Hanazono Shrine: The Sacred Hearth of Artists and Actors

Why is it significant?

Step onto the stone paving of Hanazono Shrine, where brilliant vermilion-lacquered wooden halls glow against the dark evergreen leaves of ancient zelkova trees.

Key Facts

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Step onto the stone paving of Hanazono Shrine, where brilliant vermilion-lacquered wooden halls glow against the dark evergreen leaves of ancient zelkova trees. Established here in the mid-seventeenth century by the Maeda samurai clan, the shrine took the name Hanazono, meaning Flower Garden, because it originally stood amidst the blooming botanical gardens of an imperial villa. For over three hundred and fifty years, Hanazono Shrine has served as the beloved patron sanctuary for Shinjuku's merchants, performers, and entertainers. The tranquil courtyards offer an immediate sense of spiritual grounding after the neon overload of Kabukicho.

Look to the right of the main pavilion at Geino Asama Shrine, a small sub-shrine dedicated specifically to performing arts and entertainment. Here, stage actors, dancers, musicians, comedians, and voice performers hang wooden votive plaques, or ema, praying for successful theater premieres, high television ratings, and artistic inspiration in their creative careers. Prominent Japanese celebrities discreetly visit at dawn to offer prayers before embarking on national concert tours.

Every November, Hanazono Shrine hosts the exhilarating Tori-no-Ichi, or Rooster Fair, attracting over six hundred thousand visitors from across Kanto. Hundreds of market stalls fill the grounds selling ornate decorative bamboo rakes, called kumade, lavishly adorned with gold coins, masks of Okame the goddess of mirth, and miniature rice bales designed to rake in good fortune and wealth. Merchant guilds engage in loud rhythmic hand-clapping ceremonies, known as tejime, to seal every rake purchase.

Behind the shrine pavilions lies a bronze monument commemorating the famous red-tent underground theater troupes that staged avant-garde guerrilla plays in the shrine courtyard during the turbulent student protest movements of the late nineteen-sixties, establishing Shinjuku as the counterculture capital of Japan. The spirits of those radical actors still echo in the courtyard breezes.

Walk south through the torii gate onto Shinjuku 3-Chome, heading two blocks to the traditional wooden facade of Shinjuku Suehirotei.