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What does Hatsudai mean?

In Japanese History on April 14, 2020 at 9:23 pm

初台
Hatsudai (the first platform)

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Is it Back to Normal Yet?

Well, apparently things aren’t back to normal yet. The Wuhan Love™️ is still out there taking lives, eroding infrastructure, and killing jobs. We’ve just got a few more weeks to put up with this and if we all do our best, I’m pretty sure we’ll come out of this stronger. That said, I hope you’re all doing well, staying inside, socially distancing yourselves, and discovering ever weirder shit on Pornhub[i]. It looks like the worldwide death toll is over 120,000 people at the time of writing. The global death toll isn’t slowing down because some major first world countries have totally dropped the ball on this one.

Anyhoo, we’re heading back over to 渋谷区 Shibuya-ku Shibuya Ward because the further west you go in 東京都 Tōkyō-to the Tōkyō Metropolis, the easier the place names get. Or, at least, it’s easier for me to find “bite-sized” articles. So today, we’ll be looking at 初台 Hatsudai, which is a neighborhood that lies just off the side of 旧甲州街道 Kyū-Kōshū Kaidō the former Kōshū Highway[ii] at the border of 新宿区 Shinjuku-ku Shinjuku Ward and Shibuya Ward[iii]. Its primarily a residential area, but it’s also home to the corporate headquarters of Casio[iv].

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First, Let’s Look at the Kanji

初 hatsu, haji-/hajime; sho	beginning, first
台 tai, –dai	tower; platform; plateau; stand

Even though I like to start each etymology with “let’s look at the kanji,” I’m going to be perfectly honest and tell you that in this case, knowing the kanji isn’t going to give us much insight into this place name.

a reconstructed noroshi-dai

The Story

Tradition says this place name is a combination of two legends, one from the end of the Muromachi Period and the other from beginning of the Edo Period.

The first derivation says that in order to secure his re-fortification of 江戸城 Edo-jō Edo Castle, the warlord 太田道灌 Ōta Dōkan built a series of eight 出城 dejiro satellite castles[v], including one in this area. Whether this was a full on 砦 toride fortress or just a 見張台 mihari-dai look-out tower, the main feature was its 狼煙台 noroshi-dai a specialized platform for sending smoke signals to the other defenses. One story says that this was originally called 八台 yatsudai fort #8, or hatsudai in the local dialect[vi].

The most trustworthy etymology comes from the beginning of the Edo Period (1600-1868). The second shōgun, 徳川秀忠 Tokugawa Hidetada, donated a large fief in this area to his wet nurse, 初台 Hatsudai. This area was countryside until quite recently, so the presence of a member of the shōgun’s household living on a prominent hill brought a lot of prestige to the village[vii]. We’ve seen plenty of other examples for place names derived from the presence of elite residences.

We have no portrait of Hatsudai no Tsubone, but here is Saigo no Tsubone. She was the mother of Hidetada and the primary concubine of Ieyasu.

Hatsudai no Tsubone

During the finally years of the Azuchi-Momoyama Period [viii], samurai warlord 徳川家康 Tokugawa Ieyasu needed someone to look after his eldest son, Hidetada[ix]. He moved his clan to Edo in 1590 and immediately began seeking a proper nanny to raise the twelve-year-old in his new castle. The keyword search for “cultured, devoted, and lactating” pointed directly at one noble woman – a woman whose actual name and lineage is a bit mysterious to us today, yet the Tokugawa court deemed her worthy of raising the next head of the clan, and most likely the next leader of the realm.

In 1591, the wife of a certain 土井昌勝 Doi Masakatsu was selected to raise the second Tokugawa family head, Hidetada. Sadly, we don’t know much about her as records merely preserve her as “the wife of Doi Masakatsu” or even more obliquely as “the wife of the younger brother of 土井利勝 Doi Toshikatsu.”[x] We don’t know who her parents were, nor when and where she was born and died. We do know, however, the Buddhist name she retired under in her old age[xi], and the name and title she held in the shōgun’s court: 初台局 Hatsudai no Tsubone Lady Hatsudai.

Long time readers will recognize the term 局 tsubone, a title given to the highest-ranking matrons of 大奥 Ōoku the shōgun’s harem[xii]. Years ago, we spoke about 春日局 Kasuga no Tsubone, the wet nurse of the third shōgun, 徳川家光 Tokugawa Iemitsu. Seeing how the two tsubone we have come across so far were both trusted with the lives of future shōguns, I think it’s pretty clear how loyal and respected these women were. The kanji 局 tusbone/kyoku literally means “bureau” or “department,” so think of them as the Vice-Presidents of Raising the Next Shōgun. All the other ladies in waiting were at their beck and call. Make no mistake about it. Women with the title tsubone ran shit in the innermost palace of Edo Castle.

Hatsudai in the Edo Period. Just farmland. Notice the wide yellow road roughly following the Tamagawa Aqueduct, that’s the Kōshū Kaido.

Hatsudai – Mystery Woman

While we don’t know much about Hatsudai’s personal life, we do know a bit about the family she married into. The 土井家 Doi-ke Doi clan had been active in 下総国 Shimōsa no Kuni Shimōsa Province[xiii] and it seems like they were a typical Kantō samurai family of the late Sengoku Period. I mentioned that Hatsudai is sometimes described as the “wife of the younger brother of Doi Toshikatsu,” which is interesting for two reasons: one, it means the younger brother, Masakatsu, wasn’t as distinguished as his older brother; and two, it could mean Ieyasu held Toshikatsu in higher esteem than the younger brother.

You see, Toshikatsu was adopted into the clan by Ieyasu’s councilor, 土井利昌 Doi Toshimasa. He is believed to have been the son of 水野信元 Mizuno Nobumoto, an uncle of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Others claim he was an illegitimate son of Ieyasu himself, entrusted to the Doi clan where he could keep an eye on his growth from a safe distance. Ultimately, Toshikatsu proved to be a worthy ally of the Tokugawa. Not only did he and his younger brother serve as advisors, they led their armies in support of 大坂の陣 Ōsaka no Jin the summer and winter sieges of 大阪城 Ōsaka-jō Ōsaka Castle in 1614 and 1615. Toshikatsu was about six or seven years older than Hidetada, and Masakatsu was probably about four or five years older. Hidetada apparently had great trust in Masakatsu (they were roughly the same age) and he retained both brothers as personal advisors during his nearly 20 years as shōgun and his nine years as 大御所 ōgosho retired shōgun. After Hidetada’s death, the Doi brothers slipped into obscurity.

Hatsudai today. The Keio Line now follows the Tamagawa Aqueduct.

How long Hatsudai remained in the direct service of the Tokugawa is unclear, but at some point, she retired and became a Buddhist priest – choosing a new name, 安養院 An’yō-in. The shōgun Hidetada granted her a luxurious, hilltop retirement estate in the country. It was a quiet little spot surrounded by rice paddies in Yoyogi Village, conveniently located near the Kōshū Highway. The fief was valued at 二百石 ni hyaku koku 200 koku[xiv], which would be a pretty sweet income to retire on. Also, there was supposed to be enough money for Hatsudai to establish a funerary temple in the area, but it’s unclear what happened next.

Grave of Hatsudai

Final Resting Place?

In present-day 渋谷区代々木三丁目 Shibuya-ku Yoyogi san-chōme 3^rd block of Yoyogi, Shibuya Ward, there’s a small temple called 正春寺 Shōshun-ji Shōshun Temple. It appears that for whatever reason, Hatsudai no Tsubone didn’t establish a temple in her own name. Her daughter, known to history as 梅園局 Umezono no Tsubone[xv], was the original wet nurse in charge of the future third shōgun, Iemtisu. I’m not sure why[xvi], but Umezono no Tsubone was soon replaced by Kasuga no Tsubone — probably the only tsubone most people have ever heard of. What we do know is that in retirement[xvii], she changed her name to the more priestly sounding 正春院 Shōshun-in, hence the name of the temple.

Hatsudai’s Buddhist name, An’yo-in

If you walk around the cemetery and look really hard, you can find a grave dedicated to a certain 土井次郎左衛門昌勝 Doi Jirōzaemon Masakatsu. We can quickly identify this as Hatsudai’s husband’s tomb[xviii]. If we take a look at a small column of text to the side, we can clearly see the phrase: 土井次郎左衛門昌勝室 Doi Jirōzaemon Masakatsu no shitsu[xix]. This inscription indicates that the 夫婦 fūfu married couple can be honored here together for eternity, and just in case people forgot about poor old Hatsudai, only her Buddhist name (An’yō-in) and her relation to Masakatsu are listed on the grave. The priests of Shōshun-ji say that fires, earthquakes, and the Firebombing of Tōkyō destroyed most temple records, but oral tradition tells that the temple was established by Umezono no Tsubone (Shōshun-in), although maybe her mother Hatsudai no Tsubone (An’yō-in) established something smaller in the area that was absorbed by the current institution. Legend says that in the Edo Period, many local people made pilgrimages here to leave offerings for the wet nurse of the second shōgun, and prayed for their sons to be virtuous and decisive clan leaders. However, the temple cannot confirm whether the actual remains of Doi Masakatsu or — more importantly — those of Hatsudai are interred under that gravestone in their cemetery.

Hatsudai Awa O-dori

So, despite Ōta Dōkan having an outpost here, Hatsudai is probably named after Hatsudai no Tsubone’s retirement estate on the hill. The fact that a temple in walking distance has a connection to our woman of mystery bolsters this theory. More importantly, if “name a tsubone other than Kasuga no Tsubone” ever comes up in a drinking game, you’ve got this one covered, bruh. Don’t say I never gave you anything.

On that note, stay safe. Stay home. Leave a comment here or on the Facebook Group and and the Facebook Community. And I’ll see you soon!

Further Reading:

What does Kasuga mean? (Kasuga no Tsubone)
Oedo Line: Kasuga (Kasuga no Tsubone)
What does Yoyogi mean?
What does Shibuya mean?
What does Udagawacho mean?
What does Jinnan mean?
What does Edo mean?
What does Dokanyama mean?

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Explore Edo-Tōkyō With Me

Japan This Guided Tours
(It’s not for tourists, it’s for history nerds!)

[i] Yo, I’m discovering so many fetishes that once this social distancing bullshit is finished, I’m planning on fucking my way to an early grave. Riddled with STD’s doesn’t sound like a bad way to go when a version of the flu is gutting the world economy and killing people left and right. It really puts the impermanence of life under the microscope, if you know what I mean #TeamIenari
[ii] This stretch is known locally as 甲州道中 Kōshū Dōchū the Kōshū Promenade – sounds so pleasant.
[iii] Whether you’re in Shibuya or Shinjuku, I think it’s fair to call this area 代々木 Yoyogi as just a general term.
[iv] So, if you’re into that sort of thing…
[v] Also described as 砦 toride a fort. Also, who was the fuck was Ōta Dōkan?
[vi] I only found one person citing this “platform #8” etymology, so I don’t have a lot of faith in it. I think the 台 dai kanji reinforces a sense of historical continuity from the name 初台 Hatsudai, but the name is probably from the Edo Period, not Ōta Dōkan’s time. Any relationship between the two stories is probably just a coincidence.
[vii] Present day Hatsudai lies on the south side of the Kōshū Kaidō. This used to be 代々木村 Yoyogi Mura Yoyogi Village. The north side of the Kōshū Kaidō (not present day Hatsudai) was 幡ヶ谷村 Hatagaya Mura Hatagaya Village the (present day Hatagaya).
[viii] The last years of the Sengoku Period (Warring States Period), which saw the rise of the so-called Three Great Unifiers.
[ix] Actually, now Hidetada was the eldest. Ieyasu’s true first-born son was 信康 Nobuyasu who committed 切腹 seppuku ritual suicide at age 20 in 1579.
[x] Toshikatsu was a general closely aligned with the Tokugawa.
[xi] We’ll get to her Buddhist name in due time. But just remember, that noble women were expected to become monks when their husbands retired or died. Often they would found a temple which took their priestly name.
[xii] The Ōoku wasn’t officially created until the time of Kasuga no Tsubone, but the women’s quarters (the innermost palace in Edo Castle) was already a de facto division of castle life in its own right since day one.
[xiii] Present day 千葉県 Chiba-ken Chiba Prefecture.
[xiv] One koku = enough rice to feed an adult male for one year.
[xv] Actually, I’m not sure how to read her name. I’m 90% sure it’s Umezono (a Japanese reading, more suitable for a name) or Umeon (another rarer, Japanese variant). It could also be Baien (a Chinese reading, but this seems more literary or topographical).
[xvi] Perhaps Umezono no Tsubone died young, while her mother was still alive?
[xvii] Unless, of course, she died prematurely and received the name Shōshun-in posthumously…?
[xviii] For everyone who’s smoking too much herb or drinking too much booze during the Wuhan Love™️ Pandemic and you already forgot, Hatsudai was married to Doi Masakatsu. All that Jirōzaemon nonsense is just some dumb Edo Period name-game bullshit. Don’t sweat it.
[xix] 室 shitsu literally means “room.” This was a term applied to the wives of the most elite warriors. A general way to think of this is 正室 seishitsu main room (ie; lawful wife) and 側室 sokushitsu side room (ie; formal concubine).

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Ōedo Line: Toshimaen

In Japanese Castles, Japanese History on July 21, 2015 at 9:11 am

豊島園
Toshima-en (Toshima Park, the name of an amusement park)

Remains of the natural moat of Nerima Castle (the Shakuji’i River) taken before the amusement park was constructed.

To the average Tōkyōite, Toshima-en is an amusement park. To Japanese history fans, Tohima-en is an amusement park built on the ruins of 練馬城 Nerima-jō Nerima Castle.

This “castle” was actually a hilltop fortification that the 豊嶋氏 Toshima-shi Toshima clan established in the 1330’s as an outpost to protect their larger 石神井城 Shakuji’i-jō Shakuji’i Castle[i]. All of the Toshima held castles and fortifications fell to the 太田道灌 Ōta Dōkan in the 1470’s. Dōkan was the first warlord to really stir up shit in the area near Edo and he made his main fortification in the Chiyoda area[ii], by kicking out the Edo clan and taking over their satellite fort on the coast. He hunted down and killed off the Toshima clan and forced the Edo clan to stay at their distant fort in Kitami. In short, the path of this corner of the Kantō region changed dramatically with the fall of these castles and clans – and they fell Game of Thrones style. Dōkan himself would be assassinated a few years later.

The remains of the natural moat today.

Hydropolis water park

But today, the Sengoku Period fortification that was Nerima “castle” is an amusement park. One of the main attractions, a waterslide called ﾊｲﾄﾞﾛﾎﾟﾘｽ Hydropolis, is built on one of the old natural fortifications and you can still see part of the natural moat system. And while Japanese castles are pretty cool, waterslides are way more fun than warfare, killing off entire families, and forcing people to do 切腹 seppuku ritual suicide. Also, 4 sweet, sweet words: Japanese Girls In Bikinis™.

toshimaen

What’s Toshimaen? (official website)
Wanna read my original article about Edo? (Ōta Dōkan)
Wanna read my original article about Nerima? (the area in general)
Wanna read my original article about Shakuji’i? (the Toshima)
Wanna read my original article about Toshima? (the Toshima)
Wanna read my original article about Dōkan’yama? (Ōta Dōkan)
No thanks. I just wanna look at Japanese girls in bikinis. (fair enough)

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This is part of an ongoing series that begins here

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[i] The clan’s patriarch controlled the main “castle” at 平塚城 Hiratsuka-jō Hiratsuka Castle in modern day 北区 Kita-ku Kita Ward.
[ii] Edo Castle.

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aomori, chichibu, chiyoda, edo castle, edo clan, edo katsutada, edo shigeyasu, keigenji, kitami, kitami shigemasa, kumagaya, late hojo, minamoto yoritomo, momijiyama, nanbu, ota dokan, samurai, sengoku, setagaya, tokugawa tsunayoshi

What does Kitami mean?

