Rajeev's World: A Tribute To The Meiji Restoration...

Our first stop of the day was the Meiji Jingu, a Shinto temple located in Yoyogi Park, in between Shinjuku and Shibuya...

The Shinto shrine is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken. Meiji the Great was the 122nd Emperor of Japan who reigned from 1867 until his death 1912.

Under his rule, Japan was witness to the end of the shogunate, a consolidation of power, transformation, a rapid change from an isolationist feudal state to a capitalist and imperial world power, characterized by an industrial revolution, something that's called the Meiji Restoration.

And needless to say, it was the Meiji Restoration that laid the foundation of the modern Japan that one sees today.

A vending machine at Yoyogi Station, where we got off to walk down to Meiji Jingu...

Towering over us...

The entrance to the Meiji Jingu complex...

Seems like a pristine place...

After the Emperor Meiji's death in 1912, the Japanese Diet passed a resolution to commemorate his role in the Meiji Restoration. It was decided to build a shrine in an iris garden that was frequented by Emperor Meiji and Empress Shōken.

Construction of the shrine began in 1915 under Itō Chūta, and the shrine was built in a traditional Japanes style called nagare-zukuri, using Japanese cypress and copper. The building of the shrine was considered to be matter of national pride and prestige. Youth groups and other civic associations were mobilized, and they contributed labour and funding.

The shrine was formally dedicated in 1920, completed in 1921, and its grounds officially finished by 1926.

The original building was destroyed during the air raids during the Second World War. The present buildings of the shrine was funded through a public fund raising effort and completed in October 1958.

Meiji Jingu is located in a forest covering 70 hectares - an evergreen forest that consists of 120,000 trees of 365 different species, which were donated by people from all parts of Japan. Today, the veritable forest is literally an oasis of peace and calm, an area of recreation and relaxation in the center of Tokyo.