Edo - the EDOPEDIA -

6/01/2014

sixth lunar month

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The Sixth Lunar Month　六月 rokugatsu - 水無月　minazuki -
lit. "month without water"

In the old lunar calendar of the Edo period

spring lasted from the first month to the third,
summer from the fourth month through the sixth,
autumn from the seventh month through the ninth,
winter from the tenth month through the twelfth.

. WKD : The Asian Lunar Calendar and the Saijiki .

. Edo Saijiki　江戸歳時記 .

The first day of doyoo in midsummer (and midwinter) is called ushi no hi, the day of the ox, as in the 12 signs of the Japanese zodiac. It is customary to eat broiled eel (kabayaki, see the photo above) on the day of the ox in summer (doyoo no ushi no hi, now sometime in late July). This is because eel (unagi) is nutritious and rich in vitamin A, and provides strength and vitality to fight against the extremely hot and humid summer of Japan.
The man who invented this well-loved custom is the famous scientist of the late Edo period, Hiraga Gennai 平賀源内.

土用丑見ただけにしたウナギかな
doyoo ushi mita dake ni shita unagi kana

dog day
and this year I make do with looking at
broiled eel . . .

Eiji kun えいじくん　

土用丑　ウナギも自民も　上がり過ぎ

本年は　どぜうで一杯　約交わす

源内も　セシウム牛に　二の丑（足）を

source :　www.sencle.net

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goyoogeikoo 御用稽古 "official training" of the samurai of Edo castle
swimming was especially taught to the elite of the group
okachigumi　御徒組　/ 御徒方　shogun's foot guards　
. Okachimachi 御徒町 Okachimachi district .

suiei jooran 水泳上覧　day when the Shogun inspected the swimmers from his boat

Ota Nanpo (Nampo) - Shokusanjin 大田南畝 - 蜀山人　(1749-1823)
was famous for his swimming skills.

He took part in the swimming performance before 10th Shogun Ieharu 家治上覧 (1737 - 1786).
He is also known for promoting eating eal on the hottest Summer day (doyoo no hi).
- source : www.art-inn.jp/artinncolumn

He was also a great poet for satirical kyooka　狂歌 Kyoka, under the pen-name
neboke sensei　寝ぼけ先生 "Half-awake Teacher" 　or Yomo no Akara 四方赤良

- quote
Ōta Nampo - Ōta Nanpo 大田南畝
was the most oft-used penname of Ōta Tan, a late Edo period Japanese poet and fiction writer. He wrote primarily in the comedic forms of kyōshi, derived from comic Chinese verse, and kyōka, derived from waka poetry.
His pennames also include Yomo no Akara, Yomo Sanjin, Kyōkaen, and Shokusanjin (蜀山人).
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

. Ota Nampo - Painting of Daruma san .

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Mori Tetsuzan (1775-1841) and Ota Nampo (1749-1823)

A collaborative work by Mori Tetsuzan (1775-1841), a Shijo painter from Osaka and Ota Nampo (1749-1823). Nampo was an honest, diligent and loyal servant of bureaucracy in premodern Japan. This was the most obvious way of life for the off-springs of low-ranking warrior families as Nampo. But this was only his day job and one side of Ota Nampo's character. His true vocation was poetry. And it seems as the result of his rather serious day job that he chose humorous poetry as his domain. He produced hundreds of poems which add playful notes to everyday life.

Foreigners
have travelled so far
to see in the heavenly realms
the most exquisit
Mount Fuji.

- source : us6.forward-to-friend2.com

. Samurai, bushi, warrior 兵、武士、兵士 .

. Edo Castle 江戸城 .

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hooroku o-kyuu ほうろく灸 Horoku moxabustion

. hooroku plates for moxibustion . 　　

hoozuki ichi
- source : 江戸の歳時記 -

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. koorimizu uri　氷水売り vendors of "ice water" .
mizu-uri 水売 (みずうり) vendor of water
hiyamizu uri 冷水売（ひやみずうり） vendor of cold water

Ice was kept in special store rooms (himuro　氷室) built in Edo town.
This was not pure and many got ill. The proverb

toshiyori no hiyamizu 年寄りの冷や水　 to do something imprudent for an old person
derived from this habit.

そこが江戸一荷の水も波で売り
sore ga Edo ikka no mizu mo nami de uri

that's Edo !
one load of water sold
with the waves . . .

4 mon coins had a pattern of waves on the backside. A load of water contained two barrels on the shoulder pole of a street vendor.

. himuro 氷室 icehouse, ice cellar .

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. kyuuri fuuji きゅうり封じ / 胡瓜封じ cucumber service . 　　

The cucumber resembles a standing human being, therefore it is used in this ritual.

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natsu harai, natsu harae 夏祓　Summer purification
on the last day of the sixth lunar month

chi no wa, chinowa 茅の輪 -, 芽輪 - ちのわ sacred ring, purification hoop

. Purification Ritual (Ceremony) , harae　祓 .

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Sano Matsuri, Sanno Matsuri
- source : 江戸の歳時記 -

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. tokoroten 心太, 心天 jelly strips . 　　

tororoten uri ところてん売り vendors had a wooden box with lattice, to provoke a cool feeling.

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. yamabiraki 山開 "opening the mountain" . 　
Climbing Mount Fuji was very popular in the Edo period.　
(sometimes listed in the 5th month)

From the first day of the sixth lunar month till the last day of the eighths months.
When they reached the mountain they threw in "saisen" money offerings into the crater. Coins are still found there.
During the Edo period this money was collected and used at the Asama shrines.

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. Edo Saijiki　江戸歳時記 .

