Dauntless Champion of Japan’s Heritage, Good Walks, and Craftsmanship: Sumiko Enbutsu

Treasures of Tokyo, such as the 95-year-old Yasuda House and the landscape of Ueno Park's Shinobazu Pond, must be preserved, Sumiko Enbutsu believes, and, according to an article in the Japan Times on December 8th, she has played an energetic part in saving them. And when the Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami of 2011 washed away slate tiles awaiting delivery to cover part of the roof of the restored Tokyo Station (opened October 2012), Enbutsu was among the activists who campaigned for time and priority for the use of the domestic slate rescued from the disaster.

Her first guidebook, Discover Shitamachi, was published almost 30 years ago and sold very well.

On a hot July day in 2009, SWET’s Summer Party featured a kaiseki lunch at the Kantokutei restaurant in Tokyo’s Koishikawa Kōrakuen garden and a talk by Sumiko Enbutsu. Author of Discover Shitamachi: A Walking Guide to the Other Tokyo (1984), Water Walks in the Suburbs of Tokyo (2000), A Flower Lover’s Guide to Tokyo (Kodansha International, 2007), and other walking guides to Tokyo and surrounding areas, Enbutsu spoke about the making of her books and some of the activities and research projects in which she has been involved. The condensed and edited transcript of her talk was published in the SWET Newsletter in June 2010 and is now on the SWET website.