Editing Tokyo (section)

=== 1590–1868 (Tokugawa period) ===
{{Main|Edo}}
{{See also|Perry Expedition|Bakumatsu}}
[[File:Hiroshige, Sugura street.jpg|left|thumb|[[Mitsukoshi]] stores in [[Nihonbashi]], by [[Hiroshige]], {{Circa|1836}}]]

Following the siege of Odawara, [[Tokugawa Ieyasu]] was granted the [[Kantō region]] by [[Toyotomi Hideyoshi]] and moved there from his ancestral land of [[Mikawa Province]]. He greatly expanded the castle, which was said to have been abandoned and in tatters when he moved there, and ruled the region from there. When he became ''[[Shogun|shōgun]]'', the ''[[de facto]]'' ruler of the country, in 1603, the whole country came to be ruled by Edo. While the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] ruled the country in practice, the [[Imperial House of Japan]] was still the ''[[de jure]]'' ruler, and the title of shōgun was granted by the Emperor as a formality. The Imperial House was based in [[Kyoto]] from 794 to 1868, so Edo was still not the capital of Japan.<ref name=Sorensen>{{cite book |title=The Making of Urban Japan: Cities and Planning from Edo to the Twenty-First Century |last=Sorensen |first=Andre |year=2004}}</ref> {{Rp|16}} During the [[Edo period]], the city enjoyed a prolonged period of peace known as the ''Pax Tokugawa'', and in the presence of such peace, the shogunate adopted a stringent policy of seclusion, which helped to perpetuate the lack of any serious military threat to the city.<ref>{{cite book |title=Edo, the City That Became Tokyo: An Illustrated History |last=Naitō |first=Akira |year=2003 |pages=33, 55 }}</ref> The absence of war-inflicted devastation allowed Edo to devote the majority of its resources to rebuilding in the wake of the consistent fires, [[earthquakes in Japan|earthquakes]] and other devastating natural disasters that plagued the city. Edo grew into one of the largest cities in the world with a population reaching one million by the 18th century.<ref>{{cite book |last=McClain, James |first=James |title=Edo and Paris: Urban Life and the State in the Early Modern Era |year=1994 |page=13 |display-authors=etal}}</ref>

However, this prolonged period of seclusion ended with the arrival of American Commodore [[Matthew C. Perry]] in 1853. Commodore Perry forced the opening of the ports of [[Shimoda, Shizuoka|Shimoda]] and [[Hakodate]], leading to an increase in the demand for new foreign goods and subsequently a severe rise in inflation.<ref>{{cite book |title=Edo, the City That Became Tokyo: An Illustrated History|last=Naitō |first=Akira |year=2003 |pages=182–183 }}</ref> Social unrest mounted in the wake of these higher prices and culminated in widespread rebellions and demonstrations, especially in the form of the "smashing" of rice establishments.<ref>{{cite book |title=Edo, the City That Became Tokyo: An Illustrated History |last=Naitō |first=Akira |year=2003 |page=186 }}</ref> Meanwhile, supporters of the Emperor leveraged the disruption caused by widespread rebellious demonstrations to further consolidate power, which resulted in the overthrow of the last Tokugawa shōgun, [[Tokugawa Yoshinobu|Yoshinobu]], in 1867.<ref>{{cite book |title=Edo, the City That Became Tokyo: An Illustrated History |last=Naitō |first=Akira |year=2003 |page=188 }}</ref> After 265 years, the ''Pax Tokugawa'' came to an end. In May 1868, Edo castle was handed to the Emperor-supporting forces after negotiation (the [[Fall of Edo]]). Some forces loyal to the shogunate kept fighting, but with their loss in the [[Battle of Ueno]] on 4 July 1868, the entire city came under the control of the [[Government of Meiji Japan|new government]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Japan - The fall of the Tokugawa {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Japan/The-fall-of-the-Tokugawa |access-date=2024-05-17 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en |archive-date=May 17, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240517154848/https://www.britannica.com/place/Japan/The-fall-of-the-Tokugawa |url-status=live }}</ref>