Edo (江戸) is the old name of Tokyo. It is also the name of the era when the city ruled Japan, the Edo period (1603–1868). For two and a half centuries, the Tokugawa shoguns kept the country at peace. Much of what the world now sees as "traditional Japan" took shape in those years.
A castle town becomes a capital
In 1590 Tokugawa Ieyasu took over a modest castle town on a marshy bay. After he became shogun in 1603, he made it his seat of power. The emperor stayed in Kyoto, but real power sat in Edo. Later shoguns made every regional lord, or daimyō, live in Edo every other year. Their wives and heirs had to stay there all the time. This system, sankin-kōtai, kept the lords loyal and short of money. It also filled the city with samurai, servants and the merchants who fed them. By the 1700s Edo had about a million people. It was among the largest cities in the world.
A closed country, a lively city
The shoguns also limited contact with the outside world. From the 1630s, foreign trade went through a few tightly controlled channels. At Nagasaki, only Dutch and Chinese merchants could trade. Later historians called this policy sakoku, "closed country." Inside the country, peace and trade made the townspeople rich. They spent their money on fun. Kabuki, ukiyo-e prints, sushi from street stalls and tempura all grew up in Edo. In 1853 American warships under Commodore Perry arrived and demanded that Japan open its ports. Fifteen years later the shogunate fell. In 1868 the city was renamed Tokyo, "eastern capital," and the emperor moved there.
Words & idioms to take away
Idioms & proverbs to carry away
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江戸っ子 (Edokko): "child of Edo," a true-born Tokyoite. The word still suggests someone quick, frank and free with money.
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鎖国 (sakoku): "chained country," the name later given to the shoguns' policy of limited foreign contact.