Page 40 - (DK Eyewitness) Top 10 Travel Guide - Tokyo

38 ❯❯ The Top 10 of Everything

Moments in History

Founding of Senso-ji
47 Ronin Incident
1 5
Temple
In 1701, Lord Asano was
Discovered by two fishermen in their ordered to commit ritual suicide
nets in 628, the golden image of the for drawing his sword at court. His
goddess Kannon was enshrined at retainers, who had become ronin,
the site of present-day Senso-ji. or masterless samurai, avenged
The temple has been rebuilt several Asano’s death by putting to death
times, and after air raids in 1945 a his opponent, Lord Kira, and plac ing
rep lica was put up in ferroconcrete. his decapitated head on their
master’s grave. The act led the
authorities to order the 47 loyal
retainers to commit suicide.
Perry’s “Black Ships”
6
On July 8, 1853, Commodore
Matthew Calbraith Perry sailed four
heavily armed ships into Edo Bay,
to open Japan to diplomatic and
trade relations. The “black ships”
were a display of superior Western
technology, a reminder of the
astonishing progress that had
bypassed the country.
7
Senso-ji in 1904, before the air raids Great Kanto Earthquake
At 11:58am on September 1,
Ota Dokan’s Fort
2 1923, as people prepared lunch on
The Musashino Plain was
charcoal braziers and gas burners,
developed into a martial domain with an earth quake measuring 7.9 on
the arrival of Ota Dokan, a minor the Richter scale convulsed the city.
feudal lord, in 1456. Dokan’s fortress Over 140,000 people were crushed or
was built on a site named Edo, burned to death, and 45 percent of
meaning “estuary mouth.” A statue of the buildings were destroyed. This
the city founder stands at the Tokyo horrific event obliterated many
International Forum in Yurakucho. traces of the past.
Founding of Edo
3
The development of Edo village
into Japan’s de facto military capital
began when future shogun Tokugawa
Ieyasu arrived there in 1590. The land
was reclaimed, water courses
expan ded, residences built, and a
huge citadel, Edo Castle, was erected.
Long-Sleeves Fire
4
In 1657, priests at Hommyo-ji
temple in Hongo burned a “cursed”
kimono owned by three girls who
had died before becoming old enough
to wear it. A gust of wind tore it away,
starting fresh fires that claimed the
lives of over 100,000 people. Lithograph of Perry’s “black ships”

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