. - Doing Business in Edo - 商売　- Introduction .

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu poems in Edo .

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5/01/2014

fifth lunar month

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The Fifth Lunar Month　五月 gogatsu - 皐月　satsuki -

In the old lunar calendar of the Edo period,

spring lasted from the first month to the third,
summer from the fourth month through the sixth,
autumn from the seventh month through the ninth,
winter from the tenth month through the twelfth.

. WKD : The Asian Lunar Calendar and the Saijiki .

. Edo Saijiki　江戸歳時記 .

source :　art.jcc-okinawa.net/okinawa/edonosiki

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Fujisan yamabiraki

. WKD : tango no sekku 端午の節句 Tango festival for Boys .
5th day of the 5th lunar month

. inji uchi 印地打 throwing stones at each other .

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kashiwamochi 柏餅 sweet rice cakes
for the Japanese boy's festival, wrapped in an oak leaf.

The oak leaves become dry in autumn, but stick to the tree until the new buds are coming out in the next spring. Therefore these leaves are a symbol for the continuation of a family, carried on by the first-born oldest son.

The one's filled with sweat bean paste (anko　餡子) had the green side outside,
the one's filled with sweetened miso paste (misoan 味噌あん) had the inside out, so they could be easily identified from outside by the Edo customers.

石臼で家風を守る柏餅　
ishi-usu de kafuu o mamoru kashiwamochi

keeping the family tradition
with the stone mortar -
kashiwa rice cakes

Iida Reito 飯田礼人

柏餅妻には妻の型があり
kashiwa mochi tsuma ni wa tsuma no kata ga ari

kashiwa rice cakes -
my wife has her own way
of making them

Hosomi Kusuke 細見九如

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shoobu 尚武 the samurai fighting spirit
shoobu　勝負 winning - a pun with shoobu, 菖蒲 the iris. Especially important for the samurai families.

shoobuyu 菖蒲湯 bath with Shobu iris, hoping to keep healthy
shoobuzake 菖蒲酒 Sake with shobu iris, considered a medicine

During this festival, the girls had to keep quiet, 忌み籠もり (imigomori), since they had to become active soon after that for the rice planting.

koi no maneki　鯉のまねき small flags "to invite carps"
forerunners of the koinobori こいのぼり　鯉幟　flags
risshin shusse 立身出世 social success and promotion - with a prayer for boys to grow.

Vendors walked around in Edo with these small flags to be placed in the home.

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. WKD : ka 蚊 mosquito, mosquitoes - Schnaken .

kayaribi 蚊遣火　fire to ward off mosquitoes
already popular in the Heian period. The wood of chips of matsu and sugi pines as well as the leaves of kaya susuki grass and yomogi mugwort were used.

kayaribi o taku 蚊やり火をたく　to burn a mosquito-repellant fire
. katori senkoo 蚊取り線香 mosquito coil . 　

buta no kayari, 豚の蚊遣り kayari buta 蚊遣り豚 pot in form of a pig to hold the fire
(maybe made from a sake tokkuri sidewise). The oldest ones look more rounded like a wild boar than a pig.
Many have been found in the old kilns of Tokoname, Aichi 常滑市.
Once a pig farmer wanted to protect his animals from the mosquitoes and tried to burn some repellant in a tube, but the opening was too large. He looked again at his poor suffering animals and at their snout . . . and voila, the smaller opening was found. From Tokoname it made its way all around the country very fast.

遠花火蚊やりの豚とふける縁　
too hanabi kayari no buta to fukeru en

far away fireworks -
another chance missed as the night
with the repellant pig-holder gets late

瀬戸物の豚は蚊を追う煙を吐き
setomono no buta wa ka o ou en o haki

this pig from pottery
vomits smoke to drive away
the mosquitoes

- - - - - Look at some modern versions of the popular pig!

CLICK for more fun!

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yobimizu　呼び水 "water to call the mosquitoes"
Put into the barrels for extinguishing fires.
When the mosquitoes had laied their eggs into the barrels, the water was sprinkled on the road.
Now buckets are used too.

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. WKD : hebi 蛇 snake, serpent .

nagamushi　長虫 "long insect", snake, mamushi　真虫 "the real mushi"

In the Edo period, snakes were considered as part of the insect realm.
When they came out during the rice-planting season, the poisonous one's were quite dangerous.
There was no real medicine to heal them, so people made use of amulets.

source :　www7.ocn.ne.jp/~ponpoko
Kitami no mamushiyoke 喜多見のまむしよけ amulet against snake bite from Kitami

One day the lord of the region was hunting in Tamagawahara when they observed a wild boar chasing a snake. Iemon draw his sword and chased the wild boar away in no time. A few nights later he had a dream: The snake appeared and handed him a scroll with an amulet to prevent bites of snakes and poisonous vipers (mamushi) and also for the worst case the recipe for a medicine.

齋藤伊右衛門忠嘉 Saito Iemon had this special recipe of salt, bamboo leaves, hackberry leaves (enoki 榎) grind and mixed with his own spittle, twisted into a small stick and rubbed on a bite. Otherwise, the amulets were sold to be put in the breast pocked before the field work.

Every year on the 8th of the fourth (lunar month) people would line up before his store in Edo to get the amulets, since it was time for the regional daimyo to go back to their home domaines in exchange (sankin kootai 参勤交代) with the regional caretaker.
The Saito family is now in the 18th generation and still in possession of this precious amulet and medicine.

