Читать книгу Tokyo a Cultural Guide - John H. Martin - Страница 10

AS THE capital of Japan, Tokyo has its legislative chambers and its massive bureaucratic offices as major aspects of contemporary life. Few countries are as controlled by their bureaucracy as is Japan, and most of Japan's government offices are clustered about the National Diet Building. The area geographically falls into two districts: Nagatacho, whose center is the Diet Building and the offices of political parties; and Kasumigaseki, where the governmental offices and ministries and the first skyscraper of modern Tokyo, the thirty-six-story Kasumigaseki Building, are located. Kasumigaseki derives its name from the seki, or fourteenth century guarded barrier that once existed in this quarter. It was poetically named the Kasumi barrier, the "Barrier of the Mists," a name that is perhaps appropriate even today for a government quarter.

Behind the political center of Tokyo and of Japan, situated on one of those fingers of hills which stretch into shitamachi, is the Sanno Hie Shrine, a Shinto shrine of great antiquity which served to protect the shogun's capital and perhaps still protects governmental affairs today. It was the locus of one of the three great celebrations that enlivened old Edo, a festive few days which are still enjoyed by modern Tokyo residents every other year when the festival brings a colorful procession and excitement to the city.

Below the Hie Shrine, in the flat land spreading from the Diet Building to Akasaka Mitsuke, is an area where the politicians and reporters, and today the minions of the television studios, continue to find places for relaxation, gossip, and the making of political deals. Much of this activity has always taken place in expensive restaurants on side streets off Sotobori-dori, the main street running through Akasaka and once the outer moat of the castle grounds. Here too are the luxurious New Otani and Akasaka Prince hotels with their striking architecture.

Hanzomon Station on the subway line of the same name is where this tour begins, and it starts where the previous tour ended. From the subway station to the main Shinjuku-dori street which runs from the palace grounds to the west, the most striking element in this part of Tokyo is the nine-story 1984 Wacoal Kojimachi Building of architect Kisho Kurokawa. As buildings go, it is not as tall and overpowering as some of the recent skyscrapers in the city, but its architectural design is striking. It has been described by some as an oversized sewing machine (not inappropriate considering the lingerie manufacturer whose main office this is). From a distance the design on its east side gives the appearance of having a baleful eye near the top of the building— or so it is claimed Emperor Showa regarded it, for the building peers over the palace grounds. Synthetic marble and aluminum bands cover the facade of the structure, and the canopy over its entrance has been described as a giant flying saucer. The lobby of the building is interestingly decorated with mosaics from China, Korea, and Japan, and the reception area on the ninth floor is striking with its high domed ceiling. Exhibits are frequently on display, and the building has an art deco theater and a cafe-lounge.

Turning to the right on Uchibori-dori (Inner Moat Street), which runs along the palace moat, one comes to the National Theater (Kokuritsu Gekijo). This 1983 edifice provided the nation with its first state-owned theater, a center which offers productions of traditional Japanese performing arts. The theater sits on a rise, and its reinforced concrete structure is built in the azekura (log cabin) style of the Shosoin treasury of Nara, that 1,300-year-old wooden storehouse which the exterior of this building imitates. The theater has two auditoriums, the larger one to the left, seating 1,764, is primarily for Kabuki productions and for Gagaku (court music). The smaller auditorium, to the right, has 630 seats and is meant for Bunraku, Kyogen (farce), and other traditional forms of Japanese dance, music, and theater. The L-shaped lobby contains displays pertaining to Japanese theater, ranging from scrolls concerned with everything from ancient performing arts to costumes. These may be viewed between 10:00 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. Adjacent is the Engei Hall, a smaller more intimate theater seating three hundred, which offers Rakugo and other forms of traditional story telling or comedy.

Just beyond the National Theater is the 1974 Supreme Court of Japan (Saiko Saibansho), an austere white, granite building which was designed by Shinichi Okada, who had studied architecture at Yale University. Many people find the interior of the building to be somewhat overwhelming. The building has the appearance of a bunker where justice has hunkered down, a not-too-inviting structure. Perhaps in contrast to this less than graceful and almost windowless building, at the corner in front of the edifice is a piece of sculpture of three young nude female figures in bronze—an art form that would hardly have been accepted in the decades and centuries before 1950. They complement the statue of three nude male figures in the park alongside the moat just to the left of the point where Shinjuku-dori meets Uchiboridori, across from the Wacoal Building.

