Archive for December, 2009

The name “Roppongi”, which appears to have been coined around 1660, literally means “six trees”. Six very old and large zelkova trees used to mark the area; first three were cleared, and the last was destroyed during the Pacific War.[1] Another legend has it that the name comes from the fact that six daimyo lived nearby during the Edo period, each with the kanji character for “tree” or a kind of tree in their names. Roppongi was not extensively populated until after the Meiji Restoration, although the area was trafficked for centuries and served as the site of the cremation of Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada‘s wife in 1626. Read the rest of this entry »