- reference -

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mamushiyoke no majinai 蝮除けのまじない spell against poisonous snakes

蛇もまむしも　どっけどけえ - mushi mo mamushi mo dokkedokee
おいらは喜多見の伊右衛門だあ - oira wa Kitami no Iemon daa
槍も刀も持ってるぞお - yari mo katana mo motteru zoo
ぢょっきり切られて腹たつな - jokkiri kirarete hara tatsu na

snakes and vipers, get out of my way, my way
I am Iemon from Kitami - yea
I have a spear and a sword - yea
don't get angry when I have to cut you - yea

This is a song/prayer that children used when walking in the fields.

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hebiyoke no gofu　蛇よけの護符 amulet against snake bite

source :　kyukan.com/staff

mamushi yoke no jinja 蝮除けの神社 - Suwa jinja 諏訪神社
蝮除け御神砂

. mi (hebi) 巳 amulets for the Year of the Snake .
The Snake / Serpent is one of the 12 zodiac animals of the Asian lunar calendar.

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mizumaki otoko　水撒き男 water-sprinkling man

source :　www.cleanup.co.jp

They were hired by the merchants to sprinkle water in front of the store.
They carried two barrels of water with holes in the bottom.
The roads of Edo were from earth and produced a lot of dust during the dry summer months.
Sprinkling water would also keep the area just a little bit cooler.

. uchimizu 打水 sprinkling water .
has now become popular in Tokyo and other cities again as a means to save energy for air-conditioning!

. Doing Business in Edo　- 江戸の商売 .

sanja matsuri Asakusa 三社祭は浅草神社
- source : 江戸の歳時記 -

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4/26/2014

kawaraban newspaper

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. shuppansha 出版社 publishing company, book publisher .
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kawaraban　瓦版 Edo newspaper, handbill, broadside
news broadsheet, lit. "tile-block printing"
yomiuri 読売、lit. "to read and sell"

kawaraban uri かわら版売り vendor of a kawaraban
They read out the headline and part of the contents, then tried to sell their paper.

The newspaper of the Edo period - - -

- quote
Japanese newspapers (新聞 "shinbun")

One of the first kawaraban ever printed, depicting the fall of Osaka Castle, 17th century

Japanese newspapers began in the 17th century as yomiuri (読売、literally "to read and sell") or
kawaraban (瓦版, literally "tile-block printing" referring to the use of clay printing blocks), which were printed handbills sold in major cities to commemorate major social gatherings or events.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

- quote
A broadside is a large sheet of paper printed on one side only. Historically, broadsides were posters, announcing events or proclamations, or simply advertisements. Today, broadside printing is done by many smaller printers and publishers as a fine art variant, with poems often being available as broadsides, intended to be framed and hung on the wall.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

. kawara 瓦　/ かわら roof tile, roof tiles .

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- quote
About Kawaraban
by Anna Wada

According to scholars, kawaraban have particular features:

Newsworthy content
Commercially sold
Printed soon after the event
Illegally published without government authorization
Published anonymously

The prints appeared in various formats and sizes, but were printed in large quantities on cheap paper to keep costs down. As the material indicates, the prints were meant for short-term enjoyment rather than for preservation, although journals containing carefully pasted kawaraban with personal commentary have also been discovered. Scholars believe that the term “kawaraban” had been used from the late Edo period, but don’t know why this term was chosen. The term“Kawara” points to rooftiles, so some surmise that publishers cut production costs by carving rooftiles into printing plates instead of using wood. But the details of the prints show that most of them were made using woodblock printing. So, the term may have been a joke — the printing was so bad, it looked like printers used roof tiles.

The kawaraban took up a range of topics, including natural disasters, superstitious happenings, murders, and less commonly, political satire. Printers chose topics more to entertain and satisfy the readers’ curiosity than to educate them. Visual components such as illustrations, diagrams, and maps attracted the people to the print and helped them to understand the text, as well as sometimes offering additional information.

Throughout the Edo period the shogunate repeatedly restricted printing for a mass audience, particularly seeking to avoid rumors and political commentary. By the time the Black Ships arrived at the end of the Edo period, however, the system of censorship could not keep up with the number of prints in circulation. The increase in publications coincided with the spread of literacy in both urban and rural areas.

Ordinary people’s desire to gain access to information, and to take part in the shaping of public opinion, may have helped kawaraban to proliferate. Through kawaraban, people could determine whether an event may threaten their daily lives, consider political change, or learn about economic opportunities. At the same time, the prints retained their role as entertainment and satire. As illegally distributed news material, the truthfulness of the kawaraban is difficult to measure. The value of kawaraban to historians lies not only in their presentation of information, but in giving us a sense of what publishers deemed popular or what sparked the curiosity of the public.

Kawaraban on the arrival of Perry

MORE
- source : library.brown.edu/cds/perry

- quote
Encounters: Facing “West”
... There was, moreover, no counterpart on the Japanese side to the official artists employed by Perry—and thus no Japanese attempt to create a sustained visual (or written) narrative of these momentous interactions. What we have instead are representations by a variety of artists, most of whose names are unknown. Their artistic conventions differed from those of the Westerners. Their works were reproduced and disseminated not as lithographs and engravings or fine-line woodcuts, but largely as brightly colored woodblock prints as well as black-and-white broadsheets (kawaraban).

- source : ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027

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御上洛東海道ー幕末のジャーナリズムー
Exhibition about Bakumatsu Jurnalism
2014年4月1日 - 7月6日

Shizuoka Tokaido Hiroshige Museum 静岡市東海道広重美術館
- source : tokaido-hiroshige.jp

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Daruma Kawaraban だるまかわら版
- source : daruma-t.com/magazine

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

kawaraban uri かわら版売り vendor of a kawaraban

source :　xxx

１部がたったの4文だよ（１文は約25円）

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読売は一本箸で飯を食ひ
yomiuri wa ipponbashi de meshi o kui

the yomiuri vendor
eats his rice
with just one chopstick

He made his living by selling the papers, hitting it with his fan (like one chopstick) to draw attention to the headline.

