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This article is about the history of the city now known as Tokyo. officially, is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and located on the eastern side of the main island Honshū. For other meanings of Edo or EDO, see EDO. literally bay - Door, " Estuary " edo once also spelled Yedo or Yeddo, is the
Edo
江戸
Yedo
Former location of Edo and Present location of Tokyo
Former location of Edo and Present location of Tokyo
Country Japan
Castle Built 1457
Capital 1603
Renamed Tokyo 1868
Population (1721)[1]
 - Total 1,000,000
View of Edo, left screen from a pair of six-panel folding screens, 17th century.
View of Edo, left screen from a pair of six-panel folding screens, 17th century.
Map of Edo as of 1840's
Map of Edo as of 1840's

Edo (江戸?), literally: bay-door, "estuary", pronounced [edo]), once also spelled Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868. Headlands and bays are two related features of the coastal environment A door is a panel or barrier usually hinged or sliding that is used to cover an opening in a Wall or partition going into a building or space An estuary is a semi-enclosed Coastal body of Water with one or more Rivers or Streams flowing into it and with a free connection to the open Geographical renaming is the act of changing the name of a geographical feature or area Tokyo, the seat of the Government of Japan and home of the Emperor, is the capital of Japan. officially, is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and located on the eastern side of the main island Honshū. The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the, and the, was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the Shoguns of During this period it grew to become one of the largest cities in the world and the site of a vibrant urban culture centered on notions of the "floating world". Ukiyo ( Japanese: 浮世 "Floating World" described the urban life style especially the pleasure-seeking aspects of Edo Period Japan [1]

Contents

History

The site of the city, on what is now known as Tokyo Bay, had been settled for several centuries, but first became historically significant with the building of Edo Castle in 1457 by order of Ōta Dōkan. is a bay in the southern Kantō region of Japan. Its old name was. also known as, is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan. Ōta Dōkan (太田道灌 (1432-1486 also known as Ōta Sukenaga (太田資長 or Ōta Dōkan Sukenaga was a Japanese Samurai warrior-poet military Kyoto was the site of the Japanese emperor's residence and the capital of Japan for many centuries, until the Tokugawa shogunate was established in 1603 and Edo became its seat of government. (IPA /kʲoːto / is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan.

Edo magistrates

From the establishment of the Tokugawa bakufu''s headquarters at Edo, Kyoto remained merely the formal capital of the country. is a military rank and historical title in Japan. The Japanese word for "general" it is made up of two Kanji words sho, meaning "commander" The de facto capital was now Edo, because it was the center of real political power. Edo consequently rapidly grew from what had been a small, virtually unknown fishing village in 1457 to a metropolis of 1,000,000 residents by 1721, the largest city in the world at the time. [1][3]

Edo was repeatedly devastated by fires, with the Great Fire of Meireki in 1657—in which an estimated 100,000 people died—perhaps the most disastrous. The, also known as the Furisode Fire, destroyed 60-70% of the Japanese capital city of Edo (now Tokyo) on March 2, 1657, this is the third year During the Edo period there were about one hundred fires, typically started by accident and often quickly escalating to giant proportions, spreading through neighbourhoods of wooden machiya that were heated with charcoal fires. The, also referred to as the Tokugawa period (徳川時代 Tokugawa-jidai) is a division of Japanese history running from 1603 to 1868 Machiya are traditional wooden townhouses found throughout Japan and typified in the historical capital of Kyoto. Between 1600 and 1945, Edo/Tokyo was leveled every 25–50 years or so by fire, earthquakes, tsunami, volcanic eruptions, and war.

In 1868, when the shogunate came to an end, the city was renamed Tokyo, meaning "eastern capital", and the emperor moved his residence to Tokyo, making the city the formal capital of Japan. is a military rank and historical title in Japan. The Japanese word for "general" it is made up of two Kanji words sho, meaning "commander"

Government and administration

During the Edo period, the Shogunate appointed administrators called machi bugyō to run the police and, from the time of Tokugawa Yoshimune onward, the commoner fire department (machibikeshi). was the eighth Shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1716 until his abdication in 1745 A fire station (also called stationhouse) is a structure or other area set aside for storage of firefighting apparatus (i The machi bugyō heard criminal and civil suits and performed other administrative functions.

