Kan'ei-ji

The Kan-ei-ji Temple is marked by a massive, weathered wooden gate that survived the fires and explosions that erased most of the complex. It was established in sixteen twenty-five by the Tokugawa shogunate to protect Edo Castle from evil spirits believed to arrive from the northeast. When the shogunate fell in eighteen sixty-eight, the temple became a battlefield during the Battle of Ueno. A group of loyalist samurai made their last stand here against the new imperial forces, leaving bullet holes in the gate.