Tokyo Station (Japanese: 東京駅, Hepburn: Tōkyō-eki; pronounced[to̞ːkʲo̞ːe̞kʲi]) is a major railway station and a central rail hub in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The original station is located in Chiyoda's Marunouchi business district near the Imperial Palace grounds. The newer Eastern extension is not far from the Ginza commercial district. Due to the large area covered by the station, it is divided into the Marunouchi (west) and Yaesu (east) sides in its directional signage.
The station opened in 1914 as an integrated terminus for the present-day Tōkaidō Line, Tōhoku Line, and later the Chūō Line, which previously had separate termini in Tokyo. Since then, it has served as the main terminus for inter-city trains departing Tokyo westwards. The station was badly damaged during the Bombing of Tokyo on 25 May 1945 but soon resumed service. The Tōkaidō Shinkansen, the world's first dedicated high-speed rail system, opened between the station and Osaka in 1964. With the extension of northbound Shinkansen lines from Ueno in 1991, the station also became a gateway to northeast Japan. (Full article...)
Image 30A social hierarchy chart based on old academic theories. Such hierarchical diagrams were removed from Japanese textbooks after various studies in the 1990s revealed that peasants, craftsmen, and merchants were in fact equal and merely social categories. Successive shoguns held the highest or near-highest court ranks, higher than most court nobles. (from History of Tokyo)
Image 45The five-story pagoda of Kan'ei-ji, which was constructed during the reign of Tokugawa Hidetada and required the building of the Kimon (Devil's Gate) (from History of Tokyo)
Image 56Picture of the Upper Class, a c. 1794–1795 painting by Utamaro. The woman on the left is lower in class than the woman on the right, who wears more colorful clothes. (from History of Tokyo)