Edo eventually became crisscrossed by a series of man-made moats and canals. Along with the natural rivers, the network of canals, dug in a grid pattern, was much more efficient for transporting goods than the confusing and narrow streets that developed within the sprawling city—a city that eventually stretched from the Tama River in the southwest to the Ara River in the north and east.
Edo’s new residents
Under the Tokugawa sh
gunate, very specific legal positions and appropriate functions were firmly defined for various social classes. These were issued in various detailed pronouncements. The Kuge Sho-hatto (Aristocratic House Ordinances) governed the imperial court and aristocratic families. The Buke Sho-hatto (Military House Ordinances) created rules for members of the military class. Religious orders were regulated by the Jin-hatto (Religious Ordinances), while the Gy-hatto (Village Ordinances) defined rules and regulations for farmers. The Edo-machij-sadame (Edo Town Rules) further defined the roles and expectations for Edo townsmen and, by extension, residents of any other town. These regulations and restrictions played a distinctive role in the development of the new capital of Edo.
Ieyasu instituted a system of sankin-ktai8 (alternate attendance), requiring all daimy
to spend a period of time living in Edo. This allowed the sh
gunate officials to keep a close eye on any potential dissention or unrest. The expense of maintaining two residences as well the huge costs for frequent travel between Edo and their home domains also drained the personal treasuries of the major landowners, money that they could not otherwise use to finance an armed insurrection. During the period when they were allowed to return to their own domains, their wives and children remained in the city as potential hostages in the unlikely event of rebellion.
To maintain their dignity, many of the daimy
built large and expensive manors on the low, flat-topped plateau left over after the large hill, Kanda-yama, adjacent to Edo castle was leveled. Known as the Kanda district, it is located along the southwest fringe of the yama-n-te, the hilly half of the city, and close to both the sh
gun’s castle and the burgeoning castle town center. For this reason, many daimy
and other high-ranking government officials selected sites here for their personal residences.
The sankin-k
tai system was initiated by the first Tokugawa sh
gun. This obligation later became mandatory under the Buke Sho-hatto9 issued by the third sh
gun, Tokugawa Iemitsu. In addition to requiring alternate attendance for major landowners and territorial leaders, the Tokugawa sh
gun further required certain high-ranking daimy
to permanently reside in Edo. These included the heads of the three main Tokugawa families10 and other close relatives11 as well as daimy
appointed to various important government posts. Obligated to reside within the new capital city of Edo, these upper-class society members also required a large population of direct retainers as well as general laborers and craftsmen to support their lifestyle and to serve their everyday needs.
Edo quickly gained many new samurai-class residents—retainers of the various daimy
required to live within Edo as well as hatamoto (banner men) and gokenin (household retainers), direct retainers of the sh
gun. The hatamoto appointed to government offices and other officials who could afford to maintain an upper-class lifestyle built estates in the yaman
-te, the remaining hills to the north and west of the castle. The majority of the middle- and lower-ranking hatamoto did not receive any specific civil service appointments in the Tokugawa sh
gunate after the battle of Sekigahara. Unemployed hatamoto12 and gokenin were often forced to subsist on small annual stipends granted by the government. The minimum salaries provided were so small that many hatamoto often suffered serious financial struggles. With stipends that did not provide enough money to maintain a household, they were often forced to borrow money or seek other employment.
The once small castle town had to feed and house a surprisingly large population of commoners as well. Laborers and craftsmen flocked from all over Japan to build the new center of government and Japanese society. Recognizing the potential profit to be made providing material goods required by the growing population, merchants also rushed to open Edo-based branches of their provincial stores. As their respective businesses prospered, an ever-increasing retinue of clerks and apprentices was needed to staff the stores and meet the increasing demands of the new urban residents.
The swelling ranks of laborers and craftsmen that flocked to Edo lived in tenements called naga-ya (long houses) and tiny row houses built throughout the low-lying area near the shore on land mostly reclaimed from shallow tidal flats and marshes when the hills around the castle were leveled. Roughly two-thirds of Edo’s population lived and worked in the hundreds of neighborhoods separated by the network of rivers and canals flowing through this area known as shita-machi (lower town). Because the craftsmen and merchants were located in this area, it also became the key commercial district and an important center for the city’s burgeoning economy.
Community centers of Edo
Each of the za (wards) in the city was largely a self-contained community, organized with its own local leaders along the same lines as the rural villages. The nomin (farmers) in rural villages were governed by a system of local leadership and collective responsibility called the gonin-gumi (five-person group). Each group of five families selected one kumigashira, a formal headman. The kumigashira in turn reported to a group of local leaders called the toshiyori (village notables or elders). The toshiyori were usually members of locally prominent families called shya. Finally, the leader of the toshiyori, referred to as the nanushi (village headman), reported to the gundai, or local military government representative.
Under the gonin-gumi system in the city of Edo, households were arranged in groups of five, each responsible for checking and reporting on the others. One household leader was selected as responsible for the group and reported to the machi-doshiyori (town elders). Although these ward officials were not members of the buke (military class), their senior positions were often hereditary. The machi-doshiyori in turn reported to the machi-bugy (town magistrate).
Edo eventually became crisscrossed by a series of man-made moats and canals. Along with the natural rivers, the network of canals, dug in a grid pattern, was much more efficient for transporting goods than the confusing and narrow streets that developed within the sprawling city—a city that eventually stretched from the Tama River in the southwest to the Ara River in the north and east.
