Asukayama Park

Asukayama, or Mount Asuka, is a tiny hill in Kita-ku, Tokyo, standing 83 feet tall. The pile is informally considered the tiniest hill in the metropolitan area, though the Geospatial Info Authority has actually declined to formally acknowledge it as a hill.

Today, the park is home to 3 museums, consisting of Kita Ward’s regional history gallery, a paper museum, and a memorial gallery devoted to industrialist Eiichi Shibusawa. Commonly referred to as the “daddy of Japanese commercialism,” Shibusawa introduced numerous economic reforms that shaped modern Japan, and has actually been included on the 10,000 yen banknote since 2024.

The park is additionally home to ancient artefacts, including the Asukayama tumuli cluster, an archaeological site consisting of 5 6th-century interment mounds, thought to come from the Muzashi-no-kuni-no-miyatsuko clan that once ruled the eastern Kanto region.

Shibusawa had a rental property developed at Asukayama in 1877, which he later on converted to his major mansion complicated, staying there from 1901 to 1931. A few of the structures, including Shibusawa’s own collection and bungalow-style tearoom, have endured the Tokyo battles and been marked by the government as Vital Social Characteristics.

Whether a proper hill or otherwise, the hill is still home to a huge public park understood for its cherry blooms, a popular hanami, or flower watching, area given that the early 18th century. In 1720, Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune had over a thousand cherry bloom trees grown at Asukayama and opened up the park to the public 17 years later. In 1873, the Meiji federal government formally developed Asukayama Park as one of the first five public parks in Japan.