Edo in the context of Romanization of Japanese

Edo Castle (江戸城, Edo-jō) is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan in Edo, Toshima District, Musashi Province. In modern times it is part of the Tokyo Imperial Palace in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is therefore also known as Chiyoda Castle (千代田城, Chiyoda-jō).Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Tokugawa shogunate there, and it was the residence of the shōgun and the headquarters of the military government during the Edo period (1603–1867) in Japanese history. After the resignation of the shōgun and the Meiji Restoration, it became the Tokyo Imperial Palace. Some moats, walls and ramparts of the castle survive to this day. However, the grounds were more extensive during the Edo period, with Tokyo Station and the Marunouchi section of the city lying within the outermost moat. It also encompassed Kitanomaru Park, the Nippon Budokan Hall and other current landmarks of the surrounding area.

The Imperial Court in Kyoto was the nominal ruling government of Japan from 794 AD until the Meiji period (1868–1912), after which the court was moved from Kyoto (formerly Heian-kyō) to Tokyo (formerly Edo) and integrated into the Meiji government. Upon the court being moved to Kyoto from Nagaoka by Emperor Kanmu (737–806), the struggles for power regarding the throne that had characterized the Nara period diminished. Kyoto was selected as the location for the court because of its "proper" amount of rivers and mountains which were believed to be the most auspicious surroundings for the new capital. The capital itself was built in imitation of Chang'an, the Chinese capital of the Tang dynasty, closely following the theories of yin-yang. The most prominent group of people within the court was the civil aristocracy (kuge) which was the ruling class of society that exercised power on behalf of the emperor.

Kyoto's identity as a political, economic, and cultural centre started to be challenged in the post-1185 era with the rise of the shogunate system which gradually seized governance from the emperor. Minamoto no Yoritomo was the first to establish the post of the shōgun as hereditary, receiving the title in 1192. After Yoritomo launched the shogunate, true political power was in the hand of the shōguns, who were mistaken several times for the emperors of Japan by representatives of Western countries. The Kamakura shogunate (or Kamakura bakufu) would go on to last for almost 150 years, from 1185 to 1333.

The Edo period, also known as the Tokugawa period, is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional daimyo, or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characterized by prolonged peace and stability, urbanization and economic growth, strict social order, isolationist foreign policies, and popular enjoyment of arts and culture.

In 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu prevailed at the Battle of Sekigahara and established hegemony over most of Japan, and in 1603 was given the title shogun by Emperor Go-Yōzei. Ieyasu resigned two years later in favor of his son Hidetada, but maintained power, and defeated the primary rival to his authority, Toyotomi Hideyori, at the Siege of Osaka in 1615 before his death the next year. Peace generally prevailed from this point on, making samurai largely redundant. Tokugawa shoguns continued Ieyasu's policies of conformity, including a formalization of social classes in a strict hierarchy. By 1639, all foreigners were expelled under the policy of sakoku, with the exception of Dutch traders on the island of Dejima in Nagasaki, beginning a period of isolation. From 1635, daimyō had to spend alternating years in the capital Edo, where their family was required to reside permanently, in a system of "alternate attendance" in order to keep them in check.

The Shinsengumi (新選組, "Newly Selected Corps") was a small secret police organization, an elite group of swordsmen organized by commoners and low-ranking samurai, commissioned by the bakufu (military government) during Japan's Bakumatsu period (late Tokugawa shogunate) in 1863. It was active until 1869. It was founded to protect shogunate representatives in Kyoto at a time when a controversial imperial edict to exclude foreign trade from Japan had been made and the Chōshū clan had been forced from the imperial court. They gained considerable fame from events such as the Ikedaya incident and the August 18 coup, among others. The members were drawn from the sword schools of Edo.

This article lists the largest human settlements in the world (by population) over time, as estimated by historians, from 7000 BC when the largest human settlement was a proto-city in the ancient Near East with a population of about 1,000–2,000 people, to the year 2000 when the largest human settlement was Tokyo with 26 million.

