Updated Dec. 20, 2021: All Google Maps images removed and replaced with photos from my recent visit to Tokyo! May 21, 2024: Port Opening Memorial Hall added!
We’re exploring the Imperial Capital (Teito) of Sakura Wars, a unique take on Tokyo’s past reinvented with a steam punk aesthetic .
Sakura Wars is one of the most unique and/or strange media franchises around. Set in an alternate history Taisho-era (1912-1926), Tokyo is defended from demonic threats by a group of theater actresses piloting clunky steam-powered mechas. It combines old Tokyo with retro-futuristic steam punk elements, which is usually more Victorian than 1920s but it fits here. According to series creator Hiroi Ohji they picked the era because to a modern Japanese person it would inspire feelings of nostalgia but from the perspective of the Meiji era (1868-1912) it was a glittering future, like science fiction. It was clean and easily romanticized without the coming militarism that would be the country’s downfall in the not-so far off future.
Taisho-era Colorized
The real Taisho era was the short 12-year reign of Emperor Taisho (1879-1926) that saw Japan becoming a functioning democracy and not only achieving technological parity with the West but to begin making its own marks on the industrial world. It may not have produced clunky steam-driven mecha but produced the world’s first purpose-built aircraft carrier in 1921 which was the year after they built the world’s most powerful battleship. The mecha may have happened though; a lot was lost in the earthquake.
Sakura War’s Taisho era continues long after it ended in real life and is currently in the fictional year Taisho 29 (1940). While it maintains the overall the aesthetics of the Taisho era in its architecture and accoutrements its overlaid it with gleaming brass, steam and touches of Art Deco, which strikes a nice balance in keeping it fresh but also holding onto the appeal of the original time period now that it’s even further into fantasy territory. This is important because if alternate history or reality stories don’t ground themselves they’re just science fiction or fantasy.
The majority of the new Sakura Wars game (Shin Sakura Taisen) takes place in and around Ginza, which is appropriate as the district was at the heart of era’s zeitgeist. The name “Ginza” came from the silver coin minting organization that was here in the Edo era (1603-1868), though the district’s prosperity comes from being burned down for the umpteenth time in Edo / Tokyo’s history. Reconstructed in 1872 by the government with sexy new Western brick buildings it became Tokyo’s priciest real estate and its location near Shimbashi Station, the original terminus for Japanese railway travel, meant shops stocked with Western goods took off and it grew from there. By the Taisho era Ginza was Tokyo’s premiere shopping district and along with new foreign ideas on government, industry, social and gender norms this is where the new concept of window shopping, going to expensive stores to see foreign goods you can’t afford but look shiny, came to Japan.
Artists and writers also got involved with developing the Paris-inspired coffee shop scene leading to Ginza filling with Western-inspired cafes and bars. It became place for stylishly dressed and coiffed mogas (“modern girls”) and mobos (“modern boys”) to congregate. These wealthy young people walked around Ginza for no purpose other than to show the world they were wealthy young people. Then they’d dart off into fancifully appointed faux-Parisian cafes to drink imported coffee and smoke like chimneys. But classy.
(I’m going to use Japanese Imperial Calendar years alongside regular Gregorian calendar years to give some Japanese perspective on the time period because the country still measures years by the reign of the current emperor. In the modern era they are: Meiji, Taisho, Showa, Heisei and Reiwa. We are living in Reiwa 2 (2020). Also, I know the black boxes on the Sakura Wars screen caps are annoying but I didn’t feel comfortable chopping off Sega’s copyright.)
Grand Imperial Theater
Part of the appeal of looking into an alternate reality story like this is that it occupies physical space and real world locations are their starting points for creating fiction.
The Grand Imperial Theater was created for the game series though it appears to have been inspired by the real Imperial Theater in Marunouchi. Marunouchi is the next neighborhood up and borders the Imperial Palace moat, giving an idea of its importance to the capital. Known as the “Teigeki,” it was built in 1911 (Meiji 44) but destroyed in the 1923 (Taisho 12) Great Kanto Earthquake. The overall aesthetic of the French Renaissance style theater is similar to its fictional counterpart but it used white brick, unlike the Grand Imperial which is done in akarenga (red brick) with granite bands like on Tatsuno Kingo’s Tokyo Station (1914 / Taisho 3). I suspect its current iteration is inspired by Yokohama’s Port Opening Memorial Hall (1917 / Taisho 6), which was designed by one of Tatsuno’s students. I am a big fan of Tatsuno’s style, so I consider this a great improvement over the real theater.
