Yamanote and Shitamachi

Yamanote (山の手, "mountain's hand(s)") and Shitamachi (下町, "under city") are traditional names for two areas of Tokyo, Japan. Yamanote refers to the affluent, upper-class areas of Tokyo west of the Imperial Palace. 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. 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.