Tokyo is Japan's capital city and prefecture. Defined by city proper area, it was the world's 12th largest city in 2018, with 13,515,271 residents. The history of Tokyo starts with archaeological remains in the area from around 5,000 years ago.
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 it became the city's center. Tokugawa Ieyasu, after conquering Edo's island of Honshu in 1600, chose Edo to replace Kyoto as Japan's capital. Japan's monarchy at Kyoto became a symbolic entity, as actual power was given to Edo's Tokugawa shogunate. By the 1650s, Edo 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 Japan opened itself to most foreigners in 1854, there was conflict over Japan's governance which led to the Boshin War and Meiji Restoration. The shogunate was dissolved, and the monarchy's powers were restored at Edo, renamed Tokyo.
The city was destroyed by the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, and Allied bombings during World War II. Over 100,000 people died from the United States' 1945 bombings known as Operation Meetinghouse. After Japan surrendered to the Allies later that year, the U.S. occupied the country until 1952. The post-war Japanese economic miracle and the 1964 Summer Olympics allowed Tokyo to rebuild and grow. Its residents' transportation needs were met by the interlocking of the Tokyo Metro, Toei Subway, and Shinkansen. In the 1990s, Japan entered a period of economic stagnation called the Lost Decades, worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic which scaled back the 2020 Summer Olympics.
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.Nouet, Mills 1990, pp. 15–17. 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.Mansfield 2009, pp. 22–23. 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.Clements 2020, p. 11.
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.Clements 2020, p. 12.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.Mansfield 2016, pp. 10–15.
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.Clements 2020, p. 15.
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 (794–1331)
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.Mansfield 2009, pp. 24–25.
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.Clements 2020, pp. 15–17.
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.Clements 2020, p. 18. 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,Clements 2020, p. 19. 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.Mansfield 2016, p. 16.
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.Clements 2020, pp. 23–25. 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 (1185–1573)
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.Nouet, Mills 1990, pp. 17–20.Mansfield 2016, p. 20.Mansfield 2009, p. 27. 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.Mansfield 2016, p. 19.Naito, Akira. "From Old Edo to Modern Tokyo: 400 Years", Nipponia. No. 25, 15 June 2003; retrieved 18 July 2011 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 (1568–1600)