In Place of a Conclusion: Where Is Tokyo?

In Place of a Conclusion: Where Is Tokyo? Toshihiko Sugai Where Is Tokyo Located? The chapters in this volume show that the geography of Tokyo presents many different faces and that it has changed dynamically through geologic time. Here, let us return to our starting point by overviewing Tokyo at different geographical scales, seeking the common factors, amid its diversity, that have sustained this great city. Local and regional conditions are fundamental to the identity of where we live, and they sometimes impose sharp constraints on the resulting communities. The site of Tokyo is one of steep environmental gradients, where contrasting natural environments meet at various scales. At the global scale, Tokyo is situated between the tropical and polar climatic zones, and between the great Eurasian continent and the even greater Pacific Ocean (Fig. 1a). Therefore, Tokyo is affected by a temperate monsoon climate with four seasons, and influenced by major ocean currents. In tectonic terms, Tokyo lies in the circum-Pacific orogenic zone, where the largest continental plate and the largest oceanic plate converge. This explains why Tokyo has frequent earthquakes. At the regional scale, Tokyo is in the southwestern part of the northeastern Japan island arc. The elevation difference between Tokyo and the deepest part of the Japan Trench exceeds 8000 m, comparable to that between the Himalayas and the Indo- Gangetic Plain. Subduction of the Pacific Plate has generated the volcanic front of northeastern Japan, along with hot springs, such as Kusatsu, Hakone, and Nasu near Tokyo. Frequent volcanic eruptions and even more frequent river flooding have sup- plied abundant parent materials for the deep and fertile soils of the Kanto Plain. T. Sugai () Department of Natural Environmental Studies, Faculty of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa 277-8563, Chiba, Japan e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018 329 T. Kikuchi, T. Sugai (eds.), Tokyo as a Global City, International Perspectives in Geography 8, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7638-1 330 In Place of a Conclusion: Where Is Tokyo? At the local scale, Tokyo lies in the central part of the Kanto Plain and faces Tokyo Bay (Fig. 1b). The geologic forces that formed the Kanto sedimentary basin produced a coastal environment in which sediment-laden rivers have built highly productive estuarine habitats between the Kanto Plain and Tokyo Bay. In Tokyo, too, frequent land and sea breezes ameliorate the urban climate. At the micro scale, the western half of downtown Tokyo was developed on uplands and the eastern half on lowlands (Fig. 1c). On the uplands, the so-called Yamanote (literally “toward the mountains”) grew around the residences of the sam- urai class. On the lowlands, the so-called Shitamachi (literally “low town”) was where common people lived in traditional partitioned houses. After the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and World War II, urban Tokyo expanded rapidly, accompanied by gentrification of the downtown that weakened the socioeconomic distinction between the two areas. The uplands and lowlands, defined by the steep slopes between them and an elevation difference of about 20 m, remain today as elements of landscape diversity. In sum, Tokyo’s location sits in a hierarchy of geographic structures character- ized by binary opposites: continent versus ocean, land versus sea, and upland versus lowland. Next, let us stand upon the tip of Tokyo’s upland and observe, from there, the city’s pattern of historical growth. Where Is Tokyo from? Urban Tokyo has expanded in all directions since the nineteenth century while its center has remained along the boundary between upland and lowland, where the eastern half of the Yamanote railway line runs (Fig. 2). The plateau of the uplands has been partly dissected by stream valleys, leaving remnant headlands that pro- trude like capes into the lowland basin. From north to south among these capes, we can spot Asukayama Park, Ueno Park, Tokyo Imperial Palace, and Omori Shell Mounds, representing the historical background of Tokyo (Fig. 1c). The Omori Shell Mounds, formed in the prehistoric Jomon period, is located on the southern part of the upland. These were the first shell mounds to be discovered in Japan, and were initially described by Edward S. Morse in 1877. The distribution of ancient shell mounds allowed Toki Ryu-shichi, in 1926, to reconstruct the paleo- geography of the Kanto Plain during the Jomon transgression, or “period of high sea level,” about 