Name	Tokyo
Native name	東京
Official name	東京都 · Tokyo Metropolis
Settlement type	Metropolis
Map caption	Location of Tokyo within Japan
Image map1	Tokyo Landsat.jpg
Map caption1	Satellite photo of Tokyo's 23 Special wards taken by NASA's Landsat 7
Blank emblem type	Symbol
Image seal	Emblem of Tokyo.svg
Seal size	100px
Seal link	Insignias of Tokyo
Pushpin map	Japan
Pushpin label position
Coordinates display	inline, title
Coordinates region	JP-13
Coordinates type	type:adm1st_region:JP-13
Subdivision type	Country
Subdivision name	Japan
Subdivision type1	Region
Subdivision name1	Kantō
Subdivision type2	Island
Subdivision name2	Honshu
Parts type	Divisions
Parts	23 special wards, 26 cities, 1 district, & 4 subprefectures
Government type	Metropolis
Leader title	Governor
Leader name	Shintarō Ishihara
Leader title1	Capital
Leader name1	Shinjuku
Area footnotes	(ranked 45th)
Area total km2	2187.08
Area water percent	1.0
Population demonym	Tokyoite
Population as of	1st
Population total	13,010,279 (April 1, 2010)
Population note	(April 1, 2010)
Population density km2	5847
Population metro	35,676,000
Population blank1 title	23 Wards
Population note	(2009 per Prefectural Government)
Population blank1	8,802,000
Timezone	Japan Standard Time
Utc offset	+9
Postal code type	ISO 3166-2
Postal code	JP-13
Blank name sec2	Flower
Blank info sec2	Somei-Yoshino cherry blossom
Blank1 name sec2	Tree
Blank1 info sec2	Ginkgo tree (''Ginkgo biloba'')
Blank2 name sec2	Bird
Blank2 info sec2	Black-headed Gull (''Larus ridibundus'')
Website	metro.tokyo.jp
Footnotes	}}

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. It is located in the Kantō region on the southeastern side of the main island Honshu and includes the Izu Islands and Ogasawara Islands. Tokyo Metropolis was formed in 1943 from the merger of the former and the . Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family.

The Tokyo Metropolitan government administers the twenty-three special wards of Tokyo (each governed as a city), which cover the area that was the city of Tokyo, as well as 39 municipalities in the western part of the prefecture and the two outlying island chains. The population of the special wards is over 8 million people, with the total population of the prefecture exceeding 13 million. The prefecture is part of the world's most populous metropolitan area with upwards of 35 million people and the world's largest metropolitan economy with a GDP of US$1.479 trillion at purchasing power parity in 2008, ahead of New York City, which ranks second on the list. The city hosts 47 of the Fortune Global 500 companies.

Tokyo has been described as one of the three "command centers" for the world economy, along with New York City and London. This city is considered an alpha+ world city, listed by the GaWC's 2008 inventory and ranked third among global cities by ''Foreign Policy'''s 2010 Global Cities Index. In 2010 Tokyo was named the second most expensive city for expatriate employees, according to the Mercer and Economist Intelligence Unit cost-of-living surveys, and named the fourth Most Liveable City and the World’s Most Livable Megalopolis by the magazine ''Monocle''. The Michelin Guide has awarded Tokyo by far the most Michelin stars of any city in the world. Tokyo hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics and is currently bidding to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Etymology

Tokyo was originally known as Edo, meaning "estuary". Its name was changed to Tokyo (''Tōkyō'': ''tō'' (east) + ''kyō'' (capital)) when it became the imperial capital in 1868, in line with the East Asian tradition of including the word capital ('京') in the name of the capital city. During the early Meiji period, the city was also called "Tōkei", an alternative pronunciation for the same Chinese characters representing "Tokyo". Some surviving official English documents use the spelling "Tokei". However, this pronunciation is now obsolete.

History

Tokyo was originally a small fishing village named Edo, located in what was formerly part of the old Musashi Province.

Edo was first fortified by the Edo clan, in the late 12th century. In 1457, Ōta Dōkan built Edo Castle. In 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu made Edo his base and when he became shogun in 1603, the town became the center of his nationwide military government. During the subsequent Edo period, Edo grew into one of the largest cities in the world with a population topping one million by the 18th century.

It became the ''de facto'' capital of Japan even while the emperor lived in Kyoto, the imperial capital. After about 263 years, the shogunate was overthrown under the banner of restoring imperial rule. In 1869, the 17-year-old Emperor Meiji moved to Edo. Tokyo was already the nation's political and cultural center, and the emperor's residence made it a ''de facto'' imperial capital as well, with the former Edo Castle becoming the Imperial Palace. The city of Tokyo was established, and continued to be the capital until it was abolished as a municipality in 1943 and merged with the "Metropolitan Prefecture" of Tokyo.

Central Tokyo, like Osaka, has been designed since about 1900 to be centered on major railway stations in a high-density fashion, so suburban railways were built relatively cheaply at street level and with their own right-of-way. This differs from many cities in the United States that are low-density and automobile-centric. Though expressways have been built in Tokyo, the basic design has not changed.

Tokyo went on to suffer two major catastrophes in the 20th century, but it recovered from both. One was the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, which left 140,000 dead or missing, and the other was World War II. The Bombing of Tokyo in 1944 and 1945, with 75,000 to 200,000 killed and half of the city destroyed, was almost as devastating as the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.

After the war, Tokyo was completely rebuilt, and was showcased to the world during the 1964 Summer Olympics. The 1970s brought new high-rise developments such as Sunshine 60, a new and controversial airport at Narita in 1978 (some distance outside city limits), and a population increase to about 11 million (in the metropolitan area).

Tokyo's subway and commuter rail network became one of the busiest in the world as more and more people moved to the area. In the 1980s, real estate prices skyrocketed during a real estate and debt bubble. The bubble burst in the early 1990s, and many companies, banks, and individuals were caught with mortgage backed debts while real estate was shrinking in value. A major recession followed, making the 1990s Japan's "Lost Decade" from which it is now slowly recovering.

Tokyo still sees new urban developments on large lots of less profitable land. Recent projects include Ebisu Garden Place, Tennozu Isle, Shiodome, Roppongi Hills, Shinagawa (now also a Shinkansen station), and the Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station. Buildings of significance are demolished for more up-to-date shopping facilities such as Omotesando Hills.

Land reclamation projects in Tokyo have also been going on for centuries. The most prominent is the Odaiba area, now a major shopping and entertainment center. Various plans have been proposed for transferring national government functions from Tokyo to secondary capitals in other regions of Japan, in order to slow down rapid development in Tokyo and revitalize economically lagging areas of the country. These plans have been controversial within Japan and have yet to be realized.

Geography and administrative divisions

The mainland portion of Tokyo lies northwest of Tokyo Bay and measures about 90 km east to west and 25 km north to south. Chiba Prefecture borders it to the east, Yamanashi to the west, Kanagawa to the south, and Saitama to the north. Mainland Tokyo is further subdivided into the special wards (occupying the eastern half) and the Tama area () stretching westwards.

thumb|left|Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building Also within the administrative boundaries of Tokyo Metropolis are two island chains in the Pacific Ocean directly south: the Izu Islands, and the Ogasawara Islands, which stretch more than 1,000 km away from the mainland. Because of these islands and mountainous regions to the west, Tokyo's overall population density figures far underrepresent the real figures for urban and suburban regions of Tokyo.

Under Japanese law, Tokyo is designated as a ''to'' (), translated as ''metropolis''. Its administrative structure is similar to that of Japan's other prefectures. Within Tokyo lie dozens of smaller entities, including many cities, the twenty-three special wards, districts, towns, villages, a quasi-national park, and a national park. The twenty-three special wards ( -ku), which until 1943 constituted the city of Tokyo, are now separate, self-governing municipalities, each having a mayor, a council, and the status of a city.

In addition to these 23 special wards, Tokyo also includes 26 more cities (市 -shi), five towns ( -chō or machi), and eight villages ( -son or -mura), each of which has a local government. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is headed by a publicly elected governor and metropolitan assembly. Its headquarters are in the ward of Shinjuku. They govern all of Tokyo, including lakes, rivers, dams, farms, remote islands, and national parks in addition to its neon jungles, skyscrapers and crowded subways.

