Japan · 2 PLACES TO EXPLORE

A little more
of Bunkyo City.

Find places to visit in Bunkyo City. See what catches your eye, then save a few favorites for your trip.

Bunkyo City · JP

Nezu Shrine

Tucked into the quiet northern wards of Tokyo, Nezu Shrine (根津神社) is a hushed, moss-and-vermilion world that feels a century removed from the city outside. It is best known for two things: a long tunnel of vermilion torii gates climbing its wooded hillside, and, each spring, a riot of azaleas that carpets the slope in pinks, reds, violets and whites. One of the so-called Tokyo Ten Shrines, it pairs old Edo-period craftsmanship with one of the city's most photographed spring scenes. Legend traces the shrine's founding more than 1,900 years ago to the prince Yamato Takeru, and it enshrines Susanoo-no-Mikoto, kami of sea and storms. The buildings standing today date from the early 1700s, when the Tokugawa shoguns relocated and rebuilt the shrine on this site—making it one of the oldest places of worship in the capital and a rare survivor of Edo-period shrine architecture, with several structures designated Important Cultural Properties of Japan.

Buddhist temple

Bunkyo City · JP

Hoshinji

Hoshinji (ほうせんじ) is a quiet Pure Land Buddhist temple tucked into the university quarter of Hongo, Bunkyo, directly across from the University of Tokyo's famous Akamon, the Red Gate. Small and easy to miss among the campus bustle, it rewards a short detour for its carved images—and, above all, for its intimate link to the beloved Meiji writer Higuchi Ichiyo, who lived next door as a little girl and set scenes from her fiction here. Registered with the Tōku temple Zōjō-ji back in 1596, the temple is as much a piece of Tokyo's literary memory as a place of worship, and a stop of just twenty or thirty minutes fits naturally into an afternoon wandering around Hongo and the university campus.

A LITTLE INSPIRATION IS ON ITS WAY

Finding your next place…

Loading the guide.

Japan · 2 PLACES TO EXPLORE

A little more
of Bunkyo City.

Find places to visit in Bunkyo City. See what catches your eye, then save a few favorites for your trip.

Shinto shrine

Bunkyo City · JP

Nezu Shrine

Tucked into the quiet northern wards of Tokyo, Nezu Shrine (根津神社) is a hushed, moss-and-vermilion world that feels a century removed from the city outside. It is best known for two things: a long tunnel of vermilion torii gates climbing its wooded hillside, and, each spring, a riot of azaleas that carpets the slope in pinks, reds, violets and whites. One of the so-called Tokyo Ten Shrines, it pairs old Edo-period craftsmanship with one of the city's most photographed spring scenes. Legend traces the shrine's founding more than 1,900 years ago to the prince Yamato Takeru, and it enshrines Susanoo-no-Mikoto, kami of sea and storms. The buildings standing today date from the early 1700s, when the Tokugawa shoguns relocated and rebuilt the shrine on this site—making it one of the oldest places of worship in the capital and a rare survivor of Edo-period shrine architecture, with several structures designated Important Cultural Properties of Japan.

Buddhist temple

Bunkyo City · JP

Hoshinji

Hoshinji (ほうせんじ) is a quiet Pure Land Buddhist temple tucked into the university quarter of Hongo, Bunkyo, directly across from the University of Tokyo's famous Akamon, the Red Gate. Small and easy to miss among the campus bustle, it rewards a short detour for its carved images—and, above all, for its intimate link to the beloved Meiji writer Higuchi Ichiyo, who lived next door as a little girl and set scenes from her fiction here. Registered with the Tōku temple Zōjō-ji back in 1596, the temple is as much a piece of Tokyo's literary memory as a place of worship, and a stop of just twenty or thirty minutes fits naturally into an afternoon wandering around Hongo and the university campus.