Yotsuya

Yotsuya (四谷, 四ツ谷, 四ッ谷、) is a neighborhood in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan.

Geography

Yotsuya is located in the southeastern part of Shinjuku. Prior to 1943, when Tokyo was still a city, Yotsuya was one of its wards and had definite boundaries, but it is less clearly defined today. Yotsuya is generally defined as coinciding with the responsibility area of the Shinjuku City Yotsuya Branch Office and the Yotsuya Police Station, which includes most of Shinjuku east of Meiji-dōri and south of Yasukuni-dōri. To the east lies the neighborhoods of Banchō in Chiyoda.

A place within Shinjuku, also named Yotsuya, is located immediately west of Yotsuya Station; it is divided into four chōme.

History

Before the growth of Edo, Yotsuya was a farming village outside the city. In 1634, with the digging of the outer moat around Edo Castle, many temples and shrines moved to Yotsuya. The moat had stone walls, and a mitsuke, or watch tower, was also built. Yotsuya Mitsuke stood near the present-day Yotsuya Station.

List of Maison Ikkoku characters

The Maison Ikkoku manga series features characters created by Rumiko Takahashi. Many of the characters live in the series' titular boarding house, including the protagonists Yusaku Godai and Kyoko Otonashi. The boarding house setting and its tenants were inspired from Takahashi's college years; the apartment house behind her own was occupied by many "strange people."

Creation and conception

Takahashi stated that she had wanted to draw a story about an apartment complex for some time, inspired by the one she lived in in Nakano, Tokyo during college and the odd actions of the people living in the one next door. She originally only wanted to start the series focusing on Kyoko and Godai's relationship before moving on to include the other tenants to have a "human drama," but said the love story attracted her more and took over.

She said that she adds new characters when she needs new story ideas, but remarked that the apartment setting of Maison Ikkoku limited her from adding too many. Takahashi said that when creating characters she roughly knows their "nature" while designing them, but not the details.