Special wards

The special wards (''tokubetsu-ku'') of Tokyo comprise the area formerly incorporated as Tokyo City. On July 1, 1943, Tokyo City was merged with forming the current "metropolitan prefecture". As a result, unlike other city wards in Japan, these wards are not part of any larger incorporated city. Each ward is a municipality with its own elected mayor and assembly like the other cities of Japan. The special wards use the word "city" in their official English name (e.g. Chiyoda City).

The wards differ from other cities in having a unique administrative relationship with the prefectural government. Certain municipal functions, such as waterworks, sewerage, and fire-fighting, are handled by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. To pay for the added administrative costs, the prefecture collects municipal taxes, which would usually be levied by the city.

The special wards of Tokyo are: {| |- style="vertical-align:top;" |

Adachi

Arakawa

Bunkyō

Chiyoda

Chūō

Edogawa

Itabashi

Katsushika

|

Kita

Kōtō

Meguro

Minato

Nakano

Nerima

Ōta

Setagaya

|

Shibuya

Shinagawa

Shinjuku

Suginami

Sumida

Taitō

Toshima

|}

The "three core wards" of Tokyo are Chiyoda, Chūō and Minato.

Western Tokyo

To the west of the special wards, Tokyo Metropolis consists of cities, towns and villages that enjoy the same legal status as those elsewhere in Japan.

While serving as "bed towns" for those working in central Tokyo, some of these also have a local commercial and industrial base. Collectively, these are often known as the Tama Area or Western Tokyo.

Cities

Twenty-six cities lie within the western part of Tokyo: {| |- style="vertical-align:top;" |

Akiruno

Akishima

Chōfu

Fuchū

Fussa

Hachiōji

Hamura

Higashikurume

Higashimurayama

|

Higashiyamato

Hino

Inagi

Kiyose

Kodaira

Koganei

Kokubunji

Komae

Kunitachi

|

Machida

Mitaka

Musashimurayama

Musashino

Nishitōkyō

Ōme

Tachikawa

Tama

|}

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has designated Hachiōji, Tachikawa, Machida, Ōme and Tama New Town as regional centers of the Tama area, as part of its plans to disperse urban functions away from central Tokyo.

Nishitama District

The far west is occupied by the district (''gun'') of Nishitama. Much of this area is mountainous and unsuitable for urbanization. The highest mountain in Tokyo, Mount Kumotori, is 2,017 m high; other mountains in Tokyo include Takasu (1737 m), Odake (1266 m), and Mitake (929 m). Lake Okutama, on the Tama River near Yamanashi Prefecture, is Tokyo's largest lake. The district is composed of three towns and one village.

Towns

Hinode

Mizuho

Okutama

Village

Hinohara

Islands

Tokyo has numerous outlying islands, which extend as far as 1850 km from central Tokyo. Because of the islands' distance from the administrative headquarters of the metropolitan government in Shinjuku, local offices administer them.

The Izu Islands are a group of volcanic islands and form part of the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. The islands in order from closest to Tokyo are Izu Ōshima, Toshima, Niijima, Shikinejima, Kozushima, Miyakejima, Mikurajima, Hachijojima, and Aogashima. The Izu Islands are grouped into three subprefectures. Izu Ōshima and Hachijojima are towns. The remaining islands are six villages, with Niijima and Shikinejima forming one village.

The Ogasawara Islands include, from north to south, Chichi-jima, Nishinoshima, Haha-jima, Kita Iwo Jima, Iwo Jima, and Minami Iwo Jima. Ogasawara also administers two tiny outlying islands: Minami Torishima, the easternmost point in Japan and at 1,850 km the most distant island from central Tokyo, and Okino Torishima, the southernmost point in Japan. The last island is contested by the People's Republic of China as being only uninhabited rocks. The Iwo chain and the outlying islands have no permanent population, but host Japanese Self-Defense Forces personnel. Local populations are only found on Chichi-jima and Haha-jima. The islands form both the subprefecture of Ogasawara and the village of Ogasawara.

style="background:#ccf;"	Subprefecture	Municipality	Type
rowspan="2">Hachijō Subprefecture	Hachijō	Hachijō, Tokyo>Hachijō	Town
	Aogashima	Village
rowspan="2"	Miyake	Miyake, Tokyo>Miyake
	Mikurajima	Village
rowspan="4"	Ōshima	Ōshima, Tokyo>Ōshima
	Toshima	Village
	Niijima	Village
	Kōzushima	Village
	Ogasawara	Ogasawara, Tokyo>Ogasawara

National parks

There are several national parks within Tokyo, among them:

Meiji no Mori Takao Quasi-National Park, around Mount Takao to the south of Hachiōji

Ogasawara National Park. As of 2006, efforts were being made to make Ogasawara National Park a UNESCO natural World Heritage Site.

Ueno Park, well known for its museums: Tokyo National Museum, National Science Museum, Shitamachi Museum and National Museum for Western Art, among others. There are also art works and statues at several places in the park.

Seismicity

Tokyo was hit by powerful earthquakes in 1703, 1782, 1812, 1855, and 1923. The 1923 earthquake, with an estimated magnitude of 8.3, killed 142,000 people. Tokyo is located near the boundary of three plates.

Climate

The former city of Tokyo and the majority of mainland Tokyo lie in the humid subtropical climate zone (Köppen climate classification ''Cfa''), with hot humid summers and generally mild winters with cool spells. The region, like much of Japan, experiences a one-month seasonal lag, with the warmest month being August, which averages , and the coolest month being January, averaging . Annual rainfall averages nearly , with a wetter summer and a drier winter. Snowfall is sporadic, but does occur almost annually. Tokyo also often sees typhoons each year, though few are strong. The last one to hit was Fitow in 2007.

Environment

Tokyo has enacted a measure to cut greenhouse gases. Governor Shintaro Ishihara created Japan's first emissions cap system, aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emission by a total of 25% by 2020 from the 2000 level.

Tokyo is an example of an urban heat island, and the phenomenon is especially serious in its special wards. According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the annual mean temperature has increased by about over the past 100 years. Tokyo has been cited as a "convincing example of the relationship between urban growth and climate."

Demographics

|} As of October 2007, the official intercensal estimate showed 12.79 million people in Tokyo with 8.653 million living within Tokyo's 23 wards. During the daytime, the population swells by over 2.5 million as workers and students commute from adjacent areas. This effect is even more pronounced in the three central wards of Chiyoda, Chūō, and Minato, whose collective population as of the 2005 National Census was 326,000 at night, but 2.4 million during the day.

The entire prefecture had 12,790,000 residents in October 2007 (8,653,000 in 23 wards), with an increase of over 3 million in the day. Tokyo is at its highest population ever, while that of the 23 wards peak official count was 8,893,094 in the 1965 Census, with the count dipping below 8 million in the 1995 Census. People continue to move back into the core city as land prices have fallen dramatically.

As of 2005, the most common foreign nationalities found in Tokyo are Chinese (123,661), Korean (106,697), Filipino (31,077), American (18,848), British (7,696), Brazilian (5,300) and French (3,000).

The 1889 Census recorded 1,389,600 people in Tokyo City, Japan's largest city at the time.

Economy

Tokyo has the largest metropolitan economy in the world. According to a study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Tokyo urban area (35.2 million people) had a total GDP of US$1.479 trillion in 2008 (at purchasing power parity), which topped the list. As of 2009, 51 of the companies listed on the Global 500 are based in Tokyo, almost twice that of the second-placed city (Paris).

Tokyo is a major international finance center, houses the headquarters of several of the world's largest investment banks and insurance companies, and serves as a hub for Japan's transportation, publishing, and broadcasting industries. During the centralized growth of Japan's economy following World War II, many large firms moved their headquarters from cities such as Osaka (the historical commercial capital) to Tokyo, in an attempt to take advantage of better access to the government. This trend has begun to slow due to ongoing population growth in Tokyo and the high cost of living there.

Tokyo was rated by the Economist Intelligence Unit as the most expensive (highest cost-of-living) city in the world for 14 years in a row ending in 2006. This analysis is for living a corporate executive lifestyle, with items like a detached house and several automobiles.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange is Japan's largest stock exchange, and third largest in the world by market capitalization and fourth largest by share turnover. In 1990 at the end of the Japanese asset price bubble, it accounted for more than 60% of the world stock market value. Tokyo had 8,460 ha (20,900 acres) of agricultural land as of 2003, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, placing it last among the nation's prefectures. The farmland is concentrated in Western Tokyo. Perishables such as vegetables, fruits, and flowers can be conveniently shipped to the markets in the eastern part of the prefecture. ''Komatsuna'' and spinach are the most important vegetables; as of 2000, Tokyo supplied 32.5% of the ''komatsuna'' sold at its central produce market.

