DISTANCE: 5km (3 miles)
TIME: A half day
START: Kudanshita Station
END: Hibiya Station
POINTS TO NOTE: The Imperial Palace East Garden is closed on Mondays and Fridays. Volunteers offer a free two-hour walking tour around the Imperial Palace grounds on Saturdays at 1pm (meet at the gate of the Central Marunouchi entrance in Tokyo Station; www.tfwt.jp/Pages/default.aspx).
At the heart of the buzzing metropolis, the Imperial Palace, home to the world’s oldest monarchy, stands amid the grounds of the once formidable Edo Castle. Tokyo’s rise began here in 1590, when the first shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, chose the site as his new headquarters. When the castle was completed in 1640, it was the largest in the world.
Yasukuni-jinja
From Kudanshita Station, walk uphill towards the huge steel torii gate marking the entrance to Yasukuni-jinja 1 [map] (www.yasukuni.or.jp). Built to enshrine the souls of around 2.5 million war dead, this controversial Shinto shrine was completed in 1869. To the rear, there is a pretty ornamental garden with a teahouse and an adjacent sumo ring where bouts are held during the shrine’s spring festival.
Imperial Palace
Ming Tang-Evans/Apa Publications
Yushukan
Yasukuni’s fascinating museum, Yushukan 2 [map] (daily Apr–Sept 9am–5.30pm, Oct–Mar 9am–5pm; charge), houses samurai costumes, faded photos, letters from the front and other reminders of Japan’s tragic military past, all presented with a revisionist view of Japan’s 20th century war making. Look out for the kaiten, a human suicide torpedo.
Flowers in the East Garden
Ming Tang-Evans/Apa Publications
Kitanomaru park
Cross busy Yasukuni-dori to reach Tayasu-mon 3 [map], the entrance gate to Kitanomaru Park (Kitanomaru-koen). The former home of the Imperial Guard is now a wooded area with nature trails and some interesting museums.
Yasukuni jinja
iStock
Walk south and the outline of the martial arts hall Nippon Budokan 4 [map] (www.nipponbudokan.or.jp), built for the 1964 Olympics, will come into view. The design of this striking octagonal hall, with a curving roof and what looks like a golden top-knot, is based on that of the Horyu-ji Buddhist temple’s Hall of Dreams near the ancient city of Nara (southwest of Tokyo). Concerts, exhibitions and tournaments of karate, archery, judo and Japanese fencing are held here.
Pine trees by one of the palace moats
iStock
Continue through the park, heading to the right to reach the rewarding Crafts Gallery 5 [map] (Kogeikan; http://www.momat.go.jp/cg/; Tue–Sun 10am–5pm; charge), which is housed in a handsome Gothic Revival-style red-brick building, erected in 1910 to accommodate the old Imperial Palace Guard. Many of the exhibits, notably ceramic items, textiles and lacquerware, are the work of craftsmen honoured as ‘Living National Treasures’.
The Crafts Gallery is an annexe of the nearby National Museum of Modern Art 6 [map] (Kokuritsu Kindai Bijutsukan; www.momat.go.jp; Tue–Thur, Sun 10am–5pm, Fri 10am–8pm; charge). Besides an impressive display of paintings and sculptures by Japanese artists from the Meiji era to the present, the museum also has a few works by foreign artists such as Picasso. L’Art et Mikuni, see 1, is the museum’s stylish restaurant and café.
Around the Imperial Palace east garden
Passing over the highway and a section of the old castle moat, walk through the Kitahanebashi-mon gate to enter the Imperial Palace East Garden 7 [map] (Kokyo Higashi Gyoen; Tue–Thur, Sat–Sun 9am–4pm; free). This ornamental garden, with its inner circle of moats, was the site of Edo’s original five-tiered keep. The keep burnt down in a major fire that swept Edo in 1657. The heat was apparently so intense that it melted all the gold reserves kept in the keep’s vault. Only its sturdy stone base survives, but it is worth climbing this to get a view of the surroundings, including the mosaic-decorated Imperial Music Hall (Toka-Gagudo).
The walls of the inner moat have fared better. Huge blocks were cut from great slabs of stone brought by ship from Izu, 80km (50 miles) away.
Kusunoki Masashing statue
iStock
Wadakura Fountain Park
Leave the garden through Ote Gate (Ote-mon), an impressive replica of the original main gate, and step into the precincts of the Outer Garden, now known as the Imperial Palace Plaza (Kokyomae Hiroba). The former gardens, planted with some 2,000 Japanese black pine trees and lawns in 1899, are split by wide Uchibori-dori. In the plaza’s northeastern corner is the Wadakura Fountain Park 8 [map], built to celebrate the royal wedding of the emperor and empress in 1961, and refurbished on the occasion of their son’s marriage in 1995.
Continue south across the plaza to have your photograph taken against the picturesque backdrop of Nijubashi 9 [map], the Double Layer Bridge, with the graceful outline of the Fushimi Turret (Fushimi Yagura), and perhaps a swan or two gliding under the willow trees of the outer moat.
Follow the moat south to find Sakurada-mon ) [map], dating from 1620, the largest of the remaining gates of Edo Castle. Although damaged by the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the gate was rebuilt and is designated an ‘Important Cultural Asset’.
The red-brick Crafts Gallery
JNTO
Japan’s war dead
Before an important battle, soldiers sometimes exchanged the words, ‘Let us meet at Yasukuni’, meaning the place where their spirits would be honoured. In 1979 several Class-A war criminals were enshrined here, outraging Japan’s neighbours. Every 15 August – the anniversary of the country’s defeat in World War II – the controversy erupts afresh, when a ceremony is held at Yasukuni.
Hibiya park
Exit the Imperial Palace Plaza at the Iwaida Bridge (Iwaida-bashi) over the Gaisen Moat (Gaisen-bori). Cross the highway and enter Hibiya Park ! [map] (Hibiya-koen) on your left. This 16ha (41-acre) former parade ground was restyled as Japan’s first Western-style park in 1903. It remains a curious mixture of Meiji-period Japanese and European landscaping, with an original wisteria trellis, crane fountain and a Japanese garden. Among the several places to eat here, the most pleasant is Matsumotoro, see 2.
There are hundreds of cherry trees in Yasukuni’s grounds, making this a prime spot for hanami (cherry-blossom viewing) in spring. Festivals to entertain the spirits of the dead are also held in the shrine grounds at the end of April and mid-October.
The Imperial Palace Plaza has witnessed some momentous scenes of recent history. Survivors of the Great Kanto Earthquake gathered here in 1923, and in August 1945 several members of Japan’s officer corps committed seppuku (ritual suicide) here, in order, it is said, to atone for their failure in World War II. In the 1950s and 60s student radicals and workers rallied at the plaza to take part in sometimes violent demonstrations.
Food and drink
1 L’Art et Mikuni
National Museum of Modern Art, 3-1 Kitanomaru-koen, Chiyoda-ku; tel: 3213 0392; http://lart-et-mikuni.jp/; Tue–Sun 11:30am–9pm, closed for dinner Sun; station: Takebashi; ¥¥
A giant sculpture by Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi stands outside this pleasant contemporary restaurant with an outdoor terrace. Chef Kiyomi Mikuni creates artistic dishes under the concept of “fusion of French and Italian styles”.
2 Matsumotoro
1-2 Hibiya-koen, Chiyoda-ku; tel: 3503 1451; http://www.matsumotoro.co.jp/; daily 10am–9pm; station: Hibiya; ¥¥
In the centre of Hibiya Park, try Japanese takes on Western dishes (a style known as yoshoku) or relax over afternoon tea.