Asakusa Shrine 浅草神社
Shrine from 1649, a cultural property since 1946: less crowded than Sensō-ji next door.
The current building (honden, heiden and haiden) is a gift from the third shōgun Tokugawa Iemitsu, completed in 1649 (慶安2年): it has survived fires, the 1923 earthquake and the bombings. The national register of cultural properties (国指定文化財等データベース) records the honden/heiden and the haiden as an Important Cultural Property since 29 November 1946; the shrine's official site instead gives 1951 as the year of designation, a different date from the government register's. According to the Sensō-ji tradition, the shrine venerates the three men at the origin of the adjacent temple: the fisherman brothers Hinokuma Hamanari and Takenari, and the local notable Hajino Nakatomo, hence the historical name ‘Sanja Gongen’, the shrine of the three.
Tokyo
Asakusa
