Zojoji Temple and Tokyo Tower Audio Guide – Self-Guided Tour in English

Zojoji, founded in 1393, is the family temple of the Tokugawa shoguns, and Tokyo Tower rises right behind it. Walk from the Daimon gate through the temple to the tower with this free audio guide in your earphones: stories, legends and things to look for at each stop.

Zojoji Temple and Tokyo Tower audio guideFor earphones, as you walk (10 tracks)

PochikaYour guide around Tokyo

Sagi-senseiTemples, gardens and history

KasukeHidden spots and surprises

ChunOld town, shops and festivals

▶ Play from the startNext ▶▶

1. WelcomePochika
2. The Daimon gateSagi-sensei
3. Sangedatsumon GateKasuke
4. The great bellChun
5. The main hallSagi-sensei
6. The model from LondonKasuke
7. Ankokuden and the shogunsSagi-sensei
8. Maple Hill and a nameChun
9. Tokyo TowerKasuke
10. GoodbyePochika

The first track of every guide is free.

Keeps playing with the screen off. It stops after each spot: when you arrive at the next one, tap “Next” or ▶▶ on your lock screen. Voices: Kokoro (open-source text-to-speech)

Visiting info

Checked on 2026-10-27 against the official pages. Hours can change; please check the official page before you go.

Transcript

1. Welcome (Pochika)

Welcome to Zojoji Temple and Tokyo Tower! I'm Pochika, your guide. Today we walk through a temple founded in 1393, the family temple of the Tokugawa shoguns, and then over to the tower right next door. The main hall is open for worship from six in the morning to five thirty in the evening. The tower's Main Deck is open from nine in the morning to eleven at night, for one thousand five hundred yen. One note: the shoguns' mausoleum is closed until December 1, 2026. Let's start at the Daimon gate, right by Daimon Station.

2. The Daimon gate (Sagi-sensei)

I'm Sagi-sensei. Zojoji was founded in 1393 by a priest named Yuyo Shoso, around today's Kojimachi. In 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu is said to have chosen it as his family temple. In 1598, as Edo Castle grew, the temple moved here to Shiba. This Daimon gate gave the station its name. The concrete gate you see dates from 1937. It came under Tokyo Prefecture, was later left off the property records, and in spring 2016 it was given back to the temple free of charge. From here to the next gate is one hundred and eight ken, about one hundred and ninety-five meters. That number is said to echo the one hundred and eight worldly desires.

3. Sangedatsumon Gate (Kasuke)

Hey, I'm Kasuke. This big vermilion gate is the Sangedatsumon. It was first built in 1611, blown down by a storm in 1621, and rebuilt in 1622. It is the only building left from the temple's early days, and it stands twenty-one meters tall. Passing through it is said to free you from three afflictions: greed, anger and ignorance. Here's a surprise. Most temple gates have fierce guardian statues, but this one has none, reportedly because Jodo Buddhism was meant for ordinary people. Conservation work is scheduled until June 2032, so how much you can see depends on the work.

4. The great bell (Chun)

Hi, I'm Chun! On your right after the gate is the bell tower. The great bell was cast in 1673 and weighs about fifteen tons. It took seven tries to make, and women of the shogun's inner palace are said to have given their hairpins! People called it the One-ri Bell, because you could walk about four kilometers and still hear it. During the war, many bronze things were melted down, but this bell was too big and heavy to move. It still rings every day at five thirty in the morning and five in the evening. Look in from the west side of the tower. The bell hangs from a big bronze dragon head!

5. The main hall (Sagi-sensei)

Sagi-sensei again. From the gate to the main hall is forty-eight ken, about eighty-six meters, after the forty-eight vows of Amida Buddha. Climb forty-three steps to the worship hall on the second floor. When Ieyasu died in 1616, his funeral was held here, as he had wished. At its height, the temple had forty-eight subtemples and about three thousand monks. Fires and the air raids of 1945 destroyed many halls. This main hall took four years to build, starting in 1971. Now turn around. You can see the Sangedatsumon gate, with Tokyo Tower rising behind it.

6. The model from London (Kasuke)

Kasuke here. In the basement of the main hall is the Treasure Gallery. Adults pay seven hundred yen, and it's closed on Tuesdays. The mausoleum of the second shogun, Hidetada, was a National Treasure, but it burned in the air raids of 1945. Luckily, a model at one tenth of the real size had been made in the late Meiji era. It went to the Japan-British Exhibition in London in 1910 and was presented to King George the Fifth. It entered the British Royal Collection, and came home to Japan in April 2014. Look for the model, four meters by six, with its halls, gate and openwork fence.

