Q 01/05

What was Tokyo called before 1868?

A) Kyoto

B) Nara

C) Osaka

D) Edo

Answer · why

D) Edo

The name means 'estuary', from the settlement's spot where the Sumida River meets Tokyo Bay.

Q 02/05

The name Tokyo literally means what?

A) Eastern Capital

B) Great Harbour

C) New City

D) Imperial Seat

Answer · why

A) Eastern Capital

It follows the East Asian habit of putting the character for 'capital' in a capital's name, as in Kyoto, Beijing and Nanjing.

Q 03/05

Which shogun made Edo the seat of his government in 1603?

A) Toyotomi Hideyoshi

B) Oda Nobunaga

C) Tokugawa Ieyasu

D) Minamoto no Yoritomo

Answer · why

C) Tokugawa Ieyasu

The emperor stayed in Kyoto as the nominal ruler while the Tokugawa ran the country from Edo for 250 years of peace.

Q 04/05

Who fortified Edo with a castle in 1457, on the site of today's Imperial Palace?

A) Tokugawa Ieyasu

B) Hojo Ujiyasu

C) Uesugi Kenshin

D) Ota Dokan

Answer · why

D) Ota Dokan

He was assassinated in 1486; the fortress passed to the Uesugi, then the Hojo, before Ieyasu inherited it after the 1590 siege of Odawara.

Q 05/05

Which American commodore's 1853 arrival ended Japan's seclusion and set Edo on the road to Tokyo?

A) Matthew C. Perry

B) Oliver Hazard Perry

C) David Farragut

D) Stephen Decatur

Answer · why

A) Matthew C. Perry

He forced open the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate; the resulting inflation and unrest helped topple the last shogun in 1867.