Edo - History

History

From the establishment of the Tokugawa bakufu's headquarters at Edo, although Kyoto remained the formal capital of the country the de facto capital was now Edo; it was the center of political power. Edo grew from what had been a small, little-known fishing village in 1457 to a metropolis with an estimated population of 1,000,000 by 1721 (the largest city in the world at the time).

Edo was repeatedly devastated by fires, with the Great Fire of Meireki in 1657 (in which an estimated 100,000 people died) the most disastrous. During the Edo period there were about 100 fires (most begun by accident, often quickly escalating and spreading through neighbourhoods of wooden machiya which were heated with charcoal fires. Between 1600 and 1945, Edo/Tokyo was leveled every 25–50 years or so by fire, earthquakes, tsunami, volcanic eruptions or war.

In 1868, when the shogunate came to an end, the city was renamed Tokyo ("eastern capital"). The emperor moved his residence to Tokyo, making the city the formal capital of Japan:

• Keiō 4: On the 17th day of the 7th month (September 3, 1868), Edo was renamed Tokyo.
• Keiō 4: On the 27th day of the 8th month (October 12, 1868), Emperor Meiji was crowned in the Shishin-den in Kyoto.
• Keiō 4: On the eighth day of the ninth month (October 23, 1868), the nengō was formally changed from Keiō to Meiji and a general amnesty was granted.
• Meiji 2: On the 23rd day of the 10th month (1868), the emperor went to Tokyo and Edo castle became an imperial palace.