Gokokuji Temple

Gokoku-ji is a Buddhist temple in Tokyos Bunkyo ward, belonging to the Shingi branch of the esoteric Shingon school. It was founded in 1681 by the fifth shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi at the request of his mother Keishoin, and the main Kannondo hall of 1697 is one of the few wooden buildings in Tokyo that survived both the 1923 Great Kanto earthquake and the 1945 firebombings unscathed. The hall is listed as an Important Cultural Property of Japan and houses a carved figure of Nyoirin Kannon. The spacious precinct also includes a tea house and a Japanese tea garden where public tea ceremonies are held regularly. The northern part of the cemetery holds the graves of several Meiji-era empresses and princesses. The site is reached directly from Gokokuji station on the Yurakucho subway line and stays remarkably quiet for an inner-city Tokyo location.