Koenji Ogikubo Suginami

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. Famous Places and Power spots of Edo　江戸の名所 .
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Kooenji, Kōenji 高円寺 Koen-Ji district
Suginami 杉並区,
高円寺北 Koenji Kita, North, 一丁目 - 四丁目 first to fourth sub-district
高円寺南 Koenji Minami South, 一丁目 - 五丁目 first to fifth sub-district

The village was fommerly called 小沢村 Kosawa mura.
Shogun 徳川家光 Tokugawa Iemitsu came here often during his hawk hunting to rest at the temple Koen-Ji.
The temple 宿鳳山 Shukuhozan Koen-Ji belongs to the 曹洞宗 Soto sect.

東京都杉並区高円寺南4-18-11 / 4-chōme-18-11 Kōenjiminami Suginami City

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Kōenji (高円寺) is a district of Tokyo in Suginami ward, west of Shinjuku. The district is named after an old temple in the area.
Kōenji is primarily a community with easy access to Shinjuku and Tokyo Stations. It was largely unaffected by the 1980s building boom and therefore many of the houses and shops in the area are small and reflect the character of pre-boom Japan. Due to its aging retail district and location on a major commuter route, the station area has become a center for small restaurants and "Live Houses" which offer live music.
- History
The current division of Kōenji into north and south around Kōenji Station is a post-war arrangement. The whole area surrounding Shukuhōzan Kōenji temple used to be called "Kōenji".
There also used to be a town called Mabashi between Kōenji and nearby Asagaya, which has since been absorbed into Kōenji, although the name "Mabashi" is retained in some schools and shrines.
- Awa Odori in Kōenji

Each year in late August the Kōenji Awa Odori festival is held over two days. This is increasingly becoming a major tourist attraction for the area. It is the second largest Awa Dance Festival in Japan, with an average of 188 groups composed of 12,000 dancers, attracting 1.2 million visitors over the course of the weekend.
The festival has its origins in Tokushima
and was adopted by Kōenji post-war. It involves a procession of groups performing traditional music and dance, and is enjoyed by a wide variety of people. The procession weaves its way through the streets on both sides of Kōenji Station, often with a dramatic conclusion at the "finish line".
- source : wikipedia

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Koenji is in Tokyo's Suginami ward in the area around Koenji Station on the JR Chuo Line.

Koenji is famous firstly as a center of alternative youth culture in Tokyo, in particular for its second-hand clothing stores: the most of anywhere in the metropolis, followed by Shimokitazawa about 5 km south.
There are 18 shopping promenades in Koenji within its approximately 2 square kilometer area as well as large numbers of small bars, live houses, and ethnic restaurants, music stores, book stores, head shops, and tattoo parlors. There is a red-light area, too, very near the station
Koenji is also well known for its numerous historical Buddhist temples and one or two Shinto shrines.
Koenji is the venue of the massive summer Koenji Awaodori Dance Festival, one of Tokyo's Big Three Festivals.
- - - Koenji History
Present-day Koenji's roots are in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. In the two decades before then it was remarkable only for its numerous temples relocated from central Tokyo. Otherwise it was a sleepy farming settlement on the Ome-kaido Highway.
The immediate aftermath of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 saw an influx into Koenji of small merchants and laborers displaced from downtown Tokyo by the destruction. Koenji Station had just opened in July 1922, making it convenient to Tokyo, as well as an Ogikubo-to-Shinjuku tram that stopped at several places in Koenji.
The local farmers subdivided their land and put up cheap housing for the new entrants. Businesses catering to them sprung up along the transportation routes: open air markets, stores for household wares, and cheap eateries-cum-bars.
In the 1950s, Koenji was well known for its tea and coffee houses (kissaten) and for the start of the Awa Odori Festival - a smaller-scale copy of the famous Awa Odori Festival in Takamatsu, Shikoku, started by Takamatsu natives who had moved to Tokyo, and in the 1970s - along with Nakano a couple of stations east on the Chuo-Sobu Line - for its youth music scene, most notably, Japanese punk.
These roots are still alive in today's Koenji. It is a young, energetic, free neighborhood with a 24-hour vibe, where fun and adventure can be had without breaking the wallet. And, if you're wondering about safety: of course, care must be taken wherever you are, but we have never seen any trouble to speak of in Koenji.
- source : japanvisitor.com/tokyo... -

. the Amanuma district 天沼 .

