Tokyo commuters may have noticed something odd on the subway map lately. As reported in this outlet, the Toei Oedo Line has teamed up with British singer Ed Sheeran to temporarily rebrand itself as “Oh! Ed!” The “Oh!” reflects the fact that the “O” in Oedo (大江戸) is actually a lengthened vowel (おお), which, if faithfully transliterated, would be “Ō.” The “Ed!” is a pun based on the singer’s first name, to which we will come shortly.
The result is a spelling that looks a bit unusual, and certainly quite exclamatory!! If you read the new spelling literally, you might almost think the trains are running through some place called “Ed” rather than “Edo” (江戸), the former name for Tokyo.
This is more than just a quirky one-off. The move taps into a broader trend I like to refer to as Magica spellings — the practice of writing Japanese words in the Roman alphabet not according to the established Hepburn system but by borrowing rules from English orthography. Often based on a pun, this type of spelling is particularly common in the world of product names, shop signs, pop culture or, as in our case, subway rebranding.
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