MEIJI SANCTUARY, Meiji Sanctuary

Hi, my name’s Marcy, and I’m your personal guide. Along with MyWoWo, I’d like to welcome you to one of the Wonders of the World: the Meiji Shrine.

The Meiji Shrine is the best-known Shinto shrine in Tokyo, dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, the Empress Shōken. It was Emperor Meiji, much loved by the Japanese, who moved the capital of Japan to Tokyo. He was largely responsible for the modernization of Japan and for making it a major international economic power.

After his death in 1912, the Japanese parliament approved a resolution to commemorate his importance with a shrine, and the choice fell to an iris garden Emperor Meiji and his wife frequently visited.

Construction began in 1915, and the shrine was designed in traditional nagare-zukuri style, the main features, as you can see, are the asymmetrical roof and the use of Japanese cypress and copper. The shrine was inaugurated on November 1st, 1920.

The building you can see today, however, was built in 1958, and is a copy of the original, which was destroyed during the Second World War....