60 Kasuga／春日

Kausuga Station is located under the junction of Kasuga Avenue and Hakusan Avenue.  It is connected to Korakuen Station and the main building of Bunkyo Ward Office.  Kodokan Judo Institute, the headquarters of worldwide Judo community, is located near the junction.

Denzuin is a large temple on the east hill, which was supported by Tokugawa Shogun Family.  The mother of the first Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa, the wife of the third Shogun Iemitsu Tokugawa and other members of Tokugawa Shogun Family were buried in the graveyard of this temple.  This temple appears in many literature works including “Kokoro” and “Sorekara” written by Soseki Natsume.

In the middle of the slope down from the east hill is “Cat House,” which was the office of Takashi Tachibana (1940-2021), a well-known journalist called “intellectual giant.”

Konnyaku Enma Temple was established in 1624 on the lower land between the east and west hills.  In the Edo period, a large market was held regularly around the temple.

Kikuzaka is the slope going up to Hongo hill on the west.  Many writers lived around this area through Meiji to Showa periods and this slope also appears in many literary works.

Below is the place where Ihei Kimura took the famous picture “Hongo Morikawa-cho” in 1953. Although I knew the picture and had lunch at the nearby cafe Mansada regularly when I was a university student, I didn’t notice that this is the place.

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