Edo


Edo, also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo.
Under the Tokugawa shogunate, Edo developed into a major early-modern urban centre with a population that is believed to have exceeded 1 million by the early 18th century — making it, by many estimates, the largest city in the world at the time.
Edo’s population and urban footprint expanded significantly due to deliberate policies, including land reclamation around Edo Bay, planned street layouts, large samurai residential areas, and an extensive system of waterways supporting transportation and commerce. The city was home to samurai officials, townspeople, and artisans, and served as a centre of economic activity, urban cultural practices, and administrative organization during the Tokugawa era.
Following the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868, the city formerly known as Edo was renamed Tōkyō, and the emperor’s residence was moved there from Kyoto, establishing Tokyo as the capital of Japan. The development of Edo during the Tokugawa period influenced the later growth and urban character of Tokyo after the Meiji Restoration.

History

Before Tokugawa

Before the 10th century, there is no mention of Edo in historical records, but for a few settlements in the area. That name for the area first appears in the Azuma Kagami chronicles, which have probably been used since the second half of the Heian period. Edo's development started in the late 11th century with a branch of the 2=桓武平氏 called the Chichibu clan coming from the banks of the then-Iruma River, present-day upstream of the Arakawa river. A descendant of the head of the Chichibu clan settled in the area and took the name Edo Shigetsugu, likely based on the name used for the place, and founded the Edo clan. Shigetsugu built a fortified residence, probably around the edge of the Musashino Terrace, that would become Edo castle. Shigetsugu's son, Edo Shigenaga, took the Taira's side against Minamoto no Yoritomo in 1180 but eventually surrendered to Minamoto and became a gokenin for the Kamakura shogunate. At the fall of the shogunate in the 14th century, the Edo clan took the side of the Southern Court, and its influence declined during the Muromachi period.
In 1456, a vassal of the Ōgigayatsu branch of the Uesugi clan started to build a castle on the former fortified residence of the Edo clan and took the name Ōta Dōkan. Dōkan lived in the castle until his assassination in 1486. Under Dōkan, with good water connections to Kamakura, Odawara and other parts of Kanto and the country, Edo expanded as a jōkamachi, with the castle bordering a cove opening into Edo Bay, and the town developing along the Hirakawa River running into the cove, and on Edomaeto, the stretch of land on the eastern side of the cove. Some priests and scholars fleeing Kyoto after the Ōnin War came to Edo during that period.
After the death of Dōkan, the castle became one of strongholds of the Uesugi clan, which fell to the Later Hōjō clan at the battle of Takanawahara in 1524, during the expansion of their rule over the Kantō area.
When the Hōjō clan was finally defeated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1590, the Kanto area was given to rule to Toyotomi's senior officer Tokugawa Ieyasu, who took his residence in Edo.

Ieyasu's initial urban vision and the transformation of an unformed settlement (1590–1603)

When Tokugawa Ieyasu first entered Edo in 1590, the area was not yet a town or city in any meaningful sense. What existed was a small fortified residence—commonly called “Edo Castle” —consisting of only a handful of buildings standing on the edge of the Musashino Plateau. To the east of the residence stretched nothing but wetlands, tidal inlets, marshes, and patches of undeveloped wasteland. There was no urban district, no planned streets, and no concentrated population.
Recognizing the strategic potential of the site, Ieyasu immediately initiated surveys of the surrounding topography, focusing on the plateau, the Hibiya inlet（日比谷入り江）, and the low-lying marshland east of the "castle". These surveys formed the basis of his first deliberate urban plan. Under his direction, early engineering works began: preliminary modification of the Hibiya inlet, initial attempts to redirect the Hirakawa River, and the earliest stages of constructing outer moats and functional canals.
Although large-scale land reclamation and restructuring would accelerate only after Ieyasu's victory at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, the fundamental conceptual blueprint for transforming Edo from an undeveloped landscape into a governable urban center was already established during this period. This development was not spontaneous or natural—Edo's growth began as an intentional political and military project shaped directly by Ieyasu's vision and administrative control.

