city, Tokyo to (metropolis), Honshu, Japan. It lies along the Chūō Main Line, east of Tokyo city. The city first developed around the Kokubun Temple, built in the 8th century for a group of Buddhist nuns, and was an early cultural centre. During the Meiji era (1868–1912), it depended upon sericulture (silkworm culture), but after the destructive Kantō earthquake of 1923 destroyed much of central Tokyo, it grew as a residential suburb of the Tokyo-Yokohama Metropolitan Area. Agriculture in the surrounding area produces food for the metropolitan market. Pop. (2005) 117,604.