Tokyo Rising: The City Since the Great Earthquake

by Edward G. Seidensticker

A continuation of the author's history of Tokyo explains how the city recovered from both a major earthquake and Allied bombing raids in World War II

Genres: Japan, History, Nonfiction

362 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Edward George Seidensticker was a distinguished American scholar, translator, and historian renowned for his translations of Japanese literature, both classical and modern. Born in 1921 near Castle Rock, Colorado, Seidensticker studied English at the University of Colorado and later became fluent in Japanese through the U.S. Navy Japanese Language School during World War II. He served in the Pacific theater as a Marine language officer, later participating in Japan’s occupation and developing a lasting affinity for the country and its culture.
Following his military service, he earned a master’s degree from Columbia University and briefly worked in the U.S. Foreign Service in Tokyo. Deciding on an academic path, he studied Japanese literature at the University of Tokyo and began translating major literary works. His translations of Yasunari Kawabata’s Snow Country and Thousand Cranes helped introduce modern Japanese literature to a Western audience and contributed to Kawabata’s Nobel Prize win in 1968. Seidensticker also translated works by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki and Yukio Mishima, and his 1976 translation of The Tale of Genji remains a landmark achievement.
He taught at Stanford, the University of Michigan, and Columbia University. Seidensticker also authored literary criticism, cultural histories, and a memoir. He received numerous honors and remains a towering figure in the field of Japan studies.

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not sure when I bought this book, but possibly 20-25 years ago already. Sadly, only now did I finally read it. Tokyo Rising was first published in 1990, one year before I first came to Japan as an exchange student – in Sapporo, not Tokyo, though I did spend some time in Tokyo (mostly in Asakusa, if I remember correctly) then. I also lived in Tokyo, in Akabane, for just over two months before a university job lured me to Fukui in 2012. I wish I’d read this before, because the present-day Tokyo he describes has surely changed by leaps and bounds. But that doesn’t make Tokyo Rising any less interesting, for elements of the life and culture of Tokyo that Seidensticker describes can still be found, and the history he gives of the place, through a surprising amount of its sprawling geography, is never less than fascinating (to me). Finally, it was a nice escape to read this when, thanks to the pandemic, there’s currently no chance of my visiting Japan.

[Smiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sequel to his “Low City, High City” (Alfred A. Knopf, 1983), this book finely narrated with related rare black-and-white photographs as well as its three maps of ‘Tokyo in 1927’, ‘The Tokyo Wards, 1932-1947’ and ‘Tokyo Prefecture as It Has Existed since 1947’ (pp. x-xv) would be a delight to many keen Japanophiles who might have read his acclaimed translations from the original Japanese works by Yasunari Kawabata (Snow Country, Thousand Cranes, The Master of Go, etc.), Yukio Mishima (The Decay of the Angel), Murasaki Shikibu (The Tale of Genji) and Junichiro Tanizaki (Some Prefer Nettles, The Makioka Sisters).

[Trevor Kew · Rating 4 out of 5]

*The second of two books that I read of his within a single volume

Written by the translator of many of Japan's most famous 20th century authors, the two books contained in this volume trace the evolution of modern day (well...up to the late 80s...he didn't know what was around the corner...bubble about to pop...) Tokyo from the Edo it once was.

While full of plenty of actual research and many very specific details, it's a far more engaging and personal look at the city's past than one might find with a more academic text. Seidensticker spent the vast majority of his life in Tokyo and one really gets the sense of this when reading...the things that intrigue him or annoy him (he's wonderfully both nostalgic and curmudgeonly...especially about manga!) and the people, particularly writers, who he either knew personally or knew of. He actually includes descriptions from novels or non-fiction works from writers like Kafu or Tanizaki that describe the Tokyo they know (or think they know, wish they knew, wish still existed...).

This is also a wonderful book for people with a wide variety of interests, as Seidensticker seems to have been, as it ranges all over the place, from subway lines and sewers (or lack thereof) to celebrated Meiji murderesses who played themselves on stage in plays about the murders they'd committed to prefectural rezoning to the horrors of World War II bombing and the 1923 Kanto Earthquake.

As a long-time resident of Tokyo, what I appreciated most about this book was perhaps the way that Seidensticker is able to explain so clearly and concisely (well, mostly concisely) the geography and layout (and makeup) of what seems such a chaotic and jumbled large city to many...and he does this so incredibly effectively in terms of its evolution over time as well. It's so incredible to think of the land of Marunouchi (south of the Imperial Palace), home to the most expensive real estate of all time at the time he wrote the book in the late 80s, being a barren home for badgers and gamblers in early Meiji after it emptied out after its early use as a home for regional samurai families during the Edo period came to an end.

Seidensticker's translation of landmarks might throw a few people though! Never heard anyone call the West Exit of a translation "Westmouth" before (though this is technically sort of right...西口）and he also translates names of buildings that tend to be known by their romanized names in English (like Budokan, Kokugikan, etc.).

Highly recommended for anyone living in Tokyo or interested in the history of Tokyo...which tends to get overlooked for the history of Kyoto, etc. when you first get into Japanese history.

[Tosh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice good fat book on the 20th Century history of one of my favorite cities of all time - Tokyo. To even call Tokyo a city, it's really a living a series of living nerves. I never been to such an unique place like Tokyo. Anyway Tokyo has a colorful history, and Edward G. Seidensticker really covers it well.

[Aurelio Ippandoza · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book on the history of Tokyo a very interesting read.