History of Tokyo’s Nihonbashi Kabutocho District
From the Edo to the Meiji eras
From residential area for samurai to a financial and economic center
Edo Era
Tokyo’s Kabutocho district was just swampland covered in pampas grass at the beginning of the Japan’s Edo era (1603 to 1868). Eventually, Ieyasu Tokugawa cleared and reclaimed the land to build an urban area surrounding Edo Castle. Because this land was so near the castle, it became an important base for the military to protect Edo (the former name of Tokyo) using the Sumida River and the sea. As a result, the area was settled by samurai closely connected to the Tokugawa clan as well as those serving in the naval forces.
Edo era map of the Kabutocho
Image from the digital archives of the National Diet Library
Yoroi no Watashi (Crossing the Yoroi Waterway) woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige
Image from the digital archives of the National Diet Library
Meiji Era
During the Meiji era (1868 to 1912), the Kabutocho district developed into a securities and financial district.
Land holdings of the samurai class became state property following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, creating opportunities for many new buildings to be constructed in the Kabutocho, including buildings for the Minbu Ministry which was responsible for state finances; a branch of the Metropolitan Police (predecessor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department); and the Sakamoto School (one of the first primary schools, the predecessor of the Sakamoto Elementary School).
Land in the Kabutocho area was given to the Mitsui Group to reward their contribution to the Meiji Restoration. In 1873, the group constructed a building for the First National Bank (predecessor of Mizuho Bank) on the east side of the former Kaiun Bridge. The building became a new landmark in Tokyo and was called the Mitsui Group Building.
In 1878, the original Tokyo Stock Exchange was established in the Kabutocho after an application from prominent members of Tokyo’s business community, including Eiichi Shibusawa and Yonosuke Mitsui, and received a license from then.
In the years that followed, the Meiji government and members of the private sector, including Eiichi Shibusawa, set up significant financial and commercial companies, such as foreign exchange and trading companies, on former samurai estates. This transformed Kabutocho into the “heart” of Japan’s economy.
During the Edo and Meiji eras, Kabutocho, along the banks of the Nihonbashi River, was a destination for goods shipped from all around the country, The Nihonbashi riverside fish market and then the Yokkaichi, Yoroi, and Kayaba riverside areas were developed and became lively as a landing place for various goods.
The original Tokyo Stock Exchange building in the late 1800s
Photo from the Chuo City Kyobashi Library
View of Yedobashi and Yoroibashi, three panel painting by Inoue Yasuji
Image from the Chuo City Chuo Historical Museum
First half of the twentieth century
Rebuilding after the Great Kanto Earthquake
More progress in the early 1900s
During the early 1900s, Japan’s recently formed securities market evolved and expanded.
This progress was interrupted, however, when the Great Kanto Earthquake struck on September 1, 1923, causing the entire Kabutocho district to burn down, including the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Nonetheless, this catastrophe created an opportunity for the area to construct new buildings that could withstand earthquakes and fires. So, the Kabutocho rose from the ashes as a modern city district.
Revival up to WWII
Construction of a new building for the Tokyo Stock Exchange began after the earthquake. The stock market wing was completed in 1927 and the main building was completed in 1931. The structure went on to become a popular symbol of the Kabutocho.
With the beginning of the Second World War, wartime regulations required the reorganization of stock exchanges. Therefore, the country’s 11 stock exchanges were integrated in 1943 into a semi-governmental organization: the Japan Securities Exchange,.
The second Tokyo Stock Exchange building around 1960
Photo from the Chuo City Kyobashi Library
Inside the Tokyo Stock Exchange
Photo from the Chuo City Kyobashi Library
The Post-War Period
Developing the Kabutocho as a securities district
Growing from the 1940s to the 1970s
With the end of the Second World War, the GHQ prohibited the reopening of stock exchanges in Japan. Later, however, semiorganized stock trading (collective transactions) through securities brokerage firms gradually resumed in a part of the Kabutocho, and by 1949, the GHQ allowed the Japanese stock market to reopen exchanges in three cities in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya.
The GHQ had been set up inside the Tokyo Stock Exchange building (except floors one to three), so renovations of trading facilities were made amid shortages of materials and funds. At the same time, the Kabutocho district made a fresh start as a securities district, providing industry investment funds and managing assets for the public. The district has since grown in tandem with Japan’s postwar modernization. Indeed, Kabutocho is now synonymous with the country’s financial economy, just as Tokyo’s Nagatacho and Kasumigaseki districts are synonymous with politics and government administration, respectively.
With the dissolution of the Japan Securities Exchange in 1947, Heiwa Real Estate was founded (in the same year) in Kabutocho as a building management company responsible for leasing stock exchange buildings and other facilities to newly created stock exchange associations and brokerage firms.