With 36% of its area covered by forest, Tokyo has extensive growths of cryptomeria and Japanese cypress, especially in the mountainous western communities of Akiruno, Ōme, Okutama, Hachiōji, Hinode, and Hinohara. Decreases in the price of lumber, increases in the cost of production, and advancing old age among the forestry population have resulted in a decline in Tokyo's output. In addition, pollen, especially from cryptomeria, is a major allergen for the nearby population centers.

Tokyo Bay was once a major source of fish. Presently, most of Tokyo's fish production comes from the outer islands, such as Izu Ōshima and Hachijōjima. Skipjack tuna, nori, and ''aji'' are among the ocean products.

Tourism in Tokyo is also a contributor to the economy.

Transportation

Tokyo, as the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, is Japan's largest domestic and international hub for rail, ground, and air transportation. Public transportation within Tokyo is dominated by an extensive network of clean and efficient trains and subways run by a variety of operators, with buses, monorails and trams playing a secondary feeder role.

Within Ōta, one of the 23 special wards, Haneda Airport offers domestic and international flights. Outside Tokyo, Narita International Airport, in Chiba Prefecture, is the major gateway for international travelers to Japan and Japan's flag carrier Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines all have a hub at this airport.

Various islands governed by Tokyo have their own airports. Hachijōjima (Hachijojima Airport), Miyakejima (Miyakejima Airport), and Izu Ōshima (Oshima Airport) have services to Tokyo International and other airports.

Rail is the primary mode of transportation in Tokyo, which has the most extensive urban railway network in the world and an equally extensive network of surface lines. JR East operates Tokyo's largest railway network, including the Yamanote Line loop that circles the center of downtown Tokyo. Two organizations operate the subway network: the private Tokyo Metro and the governmental Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation. The metropolitan government and private carriers operate bus routes. Local, regional, and national services are available, with major terminals at the giant railroad stations, including Tokyo, Shinagawa, and Shinjuku.

Expressways link the capital to other points in the Greater Tokyo area, the Kantō region, and the islands of Kyūshū and Shikoku.

Other transportation includes taxis operating in the special wards and the cities and towns. Also long-distance ferries serve the islands of Tokyo and carry passengers and cargo to domestic and foreign ports.

Education

Tokyo has many universities, junior colleges, and vocational schools. Many of Japan's most prestigious universities are in Tokyo, including University of Tokyo, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Keio University,and Waseda University, . Some of the biggest national universities located in Tokyo are:

Ochanomizu University

University of Electro-Communications

National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies

University of Tokyo

Tokyo Medical and Dental University

Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology

Tokyo Gakugei University

Tokyo University of the Arts

Tokyo Institute of Technology

Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology

Hitotsubashi University.

There is only one non-national public university: Tokyo Metropolitan University.

There are also a few universities well known for classes conducted in English and for the teaching of the Japanese language. They include:

International Christian University

Sophia University

Waseda University

Temple University Japan

For an extensive list, see List of universities in Tokyo.

Publicly-run kindergartens, elementary schools (years 1 through 6), and junior high schools (7 through 9) are operated by local wards or municipal offices. Public high schools in Tokyo are run by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Board of Education and are called "Metropolitan High Schools". Tokyo also has many private schools from kindergarten through high school.

Culture

Tokyo has many museums. In Ueno Park, there is the Tokyo National Museum, the country's largest museum and specializing in traditional Japanese art; the National Museum of Western Art; the National Museum of Science and Ueno Zoo. Other museums include the Nezu Art Museum in Aoyama; the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Sumida, across the Sumida River from the center of Tokyo; and the National Diet Library, National Archives, and the National Museum of Modern Art, which are near the Imperial Palace.

Tokyo has many theaters for performing arts. These include national and private theaters for traditional forms of Japanese drama (such as noh and kabuki) as well as modern drama. Symphony orchestras and other musical organizations perform modern and traditional music. Tokyo also hosts modern Japanese and international pop and rock music at venues ranging in size from intimate clubs to internationally-known arenas such as the Nippon Budokan.

Tokyo features many internationally famous forms of modern architecture including Tokyo International Forum, Asahi Beer Hall, Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower and Rainbow Bridge.

Many different festivals occur throughout Tokyo. Major events include the Sannō at Hie Shrine, the Sanja at Asakusa Shrine, and the biennial Kanda Festivals. The last features a parade with elaborately decorated floats and thousands of people. Annually on the last Saturday of July, an enormous fireworks display over the Sumida River attracts over a million viewers. Once cherry blossoms, or ''sakura'', bloom in spring, many residents gather in Ueno Park, Inokashira Park, and the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden for picnics under the blossoms.

Harajuku, a neighborhood in Shibuya, is known internationally for its youth style and fashion.

Cuisine in Tokyo is internationally acclaimed. In November 2007, Michelin released their guide for fine dining in Tokyo, awarding 191 stars in total, or about twice as many as Tokyo's nearest competitor, Paris. Eight establishments were awarded the maximum of three stars (Paris has 10), 25 received two stars, and 117 earned one star. Of the eight top-rated restaurants, three offer traditional Japanese fine dining, two are sushi houses and three serve French cuisine.

Sports

Tokyo, with a diverse array of sports, is home to two professional baseball clubs, the Yomiuri Giants who play at the Tokyo Dome and Tokyo Yakult Swallows at Meiji-Jingu Stadium. The Japan Sumo Association is also headquartered in Tokyo at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan sumo arena where three official sumo tournaments are held annually (in January, May, and September). Football (soccer) clubs in Tokyo include F.C. Tokyo and Tokyo Verdy 1969, both of which play at Ajinomoto Stadium in Chōfu.

Tokyo hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics. The National Stadium, also known as the Olympic Stadium is host to a number of international sporting events. With a number of world-class sports venues, Tokyo often hosts national and international sporting events such as tennis tournaments, swim meets, marathons, American football exhibition games, judo, and karate. Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, in Sendagaya, Shibuya, is a large sports complex that includes swimming pools, training rooms, and a large indoor arena. According to Around the Rings, the gymnasium will play host to the October 2011 artistic gymnastics world championships, despite the International Gymnastics Federation's initial doubt in Tokyo's ability to host the championships following the March 11 tsunami. Tokyo is currently bidding to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.

In popular culture

As the largest population center in Japan and the location of the country's largest broadcasters and studios, Tokyo is frequently the setting for many Japanese movies, television shows, animated series (''anime''), web comics, and comic books (''manga''). In the ''kaiju'' (monster movie) genre, landmarks of Tokyo are routinely destroyed by giant monsters such as Godzilla.

Some Hollywood directors have turned to Tokyo as a filming location for movies set in Tokyo. Well-known examples from the postwar era include ''Tokyo Joe'', ''My Geisha'', and the James Bond film ''You Only Live Twice''; well-known contemporary examples include ''Kill Bill'', ''The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift'' and ''Lost in Translation''.

Cityscape

Architecture in Tokyo has largely been shaped by Tokyo's history. Twice in recent history has the metropolis been left in ruins: first in the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake and later after extensive firebombing in World War II. Because of this, Tokyo's current urban landscape is one of modern and contemporary architecture, and older buildings are scarce.

Tokyo also contains numerous parks and gardens.

