the several subway lines that intersect here, the Chiyoda Line, the Toei Mita Line, and the Hibiya Line, while an underground passageway connects the Yurakucho Line.
GETTING THERE
This tour starts at Tokyo Station, which is served by numerous JR train lines, Shinkansen lines, and subway lines. These include the Marunouchi subway line, the JR Yamanote Line, and the JR Chuo and Sobu Lines.
Walking Tour 2
OTEMACHI, IMPERIAL PALACE GARDENS, AND YASUKUNI SHRINE
A Flying Head, the Shogun’s Castle, a Cultural Oasis, and the Japanese Valhalla
1 The Hill of Masakado’s Head
2 Statue of kiyomaro
3 The Imperial Palace east Garden
4 Kita-no-maru Park
5 Yasukuni Shrine
6 Chidorigafuchi Water Park
7 JCII camera Museum (diversion)
The Marunouchi financial district of Tokyo, which was explored in Walk1, has been described as the one-time site of the mansions of the inner lords of the Tokugawa sho-guns from 1603 to 1868. Just to the north of Marunouchi is the Otemachi district, which also held the mansions of the Tokugawa’s most trusted daimyo. This section is circumscribed by the main railway tracks on the east (to the north of Tokyo Station), by Uchiboridori (Inner Moat Street) before the former castle walls on the west, by Eitai-dori on the south, and by the modern Shuto (Metropolitan) Expressway on the north. The mansions of the feudal daimyo have long since disappeared from Otemachi, and today Otemachi is the home of the barons of big business, for here may be found the offices of many banks, insurance agencies, and major commercial corporations.
1 THE HILL OF MASAKADO’S HEAD
The district is well served by subway and rail lines, since Tokyo Station is just to the south of the district, while Otemachi Station itself is served by the Toei Mita, Hibiya, Tozai, Marunouchi, and Hanzomon Lines. Exiting from the Marunouchi subway line brings one to the first point of interest on this tour: the 1964 eight-story Teshin Building, which houses the Communications Museum (aka Tei-Park) on its first four floors. Anyone interested in the various forms of modern communications will enjoy this museum, for the exhibits include matters pertaining to postal, telegraph, telephone, and other forms of telecommunication. Here one will find an extensive display of postage stamps (more than 200,000), and so it comes as no surprise to learn that there is a relationship with the Ministry of Postal Services. (The museum is open from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily except Mondays; admission is ¥110.) The exhibits are labeled only in Japanese, but an English-language brochure is available upon request.
A rather unusual location can be found in the midst of this modern area of Tokyo. On leaving the Communications Museum, the east-west street should be taken to the west toward the grounds of the Imperial Palace. Just before Uchibori-dori and the Otebori Moat at the former castle grounds, surrounded by the Mitsui Bussan Building, the Long Term Credit Bank of Japan, and the Sanwa Bank, is a small open space upon which no modern financial organization has dared to build. Here is the Hill of Masakado’s Head (Masakado-no-Kubizuka), a shrine at what was once the top of the bay when Marunouchi and adjoining areas were still under water. The object of veneration worshipped at this shrine by the early fishermen of Edo was Taira-no-Masakado, a headstrong warrior of the 900s. He not only took over eight counties in the Kanto (Greater Tokyo) region, but he set himself up in his domains as the new emperor—in defiance of Kyoto’s emperor, whose claim to the throne, tradition held, was rooted in the divine origin of one of his ancestors. As the adage would have it, pride comes before a fall, and in 940 Masakado fell in battle. As was the custom of that and later times, the rebel’s head was severed and sent to Kyoto as proof of the death of this usurper of royal power. True to his headstrong ways, it is said that Masakado’s head flew back to Edo in one night to rejoin its body in its grave. The validity of the story was attested at the time by the brilliant lightning and pealing thunder that accompanied the head on its flight. As was only proper under the circumstances, a shrine to Masakado’s spirit was raised over the site of his grave in order to keep his spirit from stirring up new troubles.
Centuries later, Tokugawa Ieyasu was not one to take chances. So troublesome a spirit might threaten his domains despite the passage of 700 years since Masakado was put in his place, but no thought could be given to moving the body from its grave since this might rouse the vengeful spirit of the former warrior. Thus Ieyasu let the grave remain undisturbed—as have all the corporate chairmen of the present day, since no structure has ever been raised over this very valuable piece of property. The shrine that honored Masakado’s spirit, however, was another question. Ieyasu had the shrine removed to the Kanda Myojin Shrine not too far to the north, where Masakado can be honored today. There at Kanda Myojin, Masakado’s spirit remains, albeit the story does not end there, for the Meiji government also foresaw a threat from this wayward spirit—but that tale has to wait until Walk 10 to be told. The small area of the Hill of Masakado’s Head is enclosed by traditional Japanese walls as well as modern office buildings on three sides, but the slightly raised unit with memorial stones to the right at the rear of the plot remains a place of reverence. Offerings of flowers and the burning of incense occur a millennium after this intrepid warrior’s death. Greenery throughout the small plot make the site a park, with ceramic frogs on either side of the memorial providing a lighter touch to so solemn a spot.
2 STATUE OF KIYOMARO
While warriors of the distant past still need to be placated, there is another side to the coin where noble statesmen are concerned. In the year 769, Wake-no-Kiyomaro, a member of Empress Shotoku’s court, was sent on a mission. Her senior advisor (and lover), the Buddhist monk Dokyo, had designs on the throne for himself and hoped to succeed his royal mistress as the next emperor. The empress sent Kiyomaro, a trusted member of the imperial court, to the Hachiman Shrine in Kyushu to see if the gods favored Dokyo’s accession to the throne. Despite dire threats from the monk, Kiyomaro brought back the deity’s pronouncement that only those descended from the imperial gods could sit on the throne. Kiyomaro suffered disfigurement at Dokyo’s orders for bringing so untoward an answer from the gods. Sent into exile while monk Dokyo lived, he was returned to imperial favor by the legitimate successor to the empress upon her death.
This diversion into ancient history is relevant, for the large bronze Statue of Kiyomaro, which stands to the north in a small plot of greenery at the edge of the Otebori Moat, celebrates this eighth-century defender of the Imperial House. In 1854 Emperor Komei raised Kiyomaro quite post-humously to the first rank of the nobility and named him Go-o-myojin, a spirit to be honored. This was a powerless emperor’s slap at the Tokugawa shogun of his day, his only way of showing his displeasure in those who ruled without consulting him. After Komei’s death, his son became Emperor Meiji, who would see his advisors and supporters bring an end to the two and a half centuries of Tokugawa rule. The new emperor’s advisors saw a similar value in the figure of Kiyomaro. Thus, on March 18, 1898, the noble and the divine status of Kiyomaro were once more confirmed by imperial edict. In 1940, almost 90 years after Kiyomaro’s elevation, his bronze image was raised at the edge of the Imperial Palace grounds by a later set of concerned advisors to Emperor Hirohito. In the 700s, this scholar had saved the throne. In 1940, the militaristic government sought to forestall any new threat to the throne. As a result, the statue of Kiyomaro still stands guard over imperial affairs at the edge of the Otebori Moat to the castle grounds.
The statue of Kiyomaro near the Otebori Moat
3
