三宅坂ヨリ司法省ヲ望ム

About this photo

This photo looks across the Imperial Palace moat from Miyakezaka toward government buildings. It appears in Nihon Fukei Fuzoku Shashincho (Photo Album of Japanese Scenery and Customs), published in 1910, whose English caption identifies the central buildings as the Ministry of Justice, the courts and a naval office.

Miyakezaka is the slope that runs down from Hanzomon Gate along the palace's inner moat. It takes its name from the residence of the Miyake family, lords of the Tahara domain in Mikawa Province, which stood here in the Edo period. Hoping to build a Western-style government district, the Meiji government invited the German architects Ende and Boeckmann. The Ministry of Justice, designed by the two, was begun in 1888 and completed in 1895. The Great Court of Cassation (Daishin'in, roughly today's Supreme Court) and the Navy Ministry also had buildings nearby.

The Ministry of Justice building lost its roof and interior in the air raids of 1945, but in 1994 it was restored to its original appearance and designated an Important Cultural Property the same year. It is now called the Ministry of Justice Old Main Building (Red Brick Building), and the history exhibition room inside can be visited on weekdays.

Glossary