To escape the tourist crowds, take time out amid the gleaming gold-leaf columns and screen paintings of this little visited Buddhist temple , headquarters of some 300 temples of the Higashi Hongan-ji sect of Jōdō (Pure Land) Buddhism. The present building dates from 1939 and was the first concrete temple in Japan – a great advantage against Tokyo’s fires. It enshrines the Amida Buddha, and its roof was depicted in one of Hokusai’s ‘36 Views of Mt Fuji’.
