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The first [[railroads|train line]] in Japan opened in [[1872]], connecting [[Sakuragicho Station|Yokohama]] with [[Shinagawa]] Station in Tokyo; the line was extended before the end of that year to Tokyo's [[Shinbashi Station]].<ref>Plaques on-site at Sakuragichô Station, Yokohama.</ref> By 1889, the first incarnation of the [[Tokaido|Tôkaidô Main Line]] was complete, connecting Tokyo by rail as far as [[Kobe]]. The [[Yoshiwara]], and the brothels, teahouses, and prostitutes of a number of other areas were brought under the jurisdiction of the [[Tokyo Metropolitan Police]] in [[1875]], and rapidly declined in size and stature. By the early decades of the 20th century, the Yoshiwara was only a mere shadow of its former self, but it did continue to exist and operate until it was formally closed in 1958.

The first [[railroads|train line]] in Japan opened in [[1872]], connecting [[Sakuragicho Station|Yokohama]] with [[Shinagawa]] Station in Tokyo; the line was extended before the end of that year to Tokyo's [[Shinbashi Station]].<ref>Plaques on-site at Sakuragichô Station, Yokohama.</ref> By 1889, the first incarnation of the [[Tokaido|Tôkaidô Main Line]] was complete, connecting Tokyo by rail as far as [[Kobe]]. The [[Yoshiwara]], and the brothels, teahouses, and prostitutes of a number of other areas were brought under the jurisdiction of the [[Tokyo Metropolitan Police]] in [[1875]], and rapidly declined in size and stature. By the early decades of the 20th century, the Yoshiwara was only a mere shadow of its former self, but it did continue to exist and operate until it was formally closed in 1958.

Construction of Western-style buildings had begun as early as the [[Bakumatsu]] period, but many of the most significant municipal, national, and Imperial structures were only first completed in the 1880s. These include the [[Tokyo National Museum]], designed in its first red-brick incarnation by [[Josiah Conder]] and completed in [[1881]], the [[Imperial Japanese Army]] [[General Staff Office]], completed that same year by [[Giovanni Vincenzo Cappelletti]], and the [[Rokumeikan]], also designed by Conder, and completed in [[1883]] on the former grounds of a secondary residence of the [[Shimazu clan]] of [[Satsuma han]].<ref>[[Ichioka Masakazu]], ''[[Tokugawa seiseiroku]]'', 1889, reprinted Tokyo: Heibonsha (1989), 29.; Dallas Finn, "Reassessing the Rokumeikan," in Ellen Conant (ed.), ''Challenging Past and Present: The Metamorphosis of Nineteenth-Century Japanese Art'', University of Hawaii Press (2006), 227-239.</ref> The main avenues of the [[Ginza]] neighborhood, lined with trees and red-brick buildings, were already a center of modern urban culture, and commercial center, by the 1880s,<ref>Fujitani, 59.</ref> and sites of Western-style elite gatherings (e.g. dinner parties, luncheons, ballroom dancing) such as the [[Rokumeikan]] were at their height at that time.<ref>Finn, op. cit.</ref>

[[Fukuzawa Yukichi]] was among the most prominent of a series of officials who called in [[1883]] for a coordinated plan for the city as a whole, and for a focus on the palace, criticizing the efforts of former Tokyo governor [[Matsuda Michiyuki]] (gov. [[1879]]-[[1882]]) and others to simply build up Tokyo piecemeal, one project at a time. Construction of Western-style buildings had begun as early as the [[Bakumatsu]] period, and the [[Ginza]], flanked by Shinbashi Station and by the Foreign Concessions, was built up into a rather modern commercial area filled with gaslamps, shopping arcades of two-story Georgian-style brick buildings, and the first sidewalks in Japan, as early as 1872-[[1877]];<ref>Fujitani, 71.</ref> however, many of the most significant municipal, national, and Imperial structures were only first completed in the 1880s. These include the [[Tokyo National Museum]], designed in its first red-brick incarnation by [[Josiah Conder]] and completed in [[1881]], the [[Imperial Japanese Army]] [[General Staff Office]], completed that same year by [[Giovanni Vincenzo Cappelletti]], and the [[Rokumeikan]], also designed by Conder, and completed in [[1883]] on the former grounds of a secondary residence of the [[Shimazu clan]] of [[Satsuma han]].<ref>[[Ichioka Masakazu]], ''[[Tokugawa seiseiroku]]'', 1889, reprinted Tokyo: Heibonsha (1989), 29.; Dallas Finn, "Reassessing the Rokumeikan," in Ellen Conant (ed.), ''Challenging Past and Present: The Metamorphosis of Nineteenth-Century Japanese Art'', University of Hawaii Press (2006), 227-239.</ref> The Rokumeikan, among other sites, quickly reached their heights as centers of Western-style elite gatherings (e.g. dinner parties, luncheons, ballroom dancing) during that decade.<ref>Finn, op. cit.</ref>

The year 1889 marks a significant shift in the way the Meiji government viewed and treated Tokyo, and thus in the development of the city. In that year, the Imperial family took up residence in the [[Tokyo Imperial Palace]], which was completed the previous year after fires destroyed the previous palace (Edo castle) in [[1873]]. The Palace was officially designated an "Imperial Palace" (''kyûjô''), and the city, described for many years by foreign observers and Japanese alike as possessing an empty center, once more had a visible and monumental symbol of political power at its center. Parades and other events surrounding the celebration of the promulgation of the [[Meiji Constitution]] later that year are sometimes cited as the first major modern national ceremonies to be held in the streets of Tokyo. Celebrations of the thirtieth anniversary of the relocation of the capital, held in [[1898]], were another particularly notable event in the evolution of Tokyo's modern & national(ist) festivals.

The year 1889 marks a significant shift in the way the Meiji government viewed and treated Tokyo, and thus in the development of the city. In that year, the Imperial family took up residence in the [[Tokyo Imperial Palace]], which was completed the previous year after fires destroyed the previous palace (Edo castle) in [[1873]]. The Palace was officially designated an "Imperial Palace" (''kyûjô''), and the city, described for many years by foreign observers and Japanese alike as possessing an empty center, once more had a visible and monumental symbol of political power at its center. Parades and other events surrounding the celebration of the promulgation of the [[Meiji Constitution]] later that year are sometimes cited as the first major modern national ceremonies to be held in the streets of Tokyo. Celebrations of the thirtieth anniversary of the relocation of the capital, held in [[1898]], were another particularly notable event in the evolution of Tokyo's modern & national(ist) festivals.