Ushigome Mitsuke: The Castle Gate of the Ox Crest

Why is it significant?

Halt beside the colossal moss-grown stone ramparts of Ushigome Mitsuke, standing proudly beside the bustling pedestrian crossing outside Iidabashi Station.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Halt beside the colossal moss-grown stone ramparts of Ushigome Mitsuke, standing proudly beside the bustling pedestrian crossing outside Iidabashi Station. Constructed in sixteen thirty-six by the Lord of Tachibana from Kyushu under orders from the Tokugawa shogunate, this heavily fortified gate checkpoint guarded the northwestern approach along the outer moat of Edo Castle. The name Ushigome means 'Herding Cattle', referring to the ancient pastoral pastures that covered these hills before the samurai era.

Look closely at the gigantic rectangular andesite blocks forming the stone wall: you can still clearly see engraved symbols, called kokuin—diamond patterns, feathers, and floral crests—chiseled into the rock by feudal stonemasons to identify which samurai clan quarried and transported each megalith from the volcanic mountains of the Izu Peninsula. Stonemasons and quarry workers transported these colossal multi-ton boulders across treacherous ocean routes using wooden sailing barges, sailing from the volcanic quarries of the Izu Peninsula directly into Edo Bay.

Ushigome Mitsuke operated as a strict security checkpoint: heavily armed samurai guards inspected every traveler, merchant, and supply carriage attempting to enter the inner shogunate city, enforcing the infamous shogunate security rule: 'Keep out incoming firearms and outgoing hostage women.' The gatehouse featured an ingenious masugata defensive compound: approaching attackers who breached the outer gate were trapped in a tight, right-angled stone courtyard exposed to lethal musket and arrow fire from surrounding battlements.

While the wooden gatehouse was dismantled in eighteen seventy-seven to widen the road for horse carriages, the megalithic dry-stacked stone bastions remain in their exact sixteen thirty-six foundations, anchoring the threshold between modern Shinjuku and Chiyoda. Directly overhead, modern commuter trains of the JR Chuo-Sobu line rumble across the historic railway viaduct, creating a striking juxtaposition between seventeenth-century samurai fortifications and twenty-first-century metropolitan transit.

Cross the bridge over the emerald moat waters and step onto the open wooden deck of the Canal Cafe.