About the neighborhood
The history of Tokyo, Japan's capital prefecture and largest city, starts with archaeological remains in the area dating back around 5,000 years. Tokyo's oldest temple is possibly Sensō-ji in Asakusa, founded in 628. The city's original name, Edo, first appears in the 12th century. From 1457 to 1640, Edo Castle was constructed, and was the city's center.
Tokugawa Ieyasu, after finishing his conquest of Honshu in 1600, chose Edo as a new capital. Japan's monarchy at Kyoto became a symbolic entity, as the country's real power was given to Edo's Tokugawa shogunate. By the 1650s, it became Japan's largest city, and by 1720, it was the world's largest. The Great Fire of Meireki in 1657 killed around 108,000 people.
After the opening of Japan in 1854, there was conflict over Japan's governance. This led to the Boshin War and Meiji Restoration: the shogunate was dissolved, and the imperial monarchy's powers were restored at Edo, renamed Tokyo. In the 20th century, city was destroyed by the Great Kanto earthquake and the Allied bombings during World War II. Over 100,000 people died in the U.S.' Operation Meetinghouse.
After Japan surrendered to America in 1945, America occupied the city until 1952. The post-war Japanese economic miracle and the 1964 Summer Olympics allowed the city to rebuild and grow. The city's transportation needs were met by the interlocking of the Tokyo Metro, Toei Subway, and Shinkansen. In 1990, the country entered a period of economic stagnation called the Lost Decades. The COVID-19 pandemic scaled back the 2020 Summer Olympics. Defined by United Nations estimates, Tokyo was the world's largest city in 2018 with 37,468,000 people. Judged by city proper, it was the 12th largest, with 13,515,271.
Pre-Tokugawa period
The site of Tokyo has been inhabited since ancient times. The original inhabitants might have been the indigenous Ainu people, who theoretically conquered all of modern Japan before the Japanese subsumed them. The theory they were in Kanto is based on Ainu place names found in and near Tokyo. At the Ōmori Shell Midden site in modern-day Ōmori, a collection of pottery, worked bones, and a clay tablet were dated to be 5,000 years old, in the Bronze Age. At Yayoi-zaka near modern Nezu Station, Yayoi period grains of charred rice and chaff were found, making it the oldest agricultural site in Tokyo. The 4th century Horaisan Kofun in Tanagawa is Tokyo's oldest tomb. The 5th century Noge Otsuka in Todoroki is a 5th century tomb from the Middle Kofun culture. Around the tomb's hill, various objects from that time imply the location was the resting place of a powerful chieftain of the southern Musashino area. Early pots were used to store nuts, scavenged from early inhabitants' hunter-gatherer lifestyles. Hunting and gathering decreased over time as the Tokyo peoples started growing food in areas closer to home.
Kanto was a well-irrigated piece of flatland ideal for the cultivation of rice, and protected from coastal invaders from mainland Asia. The three villages that formed the small fishing village of Edo, Tokyo's earliest form, started around the Sumida, Arakawa, and Edogawa rivers. These areas are highly-prone to natural disasters, which would be a common sight in the area's history. Early Korean communities were present at the Sumida area. The Tama River was an important location for farming, and there is evidence there of large-scale irrigation works which created a food abundance. There are sixty early grave mounds around the middle and lower Tama reaches, including Horaisun Kofun.
On 18 March, 628, fisherman and brothers Hinokuma and Hamanari Takenari allegedly caught a gold statue of Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy, from the Sumida. They gave it to their liege, Haji-no-Nakamoto, who decided to enshrine the statue. The location would be the Asakusa Kannon temple, or Sensō-ji, which may be Japan's earliest religious temple, completed in 645. Sensō-ji was firebombed during World War II; when the main hall's remains were excavated, 7th and 8th-century "religious implements and tiles of continental Asian origin" were found. This hints at the statue possibly being of Korean origin. The temple was later rebuilt and served as a spiritual symbol of Japan's resurgence post-war.
In 646, the upland region of Tokyo was recorded as Musashi, likely coming from the Ainu word muzasi (wilderness of weeds). In the 8th century, Musashi had a governor who lived in Fuchu. A road was opened from Kozuke (modern Gunma Prefecture) to Fuchu through an uninhabited plain. Sometime in the 8th century, Koreans moved into the plain, evident in the site name Komagori, near modern Hannō.
In 737, Emperor Shomu of Nara ordered the construction of a Buddhist temple and monastery at every region the Yamato people live in. This led to the building of the Kokubunji temple in modern west Tokyo, which has visible remnants today.
