Sengaku-ji Temple

photo by Stéfan Le Dû · CC BY-SA 2.5

photo by Souka Kinmei · CC BY 4.0

The 47 rōnin are buried here: incense 500 yen, museum 500 yen, conflicting hours.

In the grounds, behind the temple, forty-eight graves stand side by side (the forty-seven rōnin plus the companion who followed them): those who want to light incense before them pay a contribution, those who just walk among the headstones do not. A small adjoining museum holds objects from the period and wooden statues of the forty-seven; every 14 December, the anniversary of the revenge, a memorial ceremony draws crowds and a procession in costume.

Founded in 1612 by the shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu as a small chapel near present-day Kasumigaseki, the temple burned in the Kan'ei fire of 1641; the third shōgun, Tokugawa Iemitsu, ordered five daimyō clans to rebuild it here, in Takanawa, on a larger scale. It became the family temple of the Asano clan, and when Asano Naganori was forced to commit seppuku in 1701 for drawing his sword in Edo Castle, his grave was placed here. In 1702 the forty-seven rōnin led by Ōishi Kuranosuke avenged his death by killing Kira Yoshinaka, washed the severed head at the temple well and presented it before their lord's grave before giving themselves up to the authorities; sentenced to seppuku, they were buried beside him. The graves of Asano Naganori and the 47 rōnin have been a national Historic Site since 1922.

ℹ️ ⚠️ Two secondary sources give different hours for the temple grounds alone, and no official page of the temple confirms them on its own: 7:00–16:00 according to one guide (updated 21/5/2025), 7:00–18:00 in summer/7:00–17:00 in winter according to the Minato tourism committee. The museum (赤穂義士記念館 and 義士木像館, single ticket) is open 9:00–15:30, 500 yen; incense at the graves costs a separate 500 yen. On ceremony days (14 December, first ten days of April) the hours are extended.

🚉 Sengakuji · 6 min walk

Sources: sengakuji.or.jp · en.wikipedia.org · ja.wikipedia.org · japan-guide.com

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