International relations

Twin towns – Sister cities

Tokyo is twinned with the following cities and states:

* Beijing, People's Republic of China

* Berlin, Germany

* Cairo, Egypt

* Jakarta, Indonesia

* Moscow, Russia

* New South Wales, Australia

New York City, United States

* Paris, France

* Rome, Italy

São Paulo (state)>São Paulo State, Brazil

* Seoul, South Korea

Partnerships

In addition, Tokyo has a "partnership" agreement with:

	* London, United Kingdom

See also

1703 Genroku earthquake

List of development projects in Tokyo

Notes

References

Fiévé, Nicolas and Paul Waley. (2003). ''Japanese Capitals in Historical Perspective: Place, Power and Memory in Kyoto, Edo and Tokyo.'' London: RoutledgeCurzon. 10-ISBN 070071409X/13-ISBN 9780700714094; OCLC 51527561

McClain, James, John M Merriman and Kaoru Ugawa. (1994). ''Edo and Paris: Urban Life and the State in the Early Modern Era.'' Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 10-ISBN 0801429870/13-ISBN 9780801429873; OCLC 30157716

Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). ''Japan encyclopedia.'' Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 10-ISBN 0-674-01753-6; 13-ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5; OCLC 58053128

McClain, James, John M Merriman and Kaoru Ugawa. (1994). ''Edo and Paris: Urban Life and the State in the Early Modern Era.'' Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 10-ISBN 0801429870/13-ISBN 9780801429873; OCLC 30157716

Sorensen, Andre. (2002). ''The Making of Urban Japan: Cities and Planning from Edo to the Twenty First Century.'' London: RoutledgeCurzon. 10-ISBN 0415226511/13-ISBN 9780415226516; OCLC 48517502

External links

}}

Category:Capitals in Asia Category:Host cities of the Summer Olympic Games Category:Kantō region Category:Populated coastal places in Japan Category:Populated places established in 1457 Category:Port settlements in Japan Category:Prefectures of Japan Category:IOC Session Host Cities

ace:Tokyo af:Tokio als:Tokio am:ቶክዮ ar:طوكيو an:Tokio arc:ܛܘܩܝܘ roa-rup:Tokyo ast:Tokiu ay:Tokyo az:Tokio bn:টোকিও bjn:Tokyo zh-min-nan:Tang-kiaⁿ-to͘ be:Горад Токіа be-x-old:Токіё bar:Tokio bo:ཐོ་ཁེ་ཡོ། bs:Tokio br:Tokyo bg:Токио ca:Tòquio cv:Токио cs:Prefektura Tokio cy:Tokyo da:Tokyo de:Präfektur Tokio dsb:Tokyo et:Tōkyō el:Τόκιο myv:Токио ош es:Tokio eo:Tokio ext:Tóquiu eu:Tokio fa:توکیو fo:Tokyo fr:Tōkyō fy:Tokio ga:Tóiceo gd:Tokyo gl:Toquio - 東京 gan:東京 ko:도쿄 도 hy:Տոկիո hi:टोक्यो hsb:Tokio hr:Tokio io:Tokyo id:Tokyo ia:Tokyo iu:ᑦᐅᑭᐆ/tukiuu os:Токио is:Tókýó it:Tokyo he:טוקיו jv:Tokyo kl:Tokyo kn:ಟೋಕ್ಯೊ ka:ტოკიო kk:Токио rw:Tokyo sw:Tokyo ht:Tokyo ku:Tokyo mrj:Токио lo:ໂຕກຽວ la:Tokium lv:Tokija lb:Tokio lt:Tokijas lij:Tòkyo li:Tokio jbo:tokios lmo:Tokyo hu:Tokió mk:Токио mg:Tokyo ml:ടോക്കിയോ mt:Tokjo mi:Tokyo mr:तोक्यो ms:Tokyo mwl:Tóquio mdf:Токио mn:Токио my:တိုကျိုမြို့ nah:Tōquiō na:Tokyo nl:Tokio ja:東京都 no:Tokyo nn:Tokyo nov:Tokyo oc:Tòquio mhr:Токио pfl:Togjo pnb:ٹوکیو pap:Tokio km:តូក្យូ pms:Tokyo tpi:Tokyo nds:Tokio pl:Tokio pt:Tóquio ty:Tokyo ro:Tokio rm:Tokio qu:Tokyo rue:Токіо ru:Токио sah:Токио se:Tokyo sc:Tokio sco:Tokyo sq:Tokjo scn:Tochiu simple:Tokyo sk:Tokio sl:Tokio szl:Tokjo so:Tokyo ckb:تۆکیۆ sr:Токио sh:Tokyo su:Tokyo fi:Tokio sv:Tokyo prefektur tl:Prepektura ng Tokyo ta:டோக்கியோ kab:Tokyo roa-tara:Tokyo th:โตเกียว tg:Префектураи Токио chr:ᏙᎩᏲ tr:Tokyo tk:Tokio tw:Tokyo uk:Токіо ur:توکیو ug:توكيو vi:Tōkyō vo:Tokyo fiu-vro:Tokio zh-classical:東京都 war:Tokyo wuu:东京都 yi:טאקיא yo:Tokyo zh-yue:東京都 diq:Tokyo bat-smg:Tuokėjs zh:東京都

{{infobox television| | show name	Tokyo Shock Boys | image | caption | format Comedy/Reality television | runtime 23 – 30 Minutes | creator | starring GuyzoNambu TorotaSango JugoDanna Koyanagi | opentheme | Production Company | network Dengeki Network | first_aired | last_aired | num_seasons | num_episodes | num_movies | num_specials | followed_by | website http://www.t-shock.com/ }}

The Tokyo Shock Boys (電撃ネットワーク; Dengeki Network) is a Japanese stunt and prank group, containing four men who perform dangerous and crude stunts.

The group was formed in Tokyo in 1990 while the four members were working as roadies on the Paul McCartney tour of Japan. The Tokyo Shock Boys have a huge cult following in Japan and have appeared in many other locales, such as Australia, Germany, Canada, and Scotland.

In 2006 they made appearances in Japanorama, Adam and Joe Go Tokyo and the Dirty Sanchez movie.

The members of the group are:

Gyuzo (ギュウゾウ ''Gyūzō'')

Danna Koyanagi (ダンナ小柳 ''Danna Koyanagi'') a.k.a. "Buns of Steel"

Sangojugo (三五十五 ''Sangojūgo'')

Nanbu Torata (南部虎弾 ''Nanbu Torata'')

On volume 2 of the manga Yu-Gi-Oh!, when asked to slide one's foot inside a shoe with a scorpion, Yugi, Jonouchi, and Honda respond, "Who do you think we are, the Tokyo Shock Boys?"

They have since become a huge success, mainly from the influence of Yu-Gi-Oh! Creator Kazuki Takahashi, and stunt co-ordinator Rahm Jas-Ali

External links

Homepage of the Tokyo Shock Boys

Category:Japanese comedy and humour

ja:電撃ネットワーク

name	Tokio Hotel
background	group_or_band
origin	Magdeburg, Germany
years active	2001–present
genre	Alternative rock, electronic rock, pop rock, teen pop emo, pop punk (early)
label	Universal Music GermanyCherrytree, Interscope (US)
website	www.tokiohotel.com
current members	Bill KaulitzTom Kaulitz Georg ListingGustav Schäfer
past members	}}

Tokio Hotel is a pop rock band from Germany, founded in 2001 by singer Bill Kaulitz, guitarist Tom Kaulitz, drummer Gustav Schäfer and bassist Georg Listing. The quartet have scored four number one singles and have released three number one albums in their native country, selling nearly 5 million CDs and DVDs there. After recording an unreleased demo-CD under the name "Devilish" and having their contract with Sony BMG Germany terminated, the band released their first German-language album, ''Schrei'', as Tokio Hotel on Universal Music Germany in 2005. ''Schrei'' sold more than half a million copies worldwide and spawned four top five singles in both Germany and Austria. In 2007, the band released their second German album ''Zimmer 483'' and their first English album ''Scream'' which have combined album sales of over one million copies worldwide and helped win the band their first MTV Europe Music Award for Best InterAct. The former, ''Zimmer 483'', spawned three top five singles in Germany while the latter, ''Scream'', spawned two singles that reached the top twenty in new territories such as France, Portugal, Spain and Italy. In September 2008, they won in the US their first MTV Video Music Award (VMA) for Best New Artist. In October 2008, they won four awards including Best International Artist and Song of the year at Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica (MTV Video Music Awards Latin America) held in Mexico. Tokio Hotel became the first German band ever to win an award at the MTV VMAs and also at the MTV Latin America Awards. They also picked up the Headliner award at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008 held in Liverpool on November 6, 2008 and the Award for Best Group on November 5, 2009 at the MTV Europe Music Award (EMA) held in Berlin. They won an Award for Best World Stage Performance on November 7, 2010 at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Madrid. In July 2011, they became the first German band to win an MTV Video Music Awards Japan (VMAJ).

