Official
Nihonbashi area
The Kanda Festival is over, and it is very easy to lose the festival.
In my previous post, I made a grudge mistake that I didn't realize that if I didn't put a photo at the beginning of the article, thumbnail would not be displayed. I'll be careful after that.
By the way, in the spring several years ago, the banner "Echigoya, the Lord is also Spring Yono" was dropped at the Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi Main Store. This is a familiar line in the historical drama, "Echigo-ya, the Lord is evil. Hahahaha.' “That’s what your deputy. Fufufufu." It's clear that it's coming from. I grew up watching the historical drama, and this catchphrase was funny and irresistible to me. With the development of SNS, I think many people know it now, but Echigoya is the name of the old era of Mitsukoshi Department Store. Mitsukoshi at Mitsukoshi at Mitsui Echigoya kimono shop. At the beginning, the catchphrase Echigo-ya refers to Mitsukoshi himself. Echigo-ya has a strong image of a vicious merchant in historical dramas, but in fact it is a department store loved by people. That's why I'm taking the gap between the image of Echigoya and Mitsukoshi. Today around Nihonbashi, the bustle of Kanda festival has passed and it seems that it has returned to a calm everyday life. When the Kanda Festival is over, spring is over, and it is already early summer.
Mitsui Echigoya Kimono Store appears in a historical novel in Rin Hamuro's "Inui Mountain Late Autumn" (recorded in the late autumn of Mt. Inui, Kadokawa Shoten) (in the work, "Mitsui Kimono Store"). Fukasho Ogata, the younger brother of painter Kourin Ogata, will take care of the woman, Chie and her child, Yoichi, who had a relationship with her older brother. Yoichi, who grew up as a diligent merchant, went to pay goods at Mitsui Kimono Store, and Yoichi, who was liked by Mitsui's master, entered Mitsui's store.
In addition, Sakian, a haiku poet who appears in Rin Hamuro's book "Shionari" (Shodensha), is a setting that originally served as the head of Mitsui Echigoya, a kimono wholesaler in Edo. Sakian has left the store selfishly to become a haiku poet and deeply regrets the past that made his family unhappy. On the other hand, the main character Kaizo Ibuki also deeply regrets that he did not look back on his younger brother until his younger brother who gave over the family after his blunder was cut off and ended. Kaizo decides to serve again in order to clear his brother's regret, and asks Sakian, who knows the world of merchants, for help. Although Sakian refuses the offer once, he is persuaded by Kaizo that exerting his old power would be a sin to his family, and accepts the offer.
Mitsui Main Building
Next to Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi Main Building is Mitsui Main Building. The "Corinth-type order column" attached to the outer wall catches your eye.
Nihonbashi
A short walk south of Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi Main Store, there is Nihonbashi over the Nihonbashi River. The first bridge was built in Keicho 8 (1603), and the current stone bridge was the 19th generation bridge built in 1911. When Nihonbashi was a wooden bridge, it burned down many times in Edo alone, where there are many fires called "fires and fights are the flowers of Edo", but the current bridge was not defeated by the Great Kanto Earthquake and the World War II. It is a very beautiful bridge with a double arch bridge.
Bronze statue of Kirin and Lion
The letter "Nihonbashi" engraved on the main pillar is written by the last Tokugawa shogun, Yoshinobu Tokugawa. The bronze statue of Kirin and lion on the bridge was designed by architect Yorinaka Tsumaki, and the statue of Kirin in the center represents the prosperity of Tokyo City at the time of completion, and the lion statue in the four corners represents guardian. I think that the Kirin statue became widely known by Keigo Higashino's novel "Kirin no Tsubasa" (Kodansha), which was also made into a movie. You can also see many people taking pictures.
Sojuro Riverside
At the base of the bridge, there is a water bus stop, which is named after two Kabuki actors, Sakata Tojuro and Danjuro Ichikawa, and is named after the Sojuro Riverside.
Nihonbashi is a bridge known throughout Japan by name recognition, but it rarely appears in historical novels, and it is far beyond the Ryogoku Bridge over the Sumida River and the first Tsume Bridge (currently Kazuyuki Bridge) over the Tate River. Nihonbashi is a commercial area where high-end shops are concentrated, close to Edo Castle, and is away from the place where poor Ichii people and samurai with little stipend live, so it is thought that it may be because it is a place far from historical novels. Nihonbashi has such a small number of appearances, but it appears in Shuhei Fujisawa's "Uminari (top), (bottom)" (Bunshun Bunko). The main character, Shinbei Onoya, is a rich man rare for the protagonist of a historical novel called a paper wholesaler, and I was blessed with the opportunity to appear because the shop is in Nihonbashi Motoishi-cho. In addition, it appears in Shotaro Ikenami's "Retraction Girl" (listed in Onihei Criminal Book (19), Bungeishunju Ltd.).