7. Ankokuden and the shoguns (Sagi-sensei)

At Ankokuden hall you can get a goshuin stamp. It keeps the Kuro-honzon, a hidden Amida Buddha that Ieyasu deeply revered, known for bringing victory. It is shown only on the fifteenth of January, May and September. In 1865, Princess Kazunomiya made a hundred-visit prayer to it for the safety of her husband, the fourteenth shogun Iemochi. The couple now rest in the mausoleum here, with five other shoguns. Look for the rows of about one thousand three hundred little Jizo statues, offered for children's healthy growth. The mausoleum reopens on December 2, 2026. At its entrance, look for the bronze Inukimon gate, which survives from the mausoleum of the sixth shogun, Ienobu.

8. Maple Hill and a name (Chun)

Chun again! Now let's walk over to Tokyo Tower. In the time of the second shogun, maple trees were moved to this area from Edo Castle, so it came to be called Momiji-yama, Maple Hill. In 1881, a members-only restaurant called the Koyokan opened here for politicians, businessmen, writers and foreign guests. It burned in 1945, and Tokyo Tower was built on its site. And the name? A public contest drew eighty-six thousand two hundred and sixty-nine entries. The favorite was Showa Tower. Tokyo Tower came only thirteenth, but it was chosen in October 1958.

9. Tokyo Tower (Kasuke)

Kasuke again. Tokyo Tower was completed in December 1958. At three hundred thirty-three meters, it was then the world's tallest self-supporting steel tower, taller than the Eiffel Tower. Steel from US Army tanks, sold off as scrap, is said to have been used for the top part. The orange and white bands are required by aviation law, and craftsmen still repaint them by brush. And in the movies, the first monster to knock this tower down was not Godzilla, but Mothra! Up on the Main Deck at one hundred fifty meters, find the Skywalk Window, a glass floor, and look straight down. Every hour on the hour, the lights on the decks sparkle white for two minutes.

10. Goodbye (Pochika)

That's the end of our walk. Thanks for joining us! For a photo of the tower from below, try the lawn plaza in Shiba Park. Shiba Toshogu, close by, has a large ginkgo said to have been planted by Tokugawa Iemitsu. Check Kyochika for events near your next stop. See you again!

FAQ

Is the audio guide free?

The first track of every guide is free, with no app and no sign-up. A 7-day pass for $3 unlocks every track of every guide. The scripts are always free to read.

Where does the tour start?

At the Daimon gate, right by Daimon Station. The tracks follow the walk through the Sangedatsumon gate to the bell tower, the main hall and Treasure Gallery, Ankokuden and the shoguns' mausoleum, then over to Tokyo Tower. Each track stops at the end, so tap “Next” when you reach the next spot.

Sources

• Zojoji: FAQ (Japanese)
• Zojoji: Treasure Gallery (Japanese)
• Zojoji: Tokugawa Shogun Family Mausoleum (Japanese)
• Zojoji: History (Japanese)
• Zojoji: Chronology (Japanese)
• Japan Tourism Agency multilingual commentary: Treasures Gallery
• Zojoji: Guide to the grounds (Japanese)
• Zojoji: Zojoji in numbers (Japanese)
• Japan Tourism Agency multilingual commentary: Bell Tower
• Nippon Tabi Magazine: Zojoji Great Bell (Japanese)
• Japan Tourism Agency multilingual commentary: Sangedatsumon Gate
• Tokyo Tower official site: Fees, business hours
• GO TOKYO「東京タワー」 (Japanese)
• 東洋経済オンライン「東京タワー」 (Japanese)
• ベストカレンダー「東京タワー完成の日」 (Japanese)
• GO TOKYO「東京タワー周辺」 (Japanese)
• All About ニュース「東京タワーの豆知識」 (Japanese)
• マイナビニュース「東京タワーの塗装とライトアップ」（2013年） (Japanese)
• 現代ビジネス「12月23日 東京タワー完成」 (Japanese)
• 三井住友トラスト不動産「このまちアーカイブス 芝」 (Japanese)

This page in Japanese

All 39 English audio guides in Tokyo & Kyoto →