pray here for luck in marriage. For some reason, during the Edo period the shrine also became a place to pray from relief from toothaches. Even now, people can leave their old toothbrushes in a box during the hydrangea festival and a memorial service will be held for them. A non-religious point of note is that the shrine is popular with neighborhood cats (well, for some it could be religious). There is also a statue of Sun Yat-sen, who is said to have seen Halley’s comet from the shrine and been inspired in his revolutionary ideals.
The shrine is in the middle of a dense neighborhood with many small streets and walkways. Main access is from the east and south. You can also enter from the small park just north of the shrine.
HAKUSAN/KOISHIKAWA AREA
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Sōkeiji 宗慶寺
This Jōdoshū temple lies in a white, three-story building with red trim on the beams and a green roof, placed very close to the street. This was the family temple of Chaa no Tsubone, a concubine of Tokugawa Ieyasu who gave birth to his sixth son, Matsudaira Tadateru. As would be expected, Chaa no Tsubone is buried here. There is a famous spring, no longer flowing, on the grounds, known as Gokurakusui “Water of Paradise.” Jurōjin is also enshrined here and it is on the local Shichifukujin pilgrimage.
The entrance is on the southeast side.
Harimazaka 播磨坂
A wide sloping section of road with a large center divider that has twin pedestrian pathways running down it. Harimazaka is famous for its cherry blossoms: the road has roughly 150 trees on either side and a third row in the middle of the center divider. These were planted in 1960 as part of a works project on the slope. During the cherry blossom season, one of the pathways on the center divider becomes an area for people to place mats and have viewing parties. At the top end of the slope you are one block from the Koishikawa Botanical Garden. The name comes from when the lords of Harima had a compound nearby.
Tarō Inari Jinja 太郎稲荷神社
A very small Inari shrine located in the Koishikawa Botanical Garden, slightly up slope from a pond and along a path in the southwest portion of the garden. The shrine is wooden with a tile roof. There is an easy-to-spot stone torii along the trail, at the head of the stone-lined pathway that leads up to the shrine.
Koishikawa Botanical Garden / Koishikawa Shokubutsuen 小石川植物園
This garden was originally a tsukiyama-style (hill-style) garden established by the Mito-han branch of the Tokugawa family in 1629. The Koishikawa Medicinal Herb Garden was established on the grounds in 1684 by Tokugawa Tsunayoshi to study the cultivation and extraction of medicines. It had been his place of residence before he became the fifth shōgun. In 1722, a hospital was established here for the poor upon the urging of Ogawa Shōsen. This is also where Aoki Konyō did his successful experiments with sweet potatoes in the 18th century to see if they could be grown in colder parts of Japan. In 1877, the administration of the garden was transferred to the University of Tokyo; it is presently operated as a research facility by the Graduate School of Science. There are some 4,000 species of plants growing in the garden. You can purchase an English map at the entrance. Just past the garden office is an apple tree that was a gift of the United Kingdom in 1964. The tree was grown from a graft of Newton’s famous tree. Next to it is a trellis with a grapevine propagated from the rootstock of a plant used by Gregor Mendel in his plant genetics experiments. That grapevine was a gift from Austria-Hungary in 1913. There is a Japanese garden with a pond that is popular with painters and photographers. Given the large number of trees, the fall colors are worth checking out. Kurosawa’s film Red Beard is set in the garden’s hospital.
The entrance is near the south-west corner of the gardens.
http://www.bg.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/koishikawa/eng/
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Jirō Inari Jinja 次郎稲荷神社
This shrine is located in the Koishikawa Botanical Garden, upslope from the Japanese garden—cross the bridge, turn left, and head uphill. The shrine placed against the hillside is very small and made of metal. It is filled with small ceramic foxes left as offerings by worshipers. The shrine itself is hard to see from the trail—look for the stone torii at the head of the path made of stepping stones that leads to it.
