kyoto desktop backgrounds/wallpaper: Zuisen-ji Temple

Family fights don't get much worse than this. The ruler (sort of a shogun but he didn't take the title) most identified with Kansai, Hideyoshi the monkey-faced man, hadn't sired any children into his late fifties, so he adopted his sister's son Hidetsugu as his heir around 1590. Later on, his much younger wife did produce a son.

Oh, my, sticky situation. Whatever shall we do. This being Japan, you know it will be bloody, and there will be plenty of heart-wrenching tragedy to go around.

Hidetsugu was forced into seclusion on Mt. Koya, where he finally saw the writing on the wall and disemboweled himself. And then it gets worse. To make sure all potential troublemakers were taken care of, Hidetsugu's head was chopped off and brought from the mountain to this spot by the Sanjo Street Bridge over the Kamo River (in the same place it was all those years ago). His wife, concubines, five children and lady attendants were assembled in front of the head and killed one-by-one, starting with the children. They were all just buried in a mound by the river. Later, this temple was built for the repose of all their souls by the wealthy merchant who financed the digging of the Takasegawa canal that runs beside it in Kiyamachi all the way down south to Fushimi. I don't think it's usually open, and anyway it's very easy to miss. On Kiyamachi just south of Sanjo. If you get to the ramen shop you've just passed the gate.