The Meiji Shrine is located in the Shibuya district of central Tokyo. It is a Shinto shrine that is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken. The Emperor Meiji reigned from 1867 until his death in 1912. His reign is commemorated as the Meiji period, when Japan rapidly changed from a feudal and isolationist country to an industrialised world power. The earlier part of his reign also coincided with the dissolution of the Shoganate, which had ruled Japan from 1185 to 1868 and thereafter the establishment of a parliament, referred to as the Diet. 

Whilst, a transitonary period in Japan's history, it is unclear to what extent that Emperor Meiji had influence on events or if he was a bystander, guided by political heaviweights? Information surrounding his reign is extremely limited. He wrote few letters, kept few records, and there are even only a handful of pictures of him. Opinions differ. After his death and that of his wife, the Empress Shoken four years later, however, the Japanese Diet passed a resolution to commemorate his role in the so-called Meiji Restoration, with respect to the dissolution of the Shoganate and restoration of Imperial rule in conjuction with the new Diet by building the Shinto shrine in their honour in the grounds of a lily garden, which the couple used to like to visit.

The main entrance close next to the oddly English country styled looking Harajuku Station. In common with shrines and temples in Japan, visitors pass through a huge gate (torii) and along a long pathway surrounded by a huge forest of 170 acres before reaching the main shrine complex. Usually, these approach paths are straight, but in this case, the long path kinks past the Nai-en Garden until another torii is reached, before reaching an elaborate roofed gate at the entrance to the main courtyard, with the main hall at the other end.

The shrine is a very popular location for weddings.