In this article, I’ll talk about Edo Castle, the NPO (non-profit organization) that wants to rebuild it, and what some people in Japan think about it. Then I’ll share some of my ideas for Japan’s “THAT PLACE.”

Is Edo Castle the symbol of Japan?

You’ve probably heard that Tokyo will be hosting the 2020 Olympics. Naturally, the Olympics will provide an excellent tourism opportunity for the island country, and one organization is hoping to use 2020 as a grand unveiling of their project: The NPO江戸城再建 (Rebuilding Edo Castle NPO) aims to garner enough consensus and financial backing to rebuild what used to be the tallest part of the former Edo castle city-compound.

To get an idea of how big this area was, visit this fascinating page at JCastle. Edo Castle’s outer moat stretched 15 km, while the inner moat was 5 km long. Without stopping for anything, it’d take you about 3 hours to walk the outer moat and 1 hour for the inner one.

Modern-day Tokyo does not have a castle. There’s the Imperial Palace in Chiyoda ward where the royal family lives. There’s a moat and a kind of mini-castle called the Fujimi-yagura. But neither of these are a castle fortress like Nagoya or Osaka’s, and those behemoths are only around half the height of Edo-jo’s tallest tower.

Like a lot of historic places in Japan, the original Edo-jo location didn’t change as much as the important buildings themselves did. Edo was established in the 11th century, but it wasn’t until 1457 that the place got a proper compound and was called a “castle.” This Edo-jo landed in the lap of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Ever ambitious, he devised a large-scale expansion of Edo which included a 59 m. high donjon (central tower). It got built, alright. And then was destroyed, and rebuilt, and destroyed, and rebuilt, and destroyed one last time in the 1657 Meireki Fire. It is said that when the flames spread from the donjon to the surrounding Edo urbanity, 100,000 people died — a fifth of Edo’s population.

Rebuilding the Castle

According to the NPO’s website, after the fire, the shogun’s half-uncle insisted that “Giving relief to the disaster victims and to rebuilding the districts of Edo come first. So forget the tower.” But the shogun and others were so prepared and ready to fund a third rebuilding of the tower that they managed to reconstruct the stone base before coming around to their senses.

And that was it. The tower didn’t get rebuilt. It had stood, then fallen, rinse and repeat, for a mere 50 years of the shogunate’s 250 year government. So then why does this NPO, founded in 2004, want to rebuild this unlucky central turret?

They assert that Edo-jo is necessary to “give future Japanese a historical legacy that is representative of Japan’s traditional and unique spirit” and which would attract visitors from around the world “with its charm and vibrancy”. They argue that currently, tourists mostly come through Tokyo, but when they do, all they get to see is Asakusa or Akiba, “And that’s a little sad, isn’t it?” The really cool stuff is all at a distance from the metropolitan hub.

Their plan is to rebuild a historically accurate 6-floor citadel on the same old pedestal that never got a purpose (except distressing OCD tourists with its mis-matched bricks). The costs would be around 40-50 billion yen (400-500 million USD), and would have to get special permissions for: 1) being such a tall wooden structure, 2) looming over the residence of the imperial family, and 3) being rebuilt on the yet-untouched, unexcavated pedestal remains.

Japan’s Thoughts on Edo-jo

Though the NPO has existed for nearly ten years, in the wake of the recent Olympics news, an Asahi Shinbun article described the Rebuild NPO Project. Japanese responses were various. Let’s start with one that will give you Deja Vu (remember the shogun’s uncle?) :

「そんな無駄金あったら震災復興に使えよ」 “If you’ve got that kind of money to waste, then use it for the recovery of disaster-struck areas.” —Anonymous

Move on to those concerned about taxes:

「寄付だけでやるなら反対はしない。税金は一切使うなよ！」“If they do it solely on donations, then I have nothing against it. But don’t you dare use a penny of my tax!” —Anonymous

Stop at the dream door:

「…東京に江戸城とかカッコヨクね？え。なんでみんな批判てきなんだろう。めっちゃカッコイイじゃん。たぶん、超みんな行くと思う。おれ、めっちゃ行きたいもん。」 “…Wouldn’t it be cool to have an Edo castle in Tokyo? I wonder why everyone’s criticizing it. It’d be so awesome. I bet literally everyone would – I would definitely want to go.” —Takuya Sebec Kawamura

And stare down the dream-crusher:

「バッキンガム宮殿、紫禁城、凱旋門。全部本物。東京には歴史的ランドマークがないことを痛感自国の歴史に無知なだけ。東京の事をまともに知らない人間が外国で日本を売り込もうとするから恥をかくのだよ。そもそもレプリカ造って「歴史的」ランドマークだなんてありえないでしょ？」 “Buckingham Palace, Beijing’s Former Palace, The Arc de Triomphe – they’re all the original thing. The people who feel that Tokyo doesn’t have a historical landmark are just ignorant of their own country’s history. The people who flat out don’t know anything about Tokyo are those in other countries. Coming from a platform of “Let’s make Japan into a market for them” is embarassing. And anyway, it’d be ridiculous to build a replica of a landmark and call it ‘hisorical’.” —Mahito Kanayama

Country without a Monument?

A country of earthquakes, monsoons, fires, and constant humidity is naturally a country where frequent reconstruction is built into even the most admired landmarks (e.g., Ise Jingu, home of Amaterasu and the Yata Mirror). But here are three things that could be symbolic and monumental for Japan with no cost, just a bit of marketing elbow grease, and without straying much from Tokyo.

Tenshu-dai

It’s possible that the “Rebuild Edo-jo” folks are onto something. Maybe the remains of the tower, the Tenshu-dai pedestal itself, should be Japan’s symbol. You might think that sounds stupid, as if I’m suggesting your unfinished porch should become the logo for a new restaurant or something. But reconsider the history of the Edo donjon: the third time people thought about rebuilding the tower, somebody said “Let’s put that gold where it’ll count,” and what’s more, the shogun listened. The shogun and the rich folk took care of their town. Edo grew bigger. Edo became Tokyo, and all without that looming tower as part of its identity.

Sometimes its the negative space that’s important. To quote Thoreau: “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them”. Standing on the spot where the shogun’s power-tower used to be, you can gaze unhindered towards the sky and dream. How’s that for a symbol of Japan?

Mount Fuji

Without Googling, can you think of a monument in Somalia, in Argentina, or even in Canada? If you’re from those places, it might be easy. But if you aren’t, it becomes clearer what the NPO for Rebuilding Edo-jo is going for: international recognition. Paris’ Eiffel Tower and Moscow’s Kremlin seem very representative of those cities, their culture, and are literally big things to visit.

Comparing those monuments to spots in Tokyo does make me wonder what Japan’s centrally-located monument could be. Of course, finding something super historical, big, and impressive is a tad difficult considering not much of those things survived the WWII Tokyo Air Raids.

Except, you know, Mt. Fuji. That survived the war. It happens to be the subject of hundreds of Ukiyo-e prints and is surrounded by beautiful tea-farming, lake-dotted countryside. It’s not in Tokyo, though, and it isn’t open all year for hiking. Furthermore, with all the international visitors to Mt. Fuji, apparently some invasive flora has found its way to Mt. Fuji’s ecosystem. Yet, if Tokyo looked closely at the mountain’s naturally grown reputation and also its efforts to chisel more tourism, surely they would build a plan for how to stack a Tokyo landmark up to Fuji’s height.

Asakusa

With skillful marketing, Asakusa’s Senso-ji-area could easily be made into that building-sillhouette or camera zoom that screams “Japan” and makes obaachans proud. Asakusa began as a fishing village, then got famous when two fisherman dragged a golden Bodhisattva from the river. They built Senso-ji, a temple, to honor the Kanon Bodhisattva and people came from everywhere to see. Later, a shrine was made to honor those two fisherman. Asakusa transformed, much the way Edo-jo did, from humble beginnings into something incredible. Asakusa also had a hip-cool-Shibuya kind of phase, but now, with a five-story pagoda, a temple, a shrine, a marketplace, and a giant lantern at the Kaminari-mon, Asakusa is as much a tourist destination for Japanese citizens as it is for international visitors.