Imperial Theater (1911 / Meiji 44); Image from “Album of the Imperial Theatre” in National Diet Library.
Grand Imperial Theater (Taisho 29)
(2024 / Reiwa 6)
We know the theater is in Ginza and going by both the new game and the original 1996 game it appears to be on the location of Ginza Place opposite the Hattori Building at the intersection of Harumi-dori and Ginza-dori; ground zero for Ginza frivolous spending. The street car tracks running between them also match the real world street in the early 20th century as does the presence of a nearby moat which has since been filled in. The tram likewise was taken out of service after serving Ginza for 56 years in 1967 so the Imperial’s location is a nice recreation of a disappeared corner of Tokyo.
Ginza-dori / Chuo-dori and Harumi-dori intersection (1910 / Meiji 43); The “Grand Imperial” would be on the immediate right where the willow tree is. The Hattori Building is on the left. Image from “Views of Tokyo No. 1” in the National Diet Library.
1996 Sakura Wars (1923 / Taisho 12); same intersection but with giant steam-powered tram. I think the image I showed above it may have been their original reference image. Image courtesy of Tanner of the North’s Sakura Wars play through.
Same intersection (Taisho 29) from Sakura Wars concept art in the New Sakura Wars Settings Document (translated title); because of the fixed camera you can’t turn around and see this angle in game but it shows that this is the same place as the previous two images. Again, note the street car tracks and department store which is now based on the current version of that building.
(2021 / Reiwa 3) The street is closed to vehicular traffic during certain times, allowing me to recreate the shot better
(1923 / Taisho 12)
The Hattori Building and its current incarnation the Wako Department Store likely mean nothing to you but you’ve probably heard of the owner, a little clock-making company by the name of Seiko. Hattori Kintaro founded the company and established its first sales room at 4-chome in 1894, it’s the over-sized clock tower building on the intersection. That building was torn down in 1921 (Taisho 10), two years before the first game begins, but the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake brought construction on its replacement to a halt and the new Hattori Building, now Wako, wasn’t completed until 1932 (Showa 7). In the game the clock tower building across the intersection doesn’t look much like it directly except for the building’s general shape and the clock, but is a dead ringer in the concept art (see the above third intersection reference).
(2021 / Reiwa 3)
(Taisho 29) They moved the Art Deco Hattori / Wako to Ginza-Odori and replaced it with whatever this is on the corner.
The Sept. 1, 1923 earthquake is going to come up time and again as it and the ensuing fire burned down much of Tokyo and left more than 70,000 people dead. Within Sakura Wars the real world catastrophe was replaced with Satan dropping his castle on the city and unleashing hell. I’m not making that up. Mid-1990s Japanese dating sims were pretty hard core. (Long story.)
Another detail the game gets kind of right are the rows of trees along the boulevard, though in real life they weren’t stereotypical sakura but rather willows which are a much loved symbol of Ginza. They no longer line the streets due to road widening.
The theater has shuffled around a little bit in other media. In both the live theater shows (the voice actors dressed as their characters doing musicals, it’s a thing) and the manga Sakura Taisen volume two’s glossary write-up on the theater its stated to be in Ginza 4-chome, though its still drawn cater-cornered from a nicely detailed Hattori Building which puts it in 5-chome. A very theater like building I’d initially mistaken for it, is on the location of the Mitsukoshi Department Store which opened in 1930 (Showa 5). Meanwhile, the anime is ambiguous as to where in Ginza it is and the entrance is facing a plaza, not the road.
Compared to other media, the manga was very precise about its use of real world locations throughout the story which I give it credit for grounding the story’s world more than other versions.
Kabuki-za
Unlike the Grand Imperial Theater Kabuki-za is a real place and it’s just a block down Harumi-dori from the “Grand Imperial.” Other than giving it the steampunk treatment the game’s is an accurate replica of the real location, which is likely why Kabuki-za is listed in the end credits.