Heian period
Tokyo's nature is described in Heian writings, including the Manyoshu, and in 880 Ariwara no Narihira, who describes using a ferry to cross the Sumida. Narihira's poem about seagulls over the Sumida is likely the origin of the bird as one of Tokyo's symbols.
In the 10th century, an imperial member of the Taira clan, Taira Makasodo, started fighting his imperial-descending neighbors, notably the Minamoto clan. In 935, these quarrels turned into a war, and he also began fighting other Taira. In 938, his army took over a government base in a nearby province, effectively making him the overlord of the Kanto region, and a threat to the emperor's authority. He was killed in 940. The fighting between the Taira and Minamoto later grew into a full civil war.
By the 11th century, Kanto was home to new colonists, including the Shibuya clan, who made a stronghold that became the namesake for the modern Shibuya district. The royal Lady Sarashima, wrote in Sarashina Nikki about moving from Kyoto (Japan's then-capital) to a northwest province in 1120. She describes nature similar to Tokyo, and mentions a location named Takeshiba, which is theorized to be in modern day Mita. Around this time, the area's rival clans divided the land amongst themselves. These areas were shoen.
By the 12th century, a medieval society had formed around Tokyo, ran by a bureaucratic aristocracy described by author Stephen Mansfield as being incompetent. It was located in Musashino's Kuku domain. The kuku-fu (provincial capital) was at Fuchu. The name Edo was first used around this time. It likely meant "door to the cove" or similar, referring to Edo Bay. The first recorded use of the word was when a man named Chichibu Shigetsugu changed his first name to Edo. He likely named himself after his home, a mound by the sea at Kojimachi. A 12th century lord Imai Kanehira also lived at the Shigetsugu residence.
A Minamoto member of the Imperial Court, Minamoto no Yoritomo, broke away from the court in 1180. At Kamakura, south of Edo, he set up Japan's first shogunate, a feudal lord system of governance that followed a warrior code. One of his vassals was Edo Shigenaga, Shigetsugu's son. Shigenaga was rewarded by the shogunate with patches of land around Edo, including the village Kitami. In 1185, the Minamoto defeated the Taira. A road from Kamakura to Edo, and the Kozuke-Fuchu road, were used by armed bands on their way to fight battles in the Middle Ages.
Kamakura and Muromachi periods
After 1185, a Minamoto branch that settled in Kozuke would eventually become the Tokugawa clan, who ruled Edo from the 17th to the 19th centuries.
Around 1439, the Uesugi clan in Kanto was made up of two families: the Yamanouchi and Ogigayatsu, who switched been being allies or enemies. The Yamaouchi gained control of the Kanto governor who lived in Kamakura, and the Ogigayatsu supported them. Ōta Dōkan was appointed in 1455 as a vassal to the Ogigayatsu head Sadamasa, who served Kyoto's Ashikaga shogunate. Sadamasa commissioned him to build camp-like "castles" across the Musashi plain. In 1456, entering Edo, the Edo family still living there left, avoiding a fight with the Uesugi. They moved to their property in Kitami, giving their land and castle to Dōkan.
Edo Castle began construction in 1457 at the modern Imperial Palace's East Garden. It was west of the Edo village, at the Chiyoda peasant village. The castle was in a strategic spot, as it was defensible and near the multiple rivers' estuaries. Boats could anchor near the castle. The Chiyoda peasants were moved away for construction. At the time, the castle was more of a square camp with "earthen embankments" featuring landscaping projects, fences, a few buildings, and wells. Shrines and temples were built nearby, and the dock turned into a center for Chinese goods. The name Chiyoda was later given to an area in Tokyo's center.
After 1458, Dōkan stayed in the Edo region, conquered the plain, and gained a correspondence with the emperor. At the time, the villages of Hibiya, Iigura, Iwaida, Mita, Sakurada, Shiba and Takarada were present. The suffixes ta or da in Japanese place names implies rice cultivation. At some point, Dōkan had the Hachiman shrine built on the Ichigaya hill. A second shrine was built next to Hachiman, likely honoring his family, as their mon (emblem), the kikyo flower, is present. In the late 15th century, the Yamanouchi and Ogigayatsu fought. Dōkan was loyal to Sadamasa, but Sadamasa was suspicious and jealous of him. In 1486, Sadamasa invited Dōkan to his house and murdered him. Dōkan's tomb is in the Doshoin temple near Mount Oyama. He is considered Edo's founder, and there are multiple monuments to him at Tokyo City Hall and the Imperial Palace. The Ōta clan survived as minor nobles for 300 years after.
