According to the 'Sensō-ji Engi' and other records, in 628 two fishermen brothers, Hinokuma Hamanari and Takenari, netted a statue of Kannon while fishing in the Sumida River, and Sensō-ji was founded. In 645 the monk Shōkai, following a revelation in a dream, made the statue a hidden Buddha, and it has never been shown since. It is said to be a golden statue about 5.5 cm tall, but because it is never shown, no one knows what it really looks like.
Myths and legends
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Legend says Takemikazuchi, one of the four deities of Kasuga Taisha, came at the shrine's invitation from Kashima Jingū (in present-day Ibaraki) and appeared on Mount Mikasa riding a white deer. Ever since, Nara's deer have been regarded by Kasuga Taisha and Kōfuku-ji as messengers of the gods. Until 1637, killing a sacred deer was a capital offence.
According to temple tradition, in 778 the monk Kenshin (later renamed Enchin) received a revelation in a dream and came to practise beside the waterfall on Mount Otowa. Two years later Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, hunting in the mountains for deer blood as medicine for his sick wife, met Kenshin and was deeply moved. In 798 he and Enchin built the main hall on a large scale and enshrined Bishamonten and Jizō Bodhisattva.
For believers, Kūkai has not died but remains in eternal meditation in Okunoin, still praying for all beings. Every day monks carry meals to the mausoleum, serving him as they would a living master.
Michizane wrote many poems about plum blossom in his lifetime. Legend says that after he died in exile, his favourite plum tree at his Kyoto residence flew overnight to Dazaifu to be reunited with its master; today this 'flying plum' at the Tenmangū is said to be the first plum tree in Japan to bloom each year.
Because the house and its surroundings evoke Puccini's opera 'Madama Butterfly', it is also known as the 'Madame Butterfly House'. The garden has statues of Puccini and of Miura Tamaki, the soprano famous for singing Madama Butterfly.
Legend says that when an epidemic swept Hakata in 1241, Shōichi Kokushi (Enni), founder of Jōten-ji, sat on a wooden platform and had people carry him around the city while he sprinkled water and prayed, finally driving away the disease. This is considered the origin of the Hakata Gion Yamakasa.
The Sanada Ten Braves were shaped by later storytelling and literature, not a verified group of ten retainers serving Sanada Nobushige. At Ueda Castle, distinguish the site’s history from later fiction.
The tale of three arrows teaches unity among Mōri Motonari’s sons. Akitakata City presents it as a traditional anecdote; the teaching scene is not a verified historical event.
According to a legend, Uesugi Kenshin charged alone into Takeda Shingen’s headquarters and Shingen parried with his war fan. The two did fight at Kawanakajima, but this close encounter lacks contemporary confirmation.
A place-name legend recorded in Echizen Chiri Shinan, preserved by the Fukui Prefectural Archives, identifies Tojinbo as a monk of Heisenji Temple. It says fellow monks pushed him from the coastal cliffs while he was drunk, and that he pulled another monk and a temple boy down with him; a storm followed. This is a recorded folk tale, not established history.
Masamune's right eye was blinded by smallpox, but exactly how he lost it is not reliably recorded. One widely told story is that, so that the dead eye would not become a weakness, Masamune had his most trusted retainer, Katakura Kojūrō, gouge it out with his own hands.
The Kojiki records that Ōkuninushi (then called Ōnamuji) and his eighty elder brothers set off to Inaba to court Princess Yakami. On the way they met a white hare that had been skinned: it had tricked crocodile-sharks into lining up as a bridge across the sea and was flayed when found out. The brothers played a cruel trick on it, telling it to bathe in seawater and dry itself in the wind; only Ōkuninushi told it to wash in the fresh water of the river mouth and roll in cattail pollen. Healed, the hare prophesied that Princess Yakami would choose Ōkuninushi.
According to the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, when Ninigi, grandson of Amaterasu, descended from heaven, Ōkuninushi handed over to him the land he had created. Amaterasu was so pleased that she granted Izumo Taisha to Ōkuninushi. The present main hall was rebuilt in 1744 and is 24 m tall.
The Nihon Shoki records that about two thousand years ago, Yamatohime-no-mikoto, daughter of Emperor Suinin, set out from Mount Miwa in Nara to find a permanent place to worship Amaterasu, ancestral deity of the imperial family; after twenty years of wandering through Ōmi, Mino and other provinces, she finally came to Ise.
Tōshō-gū has a 'Sleeping Cat' carving said to be the work of the master craftsman Hidari Jingorō; the sacred stable bears three monkeys who 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil', derived from the Analects' 'look not at what is improper, listen not to what is improper, speak not what is improper'.