Merchants around Yurakucho and Marunouchi commissioned a city Bon dance to lift spirits. With lyrics by Yaso Saijo and music by Shinpei Nakayama, Marunouchi Ondo debuted at Hibiya Park. Victor's record split the sides between Fumikichi Fujimoto and Issei Mishima — a neighborhood shin-min'yo.
In 1933 the lyric map widened to Sumida, Musashino and other Tokyo place-names and the song was reissued as Tōkyō Ondo. The duet of Katsutarō Kouta and Issei Mishima swept Bon dances and radio nationwide, turning a ward festival tune into a civic hit.
A Marunouchi neighborhood Bon song is retitled, remapped, and re-cast as Tōkyō Ondo — the urban Bon dance standard of Showa Japan.