Tokyo was originally known as Edo, meaning estuary.
[8] Its name was changed to Tokyo (
Tōkyō:
tō (east) +
kyō (capital)) when it became the imperial capital in 1868.
[8] During the early Meiji period, the city was also called "Tōkei", an alternative pronunciation for the same Chinese characters representing "Tokyo". Some surviving official English documents use the spelling "Tokei";
[9]. However, this pronunciation is now obsolete.
