Edo - the EDOPEDIA -

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Fujizuka (富士塚) are small mounds, commonly found in and around Tokyo, which represent Mount Fuji.
During the Edo period (1603–1868), a cult arose around the mountain, one of whose major devotional rites was to climb to the peak. Pilgrims who were unable through age, infirmity or gender to climb Mount Fuji would ascend one of these surrogates instead. They were usually around ten feet high, and replicate the 10 stations on Fuji itself, from the foot of the mountain to the summit. Some were also situated so as to provide pleasant views of their surrounding area, such as the Moto-Fuji at Meguro.

Although they are not included among the objects that make up the Cultural World Heritage Site, there are many Fujizuka that have been designated as Cultural Properties by the national government of Japan or by local governments. Famous Fujizuka within the precincts of Tokyo include
the Shitaya-sakamoto Fuji (within the grounds of the Onoterusaki shrine),
the Nagasaki Fuji (beside the main shrine building of the Fuji Sengen shrine) and
the Ekoda Fuji (within the grounds of the Ekoda Sengen shrine).
One such Fujizuka is found at Shinagawa Shrine near Shinbanba station in Tokyo. According to the shrine's kannushi, Mr. Suzuki, the Fujizuka, built between 1869–72, is a relatively late addition, and is said to bestow the same benefit on those who climb it as climbing Mt. Fuji.
- source : wikipedia

source : Yoko Arisaka
Map of the many Fujizuka in Edo

Many shrines in Japan had a special boulder or mound where Fuji worshippers could "climb" to the top and perform austerities and offer prayers.
. Fujikoo 富士講 Fujiko, Mount Fuji worship group .

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Asakusa　浅草
. Fuji Asama Shrine 富士浅間神社 .

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Fukagawa　深川

Ando Hiroshige

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Funabori no Fujizuka 船堀の富士塚（日枝神社 Hie Jinja）

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Katori Jinja 香取神社 Katori Shrine

Imai no Fujizuka 今井の富士塚

Nagashima no Fujizuka 長島の富士塚

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Kuwagawa no Fujizuka 桑川の富士塚（桑川神社 Kuwagawa Jinja）

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Meguro　目黒

Ando Hiroshige

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. Onoterusaki jinja 小野照崎神社 Onoterusaki Shrine .
and the Fujizuka festival 富士塚祭り

... to celebrate the opening of the mountain climbing season of Mt. Fuji.
The "Fuji Hill", a miniature of Mount Fuji, is about 7 meters high. To climb it would bring the same spiritual merit as climbing Mt. Fuji itself.
The "Fuji Hill" of this shrine was constructed in 1828.
Once every three years the festival is especially large and the mikoshi palanquin is carried around in the neighbourhood. Only when a new emperor succeeds or a crown prince is born will the festival be held in this year too.

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- - - - - Shimokamata no Fujizuka 下鎌田の富士塚

天祖神社 Tenso Jinja

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豊田神社 Toyota Jinja

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Teppozu Inari Shrine - Hatchobori district

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. Hikawa Jinja 氷川神社 Hikawa Shrines in Japan .

Ando Hiroshige

上目黒氷川神社　Hikawa Jinja氷川神社 in Kami-Meguro
(大橋氷川神社)

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川口氷川神社 Hikawa Jinja
Kawaguchi 埼玉県川口市青木5丁目18番48号

source : ameblo.jp/yorozu39

Amulet with Fujizuka 絵馬 ema votive tablet

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- - - - - H A I K U and S E N R Y U - - - - -

富士塚に登り浦安祭かな
Fujizuka ni nobori Urayasu matsuri kana

at the Urayasu
festival I climb up
the Fuji Mound . . .
Tr. Gabi Greve

米倉典子　Yonekura Noriko

浦安稲荷神社 Urayasu Inari Jinja

- source and more photos : ナツパパさん -

- - - - - Events in Urayasu
Urayasu Sanja Matsuri 浦安三社祭
Seiryuu Jinja （清瀧神社）/ Toyouke Jinja （豊受神社） / Inari Jinja （稲荷神社）
- source : sites.google.com/site -

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. Japanese Architecture - Interior Design - The Japanese Home .

. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .

. Doing Business in Edo - 商売　- Introduction .

. shokunin 職人 craftsman, craftsmen, artisan, Handwerker .

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu poems in Edo .

. densetsu 伝説　Japanese Legends - Introduction .

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- - - - - #fujizukaedo #fujizuka - - - -
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Cipangu,Jipangu ジパング and Hello Kitty

- quote - wikipedia -
There are many names of Japan in English, Japanese, and other languages.
Nihon (にほん / 日本)
Japan（英語「ジャパン」、ドイツ語「ヤーパン」）
Japon, Japón（フランス語「ジャポン」、スペイン語「ハポン」）
Giappone（イタリア語「ジャッポーネ」）
Yaponiya, Япония（ウズベク語「ヤポニヤ」、ロシア語「イポーニヤ」）

Cipangu described on the 1492 Martin Behaim globe.

The English word for Japan came to the West from early trade routes. The early Mandarin Chinese or possibly Wu Chinese word for Japan was recorded by Marco Polo as Cipangu. The modern Shanghainese (a dialect of the Wu Chinese language (呉語) or topolect) pronunciation of characters 日本 (Japan) is still Zeppen [zəʔpən]. The Malay and Indonesian words Jepang, Jipang, and Jepun were borrowed from Chinese dialects, and this Malay word was encountered by Portuguese traders in Malacca in the 16th century. It is thought the Portuguese traders were the first to bring the word to Europe. It was first recorded in English in 1577 spelled Giapan.

Jipangu Cipan (日本)
Cipangu was first mentioned in Europe in the accounts of the travels of Marco Polo. It appears for the first time on a European map with the Fra Mauro map in 1457, although it appears much earlier on Chinese and Korean maps such as the Kangnido. Following the accounts of Marco Polo, Cipangu was thought to be fabulously rich in silver and gold, which in Medieval times was largely correct, owing to the volcanism of the islands and the possibility to access precious ores without resorting to (unavailable) deep-mining technologies.

The Dutch name, Yatpun, is derived from the southern Chinese pronunciation of 日本, Yatbun or Yatpun.
The Dutch J is generally pronounced Y, hence Ja-Pun.
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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- quote - Japan Times -
From ‘samurai’ to ‘Hello Kitty,’
search data show how the world’s view of Japan has changed
The analytics data are included in the online version of this article.

Has the image of Japan as the land of Hello Kitty upstaged its perception as a country full of swaggering samurai and mincing geisha in the Western mind? That’s what the latest Web analytics data would seem to indicate.

Japan apparently first entered the Western psyche in the 15th century as European traders expanded eastward. Cartographers called the country Cipangu in its first depiction on a Western map in 1453; the first recorded use of Giapan in English came in 1577.

Today, Web analytics tools provide data visualizations of a radically more powerful kind to understand shifting views of Japan. “Cipangu,” a word used by merchant explorer Marco Polo, was apparently adopted by Portuguese traders from Chinese dialects to indicate Japan. Google’s Ngram Viewer, a tool that searches Google’s digital book library, draws a graph that shows “Japan” had already vastly eclipsed “Cipangu” in the English corpus by the earliest date in Ngram’s library of 1800.

Some of the first literary references to provide a sense of how Westerners in the 19th century viewed Japanese culture appear soon thereafter. The words samurai and geisha enter Ngram almost as soon as data begins in 1800. “Samurai” starts to take off from the 1820s, while “geisha” comes into more common use from the 1840s. “Samurai” continues its steady rise almost to the new millennium, but “geisha” plateaus from around 1940.

For a more granular view of the past decade since Google’s search engine took off, Google Trends measures the frequency of Web search terms relative to total search volume from 2004 through the present. The term “samurai” continues to reign over “geisha” in the new millennium, but “geisha” has a brief moment of glory in 2006, when it eclipses the term “samurai” soon after the release of the film “Memoirs of a Geisha,” which was sold here as “Sayuri.”

Then, in 2007, something notable happens: Hello Kitty overtakes “samurai” as a popular search term. It retains its dominance for several years, a time that produced headlines like “Hello Kitty products target young males,” before subsiding into rough parity with “samurai” at the present.

Google Trends searches are “black boxes” into which one can read only so much without understanding Google’s “secret sauce” algorithms. But given how much perceptions of Japan have changed in recent decades, it’s perhaps not pushing things too far to take the triumph of “Hello Kitty” over “samurai” as a proxy for the shifting view of Japan from one of a warlike nation to that of the nonthreatening (notwithstanding Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s push for remilitarization), ineffably cute land of “Cool Japan.”

Taking this trend to its logical conclusion, the Japanese word for “cute,” kawaii, barely registers a blip until 2010. But by July 2015, “kawaii” is up to four relative to samurai’s 10 and Hello Kitty’s eight on Google Trends’ scale of 0-100.

A sign of a continuing softening of Japan’s image in the English-speaking mind to come? Hard to say, but it should be noted that aside from a brief spike after the release of the latest Godzilla film in 2014, Hello Kitty also maintains her dominance over the iconic Japanese monster for the entire decade covered by Google Trends.

A more macro view presented by going back to 1990 in Ngram also shows more neutral cultural indicators of Cool Japan, anime and sushi trending steadily upward, while “samurai” just manages to hold steady.

At the moment, both “Hello Kitty” and “kawaii” have also eclipsed “geisha” in the world’s imagination. Once again, it’s dangerous to draw conclusions with nontransparent data, but one could speculate that the image of Japan as the land of cute has overtaken its image as a country of exotic sexuality.

Eclipsing all cultural indicators, however, are keywords that represent Japan’s continuing reputation for manufacturing prowess. Toyota registers close to the top of the 0-100 scale throughout the Google Search decade from 2004 to 2015, while “Godzilla,” “Hello Kitty” and “samurai” generally remain at 10 or under.

Sony can take some comfort in the fact that, despite its recent woes, the electronics giant still maintains a lead over all major Japanese companies in search queries in the English-speaking world surveyed by Google Trends. No doubt this is due not only to iconic products like the Walkman but also to the international nature of Sony, with its Sony Pictures and Sony Music arms. “Sony” beats not only “Toyota,” but also “samurai,” “anime,” and even that most popular of Japanese delights, “sushi.”

Google Trends also offers insights into the regional popularity of search terms. Unsurprisingly, Southeast Asia remains the area most under Japan’s cultural spell. The Philippines ranks at the top for both “samurai” and “Hello Kitty,” as well as a term symbolic of contemporary Japan like “anime.”

The analytics data are included in the online version of this article.
Next week, Mark Schreiber looks at the Japanese words that have fallen in and out of fashion in 2015.

- source : japantimes.co.jp/life/2015/11/30

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. Japanese Architecture - Interior Design - The Japanese Home .

. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .

. Doing Business in Edo - 商売　- Introduction .

. shokunin 職人 craftsman, craftsmen, artisan, Handwerker .

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu poems in Edo .

. densetsu 伝説　Japanese Legends - Introduction .

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[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]- - - - - #cipangu #hellokitty - - - -
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. Edo Bakufu articles .
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Edo bakufu 江戸幕府 The Edo Government and Administration
Tokugawa bakufu 徳川幕府 Tokugawa Government

- quote
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the
Tokugawa bakufu (徳川幕府) and
the Edo bakufu (江戸幕府), was the last feudal Japanese military government which existed between 1603 and 1867.
The heads of government were the shoguns, and each was a member of the Tokugawa clan. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo Castle and the years of the shogunate became known as the Edo period. This time is also called the Tokugawa period or pre-modern (Kinsei (近世)).

The bakuhan taisei (幕藩体制) was the feudal political system in the Edo period of Japan. Baku, or "tent," is an abbreviation of bakufu, meaning "military government"— that is, the shogunate. The han were the domains headed by daimyo.

1 History
2 Government
2.1 Shogunate and domains
2.2 Shogun and the Emperor
2.3 Shogun and foreign trade
2.4 Shogun and Christianity

3 Institutions of the shogunate
3.1 Rōjū and wakadoshiyori
3.2 Ōmetsuke and metsuke
3.3 San-bugyō
3.4 Tenryō, gundai and daikan
3.5 Gaikoku bugyō

4 Late Tokugawa Shogunate (1853–1867)
5 List of the Tokugawa shoguns
- source : wikipedia

under construction
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- - - - - keywords including BAKU 幕 - - - - -

Bakuchoo Sensoo　幕長戦争 Bakucho Senso war
between the Bakufu and the 長州 Choshu Domain
Chōshū Rebellion
also called 長州征討 Choshu Seito, 長州征伐, 長州出兵, 長州戦争
In the Kinmon Incident on 20 August 1864, troops from Chōshū Domain attempted to take control of Kyoto and the Imperial Palace in order to pursue the objective of Sonnō Jōi. This also led to a punitive expedition by the Tokugawa government, the First Chōshū expedition (長州征討).
第一次長州征討 First Chōshū expedition
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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幕府放鷹制度 rules about takagari 鷹狩り hawk hunting (BF)

bakufu kansen 幕府艦船 Bakufu ships (BF)
bakufu kansenn　幕府官船

. bakufu goyootashi 幕府御用達 craftsmen working for the Bakufu government .

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. bakuhan taisei 幕藩体制 Bakuhan system .

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Bakumatsu 幕末　end period of the Bakufu (1853 - 1867)

. Bakumatsu 幕末写真　photo collection .

. Bakumatsu aera 幕末の人　 people visiting Japan (1853 - 1867) .

幕末のジャーナリズムー　Bakumatsu Jurnalism
. kawaraban　瓦版 Edo newspaper, handbill, broadside .

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. bakuryoo　幕領　Bakuryo government land, bakufu-owned land, .
bakufu chokkatsu chi 政府直轄地 / bakufu chokkatsu ryoo 幕府直轄領
shogun's direct holdings, personal land- holdings, personal fief of the Tokugawa
tenryoo, tenryō天領 Tenryo Government Land "Land of Heaven"

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江戸幕府の征夷大将軍‎ The Tokugawa Shoguns

Tokugawa Ieyasu 徳川家康　(1543–1616) - the first Shogun
Tokugawa Hidetada 徳川秀忠　(1579–1632)
Tokugawa Iemitsu 徳川家光　(1604–1651)
Tokugawa Ietsuna 徳川家綱　(1641–1680)
Tokugawa Tsunayoshi 徳川綱吉　(1646–1709)

Tokugawa Ienobu 徳川家宣　(1662–1712)
Tokugawa Ietsugu 徳川家継　(1709–1716)
Tokugawa Yoshimune 徳川吉宗　(1684–1751)
Tokugawa Ieshige 徳川家重　(1712–1761)
Tokugawa Ieharu 徳川家治　(1737–1786)

Tokugawa Ienari　徳川家斉　(1793–1853)
Tokugawa Ieyoshi 徳川家慶　(1793-1853)
Tokugawa Iesada 徳川家定　(1824–1858)
Tokugawa Iemochi 徳川家茂 (1846–1866)
Tokugawa Yoshinobu 徳川慶喜 (1837–1913) - the last Shogun

Tokugawa Tsunenari徳川恆孝 (1940 - ) the 18th generation
His son, Tokugawa Iehiro , is a University of Michigan-educated translator.

- Tokugawa Branch Families

Tokugawa Mitsukuni of the Mito domain
Tokugawa Nariaki of the Mito domain
Tokugawa Mochiharu of the Hitotsubashi branch
Tokugawa Munetake of the Tayasu branch.
Matsudaira Katamori of the Aizu branch.
Matsudaira Sadanobu, of Shirakawa

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- - - - - Alphabetical Index of Keywords 用語解説 - - - - -

- AAA - / - BBB - / - CCC - / - DDD - / - EEE -

- FFF - / - GGG - / - HHH - / - I I I - / - JJJ -

- KK KK - / - LLL - / - MMM - / - NNN - / - OOO -

- PPP - / - QQQ - / - RRR - / - SSS - / - TTT -

- UUU - / - VVV - / - WWW - / - XXX - / - YYY - / - ZZZ -

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江戸幕府大事典 by 大石学
将軍・老中・火付盗賊改・畳奉行・鷹匠、江戸城　( 門・櫓・堀) ・陣屋・奉行所、参勤交代・幕府の儀式...。
家康から慶喜まで、265年にわたり日本を治めた江戸幕府。最新の成果で描く概論と、職制・陣屋・儀式などの用語解説で、幕府の基礎情報を集成。役職存在期間一覧、索引などの付録も充実した.
年中行事 - 官僚制 - 建築物
役職については、支配・役高・詰間などの基本情報から職務内容・改廃・主要人物なども解説。施設(陣屋・奉行所・役所・牢屋・刑場など)については、現在地・構造のほか、設置から廃止までの沿革も詳述する

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- - - - - H A I K U and S E N R Y U - - - - -

浜木綿の奔放に裂け幕府跡
hamayuu no honbo ni sake bakufu ato

北見さとる Kitami Satoru

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葛がくれ幕府御用の銅の道
kuzugakure bakufu goyoo no doo no michi

hidden in Kuzu
the copper road
of the Bakufu

品川鈴子 Shinagawa Suzuko

. doozan 銅山 Dozan copper mines in Japan .
Besshi copper mine 別子銅山 - Ehime
Ashio copper mine 足尾銅山 - Tochigi

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. Japanese Architecture - Interior Design - The Japanese Home .

. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .

. Doing Business in Edo - 商売　- Introduction .

. shokunin 職人 craftsman, craftsmen, artisan, Handwerker .

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu poems in Edo .

. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

[ . BACK to DARUMA　MUSEUM　TOP . ]
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]- - - - - #edobakufu #bakufu - - - -
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. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .
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Fukiyachoo 葺屋町 Fukiyacho District of roof thatchers
yanefuki, yanebuki 屋根葺 roofing, roof covering, roofer
kayabuki 茅葺 thatching, thatched roof

In former times this was a large wetland with lots of reeds.
In 1615 it was drained and made into a district.
Many craftsmen for roof thatching came to live here, hence the name.
- - - - - yanefuki 屋根葺き roofer, see below

In 1634, the famous Kabuki theaters were erected in the area and nearby Sakai.
堺町 - 葺屋町 Sakai Machi, Fukiya Choo
. Edo Sanza 江戸三座 - the three famous Kabuki theaters of Edo .

Soon there were many small tea stalls in the area.

