Toponymy: Tokyo during Meiji Restoration

THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE NAME “TOKYO” AT THE TIME OF MEIJI RESTORATION, BY HUANG LIHUI

The following essay was granted permission for publication on December 21, 2021.

Author: Huang Li Hui

A first-year student at the University of Tsukuba

The paragraph about Tokyo interests me a lot. In this article, the place where now Tokyo is located used to be called “Edo”. “Edo” was renamed “Tokyo” after the Meiji Restoration. The reason is that the main residence of the emperor was moved from Kyoto to Edo, therefore, Edo became the new capital and got a new name “Tokyo”. Obviously, the reason why people changed the name of this place to “Tokyo” (東京) is that this place became the new capital (“東” means in the eastern, “京” means capital). Then local residents accepted this new place-name. I am very interested in this aspect. I want to know the perception and acceptance of the new name at that era, how people at that time felt about the name “Tokyo” and how it was received.

As we know, a toponym not only means that the space and the time range are represented by a name but also contains other values in many aspects. In fact, place-names have historical, cultural, social, national, and other aspects of significance. For its residents, “Edo” has always been the name of their hometown before. Also, historically, Edo was an important area, and many historical nouns containing the word “Edo” also appeared, such as “Edo period”. Therefore, the name of a place should have emotional significance for its inhabitants. From this point of view, perhaps the people were very reluctant to give up the name “Edo”. Maybe residents at that era took a long time to get used to the new place name “Tokyo.”

However, in my point of view, I do not think they had a hard time accepting this new toponym. There is one example in my country, and I consider it will be helpful for us to analyze this topic. In fact, the original name of Beijing (北京) was Peiping (北平). Because after the end of China’s civil war, the leading party settled in this place, then the place became the capital of China, its name was also changed to Beijing in 1949 (“北” means in the northern, “京” means capital). I learned from my older relatives that most people liked the name “Beijing” and accepted it quickly at that time since most of them believe that it is an honor for the place where they live to become the capital of the new China.

Both cities have important political, historical, and cultural significance. Also, both Tokyo and Beijing became the capital because of the shift of the center of political power (Tokyo is due to the arrival of the emperor, and Beijing is due to the arrival of the ruling party.). Because of their similarities in these aspects, I think it might be possible to use an analogy to help judge people’s perception of the name “Tokyo” at that time. Although at that time Edo already had a pivotal political position, I think that local residents should be happy that their place has become the capital officially and easily accepted the name “Tokyo.”

Works Cited:

“Edo.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edo. Accessed 30 October 2021.

“Beiping.” The Free Dictionary, Farlex. https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Beiping. Accessed 30 October 2021.