Where the name Okachimachi comes from, what stood here before the station, and what you can still spot on a walk today. Then the events near the station that we have checked on the official pages.
Leave Okachimachi Station through the north exit and walk east along Kasuga-dori. The restaurants, shops and office buildings occupy an area once filled with residences for the shogun's foot guards. These men were called okachi. They accompanied the shogun on foot during official outings and helped provide security. Unlike mounted samurai, their duties were performed on foot, which explains the unusual name.
The terrain offers another clue to the neighbourhood. Ueno Hill rises to the west, while flatter streets extend eastward. It was on this eastern side of the hill that groups of guards lived in residences provided by the shogunate. Local historical research records that their compounds were concentrated here from the time of the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu, until the end of the Edo period. The district gradually became known as Okachimachi.
The guards' residential area extended beyond the immediate station neighbourhood, including places once called Naka-Okachimachi and Neriheichō. The old administrative name has largely disappeared, but the railway station continues to use it. A walk through the present shopping streets reveals a name inherited from the people who worked for the shogun.
→ Walk east from the station towards Naka-Okachimachi Station, whose name preserves another part of the old samurai district. Then head west towards Ueno-Hirokōji and notice how the streets approach the higher ground of Ueno Hill.
Sources (in Japanese): 台東区立中央図書館「御徒町や御徒組について」, 小学館『日本大百科全書』・近畿大学中央図書館「御徒町について知りたい」
Leave Okachimachi Station through the south exit and walk east towards Satake Shopping Street. During the Edo period, this district contained a vast residence belonging to the Satake family, rulers of the Kubota domain in what is now Akita Prefecture. Their estate covered a substantial part of present-day Taitō 3-chome and 4-chome. The shogun's foot guards lived nearer the station, while the powerful domain lord maintained his residence farther east.
After the Meiji Restoration, the Satake estate was demolished. The vacant ground became known as Satakeppara, or the Satake Field. Sideshows and travelling entertainers gathered there, gradually followed by houses and shops. The area developed into Satake Shopping Street. As you walk beneath its arcade, imagine the much larger enclosed estate that once occupied the surrounding blocks.
Return to the station and cross to its western side for a different chapter. Ameyoko began as a post-war black market. Some traders sold sweets made from sweet potatoes, while others dealt in surplus American military goods. The two strands contributed to the name Ameyoko. Within a short walk, the neighbourhood moves from an Edo-period samurai district to a Meiji entertainment ground and then a post-war shopping market.
→ Visit Satake Shopping Street east of the station, where the name recalls the former Akita-domain mansion. Then cross west to Ameyoko, a lively shopping area with roots in the post-war black market. These two streets preserve different chapters of the district's commercial history.
Sources (in Japanese): 台東区文化探訪「佐竹家上屋敷・佐竹っ原跡」, 台東区公式観光情報サイト「上野・御徒町」, 日本交通公社『全国観光資源台帳』「アメ横商店街」
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We list events we could confirm on the official page or official Instagram of the venue or organiser. Details can change, tickets sell out and venues close, so check the official page before you go. Distances are straight-line and travel times are rough estimates. Photos show the venue or its surroundings, not the event itself. Titles and descriptions are our own translations from Japanese. This site contains affiliate links (ads).