Shiomizaka (潮見坂) is a slope in Mita 4-chome located at
Tsuki no Misaki,
Tokyo. It intersects Hijirizaka, which runs southwest from the head of the promontory. In the
Edo period, one could look out from the slope and see
Tokyo Bay. This caused the slope to become a well-known scene of
Edo
Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo.
Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...
-era Japan. It is often used in
ukiyo-e prints. Many hill roads in Japan bear the name "Shiomizaka". The name carries a dual meaning in Japanese; the most common is one is "watch the tide" and another is "see death." (Similar dual meanings occur in Japanese, for example Fujimi has two meaning, one is "look at
Mount Fuji
, or Fugaku, located on the island of Honshū, is the highest mountain in Japan, with a summit elevation of . It is the second-highest volcano located on an island in Asia (after Mount Kerinci on the island of Sumatra), and seventh-highest p ...
," another is "become immortal.") The names of the roads are attributed to Edo Shogunate founder
Tokugawa Ieyasu who was given the territory by
Toyotomi Hideyoshi. It is said that he gave the slopes the names "shiomi" and "fujimi" because had faced the many crisis and overcame it in his life, that is Shi wo mite, and Fujimi ni naru.
Geography of Minato, Tokyo
{{Tokyo-geo-stub