Sugamo: Juy 3, 2011

The rainy season still continues and we have hot and humid days in early July.
I visited Sugamo, an old town in northern Tokyo.

Sugamo is famous for Togenuki Jizo Temple. Many people (especially old people) visit the temple to pray for their health and long life.

There is a legend behind people’s behavior. The life of a poor wife was saved thanks to a Jizo god in the Edo period. The husband honored the Jizo god in the temple.

There is a shopping street (Jizo street) in front of the temple. The shops are old and the street keeps the atmosphere of the Showa era (before the 1980s).


I saw many visitors walking in the street and found most of them were old.



Some Japanese media called Sugamo “a Harajuku of old moms”. Harajuku is a famous fashion town for young girls.

They held a Morning Glory Festival.


Tokyo’s most famous and largest morning glory festival is usually held in Iriya (near Ueno), but it was suspended this year as the police cannot send its guard staff to the festival. It was because of the Great East Japan earthquake.

I found a raw of solar panels on the roof of the arcade in front of JR Sugamo station. The efforts to introduce renewable energy are accelerating throughout the nation after the earthquake.