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu in Edo .

. Doing Business in Edo　- 江戸の商売 .

. shuppansha 出版社 publishing company, book publisher .
ABC - Introduction

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. Japanese Architecture - cultural keywords used in haiku .

. - Doing Business in Edo - 商売　- Introduction .

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu poems in Edo .

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- #kawaraban -
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4/02/2014

fourth lunar month

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The Fourth Lunar Month　四月 shigatsu - 卯月 uzuki -

In the old lunar calendar of the Edo period,

spring lasted from the first month to the third,
summer from the fourth month through the sixth,
autumn from the seventh month through the ninth,
winter from the tenth month through the twelfth.

. WKD : The Asian Lunar Calendar and the Saijiki .

. Edo Saijiki　江戸歳時記 .

hatsugatsuo uri 初鰹売り　 first Katsuo vendor in Edo

The vendors started to come around in the fifth lunar month.

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hototogisu
. hototogisu ホトトギス, 時鳥 little cuckoo, Cuculus poliocephalis .

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koromogae
. koromogae 更衣ころもがえ changing to summer robes .

shincha 「新茶前線」北上中 new green tea
- source : 江戸の歳時記 -

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unohana
. unohana 卯の花 (うのはな) deutzia blossoms .
kigo for early summer

卯の花の垣根は夏の入口
unohana no kakine wa natsu no iriguchi

a fence of deutzia blossoms
is the entry
to summer

卯の花が咲いたぞ耳の穴を掘れ
unohana ga saita zo mimi no ana o hore

"deutzia blossoms
are now out" -
clean your ears

Yanagidaru 131

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3/01/2014

third lunar month

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Yayoi as place name, see below !
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The Third Lunar Month　三月 sangatsu - 弥生 yayoi -

In the old lunar calendar of the Edo period,

spring lasted from the first month to the third,
summer from the fourth month through the sixth,
autumn from the seventh month through the ninth,
winter from the tenth month through the twelfth.

. WKD : The Asian Lunar Calendar and the Saijiki .

. Edo Saijiki　江戸歳時記 .

source :　art.jcc-okinawa.net/okinawa/edonosiki

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

Asakusa sanja matsuri 浅草三社祭　Asakusa Festival of Three Shrines
. Asakusa Kannon　浅草観音 .

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hanami 花見 viewing cherry blossoms
. Cherry Blossom Time .

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tatsubina 辰雛 Dragon hina dolls
They were first shown on the first day of the third lunar month.

It used to be celebrated on the first day of the snake (jooshi 上巳,　mi no hi 巳の日) and later changed to the third day of the month.
tatsumi 辰巳 "dragon and snake" are a special pair in the Asian zodiac.

hina matsuri 雛祭り Hina doll festival
. hina matsuri 雛祭り Hina doll festival .

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- Now off to Edo and its various place names.

Yayoi 弥生 Yayoi district
. Bunkyoo, Bunkyō 文京区 Bunkyo ward, "Literature Capital" .
Yayoi, 一丁目 / 二丁目 first and second sub-district

In 1884, when it was part of Tokyo City, it was the location of a shell mound where a type of pottery was discovered.
The pottery became known as Yayoi, and eventually a period of Japanese history assumed the same name.
- quote wikipedia -

In 1965, the former area name 向ヶ岡 / 向ヶ丘 Mukogaoka was dropped and changed to 弥生 Yayoi.

- quote -
Yayoi jidai　弥生時代 The Yayoi period (ca. 400 BC - 250 AD).
The period is marked by the establishment of rice cultivation and an agrarian society. Society was hierarchical , with shifting alliances and centers of power. This change from hunter-gatherer Jomon jidai 縄文時代 is believed to have been influenced by a complex process of new migrations from the Asian continent as well as local adaptation. The name of the period originates from the area of Tokyo called Yayoicho 弥生町 where pottery of this period yayoishiki doki 弥生式土器 was first discovered and identified in the 19c. Yayoi pottery was fired at higher temperatures in ventilated kilns in Kyushu 九州.
Many Yayoi vessels are smooth and symmetrical. Rather than the earlier cord decorations, surface patterns were made with a wooden stick or comb. Asian continental influences during this period brought major societal and technological advances, including the establishment of communities and metal forging, particularly of bronze bells and weapons for ritual use.
- source : JAANUS -

Yayoizaka, Yayoi-zaka 弥生坂 Yayoi slope
also called
鉄砲坂（てっぽうざか）Teppozaka
In 1872, the whole area was called 向ヶ岡弥生町 Mukogaoka Yayoicho.
Since around 1620, the estate of the Tokugawa Mito clan was located here.
In 1969, the area became part of the 大学用地 University complex, 東大 Todai.
Some slopes were built for the students to access the university. From Nezu the slope leads up to the Todai.

