Ikegami Honmonji

Ikegami Honmon-ji in Tokyo's Ota ward is one of the holiest centres of Nichiren Buddhism, standing on the spot where the reformer Nichiren died in 1282. The Ikegami family donated the ground, and their private compound grew into the temple complex. The five-storey pagoda from 1608, endowed by the Tokugawa shogunate, is a rare original survival of every earthquake and the air raids of WWII and is designated an Important Cultural Property. Each year in mid-October the Oeshiki festival draws around 300,000 pilgrims who climb the hill with thousands of paper lanterns. On ordinary days the complex feels like a quiet mountain temple embedded in dense suburban Tokyo.