Hanes

[Edo situation that cannot be believed in Reiwa] The mystery of the declining population of women in winter


Hello. I'm Hanes, an active correspondent.
The other day, when I was reading Hirotoshi Kitajima's "Traditions of Edo People" (Gentosha, 2010), I saw an interesting subheadline saying, "Why the female population in the Edo period decreased in winter."
Now in Reiwa, the female population will not decrease significantly in winter, but I would like to take it up because it is a topic of winter.

According to the book, the Shogunate conducted the first population survey of Edo townspeople in Kyoho 6 (1721).
Since then, the survey continued, and in the survey conducted in April 1725, the total population of townspeople was 462,102, and the survey in June was 472,496, an increase of 10,394 in two months.
Looking at the breakdown, it seems that the number of men increased by 795, while the number of women increased by 9,599! I'm surprised at what this is.
So, when Echizennokami Ooka of Minamimachi magistrate asked the town owner who conducted the population survey, there were many fires in winter, so they evacuated women to nearby countryside and returned to Edo around June when the number of fires decreased It seems that there was a tradition to return!

 [Edo situation that cannot be believed in Reiwa] The mystery of the declining population of women in winter

Koharu Tashiro “Tou Fire Map” (Public Domain)


Indeed, the Great Fire of the Meiryaku era, which suffered enormous damage in most of the current Chuo-ku, also occurred on January 18-19, old calendar (March 2-3) during the winter season.
Looking at the index of Takee Chronology published in the National Diet Library Digital Collection, 142 fire names are listed in the "Fire (Kwasai)" section starting on page 371.
According to Kitajima (2010), which data on the monthly incidence of these fires, November was 11.5%, December was 18.7%, January was 19.92%, February was 16.22%, and February was 15.71% in total.
On the other hand, it recorded a record low of 3.08% in May and 1.03% in June when women return to Edo.
There were a lot of fires in the dry season.

On the other hand, if you look at the firefighting statistics (fire statistics) issued by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, you can see that the causes of fires are extremely diversified today in Reiwa.
Looking at the number of fires by month, fires are not particularly common in winter.
The fact that women evacuated to the countryside avoiding fires that frequently occur in winter can be said to be a sign of the Edo period when wooden buildings are crowded.
There are fires in both Edo and Reiwa, but it was an interesting discovery that there was such a difference.