Tokyo from Edo to Showa 1867-1989

Tokyo from Edo to Showa 1867-1989 (2010) may be the best comprehensive social history of Tokyo from the acclaimed translator of Yasunari Kawabata and Junichiro Tanizaki among others, Edward Seidensnicker. There is a preface by film critic and historian Donald Richie as well as an introduction by Japanese scholar Paul Waley. This volume is essentially a combination of a two volume series on the social history of Tokyo starting with the first volume Low City, High City: Tokyo from Edo to the Earthquake: How the Shogun's Capital Became a Great Modern City, 1867-1923 (1984). The chapters in the book include: 1) "The End and the Beginning" 2) "Civilization and Enlightenment" 3) "The Double Life" 4) "The Decay of the Decadent" 5) "Low City, High City" 6) "The Taisho Look." Seidensnicker chose to use the Great Earthquake as a dividing point instead of the end of the Taisho era (which ended December 25th 1926) since it created an opportunity to rebuild the city anew and ushered in a new age socially and culturally. This in turn leads to the second volume: Tokyo Rising: The City Since the Great Earthquake (1990). This books has the following chapters: 1) "The Days After" 2) "The Reconstruction Days" 3) "Darker Days" 4) "The Day of the Cod and the Sweet Potato" 5) "Olympian Days" 6) "Balmy Days of Late Showa." I guess the main drawback for this volume is that it ends before "the Bubble" burst in Japan and Tokyo, but I think it was the earlier chapters that were really most interesting. Although I must admit it was interesting to see him correctly identify areas of Tokyo that would develop and become major centers of commerce like Roppongi, Shiodome, and Marunochi. It is clear that Edward Seidensnicker, like Donald Richie had great affection for Tokyo and it's traditions. One of my summer projects is to read Seidensnicker's translation of The Tale of Genji and then his memoir about this project, Genji Days.