History

Founding

Tokio Hotel by vocalist Bill Kaulitz and guitarist Tom Kaulitz, who are identical twin brothers, drummer Gustav Schäfer and bass-guitarist Georg Listing. The four met in 2001 after a live show in a Magdeburg-Club, where Listing and Schäfer, who knew each other from music school, watched from the audience while Bill and Tom Kaulitz played on the stage. Under the name Devilish, the band soon began playing in talent shows and small concerts. After Bill Kaulitz's participation in a children's Star Search in 2003 at age thirteen (which he lost in the quarter-final), he was discovered by music producer Peter Hoffmann. Devilish changed their name to Tokio Hotel: "Tokio", the German spelling of the Japanese city Tokyo, due to a love of the city, and "Hotel" due to their constant touring and living in hotels. In 2006, a third and fourth single, "Rette mich" ("Rescue Me") and "Der letzte Tag" ("The Final Day"), were released; both reached #1 as well. "Der letzte Tag" contained a B-side called "Wir schließen uns ein", which was also accompanied by a music video.

''Zimmer 483''

The first single off their second album ''Zimmer 483'' (''Room 483''), called "Übers Ende der Welt" (later re-released in English under the name "Ready, Set, Go!"), was released on January 26, 2007 and quickly reached #1 in Germany and Austria, and #2 in France. ''Zimmer 483'' was released in Germany on February 23, 2007, along with a deluxe edition of the album containing a DVD. The album's second single, "Spring nicht" ("Don't Jump") was released on April 7. The tour accompanying the release of the album, The Zimmer 483 Tour, was scheduled to start in March 2007, but was delayed by two weeks because the band members wished to have a different stage design. A third single, "An deiner Seite (Ich bin da)" ("By Your Side"), was released on November 16. The single contains the B-side "1000 Meere" ("1000 Oceans"), for which a music video was also produced. On April 28, 2008 Tokio Hotel released their single "Heilig" but no music video for the single was released, because of the tight schedule they had.

''Scream''

Tokio Hotel's first English language album, ''Scream'', was released on June 4, 2007 throughout Europe. In Germany, the album was released as ''Room 483'' in order to emphasize the continuity with their last German album ''Zimmer 483''. ''Scream'' contains English versions of a selection of songs from their German-language albums ''Scream'' and ''Zimmer 483''. "Monsoon", the English-language version of "Durch den Monsun", was the first single from the album. "Ready, Set, Go!" (the translation of "Übers Ende der Welt") was released as the album's second single and "Don't Jump" (the translation of "Spring nicht") as the third single. A video for "Scream", the English-language version of their 2005 hit "Schrei", was also recorded, and was released to the iTunes Store in early March 2008.

Tokio Hotel gave their first concert in the United Kingdom on June 19, 2007. "Ready, Set, Go!" was released in the UK as the band's first single on August 27, 2007. The song reached #77 in the UK Singles Chart.

Tokio Hotel won an MTV Europe Music Award for Best InterAct on November 1, 2007 and were also nominated for Best Band. They performed "Monsoon" at the event.

Tokio Hotel released their first US single, simply called "Tokio Hotel", in late 2007. The single contains the tracks "Scream" and "Ready, Set, Go!", and was available exclusively at Hot Topic stores. Their second US single, "Scream America", was released on December 11, 2007. The single contains the track "Scream" and a remix of "Ready, Set, Go!" by AFI's Jade Puget. In February 2008, the band toured North America for five dates starting in Canada and finishing up in New York. After appearing and performing live on MuchMusic, while touring in Canada, "Ready, Set, Go!" entered the MuchOnDemand Daily 10, a countdown of videos chosen by viewers. It remained there for over a week, then returned to the top of the MOD Daily 10 chart on April 8. "Scream" was released in Canada on March 25 and in the US on May. 6

1000 Hotels Tour

The "1000 Hotels" European Tour began on March 3, 2008 in Brussels and continued to locations including The Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Scandinavia, and was scheduled to finish on April 9; during the concert in Marseille, France on March 14, Bill started to experience vocal problems. He let the audience sing more frequently than normal and instead of the original 21 songs that were on the set list, they only played 16 songs. Bill apologized, in German, for his bad singing and explained that he was sick. Two days later, the band canceled Lisbon, Portugal concert minutes before it was supposed to commence. The rest of the "1000 Hotels" Tour and a scheduled North American Tour were cancelled following an announcement in Bild by the band's manager that Bill Kaulitz had to undergo surgery to remove a cyst on his vocal cords.

Bill Kaulitz had been putting strain on his voice after playing 43 concerts in the 1000 Hotels tour without vacation. He had to undergo Larynx surgery on March 30 to remove a cyst that had formed on his vocal cords. The cyst was the result of a throat infection that went untreated. Following his surgery, Bill was unable to speak for twelve days, and had four weeks of vocal rehabilitation. If Bill had continued singing the rest of the tour, his voice would have eventually been permanently damaged. Tokio Hotel started performing again in May 2008 and after that they embarked on a 2nd part of their 1000 Hotels European Tour adding many Open Air concerts and wrapping up the tour on July 13 in Werchter, Belgium.

North American Tours and ''Humanoid''

Tokio Hotel embarked on a second tour of North America in August 2008, which included a performance at the Bamboozled festival in New Jersey. The band's music video for "Ready Set Go!" was nominated for Best Pop Video at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, where they also won the award for Best New Artist. They returned to North America again in October 2008 for a month long tour of concerts and record store signings. In December 2008, a behind-the scenes DVD called ''Tokio Hotel TV – Caught on Camera'' was released. It contains footage from Tokio Hotel TV and backstage feature stories of the previous year on disc one entitled "History – The very best of Tokio Hotel TV!". A deluxe edition contains a second disc entitled "Future – The road to the new Album!" which features footage of the band on promotion tours and preparing for their third studio album.

In between the North American tours, the band returned to their record studio in Hamburg to record their third studio album, ''Humanoid'', which, according to their producer David Jost, is currently set for release on October 2 in Germany & October 6, 2009 in the U.S. This is despite earlier statements predicting a March/April 2009 release or a May/June 2009 release. The album was recorded in both German and English with both versions were released simultaneously worldwide. Nevertheless, the video for the single was released on September 3.

On November 2, it was announced on Tom's Blog that the second English single would be "World Behind My Wall" and its German counterpart, "Lass uns laufen", would be the second German single. The music videos for both versions were released on December 14 and December 15.

On June 24, the live music video for their single, "Dark Side of the Sun" was released on the band website.

On July 20, 2010 they released their second live album Humanoid City Live from Milan, Italy On November 22, 2010, their new song "Hurricanes and Suns," premiered on the Greek radio station Mad Radio. It was included in the bonus track on all versions of "Tokio Hotel: Best Of," a compilation album of their most successful songs. As well as the single for the 'Best of' release. The album will also include "Mädchen aus dem All", the first song the band recorded in a studio.

On December 14, 2010 their 'Best of' was released. December 2 was the World Premiere of the video for "Hurricanes and Suns" on their Official Website. On April 28, 2011 they received the "Fan Army FTW" award at the MTV O Music Awards, the networks first online award show. A clip of Bill and Tom thanking their fans was played after the winner was announced.

Asian performances

Tokio Hotel performed their first concert in Asia (excluding their concert in Israel) at the Audi Showcase in Singapore, followed shortly by the TM Connects With Tokio Hotel event in Malaysia, promoting the sales of their album Humanoid. They concluded the series of mini-concerts with Taiwan. They returned to Malaysia a couple of months later to perform at MTV World Stage Live in Malaysia 2010. They performed in Tokyo on December 15, 2010, after their South American Tour concluded in Distrito Federal, Mexico on December 2, 2010. In February, 2011 Tokio Hotel travelled to Japan to complete a second promo tour. A number of TV appearances and media interviews took place between February 8 and February 11.

On June 24, 2011 Tokio Hotel performed in Japan at “The Next Premium Night Tokio Hotel in Tokyo". The event was presented by Audi A1 and 150 fans were chosen to win tickets to attend the show. The event was the bands first acoustic performance in Japan. On June 25, 2011 the band performed live at the MTV Video Music Aid Japan in Tokyo. The show, which was formerly called the Video Music Awards Japan, was used as a music benefit to raise money for the Japanese Red Cross in order to help those who were affected by the recent earthquake.

Modeling and commercials

On January 19, 2010, lead singer Bill Kaulitz teamed up with twins Dean and Dan Caten of DSquared to walk the runway at a fashion event in Milan. Kaulitz made two appearances, as he opened and closed DSquared's Menswear Autumn/Winter 2010 show to Tokio Hotel song "Screamin".

