Yushima Seido
- Japanese: 湯島聖堂 (Yushima seidou)
The Yushima Seidô is a Confucian shrine located in Tokyo.
The shrine traces its history to a Confucian shrine called Senseiden, established by Hayashi Razan in 1632 at the request of lord of Owari han,Tokugawa Yoshinao, in Shinobu-ga-oka (today, Ueno Park). Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi renamed the structure the Taiseiden, and the shrine complex "Seidô," as he removed the shrine to Ochanomizu in 1691. Some of the buildings were repainted vermillion, with blue and green highlights, at that time.
Meanwhile, the Hayashi clan's Shôheizaka gakumonjo academy was moved onto the grounds of the shrine, and came to be housed in the Taiseiden.
The shrine grounds were made a university in the Meiji period, and the statues of Confucius and others were taken down, but the site, and the statues, were later restored. The shrine was then named a national historical landmark in 1922, but it was destroyed in the Great Kantô Earthquake the following year. It was rebuilt in 1935, in steel-reinforced-concrete, instead of in wood, and painted in black, inside and out. The roof was done in the irimoya style, with bronze ornaments. The world's largest statue of Confucius, a 1975 gift from the Taipei Lions Club, stands on the grounds.
References
- "Yushima seidô." Koku shitei shiseki kanzen guide no kaisetsu 国指定史跡完全ガイドの解説, Kodansha, 2013.
- Plaques on-site.
