바킨(馬琴) 일기를 통해 본 19세기 에도의 화재 - 분세이 대화재(文政の大火)를 중심으로 -

Abstract

Edo suffered a number of fire accidents, and the city was even called ‘a city of fires’. The frequent occurrences of fires in Edo are due to dense wooden buildings and the weather conditions unique to Japan. Another factor is that Edo hosted a large number of populations and fire sparks were easily spread over the neighbourhood. We can confirm the damages of these fire accidents and the rescue operations based on many public documents as well as various types of literary materials including novels, essays, and diaries. These materials are quite useful for understanding the situations of the time in a precise manner because they vividly tell us about the fire accidents that people at the time actually suffered and also tell us how the people around them thought about the fires and acted. In particular, Kyokutei Bakin, a representative writer in the late Edo period, described the great fire of Bunsei in his diary, and this literary material provides supplementary information about the fires in Edo. In the present article, I survey the facts relating to the great fire of Bunsei through Bakin’s diary, revealing some anecdotes pertaining to his acquaintances (especially, merchants and those who worked in publishing companies) who suffered the great fire and the ways in which Bakin comforted them.