Japan · Tokyo Prefecture · Tokyo
Gōtokuji, Tokyo — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Gōtokuji is a district of Setagaya in Tokyo named for Daikeizan Gōtoku-ji, the Sōtō Zen temple standing within it.
About Gōtokuji
Where to stay in Gōtokuji
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
A room in Gōtokuji puts the temple grounds of Gōtoku-ji at the door and the rest of Tokyo at a train ride. Rooms are scarce in the district itself, so the choice comes down to staying beside the Sōtō Zen grounds that give Gōtokuji its name or taking a bed nearer the middle of Tokyo. Trains do the rest.
Anyone coming for the temple, for Sakuragi-iseki, or for the Setagaya City Local Museum gains from a night on the spot.
About Gōtokuji
What are the main landmarks in Gōtokuji?
Daikeizan Gōtoku-ji gives the district its name and its reason to visit, a Sōtō Zen temple whose grounds lie in Setagaya and whose ties run back to the Ii clan of the Hikone Domain. Two other names appear. Sakuragi-iseki is listed in the same quarter, and the Setagaya City Local Museum keeps the ward's own record close by.
What is the history of Gōtokuji?
The date carried in the record for Gōtokuji is 1480. Under the Edo period lords of the Hikone Domain, the temple served the Ii clan as their bodai-ji, the family's funerary temple, which is the connection that keeps Gōtoku-ji in the histories of Setagaya. The temple follows the Sōtō Zen school.
Where is Gōtokuji?
Gōtokuji takes in a stretch of the Setagaya ward of Tokyo, with the grounds of Gōtoku-ji and the Sakuragi-iseki site both falling inside it.
Good for
More areas in Tokyo
Updated September 2026