玉川大師

Tamagawa Daishi

Useful Information

Location:	4-13-3 Seta, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo. 15 minute walk from Futako Tamagawa Station. (35.618702, 139.627194)
Open:	All year daily 9-16:30. [2023]
Fee:	Adults JPY 100. [2023]
Classification:	Cave Church
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Tamagawa Daishi, 4-13-3 Seta, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Tel: +81-3-3700-2561.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1925	temple built.
1934	tunnel completed.

Description

玉川大師 (Tamagawa Daishi) is a temple of the Chizan sect of Shingon Buddhism. The official name is 寶泉山玉眞院 or ほうせんざんぎょくしんいん (Hosenzan Gyokushinin). It is a temple, one of hundreds in the city Tokyo, but it has a special feature called 地下仏遍照金剛殿 (Underground Buddhist Pilgrimage Vajradhara Hall). A 100 m long underground tunnel represents Buddha’s intestines, hence all the bends.

To visit the tunnel enter the temple through the garden. Before you enter the temple you must get rid of your shoes, and as taking pictures is forbidden all cameras and smartphones. And of course, lamps are also forbidden. Inside there is a staircase, with a tray for your mandatory donation of JPY 100, for which you get plastic slippers. Then you descend 5 m and reach an unlit tunnel. This is intended, to help you appreciate the divinity of light. Slowly feeling your way along the wall you will reach a candlelit chamber full of statues.

This is not just a random collection of statues, actually there are three sets of Buddha statues. The candlelit corridor contains 300 small Buddhas, each with his own individual demeanour. The special feature is that it has 88 Buddha statues which represent the 88 temples on a traditional pilgrimage route around the island of Shikoku. So it is possible to make the whole pilgrimage underground. And another set of 33 statues represents the 33 temples of Kannon, the goddess of mercy. So it's possible to make any of the pilgrimages quite effective in the shortest possible time, about 15 minutes instead of several weeks. And finally you reach the end of the tunnel where you can ring a bell to signal your completion of the pilgrimage.

The founder of Chizan sect of the Shingon Buddhism was 空海 or くうかい (Kūkai). He became later known under the name 弘法大師 or こうぼうだいし (Kōbō Daishi) and it is the reason why the temple is called 玉川大師 (Tamagawa Daishi).