Sensoji Temple in Asakusa

The temple in Asakusa is popularly known as Asakusa Kannon and is one of Tokyo's most famous and sacred temples.

It was said that in 628 AD, two fishermen fished a small statue of Kannon, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy out of the Sumida River. It was then that their master built a shrine for Kannon.

Then in the year 645, a holy man by the name of Shokai built a temple in honor of the Goddess.

In time, the fame, wealth and size grew until Tokugawa Ieyasu presented them with land. The temple increasingly grew in popularity.

Luckily it survived the 1923 earthquake, but not the World War II bombing.

Hence the main buildings of the temple are quite new but still follow the Edo-era layout.