Koishikawa Annex, Museum of Architecture, The University Museum, The University of Tokyo / Tōkyō-daigaku sōgō kenkyū Hakubutsukan Koishikawa bun’in 東京大学総合研究博物館 小石川分館
The old main building of the Tokyo Medical School, built in 1876 and relocated here from the University’s Hongō campus in 1969, is next to the Japanese garden of the Koishikawa Botanical Garden. The building was not open to the public until 2001. Starting in 2013 it was reorganized to house miniature architectural models and and a variety of ethnological materials. The building is designated as an Important Cultural Property. Admission is free and it is possible to enter the museum either from the street or from within the Koishikawa Botanical Garden via a one-way gate. There is no access to the garden from the museum.
http://www.um.u-tokyo.ac.jp/architectonica/index_en.html
NOTE: The museum is closed Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays unless those are national holidays. It is also closed during the summer and year-end holidays.
Hikawa Jinja 簸川神社
The roof of the worship hall of Hikawa Jinja is ornamented with chigi—crossed beams at the ends of the rooflines—and katsuogi, which resemble logs laid perpendicular to the ridgeline. These are older architectural elements that trace back to the Jōmon period. Hikawa Jinja shrines are popular—there are fifty-nine in Tokyo. The main shrine is located in Ōmiya, north of Tokyo. The slope Hikawazaka (簸川坂) runs on the west side of the shrine grounds. The honden of Hikawa Jinja is close to the slope, so you can get a view of the back and one side of it from the street. This Hikawa Jinja is not to be confused with the one in Sailor Moon. Actually I should say the two, as the shrine in the manga is based on a different Hikawa Jinja than the one in the anime; both of those are in Minato Ward.
The kami enshrined here is Susanoo no Mikoto. The entrance is to the south.
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Nensokuji 念速寺
The temple itself is rather ordinary; however the graveyard includes the grave of an interesting woman. Mikijo was the first person in Japan to will her body for medical research. Years earlier her father was ill and to make ends meet, she signed a contract to become a prostitute, something considered a self-sacrificial act of filial piety in the past. As a result of her trade she contracted syphilis, and shortly before her death she donated her body to medical science. At the time such a thing would have been unheard of and we have no idea why she did this. The back of the gravestone has a message of thanks from the Tokyo Medical School doctors who studied her body. The grave is in the middle of the back wall of the graveyard; the only characters you can still read on the front are 美幾, Miki. The gravestone is protected in a plastic case and there is a signboard behind the stone indicating that it is her grave. The plastic case is open at the lower end of the front so flowers, incense, and offerings can be left.
The entrance to Nensokuji is to the east.
▲ The Koishikawa Annex of the University of Tokyo Museum has stood since the Meiji.
▲ The main gate of Denzūin bears the triple hollyhock leaf crest of the Tokugawa clan.
▲ Hakusan Jinja on a quiet weekday morning still has worshipers visiting.
▲ The Zenkōjizaka Mukunoki Tree: There are stone benches nearby to stop for a rest.
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Mansei 萬盛
This sobaya goes back to at least the early 17th century. The entrance is located between a convenience store and an apartment building entrance. The sign has the same symbol of a wish-granting gem flanked by stylized, curved rice stalks as Takuzōsu Inari Jinja. There is a legend that the monk Takuzōsu was fond of soba and regularly visited Mansei. The shopkeeper became curious as to why there would often be a leaf in the cash box at the end of those days. He followed the monk after a meal and saw him disappear into the Inari shrine. The story has been passed down in the family to this day, and they offer a fresh portion of each day’s first soba at Jigenin, the temple that the shrine is part of.
Zenkōjizaka Mukunoki Tree 善光寺坂のムクノキ
This tree is estimated to be about 400 years old and is said to be visited by Inari from Takuzōsu Inari Jinja. At one time the tree was set to be cut down for road expansion, but the objections of the neighborhood resulted in it being spared. The tree was damaged in World War II but has survived. Nearby was the former residence of two well-known 20th-century novelists, Kōda Rohan and his daughter Kōda Aya.
Takuzōsu Inari Jinja 澤蔵司稲荷 and Jigenin 慈限院
This shrine was established in 1620 and is part of the same complex as the Jōdoshū temple Jigenin. The two are under the same administration, a rare example of a Buddhist temple and Shintō shrine that were not separated in the Meiji period. The main temple hall was last rebuilt in 1956 and houses an Eleven Headed Kannon statue. On the grounds there is a stone with inscription by Bashō, who once rested at the temple when he was involved with maintenance of the Kanda waterworks. Enshrined in Takuzōsu Inari Jinja are Inari and Takuzōsu. Takuzōsu was a brilliant monk who had studied at the nearby Denzūin, mastering many teachings in only a few years. At one point Takuzōsu appeared to the head priest of Denzūin in a dream and explained that he was an incarnation of Inari, and so the shrine came to be built.
