Kanji for Tokyo — 東京

Tokyo is written 東京 and read Tōkyō — 東 (east) plus 京 (capital city). The eastern capital, named in 1868 when the emperor moved his court there from Kyoto and the city, then called Edo, was renamed to say what it had become.

That makes the pair of names a matched set: 京都 (Kyōto) is “capital city” too, using the same 京. Read the characters and the history is right there on the map — an old capital in the west, a new one in the east, sharing one character between them.

東 is the sun 日 rising behind a tree 木, eight strokes; 京 is a tall building on a hill, also eight strokes. Between them they appear constantly in place names and station signs: 東京駅 (Tokyo Station), 東北 (Tōhoku, the northeast), 北京 (Pekin, Beijing).