Historical Sites in Tokyo: What Survived and Where to Find It

Almost nothing in Tokyo is old. The 1923 earthquake took most of what the Edo period left, and the 1945 firebombing took most of what survived that. So the city's history hides in odd places: a garden laid out by a shipping magnate, a shrine that the bombs happened to miss, a stone foundation where a castle keep burned down in 1657 and was never rebuilt.

Tokyo's historical sites are scattered rather than clustered, and the best of them are free. Sensoji dates from 628, Nezu Shrine's buildings from 1706, and the Imperial Palace East Gardens sit on the Edo Castle grounds. Most cost nothing to enter, and the ones that charge rarely exceed ¥500.

The Pine Tree in Kiyosumi Garden

What is the oldest place in Tokyo?

Sensoji in Asakusa, founded in 628, is the oldest temple in the city and the oldest continuously significant site. The buildings you see are a 1958 reconstruction in concrete, since the temple burned in the March 1945 raids, and the temple treats that rebuilding as part of its story.

For actual surviving old structures, Nezu Shrine is the better answer. Its main buildings date from 1706 and came through both the earthquake and the war intact, which makes them among the oldest standing structures in central Tokyo.

The oldest continuously inhabited ground is the Imperial Palace site, fortified from 1457 and the shogun's seat from 1603.

The sites worth your time

Nezu Shrine

Nezu Shrine

Nezu Shrine is the quiet one and the most rewarding. Rebuilt in 1706 by the fifth Tokugawa shogun, the main hall, gate, and corridor all survive in their original form and are designated Important Cultural Properties.

A tunnel of small vermilion torii climbs the hillside behind the main hall, and the azalea garden draws real crowds for about three weeks from mid-April and almost nobody the rest of the year. Free, open dawn to dusk, and the shrine's own site lists the festival dates.

It sits in Yanaka, the low-city district that escaped both disasters, which is why the surrounding streets feel older than anywhere else in Tokyo.

Kiyosumi Garden

Kiyosumi Gardens

A strolling garden in Koto ward built around a pond, laid out in the 1880s by Iwasaki Yataro, the founder of Mitsubishi, who had stones shipped in from across Japan using his own fleet.

The stepping stones across the water are the feature, set just close enough together to cross without getting wet. Entry is ¥150, which is the best value in Tokyo. Our roundup of Japan's most beautiful gardens puts it in national context.

The Imperial Palace East Gardens

Quiet Sight of Tokyo Imperial Palace

The Imperial Palace grounds are where Edo Castle stood, and the East Gardens are the part anyone can walk into, free of charge.

The stone base of the great keep is still there. The tower on top burned in the Meireki fire of 1657 and was never rebuilt, because the shogunate decided the money was better spent on the city. Three Edo-period guardhouses survive, along with the Ninomaru garden at the eastern end.

Closed Mondays and Fridays. Our guide to visiting the Imperial Palace covers the inner-grounds tours, which run separately and need booking.

Sensoji

Sensoji Temple

Sensoji is the opposite of hidden, with around 30 million visitors a year, but it belongs on any historical list. Founded in 628 after two fishermen pulled a statue of Kannon from the Sumida, it has anchored Asakusa ever since.

Go before 08:00 or after dark, when the gates are lit and Nakamise-dori is empty. The temple's English pages give the founding story in detail.

Yasukuni Shrine

Yasukuni Shrine

Yasukuni Shrine in Kudanshita enshrines roughly 2.5 million war dead, including convicted war criminals, and visits by politicians reliably cause diplomatic incidents with China and South Korea.

The Yushukan museum on the grounds presents an account of the twentieth century well outside mainstream historical consensus. Visit if you want to understand how the war is argued about in Japan, and go informed. The shrine's English pages set out its own position.

Tokyo's official cherry blossom declaration is made from a designated tree here each spring.

The State Guest House, Akasaka

Sakura at Asukayama Park

The most surprising building in Tokyo and the one almost no visitor knows about. Built between 1899 and 1909 as the Crown Prince's palace, it is a full neo-Baroque European palace, modeled loosely on Versailles and Buckingham Palace, sitting behind gates in Akasaka.

It became government property in 1948, was remodeled as the State Guest House in 1968, and was designated a National Treasure in 2009, the first building from the Meiji era to receive that status.

It opens to the public when not in official use, generally most of the year, with an admission fee and advance booking through the official site. Check before you plan a visit, since state occasions close it at short notice.

Asukayama Park

Asukayama Park

Asukayama in Kita ward was one of Japan's first public parks, opened in 1873, and before that was planted with cherry trees by the eighth shogun specifically so ordinary townspeople had somewhere to view blossom.

That origin matters. Hanami as a popular activity rather than an aristocratic one starts here. It is a short, free monorail ride from the park entrance, and three small museums sit on the hill.

Shinjuku Gyoen

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden

Shinjuku Gyoen began as a daimyo residence, became an imperial garden in 1906, and opened to the public in 1949. It combines a French formal garden, an English landscape garden, and a Japanese garden on one site, which is a very Meiji thing to do.

Admission is ¥500. The garden's history explains how it survived the war. It holds over a thousand cherry trees across a long flowering season, which makes it the most reliable blossom viewing in the city.

Yushima Tenmangu

Historical Yushima Tenmangu Shrine

Yushima Tenmangu is dedicated to the deity of learning, which means that every January and February it fills with students and stacks of ema tablets asking for exam success. The plum grove flowers in February and is the best in central Tokyo.

Tokyo Tower

Tokyo Tower is historical in its own right. Completed in 1958 as a symbol of postwar recovery, it is taller than the Eiffel Tower it copies, and it was partly built from the melted-down steel of American tanks damaged in the Korean War.

It is a working broadcast tower and still a better visit than its reputation suggests, particularly at the lower observatory where the view sits among the buildings rather than above them. A Tokyo Tower ticket with a subway pass is the practical way to combine it with a day of sightseeing, and a Skytree ticket covers the modern alternative.

Tokyo Tower

How much does it cost?

Most of the historical sites in Tokyo are free: Sensoji, Nezu Shrine, Yasukuni, Yushima Tenmangu, Asukayama, and the Imperial Palace East Gardens.

The paid ones are modest. Kiyosumi Garden is ¥150, Shinjuku Gyoen ¥500, and the State Guest House charges a few thousand yen depending on which parts you enter. Tokyo Tower runs ¥1,200 to ¥3,000 depending on the observatory.

A full day of historical sightseeing in Tokyo can cost under ¥1,000 in admissions.

Putting a route together

Group them geographically rather than by theme.

Yanaka and Nezu make a good slow morning: Nezu Shrine, the old streets, the cemetery, and the shopping lane. Almost no coach traffic.

The palace and Marunouchi work as a flat walk from Tokyo Station through the East Gardens and out the north side toward Kitanomaru.

Asakusa pairs Sensoji with the Sumida riverside and Tokyo Skytree across the water.

Shinjuku Gyoen is best alone, since it deserves two hours.

For the historical background, our piece on the Edo period covers the 265 years that shaped the city, and the story of the 47 ronin is worth reading before visiting Sengakuji, where the graves are.

Our essay on wabi-sabi explains the aesthetic that makes a reconstructed temple feel authentic to Japanese visitors in a way it often does not to foreign ones.

A route such as a slower week in Tokyo leaves time for the quieter sites rather than sprinting between the famous ones, which is the only way this particular list works.