In the Edo Period, Shinagawa was the first "shukuba machi," or "post station town" to be built on the Tokaido, the coastal road linking the bustling Nihonbashi district in Edo, then the de facto capital under the Tokugawa shogunate, to Kyoto, which remained the nominal capital in the west.
Men dressed as an Edo wanderer (left) and a 'kawaraban' (handbill) peddler pose at the Edo Fuzoku Gyoretsu (Edo Culture Parade) near the former Tokaido Road between the Yatsuyama and Aomonoyokocho districts in Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward on Sept. 28. | YOSHIAKI MIURAShinagawa prospered as the gateway to Edo, as Tokyo was then known, with both visitors and westbound travelers stopping there to rest and buy supplies. At the time, the area was said to have 7,000 residents and 1,600 homes.
Even today, traces of Shinagawa's early prosperity can be seen in its cityscape.
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