Apparently 13 October is 引っ越しの日 (ひっこしのひ / hikkoshi_no_hi / Moving To A New House Day) in Japan as it is the day Emperor Meiji (明治天皇 / めいじてんのう) moved into the Edo Castle (current Imperial Palace in Tokyo) in 1868. The concept of “capital” in Japan has been “the city where the emperor resides” so when Emperor Kanmu (桓武天皇 / かんむてんのう)moved into Kyoto in 794, Kyoto officially became the capital of Japan, but the Emperor Meiji never declared that he was moving, or had moved, to Tokyo. Thus, some people still argue that Tokyo is not officially the capital of Japan but Kyoto is! By the way, both kanji for Kyoto, 京 and 都, mean “capital”, so the literal meaning of Kyoto is “capital-capital” and while the imperial Palace in Tokyo is called 皇居 (こうきょ / koukyo), there is still an Imperial Palace in Kyoto called 御所 (ごしょ / gosho).
In 1869, Edo (江戸) was renamed Tokyo (東京), Eastern Capital, and when the city of Tokyo merged with the prefecture of Tokyo in 1943 to form the Metropolitan Prefecture, it became 東京都 (とうきょうと / toukyouto) – Eastern Kyoto.
Having mentioned “east”, let’s review the words for directions.
East: 東(ひがし / higashi)
West: 西(にし / nishi)
South: 南(みなみ /minami)
North: 北(きた / kita)
When you read each kanji separately, they are pronounced as shown in the brackets above, but if the four kanji are written together like 東西南北, they are pronounced as とう・ざい・なん・ぼく/ tou zai nan boku.
