Setting off to explore Nishi-Ojima (West Large Island) and Kita Suna (North Sand) in Tokyo's downtown Koto Ward, I know better than to expect a seaside resort.
Sure enough, where I emerge from the Toei Shinjuku subway at Nishi-Ojima Station, I spy neither ship nor shore. But behind a tangle of parked bicycles I spot a plaque commemorating one of the most- visited "shells" in old Edo (present-day Tokyo) — the Gohyaku Rakanji.
That temple complex was built in 1695 to house 500-plus wooden carvings of arhats (enlightened ones) crafted by Buddhist priest and sculptor Shoun Genkei (1648-1710). It included Sansodo, a three-story pagoda nicknamed "Sazaedo" ("Turban-shell Hall") for its interior spiral ramp. Circling upward on this, visitors were rewarded at the summit with sweeping vistas of the surrounding marshes, Mount Fuji and the sea. Nothing is left of the original complex or the pagoda, but 305 of Shoun Genkei's works can be seen in Meguro Ward's modern Gohyaku Rakanji.