Summary of the May 8 Lecture
"Walking Around the Imperial Palace: An Iconographic Review",
by Dr. Raffaele A. Roncalli
The May meeting was glittering with ambassadors, as it was attended by their
excellencies from France, Israel, the Netherlands and Thailand, not forgetting
our own President (Ambassador of Greece). The interesting presentation was
illustrated with slides from two projectors.
Dr. Roncalli began by stating that his subject had been covered once before
in the ASJ; in 1877 Thomas McClatchie had spoken on "The Castle of
Yedo", and his paper was to be found in Vol. 6 of the First Series
of the ASJ Transactions, and was still a good source of information. The
castle was built by Ohta Dohkan in 1456-57 on the site of three villages
on swampy ground. Ohta was assassinated in 1486, and the castle was taken
over by the Hohjoh family in 1524. The Hohjohs were overthrown by Toyotomi
Hideyoshi, who gave the eight Kantoh provinces to Tokugawa Ieyasu; Ieyasu
moved to Edo in 1590, and the family occupied the castle until 1868. He
undertook works to expand the castle in 1593, and after his death in 1616
these were completed by his son. The third shogun, Iemitsu, began the construction
of the outer moat in 1636, and this was finished in 1661. Meanwhile the
castle was damaged by an earthquake in 1647, and part of it, including the
Tenshukaku (which was never rebuilt) was destroyed in the great Meireki
fire of 1657; there was further earthquake damage in 1703, and fire damage
in 1772 and 1844-1863. With the Meiji Restoration, the emperor moved from
Kyoto to Edo on November 27th, 1868; the name of Edo was changed to Tokyo,
and the castle, which had also sometimes been known as the Chiyoda Castle,
was renamed Tokyo Castle. Another fire destroyed the emperor's residence
in 1873; this was rebuilt as the Meiji Palace in 1888, and from that time
Tokyo Castle became known as the Imperial Palace. The great Earthquake of
1923 brought down several gates, including the Ohtemon and the Hanzohmon,
and the Meiji Palace was destroyed by fire following the air-raid of May
26th, 1945. In 1963 the Tohkagakudoh music hall was built in Kitanomaru
for the birthday of the present Empress Dowager, and in 1968 the reconstruction
of the Kyuuden (Imperial Palace) was completed.
After this brief historical introduction Dr. Roncalli proceeded to show
his slides, first of the bronze statue of Ohta Dohkan by Asakura Fumio.
Then came pictures of Hideyoshi, Ieyasu and Iemitsu from originals in the
possession of Tokyo University, and a picture of Hideyoshi from Yoshitoshi's
series "100 Aspects of the Moon" of 1888. Then the Emperor Meiji
and Empress Shohken, the Emperor Taishoh and Empress Teimei, and the late
Emperor with Empress Nagako were shown. The first view of the castle itself
came from a screen painted in the 17th century before the Meireki fire and
now in the Sakura City museum, but after that there was a ban on reproducing
the whole castle for reasons of security. We also saw 17th-century maps
of Edo showing the castle. Fanciful representations of Edo were seen in
travellers' pictures appearing as illustrations in books and magazines.
A triptych executed by Hiroshige III in 1888 showed the new Meiji Palace,
and postcards showed the same building together with the fountain which
survived the air-raid, and the stateroom and other interior views. An "ukiyoe"
by Adachi Jinkoh showed the Prime Minister reading the new constitution
to the emperor on February 11th, 1899, and the details of the interior decoration
seen in this picture were clearly repeated in another triptych. There is
a striking contrast between the ornate European style of this palace and
the present palace, which is very simple, in pure Japanese style.
Proceeding to the area outside the palace, we saw first the Sakuradamon
(originally called the Outer Sakuradamon, while the inner one is the Kikyohmon)
in a 1905 picture with the arch commemorating the victory in the Russo-Japanese
War in the foreground. A second picture was a winter scene from Koizumi
Kishoh's "100 Pictures of Tokyo in Showa". It was by this gate
that Ii Naosuke was assassinated in 1860, and this was shown in a print
by Yoshitoshi. Proceeding in a clockwise direction, an early photograph
of the moat by Felice Beato was contrasted with a picture of the same scene
by Hiroshige I, a winter scene of the same by Hiroshige II in his "36
Views of Edo", and another by Ikkei (including Ii Naosuke's mansion);
this last picture contained many people and showed the change in the styles
of dress, whereas that of Hiroshige I had no people, and that of Hiroshige
II only a few. The next picture was a lithograph made by G.V. Cappelletti
in 1881 of a government building which in 1882 became the headquarters of
the general staff until it was destroyed in the 1945 bombing. In this area,
close to the Diet, there is a weeping willow tree, shown by a well in an
old picture; Dr. Roncalli also showed a slide he had taken the day before
of the same tree, though the well was overgrown. There had been a statue
of Prince Arisugawa in front of the staff headquarters; it survived the
bombing and now stands in front of the Metropolitan Library in Arisugawa
Park. This area of the moat has been greatly changed because of the building
of the expressway alongside.
