Fodor's Expert Review Kanei-ji Temple

Around 1625, the second Tokugawa Shogun, Hidetada, commissioned the priest Tenkai to build a temple on the hill known as Shinobuga-oka in Ueno to defend his city from evil spirits. The original complex encompassed much of what is Ueno Park and while the remaining grounds are beautiful, the most remarkable structure here is the ornately carved vermilion gate to what was the mausoleum of Tsunayoshi, the fifth shogun. Tsunayoshi is famous for his disastrous fiscal mismanagement and his Shorui Awaremi no Rei (Edicts on Compassion for Living Things), which, among other things, made it a capital offense for a human being to kill a dog.