Musashino

Musashino, city, Tokyo to (metropolis), eastern Honshu, Japan. It lies on the eastern border of Tokyo city, just north of Mitaka.

Kichijōji, the centre of the city, was founded in 1659 in the Kichijō-ji shinden (newly developed rice fields of Kichijō Shrine). Musashino grew as a farming village and was served by a railway station on the Chūō Main Line. Its rural character did not change until after the destructive Kantō earthquake of 1923, when Musashino became a residential suburb of Tokyo. The munitions factories established in the city during World War II were later replaced by electrical machinery plants. Pop. (2005) 137,525; (2010) 138,734.