There’s some interesting back story between this and the real-life Imperial Theater. Kabuki was a traditional form of theater and before Kabuki-za began operations in 1889 (Meiji 22) there were four other kabuki theaters in Tokyo. They feared Kabuki-za would be their ruin and they were right as it eventually drove all the established theaters out of business but its reign as king of the theaters was short lived. In 1911 (Meiji 44) it was be brought low by the establishment of a new theater with a new kind of stage entertainment, the Imperial Theater.
The older Kabuki-za as it appeared in 1910 (Meiji 43); it was destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake. Image from “Views of Tokyo No. 1” in the National Diet Library.
The current theater building is based on its 1924 (Taisho 13) version as is the one in game. Its predecessor was destroyed in the Great Kanto Earthquake and it was gutted in the 1945 (Showa 20) Tokyo air raids. It was restored or reconstructed in 1950 (Showa 25) and then again in 2013 (Heisei 25) to its current form.
Kabukiza (Taisho 29)
Kabukiza (2021 / Reiwa 3)
Ginza Odori
The little slice of Ginza Odori we get to see, beside the Grand Imperial Theater itself, is in front of an art deco department store with a Ferris wheel on top and the Café Gilles du Lait. “Odori” means “large street or road,” it is just called Ginza-dori in real life.
The game’s Ginza Odori department store looks like the current Wako Department Store, which in the concept art this IS exactly the building across from the theater as it would be real life. Though the Wako doesn’t have an amusement park on top there were a few such new stores in the 1920s and 1930s that had them. On Ginza-dori, the Matsuya Department Store opened in 1925 (Taisho 14) and still maintains a rooftop park though it’s nothing like the fictional equivalent. On the other hand, the Matsuya Department Store in Asakusa had an amusement park with a Ferris wheel though that was installed in 1950 (Taisho 39?).
The Asakusa Matsuya shows up in an animated cut scene too. The front of the department store is briefly shown with a black sign that changes from “Asakusa Kita Eki” just before the false neighborhood opens up and the airship Mikasa emerges. (The department store is over Asakusa Station’s north exit.)
Combined three diagonally cascading images for this. Unfortunately this also chopped off the watermark from rubhen925; who let me use this screen cap from his Sakura Wars play through.
Asakusa Matsuya (2020 / Reiwa 2)
Though it’s not specified where the airship is in this game, it looks like the airship is rising from a generic old neighborhood. In the manga and original game the airship is stated to be hidden under the busy Nakamise shopping street in front of Senso-ji Temple. Senso-ji is close to the Matsuya. This is the most absurd place for this absurd airship to be hidden, which is part of the series’ charm. (We visited this location in Demon Slayer’s Taisho Secrets.)
Ginza’s burgeoning café culture peaked in the inter-war years and by 1929 it had 600 cafes and bars for layabouts to show off. I mean discuss intellectual things whilst sipping and dare I say even noshing. (I hate both those words with a passion.) There’s no Café Gilles du Lait, it was probably inspired by the real café culture and there are places where you can enjoy sweets and coffee Taisho Roman style throughout the district.
One in particular is the local Tsubakiya Coffee, the chain’s original store from 1978 which works to maintain a Taisho atmosphere and appearance and seems to have the general interior simplicity of Café Gilles du Lait. It is also technically the original maid café as the waitresses wear maid uniforms. (To read all about retro cafes in Ginza check out this article from Old Tokyo.)
Also, I’m pretty certain “Gilles du Lait” is a name pun for the real life French knight, Joan of Arc confederate and mass child murderer Gilles de Rais. In Japan “R” and “L” are pronounced the same and the last letter of both Lait and Rais is silent.
(Taisho 29) Ginza-odori Cafe Gilles du Lait
Imperial Hotel
The Grand Imperial Hotel is Sakura Wars’ version of the Imperial Hotel. The Imperial Hotel is up Harumi-dori from both the “Grand Imperial Theater” location and Kabuki-za while also being down Hibiya-dori from the real Imperial Theater.