Continuing along Uchibori-dori, at the crossroad on the right one approaches the Miyake-zaka slope that the overhead Shuto Expressway mounts. At this crossroad, abandon the moat and Uchibori-dori, which diverge to the left, and head under the Shuto Expressway into the street leading to the National Diet Building, passing the headquarters of the Socialist Party of Japan on the right. This area bore a more military outlook prior to 1945, for here after 1870 was located the War Ministry while the headquarters of the General Staff Officers sat where the Parliamentary Museum is now located. Behind these structures was the official residence of the Minister of War. For a period after 1945 this area held the office of the U.S. Occupation Chief of Staff. In the years since the Second World War these various military units have been replaced by more peaceful and democratic structures.

On the left along this street toward the Diet Building is the Parliamentary Museum (Kensei Kinenkan), which is open without charge from 9:30 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. (last entry at 3:30 P.M.) but is closed on Saturdays, Sundays, national holidays, the last day of each month, and from December 27 through January 4. The museum was established in 1972 to commemorate the establishment of the Diet a century earlier. The first floor (as the building is approached from Uchibori-dori) contains the 1960 Ozaki Memorial Hall (Ozaki Yukio Kinenkan), which commemorates Ozaki Yukio (1859-1954), who was a member of parliament starting with the session of the first Diet in 1890 and who served in the Diet for sixty-three years. A fearless opponent of the military in the 1920s and 1930s, he stood for parliamentary government at a time when it was being undermined by the Japanese military. He was also responsible for the gift in 1912 of the cherry trees which grace the parks of Washington, D.C. The adjacent main portion of the Parliamentary Museum offers a model of the Diet on the second floor which is accompanied by an audio-visual slide presentation in Japanese and English detailing the development of parliamentary democracy in Japan and the vicissitudes the building and democracy have faced through the years. Special exhibitions are 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 two below-ground levels. It is open daily without charge from 9:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. except Sundays, national holidays, and the last day of each month. The National Diet library has thirty branch libraries.

Ahead on the street we have been following lies the massive three-story National Diet Building (Kokkai Gijido) 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 Building is a small classical Roman temple, which covers the Water Level Bench Mark 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 above the level of the Sumida River. Between the temple and the Parliamentary Museum is a plaza with a long pool with fountains, and beside it are three metal shafts one hundred feet tall supporting a clock. This area is on a height above and overlooking the Sakurada-mon gate of the palace and the governmental offices below.

The National Diet Building stands on the site of the mansion of Lord Ii, the leading minister of the Tokugawa Shogun in the 1850s. With his guards, Lord Ii was cut down not far from here at the Sakurada-mon gate at the entrance to the castle grounds in 1860. A park or plaza, as mentioned above, stands before the Diet Building with a 164-foot-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, one Western-style and one Japanese-style, both created in 1964.

The granite and marble Diet Building with a central clock tower rising 200 feet above the entry portals was begun in 1920, the architects being Yoshikuni Okuma and Kenkichi Yabashi, but it was not completed until 1937. From the front of the building, the House of Councillors, with 250 seats, is on the right while the House of Representatives, with 467 seats, is on the left. Before the Second World War, the House of Councillors 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 Visitors' Gallery when the Diet is in session may be obtained from one's embassy in advance of the date of visit. It is possible to enter the grounds alone by requesting permission from the office at the rear of the Diet Building. Visiting hours are generally from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. (last entry at 4:30 P.M.) except for Saturdays, Sundays, and national holidays, depending on whether the Diet is in session.

To the south and east of the Diet Building are the many offices of the national government. Some thirty such offices lie to either side of Sakurada-dori, which runs southwest from the Sakuradamon gate of the Imperial Palace. Further south is the thirty-six-story Kasumigaseki Building, Tokyo's first skyscraper, built in 1968. 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 the Ministry of Finance Building on the right. Turning to the right on Sakurada-dori and following this street as it bends to the right, one comes on to Sotobori-dori at Toranomon. The Kasumigaseki Building lies to the right. The observation platform atop the building may be visited from 10:00 A.M. to 9:30 P.M. daily. Entry fee. It offers one of the finer panoramic views of the city.

Toranomon (Tiger Gate) 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 lowland below two hills, land which was originally a marshland when Tokyo Bay extended close to the castle grounds. Here was a lake, Tame-ike, the name of the intersection along Sotobori-dori to the west today. Once a weir and a dam stood here so as 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 Sotobori-dori, which here leads to Akasaka Mitsuke.

Continuing along Sotobori-dori, the Shuto Expressway crosses overhead at Roppongi-dori. An optional diversion, although somewhat lengthy, 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 which even boasts a waterfall and a model Venetian gondola in its lobby. Here, too, is the Suntory Concert Hall seating two thousand people, a part of the Ark Hills development along with the hotel, restaurants, office space, and luxury apartments.