Four Divine Animals in Koto City

In Koto City, a new monument is placed in front of the Toyosu Civic Center when the center opened to public this September. It is the White Tiger monument, one of the Four Divine Animals. Other three monuments　have been placed already. So, four monuments are lined up now.

Ｗｈｉｔｅ　Ｔｉｇｅｒ

The Four Divine Animals, called “Sijin” in Japanese, are derived from old Chinese story. They are said to control and take care of safety for four directions, Blue Dragon,”Seiryuu”, for East, Red Phoenix,”Suzaku”, for South, White Tiger,”Byakko”, for West, and Black Snake-Tortoise,”Genbu”, for North.

Ｂｌｕｅ　Ｄｒａｇｏｎ

Ｒｅｄ　Ｐｈｏｅｎｉｘ

Black Snake-Tortoise

Blue Dragon is placed at the park of Higashioojima station, Red Phoenix is in the Wakasu Park and Black Snake-Tortoise is at the park of Kameido station.

Map of the Four Divine Animals in Koto City

Placing divine animals for four directions has been considered to be important when people hold nationwide events such as building castles, making tomb of nobleman and etc. 















In 1983, a mural color painting of Snake-Tortoise on the tomb wall was discovered at Kitora Tumulus, where a noble man was thought to be buried in about 7th or 8th century. The news catched people’s eyes followed by the discovery of mural painting of Blue Dragon and White Tiger in 1998, and by Red Phoenix in 2001.

Snake-tortoise (left) and Red phoenix

Site of Kitora Tumulus in Nara (left) and  Stone room of Kitora

Astronaut, Ms. Naoko Yamazaki

Let me introduce an episode. In 2010, Naoko Yamazaki, a Japanese female astronaut flew away from Kennedy Space Center to the space by Space Shuttle “Discovery” keeping the charm of the Four Divine Animals with her. After she completed the missions in International Space Station and came back to the Earth, she retuned the charm of the Four Divine Animals to Matsudo Shrine to show her appreciation.


There are several construction works going on preparing for the Tokyo Olympic 2020 and Tsukiji Fish Market’s new house in west area of Koto City. The White Tiger will watch the works and take care of the safety of the workers.        by B.I



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