Geography

The city was arranged as a castle town, around Edo castle. The area immediately surrounding the castle, known as the "Yamanote", consisted largely of daimyō (feudal lords') mansions, whose families lived in Edo year-round as part of the sankin kōtai system; the daimyō themselves made journeys in alternating years to Edo and made use of these mansions for their extensive entourages. The ( were powerful territorial lords who ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings Sankin kōtai (参勤交代 ("alternate attendance" was a policy of the Shogunate during most of the Edo period of Japanese history. It was this extensive samurai (noble warrior class) population which defined the character of Edo, particularly in contrast to the two major cities of Kyoto and Osaka, neither of which were ruled by a daimyō or had any significant samurai population. is the term for the military nobility of Pre-industrial Japan. is a city in Japan, located at the mouth of the Yodo River on Osaka Bay, in the Kansai region of the main island of Honshū Kyoto's character was dominated by the Imperial Court, the court nobles, its numerous Buddhist temples, and its traditional heritage and identity, while Osaka was the country's commercial center, dominated by the chōnin merchant class. The kuge (公家 was a Japanese Aristocratic class that dominated the Japanese imperial court in Kyoto until the rise of the was a social class that emerged in Japan during the early years of the Tokugawa period

Other areas further from the center were the domains of commoners, or chōnin (町人), literally "townsfolk. " The area known as Shitamachi (下町, lit. The traditional name for the area of Tokyo going from Taitō -ku to Chiyoda -ku and Chuō -ku the physically low part of the city next to and particularly "lower town" or "downtown"), to the northeast of the castle, was perhaps one of the key centers of urban culture. The ancient Buddhist temple of Sensō-ji still stands in Asakusa and marks the center of an area of traditional "low-town" culture. is an ancient Buddhist temple located in Asakusa, Taitō Tokyo. is a district in Taitō Tokyo, Japan, most famous for the Sensō-ji, a Buddhist temple dedicated to the Bodhisattva Kannon. Some of the shops in the streets before the temple have been carried on continuously in the same location since the Edo period.

The Sumida River, then simply called the Great River (大川), ran along the eastern edge of the city, along which one would find the shogunate's official rice storage warehouses[6] and other official buildings, along with some of the city's most famous restaurants. The Sumida River (隅田川 Sumida-gawa) is a river which flows through Tokyo, Japan.

The Edo Bridge (江戸橋, Edo-bashi) marked the center of the city's commercial center, an area also known as Kuramae (蔵前, "in front of the storehouses"). or Nihombashi, is a business district of Chūō Tokyo, Japan which grew up around the Bridge of the same name which has linked two sides of the Many fishermen, craftsmen, and other producers and retailers operated here, as did shippers who managed ships to and from Osaka (called tarubune) and other cities, either taking goods into the city, or simply transferring them from sea-routes onto river barges or onto land routes such as the Tōkaidō, which terminated here. The was the most important of the Five Routes of the Edo period, connecting Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to Kyoto in Japan. The area remains the center of Tokyo's financial and business district today.

The northeastern corner of the city, regarded as a dangerous direction in traditional onmyōdō (cosmology/geomancy), is guarded from evil spirits by a series of temples, including Sensō-ji and Kan'ei-ji. is a traditional Japanese Esoteric cosmology, a mixture of Natural science and Occultism. is a Tendai Buddhist temple in Tokyo, Japan. It was founded in 1625 by Tenkai. Just beyond these lay the districts of the eta or outcastes, who engaged in unclean vocations and were thus separated from the main sections of commoner residences. Burakumin (ja {{linktext 部 落 民}} buraku, tribe + min, people is a term often used to describe a Japanese social Minority group. A long dirt path extended west from the riverbank, a short distance north of these eta districts, leading along the northern edge of the city to the Yoshiwara pleasure districts. For the Yoshiwara nightclub in the 1927 Fritz Lang film see Metropolis. Previously located within the city proper, close to Asakusa, the districts were rebuilt in this more distant location after the Meireki Fire of 1657.

Gallery

Edo, 1865 or 1866. Five albumen prints joined to form panorama. Photographer: Felice Beato
Edo, 1865 or 1866. Five albumen prints joined to form panorama. Photographer: Felice Beato

References

  1. ^ a b c Sansom, George. Felice Beato (born 1833 or 1834 died c 1907 sometimes known as Felix Beato, was a Corfiote Photographer. A History of Japan: 1615-1867, p. 114.
  2. ^ Encylopedia Britannica (1911): "Japan: Commerce in Tokugawa Times," p. 201.
  3. ^ Gordon, Andrew. (2003). A Modern History of Japan from Tokugawa Times to the Present, p. 23.
  4. ^ Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1956). Kyoto: the Old Capital, 794-1869, p. 327.
  5. ^ a b c Ponsonby-Fane, p. 328.
  6. ^ Taxes, and samurai stipends, were paid not in coin, but in rice. Money is anything that is generally accepted as Payment for Goods and services and repayment of Debts. See koku. KOKU (1003 FM, "Hit Radio 100" is a Radio station in the United States territory of Guam.

See also

The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica The occurred on December 31, 1703 in Edo, the forerunner of present-day Tokyo, Japan. is a Japanese term referring to a person born and raised in Edo (renamed Tokyo in 1869 The eastern mainland part of Tokyo occupies land that together with the modern-day Saitama Prefecture, the city of Kawasaki and the eastern part of Iki (いき often written 粋) is a traditional Aesthetic ideal in Japan.

Dictionary

Edo

-noun

  1. Former name of Tokyo (江戸)
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