Moat No More: “Paulownia Garden at Akasaka”

Set at Tameike Pond, “Paulownia Garden at Akasaka” is the forty-eighth print in Utagawa Hiroshige’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. Today, the paulownia and pond are gone, having been replaced by a river of asphalt.

One Hundred Famous Views of Edo by Kichiya, the Ukiyo Photographer: Today’s Tokyo Through Hiroshige’s Eyes

Meisho Edo hyakkei, known in the West as One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, was one of ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Hiroshige’s most celebrated works, influencing even Western artists like Van Gogh and Monet. Drawn in Hiroshige’s final years and published from 1856 to 1861, the series depicted the sights of Edo (as Tokyo was then known) through the changing seasons. Audiences around the world admired Hiroshige’s inventive use of bold compositions, bird’s-eye-view perspectives, and vivid colors. A century and a half later, “ukiyo photographer” Kichiya has set himself the task of recreating each of these views with a photograph taken in the same place, at the same time of year, from the same angle. Join us in this new series at Nippon.com on a tour of these “famous views” in Edo and modern-day Tokyo, guided by Kichiya’s artistry and his knowledge of old maps and life in Edo.

The Trees that Held a Lake Together

Lightweight and water-absorbent, the wood of the paulownia is used in Japan for everything from elaborate chest of drawers to geta sandals. The tree itself is resilient, too—chop one down and new shoots will quickly grow from the stump.

Paulownia were planted around Tameike Pond, an artificial lake in the capital fed by an underground spring, early in the Edo period (1603–1868). Preventing erosion of the shore was probably the goal, but the trees came to be admired as a famous view in their own right.

Hiroshige’s print, characteristically dominated by a tree in the foreground, shows the lake at dawn during the rainy season when the paulownia flowers come into bloom. In the background is the hill where Hie Shrine, the traditional spiritual protector of Edo Castle affectionately known as Sannō-san, stands.

Tameike Pond served as a source of drinking water, but it was gradually filled in as the Kanda and Tamagawa aqueducts were completed. By the end of the Meiji period (1868–1912), it was completely gone. Today the area is a roadway and not a single paulownia remains.

I took my picture early one morning in the rainy season. I managed to find a spot near the Sannōshita intersection where the curve of the road echoed the arc of Tameike Pond in Hiroshige’s print. A roadside tree stood in nicely for his foreground paulownia, so I was at least able to recreate the original composition. Few cars were on the streets so early, which also helped recapture some of the stillness of the scene.

About the Location

Tameike Pond served both as a moat for Edo Castle and a drinking water supply for denizens of the capital. The name Tameike remained attached to the area for some time after the pond itself was filled in, but in 1966 this too was eliminated. Today, it can still be seen in the name of the Toei bus stop at the corner of Sotobori and Roppongi Street and in the more widely known Tameike-Sannō Station on the Tokyo Metro. The neighborhood around the station is full of office buildings, with the Prime Minister’s Office and Cabinet Office not far away.

tourism Tokyo ukiyo-e One Hundred Famous Views of Edo by Kichiya Kantō Minato-ku