Edo-Tokyo Museum

Ryōgoku Station (両国駅, Ryōgoku-eki) is a railway station in Yokoami, Sumida, Tokyo, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation (Toei).

Ryōgoku (両国) is a district in Sumida, Tokyo. It is surrounded by various districts in Sumida, Chūō, and Taitō wards: Yokoami, Midori, Chitose, Higashi Nihonbashi, and Yanagibashi. In 1659, the Ryōgoku Bridge was built, spanning the Sumida River just upstream of its confluence with the Kanda River. Its name, meaning "two provinces," came from its joining Edo (the forerunner of Tokyo in Musashi Province) and Shimōsa Province. The district derived its name from that of the bridge. The Forty-seven rōnin avenged the death of their lord, Asano Naganori, by breaking into the mansion of his enemy, Kira Yoshinaka, in 1703. Part of the mansion has been preserved in a public park in Ryōgoku. Ryōgoku Station in the neighboring Yokoami district was opened in 1904, bringing rail transportation to the area. It is regarded as the heartland of professional sumo. Most training stables or heya are based there. The first Ryōgoku Kokugikan stadium for sumo was completed in 1909. The present one was built in 1985 in the Yokoami district north of Ryōgoku. Three of professional sumo's six annual official tournaments take place there.

Ryōgoku Kokugikan (両国国技館), also known as Ryōgoku Sumo Hall or Kokugikan Arena, is an indoor sporting arena located in the Yokoami neighborhood (bordering to the Ryōgoku neighborhood) of Sumida, one of the 23 wards of Tokyo in Japan, next to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. It is the third building in Tokyo associated with the name kokugikan (including the Kuramae Kokugikan); the current building was opened in 1985 and has a capacity of 11,098 people.It is mainly used for sumo wrestling tournaments (honbasho) and hosts the Hatsu (new year) honbasho in January, the Natsu (summer) honbasho in May, and the Aki (autumn) honbasho in September. It also houses a museum about sumo.The venue is also used for other indoor events, such as boxing, pro wrestling, and music concerts.

Hakkaku stable (八角部屋, Hakkaku-beya) is a stable of sumo wrestlers, part of the Takasago ichimon or group of stables. It was established in September 1993 by former yokozuna Hokutoumi, who took with him four wrestlers from Kokonoe stable. The stable has so far produced nine sekitori, four of whom have reached the makuuchi division. As of November 2022 it had 28 wrestlers, the largest in professional sumo. Many Hakkaku wrestlers have the kanji 北勝 (pronounced hokuto or hokutō) in their ring name, taken from the former name of their head coach.

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.

The Tokitsukaze stable (時津風部屋, Tokitsukaze-beya) is a stable of sumo wrestlers in Japan, one of the Tokitsukaze group of stables. It was founded in 1769 and was dominant during the Taishō period. In its modern form it dates from 1941 when it was established by Futabayama, who was still an active wrestler at the time. It was known as Futabayama Dojo until it was re-named Tokitsukaze stable in November 1945 when Futabayama retired. (The stable has the names of both Futabayama and Tokitsukaze at its entrance.) Upon Futabayama's death in 1968 the former Kagamisato took charge for a short time, but Futabayama's widow wanted Yutakayama Katsuo to take over, which he did upon his retirement in 1969. He in turn passed control of the stable on to his successor Futatsuryū in August 2002. As of January 2022 it had 17 active wrestlers, two of whom are sekitori. The death of 17-year-old junior member Tokitaizan (real name Takashi Saito) in a hazing scandal on June 26, 2007, eventually resulted in the dismissal and six years in prison for Futatsuryū. This compelled Tokitsuumi, a long time top division wrestler from the stable, to retire from active sumo and take over as the new head of the stable.Tokitsuumi was asked by the Japan Sumo Association to retire in February 2021 after twice violating COVID-19 safety protocols. Tokitsukaze stable was taken over by former maegashira Tosayutaka.

