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#善如寺 – @tokidokitokyo on Tumblr
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Tokidoki Tokyo

@tokidokitokyo / tokidokitokyo.tumblr.com

日本語☆Japanese & Japan Things☆tracking #looktoki
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reblogged

A beautiful and interesting name I'd never seen before! 善如寺 is read Zennyōji or Zennyoji. It belongs to only about 480 people, but all the kanji are quite useful!

善 can be read よ.い, い.い, よ.く, よし.とする, or ゼン. It means virtue, goodness, or good. Specifically, it means good as in morally good, or good in an elevated context; for everyday normal things that are pleasant or agreeable, use 良い (also read よ.い or い.い).

如 means in the manner of, like, or the same as. It's read ごと.し, ジョ, or ニョ.

寺 is read てら or ジ. It's the reason that, for a second, I assumed that this house was a very, very boring-looking temple. (More on actual temple and shrine names here.)

Also, 寺 is useful as a radical too!

  • 侍 (+亻person) = Samurai
  • 待 (+ 彳 going-person) = Wait
  • 持 (+ 扌 hand) = Hold, have
  • 詩 (+ 言 word) = Poem, poetry
  • 特 (+ 牛 cow) = Special
  • 時 (+ 日 day) = Time
  • 痔 (+ 疒 sickness) = Hemorrhoids
  • 等 (+ 竹 bamboo) = Etc.
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todayintokyo

I know it's weird to hijack a post with 痔 haemorrhoids, but I didn't mention it first, did I? Also did someone say boring-looking 寺 temple? Yes, true, but mine ↓ hides a quaint history.

There's a temple in Taitō (where else?) where you can pray for relief from piles. It's called Honshō-ji (本性寺), and the god of haemorrhoids, who was originally a mere mortal called Okada Magoemon (岡田孫右衛門), was buried here.

He was a sake merchant in Edo, and he suffered so horribly from haemorrhoids that he became a priest in an attempt to cure himself. He didn't succeed, and on his deathbed a few years later he vowed to become a god and help others with the same affliction.

His spirit was enshrined at this temple, and soon rumours of miraculous cures spread. Eventually Okada, deified as Shūzan Jiun (秋山自雲), was worshipped at several temples in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. Most of these have disappeared, but you can still visit Honshō-ji and Okada's grave (last two photos) in Taitō.

I just thought it was kinda funny that hemorrhoids is written as "temple disease." I was kind of picturing some ancient Chinese priest sitting so long that he developed hemorrhoids (do you get hemorrhoids from sitting too long?) and then inventing this character out of spite for his workplace. Never did I imagine that there was an actual hemorrhoids temple somewhere. When @todayintokyo messaged me about it, I assumed I was misunderstanding her or that it was a joke that went over my head. Nope! The world is amazing. Every day is a school day.

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