Changes

An attack by imperial troops on Edo followed hard on the defeat of the Tokugawa forces at Toba-Fushimi in January 1868. Edo Castle surrendered in the early spring and the Tokugawa family and retainers were forced by the new regime to depart for Suruga. Edo was renamed Tokyo ["the eastern capital"] and the new Meiji boy emperor arrived in the fall. Bystanders to this political turmoil, the urban poor, caught between rising prices of rice and fish and the downfall of the old bakufu leadership, commented cynically and often humorously on their predicament through newspapers, broadsheets, handbills, and woodblock prints.<ref> M. William Steele, "Edo in 1868: The View from Below." ''Monumenta Nipponica'' 1990 45(2): 127-155. Issn: 0027-0741  [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2384846 in Jstor]</ref>

An attack by imperial troops on Edo followed hard on the defeat of the Tokugawa forces at Toba-Fushimi in January 1868. Edo Castle surrendered in the early spring and the Tokugawa family and retainers were forced by the new regime to depart for Suruga. Edo was renamed Tokyo ["the eastern capital"] and the new Meiji boy emperor arrived in the fall. Bystanders to this political turmoil, the urban poor, caught between rising prices of rice and fish and the downfall of the old bakufu leadership, commented cynically and often humorously on their predicament through newspapers, broadsheets, handbills, and woodblock prints.<ref> M. William Steele, "Edo in 1868: The View from Below." ''Monumenta Nipponica'' 1990 45(2): 127-155. Issn: 0027-0741  [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2384846 in Jstor]</ref>

====Urban planning====

===The Meiji Period===

In the first two decades of the Meiji period (1868-1912) the country's leaders engaged in intense discussions about the future of the capital of Tokyo. The Fifty-Ward System, was part of the effort by the new government to strengthen control over the people. It preserved the Town Official System and the deliberative organ of representatives of Edo, but dissolved the ruling system of the headmen. It soon gave way to the Large and Small Ward System.  Some planners argued for the importance of urban beautification, while others regarded changes in urban infrastructure and services as essential to maintenance and growth of the city. Many of the proposed changes were cloaked in the language of progress. Phillips (1996) examines the course taken by urban leaders of the first decades of the Meiji period in establishing planning policy, using planning documents, transcripts of planning committees, and on architectural and urban design data from completed urban improvement projects in Meiji Tokyo. Phillips (1996) focuses on two issues, (1) the extent to which the efforts of Japanese leaders focused the country on the goal of modernization, and (2) the extent to which efforts to achieve bunmei kaika, or cultural enlightenment, were superficial. He demonstrates how the concepts of modernity and the struggle to develop a modern urban structure altered previous notions of cities and city planning practices. Poor articulation of planning policy in the first decades of the Meiji period reflected a lack of consensus among Meiji leaders about the definition and course of modernization. Rather than reject traditional approaches to planning, urban leaders eventually incorporated these approaches into their new planning methodologies. Modernity in the Japanese context, consequently, did not require dismantling preexisting urban structures. Instead, it represented a marriage of the political motivations of the country's leaders with the modern urban needs for improved transportation networks and zoning mechanisms. Exposure of the political system to popular opinion entailed the shifting of planning discourse from the theoretical to the practical realm, as well as from the private to the public realm.<ref>  David Peter Phillips, "Intersections of Modernity and Tradition: An Urban Planning History of Tokyo in the Early Meiji Period (1868-1888)."  (PhD U. of Pennsylvania 1996) </ref>

In the first two decades of the Meiji period (1868-1912) the country's leaders engaged in intense discussions about the future of the capital of Tokyo. The Fifty-Ward System, was part of the effort by the new government to strengthen control over the people. It preserved the Town Official System and the deliberative organ of representatives of Edo, but dissolved the ruling system of the headmen. It soon gave way to the Large and Small Ward System.  Some planners argued for the importance of urban beautification, while others regarded changes in urban infrastructure and services as essential to maintenance and growth of the city. Many of the proposed changes were cloaked in the language of progress. Phillips (1996) examines the course taken by urban leaders of the first decades of the Meiji period in establishing planning policy, using planning documents, transcripts of planning committees, and on architectural and urban design data from completed urban improvement projects in Meiji Tokyo. Phillips (1996) focuses on two issues, (1) the extent to which the efforts of Japanese leaders focused the country on the goal of modernization, and (2) the extent to which efforts to achieve bunmei kaika, or cultural enlightenment, were superficial. He demonstrates how the concepts of modernity and the struggle to develop a modern urban structure altered previous notions of cities and city planning practices. Poor articulation of planning policy in the first decades of the Meiji period reflected a lack of consensus among Meiji leaders about the definition and course of modernization. Rather than reject traditional approaches to planning, urban leaders eventually incorporated these approaches into their new planning methodologies. Modernity in the Japanese context, consequently, did not require dismantling preexisting urban structures. Instead, it represented a marriage of the political motivations of the country's leaders with the modern urban needs for improved transportation networks and zoning mechanisms. Exposure of the political system to popular opinion entailed the shifting of planning discourse from the theoretical to the practical realm, as well as from the private to the public realm.<ref>  David Peter Phillips, "Intersections of Modernity and Tradition: An Urban Planning History of Tokyo in the Early Meiji Period (1868-1888)."  (PhD U. of Pennsylvania 1996) </ref>