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Yasukuni Shrine, Japan

Category: Attraction

Address details

3 Chome-1-1 Kudankita
Chiyoda-ku
Tōkyō-to 102-0073
Japan

Chiyoda-ku, Japan Print route » N35° 41' 39" E139° 44' 35"   (35.694166666667, 139.74305555556) Start navigation »

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The Imperial Shrine of Yasukuni, informally known as the Yasukuni Shrine (靖国神社or靖國神社, Yasukuni Jinja), is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was founded by Emperor Meiji in June 1869 and commemorates those who died in service of Japan from the Boshin War of 1868–1869 to the First Indochina War of 1946–1954. The shrine's purpose has been expanded over the years to include those who died in the wars involving Japan spanning from the entire Meiji and Taishō periods, and the lesser part of the Shōwa period.The shrine lists the names, origins, birthdates, and places of death of 2,466,532 men, women and children, including various pet animals. Among those are 1,068 convicted war criminals, 14 of whom are A-Class (leading to the Yasukuni controversies). Another memorial at the Honden building commemorates anyone who died on behalf of Japan, but includes Koreans and Taiwanese who served Japan at the time. In addition, the Chinreisha building is a shrine built to inter the souls of all the people who died during WWII, regardless of their nationality. It is located directly south of the Yasukuni Honden.
Various Shinto festivals are associated with the shrine, particularly in Spring and Autumn seasons when portable Mikoshi shrines are rounded about honoring the ancestral gods of Japan. A notable image of the shrine is the Japanese Imperial Chrysanthemum featured on the gate curtains leading into the shrine. More recently, the visitation of the shrine by active Japanese diplomats and legislators have brought public controversy in global media. The current 12th High Priest incumbent of the shrine is Kunio Kohori, who was appointed in 1 March 2018 after Yasuhisa Tokugawa.

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