in 1952 and was relocated here in 1969, exhibits paintings of Western and Japanese artists in changing exhibitions on the first two floors (a fee is sometimes charged for these showings). The third and fourth floors exhibit paintings by Japanese artists since 1868, with the paintings changing four times a year since the collection exceeds 3,000 pieces.
Cherry blossoms line the approach to the Tayasu-mon Gate
The Crafts Gallery (Kogei-kan), with the same hours as the National Museum of Modern Art, is just a five-minute walk away. Continuing along the path that came from the Kinokuni-zaka and crossing the highway, after a few minutes’ walk the Science Museum lies to the right while the Crafts Gallery is to the left. The Crafts Gallery is housed in a government-listed building that once served as the administrative headquarters of the Imperial Guard. It was 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, marching from their barracks to the Akasaka Palace where Emperor Meiji was then living, they protested the unfair division of rewards to those who had suppressed the Saigo Takamori revolt in Ueno Park and demanded a raise in pay. Severe punishment was meted out after the mutiny was put down, and, because of this insurrection, the military barracks were razed and the divisional headquarters was eventually located here. This 1910 formerly military, Gothic brick structure, in what has been kindly termed “19th-century Renaissance” architecture, is one of five remaining Meiji-period brick buildings in Tokyo. Exhibits are shown on the second floor of this Crafts Gallery building, and they encompass all of the various areas in which Japanese craftsmen have excelled: ceramics, bamboo, lacquer, metal, textiles, and others.
The Science Museum is the other museum in the Kita-no–maru Park. (It is open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:50 p.m. but closed on Wednesdays, entry ¥700. It is closed from December 28 through January 3.) The five-story, pentagonal-shaped museum is under the jurisdiction of the Japan Science Foundation, and it has fourteen sections of displays (primarily with Japanese labels) that appeal greatly to children, including workable models and space-age exhibits. It covers many aspects of science, from agriculture to nuclear science and from earthquakes to electricity—the latter topic being described by a robot that lectures to the children. The museum also has a laboratory, a workroom, and a library.
Beyond the museum complex lies the massive Nippon Budo-kan, the Japan Martial Arts Hall, constructed in 1964 for the Olympics of that year. The structure is 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, today 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.
5 YASUKUNI SHRINE
The Kita-no-maru Koen is left through the Tayasu-mon Gate, a former masugata gate, on to Yasukuni-dori slightly to the west of Kudanshita Station on the Toei Shinjuku and the Tozai subway lines. Yasukuni-dori here descends Kudan-zaka (Kudan Hill) to the Jimbocho area to the right, but this tour continues to the left on Yasukuni-dori. 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 Ieyasu expanded the Shitamachi, the Low City, below his castle. The hill received its name of Kudan, nine steps, because it was so steep that it had to be cut in 1709 into nine stepped-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 as 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,” originally called the Tokyo Shokonsha and now called Yasukuni Shrine. The shrine was intended to honor those who had died in the battles for the Meiji Imperial Restoration and the extinguishing of Tokugawa rule. In traditional Japanese custom, the spirits of the dead are enshrined here and can be feasted and entertained, not unlike the O Bon ceremonies of the Buddhist faith—a faith, ironically, that the Meiji leaders did not favor. The shrine was run by the army until 1945 and thus became the center of the most rabid nationalism. It still attracts right-wing militarists and extreme nationalists today.
In 1879 the Tokyo Shokonsha became the Yasukuni Jinja, the “Shrine of Peace for the Nation,” on a more organized basis. Here horse racing took place until 1898, and there were sumo matches and the performance of Noh plays; in fact, a Noh stage was constructed on the grounds in 1902. In 1882, the Treasury (Yushu-kan), a military exhibition hall was built, and it today houses exhibits that honor the various wars Japan became involved in after 1868, down to and including World War II. (Open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., entry ¥800.) 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 the 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. Soldiers heading into battle traditionally parted with the words “Let us meet at Yasukuni,” where their spirits would be worshipped. As a result of the Japanese wars of the 1930s and 1940s, now 2,500,000 spirits are honored at the shrine. The more militant of Japanese nationalists who still see Japan’s wars of the 1930s and 1940s as crusades to free Asia of Western imperialism have made the shrine a gathering place, as mentioned above. As a result, the visits to Yasukuni by members of the government have been the occasion for deep unrest among many of Japan’s victims in 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. In 2005 the Japanese courts indicated that such visits violate the Japanese Constitution, but those of a nationalistic bent often act beyond the law. Though prior to 1945 the shrine was under military administration, the American occupation after 1945 had the shrine revert to non-governmental control. The shrine remains an unfortunate bone of contention for the Chinese, Korean, and other nations that suffered from Japanese imperialism.
Shinto priests at Yasukuni Shrine
The grounds are entered under the huge, steel First Torii (Daiichi Torii), a modern torii whose predecessor was melted in 1943 for use in armament production. Beyond it at an intersection of paths is the statue to Masujiro Omura (1824–1869), the first minister of War after the Meiji Restoration. He was in charge of the Meiji forces that defeated the shogun’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 the Hands-Washing Place for ablutions before entering the inner shrine quarters. The path is lined with flowering cherry and with gingko trees and monuments to military men of the past.
The Divine Gate (Shinmon) of twelve pillars, with the imperial chrysanthemum of 16 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, the Main Hall, where the spirits are enshrined. Between
