What Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka mean (東京 京都 大阪)

Japan’s three best-known cities have names you can read kanji by kanji. Tokyo (東京) is east plus capital, the eastern capital; Kyoto (京都) is capital plus city, the capital city; and Osaka (大阪) is big plus slope. Five kanji cover all three names.

Tokyo: the eastern capital

東 (higashi, or tou) means east. A popular way to remember it is the sun (日) rising behind a tree (木), and that idea is old: the Shuowen Jiezi, a Chinese dictionary from around 100 CE, records it. Many scholars today think 東 began as a drawing of a sack or bundle tied at both ends, borrowed for its sound to mean east.

京 (kyou) means capital. It began as a drawing of a tall building, and its first meaning was a high place; over time it came to mean the capital city.

So 東京 is the eastern capital. Until 1868 the city was called 江戸 (Edo). That year, in the Meiji Restoration, it was renamed Tokyo, and the emperor soon moved there from Kyoto. Eastern, then, means east of Kyoto, which had been the capital for more than a thousand years. In the Meiji era some people read the new name とうけい (Toukei), but とうきょう won.

Kyoto: the capital city

都 (to, or miyako) means capital, or a big city. The 者 on its left gives the sound, and the 阝 on its right stands for a town.

So 京都 is capital plus city, and since both kanji can mean capital, it’s the capital city twice over. It became the capital in 794 as 平安京 (Heian-kyou), and late in the Heian period people started calling it simply 京都. The name stuck after the emperor left.

That’s why 京 on its own can still mean Kyoto, as in the old saying 京の着倒れ, “Kyoto goes broke on clothes”. It’s also why moving to Tokyo is 上京 (joukyou), “going up to the capital”: the capital moved, and the word went with it. Tokyo’s official name, 東京都 (Toukyou-to), the Tokyo Metropolis, uses 都 too.

Osaka: a big slope

大 (oo, or dai) means big. It began as a drawing of a grown man standing face-on.

阪 (saka, or han) means a slope or hillside. Here 阝 is on the left, and on the left it means a hill, not a town. 反 gives the sound.

So 大阪 is a big slope, or a big hill. The name was long written 大坂, with 坂, the everyday kanji for slope, and by the Edo period both spellings were in use. A writer in 1808 explained that people disliked 坂 because its parts, 土 and 反, can be read as “return to the earth”, which sounds like death. After the Meiji Restoration, 大阪 became the official spelling.

How to use it

• 東京に住んでいます。

  Toukyou ni sunde imasu.

  I live in Tokyo.

• 京都でお寺を見たいです。

  Kyouto de otera o mitai desu.

  I'd like to see temples in Kyoto.

• 十八歳で上京しました。

  Juuhassai de joukyou shimashita.

  I moved to Tokyo when I was eighteen.

• 東京から大阪まで、新幹線で二時間半ぐらいです。

  Toukyou kara Oosaka made, shinkansen de nijikan han gurai desu.

  Tokyo to Osaka is about two and a half hours by bullet train.

• The vowels are long in Japanese. とうきょう (Toukyou), きょうと (Kyouto), おおさか (Oosaka). Kyoto is a long “kyoo” plus “to”, not “kee-oh-toe”.
• Tokyo and Kyoto share 京. Kyoto starts with it, Tokyo ends with it.
• Watch the side of 阝. On the left, as in 阪, it’s a hill. On the right, as in 都, it’s a town.
• Japan’s prefectures come in four kinds: Tokyo is a 都 (to), Osaka and Kyoto are 府 (fu), Hokkaido is a 道 (dou), and the rest are 県 (ken). Together they’re the 都道府県 (todoufuken).
• 阪 is short for Osaka in names like 阪神 (Hanshin), Osaka and Kobe, and 京阪 (Keihan), Kyoto and Osaka.

Words with the same kanji

Remember it

Stand in Kyoto, the old capital city (京都), and look east: there’s the new capital, 東京. Then head down the road to Osaka and climb its big (大) slope (阪).

The kanji in this lesson

Tap Draw it to watch the stroke order. Numbers show where each stroke starts.

Draw it

Draw it

Draw it

Draw it

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Sources

• Wikipedia: Tokyo (history of the name)
• Wikipedia: Kyoto
• Wikipedia: Osaka (etymology)

Written by the Chirami team with the help of AI, then checked against JMdict and KANJIDIC2. How we write lessons. Spotted a mistake? Email support@brightsmilesolutions.org.