Part of the

Banchō is an area in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan, consisting of the six "-banchō" districts, to , as well as parts of Kudanminami and Kudankita, and Fuijimi. The Banchō area is located to the west of the Imperial Palace. The historical area is roughl ...

area, is an upscale, mostly residential district of Chiyoda,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. As of June 2020, the population of this district is 3,666 in 1,707 households. It borders the

Tokyo Imperial Palace The is the main residence of the Emperor of Japan. It is a large park-like area located in the Chiyoda district of the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo and contains several buildings including the where the Emperor has his living quarters, the where va ...

and the Chidorigafuchi moats to the east, Nibanchō and Yonbanchō to the west, Ichibanchō to the south, and

Kudanminami is a district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan, consisting of 1-chōme to 4-chōme. As of March 1, 2007, its population is 2,431. Kudanminami is located on the northwestern part of the Chiyoda ward. The Nihonbashi River and Yasukuni-dōri Ave form its ea ...

to the north. Like Yonbanchō, its official English spelling, Sanbanchō, does not follow the Hepburn romanization standard.

History

Similarly to the rest of the

area, was the site of residences of the

Hatamoto A was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as ''gokenin.'' However ...

soldiers in charge of guarding Edo Castle. Among those, the residence of

Sano Masakoto , nicknamed was a Japanese samurai, a hatamoto guard of Edo Castle, who gained his fame by killing the unpopular ''wakadoshiyori'' in March 1784 in the castle. History On March 24th, 1784, in Edo castle, Sano shouted three times "remember", t ...

(on present day site of Otsuma Women University), who became famous in 1784 by killing in the castle an unpopular government official. In 1804, the , (''Institute of Lectures of Japanese classics''), founded in 1793 and run by the blind scholar

Hanawa Hokiichi was a Japanese blind ''kokugaku'' scholar of the Edo period. Biography Hanawa was born in Hokino Village, Musashi Province (present day Kodama, Honjō, Saitama) to a farming family. His childhood name was Toranosuke. From an early age he had ...

was moved to Omote-Rokubancho, near nowadays Sanbancho-24. As the Shogunate was nearing its end,

Omura Masujiro Omura (小村) or Ōmura (大村) are Japanese surnames, but may also refer to: * Ōmura, Nagasaki, a city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan * Omura's whale (''Balaenoptera omurai''), a species of rorqual about which very little is known People ...

opened in 1856 , a

rangaku ''Rangaku'' (Kyūjitai: /Shinjitai: , literally "Dutch learning", and by extension "Western learning") is a body of knowledge developed by Japan through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima, which allowed Japan to keep abreast of Wester ...

institute in his residence, located next to nowadays

Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery is a national Japanese cemetery and memorial for 352,297 unidentified war dead of the Second World War, located near the inner moat of the Imperial Palace and Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, Japan. __NOTOC__ Overview The recovery of remains from ...

Tōgō Heihachirō Marshal-Admiral Marquis , served as a '' gensui'' or admiral of the fleet in the Imperial Japanese Navy and became one of Japan's greatest naval heroes. He claimed descent from Samurai Shijo Kingo, and he was an integral part of preserving ...

moved to Banchō in 1881 and lived there for 54 years. The location of his residence is the . The modern district was created on July 1st, 1933, through a merger of the former districts of Ichibancho, Kami-Rokubancho and parts of Fujimicho 1-chome.

Kyōka

Sanbanchō was the subject of a famous

Kyōka ''Kyōka'' (, "wild" or "mad poetry") is a popular, parodic subgenre of the tanka form of Japanese poetry with a metre of 5-7-5-7-7. The form flourished during the Edo period (17th–18th centuries) and reached its zenith during the Tenmei era ...

by Hanawa Hokiichi during Edo times.

Landmarks

*Chidorigafuchi Green Way * Otsuma Women University *Otsuma Junior and Senior Highschool *Kudan Elementary School and Kindergarten * Apostolic Nunciature *Kudan campus of the

Nishogakusha University is a private university in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japa ...

Tokyo Kasei-Gakuin University is a private university in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan, established in 1963. The school has a branch campus in Machida, Tokyo. The predecessor of the school was founded in 1925. Though the two share the same historical roots (and website), this school ...

*Tokyo Kasei-Gakuin Junior and Senior Highschool *

All-Japan Band Association The All Japan Band Association (AJBA) (全日本吹奏楽連盟/Zennihon Suisōgaku Renmei) is an organization that exists solely for the purpose of facilitating annual music competition among Japanese wind bands. This competition has largely promot ...

*Togo Gensui Memorial Park

Education

operates public elementary and junior high schools. Kudan Elementary School (九段小学校) is the zoned elementary school for Sanbanchō. There is a freedom of choice system for junior high schools in Chiyoda Ward, and so there are no specific junior high school zones.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanbancho, Chiyoda, Tokyo Districts of Chiyoda, Tokyo