Editing Edo (section)

=== General layout of the city ===
The city was laid out as a castle town around Edo Castle, which was positioned at the tip of the [[Musashino Terrace|Musashino terrace]]. The area in the immediate proximity of the castle consisted of samurai and ''daimyō'' residences, whose families lived in Edo as part of the ''[[sankin-kōtai]]'' system; the ''daimyō'' made journeys in alternating years to Edo and used the residences for their entourages. The location of each residence was carefully attributed depending on their position as [[Tozama daimyō|''tozama'']], ''[[Shinpan (daimyo)|shinpan]]'' or [[Fudai daimyō|''fudai'']]. It was this extensive organization of the city for the samurai class which defined the character of Edo, particularly in contrast to the two major cities of Kyoto and [[Osaka]], neither of which were ruled by a ''daimyō'' or had a significant samurai population. Kyoto's character was defined by the Imperial Court, the [[kuge|court nobles]], its Buddhist temples and its history; Osaka was the country's commercial center, dominated by the ''[[chōnin]]'' or the merchant class. On the contrary, the samurai and ''daimyō'' residences occupied up to 70% of the area of Edo. On the east and northeast sides of the castle lived the {{Nihongo|''Shomin''|庶民|4="regular people"}} including the ''chōnin'' in a much more densely populated area than the samurai class area, organized in a series of gated communities called ''machi'' (町, "town" or "village"). This area, [[Yamanote and Shitamachi|Shitamachi]] (下町, "lower town" or "lower towns"), was the center of urban and merchant culture. Shomin also lived along the main roads leading in and out of the city. The Sumida River, then called the Great River (大川, ''Ōkawa''), ran on the eastern side of the city. The shogunate's official rice-storage warehouses<ref>Taxes, and samurai stipends, were paid not in [[Money|coin]], but in rice. See ''[[koku]]''.</ref> and other official buildings were located here.

[[File:Hiroshige le pont Nihonbashi à l'aube.jpg|thumb|Nihonbashi in Edo, ''[[ukiyo-e]]'' print by [[Hiroshige]]|alt=Illustration of people crossing the wooden Edo Bridge]]
The {{Nihongo|[[Nihonbashi]] bridge|日本橋|4=lit. "bridge of Japan"}} marked the center of the city's commercial center and the starting point of the [[Edo Five Routes|gokaidō]] (thus making it the de facto "center of the country"). Fishermen, craftsmen and other producers and retailers operated here. Shippers managed ships known as ''tarubune'' to and from Osaka and other cities, bringing goods into the city or transferring them from sea routes to river barges or land routes.

The northeastern corner of the city was considered dangerous in the traditional ''[[onmyōdō]]'' cosmology and was protected from evil by a number of temples including [[Sensō-ji]] and [[Kan'ei-ji]], one of the two tutelary [[Bodaiji]] temples of the Tokugawa. A path and a canal, a short distance north of Sensō-ji, extended west from the Sumida riverbank leading along the northern edge of the city to the [[Yoshiwara]] pleasure district. Previously located near Ningyōchō, the district was rebuilt in this more remote location after the great fire of Meireki. Danzaemon, the hereditary position head of ''[[burakumin|eta]],'' or outcasts, who performed "unclean" works in the city resided nearby.

Temples and shrines occupied roughly 15% of the surface of the city, equivalent to the living areas of the townspeople, with however an average of one-tenth of its population. Temples and shrines were spread out over the city. Besides the large concentration in the northeast side to protect the city, the second Bodaiji of the Tokugawa, [[Zōjō-ji]] occupied a large area south of the castle.