Fukiya and Sakai

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Kayabacho 萱場町
Kayabacho is in the southern part of the Nihonbashi area.
In the Edo Period, reed fields abounded in the area. Many merchants selling roof thatch lived here.
Since Kayabacho is near the Tokyo Stock Exchange, it has become a business district with many stock brokerage firms. It is called one of the world's Big Three financial centers and Japan's Wall Street. The streets are filled with businessmen.Going to Nippon Budokan and Tokyo Disney Resort is also convenient.
There are many business hotels around the subway station.In 1887, Tokyo Dento Co., Japan's first electric power company, built Japan's first power plant in Kayabacho. It started supplying electricity to nearby customers such as Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK Line) and the Tokyo Post Office.Two branches of the Kamejima River flow through Kayabacho and empty into the Sumida River. The Kamejima River branches off from the Nihonbashi River.Upstream where the Kamejima River branches off, there is the Nihonbashi Sluice Gate. And downstream at the river mouth is the Kamejima River Sluice Gate. Both gates prevent flooding caused by high tide countercurrents.
- source : gurunavi.com/en -

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- quote
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (Cladium mariscus), rushes, or heather, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. It is a very old roofing method and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates. Thatch is still employed by builders in developing countries, usually with low-cost, local vegetation. By contrast in some developed countries it is now the choice of affluent people who desire a rustic look for their home, would like a more ecologically friendly roof, or who have purchased an originally thatched abode.
A thatched roof
is usually pitched between 45–55 degrees and under normal circumstances this is sufficient to shed snow and water. In areas of extreme snowfall, such as parts of Japan, the pitch is increased further.
- source : wikipedia

- quote -
kayabuki yane 茅葺屋根. Lit. thatching with miscanthus.
However, the word kaya茅 includes the use of many kinds of grasses, reeds and straw. Although thatched roofs are usually associated with vernacular dwellings minka 民家, some shrine or temple buildings or gates still use this type of roofing material. Thatch roofs last a maximum of about 30 years, before thatching becomes necessary. About half the thatch can be removed, dried out and reused.
... The shape and pitch of thatched roofs vary from region to region. The steepest roofs use the gasshou style gasshou-zukuri 合掌造 (gasshozukuri), to shed snow easily while in milder areas the pitch used is relatively gentle.
- Read the details here :
- source : JAANUS-

. WKD - kaya fuku 萱葺くthatching a roof .
kaya karu 萱刈る (かやかる) cutting miscanthus (reeds)
ashi kari 蘆刈 (あしかり) cutting reeds
kaya - Schilfgras

yanefuki 屋根葺き roofer, craftsman making roofs
yaneya　屋根屋 roof maker

They used all kinds of material for roofs in Edo.
One of their most important tools were the kugi　釘 nails made of various materials.
They placed a bundle of them in the mouth to have both hands free and spit them out as work proceeded.

. kugi 釘 Japanese nail, Nagel - Introduction .

More details about the craftsmen:
. yane　屋根 roof - Dach / yaneya　屋根屋 roof maker .
okugai 屋蓋, lit. roof covering.

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. Shirakawa go 白河郷 Shirakawa - Gifu .
The houses in the villages in the valley are unique to Japan. They are very big, and have thick thatched roofs that come down steeply.

. iori, an 庵 thatched roof hut .

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- quote
itabuki　板葺 Wood shingles
Widely used in Japan for buildings of many kinds, ranging from palaces, elite residences, shrines and temples to ordinary houses *minka 民家. Itabuki is believed to have been used at a high social level as early as the Asuka period. On vernacular houses, it was particularly used in mountainous areas where material for thatch was relatively hard to obtain. In urban districts it was gradually displaced during the last years of the Edo period by tile, which was both fireproof and longer lasting (itabuki roofs lasted about 30 years).
Generally, the shingles were made from a log split first into quarters along the grain, and then cut or split (with wedges or a hatchet nata 鉈) into progressively thinner boards. These were less than 75mm thick, and their width was less than three times their thickness. The preferred materials were cedar sugi 杉, sweet chestnut kuri 栗 and chamaeciparis pisifera sawara 椹. Reddish, sinuous lumber was preferred.
Shingle types, in declining order of quality,
included: tochi 栩, tokusa 木賊, masa 柾, koba 木羽, and kokera 柿.
It is clear from a comparison of early medieval itabuki on vernacular houses, as depicted in illustrated handscrolls emaki 絵巻, and itabuki shown in late Muromachi to Momoyama period painted screens *byoubu-e 屏風絵, that there was a general tendency for the shingles to get smaller.
In the late Heian period,
the distance from ridge to intermediate pillars irigawabashira 入側柱, and from intermediate pillars to outer pillars kawabashira 側柱 were each spanned with a single long shingle. In the Momoyama period, four or five shingles seem to have been enough to cover the distance from ridge to eaves, suggesting that the length of individual shingles was reduced by half. By the later Edo period,
large shingles averaged between 45-85cm in length by 9-15cm in width by 1cm thick, while small ones averaged 30cm in length by 12cm in width by 3mm thick. Roofing undertaken with the larger type is called naga-itabuki 長板葺, and with the smaller, ko-itabuki 小板葺. Doubtless dwindling timber resources led to this diminution in size.
From medieval times,
however, small shingles came to be used in more refined itabuki roofs on elite residences, shrines, and presumably developed to simulate the effects of cypress-bark roofing hiwadabuki 桧皮葺. In these roofs, the lap of the shingle courses was far greater.
A variety of names were used for such roofs,
according to the detail and the type and thickness of the single, but the best known are tochibuki 栩葺 and kokerabuki 柿葺. Other forms of itabuki include sogibuki 殺ぎ葺, noshibuki 熨斗葺, yamatobuki 大和葺, odawarabuki 小田原葺, tontonbuki とんとん葺 and ishioki itabuki 石置板葺.
The character of itabuki roofs varied from the most curvaceous elegance possible, kokerabuki, which could be used for nearly any shape of roof, to the straight, shallowly pitched roofs of ishioki itabuki houses, which were almost invariably gabled kirizuma yane 切妻屋根. Fixings as well as shingle size had much to do with this contrast: kokerabuki shingles were held in place with bamboo nails, while ishioki itabuki was held in place with stones. Roofs could not be steep or the stones would roll off.

hiwadabuki 檜葺 cypress-bark thatched roofing
A roof covered with layers of Japanese cypress hinoki 桧 (檜) bark shingles. The shingles are usually 45-60cm in length, 4-15cm in width, and 9-12cm thick. The extension from the overlap of one shingle over another is 1-2cm. Cypress shingles are secured with bamboo nails.

kokerabuki 柿葺 simple shingled roof
A roof covering made with a layer of thin wooden shingles made of cypress. The shingles are about 0.3cm-0.5cm thick, 9cm-15cm wide and about 30cm long. The shingles are secured with bamboo nails. Sometimes cedar or persimmon wood is used.
- source : JAANUS -

. amigasamon 編笠門 watttle-hood gate .

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. Japanese Architecture - Interior Design - The Japanese Home .

. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .

. Doing Business in Edo - 商売　- Introduction .

. shokunin 職人 craftsman, craftsmen, artisan, Handwerker .

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu poems in Edo .

. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

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. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .
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Aomonochoo　青物町 Aomonocho "vegetable" district

. Edo Dento Yasai 江戸伝統野菜 Traditional Vegetables of Edo .

After Tokugawa Ieyasu founded the town, many people came to work here and to feed them all was one of the great projects that had to be taken care of. For fresh vegetables, Ieyasu had a market set up with the help of

Soga Kozaemon 曽我小左衛門　/ 曾我小左衛門
He had come from Odawara, Kanagawa and settled in the district near Nihonbashi and Yorozucho 萬町 / 万町, which soon took the name of the Odawara original.

- quote
江戸へ行った小田原の『青物町』
- source : 田代道彌

To the North of Aomonocho was
Ikedai Yashiki　活鯛屋敷　
where the fish for Edo Castle were kept in ikesu　生洲 fish preserve ponds.

Soon other wholesalers came to live in Amonocho too, like tea merchants, soy sauce merchants, dried foods merchants and even incense stick merchants and many more
問屋が多く、定飛脚問屋、乾物問屋、茶問屋、紙煙草入問屋、鍋釜問屋、干菓子問屋、薬屋、筆墨硯師、醤油酢問屋など . . .
Near the wholesalers, smaller vegetable shops also set up business.

Most of this area got lost and parts of it are now reconstructed and excarvated from the ruins.

aomono-tori 青物取り taking green things,
is still a common word for collecting sansai　山菜 mountain vegetables in spring.

Nihonbashi Ichome 日本橋１丁目 First District of Nihonbashi
　現在の日本橋１丁目の地は、中央通り（日本橋通り）を中心に、通１～４丁目、通１丁目新道、西河岸町、呉服町新道、元四日市町（活鯛屋敷・日本橋蔵屋敷）江戸橋広小路、本材木町１・２丁目、万町、青物町、平松町の一部、佐内町などの多くの町があり、江戸城下の中心として活気あふれる庶民の町でした。Yorozucho 万町とAomonocho 青物町の間の南北の通りを中通りといいました。
- source : makibuchi/chuo_aruku -

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Edo no Aomono Ichiba 江戸の青物市場 Vegetable Markets in Edo
In the "three vegetable district"青物三ケ町 Aomono Sangamachi in Kanda
Tachō, 多町 Tacho - 連雀町 Renjakucho - 永富町 Eifukucho

From there street vendors would take off every day.

aomono uri 青物売り vegetable vendor

正徳４年（1714）から幕府御用となり、享保１０年（1725）には、問屋は９４人も居たというのです。
- source : edosanpo.blog109 -

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There are other districts in Japan with this name.

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神奈川県 Kanagawa　小田原 Odawara

Aomonocho Shotengai　商店街　 Shopping Street

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岩手県 Iwate, 盛岡市 Morioka

The district used to be called 仙北町新小路 Senboku and was re-named to Aomonocho in 1812. It is the district in front of the shrine 駒形神社 Komagata Jinja.

The 明治橋 Meiji Bridge of Aomonocho

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. Kappa legends from Iwate 河童 / かっぱ / カッパ .

カッパ Kappa and Sumo wrestler 七つ瀧 Nanatsu-Taki (Seven Waterfalls)
At 青物町 Aomonocho there lived a former Sumo wrestler, he now dealt with horses (bakuroo バクロウ). Once he went to the river with a horse, where he met a Kappa. The Kappa wanted to pull the horse into the water, but the strong Nanatsutaki pulled him out with ease. The Kappa apologized and promised never to pull humans into the water again.
He promised to stay off from 明神淵 Myojin-Fuchi to 御舟小屋 Ofune-Koya. And all other Kappa would also respect this promise.
Since this day, no fatal water accidents happened there and people now bring offerings to the local shrine festival

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- - - - -　 H A I K U　 - - - - -

青物を買ふ女房の袷かな
aomono o kau nyoobo no awase kana

the summer robe
of my wife buying
vegetables . . .

貧乏な青物店や夏大根
binboo na aomonoten ya natsu daikon

this poor
vegetable shop -
Daikon in summer

. Kawahigashi Hekigoto 河東碧梧桐 .

. daikon 大根　Radish, Reddish, Raphanus sativas .

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春風や青物市の跡広し
harukaze ya aomono ichi no ato hiroshi

spring wind -
the remains of the vegetable market
are quite large

at Senju 千住 in Tokyo

こほろぎや青物市のこぼれ菜に
koorogi ya aomono ichi no koboreha ni

this cricket -
it sits on a fallen leaf
at the vegetable market

. Masaoka Shiki 正岡子規 .

. koorogi 蟋蟀 cricket, Gampsocleis buergeri .
- kigo for autumn -

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そらまめ剥く祭の路地の青物屋
野澤節子

はつゆきや青物市のよめがはぎ
高井几董

大根干す青物市場のフエンスにも
五十嵐波津子

打水を店の中まで青物屋
中田勘一

朝寒や青物洗ふ高瀬川
村上霽月

青物に涼しき月の巷かな
尾崎紅葉

青物を軒に培ひ長屋夏
石塚友二

魚屋に青物売つて小鳥来る
石川桂郎

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. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .

. Doing Business in Edo - 商売　- Introduction .

. shokunin 職人 craftsman, craftsmen, artisan, Handwerker .

. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

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[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]- - - - - #aomonocho - - - -
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The Sumitomo family　住友家
and doozan 銅山 Dozan copper mines in Japan

- quote
The Sumitomo Group, of which Sumitomo Corporation is a key member, dates to the 17th century establishment of a book and medicine shop in Kyoto by 小次郎政友　Masatomo Sumitomo. Sumitomo's brother-in-law 蘇我理右衛門　Riemon Soga developed a technology to extract silver from copper, and Soga's son (who married Sumitomo's daughter) 住友友以　Tomomochi Sumitomo expanded this smelting business to Osaka.
From this start, the Sumitomo family expanded its business into copper mining (the Besshi copper mine), followed by textiles, sugar and medicine trading.
Its 家号 Yago house name was 泉屋 Izumiya.

The Sumitomo family was close to the Tokugawa shogunate throughout the Edo period. During the 1860s, this relationship became a liability for the firm as the Tokugawa clan warred with rivals in western Japan. Following the Tokugawas' defeat, Sumitomo was almost ruined and under pressure to sell the Besshi mine, which by that point was nearly unworkable. However, Sumitomo kept the mine and improved its output through adoption of new Western techniques.
During the rapid westernization of Japan in ensuing decades, Sumitomo started various new trading, manufacturing and financing businesses, becoming one of the major zaibatsu of early 20th century Japan.

Sumitomo Corporation (住友商事株式会社 Sumitomo Shōji Kabushiki-gaisha)
is one of the largest worldwide Sogo shosha general trading companies, and is a diversified corporation. The company was incorporated in 1919, it is a member company of the Sumitomo Group.
- source : wikipedia

Sumitomo Corporation
- source : sumitomocorp.co.jp -

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- quote -
住友家の起源 - 始祖・家祖・業祖
住友の姓は、戦国の末、もともと先祖に順美平内友定という人物がおり、桓武天皇の曾孫・高望王の二十二代目にその子・小太郎（忠重）が父の姓と名をとって「住友」の姓を称して室町将軍に仕えて、備中守に任じられたのに始まる。

平家の末裔である戦国武士だった住友家の先祖は、国取り物語の戦国時代を有為転変の歴史を生きる。室町将軍に仕えた「始祖」・住友忠重の子・頼定は、足利義晴に仕え、頼定の子・定信は刑部承と称した。そして、定信の子・定重は、今川義忠（今川義元の祖父）に仕えるが、定重の子・信定の代になり、今川氏が滅んでしまったので、摂津の中川清秀に仕え、入江土佐守と称し、中川十六騎の一人として知られたが、尾崎の陣で戦死してしまう。また入江土佐守（信定）の子・政俊は越前国の柴田氏に仕え、若狭守と称し越前丸岡城にあったが、柴田勝家と共に北庄城で滅んでしまった。政俊の子・長行は、徳川家康の子で結城家へ養子入りした結城秀康に用いられるが、住友家の武家の歴史はここまでである。戦国の習いとはいえ、武家社会の興亡の激しさと無情を感じたのか長行は、自分の子供たちに武家の世界から足を洗わせた。
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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- - - - - H A I K U and S E N R Y U - - - - -

葛がくれ幕府御用の銅の道
kuzugakure bakufu goyoo no doo no michi

hidden in Kuzu
the copper road
of the Bakufu

品川鈴子 Shinagawa Suzuko

- quote -
The Besshi copper mine (別子銅山 Besshi dōzan) was a rich source of copper in Niihama, Ehime Prefecture.
The deposits were discovered in 1690, and mining began in the following year. From then until the closing of the mine in 1973, Besshi produced about 700,000 tons of copper, and contributed to Japan's trade and modernization. The Sumitomo family managed the mine, which helped build the Sumitomo zaibatsu. The Dōzan River was named after the copper mine.
- source : wikipedia -

別子銅山のぼれば桔梗また桔梗
Besshi doozan noboreba kikyoo mata kikyoo

Besshi copper mine
climbing up there are Chinese bellflowers
and more bellflowers

津村芳水 Tsumura Hosui

. kikyoo 桔梗 Chinese bellflower - Platycodon grandiflorus. .
- kigo for autumn -

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草笛に吹くよ別子の銅山節
kusabue ni fuku yo Besshi no doozanbushi

blowing it
on a reed flute -
the Besshi Copper Mine Song

品川鈴子 Shinagawa Suzuko

別子銅山せっとう節 Besshi Dozan Settobushi
江戸時代から鉱山へ出稼ぎにきた坑夫たちによって歌い継がれた作業歌とされています。
女は絣の着物にタスキがけ、男は坑夫のいでたちで登場します。
- reference -

. kusabue 草笛 "reed flute" .
- kigo for summer -

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- - - - - There was one more important copper mine in Japan.

Ashio doozan 足尾銅山 Ashio Dozan, Ashio Copper Mine

- quote -
The Ashio Copper Mine, Ashio, Tochigi prefecture, became very significant from the end of the 19th century to the mid-20th century. It was the site of major pollution in the 1880s and the scene of the 1907 miners riots.

The Ashio mine has been in existence at least since 1600 when it belonged to the Tokugawa shogunate. At that time it produced about 1,500 tons annually, although this declined when the mine was closed in 1800. It became privately owned in 1871 following the industrialisation initiated by the Meiji restoration. By 1877 it became the property of Furukawa Ichibei, and by the 1880s production had increased dramatically, reaching 4,090 tons by 1885, 78 per cent of the total output of the Furukawa mines and 39 percent of Japan's copper production.

The Ashio mine was shut down in 1973.
The Ashio Copper Mine Incident is the name given to the environmental disaster that occurred as a result of the Ashio mining operations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

製錬のにほひかそかに夏山路
seiren no nioi kasoka ni natsu yamaji

the faint smell
of metal smelting
on the summer mountain road

上村占魚 Uemura Sengyo (下野足尾銅山)

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足尾銅山枯葉に重さありにけり
Ashio doozan kareha ni omosa ari ni keri

Ashio copper mine
and the withered leaves
feel so heavy . . .

渡辺恭子 Watanabe Kyoko

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. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

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Akita 阿仁合村 Aniai - 阿仁銅山 Ani copper mine

gingitsune 銀狐 the silver fox
Once upon a time a rich merchant from Osaka found a silver fox in his garden, but when he woke up from this dream, his wife had turned into a silver fox. So the wife-fox left her husband, but he came after her, travelling around in Japan. One day his wife-fox appeared again and told him, if he climbed up this mountain he would find precious metal.
This is the beginning of the Ani doozan 阿仁銅山 copper mines in Ani .

阿仁鉱山 Ani Kozan mines for copper, gold and silver.
Copper was first found in 1716. Shut down in 1987.

