Senju Hall 千手堂

Official explanation

Senju Hall houses a statue of the Senju, or Thousand-armed Kannon, the bodhisattva of compassion. This bodhisattva is known to take many forms, of which the thousand-armed version is just one. The hall was likely built on the western shore of Lake Chuzenji because in Pure Land Buddhism paradise is located in the west.

Senju Kannon is one of the three principal deities of Rinnoji Temple and is believed to be a manifestation of Mt. Nantai. Shodo Shonin (735–817), founder of many of Nikko’s shrines and temples, saw a vision of the deity above Lake Chuzenji which inspired him to carve the Tachiki Kannon enshrined here at Chuzenji Temple.

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This hall was originally built in 784 and has been rebuilt periodically. There have also been times, however, when no temple structure was here. From 1965 until the current structure was built in 2016, there was only a foundation slab. The temple was reconstructed in 2016 in commemoration of the 1,250th anniversary of the founding of the original Nikko-zan shrine-temple complex and the 1,200th anniversary of the death of Shodo.

出典: 地域観光資源の多言語解説文データベース（観光庁） — www.mlit.go.jp/tagengo-db. この英語解説文は観光庁の地域観光資源の多言語解説整備支援事業で作成しました。
Source: Japan Tourism Agency, Multilingual Explanation Database. This English text was produced by the Japan Tourism Agency's multilingual explanation project and is shown unedited. Opening hours and services may have changed since it was written.