Initially I’d thought they’d take some inspiration from the 1923 Imperial Hotel, which was designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright but instead went with more of a generic Art Deco style which is a shame became the real Imperial Mayan Revival aesthetic was striking and memorable. When that incarnation of the Imperial was demolished the lobby and reflecting pool were disassembled and rebuilt at Meiji-mura in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture.
Grand Imperial Hotel (Taisho 29) Lobby
Imperial Hotel (1923 / Taisho 12) Lobby
Also at Meiji-mura is a reproduction 1900 (Meiji 33) white telephone booth, which as you can see is the basis of the telephone booth at the Bus Stop area in Sakura Wars. (I guess the Sakura Wars phone is on the outside to make room for all the steam tubes needed to power it on the inside.) I’ve also seen a few of the real old booths out in the wild in Kobe and Mojiko, like the classic red pillar post box these are sometimes recreated for nostalgia in places that maintain an older atmosphere.
Public Teletron Booth (Taisho 29)
Public Telephone Booth (1900 / Meiji 33); this is a working original outfitted with a modern phone at Nagasaki’s Glover Garden. Meiji-mura’s phone booth replica has an anachronistic door knob. Note that the roof and body are the same from the spiked peak down to the clapboard sides. The only differences is the door and windows for a human occupant. Probably more convenient this way when it rains.
There are two areas in the game I didn’t talk about since I had nothing to work with. Mikasa Memorial Park isn’t based on a real park and unless I’m mistaken geographically there’s nothing that lines up with it. It’s built on a high hill overlooking Tokyo Bay, the problem with that is the land along the bay is very low because it is reclaimed. Tokyo has been doing land reclamation since the early 1600s and even Ginza was originally a marsh, there’s no vantage point unless you go down to Yokohama.Though there is a Mikasa Park in Yokosuka built around the pre-dreadnought battleship Mikasa, Adm. Togo Heihachiro’s flagship during the Russo-Japanese War Battle of Tsushima. The only connection being that the Air Battleship Mikasa was named after the real one there.
Japanese Battleship Mikasa sits in Mikasa Park, Yokosuka, Japan.
Ginza Yokocho is primarily taken up by the fictitious Shenlong, but Yokocho itself means “side street” or “back alley” and Ginza’s is known for its restaurants.
Bonus Travel!
Statue of Saigo Takamori (Ueno Park)
Not seen in the new game, but this is where Shinguji Sakura and Ogami Ichiro first met in the Sakura Wars manga. Saigo Takamori was one of the men most responsible for bringing about the Meiji Restoration and most significantly in Tokyo, he bloodlessly negotiated the city’s surrender at Edo Castle. He died in 1877 leading a rebellion against the government he helped create but in 1889 was posthumously pardoned and this statue of him walking his dog Tsun was erected in Ueno Park in 1898. Personally this has some significance to me as I took my picture under the statue of this samurai in 2012 with the help of a random passerby. When I brought my wife to Tokyo for the first time having our picture taken under this statue was at the top of our to-do list, Dave was on hand this time to handle the camera.
Sakura Taisen Vol. 1;They even got the six big bolts holding on the plaque right. (1923 / Taisho 12)
(2021 / Reiwa 3)
The statue is on a hilltop in Ueno Park which during the Taisho era would have had a spectacular view that has now been killed by tall buildings. It’s one of the park areas Sakura could have been to look out over Tokyo in the original game, manga and anime.
This one is probably more realistic height-wise for Ueno Hill.
The anime version is generic compared to its game and manga counterparts
The view lacks a certain romanticism, huh? It does have a Sky Tree though (left), so there’s that.
Sakura, um, viewing. Sakura is viewing sakura.
Sakura Viewing at Ueno Park (1900 / Meiji 33); image from “Tabi no Iezato Vol. 29” in the National Diet Library.
There’s a lot more real world Sakura Taisen manga locations I could dig into but that would be its own entire article. I just felt the statue of Saigo deserves a mention because Saigo always deserves a mention.
It’s been a lot of fun delving into the Tokyo that was while researching this. By looking into this retro-future vision of it I saw a lot of the real old Tokyo it was built around and found it to be quit charming. It was a dramatically changing world yet there was still a lot of unique Japanese character that shown through creating something unique that was fascinating to dwell on and learn about. If you want to learn more of the stories, people and places of the old Ginza check out the links below, especially the ones from Ginza History and National Diet Library (NDL), the latter resource was educational and indispensable in finding public domain imagery.