This is despite the fact that most of its buildings (e.g., Senso-ji, the lantern, etc.) are not original. Various fires, plus the WWII Tokyo Air Raids, destroyed many cultural landmarks here, but Asakusa meant enough to be rebuilt. For comparison, unlike the gigantic Edo Tower, Asakusa’s gate has been at the same spot, with more or less the same features despite multiple reconstructions, for about 400 years. If it’s good enough to make some famous Ukiyo-e artists depict it, it’s right up there with Fuji in being a monument of Japan. If Tokyo capitalized on the Kaminari-mon and its lantern, the symbolism would be on par with the Olympics’ torch lighting the way for some cross-cultural, cross-generational bonding. Due to its long history, the lantern as a symbol could be picked up by both the younger folks and the older generation in Japan.

So What’s Japan’s Symbol?

When I went to Japan, I didn’t know about any landmarks aside from Tsukiji Fish Market and Mt. Fuji. My bucket-list destination revealed itself after hours of Ukiyo-e research for a class: the Kameido Tenjin Jinja taiko bridge. It’s just a red bridge that used to be so circular that it was dangerous. Now it has steps so it doesn’t even look that drum-like, but it was still quixotic to stand there, looking at all the skyscrapers, looking at those stupid helper-steps (I can handle a slope!), and imagine what it was like from those Ukiyo-e I’d seen of the exact spot I was standing.

We find symbols in the smallest and simplest things, so while it might be helpful for Japan’s economy to market one, which one is still clearly a debate. Whether you fall into the Edo-jo or the Edo-no camp, I hope I’ve helped you think a little bit about Japan’s historical monuments. And even if you’ve never taken a marketing class, I want to hear what you think could be ‘that symbol’ and why you think so.

Sources

• Hashi. “The Imperial Family’s Mysterious Treasure“, Tofugu. Jan. 18, 2013.
• Japan National Tourism Organization. “The 62nd Regular Removal of the Grand Shrine of Ise – Shikinen Sengu”
• JCastle. “Edo Castle Project”.
• “Municipalities Make Efforts to Attract Foreign Tourists – a Case Study of Fujieda City”. Hiragana Times. July 2012
• National Geographic, Education. “Mount Fuji: Symbol of Japan“
• Numata, Ryoichi. “Mount Fuji Habitats Threatened by Foreign Flora,” Japan Times. Sep., 15 2013.
• Rebuilding Edo-jo Association. “Edo-jo Saiken Q&A”.
• Thoreau, Henry David. Walden, or Life in the Woods, p. 356. Oxford University Press, 1999. Originally published 1845.
• “東京五輪のために500億円かけて「江戸城」再建？“. Asahi Shinbun. Sep. 9, 2013. Translation “Edo Castle to be Reconstructed in time for 2020 Olympics?” at JapanCrush.

[hr /]

Bonus Wallpapers!

[1280x800] ∙[2560x1600]

[1280x800] ∙ [2560x1600]

It’s mind-blowing to me how many cool and unusual buildings are in just one city. Take Osaka, for instance; it’s the third-largest city in Japan and it has some of the strangest, most unique buildings on Earth.

The more I look into architecture in Osaka, the more I kept finding more and more beautiful, unusual, and just plain cool buildings.

Gate Tower Building

Sometimes, difficult situations lead to weird compromises. There’s no better example of this than the Gate Tower Building.

In 1983, a local business decided to put up a small office tower on their land. Unfortunately, they ran into a problem; the land where they wanted to build on? There was already a highway (the Hanshin Expressway) planned to run through there.

The two forces clashed and, ultimately, neither really gave in. The Hanshin company had no other options if it wanted to build its highway, and the property owners were steadfast in their desires to build an office building. Both sides were persistent and stubborn, and negotiations dragged on.

But after five years, they reached a compromise. The highway would go through the building.

