Taitō

• 1. Introduction

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  Taitō is the smallest of Tokyo's special wards by area, and yet its 10.11 square kilometers carry an outsized weight. As of the 1st of May 2015, an estimated 186,276 people lived here, packed at a density of 18,420 persons per square kilometer. That makes Taitō third-smallest by population. In English it goes by another name, Taitō City.

  This is a place stitched together from older pieces, ringed by neighbors on every side, and famous for a kind of old-town atmosphere that has a name of its own. How did a ward this compact come to hold a licensed pleasure quarter, a major museum district, and one of Tokyo's three great festivals? The chapters ahead follow the answers through Taitō's borders, its institutions, and the life that fills its streets.

• 2. A Ward Made From Two

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  The 15th of March 1947 marks Taitō's beginning. On that day the old Asakusa and Shitaya wards merged into one, as Tokyo City was transformed into Tokyo Metropolis. The new ward took its name and its character from both halves.

  During the Edo period, the Yoshiwara licensed quarter stood inside what is now Taitō. That history sits beneath the modern street grid, in neighborhoods like Nihonzutsumi, whose name means Japan dike. The Asakusa side gathers districts such as Kaminarimon, Kuramae, and Hanakawado, while the Shitaya side holds Ueno, Yanaka, Akihabara, and the small district that shares the ward's own name, Taito.

  The characters that spell Taitō, 台東, reach beyond Japan. The same Chinese characters name Taitung, a city in Taiwan. Those two strokes of meaning point toward the temples and shrines that crowd the ward's older quarter.

• 3. Borders And Old Town

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  Five special wards press against Taitō on its edges. Sitting in the northeastern portion of Tokyo's ward area, it is surrounded by Chiyoda, Bunkyō, Arakawa, Sumida, and Chūō. For so small a footprint, that is a long shared boundary.

  Taitō is famous for its typical Shitamachi districts, the low-lying old-town neighborhoods that give the ward its texture. To help both visitors and residents read that landscape, the Asakusa Culture Tourist Information Center provides amenities to tourists and locals alike. The old town is best known through its sacred buildings. Sensō-ji stands with its Thunder Gate, the Kaminarimon, alongside Asakusa Shrine and the Akiba Shrine in Matsugaya. Kan'ei-ji, Kishibojin, Ueno Tōshō-gū, and Zenshō-an round out the ward's temples and shrines.

  Green space threads between the buildings. Asakusa Park, Sumida Park, Yanaka Park, the Kyu-Iwasaki-tei Garden, and Ueno Park all sit within the ward. Ueno Park, in particular, anchors a cluster of institutions that draw crowds from far beyond Taitō's borders.

• 4. Museums And Stages

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  Ueno Park gathers a remarkable run of museums into one corner of the ward. The National Museum of Western Art, the National Museum of Nature and Science, the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, the Tokyo National Museum, and the Ueno Royal Museum all stand here, joined by the Ueno Zoo. Elsewhere in Taitō, the Amuse Museum, the Asakura Sculpture Hall, the Daimyo Clock Museum, and the Yokoyama Taikan Memorial Hall keep smaller collections.

  Live performance has its own homes. The Suzumoto Engeijo, or Suzumoto Vaudeville Hall, and the Asakusa Vaudeville Hall stage traditional entertainment for audiences in the old town. Those stages sit close to the festivals that fill Taitō's calendar.

  Four events stand out. The Sumidagawa Fireworks Festival, the Asakusa Samba Carnival, the Torigoe Shrine Matsuri, and the Sanja Matsuri all take place here. The Sanja Matsuri is counted among the three great festivals of Tokyo, a distinction that pulls the ward's old-town identity onto a citywide stage.

• 5. Schools And Daily Life

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  Two universities root higher education in Taitō. The Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and Ueno Gakuen University both call the ward home, fitting neighbors for a district so dense with museums. Below them sits a wide school system. Prefectural public high schools, run by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Board of Education, include Ueno Shinobugaoka High School, Taito Commercial High School, and Taito Chuyakan High School.

  The Taito City Board of Education operates the municipal layer. It runs seven junior high schools, among them Asakusa, Komagata, and Ueno Junior High Schools, plus a long roster of elementary schools from Asakusa to Yanaka. Learning continues for adults too. The city operates the Lifelong Learning Center, a complex with a multi-media room, a studio, and other facilities, and the Central Library fills its first and second floors.

  Sport has a single large hub. The City of Taito operates the Taito Riverside Sports Center, with a gymnasium, tennis courts, three baseball fields, two pools, and an athletic field. Inside the gymnasium are two courts, two budo halls, a Japanese-style archery range, a sumo ring, a training room, a table tennis room, and an air-rifle shooting range.

• 6. Commerce And Connections

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  Eiken Chemical, a clinical diagnostics and equipment manufacturer, keeps its headquarters in Taito. It shares the ward with two divisions of Ricoh, Tokyo Ricoh Office Solution and Ricoh Technosystems, both headquartered here as of 2008, and with the publisher Chikumashobo. The electronics and materials company Taiyo Yuden sits in Ueno. Shoppers head to two long-standing stores: the Matsuzakaya department store in Ueno and the Matsuya department store in Asakusa.

  Rail ties all of it together. Ueno Station serves four Shinkansen lines, the Tōhoku, Jōetsu, Akita, and Yamagata. Tokyo Metro's Ginza and Hibiya Lines, the Toei Asakusa and Ōedo Lines, the Keisei Main Line, the Tobu Skytree Line, and the Tsukuba Express all reach into the ward. The Shuto Expressway's Ueno Route carries road traffic above the rails.

  Taitō has also sent people out into Japanese culture. Among those tied to the ward are Remi Hirano, a chef, TV personality, and chanson singer, the musician Makoto Shimizu, the actor Nobuo Kaneko, and Toriyama Sekien, the ukiyo-e artist who drew Japanese folklore long before the modern ward took shape.