Aerial View of Asakusa Rokku (Sixth District), circa 1900

The Asakusa area had been an Edo-period sakariba, centered around Sensôji (Asakusa) Temple (upper right) and the kaichô (temple fairs) it hosted. The Yoshiwara pleasure quarters were nearby, and by the end of the middle of the 19th century Edo's main theaters had been moved to the area as well. After the Meiji Restoration (1868) many of the old street vendors and sideshows were shut down or assumed new forms among the show houses, small theaters, and street performers which eventually gathered in Asakusa's Sixth District . The temple area (center right) was designated for park space in 1873, and from 1884 development began in earnest. In 1890, the 60-meter high Ryôunkaku "Skyscraper" (center top), otherwise known as the Jûnikai or "Twelve Storeys," was built as Tokyo's tallest building at the time. Asakusa Rokku was clearly a successor of the Edo-period sakariba.

As Basil Hall Chamberlain described it in 1891:

"The grounds of Asakusa are the quaintest and liveliest place in Tokyo. Here are raree shows, penny gaffs, performing monkeys, cheap photographers, street artists, jugglers, wrestlers, life-sized figures in clay, vendors of toys and lollipops of every sort, and circulating amidst all the cheap attractions, a seething crowd of busy holiday-makers."

Explore the amusements of Asakusa through entry points at the temple, in the adjacent park space, on the pond, and among the rows of buildings parallel to the lake. Don't forget to climb the Twelve Storeys for a view from its observation deck.