What happens when an unstoppable force meets immovable object? Apparently, an architectural and engineering oddity.

Construction of both the highway and the office building began in tandem. They set aside floors 5-7 of the building for the highway.

The tunnel going through the building has measures in place to muffle sound and vibrations, and doesn’t actually come in contact with the building itself. Apparently, the office workers inside of the building don’t notice a thing.

The whole thing has a very futuristic feel to it. It’s easy to think of a giant metropolis with roads running through buildings on every levels, crisscrossing through the skyline.

What makes the highway even cooler is that, if you notice at the end of the video, it cruises right by the Umeda Sky Building.

Umeda Sky Building

Even though the Umeda Sky Building doesn’t have nearly as dramatic a history, it’s still probably the most recognizable sight in Osaka’s skyline.

Finished in 1993, the Umeda Sky Building is a unique skyscraper that, in essence, is two skyscrapers loosely connected. Not only does the Umeda Sky Building look amazing, but it also provides one of the best views of Osaka around.

The journey to the top of the building is long, but worth it. There’s a narrow, enclosed escalator ride up to the top, where you’ll find the Floating Garden Observatory.

Once at the top (if you’re not puking from vertigo), you’ll find yourself with a full, 360° view of Osaka. Take a deep breath and take the in the sights.

But the Gate Tower and Umeda Sky Building are both relatively recent additions to the Osaka skyline. For the last century, there’s been one, consistent sight in the Osaka skyline: the Tsutenkaku building.

Tsutenkaku

Tsutenkaku (通天閣) or “Tower Reaching Heaven” maybe isn’t as impressive to outsiders as it is to Osaka natives, but everybody should be able to respect its longevity as a symbol in Osaka.

A strange, round fugu?! Impossible.

The Tsutenkaku has been standing in Osaka since the 50s, but it’s not the first iteration of the tower. Before that, there stood another Tsutenkaku that was a bit different.

The original Tsutenkaku was largely modeled after the Eiffel tower and, for a time, was the second tallest building in all of Asia. Unfortunately, it was irreparably damaged in a fire and had to be torn down.

Up until now, all the buildings that we’ve been talking about have all been tall, fairly conventional buildings. What about more unorthodox buildings?

Namba Parks

Okay, so Namba Parks isn’t really a single building as a collection of buildings, but it’s still one of the coolest sights in all of Osaka.

Namba Parks is actually a shopping center and office park, but you wouldn’t guess that from looking at it. Walkways curve through the complex, looking more like canyon walls than the side of a mall.

And at the top, there’s a luscious garden. In one of the biggest cities in Japan, the collection of trees, shrubs, ponds, and waterfalls is a rare but welcome one.

But Namba Parks isn’t the only leafy, green building in the city. Another architectural marvel in Osaka is literally covered in plants. Say hello to the Organic Building.

Organic Building

Recently, eco-friendly buildings have been en vogue; buildings with LEED ratings, solar panels, and natural materials has been the trend as of late. But Osaka’s Organic Building, finished in 1993, has been green for longer than Al Gore’s been driving an electric car.

For the most part, the Organic Building is pretty run-of-the-mill; as far as I can tell, it’s just an office building. But on the outside, it’s a nursery for plants indigenous to Osaka.

With its bright red plates and leafy vegetation, the Organic Building stands out among the drab, white buildings surrounding it.

There are, of course, many other unique buildings around Osaka, but these were my five favorites. Which was your favorite?

[Header image sources 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5]

But believe it or not, Japanese architecture isn’t just a field for for museums or skyscrapers. Some people live in these spectacular works of art. Let’s take a look at the coolest houses in recent years in Japan.

Ring House

Not pictured: a creepy girl from “The Ring”

Named after the series of wood and glass rings that make up the building (not the Japanese movie of the same name), the Ring House (輪の家) is located in a country retreat near Nagano.

When developers were having difficulty selling land, they hired architecture firm Takei-Nabeshima Architects (TNA) to design something unique that would attract people to buy up land and live there. What TNA delivered went above and beyond everybody’s expectations.

