Tokyo · Sights

Best Temple in Tokyo

26 places, each checked by our team.

• Arai Yakushi (Baishoin) 新井薬師 梅照院Arai / Nakano — A busy neighbourhood temple in Nakano famous for curing eye ailments and helping children's health, approached through a nostalgic shotengai. It has…
• Ekōin Temple 回向院Ryogoku — Temple founded after the 1657 Great Fire of Meireki, where sumo tournaments were held for 76 years before the first Kokugikan opened.
• Fukagawa Fudodo 深川不動堂Monzen-nakacho — The Tokyo branch of Naritasan Shinshoji, where booming taiko drums and roaring flames fill the hall during the daily goma fire ritual, and where a…
• Gohyaku Rakan-ji 五百羅漢寺Shimomeguro — A modern temple in Meguro sheltering 305 surviving wooden statues of Buddha's disciples, carved by a single monk in the 1690s, each face different,…
• Gokokuji Temple 護国寺Gokokuji / Otowa — Grand Shingon temple founded in 1681 by shogun Tsunayoshi for his mother, with a Genroku-era main hall that survived Tokyo's earthquakes and air…
• Gotokuji Temple 豪徳寺Setagaya — The quiet Setagaya Zen temple that claims to be the birthplace of the maneki-neko, thousands of white beckoning cats stacked row upon row beside a…
• Ikegami Honmon-ji 池上本門寺Ikegami — The hilltop temple where Nichiren died in 1282, reached by 96 steep stone steps, with Tokyo's oldest five-storey pagoda (1608) and a great October…
• Jindaiji Temple & Soba Village 深大寺・深大寺そばJindaiji / Chofu — Tokyo's second-oldest temple, founded in 733, set in spring-fed woods in Chofu and surrounded by about 20 handmade-soba restaurants and tea houses.…
• Jokan-ji (Nagekomi-dera) 浄閑寺（投込寺）Minowa / Minami-Senju — A small Minowa temple where some 25,000 Yoshiwara courtesans were laid to rest, known as the "throw-in temple", with a moving memorial and the…
• Kan'ei-ji 寛永寺（根本中堂）Ueno / Uenosakuragi — Head temple of the Tokugawa shoguns in Ueno, founded in 1625 by the monk Tenkai to guard Edo Castle's unlucky northeast direction.
• Kiyomizu Kannon-dō Temple 清水観音堂Ueno Park — Ueno Park's 1631 hall modelled on Kyoto's Kiyomizu-dera, with a wooden stage overlooking Shinobazu Pond and the 'moon pine'.
• Kuhonbutsu Joshinji 九品仏浄真寺Okusawa / Jiyugaoka — A huge, tree-filled Pure Land temple a few minutes from Jiyugaoka. Three halls stand facing the main hall, and each holds three gilded Amida…
• Matsuchiyama Shoden 待乳山聖天（本龍院）Asakusa — Hilltop Asakusa temple to the god Kangiten where worshippers offer daikon radishes, decorated everywhere with radish and money-bag motifs.
• Meguro Fudoson (Ryusen-ji) 目黒不動尊（瀧泉寺）Shimomeguro — One of Edo's great pilgrimage temples, with a dragon-mouth waterfall where devotees still stand under the cold stream, steep stone steps and a…
• Nishiarai Daishi (Sozenji) 西新井大師（總持寺）Nishiarai — A grand Shingon temple in Adachi said to have been founded by Kukai in 826, with a famed peony garden, a salt-covered Jizo, and kusa-dango shops…
• Sengaku-ji 泉岳寺Takanawa — The resting place of the 47 Ronin, where the smoke of incense never stops drifting over the graves of Japan's most famous loyal retainers.
• Senso-ji 浅草寺Asakusa — Tokyo's oldest temple (founded 628) and its most electric: pass under the giant red lantern of Kaminarimon, run the snack gauntlet of Nakamise-dori…
• Shibamata Taishakuten 柴又帝釈天Shibamata — A Nichiren temple at the end of a perfectly preserved Showa-era shopping street, with some of Japan's most astonishing wood carvings, whole walls of…
• Shiofune Kannonji 塩船観音寺Shiofune / Ome — An ancient Ome temple set in a natural amphitheatre whose slopes are completely covered in about 20,000 azalea bushes. In late April and early May…
• Takahata Fudo Kongoji 高幡不動尊金剛寺Takahata / Hino — A grand Shingon temple in Hino with a five-storey pagoda, a hillside "mini 88-temple pilgrimage" trail and around 7,500 hydrangea bushes that turn…
• Tamagawa Daishi Underground Pilgrimage 玉川大師 地下霊場Seta / Futako-Tamagawa — A modest Shingon temple near Futako-Tamagawa that hides a 100 m pitch-black tunnel five metres underground. You walk it with one hand on the wall,…
• Tennōji Temple 天王寺Yanaka — Old Yanaka temple beside the cemetery, with an open-air bronze Buddha cast in 1690 and a history as one of Edo's three great lottery sites.
• Zenpuku-ji (Azabu) 麻布山 善福寺Moto-Azabu — One of Tokyo's oldest temples, below the Azabu-Juban hill, with a gigantic 750-year-old gingko and the site of the first US legation in 1859.
• Zenyoji Kagemukai Pine 善養寺 影向の松Higashi-Koiwa — A 600-year-old black pine that spreads like a living green roof across a Koiwa temple courtyard, branches about 30 metres wide held on dozens of…
• Zojoji Temple 増上寺Shiba Park — A grand Jodo-sect temple framed by Tokyo Tower, the city's most famous photo juxtaposition, with Tokugawa shogun tombs and rows of tiny jizo statues…
• Zoshigaya Kishimojin-do & Kamikawaguchiya 雑司ヶ谷鬼子母神堂・上川口屋Zoshigaya — A 1666 hall to the protector of children at the end of a zelkova-lined approach, with what is said to be Japan's oldest dagashi candy shop (since…