portion of the Parliamentary Museum offers a model of the Diet on the second floor. The model is accompanied by an audiovisual slide presentation in Japanese and in English detailing the development of parliamentary democracy in Japan and the vicissitudes that the building and democracy have faced through the years. Special exhibitions are also presented from time to time.
Across the street from the Parliamentary Museum is the 1961 eight-story National Diet Library, with more than two million books in its six above-ground floors and its two below-ground levels. (It is open daily without charge from 9:30 to 7:00 p.m. [to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays] except Sundays, national holidays, and the third Wednesday of each month.) The National Diet library has 30 branch libraries.
Ahead on the street we have been following lies the massive three-story National Diet Building on the right. But first attention should be drawn to a small “temple” on the left in the park. On the hill below the Diet is a small classical Roman temple, which covers the Water Level Bench Repository. It is from this marker that the height of the Japanese plains and mountains are measured. The marker is set at 80.3 feet (24.1 meters) above the level of the Sumida River. Between the mini-temple and the Parliamentary Museum is a plaza with a long pool with fountains, and beside it are three metal shafts 100 feet (30 meters) tall supporting a clock. This area is on a height above and overlooking the Sakurada-mon Gate of the palace and the government offices below.
The National Diet Building (Kokkaigijido) stands on the site of the mansion of Lord Ii, the leading minister of the Tokugawa shogun in the 1850s, who, with his guards, was cut down not far from here at the Sakuradamon Gate entrance to the castle grounds in 1860. A park or plaza, as mentioned above, stands before the Diet, with a 164-foot (49.2-meter)-wide boulevard below it leading from the Sakurada-mon Gate and the Sakurada-bori moat of the Imperial Palace where Lord Ii was slain. There is a garden on either side of this boulevard, a Western-style and a Japanese-style garden, both created in 1964. Designed by the architects Yoshikuni Okuma and Kenkichi Yabashi, the granite and marble Diet Building, with a central clock tower rising 200 feet (60 meters) above the entry portals, was begun in 1920, but it was not completed until 1937. When facing the building, the House of Councilors, with 250 seats, is on the right, while the House of Representatives, with 467 seats, is on the left. Before World War II, the House of Councilors was the House of Peers, the Peers being the newly created nobility of the post-1868 Meiji years. The building is not open to the public, but it may be visited on the presentation of one’s passport and a letter of introduction from a member of the Diet—which is to say that entry is seldom possible. Entry to the Visitor’s Gallery when the Diet is in session may be obtained from one’s embassy in advance of the date of the visit. It is possible to enter the grounds alone by requesting permission from the office at the rear of the Diet Building. (Such visiting hours are generally from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. [last entry at 4:30] except for Saturdays, Sundays, and national holidays, depending on whether sessions of the Diet are in process.)
3 KASUMIGASEKI AND TORONOMON
To the south and east of the Diet Building are the many offices of the national government. Some 30 such offices lie to either side of Sakurada-dori, which runs southwest from the Sakurada-mon Gate of the Imperial Palace. Farther south is the 1968 Kasumigaseki Building, the first of Tokyo’s post-World War II skyscrapers and its first skyscraper of 36 floors. One reaches this structure by continuing along the street in front of the Diet Building and following that street as it bends slightly to the left. On the left one passes the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Building and on the right the Ministry of Finance Building. Turning to the right on Sakurada-dori and following this street as it bends to the right, one comes to Sotobori-dori at Toranomon. The Kasumigaseki Building lies to the right. With some 25 cafés and restaurants in its basement and lower floors, most open between 11:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m., the building is a good place to stop for a break on the tour.
The Toranomon (Tiger Gate) area supposedly received its name when, in the distant past, a Korean diplomatic mission exhibited a large tiger in a cage at this former gateway at the Sotobori Moat. This area of Sotobori-dori is in the low land below two hills and was originally a marshland when Tokyo Bay extended close to the castle grounds. Here was a lake, Tame-ike, which today is the name of the intersection along Sotobori-dori to the west. Once a weir and a dam stood here, the dam serving to back up waters to keep the Sotobori moat about the castle filled. With time the lake shrank, and in 1910 it was finally drained to create the street Sotobori-dori, which from here leads to Akasaka Mitsuke.
