Taishakuten Daikyo-ji Buddhist Temple in Shibamata, Tokyo, was established by two monks of the Nichiren sect in 1629.

According to the history book of the temple, it originated from when the monks built a small temple by a pine tree with graceful branches beside springs.　The springs still exists by the Honden main building of the temple, and the pine tree, 2 meters in trunk circumference and 10 meters high, stands extending branches for about 20 meters in the four cardinal directions.

It’s said that the entire view of the pine looks like a dragon as shown in the first photo.  The tree is supposed to be 500 years old, which is one of the oldest pine trees in Tokyo.  The people in Edo, present time Tokyo, began to worship the temple in the 18^th century, thus the main approach gradually became bustling.  As for now, the 200-meter-long main approach, lined with many old shops such as restaurants, souvenir stores and sweet parlors, leads to the temple as shown in the second photo.  After the Meiji period, when Japan’s modernization started, the temple was repeatedly depicted as a scene of novels and films.  Since, it is a nationally well-known temple now.

http://tour-guide-japan.jp/