Kaneiji Temple

This temple was founded in 1625 and is the head temple of the Kanto region of the Tendai sect of Buddhism. It was built by the high priest Tenkai, who was deeply revered by three shoguns, Tokugawa Ieyasu, Hidetada, and Iemitsu, to pray for the safety of the Tokugawa shogunate and the well-being of the common people. It is a prayer hall and family temple of the Tokugawa shoguns, and six of the fifteen Tokugawa shoguns are still buried there today.

At the time, the temple boasted an area that covered more than the entire area of today's Ueno Park, and developed into one of the largest temples in Edo, but later lost many buildings due to warfare at the end of the Edo period and shrank to its current size.

There are many highlights in the temple grounds, including the Konponchu-do Hall, the main hall of the temple, which enshrines a statue of the hidden Buddha, Yakushi Ruriko-norai; the Great Buddha of Ueno, of which only the face remains due to the metal shortage during World War II; and the temple bell, which was cast in 1787 and still tells the time three times a day. The "Aoi no Ma", where Yoshinobu Tokugawa, the last shogun of the Tokugawa family, resided, and the "Rekishi Shogun Goryo Mausoleum," an important cultural property, where six successive Tokugawa shoguns rest in peace, are open to visitors only during special openings.