Around 1800, Edo had more than a million inhabitants and was probably the largest city on the planet, but Japan had been closed for two centuries and almost no one outside knew. Twelve stops follow the capital of the Tokugawa shoguns: the shogun's hunting garden, the silver mint, the gate where the most powerful man in the country was killed, the castle without a keep, the bridge where every road began, the fire that killed a hundred thousand people, the temples that copied Kyoto and the tomb of the last shogun. Approximate audio duration: 20 minutes.
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Edo: la ciudad de un millón de personas que Europa no sabía que existía
Hacia 1800, Edo tenía más de un millón de habitantes y era probablemente la ciudad más grande del planeta, pero Japón llevaba dos siglos cerrado y casi nadie afuera lo sabía. Doce paradas siguen la capital de los shogunes Tokugawa: el jardín de caza del shogun, la casa de la moneda de plata, la puerta donde mataron al hombre más poderoso del país, el castillo sin torre, el puente donde empezaban todos los caminos, el incendio que mató a cien mil personas, los templos que copiaron Kioto y la tumba del último shogun. Duración aproximada de audio: 20 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~20 min of audio · 17.32 km on foot (~4 h 20 min walking) · about 4 h 45 min in total
Stop beside the pond. Look at the water: it is not fresh. It flows in and out of Tokyo Bay with the tide, through stone sluice gates that have been working since the eighteenth century.
This garden was the seaside villa of the Tokugawa shoguns. They came here to hunt ducks with falcons, to fish, and to receive guests far from the protocol of the castle.
Notice the small grassy trenches among the trees. They are kamoba, duck hunting blinds: the birds were lured with decoys and caught with nets at the end of narrow channels.
Behind the pines you can see the skyscrapers of Shiodome. That contr…
2
The Silver Mint
You are in Ginza, the most expensive shopping street in Japan. Look on the pavement, near the corner of the second district, for a small stone plaque. Almost nobody looks at it.
The plaque marks the spot where the shogunate's silver mint operated from 1612. In Japanese, gin means silver and za means guild. Ginza: the silver guild.
The name of Tokyo's most luxurious district comes from a government office. Here they cast the coins that circulated throughout eastern Japan.
Because Edo ran on two currencies. In the east people paid in gold; in Osaka and the west, in silver. The money changers …
3
Blood in the Snow
You are in front of Sakuradamon, one of the gates of the old Edo Castle. Look at how it is built: a first gate, a square courtyard and a second gate set at a right angle. It was a trap for any attacker.
On the morning of 24 March 1860 it was snowing. Along this road came the procession of Ii Naosuke, the shogun's chief minister, the most powerful man in Japan.
Two years earlier, Ii had signed a trade treaty with the United States without the emperor's permission. For many samurai it was treason: opening the country to the barbarians.
A group of eighteen samurai, almost all from the Mito dom…
4
The Luxury Hostages
This is Otemon, the main gate of Edo Castle. The daimyo, the feudal lords, came in through here when they arrived to present themselves to the shogun.
Look at the size of the grounds. Edo Castle was the largest in Japan. Its moats and walls covered a good part of what is now central Tokyo.
The Tokugawa solved the problem of controlling some two hundred and sixty feudal lords with a brilliant system: sankin kotai, alternate attendance.
Every daimyo had to live one year in Edo and one year in his domain. And when he went home, his wife and heir stayed here. They were hostages, even if they li…
5
The Castle That Chose Not to Have a Keep
Climb onto the platform. These enormous, perfectly fitted stones were the base of the tenshu, the main keep of Edo Castle.
Above them rose the tallest keep ever built in feudal Japan: five storeys on the outside and nearly sixty metres from the ground. It could be seen from almost the whole city.
It did not last long. In 1657 a fire swept through Edo for three days. The flames reached the castle and the keep burned completely.
The clans rebuilt this granite base in 1659. The keep never came back.
Hoshina Masayuki, the shogun's uncle and adviser, argued that a keep was a military symbol wit…
6
Japan's Kilometre Zero
You are on Nihonbashi, the Bridge of Japan. Look up: a concrete expressway runs right overhead. Now look down at the middle of the bridge: there is a bronze plaque in the ground.