Car maker Audi hired the two frontmen to star in their new advertising campaign to attract the younger generation. They were featured in an episode of Tokio Hotel TV (on Tokio Hotel's website) and also in a commercial.

On August 4, 2010, Tom Kaulitz got his own Reebok shoe commercial. Reebok signed the 20-year-old Tokio Hotel guitarist and sneaker addict to model shoes for the company. "At home, I created a little room like a little storage room," he said of his sneakers. He also said that he gets 10 new pairs a week. That's 520 sneakers a year.

Band members

Bill Kaulitz

Bill Kaulitz was born on September 1, 1989, in Leipzig ten minutes after his identical twin brother, Tom.

Tom Kaulitz

Tom Kaulitz (born 1 September 1989 in Leipzig, German Democratic Republic) is a German guitarist singer, songwriter and model from Tokio Hotel. He is the twin brother of Bill Kaulitz, and Tom was born 10 minutes before Bill.

Early life

Tom Kaulitz was born 1 September 1989 in Leipzig. His parents, Simone and Jörg Kaulitz, separated when Kaulitz and his brother were seven years old.His mother began dating Gordon Trumper, and married him in August 2009. Tom's guitar playing and his brother's singing showed their natural aptitude for music, and gave an early indication of their possibility of fame. Trumper helped the twins to start their own band. He and Bill began writing music at the age of seven years old. Due to their great desire to create a band, his twin brother Bill entered and became renowned on the reality TV talent show "Star Search." They met Georg Listing (then 14) and Gustav Schäfer (then 13), in the audience of one of their shows. Listing and Schäfer were friends and after the show, having liked what they heard and saw, made an offer to join. The band was promptly re-named "Devilish" due to an article published at the time that referred to their "devilishly great"[citation needed] sound. This continued until 2005 when Jost arranged a meeting between the band and Universal Music Group's Interscope Records and Tokio Hotel was signed. They began working immediately, releasing their debut LP Schrei ("Scream") later that year. Their first single from the album Schrei was "Durch den Monsun" ("Through The Monsoon"), which reached #1 in Germany within a month of its release. He then continued his dream with 3 members of the group.

Stalking incident

More trouble came for Kaulitz when in late 2008/early 2009 several female stalkers pursued the band relentlessly, even following his twin brother Bill Kaulitz to his parents' home in Germany and attacked the twins' mother. The issue seemed to end after Tom allegedly hit one of the stalkers at a gas station in April 2009 and drove off. However, a recent article in Bild stated that the issue had resurfaced and that Tom Kaulitz may stand trial for assault. In late December 2009, the charges against Tom were lifted and he is pressing charges himself — against the girl he allegedly hit — on grounds of stalking.

Personal life

Tom Kaulitz and his identical twin brother, Bill, used to live in Hamburg but have recently moved to Los Angeles in response to an incident involving stalkers and a robbery. They have also stated that it is easier for them to work on their new album, as it is closer to their manager David Jost. They are currently living in Los Angeles but also have a second home in Hamburg. Tom and Bill, have modeled for a PETA.de photoshoot. He models for Reebok for sneakers and shoes. Tom is friends with Nicole Scherzinger. Tom prefers to listen to hip-hop music. His favorite rapper is Samy Deluxe. As of September 2007, Tom uses Gibson guitars and Mesa/Boogie Rectifier Heads with Mesa Boogie Rectifier 4x12 cabinets. Tom currently has his hair in cornrows, which he had done in early 2009. Tom had allegedly been dating Chantelle Paige after the stalker incident, but later it was said that they had been going out to better publicise Tom and his band, as well as Chantelle’s band, Flipsyde. In an interview with her, Chantelle had said : "I think Tom is quite nice, actually he is my dream boy. But my friends have warned me about him".

Georg Listing

Georg (Moritz Hagen) Listing was born on March 31, 1987. His hometown is Halle. He began playing bass when he was thirteen years old, He has said that his playing style was heavily influenced by Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers, and other musical influences include Die Ärzte and Oasis.

Awards

Since the release of the "Durch den Monsun" single in 2005, Tokio Hotel have gone on to win 102 awards in various categories and countries.

;2005

! Category	!Award	! Date
Best Newcomer	Comet Awards (Germany)	October 6
Super Comet	Comet Awards (Germany)	October 6
Best Newcomer	Eins Live Krone	November 24
Best Pop National Act	Bambi Awards	December 1
Best Single	Golden Penguin (Austria)	...2005
Best Pop	Golden Penguin (Austria)	...2005
Rock Band 2005	Golden Penguin (Austria)	...2005

;2006

! Category	! Award	! Date
Album of the year	Golden Penguin (Austria)	February 8
Band of the year	Golden Penguin (Austria)	February 8
Song of the year – ‘Der Letzte Tag’	Golden Penguin (Austria)	February 8
Best Newcomer	Golden Penguin (Austria)	February 8
Ausverkaufte Tourhalle	Sold-out-Award of Königpilsener Arena	March 11
Best Newcomer		March 12
Best Newcomer	Steiger Awards	March 25
Pop National	Radio Regenbogen (Germany)	March 31
SuperBand Rock – Golden Otto	Bravo Otto	May 6
Music Award	Bild OSGAR	May 22
Best Newcomer International	Popcorn Awards (Hungary)	May 26
Best Newcomer	Bravo Otto (Hungary)	June 24
Best International Band	Bravo Otto (Hungary)	June 24
Best Newcomer Band	Popkomm Bavarian Music Lion	September 21
Best German Pop Band	Goldene Stimmgabel	September 24
Best Selling German Artist	World Music Awards	November 15
Best Pop National Act	Bambi Awards	November 30
Best Live Act	Eins Live Krone	December 7
Best Rock band	MTV France

;2007

! Category	! Award	! Date
Single of the Year – Durch Den Monsun	Golden Penguin
Best Selling German Act – Album Schrei	European Border Breakers Award	January 21
European Border Breakers Award	NRJ Awards	January 21
Rock Award	BZ-Kulturpreis	January 23
Best Video National	ECHO Awards (Germany)	March 25
SuperBand Rock – Golden otto	Bravo Otto	April 28
Best Video	Comet Awards (Germany)	May 3
Best Band	Comet Awards (Germany)	May 3
Supercomet	Comet Awards (Germany)	May 3
Best Band	Jabra Music	July 2007
Digital prize	Festivalbar (Italy)	September 7
Most Successful Group Rock International	Goldene Stimmgabel	September 22
Most Successful Popgroup International	Goldene Stimmgabel Awards	October 3
Best Album	TMF Awards (Belgium)	October 14
Best Video	TMF Awards (Belgium)	October 14
Best New Artist	TMF Awards (Belgium)	October 14
Best Pop	TMF Awards (Belgium)	October 14
Best International Act	MTV Europe Music Awards (Germany)	November 1
Best band of the Year	MTV Italy Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award	December 1

;2008

! Category	! Award	! Date
Band of the Year 2007	Golden Penguin (Austria)	January
Best International Band	Rockbjörnen Award (Sweden)	January 24
Best Music National	Goldene Kamera (Germany)	February 6
Best Music Video	Echo Awards (Germany)	February 15
Best International Artist	Emma Gala Awards (Finland)	March 8
Best International Group	Disney Channel Kids Award (Italy)	March 28
Best Concert	Hitkrant (Netherlands)	May 2008
Best Mood Song – Monsoon	Hitkrant (Netherlands)	May 2008
Song that Satys in your Head – Monsoon	Hitkrant (Netherlands)	May 2008
Superband Rock – Silver Otto	Bravo Otto	May 3
Best Band	MTV TRL Awards (Italy)	May 17
Best Number 1 of the Year with Monsoon	MTV TRL Awards (Italy)	May 17
Best Band	Comet Awards (Germany)	May 23
Best Video – An Deiner Seite	Comet Awards (Germany)	May 23
Best Live Act	Comet Awards (Germany)	May 23
Super Comet	Comet Awards (Germany)	May 23
Best New Artist	MTV VMA Music Awards (USA)	September 7
Fan Choice Best Entrance	MTV VMA Music Awards (USA)	September 7
Best Male Artist International (Bill Kaulitz)	TMF Awards (Belgium)	October 11
Best Video International – Don't Jump	TMF Awards	MTV Europe Music Awards (Germany)	November 5
Best International Rock Band	Telehit Awards (Mexico)	November 12

