Shitamachi

Shitamachi

The term originally indicated just the three areas of Kanda, Nihonbashi and Kyōbashi but, as the city grew, it came to cover also the areas mentioned above. Shitamachi was the center of Edo, so much so that the two were often thought of as coterminous. While Shitamachi was not in fact synonymous with Edo, there was originally a certain "conflation" of the two terms, and those born in Shitamachi are typically considered true Edokko, children of Edo. This conflation is evident in the Edo period habit of saying "I am going to Edo" to mean going from the area around Fukagawa in Kōtō ward to anywhere east of the Sumida river.