Edo Jidai Trivia

[miles7tp]

to Maciamo
Japanese cities were not surrounded by a wall like European cities.
In Europe both the ruling class and the common people lived inside a wall. The church was built inside a wall.

The model of the Japanese castle town called "Joka machi"城下町 is the following figure.



Samurai lived surrounding the castle. The common people lived along the wide street. The temple was often built in the northeast of the town. The northeast was thought to be the the direction from which demons came into the town. It is called "Kimon"鬼門. People hoped that the temple would protect their town against the misfortune.

About your map :
The red area of your map is the Edo castle which was expanded by Ieyasu家康 in about 1596.
The Edo castle was built by a vassal of the feudal lord, Ota Dokan太田道灌, in the Muromachi period. Since Ieyasu was moved by Toyotomi Hideyoshi豊臣秀吉 in 1590, he lived in the small and poor castle for 6 years. In about 1596 Ieyasu expanded the Edo castle.
The purple area is the Edo castle which was expanded by Hidetada秀忠 in about 1615.
The moat of the yellow area was built by Iemitsu家光 in about 1644. The moat called "Sotobori"外堀 was the defense line of the Edo castle not the border line of the Edo city. In a sense the yellow area of your map is the Edo castle.

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the map made in about 1644
The red area of this map was the Shogun zone. The purple area was the high-powered feudal lords zone. The yellow area is the Samurai zone(the average feudal lords and Tokugawa's samurai). Moreover outside a moat, the large residences of the feudal lords(including 3 families of Tokugawa called "Gosan-ke"御三家) and many houses of samurai were built. The gray area is the common people zone. Many wide streets ran there.
Kan-eiji寛永寺, the large temple for Shogun, was built to protect the Edo against the misfortune in the northeast of Edo in 1625. It was burned down at the war in 1868. Now, that place is the Ueno park. The very small Kan-eiji寛永寺 was rebuilt in 1875 near the Ueno park.
Sensoji浅草寺 is the oldest temple in Tokyo. In 7 century it was built. (At that time it was still the small temple.)
Some of priests assisted the Shogun. Konchiin Suden金地院崇伝 acted as an adviser to Ieyasu.
Afterward the shogunate appointed the farmers(Ninomiya Kinjiro二宮金次郎) and the merchants(Senba tarobe仙波太郎兵衛) as the advisers of the government.


the map published in 1849
The countless temples were built around Edo. Most of them were smaller temples than you imagine.


to pipokun
pipokun wrote :
A person named Mushiya Seijiro started his bug business in the Edo.


the book published in 1720
The woman(nanny ?) says "Please sell him the bug which has good voice."
People enjoyed chirp of the bug(various crickets : Korogi, Suzumushi, Matsumushi, Kutsuwamushi).

the book published in 1805

the book published in 1836
the bug peddler


to Tokis-Phoenix

The influential farmer like a village headman was permitted to wear the silk clothes"Kinutsumugi"絹紬 at the ceremony.
The shogunate exercised stricter control over the luxurious life of samurai than that of the common people, because "Simple and sturdy"質実剛健 was the motto of Samurai.
If they did not wear very flamboyant clothes, they were not punished.
People knew that all thrift ordinances would lose effect after a few years.
Though I have never read the historical record about the punishment, perhaps a offender against that law would be usually given a warning"shikari"呵責, I think.
But once I have heard the story of the rare case.
In the late 17 century"Genroku"元禄, in Edo, one woman was enthusiastic about the clothes. She was the wife of the very rich merchant, Ishikawa Rokube石川六兵衛 and boasted that she had the largest number of clothes in Japan. She travelled to Kyoto to participate in contest of the clothes.
She had become the talk of Edo.
One day, the Shogun, Tsunayoshi綱吉 passed by her house. He saw many high-priced clothes hung to incense them.
At once the judicial officer arrested her for the thrift ordinance and confiscated all her property. And she and her family were banished from Edo.
The truth about this story may be shrouded in the mists of legend.

The repeated thrift ordinances influenced the mode.
"showy" >>>>> "subdued"
"large-patterned" >>>>> "small-patterned"

[Maciamo]

Thanks for the explanation, kaerupop.

to Maciamo
Japanese cities were not surrounded by a wall like European cities.
In Europe both the ruling class and the common people lived inside a wall. The church was built inside a wall.

