Tokyo History and Architecture

Sources

• Rise of Tokyo in Color: a doc by Smithsonian Channel

Architecture

• Why Tokyo is the Opposite of Every Major City: Covers the history of its mixed-use plan, the autonomy in its reconstruction post WW2
• Tokyo's map explained
• Mapping Tokyo's neighborhoods

Notes

• tokonoma - small alcove space (started ~300 years ago)

History

• in 1868, after the Meiji Restoration began after the Tokogawa shogunate was defeated, restoring imperial rule of Emperor Meiji
  • Japan was forced to open to the West
• Much of this modern development in 1910s-1920s involved British engineers,
• By 1917 a 5000 mile rail system was running
• Modernized in early 1920s, Maranuchi became known as Little London.
• Takamori Saigo, "the last samurai", was celebrated as a statue in Ueno Park
• Asakusa, became Tokyo's theater district
• Tokyo's population was over 2 million by 1920s
• Sep 1 1923, The Great Kanto Earthquake, destroyed more than half of the dwelligns in Tokyo
  • Ueno Park became an encampment for thousands, where water and food was distributed.
• 1926, death of Emperor Taisho. His son, Hirohito succeeds him.
• 1928, Kiyosu Bridge was built over the Sumida River, ti was a reproduction of an existing bridge in Cologne, Germany
• Kabuki Za Theater was rebuilt