S P O T ／ SPOT-271

Senju-ji (Takada Honzan)

専修寺（高田本山）せんじゅじ

Senju-ji is the head temple of the Takada branch of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, and in November 2017 its two great halls — the Mieido (Founder's Hall) and Nyoraido (Amida Hall) — became the first buildings in Mie Prefecture ever designated National Treasures. The Mieido alone is one of the largest wooden structures of the Edo period in Japan: roughly 42 meters wide, floored with 780 tatami mats, with a roof so vast its sheer mass is hard to take in from the approach. But the real marvel is scale upon scale — the temple is the core of the Isshinden jinaicho, an entire moat-ringed temple town that grew up around it, a self-contained religious city of merchant houses, an approach street, and defensive water channels. To stand on the stone path facing two colossal National Treasure halls side by side is to grasp something rare: monumental religious architecture and urban planning fused into a single early-modern statement of faith. Admission to the halls is free, and each January the Oshichiya Hoonko rites fill the town with pilgrims and food stalls.