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Yayoi Museum 彌生美術館 / 弥生美術館 - 草間彌生 Kusama Yayoi
2 Chome-4-３ Yayoi, Bunkyō, Tokyo
now
Yayoi Kusama Museum
107 Bentencho, Shinjuku, Tokyo

- quote -
Yayoi Kusama Museum was founded by the avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama, and is run by the Yayoi Kusama Foundation. It opened in 2017 with the aim of spreading and promoting Kusama’s art, exhibiting her works and related materials to contribute to the development of art as a whole.
Our collection of Kusama’s works will be presented in two exhibitions each year, together with lectures and various other events; we hope to share widely the message of world peace and love for humanity that Kusama has promoted, while also engaging people from all backgrounds with contemporary art.
... The museum presents major works from Kusama’s earlier years up until the present day. ...
... Kusama’s work has been exhibited in many of the major museums, Biennales and Triennales all over the world. ...
- source : yayoikusamamuseum.jp/en... -

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Yayoichō 弥生町 Yayoicho district
東京都中野区弥生町
. Nakano ku 中野区 Nakano ward - "Middle Wild Field" .
弥生町一丁目 - 六丁目 from the first to the sixth sub-district

There have also been found remains of the Yayoi period in this district.
Now it is mostly an area for living, with many mansions.

In 1967, it was formed from the following parts:
弥生町一丁目 = 本郷通一丁目・向台町・栄町通一丁目の一部
弥生町二丁目 = 本郷通二丁目・本郷通三丁目
弥生町三丁目 = 神明町の一部・栄町通一丁目の一部・川島町の一部
弥生町四丁目 = 栄町通二丁目の一部・川島町の一部・神明町の一部
弥生町五丁目 = 富士見町・本郷通三丁目・広町の一部・栄町通二丁目の一部・栄町通三丁目の一部
弥生町六丁目 = 広町の一部・栄町通三丁目の一部
- quote wikipedia -

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. Edo Saijiki　江戸歳時記 .

. - Doing Business in Edo - 商売　- Introduction .

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu poems in Edo .

. Famous Places and Power Spots of Edo .

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- #yayoi #bunkyoyayoi #nakanoyayoi #mukogaoka #yayoizaka #teppozaka -
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2/12/2014

Eitaibashi bridge

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. Powerspots of Edo .
. Edo no hashi 江戸の橋　the bridges of Edo .
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Eitaibashi 永代橋 Eitai-bashi bridge
. Chūō ku 中央区 Chuo Ward "Central Ward" .

This bridge spans the Sumidagawa 隅田川 Sumida River.
It was first built in 1698 on request of the fifth Shogun, Tsunayoshi 徳川綱吉, to celebrate his 50th birthday. It was about 100 meters upriver from the location of today, where the river crossing of Fukagawa 深川の渡し had been.
It was the fourth bridge over the Sumidagawa river and the most downstream, connecting Edo with Fukagawa.

source :　blog.livedoor.jp/henky

It was about 200 meters long and 6 meters wide. It had 30 poles to support the bridge. To let trade ships with sails pass even during high tide, it hat do be quite high.

Around 1719 it had become rather old and was in need of repair. Most of the anti-slipping boards had been worn out. But the villages on both sides could not decide how much to pay and the Bakufu government was also not ready with a suitable plan, so things hang on . . .

In 1807, on the 20th of September, was the great festival at Fukagawa Tomioka Hachimangu, where new festival floats had been allowed after a break of 12 years. Everyone was excited and wanted to see the festival.
On that day, shortly before the accident, a boat of a feudal lord passed under the bridge and the warden stopped the crowd from crossing for that time. When the boat was gone, everyone stormed over the bridge and then it happened.
Near the Fukagawa side the bridge broke in two places and more than 1400 people fell and slid in the river, drowned and could not be found later.

The bridge has been crowded like a commuter train nowadays, with everyone shoving and pushing forward to reach the festival site.
Folks on the Edo side of the bridge had not yet realized what had appened and kept pushing on, so ever more people slipped down into the river once they crossed the highest part.

An official from the Southern Ward Office, one Watanabe Kozaemon 渡辺小佐衛門, then realized what had happened and posted himself at the acces to the bridge, draw his sword and prevented the folks from pushing past him, threatening to kill them if they tried to go past him. (This story has become a legend in Edo, even taken up by the writer Kyokutei Bakin 曲亭馬琴 in the story of Toenkai 兎園会 written in 1825.)

source :　ginjo.fc2web.com/021eitaibasi

落橋事故 - 文化４年（1807)８月 15日 Bridge Collapse Accident

Many small boats came to help looking for drowning people, temporary hospitals were set up along both shores to take care of the wounded.

The bridge was later rebuilt by the Bakufu government and then renewed to become the first iron bridge in Japan and in Tokyo in 1897.

source : www.postalmuseum.jp/collection

Part of the new bridge was still built with wood and burned down during the Great Tokyo Earthquake in 1923.
It was rebuilt again in 1926 as the first earthquake-proof bridge in Tokyo.

It was declared an important national treasure in 2007.

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広重 Hiroshige

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CLICK for more photos !

The Eitaibashi bridge in our modern times :
. . . reference . . .

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. WKD : Bridge (hashi　橋) .

. Fukagawa Tomioka Hachimangu 富岡八幡宮 .

- Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉
. Bashoo-an 芭蕉庵 Basho-An in Fukagawa　深川 .

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

- about the Bridge Collapse Accident

永代とかけたる橋は落ちにけりきょうは祭礼あすは葬礼

the Eitai bridge collapsed -
today the festival announcement
tomorrow the funeral announcement
Tr. Gabi Greve

eitai 永代 can mean something to last permanently . . . and the bridge was built with this wish for the Bakufu government of the Tokugawa clan.

永代橋落ちんばかりの神輿かな
Eitaibashi ochin bakari no mikoshi kana

from Eitaibashi
all the festival floats
fallen down . . .

Nakada Minami 中田みなみ

The cut marker KANA is at the end of line 3.

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春風や永代橋の人通り
harukaze ya Eitaibashi no hitodoori

spring breeze -
all these people walking
over Eitaibashi bridge

. Masaoka Shiki 正岡子規 .

