Seidensticker Edward. Tokyo from Edo to Showa 1867-1989. The Emergence of the World 39's Greatest City

Tuttle Pub., 2010. — 758 p. — ISBN: 978-1-4629-0105-0There can be few cities in the world that live, pulsate, and breathe through their geography as Tokyo does, few cities with a history that shifts through the creases of space as does that of Tokyo. This is particularly ironic in a city whose neighborhoods today hold few distinctive features and whose gentle topography has been all but obscured by batteries of buildings. But it was not always so, and what better way is there of writing Tokyo’s history than by reflecting this shifting geography as neighborhoods prospered and declined while others, more aspirational, climbed up the socio-spatial ladder? This is precisely what Edward Seidensticker does in the pages of these two books, brought here together for the first time under one cover thanks to the efforts of a number of people, including Donald Richie, and the publisher.
Few books in whatever language are so suffused with the spirit of a city as Seidensticker’s classic accounts, suffused with the spirit of the city, but also imbued with the wit of their author. These are not
conventional histories. While they are written with a strong sense of history’s ebb and flow, they are held together by their representation of the decline and marginalization of a way of life that was at the same time a part of town. Throughout these books, there is a sense of foreboding and of a fatal destiny being played out. But at the same time, there is a lightness of touch and an appropriateness of the chosen detail that provokes a smile, a chuckle, and a raised eyebrow on each reading.