Later history
The plains were not safe for travelers. The bandit Owada Dogen gained a dangerous reputation there. However, villagers in Shibuya likely had sympathy for him, as he was a fugitive from a 1526 battle that ended the Shibuya clan. A hill was named Dōgenzaka after him, which is now a street in Shibuya.
The Uesugi conflict led to the Hojo clan gaining power in Kanto. In 1524, at Kawagoe, Hojo Oitsuna fought against Uesugi Tomo, and captured Edo Castle. The castle later belonged to the Koga family's Ashikaga Shigeuji, and then the Hojo again. The Hojo's representative at Edo was Toyama Kaganao. In 1563, Ōta Dōkan's great-grandson failed an attempt to recapture the castle. For a long time, the castle stayed Hojo property.
Azuchi-Momoyama period
From 1560 to 1582, Oda Nobunaga's army overthrew the Ashikaga Shogunate, and unified half of the country. He did not seem to have interest in Edo. Nobunaga's successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, continued Nobunaga's conquests. Hideyoshi and his army's commander, the Tokugawa Ieyasu, took control of the Hojo in 1589. Hideyoshi unexpectedly gave Ieyasu the gift of Hojo territories in Kanto as a fief, if Ieyasu gave him his territories in the south. This was an attempt to neutralize Ieyasu as a potential threat by moving him away from Kyoto. In 1590, Ieyasu visiting Edo was considered crucial to the city's legitimacy. In 1598, after Hideyoshi died, there was struggle to be shogun between Ieyasu and Hideyoshi's vassals. Ieyasu won at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. Ieyasu started building a new government's capital in Edo. He dictated the social structure Mansfield calls "the most well-managed feudal society the world has ever known".
Tokugawa period (17th century)
The Tokugawa period began when the Imperial Court appointed Ieyasu shōgun in 1603, starting the Tokugawa shogunate. Japan's imperial seat and official capital remained in Kyoto, but the Emperor was virtually powerless; Ieyasu was the effective ruler of Japan, and Edo became powerful as the capital.
The Tokugawa political system rested on both feudal and bureaucratic controls, so Edo lacked a unitary administration. The social order was composed of warriors, peasants, artisans, and businessmen, the latter two classes organized in guilds. Businessmen were excluded from government office, so they made their own economic center of activity. Edo was harsh toward outcast groups. It imposed restrictions on people known as kawata, eta, and hinin (nonhuman). Officials created the Burakumin outcast order for all of Japan. Fear of "pollution" and "impurity" helped determine who was discriminated against. Even in modern Japan, many descendants of burakumin are poor, and live in Arakawa, Sumida, and Taito.
To assure a peaceful succession, in 1605, Ieyasu chose his successors to be his son, Tokugawa Hidetada, and his grandson, Tokugawa Iemitsu. In 1616, Ieyasu died, and was succeeded by Hidetada. Hidetada finished the shogun government structure, and continued Ieyasu's ban on Christianity, executing the first Christians under this law. To enforce the law, he made it so Westerners could only contact Japan at the cities of Nagasaki and Hirado, banning them from the rest of the country. In 1623, Hidetada retired, and was succeeded by Iemitsu. Hidetada, however, remained in power until he died in 1632. The daimyo no longer threatened the shogun's power, and Iemitsu strengthened himself by removing the emperor's remaining duties. He established criteria regarding how his government would be run.
Early century development
The 176 fudai daimyō (inside lords) that supported Ieyasu in his campaign were allocated land near Edo castle to build estates on. The 68 tozama daimyō (other lords), nobleman who were not associates, lived in "peripheral zones", where they formed allegiances to survive. Around 70% of Edo's land was devoted to the residencies of daimyo and samurai. Temples and shrines accounted for 14%, leaving 16% for the commoners, a much larger class than the others. The merchants grew in wealth by building shops. The service class rented homes in the back streets and alleys. Their homes, ura nagaya (rear long-houses), were made up of units. Each unit's living area was not much larger than 3 square meters. An entire family might live there, and single men often lived there to be closer to their countryside family. Those men worked lower-class jobs. Some of them were struggling ronin (masterless samurai). Ronin were cast out of service for misdemeanors, or their masters were disgraced and stripped of privileges. Lower-class areas had communal facilities contained dumps, toilets, and wells, and had problems with heat and rats. The homes of wealthy merchants, shopkeepers, and temple lottery winners were superior, located on wider streets, and their roofs were somewhat fire-resistant.
Encyclopedic content adapted from the Wikipedia article on Hatchobori, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
