Around Asakusa Station: before it was Asakusa

Why Is Asakusa Called Asakusa?

One of Tokyo's most famous districts may have been named for the height of its grass. According to a reference investigation by Taito City's Central Library, the established explanation is that Asakusa meant a place where the grass of the Musashino plain grew low or sparsely. The Historical Place Names of Japan describes a related theory contrasting Asakusa, or shallow grass, with Fukakusa, or deep grass. This explanation appears in Edo-period geographical writings, including Edo Sunago and Kyuryo Zakki. Other proposed origins involve Ainu or Tibetan words, but these remain theories rather than established linguistic facts. Asakusa originally referred to a broader area along the western bank of the Sumida River, not simply the famous temple. The name therefore points toward an older landscape of vegetation and riverbank settlements, long before the shopping streets, theaters, and tourist crowds that define Asakusa today.

→ Stand on the western bank of the Sumida River and consider the older riverside landscape. The original grassland no longer survives.

Sources (in Japanese): 台東区立中央図書館・浅草の名前の由来, 日本歴史地名大系・浅草, 台東区・郷土資料案内

Was Asakusa once Tokyo's great entertainment district?

Before Asakusa became internationally famous for its temple and Kaminarimon Gate, it was one of Tokyo's great centers of popular entertainment. During the Edo period, sideshow booths and performance spaces gathered around Sensoji Temple, turning pilgrimage into an opportunity for amusement. In the Meiji period, the temple grounds were developed as a public park, and Asakusa Rokku emerged as a district of theaters and cinemas. In the Taisho period, audiences flocked to Asakusa Opera, while the Ryounkaku tower, nicknamed the Twelve-Story Tower, became a landmark.

The Great Kanto Earthquake of September 1, 1923, destroyed Ryounkaku and burned 92.8 percent of the Asakusa district. Entertainment venues were rebuilt the following year. The Tokyo air raid of March 10, 1945, destroyed Sensoji's main hall and other major structures. Today's main hall dates from 1958, Kaminarimon from 1960, and Hozomon from 1964. The temple's account of a sacred image discovered by fishermen in 628 belongs to religious tradition, not independently established history.

→ Walk through the former Rokku entertainment district, then compare the postwar reconstruction of Sensoji's main hall and Kaminarimon Gate.

Sources (in Japanese): 台東区『台東区のあらまし』芸能と庶民文化の一大中心地・浅草, 浅草寺公式・略式年表