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GINZA Q&A

What streets are there in Ginza?

　Ginza streets are laid in a grid and can be broadly divided into three types: national road (Ginza-dori Ave.), prefectural roads (Harumi-dori Ave., Nishi Ginza-dori Ave., Showa-dori Ave.), and municipal roads (e.g., Namiki-dori St. and Ginza-Marronier-dori St.). The town layout dates back to the early Edo period when Tokugawa Ieyasu first carried out land readjustment in areas including Ginza, and it has remained almost unchanged for nearly 400 years.
　Let’s take a look at the streets in Ginza, starting with the ones that have names.
　Among the north–south routes, there are three major wide streets: Ginza-dori Ave., Nishi Ginza-dori Ave., and Showa-dori Ave. The streets with sidewalks are Namiki-dori St. (Nishinamiki-dori St.), Ginza Corridor-dori St., and Kobikicho-nakadori St. Most of the streets do not have sidewalks. There are a dozen or so, including Ginza Renga-dori St., Ginza Gasto-dori St., Taimei-dori St., Sukiya-dori St., SONY-dori St., Nishi Gobangai-dori St., Ginza Suzuran-dori St., Kenban-dori St., Konparu-dori St., Azuma-dori St., Ginza Mihara-dori St., Shigaraki-dori St., Kobikicho-dori St., and Ginchu-dori St. Altogether, there are more than twenty north–south streets in Ginza.
　The east-west streets mostly pass through Chome (city block) boundaries and all have sidewalks. There is one main street, Harumi-dori Ave. Centered around that main street, there are four streets from 1- to 4-chome—in order, Ginza Sakura-dori St., Ginza Yanagi-dori St., Ginza Marronnier-dori St., and Matsuya-dori St. In 5- to 8-chome, there are another four—Miyuki-dori St., Kojunsha-dori St., Hanatsubaki-dori St., and Gomon-dori St. There are three more on the Higashiginza side—Enbujo-dori St., Chuo Ichiba-dori St., and Kaigan-dori St., for 12 streets altogether running east-west.
　So, there are 30 streets alone that have names, and, including the streets and alleys without names, there are too many to count.
　The origins of the streets names are also varied. Some of them are named after the trees lining the street, like sakura (cherry blossom), yanagi (willow), and marronnier (horse chestnut), and some have the names of companies like Matsuya, SONY, and Kojunsha. There are also some with historical names. For example, Miyuki-dori St. was named “Miyuki” (imperial visit) because Emperor Meiji used this street to travel from the Imperial Palace to Hamarikyu (imperial villa) and the Naval Academy in Tsukiji, and the name for Konparu-dori St. comes from having a residence of the Konparu school of Noh theater in the Edo period.
　Most of the streets with names have street associations that do street cleaning, events, and winter holiday light installations. Each street carries out activities using its unique charms to spread excitement throughout Ginza.

(GINZA Machidukuri Council)