Tokyo was not always one of the world’s great cities. In fact, for much of Japan’s history, it was a backwater town. This perception was particularly acute from Kyoto, the seat of the imperial court for centuries and the epitome of all things civilized. In the poetry of its aristocracy, the entire Kanto Plain was invariably depicted as a remote realm of uncouth barbarians.
Tokyo Before Tokyo: Power and Magic in the Shogun’s City of Edo, by Timon Screech240 pagesREAKTION BOOKS
The rise of Tokyo, then known as Edo, began in the early decades of the 17th century. Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) had just unified the country after more than a century of civil war, and rather than move his government to Kyoto as some had done before, he chose Edo, taking his cues from the Minamoto clan, who had established theirs nearby, at Kamakura in 1185.