There are no reliable data as to the population of Yedo during the shogunate. Owing to the influx caused by the periodical visits of the daimyos (feudal lords) with their nu merous attendants, it probably exceeded II million during the period 1800-5o. In 193o the population was
History.—No mention is made of Yedo or Tokyo in Japanese history before the end of the 12th century. It appears to have assumed no importance till about 1457, when Ota Dokwan, a general in the service of Uyesugi Sadamasa, governor of Kama kura, built a castle here. About thirty years later the town fell into the hands of Hold of Odawara, and on his overthrow by Hideyoshi and Iyeyasu, the castle was granted to the latter, who was the founder of the shogun house of Tokugawa. In 1590 Iyeyasu made his formal entry into the castle of Yedo, the extent of which he greatly enlarged. From this date the real importance of Yedo began. The family of the Tokugawas furnished the sho guns of Japan for nearly three hundred years, and these resided during that period at Yedo. At the restoration in 1868 the shO gunate was abolished, and the population of Yedo speedily de creased. A fresh vitality was imparted by the transfer of the
court from Kyoto, and the town then received its present name Tokyo (eastern capital). In Sept. 1923 a disastrous earthquake followed by extensive fires razed several districts of Tokyo to the ground. An area of 25 sq.m. was burnt and numerous bridges were destroyed. Reconstruction of a purely temporary nature was rapid. Shimbashi bridge was re-opened in 1925 but in the same year the new Parliament buildings were destroyed by fire.
(See UNIVERSITIES. )-By recent imperial ordi nances and various other developments this has become the centre of progressive university education in Japan. It has now faculties of law, medicine, engineering, agriculture and economics, in addi tion to those of science and letters, with no less than 255 members of the academic staffs. The Tokyo astronomical observatory is directly attached to the university, which also takes a definite part in the compilation of national and geographical records. By Law 8 of March 27, 1922, the Government appropriation for the university was sanctioned as 2,984,805 yen.