Hanzōmon

You're standing outside Hanzōmon, a gate named after a man with a fearsome reputation. Hattori Hanzō served the Tokugawa family, and his house once stood beside this gate. Under the Hattori family's command, men from Iga, a region famous for its ninja, helped guard Edo Castle. More than two hundred of them lived just outside, and until 1943 this area was still called Iga-chō, the Iga quarter. Legend says the gate also had a secret purpose. If Edo ever fell, the shogun could slip out this way and escape west along the road to Kōfu. Nobody can prove it, but it is easy to see why the story stuck. Look across the earth bridge at the gate. It is plain compared with the grand entrances elsewhere, yet today it is one of the most important. Behind it lies the Fukiage Garden, where the Emperor and Empress live, and this is the gate the imperial family uses most. That's why a police box stands guard and the public may not enter. One more trace of Hanzō: the nearby subway line, opened in 1978, carries his name too.