of the steps from Sotobori-dori (open every day but Tuesday and Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.), and it holds many important swords once owned by the Tokugawa clan. Entry is free. The Sanno Festival (the Festival Without Equal) has always been one of the great festivals of Tokyo, and it takes place every other year from June 10 through 16 with a great procession on June 15. Some 50 mikoshi (sacred palanquins holding the god spirit), two imperial carriages, and 400 participants in Heian-period (800–1200) costumes participate in the procession, with the shrine officials on horseback behind the most sacred, oxen-drawn mikoshi.
On February 26, 1936, the shrine was the center of some political excitement. In that period, when the Japanese military was getting more out of civilian control, some 1,400 soldiers set out to “restore power” to the emperor and to bring wealth to the people. They executed two former premiers of government and the inspector general of military training, seized government buildings, and set up their headquarters below the Hie Shrine. Four days later, with little support from the military, the government, or the emperor, they surrendered. Nineteen of the ringleaders were executed—but they are remembered by those with a nationalistic and militarist bent on a memorial stone at their place of execution, which today faces the Shibuya Ward Office and the NHK Broadcasting Building in Shibuya.
6 AKASAKA MITSUKE AREA
On leaving the shrine, descend the hill that is lined with vermilion torii. The torii of this shrine are unique in that they have a triangular-shaped top rather than the normal slightly curved top bar these sacred gateways usually employ. (One can also descend the street that runs from the rear of the Diet Building to Sotobori-dori.) Descending the hill to Sotoboridori, there are a series of streets running parallel to Sotobori-dori to the west that are noted for their restaurants. These streets in the Akasaka district took a new lease on life when the Kasumigaseki area became the seat of government after 1868, and they developed restaurants to serve the new government quarters. Some of the restaurants provided geisha entertainment. As the traditional and not-too-distant Shimbashi geisha area grew ever more expensive and exclusive, a new entertainment and geisha sector became established in this area between the hills not far from the Diet. It also at one time had its seamier side, with “bath girls”—or prostitutes—who served visitors to Akasaka.
The view from Benkei Bridge in Akasaka Mitsuke
By the early 1900s the area was in its heyday, supported by politicians, businessmen, and the new breed of journalists. In more recent times these types have been augmented by staff from the nearby TBS television studios. Tourists frequent the restaurants as well, but the ryotei (geisha restaurants) have declined greatly with the passage of time. They can still be recognized by the huge limousines parked before the high walls behind which they sit. These are establishments that only the wealthiest can afford. The three streets to the west of Sotobori-dori—Hitotsugi-dori, Misujidori, and Tamachi-dori—are at the heart of this entertainment area. Misuji-dori, between Hitotsugi-dori and Tamachi-dori, has some of the major geisha restaurants.
Back on Sotobori-dori and continuing toward the overhead Expressway is Akasaka Mitsuke, that crossroads of streets, subway stations, and the overhead Shuto Expressway (once again encountered in another of its branches). The Ginza, Marunouchi, and Hanzomon subway lines all have entrances here. As has been indicated, Sotobori-dori, which we have been following, was once the outer moat for the Tokugawa castle and was completed in 1636 by the third shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu. The moats about the castle each had a mitsuke, a fortified gate, at the bridges that crossed the moat. As with the masaguta gates at the Ote-mon and the Sakurada-mon entrance to the castle, each mitsuke had behind the gate a fortified wall that formed a “box” within which any trespasser or enemy could be ambushed. It is claimed that there were 36 of these mitsuke about the moats. The gate at Akasaka Mitsuke is said to have been one of the finest of these defensive units, and it guarded the road (the present Aoyama-dori) that led from the castle to Shibuya. The last remnants of this gate and the one at Sotobori-dori at Toranomon were removed by the Meiji government in 1873.
Today, of course, the gate is missing but survives in the name of the area, Akasaka Mitsuke, which means “Red Hill Fortress Gate.” Akasaka received its name of “Red Slope” from plants for red dye that once grew here. A portion of the moat does continue to exist, separating the lands of the Akasaka Detached Palace from the New Otani Hotel and running in part in front of the Akasaka Prince Hotel, where it is spanned by the Benkei Bridge. On the left of the Akasaka Mitsuke intersection is the Suntory Building (see Walk 13 for the Suntory Museum), which houses the Tokyo offices of beer, spirit, and soft-drink maker Suntory. Crossing under the Expressway, ahead is the Benkei Bridge, while looming large to the right beyond the bridge is the 40-story Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka. This starkly white building shaped in the form of a folding fan in mirrored white glass and aluminum was designed by Kenzo Tange in 1983. It closed shortly after the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011 and was for a while then used to house evacuees from the Tohoku region who had been displaced by the earthquake and tsunami. Now empty, it is slated for demolition but was still standing as of publication.
7 NEW OTANI ART MUSEUM
Crossing the Benkei Bridge brings one to the impressive New Otani Hotel and its traditional garden. The 40-story main structure was built in 1974, and then in 1991 a 30-story New Otani Tower was added. Between the two units of the hotel, some 2,100 rooms are available for guests. The New Otani Art Museum can be found off the sixth-floor lobby of the original building. The gallery to the right offers paintings by noted Japanese artists, while the gallery on the left shows the work of Western artists and particularly the Ecole de Paris school. (The museum is open 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. except Mondays. It also closes during the New Year holidays. Admission is ¥500 but is free for those staying at the hotel.) The lower floors of the hotel offer a variety of gift shops and some 36 coffee shops and restaurants, which can provide a break in the tour if one wishes. The gorgeous traditional outdoor gardens of the hotel are well worth a visit; they were once a portion of the estate of Kato Kiyomasa (1562– 1611), the lord of Kumamoto, and they are a fine example of a traditional Japanese garden. The garden can be entered from the corridor between the two buildings of the hotel, the door to the garden being next to the lounge.
Temple or shrine? Toyokawa Inari Shrine is unusually also known as Myogon-ji Temple.
8 TOYOKAWA INARI SHRINE
Returning to the Suntory Building, a turn to the right on its far side brings one onto Aoyama-dori. Walking along this avenue, at the second street on the right is the Myogonji Temple or Toyokawa Inari Shrine. This is one of those delightful anomalies of Japanese culture, for here is a Zen temple that has red lanterns such as are found only at Shinto shrines. There was a tradition for such a joint situation before 1868, when temples and shrines cohabited, but from that time on temples and shrines were forcibly separated by the new Meiji government. Shinto had always been an unorganized folk faith (unorganized, not disorganized). The advent of Buddhism in the 600s provided a faith that was highly organized and structured, and in time Ryobu Shinto (Dual Shinto) developed, whereby Shinto shrines were often run by Buddhist temples. There has always been a relationship between the two faiths (the Japanese are not as prone to sharp divisions between faiths as in the West), since in Japan each temple has a small shrine to the Shinto deity of the land it occupies.
What is the occasion for the seeming open confusion at this temple/shrine? According to tradition, in the early 1200s Emperor Juntoko’s third son, Kanganzenji (who happened to be a Zen priest), was on a ship returning from China. In the midst of a terrible storm, when all seemed lost, the son saw the image of the Buddhist deity Dakini (who is also known as the Shinto deity Inari) riding on a white fox and carrying a rice bale on his back. The ship did not founder, and the son carved an image of Dakini on his return to Japan. This carved figure of a deity who has both a Buddhist and a Shinto aspect is said to be the