. Asagaya 阿佐ヶ谷 / 阿佐谷 Asagaya district .

. Awaodori Dance 阿波踊り .

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Mabashi Kōen 馬橋公園 Mabashi Park
4 Chome-35-5 Koenjikita, Suginami

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Ogikubo 荻窪 Ogikubo district
Suginami, Ogikubo 一丁目 - 五丁目 first to fifth sub-district
南荻窪 Minami, 一丁目 - 四丁目
上荻 Kami, 一丁目 - 四丁目
西荻北 Nishi-Kita, 一丁目 - 五丁目
西荻南 Nishi-Minami, 一丁目 - 四丁目

Literally it means "reed grass basin".

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..... In 708, a 修行僧 shūgyōsō ascetic monk was carrying a statue of 観音 Kannon the goddess of mercy on his back and happened to pass through the area. Mysteriously, the statue grew heavier and heavier until the monk couldn’t carry it anymore. He thought this image of Kan’non was linked to this area by fate and so he built a humble shelter in the area. To make a thatched roof, he harvested 荻 ogi silvergrass and used it to top off his tiny abode in which he enshrined the goddess. Ogi, as you may or may not have guessed, is a grass indigenous to parts of Asia – including Japan.
The small hut was called 荻堂 Ogidō.
This is a play on words. A grass hut is 草堂 sōdō, but 堂 dō also is used in Buddhist words to refer to sacred buildings. So Ogidō means something like “Silvergrass Temple” – or at the very least, “a place of contemplation that is made of silvergrass.”
Another theory says that the area was
a small 窪地 kubochi basin covered in ogi (silvergrass).
This derivation says the word is simply 荻 ogi (silvergrass) + 窪 kubo (basin). Silvergrass tends to grow in wetlands or near rivers; a basin would do the trick.
- - But let’s go back to the story of the monk carrying the statue of Kannon. That story has been preserved by a small temple that still exists in the area, 光明院 Kōmyōin. The temple claims to be the oldest Buddhist temple in Ogikubo and that they are directly descended from the original thatched hut. Coincidentally, Kōmyōin happens to be located on the high ground above the Zenpukuji River basin. The primary object of worship is a 千手観音 Senju Kannon thousand armed goddess of mercy. The temple claims that the area was named after the thatched hut.
- source : Marky Star -

. ogi 荻 common reed, silvergrass, Miscanthus sacchariflorus .

source : tenki.jp/suppl/yamamoto_komo...

- 慈雲山荻寺光明院 Temple Jiunzan Ogidera Komyo-In
2 Chome-1-3 Kamiogi, Suginami City
- reference source : komyoin.com... -

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- - - - - HISTORICAL WALK (Ogikubo)

AMANUMA HACHIMAN SHRINE
Suginami Historical Museum
KYOKAI DORI SHOPPING STREET
THE MEIJI EMPEROR'S GATE

- - - - - OTAGURO PARK 大田黒公園

Otaguro Park is stunning any time of the year, but it’s particularly lovely in autumn. We can’t wait to go back to see the gingko trees lining the entrance to the park, and the dramatic red foliage of the maple trees hanging over the pond. The park is built on the site of the old estate of music critic Otaguro Moto-O 大田黒元雄　Moto Otaguro. His office is open as a museum and there is also a traditional tearoom onsite.
- source : experience-suginami.tokyo... -

. Amanuma district 天沼 "heavenly swamp" .

. Iogi 井荻 Iogi district . - Suginami
The name I-OGI was constructed of the first letters from Igusa and Ogikubo.

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- - - - - H A I K U and S E N R Y U - - - - -

荻窪にゆふべ富士見ゆ飾売
Ogikubo ni yuube Fuji miyu kazari-uri

角川春樹 Kadokawa Haruki

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Edo - the EDOPEDIA -

4/02/2019

Koenji Ogikubo Suginami

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