Sugamo: Togenuki Jizō (Kōgan-ji) and Jizō-dōri

photo by Drivephotographer · CC0

Kōgan-ji, ‘the grannies' Harajuku’: 780 m of shops, a 1957 temple in reinforced concrete

At the end of the street you queue to wash the statuette of Arai Kannon with a towel, on the spot where your own body hurts: it is the gesture people come here for. First you walk through 780 metres of shops for an elderly clientele (hence ‘the grannies' Harajuku’), among rice sweets and senbei. The temple, rebuilt in 1957, reproduces in concrete the forms of a wooden building.

Kōgan-ji temple, of the Sōtō Zen school, was founded in 1596 and moved to its present site in Sugamo in 1891; it is known as Togenuki Jizō, ‘the thorn-removing Jizō’, from the tradition that its sacred image heals ailments. The present main building, in reinforced concrete, was completed in 1957 to a design by Yokoyama Hideya (then a lecturer at Tōhoku University): it reproduces in a modern material the forms of a traditional wooden temple, and was designated a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (登録有形文化財) on 8 January 2009, the second building in Toshima-ku to receive that designation, according to the temple's official site. The street alongside it, Jizō-dōri, has over time become a destination aimed above all at elderly visitors.

ℹ️ The temple grounds are always accessible (‘24時間参拝自由 年中無休’); the main hall (本堂) is open 6:00–17:00, extended to 20:00 on market days (the 4th, 14th and 24th of the month), when more people come and the queue to wash the statue grows longer. Free entry. Most shops on the street are open 10:00–18:00, each with its own hours. Nearest stations: Sugamo (JR Yamanote line and Toei Mita metro) on the temple side, Shin-Sugamo (Toei Mita metro) at the other end of the street.

🚉 Sugamo · 7 min walk

Sources: togenuki.jp · togenuki.jp · online.bunka.go.jp · city.toshima.lg.jp · sugamo.or.jp

All series · Open the map