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chin shoobai 珍商売 strange business in Edo
This is part of the main entry about
. Doing Business in Edo - 江戸の商売 .
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awamochi no kyokutsuki 栗餅の曲つき artistic pounding of foxtail milled dumplings
The artists pounded millet dough for mochi in rhythmical tunes to entertain people during the seasonal festivals. They also used artistic movements of their arms when tearing the mochi dough into bitesize pieces of dumplings to sell.
. awamochi 粟餅（あわもち）foxtail millet mochi dumplings .
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chinko kiri 賃粉切り cutting leaf tobacco for money
He used a carpenter's
kanna 鉋 plain to do his job.
Others just owned a block and a good knife. It was hard labor with pain in the legs and arms from working in a straining position. Sometimes they took a brake, taking a puff themselves. But they had to be careful with open fire with all the tobacco shavings around. Therefore they always had a small tub full of water by the side too, where the rest of the tobacco from the pipe was thrown in. This made a sound like
"juu juu".
The water from the tub was also used when sharpening the blade.
ふきがらをじうといわせる賃粉切り
fukigara o juu to iwaseru chinko kiri
the tobacco cutter
lets his pipe leftovers say
"juu juu"
It was a job for poor people living in the smallest and cheapest of the
nagaya row houses, working for a tobacco dealer. Some of them were
ronin without a master or other job.
Some of them were women, even beautiful ladies who were mistaken for prostitutes, as one story of Ihara Saikaku tells.
. kiseru 煙管 tobacco pipes from Edo .
and rauya, raoya 羅宇屋 repairman of tobacco pipes
. Ihara Saikaku, Ibara Saikaku 井原西鶴 (1624 - 1693).
. nagaya 長屋 ながや row house, long house .
chinko ちんこ /陰茎 is also a children's naming for the male sexual organ.
Therefore chinko kiri 陰茎切り sounded dangerous to children.
ちんこ切りなら怖いよと頑是なさ
chinko kiri nara kowai yo to ganze nasa
cutting chinko -
oh, that sounds dangerous
to an innocent child
きん玉の休む隙無き賃粉切り
煙草屋の娘ちんこが取りたがり
烟草やの娘ちんこを入たがり
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. heoi bikuni, he-oi bikuni 屁負比く尼 / 屁負比丘尼 fart-pretending nuns .
. kashi setchin 貸雪隠 portable toilet for rent - kawaya 厠 .
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Edo-neko Ukiyoe Nekotzukushi- (
Collected Woodblock Prints of Cats in Edo)
Shinichi Inagaki and Toshihiko Isao
This is the first book in Japan to exclusively collect ‘ukiyoe’ (woodblock print) images of cats.
The volume features carefully selected works by the most notable wood block print artists of the Edo Period, including Hiroshige Utagawa, Kyosai Kawanabe, Kuniyoshi Utagawa and Harunobu Suzuki. An astoundingly wide variety of felines can be seen in the works, such as humorously adorable dancing cats, frightening ghost-like cats, cats playing with beautiful women and cats at work as if they are humans. Whether it’s the Edo Period (1603-1868) or today, cats never seem to lose their free-spirited character. That said, this volume helps us learn more about life in the Edo period.
- source : ilove.cat/en -
Cats were a favorit pet in the town of Edo and also loved by the farmers, because it was chasing away the mice.
. Cats and Haiku - Introduction .
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neko no ekaki 猫の絵描き painter of cats
They painted cats on pictures to hang up in the kitchen or loft where silk worms were kept to chase away the mice.
Raising silk worms was a good business in the Edo period, and mice were the worst enemy of the farmers.
The paintings had to be done very carefully, to have the cat watch
the "eight directions" 八方にらみの猫 (happo nirami no neko).
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neko no nomi-tori 猫の蚤（ノミ）取り picking fleas from cats
They walked the streets of Edo, calling out
neko no nomi toran 猫の蚤取らん "Any fleas to pick from your cat?"
When called to a home, they first put the cat in a warm bath and then wrapped the cat in the fur of a "wild animal" 獣 , most probably a wolf. The fleas then moved from the wet fur to the dry fur . . . and the job was done. The price was 3 mon 三文 (about 30 Yen), which was quite cheap.
But they were only called by rich people wh loved their cats very much and many quit this job soon.
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. "oya kookoo de gozai" 親孝行でござい selling filial piety .
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sokuriki 足力 "strong legs" massage
sokuriki anma 足力按摩 / 足力あんま massage with the feet
A kind of massage with the feet, by stepping on the back and kicking the patient.
They used long sticks to support themselves (shumokuzue 撞木杖 crutch)).
Some of them also applied moxabustion (kyuu 灸).
One famous "sokuriki" was
Takuetsu 宅悦 in a Kabuki play.
Anma was popularised in the seventeenth century by acupuncturist
Sugiyama Waichi, and around the same time the first books on the subject, including Fujibayashi Ryohaku's Anma Tebiki ("Manual of Anma"), appeared.
Anma practices uses common massage techniques such as kneading, rubbing, tapping and shaking.
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !
. Sugiyama Waichi 杉山和一 (1614–1694) .
"Father of Japanese Acupuncture". Blind doctor of Shogun Tsunayoshi.
. zatoboo, zato boo 座頭坊 blind priest, doing massage .
anma 按摩 Amma massage
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sunae, suna-e 砂絵 painting with sand
A kind of street performance with pure white and colored sand, making effects almost like an ink paintings or woodblock prints.
Before they begun the work, they had to clean the road and water it for a while, before applying the sand.
It was quite popular in Edo, Kyoto and Osaka.
This art developed from
bonga 盆画 paintings with sand on a tray.
. Bonsai 盆栽 small potted plants and tray art .
There is a novel about Edo with this title.
ときめき砂絵 いなずま砂絵 - なめくじ長屋捕物さわぎ
Tsuzuki Michio 都筑道夫 (1929 - 2003) Mystery Writer
which incorporates a lot of the customs of Edo in a criminal investigation.
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. yomiuri 読売、lit. "to read and sell" .
kawaraban 瓦版 Edo newspaper, handbill, broadside
This is still the name of a newspaper in our time.
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. Doing Business in Edo - 江戸の商売 .
. daidoogei 大道芸 Daidogei street performance .
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