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Kawase Hasui 川瀬巴水 - Eitai Bashi - the bridge from 1926.

. Legend from the Shrine 高尾稲荷 Takao Inari .

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. Chūō ku 中央区 Chuo Ward "Central Ward" .

. Japanese Architecture - cultural keywords used in haiku .

. Famous Places and Powerspots of Edo .

. senryu, senryū 川柳　Senryu poems in Edo .

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- #eitaibashi -
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2/01/2014

second lunar month

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The Second Lunar Month　二月 nigatsu - 如月 kisaragi -

In the old lunar calendar of the Edo period,

spring lasted from the first month to the third,
summer from the fourth month through the sixth,
autumn from the seventh month through the ninth,
winter from the tenth month through the twelfth.

. WKD : The Asian Lunar Calendar and the Saijiki .

. Edo Saijiki　江戸歳時記 .

1/17/2014

ISSA - Kyoto

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. Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 in Edo .

出代や山越て見る京の空
degawari ya yama koshite miru Kyoo no sora

初夢の不二の山売る都哉
hatsu yume no fuji no yama uru miyako kana

時鳥花のお江戸を一呑に
hototogisu hana no o-edo o hito nomi ni

蚊柱の穴から見ゆる都哉
ka-bashira no ana kara miyuru miyako kana

から人と雑魚寝もすらん女かな
karabito to zakone mo suran onna kana

京辺や冬篭さへいそがしき
miyakobe ya fuyugomori sae isogashiki

のらくらや花の都も秋の風
norakura ya hana no miyako mo aki no kaze

下京の窓かぞへけり春の暮
shimogyoo no mado kazoe keri haru no kure

行秋やすでに御釈迦は京の空
yuku aki ya sude ni o-shaka wa kyoo no sora

- - - - -Read the discussions here :
. Kyoto - Hana no Miyako 花の都 .

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夜々は本ンの都ぞ門涼
yoru-yoru wa hon no miyako zo kado suzumi

night after night
people cool off outside --
it is truly the capital
Tr. Chris Drake

This hokku is from the sixth month (July) of 1813, about five months after Issa finally reached an agreement with his brother and returned to live in his half of his father's house in his hometown. It is also the last hokku in a series of four (or perhaps five) in Issa's diary about the Gion Festival in faraway Kyoto, a festival that is taking place as he writes his hokku. Apparently just imagining the Gion Festival makes Issa feel cooler. When he traveled in western Honshu many years earlier, Issa probably saw at least part of the long Gion Festival, which lasts for a month and is one of the three most famous festivals in Japan. Night after night and day after day different groups of dancers, musicians, actors, Shinto priests, and ordinary citizens from different parts of Kyoto carry out ceremonies and performances in various neighborhoods and parade through the streets at various times. When they do, people go outside to wave or urge on those in the processions as they pass by. On 6/7 and 6/14, very tall floats on large wagons were pulled through the streets of the main parts of the city, and Issa's other Kyoto hokku in this part of his diary for the sixth month evoke those large floats. During the month-long festival, benches were set up in the streets, stalls selling food or charms proliferated, and low platforms were placed in the almost dry riverbed of the Kamo River near the route of the processions, allowing people to cool off in the night air as they watched from the riverbed. It is this festival which Issa evokes in four consecutive hokku, and the only emperor he mentions is Gozu Tennou, the Ox Head Emperor, a syncretic Buddhist and Shinto deity who is the main god at the Gion Shrine.

In Issa's time the nominal capital of Japan was Kyoto, but the emperor was close to being a mere figurehead, and the actual administrative capital was Edo, where the shogunate held real power and acted as the nation's government, although much power was also held by feudal samurai lords in their rural domains. To Issa, however, in the sixth month Kyoto stops being the nominal capital of Japan and actually becomes the real capital. This change is not due to the old aristocracy but to the economic power of Kyoto's merchants and craftspeople, who support the Gion Festival and keep alive the communal commoner networks, guilds, and self-help organizations that developed through the centuries after the aristocracy lost most of its power. The Gion Festival takes place throughout the city, and each local neighborhood joins in. Much of the commoner population of Kyoto participates in this festival, and those who don't pull floats around or perform in the streets stand beside the streets near their homes, enjoying the cool air, conversation, and the festival. When Issa says people "cool off by/near their doors and gates," he seems to be referring mainly to the commoners in Kyoto.

This kind of great outdoor urban festival could take place in Kyoto because of its traditions of commoner independence and pride and because commoners made up the majority of the population of the city. By contrast, in Edo, where Issa came of age after being sent there as a boy, warriors owned about two-thirds of the land, with only about 15% being owned by commoners. Edo began as a castle town and administrative center, and most of the early commoners who came to live there did jobs that were in some way related to supporting the warrior population. By Issa's time commoners had developed their own unique culture, but in Edo there was never any doubt about which class ruled and which classes had to obey. In Kyoto, however, warriors had to keep a very low profile and hesitated to interfere in daily city affairs, while the aristocrats were weak and ineffectual. During the Gion Festival, at least, Kyoto people enjoyed living outside together, and it must have almost seemed as if commoners temporarily ran the city. To Issa, Kyoto during the Gion Festival truly deserved the name of capital of Japan.

