Edo and Paris

A book that will change the way we think about the relationship between city and nation, Edo and Paris offers a dazzling view of daily life and urban development in two early modern cities.In August 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu marched into the drab little fishing village of Edo. Less than four years later and on the other side of the world, the newly crowned Henry IV fought his way into a Paris rife with disease and decay. By 1700, Paris had become the political center of France and a major European metropolis. Known today as Tokyo, the Edo from which the Shogun ruled Japan in 1700 was the world's most populous city.Edo and Paris compares how the Tokugawas and the Bourbons crafted their states and built their capitals. It also provides rich detail about the experiences of ordinary people, covering topics from the nature of popular culture to forms of resistance to authority in both cities. In nineteen chapters accompanied by period illustrations and maps, experts from a wide variety of fields offer a vibrant portrait not of one Edo and one Paris, but of many.