In Japanese History on February 2, 2015 at 9:49 am

喜多見
Kitami (seeing abundant joy)

In 2012, Kitami Station was voted Best Place to Park a Bicycle.

We’ve been exploring the Setagaya and Meguro wards recently. This area includes a place called 喜多見 Kitami. Long time readers of the blog may recall this name from when I wrote about the origin of the name of Japan’s greatest city, 江戸 Edo. Spoiler alert: there isn’t much known about the place name itself, but the backstory speaks volumes about what sort of city Edo was before the Edo Period. It also speaks volumes about a culture that was transitioning from the Sengoku Period to something completely new. Also, for my readers who are interested in samurai and samurai battles, we’ve got plenty of ‘em this time.

As always, I’ve included extra information in the footnotes and links to older articles on JapanThis! as well as other outside sources – there are actually 27 fucking footnotes to this article. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, but if you’re not sure who some of the people or events are that I refer to, I suggest you look them up on Samurai Archives – the rock stars of Japanese history on the internet™.

Wait. What?
Oh, wrong Kitami…..

OK, Let’s Get the Kanji Out of the Way

喜 ki	happiness, pleasure, rejoicing
多 ta	many, much, often
見 mi	seeing, hopes, chances

At first glance, this place name seems to mean “seeing much happiness.” It’s clear that the meaning is auspicious and – in my opinion – it’s obvious that the kanji are intentional[i]. To be sure, this place existed well before it was written down[ii], however, from the very beginning it seems to have been 当て字 ateji – kanji used for phonetic reasons[iii]. As such, this place name is a construct of the Kamakura Period and the Azuchi-Momoyama Period.

Anyways, I have no etymology to give you so I’m sorry for that. But I’ll give you a quick overview: During the Kamakura Period, we see the place name for the first time – in 1247, to be precise. The writing was finally standardized in the 1500’s, but from the 13^th century to the 16^th century the name seems to have been written several different ways.

木田見 Kitami	tree, field, see
北見 Kitami	north, see
木多見 Kitami	tree, abundance, see
喜多見[iv] Kitami	rejoice, abundance, see

Get ready to talk about samurai. Shit is 'bout to get real, son.

Get ready to talk about samurai.
Shit’s about to get real, son.

OK, So Let’s Talk About The Area!

As I said before, people have been living in the area since time immemorial and the origin of the place name is a mystery. However, at the end of the 12^th century, samurai of the 秩父氏 Chichibu-shi Chichibu clan began to move into this area[v]. They had been granted 7 fiefs in the area including 江戸郷 Edo-gō Edo Hamlet and 木田見郷 Kitami-gō Kitami Hamlet by the first Kamakura shōgun, 源頼朝 Minamoto no Yoritomo, in return for helping him fight the 平氏 Hei-shi Taira clan[vi].

Longtime readers will know some of this story from my article on Edo. 秩父重継 Chichibu Shigetsugu took up residence in Edo and changed his name to 江戸重継 Edo Shigetsugu, thus establishing the 江戸氏 Edo-shi Edo clan. He gave the Kitami fief to his son 江戸重長 Edo Shigenaga who fancied calling himself 木田見重長 Kitami Shigenaga. Shigenaga established a 菩提寺 bodai-ji family funerary temple called 慶元寺 Keigen-ji Keigen Temple which still maintains the graves of the Edo clan[vii].

Graves of the Edo Clan.
This temple is HIGH on my places to visit list this year.

The Chichibu clan had been longtime rivals of the 熊谷氏 Kumagaya-shi clan[viii] and it seems they continued fighting over control of the area well into the 1400’s when the Kitami-Edo finally established lasting control over the area. I’m not completely clear on the timeline or circumstances but sometime in the 1400’s the Kitami became retainers of the 吉良氏 Kira-shi Kira clan[ix]. I’m guessing it had something to do with bad ass samurai warlord 太田道灌 Ōta Dōkan descending upon the area and then thoroughly skullfucking it into submission.

Monsieur Dōkan, as he is known in French, attacked the Edo clan’s fortress in 千代田 Chiyoda in 1457. 江戸城 Edo-jō Edo Castle, as it’s known in Japanese, fell and the head of the family, 江戸重康 Edo Shigeyasu surrendered to Monsieur Dōkan. Shigeyasu’s life was spared and he moved his family in with his relatives in Kitami.

The more I do this blog,, the more I love Ōta Dōkan.
He’s like a Sengoku version of Captain Japan (Yamato Takeru).

Kitami Katsushige – The Bad Ass Samurai You’ve Never Heard Of

We don’t really hear much about the clan or the area until 1590, when a certain 江戸勝忠 Edo Katsutada, a retainer of the Kira, who were in turn retainers of the 後北条 Go-Hōjō Late Hōjō[x] is mentioned fighting on the Hōjō side against 豊臣秀吉 Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Fans of the Sengoku Period know that the Hōjō obstinately refused to submit to Hideyoshi’s efforts to unify the country under his control to a stupidly tragic end. Not complying with Hideyoshi resulted in the complete eradication of the Hōjō.

So… yeah, that didn’t work out so well for Katsutada.

Edo Katsutada’s funerary picture.
But don’t worry. He’s not dead yet.

But luckily for him, this was the Sengoku Period and samurai always had a fancy trick up their sleeves called “changing sides to save your ass.” Edo Katsutada played his hands right, submitted to Hideyoshi, and in 1591 found himself in the Tōhoku region of Japan. He went there to help Hideyoshi put down the so-called 九戸政実の乱 Kunohe Masazane no Ran Kunohe Masazane’s Insurrection. Masazane was a retainer of the 南部氏 Nanbu-shi Nanbu clan in 盛岡 Morioka (modern day 青森県 Aomori-ken Aomori Prefecture)[xi] and like the defeated Hōjō he just wasn’t ready to submit to a dirty, monkey-faced, millet grubbing farmer like Hideyoshi[xii]. And also just like the Hōjō, Masazane and his cute little rebellion were beaten into cruel submission like little baby dolphins at Taiji.

This defeat paved the way for Hideyoshi’s ultimate hegemony over the country.

That, that dude looks like a monkey!
That, that dude looks like a monkey!

With the Hōjō gone, Hideyoshi granted 徳川家康 Tokugawa Ieyasu control of the 関八州 Kanhasshū 8 Kantō Provinces. Ieyasu became the supreme power in Kantō and took control of Edo Castle in 1593. At this time he did a survey of his new territory and required oaths of fealty from all the local warlords. Edo Katsutada was one of the local lords forced to submit. Ieyasu was now the lord of Edo Castle and he couldn’t allow some local yokel to bare the name of his castle, so he abolished the Edo clan and required them to only use the Kitami name. Accordingly, 江戸勝忠 Edo Katsutada became 喜多見勝忠 Kitami Katsutada. He later changed his name to 喜多見勝重 Kitami Katsushige, adopting the family kanji 重 shige.

In 1600, Edo Katsutada (Kitami Katsushige) supported Ieyasu at the 関ヶ原の戦い Sekigahara no Tatakai Battle of Sekigahara. In 1603, Ieyasu was made shōgun and Edo Katsutada (Kitami Katsushige) was now officially a 旗本 hatamoto direct retainer of the 徳川将軍家 Tokugawa Shōgun-ke Tokugawa Shōgun Family – not a bad rank to hold in those days. Katsutada (Katsushige) accompanied shōgunate forces in either (or both) the 1614 (winter) Siege of Ōsaka and/or the 1615 (summer) Siege of Ōsaka. Both campaigns secured Ieyasu’s legendary status in the eyes of his new subjects in Kantō and throughout the country. For someone you’ve probably never heard of, Edo Katsutada had a pretty epic military career at the end of the Sengoku Period.

Ōsaka Castle.
No easy task to take it down.
Today the castle is a shadow of its Sengoku Glory – a shadow with an elevator.

The Rise & Fall of Kitami Shigemasa

The family carried on as powerful hatamoto until 1680, when they had an amazing stroke of good luck. In that year, 徳川綱吉 Tokugawa Tsunayoshi assumed headship of the Tokugawa family and became the 5^th shōgun. Tsunayoshi “took a liking”[xiii] to 喜多見重政 Kitami Shigemasa, the head of the Kitami family. Almost immediately we see him bestowed with gifts and honors by the shōgun. By the next year, 1681, Shigemasa’s court rank and stipend were raised substantially. In 1683, his rank and stipend were raised again, putting him at the same court level as 譜代大名 fudai daimyō[xiv]. His position was raised yet again in 1685.

Tokugawa Tsunayoshi preferred the company of men.
Not an inherently bad thing. Just a little tricky for keeping up that dynasty thing

Kitami Shigemasa must have sucked a mean dick because in 1686, Tsunayoshi elevated him to daimyō status and elevated his fief to 藩 han domain status. The Kitami residence was officially elevated to 陣屋 jin’ya status – which means from the government’s perspective it was a castle[xv]. It served as the center of government for the new domain and would have been an appropriate venue for entertaining the shōgun or other daimyō[xvi]. In return for this honor, Shigemasa supported Tsunayoshi’s first wacky 生類憐みの令 Shōrui Awaremi no Rei Compassion for Living Things Decree[xvii] in 1687. The law protected stray dogs. In order to support the edict, Shigemasa built a huge kennel to protect stray dogs in his newly created domain[xviii].

Shigemasa’s meteoric rise didn’t sit well with all. He was considered 寵臣 chōshin a favored retainer – a term that could be interpreted sexually. Jealous shōgunate officials, one 柳沢吉保 Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu in particular, argued that he disrespected the shōgun’s intentions or just wasn’t up to the task of being a daimyō[xix].

So when some monkey business went down in 1689, shōgunate officials used the opportunity to take Shigemasa out. At the residence of his cousin (or grandson, it isn’t clear), 喜多見重治 Kitami Shigeharu and his sister’s husband 朝岡直国 Asaoka Naokuni got into an argument that led to a sword fight. In the end, Shigeharu killed Naokuni. The details of the fight aren’t preserved, but Shigeharu was evidently deemed to be in the wrong and was beheaded[xx]. Shigemasa, already on the rocks with the shōgunate, got kaiekied (改易された kaieki sareta[xxi]), ie; he was stripped of his rank and titles and placed under house arrest as a hostage of 松平定重 Matsudaira Sadashige, lord of 伊勢国桑名藩 Ise no Kuni Kuwana Han Kuwana Domain, Ise Province (modern Mie Prefecture). Shigemasa, apparently went crazy and then died in 1693.

The family temple at Keigen-ji.

A second theory states that the sword fight incident – regardless of whether it really happened or not – had nothing to do with Shigemasa’s dismissal and house arrest. According to this story, once the first Compassion for Living Things Edict had been put into effect, Shigemasa realized it was actually a pretty stupid law. Basically, it was now against the law to kill dogs. Because of this stray dogs were out roaming the streets everywhere. More edicts were promulgated protecting other animals and things were bound to get out of hand[xxii]. To make matters worse, Tsunayoshi had found a new plaything, the aforementioned Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu[xxiii], daimyō of 川越藩 Kawagoe Han Kawagoe Domain. Apparently, he was a spiteful little bitch and turned the shōgun and the senior councilors against the johnny-come-lately, Shigemasa. So if you ever thought the women in the movie 大奥 Ōoku! were back-stabby, well, welcome to men’s version of that[xxiv].

Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu – brilliant daimyō or petty little bitch?
You be the judge.

In short, the jealous Yoshiyasu stole the shōgun’s heart, stole Shigemasa’s position[xxv], turned the shōgun against him, turned the entire shōgunate against him, stripped him of all rank, confiscated his property, and essentially ran him out of town to die disgraced in a faraway land. If this account is true, it’s no wonder Shigemasa went insane while in exile. It also makes Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu look like a total cunt.

The grave of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu (Matsudaira Tokinosuke).
Located in Kōfu.

After The Edo Period

Kitami, like other parts of Setagaya, remained rural until quite recently. After the 関東大震災 Kantō Daishinsai Great Kantō Earfquake in 1923, the area experienced a population explosion as people relocated away from the devastated urban center. In 1926, 成城学園 Seijō Gakuen was split from 成城学校 Seijō Gakkō in 牛込 Ushigome[xxvi] and moved to Kitami. Part of the former Kitami area now bears the name Seijō. Interestingly, in 1927, the 小田原急行鉄道株式会社 Odawara Kyūkō Tetsudō Kabushiki-gaisha[xxvii] opened train service to the area which reminds me of the connection between the Kitami-Edo clan and the Late Hōjō of Odawara. The presence of the station guaranteed growth in the area as it was now connected with central Tōkyō… and everyone lived happily ever after.

Except for that one guy.

There’s always one.

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[i] This reeks of 当て字 ateji, ie; the kanji were added or modified later for phonetic reasons and don’t reflect any etymological history. They were easy to read and looked pleasant. That’s it.
[ii] Archaeologists know the area has been inhabited since the Final Jōmon Period (about 1000 BCE). This means the place name could be fairly ancient – perhaps dating from as far back as the first century CE.
[iii] There’s a possibility that the name goes way farther back in time, but no one seems to have taken a stab at it.
[iv] The temple called 北院 Kita-in, literally the North Temple, in Kawagoe was renamed 喜多院 Kita-in Temple of Abundant Joy by the 3^rd shōgun, 徳川家光 Tokugawa Iemitsu. These are the same kanji. Remember that city name, Kawagoe. We might come back to that.
[v] The clan originally held lands in modern 駄埼玉県 Dasaitama-ken Saitama Prefecture.
[vi] Ironically, the Chichibu clan was actually descended from the Taira.
[vii] The temple seems to have originally been located on 紅葉山 Momiji-yama Momiji Hill on the grounds of Edo Castle, but was relocated here in 1451. The temple was originally established in 1186.
[viii] This is hilarious to Tōkyōites who hate Saitama, because today Chichibu and Kumagaya are about the lamest places in the country.
[ix] Yes, the same Kira clan whose descendant would play a role in the story of the 47 Rōnin. See my article on Setagaya.
[x] The Late Hōjō had become the primary power in Kantō and ruled from 小田原城 Odawara-jō Odawara Castle.
[xi] His family name 九戸 Kunohe literally means the “9^th Door.” This unique name and its unique reading are… um… unique to Aomori. If you meet an 一戸さん Ichinohe-san or 七戸さん Shichinohe-san, you can rest assured, they have roots in Aomori. You can read about the castle that Katsutada attacked here at Jcastle.
[xii] All rights reserved, Samurai Archives.
[xiii] In a very #TeamIenari sort of way, Tsunayoshi seems to have “taken a liking” to a great number of samurai, elevating the status of all sorts of, ehem, “qualified men.”
[xiv] Fudai daimyō were the daimyō families that had sided with Ieyasu at the Battle of Sekigahara. These daimyō families were among the most prestigious in terms of rank.
[xv] Supposedly, this was the only jin’ya located within the present 23 Wards.
[xvi] A hatamoto’s residence, no matter how grand it may have been, would not have been appropriate. I guess this means Shigemasa and the Tsunayoshi could have sleepovers now.
[xvii] This is the decree that earned the shōgun the laughable nickname, 犬公方 Inu Kubō “Dog Shōgun” because he especially wanted to protect dogs.
[xviii] The other kennels were in 大久保 Ōkubō and 四ツ谷 Yotsuya, and the main kennel was in 中野 Nakano. I have an article about Nakano here.
[xix] A job that, let’s be honest, wasn’t too difficult anyways.
[xx] Remember, beheading was reserved for criminals or samurai who had committed an act so egregious that 切腹 seppuku ritual disembowelment was disallowed.
[xxi] 改易 kaieki is the Japanese word for “sudden dismissal and deprivation of position, privileges, and properties.”
[xxii] And indeed, things did get out of hand.
[xxiii] Yoshiyasu’s 吉 yoshi was given to him by Tsunayoshi. The shōgun later promoted him to daimyō of 甲府藩 Kōfu Han Kōfu Domain in the former lands of 武田信玄 Takeda Shingen. He also granted him a courtly name that essentially made him an honorary Tokugawa, 松平時之助 Matsudaira Tokinosuke. Yoshiyasu was given land in 駒込 Komagome to build a new 下屋敷 shimo-yashiki lower residence. He built an elaborate garden there called 六義園 Rikugien. The garden still exists today in Tōkyō.
[xxiv] This doesn’t show the back-stabby stuff, but this is the movie I’m referring to.
[xxv] His position in the shōgunate was 御側御用人 o-soba go-yōnin, which is usually translated as “lord chamberlain” and called 御側 o-soba for short. The o-soba was the shōgun’s closest advisor and it was his job to report the shōgun’s commands to the 老中 rōjū senior councilors. In the case of Shigemasa and Yoshiyasu, the o-soba also served as the royal penis cleaner.
[xxvi] I have some articles about Ushigome.
[xxvii] This train line was the forerunner of the present 小田急電鉄株式会社 Odakyū Dentetsu Kabushiki-gaisha Odakyu Electric Railway Co., Ltd.

