the great fire of 1657 the area was kept cleared as a fire break before the castle buildings. After the demise of the shogunate in 1868, the area was taken over by the military for barracks for the soldiers of the Imperial Guard, who were charged with protecting the Imperial Palace. Kita-no-maru became a public park in 1969 in celebration of the sixty-first birthday of the Showa Emperor, Hirohito.
Go down Kinokuni-zaka (Kinokuni Slope) to find on the right the National Archives and the National Museum of Modern Art by architect Yoshiro Taniguchi. The museum is open from 10:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. and until 8:00 P.M. on Fridays; it is closed on Mondays and during the New Year period of December 27 through January 4. Entry fee. The museum, which was founded in 1952 and was relocated here in 1969, exhibits paintings of Western and Japanese artists in changing exhibitions on the first two floors (an extra fee is sometimes charged for these showings). The third and fourth floors exhibit paintings by Japanese artists since 1868, items which change frequently since the collection exceeds three thousand paintings.
The Crafts Gallery of the National Museum of Modern Art is just a five-minute walk away. Continuing along the path which came from the Kinokuni Slope and crossing the highway, after a few minutes' walk one will find the Science Museum to the right while the Crafts Gallery is to the left. The Crafts Gallery is housed in a government-listed building which once served as the administrative headquarters of the Imperial Guard. It is at this site that the unusual revolt by 215 of the emperor's soldiers occurred when they mutinied on August 23,1878. They killed their officers and marched to the Akasaka Palace, where Emperor Meiji was then living, to protest the unfair division of rewards to those who had suppressed the Saigo Takamori revolt in Ueno Park and to demand a raise in pay. Severe punishment was meted out after the mutiny was put down, and, as a result of this insurrection, the military barracks were razed and the divisional headquarters was eventually located here.
This 1910 former military, gothic brick structure, in what has been kindly termed "Nineteenth Century Renaissance" architecture, is one of five remaining Meiji period brick buildings in Tokyo. Exhibits are shown on the second floor of the building, and they encompass all of the various techniques at which Japanese craftsmen have excelled: ceramics, bamboo, lacquer, metal, textiles, and other crafts. The hours for the gallery are the same as for the Modern Art Museum.
The Science and Technology Museum is the other museum in the Kita-no-maru Park, and it is open from 9:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. except on Mondays. Entry fee. It is closed from December 29 through January 3. The five-story pentagonally shaped museum is under the jurisdiction of the Japan Science Foundation, and its displays in fourteen sections, especially its working models and space-age exhibits, appeal greatly to children. The labels are primarily in Japanese. The museum covers many aspects of science from agriculture to nuclear science and from earthquakes to electricity—the latter topic being described by a robot who lectures to children about electricity. The museum also has a laboratory, a workroom, and a library.
Beyond the museum complex lies the massive Budokan (The Japan Martial Arts Hall), constructed in 1964 for the Olympics of that year. Reminiscent of the Horyu-ji Dream Hall south of Nara, but on a more massive scale, its octagonal roof is topped with a gold-leafed giboshi, an onion-shaped finial such as is often seen on the top of posts of rail fences at traditional Japanese temples. The building, which can seat 14,000 spectators, is used for sports events, concerts, and other large gatherings—its first use as a concert hall occurred in 1968 when the Beatles came to Japan.
Leave Kita-no-maru Park through the Tayasu-mon gate, a former masugata gate, and on to Yasukuni-dori, slightly to the west of Kudanshita Station of the Toei Shinjuku and Tozai Subway lines. Yasukuni-dori here descends the Kudanzaka hill to the Jimbocho area to the right. At one time this hill was higher and steeper than it now is, but it lost its top half for part of the fill needed to cover the marshy land at its foot as Shogun Ieyasu expanded shitamachi below his castle. The hill received its name of kudan (nine steps) since it was so steep that it had to be cut in 1709 into nine sections for ease of mounting. The slope was further reduced in 1923 with the advent of the motor car. Strange as it may seem, there is a lighthouse, no longer used, at this point. Built in 1871, before much of the land of Tokyo Bay was filled in and before tall buildings were erected, this beacon could be observed by boats in Tokyo Bay. Originally the lighthouse was in the Yasukuni grounds, but it was later moved to the south side of Yasukuni-dori.
