Pick

A dora with fish…Dog!

Hirokage Utagawa "Edo Famous Roads Completed Nihonbashinoasaichi" National Diet Library Digital Collection

A dog with black spots on a white body stole the red fish and ran away aiming for a momentary gap in the fish shop with a stick.

The man who has stolen the fish is angry with swinging his balcony. It's quite powerful because there is tattoo on the whole body.

This stolen fish has big eyes on the red body. rockfish? Or is it a red fish?

This is Nihonbashi because it was an event on a bridge in giboshi. It would have been interesting to draw a picture of a scene in which a fish shop with a stick-handed fish purchased on the fish shore was stolen by a dog with a hungry stomach in the moment trying to go to town for business.

In modern times, when a dog is outside, it is connected to a lead and discipline is well disciplined, so it is unlikely that you can run around freely or steal fish like this picture. I can't see any dora cats with so-called fish.

Let's take a look at the life of dogs and cats in the Edo period, where this picture was drawn.

Life of dogs in the late Edo period

Even in the Edo period, there is a long period of 260 years, so the way people and dogs interact with each other changes at that time. In the early Edo period, it was edible for people or falcons kept by a general. There was also a man of mercy. Rabies that occurred in Nagasaki also spread throughout Japan.

At the beginning of the blog, late Tokugawa shogunate drew a picture of a dog of a Nihonbashi fish thief in Hirokei Utagawa. What was the relationship between Edo townspeople and dogs from the late Edo period to late Tokugawa shogunate?

Siebold, who came to Japan as a doctor of Dutch trading post in Nagasaki in the late Edo period, traveled to Edo Sanfu, the chief of Dutch trading post, and actively collected Japanese flora and fauna along the way. I asked a Japanese painter to paint it and sent it to a Dutch museum. It was compiled in "Funayaponica" (Japanese animal magazine).

 

"Funayaponica" has a description of "Dog in Edo Town". I couldn't find a Japanese translation book, so I would like to summarize the translation of Kunio Nishina as a bullet from "Edo period of Dogs".

 

①Dogs with family privileges are kept in each town where the streets are closed in Kido.

②Dogs are not personal property, but common property of town residents

③Dogs are guards of the town and fight violently to prevent dogs from entering the neighboring town.

④Dogs contribute to the cleanliness of the town by eating garbage such as vegetable waste from fish.

⑤The staple food of dogs is fish

 

You can see that the dog was given leftovers to avoid garbage, and that the dog was kept free in each town in Kido. It seems to have also played a role in crime prevention. The fact that the dog of a fish thief in Nihonbashi has a somewhat scary look, and it was also a reason to steal the fish in a gap. Fish is the staple food, but only the leftovers…Sometimes I want to eat fresh and meat-rich fish. I'm worried if I didn't get hungry after eating raw.

 

 A dora with fish…Dog!

Kuniyoshi Utagawa's painting "Lessons Zen and Sons" National Diet Library Digital Collection

Kuniyoshi Utagawa of late Tokugawa shogunate depicts a picture book that teaches morality by comparing good and bad monks of various patterns. The shape and pattern of the dog look exactly like the dog in Nihonbashi. By the way, one child in the upper right is an example of a good child, and it is written as "a monk who works well for the use." The two who have a dog fight are "a kid who bites dogs" in the example of a bad child. The head and bones of the fish are scattered around the feet of the combined dog. They are giving only one fish bone and fighting like a dog fights. The fear of a dog with tusks stands out, but this is certainly an example of a bad child doing what you can't do.

Pity…

Read this far and the garbage is rice! I think your dog lovers are angry.

But don't worry. Siebold wrote so, but there was a system to collect garbage, so I don't think the dog was kept to feed the garbage.

In 1655 (1655), illegal dumping of garbage into the river was prohibited, and Eidaiura on Eidai Island, which was located at the mouth of the Sumida River, was designated as a garbage dump. Garbage collected from the town by a collection company entrusted by the Shogunate was collected in the "O Akuta-me" and transported by boat to Eidaiura to reclaim Eidaijimaura. When the landfill of Eidaiura was completed, the location was moved to Echinakajimaura and the landfill was repeated.

