Across from the Palaceside Building, in the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, a scale model of Edo Castle’s keep has been on public view since this autumn. The Imperial Household Agency made it as part of the government’s tourism strategy. It was originally due to go on display this spring, but the pandemic delayed it.
Enter at Hirakawamon and head for the Honmaru. A 1/30 model stands in the building next to the Honmaru rest house. From the stone base it is about two meters high. Most of it is wood; gold shachihoko and family crests and other ornaments were made with a 3D printer. Design and fabrication cost 50 million yen, the exhibition room 54 million—more than 100 million yen in all.
Edo Castle’s keep was rebuilt three times in the first 50 years of the Edo period. The model is the last keep, built by the third shogun, Iemitsu Tokugawa, and completed in 1638 in the Kan’ei era. Only 19 years later, in 1657, the Great Meireki Fire burned it to the ground.
Five stories plus the stone base came to about 60 meters—the equivalent of a 20-story building. It was the tallest castle keep in Japan, looking down over the town of Edo. A fourth rebuild got only as far as the stone platform and was stopped. The keep was no longer needed militarily; rebuilding the town lost to the fire was given priority.
If Edo Castle’s keep had stood into our day.... The view from the Palaceside Building would have been even more gorgeous. Then again, Godzilla films wrecked Nagoya Castle and Osaka Castle, so Edo Castle might have taken damage too (a wild fancy—forgive us).