The original name of the Japanese city now known as Tokyo, the setting of many ukiyo-e prints, was Edo.
Edo began as a small settlement around a fortified site and became the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603. Under Tokugawa rule it grew into one of the world’s largest cities. Its expanding population, commercial districts, theaters, pleasure quarters, bridges, temples, and waterways supplied ukiyo-e artists with an enormous range of subjects.
The word Edo appears throughout the titles of prints and series. Hiroshige’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo is one of the clearest examples, showing the city’s celebrated places across changing seasons. Although many designs were based on recognizable locations, artists sometimes adjusted scale, viewpoint, or architecture for dramatic effect.
In 1868, during the Meiji Restoration, Edo was renamed Tokyo, meaning “eastern capital.” Kyoto remained the imperial capital in the historical and cultural sense for centuries, so Edo and Kyoto should not be treated as interchangeable names. Ukiyo-e was particularly associated with the urban culture of Edo, though prints were also made and sold elsewhere.