Where Diplomacy Found Its Japanese Home

The temple's most dramatic chapter unfolded in the closing years of the Tokugawa era. When Japan was forced open to Western powers in the 1850s, the shogunate faced an urgent problem: where to house foreign envoys in a city that had never hosted permanent legations. The answer was temples in the Shiba and Azabu areas near the water—easily reached from ships anchored in Shinagawa Bay, and considered safer from attacks by radical anti-foreign samurai than secular buildings.↗

In July 1858, Lord Elgin—the British diplomat who had famously looted the Old Summer Palace in Beijing—arrived in Japanese waters with a squadron of warships. His originally assigned lodging proved too cramped, so Elgin and his suite were transferred to Saiō-ji, where the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Britain and Japan was finalized. Local legend holds that Elgin was entertained with a performance of Kochō no Mai (the Butterfly Dance), a classical Japanese magic trick involving paper butterflies fanned to life—said to be the first foreign record of this art.↗

A year later, in September 1859, the first Dutch legation in Japan was officially established within Saiō-ji's walls, with the library and upper quarters of the temple's residential hall serving as offices for Ambassador Kurtchues and his staff. Today a plaque designates the site as a Tokyo Metropolitan Historic Site, marking the spot where the Netherlands and Japan first conducted formal diplomatic relations on Japanese soil.↗↗

Rebuilding and Renewal

Peace was short-lived. On December 25, 1867, radical samurai attacked the nearby Satsuma domain residence in what became known as the Mita-Satsuma firebombing; flames engulfed Saiō-ji, and its buildings—including all records of the legation years—burned to the ground. A rebuilt main hall survived until May 1945, when wartime air raids destroyed it again. Reconstruction began immediately after the war with a temporary hall in 1946, and the current building dates from 1960.↗↗

In 1948, amid the chaos of post-war Tokyo where children roamed the streets, the 38th abbot of Saiō-ji, the Reverend Jōzen, founded Minato Kindergarten on the temple grounds to provide stability for displaced children. Today the kindergarten occupies what was once the diplomatic residential hall, and the sound of children's voices in play has become the temple's defining atmosphere.↗

Visiting Saiō-ji

Saiō-ji is easy to miss from the main road. Approach through the old shopping street of Shiba and follow the narrow alleys deeper until children's voices lead you to the gate. The temple grounds are modest but peaceful, with a compact main hall and the Minato Kindergarten next door. The designated historic site marker for the first Dutch legation stands on the grounds, a small reminder of the world-changing negotiations that took place here.↗↗

The temple is open daily, weekdays from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM and weekends from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM. It sits within walking distance of Zōjō-ji and Tokyo Tower, making it a natural stop for a half-day exploration of the Shiba area's temples and gardens.

Why It's Worth a Stop

For travelers who have already seen the grandeur of Zōjō-ji and the glitter of Tokyo Tower, Saiō-ji offers something rarer: a quiet, authentic encounter with the intersection of Japanese religion, samurai-era politics, and the birth of modern diplomacy. It's a temple where butterfly magic entertained a British earl, where Dutch ambassadors drafted their first cables from a Buddhist library, and where a post-war abbot decided that children needed a playground more urgently than a grand hall needed gold leaf.