Old News Nihonbashi

This is an essay about urban memories by the female writer Hasegawa Shigure, based on her childhood experiences growing up in Meiji Nihonbashi Oil Town, with a preface by Mikami Yusugayoshi. The author is based on the neighborhood around Denma-machi Kyurao, describing the style of old shops such as Daimaru Kimono Shop and Rikyu Soba Shop, and recording the various little people in the neighborhood: the down-and-out Tokugawa samurai, low-level craftsmen, geishas and ordinary people in the city, interspersing their childhood games and studying in private schools. The article intersperses the lives of relatives and friends such as my grandfather, the Fujiki clan, and the geisha Katsukawa Hanaki, using personal ups and downs to reflect the changes in the era from the end of the Tokugawa period to the Meiji era. It records fires, epidemics, folk festivals, old market businesses, and old marriages and love affairs. It also mentions local anecdotes such as early insurance fraud. The book retains the lingering charm of Edo through detailed daily life, laments the disappearance of old customs and the rise and fall of classes in the fireworks and human affairs, and preserves the precious local memories of Shitamachi, Tokyo.