Yushima Seido

This Confucian temple began in the late seventeenth century as an academy that became the leading center of Confucian learning under the ruling shogunate. Painted a distinctive black and set among old trees on a hillside near the Kanda River, it keeps a solemn, scholarly atmosphere quite different from the city's Buddhist and Shinto sites. A large bronze statue of Confucius stands in the grounds, and students still visit before examinations to pray for academic success. The main hall follows a restrained Chinese-influenced style.