Tsukiji Hongwanji Temple

Tsukiji Hongwanji Temple is a working Jodo Shinshu Buddhist temple a short walk from Tsukiji Station, and it looks nothing like the wooden, tile-roofed temples found elsewhere in Tokyo. Its 1934 main hall was built from stone and concrete in a style drawing on ancient Buddhist architecture from India and other parts of Asia, making it one of the most photographed and most misunderstood buildings in the city. Admission is free, and most visitors can see the highlights in well under an hour, which makes it an easy, worthwhile addition to a morning that already includes Tsukiji Outer Market.

Why visit: this is not a recreation or a theme building. It is an active place of worship for the Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha sect, and the unusual exterior sits directly above a conventional Japanese Buddhist altar. That contrast, a stone facade carved with lions, elephants, and mythical creatures on the outside, a Jodo Shinshu sanctuary with a German pipe organ and a stained-glass lotus window on the inside, is the single most interesting thing about the building and the reason it rewards a visit even for travelers who normally skip temples.

What makes the architecture different comes down to one architect's very deliberate choice. The main hall was designed by Ito Chuta (1867-1954), an architect who had traveled widely across Asia studying how Buddhist architecture evolved and spread from India outward, and who also worked on Tokyo's Meiji Jingu Shrine and Kyoto's Heian Jingu Shrine. When Nishi Hongwanji's head priest, Otani Kozui, wanted the rebuilt Tsukiji temple to visually reconnect with Buddhism's origins along the Silk Road, Ito answered with a stone facade evoking ancient Indian and Asian Buddhist monuments, a roundish roofline modeled on a Bodhi tree leaf, and rows of decorative carvings reflecting his own well-documented fascination with mythical creatures. Inside, none of that changes the substance of the temple: the altar, the chanting, and the Jodo Shinshu teaching are entirely conventional, just presented beneath a stained-glass window and next to a pipe organ rather than the usual gilded interior.

History explains why the building exists in this form at all. The temple was founded in 1617 in Asakusa as an Edo branch of Kyoto's Nishi Hongwanji, the head temple of the Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha sect. The 1657 Great Fire of Meireki destroyed the original building, and the shogunate's ban on rebuilding in Asakusa pushed the temple onto newly reclaimed land by the Sumida River, which is where the name Tsukiji ('reclaimed land') comes from. That reclaimed-land temple stood for over two and a half centuries until the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake destroyed it a second time. Reconstruction ran from 1931 to 1934, producing the building seen today, and in 2014 the main hall, its gate posts, and its stone walls were designated a National Important Cultural Property.

Inside the main hall, a statue of Amida Nyorai (Amitabha Buddha) sits at the center of a conventional Jodo Shinshu altar, lit through a stained-glass window patterned with lotus motifs above the entrance. A German pipe organ stands to one side, installed to support hymn-style Buddhist music, and visitors sit in chairs rather than on floor mats, another break from typical Japanese temple convention. Every morning at 7:00 AM the temple holds a free jinjo-gongyo service that any visitor can quietly join or observe without booking ahead, which is worth timing a visit around for anyone who wants to see the space in active use rather than as a sightseeing stop alone.

Tsukiji Hongwanji Temple and Tsukiji Outer Market sit only a few minutes apart, both close to Tsukiji Station, but they are separate attractions with different reasons to visit. The temple is a free, 30-60 minute architecture and history stop; the market next door is Tokyo's best-known food and shopping destination. They combine naturally into one morning, most easily by visiting the temple first while it is quiet and then walking over to the market as it fills up, rather than treating one as part of the other.