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Nishiarai · Adachi · northern Tokyo

Burned in Peacetime

It survived the firebombing. Then it burned down on an ordinary Wednesday in 1966.

Nishiarai Daishi is one of the busiest temples in northern Tokyo, and English-language guides all say the same things about it: peonies, wisteria, the salt-covered Jizō, the food stalls. None of them mention that the big hall in the middle — the one every visitor photographs — is reinforced concrete finished in 1971, and that the oldest structure on the grounds is a small tower in the corner that you are not allowed to enter.

One hourFreeStation is at the gateTōbu Daishi Line

The temple's own account puts its founding at 826, by Kūkai. Whatever you make of that, the place has been a working pilgrimage site for a very long time, and its main hall was built in the middle of the Edo period — a serious piece of eighteenth-century carpentry, still standing when Tokyo burned in 1945.

It did not burn in 1945. It burned on 25 May 1966, and was completely destroyed. The main image was carried out. The hall you see now was rebuilt in 1971, in reinforced concrete, paid for by donations from the temple's parishioners.

That order of events is the whole reason to come here with your eyes open. In Tokyo you get used to a single explanation for why old things are missing: the war. It becomes a reflex. But the war is not the only thing that has been removing this city's buildings, and it was not even the most recent one to take this hall.

TWO STRUCTURES, ONE SITE Main hall 本堂 built mid-Edo period survives 1945 25 May 1966 burned down rebuilt 1971 — reinforced concrete Three-storey tower 三匝堂 said to date from 1834 · refitted 1884 never rebuilt
The fire that mattered here was not a war. The hall people photograph is younger than the Tokyo Tower; the tower nobody photographs is older than the Meiji era.

The thing in the corner

Off to one side, small enough that most visitors walk straight past it, is a three-storey wooden tower. Its name, sansōdō, means roughly "the hall you go around three times" — you climb by spiralling, three circuits to reach three floors. The popular name for this building type is sazae-dō, "turban-shell hall", after the spiral of the shell.

Almost none of these were ever built, and almost none survived. This is the only sazae-dō left in Tokyo. The temple's account dates it to 1834, with a refit in 1884. It is about 3.7 metres square inside and roughly 10 metres tall, and it has been a registered cultural property of Adachi ward since December 1982.

You cannot go in. The interior is closed; only the outside is on view.

Which is, in a strange way, the point. A building whose entire purpose is a route you walk — spiral up, spiral down — has had that purpose suspended, and it is still standing there being a shape. Meanwhile the hall that is in use, that people queue at and throw coins into, is the newest major structure on the site.

HOW A SAZAE-DŌ IS MEANT TO WORK enter 1st circuit 2nd circuit 3rd — top floor Three circuits that is literally the name: 三匝 = "three windings" Closed exterior viewing only — you see a route you cannot walk Schematic. The interior arrangement is not on public view, so this shows only what the building's name and form describe.
A staircase disguised as a religious journey. Sazae-dō are rare anywhere in Japan; this is the last one in Tokyo.

Where things are, and how old they are

The layout is worth having in your head before you arrive, because the two oldest structures are the two you are least likely to walk towards.

THE PRECINCT, BY AGE the approach — stalls, crowds station 大師前 Gate Edo period salt Jizō Main hall 1971 · concrete everyone stops here 三匝堂 1834 off the route Schematic, not to scale. The two brown structures are the ones that predate the 1966 fire.
The newest building sits on the axis; the oldest sits off to the side. That is why almost nobody photographs it.

What else is actually old

The gate, with its pair of guardian figures, is Edo-period work and came through both the fire and the war. The salt-covered Jizō is the one thing here the English guides do mention: a stone figure buried under handfuls of coarse salt, where people with warts and skin complaints take a pinch away with them and bring back double when it works. Watch how people do it before you touch anything.

And then there is the crowd. This is one of the "three great warding temples" of the Kantō region, and it behaves like one — on a New Year or a festival day the approach is solid with people and stalls. That is not a bug. A temple that is this busy is a temple with a living parish, which is exactly why it could rebuild a burned hall by subscription in five years.

Getting there: Daishi-mae Station (大師前駅) on the Tōbu Daishi Line — the station is essentially at the gate. Change at Nishiarai (西新井駅) on the Tōbu Skytree Line
When: grounds 9:00–16:30 (last entry 16:20). Free
Best: a weekday morning. Avoid New Year unless crowds are what you came for
Asking where the tower is, if you cannot find it sansōdō wa dochira desu ka
Before photographing anything close up shashin o totte mo ii desu ka

Why this is worth knowing

Tokyo teaches visitors a single story about loss: it all burned in the war. It is true and it is not sufficient. Buildings here have also gone in earthquakes, in wartime metal drives, in road widenings, in developers' hands, and — as here — in an ordinary electrical fire on an ordinary spring day in the middle of the post-war boom.

So when you stand in front of something in this city and it looks old, the useful question is not "did it survive the war?" It is "what did it survive, and what did it not?" At Nishiarai Daishi the answer is written across the grounds: the big thing lost, the small thing kept.

The honest part

The tower is small, closed, and easy to miss even when you are looking for it. You will spend more time finding it than looking at it. There is no explanation of any of this in English anywhere on the site.

The main hall being from 1971 does not make it worthless — it is a well-used, well-loved building and the parishioners paid for it themselves — but if you came for eighteenth-century carpentry, it is not there any more. Adjust before you arrive rather than after.

The exact cause of the 1966 fire is not something I have been able to confirm, and I am not going to guess at it. If the temple office tells you, you will know more than this article does.

One hour, in order

  1. 0:00Daishi-mae StationTōbu Daishi Line — two stops, changing at Nishiarai
  2. 0:05The gateEdo-period. Look at the guardians before you walk through
  3. 0:15The main hall1971, reinforced concrete. Stand in front of it knowing that
  4. 0:25Find the sansōdōoff to the side. Small, three storeys, shut
  5. 0:40The salt Jizōwatch someone else do it first
  6. 0:50The approach and the stallsthis is the part that has not changed

Adachi ward carries on north from here. Takenotsuka is a few stops away, and there is a shrine there with a pine tree in the walls — that story is here.