Kōkyo Gaien black pines

You're standing among the black pines of the Kōkyo Gaien, the palace's great outer garden. There are about two thousand of them, and the planting began in 1888. Here's the surprise. Until 1593 you'd have been standing in the sea. This whole plaza was an inlet of Edo Bay. When the castle was expanded, the inlet was filled in and new land was made. In the Edo period, this new land was lined with the mansions of the shogun's top officials, the senior councillors who ran the government. In the Meiji era the mansions were cleared away, and the open lawns and the pines took their place. In 1949 the garden opened to everyone as a national park. Before the inlet was filled, black pines most likely grew along its shore. So in a way, these trees bring back a coastline that disappeared more than four hundred years ago. Look at the pines around you, low and spreading against the sky. Then look past them to the towers of Marunouchi. An old shoreline, the homes of samurai officials and modern Tokyo, all in one view.