Omotesandō (表参道) is a zelkova tree-lined avenue located in Shibuya and Minato, Tokyo, stretching from the Meiji Shrine entrance to Aoyama-dōri (Aoyama Street), where Omotesandō Station can be found.
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👉 Omotesandō in the context of Shibuya
Shibuya (渋谷区, Shibuya-ku; IPA: [ɕibɯja] ) is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. A major commercial center, Shibuya houses one of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shibuya Station.
As of January 1, 2024, Shibuya Ward has an estimated population of 230,609 in 142,443 households and a population density of 15,262.01 people per square kilometre (39,528.4 people/sq mi). The total area is 15.11 km (5.83 sq mi). Notable neighborhoods and districts of Shibuya include Harajuku, Ebisu, Omotesandō, Yoyogi and Sendagaya.
In this Dossier
Omotesandō in the context of Omotesando Hills
Omotesando Hills (表参道ヒルズ, Omotesandō hiruzu) is a shopping complex in central Tokyo built in 2005 in a series of urban developments by Mori Building. It occupies a 250-meter stretch of Omotesandō, a shopping and (previously) residential road in Aoyama. It was designed by Tadao Ando, and contains over 130 shops and 38 apartments.
The construction of Omotesando Hills, built at a cost of $330 million, was marked by controversy. The building replaced the Bauhaus-inspired Dōjunkai Aoyama Apartments, which had been built in 1927 after the 1923 Kantō earthquake. The demolition of the apartments again raised questions about Japan's interest in preserving historic buildings. A small section of the old apartments is reconstructed in the south-east part of the new complex. Minoru Mori noted that there had been resistance from local landowners to the use of Ando as architect, saying that they were concerned that his buildings were too fashionable for the area. Regarding the construction, Ando said, "It's not Tadao Ando as an architect who has decided to rebuild and make shops, it was the owners themselves who wanted it to be new housing and to get some value with shops below. My task was how to do it in the best way.”
Omotesandō in the context of Sandō
A sandō (参道; visiting path) in Japanese architecture is the road approaching either a Shinto shrine or a Buddhist temple. Its point of origin is usually straddled in the first case by a Shinto torii, in the second by a Buddhist sanmon, gates which mark the beginning of the shrine's or temple territory. The word dō (道) can refer both to a path or road, and to the path of one's life's efforts. There can also be stone lanterns and other decorations at any point along its course.
A sandō can be called a front sandō (表参道, omote-sandō), if it is the main entrance, or a rear sandō (裏参道, ura-sandō) if it is a secondary point of entrance, especially to the rear; side sandō (脇参道, waki-sandō) are also sometimes found. The famous Omotesandō district in Tokyo, for example, takes its name from the nearby main access path to Meiji Shrine where an ura-sandō also used to exist.