An early morning visit to Tokyo (Edo) Castle, when the crows are cawing and joggers circuit the outer grounds, is the perfect way to experience this iconic fortress. Begun in 1590 by the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, the castle includes – within its precincts – the Imperial Palace (Kokyo), home to Emperor Akihito, Empress Michiko, their children and grandchildren. Japan’s imperial line is the longest on the planet; its emperors are said to be descended from the mythical sun goddess Amaterasu, a principal deity of the Shinto religion.
Walk through the Kitahanebashi Gate (Kitahanebashi-mon) to enter the Imperial Palace East Garden (Kokyo Higashi Gyoen), the site of Edo’s original five-roofed keep. The keep burnt to the ground in 1657, but it is worth climbing the base to view the surroundings. The massive stone walls of the inner moat testify to the immense wealth and power of the shoguns who unified Japan and moved the capital from Kyoto. Huge blocks were hauled by ship from Izu, some 50 miles (80km) away.
Exit the garden through the charming, whitewashed Ote Gate (Ote-mon), a copy of the original main gate, and step into the Outer Garden, now known as the Imperial Palace Plaza (Kokyomae Hiroba). The former gardens, planted with Japanese black pine trees and lawns in 1899, are bisected by Uchibori-dori road.
Continue south across the plaza and take a selfie against the striking backdrop of the Double Layer Bridge (Nijubashi), with the elegant Fushimi Turret (Fushimi Yagura), and perhaps a swan or two floating under the willow trees of the outer moat.
Follow the moat south to Sakurada Gate (Sakurada-mon). Dating from 1620, it’s the largest existing gate of Tokyo Castle. Although damaged by the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the gate was rebuilt and is designated an ‘Important Cultural Asset’.
Tokyo (Edo) Castle, Chiyoda-ku; Tue–Thur and Sat–Sun 9am–4.30pm; free; [map] D4
Japan’s imperial line, said to have begun in 660 BC with the mythic Emperor Jimmu, is now in danger of dying out. Crown Prince Naruhito and Princess Masako have only one daughter, but Japan’s laws only allow for a male heir, meaning that after Naruhito dies the Chrysanthemum Crown goes to young Prince Hisahito, the son of Naruhito’s brother Akishino, and the only male grandson of Emperor Akihito. If Hisahito fails to produce a male offspring, Japan would then either have to allow for female succession – unthinkable to conservatives – or again open the line to cousins and the wider family, as in times past. (Imperial concubines, once a convenient way of ensuring male heirs, would of course be unacceptable in contemporary Japan). Japanese policymakers are kicking this uncomfortable political football into the future, but a wide range of opinions exist and many seek to open succession to women, notwithstanding the Emperor’s key function in male-centric Shinto rituals.
You might have seen it in the news; now tour the shrine that troubles relations between Japan and its Korean and Chinese neighbours. On entering Yasukuni-jinja via its towering torii (shrine gate), you’d never suspect that such tranquil grounds could be the flashpoint for disputes over wartime history between these East Asian giants. Towering gingko trees, a staple of shrines across Japan, line the approach to the stately building.
Memorialised at Yasukuni are the souls of some 2.5 million soldiers who have died in wars fought since its completion in 1869. Among them are the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Behind the shrine lies a quaint teahouse and sumo ring where bouts are held during the spring festival.
Emperor Hirohito stopped visiting Yasukuni from 1978 until his death in 1989, reportedly because it enshrined notorious war criminals. Recent annual visits by Japanese politicians have generated blowback from China and the Koreas, who contend that the shrine glorifies Japan’s 20th-century military aggression.
But it’s the on-site Yushukan War Museum, with its self-justifying interpretation of history (war dead are referred to as ‘divinities’), that offers the most intriguing aspect of a visit. Plaques that accompany objects such as a human suicide torpedo consistently paint World War II as an inevitability that Japan did its best to avoid, glossing over the atrocities committed by the Imperial forces.
Yasukuni-jinja; 3-1-1 Kudankita, Chiyoda-ku; tel: 3261-8326; www.yasukuni.or.jp; [map] C5
Yushukan War Museum; address and map as above; www.yasukuni.or.jp/english/yushukan; daily 9am–4.30pm; charge
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (MOMAT) has its share of Chagalls and Picassos, but you didn’t travel thousands of miles to see second-rate pieces by Western artists. What makes MOMAT important is its outstanding collection of art by 20th-century Japanese artists. Taken as a whole, they tell the story of how figures like Ryusei Kishida and Taikan Yokoyama took up the challenge posed by the Modernist revolution. Deeply influenced by European movements such as Impressionism, Japan’s artists turned these techniques to local subject matter, and attempted valiantly to synthesise traditional approaches with the new forces filtering in from the West.
Designed by architect Yoshiro Taniguchi and completed in 1969, MOMAT sits amid peaceful grounds just north of the Imperial Palace. In galleries on the second to fourth floors, ‘MOMAT Collection’ presents 200 important works selected from more than 12,000 items. Exhibits range from Japanese- and Western-style paintings to prints and sculptures, photographs and videos, which trace Japan’s artistic history from the...
