明治神宮 Meiji-jinguu Meiji Jingu Shrine
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Meiji Jingu Shrine is in Shibuya, Tokyo. The shrine is most visited by Japanese people on New Year’s Day.
In the 45th year of the Meiji period, the Meiji Emperor died and in the 3rd year of the following Taisho period, the Empress Shoken the queen mother died. Yoyogi was selected for the establishment of a shrine dedicated to their spirits.
In the 20th year of the Showa period, almost all the original buildings were razed during the Greater East Asia War. In the 33rd year of the Showa period, the present shrine as reconstructed.
Meiji Shrine also has outer gardens (gaien). In the 19th year of the Meiji period, the outer garden was set up at the Aoyama military training ground, which was for the Konoeshidan (the Imperial Guard). Now, the training areas have been relocated to the Shinjuku and Minato wards in Tokyo, while the area was turned into a park with an art museum, the Constitution Memorial Hall (renamed after the war as the Meiji Memorial Hall), an athletic stadium and a baseball field.
At the shrine, you can see your fortune with a piece of paper called ‘Omigoro’. This ‘paper fortune’ does not forecast bad or good, but carries one of 30 Waka poems regarding ‘humanity and ethics’, selected from among more than 100,000 poems that were composed by the Showa Emperor and Shoken Empress. Each ‘paper fortune’ has a comment about the poem, and the poems tell us the historical backdrop of the changes from feudalism to democracy.
In the 45th year of the Meiji period, the Meiji Emperor died and in the 3rd year of the following Taisho period, the Empress Shoken the queen mother died. Yoyogi was selected for the establishment of a shrine dedicated to their spirits.
In the 20th year of the Showa period, almost all the original buildings were razed during the Greater East Asia War. In the 33rd year of the Showa period, the present shrine as reconstructed.
Meiji Shrine also has outer gardens (gaien). In the 19th year of the Meiji period, the outer garden was set up at the Aoyama military training ground, which was for the Konoeshidan (the Imperial Guard). Now, the training areas have been relocated to the Shinjuku and Minato wards in Tokyo, while the area was turned into a park with an art museum, the Constitution Memorial Hall (renamed after the war as the Meiji Memorial Hall), an athletic stadium and a baseball field.
At the shrine, you can see your fortune with a piece of paper called ‘Omigoro’. This ‘paper fortune’ does not forecast bad or good, but carries one of 30 Waka poems regarding ‘humanity and ethics’, selected from among more than 100,000 poems that were composed by the Showa Emperor and Shoken Empress. Each ‘paper fortune’ has a comment about the poem, and the poems tell us the historical backdrop of the changes from feudalism to democracy.
- address
- 1-1 Kamizono-chou, Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 151-8557
- name
- Meiji Jingu Shrine
- phone
- 03-3379-5511
- hp
- http://www.meijijingu.or.jp/