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47 ronin, ashigezuka, ashikaga, fujiwara, hojo, horse, kamakura, kamiuma, kira, kira yoriyasu, komadome, komatsunagi, komazawa, late hojo, minamoto yoritomo, nenokami, ota dokan, setagaya, setagaya castle, shimouma, uesugi, umahikizawa

Setagaya and its Freaky Horse Fetish

In Japanese Castles, Japanese History, Japanese Shrines & Temples on January 19, 2015 at 2:34 am

What’s Up with Setagaya and Horses?
No, seriously? What’s up wit dat?

Horse girl

So while I was researching my last article on 三軒茶屋 Sangen-jaya, I came across a few interesting place names that I’d never heard of – granted I rarely go to 世田谷区 Setagaya-ku Setagaya Ward[i] — but nonetheless I was obviously intrigued.

I saw a lot of references to horses on the map. “I’ll do all the horse names!” I thought. “Surely they’re all related,” I thought. “I can hit all these place names in one article,” I thought. Then the stories started getting longer and longer. “Did I get myself into another River Article Debacle?” I wondered. I really may have, so I’ve decided to go with the local legends over the hardcore etymology this time just to spare everyone the headache and hopefully to get some good folklore out this.

As I said, the one unifying factor is that all of these place names are horse-related. So let’s take a look at what names we will cover today.

Name	Meaning	Current Status
馬引沢 Umahikizawa	horse pulling ravine	This place name survives in abbreviated forms
駒繋 Komatsunagi	horse hitching	This place name survives as Komatsunagi Shrine and as an elementary school name
駒留 Komadome	horse stopping	The name survives as Komadome Hachiman Shrine
駒沢 Komazawa	horse ravine	Survives as a postal code and a university name, etc…
葦毛塚 Ashige-zuka	gray haired horse burial mound	The name survives as a landmark

So just let that sink in a little bit before we continue. Take a few seconds to imagine what you think the etymologies might be. Do you think there is any connection? Do you think it’s all a coincidence? If you’re a long time reader and you remember other horse and animal related etymologies, do you think there will be any similarities to those?

These horses are decked out in the latest spring line up from Prada.

OK, Let’s Get Started

I mentioned in the last article, that present day Sangen-jaya is comprised of several former villages. Two of those villages were parts of the 3 areas of a Kamakura Period region called 馬引沢 Umahikizawa.

上馬引沢村 Kami-Umahikizawa Mura	Upper Umahikizawa Village
中馬引沢村 Naka-Umahikizawa Mura	Middle Umahikizawa Village
下馬引沢村 Shimo- Umahikizawa Mura	Lower Umahikizawa Village

This is a similar pattern that we see with the classification of daimyō residences in Edo.

上屋敷 kami-yashiki	upper residence
中屋敷 naka-yashiki	middle residence
下屋敷 shimo-yashiki	lower residence

With daimyō residences the designation of upper, middle, and lower seems to refer to their importance in relation to the Tokugawa Shōgunate. The upper residence would be nearer to Edo Castle and is where most of the administrative affairs would be carried out. The lower residence was more like a villa. I give a little more detail in my article on sankin-kōtai.

With place names, things are a little different – these are references to the areas of a village’s location on a river. 上 kami (up) refers an upstream location, 中 naka (middle) refers to a midstream location, 下 shimo (down) refers to a downstream location. In this case, what river might we be speaking of? It’s a river that was called the 蛇崩川 Jakuzure-gawa Jakuzure River. This is a wild name, in my opinion. The kanji mean something like “snake death river.” I dunno. But my guess is the kanji aren’t important to this story, and maybe I’ll tackle them later – but if you’ve got an image of a dangerous river, then great. Let’s take it from there.

Minamoto no Yoritomo. Great strategist and general — but worst horse rider EVER.

What does Umahikizawa mean?

Legend states that in 1189, 源頼朝 Minamoto no Yoritomo[ii] traveled back and forth on his favorite horse through this area on his military expedition from his capital in 鎌倉 Kamakura to 大州平泉 Ōshū Hiraizumi[iii]. The purpose of the expedition was to destroy 藤原泰衡 Fujiwara no Yasuhira and put an end to the Northern Fujiwara Clan once and for all[iv]. As he approached a deep stream with an extremely fast current[v], his horse became unsure of its footing and hesitated. Yoritomo, who was plagued by a lifelong battle with bad luck in horses[vi], pressed the horse to cross the ravine. The horse tried to proceed but the ground gave out from underneath it and the horse fell into the stream, either breaking its legs or suffering some other fatal injury, despite Yoritomo’s efforts to save his beloved horse. Heartbroken and teary-eyed, the general ordered his men to pull (引く hiku) the horse (馬 uma) out of the ravine (沢 sawa) and bury it on the other side. A variation of this legend states that after the tragic death of his favorite horse, Yoritomo ordered his men to lead (引いて渡る hiite wataru) their horses (馬 uma) across the ravine (沢 sawa) lest they lose their war horses as well. And so the place came to be known as 馬引沢 Umahikizawa horse pulling river.

This is a “sawa” and I bet you wouldn’t want to ride a horse across it…

How Does This Place Name Survive?

As the village grew, it came to have 3 distinct quarters. One was upstream, one was midstream, and one was downstream. I showed you these place name earlier. 上馬引沢 Kami-Umahikizawa survives today in abbreviated form as 上馬 Kamiuma “up horse.” 下馬引沢 Shimo-Umahikizawa survives as 下馬 Shimouma “down horse.” These are both official postal addresses, but to the best of my knowledge, 中馬引沢 Naka-Umahikizawa hasn’t survived. But an interesting tidbit, in nearby 多摩市 Tama-shi Tama City, there is an area called 馬引沢 Umahikizawa, but it’s completely unrelated.

This also counts as umahiki (leading a horse).

What Does Ashige-zuka Mean?

A mere 4 minute walk from Shimouma, there is an oval shaped, earthen mound in the middle of the street called 葦毛塚 Ashige-zuka. This is a compound word composed of two elements: 葦毛 ashige a gray haired horse and 塚 tsuka a mound. Legend claims that this is the spot where Minamoto no Yoritomo’s horse was buried. We’ve talked about burial mounds quite a few times at JapanThis!, but I think this is the first time we’ve had one allegedly built for a horse.

I wasn’t kidding. It’s literally in the middle of the road!

What does Komatsunagi mean?

If you take an 8 minute walk back to Shimouma and you’ll find a place called 駒繋神社 Komatsunagi Jinja Komatsunagi Shrine. Let’s continue our story there.

As I mentioned before, Minamoto no Yoritomo was cursed with all manner of bad horse luck. Being a typical superstitious 12^th century samurai, he took the death of his favorite horse before an important battle[vii] as a terrible omen. After the burial mound was finished, a mysterious woman appeared. She told the general about the local 氏神 ujigami tutelary deity named 子之神 Nenokami[viii]. According to the woman, Nenokami wielded great power in the area and had the ability to exorcise any evil influence from the accident. She led him to a nearby humble, unnamed shrine[ix] dedicated to Nenokami and then disappeared. Yoritomo prayed to the kami and then continued his march north to Ōshū Hiraizumi.

Yoritomo and his stupid hat.

At Ōshū, Yoritomo’s army crushed the Fujiwara army, thus annihilating his last major obstacle to power. This particular battle paved the way for him to become shōgun[x]. Marching back to Kamakura victorious, he stopped by the Nenokami shrine to give thanks. After all, being a superstitious 12^th century samurai, that’s just what you do. Before approaching the shrine, he tied (繋ぐ tsunagu) his horse (駒 koma) to a pine tree (松 matsu)[xi]. He then threw some cash at the local people to build a proper shrine to Nenokami. After that, he proceeded to his capital in Kamakura.

Komatsunagi Shrine as it looks today.

The tree where he tied his horse came to be known as the 駒繋之松 Komatsunagi no Matsu Horse Hitching Pine and the new improved shrine came to be called Komatsunagi Shrine. If you visit the shrine today, they have a tree that they claim is the 3^rd generation of the tree Yoritomo tied his horse to[xii]. Sadly, they never say what happened to the mysterious, disappearing woman.

I want some plot resolution, dammit.

The shrine claims that this is the original pine tree that Yoritomo used.

What does Komadome mean?

Let’s take a 25 minute walk back to Sangen-jaya[xiii] – the article that started all of this – and a 250 year or so jump into the future. Now we’re in the throes of the Sengoku Period – way before the rise of 3 Great Unifiers[xiv]. Edo has been in what you could call a “dark age” ever since the transfer of power from Kamakura back to Kyōto[xv]. Local militarized noble families rise and fall here and there. And among these local nobles, warlords have begun making land grabs and power grabs. Many of these clans come and go, too. One of the ascending powers in Kantō at this time were the 後北条 Go-Hōjō the Late Hōjō[xvi].

So our story is of a somewhat obscure noble who was in the service of the Hōjō, a certain 吉良頼康 Kira Yoriyasu. Much about him is unknown[xvii], but we do know that he served both the 2^nd and 3^rd successive Hōjō lords, 北条氏綱 Hōjō Ujitsuna and 北条氏康 Hōjō Ujiyasu[xviii]. So while he wasn’t a major player, he was playing with some big time ballers. You can think of him as Jay-Z’s longtime friend who gets invited to parties, but isn’t allowed on the red carpet.

This picture was long said to be Kira Yoriyasu, but recent research suggests that it’s actually Takeda Shingen.

If you recall from my article on the etymology of Edo, from the Heian Period to the Kamakura Period this area was controlled by the 江戸氏 Edo-shi Edo clan. 太田道灌 Ōta Dōkan took over the Edo clan’s fort in 1457[xix]. Dōkan was a retainer of the 上杉氏 Uesugi-shi Uesugi clan[xx] and so after his assassination in 1486, the Uesugi assumed direct control of the castle[xxi]. However the castle was of little importance to their clan and so it seems to have been lightly defended – if defended at all. And so, when the Hōjō came into the region, Edo Castle[xxii] fell easily in 1524[xxiii] and one of the generals who followed the Hōjō into Edo was our new friend, Kira Yoriyasu.

The Kira clan had controlled various fiefs in the area since 1366, and Yoriyasu was given control of Setagaya Village sometime around the attack on Edo Castle. He ruled from 世田ヶ谷城 Setagaya-jō Setagaya Castle[xxiv]. Yoriyasu’s appointment didn’t last long because the Uesugi eventually struck back and burned the castle to the ground in 1530 and Yoriyasu was transferred elsewhere[xxv]. However, in his time as the lord of Setagaya, he managed to leave behind a bit of a local legend.

The fringed orchid is often associated with Setagaya Ward because of a version of Yoriyasu’s legend. Unfortunately, we’re not going to go into that part of the story today.

The legend states that in the women’s quarters of Setagaya Castle, there was a lot of jealous infighting between his 正室 seishitsu legal wife and his 12 側室 sokushitsu concubines[xxvi]. On the day of birth of Yoriyasu’s first son something went terribly wrong.

As was normal for the day, the lord of the estate was out doing his do (hunting, by some accounts) when suddenly his wife went into labor alone[xxvii] – also normal for the day. Tragically, however, the boy was stillborn – meaning the Kira family line could have ended there. To avoid bad luck, the boy was enshrined at nearby 駒留八幡神社 Komadome Hachiman Jinja Komadome Hachiman Shrine. Because of this, the enshrined kami is sometimes referred to as 若宮八幡 Waka-no-miya Hachiman Young Prince Hachiman which could be interpreted as “little warrior.” At any rate, the rumor mill went into full swing that the boy had actually been smothered to death by a jealous concubine[xxviii].

The enshrinement of the stillborn son seems to have benefitted the family, as they continued to hold extensive lands until the 1590’s and the clan continued until the 元禄時代 Genroku Jidai Genroku Period, which coincided with the reign of 徳川綱吉 Tokugawa Tsunayoshi[xxix]. In the beginning of the Edo Period, the Kira clan was given 旗本 hatamoto status, ie; they became direct retainers of the shōgun family – not bad at all, but they weren’t a daimyō family as is sometimes thought. One of Yoriyasu’s descendant’s was 吉良上野介 Kira Kōzuke-no-suke[xxx] – the guy usually portrayed as the bad guy in the story of the 47 Rōnin[xxxi]. The family was disgraced and more or less dropped out of history at that point.

Oh ffs, not these clowns again???!

That’s A Neat Story, But WTF Does It Have To Do With Komadome?

Oh sorry, right. I sorta went off on a tangent there, didn’t I? Actually, the etymology of this shrine doesn’t really have much of a story behind it. It involves a certain samurai courtier of the Kamakura Shōgunate named 北条左近太郎 Hōjō Sakotarō[xxxii]. In 1308, he became a priest and wanted to establish a temple to 八幡 Hachiman the Japanese god of war[xxxiii]. This particular kami was favored by Minamoto no Yoritomo and his shōgunate and so shrines to Hachiman were very popular at this time. According to legend, Hachiman came to Sakotarō in a dream and said, “Dude, listen to your favorite horse and it will totally tell you where to enshrine me.” So he rode east from Kamakura until his exhausted horse (駒 koma) stopped (留まった tomatta) near Setagaya Village and refused to go any further. He totally realized that this was totally the spot. He immediately dismounted his unsurprisingly fatigued horse and decided to build a shrine at that spot and so the shrine is now called 駒留八幡神社 Komadome Hachiman Jinja Komadome Hachiman Shrine – the Hachiman Shrine where the horse totally stopped.

Komadome Shrine as it looks today.

What does Komazawa mean?

This is the most boring place name ever – not unlike 大田区 Ōta-ku Ōta Ward[xxxiv]. 駒沢 Komazawa is an amalgamation of the surrounding places with 駒 koma horse and 沢 sawa ravine that was created in 1889 (Meiji 22) with the formation of Meguro Ward. There is another nearby but non-equine place name, 野沢 Nozawa, which features the kanji 沢 sawa. Easiest place name ever.

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with this article.c

Are These Etymologies True?

Your guess is as good as mine, but these all date back to the Kamakura Period and Sengoku Period which is when we first start getting reliable information from the Kantō area. This is also a time when previously existing place names get written down for the first time and transcribed into kanji. Maybe these events transpired. Maybe they didn’t. But what we can say for sure is that in this area, local legends popped up and many of them were affiliated with horses and the rising prestige of the samurai class in Kantō. In these place names we can see the areas surrounding Edo begin to blossom.

