Kon’nichiwa!
I went to Ueno Park since it’s one of the most famous parks in Tokyo. There are lots of well-known things to see, but there are also areas of the park that feel quieter where you can walk around small shrines… and walk through a torii tunnel of bright red shrine gates lined up in Tokyo!
The Gojoten Shrine and its torii tunnel in Ueno Park is a 5-10 minute walk from the busy Ueno Station. But even so, it’s possible that you can have a relatively quiet experience at the shrine. It’s in an area that feels a little more hidden as it gets less foot traffic than other places in the park.
The torii tunnel is on the grounds of the greater Gojoten Shrine, but more specifically the rows of torii gates are part of the smaller sub-shrine called the Hanazono Inari Shrine.
Let’s learn Japanese! TORII = shrine gate!
I was in Ueno during cherry blossom season, which is literally one of the most crowded times of the year. Ueno Park is considered a top spot in Tokyo for cherry blossoms so there were way more people there. But even with the overall huge crowds in Ueno, the single path that goes through the torii tunnel felt like it was calmer.
I’ll give you the quick walk-through below that I did through the torii tunnel.
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JAPAN TRAVEL > TOKYO MAP | TOKYO TORII GATES
Side note!
Tokyo tour you must consider to get to know Japanese culture better!
Tokyo walking tour: Old Town Yanaka and Nezu culture experience
Visit the quieter neighborhoods of Yanaka and Nezu, and walk through a torii tunnel in Nezu!
Read the reviews.
Walking around Hanazono Inari Shrine torii tunnel
I also made an interactive map for the famous things to do around Gojoten Shrine. This also includes ideas for what to do on the day you go to Ueno Park. If you want to go straight to the map, here you go: Gojoten Shrine map
Ueno Park is big, so unless you are specifically on the Gojoten Shrine side of the park, it’s not something you would just for sure come across.
It is easy to get to though if you are seeking it out. It’s about a 5-10 minute walk from Ueno Station, as well as several other train stations in the area.
Within Ueno Park itself, alongside your visit to the Gojoten Shrine torii tunnel, you can walk 5-10 minutes to the more famous places like Shinobazuno Pond and the National Museum of Western Art. Also in the park are the Tokyo National Museum and the Ueno Zoo. So, if these are of interest, you could easily spend all day at Ueno Park!
Along with Gojoten Shrine, another shrine at Ueno Park is the Ueno Toshogu Shrine. You can make it a “Cultural Tokyo day” by starting at Ueno Station and going to Gojoten Shrine and Toshogu Shrine at Ueno Park, and then afterwards, you can walk 20 minutes to Nezu Shrine which is another place with a torii tunnel! End your day walking the traditional streets of Yanaka, another 15 minute walk away.
Or, Ueno Station is also on the JR Yamanote Line, which means it has a direct train to the popular neighborhoods of Shinjuku and Shibuya, as well as Tokyo Station.
There’s also a small torii tunnel in Shinjuku, and Tokyo’s most famous shrine is in Shibuya.
Okay, here’s my discovery of the Hanazono Inari Shrine torii tunnel that’s part of Gojoten Shrine at Ueno Park!
👆 If you are arriving at a train station near Ueno Park, there will be signs telling you which way to go for Ueno Park.
👆 It’s a thing to go to Ueno Park for a picnic during cherry blossom season! Lots of people.
👆 As a “tunnel” path going from one end to another, there are 2 sides you can enter from. I entered on the side where I saw this massive shrine gate for Gojoten Shrine.
The Gojoten Shrine has a very long history! It celebrated its 1900th anniversary in 2010. (Yes, 1-9-0-0. That’s a history of over 1900+ years!)
You can read more about the Gojoten Jinja Shrine history. (The history is in Japanese in an image, so you can use the google translate app’s camera option to read it in English.)
👆 Next to the big shrine gate is a pretty unassuming smaller shrine gate! And it’s beyond that smaller shrine gate that there’s the torii tunnel! (Entering from the other side is a bit more obvious.)
👆 First I came across a double torii which had a little inari fox statue. There was also an area that you could go inside to see a small altar.
👆 Get a closer look at the inari fox statue!
👆 There was a traditional hand washing station along the way to purify yourself.
👆 This marks the spot for the beginning of the “inari-zaka” or the inari slope/hill. The torii tunnel is on a slight hill.
👆 A bunch of red shrine gates in a row!
👆 And you can walk right on through!
👆 It’s really not a long of a torii tunnel at all so it doesn’t compare to the most famous torii tunnel in Japan, but it’s still fun!
For more torii tunnel fun, there’s a torii tunnel in Akasaka.
👆 A lantern that says Hanazono Inari Jinja in front of the torii tunnel!
👆 Ueno Station is on the JR Yamanote Line, which makes it convenient to go to other stations on the Yamanote Line, like Shinjuku Station (Omoide Yokocho and Golden Gai evening food streets), Shibuya Station (Shibuya scramble), and Harajuku Station (Harajuku and Meiji Jingu Shrine)!
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Gojoten Shrine map
👇 Explore the interactive map below of what’s around Gojoten Shrine, and what else to do on the day you go to Ueno Park! Zoom in to get started and click on the icons for details!
If you are having problems viewing or using the map, you can view it directly on google maps.
JAPAN TRAVEL > Tokyo map | Tokyo torii gates
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