The Nisshokan Building around the 1950s (the signs show names of brokerage firms)
Photo from the Chuo City Kyobashi Library
A street in the Kabutocho district around the 1950s
Photo from the Chuo City Kyobashi Library
From 1980s to the Present
The changing face of the Kabutocho district
Renewal from the 1980s
As the second Tokyo Stock Exchange building—renowned as an architectural masterpiece of Japan’s Showa era—had deteriorated since it was built five decades earlier, construction of a new building to replace it began in 1982. After two phases of construction lasting six years, Heiwa Real Estate completed the new Tokyo Stock Exchange building in 1988, which was the largest project since the company was founded. Standing 15 stories above ground with solid stone walls made from the highest-grade Inada granite, the new building has a stately appearance, a fitting symbol for Kabutocho. The building’s interior was highly sophisticated, designed for the role as one of the world’s major stock exchanges in both name and substance.
In later years, however, stock trading was increasingly being done electronically and over the internet. So, after operating for many years, the trading floor of the Tokyo Stock Exchange was shut down in 1999. Moreover, stock brokerage firms began relocating their offices, significantly changing the face of the Kabutocho district.
The current Tokyo Stock Exchange building
The Tosho Arrows trading space inside the building
From 2014 to the present
Redeveloping the Kabutocho district
An ongoing revitalization project that began in 2014
In response to the departure of brokerage firms from the district, Heiwa Real Estate launched the Nihonbashi Kabutocho and Kayabacho Revitalization Project in 2014, with a vision to preserve the area’s historic character as the birthplace of Japan’s financial markets and to revive Kabutocho as a district where people connect as well as where investment and growth are born.
Historic places in Nihonbashi Kabutocho
Location of Eiichi Shibusawa’s former residence
The site of the Nisshokan Building is where Eiichi Shibusawa, a founder of the First National Bank and the Tokyo Stock Exchange, built his Kabutocho residence in 1888. The building was designed by Kingo Tatsuno, who later became well known for designing the Bank of Japan building and Tokyo Station. After Shibusawa moved to Asukayama (now Tokyo’s Kita Ward) in 1901, the building was used as his office.
When the Great Kanto Earthquake struck on September 1, 1923, Shibusawa was having a meeting with his employees in an office. Thankfully, they were able to safely evacuate before the building collapsed. That evening, however, fires swept across the entire Kabutocho district and the building was completely destroyed.
Eiichi Shibusawa’s former residence
Photo courtesy of Shimizu Corporation
Eiichi Shibusawa
From the collection of the Shibusawa Memorial Museum
Nisshokan Building
The Nisshokan Building was built in 1928 by the Tokyo Stock Exchange on the site of Eiichi Shibusawa’s former residence. Originally called the Higashi-Kabu Building, it was renamed the Nisshokan Building after the Japan Securities Exchange was established in 1943. Heiwa Real Estate has owned this building since being founded in 1947, and our head office is currently located there.
After U.S. forces confiscated Japan’s stock exchange buildings in 1946, the Nisshokan Building was used instead for collective trading in lieu of exchange trading, for about three years. The building had as many as 35 brokerage firms—a number that was increasing during the post-war period—in this way, it playing an important historical role in the securities industry.
Due to a series of renovations, the Nisshokan Building continues to be used to the present day and has been recognized for reducing building lifecycle costs while contributing to the preservation of Kabutocho’s history. In 2013, this building was awarded Gold DBJ Green Building Certification by the Development Bank of Japan.
Kabuto Shrine
Next to the Nisshokan Building is Kabuto Shrine, devoted to the divine guardian of Japan’s securities industry.
This shrine was built in May 1878 following the launch of the original Tokyo Stock Exchange, as a protector and symbol of the shared faith of all those involved in stock trading.
On the shrine grounds is a large stone called Kabuto-iwa (literally, warrior helmet stone). This place was the residence of the Makino clan during the Edo era. Within one mansion there was a mound called Kabuto-zuka (samurai helmets mound), where legend has it that a warrior from the late Heian period buried his helmet or that the helmet of the defeated Taira no Masakado (a major military commander of the Heian period) is buried. Legend also has it that the rock on top of the mound was Kabuto-iwa.
Tokyo Stock Exchange (location of the original Tokyo Stock Exchange)
The current Tokyo Stock Exchange building stands on the site of the first Tokyo Stock Exchange built in 1878. After the original building was destroyed by fire, a second building for the Tokyo Stock Exchange was constructed, with the stock market wing being completed in 1927 and the main building in 1931. In the years that followed, many stock brokerage firms set up operations nearby, placing Kabutocho at the center of Japan’s securities industry and stock market.
