for their new headquarters. There they settled in what was, and is, a most luxurious site. When Ieyasu came to power in 1603, he still feared the arrogance of the sect, and thus he split the Kyoto Hongan-ji Temple and the Jodo Shinshu sect into two groups, the Nishi (West) Hongan-ji and the Higashi (East) Hongan-ji. As the head of the newly established Higashi group, he placed a disaffected relative of the leader of the main branch of the faith as the abbot in charge. Divide and conquer, Ieyasu found, was better than a head-on approach when faced with potential opponents, religious or secular.
A subsidiary temple of the original sect (the Nishi Hongan-ji) moved to Edo in 1617 and was settled in Hamacho, the original Yoshiwara district. After its destruction in the Long Sleeves Fire of 1657, the temple was offered a site in the newly created Tsukiji area, and thus the Tsukiji Hongan-ji Temple came into being. The 1923 earthquake marked the ninth time the temple was destroyed by fire, and the decision was made to rebuild in stone. In the period of its greatest strength, the Tsukiji Hongan-ji had more than 50 sub-temples around it, a few of which survive here and there in the Tsukiji district today. In the 1935 rebuilding of the temple, Chuto Ito, the temple architect, wished to show the tie of Japanese Buddhism to its Indian heritage by creating a edifice reflecting that country’s architectural traditions. The temple can seat 1,000 worshippers, and, as the central temple of the sect in the Tokyo area, it supervises more than 600 other temples in the Kanto region around Tokyo. Standing 114 feet (34.2 meters) tall and covering 70,600 square feet (6,354 square meters), it is one of the largest Buddhist temples in Japan. It offers daily services, supports a Sunday school, and on the third Saturday of each month offers an evening service in English and in Japanese for those interested in the Shinshu faith, which reverences the Amida Buddha. Within the Hondo, the front of the worship hall offers a golden façade, its ramma (transoms) above the golden altar intricately carved, while the altar area is embellished with golden furnishings, a Japanese Momoyama style within an Indian façade. A temple of the modern day, it offers soft seats for worshippers while a large organ is available for music during religious services.
Hongan-ji is where this tour comes to an end. Leaving the temple by the main entrance and turning right, a short walk east along Shin-ohashi-dori brings you to Tsukiji Station on the Hibiya subway line, which can be taken in one direction to Ginza or Hibiya and in the other to Akihabara or Ueno.
GETTING THERE
This tour starts at Tsukiji-Shijo Station on the Oedo subway line.
Walking Tour 5
NIHOMBASHI TO GINZA AND SHIMBASHI
The Quarter Where Pleasure Can Be Had, a Shopper’s Paradise, Kabuki, and a New City “Where the Tide Ends”
1 Nihombashi: The bridge of Japan
2 Chuo-dori: Tokyo's High Street
3 Yaesu and Tokyo Station
4 Ginza Shopping district
5 A Walk Through the Ginza
6 Kabuki-za Theater
7 Shiodome new city
8 Yurakucho
9 Tokyo International forum
The names of the original commercial center of old Edo and modern Tokyo—Ginza, Yurakucho, and Nihombashi—are somewhat flexible descriptions for the areas they encompass. Chuo-dori (Central Avenue) is the traditional heart of the Ginza district, and often foreigners have used the term Ginza as though that were the name of Chuodori. Although Chuo-dori extends to the north beyond the limits of this tour, we shall be concerned with that portion of the avenue that lies between the Nihombashi Bridge to the north and the Shimbashi rail station and the Shiodome area to the south. Each segment will be defined and described.
Ginza means “Silver Mint,” for it was in this area in the early 1600s that the Tokugawa shoguns had their mint for the production of silver (gin) coins. (A stone monument in a flower planter of low evergreens at the edge of the sidewalk in Ginza 2-chome commemorates the birthplace of Ginza, the place of silver casting.) Yurakucho is just beyond the western quarter of Ginza; the elevated Yamanote and the Japan Rail tracks serve as a delineating boundary for the district on its western side. Nihombashi was the heart of the Low City in Edo times, and even into Meiji days it was the commercial and financial center of the city. Nihombashi #1, for the purposes of this tour, is that portion of the district that lies to the south of the Nihombashi River. In Walk 6, the other part of Nihombashi, #2, will be combined with the adjacent Ningyocho district into which it merges geographically. This tour thus begins at Nihombashi Bridge, the “bridge of Japan,” and proceeds down the eight portions of Ginza from 1-chome through 8-chome, deviating to the side occasionally for places of interest, then continuing into Shimbashi and terminating in Yurakucho. Chome is a city block. We start at Nihombashi subway station, and the walk itself can begin at the bridge. The Ginza subway line runs down the central axis of the walk, with stations at Kyobashi, Ginza Crossing (Ginza Station on Harumi-dori), and Shimbashi. Thus one can interrupt the tour at any of these points and pick up the route at a later time if desired.
1 NIHOMBASHI: THE BRIDGE OF JAPAN
In one sense, this is where any visit to Tokyo should begin. In the wonderful woodblock Print #1 of his Fifty-three Stages of the Tokaido, Hiroshige shows the arched, wooden bridge that first spanned the Nihombashi River in 1603. Across the bridge in the print comes a daimyo’s procession, the lance bearers holding their covered weapons aloft, the retinue following behind. In the foreground appear fishmongers, those workers who enlivened the riverfront for the next 300 years, here hastily making way for a procession they dare not block for fear of their lives. In the background are the roofs of the kura, the warehouses along the river, while fire towers fitted with alarm bells raise their ladder-like structures above distant buildings.
Nihombashi was the center of this exciting and boisterous community. The Tokaido, the great “Eastern Road” of Japan in the period from 1600 to the late 1800s, began at the Nihombashi Bridge in Edo (old Tokyo). This road was the most important connection between the imperial capital of Kyoto and the shogun’s seat in Edo, the shogun being a military leader who ruled over civil life in the name of the emperor, giving the emperor the obeisance that tradition required while at the same time ignoring him politically as a powerless figurehead. From 1604, a milepost on the Nihombashi Bridge marked the beginning of the posts that counted off the 292 miles (467.2 kilometers) between the two seats of governance in the nation. The black pole on the bridge, which was the zero marker, began the count of the distance not only to Kyoto but to all the towns on the other highways from Edo. Four great roads departed from this point, two leading to Ueno and Nikko, and two to Kyoto: the Nakasendo Road through the mountains as well as the more heavily used Tokaido. Kyobashi (“Capital Bridge”) to the south of Nihombashi Bridge was the first to be crossed on the way to Kyoto, but most of the rivers en route had to be forded, often with difficulty.
Nihombashi Bridge served a number of purposes apart from providing access between the northern and southern portions of Edo. At the south end of the bridge, felons were exposed in fetters. Adulterers and priests guilty of sexual offenses were among those so treated before they were led off to their deaths. Those guilty of murder were placed in a hole with only their neck and head protruding. Two saws were available for anyone who wished to cut off their heads—which in the long run the authorities would accomplish more quickly. Their severed heads were then mounted on a pike at the end of the bridge as a warning to any potential wrongdoers. An official notice board stood at the bridge, so the will of the shogun could be made plain. The announcement in 1702 of the fate of the 47 Ronin (see Walks 7 and 15) was so distasteful to citizens that the notice was ripped down almost as soon as it was posted. There was a “Lost