The shrine, or cluster of shrines, is on a hillside to the right of the temple and includes a small cave where a white fox is said to have a den. The site has a good number of trees and is often in shadow; it must be a cool place to visit on hot summer days. Nagai Kafū also mentioned Takuzōsu Inari Jinja in his story “The Fox.”
The entrance is to the south.
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Denzūin 傳通院
A Jōdoshū temple founded in the 14th or 15th century. Tokugawa Ieyasu had the remains of his mother, Odai no Kata, moved to this temple in 1603. The temple was then nicknamed after her posthumous Buddhist name, Denzūin Den. Her grave is the tallest in the cemetery and there is a memorial tablet on the right of the main altar. Many other Tokugawa graves are here, such as the grave of Senhime, daughter of Tokugawa Hidetada and wife of Toyotomi Hideyori. Other women connected to the Tokugawa buried here include Takatsukasa Takako, the wife of Iemitsu, and concubines of several shōguns. The complex was devastated in World War II; the main building was rebuilt in 1988 and the main gate in 2011. The main statue is Amida Buddha, with two Bodhisattvas on either side: to the left is the main Kannon statue, and left of that is another Kannon with many arms, a memorial to the dead from the 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake and tsunami. There is a small tearoom on the grounds with literature about temple events. The three large statues in front of the bell tower are known as Yakushi Sanzon, “Yakushi trinity.” The sculpture of two hands is called the Yubizuka and is a monument to the good done by practitioners of shiatsu, a Japanese bodywork technique.
A Kannon ceremony is held at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on the eighteenth of every month. On the weekend closest to July 20 there is a morning glory fair at the temple. Denzūin is one of the temples on the Tokyo 33 Kannon Pilgrimage.
The entrance is to the south.
Shinjuin 真珠院
The hondō (main hall) at this Buddhist temple is an interesting round modern structure. The courtyard has a collection of several statues mainly along the left side as you enter. If you go around to the left of the main hall and down the stairs, you will reach the graveyard, which includes some impressive daimyō tombs. Just to the left of the main hall and before the stairs is a multisided stone sculpture mounted about head height, with a different Bodhisattva or Buddha on each side. The sculpture rotates so a worshiper can choose the one they wish to address a prayer to.
The entrance is to the east.
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Genkakuji 源覚寺
A Jōdoshū temple founded in 1624. Konnyaku Enma, one of the three great Enma of Edo, is located here. The statue was carved in the Kamakura period with some restoration work done in 1672 and is designated a Cultural Property of Bunkyō Ward. The right eye of the statue is a solid color, much like that of a blind eye. Prayers to this Enma are said to help cure eye diseases. There is a legend of an old woman who prayed to Enma and was cured of her eye disease. In thanks, the woman gave up eating konnyaku, which was her favorite food, and instead offered it to Enma. Giving something up as an offering is an old tradition in Japan. Since then, konnyaku offerings have been common at this temple.
At the entrance, the stone under a small roof is a hyakudoishi. There are also two headless Jizō statues in a small shelter collectively known as the Shio Jizō “salt Jizō.” People pray here for relief from a health problem and then put some salt on the corresponding body part of the statue. These Jizō are considered especially good at dealing with toothaches. There is also an interesting bell on the temple grounds. The bell was placed in storage after a fire in 1844; in 1937 it was transferred to a temple in Japanese-controlled Saipan, where it went missing during the war. In 1965 it was found in Texas—the assumption is that a GI took it home as souvenir—and the bell was returned to the temple. Next to the temple is a bodhisattva statue as a memorial to those who died in the South Pacific. People who travel to Saipan bring back shells and place them in front of this statue.
The sixth of every month is the temple fair. On the weekend closest to July 20 there is a Hōzuki Ichi “Chinese Lantern Plant Fair” at the temple.
The entrance is to the east.
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