Nezu Shrine Audio Guide

Nezu Shrine: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Nezu Shrine

   Welcome to Nezu Shrine, known in Japanese as 根津神社. It sits in the Nezu district of Bunkyo Ward, in a part of Tokyo where the old downtown mood still lingers. It is one of the city's most treasured shrines, and it counts among the Tokyo Ten Shrines. Tradition holds that Nezu Shrine was founded about 1,900 years ago by the legendary prince Yamato Takeru. That is a story rather than a dated record, but it tells you how deep the shrine's roots are meant to run. The buildings you will admire today are a much more solid matter. They date from 1706, and every one of the seven major structures is an Important Cultural Property of Japan. Over this guide we will follow the shrine through three threads: the shogun's family story that shaped it, the architecture that survived, and the festivals, flowers and writers that give it a living pulse. Along the way, the old name Nezu Gongen will keep appearing, because that is how many Tokyoites still say it.

2. 02

   Nezu Shrine and the Shogun's Birthplace

   Here is the story that turned a venerable shrine into a showpiece. The ground where the present shrine stands was once the residence of Tsunashige, Lord of Kofu and elder brother of the fifth shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. It was also the birthplace of the sixth shogun, Tsunatoyo, who later took the name Ienobu. Because of that birth, Nezu Shrine became the guardian deity of his birthplace, the ubusunagami. The shrine itself is far older than the shogunate. Tradition says Yamato Takeru founded it at Sendagi, and that Ota Dokan, the famous warlord, had shrine buildings erected there in the Bunmei era. Then Tsunayoshi brought the shrine from its old site at Sendagi to its present ground and, in 1706, built new halls for it. The deities enshrined here are Susanoo, Oyamakui and Homuwake, with Okuninushi and Sugawara no Michizane enshrined alongside. In the Edo period, a Tendai temple named Shosen-in served as the shrine's administrator, and the shrine was worshipped as a gongen shrine. That is why you will still hear the nickname Nezu Gongen. There is even a playful reading of the name. A guidebook of 1662 described it as the Gongen that never sleeps, a night watchman among the gods.

3. 03

   Nezu Shrine's Edo Masterpiece in Gongen-zukuri

   Now look closely at the buildings, because this is where Nezu Shrine truly shines. Completed in 1706 with a donation from Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the main sanctuary, offering hall and worship hall are celebrated as a masterpiece of gongen-zukuri. This is the Edo-period style that joins the halls of a shrine into one connected complex. Splendid carvings and lacquer adorn them. What makes the place unusual is how complete it is. Seven structures survive and are designated Important Cultural Properties: the main sanctuary, the offering hall, the worship hall, the karamon gate, the west gate, the openwork fence called the sukibei, and the two-storied gate known as the romon. Take your time with the fence in particular. An openwork fence lets you glimpse the sacred buildings beyond while still marking a boundary. Seen together, these structures carry the refinement and craftsmanship of the Edo period, and few places in Tokyo preserve such a full set so beautifully.

4. 04

   Nezu Shrine in Festival, Flowers and Literature

   Nezu Shrine is also a place of seasons and stories. The great festival of the year takes place each September, and its roots reach back to 1714, when the sixth shogun, Ienobu, established the shrine's festival. The Tenka Matsuri held that year was so grand that people spoke of it for generations. Today, a large portable shrine is carried through the streets of Sendagi and Nezu, and the Sanza no Mai offering dance, a Bunkyo Ward intangible cultural property, is performed along with the Urayasu no Mai. Spring brings the azaleas. About 3,000 plants bloom here, usually from mid to late April, and the Bunkyo Azalea Festival is timed to coincide with them. Then there are the writers. Mori Ogai belonged to the shrine's parish, and the shrine appears in his novel Seinen under the name Nezu Gongen. Natsume Soseki lived close by as well, in a house that Ogai had occupied before him. Now a project is bringing the old residence where Ogai lived with his first wife, beginning in May 1889, to the shrine, so the literary link is growing stronger.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   As you wander on, notice how the shrine feels like a bridge between very different Tokyos: the old legend of a prince, the grand ambitions of a shogun's family, and the quiet streets of Nezu and Sendagi where writers once strolled. If you are arriving or leaving by public transport, Nezu Station, Sendagi Station and Todaimae Station are the nearest stops, and the Toei bus stop called Nezu Jinja Iriguchi is about one minute away on foot. Before you go, try a small game. Find the gate that frames your first look at the inner buildings, then watch how the openwork fence reveals and hides what lies behind it. And if the neighborhood tempts you, follow the lanes toward Sendagi, where the memory of Mori Ogai and Natsume Soseki still hangs in the air.