Asakusa is the centre of Tokyo’s shitamachi (virtually “low city”), where by an ambiance redolent with the city’s earlier survives. Asakusa’s primary attraction is Sensō-ji, a extremely well known Buddhist temple, built in the 7th century. The entry to the temple is by way of the Nakamise, a browsing road effectively identified for its wooden-block prints, local treats, conventional kimonos and dangling paper lanterns.

The year was 1995. I was on 1 of my early visits to Japan. Whilst hunting for the regular touristy knick-knacks at the crowded Nakamise memento retailers, I got into a conversation with a younger Japanese lady who spoke great English and was curious about the Ganesha tee I was sporting. As we received chatting she pointed me to a temple on a slight hillock nearby declaring I could fulfill Lord Ganesha right there in Tokyo too! I was astonished and intrigued.





Matsuchiyama Shoden (also termed the Honryūin Temple), poised on a low hilltop oversees the Sumidagawa river and was immortalised in a person of Utagawa Hiroshige’s famed Ukiyo-e (woodblock paintings). This temple of the Tendai Sect of Buddhism, the vacationer facts board reported, was most likely established in 601 Advertisement (even possibly in 595 Advert as for each other information). Indeed, that is more mature than the major Sensō-ji temple of Asakusa (which was most probably proven in 645 Advertisement). Matsuchiyama Shoden is a Ganesha temple, committed to Kangiten.

The Japanese deity Kangiten inherits many names and features from the Hindu god Ganesha. He is recognized as Bināyaka-ten extremely very similar to our Hindu Vinayaka the Japanese names for the God – Ganabachi and Ganwha seem pretty equivalent to Ganesha. Like Ganesha, Bināyaka is also the remover of hurdles, and when prayed to, he is supposed to bestow very good fortunes on devotees, shower prosperity, bestow achievements and very good health to all. In addition, Bināyaka-10 in Japan is claimed to be the destroyer of Evil a beacon of morality. Analysis shows me that there is but an additional moniker for Ganesha … Shō-10 or Āryadeva, the harbinger of fantastic luck and fortune. So significantly for similarities.

The name Kangiten, is usually linked to Tantric embracing deity icons, commemorated as the givers of joy and prosperity. The Twin Kangiten icon identified as Soshin Kangi-ten (“dual-bodied god of bliss”) is a exceptional element of Shingon Buddhism. It is also identified as Soshin Binayaka in Japanese, and is really the same as Nandikeshvara in Sanskrit.

Early Buddhism was deeply intertwined with Hinduism. Consequently, quite a few Japanese educational institutions of Buddhism, in particular people influenced by Tantric believed, introduced Hindu devas or gods in their fold of worship. Some of these, more than time, bought adopted in the local pantheon and are involved with distinct bodhisattvas. So, the lines have sort of blurred around the centuries.

Apparently, the Japanese avatar of Lord Ganesha is not into modaks. His favorite giving is radishes! All across the temple of Matsuchiyama, on the partitions and on the roof, all I noticed ended up carvings and paintings of daikon (Japanese white radish). Kangiten in Japan, I was informed, is a creator of road blocks, who is however placated easily by way of prayer and transforms into a remover of road blocks. And what appeases him are radishes! Daikon is viewed as a image of marital harmony, superior relations and really like concerning married partners. Blessings of Kangiten, the brochure claimed produced for perfect matchmaking, and helped fertility publish relationship. Symbolism pretty related to our Lord Ganesha.


Kangiten / Vinayakaten are the names of Ganesha in Japan and he has been worshipped in the country for past about 1000 yrs.

Daikon choices had been emblazoned on lanterns, stone plates and wood carvings at the temple. They ended up just about everywhere. Matsuchiyama Shoden evidently retains a daikon festival on 7 January each and every year when people today occur to pray for the effectively-getting of their households and results in enterprise. When a daikon is supplied by a devotee, the pershad offered by the shrine is cooked Japanese radish (furofuki daikon) and sacred rice sake (omiki). The sake is very usual at Japanese shrines but the cooked radish was absolutely unique. At the temple, apart from the overpowering daikon imagery, there were being lots of photos of dollars pouches far too. I think the pouches signified achievements in small business. Not diverse from Hindu symbolism.

“Bliss-buns” (kangi-dan), a deep fried confection filled with crimson-bean paste is meant to be a delicacy of the Shoden temple. Even so, I could not sample these all through my go to.

A poster on screen at Matsuchiyama Shoden talked about an oil-bathing (yokuyu kitō) ritual to honor the deity Kangiten, referred to him in the interaction as the God of Bliss. The ceremonial bathing ritual was evidently meant to fulfill all the prayers of devotees, I was told during my temple take a look at. How the ritual bathing is specifically finished nonetheless was not quite clear, as there was no info available about it. It need to be, I suppose, like the mustard oil poured at Hanuman temples on Tuesdays again house. A single session, the poster stated, price JPY 3500. I had to give the oil-bath a miss, whatever it was intended to be.

The Matsuchiyama Shoden temple is relatively tiny. There is a compact pond on the premises. The hill, a local knowledgeable me, is accessible by The Sakura Rail, a cross between an elevator and a monorail. I came back again blessed from the temple take a look at though the true Ganesha statue remains ‘vaulted’ since it is ensconced in an internal sanctum not seen from the community places.

Though Kangiten is worshipped throughout Japan, Hōzan-ji on the summit of Mount Ikoma is his most crucial and energetic temple. Even though the temple is considered to have been founded in the sixth century, it arrived in the limelight in the 17th century when the monk Tankai (1629–1716) manufactured the temple’s Gohonzon, a Heian period, gilt-bronze impression of the Twin Kangiten, the centre of attraction and devotion.

There is also a huge Kangiten in Kyoto, put in by Emperor Gikogon in 1372 CE, which is the closest likeness to the Indian Ganesha.

So, through this interval of Ganesha celebrations in India, it is gratifying to know that the Lord’s dominions extend to significantly-away Japan exactly where the Vighnaharta has a next way too.
Dr. Sandeep Goyal is a self-confessed Nipponophile. He has visited Japan more than 100 times. He is the author of two textbooks on Japan, Konjo – The Battling Spirit and Japan Produced Straightforward, each revealed by Harper Collins.