One Hundred Famous Views of Edo No.106Fukagawa Timber Market

During the Edo period, Edo was the largest city in the world and consequently had an enormous demand for timber because houses in the city were built with wood. The timber market and yards were originally located in the centre of the city, but when fires broke out they often spread to the market, which made them even bigger. Furthermore, the fires often started in the timber yards themselves. To cope with this situation, in 1701 the shogunate instructed timber dealers to move to a newly reclaimed swamp of 300,000 square metres at Fukagawa, east of the Sumida River and near its mouth, which the shogunate arranged to sell them. The name Fukagawa was taken from the owner of the land.
During that same year,, the timber dealers organized an association to buy the land and undertake the construction of the new market with their own funds. They dug canals that intersected the area to make the transportation of timber easier and more efficient. Fortunately, tidal seawater flowed into the canals and protected the stored timber from being infested with insects. The dealers also built bridges across the canals and timber yards on dry land. The market thus constructed was named Kiba (meaning “timber yard”), and it enjoyed a thriving business under the protection of the shogunate.
In this print, Hiroshige has sketched a winter scene of the market. One can see pieces of timber floating on the canal, and the dealers are busy at work rearranging their position. On dry land, pieces of wood stand vertically and some lean against wooden frames. There is an unfolded umbrella left on the ground in front of the stored timber with a Chinese character indicating the name of the publisher of this series written on it.