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[i] Aaaaaaaaaaaaand, once again, longtime readers know that I’ve already written about Setagaya here.
[ii] Please tell me you know who Minamoto no Yoritomo is. I’m assuming you do. But if not, check out this fine article about him at Samurai Archives.
[iii] An area in present day 岩手県 Iwate-ken Iwate Prefecture.
[iv] Fans of 源義経 Minamoto no Yoshitsune, will recognize this name. He’s the son of 藤原秀衡 Fujiwara no Hidehira who helped hide Yoshitsune when Yoritomo was trying to kill him. The Fujiwara betrayed Yoshitsune – as Fujiwara do – and it was Yasuhira who attacked Yoshitsune forcing him to kill his wife and daughter and then commit seppuku. The less dramatic version of his demise is that Yoshitsune may have just straight up been overwhelmed and was just cut down in battle by Fujiwara forces. The details of his death are disputed – and in my opinion, irrelevant.
And for those of you scratching your heads at all these names, check out this article at Samurai Archives.
[v] Presumably the Jakuzure River, or an earlier incarnation thereof.
[vi] Shōgun Yoritomo died in 1199 when he was thrown off his horse lol.
[vii] A “baddle,” if you will. (sorry, bad joke)
[viii] This kanji 子 looks like the kanji for “child” but is actually the Chinese Zodiac sign of the rat (or mouse, whichever you prefer). That’s why the reading is ﾈ ne and not ｺ ko. Another reading is Nenogami.
[ix] Since this was a local deity in the countryside, we can assume there were tiny, almost impromptu shrines of this scattered all over the area.
[x] Another detail that seems to be in dispute: some claim Yoritomo was made shōgun by the emperor, others claim he just took the title for himself.
[xi] Obviously, this is a different horse than the one that died before the battle because… well, ghost horses hadn’t been invented yet.
[xii] There is some evidence for local worship of Nenokami. If you walk 40 minutes into nearby 目黒区 Meguro-ku Meguro Ward, there is minor shrine called 高木神社 Takagi Jinja Takagi Shrine which also houses Nenokami. In fact, the area surround Takagi Shrine was more or less “officially” called 子ﾉ神 Ne no Kami up until 1889 (Meiji 22). The name was abolished with the creation of Meguro Ward in 1932. I’ve also found a shrine in 川崎市 Kawasaki-shi Kawasaki City that enshrines Nenokami.
[xiii] And Kamiuma.
[xiv] 織田信長 Oda Nobunaga, 豊臣秀吉 Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and of course 徳川家康 Tokugawa Ieyasu. If you don’t know who these people are, get the fuck off my blog.
[xv] And Kamakura’s power doesn’t seem to have been very long lasting anyways.
[xvi] Why were they called “late?” Let me google that for you, bitch.
[xvii] For example, we don’t know when or where he was born. We know his legal wife was the daughter of Hōjō Ujitsuna but we don’t know his name. We know he had legitimate male heirs, but he adopted a son and made him head of the Kira Family… but we don’t know why. These early years of the Sengoku Period are very messy.
[xviii] Actually Kira Yoriyasu’s original name was 吉良頼貞 Kira Yorisada. He received the kanji 康 yasu from Hōjō Ujiyasu.
[xix] The Tokugawa Shōgunate considered the massive fortification and new moat system the birth of Edo Castle.
[xx] This particular branch of the Uesugi were the 扇谷上杉家 Ōgigayatsu Uesugi, if you’re into that sort of thing.
[xxi] Technically speaking, the castle was Uesugi property and Dōkan was merely supervising it for them.
[xxii] Also called 千代田城 Chiyoda-jō Chiyoda Castle back in those days.
[xxiii] Please read more about the Late Hōjō here at Samurai Archives.
[xxiv] Let’s use the term “castle” loosely here and think of it more as a fortified noble residence on a hill. The estate (or castle) didn’t survive the fall of the Hōjō and the coming of the Tokugawa. And if you’re in Tōkyō now and saying to yourself, “Whaaaaaa?? There’s a Japanese castle in Setagaya?” then by all means, go and read this page about it at Jcastle.info – your one stop shop for all your Japanese castle needs.
[xxv] Even if he held the “castle” for 5 years, I’m guessing that’s a pretty good run at that time.
[xxvi] The name 常盤 Tokiwa is often cited as both wife and concubine but the historical record is ambiguous. Also, there are several variations of this story. If you’d like to read more about it, I actually tracked down a guy who translated 3 variations into English here.
[xxvii] ie; not really alone, but not with Yoriyasu. She would have been in the women’s quarters of the fort – most definitely surrounded by the other women. The “joy of birth” wasn’t something often enjoyed together in feudal Japan.
[xxviii] Or by some accounts, a concubine bore the child and the jealous wife murdered it.
[xxix] The 5^thTokugawa shōgun.
[xxx] Kōsuke-no-suke is actually his court title; his real name was 吉良義央 Kira Yoshihisa.
[xxxi] Longtime readers know my opinion of this story.
[xxxii] I’m not sure about the reading of his given name. Also this dude is a “real Hōjō,” not a “Late Hōjō” of the Sengoku Period who adopted the name.
[xxxiii] Calling him “the Japanese god of war” is a bit of simplification, but you can read more about Hachiman here.
[xxxiv] Which, of course, you know I’ve already written about here.

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chiyoda, conflagration, edo, edo castle, fire, fireworks, hibiya, hidetada, iemitsu, ieyasu, inogashira, inokashira, jimbocho, kanda, kanda river, kandayama, kichijoji, meireki, musashi, nakano, nihonbashi, ota dokan, ryogoku, shinjuku, suginami, tokugawa, uesugi, yodobashi

The Kanda River

In Japanese History, Tokyo Rivers, Travel in Japan on July 15, 2014 at 5:30 pm

神田川
Kanda-gawa (literally, “divine fields river,” but actually “river in Kanda”)[i]

Hajiribashi, a concrete arched bridge crossing the Kanda River near Ochanomizu Station.
If you eliminate the train station and modern buildings, this a typical Edo Period river setting.

The name 神田 Kanda is one of the oldest place names in Edo-Tōkyō and believe it or not, 神田川 Kanda-gawa the Kanda River is not that old at all. Well, most of the river isn’t. Well, part of it might be.

Well, it’s complicated.

In short, after doing this research, I’ve realized I have to make a separate article about the area called 神田 Kanda – and by that, I mean just etymology. So I will write about that in the future – and I promise not to put it off too long. But let’s just deal with the river for the time being, mkay?

Let’s Look at the Kanji

神 kan	deities
田 ta, -da	rice paddies
川 kawa, -gawa	river

This river is manmade. So the etymology seems to be clear. At the beginning of the Edo Period, in the 神保町 Jinbō-chō area there was a small waterway that cut through a hilly are called 神田山 Kandayama Mt. Kanda. It’s said that since this area in general was called 神田 Kanda[ii] the original waterway was then called 神田川 Kanda-gawa the Kanda River.

If you only wanted to know the etymology of the river, you can stop reading here. From this point on it’s going to turn into a crazy – possibly boring – river mess. If you’re a JapanThis! masochist, then by all means, read on. You may actually enjoy this.

A view of Hajiribashi when it was new. The bridge itself is not much to look at now, but in the 1920’s it was new and river travel was still common. Such bridges were designed to be viewed from below by boats passing underneath them (or without tall buildings in the background).

Where to Start??

Up until now, every river we have looked at was at some point a naturally occurring river. The Kanda River is quite different from those rivers. There was a time within recorded history that the Kanda River never existed. Though, a portion of it was once a natural tributary of a long vanished inlet of Edo Bay, it is, in fact, a man-made river. All though it may not be on the lips of every Tōkyōite, today the river is a well-recognized part of the well-manicured urban landscape of the modern city.

I actually first mentioned the Kanda River back in June, 2011 in an article about Yodobashi [iii], a small bridge that crosses the Kanda River at the border of 中野区 Nakano-ku Nakano Ward and 新宿区 Shinjuku-ku Shinjuku Ward. So this is something of a little homecoming for me. I started this blog when I still lived in Nakano (lived there for about 6 years).

Yodobashi in the Taisho Era, before the Great Kanto Earfquake. The area is rustic and a in sharp contrast to the present area. Today it marks the border of Nakano and crazy-ass Shinjuku.

What is the Kanda River Today?

The modern river’s official designation is the channel of water that flows from 井之頭池 Inokashira Ike Inokashira Pond to 飯田橋 Iidabashi (literally, Iida Bridge) where it empties into the 外堀 sotobori outer moat of Edo Castle. But it’s at this junction where the river flows into a disparate network of waterways. So you could say, unofficially, that the Kanda River flows into the 日本橋川 Nihonbashi-gawa Nihonbashi River and the 隅田川 Sumida-gawa Sumida River at 両国橋 Ryōgokubashi Ryōgoku Bridge, essentially taking the water to the Tōkyō Bay.

Wellspring of the present-day Kanda River at Inokashira Park.

Now Let’s Talk History

As mentioned in my article on the etymology of Edo, the original 江戸城 Edo-jō Edo Castle or 千代田城 Chiyoda-jō Chiyoda Castle was not built by 太田道灌 Ōta Dōkan as is often cited[iv]. In reality, a minor branch of 平家 Hei-ke the Taira clan[v] moved to the area at the end of the 11^th century and built a fortified residence[vi] on a hill overlooking the sea. As was common practice for new branch families with new fiefs, they took the name of the village 江戸郷 Edo-gō as their own and they became the 平江戸氏 Taira Edo-shi Edo branch of the Taira clan[vii]. In the 12^th century, the area prospered due to its proximity to the capital of the Minamoto shōguns in Kamakura. However, it seems the Edo clan didn’t do much to develop the area’s rivers[viii].

In those days, the now long gone 日比谷入江 Hibiya Irie Hibiya Inlet was a saltwater inlet used for 海苔 nori seaweed farming[ix]. There was a certain freshwater river known as 平川 Hirakawa “the wide river” which emptied into the inlet. This fresh water river originally made up part of the natural boundary between 武蔵国豊島郡 Musashi no Kuni Toshima-gun Toshima District, Musashi Province and 武蔵国江原郡 Musashi no Kuni Ebara-gun Ebara Province, Musashi Province. This fresh water tributary seems to be where the story of the Kanda River begins.

Fast Forward a Few Centuries

By the 15^th century, Japan was balls deep in the bloody, sweaty mess that was the Sengoku Period[x] and Ōta Dōkan found himself re-fortifying the Edo family’s fort in Chiyoda using water from the coastline and other small rivers with the latest moat-building technology of his day. The new and improved “Edo Fort” he built for the 上杉氏 Uesugi-shi Uesugi clan brought new channels and waterways into the village. This manipulation of water provided tactical advantages to the new fort in that food and goods could come in and there were more escape routes. There were now logical, defensible waterways. Lucky side effect, certain areas of the village were less exposed than before and local merchants and fishermen had new distribution routes and… BOOM! Ladies and gentleman, we have a budding 城下町 jōka machi castle town[xi].

Although all of Dōkan’s efforts were pioneering and crucial in the taming of the rivers and sea and urban planning of Edo-Tōkyō, one of the most important changes to Edo’s waterways was diverting the 平川 Hirakawa the ancient “wide river” eastward into what is today called the 日本橋川 Nihonbashi-gawa Nihonbashi River. This is critical to our story today. And the place where this new confluence occurred is actually marked by a bridge called the 神田橋 Kandabashi Kanda Bridge. The Hirakawa River doesn’t exist anymore, but a quick look at a map of Edo Castle will show you a 平川門 Hirakawa Mon Hirakawa Gate and 平川濠 Hirakawa-bori Harakawa Moat[xii]; the former, the gate that stood guard on the moat[xiii]; the latter, a vestige of the old river itself. Today, 平川見附 Hirakawa Mitsuke the bridge and fortified gate installation on the moat is a popular sightseeing spot.

Part of Edo Castle today. At the top, notice Hirakawa Gate and at the bottom right, notice the Ote Mon (main gate).
They are on the same moat. That is the former Hirakawa.
I used JCastle.info to generate this map. Click on the picture to find THE premiere website on Japanese Castles in English.

So, as I’ve said before – and will say again – Tokugawa Ieyasu moved into an Edo that was well fortified, strategically sound, and extremely defensible by sea and by land. Oh, and did I mention, there was a burgeoning village life, supported by fishermen, farmers, and artisans[xiv]. Between Ōta Dōkan’s time and the time Ieyasu entered Edo, a technological revolution had occurred in Japan. From Nobunaga’s rise to power on, Japanese castles began to take on the look of what we think of today when someone says “Japanese Castle.[xv]” The castles of the Tokugawa Period are based on these new advances in castle building technology and reflected the amount of luxury the ruling class could not just afford, but were expected to maintain to project their image of superiority.

hirakawa

OK, OK! Castles, Can We Please Get Back to the River?

Yes, of course. Sorry for getting distracted.

(But we’re probably coming back to castles)

The Tokugawa Shōgunate kept meticulous records of the changes they made to the area. The great waterworks projects were no exception. But I’m not going to get into every change they made. It’s so boring it’s unreal. So let’s just look at some of the major changes and what I think are the takeaways of what created the Kanda River.

Since I got distracted, let’s go back to the beginning.The beginning of the story is 1456-1457, when Ōta Dōkan began manipulating waterways to build moats for his pre-cursor to Edo Castle – though work on the moats most likely preceded construction of the fortress, so we might say 1455-1457. In 1486, Dōkan was assassinated and in 1524 the 江戸合戦 Edo Gassen Battle of Edo saw the rise of influence of the 後北条氏 Go-Hōjō-shi and the decline of the Ōta and Uesugi. This meant that the fortifications in 千代田 Chiyoda[xvi] (the area where the Sengoku forts where built and the fields around them) were abandoned and lay fallow for almost 70 years[xvii].

In 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu transferred his clan and top retainers to Edo and began modernizing the old Sengoku Period fortifications of the Edo and Ōta. He cautiously applied some of the latest castle building technology following the examples of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. It’s said that the 大手御門 Ōte Go-mon Main Gate was one of the first construction project undertaken and this required crossing an existing moat – one affiliated with the later Kanda Aqueduct/Hirakawa.

The Ote-mon (main gate) at the time of the collapse of the shogunate.

The Ote-mon (main gate) after the Meiji Coup.

1603 is the watershed moment. Ieyasu is named 征夷大将軍 seii tai-shōgun shōgun and is the effective military ruler of Japan. From this point, the real history of the Kanda River begins. In 1604, Nihonbashi is built and the 5 Great Highways of Edo are defined. Strict entry & exit points by land and by river are laid out in order to preserve the new Tokugawa hegemony. Edo’s waterways are no longer “just Edo waterways;” they are tactical routes, trade routes, and a means of regulating nature for the protection of the commoners who lived along the rivers and were, essentially, part of the city’s infrastructure. In short, the rivers of Edo became a stabilizing mechanism for the shōgun’s capital.

Hirakawa Gate when Edo Castle still had a tenshukaku (that tower thingy).

The Ote-mon (main gate) when Edo Castle still had a tenshukaku (that tower thingy). Tokugawa Power! Activate! This is where the name Otemachi comes from.

From 1616 to 1620, during the reign of 2^nd shōgun Tokugawa Hidetada, something really resembling a “Kanda River” in a modern sense came in to existence. This is when the 神田山 Kandayama “Kanda Mountain”[xviii] was cut through and the Kanda River and Nihonbashi River became 2 discrete waterways. Kanda and Ryōgoku began to take on unique personalities at this time.

Colorized photo of the Hirakawa Gate.
Check out how bad ass the castle was. Truly something to behold.

In 1657, disaster struck on a colossal scale. The 明暦大家 Meireki Fire[xix] ripped through the city destroying well over half of the metropolis[xx]. Although city planning was essential from the beginning, the shōgunate hadn’t anticipated the rapid growth that accompanied their sankin-kōtai policy and just the economic stability brought on by… um, stability in general.

Edo Castle was a city within a city, When the main keep burned down, budgets and policies were reconsidered.

In part of the rebuilding efforts after the Meireki Fire, from 1659-1661 various waterways in Edo were widened and more open space along the rivers was added. Edo grew so rapidly after the arrival of the Tokugawa, that the city had become a firetrap[xxi].

Ryogoku Bridge today

By some accounts, 60%-70% may have be burnt to the ground. Given the relative clean slate available to the shōgunate after this particular conflagration, certain rivers were designated as firebreaks and widened to keep fires localized[xxii]. It’s at this time that the Kanda River was dramatically widened – most notably, at the confluence of the Kanda River and Ryōgoku River, the 両国橋 Ryōgokubashi Ryōgoku Bridge was built. Even today, the expanse of the river here is something to see, but in the Edo Period, with no buildings over 2 stories, it was clearly a sight to behold. Soon the area became famous for a dazzling annual fireworks display in the summer[xxiii]. Some of the most iconic 浮世絵 ukiyo-e “scenes of the transient world” come from this area. The 江戸東京博物館 Edo-Tōkyō Hakubutsukan Edo-Tōkyō Museum is located in this area… for obvious reasons.

