Kannon-ji

Kannon-ji temple displays a weathered, darkened wooden gate that stands apart from the glossy finishes of modern Tokyo. This site holds a piece of the city's old architecture, spared from the fires that claimed so much of the neighborhood in the nineteen twenties and the nineteen forties. It remains a quiet spot where the incense smoke drifts past carved wooden eaves. A local merchant once donated the funds to maintain these grounds, insisting the entrance remain exactly as his ancestors remembered it.