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and are traditional names for two areas of Tokyo, Japan. Yamanote refers to the affluent, upper-class areas of Tokyo west of the Imperial Palace.〔Iwanami Japanese dictionary, 6th Edition (2008), DVD version〕 While citizens once considered it as consisting of Hongo, Koishikawa, Ushigome, Yotsuya, Akasaka, Aoyama and Azabu in the Bunkyō, Shinjuku, and Minato wards,〔 its size has grown to include the Nakano, Suginami and Meguro wards.〔 Shitamachi is the traditional name for the area of Tokyo including today the Adachi, Arakawa, Chiyoda (in part), Chūō, Edogawa, Kōtō, Sumida, and Taitō wards, the physically low part of the city along and east of the Sumida River.〔 The two regions have always been vaguely defined, as their identity was more based on culture and caste than on geography.〔 While Tokugawa vassals of the warrior caste (hatamoto and gokenin) lived in the hilly Yamanote, lower castes (merchants and artisans) lived in the marshy areas near the sea. This dual class and geographic division has remained strong through the centuries while evolving with the times, and is still in common use today.〔Edogaku Jiten, Kōbunsha, 1984, pages 14, 15, and 16.〕 Indeed, the two terms are now used also in other parts of the country. The term Yamanote still indicates a higher social status, and Shitamachi a lower one, even though ''de facto'' this is not always true.〔 Both the Yamanote and the Shitamachi have grown gradually over the years, and the map above shows them as they are today. ==History of the terms== When the Tokugawa regime moved its seat of power to Edo, it granted most of the solid hilly regions to the military aristocracy and their families for residences, in part taking advantage of its cooler summer.〔 Marshland around the mouths of the Sumida and Tone rivers, to the east of the castle, was filled in, with the flatlands that resulted becoming the area for merchants and craftsmen who supplied and worked for the aristocracy. Thus, from the beginning of its existence, Tokyo (the former Edo) has been culturally and economically divided in two parts: the higher caste Yamanote, located on the hills of the Musashino Terrace, and the lower caste Shitamachi, literally "low town" or "low city", located next to the Sumida River.〔 Although neither of the two was ever an official name, both stuck and are still in use. Both words are used with the same meaning in other parts of the country too. The term "Yamanote" is also used for example in Hokkaido, Oita, Yokohama and Osaka. There are several theories about the etymology of the term Yamanote, in addition to its hilly location. In the book it is said that Tokugawa Ietsuna's (1641–1680) younger brother Tsunashige was given two suburban residences, one in and another in Yamanote, so it is possible that the opposite of Yamanote was not Shitamachi, but Umite. However, with the progressive construction of landfills in the Sumida estuary and the urbanization of the area, gradually Shitamachi replaced Umite. The pairing of Yamanote - Shitamachi is well attested in records of the spoken language as early as 1650, and from that time appears often in documents and books. The warrior/merchant distinction between Yamanote and Shitamachi was also well established early on.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Yamanote and Shitamachi」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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