Tokyo's predecessor: Edo Castle ruins
The ruins of Edo Castle in Japan are located in Chiyoda-ku, the center of Tokyo, and have been designated as a "Special Historic Site" by the Japanese government.
Edo Castle was built in the mid-15th century. At that time, it was small, with only more than 100 households. In 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu became the Shogun and established the shogunate here, and Edo became the capital of Japan. In the first year of the Meiji era (1868 AD), the Meiji army occupied Edo and renamed it Tokyo.
When Edo Castle was built, it was about 5.5 kilometers from east to west and about 4 kilometers from north to south. It was surrounded by inner and outer moats, with the outer moat having a circumference of about 16 kilometers. There are two city walls, and the total area of the inner wall is 2.64 million square meters. The buildings in the city are magnificent, with 20 watchtowers, 36 city gates, as well as palaces such as the Honmaru, Ninomaru, Sannomaru, and Nishinomaru.
Edo Castle has gone through decades of vicissitudes and its appearance is very different from what it was back then. The outer moat has been basically leveled, with the only watchtowers remaining being the Sakurada Turret and the Fuji Turret, and the only city gates remaining intact being the Tanayasu Gate, the Kiyomizu Gate, and the Sakurada Gate. The Honmaru, Ninomaru, Nishinomaru, and the five-story castle tower no longer exist after being burned down, and only the inner moat made of huge stone walls remains intact.
[Heart]After the Meiji Restoration, the Imperial Palace was built on the basis of the Nishinomaru Palace in Edo Castle.
[Heart] Honmaru and Ninomaru were opened to the public as East Garden
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The most urban area is the Imperial Palace Gardens, where the soaring skyscrapers of busy Marunouchi contrast with the Meiji-era (1868-1912) Nijubashi Bridge and black pine forests. The vast green space in front of Nijubashi Bridge is paved with fine pebbles and planted with pine trees, green pines and cypresses, and green grass. Opposite are high-rise buildings, which are the office buildings of Fortune 500 companies and financial institutions. History and modernity, past and present lives coexist in one place. It is quiet, ancient, and modern, which fully reflects the heritage of the city of Tokyo.