Authorities and was used to hold Japanese war criminals. Seven men, including Field Marshal Tojo Hideki, were hung in the prison. In 1958 the name was changed back to Tokyo Prison, but the building was torn down in 1972 to build a new cultural center for the area. The Sunshine City Building now stands on the site.
The west side of Ikebukuro Station is similar in flavor to Shinjuku's Kabukicho. Here and behind the Bungei-za Theater on the east side are two "dangerous" areas with the reputation for being the scene of an occasional gun battle between rival yakuza gangs.
Until recently the area was known for its inexpensive accommodations and was favored by students but now is home for huge numbers of predominantly Asian resident foreigners.
Akasaka-Nagatacho
The side streets in Akasaka are lined with Japanese-style buildings of a uniform sand color, with discreet signs giving the name of the restaurant. These are not places that the ordinary foreigner can enter, nor the ordinary Japanese for that matter. Most of these ryotei restaurants require an introduction. In the evening geisha are called, and over bottles of saké (rice wine) and meals in the best Japanese tradition, politicians, and big business types cement those bonds of friendship so important in the greater world of economic and governmental affairs. On a back street hill nearby is a row of empty rickshaw. In the mid-Meiji period there were over fifty thousand in the city, but the rickshaw are now used only by geisha on their way to a party.
Yet the discreet ryotei seem somehow anomalous in an area now dominated by the glitz and glamour of the entertainment scene centered around the hundreds of tiny restaurants, noisy nomiya, hostess bars, cabarets, and TBS Television, which since 1960 has ensured a steady flow of TV personalities and their fans into the neighborhood.
Hotels give the district an added international dimension. The major ones are the New Otani, the Akasaka Prince, the Akasaka Tokyu (otherwise known as the "Pajama Hilton" for its pink and white striped exterior), the Capitol Tokyu, and the remains of the ill-fated New Japan Hotel, which burned up along with a number of tourists in a fire that led to a wave of new safety regulations for hotels.
Top level Edo period daimyo had lived in the area during the Tokugawa reign. The neighboring Hie Jinja shrine was one of the big three shrines of the time. In the early Meiji period, the daimyo moved away and the government confiscated the lands, turning them to agricultural uses. Akasaka became a hill of tea bushes and akane, plants that produced a red dye, giving the district the name which translates to "red slope." The military moved in later, while the Nagatacho area north of Akasaka became the center of Meiji period state government. The reputation of the "Akasaka ryotei," and their tradition of serving power and politics, dates from this time. The "Akasaka geisha," the lowest class of geisha during the Edo period, were upgraded to entertain the important clientele and are still considered some of the city's best.
Ginza
Ginza used to be synonymous with the glamour of big city life in Tokyo. Elegant, expensive, and at one time the most international part of the city, Ginza inspired a string of hit songs in the first half of the century. Best remembered are songs like "Ginza Rhapsody," or "Ginza Can-Can Girl." Even the American surf-rock band The Ventures wrote a song called "Ginza for Two" (an interesting bit of trivia—The Ventures were a big success here in the early sixties and, until recently, toured Japan every year). The name Ginza has now become another way of saying "shopping street"—there are some 450 "Ginza streets" throughout Japan and the number is still growing.
Originally little more than a swamp, Ginza was among the first areas reclaimed from the sea during the reign of Tokugawa leyasu. Overshadowed by the more prosperous Nihombashi area, Ginza grew as a town of artisans and craftsmen. In 1612 the Tokugawa silver mint was moved to the area. Gin mean silver and za means a licensed association of craftsmen; the district earned its name from the numbers of craftsmen working in the metal. When the mint was moved during the Meiji period, the name remained.
The Tokugawa (Edo) period ended with the challenge from the West and Ginza was one of the first parts of the city to feel the effects of the Meiji government's modernization program. When the area was destroyed by fire in 1872, the government hired the British architect Josiah Conder and planned a model Western-style urban center. Nearly one thousand brick buildings were constructed, tiled pavements laid, and willow trees planted. The first horse trolley in Tokyo passed through Ginza to Nihombashi and Shimbashi. The first gas lights in the city were installed, turning Ginza into a night life area. A single lamp post remains across the street from the Matsuya Department Store.
Ginza-dori in 1928. Courtesy of Shiseido Co., Ltd.
While the brick buildings created quite a stir, most remained vacant long after completion. Though fireproof in theory, the buildings were badly ventilated and believed to be hazardous to health. Still, crowds of people turned out to see the novelty, and the commercial success of Ginza dates from this time. Shopping in Ginza by day, with evening strolling by gaslight, became a fad that led to the coining of a new term ginbura meaning "wandering around in Ginza."
Another term coined in the Meiji era was haikara, or "high collar," a reference to Western-style shirts that became the Meiji era equivalent of the modern "trendy." At the time this meant "Western" and Ginza more than any other part of Tokyo was the center for all that was Western and new—men's suits, watches, meat eating, and coffee drinking.
The area was full of new ideas and entrepreneurs. The famous cosmetics company Shiseido was started in a small Ginza pharmacy in 1872 by Fukuhara Akinobu, a former pharmacist for the navy. The Seiko watch company began as a retail and repair shop opened by Hattori Kintaro. By the Taisho period all the major department stores had opened branches in the area. The Ginza Matsuzakaya was the first department store in the country that didn't require its customers to take off their shoes.
After the war Ginza was the first place to which prosperity returned. The department stores were crowded again, exclusive boutiques began to fill the back streets, and Ginza was called the "Fifth Avenue" of Tokyo. The neighborhood became a treasury of expensive Japanese restaurants and clubs catering to the businessman of the future economic miracle. Even now Ginza claims the largest number of public establishments in Tokyo.
Expensive and conservative, for the postwar generation Ginza has less shopping appeal than the newer districts to the West. Yet somewhat incongruously, the area has Tokyo's largest concentration of art galleries, many of which specialize in the young and avant-garde.
Hibiya—Kasumigaseki—Yurakucho
Like Ginza, Hibiya was part of the marshland reclaimed from the sea during the early Edo period. Close to the central part of the castle, daimyo mansions occupied the grounds. With the early Meiji period exodus of daimyo families from the city, the area was left an empty wasteland. Part of the land was used as the first parade ground for the new Western-style military. Nearby were built the Rokumeikan in 1883 and in 1890 the original Imperial Hotel.
The Rokumeikan was a state-owned guest house designed by Josiah Condor. One of the more idealistic endeavors of the Meiji period establishment, it was believed that, by inviting foreign diplomats to parties given at the ornate western-style building, Japan would be placed on the roster of civilized nations.
The Imperial Hotel was built on the site of the present hotel building. Originally designed by a Japanese, the second building was the work of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The Wright building was torn down in 1968 and the third and present hotel constructed.
The military gave its parade ground to the city in 1893. The initial plan was to build a concentration of government office buildings on the site, but when the land proved unable to support the weight of the proposed constructions,
