Kanda Myoujin Shrine

This guide to Kanda Myoujin Shrine follows the legend of Taira no Masakado, a tenth-century rebel whose severed head refused to rot after his defeat, and the shrine locals built to appease his fury. It traces the mound that guarded his spirit through a string of unexplained deaths after the 1923 earthquake, and how the shrine gained its current site in 1616 by order of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Look at the vermilion and gold hall in front of you, rebuilt after that same earthquake and still standing today.