Tsukiji Hongwanji

This striking temple near the former fish market breaks entirely with Japanese temple convention, its stone facade modeled on ancient Indian and other Asian architecture by an eccentric scholar-architect in the 1930s. Winged beasts flank the entrance, stained glass and a pipe organ fill the interior, and carved animals perch on the staircases, reflecting the designer's belief in returning to Buddhism's South Asian roots. Belonging to a major Pure Land sect, it survived war and disaster and remains an active place of worship.