Tokyo / Harajuku & Meiji Shrine / Shrine

Meiji Jingu

明治神宮 めいじじんぐう

A century-old forest of a hundred thousand trees, a cypress shrine at its centre, and silence a hundred paces from Harajuku.

EssentialNature · Quiet · Early morning · Free · History

Built in 1920 to enshrine the Emperor Meiji and his empress, the shrine was given a forest by the nation: a hundred thousand trees donated from every prefecture and planted by volunteers to a plan that would let it become, over a hundred and fifty years, a self-sustaining broadleaf wood. It has. The gravel path curves under the largest wooden torii in Japan, past a wall of sake barrels and a wall of Burgundy, to a courtyard of unpainted cypress where, on a weekend morning, you will see a wedding procession under a red umbrella. The Inner Garden has the iris field the emperor planted for his wife and a well the city believes brings luck.

Don't miss

Map of central Tokyo Tokyo Ueno Akihabara Shinjuku Shibuya Shinagawa Ikebukuro Shimbashi Kabukiza Theatre Chuo-dori and the Sunday promenade Ginza Six Ginza Itoya Hama-rikyu Gardens The Ginza gallery walk Tsukiji Hongwanji The Ginza bar streets Tokyo Station Marunouchi Building Imperial Palace East Gardens Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum Marunouchi Naka-dori KITTE and the rooftop garden Idemitsu Museum of Arts Nihonbashi Bridge Mitsukoshi Nihombashi Main Store The old shops of Nihonbashi Artizon Museum Fukutoku Shrine and the Coredo lanes Nihonbashi river cruise Sensoji Temple Kappabashi kitchen street Sumida river water bus The craft and coffee streets west of the temple A kimono day in Asakusa Tokyo Skytree Asakusa Shrine and Sanja Matsuri Tokyo National Museum National Museum of Western Art Ueno Park and Shinobazu Pond Yanaka Ginza and the Yanesen lanes Nezu Shrine Ameyoko market street Asakura Museum of Sculpture Akihabara Electric Town Jimbocho book town Kanda Myojin Shrine Holy Resurrection Cathedral (Nikolai-do) Kanda's old noodle houses Yushima Seido and the Confucian hall Mori Art Museum and Tokyo City View The National Art Center, Tokyo Tokyo Midtown and the Suntory Museum of Art Azabu-Juban shopping street Tokyo Tower and Zojoji Temple Roppongi after dark Nezu Museum The Omotesando architecture walk Aoyama Cemetery Meiji Jingu Gaien ginkgo avenue The Aoyama and Minami-Aoyama back streets Meiji Jingu Yoyogi Park Takeshita Street and Cat Street Ota Memorial Museum of Art Togo Shrine Shibuya scramble crossing and Hachiko Shibuya Sky Nonbei Yokocho and the Shibuya alleys Udagawacho record shops and Shibuya vintage Tomigaya and Kamiyamacho Live music in Shibuya Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building observatories Golden Gai Omoide Yokocho The Isetan food hall Hanazono Shrine Tsukiji Outer Market Toyosu Market and the tuna auction teamLab Planets The Tsukiji-to-Ginza walk The Meguro River cherry trees Daikanyama T-Site Daikanyama's low-rise streets Ebisu Garden Place and the Ebisu restaurant streets Nakameguro's back streets Kagurazaka's stone lanes Akagi Shrine Dining in Kagurazaka Zenkokuji Bishamonten Ryogoku Kokugikan and sumo Edo-Tokyo Museum Kiyosumi Garden Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) The Kiyosumi-Shirakawa roasters Meiji Jingu
A hand-drawn sketch for orientation — each place links to an exact map.
Tip
The shrine opens at sunrise; come then, walk the forest for an hour, and cross the road into Harajuku as it wakes.
Best time
Sunrise, any season; New Year's first days for the crowds, if you want them.
Allow
90 min
Station
Harajuku (JR) or Meiji-jingumae (Chiyoda / Fukutoshin lines), at the gate
Official site — hours, prices, closures
www.meijijingu.or.jp · Map

Appears in

In this area: Harajuku & Meiji Shrine

Park Worth it

Yoyogi Park代々木公園

Tokyo's Sunday lawn — rockabilly dancers, drum circles, picnics under the ginkgo, and the Olympic gymnasium by Tange.

90 min · Harajuku (JR) or Yoyogi-koen (Chiyoda line), 3 minutes
Street Essential

Takeshita Street and Cat Street竹下通りとキャットストリート

The loudest lane in Japan and, one block behind it, the quiet one where the fashion actually happens.

90 min · Harajuku (JR, Takeshita exit) to Shibuya, walking south
Museum Worth it

Ota Memorial Museum of Art太田記念美術館

Ukiyo-e only — Hokusai, Hiroshige, Utamaro — in a small house of tatami and stone, one street from Takeshita.

60 min · Meiji-jingumae (Chiyoda / Fukutoshin lines), exit 5, 1 minute

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