👘 [Japanese Week] 🗾 What to visit in Tokyo: Sengakuji Temple (47 Ronin Temple)

I was supposed to write this post a couple of days later my visit to Sengakuji Temple but, as always, life happened so I'm writing it now, more than one year later and 9.632,27 (aerial) km afar...can I appeal to the 'better late than never' excuse?

If you're a fan of Keanu Reeves and/or fantasy movies than you've probably watched "47 Ronin", 

2013 movie that overly exaggerates historical facts as well as the folklore and magic so dear to Japanese stories. 
I discovered the temple with were their graves are located just a few days before there was going to be an annual winter festival (December, 14th) to celebrates those loyal ronin with, I blessed my lucky star I didn't miss it and went!

Sengakuji Temple was probably one of the easiest temples to find: just hop on the Asakusa line and jump off at Sengakuji Station. From there, you just follow the directional signs and BAM! in less than 5 minutes you're inside the temple.

A winter matsuri is pretty much the same as a summer one (click HERE to read about my experience), but the atmosphere and sensations I felt in this particular temple were completely different: it was indeed festive with all the people attending talking and roaming from a food stall to the next one (they were too tempting to resist!) and to stay true to myself the first thing I did was praying at the main building and have my goshuincho stamped.

After that, I moved to the temple's cemetery, where the 47 ronin rest and that's when the Akougishisai, the commemorative ritual takes place. 
Since I was just starting to understand Japanese, I probably understood 15% of what the monks said...still, the linguistic barrier didn't stop me to enjoy such a significant moment and when it all finished I walked the path through the graves: on all of them I found fruits' offers (mostly tangerines), candies and origami papers fold in different shapes.

That day was obviously cold but sunny and that played a great part in the overall experience: maybe if it had been cloudy or rainy it would have added momentousness to the festival but let's be honest: everything is nicer when it's sunny!

OK! So we have reached the end of this year's Japanese Week! 

I wanted to organize it since July but then life happened (read, it was summer and I didn't want to spend that much time on the pc) and so it has slipped on the last week in September.

いつも ありがとう ございます!

Ph: all the photos are mine