But we are not talking about the same period. City walls surrounded European cities in the late middle ages, from about the 12th century to the early 16th century (so from the Kamakura to the Muromachi period in Japan). However, there were no city walls in Europe during the Edo period, and the nobility (=samurai) usually lived in castles or palaces outside the city, usually surrounded by a big park. The nobles normally had their own chapel (small church) inside their castle/palace.

Like in Japan, peasants lived in villages in the countryside, while merchants, artisans, artists, civil servants, government soldiers, etc. lived in cities. From the 16th century, European nobles became very different from the Japanese samurai class. They were landed lords that usually didn't fight but discussed the arts and politics, sponsored famous artists or enjoyed themselves. Wars were made by ordinary soldiers like nowadays. The officers were often from noble families but not always. Castles were not used in wars anymore. Most battles took place in open fields or at sea.

So the main difference between Europe and Japan during the Edo period was that the castle was the center of the city in Japan, and that the soldiers protecting this castle were the priviledged samurai class, not ordinary people.

[pipokun]

Like in Japan, peasants lived in villages in the countryside, while merchants, artisans, artists, civil servants, government soldiers, etc. lived in cities. From the 16th century, European nobles became very different from the Japanese samurai class. They were landed lords that usually didn't fight but discussed the arts and politics, sponsored famous artists or enjoyed themselves. Wars were made by ordinary soldiers like nowadays. The officers were often from noble families but not always. Castles were not used in wars anymore. Most battles took place in open fields or at sea.

So the main difference between Europe and Japan during the Edo period was that the castle was the center of the city in Japan, and that the soldiers protecting this castle were the priviledged samurai class, not ordinary people.

Tell me who the samurai class protected their castles against... It seems to me that people enjoyed the pax tokugawana.

[Maciamo]

Tell me who the samurai class protected their castles against... It seems to me that people enjoyed the pax tokugawana.

That was in fact more theoretical. I never quite understood why the samurai had to keep their sword and live around the lord's castle in such a prolonged time of peace if there was really no risk of rebellion.

[pipokun]

That was in fact more theoretical. I never quite understood why the samurai had to keep their sword and live around the lord's castle in such a prolonged time of peace if there was really no risk of rebellion.

yeah, i know you knew.
I don't know if it was just a sort of noblesse oblige for the samurai class, esp. lower ranked samurai to stay poor.
They should have exploited the people more like other countries...

Engelbert Kämpfer, a German scientist and doctor, wrote "The history of Japan". I heard there are a lot of discrepancies between the original and the Eng translation.
Interesting enough, the evaluation of his book completely changed before/after the Enlightment in Europe. And the Japanese read it and some encouraged the positive view on "sakoku"　in the early 19C and it might bring "Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians" policy.

[pipokun]

Some of you may know Takeru Kobayashi, the Nathan's champion. In the Edo period, stupid food eating bouts/sake drinking bouts also conducted.

Sake bout
I pick up female results.
Miyo drank 0.7 gallons of sake without showing her drunken face.
Sumi drank 1.1 gallons of sake.
Oiku and Ofun also drank a lot of sake all days.

不許悪客（下戸、理屈）入庵門
This means no bad-mannered drinker, getting angry, sleep, crying after drinking incl. non-drinkers or people argumentative by nature in the bout.

Food bout
Kichizo, aged 74, ate 54 bowls of rice with 58 chilies.
Kanemon ate 50 manju dumplings, 7 bars of Yokan sweet jellied adzuki-bean paste, 30 rice dumpling and 19 cups of tea

I tried 1 kilo curry a while ago, but in fail. I was confident at first, but I left 2 or 3 more spoons of curry, and I had to pay a 2000yen fine in the end.

[pipokun]

Who's the best shogun in the Edo era would be a tough question, I suppose.

8th shogun Yoshimune ordered to plant lots of sakura trees in the city for Edo people to enjoy sakura viewing party.
A classic rakugo comedy story, Nagaya no Hanami, or poor tenants' sakura viewing party is my favorite story which enables me to imagine what the Edo people though or laughed at. It would be hard to tranlate the last part of the story, but really a funny story, so try to read it when you study Japanese.

11th shogun Ienari kept 40 concubines and 55 kids! Under his influence, the Kasei culure was also in full bloom. His favrite food was dairy products.
Do I drink more milk for another 39 partners? One partner is ok for me...