From its spring in Inokashira Park, the Kanda river begins its exit from the well.
Ganbare, Kanda-chan!

As I mentioned before, the official headwaters are 井之頭池 Inokashira Ike Inokashira Lake, but the river has no officially designated end point but it’s fairly certain that it ultimately empties into Tōkyō Bay. Traditionally it ends at 飯田橋 Iidabashi. The reason there’s no official ending point is because the Kanda River empties into a few rivers and drainage channels along the way before it ultimately fizzles out into the 隅田川 Sumida-gawa Sumida River at 両国橋 Ryōgokubashi Ryōgoku Bridge. If you’ve been following this series, you’ll probably be aware that the names and courses of these rivers have been changing over time and that some stretches of one river may have had multiple names depending on the area. So yeah… welcome back to the Confus-o-dome.

Thanks to the Showa Era, this is the Iidamachi Bridge (Iidabashi).
Gross.

The Kanda River’s Legacy

The man-made Edo Era waterway that flowed from Inokashira Pond was called the 神田上水 Kanda Jōsui. Longtime readers should know what a 上水 jōsui is. But just a refresher, a jōsui is a conduit of “imported” water. This water flowed from 三鷹 Mitaka[xxiv] to Edo Castle; it also supplied drinking water to the daimyō mansions that lined its course.

The creation of the Kanda River. (by the way, this is the worst info-graphic ever)

The creation of the Kanda River in Chiyoda from the Hibiya Inlet.

The Kanda Jōsui is considered the first real aqueduct system in Japan. Before I mentioned the technological revolution in castle construction, right? Well, the Sengoku Period began stabilizing and yes, castle building was a status thing. But the distribution of water and water management showed one of the greatest advances in urban planning and administration that Japan had seen in centuries. This is why shōgunate’s founder, Tokugawa Ieyasu, was such a bad ass. The dude could lead an army here or there, but he had ideas about civil administration and surrounded himself with people who could advise him on these things. Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi were essentially one-trick-ponies who couldn’t really get out of the 戦国病気 Sengoku Byōki “Sengoku Rut.”[xxv] Ieyasu, also a product of that generation, realized that infrastructure reinforced military supremacy and brought economic stability[xxvi].

The Kanda Aqueduct

Admittedly, it’s not that exciting or cool, but the availability of clean drinking water and disposal of dirty water should never be underestimated in the study of any ancient or pre-modern city[xxvii].

The capital of the Tokugawa shōguns quickly became the biggest city in Japan and eventually the most populous city in the world. Clean water and sewerage undeniably played a part in this. But soon the Kanda Jōsui wasn’t enough. That said, it was the main source of drinking water for Edo Castle during the Edo Period.

Even if it was inadequate to supply the entire sprawling capital, Kanda Jōsui was such a successful project that it begot 6 more major waterworks in Edo, all of which benefited daimyō, samurai, and the commoner population. Of course, this technology spread throughout the realm, but for short while Edo boasted one of the most unique water infrastructures in Japan.

A Final Note

If you’re up for an interesting bike ride, a 2010 blog post at Metropolis suggests starting at the mouth of the river and riding upstream to Inokashira Pond. When the temperature starts to come down, I may give this a go myself. There are loads of spots, many covered in JapanThis!, along the course of the river, so it should be fascinating.

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[i] I know that’s not the kind of helpful explanation that will bring closure to any of the etymology fans out there.
[ii] As I said, I’m gonna revisit this topic again.
[iii] Any relation to ヨドバシカメラ Yodobashi Camera? Why, yes there is. Thank you for asking.
[iv] And calling Dōkan’s fortifications a “castle” is also a debatable point. I’ve come to prefer the term “well-moated fort.” I came up with that term all on my own… right now. Thank you very much.
[v] If you don’t know who the Taira clan is… wow. OK, here you go.
[vi] Also, as mentioned in my article on What does Edo mean?, the coastal area is littered with 古墳 kofun burial mounds and it’s clear from the archaeology that the area has been inhabited since Paleolithic times. It’s highly doubtful the Edo clan was the first strongmen to seize upon this highly defensible, coastal plateau – they are the noblest recorded family, though.
[vii] Even though other temples and villages in the area are mentioned as far back as the Heian Period, it’s seems like the name Edo itself doesn’t actually appear in any records until the Kamakura Period.
[viii] In fact the original Edo “Castle” was probably just a 出城 dejiro satellite fort, since the Edo clan seemed to have their main residence in 喜多見 Kitami in present 世田谷区 Setagaya-ku Setagaya Ward.
[ix] I have an article about Hibiya.
[x] And while this may sound like a gratuitous reference to sex on the rag, this is actually a legitimate, historical term. Ask any historian of Pre-Modern Japan. They’ll tell you. Just ask. Seriously.
[xi] Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I said “budding.” When we say “castle” and “castle town” today we are usually referring to a construct of the far more stable Azuchi-Momoyama Period (ie; essentially the end of the Sengoku Period).
[xii] On Edo Era maps these may be listed with honorifics as 平川御門 Hirakawa Go-Mon Hirakawa Gate and 平川御堀 Hirakawa O-Hori Hirakawa Moat, respectively.
[xiii] Interestingly, some people think the radius and extent of Ōta Dōkan’s moats was the result of him not having a fucking clue what he was doing. His initial “improvements” lead to more flooding and so he continually modified his plans, diverting rivers away from the castle and the villages by extending them further and further out. Thus part of the sprawling nature of Edo Castle may have been due to stop-gap measures employed by Dōkan.
[xiv] Yes, I did.
[xv] This is as different as when we use the Latin words castrum to describe a Roman military camp/walled town and a castellum a walled fortification of Late Antiquity. The transformation is truly dramatic.
[xvi] You can see my article on Chiyoda here.
[xvii] The castle itself was pretty minor and was most likely not affected by the Late Hōjō efforts to refortify the Edo area from 1583 on.
[xviii] Kandayama was located in present day 駿河台 Surugadai.
[xix] “What’s the Meireki Fire?” you ask. There’s an article for that.
[xx] By some accounts, 70% of the city may have been destroyed.
[xxi] This didn’t change until the reconstruction of the city after WWII (or, some may argue that it didn’t change until the 1960’s and that the city just got lucky with no major conflagrations in the interim).
[xxii] In theory…
[xxiii] People today love fireworks. Just imagine what people with no video, no cameras, and no Perfume must have thought of these theatrical celebrations of summer.
[xxiv] Essentially, present-day Kichijōji.
[xxv] Again, my word. I just made it up now. And yes, I’m just baiting Sengoku lovers. Actually, I like Nobunaga, too.
[xxvi] And far more importantly, put his family in a seemingly endless position as hereditary top of the food chain. Hmmmmmmmmmm…
[xxvii] And you probably never think about where your water comes from or how it gets to your house and where it all goes afterwards, but it works, right? That’s why you can live there.

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chichibu, edo castle, edo clan, hilltop castle, kofun, nippori, ota dokan, seki dokan, suwan, suwan shrine, taira, Uguisudani, yanaka

What does Dokanyama mean?

In Japanese Castles, Japanese History, Travel in Japan on April 16, 2014 at 1:03 am

道灌山
Dōkan’yama (Dōkan’s mountain)

A scene as familiar as today
Edoites on Dokanyama having a picnic while enjoying the sunset over Mt. Fuji.

Hello and welcome back.

Today, I’m just making a quick follow up to the last few articles because, well, I wanted to address an item of interest to Japanese language learners and another item concerning Edo-Tōkyō history.

First, we saw the 2 place names 千駄ヶ谷 Sendagaya and 千駄木 Sendagi[i]. I’ve already gone into the backstory of these words, but I want to just briefly touch on the kanji 駄 da.

I mentioned that this was a unit of measure & weight for a pack horse. At the end of the Edo Period it appears to have been somewhat standardized to roughly 135 kilograms[ii], depending on the horse’s condition.

Well, this kanji isn’t just some obscure vestige of old Japan lingering in place names, it’s a kanji used every day. I’d like to quickly take you through a short list of high frequency words that use this kanji.

Let’s Go!

駄目ダメ dame	no, useless, not good, no way (usually not written in kanji)
無駄 muda	useless, pointless
下駄 geta	an old Japanese shoe used for walking through dirt streets
駄菓子 dagashi	Japanese sweets for the commoners, not for the rich; cheap Japanese snacks

So, I blew off this kanji in my last few posts as just a reference to pack horses. But we still have use for these kinds of kanji today, despite the lack of pack horses[iii].

Now, Let’s Talk About Dōkan’yama

Enjoying the view from Dokanyama

OK, so our main theme is the hill next to Nishi-Nippori Station. When I visited Japan the first time, I stayed in 鶯谷 Uguisudani, which is a few minutes’ walk from Dōkan’yama. I passed and even climbed this hill many times while exploring 谷中霊園 Yanaka Rei’en Yanaka Cemetery in search of the tombs of the Tokugawa family. Just exploring, without maps, without knowing shit about Japanese history or language, and not really understanding the layout of the area was exciting and mysterious and it’s in this area that my passion for Japanese history was forged. Every time I come back to this area I feel a sense of nostalgia. So, the other day when I discovered that the hill had a name and that it was possibly related to a major player in the story of Edo-Tōkyō I was just giddy with excitement. This whole area truly is the gift that just keeps giving.

Now, please keep in mind, we’re just talking about a freaking hill[iv].

nerd_alert

The other day, I wrote that there were 2 theories about this place name. The more I’ve researched it, the more I’m convinced there is only one theory, but they are united by the bizarre coincidence that 2 people with the same name lived here at different points in history.

The area seems to have been inhabited since the 縄文時代 Jōmon Jidai Jōmon Period[v]. Part of the hill is said to have been a 古墳 kofun a kind of burial mound associated with the early Yamato State. Other parts seem to be 貝塚 kaizuka an ancient trash dump for shells. I don’t know much about archaeology, but it seems the relation between these two eras is so far removed that we need more research to prove anything.

The earliest records show that this area was written as 新堀 “the new moat.” Though, we can’t be sure about the pronunciation [vi], the internet seems to think it has been called pronounced /’nip̚pori/ since time immemorial[vii]. The elevated area from Nishi-Nippori Station to Yanaka Ginza was the area formerly called 道灌山 Dōkan’yama. Today the term is usually only applied to the area next to Nishi-Nippori Station (if applied at all). In the Edo Period this area was well outside of the hustle and bustle of Edo and as such it was a popular spot for day trips[viii].

Castles before the Muromachi Period were more like forts.
The elegant, impressive structure that we usually associate with Japanese castles didn’t come until the Sengoku Period came to a close.
Oda Nobunaga, I’m looking at you.

The story goes that in the Kamakura Period, the hill was the site of the residence of a powerful noble named 関道閑 Seki Dōkan. Dōkan was a member of the 秩父平氏 Chichibu Taira-shi Chichibu branch of the Taira clan[ix]. Longtime readers will recall that the Edo clan was also from Chichibu. He was married to the daughter of 江戸重継 Edo Shigetsugu, the first person we know of to build a fortification on the site of 江戸城 Edo-jō Edo Castle[x].

Fast forward a couple hundred years or so and in the late Muromachi Period, Sengoku Period fucker-up-of-shit and general-purveyor-of-Kantō-area-bad-assry, the inimitable 太田道灌 Ōta Dōkan chose the site for one of his 出城 dejiro branch castles to provide tactical support to his main residence in what is today the 本丸 honmaru of Edo Castle[xi].

Ota Dokan’s Edo Castle was probably something like this.
Given the similarity of the terrain and the era, it’s safe to assume the branch castle was very much the same.

Same picture but in color. If this picture of Dokan's Edo Fortress is to be trusted, the shape of the plateau seems to have been built up with earthen walls. If this is the case, the archaeologists who have found trash dumps for shells and think there may have been a kofun here may be on to something. Dokan may have ordered the hilltops merged and shaped into a form fitting of a secondary fortress.

Same picture but in color.
If this picture of Dokan’s Edo fortress is to be trusted, the shape of the plateau has been built up with earthen walls.
The flat surface on the top is reminiscent of the shape of Dokanyama.

Located on the hill is 諏訪神社 Suwan Jinja Suwan Shrine which is said to house the tutelary deity that protected Ōta Dōkan’s branch castle[xii]. The shrine is located at the highest point of the hill. In Ōta Dōkan’s time, this area is where the 見張台 miharidai lookout tower was located. It’s said that from this miharidai, you could see all the way to 下総国 Shimōsa no Kuni Shimōsa Province (present day Chiba Prefecture). And while the castle was in ruins by time the Tokugawa arrived on the scene, the area was still called Miharidai in the Edo Period and was famous for getting a relaxing view of Mt. Fuji. We actually have quite a few pictures depicting Edoites relaxing in the area.

That tower looking look out thingy.
Yeah, that’s a miharidai.

Today nobody comes to Dokanyama for the view.
But you can get an appreciation of the sharp elevation. (this photo is from the shrine precincts of Suwan Shrine)

Viewing Mt. Fuji from Dokanyama in the Edo Period.

Viewing Mt. Fuji from Dokanyama while the cherry blossoms are blooming in the Edo Period. Notice the village of thatched huts below the hill. This is a clear Yamanote/Shitamachi distinction.

Suwan Shrine is located on the former Miharidai area.
The shrine is now in an Edo Period style.
In the time of Ota Dokan, it would have been a small afterthought.

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[i] Just go back to the last 2 articles. You might also want to search the site of “yanaka” if you’re interested in this area. There are quite a few independent articles, so if you want to get the big picture, I recommend reading everything.
[ii] About 298 lbs.
[iii] Except for your mom, who is a real trooper, btw.
[iv] One soon learns that nothing in Tōkyō is “just something.” Just like Rome, you can’t a few meters without tripping over some crazy piece of history you’ve never heard of.
[v] Admittedly, an era that I rarely talk about, but I’m thinking about digging deeper into. It’s a loooong time ago. Here’s more info if you’re interested.
[vi] See my article on Nippori.
[vii] I reserve the right to withhold my opinion on this one. It’s pretty complicated.
[viii] Edo people walked everywhere, so this would have been a reasonable day trip. Today, you can access this area by train and from within the 32 Special Wards, it’s pretty much a 20 minute train ride from anywhere.
[ix] Chichibu is the same area in Saitama Prefecture that the Edo Clan (also members of the Taira clan) originated. For more about the Edo clan, please see my article on Edo.
[x] Recent readers, spoiler alert. Edo Castle wasn’t built first by Ōta Dōkan, even that’s what your Tōkyō guidebook says.
[xi] Commonly known by idiots as 皇居 kōkyo the Imperial Palace. There, I said it.
[xii] It should be noted that Suwan Shrines are common throughout the country.

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bunkyo, dokanyama, edo castle, funai, komagome, matsudaira, mikawa, nezu, nippori, ogyu, ota dokan, seki dokan, senda, sendagaya, sendagi, shitamachi, Taito, toshogu, Ueno, Uguisudani, yanagita kunio, yanaka, yanesen

What does Sendagi mean?

In Japanese History, Travel in Japan on April 14, 2014 at 8:28 am

千駄木
Sendagi (a lot of trees)

sendagi_station

Sendagi is a mixed residential and shopping area between Nezu and Yanaka[i]. Today the area is distinctly shitamachi [ii]. However, if you go there you’ll notice slopes which are clear indicators that in the Edo Period the area was mixed with the elites living on the yamanote (high city) and the merchants and other people living on in the shitamachi (low city) while low ranking samurai naturally lived on the hillsides according to rank.

