Where is the centre of Tokyo? Many people have debated this question; for the people of Edo, the centre of Tokyo was Mt Fuji. The proximity of the heart of Edo and Mt Fuji at that time is evident in Katsushika Hokusai's ukiyo-e prints. In modern times, Roland Barthes argued that the centre of Tokyo is a void. Today, many people consider Marunouchi, the economic centre; Shinjuku, the commercial centre; and Shibuya, the cultural centre, to be the centre of Tokyo.
 　However, a different centrality emerges if we look again at Tokyo's Ubsna (the Japanese word for land guardian deity) without these superficial aspects. First, I looked at a map of Tokyo with overlapping plateau lines to get a topography of the city. Then, on the coastal plateau, four representative Tokyo gardens - Rikugien Gardens, Koishikawa Korakuen, the Imperial Palace Garden and Shiba Park - lie in a straight line, almost equally spaced. Each of these gardens has its proper place for tea ceremonies. The original centre of Tokyo is this north-south central line rather than any particular point.
 　The characterisation of the land by latitude far surpasses that of artificial urban planning.

1 Mooksa
 　We created this piece using materials found in Rikugien Gardens. The soil in Rikugien is dark and wet. This soil gives rise to dense trees and the surrounding ecosystems, making human life wild. In fact, during the Edo period, this area was sometimes used as a hawking ground. Therefore, the area around Rikugien today is a calm, green residential area that has yet to succumb to commercial development inside the Yamanote Line.
 　This stopping stone radiates such Tokyo wildness. We named this work Mooksa, as people used to call this garden like it.

2 Coluck
 　We created this piece using materials found in Koishikawa Korakuen Garden. The soil of Korakuen is dark brown and silky. The Kanda River, which flows nearby, also feeds it, and the terrain is undulating. This land creates hills and swamps that form a lake ecosystem and make people's lives playful. This is probably why the area around today's Korakuen Park is home to a series of leisure facilities, including a baseball stadium, thermal baths and an amusement park.
 　You can genuinely sense Tokyo's vibrant entertainment aspect from this stopping stone. It's a tribute to our esteemed predecessors, who bestowed this place with the significant name Koraku (the Japanese word for social luck).

3 Chiyoda
 　We created this piece using materials from the outer gardens of the Imperial Palace. This area used to be a marshy area suitable for paddy fields, so the soil of the Imperial Palace is light brown and elastic. The place's name, Chiyoda, also means a rich rice field that will be fruitful for a thousand generations. The emperor, who prayed to the god of agriculture, must not have settled here only to control the site of Edo Castle.
 　This stopping stone exudes the fertility of Tokyo. Beneath the surrounding administrative institutions, which symbolise democracy, there is a highly agrarian social soil.

4 Shiba
 　We created this piece using materials found in Shiba Park. Ancient peoples established mound tombs on the turf. The unparalleled size of the site, which is unique in the city, shows how different it is. In the mediaeval period, they built a shrine. In the early modern period, the shogunate protected the temples and cemeteries, strengthening the area's character as a place of worship. The Tokyo Tower, built in modern times, also serves as a memorial to the war dead, given that its steel frame is made of tank iron.
 　The soil taken from the Shibamaruyama burial mound was a sombre grey-brown, a stark contrast to the vibrant greens of other gardens. The simplified vegetation, a reflection of the energy of death in this area, adds a unique atmosphere to Shiba Park. This stop stone symbolises the Tokyo view of life and death.