Kaminarimon: An Afternoon in Asakusa

Nakamise-dori, the Thunder Gate's lantern, and the walk to Senso-ji's five-story pagoda — one November afternoon in Tokyo.

November 5, 2010Asakusa, Tokyo, JapanPanasonic Lumix DMC-TZ10 · Integrated 25–300mm equiv. zoom · f/3.3–5, ISO 80–400

Senso-ji is Tokyo’s oldest temple, founded in 645, and Kaminarimon — the Thunder Gate — is the part everyone photographs first. It’s not subtle: a giant red-and-black lantern hanging dead center over the entrance, with rows of shop lanterns lining Nakamise-dori behind it and a crowd that never really thins out.

The Thunder Gate

Kaminarimon, the red lantern gate at the entrance to Senso-ji, seen above a crowded Nakamise-dori — Kaminarimon's lantern, 1/160s at f/4, over the crowd on Nakamise-dori.

I came back to the gate more than once that afternoon, trying angles that weren’t just “lantern, centered.” This one, looking back through a roadside willow, caught a group in matching happi coats — some local event I never worked out the occasion for.

Kaminarimon gate framed by a willow tree, with a group of people in happi coats in the foreground — Kaminarimon through the willow tree out front.

Close-up of a temple lantern's fabric panel, printed with columns of donor names — The lantern's side, covered edge to edge in donors' names.

View looking straight up at the underside of a lantern, showing a carved wooden dragon relief — Straight up into the underside — a carved wooden dragon under all that paper.

Hōzōmon

A short walk down Nakamise-dori — past more senbei and souvenir stalls than I could photograph — is the second gate, Hōzōmon, guarding the temple courtyard proper. It has its own lantern and its own pair of guardian statues, each standing behind a mesh screen that makes them almost impossible to shoot cleanly.

Guardian statue at Hōzōmon, photographed through protective wire mesh — One of the two guardian statues — through the wire mesh.

A second guardian statue at Hōzōmon, on the opposite side of the gate, also behind wire mesh — Its counterpart on the other side of the gate.

Senso-ji

Past Hōzōmon, the courtyard opens onto the Main Hall. It’s busier than either gate, if that’s possible, but the building has enough presence to hold its own against the crowd — and the five-story pagoda off to the side is worth the extra few minutes of neck strain.

Detail of Senso-ji's roofline with a wind bell hanging from the eave against a blue sky — A wind bell hanging from the Main Hall's eave, 1/400s to freeze it against the sky.

Sunlight filtering through a ginkgo tree in the temple courtyard, with a Buddha statue at its base — A ginkgo tree catching the last of the direct sun.

Senso-ji's five-story pagoda seen through tree branches — The five-story pagoda, telephoto through the tree cover.

A temple gate with a large lantern, framed by a willow tree, in late afternoon light — Back at the gate before heading home, the light almost gone.

I didn’t have much more than a point-and-shoot with me that day, and it shows in a few of these. But Kaminarimon and Senso-ji are forgiving subjects — built to be looked at from every angle, by a lot of people, all at once, for centuries before anyone had a camera at all.