Inside the temple of Kannon is the statue of Buddha which the fisherman captured in his net 1400 years ago. No matter the time period, people have always come here to worship.
Before you enter the Temple of Kannon first you need to purify yourself in the smoke outside of the temple. Then you must wash your hands and rinse your mouth. This ceremony is meant to cleanse oneself. Now from the outside look towards the temple. On the roof there are large tiles made of titanium that are both light and sturdy. On the large red lantern in the entrance are the Chinese characters for “Shinbashi”. This is dedicated to the restaurants and Geisha of Tokyo’s Shinbashi district.
The front has the characters 施無畏 “Semui” which is the name of the Buddha, and the literal meaning is the man saved from fear and uncertainty. On both sides of the temple are the Chinese characters meant to be a message from the Buddha-- no matter who you are, or where you come from, a helping hand of salvation exists.
From the right of the temple you can enter in further. Before you is a large 165 square meter hall with a glittering miniature shrine and chest. Let’s take a look at the chest from the back. Inside is said to be the original statue of the Buddha found by the fisherman. If you sing the words “Namukan-Zeon-Bosatsu”, it is a prayer to the Buddha.
But the statue of the Buddha which is inside this chest is actually not the principal object of worship for the temple. If the principal object of worship is not the statue of Buddha discovered by the fisherman, then what is?
At Asakusa Temple one time a year the chest is opened and you can worship the statue of the Buddha. This occurs on December 13th at 2 PM in the afternoon. However, as mentioned this is not the principal object of worship for the temple, because the object you can worship and see is only a copy of the original.
Then what is the principal object of worship? Actually the object is the original Buddha, which lies at the depths of the chest unseen. In fact, the actual statue has not been seen by any living person, because from 1300 years ago it was forbidden that anyone should see the statue. For that reason, even the current chief priest has never worshipped the actual statue.
If that is the case, then how do we know if it is actually there? It is of course natural to question whether it even exists.
But there is some proof from recent historical times. In the Meiji period a government ordinance was given to distinguish Buddhism and Shintoism. This was meant to separate temples and shrines, in other words to separate Buddhism and Shintoism. At the time a representative from the government ordered the head priest to reveal the statue, and in a separate room the box was opened and the contents were shown to government workers. In the government report, it was written that the statue of the Buddha is “quiet large and made of wood, and the feet have a lot of injuries.” These government workers who saw the statue all mysteriously died within a year.
While the documents exist, the following story of the deaths is questionable. We may never know the real story for sure.