Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by VsevolodKrolikov (talk | contribs) at 13:37, 15 June 2009 (Undid revision 296533783 by Ryulong (talk) Class is the wrong word.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Yamanote and Shitamachi" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Yamanote (山の手) and Shitamachi (下町) are traditional names for regions of Tokyo, Japan.

Yamanote

Yamanote (山の手), is the traditional name for the affluent, upper-class areas of Tokyo west of the Imperial Palace, especially Bunkyō and Shinjuku. The area's name, which in Japanese means "towards the mountain", comes from the fact that it lies on the slopes of the Musashino Terrace ending after Edo Castle and the Tokyo Imperial Palace. The modern Japanese word yamanote kotoba (山の手言葉) meaning "the refined speech of the uptown residents of Tokyo", takes its name from the region.

Today, the Yamanote Line, named after the historical term, is one of Tokyo's busiest and most important commuter rail lines, servicing areas such as Shinagawa, Shibuya, Ikebukuro, Ueno, and Akihabara. Tokyo Municipal Route 317 (東京都道317号, Tōkyōtodō Sanbyakujūnana-gō) is colloquially known as Yamate Street (山手通り, Yamate Dōri) after the Yamanote region, as well.

Shitamachi

Shitamachi (下町) is the traditional name for the area of Tokyo going from Taitō to Chiyoda and Chuō, the physically low part of the city next to, and particularly east of, the Sumida River. The term is used in phrases such as shitamachi kotoba (下町言葉) meaning "working-class accent", shitamachifū (下町風) meaning "downtown (Shitamachi) style", and shitamachi jōcho (下町情緒) meaning the "friendly atmosphere of working-class neighborhoods".

The center of Ueno lies at the heart of the old Shitamachi and still has several museums and a concert hall. Today the immediate area, due to its close proximity to a major transportation hub, retains high land value. The Shitamachi Museum in Ueno is dedicated to the area's way of life and culture, with models of old environments and buildings.

History of the terms

From the beginning of its existence, Tokyo (the former Edo) has been culturally and economically divided in two parts: the lower caste Shitamachi (下町, literally "low town" or "low city") located next to the Sumida River, and the higher caste Yamanote, located on the hills of the Musashino Terrace. Although neither of the two was ever an official name, both stuck and are still in some use. Both words are used with the same meaning in other parts of the country too. The term "Yamanote" is also used for example in Hokkaido, Oita and Osaka. The term Yamanote has a connotation of classiness, whereas Shitamachi has one of liveliness and human warmth. The terms' usage as geographic terms in modern times have changed. In Metropolis Magazine, translator and scholar Edward Seidensticker believes that the dividing line goes from Ginza to Shinjuku, and "north" and "south" are more accurate terms. Seidensticker also describes how the economic and cultural centers have moved from Ginza and Nihonbashi to Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, Shibuya, and Shinagawa.

References

1. Seidensticker, Edward (1991). Low City, High City: Tokyo from Edo to the Earthquake: how the shogun's ancient capital became a great modern city, 1867-1923. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 302. ISBN 978-0674539396.
2. "Tokyo Feature Story: Edward Seidensticker". Metropolis Magazine.

• Iwanami Kōjien (広辞苑) Japanese dictionary, 6th Edition (2008), DVD version

This Tokyo location article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

This article about a Japonic language or related topic is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• Tokyo geography stubs
• Japonic language stubs