The area of Tōkyō extending from Ueno Station[iii] out to Nippori Station[iv] is one of the most popular destinations for lovers of Edo-Tōkyō to take walks. There are many different routes one could take through this area, but one common route is walking the 谷根千 Yanesen, an abbreviation based on the collective areas of 谷中 Yanaka, 根津 Nezu, and 千駄木 Sendagi. The area is dotted with temples, shrines, shops dating as far back as the Edo Period, and is literally so steeped in history that it would probably take a book to do it justice[v]. Also, there are a lot of references to past articles, so be sure to check the footnotes (remember, they’re clickable).

Given the cultural richness of the area, I will just point you here, and move on to the timeline of Sendagi and then get into the place name itself. If that’s alright with you…

Edo Period gate to the residence of the Komagome Village headman.

The area was formerly part of 駒込村 Komagome Mura Komagome Village and in fact today is still officially part of Komagome[vi]. The name Komagome isn’t attested until the Sengoku Period. One the other hand, 千駄木 Sendagi isn’t attested until the early Edo Period when it appears as a label in a map. The label reads 上野東漸院持ち駒込千駄木御林 Ueno Tōzen’in mochi Komagome Sendagi o-hayashi the Komagome Sendagi o-hayashi which is controlled by Ueno Tōzen Temple. Another early Edo Period map includes the label 上野寒松院持ち駒込千駄木御林 Ueno Kanshō’in mochi Komagome Sendagi o-hayashi the Komagome Sendagi o-hayashi which is controlled by Ueno Kanshō Temple. An 御林 o-hayashi was a hilltop wooded area owned by the shōgunate, but control of the area was granted to a lord or temple[vii]. Which temple was actually in control of Komagome Sendagi O-hayashi at what time isn’t clear to me, but it’s not really important for us today[viii].

O-hayashi Inari Shrine in Sendagi is one of the legacies of the old forest.

About 1656, the former hilltop forest came to be the site of a daimyō residence of the lords of 豊後国府内藩 Bungo no Kuni Funai Han Funai Domain, Bungo Province (present day Oita Prefecture in Kyūshū). The family was the 大給松平家 Ōgyū Matsudaira, a samurai family from 三河国 Mikawa no Kuni Mikawa Province, Tokugawa Ieyasu’s homeland. As Edo depended on the shōgunate and the shōgun himself was from Mikawa, having a Mikawa family bearing the name Matsudaira bolstered the area’s prestige[ix]. The hill became a yamanote town comprised of high ranking samurai residences. It seems that because the Ōgyū residence was first the prestigious palace built on the hilltop, the area came to be to be known as 大給坂 Ōgyūzaka Ōgyū Hill. If you go to the top of Ōgyūzaka there is a crappy little park with a huge gingko tree called the 大銀杏 Ōichō[x]. They say this tree stood inside the original Ōgyū property.

Yup. That’s a big tree, alright.
OK, let’s move on.

Nearby is another hill called 道灌山 Dōkanyama. It’s said that at the end of the Muromachi Period, 太田道灌 Ōta Dōkan had a branch castle here which he built for tactical support of 江戸城 Edo-jō Edo Castle[xi]. I only jumped way back in time to mention this because… well, you’ll see.

Dokanyama is the large slope next to Nishi-Nippori Station.
I’ve seen this hill hundreds of times, but I never knew it was called Dokanyama until today.
Cool!

OK, so now let’s look at the kanji.

千 sen	1000
駄 da	a pack horse; a load carried by a pack horse
木 gi	tree

WTF?!
This fucking kanji again?

The other day, we looked at 千駄ヶ谷 Sendagaya and we learned that 千駄 senda was another word for 沢山 takusan a lot. If we want to take the kanji as they are written today, which is by all means the easiest way to do things, we can deduce that the name 千駄木 Sendagi means “a lot of trees.” From what we know, the place name is first written down[xii] in the early Edo Period. From what we know, the area was a hilltop forest at that time. One could make a very strong case that this is the origin of the name Sendagi.

But it’s Never That Easy, Is It?

So there are some other theories of varying quality – or a few variations with some anecdotal stories added to lend credence to the general narrative[xiii]. OK, so where to begin?

Sexxxy firewood.
Awwwwww yeah!

The 1000 Da Theory

In the late Muromachi Period and opening years of the Edo Period, the forest here was used for lumber or for firewood. You could easily get 千駄 sen da 1000 da each day. (If you don’t know what 1000 da are, you should read the last article). This is basically adding information to the above theory.

Chinaberry is a flowering tree. There are many planted around Edo Castle.
In the background you can see (I think) Shimizu Mon.

The Ōta Dōkan Did It Theory

During the construction of Edo Castle (or perhaps his aforementioned branch castle), Ōta Dōkan used the area for lumber. After cutting down so many trees, he re-forested the area by planting 栴檀 sendan Chinaberry trees here. In the old Edo accent, sendan ki became sendagi. The Ōta Dōkan thing could be true or not. Who knows? The Chinaberry tree thing? It’s possible. Still, we’re looking at a bunch of trees any way you look at it.

20121218160224a11

It’s a Reference to a Traditional Japanese Prayer For Rain

The last theory is interesting. The godfather of Japanese folklore and linguistics, 柳田國男 Yanagita Kunio (1875-1962), actually spoke about this place name. The reason his story bears repeating is because he insisted that prior to the Meiji Restoration, the common narrative of Japanese history was the story of the elite classes only. The day to day toils and reality of the commoners was just omitted. He was also fascinated by the variety of Japanese dialects and began laying the groundwork for modern Japanese dialectology.

Anyhoo, his theory says that in the Edo Period, and indeed, in his youth, at the beginning of summer as the rains got scarcer, the farmers would bring 1000 da of reeds or wood to the nearest body of water and burn them as an 雨乞い amagoi prayer for rain. In the common parlance, this activity was called 千駄焚き senda-taki burning 1000 da. While he was making some of the first modern dialect maps of Japan, he noticed that in many parts of the country the phrase senda-taki was contracted to sendaki. He speculated that this might be the origin of both Sendagi (sendaki – burning 1000 da of wood) and Sendagaya (senda kaya – buring 1000 da of reeds).

His speculation is interesting because he’s a guy who was born with the first 10 years of the Meiji Era, watched Japan modernize, go all crazy theocratic and fascistic, be occupied by a foreign power for the first time ever, modernize again, and host the Olympics. He also lived through the greatest and fastest advances in linguistics and the scientific method.

Kunio himself.
Or as I like to call him, “kun’ni.”

So Which Theory Is Correct?

With all this talk of Yanagita Kunio, it’s gotten me thinking about my choice in terminology up to this point on JapanThis!. Linguistics is a science and as such when talking within the framework of science, terminology is important. I’ve been using the word “theory” for some time in the vernacular sense. But “theory” actually means a kind of testable model – something that is so predictable that we can say it’s a fact – for example; the Theory of Gravity or the Theory of Evolution. These things we know are true. The correct term for dealing with much of what I write about on this blog is “speculation.” Unless we have an actual historical document saying “so-and-so named this place such-and-such because of this-and-that” were are dealing with speculation[xiv].

but_i_digress

As usual, we saw some interesting speculations today. Without extraordinary evidence, I tend to err on the side of simplicity. For me, I like the literal reading of the kanji. There were a lot of trees in the area. I think the rest of the stories are embellishments, folk etymologies, or downright wishful thinking and coincidence.

Then again, what do I know? I’m just some dude with an internet connection.

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[i] See my article on Yanaka.
D’oh! I’ve never written about Yanaka before. Weird. Well, anyways, if you scroll down a little bit, on the right hand side there is a list of the 50 most recent articles. Above the list is a search field. If you type “yanaka,” a ton of articles will come up. (If you click word “yanaka” above, it will bring up the same list of articles. Can everyone say, “let me google that for you?”)

[ii] In the modern sense of the word.

[iii] See my super old article on Ueno. Or not, because I just looked at it and it sucks. It’s from when I started covering place names. Night and day difference.

[iv] See my super old article on Nippori. One of the early ones that got researched well.

[v] Here’s an English article I came across about the Yanesen.

[vi] See my article on Komagome here.

[vii] The emphasis on hilltop is most likely because the low city was developed for commerce and commoners and wouldn’t have had many trees, whereas the hilltops were kept lush and green.

[viii] More interesting is that both temples still exist. Tōzen’in was established in 1649 and is affiliated with Kan’ei-ji, the Tokugawa Funerary Temple. You can find Tōzen’in in Uguisudani. Kanshō’in, established in 1627, is also in Uguisudani and is also affiliated with Kan’ei-ji. In fact, later they became of a sub-temple of 上野東照宮 Ueno Tōshō-gū. See my article on Uguisudani here. Don’t worry that the temples are located in Uguisudani and not Komagome – although it’s walking distance, both temples have actually been relocated a few times.

[ix] Keep in mind, Tokugawa Ieyasu’s real family name was Matsudaira.

[x] Literally, big ass gingko tree.

[xi] However, there is an alternate theory which claims the name Dōkanyama is actually derived from a powerful noble who had a fortified residence here in the Kamakura Period. His name was 関道閑 Seki Dōkan.

[xii] A first attestation doesn’t necessarily mean the name was created at that time. It only means it was the first time anyone bothered writing it down. So, in theory, a name in Kantō could be hundreds of years old before anyone made a record of it that we still have.

[xiii] It’s not always the case, but when you get anecdotal stories, your BS Detector should start blinking; often times these stories reek of folk etymology.

[xiv] Even in that case, the document would have to be proven authentic and written by the person who named the place.

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atsuhime, etymology, hachiman, hachimangu, history, iesada, mexican food, mt. fuji, ota dokan, owari, saigo takamori, senda, sendagaya, shibuya, tokugawa, toyama park, tsurumi

What does Sendagaya mean?

In Japanese History on April 9, 2014 at 5:47 am

千駄ヶ谷
Sendagaya (1000 “da” valley)

Quite possibly the most useless map of Sendagaya ever.

Sendagaya is the area surrounded by Shinjuku, Yoyogi, Harajuku, and Akasaka. In my experience, 千駄ヶ谷駅 Sendagaya Eki Sendagaya Station is famous, but unless you live or work there, I think the area is overlooked. Much of what people may consider to be Harajuku or Yoyogi is actually Sendagaya[i]. Anyways, I’ll talk about what Sendagaya is today at the end of the article. ・

OK, Let’s Look at the Kanji!

千 sen	1000
駄 da	a pack horse, a load (carried by a horse)
ヶ ga	the genitive particle in Old Japanese, similar to の no in modern Japanese.
谷 ya	valley

Seems pretty random, right? .

駄 Da

The key to this place name are the Old Japanese words 一駄・壱駄 ichida 1 da or 二駄・弐駄 nida 2 da. These are units of measurement that describe how much stuff you can put on a horse’s back. I don’t know the specifics, but it’s probably something like a size and weight measurement. So you could say “This horse is carrying 3 da.” 千駄 senda 1000 da, of course, would be a crazy number and as such, the local people used the word senda to mean 沢山 takusan a lot of.

So the idea is that this area was 千駄の谷 senda no ya “the valley with a 1000 da.” This begs the question, a 1000 da of what? Well, it’s said that when Ōta Dōkan came to the area to inspect his new holdings, the valley was primarily used for rice cultivation so the name meant “the valley where a lot of rice is grown.”

The word 千駄 appears in another Tōkyō place name, 千駄木 Sendagi. I haven’t researched this place name but I’ll take a guess that it means “a lot of trees.” But that’s topic for another day.

This is a 駄馬 daba, a pack horse. I don’t know how many da the horse is carrying, but you get the idea…

But Wait, There’s More!

One theory states that the 渋谷川 Shibuya-gawa Shibuya River ran through this valley and there were so many 萓 gi day-lilies growing along the bank of the river, that in a single day you could carry out 1000 da of them. This etymology is suspect because of the reference to day-lilies which isn’t preserved in the name.

In 1644, we have a shōgunate record that spells the place name 千駄萱村 Sendagaya Mura Sendagaya Village. This name means 1000 da and 萱 kaya is a kind of reed. This theory states that long ago, along the bank of the Shibuya River, a lot of reeds were growing. It seems that the current writing dates from 1688.

Lastly, another theory states that the writing was 千駄茅 senda kaya a 1000 da of kaya, a kind of hay. (We’ve seen this kanji before in my article on Kayabachō.) While the exact origin of this place name isn’t known, the common theme seems to be the use of the word 千駄 senda 1000 da. Take your pick of which one you like the best.

While yes, today Sendagaya is real area in Tokyo, many people don’t know where it actually is because the area is only serviced by a single train line. That said, it’s proximity to other well traveled stations makes it an attractive residential district. It’s quiet, yet has access quick walking access to major areas.

A Little Bit About the Area

In the Edo Period, the area was just countryside. Some daimyō had residences out this way. The 尾張徳川家 Owari Tokugawa-ke Owari branch of the Tokuagawa Family had maintained a 下屋敷 shimo-yashiki lower residence in Sendagaya for a long time. In 1877 or 1878, 篤姫 Atsu-hime Princess Atsu[ii], wife of the 13^th shōgun, 徳川家定 Tokugawa Iesada[iii], moved to this residence until she lost her battle with Parkinson’s Disease in 1883. Atsu-hime was originally born in Kagoshima and helped negotiate the bloodless eviction of the Tokugawa from Edo Castle. Her counterpart was none other than the Kagoshima-born general 西郷隆盛 Saigō Takamori[iv].

The Owari Tokugawa maintained their residence here for some time. Today the palace’s lands have been transformed into 戸山公園 Toyama Kōen Toyama Park, but believe it or not, one of the Edo Period buildings of this residence still survives.

In 1957, the 書院 shoin study of the residence was moved to 總持寺 Sōji-ji Sōji Temple in 横浜市鶴見区 Yokohama-shi Tsurumi-ku Tsurumi Ward, Yokohama, not far from Tōkyō. The former study is now the reception hall of the temple. So if you want to see a beautiful daimyō study from a daimyō compound, you can.

The entrance to the study of the Owari Tokugawa’s sprawling residence. Pretty freakin’ dope, huh?

Later, the area around the former Tokugawa residence was used by the Imperial Army as a training ground. Later, under the American Occupation, the US military used the confiscated training ground. Probably due to all the soldiers being there, the area became famous for love hotels and the sex industry. The red light district was shut down in the buildup to the 1960 Tōkyō Summer Olympics and today the area is mostly known as the home to many fashion and design related businesses. I think this is due to its proximity to Harajuku and Shibuya, both of which are fashion epicenters. .

Toyama Park

There is another Bakumatsu personage associated with the area. One account of of the untimely death of the 新撰組 Shinsengumi commander, 沖田総司 Okita Sōji took place here. There are conflicting accounts of this due to the confusion generated by the abdication of the last shōgun 徳川慶喜 Tokugawa Yoshinobu. Also, Sōji’s brothers-in-arms were scattered at the time. All of the accounts of his death come to us years later.

A sento (public bath) near Jingumae Stadium.

鳩森八幡神社 Hatomori Hachiman-gū Hatomori Hachiman Shrine is a famous shrine in the area. I’ve talked about what a Hachiman shrine is before, so I’m not going to get into that today. However, this particular shrine is special in that it has a 富士塚 Fuji-zuka Fuji Mound. In the Edo Period, travel was tightly controlled by the shōgunate and non-samurai would have had a difficult time getting travel permission to leave their 藩 han domains. Many people wanted to make a pilgrimage to Mt. Fuji, so a trend was to bring rocks from Mt. Fuji to Edo and build a huge mockup of the volcano at a shrine and the local people could make the journey up the hill to honor the 富士浅間 Fuji Sengen, the kami of Mt. Fuji. There are still a few of these remaining today in Tōkyō – I’ve been to about 3 of them, I think.

The Fuji-zuka

The NTT DoCoMo building which looks like the Empire State Building is also in Sendagaya. If you’ve ever been shopping at the Southern Terrace of Shinjuku Station or enjoyed a stroll through 新宿御苑 Shinjuku Gyoen Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

The NTT DoCoMo Building.
Sometimes a purely derivative and truly bizarre choice in architecture can work.

