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Tokyo, originally known as Edo, began as a small fishing village that was first mentioned in historical records near the end of the 12th century. The village entered the mainstream of Japanese history in 1457 when a minor provincial lord named Dokan Ota built a castle there.
In 1590 another fief lord, Ieyasu Tokugawa, look over the Ota castle. In 1603 he emerged as the supreme military power in the country, and made Edo the administrative capital of the newly established Tokugawa Shogunate government. By 1700 Edo was one of the largest urban areas in the world, consisting of several hundred interconnected villages and towns.
Many of the original communities of the early Edo period are still recognizable by their names and distinctive identities, and dozens of them have grown into virtual cities within the city of Tokyo.
The primary districts of Tokyo, which number over 100, are linked by twelve subway lines that form one of the largest urban transportation systems in the world. The twelve lines have over 300 stations, many of which represent a population and business center that corresponds to one of the communities of old Edo.
This book illustrates the largest and most important of these station areas.
Boye Lafayette De Mente