Sensō-ji Five-Storied Pagoda

This guide to the Five-Storied Pagoda at Senso-ji in Tokyo starts with the 1945 firebombing that leveled the wartime pagoda, then reaches back through centuries of fires and rebuildings since the first structure rose around 942. It covers the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu's 1648 version and the freestanding central pillar carpenters used to let the tower sway through earthquakes without fire protection. Look at the main hall across the courtyard, and you are facing the pagoda from what was once the opposite direction entirely.