Tokugawa shogunate

emerged as the paramount warlord of the Sengoku period following his victory at the Battle of Sekigahara in October 1600. He formally founded the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603 and established his headquarters at Edo Castle. Edo became the center of political power and the de facto capital of Japan, although the historic capital of Kyoto remained the de jure capital as the seat of the emperor. Edo grew from a fishing village in Musashi Province in 1457 into the largest metropolis in the world, with an estimated population of 1 million by 1721.
;The Great Reconstruction
After the shogunate was firmly established and especially after 1615, the Tokugawa regime undertook massive expansion works under Tenka-Bushin :
  • Expansion of Edo Castle into one of the largest fortified complexes in the world
  • Large-scale cutting of the Musashino Plateau for earth
  • Reclamation of coastlines throughout Edo Bay
  • Excavation of the Kanda River
  • Construction of a vast water-control and canal network
The city expanded primarily eastward into reclaimed land, forming the basis of Shitamachi, where townspeople lived and worked.
Large-scale construction after 1600 was undertaken through shogunate-imposed public works known as Tenka-bushin, which were financed and carried out by the daimyōs and their retainers. Although commonly described as “public works”, these projects were in fact compulsory obligations: the shogunate issued the plans, and the daimyō were required to allocate enormous funds and mobilize their retainer bands or hired laborers to execute them. This system enabled
the Tokugawa regime to reshape Edo's topography on a massive scale, transforming wetlands and coastal shallows into new urban districts.
These early projects laid the conceptual and physical groundwork for Edo's later transformation into a major political and urban center.
;Development under the Second Shogun, Tokugawa Hidetada
Under Tokugawa Hidetada, Edo's urban planning was expanded and systematized. Key developments during his tenure included:
  • Expansion of Edo Castle's administrative and residential compounds
  • Systematic layout of streets, bridges, and residential quarters for samurai, townspeople, and temple/shrine precincts
  • Early water supply initiatives, including preliminary works that would later contribute to the Kanda and Tamagawa waterworks
  • Continued reclamation and development of lowlands along the eastern riverbanks
Hidetada's efforts consolidated Edo's status as the shogunate's administrative center and improved the city's livability, particularly for samurai and townspeople alike.
;Development under the Third Shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu
Tokugawa Iemitsu oversaw the most ambitious infrastructural developments to date, with large-scale urban engineering projects and water supply systems. Notable accomplishments included:
  • Construction of the Tamagawa Aqueduct, completed in 1653, which transported water from the Tama River to Edo for drinking and firefighting purposes
  • Expansion of the Kanda Aqueduct to supply central districts, temples, and shrines
  • Extensive canal and moat works connecting rivers and facilitating transport and flood control
  • Further reclamation of coastal and marshland areas, enabling new districts to be established, particularly in the Shitamachi region
  • Reinforcement and expansion of Edo Castle fortifications, as well as improved road access linking the castle to provincial routes
These projects under Iemitsu not only ensured reliable water supply and sanitation but also transformed Edo's topography into a structured, resilient urban landscape capable of supporting a rapidly growing population. By mid-17th century, Edo had become one of the largest and most systematically planned cities in the world, setting the stage for its peak population and urban complexity in the 18th century.

Urbanism

Very quickly after its inception, the shogunate undertook major works in Edo that drastically changed the topography of the area, notably under the Tenka-Bushin nationwide program of major civil works involving the now pacified daimyō workforce. The Hibiya cove facing the castle was soon filled after the arrival of Ieyasu, the Hirakawa river was diverted, and several protective moats and logistical canals were dug, to limit the risks of flooding. Landfill works on the bay began, with several areas reclaimed during the duration of the shogunate. East of the city and of the Sumida River, a massive network of canals was dug.
Fresh water was a major issue, as direct wells would provide brackish water because of the location of the city over an estuary. The few fresh water ponds of the city were put to use, and a network of canals and underground wooden pipes bringing freshwater from the western side of the city and the Tama River was built. Some of this infrastructure was used until the 20th century.

General layout of the city

The city was laid out as a castle town around Edo Castle, which was positioned at the tip of the Musashino terrace. The area in the immediate proximity of the castle consisted of samurai and daimyō residences, whose families lived in Edo as part of the sankin-kōtai system; the daimyō made journeys in alternating years to Edo and used the residences for their entourages. The location of each residence was carefully attributed depending on their position as tozama, shinpan or fudai. It was this extensive organization of the city for the samurai class which defined the character of Edo, particularly in contrast to the two major cities of Kyoto and Osaka, neither of which were ruled by a daimyō or had a significant samurai population. Kyoto's character was defined by the Imperial Court, the court nobles, its Buddhist temples and its history; Osaka was the country's commercial center, dominated by the chōnin or the merchant class. On the contrary, the samurai and daimyō residences occupied up to 70% of the area of Edo. On the east and northeast sides of the castle lived the chōnin including shomin in a much more densely populated area than the samurai class area, organized in a series of gated communities called machi. This area, Shitamachi, was the center of urban and merchant culture. Shomin also lived along the main roads leading in and out of the city. The Sumida River, then called the Great River, ran on the eastern side of the city. The shogunate's official rice-storage warehouses and other official buildings were located here.
File:Hiroshige le pont Nihonbashi à l'aube.jpg|thumb|Nihonbashi in Edo, ukiyo-e print by Hiroshige|alt=Illustration of people crossing the wooden Edo Bridge
The Nihonbashi bridge marked the center of the city's commercial center and the starting point of the gokaidō. Fishermen, craftsmen and other producers and retailers operated here. Shippers managed ships known as tarubune to and from Osaka and other cities, bringing goods into the city or transferring them from sea routes to river barges or land routes.
The northeastern corner of the city was considered dangerous in the traditional onmyōdō cosmology and was protected from evil by a number of temples including Sensō-ji and Kan'ei-ji, one of the two tutelary Bodaiji temples of the Tokugawa. A path and a canal, a short distance north of Sensō-ji, extended west from the Sumida riverbank leading along the northern edge of the city to the Yoshiwara pleasure district. Previously located near Ningyōchō, the district was rebuilt in this more remote location after the great fire of Meireki. Danzaemon, the hereditary position head of eta, or outcasts, who performed "unclean" works in the city resided nearby.
Temples and shrines occupied roughly 15% of the surface of the city, equivalent to the living areas of the townspeople, with however an average of one-tenth of its population. Temples and shrines were spread out over the city. Besides the large concentration in the northeast side to protect the city, the second Bodaiji of the Tokugawa, Zōjō-ji occupied a large area south of the castle.