#003 Yamashita-cho Hibiya-soto Sakurada

Of Utagawa Hiroshige’s 100 Famous Views of Edo, here is the original painting of Yamashita-cho Hibiya-soto Sakurada, the 3rd view.

Yamashita-cho is said to be the area where the Imperial Hotel stands today, and the current address would be Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku. In Hiroshige’s time, the moat of Edo Castle extended as far as Yamashita-cho (Uchisaiwaicho).

Now, how to take a picture of this waterfront scenery, which has been lost now that the moat has been filled in…it is possible to take a picture of the Uchisaiwaicho streetscape as it is, but this time I cheated a little and took a picture like this.

Please forgive the composition being reversed from left to right. A part of the stone wall of the Hibiya Gate from the old days remains in Hibiya Park, so I tried to capture the waterside view of Shinji Pond through the stone wall to make it look more like the original.

If you are looking for a close view around the existing inner moat of Imperial Castle, you can take this shot from the Imperial Theatre on Hibiya Street, looking northwest.

I wanted to take a picture of the “Sakurada”…the famous Metropolitan Police Department building (aka “Sakuradamon”)…on the other side of the river, so I ended up with a horizontal composition.