Edo Japan Guide covers the history under Tokyo’s surface — what survived from the Edo period, what burned down, what was rebuilt in concrete in the 1950s and 60s, and what any of it has to do with the city you are walking through today.

Why this site exists

Most English-language guides to Tokyo’s historic sites give you the opening hours and the founding date, then stop. They rarely mention that the gate you are photographing at Senso-ji is a 1960 reconstruction, or that the museum exhibit you just walked past corresponds to a street corner you can still go and stand on. That gap is what this site is for.

How it is written

This site is written from Tokyo. Guides fall into one of two categories, and every page makes clear which one applies:

• Walked — Tokyo and the surrounding area. Visited in person, photographed on site, prices and hours checked at the door.
• Researched — everywhere else in Japan. Built from official sources, museum records and published history, with claims sourced. No pretending to have been there.

Where a detail could not be verified, it is left out rather than guessed at.

Where to start

• The Tokyo History Trail — a map of every neighbourhood covered so far
• Edo Series — what is genuinely old, and what is not
• Samurai Series — the warrior class and the country they built
• Museum → City — matching museum exhibits to the places they depict

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