on the right.
We begin with the third of these attractions, River City 21. It has been indicated that once there were two islands, Ishikawajima and Tsukuda-jima, which are now joined. The former Ishikawa-jima is the northern half of the present island. Here the shogun’s master of ships had his land in the 17th century, and here in 1854 the Mito branch of the Tokugawa built a modern shipyard. It became the first shipyard to launch a Western-style ship in 1876, and this small ship-building factory became the predecessor to the Ishikawajima Harima Heavy Industries, now relocated to the east of this area. Beginning in the 1980s, the factory and warehouse sites were cleared, and the new River City 21 appeared. This fascinating complex of high-rise apartments and office buildings is set in a park-like, landscaped area with a river promenade on three sides. Its architecture is strikingly modern, and thus this part of the tour should begin at exit number four of the Tsukishima subway station. This brings one to Kiyosumi-dori, and one should walk to the north away from the overhead highway. After a few short streets one reaches the new complex on the left, just before the bridge that crosses over the Sumida River into the Fukagawa district of Tokyo. Steps or a ramp can be mounted to the park that encircles the River City 21 buildings on three sides, with a riverside promenade below at the water’s edge. These 40-story buildings are also home to some of the most sought-after rental condominiums in Tokyo. A park, Tsukuda Koen, lies in front of these high-rise structures, and a lighthouse remains on its western side as a memorial to the beacon of the mid-19th century that once guided ships into the port of Edo. The new complex sits on a raised site above the dangers of tidal floods, whereas the older section of the island, closer to the subway line and main east-west street, are protected by high flood walls. A small canal separates River City 21 from the former Tsukuda fisherman’s area, and thus a sluice in the riverfront with a red gate serves to control the waters of the Sumida River from flooding the canal at times of high water.
In their home near Osaka, the fisherman had worshipped the deity of the great Sumiyoshi Shrine. That shrine had been created by the Empress Jingu, who was deeply indebted to Sumiyoshi, the god of the sea. It seems that when the empress, then quite pregnant but determined to conquer Korea, made war against that country, Sumiyoshi had served as the pilot of her ship. When a huge storm threatened the survival of the ship and passengers, the god had a school of large fish support the boat in the high seas. Thus those involved with the sea are always beholden to Sumiyoshi, the deity of safety at sea. As a result, there are some 2,000 branch shrines of the Osaka main shrine throughout Japan. This small shrine is one representative. A large copper-plated torii provides an entrance to the shrine, with its unpainted and aged wooden buildings, and down the residential street beyond this first torii is a second stone torii. Behind it to the right is a traditional fountain for the cleansing of hands and mouth before approaching the Haiden, the Worship Hall, and the Honden, the Spirit Hall, of the shrine. Both these buildings have a copper-plated roof with the traditional chigi beams, a common feature in Shinto structures, to hold the roof in place, and they are joined by a roofed corridor or room. Thus the architecture of the shrine is typical of all Sumiyoshi shrines.
Smaller shrine units lie before the Haiden on the left and right side, while to the left of the Honden is an unusual brick kura (storage building) standing in front of and adjoining a traditional white plastered kura. The large inscribed katsuozuka (literally “bonito mound”) stone on the grounds, behind the purification fountain, is a memorial to the fish that are caught each year for the Tsukidani delicacy, and services are held here in their memory annually. A kagura stage for religious dances is on the right side of the grounds. Aside from the usual stone lanterns, a pair of koma-inu (Korean lion-dogs) stand guard on either side of the path behind the stone torii. Kura to store the portable mikoshi used in shrine festivals are on the grounds. The Sumiyoshi Festival, which occurs on the first weekend in August every third year, is always a fascinating event. Then the octagonal mikoshi holding the god spirit is paraded through the streets behind a huge, golden lion’s head. Traditionally, the mikoshi was brought to the river where it was partially immersed as a part of the procession, but since 1962 the flood walls built to protect the island have precluded this part of the festivities. Instead, the mikoshi is now paraded on a barge and doused with water as part of the festival, the offering of water to the deities being seen as religiously efficacious.
