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History of Tokyo
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.
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.
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History of Tokyo
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.
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.