Zojoji Temple

Zojoji Temple is a free-to-enter Jodo-shu Buddhist temple in Shiba, Minato, part of the Tokyo travel region, and one of the most historically significant temples in the city, having served for centuries as the official family temple of the Tokugawa shogunate. It stands directly beside Tokyo Tower, and the pairing of the temple's dark wooden halls in front of the tower's red-and-white steel lattice has become one of Tokyo's most recognizable old-meets-new views. Most visitors reach Zojoji Temple while already planning a Tokyo Tower visit, and the two make an easy, natural half-day pairing; this page focuses on the temple itself, its Tokugawa history, its Sangedatsumon gate, and what is genuinely free versus paid to see.

The temple was founded in 1393 by the priest Yuyo Shoso as a Jodo-shu (Pure Land Buddhist) seminary in the Kanto region, and it remains the sect's main temple for the region, second only to Chion-in, the head temple in Kyoto. After Tokugawa Ieyasu entered Edo around 1590, the temple relocated to its present Shiba site in 1598 and was shortly afterward designated the official family temple of the Tokugawa shogunate, a status that shaped its fortunes for the next two and a half centuries. At its peak, the complex covered more than 82 hectares with 48 subtemples and roughly 3,000 priests in training, one of the largest Buddhist institutions in Edo-period Japan.

Most of the original mausoleum buildings and much of the wider temple complex were destroyed in the 1945 Tokyo air raids. The current Daiden (Main Hall) is a postwar reconstruction completed in 1974. The Sangedatsumon gate is the one major structure that survived the war intact, and it remains the oldest wooden building in Tokyo.

Built in 1622, the Sangedatsumon gate takes its name from a Buddhist concept meaning deliverance from three earthly states of greed, hatred, and foolishness, and it is designated a National Important Cultural Property. The gate is undergoing a ten-year restoration project that began in April 2025 and is scheduled for completion around November 2032. A narrow public walkway beneath the gate has been open since September 2025, and Kuromon (the south-side gate) and the Ankokuden-side entrance serve as the practical alternate routes while work continues. Visitors expecting the classic unobstructed photo of the gate should know it currently stands behind scaffolding, and shouldn't assume otherwise from older photos found online.

Six Tokugawa shoguns are interred at Zojoji Temple: the 2nd shogun Tokugawa Hidetada, the 6th Tokugawa Ienobu, the 7th Tokugawa Ietsugu, the 9th Tokugawa Ieshige, the 12th Tokugawa Ieyoshi, and the 14th Tokugawa Iemochi, along with Princess Kazunomiya. The original, much larger Taitoku-in Mausoleum was destroyed in WWII, and what visitors see today is a smaller, reconsecrated memorial area, entered separately from the Treasure Gallery for ¥500.

The Treasure Gallery (Homotsukan), in the Daiden's basement, displays a detailed model of the original Taitoku-in Mausoleum along with other temple treasures, for ¥700 adult admission (¥300 for junior/high school students, free for elementary age and under). Ankokuden, a separate hall, houses the Kurohonzon, a black-lacquered Amida Buddha statue associated with Tokugawa Ieyasu, which is opened to public viewing only three days a year: January 15, May 15, and September 15. A combined Treasure Gallery and Mausoleum ticket costs ¥1,000.

Beside the main grounds, rows of small stone Jizo statues dressed in red caps and bibs make up the Sentai Kosodate Jizo, a garden dedicated to children. It's free to view and one of the temple's most photographed, quietly moving corners.

Put simply: the temple grounds, the Sangedatsumon gate's exterior, and the Sentai Kosodate Jizo garden are all free. Only the Treasure Gallery and the Tokugawa Mausoleum charge admission, separately or combined. Compared with Senso-ji Temple, Tokyo's larger and far busier Asakusa temple, Zojoji Temple is quieter, smaller in scale, and carries a more direct Tokugawa-shogunate history; it makes a genuinely different, more contemplative stop rather than a substitute experience. Most visitors pair a Zojoji Temple visit with Tokyo Tower next door, and the two combine naturally into a single half-day in Shiba.