Meiji Jingu Shrine: free English audio guide

Meiji Jingu is a Shinto shrine founded in 1920 for Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken, inside a man-made forest of about 100,000 donated trees. Walk from the Harajuku gate to the main shrine with this free audio guide in your earphones: stories, legends and things to look for at each stop.

Meiji Jingu Shrine audio guideFor earphones, as you walk (10 tracks)

PochikaYour guide around Tokyo

Sagi-senseiTemples, gardens and history

ChunOld town, shops and festivals

KasukeHidden spots and surprises

▶ Play from the startNext ▶▶

1. WelcomePochika
2. Why Yoyogi?Sagi-sensei
3. Sake and wine barrelsChun
4. The great toriiKasuke
5. A forest planted by handSagi-sensei
6. The Inner GardenSagi-sensei
7. Kiyomasa's WellChun
8. The main shrineSagi-sensei
9. Treasure House and MuseumKasuke
10. GoodbyePochika

Keeps playing with the screen off. It stops after each spot: when you arrive at the next one, tap “Next” or ▶▶ on your lock screen. Voices: Kokoro (open-source text-to-speech)

Visiting info

Checked on 2026-10-27 against the official pages. Hours can change; please check the official page before you go.

Transcript

1. Welcome (Pochika)

Welcome to Meiji Jingu! I'm Pochika, your guide. This Shinto shrine was founded in 1920 for Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. Entry to the shrine grounds is free. The gates open at sunrise and close around sunset, so the closing time changes every month. In November they close at ten past four in the afternoon, and in December at four. We start at the Harajuku gate, right outside Harajuku Station. From here, a forest path of about ten minutes leads to the main shrine.

2. Why Yoyogi? (Sagi-sensei)

I'm Sagi-sensei. Emperor Meiji died in 1912, and Empress Shoken in 1914. People all over Japan wished to honor them forever, so this shrine was built in Yoyogi. The main reason was today's Inner Garden. In the Edo period, it belonged to a residence of the Kato and Ii families. Around 1893, Emperor Meiji had it laid out as a strolling garden for the Empress, whose health was frail. And the name Yoyogi? It is said to come from a large fir tree that stood here for generations. Yoyo means generations, and gi means tree.

3. Sake and wine barrels (Chun)

Hi, I'm Chun! Look at the barrels along the path. On one side are straw-wrapped sake barrels. Emperor Meiji encouraged many Japanese industries, including sake brewing, and every year a nationwide association of sake brewers offers these barrels. Here's a secret: they're empty! Now look at the wine barrels. They come from Burgundy, in France. Emperor Meiji enjoyed Western food and wine, especially French wine. In 2006, leading Burgundy wineries each donated one barrel in his memory, and Burgundy wine is offered every year. Sake next to wine: the Meiji era, when foreign culture met Japanese tradition!

4. The great torii (Kasuke)

Hey, I'm Kasuke. This great torii is twelve meters high and seventeen point one meters wide, and it weighs thirteen tonnes. It is said to be the largest wooden torii of its style in Japan. Look at the pillars, each one point two meters across. The first torii here was made of cypress from Taiwan and finished in 1920. But in July 1966, lightning damaged its right pillar. A Tokyo timber merchant, Kawashima Kosuke, searched the Alishan mountains in Taiwan for new cypress and donated it. This second torii was completed in 1975. And the old one? It was moved to Omiya Hikawa Shrine in Saitama, where it still stands.

5. A forest planted by hand (Sagi-sensei)

Sagi-sensei again. This forest looks wild, but it is man-made. About one hundred thousand trees were donated from all over Japan, and about one hundred and ten thousand young volunteers helped plant them and build the paths. Scholars planned it a century ahead. Smoke was killing old trees in Tokyo, so they picked mainly evergreen broadleaf trees, like oak and camphor. Prime Minister Okuma Shigenobu wanted cedar avenues, but the scholars persuaded him that cedar did not suit Tokyo's climate. In the air raids of April 1945, the forest suffered no major damage and sheltered people who fled here. The trees the scholars chose ended up saving lives.

6. The Inner Garden (Sagi-sensei)

Along the path is the gate to the Inner Garden, a short detour. The fee is five hundred yen. Find the fishing platform over the pond. Empress Shoken fished here, and always let her catch go. When she once caught a salamander, the Emperor is said to have ordered the pond stocked with carp. Look also for Kakuuntei, a building with tea rooms he had built for her in 1900. It burned in the war and was rebuilt in 1958. In early to mid June, about one thousand five hundred iris plants bloom here.

7. Kiyomasa's Well (Chun)

Chun here! Inside the garden is Kiyomasa's Well, a spring. Legend says the warlord Kato Kiyomasa dug it, though no one knows for sure. The water stays around fifteen degrees Celsius all year, and flows at about sixty liters a minute. In the great drought of 1933, the spring stopped for a while. It was restored in 1938. Its water feeds the South Pond in the garden, and flows on to the Shibuya River.

8. The main shrine (Sagi-sensei)

Welcome to the main shrine. First, purify your hands at the water basin. Then, at the hall, bow twice, clap twice, and bow once. The shrine was dedicated on November 1, 1920. Newspapers reported five hundred thousand visitors that day. The air raids of April 1945 burned many of the buildings, and the main sanctuary you see now was rebuilt in 1958. From December 31 to January 3, people come here for hatsumode, the first shrine visit of the year. The shrine stays open all night on New Year's Eve, and several million people come during this period.

9. Treasure House and Museum (Kasuke)

Kasuke again, with two buildings. The Treasure House was completed in 1921 in reinforced concrete, modeled on the log-style storehouse of the Shosoin in Nara. It became an Important Cultural Property in 2011. Remember the first torii? Its timber was stored by soaking it in the North Pond in front of the Treasure House! It opens only for limited periods, so check the official site. On your way back, stop by the Meiji Jingu Museum, designed by Kengo Kuma. Inside are portraits of the Emperor and Empress, and the six-horse state carriage. It's closed on Thursdays.

10. Goodbye (Pochika)

That's the end of the Meiji Jingu guide. Thanks for walking through the forest with us! After your visit, try Takeshita Street, a pedestrian street packed with small shops, just steps from Harajuku Station. Check Kyochika for events near your next stop. See you again!

FAQ

Is the audio guide free?

Yes, completely free. No app and no sign-up: just open this page in your phone browser and press play.

Where does the tour start?

At the Harajuku gate, 1 minute from Harajuku Station and Meiji-jingumae Station. The tracks follow the forest path past the sake and wine barrels and the great torii, a detour into the Inner Garden, the main shrine and the museum on the way back. Each track stops at the end, so tap “Next” when you reach the next spot.

Sources

• Meiji Jingu: Gate hours (Japanese)
• Meiji Jingu: Access (Japanese)
• Meiji Jingu: About (Japanese)
• Meiji Jingu: The forest (Japanese)
• Meiji Jingu: Q&A (Japanese)
• Meiji Jingu: Inner Garden (Japanese)
• Japan Tourism Agency multilingual database: Consecrated Sake Barrels
• Japan Tourism Agency multilingual database: Wine Barrels (Japanese)
• Meiji Jingu: Treasure House (Japanese)
• Meiji Jingu: Meiji Jingu Museum (Japanese)
• Meiji Jingu: Festivals and events (Japanese)
• GO TOKYO: Hatsumode
• GO TOKYO: All about visiting Harajuku

This page in Japanese