One Hundred Famous Views of Edo No.100“Nihonzutsumi” bank at Yoshiwara

The old licensed quarters of Yoshiwara were located in the central part of Edo city but were destroyed during a fire in 1657. The Tokugawa shogunate prohibited the owners of the houses in the quarters to rebuild new ones on the same spot and ordered them to move to a remote place away from central Edo, to a paddy field north of Asakusa. To compensate for this inconvenience, the shogunate allowed for the building of larger quarters than the previous ones and the owners established New Yoshiwara.
The main access to the quarters was through a straight earthen bank running between Shoudencho and Minowa, a distance of 2,000 metres. Downtown Edo city was interwoven by many rivers, canals and moats, so Iyeyasu Tokugawa ordered an earthen bank to be built for protection. It was to act as a breakwater in case of flooding by the Sumida River, north of this paddy field.
Many provincial lords loyal to the Tokugawa shogun were mobilized for the construction of the breakwater, and it was completed in a little over 60 days in 1620. Due to the fact that feudal lords from all over Japan (Nihon) joined in the construction, the bank was called Nihonzutsumi (bank).
The licensed quarters stood almost in the middle of the bank and were some distance from the Sumida River. Hiroshige pictures the road on the breakwater that led to the quarters, which are shown only by their white roofs on the left-hand side of the bank. The bright half moon in the sky indicates the evening scene of the print. The road is crowded with people who are mostly hurrying towards the quarters to enjoy the nightlife there. Some wealthy visitors arrive in palanquins, thereby able to hide their identities.
Those who wished to visit the quarters mostly arrived by boat at the eastern end of the bank alongside the Sumida River and thence either walked or hired palanquins. Others who were not wealthy enough could instead rent braided hats to hide their faces at the stalls lining both sides of the road. Going to the quarters on horseback was prohibited by the shogunate.