the golden dragon dance

Golden Dragon Dance:

Travel to the Sensōji Temple on march 18th to experience a unique festival and cultural exhibition.

The dance involves around eight men holding up a thrashing golden dragon puppet and takes place three times during the day: 11:30 a.m., 2 p.m., and 3 p.m. Joined by a parade of geisha and local kindergarten children, the dragon ‘dances’ down Nakamise Shopping Street to the delight of the crowd. And yes, there will be a crowd. We recommend arriving early to get a good spot.

Significance:

On March 18 in the year 628, two fisherman brothers casually fished a Buddhist statue out of the Sumida River. The village chief used this statue, which turned out to be one of the Bodhisattva Kannon, to found Sensōji Temple. Why the dragon? Because Kannon took the form of a golden dragon when descending from Heaven. Asakusa’s Sensōji Temple was founded in the mid-7th century, but the temple standing today was actually built in 1958. To commemorate its rebuilding, the temple authorities started an event that became a tradition and continues until today: it is the Golden Dragon Dance or “Kinryu no mai” Sensōji’s name is “Kinryu-zan” or “Golden Dragon Mountain” and this is where the dancing serpent comes from. The story of the dance is that one night, when the temple was founded, Kannon (the deity worshiped in it) took the form of a golden dragon, swooped from the skies and in one night created a forest of one thousand pines (standing for abundance, prosperity, and longevity) . If you catch the parade really early you’ll also have the chance to see a cart with geisha playing music and a group of very young children from Denpoin’s kindergarten holding pine branches symbolizing the 1000 pines the dragon/Kannon created that fabled night.

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