KATARIBE
Historic sites in Tokyo & Kyoto
Guides to the temples, shrines and castles of Tokyo and Kyoto — what they are, how to reach them, and what happened there. Written by the team behind the KATARIBE audio guide app.
Tokyo
The inner wards of the shogun's castle, now a free garden around an empty keep base.
A 1920 shrine inside a 70-hectare forest that volunteers planted on bare farmland.
The Zen temple where the forty-seven rōnin buried their lord, then joined him.
Tokyo's oldest temple, built around a statue of Kannon that nobody is allowed to see.
The Tokugawa family temple beneath Tokyo Tower, guarded by the oldest wooden building in the city.
Kyoto
Head shrine of every Inari shrine in Japan, with a mountain of donated torii behind it.
A gold-leafed pavilion over a mirror pond, rebuilt in 1955 after an arsonist burned it.
A National Treasure hall on wooden stilts, founded before Kyoto was the capital.
The shoguns' Kyoto residence, and the room where the shogunate ended in 1867.
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