That plaque marks kilometre zero of Japan's roads. From 1603, when the first wooden bridge was built, the five great highways of the country started here, including the Tokaido to Kyoto.
All distances were measured from this point. Travellers, messengers and the processions of the feudal lords set out from here.
Next to the bridge stood Edo's fish market, the largest in the city. It stayed here until the 1923 earth…
7
The Long-Sleeves Fire
You are in Ryogoku, across the Sumida River, in front of Eko-in temple. It looks like a modest temple. It was born from the worst catastrophe in the history of Edo.
In March 1657 a fire broke out and, driven by the wind, burned for three days. The wood and paper houses went up like tinder. It is estimated that as many as a hundred thousand people died.
Legend says it all started when a priest burned a long-sleeved kimono that was said to be cursed. That is why it is remembered as the Long-Sleeves Fire.
Thousands died trapped against the river, because there were no bridges: the shogunate di…
8
The Rebel's Shrine
Walk under the great red and gold gate. You are at Kanda Myojin, the shrine that protected Edo for two and a half centuries.
The Tokugawa moved it to this hill in 1616 and placed it, deliberately, to the northeast of the castle. In Japanese tradition, the northeast is the demon gate: the direction misfortune comes from.
What is curious is who is worshipped here. One of its gods is Taira no Masakado, a tenth-century warrior who rebelled against the emperor and proclaimed himself sovereign. He was beheaded.
For the people of Edo, Masakado was a local hero, the man who dared to stand up to the…
9
The School That Manufactured Obedience
Step into Yushima Seido. Notice the colour: wood painted black, without the red of the shrines. It is a temple to Confucius, and in its day it was the shogunate's university.
The Tokugawa did not rule with swords alone. They needed an idea to justify the order: the shogun at the top, then the samurai, then peasants, artisans and, at the bottom, merchants.
They found that idea in Chinese Neo-Confucianism. Every person has a place, and the harmony of the world depends on nobody leaving it. Obeying one's superior was a moral virtue.
In 1690 the shogun Tsunayoshi moved the Hayashi family's Conf…
10
A Copy of Kyoto
You are on the wooden terrace of Kiyomizu Kannon-do, in Ueno Park. If you know Kyoto, this building will look familiar. It is a scaled-down copy of the famous Kiyomizu-dera temple.
And it is not the only one. In 1625 the monk Tenkai, adviser to three shoguns, founded the great temple of Kan'ei-ji on this hill. His model was Mount Hiei, which protected Kyoto from the northeast.
Look down at Shinobazu Pond. It was conceived as a version of Lake Biwa, the great lake near Kyoto. Even the island with the temple of the goddess Benten imitates an island on that lake.
Edo was a new city, with no hi…
11
The Day Edo Became Tokyo
This is Saigo Takamori, in a simple kimono, with his dog. He was one of the leaders of the rebellion that toppled the shogunate. And on this hill the battle that ended Edo was fought.
In the spring of 1868 the imperial army was advancing on the city. A million people could die in a siege. Saigo met Katsu Kaishu, the shogun's negotiator.
They reached an agreement: the castle would be handed over without a fight. Edo was saved in a conversation. It is one of the most important and least known surrenders in history.
But not everyone accepted it. About two thousand samurai loyal to the shogun, …
12
The Tomb of the Last Shogun
You are in Yanaka Cemetery. Look, in the fenced section beside the temple, for a simple mound-shaped tomb. It belongs to Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the fifteenth and last shogun.
The earlier shoguns rest in monumental Buddhist mausoleums. Yoshinobu asked for something different: a plain Shinto tomb, as a gesture towards the imperial family to whom he had handed over power.
After 1868, the man who had ruled Japan retired to Shizuoka and lived almost forty-five more years. He devoted himself to photography, painting and hunting. He rode a bicycle.
He died in 1913, in the age of trains, battleships a…
How long does the "Edo: the City of a Million People Europe Didn't Know Existed" audio tour take?
It has about 20 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 17.32 km walking route (~4 h 20 min on foot). Plan roughly 4 h 45 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "The Shogun's Hunting Garden" (coordinates 35.6599, 139.7632). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Tokyo and pick "Edo: the City of a Million People Europe Didn't Know Existed". No account required to start.