- quote -
Originally developed as a gold mine in 1300s, Ani mine became one of the top three copper mines in Japan with the highest record copper production in 1716 when operated by the Satake clan.
German mining engineers were invited in the 19th century to further improve its production. Ijinkan is a western building that used to accommodate such engineers, including Adolf Meckel, and was later used as a guesthouse after they left. The building was designated a national cultural asset in 1990.
- source : akita-ecotown.com -

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Akita 土川 Tsuchikawa - 杉沢銅山 Sugisawa copper mine

katame no sakana 片目の魚 fish with one eye
The stonefish (kajika 鰍) from Tsuchikawa village living below the copper mine lost one eye when the paths were hit by a landslide and the blood of the killed workers flowed down the river, filling one of the fish's eyes.

This mine for gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc in the 大仙市 Daisen town district was closed in 1972.

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Gifu 洞戸村 Horado

hitokui Ebisu 人喰いエビス man-eating Ebisu
This man-eating Ebisu was hit by an arrow from 正之御前 Masa no Gozen at 弓保木, the blood of Ebisu flew down the river at 赤谷 Akadani and he finally fled to 恵比寿山 Mount Ebisusan to the copper mine grotto 銅山岩屋 (also called Ebisugura エベスグラ.)

There is a small shrine in honor of Masa no Gozen 正の御前, 正之御前社.
It is about 540 meter high on Ebisu mountain.

In the shrine is a deity and two bronze mirrors.
A warrior from Echizen who had lost his head in battle and his retainer Masa no Gozen burried it on the mountain.
- source : sankyoharinko -

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- source : nichibun yokai database -

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. Japanese Architecture - Interior Design - The Japanese Home .

. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .

. Doing Business in Edo - 商売　- Introduction .

. shokunin 職人 craftsman, craftsmen, artisan, Handwerker .

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu poems in Edo .

. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

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bakuhan 幕藩 Bakuhan feudal system

The bakuhan taisei 幕藩体制 was the feudal political system in the Edo period of Japan.
Baku, or "tent," is an abbreviation of bakufu, meaning "military government"— that is, the shogunate.
The han were the domains headed by daimyo.

. bakufu 幕府 The Edo Government and Administration .

The Tokugawa (or Edo) period brought 250 years of stability to Japan. The political system evolved into what historians call bakuhan, a combination of the terms bakufu and han (domains) to describe the government and society of the period. In the bakuhan, the shogun had national authority and the daimyo had regional authority.
This represented a new unity in the feudal structure, which featured an increasingly large bureaucracy to administer the mixture of centralized and decentralized authorities. The Tokugawa became more powerful during their first century of rule: land redistribution gave them nearly seven million koku, control of the most important cities, and a land assessment system reaping great revenues.
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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- quote
Tokugawa Political System
The Tokugawa political system was perhaps the most complex feudal system ever developed. It was similar to the European feudal system (pope, emperor or king, feudal barons, and retainers in Europe compared to emperor, the shogun, the daimyo, and samurai retainers in Japan), but it was also very bureaucratic, an attribute not associated with European feudalism.

This political system was called the bakuhan system. Baku comes from bakufu which was the government the Tokugawa leaders used to administer their private affairs inside their own fief. Han means domain and refers to the 250-plus domains that existed throughout the Edo period. Thus, bakuhan refers to the co-existence of the Tokugawa government with separate, independent governments in each of the fiefs. Since each daimyo was a retainer of the shogun, the bakufu or shogunate had some power across all of Japan. This was not a federal system or even a centralized hierarchy of political authorities; rather, it was a system in which two levels of government existed with a high degree of independence.

The Tokugawa shogunate was very much like any domainal government in that it was responsible first for the administration of a limited territory, the fief of the Tokugawa house. As such, it concerned itself with controlling the samurai class, collecting taxes (primarily on agriculture), maintaining civil order, defending the fief, controlling the cities, encouraging commerce and manufacturing which were required by the fief, limiting undesirable types of commerce and so on. In most domains, the scope of government was similar. In fact, as the Edo period wore on, most domains copied the system of the shogunate.

The Tokugawa shogunate also had responsibilities and concerns which went beyond those of ordinary domains; the Tokugawa shoguns were, after all, hegemons presiding over a whole country.

The Tokugawa government alone dealt with the imperial court, the imperial nobility and the emperor himself. The emperor was the source of legitimacy since the office of shogun was an imperial appointment. Furthermore, Confucianism which was the official ideology of the Tokugawa house during the Edo period focused attention on the emperor. Thus, the Tokugawa shogunate established a monopoly on access to the imperial court. As the period wore on, the monopoly was breached, but it is essentially true that the Tokugawa controlled and manipulated the court for its own purposes.

The shogunate held a near monopoly over foreign trade and foreign affairs. The trade monopoly was important because significant profits were available to the Tokugawa alone. Foreign trade was also permitted through Satsuma domain to the Ryukyu kingdom (Okinawa) and through Tsushima domain to Korea, but generally speaking diplomatic matters were closely controlled by the Tokugawa.

Foreign relations were crucial because control of them made a statement to the political public that the Tokugawa house was in control of all aspects of government; it was an additional source of legitimacy. In line with this, the Tokugawa shogunate restricted diplomatic contact by prohibiting any Europeans except the Dutch from coming to Japan after 1639; this was the policy of national seclusion (sakoku). But even seclusion was an exercise of power which impressed observers and encouraged submission.

Perhaps the most important role of the shogunate was control of the domains, the han. This was precisely what had been lacking in the Warring States period, the ability of central authority to enforce peace. During the forty years before the Edo period, the three unifiers, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, evolved a system which proved increasingly capable of ensuring the loyalty and obedience of vassals. The Tokugawa shogunate took this previous experience and honed it to perfection.

Elements of this system included a police and spy network which reported any suspicious activity by samurai or daimyo. Daimyo were required to report any proposed marriage alliances between domains to the shogunate for approval. Contact between domains was prohibited to reduce opportunities for plotting against the shogunate. The number of castles, their size and their strength were very strictly limited.

The shogunate could punish daimyo for transgressions in a variety of ways; a domain could be reduced in size, the daimyo could be shifted to an entirely different domain, or, the ultimate sanction, suicide could be demanded, perhaps with the additional punishment of his lineage being reduced in status to a non-daimyo level.

The most important aspect of the system of controlling the han was the sankin-kotai system, or the system of alternate residence in Edo. This grew out of the Warring States period practice of demanding high-ranking hostages from vassals or allies to guarantee good behavior. The founder of the shogunate, Tokugawa Ieyasu, was himself a hostage for nearly 13 years as a young boy.

The Tokugawa, however, formalized the keeping of hostages. They established rules which specified for each daimyo a period of time every year (or two or three) during which the daimyo must live in Edo. The daimyo’s family would have to live in Edo when the daimyo returned to his domain, so that the one stood hostage for the other.

Not only did this provide hostages, but it also placed an economic burden on the daimyo which drained away resources that otherwise might have gone into military preparations against the shogunate. The daimyo had to maintain a large residence and support facilities in Edo as well as in their domain. They also had to travel to and from Edo along a route dictated by the shogunate. Most traveled on the Tokaido because the Nakasendo was used by the imperial court, but the overall burden was spread between the two roads. The whole system consumed about 25% of the income available to most daimyo.

The shogunate was only one part of the bakuhan system, however; the domains were the other. The domains were independent with regard to their internal arrangements as long as there was no conflict with the shogunate’s interests. In practice, the domains voluntarily duplicated the shogunate’s system of government to a large degree because the interests and problems of a daimyo at his level were similar to those of the shogunate: how to maintain stability and order. Furthermore, the powers which the shogunate exercised over the domains had the effect of forcing the domains to behave in much the same manner since they were facing the same requirements.

For example, all substantial domains maintained commercial operations in Osaka, the national market, in order to sell rice and other commodities so as to raise the cash required by the alternate attendance system. This standardization did much to reduce regional differences and potential antagonisms throughout the Edo period.

Like the shogunate, the daimyo had a high interest in pacifying and controlling their subjects and the samuraiin general. During the late 16th Century, Toyotomi Hideyoshi disarmed the peasants through a series of sword hunts with the intention of reducing their contribution to turmoil and to pin them to agricultural activity alone. In the years after 1588, samurai were progressively removed from their independent fiefs in the countryside and brought into the daimyos’ castle towns to live. The samurai became separated from the peasantry both in social role and place of residence.
- source : nakasendoway.com

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. Japanese Architecture - Interior Design - The Japanese Home .

. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .

. Doing Business in Edo - 商売　- Introduction .

. shokunin 職人 craftsman, craftsmen, artisan, Handwerker .

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu poems in Edo .

. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

[ . BACK to DARUMA　MUSEUM　TOP . ]
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]- - - - - #edobakufu 　#bakuhan - - - -
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Tenryō, gundai and daikan
The shogun directly held lands in various parts of Japan. These were known as bakufu chokkatsuchi; since the Meiji period, the term tenryō has become synonymous.
In addition to the territory that Ieyasu held prior to the Battle of Sekigahara, this included lands he gained in that battle and lands gained as a result of the Summer and Winter Sieges of Osaka. By the end of the seventeenth century, the shogun's landholdings had reached four million koku. Such major cities as Nagasaki and Osaka, and mines, including the Sado gold mine, also fell into this category.
- source : wikipedia

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. Ashio doozan 足尾銅山 Ashio Dozan, Ashio Copper Mine . - Tochigi
and Besshi doozan 別子銅山 Bessgu copper mine, Ehime

. Gyotoku enden 行徳塩田 Gyotoku salt fields in Chiba .

. Hita 日田市 - Bungo no Kuni Hita 豊後国日田 . Oita
Hita Tenryo Matsuri　日田天領まつり　Hita Tenryo Festival
Tenryo Hita Hina Doll Festival　天領日田雛まつり

. Iwami Ginzan 石見銀山　Silver Mines at Iwami, Shimane .

. Sadokoku Sado koku 佐渡国 Sado Province .

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信濃の天領陣屋 Jinya Government Building in Shinano
江戸幕府の天領 - 村上直
天領（江戸幕府直轄領）研究の第一人者である村上直氏が、全国的な観点から天領を捉える。天領の設定と存在意義、天領の開発と代官頭、関東と畿内の天領、天領の地域的分布、天領と代官支配、幕府の職掌分化と代官、代官と遠国奉行などについて解説する。
- source : town.iijima.lg.jp -

- quote -
天領という用語は、
明治初期に旧幕府直轄領が天皇の御料（直轄領）になったときに天領と呼ばれるようになったため、さかのぼって幕府時代のものも天領と通称するようになったもので、江戸時代に使われていた用語ではない。江戸時代には支配所　shihaisho（しはいしょ、しはいじょ）、支配処（しはいしょ、しはいじょ）と呼んだ。また通称で御料 goryo（ごりょう）、御料所 goryosho（ごりょうしょ、ごりょうじょ）、御料地 goryochi（ごりょうち）、公儀御料 kogi oryo （こうぎごりょう）などとも呼ばれた。
なお、現在では幕府領、幕領という語が用いられることもあり、その中に旗本知行地（約300万石）も含めて呼ばれることもある。
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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CLICK for more types of Sake and even Tenryo water!

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- - - - - H A I K U and S E N R Y U - - - - -

天領の空かがやかす雉の綺羅
tenryo no sora kagayakasu kiji no kira

the glittering
of the pheasant brings a shine
to the "Land of Heaven "
Tr. Gabi Greve

Endoo Masako 遠藤正子 Endo Masako

. WKD : kiji　雉 pheasant .
- - kigo for all spring - -

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. Japanese Architecture - Interior Design - The Japanese Home .

. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .

. Doing Business in Edo - 商売　- Introduction .

. shokunin 職人 craftsman, craftsmen, artisan, Handwerker .

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu poems in Edo .

. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

[ . BACK to DARUMA　MUSEUM　TOP . ]
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]- - - - - #edobakufu #tenryo #bakuryo - - - -
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During the Edo period, when people lived closely in wooden homes and used open fire for cooking, fires were especially terrible.
Fire and fighting are the flowers of Edo (kaji to kenka wa Edo no hana)
is an old proverb of these dangerous times.

hatsu kaji 初火事 first fire
The first fire of the new year is often seen as a bringer of bad luck, if it happens during the first three days of the New Year.

Matsuo Basho's first "Basho Hut (Bashoo An 芭蕉庵" burned down, on January 25, 1683.

. WKD : kaji 火事 fire .
hi no ban　火の番 on the lookout for fire
machibikeshi, machi hikeshi 町火消し local fire brigade
hi no yoojin 火の用心 fire prevention goods

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江戸の火事と火消 /山本純美

- quote
Fires in Edo
were fires which occurred in Edo (江戸), now Tokyo, during the Edo period. The city of Edo was characterized by frequent great fires as the saying "Fires and quarrels are the flowers of Edo" goes.
Even in the modern days, the old Edo was still remembered as the "City of Fires"(「火災都市」). The city was something of a rarity in the world, as vast urban areas of Edo were repeatedly leveled by fire. The great fires of Edo were compared to the Chinese gods of fire Shukuyū (祝融) and Kairoku (回禄), and also humorously described as "autumn leaves".
..... During the 267 years between 1601 (Keichō 6), the year after the Battle of Sekigahara (関ヶ原の戦い), and 1867 (Keiō 3), the year of Taisei Hōkan (大政奉還, literally "return of sovereignty"), Edo was struck by 49 great fires.
..... The strong winter monsoon from the north was a meteorological condition unique to Edo. It contributed to many winter and spring fires that occurred in dry weather brought about by prevailing northwest and north winds.....

December 26, 1601 / 6 Keicho/11
March 10or11, 1641 / 8 Kan-ei/1/29or30 - Oke-machi Fire 桶町火事
March 2–3, 1657 / 3 Meireki/1/18-19 - Great Fire of Meireki明暦の大火
January 25, 1683 / 2 Tenna/12/28 - Great Fire of Tenna 天和の大火
October 9, 1698 / 11 Genroku/9/6 - Chokugaku Fire 勅額火事
December 25, 1704 / 16 Genroku/11/29 - Mito-sama Fire 水戸様火事
March 14, 1745 / 2 Enkyo/2/12 - Rokudō Fire 六道火事
March 22, 1760 / 10 Horeki/2/6 - Hōreki Fire 宝暦の大火
April 1, 1772 / 9 Meiwa/2/29 - Great Fire of Meiwa明和の大火
April 22, 1806 / 3 Bunka/3/4 - Great Fire of Bunka文化の大火
April 24, 1829 / 12 Bunsei/3/21 - Great Fire of Bunsei 文政の大火
March 16, 1834 / 5 Tempo/2/7 - Kōgo Fire 甲午火事
March 2, 1845 / 2 Koka/1/24 - Aoyama Fire 青山火事
November 11, 1855 / 2 Ansei/10/2 - Earthquake Fire地震火事

Tokugawa shogunate's fire prevention measures
Firefighting organizations
- machibikeshi (町火消, chōnin firefighters).
- buke hikeshi (武家火消 samurai firefighters)
-- daimyō hikeshi (大名火消, daimyo firefighters) and
-- jōbikeshi (定火消, hatamoto firefighters).

Anti-arson measures
- Hitsuke tōzoku aratame 火付盗賊改方

Urban planning - fire barrier zones
- Hiyokechi 火除地 and hirokōji 広小路
- Fire-resistant and fireproof structures
- Prohibitions and fire alert orders
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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Meireki no Taika 明暦の大火 Great Fire of Meireki
March 2–3, 1657 / 3 Meireki/1/18-19
... also known as the Furisode Fire, destroyed 60–70% of the Japanese capital city of Edo (now Tokyo) on March 2, 1657, the third year of the Meireki Imperial era. The fire lasted for three days, and is estimated to have claimed over 100,000 lives.
Legend
The fire was said to have been started accidentally by a priest who was cremating an allegedly cursed kimono. The kimono had been owned in succession by three teenage girls who all died before ever being able to wear it. When the garment was being burned, a large gust of wind fanned the flames causing the wooden temple to ignite.
. . . . . On the 24th day of the new year, six days after the fire began, monks and others began to transport the bodies of those killed down the Sumida River to Honjo, Sumida,_Tokyo, a community on the eastern side of the river. There, pits were dug and the bodies buried; the Ekō-in (Hall of Prayer for the Dead) was then built on the site.
. . . . . Under the guidance of Rōjū Matsudaira Nobutsuna 松平信綱, streets were widened and some districts replanned and reorganized
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

Matsudaira Nobutsuna 松平信綱 (1596 – 1662)
was a Japanese daimyo of the early Edo period, who ruled the Kawagoe Domain. First serving Tokugawa Iemitsu as a page, Nobutsuna was renowned for his sagacity. He was named a rōjū in 1633. Nobutsuna led the shogunal forces to their final victory over the rebellion at Shimabara. His court title was Izu no Kami, which was the origin of his nickname, "Izu the Wise" (知恵伊豆 Chie Izu).
. . . . . In his later years, he joined senior Tokugawa officials such as Hoshina Masayuki in supporting the underaged 4th shogun, Ietsuna. With Hoshina he planned how to rebuilt the town of Edo after the great fire.
. . . . . Shogun Ietsuna calls him "as ugly as a toad".
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

The bridge 両国橋 Ryogokubashi across the　隅田川 Sumida river was constructed on request of Hoshina and Matsudaira to provide an escape road for the townspeople. The land on the other side soon thrived as a popular amusement district, as did many other of the newly built hirokooji　広小路 Hirokoji, Wide Roads, which provided space for yatai 屋台 stalls and evening business.

. Ryoogokubashi 両国橋　 Ryogokubashi bridge .

The 天守閣　tenshukaku tower of Edo castle was also lost during the Meireki fire.
It was not rebuilt any more, to express the lasting peace of the Tokugawa bakufu and the money was spent to rebuilt the town. The gates at the other bridges of Edo were also kept open for free transportation and trade in Edo, thus improving the life of the citizens. This also expressed the now lasting peace of the Bakufu, showing that a castle for war defense was no longer needed.

. Edo joo 江戸城 Edojo, Edo Castle .

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Three Great Fires of Edo 江戸の三大大火

Meireki 明暦の大火
Meguro Gyooninzaka 目黒行人坂の大火 Meguro Gyoninzaka (Meiwa no taika)
Hinoe Tora 丙寅の大火 (Bunka no taika)

- source : gakken.co.jp/kagakusouken -

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. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

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Edo - Tokyo 練馬区 Nerima

kitsune 狐 the fox
There lives an old fox in the temple. When he called out, he warned people of a fire, so three or four times a great fire could be averted. He is therefore called

消稲荷 Fire-extinguishing Inari
a form of hi no kami inari火の神稲荷, Inari as a Fire Deity.

