Marunouchi Audio Guide

Marunouchi: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Marunouchi

   Welcome to Marunouchi, the district that sits between Tokyo Station and the Imperial Palace in Chiyoda, Tokyo. This guide tells the story of the whole neighborhood rather than a single doorway or building, so think of it as a walk through an entire quarter. Look around and you will see glass towers, brick facades, wide avenues and, not far away, the green of the palace grounds. The name gives you the first clue. Marunouchi means "inside the circle," and the circle in question is the outer moat of the palace. Today this is the core of Tokyo's central business district and one of the main financial centers in Japan, but the layout you see began as a story about water, castles and ambition. Over the next few minutes we will go back to a time when this ground was part of Tokyo Bay. We will look at the brick dreams of the Meiji era and at the red-brick station that anchors the area. Then we will see how a district of skyscrapers has learned to keep its past in plain view.

2. 02

   From Inlet to Inside the Circle

   Picture this place in 1590, before the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu entered Edo Castle. The area we now call Marunouchi was an inlet of Tokyo Bay, and it went by the name Hibiya. There were no avenues and no offices, only shoreline and water lapping at the edge of the castle's future. Then the castle grew. As it expanded, the inlet was filled in, beginning in 1592. A new outer moat was dug, and the earlier moat took on a new role as the inner moat. The ground that lay within that new outer moat is the origin of the district's name, Marunouchi, meaning inside the circle. That reshaping of land and water set the pattern for everything that followed. When you stand here today, you are standing on ground that was deliberately made, on the edge of the seat of power. Keep that in mind when you look toward the palace greenery. The moat that defined this district shaped its geography, its name and its identity long before the first office tower rose.

3. 03

   Brick Dreams and Londontown

   Fast forward to the Meiji and Taisho periods, when Marunouchi came to embody national aspirations. The first building of the district's 1894 phase was the Mitsubishi Ichigokan, designed by the British architect Josiah Conder in the Queen Anne style. The district that grew around it was largely built of brick, and it came to be nicknamed the Mitsubishi "Londontown." Most of that brick city is gone. Only fragments survive, and Conder's original building came down in 1968. Yet its memory lives on in the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo, where you can enjoy retro architecture alongside artworks. The grand projects of this era were more than buildings. Gyoko-dori Avenue, built between 1903 and 1923, ran toward the palace as a ceremonial axis. The Marunouchi Building opened in 1923, and Tokyo Station followed in 1914. Together they formed a new visual culture for the capital, with European-style monumental architecture at the center of Japan's modernization. Walking here, you are moving through the stage set of a nation reinventing itself.

4. 04

   Tokyo Station and the Art of Restoration

   Now turn toward Tokyo Station, the district's great landmark. Its Marunouchi building was designed by Kingo Tatsuno, and its handsome look reflects his architectural training. The station dates to 1914, and it reopened on the first of October 2012 after a five-year refurbishment that brought the Marunouchi side back to its 1914 glory. The station is also the gateway to the district's present. It serves shinkansen lines, the Yamanote Line and many other urban and suburban train and subway lines. Beside the Marunouchi South Exit, the Tokyo Station Hotel, registered as an Important Cultural Property, reopened after the same careful renovations. Preservation here was not only a matter of sentiment. Researchers studying Marunouchi's redevelopment point out that concern for heritage alone was not enough to drive restoration. Economic leverage and negotiation were critical to making preservation succeed. They also describe a deliberate use of historical continuity, with old and new woven into one story. When you admire the brick, you are looking at a deal as much as a monument.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Marunouchi rewards slow walking. Sandwiched between the station and the palace greenery, it is a place where history and modernity sit side by side, with cultural spots tucked between the skyscrapers. Stroll along Marunouchi-Nakadori Avenue and watch for the outdoor art along the way. If you want a different angle, the terraces of the Marunouchi Building and the Shin-Marunouchi Building offer panoramic views of Tokyo Station. Seeing the station from above, with the towers around it, makes the contrast between the eras easy to read. The lower floors of those buildings are lined with boutiques, cafes and restaurants, so there is room to pause. As you wander, try a small game. Look up for the brick, look down the avenues toward the palace, and see if you can sense where the old moat once drew its circle. The district keeps offering new layers, and the next one might be waiting just around the corner.