Tokyo Temples & Shrines
Sensoji gets 30 million visitors a year. The temples and shrines on this page get a fraction of that — and offer more of what people are actually looking for: quiet, meaning, and the feeling of standing somewhere that matters.
Shrines Worth Seeking Out
Nezu Shrine has thousands of torii gates and an azalea festival that rivals Kyoto — almost no one outside Japan knows it exists. Hie Shrine sits between skyscrapers in Akasaka, a tunnel of vermillion torii rising up a hillside in the middle of the business district. Gotokuji Temple in Setagaya is where the beckoning cat (maneki-neko) originated — hundreds of ceramic cats left as offerings.
Temples With Stories
Sengakuji holds the graves of the 47 Ronin — Japan's defining story of loyalty and sacrifice. Tsukiji Honganji was rebuilt in 1934 as an Indian-inspired baroque structure unlike anything else in Tokyo. Both reward visitors who know what they're standing in front of.
