The yamate Bluff—a Haven for Westerners on Higher ground
Motomachi and the Italian Garden, the Foreigners’ Cemetery, Harborview Park and French Hill
Walking Tour 22
SANKEI-EN GARDEN AND HASSEI-DEN FOLK MUSEUM: a Classic garden Filled with Teahouses, and the Hall of the Eight Sages
Sankei-en Garden, Honmoku Civic Park, Hall of the Eight Sages
KAMAKURA OVERVIEW: Visiting the Famous Temples and Shrines of the Ancient Minamoto Capital
Walking Tour 23
KAMAKURA AND HASE: The Famous Temples and Shrines of Central and North Kamakura and a great Bronze Buddha
Hongaku-ji Temple, Wakamiya Shrine, Wakamiya Jinja, Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu, Shirahata Shrine and Yoritomo’s Grave, Egara Tenjin Shrine, Kamakura-gu, Annual Events in the Central Kamakura Area, Kencho-ji Zen Temple, Enno-ji Temple and the Kings of Hell, Tokei-ji Temple (the Divorce Temple), Engaku-ji Temple, Festivals at Engaku-ji, Zeniarai Benten Shrine (diversion), Komyo-ji, the Great Buddha of Kamakura, Hase-dera Temple
Walking Tour 24
KATASE AND ENOSHIMA ISLAND: a Surly Monk, a Legendary kannon, and a Famed Nude goddess
Nichiren and the Kamakura Execution Grounds, Enoshima Island
Walking Tour 25
YOKOSUKA: a Japanese admiral, an English Sailor, and an american Commodore
Mikasa Park and Battleship Mikasa, Sarushima Island (Monkey Island), The Grave of William Adams, Yokosuka City Museum
CHAPTER 6: POINTS WEST, NORTH AND EAST OF TOKYO
Walking Tour 26
THE HAKONE REGION: Mountains, Spas, and Thermal Eruptions
Odawara, Hakone-Yumoto, Miyanoshita, Gora, The Hakone Ropeway, Togendai on Lake Ashinoko, Hakone-machi, Moto-Hakone, Festivals
Walking Tour 27
MOUNT FUJI: Climbing the Sacred Mountain
Climbing Mount Fuji, Sengen Shrine, Lake Kawaguchi
Walking Tour 28
KAWAGOE: Little Edo—a Vision of Old Tokyo
Yamazaki Art Museum and Kameya Sweet Shop, Choki-in Temple, Chuo-dori, Kawagoe City Museum, Kita-in Temple, Festivals
Walking Tour 29
NARITA: Shinsho-ji Temple in Narita and the National History Museum in Sakura
Shinsho-ji Temple, National Museum of Japanese History, Festivals in the Narita Region
Appendices
Getting to Tokyo, Transportation from Narita into the City, Transportation within Tokyo, Shopping, Eating Out, Entertainment and Culture, Tokyo’s Traditional and Modern Faces, Holidays and Festivals in Tokyo, Day Trips by Train
INTRODUCTION
Tokyo and Its Heritage
In 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu, the powerful warlord of eastern Japan, was beholden to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the military ruler over the nation. Hideyoshi, anxious to remove Ieyasu from Kyoto and the center of political power, offered to exchange certain of Ieyasu’s territorial holdings near Kyoto for a grant of extensive lands in the underpopulated area in eastern Japan. Ieyasu’s followers were aghast at their leader’s acceptance of the isolated land at Edo Bay (Tokyo Bay) in exchange for his more valuable lands near the imperial capital. Ieyasu, however, had a vision he had not yet shared with them. Here, at the tiny village of Edo (Edo means “mouth of the river” or “estuary”), where the Sumida and other rivers poured into an almost completely encircled bay at the edge of the great Kanto Plain, he would create a mighty civil capital. And from here he and his heirs would rule all of Japan.
With the passage of time, with patience and guile—and with force—Ieyasu would bring this vision to reality. By 1598 Hideyoshi was dead, and, in the ensuing struggle among the daimyo (feudal lords) contesting for power, Ieyasu had by 1603 conquered all who stood in his way. As victor, Ieyasu moved the seat of civil and military control from an effete aristocratic court in Kyoto to the land at the head of the large and sheltered bay where he would build his capital. Thus Edo, the future Tokyo, began its modern existence. From here, as shogun (“barbarian-subduing generalissimo”), he ruled over Japan in the name of the powerless emperor and over the 176 “inside lords” (fudai daimyo)—those who had sided with him before his decisive and victorious battle at Sekigahara in 1603—as well as the 86 “outside lords” (tozama daimyo), who had not been farsighted enough to be his allies.
The shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu
Ieyasu forced both the inside and the outside daimyo to supply labor, materials, and funds for the construction of an impregnable castle in Edo, and the work of creating moats, canals, walls, and a fortified residence went on until 1640. From 1603, and for the next 265 years, Ieyasu and his successors as sho-guns were to rule the nation with unparalleled control. To both monitor and financially weaken any possible contenders for power, Ieyasu enforced the rule of sankin kotai (alternate attendance) on his vassals. Alternate periods of two years had to be spent by the leaders of the great clans at their Edo residence. Thus the great daimyo, the territorial lords, made their compulsory biennial passage from their domains to Edo, with the panoply and display required by Tokugawa shoguns. It was an ostentatious progress, which would keep them sufficiently impoverished. At the end of the period of attendance on the shogun, their return to their territorial homes took place with the same pomp. One half of the outside lords had to make their journey to Edo in March, while the other half returned to their homes that month. The inside lords made their biennial journey in alternate years in August.
In Edo, custom and honor forced these daimyo to live in splendid mansions befitting their rank. On their return to their domains, they had to leave their women and children behind in their Edo palaces of Momoyama grandeur as hostage and warrant of their good behavior. (The Momoyama era in the late 1500s was a period of great artistic ostentation.) The expense of maintaining their territorial seat of power as well as an elaborate establishment in Edo, with the incumbent costly procession between the two locations, financially precluded any attempts on their part to mount a threat by force against the Tokugawa. As an additional precaution, the Tokugawa had barriers erected at points along the main highways into Edo, and here the rule of “No women out, no guns in” maintained the hostage system and kept the daimyo weaponless in the new capital.
