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"Tokyo Hundred Architecture" Shirakiya Kimono Store National Diet Library Digital Collection

This is the Shirakiya Nihonbashi store, which was added in 1911. Designed by Yoshitaro Ito. Japanese and Western eclectic appearance. There was a five-story Takatou and a basement. An elevator was also installed for the first time at a domestic department store. At the time of the extension in 1914, an entertainment hall with about 200 seats was set up on the third floor to perform the girls music band. You can imagine a gorgeous department store. Even in the song introduced by Shirakiya in "Shirakiya's clothes drying many people mountain after spring", many people were shopping at Shirakiya with excitement during the changing clothes before summer. I can imagine. It is the "display" of this song, but when customers from the Edo era come to the store, they raise them on tatami mats and take them out one by one from the "salling" where products are lined up in advance as in the store as it is now Isn't it because the sales method changed to "display" that you can choose as you like, and the sales floor where the products are displayed is called "displayground".

Next, let's take a look at the illustrations. Is this picture taken by Shirakiya's advertisement? It's a valuable thing to know at that time. In the white fan type, "Shirakiya Kimono Store Clothes Store Tokyo Nihonbashi-dori 1-chome" is difficult to distinguish next, but a number that seems to be a phone number. "SHIROKIYA TOKYO", "SHIROKIYA SHILK & WOOLLEN STORE" and a picture of butterfly. Inferred from the letters of SHILK, it looks like a silkworm moth instead of a butterfly. During the Meiji period, high-quality Japanese silk was also popular overseas. Shirakiya would have handled good quality silk kimono and clothes. I didn't know what the green leaves behind the white fan were. The brand name of Shirakiya is on the most bulging part of the white fan shape (on the three-line square outer frame).

"Edo Shopping German Information" National Diet Library Digital Collection

A guidebook introducing about 2,600 Edo shops published by the publisher of Osaka in 1824 (Bunsei 7) also contains the same Shirakiya brand name crest as Kiyokaze's illustrations. What does this name crest represent? Shirakiya's predecessor was a timber merchant in Kyoto, with a design that crosses two carpenters closely related to timber. The horizontal bar at the bottom of the triangle is one of the Chinese numerals that wants to be the top in the industry. This brand name crest, which combines sashimi and Chinese numerals, followed this mark even after becoming a kimono dealer.

The story is that, but this "Edo Shopping Guide" is a very interesting book. First of all, it looks like a book with horizontally long right bindings. Even if it is a guidebook, it is posted with a draft fee from each store, so it will be posted in the space that matches the price. Even if you look at the whole picture, each of the "medicine stores" uses a large space for Shirakiya and two Daimaru. It's fun to see the store name, the medicine name, the medicinal properties, and the ones with illustrations. There must have been a lot of demand to buy medicine. You can search for "Iroha kana" for the type of business you want to check. For example, if you want Setomono, search by "se". In addition, the preface is landscape maps such as Otaminami Une, Katsushika Hokusai's "Shieiyuki Toto" and "Asakusa Kannon Fuki Ichinozu", which add gorgeousness. There are sweets and restaurants, and the long-established "Fugetsu-do" was also featured with a fan-shaped store name pattern that was familiar. I'm thrilled to look for a shop that still exists and imagine what kind of restaurant it was even before.

"Tokyo City Map Nobe, Nihonbashi-ku, Tokyo" National Diet Library Digital Collection

This is a map of Nihonbashi in 1904, 1904. Shirakiya and Mitsui Kimono Store are particularly big across Nihonbashi. I guess both were landmarks of the town. The times have changed, Shirakiya has become a Tokyu Department Store, and now it is COREDO Nihonbashi. It may be fun to imagine Shirakiya at that time from "Tokyo's famous Hyakunin Isshu".

[References]

"History of Department Stores" Nihonbashi Takashimaya - Architectural History Exhibition Catalog of Dreams and Longings

"Toy Dr. Kiyoshi Shimizu Kaze", Naoki Hayashi, Yoshiaki Chikamatsu, Hiroshi Nakamura Translated Social Review Company

"Japan's Signs 2-Industry Jirushi" Masato Takahashi Iwasaki Art Company

 "Study of Edo Town People" Vol. 3 Nishiyama Matsunosuke edition Kikkawa Hirobunkan

[Underwriting]

"Introduction of Materials Tokyo's famous Hyakunin Isshu Shimizu, Reference Bibliography Study Tsutomu Kawamoto" National Diet Library Digital Collection