The New International Encyclopædia/Tokio

​Tokio, tō′kē̇, or Tokyo (formerly Yedo) (Jap., Eastern Capital). The capital of Japan, situated on the southeast side of the island of Hondo, on the Bay of Tokio, in latitude 35° 41′ N., longitude 139° 46′ E. (Map: Japan, F 6). The city covers a wide area, and is exceedingly irregular in outline, being, indeed, a number of towns grown together rather than a single city laid out according to design. It is divided into two unequal parts by the river Sumida. The eastern portions along the river and fronting the bay are level and low, the western rise into considerable hills with a dense population in the valleys which separate them. The chief feature is the palace inclosure within the grounds of the ancient castle. These grounds under the old régime were very extensive and were surrounded by an outer wall and moat more than two and a half miles in length. This wall has been leveled in part and the moat filled up. Within was a second moat and wall, and even a third in parts. The old residence of the Shogun within the third wall was burned in 1872 and has been replaced by the palace of the Emperor, in a mixed Japanese-European style of architecture. It stands in the ancient and beautiful park called Fukiage. The palace was first occupied by the Emperor in 1889. Much of the area inclosed by the outer wall and moat was occupied in the past by the mansions of the feudal barons, but these are now destroyed and in their place are the various buildings devoted to the use of the Government, in European style and devoid of especial interest. To the east of the castle is the distinctively commercial portion of the city, with banks, warehouses, shops, hotels, restaurants, newspaper offices, and dwellings. A long main street, variously named in different parts, and without any general designation, passes through this part of the city from northeast to southwest. It is broad, with rows of trees, a tramway, electric lights, and rows of low buildings of stone and brick in a semi-European style. From it lanes and streets diverge in all directions, for the greater part lined with small wooden buildings, inexpensive and without pretension. Mingled with them are storehouses made of mud or clay, and incongruous modern buildings. Of late years some of the streets have been straightened and widened, wooden bridges have been replaced by iron ones, and many improvements have been introduced. Nevertheless the old styles of shops and dwellings are in so vast a majority that this part of Tokio is still essentially as in the centuries past.

In the northern part of the city is the arsenal, with the beautiful garden attached which formerly belonged to the mansion of the Barons of Mito. Not far away is the ancient building used as a library which was once the great Confucian College. Farther to the north on the site of the town mansion of the Baron of Kaga is the Imperial University. (See Tokio, University of.) Farther to the east is the great park, Ueno, with the mortuary shrines of eight of the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, and the Imperial Museum filled with objects of great interest. Still farther to the east is the great temple of the goddess of mercy, Kwannon Sama, with a park, many shrines, a pagoda, rows of shops, and innumerable places of amusement. Across the river Sumida, the eastern portion of the city embraces the two districts called Honjo and Fukiage, a quiet region known to visitors chiefly for its displays of flowers, the cherry blossoms at Mukojima, the wistaria at Kameido, and the iris at Horikiri, and for the great wrestling matches at the temple E-ko-in. On the west bank of the Sumida was the Foreign Concession, but since the abolition of extraterritoriality foreigners are permitted to live in all parts of the city. In the same district, on the shore of the bay, is the Imperial park known as Enryo-kwan. In the southern part of the city is the park called Shiba, with the magnificent mortuary shrine of the second Shogun, and the almost equally fine shrines of six others. Beyond the park, still following the line of the bay, is the Temple of Sankakuji, famous for the little cemetery containing the tombs of the forty-seven Ronins. To the west of the palace are many large residences surrounded by gardens and high walls. In the suburbs there are many delightful resorts, especially Meguro, Oji, Futago, and Ikegami. The city is protected against fire by a well-organized fire department equipped with steam fire engines. It has also an excellent police system. The affairs of the city are administered by a mayor, a municipal council, and a municipal assembly. Tokio proper has few industrial interests, although there are numerous factories in the neighborhood. It is unfavorably situated for commerce, as the Sumida River is unnavigable for vessels of large tonnage. Trade is carried on by way of Yokohama. Population, in 1898, 1,440,121.

Originally an obscure hamlet called Yedo (gate of the inlet) stood on the seashore in the district of the city now called Asakusa, while most of the busiest parts of the present city were covered with the waters of the bay and of lagoons. Near Yedo a rude castle was built in the fifteenth century, but the place continued without importance until, toward the end of the sixteenth century, Tokugawa Ieyasu took possession of it, and in 1603 made it the seat of his government of the Empire. He retained the ancient name Yedo, but made it speedily the most important city in Japan and the capital in a sense never known before. Ieyasu commanded artisans and merchants to move to his new city from Kioto and Osaka. He occupied the ancient castle, and in the days of his grandson the new castle was constructed. But the most characteristic and original feature of Yedo was caused by the requirement that the feudal barons should spend a portion of every second year in the city and that in their absence members of their families be left as hostages. In consequence the feudal barons built town mansions, surrounded them with beautiful gardens, and for the first time in the history of Japan came, in time of peace, into contact with each other. The result was rivalry in display and a luxury and extravagance before known only in Kioto in connection with the Imperial Court. From this time Yedo took on the ​appearance so often described by travelers. Its population was immense, and the success of the policy of Ieyasu is proved by the fact that it was never entered by a hostile army, nor so much as attacked or besieged. The records of the city contain accounts of many terrible catastrophes. Its slight wooden buildings furnished excellent fuel for tire, and repeatedly it was destroyed in conflagrations, until in recent times the building of rows of brick and stone houses has furnished excellent barriers. It has also suffered greatly from earthquakes and from epidemics, while terrible storms have destroyed thousands of dwellings. After the weakening of the House of Tokugawa, in 1863, the requirement of residence for the barons was relaxed, and the population fell off greatly. But after the fall of the shogunate on September 13, 1868, it was made the eastern capital, and its name was changed accordingly to Tokio. It was opened to the residence of foreigners in 1869. Though nominally only the eastern capital, yet, as the residence of the Emperor, the meeting place of the Diet, and the seat of the Government in all departments, it is in reality the only capital of the Empire, Kioto retaining an empty title merely.