Meiji Jingu Audio Guide

Welcome to Meiji Jingu

Welcome to Meiji Jingu. Step out of Harajuku Station, turn your back on the youthful bustle of the streets, and a great wooden gate — a torii — rises before you. Pass beneath it, and the world changes. Trees close in overhead, gravel crunches softly underfoot, and the air grows cool and clear. You may find it hard to believe you are still in the heart of Tokyo. Meiji Jingu is said to be a shrine dedicated to Emperor Meiji, who presided over Japan's leap into the modern age, and to his wife, Empress Shoken. For people of the city, it is a place to offer the year's first prayer and to quiet the mind. For travelers, the very fact that so deep a forest and so profound a silence lie beside a vast metropolis becomes an unforgettable surprise. And yet this forest is not what nature left behind. Over the next hour or so, let's trace the story hidden within these quiet woods together. Stop wherever catches your eye, and listen at your own pace. Let's begin with the tale of this 'eternal forest' — a gift that people a century ago entrusted to the future.