Banchō

Banchō (番町) is an area in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan, consisting of the six "-banchō" districts, Ichibanchō (一番町) to Rokubanchō (六番町), as well as parts of Kudanminami and Kudankita, and Fujimi.

The area was the location of the residences of the six Oban (大番) groups, the hatamoto samurai in charge of the guard of the Edo castle.

[2] As the Shogunate was nearing its end, Omura Masujiro opened in 1856 Kyukyodo (鳩居堂), a rangaku institute in his residence, located next to nowadays Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery.

[3] At the Meiji restoration, hatamoto and feudal residences emptying, many Kazoku nobles and high-ranked officials of the newly formed government moved into the area, thanks to its proximity to the palace.

In 1872, under Sir Harry Smith Parkes, the British legation obtained land on the site of several feudal and hatamoto residences, in modern-day Ichibanchō.

One of the most prominent actors of the early Anglo-Japanese relations, Sir Ernest Satow, moved in Banchō as the sixth British Minister to Japan from 1895 to 1900.

[5] Educational facilities flourished, philosopher and politician Nakae Chōmin[5] set up a French language school in 1874, France gakusha (仏蘭西学者, litt.

"Institute of French studies"), later Futsugakujuku (仏学塾) along the Nishichidori ave., and Georges Ferdinant Bigot lived in the area as a teacher.