Tokyo / Nihonbashi / Shrine
Fukutoku Shrine and the Coredo lanes
福徳神社とコレド室町の路地 ふくとくじんじゃとこれどむろまちのろじ
A shrine older than Edo, rebuilt among the towers, with a stone-paved lane of lanterns beside it.
Worth itHistory · Free · Photogenic · Quiet · Late night
Fukutoku Shrine was here before Tokugawa Ieyasu arrived in 1590, and it survived four centuries of fires by moving around the block; in 2014 it was rebuilt in cypress and vermilion in a small forest garden between the Coredo Muromachi buildings, the developer having decided a shrine was worth more than a shop. The lane beside it, Nakadori, is stone-paved with lanterns and the noren of the old shops that moved in — a knife shop, a tea shop, a soba house. The shrine is the patron of lottery winners, which explains the queue on a sale day.
Don't miss
- The vermilion shrine seen down the lane from the Coredo terrace, especially at night
- The pocket forest around it — an idea of Edo in fifty trees
- The tea shop next door, which will brew you a cup of the season's sencha
- Tip
- A good place to try a shrine visit for the first time — small, quiet, and the etiquette is on a sign.
- Best time
- Evening, when the lanterns are lit.
- Allow
- 20 min
- Station
- Mitsukoshimae (Ginza / Hanzomon lines), Coredo Muromachi exit
In this area: Nihonbashi
Nihonbashi Bridge日本橋
The zero milestone of Japan — a 1911 stone bridge with bronze kirin, under an expressway that is finally coming down.
30 min · Nihombashi (Ginza / Tozai / Asakusa lines) or Mitsukoshimae (Ginza / Hanzomon lines)
Mitsukoshi Nihombashi Main Store日本橋三越本店
Japan's first department store, a 1914 palace with a pipe organ, a five-storey atrium and lions at the door.
60 min · Mitsukoshimae (Ginza / Hanzomon lines), direct from the basement
The old shops of Nihonbashi日本橋の老舗
One thing, made for centuries — knives, chopsticks, seaweed, dried bonito, paper, brushes, all within four blocks.
90 min · Mitsukoshimae (Ginza / Hanzomon lines)