- source : nichibun yokai database -
5 to explore 火の神稲荷 (01)

全国的に、鍛冶屋、刀工、鋳物師などが仕事を休んで稲荷神社に詣で、「鞴祭り」を行いました。
- source : pleasuremind.jp -

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天狗 Tengu causing fire
The towers of 東寺 To-Ji and 法勝寺 Hossho-Ji temples in Kyoto were lost through fire, which was an act of a Tengu. Other great fires in Kyoto, Osaka and Edo, which started as small fires and then became large rapidly were also the doing of a Tengu.

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京都府 Kyoto

taika no zencho 大火の前兆 a foreboding of great fire
One year before 天明の大火 the great fire of Tenmei (1788, March 3), more than 1000 people people of 畿内近国 Kinai Kingoku (Kinki) walked every day around the four corners of the 禁裏 Kinri Imperial Palace.
が毎日数千人禁裏の四方を巡る事があった。
This was an omen of the coming great fire.

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長野県 Nagano 清内路村 Seinaiji

tatari 大火，祟り the curse of the great fire
The lord of 飯田城 Iidajo Castle captured お建 and carried out the death penalty at 愛宿下 Atagoshita. Because of her curse, there was a great fire in the castle. The shrine in her honor お建の社 and the trees in the forest also suffered great damage and people feared her curse.

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- source : nichibun yokai database -
55 大火 to explore (02)

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. Japanese Architecture - Interior Design - The Japanese Home .

. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .

. Doing Business in Edo - 商売　- Introduction .

. shokunin 職人 craftsman, craftsmen, artisan, Handwerker .

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu poems in Edo .

. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

[ . BACK to DARUMA　MUSEUM　TOP . ]
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]- - - - - #edobakufu #taika #greatfiresinedo #edofires - - - -
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[ . BACK to DARUMA　MUSEUM　TOP . ]
. Edo bakufu 江戸幕府 The Edo Government .
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Ezo, Emishi 蝦夷　エゾ　Ainu Culture アイヌの文化　- Yezo, Yeso, Jezo

. Matsumae in Hokkaido松前 .
Matsumae, one of the oldest port towns in Hokkaido, used to be busy during the summer months in the Edo period for fishing.
The name Matsumae at that time was almost identical with the old name of Ezo / Hokkaido.

. Kitamaebune北前船 North-bound trade ships .
Matsumaebune 松前船 Matsumae trade ships to Hokkaido

. Ainu Ryori アイヌ料理 Ainu Food - Introduction .
Their traditional cuisine consists of the flesh of bear, fox, wolf, badger, ox or horse, as well as fish, fowl, millet, vegetables, herbs, and roots.
Archaeological finds
Ainu museum in Asahikawa, Hokkaido
Ainu Religion
Chiri Yukie Chiri知里幸恵 (1903 - 1922)

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Ainu Daruma ... アイヌだるま

. Ainu Folk Art and Craft .
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Daruma from Enju Wood エンジュ達磨 / enju 槐 Japanese pagoda tree
Itazu Kunio板津邦夫, a famous woodcarver, born 1931.
Ainu Kokeshi　こけし

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Ishū Retsuzō 夷酋列像 Ishu Retsuzo - - Ishuretsuzo

- source : hokkaido-np.co.jp/ishuretsuzo-

- quote　－C.B. Liddell
The frayed edges of modern Japan
In the Edo Period (1603-1868) and the years that followed, Japan made strenuous efforts to bring together its patchwork of feudal regions into a strongly centralized state with a unified culture. Accordingly, the nation now is one of the most homogenous in the world. But there are a couple of places where this strongly mono-cultural model begins to fray.

One is Okinawa, where there is a somewhat different identity, and the other is Hokkaido, where there are still some traces of the indigenous Ainu people and their culture. While recognizing these different ethnic areas could be problematic — leading to separatism, for example — completely ignoring them is not an option, so it is only fitting that efforts to acknowledge them is made. The exhibition “Ishuretsuzo, the Image of Ezo: Tracing Persons, Things and the World” at the National Museum of Japanese History — and from Feb. 25 at the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka — should be viewed in these terms.

Significantly, the exhibition focuses on the Ainu not as a separate and independent culture but rather as symbiotic allies and auxiliaries of the Japanese. The curation was built around the Ishuretsuzo, a series of portraits of Ainu chieftains, painted by Hakyo Kakizaki (1764-1826), a samurai retainer of the Matsumae clan, who occupied the southern part of Hokkaido to defend the border.

Originally there were 12 portraits, painted in 1790, depicting high-ranking Ainu allies of the clan, with one of the portraits being of a woman, noticeable by her lack of a long beard and her tattooed lips.

These surprisingly skillful works were painted in the aftermath of the Menashi-Kunashir War of 1789, when Ainu attacks on Japanese tradesmen and colonists in the northeastern part of the island led to retaliation by the Matsumae clan and their Ainu allies. The whereabouts of the paintings was unknown, until 1984 when 11 of the works were rediscovered at the Besancon Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeology in eastern France.

These 11 paintings are supplemented by garments and objects, some of which have also been depicted in the pictures, as well as old maps and other artworks showing scenes from Ezo, as Hokkaido was then known. The most impressive item on display is an expansive folding screen from 1741, showing in great detail the town of Matsumae, the headquarters of the eponymous clan. Among the small figures that can be discerned are a group of Ainu visiting the town.

夷酋列像 - Ishuretsuzo

It seems clear from looking at this screen, Kakizaki’s works and the details of the Menashi-Kunashir War, that the Japanese and Ainu were in frequent contact and occupied different economic positions, not separate and exclusive spaces. The Ainu tended to focus on hunting and fur-trapping — the exhibition includes a very large sea otter rug — while the Japanese were traders and farmers.

This was a period when Japan was closed to the rest of the world, except for a strictly controlled stream of trade through Nagasaki. But Ezo’s distance from the capital and its frontier conditions appears to have had a liberalizing effect on trade, with Hokkaido serving as something of a back door to Japan.

This is reflected in Kakizaki’s paintings, which show the Ainu chieftains wearing an outlandish mixture of Chinese, Japanese and even European garments. It is almost as if Ezo was a colder version of Tatooine, the anarchic trading planet in the “Star Wars” movies, with the more powerful Ainu chieftains being particularly colorful characters.

Although tensions occasionally flared up, as in the Menashi-Kunashir War, the mutual benefits for Japanese and Ainu meant that there was good reason for them to get along together.

It is possible to see Kakizaki’s paintings as examples of ethnographic art and depictions of the alien “other.” Attention could be drawn to the evident fascination with which he depicted the hairiness of his subjects and their swaggering and eclectic sense of fashion.

But a more fair-minded appraisal would be to draw attention to the painter’s general realism — his lack of ethnic exaggeration and exoticism. These are works by someone who seems to have been truly familiar with the Ainu people, and it shows. Although Kakizaki’s paintings represent a Japanocentric view of the Ainu, it is one that is nevertheless genuine, sensitive and artistically sympathetic.

'Ishuretsuzo: Shimochi, Ainu Chieftain of Akkeshi, by Hakyo Kakizaki (1790)

'Ishuretsuzo: Tsukinoe, Ainu Chieftain of Kunashiri' by Hakyo Kakizaki (1790)
- source : Japan Times

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- quote -
Kunashiri Menashi no tatakai クナシリ・メナシの戦い Menashi-Kunashir Rebellion
Menashi-Kunashir Battle was a battle in 1789 between Ainu and Japanese on the Shiretoko Peninsula in northeastern Hokkaidō. It began in May, 1789 when Ainu attacked Japanese on Kunashir Island and parts of the Menashi District as well as at sea. More than 70 Japanese were killed. The Japanese executed 37 Ainu identified as conspirators and arrested many others. Reasons for the revolt are not entirely clear, but they are believed to include a suspicion of poisoned saké being given to Ainu in a loyalty ceremony, and other objectionable behavior by Japanese traders.

The battle is the subject of Majin no Umi, a children's novel by Maekawa Yasuo that received the Japanese Association of Writers for Children Prize in 1970.

A similar large-scale Ainu revolt against Japanese influence in Yezo was Shakushain's Revolt from c. 1669-1672.
- source : wikipedia -

Shakushain no tatakai シャクシャインの戦い Shakushain's Revolt
an Ainu rebellion against Japanese authority on Hokkaidō between 1669 and 1672. It was led by Ainu chieftain Shakushain against the Matsumae clan, . . .
- source : wikipedia -

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- - - - - H A I K U and S E N R Y U - - - - -

簗崩れこれより蝦夷は鬼の国
yana kuzure kore yori Ezo wa oni no kuni

a broken weir -
from here on its Ezo
land of the Demons

田村正義 Tamura Masayoshi (1938 - )

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雪囲ひ終へて薪積む蝦夷古刹
yukigakoi oete maki tsumi Ezo kosatsu

finishing the snow protection
it is time for collecting firewood
at an old temple in Ezo

Saitoo Setsuko 斎藤節子 Saito Setsuko

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奥蝦夷に建ちし末寺やお取越
石田雨圃子

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Ezomatsu 蝦夷松 / えぞ松 Pine from Ezo, (Picea jezoensis）

えぞ松の雪こぼし出づ春の鹿
瀬戸みさゑ
蝦夷松に幣やゆづり葉年用意
飯田弥伊子
蝦夷松の幹立ち塞ぎ蝶飛べず
岡田日郎
蝦夷松の秋風高き旅路かな
水田むつみ

風渡る蝦夷松の下車組む
工藤蘇虹

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. Japanese Architecture - Interior Design - The Japanese Home .

. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu poems in Edo .

. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

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This is quite an old district of Edo.
The head horse dealers 高木源兵衛 Takagi Genbei（Takagi Genbe'e）and 富田半七 Tomita Hanshichi lived there since about 1580. They also traded in cattle.

BAKURO refers to a place for horse riding and horse trading (馬市). It soon became known as a district of inns (hatago　旅籠) where people prepared for their trips out of Edo, buying supplies and gifts of all kinds. From here the Road to Oshu（奥州街道 Oshu Kaido ) started.
(In the busiest times there were about 40 Hatago inns.)
Therefore there are many wholesale stores in the district, which had four sections.
Section 4 馬喰町四 leads over to Asakusabashi Bridge.
There were also special kujiyado公事宿　(accomodations for people who came to Edo for trials of lawsuits)
- see below.

Bakurocho was the area where Tokugawa Ieyasu kept a few hundred horsed to prepare for
Sekigahara 関ヶ原出陣 the Battle of Sekigahara.
bakuro 馬工郎 is the old name for the horse owners and traders, who came to live there.
In the nearby districts of 大伝馬町 Odenmacho and 小伝馬町 Kodenmacho there lived more
umakata 馬方 "horse men" in the service of the Bakufu.

The mansions of Bakufu officials dealing with the "eight districts of Kanto", Kan Hasshu 関八州の幕府直轄領 were also located in Bakurocho.

Utagawa Hiroshige: Hatsune Riding Ground
馬喰町初音の馬場　Hatsune no Baba
This is one of the oldest Horse Grounds in Edo.

The print shows the shop of Murasakiya 紫屋染物店, a cloth dyer,
and
a high hi no mi yagura火の見櫓 watch tower for fires. The large empty space was a special place to prevent fires from spreading (hiyoke chi 火除け地).

. umakata 馬方 "horse person" .
the owner of the horse or a servant in charge.

bakuroo choo 博労町
An old spelling is bakuroo choo 博労町
bakuroo 博労 Bakuro dealers of horses (馬の善し悪しを鑑定し、売買・仲介をする人)

Close to Bakurocho is also
Yokoyamachoo 日本橋横山町 Nihonbashi Yokoyama-chō .
Bakuro-Yokoyama is a now district in Tokyo Shitamachi.

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. Edo Nana Fushigi 江戸七不思議 The Seven Wonders of Edo　 .

Bakurocho Nana Fushigi 馬喰町七不思議 Seven Wonders of Bakurocho

鼠に似た怪しい異国の獣 - a strange beast from a foreign country, looking like a rat / mouse
卵を生む女房 a woman who was laying eggs (like a hen)
犬の珍しい行為 a dog who behaved in strange ways
天水桶の溺死 someone drowned in a rain water barrel
仲裁後の手傷 hand wound after the arbitration
三日月井戸の暗号 the code of the sickle moon well
先祖の因縁がめぐる御霊社詣 visiting shrines with attachments to the ancestors

馬喰町妖獣殺人事件
風野真知雄 Kazeno Machio (1951 - )

訴訟でやってくる者たちが泊まる〈公事宿〉のひしめく日本橋馬喰町。お裁きがまさに始まろうとした御白州で、獣に食いつかれたような傷を残して公事師が突然死んだ。〝マミ〟が出たという騒ぎ、卵を産んだ女房、三日月井戸. . . 馬喰町七不思議のなかに隠された巨大な悪事に根岸備前守が挑む。
source : ganken.jp/nittoweb/2014

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kujiyado, kuji yado 公事宿（くじやど）lawsuit inn
"lawyers' inn”, suit inn, litigation inn, Gasthaus für Litiganten

公事宿裏始末４　孤月の剣 / 氷月葵

There were cases where managers and assistant managers of kujiyado were acting as kujishi 公事師, or kujishi were employed by kujiyado (雇下代).
Kujishi is a Japanese term used to refer to persons who would stand in for the relevant parties involved in a lawsuit in the Edo period.

- quote -
In the Edo period, legal matters were taken care of at kujiyado (litigation inns). The owners of these inns were the equivalent of lawyers. Mostly they dealt with disputes over money. Of the 35,000 civil suits that were addressed in 1718, about 33,000 of them involved money.
- reference : factsanddetails.com/japan -

- reference : edo kujiyado -

- quote -
公事訴訟や裁判のために地方から来た者を宿泊させた江戸時代の宿屋。
公事人宿・出入宿・郷宿 Goyado・御用宿 Goyoyado とも呼ばれた。
「公事宿」という名称は主に江戸の宿屋に用いられ、地方の城下町や代官所の陣屋近くにあった宿屋は「郷宿」（ごうやど）と呼ばれることが多かった。両者を総称して「御用宿」（ごようやど）ともいう。また、江戸の公事宿は旅人宿と百姓宿に分けられるが、両者をまとめて江戸宿と呼ぶこともあった。大坂では、大坂町奉行所の御用を勤めた御用宿を用達（ようたし）と呼んだ。
江戸の公事宿は、馬喰町小伝馬町旅人宿、八拾弐軒百姓宿、三拾軒百姓宿（三拾組百姓宿）、それに十三軒組があり、それぞれ仲間組織を形成し、独占営業権を与えられていた。旅人宿は町奉行所と、八拾弐軒組は公事方勘定奉行所、
三拾軒組は馬喰町御用屋敷とそれぞれ密接な関係にあり、百姓宿はそれぞれの役所の近辺に建てられていることが多かった。三拾軒組は関東郡代との結びつきも強く、また八拾弐軒組は評定所・勘定奉行所の出火駆付御用も務めた。三組の仲間組織は、それぞれが役目・権益にまつわる由緒をもち、またそれぞれ得意客のいる縄張りも抱えていた。
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

. hatago (旅籠, 旅篭) lodgings in Edo .
They were also called hatagoya (旅籠屋).

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- - - - - H A I K U and S E N R Y U - - - - -

秋の蚊の声や地下鉄馬喰町
aki no ka no koe ya chikatetsu Bakurocho

the voice of
mosquitoes in autumn - underground station
Bakurocho
Tr. Gabi Greve

Oogushi Akira 大串章 Ogushi Akira (1937 - )

Bakuro Yokoyama Subway Station

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. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .

. Doing Business in Edo - 商売　- Introduction .

. shokunin 職人 craftsman, craftsmen, artisan, Handwerker .

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu poems in Edo .

. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

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Tokugawa Ieyasu is the founder of the Edo Shogunate, he was the first shogun and posthumously became some kind of protecting deity with his own shrine in the Nikko Mountains, north of Tokyo (an auspicious place to protect his city according to Chinese Feng-Shui Geomantic lore).
日光の東照宮 Nikko no Tosho-Gu

Here is the famous story to shed light on the temperament of the three rivaling warlords of their time:
When confronted with a nightingale in a cage, which would not sing, each had his own approach to this situation:

-- Nobunaga --
If the bird does not sing, kill it!
-- Hideyoshi --
If the bird does not sing, I will make it sing!
--- Ieyasu ---
If the bird does not sing, I will wait until it sings!

As you might imagine from the above episode, Ieyasu outlived and out-waited his opponents and then took over power, like a ripe apple falling into his hands.

Tokugawa Ieyasu was obsessed with food and medicine to prolong his life. But he also liked to try new things, like the "tempora", tempura introduced by the Portugese missionaries.

. Ieyasu and 日光の東照宮 Nikko no Tosho-Gu .

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- - - Tokugawa Ieyasu in the WIKIPEDIA !

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shikami 顰 "Grimacing Face"

- quote
Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616) attacked the army of Takeda Shingen in the Battle of Mikatagahara against the advice of his vassals and suffered a great defeat.
It is believed that Ieyasu, who narrowly escaped to his castle, had a portrait of himself in fear made to remember that he must always listen to the comments of his vassals, as a lesson learned in this battle.

The statue in this photo is based on the portrait in this story.
- source : samuraistyle.jp facebook

- - - - - and on Jeans !
a combination of the Fudo Myo-O favored by Takeda Shingen and his enemy Tokugawa Ieyasu

信玄の守護神武田不動尊像と家康の顰（しかみ）像

. Denim Jeans and Fudo Myo-O 不動明王 .