Since the shogun brought the fisherman from Osaka to Edo, they attempted to show their appreciation to him by having their shrine face toward the shogun’s castle, and on festival days huge banners were raised so as to attract the attention of the denizens of the castle. Another festival related to Buddhist beliefs rather than to those of Shinto occurs each July 13, 14, and 15 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., when the residents of the area dance the traditional Bon Odori dance that is a part of the Buddhist festivity to honor the spirits of the deceased who return to this world for a few brief days each summer. Of interest also are the number of traditional wooden homes that still exist near the shrine, buildings that were fortunate enough to be spared in the 1923 earthquake and fire and then the 1945 fire bombings. The narrow streets and alleyways still retain some of the original fishermen’s houses, though many have been modernized or replaced entirely so that the flavor of the old fishermen’s quarter is gradually being lost. In addition, the old lighthouse that once guided ships to port now stands dwarfed by the very tall, high-rise apartments, a monument to times past.
4 DUTCH LEARNING AREA
Returning to the elevated highway under which the Yurakucho subway line runs, one must climb a set of stairs to the Tsukudaohashi Bridge to return to the Tsukiji mainland area. Until 1964 the only access to this island was by means of a ferry, which had existed from 1645 to 1964, for neither a bridge nor the later subway reached the island from Tsukiji, albeit the island had been connected by bridge to Fukagawa to the north since early in the 1900s. At the western end of the more recent bridge is a memorial stone recalling the ferry that traversed the river for so many centuries. In the early 1990s another novel bridge connected Tsukuda with the mainland, its single, inverted Y-shaped tower supporting the roadway over the river by means of cables. The Sumida River, a stream for pleasure boats with restaurants along the banks in centuries past, became less than desirable during the 20th century. Commercial and industrial sites took away the pleasurable aspects of the waterway, and then the high flood waters coursing in from the bay in the later 1940s led to the construction of the tall flood walls that effectively cut out any view of the waterway from riverside restaurants. In the last decades of the 20th century, this despoiling of the river was being reversed as new, modern buildings, many of them high-rise units, appeared along the banks of the Sumida. Attempts are being made as well to create promenades on the river side of the flood walls from the Tsukiji area up through Asakusa so as to return the waterfront to public enjoyment once more.
Once across the bridge, one is in an area that belonged to the Matsudaira lords. The whole sector was part of the retirement estate of Matsudaira Sadanobu in the 1700s, an area ennobled by the huge palace-residence of this important family. While nothing remains of the estate today, a remembrance of the Matsudaira palace with its outbuildings can be seen in a large model at the Edo-Tokyo Museum. Today the area has changed tremendously, but historic markers to Dutch Learning are encountered as the walk continues, and it may be well to provide some background to these markers. Here on Sadanobu’s estate began a process that was to transform Japanese medicine, and which is in part remembered by the memorial stones in the neighborhood. Japanese medicine had always relied upon Chinese learning for its basic beliefs, but beginning in the 1770s this was to change drastically. A handful of Japanese physicians realized that much could be learned from Western sources: first, from the few Dutch medical books available to them, and then from the advice in the early 1800s of a Dutch physician, Philipp Franz van Siebold. The culmination came at the end of the 19th century, when St. Luke’s Hospital was established—a hospital that exists still.
In 1770, Maeno Ryotaku, a physician and a retainer of the Matsudaira, journeyed to Nagasaki, where he was able to obtain a copy of a Dutch book on anatomy, Ontleedkundige Tafelen. Ryotaku had studied under Aoki Konyo, one of the early students of Dutch learning in Japan, and thus he already knew of this Dutch anatomy text. The only type of foreign books available in Japan were those in Dutch, often surreptitiously provided through the Dutch station at Dejima Island in Nagasaki due to the shogun’s ban on anything foreign. Ryotaku, who had learned a smattering of Dutch, had developed a curiosity for greater European learning.