The Hanzohmon is one of the oldest gates, and a print in the "100 Views
of Edo" series shows the "Sannoh matsuri", held on June 15th
by the Hie Jinja in Sannoh, in which the shogun rode to Hanzohmon in a procession
headed by a rooster on a drum. Other pictures by Yoshitoshi ("100 Aspects
of the Moon") and Chikanobu (1889 print) showed an elephant also in
the procession. (It has been whimsically suggested that the name Hanzohmon
comes from the fact that the gate is only half the width of an elephant!
Other suggestions link it with ninja.) A 1930 picture by Koizumi shows cormorants
on pine trees on the palace side of the moat. The birds killed the trees,
and there are now dogwood trees there, of which Dr. Roncalli showed his
own slide; the cormorants have been driven away by the highway.
One pleasurable experience in all ages has been walking around the castle
moat. Paul Claudel, the French ambassador from 1921 to 1927, used to walk
every day, and wrote a famous poem about it, while another Frenchman, Noel
Nouet, made prints and drawings. In April one can walk under the cherry
tree avenue along Chidorigafuchi to Kudan, where one comes to the Yasukuni
Jinja, a shrine originally established in 1869 as a memorial ("shohkonsha")
to those who died in the fighting accompanying the Meiji Restoration, but
given its present name in 1879. In the outer precincts there is a bronze
statue of Ohmura Masujiroh, victor in the battle against the Tokugawa partisans
in Ueno and later the first Minister of War (assassinated in 1869). It was
in this area that the first horserace in Tokyo took place, and a triptych
of 1871 has an inscription with the first use of the word "keiba";
racing became so popular that the Emperor built a racecourse at Ueno. In
those days one could still see the sea from Kudan, and a print by Ikkei
showed the old lighthouse there, while others by him and Hiroshige showed
the old tramway. In 1882 a museum was built there by Cappelletti, but it
was destroyed in the 1923 earthquake, and the present museum is in Chinese
style.
Proceeding further round, one comes to the Hirakawamon by the Palaceside
Building. This was the entrance formerly used by the "daimyo",
and has a wooden bridge reconstructed in the old style with "gibohshi".
The next gate is the Ohtemon, and then one comes to the Kikyohmon, of which
we saw a 1927 print by Yoshida Hiroshi. Going further along the Imperial
Palace Plaza one comes to the Sakashitamon, shown in a print by Kawase Hasui
and a Kobayashi Kiyochika print of the exit of the guard, while a triptych
showed the arrival of the Emperor Meiji from Kyoto. The last feature of
the Palace is the Nijuubashi. Here an old photo by Beato shows there were
two bridges giving the appearance of a bridge in two layers. In the Plaza
outside is an equestrian statue of Kusunoki Masashige, one of the "loyalists"
on the side of the Emperor Godaigo. On the far side of the Plaza is the
Daiichi Seimei Building, seen in a picture by Nouet, and onetime headquarters
of General Douglas MacArthur, commander of the US occupation forces in Japan
after World War II, who was shown in a print by S.K. Kanmei. Final slides
showed scenes of the funeral of Meiji and the accession of Taishoh, with
state coaches which came from England, and the last picture was a rendering
of the Nijuubashi by Onchi Kohshiroh.
A short question time followed, and then the meeting closed with a vote
of thanks proposed by the Thai ambassador, H.E. Mr. Chawat Arthayukti, who
noted that the scenes of the palace had special meaning for himself and
his colleagues, as they were presented to the Emperor there on their arrival.
Following the meeting, the assembled company had a chance to linger over
a glass of wine and "otsumami" snacks.
Adapted from "The
Asiatic Society of Japan Bulletin No. 6", June 1995, compiled by Hugh
Wilkinson.
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