Introduction / Chapter 1
Edo and Timber
Building Edo Castle and its city required huge amounts of timber. Great fires that destroyed whole districts broke out again and again in Edo, and each time materials were needed for rebuilding.[1] Timber was both something that burned and something that had to be brought in. These two qualities shaped where Edo stored its timber and how it was transported.
Edo's city and Kiba
Where timber came from and where it went
The main sources of timber entering Edo were Kiso, Kishu, Kumano, Akita and Tenryu.[2] Tama's advantage was its closeness to Edo.[1] The timber wholesalers gathered at Kiba handled almost all of Edo's timber, and purveyors to the shogunate such as Kinokuniya Bunzaemon and Naraya Mozaemon became wealthy merchants.[2]
The Great Meireki Fire and rebuilding the city
The Great Meireki Fire of 18–19 January 1657 (Meireki 3) killed more than 68,000 people. Almost all of today's Chiyoda and Chuo wards and about 60% of Bunkyo ward burned. After more than 80 days without rain, strong winds spread fire from three separate origins.[3]
After the fire the shogunate reshaped the city. It moved daimyo residences, temples and shrines outside the castle zone, widened roads, and created open firebreaks called hiyokechi and hirokoji. It banned flammable roofing and set up a professional firefighting force, the jobikeshi.[3] Rebuilding burned districts takes a great deal of timber. The repeated demand for rebuilding materials after each fire was a major driver of Edo's timber demand.[1]
How Kiba came to be
Timber yards were moved out of the city because stored timber spread fires.[4] Sources differ, however, on which fire triggered the move. Dictionaries cite the great fire of January 1641 (Kan'ei 18), after which the timber yard near the mouth of the west bank of the Sumida River was moved east of Sagacho.[5] Another account says timber wholesalers were ordered out of the city after the Great Meireki Fire of 1657.[2] Either way, the yards settled at today's Kiba in the Genroku era.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1641 Kan'ei 18 | After a great fire, the timber yard moves from the west bank of the Sumida toward Fukagawa[5] |
| 1699 Genroku 12 | The site is requisitioned by the shogunate[5] |
| 1701 Genroku 14 | Fifteen timber wholesalers begin filling in the Fukagawa marshland[5] |
| 1703 Genroku 16 | Kiba-cho is established in Fukagawa; the old site becomes known as "Moto-Kiba"[4] |
| 1970s | Most log ponds move to the reclaimed land of Shin-Kiba[5] |
Kiba was sited on marshland because water transport was convenient and logs could be stored under water.[4]
The craftsmen who handled floating logs were called kawanami. From their work of binding logs into rafts came the kiyari work songs and kakunori, the art of performing while standing on a floating squared log.[2]
What happened to Kiba afterwards—its move to Shin-Kiba and the Kiba Park on the old site—is covered in Chapter 7.
From the mountains and forests
How Tama timber was transported
In the mountains of western Tama, Ome forestry grew strong by taking advantage of its closeness to the great market of Edo.[1] Felled logs were first floated downstream one by one ("kudanagashi"). Where the river widened they were bound into rafts and floated ("ikadanagashi") to Rokugo at the river mouth, then carried by ship to Kiba.[1] On the Aki River tributary, raft trading was under way by around 1690.[6]
The railway ended river transport. When the Ome Railway opened in 1894, timber moved from the river to land.[1]
Forestry on the plains
It was not only the mountains. On the plains around today's Suginami, Nerima and Setagaya wards, "Yotsuya forestry" was practiced. From the mid-1890s it declined due to urbanization and a cedar disease, and it vanished by the end of the Taisho era (mid-1920s).[1] Cedar grows straight and splits thinly along the grain, so it was prized for barrels and tubs.[1]
Shogunate forests and the right to use the mountains
Forests directly controlled by the Tokugawa shogunate were called ohayashi. They came under the Commissioner of Finance; the Forest Commissioner handled practical matters, and local intendants (daikan) managed each forest on site.[7] Their purpose was to secure timber for the shogunate and for public civil works. After the Meiji Restoration they became government forests, that is, national forests.[7]
Forests in the upper Tama River basin mostly belonged to shogunate territory. Local residents held common rights (iriai) to gather forest products for daily life. At the same time, "closed mountains" (otomeyama) with restricted access, such as hawk-breeding mountains, existed in many places and kept good forests intact.[8]
After Meiji: forests to protect water
In the Meiji era, the division of forest land into public and private ownership placed much of it under the state, and common rights were restricted. Forest degradation advanced, especially in the uppermost reaches.[8] Concerned about the deterioration of its water sources, Tokyo Prefecture began acquiring about 8,460 ha of private and imperial forest in Yamanashi Prefecture in 1901. In 1910 the City of Tokyo opened a watershed forest office and began managing forests in earnest to protect its water supply.[8]
This is why many of the forests protecting Tokyo's water are in Yamanashi Prefecture rather than in Tokyo.
Sources
- 東京都 木育関連リーフレット(令和5年度) PDF
- ジャパンナレッジ 堀口茉純「やっぱり江戸が好き!」第8回(深川木場) Link
- 内閣府 防災情報「災害教訓の継承に関する専門調査会報告書 1657 明暦江戸大火」 Link
- 三井住友トラスト不動産「このまちアーカイブス 深川」 Link
- コトバンク「木場」(改訂新版 世界大百科事典、日本歴史地名大系、日本大百科全書) Link
- 国土交通省 京浜河川事務所 多摩川の年表 Link
- コトバンク「御林」(デジタル大辞泉、改訂新版 世界大百科事典、精選版 日本国語大辞典) Link
- 東京都水道局 水源林に関する資料 PDF