Hanazono Jinja (Hanazono Shrine)

Hanazono Jinja (Hanazono Shrine) Review

Constructed in the early Edo period, Hanazono is not among Tokyo's most imposing shrines, but it does have one of the longest histories. Prayers offered here are believed to bring prosperity in business. The shrine is a five-minute walk north on Meiji-dori from the Shinjuku-san-chome subway station. The shrine grounds are at their most lively during the spring and autumn festivals. The block just to the west (5-chome 1) has the last, embattled, remaining bars of the "Golden-Gai", a district of tiny, somewhat seedy nomiya (bars) that in the '60s and '70s commanded the fierce loyalty of fiction writers, artists, freelance journalists, and expat Japanophiles—the city's hard-core outsiders.