Meiji Jingu

then

If one Buddhist temple in Tokyo is worth a visit it is Senso-ji in Asakusa. If that ‘worth a visit’ mantra is extended to include a prominent shrine, then Meiji Jingu near Omotesando and Harajuku has no equals.

Perhaps the nation’s best example of all things Shinto, Meiji Jingu has more than its share of wide, gravel filled tree lined approaches, a sense of sublime serenity that keeps out the hustle and bustle of the outside world, and even provides the odd glimpse of white robed priests shuffling about the cloisters or leading the faithful in chanting sutras.

All this – bizarrely it may seem, just across the street from the ultra-modern, teen filled Takeshita-dori in Harajuku and the high class Omotesando shopping district in which a pair of shoes can set you back a week’s wages!

And oddly enough, it was not initially built to house the body of the Meiji Emperor (1852-1912) himself, but rather to house his spirit – along with that of his wife, Haruko (1850-1914) – in death named Empress Shoken*.

One of the most magnificent worship related structures in Tokyo in the early 20th Century, the shrine was destroyed in US air raids in the closing days of the Second World War.

Rebuilding started soon after in an area almost completely flattened but, ironically perhaps, home then to the upper echelons of the occupying US military brass.

When reconstruction work was finished in 1958 – the same year Tokyo Tower opened – many could not, initially differentiate between the original and the ‘replacement’ approach to the shrine; a graveled path around 10 metres wide, lined with trees and passing beneath huge torii gates made of enormous Taiwanese cypress trees.

The shrine itself, arguably the most splendid in the capital, if not the nation in terms of scale, was built using homegrown cypress and in the half century since has seen many hundreds of millions of Japanese visit; some daily, many annually, and many more from up and down the country as part of a trip to the big smoke.

and now

In modern times, post 1958 reconstruction, however, the true religious or dedicatory role of Meiji Jingu has lost some if its sheen and deeper meaning for most visitors.

Today, on and soon after January 1st each year, several million individuals make the trek up the gravel paths at snail’s pace; their shuffle only made bearable in the cold of winter by the body heat generated by thousands and thousands of other fellow pilgrims making the journey to offer a brief prayer, primarily for personal well being at the start of another calendar year.

Several days after the New Year crowds that make the area almost unbearable have dispersed, sumo comes to the shrine – or at least in the shape of ceremonial renditions of the yokozuna dohyo-iri ring entering ceremony, by the active grand champions in the de-facto national sport.

Crowds gather around 12 o’clock on around the 5th of January each year to see the sport’s tops dogs perform the brief but semi-spiritual event held in the presence of all the top sumo wrestlers of years past.

In addition to sumo, throughout the year, weddings are also a staple of the shrine creating much of its income, and providing a beautiful backdrop to any casual visit by tourists and locals alike.

Coupled to annual festivities held throughout the year, the presence of a special park – Meiji Jingu Gyoen (fee) with one of the best iris gardens in the capital, and a treasure museum (fee) related to the lives of the Emperor and Empress after which the shrine is named, and an afternoon – at the very least two or three hours spent in this quiet corner of Tokyo is the perfect way to both recharge the batteries, and learn a little about the single most important Imperial reign in modern Japanese history - the reign of Mutsuhito – the Meiji Emperor.

Link: http://www.meijijingu.or.jp/english/

* - as was common in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Empress – married wife of the Emperor – was not herself the mother of the next generation of princes and princesses. This was a ‘job’ left to official concubines. In this case, Haruko herself gave birth to no children, but rather adopted her husband’s children with two official concubines, five and seventeen years her junior.