Yesterday Naoko and I took the Toden-Arakawa streetcar down to obaachan no Harajuku, or Sugamo, in Tokyo’s Toshima ward. obaachan no Harajuku means “Grandma’s Harajuku.” (Harajuku is an area of Tokyo famous for its trendy boutiques and always teeming with (mostly young) people). The main attraction of Sugamo is its shopping street, which retains a shitamachi (old Edo-era Tokyo neighborhoods) atmosphere, and which sits on the old Nakasendo highway. This street attracts lots of elderly women, though by no means exclusively so, especially on the 4th, 14th, and 24th of each month when there are fairs held. They come for the shopping, and also for Koganji Temple. And some come for akapantsu, or red underwear, as pictured above.
I don’t know the exact history, but the red underwear is a creation of the Sugamo store Maruji, where the above picture was taken. The marketing pitch is that if you wear red underwear, you will be full of energy and vigor (genki hatsuratsu in Japanese). Apparently, it has something to do with the belief, from Chinese medicine, that 3 or 4 centimeters below the navel there is a pressure point. The red color serves to keep this pressure point warm, which in turn will warm your entire mind and body. So they say.
Sugamo’s Kogangi Temple, which dates from the 16th century, is famous for its Togenuki Jizo, a small Kannon-bosatsu statue, and guardian deity of children. Many people come to Sugamo to visit this statue, and bathe it. togenuki means removing a splinter or thorn, and it is said that if you have an affliction in a part of your body, you should wash the corresponding part of the statue and it will get better.
Click “more” below for more images from yesterday, including a photo of someone washing the jizo statue as described above.
If any one knows anything about “Maruji” whearther someone’s last name by Maruji or a store in Japan please email me at dcool16@hotmail.com, as i am trying to find out some genoglogy work for my family. Thanks!