The house definitely looks cool, but I’m not sure how comfortable I would be with all of those windows all over the house. I’ve seen enough movies to know that lots of windows in a house in the middle of the woods spells bad news.

More pictures on the architecture firm’s site here.

[hr]

3Way House

No, it’s not that kind of house, you perv. The 3Way House, while looking normal on the outside, is named for the three ways that people can move around the house.

Most houses just have stairs to move up and down between levels, but the 3Way House has freakin’ ladders and a rock climbing wall that goes all the way up through the center of the house.

It’s basically the house you dreamed of as a kid. All that’s missing are fireman’s poles and slides.

A married couple and their two children live in this house and I’ll admit that I’m a little jealous that these kids get to grow up in a house like this. Maybe I can convince these people to adopt me into their family (please?).

More about the 3Way house on the architect’s site here.

[hr]

Garden & House

Located in the heart of Tokyo, this aptly named Garden & House maximizes the limited space that it’s given. Real estate is obviously at a premium in the country’s capital, so Garden & House does its best to expand up.

Designed by Pritzker-winning architect Ryue Nishizawa, the four-story house is mostly white with giant, floor-to-ceiling windows that are only covered by curtains. There aren’t even any interior walls to help out with privacy.

As if the dozens of house plants weren’t enough, one floor of the house even has a thin layer of dirt to make the house feel more organic.

Read more and see more pictures at domus.

[hr]

Jyubako/Lunchbox House

The Jyubako House (重箱の家) is a three-tiered house in Tokyo modeled after jyubaku, a traditional stacked Japanese lunchbox, like the one above.

The house was designed for its owner’s love of two things: food and bath. The second floor contains a beautiful, open kitchen and dining room, and that’s pretty much it.

The third floor holds a bathtub and little else. The top of the house is completely open so you can laze in the tub and watch the sky for hours. Absolutely beautiful.

For more, see the Tezuka architects’ site.

[hr]

Drawer House

One Japanese custom I think is interesting is how the Japanese pack up their futons in the morning and store them away during the day. To me, it’s pretty darn cool that you can transform the functionality of a room so quickly and easily.

The Drawer House takes that to the next and tries to hide everything that’s not in use, leaving only bare wooden walls and floors. Walls fold out to reveal staircases, counter tops, shelving, and more.

The result is a very clean, simple house nestled in Tokyo, a city that is anything but.

More info and pictures at the architect’s site.

[hr]

Which one of these house would you like to live in? I can’t decide which one would be the most fun, but my vote goes to climbing wall 3Way house. When it comes down to it, I’m just a child stuck in a really really good looking and buff man’s body.

P.S. You can rock-climb your way to our hearts by following us on Twitter
P.P.S. We have a couple dirt floors too over on Facebook and Google+!

A lot of the time, these skyscrapers seem like something out of Popular Science than a building you’d run across in a major city, and in fact most of these fantastic skyscrapers never even made it past the drawing board, or were even really meant to. Koichi wrote about the absurdly large X-Seed 4000 a few years back, and that’s really just the tip of the iceberg.

So enjoy this Japanese building porn (no, not that kind) as we take a look at some of the tallest, coolest, most absurd proposals.

Aeropolis 2001

Not only did the Aeropolis 2001 have a sweet name (2001? That’s like, the future!), but it was also enormous. The skyscraper was planned to stand at 2000m, or five times the size of the World Trade Centers and about twice as tall as any skyscraper in existence today.

Aeropolis 2001 was planned by the Obayashi Corporation in 1989 to tower over Tokyo Bay, but hasn’t really panned out in the 20+ years since then.

The tower was planned to be a mixed-use building, housing both apartments and offices, with an elevator shuttle that would take 300 people to the top of the tower in about 15 minutes.

I can’t imagine what moving day would be like for people living in a building a mile and a half tall, or how a fire drill would work.

Around the same time that Obayashi announced its designs for the Aeropolis 2001, it also declared its plans for a city on the moon, but it sounds like the Obayashi moon city is just as likely to be built as the Aeropolis 2001.

