Etymology[edit]

Tokyo was originally known as Edo ( ), which means "estuary".[18] Its name was changed to
?

Tokyo ( Tky; t "east", and ky "capital") when it became the imperial capital with the
arrival of Emperor Meiji in 1868,[19] in line with the East Asian tradition of including the word capital
() in the name of the capital city.[18] During the early Meiji period, the city was also called "Tkei",
an alternative pronunciation for the same Chinese characters representing "Tokyo", making it
a kanji homograph. Some surviving official English documents use the spelling "Tokei".
[20]

However, this pronunciation is now obsolete.[21]

The name Tokyo was first suggested in 1813 in the book Kond Hisaku (ja) (Secret Plan of
Commingling), written by Sat Nobuhiro.[citation needed] When kubo Toshimichi proposed the renaming
to the government during the Meiji Restoration, according to Oda Kanshi (),[vague] he got
the idea from that book.