One Hundred Famous Views of Edo No.74A drapery store at Otemma cho

This district was located northeast of Nihonbashi, the starting point of an important highway called Oshukaido that leading to the north of Japan. At the beginning of the Edo period, the people in this district were ordered by the shogun to maintain packhorses and porters for the convenience of travellers. As a result of the number of horses in this district, the place was called Temma-cho, “temma” meaning packhorse and a “cho” being an area made up of several streets. Temma-cho was divided into two sections: Otemma-cho (“big”) being in charge of packhorses for use on the highway and Kotemma-cho (“small”) in charge of packhorses for use in Edo castle.
To meet the demands of travellers for clothes and daily necessities, main streets and side streets in Otemma-cho were lined with shops and stores. Hiroshige depicts in the print the most famous drapery store in the district, Daimaru, which sold all sorts of fabric and material. The crest of the store is shown on the blue and brown curtains hanging from the eaves. It is made up of the Chinese character “dai”, meaning big, inside a circle, pronounced “maru”. Combining the two words results in the name of the store. The billboard at the top left of the print advertises drapery and fabrics as well as the conditions of sale, “cash without premium”. This means that goods were offered to customers at a cheaper rate when they paid in cash. In those days, it was customary for shops to sell goods to customers on credit and settle the account twice a year, in July and December.
In front of the shop a group of carpenters, scaffolding men and roofers, all in formal dress, are parading through the street. They are returning from a framework-raising ceremony for a house ordered to be built by the men. The chief carpenter, scaffolding man and roofer are leading the parade holding a pole with sacred objects and two exorcising arrows used at the Shinto ceremony.