Edo no Hana Kodomo Asobi "Hachibankumi-Hogumi" Tie

Most of the Japanese buildings were made of wood, so the towns of Edo from the 17th century to the 19th century were often hit by big fires. At that time, the fire fighting method was destruction, which means to prevent the spread of fire by destroying the houses around the fire site. However, at the beginning, there was only a fire brigade organised by samurai who knew little about house structure, so it was difficult to destroy houses efficiently. In addition to the samurai fire brigade, a new brigade called "Machi-bikeshi" was formed by the townspeople in 1658. Most of the members of "Machi-bikeshi" were construction workers called "Tobi", who specialised in working at high places, so they were able to demolish houses efficiently because of their familiarity with the house structure. "Machi-bikeshi" consisted of subgroups: "Iroha-gumi", that had 48 squads, and three other groups, "Kita-gumi," "Naka-gumi," and "Minami-gumi." The west side of Sumida River was taken care of by "Iroha-gumi", and the east side was covered by "Kita-gumi", "Naka-gumi", and "Minami-gumi." Each group used "matoi" and "nobori" as symbols of the group. This design is based on Ukiyo-e possessed by the National Diet Library in Japan. It is the nishiki-e (coloured woodblock print), titled "Edo no Hana Kodomo asobi", made by Yoshitora Utagawa, an ukiyo-e artist around 1858. This picture on the product shows a firefighter of "Hachibankumi-Hogumi", a squad in "Iroha-gumi". In the past, nishiki-e such as firefighters and bijin-ga (beautiful women) were popular as souvenirs of Edo town. The "matoi" of "Machi-bikeshi" weighed about 20 kg, and it took a lot of physical strength to swing it on the roof. Among the "Hikeshi" members, brave and strong ones were selected and entrusted with "matoi", and their position was next to "Toudori"(president) and "Kumi-gashira"(group leader). Those who had the "matoi" went up on the roof of the house which located on the critical spot of firefighting, and the other "Hikeshi" members worked their best to protect the house with "matoi" by fighting fire so that the "matoi" would not be burnt.