According to history, the first Tokyo live fish markets appeared around the 8th year of Keicho (1603 A.D.), the calendar used in the Tokugawa shogunate founded by Tokugawa Ieyasu. Mori Magoemon brought nine of his family members and thirty fishermen to seek refuge with the Tokugawa bafuku in the city of Edo. The fishes they caught were offered to the Tokugawa bafuku for their daily provisions. In 1674, the Magoemon family obtained the permission from the government to sell part of their catch to civilians near the current Japan Bridge. As the population increased, the way of selling fish evolved from selling it on lined up fish boats to selling it in wholesale stores by the riverside. As the trade expanded, the riverside fish markets gradually established; they were called Uogashi, Riverbank of Fish.

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On April 27th, 2007, the worldwide famous Russian cellist and conductor, who was also the symbol of democratic movement in USSR, Mstislav Rostropovich, passed away in Moscow at the age of eighty. His best friend Sozhenitsyn said in his condolence, “Mstislav’s passing is an unbearable loss to Russian Culture.” Whenever this legendary giant performed in Tokyo, he would always visit a site that was just as well-known as this great artist -- “the Tsukiji Fish Market”.

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