Tokyo

An engaging new guide to Tokyo's many lives, tracing four centuries of transformation from sleepy fishing village to vibrant metropolis.

Eiko Maruko Siniawer (Author)

9781108845762, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 January 2025

288 pages
22.4 x 14.6 x 2.1 cm, 0.46 kg

'… traces Tokyo's development from its origin as a castle town to its existence today as a global metropolis, technologically advanced and culturally fun. For each era, Siniawer draws attention to how the city's inhabitants lived, providing finely detailed descriptions of their homes, clothing, food, recreation, and, for the past century, their aspirations to middle-class status. To create these finely grained pictures, Siniawer draws on a wealth of recent scholarship … Recommended.' S. A. Hastings, Choice

From sleepy fishing village to samurai capital to vibrant global metropolis, Eiko Maruko Siniawer takes readers through Tokyo's rich history, revealing four centuries of transformation deeply woven into its fabric. This accessible guide introduces a world of shoguns and Kabuki theater, riots and earthquakes, wartime devastation and reconstruction, booms and busts, bright lights and skyscrapers, all viewed through the lived experiences of those who have inhabited and shaped a city of distinctive neighborhoods and different personalities. Emphasizing the city's human heart, Siniawer conveys a vivid sense of time, culture, and place through ten moments that have shaped Tokyo's many lives.

Prologue
1. Founding the shogun's capital
2. Becoming the city of Edoites
3. Seismic shocks
4. Modernizing the nation's capital
5. The politics of public space
6. Tokyo modern: Destruction and reconstruction of the cosmopolitan city
7. The militarized city
8. Dreams and disappointments
9. Global capital
10. Past and present.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]