The town of Edo, which was the capital of the shogun during the Edo period, is said to be the largest city in the world with a population of 1 million.
However, in reality, the exact figures for the population of Edo at that time are not well known.
Population distribution in Edo
The population distribution of Edo is samurai, tradesman, people belonging to temples and shrines It was divided into. Of these, the townspeople and shrines are 8th Shogun Yoshimune . Census every 6 years Since that was done, statistics have been left.
Looking at those records, the population of Edo is about 500,000 . It is said to be a degree.
So where is the other half of the population of one million?
The rest of the population is uninvestigated samurai However, it is impossible for Hatamoto and Gokenin alone to have 500,000 people. This is the proof that the town of Edo is a special city even if you look at the world, and the reason is change of attendance . is.
The daimyo of each clan had adopted children in Edo, and it was decided to go back and forth between Edo and the territory every other year. For this reason, in Edo, there were large clan residences such as upper and lower mansions for each daimyo, and many feudal lords lived there.
It is estimated that these samurai and servants formed the remaining population of 500,000 to 600,000, but the reality is that no accurate figures are left.
By the way, Meiji 3 At that time, the number of former samurai warriors and their servants was about 1.9 million, Meiji 4 . The population of Tokyo Prefecture is 670,000, the population of temples and shrines is 540,000, and the population of Edo is about 130,000.
Based on this, it means that there were more than 500,000 samurai and servants from rural areas in Edo by simple calculation.
Composition of the city of Edo
Looking at the composition of the city of Tokyo, Yamanote is said to be mainly a samurai-class land, centered on the west side of Edo Castle (currently Chiyoda Ward and Minato Ward). On the other hand, the town of townspeople was a very small area reclaimed on the east side of Edo Castle (Nihonbashi and Ginza), which was started in the town planning of Edo.
Furthermore, as the times progressed, the wetlands east of Edo were reclaimed, and even part of the current Taito Ward, Koto Ward, and Sumida Ward became the city of Edo. The city of Edo was formed around these areas of Tokyo, and after the Meiji era, an area called the 15th district of Tokyo was created.
Then, in the Meiji era, the local samurai disappeared, the remaining clan's residence was redeveloped and a new city was created, and it was in the 17th year of the Meiji era that it returned to the city of 1 million people.
The area where the townspeople of the city of Edo live is commonly Oedo 8008 town . Is called. From that image, it is easy to think that there was a considerable population, but the actual townspeople's town was only an area of 100 meters square, consisting of Nagaya and shops, and the population was about 300 people. ..
Moreover, the shogunate managed the townspeople by increasing the number rather than expanding the town.
In the early Edo period, there were only about 300 towns, and in the next 100 years it expanded to nearly 1700 towns. In other words, the time when the town of Edo, which is called Oedo 8008 town, was 808 town was only a temporary period.
This eighty-eight town is a Japanese mythological [ eight million gods ], It is just an idiomatic common name that expresses that there are so many. That is why the city of Edo at that time was 808 towns, which showed that there were many cities and people.