Hanazono Shrine Audio Guide

Hanazono Jinja Shrine: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Hanazono Jinja Shrine

   Welcome to Hanazono Jinja Shrine, known in Japanese as 花園神社, a Shinto shrine in the heart of Tokyo's Shinjuku ward. You are standing in one of the busiest corners of the world's largest city, and yet this shrine has been part of the neighborhood for centuries. A word on what to expect from this guide. The surviving record about the shrine's buildings and layout is thin, so I will not describe them in detail. Instead, I will tell you what is well established: how Shinjuku grew up around it, the great November fair that fills its grounds, and the way it sits between very different Tokyo worlds. Think of it as a story about the shrine and its neighborhood rather than a tour of its architecture.

2. 02

   Hanazono Jinja Shrine and the Road to Edo

   To understand this shrine, picture Shinjuku before the skyscrapers. In those days it was fairly far outside Edo, the city we now call Tokyo. The area began to develop when a new way station opened on the Ome Kaido and Koshu Kaido road, which served as a shortcut on the Nakasendo Highway, the route connecting Edo with Kyoto. Travelers needed lodging, merchants followed, and a shrine to watch over them all made sense. Hanazono Jinja Shrine came to be regarded as the most important shrine of Shinjuku, guarding the area and its inhabitants, merchants, craftsmen and artists. How old is it? Two accounts are told. One says the shrine was founded in the middle of the seventeenth century. The other says it was already worshiped as the central shrine of Naito Shinjuku before Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Edo Shogunate. Either way, by the Edo period it was already considered ancient.

3. 03

   The Tori-no-Ichi Fair at Hanazono Jinja Shrine

   If you can plan your visit for November, do it. On the days of the rooster in that month, Hanazono Jinja Shrine hosts the Tori-no-Ichi fair, and the grounds fill with crowds. Roughly 600,000 people come each year. The fair is held to commemorate the death of Prince Yamato Takeru, a legendary prince. The most famous purchase is the kumade, a decorative rake. Visitors buy one to wish for a thriving business, as if the rake could sweep good fortune toward their door. The fair is also known for its amusement booths, which are among the best-known sights of the shrine. So for a few evenings every year, a place of quiet prayer becomes one of Tokyo's liveliest festival scenes.

4. 04

   Hanazono Jinja Shrine Between Two Tokyos

   Look around and you will notice how many different Tokyos meet here. The shrine stands in the same neighborhood as the venerable Isetan department store and the bustling Kabukicho district. Shinjuku itself became a center of Japanese counter culture in the 1960s. That mix suits a shrine said to guard artists as well as merchants and craftsmen. It is a relatively quiet place downtown, and people come here to relax and refresh themselves while the district roars on all sides.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Before you move on, take a moment to listen. Somewhere beyond the shrine's grounds is the hum of Shinjuku, a district that began as a humble stop on the road between Edo and Kyoto. As you wander, think about how much of that old story you can feel in a place that has watched travelers, merchants, artists and festival crowds come and go. And if you ever find yourself in Tokyo in November, a rooster day might show you the shrine at its most vivid. What will you notice first when you step back out into the streets?