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. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

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kaibutsu 怪物 monster

徳川家康が駿河にいた頃、ある朝庭に肉人とでもいうべき小児くらいの大きさのものが現れた。遠くに追いやったが、ある人が言うにはそれは封（ほう）というもので、食べれば多力武勇になるという。

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Ise odori 伊勢踊

寛永元年の2月上旬から、諸国で自然に伊勢踊りが大流行した。耕作を妨げ、生業を疎かにするので、吉田家に下問された。すると吉田家は伊勢神宮の内外の神が、何らかの理由で飛び出たという。また将軍家でも詮議されたところ、以前に伊勢踊が流行った後に、大坂で兵乱があったり、また徳川家康が死んだりして、不吉の予兆とされた。

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Taroo inari 太郎稲荷

立花左近将監が朝鮮出兵の際、石田三成の讒言によって豊臣秀吉の勘気を蒙った。その時立花は本国に帰らずに、江戸の浅草観音の前に移住すること8年に及んだ。そしてある夜の夢に白髪の老人が現れて、白木の三方に祇園守を載せて与えた。この老人が太郎稲荷であった。その翌日に徳川家康から召状が届き、本領を安堵されたという。

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Tosho-Gu 東照宮の神勅 Tosho-Gu no chinshoku

三河国の小笠原家領内に住んでいた半七という百姓が、十数年前に同国内で油を売っていた時、東照宮（徳川家康）の神勅が下ったとして玄碩と改名して医師となった。玄碩は心に浮かんだ通りに薬を調合すると諸所の病人は悉く癒えたという。
.
三河国の小笠原家領内に住んでいた半七という百姓が、十数年前に同国内で油を売っていた時、東照宮（徳川家康）の神勅が下ったとして玄碩と改名して医師となった。玄碩は心に浮かんだ通りに薬を調合すると諸所の病人は悉く癒えたという。後に玄碩が伊勢国度会郡を歩いていると、空中に天照御神が現れて、玄碩の心が真っ直ぐだからこそ東照宮の神慮に叶ったのだという神勅をえたという。

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Kanagawa 神奈川県大和市 Yamato

yamanba 山姥，aobi 青火
鬼のような姥が村人を悩ませたので、満開の桜の下で毒酒を飲ませて殺した。すると亡霊になった姥が夜な夜な現れ鬼火となり燃え上がるので姥山を通る人がなくなった。徳川家康がここを通った時に和歌を詠んで姥を鎮めた。

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Nagano 長野県

hakuba no tatari 白馬の祟り
葦毛で四白の馬は「ソウゼン」と呼ばれ、この馬は８歳になると白毛になり霊異に化すといわれている。徳川家康の臣と戦った武将が敗れ、白毛の愛馬と共に戦死した。以後、白馬が村人に祟りを為すので碑を立てて白馬の霊を慰めたという。

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Shizuoka 両河内村

Yakushi san 薬師さん
徳川家康が大平の薬師様に参って目が治った。もっと人里に祀ろうとしたが、吉原まで来たら動かなくなった。薬師様は大平が見えない所に行きたくなかった。

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ten yori kuru to iu mono 天より来ると云ふ者
駿府城の庭に、四肢に指がなく破れた衣を着て青蛙を食べる乱髪の者がどこからともなくやってきた。どこから来たのか尋ねると、天から来たと言った。家来が殺そうとしたが、徳川家康の命令により、城外に放った。

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Tokyo 東京都

sennin no moji 仙人の文字
慶長3年に大樹公（徳川家康）が狩りの時、鶴の羽裏にあった4つの文字を書いたという。この文字を天狗に遣わされたという虎吉に見せると、仙人が常に唄う符字のようなものの中にある文字であるといった。

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Tokyo, Setagaya 渋谷区

Oman enoki おまん榎 hackberry tree of Lady O-Man
The wife of Ieyasu, O-Man no Kataおまんの方（お万の方）, once suffered from a toothache. The priest from temple 千寿院 Senju-In took a branch from the enoki 榎 Chinese hackberry tree and made a toothpick out of it. When she put that toothpick in her mouth, she was cured very fast.
The tree is now one of the 千駄ヶ谷の七不思議 seven wonders of Sandagaya .

Senjuuin 仙寿院（せんじゅいん、法霊山仙寿院東漸寺）
- source : wikipedia -

. Edo Nana Fushigi 江戸七不思議 The Seven Wonders of Edo　.

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- reference : nichibun yokai database -

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- - - - - H A I K U and S E N R Y U - - - - -

Ieyasu Ki 家康忌 Ieyasu Memorial Day
元和2年4月17日（1616年6月1日）June 1

Nikkoo Tooshooguu sai
日光東照宮祭 (にっこうとうしょうぐうさい)
Festival at Toshogu in Nikko
Nikkoo sai 日光祭（にっこうさい）Nikko festival
Tooshooguu sai 東照宮祭（とうしょうぐうさい）Toshogu festisval
yoinarisai 宵成祭（よいなりさい）"coming on the night before"
togyosai 渡御祭（とぎょさい）"honorable parade of the main deity"
May 17, 18

. WKD : Tokugawa Ieyasu .

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家康忌老歯さながら城の石
百合山羽公

久能山に雲こそかかれ家康忌
鳥羽しのぶ

家康の魂ひやゝかに杉木立
正岡子規 Masaoka Shiki

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. Japanese Architecture - Interior Design - The Japanese Home .

. Edo bakufu 江戸幕府 The Edo Government .

. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .

. Doing Business in Edo - 商売　- Introduction .

. shokunin 職人 craftsman, craftsmen, artisan, Handwerker .

. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

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Tsujigiri killings are a well-loved subject of the Samurai Jidaigeki literature and films.

tameshigiri　試し切り "trying out a new sword"
usually done on the bodies of executed people

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- quote
Tsujigiri (辻斬り or 辻斬 tsuji-giri, literally 'crossroads killing')
is a Japanese term for a practice when a samurai, after receiving a new katana or developing a new fighting style or weapon, tests its effectiveness by attacking a human opponent, usually a random defenseless passer-by, in many cases during nighttime. The practitioners themselves are also referred to as tsujigiri.

In the medieval era, the term referred to traditional duels between bushi, but in the Sengoku period (1467-1600), widespread anarchy caused it to degrade into indiscriminate murder, permitted by the unchecked power of the bushi. Shortly after order was restored, the Edo government prohibited the practice in 1602. Offenders would receive capital punishment. The only known incident where a very large number of people were indiscriminately killed in the Edo period was the 1696 Yoshihara spree killing (吉原百人斬), where a wealthy lord named Yoshihara had a psychotic fit and murdered dozens of prostitutes with a katana. He was treated by authorities as a spree killer and sentenced to death. Later, a kabuki play was made about the incident.
The practice of tsujigiri has been cited in the philosophical debate over moral relativism, notably by Mary Midgley in her 1989 work Can't We Make Moral Judgements?.

Kiri-sute gomen 斬捨御免 or 切捨御免,
literally, "authorization to cut and leave"- the body of the victim
is an old Japanese expression dating back to the feudal era right to strike (right of samurai to kill commoners for perceived affronts). Samurai had the right to strike with sword at anyone of a lower class who compromised their honour.
- - - - - Conditions
Because the right was defined as a part of self defense, the strike had to follow immediately after the offense, meaning that the striker could not attack someone for a past grievance. Also, due to the right being self-defense, it was not permissible to deliver a further coup de grâce. Moreover, the samurai who exercised the right had to prove the correctness of his action in court by producing a witness. Punishment for the incorrect exercise of this right was severe. An offender could be beheaded without being allowed to perform seppuku and have his house abolished, meaning that none of his sons could succeed the title. Due to the seriousness of the punishment, many performed seppuku to pre-empt the verdict. A samurai visiting a different feudal province had to be extremely careful, especially if it was in Edo, the seat of the Shogun. Wrongful executions of commoners from different feudal provinces were seen as an offense against a feudal state. It was thus advisable for samurai visiting different provinces to be accompanied by a servant, so as to provide witness.

- - - - - Right of defense
Because of the somewhat arbitrary nature of this right, anyone who was at the receiving end had the right to defend themselves by wakizashi (short sword). This situation was most common in the case of a higher samurai exercising the right against a lower ranked samurai as samurai would always carry wakizashi.
The expression is still sometimes used in modern-day as "I apologize in advance for this one" for the subtle humor in offering what amounts to an unsympathetic apology.
An instance of Kiri sute gomen is described in the story of the Hōgyū Jizō statue. A boy, whose father was killed by Kirisute gomen, made 100 stone statues in later life, in Kumamoto.
- source : wikipedia

tameshigiri (試し斬り, 試し切り, 試斬, 試切)
is the Japanese art of target test cutting. The kanji literally mean "test cut" (kun'yomi: ためしぎり tameshi giri). This practice was popularized in the Edo period (17th century) for testing the quality of Japanese swords. It continues to the present day, but has evolved into a martial art which focuses on demonstrating the practitioner's skill with a sword.

. . . . . there were a wide variety of cuts used on cadavers and occasionally convicted criminals, from tabi-gata (ankle cut) to O-kesa (diagonal cut from shoulder to opposite hip). The names of the types of cuts on cadavers show exactly where on the body the cut was made.
- source : wikipedia

Ō-Edo Shitai-kō 大江戸死体考 “Reflections on the Corpses of Edo”

- reference : - PMJS tsujigiri discussion

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Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami
By John Breen, Mark Teeuwen
On his deathbed Tokugawa Ieyasu had the sword 三池光世 Miike Mitsuyo “tested” on a prisoner, only to declare the sword to be the seat of a kami he himself is going to become after his death.
- reference : books.google.co.jp -

Miike Mitsuyo
The Tokugawa shogunate founder Ieyasu had such an unswerving belief in the spiritual power of this sword that on his death bed he officially transferred his spirit to it, vowing to ensure the eternal prosperity of the shogunate. As a gesture to indicate the Tokugawa family’s position of ultimate control, he ordered the tip of the sword, when displayed, to be pointed toward the region of the Toyotomi clan, which had threatened his hegemony. The sword was the symbol of Ieyasu’s role as protector of the country and became treasured as the main object of worship in the deification of Ieyasu as Tosho Shinkun, the Great God of the Shrines of Eastern Japan.
- source : Yoko Haruhara -

. katana, nihonto 日本刀 The Japanese Sword .

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"Trying Out One's New Sword," by Mary Midgley
- - - - - Summary
Midgley argues that not only is moral isolationism – the view that one ought to respect other cultures but not judge them – incorrect, it is logically incoherent. She does so by presenting four self-contained arguments: that judgment is logically antecedent to respect, that outsiders can judge foreign cultures, if on a provisional basis, that moral isolationism leads to a complete inability to make moral judgments of any kind, and that cultures are not, as moral isolationism holds, subject to isolating barriers.
. . . . . First, she argued that
"there is a contradiction between the claim that we cannot understand these rules, and the claim we must respect them." (Midgely) This only means that we, ourselves, can understand people in other cultures. In the following paragraphs, Midgely was able to illustrate some relevant examples to explain the importance of analyzing other culture’s morals in order to form educated judgments about them. She gives an example of ancient Chinese samurai warriors whom before going off to battle would test the sharpness of their swords on innocent strangers. (Midgely)
. . . . . "The Japanese custom tsujigiri involves an owner of a sword and a traveler; the situation is that this owner will have to try out his/her sword to any traveler. This is to check if the blade is really that sharp and that the sword can really kill someone in just a single blow."
source : npapadakis.wordpress.com

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Kajiwara Heizô Homare no Ishikiri　梶原平三誉石切
石切梶原　ー Kabuki
first presented as a Joruri puppet theater　三浦大助紅梅靮 in 1730 at the 大阪竹本座　Takemoto-za in Osaka.
The title "Kajiwara Heizô Homare no Ishikiri" was used for the first time in June 1892, in Nagoya at the Suehiroza.

Ôba Saburô and his bombastic villainous brother Matano Gorô, who are both Heike warriors, are at a shrine in Kamakura celebrating their recent victory over the enemy general, Yoritomo, when Kajiwara Heizô, who also fought in the same battle, enters and joins them.

An elderly man and his daughter then appear and approach Ôba. Old Rokurôdayû wishes to sell a precious sword in his possession to help his daughter Kozue, and asks Ôba to buy it. Just as Ôba is about to go ahead, his brother objects and says that before anyone parts with 300 gold pieces he wants the sword examined. Kajiwara, who is known to be an outstanding swordsman, agrees to examine the sword. As he does so, he notices not only its excellence but sees something on the hilt that indicates the sword is a treasure of the enemy Genji, but he keeps that information silent. Kajiwara gives the sword his unqualified approval, and the sale is about to through again when Matano says that if it doesn't cut well it is more useless than a rusty fish knife, and insists that it is tested-by cutting two condemned prisoners in half.

The prison official reports that unfortunately there is only one prisoner currently under the death sentence, so Ôba says that he cannot buy the sword and readies himself to leave. Rokurôdayû, however, is desperate to sell the sword because he is secretly a Genji sympathizer and he needs the money to give to the Genji cause, so he offers himself as the second body, on the understanding they give the money to his daughter after his death. Matano is satisfied and plans to do the slicing himself, but Kajiwara intervenes and says he will test the sword. The condemned man is brought in and lain on top of Rokurôdayû. Kajiwara brings down the sword with precision, but only the criminal is killed. Rokurôdayû is still safely in one piece. Matano is disgusted that the sword has failed its reputation and leaves with Ôba. Kajiwara then reveals that he deliberately gauged the power of his stroke so that Rokurôdayû would not die. He, Kajiwara, recognizes the power and significance of the sword, and will buy it for himself, for he is also secretly a Genji sympathizer. And to prove the sword is in no way defective he brings it down on a stone water trough, cutting it clean in two. All three are delighted with the outcome and leave for Kajiwara's mansion to settle payment.
- reference : kabuki21.com/ishikiri -

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. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

In Kanagawa, Yokohama 横浜市, 泉区
To appease the souls of people who got killed in a hold-up (追剥ぎ oihagi) or Tsujigiri people built a 供養塔 stone memorial for prayers.
Later wild cats begun to dance around this stone.

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Hōgyū Jizō 放牛地蔵 Hogyu Jizo, Kumamoto
are Japanese stone statues; mostly of Ksitigarbha and other kinds of stone statues made by Buddhist monk Hōgyū (around 1672-1732) between 1722 and 1732 in Kumamoto, Japan. When Hōgyū was about 14, in 1686, his father was killed by a samurai. Later he made stone statues for the repose of the soul of his father.
In January 1686,
a blacksmith called Hichizaemon, a heavy drinker, threw a bamboo blower at his son. It accidentally hit the forehead of a samurai, Ohyano Genzaemon. Despite repeated apologies, Genzaemon immediately killed Hichizaemon with a sword, that being legal at the time by kiri sute gomen. Genzaemon, the son and his sister all wrote witness statements, and the Bugyō did not punish Genzaemon.
Out of grief,
the son entered the Buddhist priesthood for the repose of his father, and offered a prayer with a vow that he would make 100 stone statues. He made 107 stone statues between 1722 and 1732. He died in 1732. The 100th statue was in Ōjō-in Temple in Kumamoto, and it was the biggest statue (186 centimetres (73 in) high) among others standing on the big stone lotus.

CLICK for more photos !

- - - - - maybe
Hideo Nagata studied every statue of Hōgyū and stated that the Hogyu was not the boy whose father was killed. The statues might be connected with the circumstances of the time such as famine.
- source : wikipedia -

放牛さんとへふり地蔵
正田吉男／文　上原恵／絵　杉山静香／絵

. Jizō - Jizo Bosatsu 地蔵菩薩 - ABC List .

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michikiri, michi-kiri 道切 / 道切り "Cutting off the Road"
tsujigiri 辻切り（つじぎり） cutting off a crossroad

At the part where the main road enters a village, Dososhin deities are enshrined, sacred 注連縄　shimenawa ropes (or sometimes snakes made of straw) and other amulets are hung and 草履　zori (or waraji) straw sandals are offered to the deities in order to prevent evil spirits and monsters (or Kappa in this story) from entering and drive them away.

. Kanjonawa rope 勧請縄 sacred rope above a road .

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. Edo bakufu 江戸幕府 The Edo Government .

. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .

. Doing Business in Edo - 商売　- Introduction .

. shokunin 職人 craftsman, craftsmen, artisan, Handwerker .

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu poems in Edo .

. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

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[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]- - - - - #tsujigiri #kirisutegomen #tameshigiri #hogyujizo #ishikiri - - - -
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Edo no honyasan江戸の本屋さん Book stores in Edo
今田洋三

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. akahon 赤本　red book .

. Edo Meisho Zue 江戸名所図会, “Guide to famous Edo sites” .
Edo Meisho Hanagoyomi 江戸名所花暦 Flower Calendar of Famous Places in Edo

. ezooshi 絵草子 illustrated book or magazine .
「絵草子屋」 ezooshiya store
Ezoushi - Also written 絵双紙.
otogizooshi 御伽草子 popular tales
ukiyo zooshi 浮世草子 Ukiyo-zoshi - books about the floating world

. kashihonya, kashihon'ya 貸本屋 booklender, booklender
furuhonya, furu-honya 古本屋 selling old books .

. kawaraban　瓦版 Edo newspaper, handbill, broadside .
news broadsheet, lit. "tile-block printing" / yomiuri 読売、lit. "to read and sell"
Japanese newspapers (新聞 "shinbun")

. kibyooshi 黄表紙 Kibyoshi, "yellow book covers" .

. saiken　細見 "guide book" / Yoshiwara saiken 吉原細見 .
shibai saiken 芝居細見 guide book for theaters and actors
horizontal format (yokobon 横本), vertical format (tatebon 竪本)

. seihonshi 製本師　bookbinder - Buchbinder
seihonya 製本屋　- seihon gyoosha 製本業者 .
seihon ginooshi 製本技能士
seihon 製本 bookbinding - seihonjo 製本所 bookbinding factory, bookbindery, Buchbinderei
wasoobon, wasoohon 和装本 Japanese book making / wahon 和本 Japanese Book

. shunga 春画 "spring pictures" erotic pictures .

. Teikin Oorai, Teikin ōrai 庭訓往来 textbooks .
Kakimori Bunko 柿衛文庫 .

. Tsuruya Kiemon 鶴屋喜右衛門 Publisher 仙鶴堂 Senkakudo, Edo .

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Tsutaya Juuzaguroo, Tsutaya Jūzaburō 蔦屋重三郎 Tsutaya Jusaburo(1750 - 1797)
see below

. ukiyo-e shi　浮世絵師　Ukiyo-e producer .
ukiyo-e, lit. pictures of the floating world. Paintings and woodblock prints.
planned by the publisher hanmoto版元 and produced in collaboration with the painter/designer eshi絵師, carver horishi彫師 and printer surishi摺師.

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CLICK for more Japanese books !

出版文化と江戸の教養

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Tsutaya Juuzaburoo, Tsutaya Jūzaburō蔦屋重三郎 Tsutaya Jusaburo(1750 - 1797)

- quote -
. . . the founder and head of the Tsutaya publishing house in Edo, Japan, and produced illustrated books and ukiyo-e woodblock prints of many of the period's most famous artists. Tsutaya's is the best-remembered name of all ukiyo-e publishers. He is also known as Tsuta-Jū and Jūzaburō I.

