400 years ago, Tokyo was called Edo and was the domain of the Tokugawa clan, the family of the shoguns which rules Japan. Filling in the sea that once approached Edo Castle (now the Imperial Palace) to create new land, Edo developed and grew.
The streets of Edo* were divided into areas such as the mansions where the samurai lived, the areas where the common people resided, the districts filled with shrines and temples, and farmland. Around half of Edo was taken up by the mansion district, and on their extensive grounds the samurai created beautiful gardens. At the time, feudal lords from across the country were obligated to spend every other year in Edo. This meant there were around 1,000 mansions in Edo for the various lords, each of which had its own garden.
In the closing days of Japan's shogunate government in the latter half of the 1800s, Edo was one of the largest cities in the world, with a population of over one million people. Despite this, it was also filled with parks and waterways, leading dignitaries and scholars from overseas such as Robert Fortune* to call Edo "the most beautiful city in the world."
