In 1590, more than 2½ and a half centuries before Edo was to become Tokyo, the city's first central fish market, named Uogashi, was established on the bank of Nihonbashi River.
That location was to prove fortuitous: Nihonbashi came to be regarded as the geographic center of Japan. As shown in old woodblock illustrations from the period, the district bustled with commerce. Even today, centuries-old businesses still operate on either side of the river, including the Nishikawa bedding company (its first store was founded there in 1615) and the Mitsukoshi department store (originally a kimono shop named Echigoya, which opened in 1673).
The old Nihonbashi fish market was devastated by the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake. Realizing it had outgrown its allotted space, the city obtained a large plot of reclaimed land from the Imperial Japanese Navy in Tsukiji, on what was formerly a settlement set aside for foreign residents in present-day Chuo Ward. The new Central Fish Market was completed in 1935.