Tsutaya set up his shop in 1774 and began by publishing guides to the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters.

- MORE in the wikipedia -

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the Book in Japan:
A Cultural History from the Beginnings to the Nineteenth Century
by Peter F. Kornicki (Author)

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- quote -
Printing and Publishing
Pre-Modern Printing
- - - - - Tokugawa Period
..... Roughly 300 titles were produced in the 1590s-1630s using moveable type, .....
- snip -
The earliest publishing houses emerged in Kyoto around 1600; simply called hon'ya (bookstores) they engaged in both printing/publishing and retail, and numbered over a hundred by the 1630s.
- snip -
Over the course of the entire Edo period, an estimated 3,757 publishing/bookstore operations were established in Japan, 1,530 of which went out of business before the end of the period.
- - - - - Process
Publishers would often initiate projects, deciding on themes and hiring illustrators or print designers. The illustrators would then submit their designs to the publisher, who would then take over much of the remainder of the process.
- hangiya (板木屋, block-carver)
- copyist or hanshitagaki (版下書)
- nishiki-e and surimono
- the verb 上梓 (jôshi), meaning "to print" or "to publish."
- woodblocks, known as zôhan (蔵版)
- - - - - Paper
- hemp (mashi 麻紙) - kôzo (楮) - Bamboo paper (tôshi 唐紙 or gasenshi 画箋紙)
- - - - - Pigments
- hide-glue called nikawa
Sumi - the same black ink used for painting and calligraphy was used for printing blacks and greys.
White pigments made from seashell (gofun) or lead oxide (enpaku)
Dayflower blue (tsuyukusa) - a light blue hue which reacts easily to moisture, turning yellow.
Prussian blue - the first chemical/artificial pigment developed in the world (i.e. deriving directly from neither vegetable or mineral sources); first used in Japan in 1829; a deep, rich blue that does not fade or discolor.
Beni (safflower red), used to produce various shades of red, pink, orange, and yellow.
Purples obtained by mixing dayflower blue with safflower red, or by other means.

- reference source : wiki.samurai-archives.com/index -
(very extensive reference !)

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Japanese books
Books in Japan (和本, wahon or 和装本, wasouhon) have a long history, which begins in the late 8th century AD. The majority of books were hand-copied until the Edo period (1603–1867), when woodblock printing became comparatively affordable and widespread. Movable-type printing had been used from the late 16th century, but for various aesthetic and practical reasons woodblock printing and hand-copied remained dominant until much later. Japanese equivalents for "book" include 本 (hon) and 書籍 (shoseki). The former term indicates only bound books, and does not include scrolls. The latter is used for printed matter only. The most general term is 書物 (shomotsu), which means all written or printed matter that has been collected into a single unit, regardless of construction.
1 Book composition
1.1 Binding methods
1.1.1 Pre-binding books
1.1.2 Bound books
2 Printing history
2.1 Nara Period
2.2 Heian and Kamakura Periods
2.3 Muromachi Period
2.4 The early-modern printing revolution
2.5 Meiji Period and beyond
- reference : wikipedia -

江戸時代の出版
- reference : wikipedia -

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. Doing Business in Edo - 商売　- Introduction .

. shokunin 職人 craftsman, craftsmen, artisan, Handwerker .

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu poems in Edo .

. Edo bakufu 江戸幕府 The Edo Government .

. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .

[ . BACK to DARUMA　MUSEUM　TOP . ]
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]- - - - - #shuppansha #publishinginedo #tsutaya - - - -
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[ . BACK to DARUMA　MUSEUM　TOP . ]
. Edo bakufu 江戸幕府 The Edo Government .
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kekkon　結婚 konrei　婚礼 marriage in Edo
and engiri, en kiri縁切り　to cut a bond - divorce . 　

under construction
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- quote
Love and Marriage
Among the textbooks that were commonly used during the Edo Period are a number of editions offering instruction on letter writing. One of them specifically addressed the art of composing love letters. As evidenced by the large number of such letters that have been found, moreover, one can surmised that written correspondence between lovers was a common practice.

Monogyny was the rule for both samurai aristocrats and commoners in the Edo period. Marriage partners were usually sought from families with similar social rank, and the consent of domainal and shogunal authorities were required for marriages involving samurai households. Wedding a partner of one's desire was rare, therefore, since the choice of spouse was made in accordance with the will and judgment of the parents. Cases of double suicide among young lovers were not uncommon when they found their parents' decisions unacceptable.

Those from low-ranking farming households that were less preoccupied with social status were freer to choose their own mates. Often, they met potential partners at local village festivals.

Tying the Knot
Marriage was a more formalized affair for higher-ranking farming households, though. Parents usually asked relatives and others with a broad network of acquaintances to find suitable marriage candidates. The family background of such candidates was checked, and if both families found the arrangement agreeable, a meeting was set up.

If both sides agreed to proceed with the marriage, an engagement ceremony was held, mediated by a village elder. On the day of the marriage, the groom visited the house of the bride, from where the couple, along with their parents and attendants, marched to the groom's house. The wedding ceremony was held at night, and the bride was introduced to members of the groom's village.

Marriage was even more complicated for leading aristocratic houses. A written request had to be submitted to the shogunal government, and newly married couples were required to visit Edo Castle to formally announce their wedlock.

The age of first marriage for women was much younger than it is today, although it rose toward the end of the Edo period. This was because girls began serving for a number of years as housemaids for aristocratic families and large landowners. Men who were employed business establishments were not allowed to marry until they were able to support a family, so their average age of first marriage over 40.

Divorces were fairly common, as were second, third, and even fourth marriages. Although it has been supposed that only the male had the right to demand a divorce, quite often divorce proceedings were initiated by the wife, and the cause of divorce was quite frequently the wife's involvement in an affair or her running away from home. In cases where discussions fail to produce an amicable divorce, women had a last-resort choice of seeking refuge in one of two temples in the country; after three years in the temple, the husband was unconditionally required to issue a letter of divorce.
- source : web-japan.org/tokyo/know/marriage / Hisako Hata

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Japanese Weddings in the Edo Period (1615–1868)
Essay
daimyô wedding.
Konrei-dôgu shokikei sunpô-sho (Wedding Trousseau Items Size Manual)
- source : metmuseum.org- - Monika Bincsik

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Samurai's marriage in Edo Period
The wedding was called Koshi-ire (輿入れ).
Tokoiri (床入り), the first night the new couple goes to bed together.
- source : iromegane.com/japan/culture -

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. nakoodo isha　仲人医者　doctors as matchmakers for marriage .
keian　慶庵 / 桂庵 Keian matchmaker
Named after the famous matchmacer-doctor Yamato Keian 大和慶庵 (around 1653).

A 仲人 Nakodo go-between was necessary for a regular marriage in Edo.

miai 見合い, "matchmaking", lit. "looking at one another"
omiai, o-miai お見合い

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. Tookeiji 東慶寺 Tokei-Ji - Kamakura .

A nunnery that was a refuge for women who wanted to divorce their husbands.

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. Enkiri, engiri 縁切り　to cut a bond - divorce . 　

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. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

- reference : nichibun yokai database -
kekkon 結婚 100
konrei 婚礼 66
koshi-ire 輿入れ 02

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. Edo bakufu 江戸幕府 The Edo Government .

. Doing Business in Edo - 商売　- Introduction .

. shokunin 職人 craftsman, craftsmen, artisan, Handwerker .

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu poems in Edo .

. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

[ . BACK to DARUMA　MUSEUM　TOP . ]
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]- - - - - #kekkonmarriage #mariageinedo #enkiridivorce #divorceinedo - - - -
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Many shops who made and sold Koji for Japanese food lived in this area, hence the name.
For example 麹屋三四郎 Kojiya Sanshiro.

Another explanation links the name to the beginning of the road to Koshu, Koofuji　国府路 Kofuji, pronounced fast as Koji and soon written with the character 麹.

. kooji 麹 Japanese yeast .
with Aspergillus oryzae or A. sojae
To make soy sauce, miso paste, rice wine and other types of Japanese food and drink.

During the Edo period, many wholesalers lived here, also carpenters and wall plasterers and many merchants which delivered to the Bakufu government　(goyootashi 御用達) and Edo castle.
okuishi 奥医師　Doctors who attended to the Tokugawa concubines of Ooku 大奥 also lived here.

Kojimachi is a long district with many sub-districts, the third one, Sanbancho often simply called "Bancho", where many Hatamoto retainers lived. They had a special area for horse training, 騎射調練馬場.

source : ameblo.jp/tkyburabura

Since 1865, the second and third sons of 旗本 Hatamoto came here, placed 焙烙 Horoku earthen plates on their head and tried to hit them down while riding in two fighting groups. ほうろく調練場.

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- quote -
A neighborhood in Chiyoda, Tokyo.
Prior to the arrival of Tokugawa Ieyasu, it was known as Kōjimura (糀村 Kojimura). The area developed as townspeople settled along the 甲州街道　Kōshū Kaidō. In 1878 Kōjimachi became a ward in the city of Tokyo. It was the forerunner of Chiyoda which is now a special ward.

The Kōjimachi ward was larger than past day Kōjimachi. The area centered upon Kōjimachi including the districts of the Banchō (番町 Bancho) area, Kudanminami, Kioichō, Hirakawachō and Hayabusachō is sometimes referred as the Kojimachi area (麹町地区).
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

. Edo Nana Fushigi 江戸七不思議 The Seven Wonders of Edo　 .
番町七不思議 Banchoo Nana Fushigi

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Soto sakurada benkeibori kojimachi Kojimachi and the Benkei Canal at Soto Sakurada
by Hiroshige 広重 - 糀町一丁目山王祭ねり込 Sanno Festival at Kojimachi I-chome

- quote -
Kojimachi and Bancho - an old samurai residential area
The Kojimachi and Bancho areas stretch from Hanzomon Station to the east of the Kokyo (Imperial Palace), towards Shinjuku. The area was formerly used as a residential area for Edo Period samurai but in the early 21st century the area is significantly different to that found here in earlier times.
The Kokuritsu Gekijo (National Theatre of Japan), Japan's only classical art theater stands near Hanzomon Station today. The building was designed to imitate the Azekura-zukuri (Azekura style) of Todaiji Temple near Nara and its splendid atmosphere embodies the beauty of Japanese tradition. Offering Kabuki in the 'Large Theater,' Hogaku (traditional Japanese music), Gagaku, and Bunraku (a form of Japanese puppet show) in the 'Small Theater,' and Rakugo (a traditional Japanese sit-down comedy), Manzai (a Japanese stand-up comedy), and Kodan (storytelling) in the Engeijo (Engei Hall), it has something for everyone. In addition, tours can be taken of its exhibition room: THE best place to know about Japanese traditional performing arts.
- 'Bancho.' Its name originates from the fact that 'Bankata' soldiers used to live here. ('Bankata' soldiers consisted of Hatamoto who served under the direct control of the ruling Shogun.)
... Chidorigafuchi ... Uchibori-Dori ...
... Walking around Kojimachi and Yotsuya, you will often feel the mood of the old Edo Period. The coexistence of modern buildings alongside their older counterparts. Fashionable shops in a quiet residential area sat amidst historical monuments being an example. It is a fun area to walk around and to browse through shops that catch your eye. Or, for the more historically inclined, it is another interesting area of the capital in which to tour historical sites and to glimpse Japanese history.
- source : att-japan.net/en -

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In Edo, meat was offered at the market of Kojimachi 麹町.
chiku畜 referred to four-legged animals that should not be eaten by Buddhists and kin禽 referred two-legged animals, birds to be eaten.

momonji referes to the meat of wild animals, like wild boar, deer, monkeys or Tanuki badgers and even dogs. (Dog meat was a favorite with the samurai of the Satsuma domain 薩摩.
The first momonjiya shop in Edo was most probably the Kooshuuya　甲州屋 Koshuya in Koojimachi　麹町 Kojimachi.
Yamaokuya山奥屋 offered wild boar and monkey meat.

. momonjiya ももんじ屋 / 百獣屋　 selling meat "from one-hundred wild animals" .
kedamonoya　獣屋 dealers in wild animals
yamaokuya 山奥屋　dealers with stuff from the far-away mountains
kusuriguiho　薬食舗　restaurant serving "medicine" meat

麹町狐を馬に乗せてくる
koojimachi kitsune o uma ni nosete kuru

Kojimachi town -
a fox comes riding
on a horse

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. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

haifuri tanuki 灰降狸 the ash-throwing Tanuki

source : plala.or.jp/cotton-candy

In the year 1854 in the 6th lunar month there was constantly ashes raining down to the ground of the 平河天満宮 Hirakawa Tenjin Shrine in 麹町 Kojimachi.
People thought it was the malicious deed of a Tanuki badger.

Another legend tells of stones raining from the sky near the back entrance of the Shrine, sometimes 50 to 60 during day and night. They were rather large stones with moss on them. Some looked like pieces of roof tiles. But they never hurt any person.
When someone collected the stones in one place during a day, they were all gone after the next night was over.

On a stormy night, it rained hairs of an animal in Kojimachi. Since people there used to eat meat of animals, even horses, it might have been the hair of the 天馬 "heavenly horse" mentioned in the sutra 山海経 Sengai Kyo.

. 江戸 Edo - 妖怪 Yokai monsters, 幽霊 Yurei ghosts .

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Sara yashiki 皿屋敷 "the Dish Mansion"
This is a famous story centering around an old well in Kojimachi or Bancho 番町皿屋敷. More legends about this story relate to a well in Izumo, Harima and other regions.

A Japanese ghost story of broken trust and broken promises, leading to a dismal fate of "O-Kiku and the Nine Plates"
. Sara yashiki　皿屋敷 "the Dish Mansion" .

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shari 舎利 sacred bones of Buddha
Once there lived a man in Kojimachi, who did not believe in the Laws of Buddha 仏法.
But one day a sacred bone of Buddha came out of his forehead.

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- reference : nichibun yokai database -

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source : yasuda.iobb.net/wp-googleearth_e

麹町　壱丁目 Kojimachi First District
「江戸名所図会」 - - 山王祭 Sanno Festival
絵左の天水桶に描かれる屋号が岩に見えるので、岩城枡屋前

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麹町十三丁目まで祭かな
koojimachi juusanchoome made matsuri kana

until the thirteenth district
of Kojimachi
its festival time . . .
Tr. Gabi Greve

Nomura Kishuu 野村喜舟 Nomura Kishu (1886 - 1983)

. WKD : matsuri 祭り festival .
- - kigo for all summer - -

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炎天や麹町なし水巴なし
enten ya koojimachi nashi suiha nashi

this blazing sky -
no more Kojimachi
no more Suiha

Saitoo Kuuge 斎藤空華 Saito Kuge (1918 - 1950)

Watanabe Suiha渡辺水巴 (1882 - 1946) Haiku Poet
Suiha ki 水巴忌 Suiha memorial day (August 8)
- reference -

. WKD : enten 炎天 blazing sky .
- - kigo for all summer - -

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. Japanese Architecture - Interior Design - The Japanese Home .

. Edo bakufu 江戸幕府 The Edo Government .

. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .

. Doing Business in Edo - 商売　- Introduction .

. shokunin 職人 craftsman, craftsmen, artisan, Handwerker .

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu poems in Edo .

. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

[ . BACK to DARUMA　MUSEUM　TOP . ]
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]- - - - - #kojimachi #bancho - - - -
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[ . BACK to DARUMA　MUSEUM　TOP . ]
. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .
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Yayosugashi 八代洲河岸　 / やよすがし Yayosu Quay
Now in Chuo Ward.Yaesu八重洲

Yayosu / Yeasu is named after the Dutch merchant from Holland,
Jan Joosten van Lodensteyn
ヤン・ヨーステンファン・ローデンスタイン (1557 - 1623) / 耶揚子

source : rootsdiscovery/yaesu3

A map from 1865. The letters 「八代洲（やよす）川岸」 can be seen beside the gate 和田倉門前.
Jan Joosten presented Tokugawa Ieyasu with 24 lion cubs 虎の子.
In 1872 this area became 八重洲町 Yaesu and in 1929 part of Marunouchi 丸の内.
The district was named 中央区八重洲 in 1954.
Yaesu Avenue has a monument dedicated to Jan Joosten and his life after his arrival in Japan on the Liefde with William Adams.

. William Adams - Miura Anjin 三浦按針 .
(1564 - 1620)

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- quote
Nihonbashi, Yaesu-dōri / Chūō-dōri
Joosten was born in Delft 1556 and died in the South Chinese Sea 1623.

The monument is located in the middle of the Yaesu-dōri (= Jan Joosten Avenue) on the intersection with the Chūō-dōri (Chuo Avenue).

Bronze plaque with two rings, which are shaped as navigtational instruments. The left is dedicated to Jan Joosten van Lodensteyn, includes a copy of the Jan Joosten bust made by L. Braat, which is found a couple of hundred meters further in the Yaesu Shopping Mall. The right ring is dedicated to the ship De Liefde. Both halves contain a long explanation in Japanese and Dutch.

- source : vanderkrogt.net/statues

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- quote -
Jan Joosten van Lodensteijn
(c. 1560 – 1623), or simply Jan Joosten, was a native of Delft and one of the first Dutchmen in Japan, arriving as one of William Adams's shipmates (the second mate) on the De Liefde, which was disabled on the coast of Kyūshū in 1600.
- - - - - Early life in Japan
The De Liefde departed Rotterdam in 1598, on a trading voyage and attempted a circumnavigation of the globe. It was wrecked in Japan in 1600. The 24 survivors were received by future Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, who questioned them at length on European politics and foreign affairs. As with William Adams, Joosten was selected to be a confidant of the Shogun on foreign and military affairs, and he contributed to the development of relations between the Netherlands and Japan, thereby weakening the influence of Portugal and Spain.

For his services, Jan Joosten was granted a house in Edo (now Tokyo) in a part of the city that came to be called "Yayosu Quay" after him — his name was pronounced yan yōsuten in Japanese (short: Yayōsu (耶楊子)) — and the name exists in the name of Yaesu side of Tokyo Station. Although not allowed to return to the Netherlands, Joosten was allowed to take a Japanese wife and was given a permit to engage in foreign trade. He was privileged to wear the two swords of the samurai and received an annual stipend which placed him (along with Adams) among the ranks of the hatamoto or direct retainers of the Shogun. Joosten was said to be a drunk with a choleric temperament, and at one point was not welcome at Ieyasu's court.

