Gokokuji Buddhist temple in Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, was built by the fifth shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi in 1681.

Known as a special Buddhist temple for the prayers of the successive Tokugawa shoguns through the Edo period, Gokokuji was one of the most prestigious temples in Edo, present time Tokyo.  But many important buildings in the large temple grounds unfortunately reduced to ashes in two big fires.  However, the Kannon-do main building in the first photo fortunately survived keeping the original figure.  Together with Gekko-den guest house, which was relocated in 1928 from Miidera temple in Shiga Prefecture, it is designated as a national important cultural property.  Other buildings such as Nio-mon gate in the second photo, So-mon gate and Yakushi-do hall also remain intact.  These old buildings inside the temple grounds mutually create the atmosphere of Tokyo early in the 17th century.  The temple is rare in the heart of Tokyo in this sense since Tokyo was largely destroyed during the Second World War.  Because the temple was for the prayers of the Tokugawa shogun family and had no common patrons, it was put in a difficult financial situation after the end of the feudal years in the second half of the 19th century.  Hence, they were obliged to sell a half of the temple grounds to the Imperial family, which is now used as a special graveyard, named Toshimagaoka Graveyards, just for the Royal family except for the successive emperors and empresses.  After that, they also sold other parts of the grounds to famous statemen and business leaders, such as Yamagata Aritomo, Okuma Shigenobu, Okura Kihachiro, Ikeda Shigeaki, Masuda Takashi and Yasuda Zenjiro and the like.

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