;2010

! Category	!Award	! Date
Band of the Year	Golden Penguin (Austria)	January 29
Album of the Year	Golden Penguin (Austria)	January 29
Band of the Year	Bravoora Awards (Poland)	February 1
Best International Artist	Emma Gala Awards (Finland)	February 4
Walk of Fame	König-Pilsener Arena (Germany)	February 26
Best International Band	Radio Regenbogen Awards (Germany)	March 19
Favorite Music Star	Kids Choice Awards 2010 (Germany)	April 10
Best Live Act	Comet Awards (Germany)	May 21
Foreign Song of the Year - World Behind My Wall	Rockbjörnen Award (Sweden)	September 1
Concert of the Year	Rockbjörnen Award (Sweden)	September 1
Best World Stage Performance	MTV Europe Music Awards (Spain)	November 7
Best Band National	CMA Awards (Germany)	December 12
Best Single National - World Behind My Wall	CMA Awards (Germany)	December 12

;2011

! Category	!Award	! Date
Band of the Year	Bravoora Awards (Poland)	March
Star of the 20th Anniversary		March
Best Fan Army (Fan Army FTW)	MTV O Music Awards (USA)	April 28
Best Rock Video	MTV Video Music Awards Japan	July 2

References

External links

Official site

Official Youtube channel

Interscope records profile

Tokio Hotel on MTV

Category:German musical groups Category:German rock music groups Category:German pop music groups Category:German-language singers Category:English-language singers Category:People from Leipzig Category:Musical groups established in 2001 Category:Pop rock groups

af:Tokio Hotel als:Tokio Hotel ar:توكيو هوتيل az:Tokio Hotel bs:Tokio Hotel br:Tokio Hotel bg:Токио Хотел ca:Tokio Hotel cs:Tokio Hotel da:Tokio Hotel de:Tokio Hotel et:Tokio Hotel el:Tokio Hotel es:Tokio Hotel eo:Tokio Hotel eu:Tokio Hotel fa:توکیو هتل fr:Tokio Hotel fy:Tokio Hotel gl:Tokio Hotel ko:토쿄 호텔 hr:Tokio Hotel it:Tokio Hotel he:טוקיו הוטל ka:ტოკიო ჰოტელი lv:Tokio Hotel lt:Tokio Hotel li:Tokio Hotel hu:Tokio Hotel mk:Токио хотел ms:Tokio Hotel mn:Токио Хотел nl:Tokio Hotel nds-nl:Tokio Hotel ja:トキオ・ホテル no:Tokio Hotel nn:Tokio Hotel mhr:Tokio Hotel uz:Tokio Hotel pl:Tokio Hotel pt:Tokio Hotel ro:Tokio Hotel ru:Tokio Hotel simple:Tokio Hotel sk:Tokio Hotel sl:Tokio Hotel sr:Tokio Hotel sh:Tokio Hotel fi:Tokio Hotel sv:Tokio Hotel th:โทคิโอโฮเทล tr:Tokio Hotel uk:Tokio Hotel vi:Tokio Hotel vls:Tokio Hotel zh:東京飯店酷兒

The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie (, ''Moguchaya kuchka''), refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856–1870: Mily Balakirev (the leader), César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin. The group had the aim of producing a specifically Russian kind of art music, rather than one that imitated older European music or relied on European-style conservatory training. In a sense, they were a branch of the Romantic Nationalist movement in Russia, sharing similar artistic goals with the Abramtsevo Colony and Russian Revival.

History

Name

In May 1867 the critic Vladimir Stasov wrote an article, ''Mr. Balakirev's Slavic Concert'', on a concert given for visiting Slav delegations to the "All-Russian Ethnographical Exhibition" in Moscow. The four Russian composers whose works were played at the concert were Mikhail Glinka, Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Mily Balakirev, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The article ended with the following statement:

The expression "mighty handful" (, ''Moguchaya kuchka'', "Mighty Bunch" or "Group"), was mocked by enemies of Balakirev and Stasov: Aleksandr Serov, academic circles of the conservatory, the Russian Musical Society, and their press supporters. The group responded by defiantly adopting the name. (although today the Russian equivalent "Пятерка" ("Pyatyorka") is occasionally used to refer to this group.). In his memoirs, Rimsky-Korsakov routinely refers to the group as "Balakirev's circle", and occasionally uses "The Mighty Handful", usually with an ironic tone. He also makes the following reference to "The Five":

The Russian word ''kuchka'' also spawned the terms "kuchkism" and "kuchkist", which may be applied to artistic aims or works in tune with the sensibilities of The Mighty Handful.

The name of Les Six, an even looser collection of French-speaking composers, emulates that of "The Five".

Formation

The formation of the group began in 1856, with the first meeting of Balakirev and César Cui. Modest Mussorgsky joined them in 1857, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1861, and Alexander Borodin in 1862. All the composers in The Five were young men in 1862. Balakirev was 25, Cui 27, Mussorgsky 23, Borodin the eldest at 28, and Rimsky-Korsakov just 18. They were all self-trained amateurs. Borodin combined composing with a career in chemistry. Rimsky-Korsakov was a naval officer (he wrote his First Symphony on a three-year naval voyage circumnavigating the globe). Mussorgsky had been in the Guards, then in the civil service before taking up music; even at the height of his career in the 1870s he was forced by the expense of his drinking habit to hold down a full-time job in the State Forestry Department.

In contrast to the élite status and court connections of Conservatory composers such as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, The Five were mainly from the minor gentry of the provinces. To some degree their ''esprit de corps'' depended on the myth, which they themselves created, of a movement that was more "authentically Russian," in the sense that it was closer to the native soil, than the classic academy.

Before them, Mikhail Glinka and Alexander Dargomyzhsky had gone some way towards producing a distinctly Russian kind of music, writing operas on Russian subjects, but The Mighty Handful represented the first concentrated attempt to develop such a music, with Stasov as their artistic adviser and Dargomyzhsky as an elder statesman to the group, so to speak. The circle began to fall apart during the 1870s, no doubt partially due to the fact that Balakirev withdrew from musical life early in the decade for a period of time. All of "The Five" are buried in Tikhvin Cemetery in Saint Petersburg.

Musical language

Stylization

The musical language The Five developed set them far apart from the Conservatoire. This self-conscious Russian styling was based on two elements:

They tried to incorporate in their music what they heard in village songs, in Cossack and Caucasian dances, in church chants and the tolling of church bells (to the point where the bell tolling became a cliché). The Five's music became filled with imitative sounds of Russian life. They also tried to reproduce the long-drawn, lyrical and melismatic peasant song, what Glinka had once called "the soul of Russian music." Balakirev made this possible by his study of songs from the Volga in the 1860s. More than any previous anthology, his transcriptions artfully preserved the distinctive aspects of Russian folk music:

*Tonal mutability

:A tune seems to shift naturally from one tonal center to another, often ending up in a different key than the one in which the song began. This can produce a feeling of elusiveness, a lack of definition or of logical progression in the harmony. Even when stylized by The Five, this quality can make Russian music sound very different from the tonal structures of the West.

*Heterophony

:A melody is simultaneously rendered by two or more performers in different variations. This is improvised by the singers until the end, when the song reverts to a single melodic line.

*Parallel fifths, fourths and thirds

:The effect lends Russian music a raw sonority missing entirely from the comparatively polished harmonies of Western music.

The Five also adopted a series of harmonic devices to create a distinct "Russian" style and color different from Western music. This "exotic" styling of "Russia" was not just self-conscious but entirely invented. None of these devices was actually used in Russian folk or church music:

*Whole tone scale

:Although Glinka did not invent this scale, his application of it in the opera ''Ruslan and Lyudmila'' (1842) — most recognizable at the end of the festive overture — provided a characteristic harmonic and melodic device. This scale in "Russian" works often suggests evil or ominous personages or situations. It was used by all the major composers from Tchaikovsky (the appearance of the Countess's ghost in ''The Queen of Spades'') to Rimsky-Korsakov (in all his magic-story operas—''Sadko'', ''Kashchey the Deathless'' and ''The Invisible City of Kitezh''). Claude Debussy also uses this scale in his music, taking this, among many things, from the Russians. Later it became a standard device in horror-movie scores.

