Tokyo: A Biography. Stephen Mansfield
whose natural energy matched the vitality of Edo. If it was a city of water, it was probably closer to Suzhou than Venice, with plenty of the former’s storehouses, granaries, and quays and none of the latter’s palazzi or monuments to great wealth.
The Sumida served in the way that all rivers should, by bringing nature into the city. The oars of pilots plying the river were still apt to become entangled in waterweeds; beautiful white birds, oyster-catchers known as miyakodori (capital birds), could still be seen in the waters of the river into the early years of the twentieth century. Cranes were a common sight, their presence during the migratory season adding grace notes to the riverbanks of Edo, though shoguns had taken to hunting them with falcons during the winter, taking excursion parties to Mikawashima, an area to the northwest of Shin-Yoshiwara.
The presence and well-being of animals took on particular significance during the tenure of the shogun Tsunayoshi, (1680– 1709), whose birth year happened to be the Year of the Dog. An influential priest in the service of his mother persuaded the impressionable young man to forbid the killing and mistreatment of dogs and other animals under penalty of death. Tsunayoshi accordingly issued his “Edicts on Compassion for Living Things,” and ordered compounds to be built in Edo to accommodate stray dogs. The number of canines in Edo rose sharply, their nocturnal barking and fighting depriving residents of their sleep. Animal-rights ordinances were issued nationwide, but only appear to have been enforced in Edo; people were tried and sentenced in a total of sixty-nine cases, and thirteen of them were executed. Edo citizens were required to address dogs using the form O-inu sama (Honorable Mr. Dog). The edicts were immediately abrogated by Tsunayoshi’s successor, the shogun Ienobu. A revenge of sorts was posthumously visited upon Tsunayoshi by the good people of Edo, who would forever refer to him by the title inu-kubo, the “Dog Shogun.”
The dispensation of favors by Tsunayoshi, much resented by the people of Edo, appeared to have been predicated on the shogun’s ever-changing sexual predilections, which were mostly centered on males. The Sanno Gaiki, a historical document, is quite clear on the topic: “The shogun preferred sex with males of all social rankings, providing they were handsome.” The record lists 130 appointments of this kind. Tsunayoshi was not a physically imposing man: life-sized Buddhist mortuary tablets kept at Daiju-ji temple in Okazaki city in Aichi prefecture record his height at 124 centimeters (4 feet).
Mercifully for the protein-deficient people of Edo, fish were not listed among Tsunayoshi’s creatures deserving of compassion. A large fish market operated at Shiba, along the bay to the southeast of the fort. A general market just outside the castle gates called Yokkaichi (Fourth-Day Market) sold dried and salted fish brought down the coast from the Kamakura area.
Edo’s largest rice granaries were located in Kuramae, where berths cut into the riverbanks housed the tributary rice shipped from the domains to the shogun’s own storehouses. Rice brokers were able to amass great wealth. The rice merchants were known for their profligacy, squandering much of their wealth in the licensed quarters of Yoshiwara and Yanagibashi. Meat was not commonly consumed, due in part to the Buddhist proscription on the eating of animal flesh. Meat was consumed as a “medicinal food,” however; some believed that it was an elixir. Animal flesh, referred to as “mountain whale,” could be bought at hunters’ markets like the one in Yotsuya, or at butcher’s shops in the vicinity of Komadome Bridge, where deer, wild boar, monkey, and varieties of game were sold.
Other creatures, on the other hand, were not consumed, but given supernatural forms and persona. Little-understood geological occurrences like earthquakes were blamed on an outlandishly sized earth spider; in the later years of Edo, seismic activity was attributed to a giant catfish that caused tremors when it became disgruntled and thrashed its tail. In a world where supernatural forces and divination were inseparable from quotidian life, natural disasters were interpreted as a form of divine retribution.
Major earthquakes and fires, a common combination, occurred in 1694 and 1703. A year later, flooding was followed by outbreaks of cholera, plague, and measles. Intense tremors shook Edo on October 4, 1707, as Mount Fuji belched ash over the city. Two days later, the mountain erupted, the fire and lava from its cone turning the sky above Edo a deep red. With ash and hot cinders falling on the city and turning daytime into night, people took to carrying lanterns. Others doused hessian cloth with water and wrapped it around their heads as a precaution against falling cinders. As people crowded into temples and shrines to offer prayer for divine intercession, the eruption was inevitably attributed to failings in governance, corruption, and political malfeasance.
Evacuating people from the impoverished warren of the shitamachi was almost impossible. The sheer number of inhabitants itself was a barrier to escape. Ieyasu had encouraged the immigration of merchants, fishermen, manufacturers, and craftspeople to his new military bastion so they could service the needs of the court and the nobility and their retainers. The population of Edo was half a million by 1630, and at the end of the century it had doubled, making Edo the most populous city in the world. The world at large, however, was hardly aware of Edo, and had yet to discover its extraordinary material growth and cultural efflorescence.
A rare survivor of war and disaster, the magnificent Toshogu in Ueno Park is one of Japan’s designated Cultural Properties. (Photo by Joe Mabel, printed under the Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic and 3.0 Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Licenses)
CHAPTER 2
The Restive City
Flowering of culture – Neo-Confucianism – A rising
merchant class – The green city – Perry’s black ships
– Assassinations, war, turmoil – The end of Edo
On an unseasonably snowy morning in January 30, 1703, an event took place that electrified Edo, plunging it into a protracted debate about honor, duty, and punishment. Lord Kira Yoshinaka, a daimyo whose sumptuous estate lay close to the Sumida River in Ryogoku, had been appointed to instruct young Lord Asano Naganori Takuminokami in the finer points of court ritual. Failing to receive the gifts he felt entitled to and openly derisive of his charge, Lord Kira goaded Asano to the point where he drew his dagger and struck out at the older man—a grievous offence at court that was punishable by death. The assailant was arrested and ordered to commit seppuku, ritual self-disembowelment.
With the Asano family disinherited and its estates divided up, its retainers became masterless ronin (“wave men”). Oishi Kuranosuke, Asano’s elder councilor, began secretly plotting his master’s revenge along with forty-six other former Asano retainers. Cognizant that Kira’s men would be keeping them under strict surveillance, the ronin set about obliterating any traces of samurai bearing in their public demeanor, blending in with the populace by taking up the activities of petty merchants, laborers, carpenters, peddlers, and tinkers. Oishi himself repaired to Kyoto, where he adopted a life of drunkenness and dissipation, going as far as to evict his wife and two young children from his home and take up with a young concubine of ill repute. Oishi’s debauchery and apparent desire for self-annihilation were dutifully reported to Kira, who began to lower his guard. It was an effective ruse.
Asano’s former retainers saw their imminent act less as revenge than high ritual. Accordingly, they dressed in new clothing, donning white underwear of padded silk, hakama trousers, black padded kimonos bearing family crests, gauntlets, leggings, and black-and-white hoods and mantles. Some followed the ancient custom of burning incense in their helmets. If the enemy cut their heads off, their helmets would be fragrantly scented.
In the early morning hours of January 30, 1703, Oishi’s men stormed Kira’s snowbound villa. Several of Kira’s men fought to the last, while others, including his son, dropped their weapons and fled. The ronin found Kira’s bed still warm, but empty. A brief search of the property revealed an old hut used to store charcoal, and it was there they found their prey. The identity of the man in the hut, who was dressed in a white satin sleeping-gown, was confirmed by the scar from Asano’s dagger. Offered the chance to commit seppuku, Kira refused. Oishi then stepped forward and beheaded him with Lord Asano’s own sword.