4 ARK HILLS AND THE OKURA MUSEUM
If one continues along Sotobori-dori, the Shuto Expressway crosses overhead at Roppongidori. An optional and somewhat lengthy diversion to the left on this walk can take one along Roppongi-dori to the Ark Hills development with the ANA Hotel Tokyo, a luxury hotel that boasts a waterfall and a model Venetian gondola in its lobby. Here, too, is the Suntory Concert Hall, seating 2,000 people, a part of the Ark Hills development along with the hotel, restaurants, office space, and luxury apartments. The more ambitious who take this side jaunt may wish to follow the street behind the ANA Hotel up to the Hotel Okura where the Okura Museum (Okura Shukokan) is located at its front entrance. (Open from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. but closed on Mondays, national holidays, and from December 29 through January 4; entry ¥800.) This museum, whose art objects were collected by Baron Okura, became the first private museum to open in Tokyo when it made its debut in 1917. Okura was a Meiji-era industrialist (armaments) who founded the Imperial Hotel and whose son founded the luxurious Okura Hotel. The museum was destroyed in the 1923 earthquake, but it was rebuilt in a Chinese style in 1928. The two floors of the museum display Baron Okura’s collection of ancient art from India, China, Tibet, and Japan as well as exquisite ceramics, sculptures, bronzes, costumes, and lacquer ware from its many diverse holdings. Exhibits run for three to four months before being changed.
On leaving the hotel, the street before the Okura can be taken to the right, passing the large United States Embassy complex. In 1884 this property, assessed at $25,000, was given by the Japanese government as a perpetual gift of friendship with the United States. (Nonetheless, six years later the United States gave the Meiji government $16,000 for the land.) This 1976 structure was designed by Cesar Pelli, and the arrangement of windows on one side gives the appearance of the American flag in stone and glass. Continuing down hill to the Toranomon intersection with Sotobori-dori, a turn to the left brings one back to the point before the Shuto Expressway where this diversion began.
5 HIE SHRINE
From here, continuing west on Sotobori-dori and taking the first street on the right, one soon crosses Roppongi-dori and then comes to the Prime Minister’s Residence on the left. Crossing the street and continuing straight, one passes the House of Representatives’ Office Building Number One. The street between it and Building Number Two should be taken downhill to the left, and this brings one to the upper level of the Hie Shrine. (The two office buildings are of an uninspired modern architectural style.)
The Hie Shrine was created in the year 830 and was located in the outer reaches of the future city of Edo, but in 1478 Ota Dokan removed it to the castle grounds as a spiritual protector for his stronghold. In 1607 Tokugawa Ieyasu moved it to the hill to the west of the castle, land on which the Supreme Court now stands, so as to protect the castle from the southeast in the same manner that the Kan’eiji Temple in Ueno protected the castle from the northeast. After the shrine burned to the ground in the Long Sleeves Fire of 1657, it was eventually rebuilt at its present site in the highly decorated gongen style favored by the Tokugawas. Its main façade faced the castle. Here it not only acted as a protector of the castle but served as the site for worship of the deity who protected the Tokugawa family. Each Tokugawa infant was brought to the shrine shortly after its birth to be blessed by the shrine deity. The Hie Shrine was the largest Shinto shrine in Edo in Tokugawa days, and it was given its name from the fact that it is a branch of the Hiyoshi (Hie) Shrine in Kyoto. (Open October to March from 6:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and from April to September from 5:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. No entry charge.)
The main building at Hie Shrine, starting point of the Sanno Matsuri, one of Tokyo’s great festivals
The shrine was destroyed in the fire bombings of 1945, and it was recreated