Tokyo’s Seven Lucky Gods
Felicia and I are in Japan, a trip we had to postpone because of COVID. We will spend three days each in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima with a side trip to Mt. Fuji. Students in my social studies methods class at Hofstra prepared paper cranes for me to leave at the peace memorial in Hiroshima.
Because of everything taking place at home (you know what I am referring to), we began our Tokyo tour with visits to the shines of the Seven Lucky Gods, hoping for a little luck for all of us. Japanese usually make the pilgrimage the first week in January as part of the New Year’s celebration, so when we visited, we hardly saw anyone. The Lucky Gods are revered by both followers of Shinto and Buddhist beliefs. Admission to the temple is free.
Some of the shrines are in popular parks and locales, but others are now hidden away in communities surrounded by homes and buildings. We wandered lost for an hour before we found the first one but then we got lucky. We used Google maps.to find the shrine and people on the street were very friendly and helped us using Google Translate. The distance between the first and last shrine is about six kilometers, less than four miles, and the trip is supposed to take only two hours, but because we spent so much time lost and were exhausted from our 13-hour flight, we only got to visit five of the shrines.
Our hotel, Tokyo 1899, is in Minto City near Gaza. We took the JR Yamanote metro line from Shimbashi station 10 stops north to the Tabata stop in the Kita district. The pilgrimage tour starts with Togakuji Temple, the home of Fukurokuju, the deity of wealth and longevity. Images of Fukurokuju usually show him as bald, with an elongate forehead and long whiskers. When we finally located the temple, it was in plain view on a main street, we just couldn’t read the street signs. We asked about half a dozen people for help, but no one actually knew where it was until one lady walking her dog pointed us in the right direction. This temple was founded by the Shingen sect of Buddhism in the late 15th century. The current building dates from the 17th century and is best known because of two large Niō statues, muscular guardians of the Buddha, in the front of the temple.
Seiunji Temple was a 15-minute walk from the Togakuji Temple in Nishi-nippori, south on the Yamanote line. This temple was hidden away amongst small private homes. The most interesting part of the shrine was its cemetery which is still being used. Only a few blocks away from Seiunji Temple was Shushōin Temple, also surrounded by residential houses. Seiunji Temple is home to Ebisu, the deity of fisherman and good commerce. Shushōin Temple is surrounded by a eight-foot high pink wall decorated with tile murals of Hoteison, the God of happiness.
Exhausted and hungry we skipped Choanji and Tennoji Temples, stopped to eat lunch, and took the Yamanote line south to Ueno Park where the last two temples on the pilgrimage trail are located. Gokokuin Temple is on the northwest edge of the park. Daikokuten is the god of agriculture and commerce, and the temple’s courtyard is an outdoor Noh theater. This was the only temple where I was able to take off my shoes and go inside. The only other people I met there were a young couple from Argentina.
Kaneiji or Benzaiten Temple is located in the middle of a man-made lake now filling in and covered with tall, stemmed water plants. Benzaiten, a female deity, is the goddess of music and knowledge. Her temple is the largest of the seven temples and the most visited. It is connected to park trails by a stone bridge with food and trinket vendors and inside the temple was a crowded gift shop.
As an atheist, I’m not much for praying, but I did ask each of the Lucky Gods if events at home could work out without all the trouble we are anticipating.