Oh, any expat resident of Tōkyō will tell you that Mexican food is hard to come by. While not in Sendagaya proper, there are two very famous Mexican places in nearby Yoyogi and Shibuya – both walkable from Sendagaya. One is a super famous date-spot known as Fonda de la Madrugada located in 北参道 Kita-sandō. It’s expensive, but they have a mariachi band that come to the tables and take requests (unfortunately, the only Spanish song most Japanese people know is the Gypsy Kings’ cover of Volare, so expect to hear it a few times throughout the course of your dinner)[v]. The other one is the more casual and less expensive, El Torito, located in the Southern Terrace of Shinjuku Station. OK, that’s about all I’ve got on Sendagaya.

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[i] Or maybe that’s just me.
[ii] She’s also called 天璋院 Tenshō-in because this is the name she took after the death of Iesada. It’s a Buddhist name, and I think it’s more like a title. I was told that after the Meiji Restoration she would have been called 篤子 Atsuko, since the title 姫 hime (usually rendered as “princess”) was banned by the new government.
[iii] Yes, the same Tokugawa Iesada who is generally depicted as a complete moron. You can read about his grave here.
[iv] A guy I don’t have a lot of respect for.
[v] Of course, I’m speaking very broadly here. I’ve personally met Japanese people who know loads of Spanish music – waaaaaay more than I do – but just the average person doesn’t know much.

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1886, 1886/9/3, 9/3/1868, chichibu, chiyoda, edo, edo castle, edo clan, edo-tokyo, etymology, ieyasu, jomon, kanhasshu, kitami, kofun, maruyama, musashi, ota dokan, taira, tokugawa, toyotomi hideyoshi, uesugi, yamato

What does Edo mean?

In Japanese Castles, Japanese History on September 6, 2013 at 12:56 pm

江戸
Edo (literally “Inlet Door,” but more at “Estuary”)

Edo – the shogun’s personal domain.

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Today’s post is a monster!
There are a lot of footnotes trying to clarify things in the text.
Please check those.
There are good links and some additional info there.

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A few days ago was, if my math is correct, the 145^th anniversary of day Edo was renamed Tōkyō. This happened on September 3^rd, 1868 by an imperial decree called 江戸を称して東京と為すの詔書 Edo wo shōshite Tōkyō to nasu shōsho Imperial Edict Renaming Edo Tōkyō. The document was written in the ancient and pretentious language of the imperial court which is above my Japanese level so I’m not going to translate it for you. But we all know what happened. Edo ceased to exist and Tōkyō was born.

I tried to find a picture of the actual document, but I couldn’t. But if you do want to see the section of the text that laid out the command in all its highfalutin imperial court language glory, here it is:

朕今萬機ヲ親裁シ億兆ヲ綏撫ス江戸ハ東國第一ノ大鎭四方輻湊ノ地宜シク親臨以テ其政ヲ視ルヘシ因テ自今江戸ヲ稱シテ東京トセン是朕ノ海内一家東西同視スル所以ナリ衆庶此意ヲ體セヨ

UPDATE: I found a translation of this line at no-sword.jp. Here’s the translation:

I at this time settle all matters of state myself in the interest of the people. Edo is the largest city in the eastern provinces, a place in which things gather from every direction. It were well that I should personally oversee its governance. Therefore from this time on I shall call it “Tokyo” (“Eastern Capital”). This is so that I might oversee all affairs in the land equally, from east to west. Let the people heed this my will.

But enough about Tōkyō.

Today’s topic is Edo.

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Every guidebook and general book on Japanese history says something like:

“Before the coming of the Tokugawa, Edo was a sleepy fishing village.”

“Though it was once an insignificant village in the marshy wetlands, Tokugawa Ieyasu transformed Edo into a glorious capital befitting of the shōguns.”

And while those sorts of statements hold varying degrees of truth, just blowing off everything before the arrival of Tokugawa Ieyasu, raises more questions because why the hell would Ieyasu just pick some crappy fishing village in a marsh and say “Build me a castle from which I can rule Japan!” Ieyasu wasn’t that impulsive and he definitely wasn’t stupid. He was made an offer by Hideyoshi and he took it. He deliberately chose Edo which means the area was strategically important and not a shithole fishing village in East Bumfuck.

One other thing we often hear is:

“A feudal warlord named Ōta Dōkan came into the small fishing village of Edo and built his castle there.”

Again, this seems strategically silly and as you will see, it’s simply not true[i]. Sure, fishing was a big deal in the area – it was for all of Edo’s existence, but things are more nuanced than that.

How do you say East Bumfuck in Japanese?

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PART 1 – SHORT ANSWER
for people with short attention spans™

In the 12^th century, an influential branch of the Taira clan moved their base from present day Saitama to 江戸郷 Edo-gō Edo Hamlet in 豊島郡 Toshima-gun Toshima District in 武蔵国 Musashi no Kuni Musashi Province[ii]. Following standard practice of the time, if a powerful lord wanted to distinguish his line as a new clan, he would take the name of his territory as a surname. Thus this new clan was 江戸氏 Edo-shi Edo Clan. Edo’s place name seems to have been quite literal. It meant “estuary.”

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______________________________________________________________________________________________________
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PART 2 – LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG ANSWER
for people with too much time on their hands™

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First, a disclaimer. I’m not a scholar. A lot of this backstory is not well documented.
There may be some omissions or timeline mistakes in here because my eyes glaze over at Japanese genealogy, etc.If you know something that I don’t or see a mistake, let me know, and I’ll fix it.

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OK, so let’s go waaaaaaaaaay back before the Tokugawa.

The Kantō Plain appears to have first been populated in the Late Jōmon Period sometime after 3100 BC. This is well before rice culture found its way to Japan[iii]. It’s fair to say these people were hunter gatherers and don’t really figure into the history of Edo-Tōkyō as an urban space. But still, their presence here gives us some perspective of how long humans have lived here.

Happy little Jomon people having a picnic or something.

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The Kofun Period

Fast forward more than 2000 years and…

During the Kofun Period (200-500 AD), the influence of the Yamato State[iv] finally reached the Kantō area. It seems that around the 300’s, Kantō became a vassal state of the Yamato Court. It’s from this period forward that we can see the arrival of the people who are to become what we will later see as Japanese, physically and culturally. They were a literate people who had ideas of governance, philosophy and technology that they learned[v] from the Korean peninsula and China. The spread of Shintō accompanies the Yamato influence. BTW – Kofun are burial mounds typical of this culture. There are kofun scattered throughout the Kantō area – more than 200 exist in the Tōkyō Metropolis. The so-called 丸山古墳 Maruyama Kofun “Round Mountain” Kofun is in 芝公園 Shiba Kōen Shiba Park next to where Tokugawa Hidetada’s funerary temple was built in the early 1600’s[vi].

Here you can see the size and keyhole shape of the Maruyama Kofun.

Maruyama Kofun is the largest in the area, so it must have been built for someone powerful. The kofun sits an easy walk from Edo Bay and is next to the 古川 Furukawa “the Old River,” one of many rivers and inlets in the area (at the time and, to a certain extent, today).

The hilly area surrounding it could provide high areas for residences and villages. Strategically speaking, these hills were ideal for defense because, duh, it’s better to be at the top of the hill in a ground war than at the bottom. Also, the high ground protected villages from tsunamis and flooding. The proximity to the bay was great for fishing and growing seaweed and the inlets and rivers were convenient for sending heavy supplies and foodstuffs in and out of the area. The bay also provided a natural defense as Japanese ship construction technology sucked ass at this time. The wetland areas were perfect for growing rice. In short, the area was defensible and sustainable. Whoever is buried in the Maruyama Kofun noticed this potential and most definitely exploited it to his and his subjects’ benefit.

From Maruyama Kofun, move a few clicks north on a map of Edo and you will see where Edo Castle stood[vii]. The same conditions existed here[viii] and it’s from here that our story really begins.

The kofun just looks like a big hill.
Keep in mind, we don’t know who was in here, but at least we can get an idea of the culture that lived in the surrounding areas along the bay.

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The Rise of Samurai in Kantō

Let’s move up to present day Saitama in the area called 秩父郡 Chichibu-gun Chichibu District near 大宮 Ōmiya Ōmiya, not far from the present day Tōkyō-Saitama boarder. At the end of the Heian Period in the 12^th century, a noble clan descended from the 平氏 Hei-shi Taira Clan was in control of the area. The original, major samurai houses descended from imperial branch families like the Taira.

The Taira Clan (called Hei-shi in Japanese) used a stylized butterfly crest called the 蝶紋 chō mon.
Most branch families adapted the butterfly into new designs for themselves.

The family name Taira essentially means you descend from the imperial family of the Heian Period, but you are not 公家 kuge a court family, so your official status is that of a subject of the emperor. But as a samurai family with imperial blood, you – theoretically –have more power and rank than the average samurai.

By the way, this era marks the true rise of the samurai culture. Lords (daimyō) tended to take the names of their fiefs as family names to establish new branch families[ix]. So, although these families were of Taira blood, this branch took the name of their fief and became known as the Chichibu Clan. It seems that bearing the name of your territory was an expression of your dominance. (Remember that! It’s going to come up again later.)

So, for reasons unclear (to me at least), someone from this Taira samurai family in Chichibu moved south to establish a new clan. The most likely candidate is the guy generally considered the first head of the Edo Clan, Chichibu Shigetsugu.

Chichibu Shigetsugu moved south and fortified a small hill in 千代田 Chiyoda “Eternal Fields”[x]. He probably chose this area because this is where Tōkyō Bay had a major inlet that became the Sumida River. It had a strong current for bringing in goods. Being on the coast, it was immune from attacks by sea on one side and with so much seafood production and rice production in the area it was a sustainable area. The same natural features that made area appealing to the people of the Kofun Period, also made it appealing this 12^th century samurai.

The area into which Chichibu Shigetsugu moved was supposedly known as 江戸郷 Edo-gō the hamlet of Edo[xi]. Following the tradition of his day, when he became lord of the area, he assumed the name 江戸 Edo and became Edo Shigetsugu. His descendants would also bear this name.

It’s thought that his fortified residence was built on what is now the current 本丸 honmaru main keep and 二ﾉ丸 ninomaru secondary enclosure of the Imperial Palace (areas still delineated clearly today).

☆ TIP 1: Check JCastle.info to learn what the heck honmaru and ninomaru are!

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This is where it gets weirder. Despite being a minor offshoot of the Taira clan, the second successive lord, Edo Shigenaga, was asked by Minamoto Yoritomo[xii] to help fight against the Taira. Lord Shigenaga switched sides (probably to save his ass) and in about 1180, after the war, he was rewarded with 7 additional fiefs in the surrounding area. I’m not sure about this, but although Edo Hamlet was still one of his holdings, it seems he made his main residence and seat of government at Kitami[xiii]. This consolidated the Edo clan’s influence over a wide area.

Edo Shigenaga continued fortification of the military residence in Chiyoda. Because of the clan’s connection to the Minamoto shōguns[xiv], the Edo family’s influence increased and Chiyoda Castle[xv] increasingly came to be referred to as Edo Castle, though the dual naming would persist[xvi].

Edo Castle at its height is highlighted.
The tiny green circle is where the Edo residence is thought to have soon.
By the this awesome interative map is from JCastle.info
Click the map to go directly the page I took this from.

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Edo from the Kamakura Period to the Muromachi Period

The area was still minor, but it’s clear from archaeological evidence and administrative records that the area began its first baby steps towards urbanization at this time. It was a minor military hub and because of the nearby 隅田川 Sumidagawa Sumida River and Edo Bay, logistically speaking, transportation of goods was most likely increasing.

We can only imagine that during the Kamakura Period, the villages and hamlets the fell under the protection of the Edo Clan would have grown and prospered a little. Occasionally the area shows up in records of the Kamakura Shōgunate. The Muromachi Period, however, is pretty much silent on the area. Kamakura was not so far away from Toshima and Musashi provinces and so would be up to date on things. The Muromachi Shōgunate was far off in Kyōto and probably too busy to care what a bunch of country samurai in the east were doing. But by 1467, we start to see the country descend into chaos as the shōgunate loses control of the country.

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Sengoku Period
i.e.; ｻﾞ・クラスターファック時代

The Sengoku Era saw the rise in castle towns centered around the castles of 大名 daimyō lords who were constantly at war with their positions always changing. So we see great development in castle building and military strategy, but not so much in city building or administration. In the final years of the Sengoku Period castle building reached the stage of what we usually think of when we imagine a stereotypical Japanese castle. In the early years, castle building was a little different. Think dirt-walled, wood-fenced, thatched roofed barn-like firetraps.

1457, at the beginning of the Sengoku Era, a Musashi warlord named Ōta Dōkan attacked Edo Shigeyasu. Shigeyasu surrendered to Dōkan (a vassal of the Uesugi). His life was spared and he was allowed to continue living at the Edo clan’s Kitami residence. (Remember that because it’s going to come up again).

Pretty sure Dokan couldn’t get any girls in Tokyo if he walked around in pants like that.

Dōkan and Uesugi recognized the strategic benefits of the Edo Clan’s residence near the bay (and probably its nice view of Mt. Fuji on one side and the ocean on the other side and decided to build (or develop) the structure for Uesugi Sadamasa. The new structures were built in the same area that the original Edo Clan residence had been. As stated before, this is the area that became the honmaru and ninomaru of the Tokugawa Edo Castle (today this area is the Imperial Palace East Garden). The building may not have been terribly large, but he installed a large and complex system of moats and it began to look more like an early Sengoku Era castle.

Same map as before.
Edo Castle is highlighted in yellow.
Ota Dokan’s thatched roof fortress is highlighted in green.
By the this awesome interative map is from JCastle.info.
Click the map to go directly the page I took this from.

Also, as mentioned before, in the Sengoku Era we see the rise of 城下町 jōka machi castle towns. As the castles got bigger, they needed to rely on goods from the local people. As fighting got worse, the people needed to be closer to the castles for protection. After all, it was dangerous out there. Also, the lords wanted rings of meandering streets around the castles for 2 reasons; one, it’s difficult to siege a castle when you have to go through a city first and two, human shields. That said, this early in the Sengoku Period, I don’t think we were seeing a lot of that. But, it’s clear that this process had begun before the arrival of the Tokugawa. Dōkan also diverted a waterway that became the Nihonbashi River, one of the outstanding traits of city during the Edo Period.

Before I said, Ōta Dōkan didn’t really build Edo Castle. But now you know the reality. By diverting water supplies and laying out a defensive system of moats, he unwittingly began the urbanization process. This new fortress was the catalyst that made the area not just a lord’s residence with a few villages scattered around here and there. It made it a defensible, sustainable, strategic area with a growing population that would look mighty attractive to one Tokugawa Ieyasu about a hundred years later (at least on paper).

Ieyasu obviously new about Ota Dokan's "castle," but you can just imagine him seeing the150 year old ruins for the first time and being like "shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit."

Ieyasu obviously new about Ota Dokan’s “castle,” but you can just imagine him seeing the 150 year old ruins for the first time and being disappointed.

In 1477, Ōta Dōkan attacked Toshima Yasutsune. He took Nerima Castle, Shakujii Castle and the clan’s administrative center, Hiratsuka Castle. Then he literally annihilated the Toshima clan. Bye bye.

In the general narrative of the Sengoku Period, Ōta Dōkan is a kind of minor guy. But history isn’t a narrative. The actions he took, some barbaric, some wise, don’t play into the unification of Japan. But in the history of Edo-Tōkyō, he looms large.

It’s safe to say that he was definitely a product of his violent age. And in 1486, he met a violent end typical of that age when he was murdered by the Uesugi Clan for a perceived betrayal.

His control of the fortress (can we really say “castle” yet?) in Chiyoda was a little over 20 years.

Now, as for what happened next, I’m not exactly certain. I’ve usually read that the castle remained abandoned from 1486-1590, but it seems that in 1525, Hōjō Ujitsuna took possession of the region and the castle. However, I don’t know if he actually lived there or did anything with it. If I had to speculate, I’d say that in the constant state of war of the Sengoku Period, rehabilitating a hundred year old castle would have been a risky and expensive operation.
If anyone knows, I’d appreciate the info!