Joosten is reported to have made a fortune in trade between Japan and Southeast Asia, chartering several Red Seal Ships under license from Tokugawa Ieyasu.
After the establishment of the Dutch Factory in Hirado, he became a middleman between Dutch merchants and the Shogunate.
He is also said to have been to Siam on one of his ships, with the Japanese adventurer and author Tenjiku Tokubei. Later, he attempted to return to the Netherlands, but after reaching Batavia, he was denied permission by Dutch authorities to proceed further.
He drowned in the South China Sea in 1623 when his ship sank as he was returning to Japan.
- - - source : WIKIPEDIA

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- quote -
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 - 1858)
Utagawa Hiroshige was born in 1797 in the Yayosugashi district of Edo, the son of Ando Genemon, a member of the fire-fighting brigade maintained by the Tokugawa Shogunate. At the time, Kitagawa Utamaro and Toshusai Sharaku were at their prime as ukiyo-e artists. Ukiyo-e, which means art of the floating world, refers to the impermanence of life and the enjoyment of pleasure free of mundane concerns. ...
After the death of his parents in 1809, Andō Tokutarō (Hiroshige) took over his father's place as a firefighter.
- source : bk.mufg.jp/global/newsroom -

江戸の八代洲河岸（やよすがし）定火消屋敷の同心、安藤源右衛門の子.
. Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 .

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八重洲大路ふと秋風に出遇ひけり
Yaesu ooji futo akikaze ni deai keri

at Yaesu Road
I come to meet a bout
of autumn wind . . .
Tr. Gabi Greve

Sutoo Shooko 須藤省子 Suto Shoko (1923 - )

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. Edo bakufu 江戸幕府 The Edo Government .

. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .

. Persons and People of Edo - Personen .

[ . BACK to DARUMA　MUSEUM　TOP . ]
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]- - - - - #yayosugashi #yaesu #JanJoosten - - - -
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- quote
The Battle of Sekigahara
(関ヶ原の戦い/ 關ヶ原の戰い Sekigahara no Tatakai)
was a decisive battle on October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 15th day of the 9th month) that preceded the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate.
Tokugawa Ieyasu
took three more years to consolidate his position of power over the Toyotomi clan and the daimyo, but Sekigahara is widely considered to be the unofficial beginning of the Tokugawa bakufu, the last shogunate to control Japan. Japan had a long period of peace after the battle.
- snip -
- - - - - Seeds of dissent from Sekigahara
While most clans were content with their new status, there were many clans, especially those on the western side, who became bitter about their displacement or what they saw as a dishonorable defeat or punishment. Three clans in particular did not take the aftermath of Sekigahara lightly:
The Mōri clan,
headed by Mōri Terumoto (Mori Terumoto), remained angry toward the Tokugawa shogunate for being displaced from their fief, Aki, and being relocated to the Chōshū Domain, even though the clan did not take part in the battle at all.
The Shimazu clan,
headed by Shimazu Yoshihiro, blamed the defeat on its poor intelligence-gathering, and while they were not displaced from their home province of Satsuma, they did not become completely loyal to the Tokugawa shogunate either. Taking advantage of its large distance between Edo and the island of Kyūshū as well as its improved espionage, the Shimazu clan demonstrated that it was virtually an autonomous kingdom independent from the Tokugawa shogunate during its last days.
The Chōsokabe clan,
headed by Chōsokabe Morichika, was stripped of its title and domain of Tosa and sent into exile. Former Chōsokabe retainers never quite came to terms with the new ruling family, the Yamauchi clan, which made a distinction between its own retainers and former Chōsokabe retainers, giving them lesser status as well as discriminatory treatment. This class distinction continued even generations after the fall of the Chōsokabe clan.
The descendants of these three clans would in two centuries collaborate to bring down the Tokugawa shogunate, leading to the Meiji Restoration.
- - - More details in the WIKIPEDIA !

Sekigahara Kassen Byōbu (『関ヶ原合戦屏風』),
Japanese screen depicting the Battle of Sekigahara (関ヶ原の戦い).
This 1854 replica recreates the original Hikone-jō Bon Sekigahara Kassen Byōbu (彦根城本『関ヶ原合戦屏風』 by Sadanobu Kanō (狩野貞信) from the 1620s and was a treasure of the Lord Ii of Hikone (彦根藩井伊家) thereinafter.
However, it is not a faithful rendition of the original, with some noticeable omissions and design alterations throughout the layout. Collection of The Town of Sekigahara Archive of History and Cultural Anthropology (関ヶ原町歴史民俗資料館所蔵), found in a private collection of a long-term resident of Ōgaki, near Sekigahara.
- source : commons.wikimedia.org -

. Mori Terumoto about winning a battle .
"The Mori Clan should never be involved in a battle!".

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. Nakasendoo　中山道 Nakasendo Road .

58. Sekigahara-juku 関ヶ原宿

Hiroshige print

- quote -
Sekigahara-juku is convenient because it is located at the intersection of many roads. In addition to being part of the Nakasendō, it also is connected to the Hokkoku Kaidō and the Ise Kaidō. However, its location has also been the site of many battles, including the Jinshin War and the Battle of Sekigahara.
In 1843,
the post station had 1,389 residents and 269 buildings. Among the buildings, there was one honjin, one sub-honjin, and 33 hatago.
As the area around the former Sekigahara-juku remains a convenient and popular transportation hub, there are no ruins of the former post town to be found. However, because of all the battles in their area, there are many other ruins that can be seen.
- source : wikipedia -

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- quote - Japan Times -
Battle of Sekigahara: a war set in stone
by Stephen Mansfield
They were selling steamed buns and mugwort ice cream to a handful of history buffs when I arrived at the entrance to War Land, or to use its full name, The Immersion Museum — Sekigahara War Land.
- snip -
The open valley basins of Gifu Prefecture at the very center of Honshu, where the town of Sekigahara lies, were easily co-opted as theaters of war. It’s no coincidence, given the martial history of the region, that the prefectural town of Seki, sitting on the Nakasendo trunk road connecting Tokyo (then Edo) and Kyoto, was once known as the premier sword-making spot in the country.

CLICK for more photos !

Sekigahara was second only to the Battle of Okinawa in being the largest armed conflict between two opposing armies to take place on Japanese soil. It was unquestionably the foremost confrontation between two Japanese forces. In terms of Japanese history, the battle altering the future course of the nation might be compared to Gettysburg.
- snip -
- source : japantimes.co.jp/life/2016/03/19-

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- quote -
In 1600, Sekigahara, the dividing point between eastern and western Japan, was the scene of a decisive battle fought between the Eastern Army led by Tokugawa Ieyasu who aimed to unite Japan under his rule, and the Western Army formed to fight the Tokugawa forces under the command of Ishida Mitsunari.
Although the Western Army had a slight upper hand at first, the situation reversed when Kobayakawa Hideaki defected to the Eastern Army resulting in its victory.

The Battle of Sekigahara, regarded as one of the largest pivotal conflicts in Japanese history, lasted only six hours. Three years later, Ieyasu established the Tokugawa Shogunate at Edo (present-day Tokyo) and took over the rule of Japan. The town of Sekigahara which served as the battlefield of this massive battle abounds today with historic battle-related landmarks. We invite you to come and explore the army base camps and historic landmarks of the Battle of Sekigahara which will take you back to the time of this historic battle. You can also enjoy the beautiful natural surroundings as you stroll around the town of Sekigahara.
- source : kanko-sekigahara.jp -

- further reference -

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やぎ乳アイス Ice cream from Goat's milk
笹尾山麓で関ヶ原名物 - speciality from Sekigahara

. aisukuriimu アイスクリーム ice cream .

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shigure hamaguri 時雨蛤 clamshells in sweet syrup
This refers back to the famous battle of Sekigahara (1600), near Ogaki castle, where the fishermen of Kuwana gave some clams to Tokugawa Ieyasu.
The clams are harvested out of the sand and then left for a while in a bucket of plain water to spit out the sand they still have in their body. They are then boiled in this water with shredded ginger roots and then cooled. Next they are simmered in special soy sauce from Ise (tamari shoyu たまり醤油) and flavored with sweet mizuame syrup.

. WASHOKU - clamshell, hamaguri 蛤 (はまぐり) .

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. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

Yamabushi 山伏 mountain priest
During the Battle of Sekigahara, a Samurai cut off the legs of a mountain priest and took away all his food. The Yamabushi cursed him until the seventh generation and then died.
Since then, if a Head of this Samurai family inherits the name, he will suffer from heavy pain in his legs. If he passes on the Headship, he will be healed.

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Ehime愛媛県砥部町 Tobe

mekura hebi メクラヘビ the blind snake
Once upon a time
in the 芳賀家 Haga famili, which served as village head, there was a very special woman. She had been to the Battle of Sekigahara and came back. But the family thought of her as a shame and killed her.
Since then there roamed a blind snake in 猿谷 Saruya and got killed, but was later venerated in a Shinto shrine.
She became the deity 芳賀大明神 Haga Daimyojin.

and not related another legend from Matsuyama
八股榎お袖大明神（やつまたえのきおそでだいみょうじん）
Yatsumata Enoki O-Sode Daimyojin
- source : wikipedia -

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Gifu岐阜県

Nagaragawa no kajika 長良川の河鹿 the Kajika frogs of Nagaragawa
The he lost the battle, female attendants of Oda Hidenobu織田秀信 (1580 - 1605) threw themselves in the river Nagaragawa and died. Their souls became the Kajika frogs.

. kajikagaeru　河鹿蛙 Polypedates buergeri, river frog .

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Mie三重県松坂市 Matsuzaka

Kawakami Hachimangu 川上八幡宮　Shrine
At the battle of Sekigaraha, the head of 大谷刑部 Otani Gyobu (Otani Yoshitsugu, 1559 - 1600) was burried at the roots of some 菖蒲 Japanese Iris by a vassal. A wandering priest observed this, and told Tokugawa Ieyasu that he had cut off the head. Later he became the first Lord of the Todo Clan of Ise 伊勢の藤堂家.
The head of Gyobu was burried at the Shrine Kawakami Hachimangu, but it brought a curse with it.
So the Head of the Todo clan cound never visit this shrine.

川上八幡宮　-　三重県津市美杉町川上3498
3498 Misugicho Kawakami, Tsu, Mie - - - HP of the shrine S
- reference : wakamiya.info-

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Shiga滋賀県

At the battle of Sekigahara, the leader of the loosing Western Army pleaded for its soldiers not to be beheaded,
but the Eastern Army, in its frenzy of victory, beheaded them all. A serpent living in the weeds there was all washed in blood and became blind and all white.
The souls of the dead slipped into its body and to our day a white serpent lingers on the mountain roads of the region.

When Ishida Mitsunari石田三成 lost the battle of Sekigahara, his wife and her attendants threw themselves into the ponds 千貫池 Senkan-Ike and 万貫池 Mankan-Ike. Their curse stayed with the ponds and during a great rainfall at night people hear their crying and sniffing voices to our day.

. Ishida Mitsunari 石田三成 (1560 - 1600) .

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Shizuoka静岡県

Otoragitsune, O-Tora-Gitsune お寅狐 the Fox named Tora (Tiger)
In this area, there are many stories about people being bewitched by a special fox, the
Toragitsune.
When he heard the sound of guns during the Battle of Sekigahara, he run away and became lame on one leg. People who are bewitched by this fox become lame, but also begin to talk about war strategy.

関が原の戦いで鉄砲の音がしてから逃げたらビッコになったという。
. Otoragitsune, O-Tora-Gitsune お寅狐 The Fox named Tora (Tiger) .
and the Battle of Nagashino (長篠の戦い).

- LINK to many ema絵馬 votive tablets with O-Toragitsune:
- source : youkaiodaie.blog.fc2.com -

This seems a mix-up with the name of the battle of Nagashino,
Nagashino Shitaragahara　長篠設楽原　(ながしのしたらがはら).

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関ヶ原畦一筋の野火走る
Sekigahara aze hitosuji no nobi hashiru

Sekigahara -
burning the small paths
between the withered fields
Tr. Gabi Greve

山本悦子 Yamamoto Etsuko

. WKD : nobi 野火（のび）fire of the withered fields .
noyaki 野焼 (のやき) burning the withered fields
- - kigo for spring - -

source : momotaro.naganoblog.jp

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蚊柱のさまよい歩く関が原
岩下四十雀

あらたまの虹かかりゐる関ケ原
鈴木恵美子

胴赤き蟻のさまよふ関ケ原
荒島禾生

古藁塚は伏兵霧の関ヶ原
柴田奈美

- source : haikureiku database -
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. Edo bakufu 江戸幕府 The Edo Government .

. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu poems in Edo .

. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

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[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]- - - - - #sekigahara - - - -
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. Edo bakufu 江戸幕府 The Edo Government .
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seppuku 切腹 -- harakiri 腹切り ritual suicide

The shogunate executed criminals in various ways ...
Samurai were often sentenced to commit seppuku in lieu of these forms of punishment. Seppuku is a term of suicide for the samurai.
. Criminal Punishment in Edo .
- Introduction -

. Kiri-sute gomen 斬捨御免 or 切捨御免
literally, "authorization to cut and leave" - the body of the victim .
Punishment for the incorrect exercise of this right was severe. An offender could be beheaded without being allowed to perform seppuku and have his house abolished, meaning that none of his sons could succeed the title.

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- quote
seppuku (切腹 or せっぷく, "stomach- or abdomen-cutting") or
harakiri (腹切り, "cutting the belly")
is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment.

It was originally reserved for samurai. Part of the samurai bushido honor code, seppuku was used either voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies (and likely suffer torture) or as a form of capital punishment for samurai who had committed serious offenses, or performed because they had brought shame to themselves. The ceremonial disembowelment, which is usually part of a more elaborate ritual and performed in front of spectators, consists of plunging a short blade, traditionally a tantō, into the abdomen and drawing the blade from left to right, slicing the abdomen open.
1 Etymology
2 Overview
3 Ritual
4 Female ritual suicide
- - - 4.1 History
- - - 4.2 Religious and social context
- - - 4.3 Terminology
5 Seppuku as capital punishment
6 European witness
7 Seppuku in modern Japan
8 Notable cases
9 In popular culture
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

- - - - - some vocabulary - - - - -

funshi 憤死 indignation death, which is any suicide made to state dissatisfaction or protest
jigai自害 suicide / jisatsu自殺
junshi殉死 seppuku at the death of one's master
jūmonji giri十文字切り, "cross-shaped cut"
kagebara 陰腹, "shadow stomach" (variety of kanshi)
kanshi諫死, "remonstration death/death of understanding", in which a retainer would commit suicide in protest of a lord's decision.
kappuku割腹 - Seppuku
oibara, tsuifuku 追腹 or 追い腹 Seppuku at the death of one's master

source : blogs.yahoo.co.jp/eraser1eraser

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. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

蒲生下野守の家来に切腹する者がいて、非常に強勢な者は肝臓に毛が生えていると聞くので確かめてほしいと言う。切腹した後で確かめると、本当に毛が生えていたという。
.
ある者が商い聖を殺して金を奪った。後に妻をむかえ子をもうけたが、生まれた子供は殺した聖そっくりだった。やがて子が成長するとその子の不作法の為切腹を命じられた。

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jina 人痾，fukuyoo 服妖 in Kanto
天明の頃、関東方面で眉を抜いて薄く残し、かたい眉と言ったり、鬢を薄くして疫病髪と名付け、また赤い帯をして腹切り帯と言ったりする事が流行った。それが京にもうつりそうになった頃、関東の田沼山城守某が城中で佐野善左衛門某に殺され、佐野が切腹するなどの事件が発生した。これは中国史書にある人痾というものだ。

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Minamoto Yorimasa no kubi 源頼政の首
源三位頼政が扇の芝で切腹した時、首が重く感じるところに葬ってほしいと郎等に言い残した。郎等はその首を持って東に行き、古我で休憩したところ首が重くて上がらなくなったのでそこに葬ったという。

................................................................................. Akita 秋田県

takekomasama 竹駒様 TakeKoma Sama

In 仙北市, 現在堀之内に住んでいる田口イシノ氏は石を占いの道具にしているのでイシガミサマともいう。角館にはイシノ氏の姉のカミサマがいる。この人は27、8才のころから目が見えなくなったが、神様や仏様が飛んでくるのが見えるようになった。殿様や切腹した侍がくるとその真似をする。それが治らないので、神様におつかわれするようになればなおるといわれた。その1ヵ月後に竹駒様がついたので、神社に参拝しておつかわれするように決めた。すると2週間で目が開いて、3週間ですっかり見えるようになった。

................................................................................. Aomori 青森県

zashikiwaraji ザシキワラシ
In Sannohe 三戸郡, いまはもうとりこわされた、大きな屋敷だった堀川家の座敷にはザシキワラシがでた。昔座敷で切腹した人がいて、その血が板戸についていたという。上段の間で客が寝ているとトントン音がしたり、人の気配がしたりして、ザシキワラシが寝かしてくれないので、話者の家に夜中泊めてくれと来る客人もいたという。

................................................................................. Fukui 福井県

kitsune 狐 Fox
ある武家で、不都合を起こした為に切腹が命じられた。切腹を命じにやって来た役人は、狐が化けていたので、犬がほえると正体をあらわして逃げた。別の家は稲荷さんの申し子だと言われていた。この2つの家は両方とも断絶した。

................................................................................. Gunma 群馬県

Some fields were ritually polluted and unfit for cultivation.
Amont the pollutions was a field where someone had commited Harakiri 腹切り畑.
The other reasons are
忌み田，忌み畑，ぼんでん田，さかさ田，ジャンボン田，底なし田，位牌田，鳥居田，たたり畑，かかとり畑などと呼ばれる。

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甘楽郡

o-Kiku no tatari お菊の祟り curse of O-Kiku
小幡の殿様が侍女の菊ばかりを寵愛したので他の侍女や奥方の恨みを買い、菊が殿様に差し上げる御飯に針を入れられた。殿様は怒って菊を責め、蛇の入った樽に入れ、宝積寺の池に投げ込んだ。小柏源介という侍が悲鳴を聞いて樽を開けると、瀕死の菊が出て来た。菊は「このご恩にお家に蛇の害は無いように致します」と言って事切れた。お菊の母が「お菊が無実なら芽が出ろ」と池の辺に炒りゴマをまいたら、芽が出た。お菊の祟りで小幡家に戦死や切腹の沙汰が続いたので、宝積寺に碑を建てて供養した。

................................................................................. Hiroshima 広島県

nanafushigi 七不思義
小学校２年の頃、日が暮れてから父親に背負われ陶晴賢が切腹した所を通っていると、父親の髪が急に１本立った。どうしたのかと父親に尋ねると父親は言葉を制して真言を唱えた。すると髪は寝た。後で聞くとそれがみさきというものだった。

