Shinobazu Pond & Bentendo Temple: The Floating Island of Music
Why is it significant?
Stand on the stone causeway leading onto the island in the middle of Shinobazu Pond and gaze out across the vast green sea of lotus leaves rising two meters above the water.
Key Facts
| Place | Shinobazu Pond & Bentendo Temple: The Floating Island of Music |
|---|---|
| Address | 2-1 Uenokoen, Taito City, Tokyo 110-0007 |
| Geo Coordinates | 35.71240, 139.77130 |
| Part of Walk | Old Edo to Tokyo: Asakusa's Senso-ji, Red Lanterns, and Ueno's Shrines |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand on the stone causeway leading onto the island in the middle of Shinobazu Pond and gaze out across the vast green sea of lotus leaves rising two meters above the water. In the center of the lake stands Bentendo, a picturesque octagonal temple with a copper roof dedicated to Benzaiten, the goddess of music, arts, wisdom, and flowing water.
When monk Tenkai designed the religious geography of Edo in the early seventeenth century, he modeled this pond after Lake Biwa, the great inland lake near Kyoto, and built this island to mirror the sacred island of Chikubushima. During the summer months, the entire water surface transforms into a breathtaking expanse of giant pink and white lotus blossoms opening with the morning sun.
Look around the temple grounds for the unusual folk monuments: there is a monument dedicated to glasses, another to culinary knives, and even a monument honoring pufferfish (fugu), erected by chefs to express gratitude for the lives of fish sacrificed for human nourishment.
Look across the pond at the skyline of modern Tokyo glowing in the evening dusk. You have traversed the sacred samurai spirit, hidden waterways, and timeless merchant soul of old Edo.