Tokyo Before Tokyo: Power and Magic in the Shogun’s City of EDO

A rich and original history of Edo, the shogun’s city that became modern Tokyo.

Tokyo today is one of the world’s mega-cities and the center of a scintillating, hyper-modern culture--but not everyone is aware of its past. Founded in 1590 as the seat of the warlord Tokugawa family, Tokyo, then called Edo, was the locus of Japanese trade, economics, and urban civilization until 1868, when it mutated into Tokyo and became Japan’s modern capital. This beautifully illustrated book presents important sites and features from the rich history of Edo, taken from contemporary sources such as diaries, guidebooks, and woodblock prints. These include the huge bridge on which the city was centered; the vast castle of the Shogun; sumptuous Buddhist temples, bars, kabuki theaters, and Yoshiwara--the famous red-light district.

Timon Screech is professor of the history of art at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is the author of many books including Sex and the Floating World: Erotic Images in Japan, 1700-1820, also published by Reaktion Books.