Looking for Yama.

August 25, 2011 10:09 PM

Help me find a shrine for Yama in Tokyo.

A few years ago my friend and I were in Tokyo on vacation. We had come in the rainy season and it had been raining on us for the past several days, constantly. One day we were walking around somewhere and it was really really pouring so we ducked into a temple to take shelter and look around. I remember it was not a big place, maybe about the size of a small parking lot. There was nobody there, I don't think it was so well known. While we were there we threw some money in the thing and asked the resident diety, Yama, to make the rain stop. The next day, it stopped raining and didn't rain again for the rest of the trip.

The correlation is clear.

Anyway, I'm back in Tokyo now and I want to visit that same spot... trouble is, since we were lost when we found it, I have no idea where it is.

Here are the facts I can remember, sort of.

-It was definitely a shrine dedicated solely to Yama, otherwise known as Enma Dai-Ō, lord of hell. This fine gentlemen right here.

-Either I read this in a guide book or on a sign post, but I think this was supposed to be the largest such shrine to Yama in Tokyo.

-It was a residential area, not very busy. I think we visited another, much more popular Shinto shrine on the same (long) street beforehand. It was a big one there were lots of people there. We may have been near kappabashi, but I'm really unsure about that.

Not a lot to go on, I know. Does anyone have any idea of the place I am talking about?

posted by tracert to travel & transportation around Tokyo, Japan (9 answers total)

It's not this place, is it?

http://www.enma.or.jp/sanpai.html (warning, no English, but hopefully map and/or pics can help)

As far as I can tell this page doesn't say anything about it being the biggest shrine in Tokyo, but the about page suggests that this is Japan's biggest Enma statue: 日本最大の閻魔大王座像　(全高3.5m　全幅4.5m　重量1.5ｔ　寄木造り). My fairly poor translation would be "Japan's largest King Enma statue—height of 3.5 meters, width (not sure about this word) of 4.5 meters, weight of 1.5 tons, wood construction (I'm pretty sure). I realize that this is not the same as biggest shrine in Tokyo, but maybe you're misremembering...?

Google Maps link

Hopefully you can verify one way or the other by checking out Google Street view...another identifying factor, if you go to the Google Maps page for that address, you see another bigger temple linked to below, which could possibly be the one you were thinking of...except it is Buddhist I think, not Shinto...

Well, I hope this helps!
posted by dubitable at 10:53 PM on August 25, 2011

Oh, and it's not particularly close to Kappabashi either but it is near the Sumida, so maybe you were thinking of that?
posted by dubitable at 10:57 PM on August 25, 2011

I flubbed those second two links somehow, sorry...I meant to link to here and here respectively.
posted by dubitable at 11:03 PM on August 25, 2011

This sounds very much like Enno-ji (or Ennou-ji) in Kamakura (a short 20 minute train ride from Tokyo), which while a Buddhist temple rather than a shrine, otherwise matches your description --- a small temple on a largely rural road dedicated to Enma. The much larger, more popular Kencho-ji temple is literally just down the street from Enno-ji, so that might be the other site you mention.) There are a handful of pictures here, though the site is in Japanese.

Those are the only pictures I could find, but having been there a few times, I can kind of describe it. It's on the side of a narrow highway, and there is a steep, unadorned ascent to the top of the temple. There aren't really any gardens to speak of, just a simple hall, inside of which there are 12(?) statues of the various judges of hell on either side, with Enma sitting in the middle. The expressions of the judges ranges from rage to simmering contempt, but Enma himself is poised, cross-legged, screaming in anger. The effect of being inside the hall is...unnerving.

This is the only temple I can think of in the Tokyo area devoted to Enma --- actually, truth be told, the only one I can think of in Japan. While it's not Tokyo-to, it's close enough that I think this really might be it.
posted by Tiresias at 11:24 PM on August 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh, here is a photo of the stairway I mentioned. Maybe that will jostle something loose in your memory.
posted by Tiresias at 11:26 PM on August 25, 2011

The stairway photo and explanation are from Engaku-ji (temple) very near Kita-Kamakura Station.

Kamakura is one hour and a world of tranquility away from Tokyo, and well worth seeing.
posted by ecourbanist at 2:49 PM on August 26, 2011

It's not either of these, but clearly the reason is because I have some (or probably all) of my facts wrong. Best answers to both of you for trying. I think I will visit the temple in Kamakura today, this sounds like a cool place to check out. Thanks guys!
posted by tracert at 4:39 PM on August 26, 2011

You're welcome.

If you do go and find something interesting, post again. I miss Kamakura.
posted by ecourbanist at 7:04 AM on August 27, 2011

Late to the party here, but Kamakura is my very favourite part of Japan. It's got all the cultural richness of, say, Kyoto, but without any of the junior high school students on school trips bustling about and crowding your view. Particularly Kita-Kamakura...the tranquility is beyond words. (If you're up for it, the two main hiking trails are absolutely astounding, and amongst the highlights of the years I spent in Japan.)
posted by Tiresias at 11:15 PM on August 29, 2011