Kan’ei-ji

As we’ve already mentioned, Ueno Park was once a major Buddhist complex. Most buildings were destroyed in the 1870s when the Tokugawa shogunate fell and the Meiji era began. However, those which remain echo its historic past, which began in 1625 at the very start of the Edo period. Tenkai, a Buddhist monk from the Tendai sect, commissioned the construction of an enormous temple complex. Just imagine over 30 buildings standing here, each more impressive than the last! The remaining structures are a testimony to the Tokugawa’s wealth and influence. The complex was strategically built to the northeast of Edo Castle —this arrangement of temples, pagodas, and sanctuaries was designed to ward off evil spirits, which ancient geomancy believed would come from that direction. The building before you houses the tombs of six Tokugawa shoguns, out of the fifteen who ruled during the Edo period.