User:Urashimataro/Yamanote

This article is about the geographical area called Yamanote. For the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) commuter line, see Yamanote Line.

The traditional name for the area of Tokyo around Ginza and Nihonbashi.

Tokyo used to be culturally and economically divided in two parts: the plebeian Shitamachi (Japanese: 下町 (したまち), Shita machi), literally low town or low city, and the aristocratic Yamanote (Japanese: 山の手 (やまのて), Yama no te). Although neither of the two was an official name, both stuck and are still in some use.

The historical Shitamachi was the part of Tokyo east of the Sumida River (around Taitō-ku), the Yamanote the part west of the Imperial Palace (Ginza and Nihonbashi), right under the Shitamachi.

History of the term Yamanote

The term Yamanote (the variant Yamate (Japanese: 山手 (やまて), Yamate) is also in use) has several different and partly coincident meanings.

The authoritative Kōjien has two definitions for the term. The first

1. The location closer to the mountains.
2. An elevated ground or plateau. In the case of Tokyo, the whole region around Bunkyo-ku and Shinjuku-ku.

In fact, the eastern side of the Musashino plateau is called Yamanote, and the Yamanote Line and Yamate Dori (or Kampachi) are named after it. (Officially, the Yamanote Line goes from Shinagawa to Yoyogi and tabata.)

The name is now mostly used by extension to indicate the urban areas crosssed by the Yamanote Line and Yamate Dori, and expressions like「山の手のお嬢さん, 「山の手のお屋敷]].

It is for this reason that is used to be juxtaposed to Shitamachi.

See also 東京市街の変遷

The term Yamanote is also used for example, Hokkaido, Oita and Osaka

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References

• Edward Seidensticker: Low City, High City: Tokyo from Edo to the Earthquake: how the shogun's ancient capital became a great modern city, 1867-1923
• 山の手 from Japanese Wikipedia
• Kōjien Japanese dictionary