After leaving Edo and returning to live in his hometown in 1813, Issa, happy at being home, seems to have partially overlapped in his mind his native area of Shinano with Kyoto. In another hokku in Issa's diary placed soon before the four about the Gion Festival is a hokku about the "mountain people" in his area having "Kyoto-sized" rooms in their houses. In Kyoto, tatami floor mat sizes were slightly bigger than in Edo, where people had to squeeze together. An eight-mat room was thus perceptibly larger in Kyoto and Shinano than in Edo. And more generally, Issa feels Shinano is a much better place than it's said to be by outsiders. In fact, when it comes to summer coolness Shinano is the capital of cool in Japan, as Issa suggests in this hokku, which is also placed near the four hokku about Kyoto:

bathing at a hot springs in the depths of Shinano --

gege mo gege gege mo gekoku no suzushisa yo

ah, how cool
the lowest of the lowest
of the low provinces

In ancient Japan Shinano was officially ranked among the "low provinces" in terms of value, and in Issa's time city people in Edo continued to look down on the province. However, Issa knows from experience that those who underestimate Shinano are forgetting something, and the repetition of ge suggests their inability to think and speak clearly. In Shinano the cool summer air is surely, he believes, as refreshing as it gets in Japan. The coolness in Shinano comes from nature, while the coolness in Kyoto comes from its convivial outdoor street culture, especially during the colorful and dramatic Gion Festival, but Issa seems to feel that both Shinano and Kyoto must be equal in terms of sheer coolness. His hometown has no great annual midsummer festival to transform and cool daily life, but it does have magic melons. In Issa's diary, placed between the "lowest of the low" hokku and the "night after night" hokku are these:

hito kitara kaeru to nare yo hiyashi-uri

hey, melons cooling
in the creek, if someone comes
turn into frogs!

ishikawa ya ariake-zuki to hiyashi-uri

rocky stream --
dawn moon,
cooling melons

In the first hokku, Issa plays the part of magician, while in the second it is the moon's cool light and its shape reflected on the surface of the rippling stream that urge the melons to think big and to cool people's minds and imaginations as well as their mouths, just as the moon does. Also, as Issa surely knows, Rocky Stream is also one of the alternate names of the Kamo River in Kyoto, and the next two hokku in his diary evoke the representation of a cool crescent moon at the top of a pole high above the moon float at the Gion Festival, a float dedicated to the main god of the Gion Shrine, so the hokku about the rocky stream may be overlapping a stream in Issa's hometown with the Kamo River in Kyoto, where large numbers of people go at night to catch some cool air and eat cool food after enjoying the festival. Issa seems to have actually witnessed people immersing melons in the Kamo River for cooling, since several years earlier he wrote a hokku about it, so it seems possible that, in Issa's imagination, the melons in the rocky stream hokku are cooling both in Issa's hometown and in the Kamo River in faraway Kyoto.

During his first summer back in his hometown, Issa seems to have had utopian visions of his native region. After leaving behind the cramped rooms of warrior-ruled Edo, he may have felt that in some ways his hometown was the equal of Kyoto, at least if he could use his imagination to make it into something equaling Kyoto. Surely he was beginning to understand the type of haikai he wanted to write from now on in his new life environment.

Issa's mental overlapping of his hometown with Kyoto is a bit complex.

Chris Drake

. Gion matsuri　祇園祭り Gion Festival in Kyoto .

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時鳥京にして見る月よ哉
hototogisu kyoo ni shite miru tsukiyo kana

nightingale,
go see this moon
in the old capital

This hokku is from lunar 4/19 (May 26) of 1807, when Issa was in Edo. On the nineteenth the moon is slightly past full and is still fairly bright though waning. In the hokku Issa seems to be especially impressed by the singing of one nightingale, and he tries to persuade the bird to visit the old capital, Kyoto, if it really wants to see tonight's moon as it should be seen, with the moonlit city spread out below in its full beauty. Since Edo was a city on the move twenty-four hours a day, city lights presumably made the moon harder to see and enjoy, and in Kyoto, where waka poems about nightingales have been written for centuries, people will appreciate the bird's voice more deeply than they do in Edo. And Kyoto, still the nominal capital, is simply a more elegant city than utilitarian Edo, the actual administrative capital. In the previous hokku in his diary Issa urges a nightingale not to dawdle or it will never get to Kyoto, and in the present hokku he may be hoping the bird can fly all the way to Kyoto in a single night.

In another hokku written on the same day, Issa tells a nightingale that has just returned from the south to get ready to look at creepers and other high-growing weeds on and around the humble houses of commoners in Edo. However, that hokku is followed by:

nightingale,
at night even weeds
are beautiful

hototogisu yoru wa mugura mo utsukushiki

Still, nothing in Edo compares with moonlit Kyoto, so Issa urges the bird to gaze at the moon there. By implication, he may be suggesting the bird will be recognized in Kyoto for its outstanding voice.

There is no perfect English translation for the bird hototogisu. It is literally the "lesser" cuckoo, since it is smaller than the larger common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus - kakkou, kankodori), which is commonly found in Europe and sings with cuckoo-clock-like cries. The lesser cuckoo is found only in Africa and Asia, so its cry and its habits are not part of common bird folklore or experience in English. The song of the lesser cuckoo is rather different from that of the common cuckoo and is closer to the song of the uguisu (bush warbler). In fact, the songs of the lesser cuckoo and bush warbler were and to some extent still remain the two most prized bird songs in Japan, and people wrote many waka and hokku about hearing the first song of the year of both birds. Since the lesser cuckoo, unlike the common cuckoo, is fond of singing at night as well as in the day, the sound of its voice in the darkness is said to be especially moving, and people often stayed up all night in early summer waiting to hear its soulful, emotional-sounding song. The bird is therefore often associated with night and the moon as well as with souls in the other world and with mountain gods, for whom it acts as a messenger.

