Tokyo Before Tokyo

Power and Magic in the Shogun's City of Edo

Timon Screech

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English

Reaktion Books
01 December 2020

Oriental art; History

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 civilisation 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 centred; the vast castle of the Shogun; sumptuous Buddhist temples, bars, kabuki theatres, and Yoshiwara - the famous red-light district.

By: Timon Screech
Imprint: Reaktion Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 220mm, Width: 171mm,
ISBN: 9781789142334
ISBN 10: 1789142334
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 01 December 2020
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Timon Screech is Professor in the History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and, concurrently, Permanent Visiting Professor at Tama Art University, Tokyo. He is the author of many books including Sex and the Floating World: Erotic Images in Japan, 1700-1820 (2nd Edition Reaktion, 2009).

Reviews for Tokyo Before Tokyo: Power and Magic in the Shogun's City of Edo

In this beguiling and splendidly illustrated volume, Screech brings to the page an array of fascinating narrative insights that not only tell the story of the shogun's capital but also set it in the broader context of Japanese cultural history, with its extensive ties to the Chinese world, and even beyond, to Europe. --Paul Waley, University of Leeds, coeditor of Japanese Capitals in Historical Perspective: Place, Power and Memory in Kyoto, Edo and Tokyo