Edo Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Tokyo

In the heart of Tokyo, Edo Castle was for more than two and a half centuries the seat of power of the Tokugawa shoguns and the centre of one of the largest cities in the world. Founded in 1457 by the warrior-poet Ōta Dōkan on a plateau overlooking the bay, the site was transformed from 1590 onward by Tokugawa Ieyasu, then enlarged by his successors until, around 1636, it became an immense fortress with a spiral of moats, stone walls and fortified gates. Its keep, rebuilt three times, vanished in the Great Meireki Fire of 1657 and was never raised again: only its monumental base survives. After the fall of the shogunate in 1868, Emperor Meiji took up residence there and the former citadel became the Imperial Palace. Today, the East Gardens of the Palace, open to the public since 1968, let visitors walk through the former main enclosure (Honmaru), pass corner towers such as the Fujimi-yagura and admire the imposing stonework, while the moats and surviving gates still shape the landscape of the Chiyoda district.