Edo Castle
Tokyo Station and the entire Marunouchi district once lay inside this castle's outermost moat — a footprint that swallowed what is now the heart of the modern city.
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Built in 1457 and expanded over decades using more than 300,000 workers, Edo Castle was the Tokugawa shogunate's military headquarters from 1603 to 1867. The construction actively reshaped the land — hills were leveled, the sea pushed back, and the earth became landfill that let merchants settle. Surviving moats, walls, and ramparts let you trace a capital that built the modern city around itself.
What to look for
- Ishigaki stone walls encircling the Honmaru — ramparts originally reached nearly 20 meters (66 ft) high
- The concentric moat system, some sections of which originally extended as far as Ichigaya and Yotsuya
- The Great Pine Corridor (Matsu no Ōrōka) site — where on April 21, 1701 a sword draw set off the forty-seven rōnin affair
Part of the Tokyo Imperial Palace in Chiyoda — the Japanese government has declared the area a historic site and is actively restoring remaining structures.
Edo Castle is one of 35 sights worth the detour in Tokyo, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Tokyo pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Tokyo
- Mode Gakuen Cocoon TowerA 50-story school curved like a cocoon — white aluminum and dark-blue glass, criss-crossed by diagonal white lines — that beat 150 rival proposals and won Skyscraper of the Year.
- Tokyo SkytreeAt 634 metres, the height isn't random — 6-3-4 spells "Musashi," the ancient name for this exact corner of Tokyo.
- Tokyo TowerA third of its steel came from US tanks scrapped after the Korean War — Japan's postwar recovery, painted orange and bolted into the sky.
- National Diet LibraryBorn in 1948 as a "citadel of popular sovereignty," Japan's national library holds 12 million volumes — and anyone can walk in.
- Akihabara (Electric Town)The black market that outgrew itself and became Japan's otaku capital.
- Tokyo National MuseumOne in ten of every artwork Japan has ever officially designated a National Treasure lives here.