place

Honjo, Tokyo

Neighborhoods of Tokyo
Honjo Tatekawa, the timberyard at Honjo
Honjo Tatekawa, the timberyard at Honjo

Honjo (本所) is the name of a neighborhood in Sumida, Tokyo, and a former ward (本所区 Honjo-ku) in the now-defunct Tokyo City. In 1947, when the 35 wards of Tokyo were reorganized into 23, it was merged with the suburban Mukojima ward to form the modern Sumida ward.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Honjo, Tokyo (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Honjo, Tokyo
Kasuga-dori Avenue, Sumida

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Honjo, TokyoContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 35.703611111111 ° E 139.80111111111 °
placeShow on map

Address

本所二丁目

Kasuga-dori Avenue
130-0004 Sumida
Japan
mapOpen on Google Maps

Honjo Tatekawa, the timberyard at Honjo
Honjo Tatekawa, the timberyard at Honjo
Share experience

Nearby Places

1894 Tokyo earthquake

The 1894 Tokyo earthquake (明治東京地震, Meiji-Tokyo jishin) occurred in Tokyo, Japan at 14:04 PM on June 20. It affected downtown Tokyo and neighboring Kanagawa prefecture, especially the cities of Kawasaki and Yokohama. The earthquake's epicenter was in Tokyo Bay, with a magnitude of 6.6 on the Richter magnitude scale. The depth of the 1894 earthquake has not been determined, but it is thought to have occurred within the subducting Pacific Plate under the Kantō region. The death toll was 31 killed and 157 injured. The earthquake was mentioned by author Ichiyō Higuchi in her work Mizu-no-ue no nikki, in which she described damage to buildings in Yotsuya, and soil liquefaction in the Mita area of downtown Tokyo. She also commented on an aftershock which occurred at 22:00 that night. The earthquake is also mentioned by author Jun'ichirō Tanizaki in his autobiographical work, Yosho-jidai, in which he described how his family's house collapsed during the earthquake, a traumatic event to which he attributed his lifelong phobia of earthquakes. By 1894, Tokyo and Yokohama had numerous foreign residents, many of whom commented on the earthquake in their writings and diaries. The National Science Museum of Japan in Tokyo has a collection of twenty two photographs of the earthquake in the form of albumen papers, lantern slides and dry plates. A considerable number of photographs were taken just after the event for the use at the former Imperial Earthquake Investigation Committee in its official reports of the 1894 earthquake, but almost all of the original plates have been lost.

Azumazeki stable
Azumazeki stable

Azumazeki stable (東関部屋, Azumazeki-beya) was a stable of sumo wrestlers, part of the Takasago group of stables. It was founded in February 1986 by the Hawaiian born Takamiyama of the Takasago stable in Higashi–Komagata, Sumida, Tokyo. It was the first stable ever to be run by a foreign-born coach. Azumazeki's first sekitori was Akebono, also from Hawaii, in 1990, who subsequently reached the yokozuna rank. A total of nine foreign born wrestlers have fought for the stable: seven from the United States, one from Great Britain and one (Kosei) from China who retired in January 2017. The stable's first Japanese sekitori was Takamisakari. As of January 2021 it had seven wrestlers. The former Takamiyama reached the mandatory retirement age of 65 in June 2009 and was succeeded by Ushiomaru who announced his retirement from active competition after the May tournament. In 2012 it absorbed Nakamura stable when Takamiyama's former stablemate Fujizakura retired as a coach upon turning 65. In February 2018 the stable moved from Sumida to larger premises in Shibamata District, Katsushika. The opening was celebrated at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan with around 500 guests from the sumo world. The move was encouraged by the Katsushika ward, to help increase tourism.Azumazeki Oyakata died in December 2019 at the age of 41, and after the January 2020 tournament the former Takamisakari took over as Azumazeki Oyakata. However, this was on a provisional basis for one year only, and the Sumo Association announced the closure of the stable on April 1 due to no permanent successor to Ushiomaru being found, with the personnel moving to Hakkaku stable.The stable's premises are now being used by Futagoyama stable. The original building used prior to 2018 still exists and was used for Kaonishiki's retirement ceremony in May 2021.

Bombing of Tokyo (10 March 1945)
Bombing of Tokyo (10 March 1945)

On the night of 9/10 March 1945, the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) conducted a devastating firebombing raid on Tokyo, the Japanese capital city. This attack was code-named Operation Meetinghouse by the USAAF and is known as the Great Tokyo Air Raid in Japan. Bombs dropped from 279 Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers burned out much of eastern Tokyo. More than 90,000 and possibly over 100,000 Japanese people were killed, mostly civilians, and one million were left homeless, making it the most destructive single air attack in human history. The Japanese air and civil defenses proved largely inadequate; 14 American aircraft and 96 airmen were lost. The attack on Tokyo was an intensification of the air raids on Japan which had begun in June 1944. Prior to this operation, the USAAF had focused on a precision bombing campaign against Japanese industrial facilities. These attacks were generally unsuccessful, which contributed to the decision to shift to firebombing. The operation during the early hours of 10 March was the first major firebombing raid against a Japanese city, and the USAAF units employed significantly different tactics from those used in precision raids, including bombing by night with the aircraft flying at low altitudes. The extensive destruction caused by the raid led to these tactics becoming standard for the USAAF's B-29s until the end of the war. There has been a long-running debate over the morality of the 10 March firebombing of Tokyo. The raid is often cited as a key example in criticism of the Allies' strategic bombing campaigns, with many historians and commentators arguing that it was not acceptable for the USAAF to deliberately target civilians, and other historians stating that the USAAF had no choice but to change to area bombing tactics given that the precision bombing campaign had failed. It is generally acknowledged that the tactics used against Tokyo and in similar subsequent raids were militarily successful. The attack is commemorated at two official memorials, several neighborhood memorials, and a privately run museum.