Sukiyabashi Park & Clock of Youth: The Memory of the Canal
Why is it significant?
Step onto the shaded terrace of Sukiyabashi Park, nestled between the glass prow of the Tokyu Plaza building and the elevated expressway.
Key Facts
| Place | Sukiyabashi Park & Clock of Youth: The Memory of the Canal |
|---|---|
| Address | 5-1-1 Ginza, Chuo City, Tokyo 104-0061, Japan |
| Geo Coordinates | 35.67250, 139.76220 |
| Part of Walk | Tokyo: Ginza & Tsukiji, Culinary Legends and Gilded Avenues |
| Generated | Generated |
Step onto the shaded terrace of Sukiyabashi Park, nestled between the glass prow of the Tokyu Plaza building and the elevated expressway. Rising from the center of the square stands the Clock of Youth, a dynamic, surrealist bronze sculpture created in nineteen sixty-eight by avant-garde artist Taro Okamoto. With whimsical horn-like protrusions, staring eyes, and playful curves, the sculpture radiates the raw vitality and creative optimism that defined Okamoto's famous Expo seventy Tower of the Sun. Passersby often smile at its cheerful, uninhibited modern energy.
Beneath your feet lies the filled-in bed of the historic Sotobori canal, which formed the outer defensive moat of Edo Castle. Until the late nineteen-fifties, the arched stone bridge of Sukiyabashi crossed the water right here. The bridge became immortalized in Japanese culture through the nineteen fifty-two radio drama Kimi no Na wa (What is Your Name?), where star-crossed lovers promised to reunite on the bridge every six months. When the show aired, public bathhouses across Japan emptied as families huddled around their wireless sets.
In nineteen fifty-eight, to accommodate motorcars and elevated expressways for the upcoming Olympic Games, the city filled the canal with rubble from dismantled wartime fortifications and turned the waterway into the subterranean foundation for the highway above you. The rapid conversion showed Tokyo's ruthless determination to modernize ahead of the global spotlight.
In the basement of the adjacent subway concourse was the original location of Sukiyabashi Jiro, the legendary three-Michelin-star sushi counter made world-famous by the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, where President Barack Obama dined with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in twenty-fourteen, praising the perfection of the tuna nigiri.
Walk southwest down the avenue toward the railway tracks, crossing under the tracks to reach the entrance plaza of the Imperial Hotel.