DIB-200

DIB-200 stands for “Dynamic Intelligent Building” that’s 200 stories tall, a name only the Japanese would use. The DIB-200, planned by the Kajmia Construction Corporation to be built in Tokyo, was envisioned as basically multiple skyscrapers stacked on top of each other and the end result looked kind of like one of those giant trophies you get for winning a pee-wee soccer tournament.

The bottom couple of layers would have offices, the third tier would be for hotels, and the very top tower would be home to some very swanky apartments. A series of super-fast elevators would take people from one level to the next, and in between each level there would be stores and cafes.

Its final height would have been around 800m, slightly shorter than the Burj Khalifa, the current tallest skyscraper in the world. A little less grand and fantastic than some of the other proposed skyscrapers in this post, but one of the more goofy-looking buildings.

Shimizu Super High Rise

The Shimizu Construction Corporation is not only one of the biggest construction companies in the world, but also loves its concept designs. Shimizu has cranked out several conceptual buildings in the last couple of decades for – from what I can tell – no real reason other than to spark people’s imaginations.

In terms of supertall skyscrapers, Shimizu planned a building called the Shimizu Super High Rise, or SSH. At the time it was planned, it was to be the tallest skyscraper in the world and Shimizu wanted it to be the smartest, too. An advanced computer system was supposed to protect the building from fires, earthquakes, and anything else you could throw at it.

But Shimizu didn’t stop there. The company has continued to crank out fantastical designs for buildings and cities in the years since, creating plans for some buildings that might come right out of Blade Runner.

Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid

Shimizu’s coolest conceptual building is probably the MEGA-CITY PYRAMID, a name that only feels right to write in all caps. It’s a giant pyramid made out of giant, floating skyscrapers. It would be 14 times taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza. It would be all held together by transport tubes that would take people from one skyscraper to the next.

The whole thing would sit right in the middle of Tokyo Bay, because it would be easier than buying up the land needed and razing everything to the ground.

Green Float

Just last year, Shimizu announced the concept of a “Green Float,” a system of floating, self-sustaining cities in the ocean, located near the equator.

You can check out a video of a Shimizu designer talking about the project:

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXbYRxl16SA']

[hr]

So which one of these is your favorite? Tell us in the comments.

P.S. Want to live in a sweet future tower? Let us know on Twitter.

P.P.S. Rather stay closer to earth? Like us on Facebook.

[Header Image]

So, you are planning that trip to Japan, but you have no clue what to do short of gawking at school girls or skimpily dressed women. Fear not, I have a suggestion for you. If you’re in the Tokyo vicinity, then I suggest visiting the Mori Tower at Roppongi Hills. There you get to see the giant spider, make the poor Japanese teens working at Cold Stone Creamery sing in Engrish (without tipping!) and meet people who aren’t Japanese!

Sounds very exciting, huh? But wait… there is more!

At the Mori building there is a service offered called the Tokyo City View. For a mere ~2000 yen (or 1000 yen if you are a student) the nice Mori staff people will toss you in a elevator and send you up to the 52nd floor. On the 52nd floor is the observation deck, where you get a very nice view of the city landscape. Of course, if you are afraid of heights there are nice chairs where you can position yourself in the fetal position, like a certain someone I know. The Japanese sure are thoughtful!

I highly recommend doing the city viewing during the late evening. All the nice colors from the surrounding buildings, cars and street lights really makes it an awesome sight to see. That and I didn’t get to see it during the daytime, so I can’t comment on it. :p If you want proof of the awesomeness Tokyo City landscape during the evening check out the QTVR site linked on the image above. [Note: You might need Apple Quicktime installed to view the media]. The site also lists 360 degree views of other landmarks around the world, but who cares about them, right? This is a Japanese oriented site.

* OK I lied by linking you to a evening cityscape view of Yokohama from the Landmark Tower. Total intentional badness on my part. However, beggars can’t be choosers, although the view is just as equally awesome.

Update: I found a neat site that has some VR of various places in Tokyo. Check out Tokyo VR.