Tokyo: A Biography

In this informative and succinct urban history, Mansfield (Tokyo: A Cultural and Literary History) examines Tokyo’s evolution over five centuries, from the arrival in 1590 of warrior-clan head Tokugawa Ieyasu, who first visualized the city’s infrastructure, to the present under the regime of Emperor Akihito. Mansfield focuses on the outsized personalities of two emperors: 19th century Meiji, who embraced Western culture after the arrival of Admiral Perry and renamed the city Tokyo; and his 20th-century descendant Showa (aka Hirohito), who led the country during its financial rise in the 1930s through WWII until his death in 1989. Following textbook format, each chapter opens with a list of bullet points enumerating the information that immediately follows. Mansfield reveals the split dynamic of a city with a history permeated in samurai culture that is nevertheless “thoroughly fixated on the present.” Presented here as an “indestructible organism”—indestructible perhaps because of “the violence inflicted upon it” (bombs, earthquakes, and radiation)—Tokyo continues to thrive. The mesmerizing recap of the 1964 Olympics leaves the reader pondering what lies ahead as Tokyo prepares for the 2020 games. This tidy, optimistic history provides an easy introduction to the city for anyone planning to visit. (Oct.)