Honjo, Tokyo

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.

As a ward, the Sumida River divided Honjo from the centre of the city.^[1]

The name Honjo may be a remnant of the shōen system from the Kyōhō period.^[1] In the 17th century, Honjo was linked to the rest of Edo by the Ryōgoku Bridge that spanned the Sumida River.^[1]

Honjo-ku was one of the fifteen wards created in 1878 by the Law for the Reorganization of Counties, Wards, Townships, and Villages [ja].^[2] Honjo was a low-lying district that was prone to frequent flooding.^[3] This made it an inexpensive place to live for the growing population crowding into Tokyo and Honjo was effectively a working-class neighbourhood with a number of workers and factories.^[4] It was a part of the industrial area described by historian Andrew Gordon as Nankatsu, extending from Honjo to the Arakawa Canal, most of which was not incorporated into Tokyo proper until 1932.^[4]

In 1905, the ward of Honjo had a population of 162,159; this increased to 247,533 just 12 years later. The population density in 1917 was over 100,000 people per square mile.

Honjo-ku was home to one of the wealthiest men in Japan in 1920, Yasuda Zenjirō.

Honjo was heavily impacted by the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake that occurred on 1 September. In Honjo, most of the people who died were killed by a fire near Ryōgoku Station that was being converted to a municipal park. The earthquake struck at a time when thousands of gas burners were in use in homes to cook midday meals.^[5] By 15 November, only one-third of the pre-quake population still lived in Honjo.^[6]

The former Honjo ward contained the following modern districts:

• Azumabashi
• Chitose
• Higashikomagata
• Honjo
• Ishiwara
• Kamezawa
• Kikukawa
• Kinshi
• Kotobashi
• Midori
• Mukojima
• Narihira
• Ryōgoku (sumo district)
• Taihei
• Tatekawa
• Yokoami
• Yokokawa

• Honjo High School
• Honjo-Azumabashi Station
• Honjo Matsuzaka-cho Park

• Hastings, Sally Ann (2010-11-23). Neighborhood and Nation in Tokyo, 1905–1937. University of Pittsburgh Pre. ISBN 978-0-8229-7718-6.

35°42′13″N 139°48′04″E / 35.70361°N 139.80111°E / 35.70361; 139.80111