Sakura Wars official website (English)
https://games.sega.com/sakurawars/lang/en/
ADDRESSES
Ginza Place (Grand Imperial Theater Game Location)
5 Chome-8-1 Ginza, Chuo City, Tokyo 104-0061
Mitsukoshi (Grand Imperial Theater Manga & Live Theater Location)
4 Chome-6-16 Ginza, Chuo City, Tokyo 104-8212
Wako Department Store
4 Chome-5-11 Ginza, Chuo City, Tokyo 104-8105
Kabuki-za
4 Chome-12-15 Ginza, Chuo City, Tokyo 104-0061
Tsubakiya Coffee
7 Chome-7-11 Ginza, Chuo City, Tokyo 104-0061
Matsuya Department Store Asakusa
1 Chome-4-1 Hanakawado, Taito City, Tokyo 111-0033
Meiji-mura
1 Uchiyama, Inuyama, Aichi 484-0000
https://www.meijimura.com/english/
Ueno Park Saigo Takamori Statue
1 Uenokoen, Taito City, Tokyo 110-0007
References
Imperial Theater
https://www.ndl.go.jp/scenery/e/column/tokyo/teikoku-gekijo.html
https://museum.seiko.co.jp/en/seiko_history/milestone/2019-03-14/
https://www.ginza.jp/en/history
Kabuki-za
https://www.kabuki-za.co.jp/siryo/transition.html
https://www.ndl.go.jp/scenery/e/column/tokyo/theatrical_2.html
Ginza Odori
http://www2.matsuya.com/co/english/enkaku/
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2003/05/18/general/top-floor-tokyo/#.XtD8G8BS-Uk
https://old-tokyo.info/6-retro-cafes-in-ginza-with-style-and-personality/
Imperial Hotel
https://www.imperialhotel.co.jp/e/our_world/column/the_wright_imperial_1.html
Ueno Park
Tabi no Iezato Vol. 29
https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/762246/62?contentNo=62&itemId=info%3Andljp%2Fpid%2F762246&__lang=en
Thanks to Tanner of the North for letting me use screen caps from his 1996 Sakura Wars play through for this article.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wuXdXfMYaE&t=516s
Thanks to rubhen925 for letting me use the Asakusa Matsuya screen cap from his 2020 Sakura Wars play through.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86C7gk5Zh8&t=4298s
Hiroi Ohji’s remarks on the Taisho era are from Sakura Taisen (manga) vol. 5.
Fascinating read. Stumbled across your site when looking into landmarks of the imperial capital (kabuki-za, imperial hotel) for a mobile game I’m playing. It’s great to be able to imagine the spirit of the times in conjuction with seeing images of what it might have looked like back then. Definitely makes me appreciate the time and effort taken by game developers to integrate the setting and story.
I’m glad you enjoyed it. When I wrote the article I was hoping there was other people who’d be interested in the history of the game’s real life locations.
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This was interesting to read as a fan of Sakura Taisen and red-brick era Tokyo.
Though this reply is a year after posting, I just wanted to add for other fans that the direct architectural model of Sakura Taisen’s Grand Imperial Theater is the Yokohama Port Opening Memorial Hall, which still stands in Yokohama in Honcho, Naka Ward, at the intersection of Honmachi Dori and Minato-Odori on the corner opposite the Kanagawa Prefectural Government Offce. Both buildings are grand landmarks of pre-war Yokohama and the Taishou period and a must-see for fans of the series..
That’s a good point about the inspiration I’ve not seen brought up before. Thanks!
It’s been three more years, but I’ve finally been able to make comparison shots for the Port Opening Memorial Hall to go with the Grand Imperial Theater. Thanks for pointing this out all those years ago!
Thank you so much for this article! I’ve been diving back into Sakura Wars and this was a wonderful read. I already appreciated the architecture and design in the series but having some more context like this is perfect! You’ve given me lots to add to my list of places to visit when I finally get to go to Japan.