Hidden in the grove behind the rest area in Kitanomaru Park, right near Palaceside Building, stands a monument to the 1st Imperial Guard Infantry Regiment. The Imperial Guard Division, including the 1st and 2nd Imperial Guard Infantry Regiments, was once stationed here. The building that served as division headquarters is now the National Museum of Modern Art, Crafts Gallery — as many readers will know. The 1st Imperial Guard Infantry Regiment grew out of the Imperial Guard troops led by Saigo Takamori; it was the Japanese Army's first infantry regiment and an honored unit guarding the Imperial Palace and the imperial family. Both Emperor Taisho and Emperor Showa belonged to it as crown princes.
The Takebashi Barracks that housed the 1st and 2nd Imperial Guard Infantry Regiments
had Tokyo's oldest clock tower on its roof. Completed in 1874 (Meiji 7), the tower became a new landmark symbolizing civilization and Westernization in the Meiji era. Clock towers and clock buildings then sprang up across Japan. The famous Sapporo Clock Tower was completed in 1878 (Meiji 11) — four years after Takebashi's. Neither the barracks nor the tower survives today, but had they remained, they would surely have become one of Takebashi's symbols alongside the Crafts Gallery.