Changes

The [[Musashino]] area was long considered a backwater, a long distance from the classical capitals and cultural centers of [[Nara]] and Kyoto. In [[Heian period]] poetry and classic narratives, it is associated strongly with wide open moors with tall grasses, and with bandits, though the Sumidagawa, and the view of [[Mt. Fuji]] also feature in literature of this time.

The [[Musashino]] area was long considered a backwater, a long distance from the classical capitals and cultural centers of [[Nara]] and Kyoto. In [[Heian period]] poetry and classic narratives, it is associated strongly with wide open moors with tall grasses, and with bandits, though the Sumidagawa, and the view of [[Mt. Fuji]] also feature in literature of this time.

Edo castle was founded in [[1457]] by [[Ota Dokan|Ôta Dôkan]], though the neighboring fishing villages and the like are not really considered to have become a city of any note until the late 16th century or so. Tokugawa Ieyasu made Edo castle his chief headquarters in 1590, and established it as the center of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603; after Shogun [[Tokugawa Iemitsu]] made ''sankin kôtai'' (alternate attendance) mandatory for all daimyô beginning in the 1630s, it became essential for each daimyô (or at least the vast majority) to maintain a mansion in Edo, and the samurai population of the city surged.

Edo castle was founded in [[1457]] by [[Ota Dokan|Ôta Dôkan]], though the neighboring fishing villages and the like are not really considered to have become a city of any note until the late 16th century or so. Tokugawa Ieyasu made Edo castle his chief headquarters in 1590, and established it as the center of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603, at which time he had [[Nihonbashi]] constructed, and undertook numerous other infrastructure projects to better prepare the city to serve as shogunal capital. Still, it is of note that Tokugawa Ieyasu spent the vast majority of his time in 1600-1605 in Osaka and Kyoto, and after 1605 in Sunpu, making only brief trips to Edo. Once Ieyasu finished using the symbolic centrality of Osaka and Kyoto to support his claims to legitimacy, and to secure the establishment of his new Tokugawa order - including securing ties with the Imperial Court & courtier families, and overseeing numerous fief transfers - it was his son [[Tokugawa Hidetada]] who really was the first Tokugawa Shogun to rule in Edo.<ref>[[Morgan Pitelka]], ''Spectacular Accumulation'', University of Hawaii Press (2016), 86.</ref>

 

After Shogun [[Tokugawa Iemitsu]] made ''[[sankin kotai|sankin kôtai]]'' (alternate attendance) mandatory for all daimyô beginning in the 1630s, it became essential for each daimyô (or at least the vast majority) to maintain a mansion in Edo, and the samurai population of the city surged.

Beyond the mere construction of the daimyô mansions themselves, this spurred considerable land reclamation projects and the like, which reshaped the landscape and expanded the city dramatically and rapidly. Very soon, the samurai population of the city alone exceeded 100,000. By the mid-18th century, the total population of the city broke one million, roughly the size of London and Paris combined; only Beijing, which also boasted a population around one million, had anywhere near this number of people.

Beyond the mere construction of the daimyô mansions themselves, this spurred considerable land reclamation projects and the like, which reshaped the landscape and expanded the city dramatically and rapidly. Very soon, the samurai population of the city alone exceeded 100,000. By the mid-18th century, the total population of the city broke one million, roughly the size of London and Paris combined; only Beijing, which also boasted a population around one million, had anywhere near this number of people.