Ginza has the most expensive land in Japan and the flagship stores to prove it. But the word itself has nothing to do with luxury or fashion. Ginza means "silver guild" — it was the name of the government office that struck the shogunate's silver coins. That office left the neighbourhood more than two centuries ago. The name stayed, and eventually spread to hundreds of towns across the country. Walk five minutes down Chuo-dori and you can stand in front of both ends of that story.

"Za" Meant a Guild — and Ginza Was a Mint

In 1612, the Tokugawa shogunate moved its silver-coin mint from Suruga (present-day Shizuoka) to a district of Edo called Shin-ryogaecho — the block we now call Ginza 2-chome. That relocation is where the place name begins. The mint itself was older; it had been founded in Fushimi, near Kyoto, in 1601, before the shogunate pulled its coinage into the new capital.

Za was the word for a guild: the licensed associations of merchants and artisans that controlled a trade under shogunate authority. Silver had a za. So did gold — the Kinza, the gold mint, stood just to the north in Nihonbashi, and its site is now occupied by the head office of the Bank of Japan. Tokyo's financial district grew up in the space between those two offices.

In 1800 the silver mint moved again, to Nihonbashi Kakigaracho (today's Nihonbashi Ningyocho). The institution was gone, but the name refused to leave. People kept calling the area Ginza, and in 1869 it was formally adopted as the district's official name. By then the word had quietly changed jobs: it had stopped naming an institution and started naming a place.

Two Stone Markers, Five Minutes Apart

Ginza Hassho no Chi — "Birthplace of Ginza" (Ginza 2-7, on Chuo-dori)

A granite pillar, roughly chest height, set into a strip of planting on the sidewalk. The dark plaque on its face reads 銀座発祥の地 / 銀座役所趾 — "Birthplace of Ginza / Site of the Ginza Mint." Taxis pass a metre away. The easiest way to find it is not to look for the stone at all: look for the ornate cast-iron street sign reading 銀座2丁目 / GINZA ST. The marker stands directly beside that post.

Renga Ginza no Hi — "Monument to the Brick Ginza" (Ginza 1-chome 11, on Chuo-dori)

In 1872, a fire that started at Wadakura-mon burned through the whole of Ginza. Tokyo's governor, Yuri Kimimasa, argued that the district should be rebuilt in something that would not burn. Construction of a brick town began in August 1872; by 1873, two-storey Western-style buildings lined the newly widened avenue, and the full plan was completed in 1877. The design was handled by Waters, one of the foreign engineers the Meiji government hired to build its modern cities. Behind the monument stands a reconstructed gas lamp — the street lighting that turned Ginza into the public symbol of Japan's opening to the West.

💡 One-Point Guide
Both markers sit at the edge of a busy road, so photograph them on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday afternoon, when Chuo-dori closes to cars. You can then stand in the middle of the road and frame the stone against the glass towers behind it. On weekdays you are stuck on the sidewalk with traffic at your elbow.

Why Hundreds of Towns in Japan Have Their Own "Ginza"

Travel around Japan and you will keep meeting the word. A covered shopping street in a provincial city, a row of shops two stations from anywhere — ◯◯ Ginza. The reason is the final chapter of the brick town.

The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 destroyed it. Buildings collapsed, the fire that followed consumed the wooden floors and roof frames, and what survived was brick walls and rubble. Shopkeepers from Togoshi, in southern Tokyo, came for that rubble. Their own street drained badly and turned to mud in the rain, and Ginza's broken bricks were free paving. They laid them down — and then renamed their shopping street Togoshi Ginza, hoping some of the original's prosperity had travelled with the bricks.

It is generally credited as the first ◯◯ Ginza. Today there are said to be more than 300 of them across the country. Every one is a descendant of a street that burned down twice.

Before You Walk Away

By all means look up at the facades. But knowing about one stone marker at your feet changes what the street is. It stops being a row of expensive shops and becomes the road where Japanese currency — and then Japanese modernisation — physically began. The best thing in Ginza sits about a metre off the ground, and almost nobody stops for it.

Featured Tour

• Make Your Own "Hanko" Seal & Local Shopping Walk — Carve your own personal seal with a craftsman. The same meeting point of officialdom and handwork that gave Ginza its name.