Plum Tree Slope (Bairinzaka)
The plum trees on this slope that leads from the ninomaru second compound of Edo Castle to the honmaru main compound were planted before the East Gardens opened to the public in 1968. It is thought that plum trees had been planted here by Ota Dokan (1432–1486), the fifteenth-century warlord who built the first castle on this site. Dokan’s castle included a Tenjin shrine. Tenjin shrines enshrine Sugawara no Michizane (845–903), a famous poet-scholar and politician who loved plum blossoms, and traditionally have plum trees in their grounds.