★★★★★ 5.0
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Tsukiji Hongan-ji Temple
Those 2,000 shiny pipes above you aren't just making music - they're secretly spelling out a Buddhist prayer in their arrangement! This incredible temple sits on land that used to be ocean until Buddhist followers literally built it from the sea in 1679. Architect Itō Chūta designed this concrete and marble masterpiece in 1934 to look like ancient Indian temples, making it the only Buddhist temple in Japan that looks like it belongs in a fairy tale castle. The building you're standing before has survived being burned down TWICE - once in a giant city fire and once in an earthquake - but this third version has stood strong for almost 100 years, welcoming visitors to discover its stained glass windows and monthly pipe organ concerts that echo through halls where sea waves once crashed.
Did You Know?
- Tsukiji Hongan-ji Temple is one of the few Japanese Buddhist temples with a strikingly Indian-style exterior, designed by architect Ito Chuta after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923; the rounded roof symbolizes the sacred Bodhi tree, while carvings of mythical creatures like shishi lion dogs, elephants, and phoenixes adorn its façade, blending Indian and Japanese artistic motifs in a way that still surprises visitors today.
- Inside the temple, you’ll find a rare fusion of East and West: traditional Japanese Buddhist ornamentation sits alongside a massive 2,000-pipe organ from Germany, installed to promote Buddhist music, and stained-glass windows more commonly seen in European churches—a testament to the temple’s role as a cultural crossroads and its embrace of global influences.
- Tsukiji Hongan-ji is not only a spiritual site but also a place of modern pop culture pilgrimage; it houses a memorial to Hideto Matsumoto (Hide), the legendary guitarist of the rock band X Japan, attracting music fans from around the world alongside worshippers and history enthusiasts.