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End of the Sengoku Period

At any rate, fast forward 100 years later to 1590. Toyotomi Hideyoshi stamped the shit out of the last independent clan remaining on his quest for unification; this last remaining pocket of resistance was the Hōjō who were based in Odawara, thus ending about 80 years Hōjō influence in the area. As everyone who studies Japanese history knows, one of the generals helping Hideyoshi in this final act of unification was Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Honmaru of Osaka Castle in Hideyoshi’s time.
One of Hideyoshi’s many amazing accomplishments was building Osaka Castle.
It was said to be undefeatable – until Ieyasu defeated it. (lol).
Since the time of Nobunaga, castle building techniques had changed dramatically.
Having gotten used to this as the future of castle building,
imagine Ieyasu’s reaction to seeing Ota Dokan’s castle ruins.
(btw – this is just a model. lol.)

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Of course, we also all know that Ieyasu despised Hideyoshi and, well, Hideyoshi pretty much didn’t trust Ieyasu either, especially after Ieyasu fought – but lost – against Hideyoshi in 1584. So after the defeat of the Hōjō/Odawara, Hideyoshi devised a unique plan to pacify and distance himself from Ieyasu. At the time, Ieyasu controlled 5 provinces, Mikawa[xvii], Tōtōmi, Suruga, Shinano, and Kai[xviii] which had fast access to Kyōto. Hideyoshi offered to buy out Ieyasu of his five provinces by giving him the so-called 関八州 Kanhasshū the 8 Kantō Provinces. The Kanhasshū included Musashi, Sagami, Kazusa, Shimōsa, Awa, Kōzuke, Shimotsuke, and Hitachi[xix] — quite literally the whole Kantō region.

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Ieyasu’s new territory.
Edo Bay is totally protected.

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Ieyasu took the deal and could have chosen any place within his sprawling new dominion for his main seat of government. But he chose Edo.

Sure, he chose fixer-upper. But he chose one with a well-fortified castle that had room for expansion (and Ieyasu now had the money for it). He had waterways in and out of the city. He had a view of Mt. Fuji (a territory that had once been his). He had a view of the ocean, which not only was beautiful – it was a kind of super moat. The area was fertile and partly urbanized.

It’s said that when Ieyasu came to survey the city he planned to make the base of his 8 provinces, the castle that Ōta Dōkan had built consisted of around 100 buildings with thatched roofs surrounded by wide moats and earthen walls. Although it didn’t look like much upon his arrival, the moat system alone was enough to know he’d chosen well.

At the height of Tokugawa power, the castle is said to have been the biggest in the world and the city was likely the most populous.

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Ieyasu ordered his castle built in the new style.
There were 4 stages of construction throughout the Edo Period.
Look at that and then tell me who REALLY built Edo Castle.

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So, um… What Happened to the Edo Clan?

Oh, I almost forgot.

Now that we’ve come to the Tokugawa Period, which is generally referred to as the Edo Period, I have to back track to something I said earlier about a certain Edo Shigeyasu.

Shigeyasu surrendered the Edo residence to Ōta Dōkan in 1457 in the early Sengoku Period. Keep in mind that ancient samurai families often took their branch names from the lands that they controlled.

Ieyasu arrived in 1590 and began establishing his new capita at Edo. He was still in the service of Hideyoshi at the time[xx], but as the lord of the Kanhasshū he had to establish rapport with his new retainers (lords in their own right). Likewise, his new retainers had to swear allegiance to him.

There was one major problem… with the name!

The Edo clan still had a residence in Kitami, which is present day Setagawa Ward. In light of Tokugawa Ieyasu’s dominance over the area, it would be presumptuous (and confusing) for a clan to retain the name of the capital city when a new daimyō, appointed by the unifier of Japan, controlled that city. So in 1593, taking an oath of submission and fealty to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the last Edo Clan daimyō gave up the name Edo and assumed the name, Kitami, which was where their primary holdings were.

In 1600, Ieyasu was victorious at the Battle of Sekigahara and became the de facto leader of a more-or-less unified Japan. In 1603, the emperor granted him the title of 征夷大将軍 seii taishōgun great barbarian subduing general.

Replica of the armor that Ieyasu wore at the battle of Sekigahara.
Pretty freaking Darth Vadery of him.

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The Edo Clan’s Final Disgrace…

In 1693, the direct family line, no longer Edo but Kitami, was extinguished after the banishment of Kitami Shigeyasu to Ise when his grandson murdered somebody or something. The once powerful country samurai family, descended from Taira blood in the 1100’s, who had held such influence over the area and had long born the name of the area, just fizzled out into oblivion[xxi].

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Bye bye, Edo Clan.

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But Wait, There’s More!

Now, if this were any other blog, that would be the end of the story. But long time readers of JapanThis! will surely be wondering why so many other ancient place name etymologies are so difficult and Edo was so easy. Is it really just “estuary???”

Well, not everyone agrees. It seems there are multiple theories on the origin of the name “Edo.”

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Theory 1 – It’s literal.

Theory 2 – It derives from the Ainu word ｴﾄ eto which means “cape” or “peninsula.” This theory claims that the name refers to the original shape of the Hibiya inlet around the beginning of the Heian Period[xxii].

Theory 3 – It derives from 井戸 ido well. エ e and イ i confusion in the Kantō dialects is something that we’ve come across many times in Tōkyō place names. So it’s possible that an ancient spring (or hot spring) existed here at one time. References to wells in place names are common in Japan. This is because people would naturally build new villages near fresh water supplies. No wells that would be a candidate have been found, though.

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There are a few other theories too ridiculous to bother with here. According to the Kadokawa Dictionary of Japanese Place Names, the literal meaning (estuary = edo) is the most likely derivation and the Ainu word (eto = cape, small peninsula) is the second most likely. I tend to agree.

So there you have it. More background on Edo before the coming of the Tokugawa than you ever wanted to know. Definitely more than you needed to know. Now you can bore your friends to tears at the next party with all of this pointless trivia.

I should probably print this whole article on a t-shirt, dammit.

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[i] It’s also incorrect to apply the term “feudal” to Japan.

[ii] For more information on Toshima, click here.
For more information on Musashi Province and what a district was, click here.

[iii] Wet rice cultivation and bronze and iron technologies were imported sometime around 900 BC and eventually spread across the islands.

[iv] The Yamato Court were the predecessors of or origins of the current imperial line, depending who you ask. Their capital was based in Asuka (in current Nara Prefecture).

[v] Learned or brought, depending on who you ask.

[vii] Don’t use a map of Tōkyō because the shape of the bay is radically different today.

[viii] And it’s not unreasonable to assume that the ruler buried in Maruyama Kofun exerted influence over the Chiyoda area as well.

[ix] A reverse pattern sometimes occurs when an area derives its name from the ruling family, but this is not the case with Edo.

[x] See my article on Chiyoda here.

[xi] The name 江戸 Edo means “river/bay door.” This describes the inflow of water from Edo Bay into the rivers that gave the coastal regions life. Also, people always say Edo was a small fishing village. If I’m not mistaken, at the time a 郷 sato/gō was bigger than a 村 mura village. So, technically speaking, at this point Edo wasn’t a small fishing village.

[xii] The guy who established the Minamoto Shōgunate (ie; Kamakura Shōgunate).

[xiii] In present day Setagaya Ward.

[xiv] The Minamoto Shōgunate is more commonly referred to as the Kamakura Shōgunate.

[xv] I’m not sure if we can call it a “castle” at this point. I imagine it was a large fortified residence, not unlike Shakujii Castle (see the CG reconstruction to get an idea).

[xvi] Even today, if you google Chiyoda Castle, Edo Castle will come up in the search results. Also, technically speaking any castle they held could theoretically be referred to as Edo Castle since this was also their Clan name.

[xvii] Mikawa was Ieyasu’s home province.

[xviii] If you’re good with your Japanese geography… this territory was roughly present day Nagano, Aichi, Shizuoka, and Yamanashi (think Mt. Fuji). It was a fair chunk of territory, but with so many allies at Ieyasu’s command so close to the capital, it apparently was too close for Hideyoshi who wanted a buffer around his court in Kyōto.

[xix] Again if you’re good with your Japanese geography… This is roughly Tōkyō, Saitama, Kanagawa, Chiba, Ibaraki, a part of Gunma and Tochigi.

[xx] In fact, he would be serving him in Kyūshū for a few years, while Hideyoshi embarked on a retarded plan to invade China via Korea.

[xxi] They didn’t fizzle out into oblivion completely. There is a 喜多見駅 Kitami eki Kitami Station in present day Setagaya.

[xxii] Wanna know about the etymology of Hibiya? Already covered that!

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bunkyo, chiyoda, conflagration, edo castle, etymology, fire, history, kichijoji, komagome, meireki, ninomiya, ninomiya sontoku, ota dokan, sankin-kotai, shinsengumi, sontoku, suidobashi, tama, tama aqueduct

What does Kichijoji mean?

In Japanese History, Japanese Shrines & Temples on July 1, 2013 at 2:40 am

吉祥寺
Kichijōji (Temple of the Lucky Omens)

You can take good pictures at Kichijoji, but you can’t take good pictures of Kichijoji.
These kind of streets go on and on and so does the awesomeness.
Trying to get lost in Kichijoji is how you play the game.

OK, my friends…

This is a bit of a weird one.

The place name of Kichijōji means “Temple of Auspicious Omens.”

It’s a temple’s name and yet…. there is no temple of that name here.

What could have possibly happened?

Most people enter the park this way because this is one of the closest entrances to the station.
The dark portion on the left are the trees of the park, so you walk from the elevated street level down into the park.
It’s a fantastic way to enter a park.
But topside, there are many shops serving all kinds of good food for you to eat before you go into the park and as you leave the park.

The name of the temple supposedly dates back to 1458.

When the Sengoku Era warlord, Ōta Dōkan, came into Edo and began expanding Chiyoda Castle[i], he put a few temples and shrines on the premises. One of the temples he included was 吉祥寺 Kichijō-ji Temple of the Lucky Omens[ii]. He must have liked the kanji 吉 kichi/yoshi because he also included 日枝神社 Hie Jinja Hie Shrine which was actually a branch shrine of the Kyōto shrine called 日吉神社 Hiyoshi Jinja Hiyoshi Shrine which includes the same character. Hie Shrine still exists in Akasaka.

The story goes that when Ōta Dōkan was fortifying his estate and they were digging the moats, they pulled some water from a well near the 和田倉 Wadakura Mon Wadakura Gate. They found 金印 kin’in a gold stamper inscribed with the words 吉祥増上 kichijō zōjō. Kichijō means “auspicious” or “lucky omen” and so they chose the first word as the name of the temple. The second word, zōjō, is identical to the zōjō of Zōjō-ji, the Tokugawa funerary temple in Shiba. Not sure if there’s a connection, but it’s intriguing[iii]. Anyhoo, the original temple was built in 西之丸 Nishi no Maru the west enclosure of Edo Castle[iv].

When I said gold stamper, I meant something like this.

This is what was supposedly written on the gold stamper.
Reversed for her pleasure.

In 1590, the 太閤 taikō, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, transferred Tokugawa Ieyasu to Edo Castle. In 1591, during his first expansion and rebuilding phase, Ieyasu for reasons that are not clear[v], moved Kichijō-ji temple near present day 水道橋 Suidōbashi (near Tōkyō Dome) in 文京区 Bunkyō-ku Bunkyō Ward.

As I’ve mentioned before, in old Japan, towns would spring up around temples. These towns were called 門前町 monzen-chō towns in front of the gate[vi]. So, near Suidōbashi a town called 吉祥寺門前町 Kichijōji Monzen-chō popped up. The town had a pretty sweet location near the river and main water supply of Edo.

A typical Monzencho.

Then Some Shit Went Down

・In 1657, the Meireki Fire happened.
・Edo was burnt to shit.
・Kichijō-ji itself was burnt to shit.
・The town of Kichijōji Monzen-chō was burnt to shit.

The Meireki Conflagration lasted 3 days and literally incinerated about 70% of Edo.
More than 100,000 lives were lost.
It’s easy to look at this as an historical event with dispassionate eyes.
But this was such a large scale tragedy that it permanently change the face of Edo-Tokyo.

Because of its sweet-ass location, the shōgunate wanted to repurpose the land for daimyō mansions. So they offered monetary incentives to the residents of Kichijōji Monzenchō to entice them to move to 多摩郡 Tama-gun Tama County[vii]. Under the purview of some 浪士 rōshi masterless samurai, most of the community was moved to present day Kichijōji. They brought the name with them but they couldn’t bring the temple.

The shōgunate relocated the temple Kichijō-ji to nearby 本駒込 Hon-Komagome, also in modern Bunkyō Ward. The temple was rebuilt and it still stands today.

The main gate to Kichijo-ji in Bunkyo.
For those of you who don’t believe me, it’s clearly written right there on the stone pillar!

The modern temple isn’t much to look at, but they’re a pretty major land holder in Tokyo.
That’s prime real estate, my friend.

These days, it’s not a well-known temple around Tōkyō. Most people have no idea that “the real Kichijōji” is here. But the local residents definitely know about it. And the temple cares for a decent sized cemetery, which includes the grave of Ninomiya Sontoku, an Edo Period “peasant economist” dude whom I’ve never heard of, but I’ve seen countless statues and representations of him all over the place. Never realized who he was until today. Wow. Ya learn something every day, huh?

Little Edo Period boy with a backpack reading while walking = Ninomiya Sontoku.
An ubiquitous image around Japan.

Eventually, the little boy reading a book while walking died.
This is his grave.

Of course, today when you say Kichijōji, everyone thinks of the vibrant city in Mitaka famous for reasonable shopping, a quasi-Bohemian lifestyle, and the fabulous 井ﾉ頭公園 Inokashira Park[viii]. But we know better now, don’t we? The real Kichijō-ji is in central Tōkyō and that famous Kichijōji is a freaking poseur. And now you’re armed with enough useless trivia about this subject to shock and bore Japanese people to pieces at parties[ix].

I haven’t been to Kichijōji in about 2 years. I used to live in Nakano and was so easy to get there that I often headed out that way just to relax and explore the town. Writing this has made me feel a little nostalgic for the area and all the time I spent there. May have to head out there again soon[x].

This turned up in a random Google search for Kichijoji.

[i] Also known as Edo Castle, ie; the present Imperial Palace.

[ii] Henceforth, I shall refer to the town as Kichijōji and the temple as Kichijō-ji.

[iii] Maybe someone who knows more about Japanese Buddhism in the early modern era could help me out here. Yoroshiku ne!

[iv] If you’re a long time reader of Japan This, you’ll know what a maru is. If you’re new to here, you might want to see my article on Marunouchi. You might also want to check out the explanation at JCastle.info and his Edo Castle Project – which is totally bad ass. Japanese Castle Explorer also has a nice piece on Edo Castle.

[v] My guess is expanding the castle was a priority and he probably saw having temples and shrines on the castle grounds as security risks. The reigns of the first 3 shōguns weren’t the most stable of times.

[vi] Literally 門前 monzen in front of the gate 町 chō town. See my article on Monzen-Nakachō.

[vii] Pronounced /ˈist ˈbʌtfʌk / for you linguistics nerds.

[viii] And yes, some people think of the Studio Ghibili Museum which we’re not going to talk about. Sorry, Ghibili nerds.

[ix] Kind of like my party trick of listing all 15 Tokugawa shōguns in order. And my new party trick of listing their posthumous names in order after that for added effect.

[x] But definitely not to see the Ghibili Museum.

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What does Hatsudai mean?

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Ōedo Line: Toshimaen

What does Kitami mean?

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Setagaya and its Freaky Horse Fetish

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The Kanda River

What does Dokanyama mean?

What does Sendagi mean?

What does Sendagaya mean?

What does Edo mean?

What does Kichijoji mean?

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Posts Tagged ‘ota dokan’

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