Takanawa Gateway: Tokyo’s Newest Station with a Storied Past

The newest station on the Yamanote Line that circumscribes the center of Tokyo may be a new creation, but Takanawa is an old part of Tokyo – although as is true for much of the city, nothing pre-WWII remains, due to the fire bombings that literally turned most of Tokyo to ashes.

 

The station is named Takanawa Gateway to distinguish it from other Takanawa stations (Shirokane-Takanawa on the Mita and Namboku subway lines, and Takanawa-Kitamachi on the Keikyu line).

Not the imperial palace gate

But different from other stations with” gate” in the name (typically” mon”, 門), which are named after gates to the Imperial Palace, the Takanawa Gateway name has different origins (as well as, being assigned in 2025 instead of 1965, using the English” gateway”). The” gateway” in the name is the old city gate on the Tokaido road.

47 reasons for fame in Takanawa

This was where travelers’ going towards or coming from Kyoto had their papers checked. The ruins of the actual gate are located a bit north of the station. Unfortunately, it is shown only with a memory plaque in Japanese. 

But the fame of Takanawa comes from something completely different: A few hundred meters west of the station are the graves of the 47 ronin – and the well where they washed the head.

 

If you are a collector of temples, the area west of Takanawa Gateway station (mostly toward Sengakuji) is full of temples. One of the more interesting places is Ganshoji Temple, which is on the way from the station to Sengakuji. It is one of the few temples you will find in Tokyo that venerates cows — sacred to Edo-era Buddhism, they were used as draught animals, to provide milk, and eventually leather and meat.

Other Temples Around the Graveyard

Several other temples surround the Sengakuji. Shojoji has a longer history (it was founded more than 800 years ago), although it is not quite as grand. The most endearing is arguably Hoanji, situated in a small park.

Like most of the rest of the Yamanote line stations, Takanawa Gateway was built on land originally part of the green ring around Edo created by Tokugawa Ieyasu as both a physical and spiritual defense parameter.

The physical defense were the open spaces around the temples; the spiritual defenses were the temples themselves, keeping evil spirits out by constant prayer.

The temple closest to Takanawa Gateway station is Sengaku-ji, one of the larger Buddhist temples in Tokyo, founded (like so many others) by Tokugawa Ieyasu. It has extensive buildings covering a large plot of land, as well as (with most temples) a large graveyard.

 

The graves are the reason for the fame of Sengakuji. And the reason for the fame of the graves are the graves of the 47 Ronin. This was where their master Ako Gishi was buried, and where they took the head of Kira Yoshinaka after his seppuku. Including the well where they washed the head before bringing it to their master’s gravesite. And themselves committed suicide.

 

The temple is not usually very crowded, except on December 14, the day of the incident. There is a small museum as well. The actual site of the ritual suicide is somewhat removed from the temple, in what today is the grounds of a school.

Continue in a straight line to the west, and you come to the grounds of Meji University, including a small but dry museum. The buildings are interesting, in an early Japanese-European fusion kind of way.

 

If you get hungry while in Takanawa, you are well served with fancy, upscale cafes and restaurants. This is one of Tokyo’s quietly wealthy areas, home to corporate executives and inherited money, and the restaurants that cater to people with money. Which has an advantage for visitors: You are more likely to find vegetarian restaurants here than in other parts of Tokyo.

City historical museum in Takanawa

A few hundred meters to the west you will arrive at the Minato City historical museum, showing the history of this Tokyo ward, from the time it was just a reedy swamp until it has become one of the economic centers of one of the largest economies in the world. The impressive building was originally the Institute of Public Health when completed in 1938.

A little to the north, between the Minato Ward historical museum and the Meiji University, is one of the most opulent buildings and parks in Tokyo.

Rich and famous weddings

Happo-en is the wedding location for the rich and famous; with a reputation for grandeur that other wedding locations have a hard time living up to. Walking down the streets of Tokyo, you may be stricken that the Japanese must be on the verge of a total conversion to Christianity, given the number of churches in sight. But they are not churches (even if there are a few in Tokyo that are architectonic marvels); they are wedding venues. As the saying goes, ”born into Shinto, marry Christian, die a Buddhist”.

Happo-en is sadly not open to visitors, even if the park occasionally may be. And now its future is even more uncertain, since all weddings (no matter how famous the protagonists) were cancelled in February 2025, and the company is facing bankruptcy.

Takanawa Gateway History and Attractions: Culinary and Cultural Discoveries

 South of the temple grounds, just at the edge of the hotels around Shinagawa Station, is an interesting museum, dedicated to Japanese food culture. But not just any food culture – this is the root of the taste, because that is what” Aji no moto” translates as.

Ajinomoto was the first company to commercialize MSG, monosodium glutamate, that enhances the taste perception. The company quickly developed into a major food and chemical industry, but he museum shows both the humble origins and growth throughout the 20th century, with at least rudimentary guidance in English.

 

The museum chronicles the early days of the company in the 20th century, and the development to the chemical and food industry giant it is today, a development intimately intermixed with the development of modern Japanese food culture, that has changed more in the last 100 years than you probably thought. The museum is located in the headquarters of the Ajinomoto Group, and free.

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