※This article was published atNovember 2014.※
The Akagi Jinja (Akagi Shrine) in Kagurazaka has characteristics that set it apart from other shrines.
While the Akagi Jinja is an ancient and honorable shrine with a history of more than 700 years, it faced a survival crisis in 2008 when the kindergarten on the grounds that had supported operating funds closed due to declining birth rates.
In response to this, the Akagi Jinja Revitalization Project was launched with the aim of revitalizing Akagi Jinja.
This project consisted of a major housing construction company renting the land within the shrine grounds through a fixed-term lease for a period of approximately 70 years and building a condominium on this land.
This rent and the rents from the condominium would be used for reconstruction expenses, and subsequently as a source of operating funds.
The shrine and condominium were completed in 2010, and because the shrine and condominium were designed to be in harmony from the start, condominium facilities are connected with the shrine hall and galleries, and the external appearance features a tasteful fusion of traditional Japanese shrine architecture and the Western-style condominium architecture.
It has a strong reputation as a designer’s shrine.
The designer and supervisor of the current Akagi Jinja is the world-famous architect Kengo Kuma, who is also a parishioner of Akagi Jinja.
In 2011, it won a Good Design Award in the Housing Division and Business Solution Division.
It is definitely worth visiting.
Information
Akagi Jinja
1-10 Akagi Motomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-0817
03-3260-5071
Map:
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