On a sunny Sunday, take a walk along the Sumida River Terrace to reach Toyomi Bridge over the Nihonbashi River.
Toyomi Bridge is a place often used for filming dramas and movies due to its design and beauty of the scenery, but in Yue Hiraiwa's novel "Onjuku Kasemi", around Toyomi Bridge where the Nihonbashi River flows into the Okawa (Sumida River), Okawabata (Okawabata)'s basket "Kasasemi" is set on stage. In the Edo period, Eitai Bridge seemed to be a little upstream from the present, over the north side of the Nihonbashi River, and the location of "Kasemi" was just right above the current Eitai-dori St. (around the star mark on the map).
"When I thought that a sharp cold had hit for only three days, it was early spring, when the water of Okawa suddenly became muddy. 。 。 <Omitted>. 。 。 The mansion of his older brother, who served as the scrutiny of magistrate's office Minamicho, was at a time when the gate was standing. From the time I leave the mansion, I'm going to go somewhere in my heart tonight in Okawabata-machi. When Togo Kanbayashi broke up with his friends, he naturally turned his drunk legs there. A little off the side of Toyomi Bridge, "Onjuku, Kasemi" and a small oriental lamp float in the night fog. It's a moist night with no stars or moon."
The first episode of "Onjuku Kasemi" "Early Spring Guest" begins in this way. The drama will be developed mainly by Togo Kanbayashi, the main characters Togo and the master of the Hatago "Kasemi" of Okawabata, who is the younger brother of Minamicho magistrate's office and the professors of Kobusho from the skill of swords, and Rui Shoji, a childhood friend of Togo.
The "Kasemi" series has been serialized in "Novel Sunday Mainichi" in 1973, until the latest work "Ise Sanri" in January 2016 (40 books in Bunko: released from Bunshun Bunko) . In Kasemi, a small incident that occurs in the daily lives of the common people, mainly in the downtown area of Edo, is spoken in a short story, and the appeal is that readers can go back in time to Nihonbashi, Hatchobori, Yagenbori, Shinkawa, and Gunshu in the Edo period together with the same perspective as the person being created.
(The photo shows "Edo Hotel (Tsukiji Hotel Building)":* Public domain)
The novel continues from the Edo period in the mid-19th century to the Meiji era, but the protagonist is also in his mid-20s to mid-50s, and continues to be talked about by changing generations to his daughter's generation. In the Meiji edition, "Shin Onjuku Kasemi", Tsukiji Reservoir began to appear as a stage, A Rokuban Girls' School (the predecessor of Women's Academy), Edo Hotel (Tsukiji Hotel Building: burned down by Ginza Fire), British Virns and Chen Otori, a tailor of Kiyokuni who has a store in Irifune, will also enrich the international colors.
If you are tired of walking around the city in the daytime, why don't you enjoy the history of Chuo-ku from the Edo period to the Meiji period while reading the "Kasemi" series in autumn night?