7000 years ago. At that time, the waters of Tokyo Bay lapped against the indented shoreline just below the eastern edge of the upland, and Shitamachi was under the sea. Local people depended on marine resources, such as clams and fish, along with nuts and animals. During the following few thousand years, the deltas of the local rivers extended southward onto the Tokyo Lowland. As the sea receded, this delta sediment became fertile soil supporting paddy fields, which became a major food source during the historical Edo period (1603–1868). Asukayama Park, in the northern part of the upland capes, is famous for its cherry blossoms. Many excellent views from this park were depicted by Hiroshige Utagawa, the great ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period (Fig. 3). One such view overlooks the In Place of a Conclusion: Where Is Tokyo? 331 Fig. 1 Tokyo at different geographical scales. (a) Tokyo on the global scale; (b) Regional setting of Tokyo in the Kanto Plain; (c) Downtown Tokyo. (a) after US Dept. of State Geographer ©2016 Google ©2009 GeoBasis-DE/BKG. (c) DEMs are provided by Geospatial Information Authority of Japan 332 In Where Place of a Conclusion: Is Tokyo? Fig. 2 View north from above Tokyo Bay (Photographed by Sugai 2009) In Place of a Conclusion: Where Is Tokyo? 333 Fig. 3 View northeast from Asukayama Park, interpreted by Utagawa Hiroshige. Mt. Tsukuba is seen across the Kanto Plain low-lying paddy fields of the Kanto Plain, with graceful Mt. Tsukuba in the far distance. Before the twentieth century, the rivers in the Kanto Plain were major transport routes for goods and people that supported many flourishing port towns. The Tokyo Imperial Palace is at the center of the upland capes. From the palace, signs can be seen of the turbulent times marking the end of national isolationism. The Palace began as a castle founded by Ota Dokan in 1457, and was used as the residence of the shogun during the Edo period. Early in the seventeenth century, Tokugawa Ieyasu expanded the castle by filling an inlet named Hibiya Irie on its southeastern side, making it the largest Castle in Japan. In the late Edo period, a set of small islands was constructed in front of the Palace to house artillery batteries, or daiba, to defend the isolationist regime from Western naval incursions (Fig. 1c). The need for the daiba ended with the reopening of Japan to the world, when the Edo period gave way to the Meiji period. Today, only two of the islands remain, reminding visitors of historian Arnold Toynbee’s judgment that the modernization of Japan during the Meiji period was one of the economic miracles of human history. Their survival amid today’s urbanization also suggests that the future Tokyo will be a mixture of historical and contemporary features beyond our imagination. 334 In Place of a Conclusion: Where Is Tokyo? Ueno Park is north of the Imperial Palace, across the valley of the Kanda River that dissects the Yamanote Upland. This park is also famous for cherry blossoms, as well as its museums, especially the National Museum of Western Art, designed by Le Corbusier. Visitors find the fusion of cultural opposites in Ueno Park, such as east versus west and modernism versus traditionalism, an everlasting source of stimulation. Where Is Tokyo Going? The concentration of natural resources in the Kanto Plain, under the influence of the monsoon climate and tectonic activity, has helped Tokyo become the world’s most populous metropolis. The city’s abundance of water and soil sustains a vigorous urban metabolism that coexists with environmental diversity. These same natural elements also have the potential to produce natural disasters, such as flooding, earthquakes, tsunamis, liquefaction, and volcanic eruptions. The people of Tokyo, with a history of courage and cooperation, have survived these natural disasters and recovered from their damage and destruction. The landscape of Tokyo has a history of dramatic change, yet Tokyo preserves a long and rich history, woven by the interaction of human society and the natural environment. The sharing of tacit inherited knowledge, such as the traditional life- ways of the partitioned houses of the Edo period, underlies a culture that values wise adaptation to the natural environment, wise use of natural resources, and living daily life in cooperation with nature. Thus, our Tokyo lifestyle may serve as a guide- post toward a spiritually rich city in the future. Acknowledgments Thanks to Dr. Takashi Ogami and Asukayama Museum, who helped to pro- vide Figs. 1c and 3..

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