First of all, we are sure you know that in the Japanese language “san” is used to address people respectfully. However, Narita-san is not a person. In this case “san” is a suffix meaning mountain. So a direct translation would be more like “Mt. Narita”. (And you guessed it, Mt. Fuji in Japanese is, “Fuji-san”). Now on to the main topic.
Over 1,000 years ago, a man by the name of Taira-no-Masakado led a rebellion against the government. While the country was deploying its troops, the government entrusted a statue of worship to a monk in Kyoto. That statue was Budōmyō’ō. The monk moved the statue from Kyoto to Narita. Through a homa ritual, the monk prayed to the statue and exactly 21 days after the prayer, the war settled down. Perhaps it was thanks to Budōmyō’ō that the nation was able to oppress the rebellion. Paying homage to that victorious battle, the temple housing the statue was renamed Shinshō-ji, meaning “New Win Temple”, and Budōmyō’ō became properly enshrined.
After being moved several times over hundreds of years, Budōmyō’ō ended up in today’s Daihon-dō. At that time, Narita was a farming village filled with only rice fields, and Shinshō-ji was just a small temple visited by the locals. That all changed about 300 years ago in the Edo period when the chief priests of the temple gathered helpers and finished the great main hall (Daihon-dō). To pay back the debt from this project, the temple started to promote itself to the large city of Edo (now Tokyo) which included a special exhibition of Budōmyō’ō.
By special exhibition, we mean that the prized Budōmyō’ō was sent to Tokyo and open for all to pray to. It could be compared the Mona Lisa being displayed in your hometown. Budōmyō’ō was carried around on a portable shrine, and as word got around, everyone wanted to take a look at the statue. With just one special exhibition, the temple made enough money to equal the cost of a main hall. Due to such positive results, there were 11 special exhibitions held in the Edo period, .
And it wasn’t just about money. These special exhibitions started a movement of people who wanted to visit the holy land of Budōmyō’ō: Shinshō-ji. It was a prosperous era, when even the commoners had enough free time for some travel. Walking to Narita from Edo took about 4 days and 3 nights. You could see people everywhere enjoying the trip to visit Shinshō-ji Temple. Due to the influx of people, restaurants, inns, and souvenir shops were established along the path to the temple, which is what is known as an omotesando.
Fast forward to the Meiji period, 150 years years ago, when the first railway from Tokyo to Narita was built. “Keisei Railways unites Tokyo and Narita.” Rather than Narita Airport, this railway was built to guide people to Narita-san Shinshō-ji Temple.Now that people could visit the temple in a day-trip, the number of visitors to the temple increased even more. With this surge of people, Shinshō-ji and its omotesando continued to prosper.