Rome, Chang'an or Baghdad may have been the first city to have 1,000,000 people, as early as the 1st century or as late as the 8th century. Later cities that might have reached 1 million include Luoyang, Kaifeng, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Beijing, and Edo. There is wide agreement that London was the first city to reach 2 million and New York was the first to reach 10 million.

The Tōkaidō road (東海道, Tōkaidō; [to̞ːka̠ido̞ː]), which roughly means "eastern sea route," was the most important of the Five Routes of the Edo period in Japan, connecting Kyoto to the de facto capital of Japan at Edo (modern-day Tokyo). Unlike the inland and less heavily travelled Nakasendō, the Tōkaidō travelled along the sea coast of eastern Honshū, hence the route's name.

The Tōkaidō was first used in ancient times as a route from Kyoto to central Honshu before the Edo period.

Ginza (/ˈɡɪnzə/ GHIN-zə; Japanese: 銀座 [ɡindza]) is a district of Chūō, Tokyo, located south of Yaesu and Kyōbashi, west of Tsukiji, east of Yūrakuchō and Uchisaiwaichō, and north of Shinbashi. It is a popular upscale shopping area of Tokyo, with numerous internationally renowned department stores, boutiques, restaurants and coffeehouses located in its vicinity.

Ginza was a part of the old Kyobashi ward of Tokyo City, which, together with Nihonbashi and Kanda, formed the core of Shitamachi, the original downtown center of Edo (Tokyo).

Saigō Takamori (Japanese: 西郷 隆盛; 23 January 1828 – 24 September 1877) was a Japanese samurai and politician who was one of the most influential figures in Japanese history. He played a key role in the Meiji Restoration, which overthrew the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868, and subsequently served in the new Meiji government. However, he later became disillusioned with the direction of the new regime and led the Satsuma Rebellion against it in 1877, in which he was killed.

Born into a low-ranking samurai family in Satsuma Domain, Saigō rose to prominence as a retainer of Shimazu Nariakira, the daimyō of Satsuma. He was involved in national politics in Edo and Kyoto, advocating for shogunal reform and a stronger imperial role. After Nariakira's death, Saigō was exiled twice, first to Amami Ōshima and then to the harsher Okinoerabujima, periods during which he developed his political and philosophical ideas. Pardoned and recalled, he played a crucial part in forging the Satchō Alliance between Satsuma and Chōshū Domain, which was instrumental in the shogunate's downfall during the Boshin War. Saigō commanded imperial forces and negotiated the bloodless surrender of Edo Castle.

Sankin-kōtai (Japanese: 参覲交代/参覲交替, now commonly written as 参勤交代/参勤交替, 'alternate attendance') was a policy of the Tokugawa shogunate during most of the Edo period, created to control the daimyo, the feudal lords of Japan, politically, and to keep them from attempting to overthrow the regime. It required most daimyo to alternate between living in their domain and in the shogunate's capital, Edo, every year. This made the daimyo subject to constant surveillance from the shogunate. This also forced the daimyo to have residences in both their domain and Edo. The cost of maintaining several lavish residences as well as the journeys to and from Edo was a constant drain on the finances of the daimyo, which greatly increased the shogunate's control over them and kept them militarily weak. The daimyo were also required to keep their wife and children in Edo permanently to act as hostages.

Matsukura Katsuie (松倉 勝家; 1598 – 1638) (a.k.a. Matsukura Shigetsugu or Shigeharu) was a Japanese daimyō of the early Edo period. The son of Matsukura Shigemasa, Katsuie continued his father's policies of extraordinarily high taxation and persecution of Christians, which eventually led to the Shimabara Rebellion.

Although the rebellion was successfully put down, his status and domain were stripped away for misruling in May 1638. After a dead peasant's body was found inside his residence, Katsuie was sent to Edo for further investigation by the government. He was beheaded on August 28, 1638, having been found culpable for abusing his power and disgracing the shogunate. He was the only daimyo to be beheaded during the Edo period (dishonored officials were usually allowed to die by seppuku).