................................................................................. Ibaraki 茨城県

bodaiju no tatari ぼだい樹のたたり curse
In 常陸太田市
平将門の乱で敗れた武将のお姫様が奥州に逃げる途中で死んでしまい、７人の家来もそこで切腹した。親鸞上人が哀れがり、そこにぼだい樹を植えた。それが話者の家のぼだい樹で、枝を折ると災難があると言う。ある人がぼだい樹から蜂の巣をとったら、話者の妹がひきつけをおこした。行者にお祓いしてもらったら治った。

................................................................................. Kanto 関東方面

天明の頃、関東方面で眉を抜いて薄く残し、かたい眉と言ったり、鬢を薄くして疫病髪と名付け、また赤い帯をして腹切り帯と言ったりする事が流行った。それが京にもうつりそうになった頃、関東の田沼山城守某が城中で佐野善左衛門某に殺され、佐野が切腹するなどの事件が発生した。これは中国史書にある人痾というものだ。

................................................................................. Kochi 高知県

Shichinin misaki 七人みさき
安芸郡北川村では、山に働きに来ていた若者7人が小屋で戯れている時、1人に山刀が刺さって死に、ほかの者も切腹して死んだ。その墓が最近まであったが、神様にして一所にかためた。七人みさきの本家は北川村の野川ではないかという。

................................................................................. Kumamoto 熊本県

neko 猫 cat
In 人吉市, あるお坊さんが謀反の疑いで切腹させられたが、無実であった。その妾のひとりがそのことを恨みに思って、猫に「仇はとっておくれ」と願いを込めて、その猫を道連れに自殺した。以後、切腹を命じた相良侯の家では不思議なことが起きたので猫寺を建てた。

................................................................................. Mie 三重県

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Hyoouemon gitsune 兵右衛門狐 the fox

桑名藩の釘貫兵右衛門が夫婦狐の穴を壊した。翌日登城する途中、遅刻を咎める藩主の使い来て兵右衛門は切腹した。後に狐の復讐であることが分かり、藩主は祟りを恐れ狐を笠田野に祀った。維新の頃、孫右衛門が夫婦狐の１匹を撃ち殺し、孫右衛門はまもなく死んだ。

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Jizoo 地蔵 Jizo
In Shima 志摩市,
1825年ごろのこと。船越村と波切村で漂着鯨の処理をめぐって境界争いになり、当時の船越の庄屋が切腹して言い分を通した。その庄屋を祀るために地蔵が、立てた家で不幸が続くので占うと、地蔵が波切村のほうを向いているのを嫌がっているとわかり、向きを反対にした。子どもがこの地蔵に悪戯などをすると、漁がフサグ（不漁）になるという。

................................................................................. Nagano 長野県

yamainu 山犬 wolf，高津大権現 Takatsu Daigongen

In 下條村, 馬を野飼いにしていると、荒々しい山犬が現れ馬を食い殺したので、「高津大権現」と唱えた後腰に持っていた鎌で山犬切腹した。その鎌を清めた後、奉納した。

................................................................................. Okayama 岡山県

In Niimi 新見市, Misaki
新見市西方では、変死のあった場所にミサキを祀る。山で首吊りがあると、そこに木を植えてミサキ様といったり、切腹して亡くなった人をツルギミサキ、首吊りで亡くなった人をツナミサキといって祀ったりもする。

................................................................................. Tokyo 東京都

In 神着村, シナの王が漂流してきて、切腹して死んだ。「向かい畑」という丘に葬ったところ、夜な夜な光を発し、異変が生じた。そこで丘と根続きの中で一番高い、大堀の山に改葬したところ異変がやんだ。

................................................................................. Yamanashi 山梨県

gorinzaka ゴリンザカ

In 都留市, 矢島員雄氏の畑の畔にある五輪の石塔のそばの坂をゴリンザカというが、これはこの石塔があるからとも、誰かがこの坂で5厘拾ったからとも、武士のゴリンサンが切腹した場所だからともいう。なお、馬に乗ってこの坂の石塔の前を通り過ぎるものは、必ず落馬するという。

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- reference : nichibun yokai database -

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source : oonisi.way-nifty.com/lameru

Family Seppuku of Bessho Nagaharu 一族切腹 - 別所長治

- quote -
Bessho Nagaharu 別所長治 (1558 - 1580)
a Japanese daimyo of the Sengoku period. He was the eldest son of Bessho Yasuharu.
In 1578
Oda Nobunaga called on his retainers to attack the Mōri clan. Nagaharu almost decided to lead the Oda troops, but after hearing that the low-born general Hashiba Hideyoshi, whom he did not respect, was allied with the Oda faction he revolted, instead allying himself with Hatano Hideharu of Tamba province.
This led to Nagaharu being besieged by Hideyoshi's troops on the orders of Nobunaga. Nagaharu took a stand in Miki Castle 三木城, starting the Siege of Miki. The siege did not go well for Hideyoshi, and with a revolt by Araki Murashige and the help of the Mōri clan Nagaharu successfully repelled the Oda force. But Hideyoshi returned and this time instead of launching a direct assault, he launched multiple sieges against smaller castles like Kamiyoshi Castle and Shigata Castle to cut off the support from Mori.
This led to a rapid depletion of food, and in 1580, with no hope of another reinforcement from Mōri clan, Nagaharu committed seppuku in exchange for the lives of the troops in Miki Castle.
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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- - - - - H A I K U and S E N R Y U - - - - -

ながながと切腹の場や夏芝居
naganaga to seppuku no ba ya natsu shibai

the Seppuku scene
is just soooo long . . .
Kabuki summer performance
Tr. Gabi Greve

Ooki Amari 大木あまり Oki Amari (1941 - )

. WKD : natsu shibai 夏芝居 .
- - Kabuki kigo for late summer - -

source : jikabuki.com/learning_jikabuki

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切腹のいまだはたせず菊人形
岬雪夫

切腹の間からりんどう見えており
五島高資

切腹の間より見せたる牡丹かな
宗田安正

切腹は白き色なり春の夢
長谷川秋子

春雪いくたび切腹で終る色彩映画
三橋鷹女

藤袴切腹衝動堪えけり
浅賀穀象虫

- - - - - Harakiri - - - - -

稽古する腹切の場や春の雨
keiko suru harakiri no ba ya haru no ame

training
for a scene of Harakiri -
rain in spring

. 正岡子規 Masaoka Shiki .

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どうせ最後は腹切るつもりの人愛す
山崎秋風鬼

もののふの腹切り岩やかきつばた
矢野智司

初写真腹切矢倉背景に
山口青邨

土蜘蛛に腹切らせゐる大暑かな
石塚友二

枝豆の食ひ腹切らばこぼれ出む
三橋敏雄

楠が腹切るあとの梅のはな
曾良 Sora

- - - - - Kappuku - - - - -

まんじゅしゃげむかし割腹したるかな
八島岳洋

割腹の通草ためらひなかりけり
大橋はじめ

割腹死鶲撒かるる空の端
斎藤玄

- More haiku about finding one's death -
- reference : HAIKUreikuDB -

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. Edo bakufu 江戸幕府 The Edo Government .

. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu poems in Edo .

. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

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[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]- - - - - #harakiri #seppuku #suicide #ritualsuicide - - - -
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. Food in Edo 　江戸の食卓 .
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tenpura てんぷら . 天婦羅 . 天麩羅 . 天ぷら Tenpura, Tempura
deep-fried battered food

The name "Tempura" was only used to describe fish Tempura.
agemono　揚げ物 deep fried food
shoojin age　精進揚げ　deep-fried vegetables

- quote -
"Agemono", or deep-fried foods, are of three basic types.
"Suage", in which foods are fried without a coating of flour or batter, is appropriate for freshwater fish, eggplant, green peppers and other vegetables whose color and shape can be utilized to good effect.
"Karaage", in which food is first dredged in flour or arrowroot starch, preserves the natural water content of the food and produces a crisp outer surface. In "tatsutaage", a variant of "karaage", pieces of chicken are marinated in a mixture of "sake", soy sauce and sugar, lightly covered with arrowroot starch and deep-fried.

"Tempura" belongs to a third type of "agemono", in which foods are coated with batter. For "agemono" a heavy pot with a wide bottom is used. Vegetable oil is poured into the pot to a depth twice the thickness of the foods to be fried and is then heated to a temperature of 160°to 180°C (320°to 360°F). To keep the oil at a constant temperature, it is important that the foods do not cover more than a third of the surface area of the oil.
- reference source : web-japan.org/museum/others/cuisine -

- quote -
Many ingredients are deep-fried. Mostly fish and seafood and vegetables.
Even the new leaves of greet tea are made into tempura during the season 新茶の天婦羅.
..... The recipe for tempura was introduced to Japan by Portuguese Jesuit missionaries particularly active in the city of Nagasaki also founded by the Portuguese, during the sixteenth century (1549).
Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, reportedly loved tempura. Originally, tempura was a popular food eaten at street vendors called 'yatai'(屋台) since the Genroku era.

Tempura yatai (stall) - (Fukagawa Edo Museum)

Today, tempura is still a popular side dish at home, and is frequently eaten as a topping at soba stands.
..... In Japan, restaurants specializing in tempura are called tenpura-ya and range from inexpensive fast food chains to very expensive five-star restaurants. Many restaurants offer tempura as part of a set meal or a bento (lunch box), and it is also a popular ingredient in take-out or convenience store bento boxes. The ingredients and styles of cooking and serving tempura vary greatly through the country, with importance being placed on using fresh, seasonal ingredients.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

frittierter Fisch, frittiertes Gemüse

WASHOKU : Tenpura Tempura dishes in our BLOG

basu tenpura バス天ぷら tempura from black bass
ブラックバス天ぷら付のうどん
From Lake Biwa

Maple leaves tempura (momiji tenpura)

kinpuraきんぷら【金麩羅】Kinpura
the coating is made with buckwheat flour. Oil from torreya nuts (kaya 榧(かや) is used for frying.
. . . CLICK here for Photos !

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江戸前天ぷら　Edo-mae tempura, made with local seafood from Tokyo Bay.
The most favorite were shrimp and tiger prawns, ika烏賊 squid, anago穴子 sea eel and megochi めごち eel,
kohada小鰭 spotted shad and kisu鱚 smelt-whiting, Sillago japonica.

The fried ingredients were picked up with a small bamboo stick, dipped in a sauce of soy sauce with grated radish (daikon) and enjoyed outside, from spring to autumn.

In Edo, only goma-abura　ごま油 sesame oil was used for Tempura. It kept longer tasty when re-heated.
Tempura stalls were only allowed to fry outside homes to prevent fires. Inside a home or restaurant it was forbidden to prepare Tempura.

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tenpuraya　天麩羅屋 vendor of tenpura in Edo
They were the beginning of small stalls selling "fast food" to be eaten while standing, for the fast-living workers of Edo.

source :　homepage3.nifty.com/shokubun

. Food vendors in Edo .

天麩羅の指をぎぼしへ引きなすり
tenpura no yubi o giboshi e hikinasuri

he wipes his fatty tempura fingers
on the giboshi decoration
of the bridge

This Senryu tells us about the carefree behaviour of the tempura cooks.
Tempura was made with some flavor on the food items, but not served with sauce as it is today.
Some sources say Tempura dipping sauce was introduced much later in the Meiji period.

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu in Edo .

. giboshi 擬宝珠 metal decoration of a railing .

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source : togetter.com/li

Tsukioka 月岡芳年「風俗三十二相　むまさう嘉永年間女郎之風俗」
A prostitute eating shrimp tempura

mumasao むまさう Umaso, this is so delicious !

. Tsukioka Yoshitoshi 月岡芳年 (1839 – June 9, 1892) .

The pose of the lady, turning to the side to wipe her face, is the same as in a favorite ukiyo-e by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, which was used to put on a handfan for some cooling in summer.

歌川国芳- 園中八撰花 Enchu Hassenka (Eight flowers of the garden)
- 松 Matsu (with pine in the background)

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. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

The kitsune 狐 Fox likes tempura and tempura oil . . .

................................................................................. Ibaraki 茨城県

In the 稲敷郡 Inashiki district at 江戸崎町 Edosaki village there are many fox legends, when people have to walk along the paths of the fields, were foxes and badgers play their tricks on the humans.
Sometimes the fox steals the tempura of someone returning from town and bringing it home as a present for the family 土産の天ぷら.

................................................................................. Miyazaki 宮崎県

In えびの市 Ebino town, in 尾八重野 Obeno, there was a lady fox called おせん狐 O-Sen , the King of all the regional foxes there.
She lived in the trenches dug during the war by the army of 西郷隆盛 Saigo Takamori.
When people walked along 浜川原 Hamawawabaru at night, there was a large branche of a pine tree in the middle of the road and they could not pass. This was an act of the Fox O-Sen. So they threw some Tempura at the branches, and they dissolved, leaving them to see a huge fox with a large tail on the road.

................................................................................. Nagano 長野県

Offerings for the ancestors on the family altar (butsudan 仏壇) for the O-Bon rituals contain many things, among them 野菜や天ぷら vegetables and tempura.
.
In the 上伊那郡 Kamiina district sometimes people get bewitched by a fox.
They behave quite wild and strange, walk on all four's an want only Tempura to eat.
To get rid of the spell they have to be kept in one room over night and hit with branches of a peach tree 桃の枝. That will bring them back to normal.
.
To get rid of the bewitchment of a fox, among other things, people say prayers and have to eat Tempura.
.
In the 東筑摩郡 Higashichikuma district were people kept silk worms養蚕, they had to fry their tempura away from home by the river so as not to get the smell to the silk worms.
Sometimes at night a fox came, dipped his tail into the Tempura frying pan and made it un-usable. If the farmers forgot to take the bottle with sesame oil home, this would also be gone by next morning.

................................................................................. Niigata 新潟県

In 十日町市 Tokaichi town there was a fox called サンクロウギツネ Sankurogitsune, living between the hamlets of 蒲生集落 Gamo and 室野集落 Murono. If people walked there he would steal their 天ぷらや油揚 tempura and Aburaage Tofu.

................................................................................. Osaka 大阪府

In 堺市 Sakai town there was a fox
At the 城蔵稲荷 Inari Fox Shrine they tell this story:
An old priest once kept a White Fox with three legs. The brother of the priest was a hunter and the fox feared him. The fox shape-shifted into the old priest and pretended his brother had killed someone and wanted to have him punished. But the brother understood the trick, put some Tempura of a rat on the ground, tricked the White Fox to catch it and killed the fox.

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- reference : nichibun yokai database -

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- - - - - H A I K U and S E N R Y U - - - - -

天麩羅にかぎる魚や花曇
tenpura ni kagiru sakana ya hanagumori

this fish is best
as Tempura . . .
cherry blossom haze

綾部仁喜 Ayabe Jinki (1929 - 2015)

. WKD : "hanagumori"花曇, .
- - kigo for late spring - -
A clouded sky during the Cherry blossom season, blossom haze, is "hanagumori", 花曇, only in this season used as a kigo for late spring and never used for other flowers in haze or clouds.

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歳晩や親身のような天婦羅蕎麦
長谷川かな女 Hasegawa Kanajo

天麩羅にからりと揚げて春告げ草高澤良一
天麩羅の種のねずつぽ石鼎忌石川桂郎
てんぷらの揚げの終りの新生姜草間時彦
てんぷらやすでに鰭張る今年鯊水原秋櫻子

たらの芽の天麩羅の棘食べにけり長谷川公二
人獣の舌の天麩羅花ぐもり磯貝碧蹄館
刀豆の天麩羅といふごわつけり高澤良一
土用入り天麩羅箸の先焦げて荒巷樹(野火)
活鯊に天麩羅油ぱちぱちと長谷川櫂蓬莱
竹の春吹かれとてとて天麩羅食ふ攝津幸彦
草餅に草の天麩羅みどりの日御子柴弘子
落葉降るさなか天麩羅匂ひけり中嶋秀子
退屈も*たらの芽も天麩羅にせり櫂未知子
餅あはひ天麩羅そばを皆たのむ櫻井康敞
餅花の下を天麩羅そば通る鈴木鷹夫春の門
鱚天麩羅に笑ひ納めをいたしけり辻桃子
稲の秋てんぷらの鍋鳴りはじむ長谷川櫂
蓮枯れたりかくててんぷら蕎麦の味久保田万太郎
長月のてんぷらあぶら古りにけり辻桃子
黄菊白菊てんぷら揚がる市場の中穴井太

- reference : haikureikudb -

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source : yoshi43.blog97.fc2.com

even the cats
enjoy their Tempura -
Spring in Edo

Gabi Greve, April 2016

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- Senryu -

てんぷらの店に筮（めどき）を立てて置き
tenpura no mise ni medoki o tatete oki

at the Tempura shop
they put up bamboo stick containers
for all to use

The bamboo sticks were put into a bamboo container and customers could take one out to eat their fill of Tempura.

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筮竹で判断させる天麩羅屋
seichiku de handan saseru tenpura ya

the Tempura cook
judges the food
by the bamboo stick

Since the fish was covered in batter and put in hot oil, the cook had no other choice to guess the situation by the babmoo stick still sticking out of the oil.

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小平次を竹鑓（たけやり）で突く天麩羅屋
koheiji o takeyari de tsuku tempuraya

at the Tempura shop
the spotted shad is pierced
by a bamboo spear

koheiji小平次 is another word for kohada小鰭 spotted shad

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- reference : wheatbaku.exblog.jp -

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source : www.6128080.com/sun/edo/ - Onodera Nenryou

To make good tempura, the heat of the oil has to be adjusted.
for fish, about 180 - 185℃, for vegetables only 160 - 180℃.

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. Japanese Architecture - Interior Design - The Japanese Home .

. Edo bakufu 江戸幕府 The Edo Government .

. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo　江戸の名所 .

. Doing Business in Edo - 商売　- Introduction .

. shokunin 職人 craftsman, craftsmen, artisan, Handwerker .

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu poems in Edo .

. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

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[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]- - - - - #tempura #edomaetempura #tenpura #foodinedo - - - -
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Fujizuka mounds

Cipangu

Bakufu Edo Government

Fukiyacho District

Aomonocho District

Sumitomo family business

bakuhan system

Tenryo Government Land

taika great fires

Ezo Ainu Culture

Bakurocho

Tokugawa Ieyasu

tsujigiri killings

shuppansha publishing

kekkon marriage

Kojimachi district

Yayosugashi district

Sekigahara

seppuku and harakiri

Tenpura Tempura in Edo