Arab News Japan

TOKYO: An 18-meter-long golden dragon decorated with gold leaf paraded through the alleyways of popular Tokyo tourist area Asakusa on Monday to celebrate the origin of one of Tokyo’s most famous temples.

According to Buddhist legend, on March 18 in the year 628 two brothers discovered, while fishing in the Sumida River, a statuette of the goddess Boddhisatva Kannon, who is, for Buddhists, the goddess of compassion and mercy.

The two Hinokuma brothers collected the relic and Sensoji Temple was built in 645 by their lord, next to a small shrine where the statue was enshrined, making Sensoji one of the oldest temples in the capital.

In memory of the two brothers, pilgrims carry two symbolic fishing nets in which the statue was fished out. It is said that a dragon with golden scales descended from the sky as the earthly manifestation of the deity Kannon.

On Monday, the dragon’s progress was accompanied by Geisha musicians who played the shamisen and the shakuhachi. A musician sang a Buddhist song before the dragon dance began at the temple.

The Golden Dragon Festival only came about in 1958 after the reconstruction of the temple, which suffered in the firebombing of March 10, 1945, by the American military toward the end of the Pacific War.