Toward the end of the Tokugawa period there were barracks for the military at the top of Kudan hill, but in 1869 it became the site for "A Shrine to which the Spirits of the Dead Are Invited." The shrine was intended to honor those who had died in the battles involved with the Meiji "Imperial Restoration" and the extinguishing of the Tokugawa shogunate. In traditional Japanese custom, the spirits of the dead are enshrined here and can be feasted and entertained, not unlike the Bon ceremonies of the Buddhist faith—a faith, ironically, which the Meiji leaders did not favor. The shrine was run by the army until 1945, thus it became the center of the most rabid nationalism. It still attracts right-wing militarists and nationalists today.
In 1879 the shrine became Yasukuni Jinja (Yasukuni Shrine), "The Shrine of Peace for the Nation," on a more organized basis. Here horse racing took place until 1898. Sumo matches and Noh plays also took place here. In fact, a Noh stage was constructed on the grounds in 1902. In 1882 a military exhibition hall was built, and today it houses exhibits which honor the various wars Japan became involved in after 1868, up to and including the Second World War. While commemorating the dead of the war, as is the purpose of the shrine, the displays which range from the human torpedoes and even a Zero fighter and a steam engine from the "Bridge of the River Kwai" episode often seem to glorify the warlike in the Japanese past rather than succoring of the spirits of the war dead. The labels of the exhibits, in Japanese, still offer the warped militaristic view of Japan's aggressive actions in Asia between 1895 and 1945.
With the war against China in the 1890s and then the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, the shrine became a memorial site to the dead of all Japanese wars since 1853, when the Imperial Restoration began. As a result of the Japanese wars of the 1930s and 40s, there are now 2.5 million spirits that are honored at the shrine. Soldiers heading into battle traditionally parted with the words, "Let us meet at Yasukuni." There their spirits would be worshiped. As indicated above, the shrine has become a gathering place for the more militant of Japanese nationalists who still see Japan's wars of the 1930s and 40s as crusades to free Asia of Western imperialism. As a result, the visits by members of the government to this shrine have caused deep unrest among many victims of past Japanese wars, particularly since even those who were convicted of war crimes, such as General Tojo, are also enshrined here, an action taken surreptitiously by the Japanese government much to the outrage of other nations. Before 1945 the shrine was under military administration, but the American Occupation after 1945 had the shrine revert to non-governmental control.
The grounds are entered under the huge, steel First Torii. The torii's predecessor was melted in 1943 for use in armament production. Beyond it at an intersection of paths is the statue to Oraura Masujiro (1824—69), the first minister of war after the Meiji Restoration. He was in charge of the Meiji forces which defeated the shogunate's supporters who held out in Ueno in 1868; just one year later he was assassinated. This statue in his honor was the first modern bronze statue in Japan when it was unveiled in 1888. Further along the path there is a stone torii and then the bronze Second Torii of 1887, and to its left is a place to wash one's hands before entering the inner shrine quarters. The path is lined with flowering cherry and gingko trees and monuments to military men of the past.
The Divine Gate of twelve pillars, with the imperial chrysanthemum of sixteen petals embossed on its doors, follows, the Shrine Offices being to the left and the Noh Theater to the right. At the end of the path is the haiden, the hall for worship of the spirits of the dead, and beyond that the sacred honden (main hall), where the spirits are enshrined. Between the Noh Theater and the Hall of Worship is the Festivals Section, while the Hall of Arrival is to the right of the honden. Behind the haiden is the Treasury with mementos of Japan's wars, as mentioned above. Further to the right-hand rear of the shrine are the attractive Divine Pond, teahouses, and a sumo
