Tokyo 150 Years

On the 17th of July 1868, during the fourth year of the Keio era, an imperial edict was issued declaring that the city of Edo was being renamed Tokyo. With that edict, Japan saw the establishment of Tokyo Prefecture, and this year marks the 150th anniversary of its founding. The city of Tokyo was born amidst the chaos of the Meiji Restoration, and over the years, both disaster and war have wrought great damage throughout its streets. However, through the efforts of the people who call it home, Tokyo has risen from the ashes each time, and as the capital of Japan, it has continued to grow. This exhibition will present visitors with photographs, video, maps made in different eras, and other items that serve as witness to how Tokyo looked in its earliest days, and that illustrate how it has transformed over the last 150 years. We will also turn our eyes to some of the many urban planning proposals submitted but never fully implemented. They provide a vision of a Tokyo that lives on only in the imagination – the ideal city that planners aimed to build in their quest to provide it with the form and function appropriate to the capital of the nation.