Best Temples around Tokyo and Surroundings Spot List

A five-story traditional Japanese building, towering in the lush woods, you are sure to find while walking in Ueno Park. It is a National Important Cultural Property.

This is a historic temple established in 830 and also known as Kawagoe Daishi. The temple is famous for the 538 statues of rakan (disciples of Buddha) with various facial expressions.

It is the Buddhist temple which is said to be the origin of maneki-neko or a luck-inviting cat figurine, beckoning with its right front paw. In its temple grounds, a number of historical assets still remain.

A soaring five-story pagoda at Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa with magnificent nighttime illumination.

One of two Daihonzan (head temples) of the Soto school of Zen Buddhism, with modern buildings in the spacious temple grounds. You can practice Zen meditation here.

Main priests' residence of Senso-ji complex where the Three Buddha Statues of Amitabha are enshrined. The temple also houses ancestral tablets of Tokugawa Shoguns.

Famous for the Great Buddha of Kamakura which weighs 121 tonnes, Kotoku-in is a Buddhist temple of the Jodo-shu sect.

It is a Buddhist temple in Tsukiji. The exterior of the main worship hall is a stone construction in the ancient Indian style, and the interior of the hall is arranged in the traditional Shinshu-sect temple design and layout.

This is a branch temple of the Naritasan Shinshoji Temple on the land of Kawagoe and is famous for its goma-kito (a ritual of consecrated fire) and the flea market on the 28th of every month.

Surrounded by nature and visited by many people, Bentendo Temple rises from the center of Shinobazu Pond in Ueno Park.

The principal object of worship at Ennoji Temple is Enma Daio. It also enshrines the Ten Judges of Hell. You can experience an ancient view of the afterlife here.

It is a daihonzan major temple of Nichiren-school Buddhism. Various historical buildings remain on the temple precincts, such as the Daido large hall, the Honden main hall, the Tahoto jeweled pagoda, and a five-story pagoda.

Sanehira Jiro Doi is famous for protecting Yoritomo Minamoto from Kagechika Oba’s army after he had lost the Battle of Ishibashiyama. Joganji Temple is the family temple of the Doi clan. The temple grounds contain many sights of historic interest, including Shichikido, a hall which keeps the seven wooden statues depicting Yoritomo and each of his samurai warriors who played an active part in the revival of the Minamoto family, as well as the Doi family’s burial ground (designated as a Kanagawa cultural property). A Chinese juniper tree planted by Sanehira himself (estimated to be 800 years old and designated as a national natural monument) is the largest and oldest in Kanagawa Prefecture, and its straight, vertical trunk is an impressive sight thought to be extremely rare in Japan.