Matsukura Shigemasa (松倉 重政; 1574 – December 19, 1630) was a Japanese feudal lord of the late Sengoku and early Edo periods. He held the title of Bingo no Kami and the Imperial court rank of junior 5th, lower grade (ju-go i no ge). Though he began as a retainer of Tsutsui Sadatsugu of Yamato Province, he became a lord in his own right, acquiring the 60,000 koku Shimabara Domain in Kyushu, in 1600. He is most famous for being the lord whose domain was the center of the Shimabara Rebellion of 1638.

A kitchen knife is any knife that is intended to be used in food preparation, as opposed to a table knife used when eating, as part of a set of cutlery. While much of this work can be accomplished with a few general-purpose knives — notably a large chef's knife and a smaller serrated blade utility knife — there are also many specialized knives that are designed for specific tasks such as a tough cleaver, a small paring knife, and a bread knife. Kitchen knives can be made from several different materials, though the most common is a hardened steel blade with a wooden handle.

Historically, knives were made in "knife cities" that are noted for being the best at their production in that country with the pre-emininent, in Europe, being: Sheffield in Yorkshire, North of England; Thiers, Puy-de-Dôme in the Auvergne of France; Solingen in the Northern Rhineland of Germany; and Eskilstuna of Södermanland in Sweden. Each of these produced knives in a styles particular to the city, with Thiers especially being noted for the French point of Laguiole and steak knives. Whereas in Japan, there are many dispersed centres of kitchen knife production due to diversification that followed in wake of legislation restricting the production of sword-making. These are Tsubame-Sanjō in Niigata Prefecture, Seki in Gifu Prefecture, Sakai in Osaka Prefecture, Takefu-Echizen in Fukui Prefecture, and Tosa in Kōchi Prefecture amongst a number of others. Each area have their own style of knife, with Sakai in Osaka favouring the "sheep's foot" or drop point, in contrast to the square-tipped style of Edo, modern-day Tokyo.

Kakamigahara (各務原市, Kakamigahara-shi) is a city located in southern Gifu Prefecture in Japan. As of 1 January 2019, the city had an estimated population of 148,225, and a population density of 1700 persons per km, in 59,736 households. The total area of the city was 87.81 km (33.90 sq mi).

Situated in the northern part of the Nōbi Plain, what is now Kakamigahara originally thrived as a post station on the Nakasendō highway connecting Edo with Kyoto, being called "Unuma-juku" at the time. In more recent history, the city developed due to the JASDF Gifu base. In addition, Kakamigahara grew as an industrial city and a commuter suburb of Gifu City and Nagoya.

Tendai (天台宗, Tendai-shū), also known as the Tendai Dharma Flower School (天台法華宗, Tendai hokke shū, sometimes just Hokkeshū), is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition with significant esoteric elements that was officially established in Japan in 806 by the Japanese monk Saichō. The Tendai school, which has been based on Mount Hiei since its inception, rose to prominence during the Heian period (794–1185). It gradually eclipsed the powerful Hossō school and competed with the rival Shingon school to become the most influential sect at the Imperial court.

By the Kamakura period (1185–1333), Tendai had become one of the dominant forms of Japanese Buddhism, with numerous temples and vast landholdings. During the Kamakura period, various monks left Tendai to found new Buddhist schools such as Jōdo-shū, Jōdo Shinshū, Nichiren-shū and Sōtō Zen. The destruction of the head temple of Enryaku-ji by Oda Nobunaga in 1571, as well as the geographic shift of the capital away from Kyoto to Edo, ended Tendai's dominance, though it remained influential.

The Five Routes (五街道, Gokaidō), sometimes translated as "Five Highways", were the five centrally administered routes, or kaidō, that connected the de facto capital of Japan at Edo (now Tokyo) with the outer provinces during the Edo period (1603–1868). The most important of the routes was the Tōkaidō, which linked Edo and Kyoto. Tokugawa Ieyasu started the construction of the five routes to increase his control over the country in 1601, but it was Tokugawa Ietsuna, the 4th shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate and Ieyasu's great-grandson, who declared them as major routes. Post stations were set up along the route for travelers to rest and buy supplies. The routes thrived due to the policy of sankin-kōtai, that required the daimyō (regional rulers) to travel in alternate years along the routes to Edo.