is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

term referring to a person born and raised in

Edo Edo (), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the '' de facto'' capital of Japan from 1603 as the seat of the Tokugawa shogu ...

(renamed

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

in 1868). The term is believed to have been coined in the late 18th century in Edo. Being an Edokko also implied that the person had certain personality traits different from the non-native population, such as being assertive, straightforward, cheerful, perhaps a bit mercantile (cf.

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

, the capital of aristocratic Japan, and

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

, the capital of mercantile Japan; see also ''

iki IKI may refer to: * Internationales Kulturinstitut, in Vienna * Iodine potassium-iodide, a chemical compound * Russian Space Research Institute, originally known as IKI RAN * Iki Airport, IATA code Iki or iki may refer to: * Iki Island, a Japane ...

'' and ). Today, the definition of "Edokko" may vary. The Japanese dictionary simply defines it as one who was born and raised in Edo or Tokyo. However, popular definitions of "a true Edokko" include the following: * One who was born and raised in Edo/Tokyo to parents who both were also born and raised in Edo/Tokyo. (If one parent was not born and raised in Edo/Tokyo, then the child would not be a true Edokko, and was called ''madara'' mottled"">mottle.html" ;"title="mottle">mottled") * One who was born and raised in Edo/Tokyo to a family lineage spanning back three or four generations in Edo/Tokyo. The latter case is rare in reality, as the majority of the Edo/Tokyo population consists of the natives of other areas. Historically, Edokko almost exclusively refers to ''chōnin'', the commoners. The majority of samurai in Edo were from the countryside, and Edokko satisfied themselves by looking down on them, referring them being ''yabo'', the opposite of ''iki''. About half of the Edo population were such samurai. An authority of Edo culture, Hinako Sugiura estimates 1.25% of Edo population was Edokko in the strict sense. From this form is also derived the word , the Italian-language demonym for people from Tokyo.

References

{{Portal, Tokyo Tokyo Japanese words and phrases Demonyms 18th-century neologisms