The Russian submediant

:Also linked to Glinka's ''Ruslan'', this is a harmonic pattern (in major mode) in which one upper part proceeds from the dominant pitch chromatically to the submediant while the other harmony parts remain constant. The most basic form of this pattern can be shown as follows (beginning with typical tonic): root-position tonic triad --> root-position augmented tonic triad -> 1st inversion submediant minor triad. A famous example of the Russian submediant occurs in the very opening bars of the third movement of Rimsky-Korsakov's ''Scheherezade''.

*Diminished or octatonic scale

:Rimsky-Korsakov first used this in his symphonic poem ''Sadko'' in 1867. This scale became a sort of Russian calling-card — a ''leitmotif'' of magic and menace used not just by Rimsky-Korsakov but all of his followers, above all Alexander Scriabin, Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky and Olivier Messiaen (mode 2).

*Modular rotation in sequences of thirds

:The Five made this device of Franz Liszt their own to base a loose symphonic-poem type of structure. This way, they could avoid the rigid Western laws of modulation in sonata form, allowing the form of a musical composition to be shaped entirely by the "content" of the music (its programmatic statements and visual descriptions) rather than by formal laws of symmetry. This loose structure became especially important for Mussorgsky's ''Pictures at an Exhibition'', a work that may have done more than any other to define the Russian style.

*Pentatonic scale

:This stylistic aspect became used by every Russian nationalist composer. Its distinctive feature is to have only five notes in the octave, rather than the seven of the heptatonic scales (e.g., major and minor). The pentatonic scale is one of the ways of suggesting a "primitive" folk-melodic style as well as the "Eastern" element (Middle East, Asia). A melodic example of the "major-mode" pentatonic scale (C-D-E-G-A) can be heard at the entrance of the chorus at the beginning of Borodin's ''Prince Igor''.

Orientalism

One hallmark of "The Five" was its reliance on orientalism. Many quintessentially "Russian" works were composed in orientalist style, such as Balakirev's ''Islamey'', Borodin's ''Prince Igor'' and Rimsky-Korsakov's ''Scheherazade''. Orientalism, in fact, became widely considered in the West both one of the best-known aspects of Russian music and a trait of Russian national character. As leader of "The Five," Balakirev encouraged the use of eastern themes and harmonies to set their "Russian" music apart from the German symphonism of Anton Rubinstein and other Western-oriented composers. Because Rimsky-Korsakov used Russian folk and oriental melodies in his First Symphony, Stasov and the other nationalists dubbed it the "First Russian Symphony," even though Rubinstein had written his ''Ocean'' Symphony a dozen years before it. These were themes Balakirev had transcribed in the Caucasus. "The symphony is good," Cui wrote to Rimsky-Korsakov in 1863, while the latter was out on naval deployment. "We played it a few days ago at Balakirev's—to the great pleasure of Stassov. It is really Russian. Only a Russian could have composed it, because it lacks the slightest trace of any stagnant Germanness."

Orientalism was not confined to using authentic Eastern melodies. What became more important than the melodies themselves were the musical conventions added to them. These conventions allowed orientalism to become an avenue for writing music on subjects considered unmentionable otherwise, such as political themes and erotic fantasies. It also became a means of expressing Russian supremacy as the empire expanded under Alexander II. This was often reinforced through misogynist symbolism—the rational, active and moral Western man versus the irrational, passive and immoral Eastern woman.

Two major works entirely dominated by orientalism are Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonic suite ''Antar'' and Balakirev's symphonic poem ''Tamara''. ''Antar'', set in Arabia, uses two different styles of music, Western (Russian) and Eastern (Arabian). The first theme, Antar's, is masculine and Russian in character. The second theme, feminine and oriental in melodic contour, belongs to the queen, Gul Nazar. Rimsky-Korsakov was able to soften the implicit misogyny to some extent. However, female sensuality does exert a paralyzing, ultimately destructive influence. With Gul Nazar extinguishing Antar's life in a final embrace, the woman overcomes the man.

Balakirev gives a more overtly misogynistic view of oriental women in ''Tamara''. He had originally planned to write a Caucasan dance called a ''lezginka'', modeled on Glinka, for this work. However, he discovered a poem by Mikhail Lermontov about the beautiful Tamara, who lived in a tower alongside the gorge of Daryal. She lured travelers and allowed them to enjoy a night of sensual delights, only to kill them and throw their bodies into the River Terek. Balakirev uses two specific codes endemic to orientalism in writing ''Tamara''. The first code, based on obsessive rhythms, note repetitions, climactic effects and accelerated tempi, represents Dionysian intoxication. The second code, consisting of unpredictable rhythms, irregular phrasing and based on long passages with many repeat notes, augmented and diminished intervals and extended melismas, depict sensual longing. Not only did Balakirev use these codes extensively, but he also attempted to supercharge them further when he revised the orchestration of ''Tamara'' in 1898.

A direct result of such orientalism was the big influence that this circle left on the formation of classical traditions in other nations of the east and south of Russia. For instance, one of Rimsky-Korsakov's famous students, Alexander Spendiaryan went on to become the founder of Armenian classical music, carrying on the traditions and aesthetics of the Mighty Handful to the Caucasus.

Quotations

Rimsky-Korsakov provides the following picture of "The Mighty Handful" in his memoirs, ''Chronicle of My Musical Life'' (translated by J. A. Joffe):

Tastes

Balakirev

Abilities

Influence

Except perhaps for Cui, the members of this group influenced or taught many of the great Russian composers who were to follow, including Alexander Glazunov, Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky, and Dmitri Shostakovich.

Timeline

ImageSize = width:800 height:155 PlotArea = width:620 height:135 left:100 bottom:20 AlignBars = justify

Colors = id:Borodin value:tan1 id:Cui value:rgb(1,0.6,0.5) id:Balakirev value:lightorange id:Mussorgsky value:gray(0.8) id:Rimsky-Korsakov value:coral id:Tsar value:white

Period = from:1830 till:1920 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:10 start:1830 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:10 start:1830

Define $markred = text:"*" textcolor:red shift:(0,3) fontsize:10

PlotData= align:center textcolor:black fontsize:8 mark:(line,black) width:18 shift:(0,-5)

bar:Tsar color:white text:"" from: 1830 till: 1855 color: orange text: Nicholas I from: 1855 till: 1881 color: yellow text: Alexander II from: 1881 till: 1894 color: orange text: Alexander III from: 1894 till: 1917 color: yellow text: Nicholas II bar:Borodin color:Borodin from: 1833 till: 1887 bar:Cui color:Cui from: 1835 till: 1918 bar:Balakirev color:Balakirev from: 1837 till: 1910 bar:Mussorgsky color:Mussorgsky from: 1839 till: 1881 bar:Rimsky-Korsakov color:Rimsky-Korsakov from: 1844 till: 1908

LineData= at:1855 color:black width:0.5 layer:back at:1881 color:black width:0.5 layer:back at:1894 color:black width:0.5 layer:back at:1917 color:black width:0.5 layer:back

See also

Music of Russia

List of Russian composers

Tchaikovsky and the Five

Les Six, French composers

Armenian Mighty Handful

The Turkish Five

Group of Eight (music), Spanish composers

References

External links

Encyclopædia Britannica article about "The Five"

The Article about The Five in "1000 years of Russian Music"

Turgenev and Russian Music: The Mighty Handful (with music samples)

Russian musical influences of The Five on works of Claude Debussy

Category:Articles about multiple people 5 Category:Russian composers *

bg:Могъщата петорка ca:Grup dels Cinc cs:Mocná hrstka da:De Fem de:Gruppe der Fünf et:Võimas rühm el:Η Ομάδα των Πέντε es:Los Cinco eo:Kvinopo eu:Bostak (musikagile taldea) fr:Groupe des Cinq fy:It Machtige Heapke ko:러시아 5인조 hr:Moćna gomilica it:Gruppo dei Cinque he:החמישה ka:მძლავრი ჯგუფი hu:Orosz ötök nl:Het Machtige Hoopje ja:ロシア5人組 no:De Fem pcd:Groupe éd ches Chonc pl:Potężna gromadka pt:Grupo dos Cinco ru:Могучая кучка sk:Mocná hŕstka sl:Ruska peterka sr:Velika petorka sh:Velika petorka fi:Viiden ryhmä sv:De fem th:เดอะไฟฟ์ tr:Rus Beşleri uk:Могутня купка zh:强力集团