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Edo ( Japanese: 江戸, literally: bay- door, " estuary"), once also spelled Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo. The pronunciation is, very roughly, "ed-oh" (ed is the shortened form of Edward; oh is the letter of the alphabet.). While there have been early settlements on the hills at the Tokyo Bay for several centuries, the first major event in the history of Edo was the building of the Edo Castle in 1457 by Ota Dokan.

The Tokugawa shogunate was established in 1603 with Edo as its seat of government ( de facto capital). (The emperor's residence, and formal capital, remained in KyotoToji Temple a symbol of the city, and the tallest pagoda in Japan Kyoto ( Japanese: ; Kyoto-shi) is a city in Japan that has a population of 1. 5 million and time zone UTC + 9 hours. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto p, that city had been the actual capital of Japan until that time.)

Edo was devastated repeatedly by fires, the Meireki no Taika of 1657Events January 8 Miles Sindercombe, would-be-assassin of Oliver Cromwell, and his group are captured in London February Admiral Robert Blake defeats the Spanish West Indian Fleet in a battle over the seizure of Jamaica. April 20 Admiral Robert Blake destr perhaps having been the most serious one: an estimated 100,000 people perished in the flames. During the Edo periodThe Edo period is a division of Japanese history running from 1603 to 1867. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa Shogunate which was also officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. During this period external, there were about one hundred fires, typically caused by accidents when the mostly wooden houses were heated with charcoalCharcoal is the blackish residue consisting of impure carbon obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents of animal and vegetable substances. It is usually produced by heating wood in the absence of oxygen (see char), but sugar charcoal, bon fires in winter.

In 1868Events January 3 Meiji Emperor declares " Meiji Restoration", his own restoration to full power, against the supporters of the Tokugawa Shogunate. January 10 Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu declares emperor's declaration "illegal" and attacks Kyoto. Pro-Emperor, when the shogunate came to an end, the city was renamed "Tokyo" which means "Eastern Capital"; during the restoration, the emperor moved to Tokyo, making the city the formal as well as de facto capital of Japan.

During the Edo periodThe Edo period is a division of Japanese history running from 1603 to 1867. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa Shogunate which was also officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. During this period external, the Shogunate appointed administrators (machi bugyo) to oversee the government of Edo. They oversaw the police and (from the time of YoshimuneTokugawa Yoshimune ( November 27 1684 July 12 1751) was the eighth shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, known for his financial reform. He is best known for dismissing his conservative adviser Arai Hakuseki and instigating the Kyoho reforms. Yoshimu onward) the commoner fire department (machibikeshi), heard criminal and civil suits, and performed other administrative functions necessary in a city of a million inhabitants.