It is also thought to be a messenger for Buddhas, and its song is said to make the sound of Japanese words meaning, "Have you hung up your Buddha image?" The inside of its mouth is red, and the lesser cuckoo is also called the bird that coughs blood, a reference to legendary king Duyu in China who died in exile and whose soul became a lesser cuckoo that sang so sadly about wanting to return home that it coughed up blood. This legend influenced Masaoka Shiki when he chose his writing name (Shiki, in Sino-Japanese, means Lesser Cuckoo), since he, too, was a singer in spite of coughing up blood from his tubercular lungs, and the literary magazine he founded, Hototogisu, bears the name Lesser Cuckoo. Many other legends and images are associated with the bird.

Unfortunately, to most English speakers, the word cuckoo suggests the common cuckoo and not the mysterious, otherworldly lesser cuckoo with its sad, emotional voice. There is no consensus on what English name might suggest the beauty and suggestiveness of the bird's song, which is quite different from that of the common cuckoo, but I use "nightingale" in order to suggest some of the spiritual and cultural ambiance of the hototogisu. In Greek myth the nightingale sings the mournful song of the soul of a woman who has been wronged, and in English poetry the nightingale has often been evoked as the spirit of song or poetry or the imagination. However, nightingales are not found in Japan, so my translation is based on cultural similarities and the nocturnal singing habits of both the nightingale and the lesser cuckoo.

Chris Drake

. hototogisu ホトトギス, 時鳥 Little Cuckoo, Cuculus poliocephalis .

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. WKD : Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 - Introduction .

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1/14/2014

ISSA mukudori

photo - wikipedia

. WKD : mukudori 椋鳥 starling, gray starling .
muku, むく、hakutoo oo 白頭翁（はくとうおう）
black-collared starling, 黑領椋鳥
small starling, ko mukiudori 小椋鳥（こむくどり）
Family Sturnidae

kigo for all autumn

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oo kuro mukudori modoki オオクロムクドリモドキ common grackle
a type of mukudori, crow blackbird

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"Country bumpkins" such as Issa were called "(gray) starlings" (mukudori) by sophisticated Edo-ites.
It also refers to migrant workers from the countryside who came to work in Edo during the winter months.

. Gambling (bakuchi 博打) .

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椋鳥といふ人さはぐ夜寒哉
mukudori to iu hito sawagu yozamu kana

people get worked up,
blame "those starlings" --
it's cold tonight
Tr. Chris Drake

This autumn hokku is from the beginning of the eighth month (September) in 1815, when Issa was in his home province of Shinano. The exact circumstances aren't mentioned in the hokku, so it's impossible to be certain, but it's still three months before the migration season begins, and Issa is in or near his hometown, and not on the road traveling to Edo, so he probably wouldn't be mistaken for a winter migrant worker. As a child, Issa was probably called lots of names when he first arrived in Edo, but he lived in Edo for many years and was not a seasonal migrant to the big city. I take this hokku to be about some prejudiced people in Issa's home province who are criticizing to Issa or to someone nearby Issa the many migrant seasonal workers who leave Issa's home province and go to Edo to work every winter and then return in the spring as soon as fields need to be prepared for planting. In Issa's time more seasonal workers came to Edo from Shinano than from any other area, so they were often singled out for biased remarks.

Most of the winter migrant workers were poor tenant farmers who didn't own their own land and had a hard time making ends meet, and they were criticized by people both in Shinano and in Edo. People called them many names, especially "gluttons," since some spent much of what they made on eating out and drinking in Edo, "blockheads," since they didn't speak the Edo dialect or care very much about Edo customs, and "starlings" (literally, white-cheeked or gray starlings). "Starlings" seems to have had many meanings, but one was a reference to the fact that Japanese starlings gather together in huge flocks of tens of thousands of birds during the winter, making a lot of noise and treating the natural environment rather roughly.

Another sense of the word criticized migrant workers for staying in groups and not trying to mix with Edo people. Still another sense was that migrant workers wore clothes that looked as shabby as the feathers of the starlings. To some people living in Shinano the term also seems to have referred to migrant workers' alleged lack of interest in contributing to their own communities. "Starlings" was a very negative word, and when Issa heard it used on this night, he surely felt sympathy for the migrants. He probably also remembered the cold reception he himself received as an outsider when he returned to live in his hometown.

In 1819, however, the year evoked in Year of My Life, Issa himself was definitely called a migrant starling. In the eleventh month (December) he wrote:

mukudori no nakama ni iru ya yuushigure

I've become
one of the starlings --
cold evening rain

In Issa's diary this hokku follows a hokku about being called a starling, a hokku that also appears toward the end of Year of My Life. In a letter to his follower Toyuu written on 9/14 in 1820, Issa briefly explains how he came to compose that hokku:

Last winter on the third of the twelfth month I grabbed my walking staff and set out for Edo in the east. As I went along I composed this hokku, saying it out loud under my breath:

mukudori to hito ni yobaruru samusa kana

bitter cold --
people call me
a starling

Just then wet sleet began splashing down and turned the whole road into deep mud. I still hadn't reached Usui Pass, which is very difficult for anyone to cross over, but my old legs were already worn out, so I turned around and retraced my steps until I'd returned home.

The coldness in the hokku of course refers equally to the weather and to Issa's feelings.

Did Issa set out in the eleventh month, as his diary suggests, or early in the twelfth month (January), as his letter says? In either case, he took to the road in simple robes at a time when large numbers of seasonal workers were also heading for Edo, and he was taken to be one of them. He was still in his home province of Shinano when he was called a starling, probably in villages he passed through as he walked along the Nakasendo road toward Edo, and the repeated slur must have hurt even more because it came from people so close to home.

Chris Drake

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