Meiji Shrine (Meiji Jingu) is one of Japan’s most famous shrines, certainly the most famous shrine in Tokyo. It sprawls over an enormous, forested park in the middle of the city full of towering trees that gives one the impression they are in fact standing in a forest somewhere out in the mountains rather than in the middle of the world’s largest city. It sprawls over an enormous, forested park in the middle of the city full of towering trees that gives one the impression they are in fact standing in a forest somewhere out in the mountains rather than in the middle of the world’s largest city.

Emperor Meiji is probably Japan’s most famous emperor and is the one responsible for turning Japan from an isolated and somewhat backward nation to the industrial and technologically advanced powerhouse it is known to be today. His reforms of the Meiji period are still studied by Japanese students on a daily basis as part of their school curriculum.

Meiji Shrine, despite its appearances of being an old and established shrine, was in fact built in 1920 making it one of Japan’s most recent shrines. It commemorates the Emperor Meiji and his wife, the Meiji Empress who ruled Japan during its industrial revolution from 1868 to 1912.