新宿
1699
Shinjukuしんじゅく
the new lodging
- 新shin — new
- 宿juku — post station / lodging
It just means 'new lodging.' The 'new' dates to 1699, when five merchants crowdfunded a rest stop for the shogunate. That rest stop now moves the most passengers of any station on Earth.
The first post town out of Edo on the Kōshū highway was 16 km away — too far. In 1697 five Asakusa merchants petitioned to build a new one, paying the shogunate 5,600 ryō for the licence. Opened in 1699 on land returned by the Naitō clan, it was called Naitō-Shinjuku: 'Naitō's new lodging.' The clan's estate is now Shinjuku Gyoen garden.
Modern proof
The Naitō name survives in Shinjuku Gyoen (the clan's former estate) and the Naitōmachi district. The post town's center was near today's Shinjuku 3-chōme; the station opened in 1885 a few hundred meters away.
sourceThe post town stood at the fork of the Kōshū and Ōme highways — the old Shinjuku-oiwake crossing.
Sources
- 国立国会図書館 電子展示会「錦絵と写真でめぐる日本の名所: 新宿」[government]
- 新宿区公式「新宿区について(名前の由来)」[government]
- 新宿観光振興協会「内藤新宿とは」[local_org]