Shibuya · Harajuku · Yoyogi / PLACE
Meiji Jingu Museum
Kengo Kuma’s museum beside Meiji Jingu’s wooded approach places ceremonial objects alongside personal belongings.
A carriage and formal portraits sit alongside paperweights and calling bells, bringing personal belongings into the shrine’s public history.
Visit fitFor adding architecture and an exhibition to a shrine walk. Check installation closures and last admission first.
The holdings include Chiossone’s 1888 portraits, a six-horse carriage, silver water vessel, paperweight and calling bell. Compare ceremonial scale with small objects from daily life.
Look at the low roof beside the trees, then compare the scale of the ceremonial carriage with desk objects such as the paperweight and calling bell.
Image info
Meiji Jingu · resized and croppedFrom the wooded approach to the galleries
Kengo Kuma’s two-storey museum sits beside Meiji Jingu’s southern approach, its gently pitched roof kept low among the trees. The ground-floor Forest Gallery introduces shrine history and daily life through displays and film; upstairs, a lobby overlooking trees and the approach leads to treasure and temporary galleries.
Permanent holdings include Edoardo Chiossone's 1888 portraits of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken, a silver water vessel, paperweight and calling bell, and a bamboo writing box with a pencil. The restored six-horse ceremonial carriage, also dated 1888, is an example of lacquerwork. Beside the small desk objects, the carriage gives a sense of the contrast between public ceremony and personal belongings.
WHERE · On foot from here
How far from the station, and which side
North of Harajuku Station, about 100 m in a straight line from the station area. The shaded areas are about 5 and 10 minutes on foot from here.
Walking bands are computed by FOW on the OpenStreetMap surface street network at 80 m/min and drawn as a smoothed approximate area around the streets reached. They ignore exit positions, station interiors, underground passages, signals, slopes and routes inside buildings — not directions; follow on-site signs.
Map data: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Walking bands: computed by FOW · Station and gate notes: official guidance (2026-10-16)
A 2026 exhibition on making murals
The museum’s autumn 2026 exhibition examined the making of the Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery murals. It traced how 76 painters used shared historical-reference drawings, research, sketches and composition studies. Finished works and preparatory drawings by Kimura Buzan and Kita Renzo showed changes in the placement of figures and buildings. This is an example of the museum interpreting objects through their making, alongside displaying finished treasures.
The official walk is five minutes from Harajuku’s west exit or Meiji-jingumae Exit 2. Hours are 10:00–16:30, last entry 16:00, normally closed Thursdays. Use the official calendar for the current exhibition and installation closures.
Before you go
- Hours and fees
- Inside Meiji Jingu, separate from the Gaien picture gallery. 10:00–16:30, last entry 16:00; general admission ¥1,000. Normally closed Thursdays; consult the official calendar for exhibition-installation closures.
- Good to know
Sources · image info
- Meiji Jingu Museum visitwww.meijijingu.or.jp · as of 2026-10-19
- Gigantic Paintings exhibitionwww.meijijingu.or.jp · as of 2026-10-19
- Autumn 2026 exhibition checklistwww.meijijingu.or.jp · as of 2026-10-19
- Meiji Jingu Museum — Meiji Jingu · resized and cropped