Kan'ei-ji
- Built: 1625
- Other Names: 東叡山 (Touei-zan)
- Japanese: 寛永寺 (Kan'ei-ji)
Kan'ei-ji is a Tendai Buddhist temple located in Ueno Park; along with Zôjô-ji, it was one of two Tokugawa clan family temples in the Tokugawa shogunal capital of Edo. Six Tokugawa shoguns were buried on the temple grounds; six more are buried at Zôjô-ji.
The temple was originally built in 1625 to help defend the shogunal capital of Edo from the unlucky northeastern direction. The construction and establishment was overseen by Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu; it was founded by the monk Tenkai, and served as the center of the Tendai sect for the Kantô region.
During the battle of Ueno in 1868, as the shogunate fell, a group of pro-shogunate loyalists known as the Shôgitai holed up in the temple, which was accordingly attacked. Many of those killed that day are formally buried at the temple.
The temple suffered extensive damage and was all but destroyed completely in the Allied bombings of Tokyo in 1945. Several buildings on the grounds survive, or were rebuilt, but the temple grounds, which once covered the full area of what is today Ueno Park, have been shrunk considerably. The tombs of four shoguns survive, but those of Tokugawa Ietsuna and Tokugawa Tsunayoshi were destroyed.
Kan'ei-ji is today a designated Important Cultural Property.
References
- Plaques on site.
- "Kan'ei-ji." Digital Daijisen. Shogakukan.
