One of the Largest Breeding Sites of Japanese Racoons in the Central Tokyo Area Endangered by Sekisui House
Mejirozaka is known for many cultural and historical monuments in the Heart of Tokyo, closely neighboring to the
Four Seasons Hotel Chinzanso and the
Tokyo Cathedral. The neighborhood used to be a place that was very famous for the deep green woods of Japanese racoons, fireflies, the tsubaki trees, and many museums, although the woods locate in the Heart of Tokyo Historic Area. The green zone of the community has been kept so solely by efforts of the neighborhood, where citizens plant trees and flowers at their costs. People, not the local government but the people, have made big effort to keep the neighborhood with greens. However, in 2006,
Sekisui House, a very large real estate company, acquired a part of the woods, and cut off over 70% of trees which they bought as "woods" on the next day of purchase, without any pre-announcement to the community, and not even to the local government. The racoons have been, generations after generations, living in the woods without any boundaries but with just best effort of neighbors, but now the racoons are forced to live in the place without trees (as you see above).
Historic Mejirozaka
Mejirozaka appears on the history around the 1590s as a Buddhist priest Eijun built Mejirofudo temple on the top of the Mejirozaka hill. This place was also known for "Sekiguchi Suijin-sama," the god of water, and fountains in this area have been recognized as important drinkable water sources of the Edo Castle, currently known as the Imperial Palace, and thus the Tokugawa Shogunate built the Kanda Josui, gullet. For the construction of the gullet, from 1677 to 1680, the famous Haiku master, Matsuo Basho lived in an old house nearby, and people still visit the old house called as
"Basho-an" today. During the Tokugawa era, after the fifth Shogun Tsunayoshi built Gokokuji Temple for his mother, the area was known as a place to view tsubaki trees, camelia, and many high class and rich people visited to see. This area was also famous for many Daimyo residentials such as the Hosokawa Crown and people can see the historic monuments of Hosokawa in
Eisei-Bunko. After the Meiji Era, Aritomo Yamagata chose Mejirozaka to live. Yamagata was a field marshal in the Imperial Japanese Army and twice Prime Minister of Japan. He is considered one of the architects of the military and political foundations of early modern Japan. Yamagata Aritomo can be seen as the father of Japanese militarism. His support for many autocratic and aggressive policies directly undermined the development of an open society, and contributed to the coming of the Second World War. His Mejirozaka residential was sold and remodified as a hotel, known as
Four Seasons Hotel Chinzanso.
Stop Dangerous Overdevelopment & Save Green
Please join us to protest against Bunkyo Ward Government to stop the development and cutting trees. The forest we are trying to protect is really important and we would like to inherit them to the next generations. As we face the problem of so-called "heat island" phenomenon in Tokyo, this place is the place for us to begin to protect for our green life. Please join us today!