Nishikido stable (Japanese: 錦戸部屋, Nishikido-beya) is a stable of sumo wrestlers, one of the Takasago group of stables. It was founded in 2002 by Mitoizumi of the Takasago stable. It was home to the only Kazakh wrestler in professional sumo, Kazafuzan, who competed in the makushita division and retired in September 2014. In 2015, the stable recruited Canadian Brodi Henderson of Victoria who competed as Homarenishiki, but he suddenly left sumo the following year. Several other wrestlers retired at the same time, leaving just five active wrestlers in the stable after July 2016. In 2017, the Mongolian Mitoryū (Turbold Baasansuren) joined as a makushita tsukedashi entrant from Nihon University, and he became the stable's first ever sekitori after the November 2017 tournament. (Another wrestler, Gokushindo, was ranked in jūryō for just one tournament in November 2018.) The retirement of Gokushindo after the May 2022 tournament left Mitoryū as the stable's only active wrestler (jonokuchi ranked Fujiizumi has not competed since September 2021).

The revenge of the forty-seven rōnin (四十七士, Shijūshichishi), also known as the Akō incident (赤穂事件, Akō jiken) or Akō vendetta, is a historical 18th-century event in Japan in which a band of rōnin (lordless samurai) avenged the death of their master. The incident has since become legendary. It is one of the three major adauchi vendetta incidents in Japan, alongside the Revenge of the Soga Brothers and the Igagoe vendetta.The story tells of a group of samurai who were left leaderless after their daimyō (feudal lord) Asano Naganori was compelled to perform seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a powerful court official named Kira Yoshinaka. After waiting and planning for a year, the rōnin avenged their master's honor by killing Kira. They were then obliged to commit seppuku for the crime of murder. This true story was popularized in Japanese culture as emblematic of the loyalty, sacrifice, persistence, and honor that people should display in their daily lives. The popularity of the tale grew during the Meiji era, during which Japan underwent rapid modernization, and the legend became entrenched within discourses of national heritage and identity. Fictionalized accounts of the tale of the forty-seven rōnin are known as Chūshingura. The story was popularized in numerous plays, including in the genres of bunraku and kabuki. Because of the censorship laws of the shogunate in the Genroku era, which forbade portrayal of current events, the names were changed. While the version given by the playwrights may have come to be accepted as historical fact by some, the first Chūshingura was written some 50 years after the event, and numerous historical records about the actual events that predate the Chūshingura survive. The bakufu's censorship laws had relaxed somewhat 75 years after the events in question in the late 18th century when Japanologist Isaac Titsingh first recorded the story of the forty-seven rōnin as one of the significant events of the Genroku era. To this day, the story remains popular in Japan, and each year on 14 December, Sengakuji Temple, where Asano Naganori and the rōnin are buried, holds a festival commemorating the event.

The Michinoku stable (陸奥部屋, Michinoku-beya) is a stable of sumo wrestlers, part of the Tokitsukaze ichimon or group of stables. It was established in 1974 by former maegashira Hoshikabuto, who branched off from Izutsu stable. Former ōzeki Kirishima became the current head coach in December 1997. It absorbed Tatsutagawa stable in November 2000 upon the retirement of the stablemaster there. It lost four top members in April 2011 (Hakuba, Toyozakura, Jūmonji and Kirinowaka), who were forced to retire after being found guilty of match-fixing. The retirement of Ryūhō in 2012 left it with no sekitori until Kiribayama reached the jūryō division in 2019. Kiribayama reached the top makuuchi division in January 2020, the first for the stable since Hakuba in 2008. After the death of Izutsu Oyakata in September 2019, all personnel from Izutsu stable moved to Michinoku on 1 October 2019. This expanded the stable to 15 wrestlers, the most senior of whom was yokozuna Kakuryū, who retired in March 2021. As of January 2022, it had 15 wrestlers.

Ekō-in (回向院), also known as Honjo Ekō-in, is a Pure Land Buddhist temple in Ryōgoku, Tokyo. The formal name of the temple is Shoshūzan Muen-ji Ekō-in (諸宗山 無縁寺 回向院), reflecting its founding principle of Pariṇāmanā, or the spreading of Amida Buddha's benevolence to all souls of all living creatures.

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.

Dewanoumi stable (出羽海部屋, Dewanoumi-beya) is a stable of sumo wrestlers, part of the Dewanoumi ichimon or group of stables. It has a long, prestigious history. Its current head coach is former maegashira Oginohana. As of January 2022 it had 15 wrestlers.