After the Second World War, the GHQ prohibited the reopening of stock exchanges in Japan. In 1949, however, the Japanese stock market resumed and the Kabutocho district made a fresh start as a location for securities trading, procuring industry investment funds, and managing assets for the public. Kabutocho grew in tandem with Japan’s post-war modernization, becoming synonymous with the country’s financial economy.
The second Tokyo Stock Exchange building, although considered an architectural masterpiece of the Showa era had deteriorated after about 50 years. In 1988, it was replaced by the current Tokyo Stock Exchange building, which has become a symbol of Kabutocho.
The second Tokyo Stock Exchange Building around the 1960s
Photo from the Chuo City Kyobashi Library
The current Tokyo Stock Exchange Building
Location of Japan’s first national bank
First National Bank, the first commercial bank and joint-stock company in Japan, was established in Kabutocho in 1873 by Eiichi Shibusawa. Designed with a combination of Japanese and Western architectural styles, the original building stood out as a famous landmark in the years that followed and was depicted in many woodblock prints at the time.
First National Bank was the predecessor of Mizuho Bank, and Mizuho’s Kabutocho Branch is still on the same site. On the exterior wall of the branch is a plaque commemorating the origins of Japan’s banking industry that describes how the buildings changed up to the present day.
A painting of the original First National Bank from the perspective of a nearby building
Image from the Chuo City Chuo Historical Museum
The plaque commemorating the location of Japan’s first national bank
Nihonbashi Post Office (location of Japan’s first postal office)
Japan’s postal system was created in 1871 when Hisoka Maejima, known as the father of Japan’s modern postal system, established a package delivery service (predecessor of Japan Post Co., Ltd.) and a post office in Tokyo (now the Tokyo Central Post Office). Today, a statue of Maejima can be seen at the Nihonbashi Post Office.
The statue of Maejima Hisoka
A plaque commemorating the location of Japan’s first postal service at the Nihonbashi Post Office
Remaining stone pillar of the Kaiun Bridge
All that remains of the bridge across the Momiji River, called Kaiun Bridge, is a stone pillar (since 1875). The Kaiun Bridge was previously called Shokan or Kaizoku Bridge (literally “pirate bridge”) because there was a great house to the east of the bridge owned by Shokan Mukai (Magistrate Mukai) who was well-known as a kaizoku bugyo (a magistrate for patrolling for pirates).
The Kaiun Bridge, which means good luck, was rebuilt as an arched stone bridge in 1875. On the east side of the bridge, the First National Bank was built in 1873, followed by the original Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1878. During Japan’s period of Westernization, the area around the bridge changed dramatically, while prospering as Tokyo’s financial center. The stone bridge was damaged during the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and then replaced with an iron bridge in 1927, which was later removed when the Momijigawa River was filled in. The remaining stone pillar of the Kaiun Bridge has been registered as a cultural asset in Tokyo’s Chuo Ward.
Hie Shrine in Nihonbashi
Nihonbashi Hie Shrine dates back to 1590, when Tokugawa Ieyasu entered Edo Castle and worshipped the deities at Hie Shrine. Since then, a portable shrine has been stored on the grounds and transported by boat for festivals.
The Edo Meisho Zue (Pictures of Edo’s Famous Places), Vol. 2, published in 1800, depicts the Sanno Palace and the Hie Shrine standing side by side. During the Sanno Festival, on July 15 every other year, a temporary shrine is set up in front of the two permanent shrines with a procession of offerings led by three portable shrines that arrive there. The festival was reportedly the largest and most spectacular of the Oedo festivals.
Eiichi Shibusawa’s symbolic red stone from Sado Island
In 1873, Eiichi Shibusawa established the First National Bank (predecessor of Mizuho Bank), Japan’s first joint stock company, in Tokyo’s Kabutocho district. Soon after, in 1878, he established the Tokyo Stock Exchange, laying the foundation for the country’s economy and financial industry.
When Shibusawa built his Kabutocho residence (currently the location of the Nisshokan Building) in 1888, he placed a large red stone from Sado Island there as a symbol of good luck, praying for Japan’s economic prosperity.
Shibusawa cherished this red stone throughout his life, and moved it to his Mita-tsunamachi residence (later the official residence of the Minister of Finance and currently the location of the Ministry of Finance’ Mita Conference Hall) following its construction in 1908.
To fulfill Shibusawa’s final wish that the stone remain in Kabutocho, the birthplace of Japanese capitalism, it was passed on to Heiwa Real Estate in 2017 as part of our celebrations commemorating the Company’s 70th anniversary.
The symbolic red stone from Sado Island
Eiichi Shibusawa
From the collection of the Shibusawa Memorial Museum