月島
Tsukishimaつきしま
moon island — poetry by committee
- 月tsuki — moon (after 月の岬 'Moon Cape', a moon-viewing spot on the bay)
- 島shima — island
Tokyo dredged its bay and piled the mud into an island. Then a city-council resolution named it 'moon island', after a famous moon-viewing spot on the water. Poetry, assigned by committee.
An artificial island raised from mud dredged in Tokyo Bay's channel-clearing works. By Chuo Ward's official account, the name was chosen by resolution of the Tokyo City Council, after Tsuki no Misaki — 'Moon Cape', a moon-viewing spot on the bay. Its first block took shape in 1892. A rival story — that it began as 築島, 'built island', the same logic as Tsukiji — circulates widely, but no record of that name in official use has been found. Harbor mud, named for moonlight — by committee.
Modern proof
Today the man-made island is famous for its street of 70-odd monjayaki restaurants — and, increasingly, for its high-rise towers.
An island built from bay dredging; its first block (Reclamation No. 1) took shape in 1892 — reclaimed land, like Tsukiji before it.
Sources
- 中央区「町名由来 月島地区」(明治20年からの埋立てで成立、東京湾内の観月の名所「月の岬」にちなみ、当時の東京市参事会の決議により命名、と区が公式に説明)[government]
- 東京市『東京市史稿』港湾篇第4(大正15年)頁634-635(明治24〜26年の条: 東京湾澪浚工事は明治20年度以来の継続事業で、これに附帯する佃島以南の埋立第一区が竣成し市有地に編入されたこと、「月島以南第二區埋立地」面積8万4千百坪の記載)[primary]
- 京橋月島新聞社『月島発展史』(昭和15年)頁98-99(月島の町名は月島一号地の塡築成る明治25年以後、埋立完成と共に漸次附せられ、命名後変更がないこと)[primary]