The birth of Nihonbashi

The Nihonbashi area is said to have originated as a “merchant district” built around Edo Castle when the Edo shogunate was founded., As the symbol of the region, Nihonbashi was completed in 1603, the same year the Edo shogunate was established. In 1604, it was designated as the starting point of the Gokaido (Five Routes), and the town soon became very prosperous with people and products coming from all over the country. The streets were lined on both sides with stores with imposing structures such as the Mitsui Echigo-ya Gofukuten (later Mitsukoshi) and Shirokiya (later Tokyu Department Store), and the area developed as the center of Japan’s economy.

Scene of Nihonbashi in the Edo Period from a reproduction of the picture scroll “Kidai Shoran”
*The Kidai Shoran picture scroll is on permanent display in the underground concourse of Mitsukoshimae Station.

Nihonbashi flourished as a center of economy, commerce, finance, logistics, and entertainment.

“Fish Market at Nihonbashi Bridge,” Utagawa Kuniyasu, National Diet Library Collection

“View of Suruga-cho” from the series Famous Places in the Eastern Capital, Utagawa Hiroshige, National Diet Library Collection

“Picture Scroll of Kinza,” Bank of Japan Currency Museum Collection

“Three Theaters” (In the Nakamura-za Theater), Utagawa Toyokuni, 1817, Waseda University’s Tsubouchi Memorial Theater Museum Collection

Gokaido (Five Routes), waterways, cities made of alleys, and so on…. In the next section, we will take a look at the development of Nihonbashi based on the keyword “roads.”