Celebration: Sensoji Temple Honzon Gogenkai (Revelation of the Deity)

"Asakusa Shrine Mikoshi Main Hall Raising and Lowering Ceremony"

Date and Time:

Reiwa 7, March 2025
Monday, 17th, 5:00 PM - 6:40 PM
18th (Tue) 9:00 AM - 11:30 PM

place:

Sensoji Temple grounds Asakusa Shrine grounds

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Sensoji Temple Principal Image 1400th Anniversary Celebration
Request for donations for the "Funatogyo"

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Organized by: Asakusa Tourism Federation and Asakusa Shrine Support Association

Sponsored by: Sensoji Temple and Asakusa Shrine

March 17th (Tuesday)
5:00 p.m.: Shrine Mikoshi Ceremony to Encase the Divine Spirit
5:35 p.m. Three shrine mikoshi are taken out of the storehouse
5:50 PM: The procession departs from the grounds of Asakusa Shrine
6:00 p.m.: Shrine portable shrine raised to Sankido Hall
6:30 PM Sensoji Temple One-Mountain Ceremony Sutra Reading
6:40 PM: Hand clapping ceremony

*From around 5:45 pm on Tuesday, March 17th for approximately 60 minutes, you will not be able to enter the front stairs and corridors of the main hall of Sensoji Temple due to the raising of the portable shrine at the Sankido Hall.

Wednesday, March 18th
9:00 AM: Asakusa Shrine chief priest recites a prayer
9:05 AM Sensoji Temple One-Mountain Ceremony Sutra Reading
9:15 AM: The shrine mikoshi is lowered into the Sankido hall
9:35 AM: Shinto ritual Binzasara dance offering

9:45 AM Garden Festival Procession through the streets begins
10:15am: In front of the torii gate at Asakusa Shrine
10:15am Miyairi Procession
10:45am: Ote-shime

11:00 Shrine Maiden Dance
4:30 p.m. Three shrine mikoshi are placed in the storehouse
5:00 PM: Shrine Mikoshi Ceremony to Return the Divine Spirit

*From around 9:00 AM on Wednesday, March 18th, for approximately 60 minutes, you will not be able to enter the front stairs and corridors of the main hall of Sensoji Temple due to the lowering of the mikoshi (portable shrine) from the Sankido hall.

[Purpose]
The Sensoji Temple Honzon Shigen-e (Sensoji Temple Honzon Revealing Ceremony) is an event based on the Sensoji Temple Origins, which tells of how in the early morning of March 18th, in the 36th year of the reign of Empress Suiko (628 AD), brothers Himeka Hamanari and Takenari were fishing in Edoura (the Miyato River downstream of the Sumida River) when they discovered a Buddha statue in their cast net. When Haji Manakatomo worshiped it, he realized that it was a statue of the Bodhisattva Kannon, and together with his attendants, he enshrined the statue in the stump of a locust tree.According to the same legend, the Akaza Thatched Hall was then built overnight, and the statue was placed in the Thatched Hall by ten children, which is said to be the beginning of Sensoji Temple.Therefore, the Sensoji Honzon Shigen-e was held as an event to celebrate the birth of the town of Asakusa.
Furthermore, up until the Edo period, it was held together with the Sanja Matsuri, a festival that involved the procession of a portable shrine. However, after the Meiji Restoration, the Sanja Matsuri came to be held in May due to the Shinbutsu Bunri Edict, and the original meaning of the Sensoji Honzon Shigen-e, as described above, has tended to be lost.

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Sensoji Temple Principal Image 1400th Anniversary Celebration
Request for donations for the "Funatogyo"

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The postCelebration: Sensoji Temple Honzon Gogenkai (revealing the image of the principal image) "Asakusa Shrine Mikoshi Main Hall Raising and Lowering Ceremony" March 17th and 18th, 2026first appeared onAsakusa Tourism Federation.

*This post automatically translated by google translator*