Siebold may be a little exaggerated. Even so, the image and treatment of the dog sinks.

On the other hand, how was the cat?

Cats compared to dogs

Compared to dogs, cats have fished dora…Dog!

Kyoden Santo's Kuniyoshi Utagawa painting "Oborozuki Nekososhi" Digital Collection of the National Diet Library

This book is a yellow cover of Kuniyoshi Utagawa (a novel similar to a picture manga for adults) that is the same as the picture that fights the dog above. Kuniyoshi has left a lot of ukiyo-e paintings of cute cats that are famous for cat lovers. This book is a cat that depicts an anthropomorphic cats, but is kept by a sharp person. The owner's humans also appear in the story. The female cat "Koma" on the left is the main character. I'm in love with Tora, sitting face-to-face, and the current Koma is undergoing postpartum curing. "Tora" visits the "top" and holds a newborn kitten and licks it. It is a scene where a "bear" who does not think about the relationship between the two is trying to attack from behind with a knife. "Koma" and "Tora" run down, and fate turns and turns. It's a story about slaughter.

The house where "Koma" is kept is a bonito wholesaler with women and servants. "Tora" is also a story of a cat who lives a little better than the dog in the opening tenement house because the owner is a shamisen teacher who has a woman at home. So it's not a complete comparison, but I think it's helpful to see how the cat lived.

By the way, the scene where the protagonists "Koma" and "Tora" crossed on the way was barked by a scary dog and chased. In another scene, the dog barked me when the "top" fell into the river from the railing of the bridge. Dogs are often written as barking on cats.

This story is full of useful information about cute cats everyday life and useful information.

①There are both stray cats and domestic cats. If you want to keep a cat, you can catch a stray cat or get it from an acquaintance.

②The important role of domestic cats is to take rats. The town of Edo was troubled by rats. It can be said that he kept a cat to catch the mouse. Not only is it cute, but it was also required to fulfill its role properly.

③The tableware used by cats is "abalone shells". "Koma" with the chopsticks in this picture has rice on the left hand in "abalone shells". It seems that they were getting white rice with bonito.

④The cat's toilet is an inkstone lid. I put sand in the lid of the inkstone and made a toilet. I also use it under the edge. Strict when it comes to roughness. You may be driven out by roughness.

⑤A cute cat sleeps by her husband. It's the same as now.

⑥The way a cat folds his limbs and sits under his body is "create an incense box." It's still called "scent box seating". Isn't it coming from here to call the forefoot "a little bit" a little bit?

⑦Some cats have bells on their necks.

⑧When a cat gets sick, give "every time", "nishin" and "dojo". In addition, it is written to the position of stomachic agents and moxibustion. It's useful information in case of emergency.

 

The handling of stray cats is unknown, but it feels better to treat domestic cats than dogs. It may be said that the cat family Kuniyoshi is drawing illustrations, but was cats popular in terms of pets?

A cute dog

Dora with a cute dog with fish…Dog!

Kuniyoshi Utagawa "Okudan Hatsu" National Diet Library "NDL Image Bank"

Kuniyoshi also draws cute dogs. This is Samurai residence. The wife of the mansion and the women are listening to the performance of the koto. The frills in the middle are wrapped around the neck with decorations wrapped around the neck, and it is a special seat with plenty of seats. It is a luxury pet dog that was liked by the Imperial Palace and the daimyo family during the Edo period. You can imagine that the dog is valued.

Even dogs outside, dogs written on the roadside of Hasegawa Yukidan's "Edo Famous Zoukai" are not violent, and even if they are a few, they seem calm without fighting. In addition, it depicts a cute puppy with Maruyama Okyo and Ashiyuki Nagasawa at his gate. It seems that there is still room to investigate whether it is cute because it is a puppy, or whether the treatment of dogs was different in Kyoto because Okyo and Ashiyuki are people who played an active part in Kyoto.

[References]

"Edo period of Dogs" Kunio Nishina Soshisha Bunko

"Oborozuki Cat's Soshi Paper-First Edition, 2 Edition" Edo-Gisaku Bunko Kawade Shobo Shinsha