Stand at Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo and 2,500 people pass each other every second — the busiest pedestrian crossing on Earth. But did you know 400 years ago this was a swamp and a fishing village, where samurai got lost trying to ride to Edo Castle?
How did Tokyo go from fishing village to the world’s largest city? The story starts in 1590, when Tokugawa Ieyasu first set foot here.
Phase one: pre-1590 — fringe fishing village The name 「江戸」 (Edo) means 「the mouth (戸) of the inlet (江)」 — that is, a river mouth. The Sumida and Arakawa rivers empty into Tokyo Bay, and this area was swampland and a fishing village, with just over 100 households. Nobody took it seriously.
At the time, the country’s centers were Kyoto (the capital), Osaka (commerce), Nara (temples), and Kamakura (the old samurai government). The Kanto region was a backwater.
In the 12th century, the Edo family built a small fort here. In the 15th century, Ota Dokan rebuilt it as the prototype of 「Edo Castle」 (today’s Imperial Palace site) — but everything stayed small-scale.
Phase two: 1590-1603 — the bad hand Ieyasu was dealt After Toyotomi Hideyoshi destroyed the Hojo clan in 1590 (the Kanto power), Hideyoshi did something pointed: he relocated Ieyasu from his Mikawa and Suruga heartland to Kanto, ostensibly as a 「reward of larger territory」 but actually to push a potential rival to the frontier.
When Ieyasu rode into Edo Castle, what he saw was: a rough wooden castle, a swamp, no port, no commerce. But Ieyasu did not complain — he quietly started building, the patience that defined his 「wait until the bird sings」 character.
Ieyasu did three things: - Dug canals and reclaimed land: filling Hibiya Inlet (the area in front of today’s Imperial Palace) into solid ground and expanding Edo Castle. - Piped in water: bringing the 「Tamagawa-josui」 and 「Kanda-josui」 aqueducts from afar to solve drinking water. - Planned the castle town: samurai, merchants, and artisans in separate districts, with radial streets centered on Edo Castle.
Phase three: 1603-1700 — Edo rises In 1603, Ieyasu was appointed shogun in Kyoto and opened the Edo shogunate. Unexpectedly, he did not move back to Kyoto — he kept the shogunate’s headquarters in Edo and required all 300 daimyo (feudal lords) to spend alternating years in Edo. This was the sankin-kotai (alternate attendance) system.
The result: - Every daimyo built a mansion (yashiki) in Edo, pumping huge capital in. - Daimyo retinues moved massively every year, enriching the post towns along the route (the 53 stations of the Tokaido). - Edo’s population exploded: roughly 100,000 in 1600 → over 1 million by 1720 — the largest city in the world at the time, bigger than London and Paris combined.
In 1657, the Great Meireki Fire burned half the city and killed 100,000. The rebuild produced more regular streets and the machi-bikeshi (town firefighter) system. The saying 「江戸の華は火事と喧嘩」 (Edo’s flowers are fires and fights) was born.
Phase four: 1700-1853 — peak Edo culture A million-person Edo fueled the rise of chonin (townsman) culture: - Kabuki (the three great Edo theaters: Nakamura-za, Ichimura-za, Morita-za). - Ukiyo-e (Hokusai’s 36 Views of Mount Fuji, Hiroshige’s 53 Stations of the Tokaido, Toshusai Sharaku). - Haiku (Matsuo Basho). - Soba, sushi, and tempura shops — the three pillars of Edo street food, the prototypes of modern Japanese cuisine. - Yoshiwara (the licensed pleasure quarter — the cradle of geisha and tayu culture).
Phase five: 1853-1868 — black ships to the Meiji Restoration July 1853: Matthew Perry led four American black ships into the waters off Uraga (today’s Kanagawa), demanding Japan open its borders. Edo was shaken — Japan had been closed for 212 years and had never seen a steamship.
The following year, the Japan-US Treaty of Peace and Amity opened two ports and ended seclusion.
The next 15 years were the most turbulent in Japanese history: the shogunate (pro-Westernization but pro-shogun), the 「expel the barbarians」 faction, and the anti-shogunate faction fought a three-way war. Sakamoto Ryoma, Katsu Kaishu, Katsura Kogoro, Saigo Takamori, and Ito Hirobumi all rose during this era.
November 9, 1867: The 15th shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, performed taisei-hokan — voluntarily returning power to the Emperor. The 265-year Edo shogunate officially ended.
Phase six: 1868 — renamed Tokyo September 3, 1868: The Meiji government issued the 「Tokyo Tento no Mikotonori」 (Edict on Establishing Tokyo as Capital), renaming Edo as 「Tokyo」 (meaning 「the eastern capital」, paired with Kyoto).
March 1869: The Meiji Emperor formally moved from Kyoto to Tokyo. Edo Castle became the Imperial Palace. Kyoto lost its 1,074-year capital status.
The shockwave of the name change: - Edo Castle became the Imperial Palace (the East Gardens are now open to visitors). - The samurai class was abolished; 300,000 samurai families lost their occupations. - Daimyo mansions were confiscated, becoming government land or parks (today’s Ueno Park and Shinjuku Gyoen are former daimyo estates). - The 「chonmage」 (topknot) was cut off, and 「zangiri-atama」 (Western-style short hair) spread.
Phase seven: 1868 to today — modern Tokyo 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake: magnitude 7.9, half of Tokyo destroyed, 100,000 dead.
Rebuild: modernized roads, the subway (the Ginza Line opened in 1927, Asia’s first subway), Ginza department stores.
1945 Tokyo Air Raid: the US bombed Tokyo overnight on March 10, killing 100,000 and burning 41% of the city. No atomic bomb fell on Tokyo, but the city was nearly leveled.
Postwar reconstruction and the economic miracle: - 1964 — the Tokyo Olympics (Asia’s first) and the Tokaido Shinkansen (the world’s first high-speed rail) launched simultaneously. - 1968 — GNP surpassed West Germany, second in the world. - 1991 — the bubble burst, kicking off the 30 lost years (the Heisei stagnation). - 2012 — Tokyo Skytree (634m, the world’s second-tallest broadcasting tower). - 2020-2021 — Tokyo Olympics (postponed by the pandemic).
Tokyo today: 9.7 million in the 23 wards, 37 million in greater Tokyo — the largest metropolitan area in the world, six straight cycles.
Where to find Edo-era Tokyo today - Edo-Tokyo Museum (Sumida, reopened in 2025) — a reconstruction of Edo streets. - Imperial Palace East Gardens (free, the Edo Castle ruins). - Senso-ji and Nakamise-dori (the densest Edo atmosphere). - Yanaka, Nezu, and Sendagi (Ya-Ne-Sen) — prewar shopping street vibes. - Shibamata Taishakuten — Tora-san’s hometown, an early-Showa shopping street. - Kawagoe (Saitama, nicknamed 「Little Edo」, with 1.5 km of Edo streetscape preserved intact).
Next time you walk through Tokyo, remember 400 years ago this was just a fishing village. Becoming the world’s largest city took Tokugawa Ieyasu, 260 daimyo, a million Edo residents, the Meiji Restoration generation, and the postwar rebuilders. Tokyo is not just skyscrapers — it is 400 years of accumulation, layer by layer.