is a neighborhood in

Shinjuku , officially called Shinjuku City, is a special ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative center, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world ( Shinjuku Station) as well as the Tokyo Metropol ...

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 ...

, Japan.

History

Originally, the area's name was read ''Takatanobaba'' and many Tokyo residents in their 50s or older pronounce it as such. However, younger Tokyoites and residents who have come from outside Tokyo, use the pronunciation ''Takadanobaba''. The area is also often referred to simply as "Baba". The area was previously and officially known as Totsuka (戸塚). In 1636, the ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamak ...

Tokugawa Iemitsu was the third ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada with Oeyo, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Lady Kasuga was his wet nurse, who acted as his political adviser and was at the ...

built in the area a ''baba'', a ground for horseback riding and horse racing. ''Takata'' was the family name of the mother of Matsudaira Tadateru (the sixth son of Iemitsu's grandfather, the previous shogun

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

) who favored the area as a sightseeing spot. The name stuck to prevent confusion with nearby Totsuka town near

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

(now Totsuka-ku, Yokohama). In 1694, Nakayama Yasubei (later Horibe Yasubei, one of the forty-seven ''rōnin'') took part in a battle (the Takadanobaba Kettō 高田馬場の決闘) there.

Life in Takadanobaba

The neighborhood is a transport hub for commuters traveling in from the west of Tokyo as it is home to three popular train lines: the Seibu Shinjuku Line, the JR

Yamanote Line The Yamanote Line () is a railway Circle route, loop service in Tokyo, Japan, operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). It is one of Tokyo's busiest and most important lines, connecting most of Tokyo's major stations and urban centres ...

, and the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line. During the morning rush hour, Takadanobaba is one of the hot-points of the Tokyo transport network with all three stations bursting at the seams with local residents, students and commuters. Like neighboring Waseda, the area is synonymous with students (albeit with a somewhat less salubrious image). In addition to serving students commuting to

Waseda University Waseda University (Japanese: ), abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the Tōkyō Professional School by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the fifth Prime Minister of Japan, prime ministe ...

, the area is home to many educational institutions including vocational colleges and preparatory schools.

Gakushuin University is a private university in Mejiro, Toshima, Tokyo. The Gakushūin (or "Peers School") was established during the Meiji period to educate the children of the Japanese nobility, but back then the institution had only the primary and secondary ...

is nearby, one station stop away in Mejiro. At night, once commuters have returned to suburbs and local residents are home, the area turns into a bit of a college town. The streets around the station become crowded with large groups of students staggering out of cheap bars and izakaya. Architecturally, the area around the station is dominated by the monolithic and appropriately named Big Box building. The building houses a sports gym, an arcade, inexpensive clothing stores, a cafe, restaurants, a 100-yen shop, and a bookstore. The Sendagaya Japanese School together with the New York–style Ben's Cafe (closed May 20, 2011), used English-language book shop The Blue Parrot, Mickey House made famous by the Lonely Planet's Tokyo/Japan guides and, on the way to Waseda, the English pub The Fiddler (which closed on January 31, 2007) have placed Takadanobaba on foreigners' maps of Tokyo.

Astro Boy ''Astro Boy'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Osamu Tezuka. It was serialized in Kobunsha's ''Shōnen'' from 1952 to 1968. The 112 chapters were collected into 23 volumes by Akita Shoten. Da ...

, a fictional character created by

Osamu Tezuka Osamu Tezuka (, born , ''Tezuka Osamu'', – 9 February 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist and animator. Considered to be among the greatest and most influential cartoonists of all time, his prolific output, pioneering techniques an ...

in 1952, was supposedly "born" in Takadanobaba on April 7, 2003. In commemoration to both this and the premiere of the 2003 ''

'' television series, starting in 2003, the JR Yamanote Line platform uses the theme music from the TV series to signal the departure of a train. Also, many lamp posts in the area carry pictures from the TV series, and two large murals depicting Tezuka's works are across the street of JR Takadanobaba station. Director J. J. Abrams referenced Takadanobaba as an influence on the naming of planet Takodana in the film, '' Star Wars: The Force Awakens''.

References

{{Authority control Neighborhoods of Tokyo Districts of Shinjuku

History

Life in Takadanobaba

See also

References