Exploring the Districts: Fukagawa (深川）

 For my class on Contemporary Japan: From Ramune to Anime, we basically go on outings every weekend or so to different parts of Tokyo and explore in coherence with that week's theme. For this weekend, we went to a not-so-famous district in Toyko called "Fukagawa." Even native Japanese students in my class didn't know or have not even heard of this place before, but it was really fun! (I will edit snippets of my field report on Fukagawa in here, so it might be a bit more academic than my usual writing style :) bear with me! )

Entrance to the Fukagawa
Edo Museum

We went to a few famous places in Fukagawa: the Fukagawa Edo Museum, the Kiyosumi Gardens, Fukugawa Fudoudou (深川不動堂), Fukagawa Shuku (深川宿), and the Tomioka-hachimangu Shrine (富岡八幡宮).

Kiyosumi Gardens!

The Fukagawa Edo Museum was not like a regular museum with historical artifacts secured within a glass box; it was a reproduction of the streets of Fukagawa-Saga Town of the Tempo Period. The Kiyosumi Gardens, although located in the city, served as a great escape from the busy metropolitan life as you walk through the beautiful scenic park, with its collection of famous stones in the pond garden nostalgic of the days when Tokyo was still named “Edo”. We stayed with nature at this park until the very minute it closed. Then, as we were looking for dinner, we stumbled upon a temple called Fukagawa Fudoudou, inside the Fukagawa Park, right next to Monzennakacho Station. The place was very lively and full of stands selling charms for happiness, health, protection, etc. There were also many people standing in front of the temple structure (the name which I do not know), and they were pushing the smoke that was coming out from the burning incense and rubbing it onto certain parts of the body. I asked an elderly lady what the purpose of this ritual was, and she told me that you would rub this smoke against unhealthy or bad areas of your body to make them better. For example, she was brushing the smoke onto her arms and legs because she wanted them to get better. She encouraged me to try and I brushed the smoke against my head, hoping to become smarter! Finally, we went to the Fukagawa Shuku, a restaurant famous for the Fukagawa Meshi, a special rice meal from the Edo period of Tokyo prepared especially for those laborers who worked 

Fukugawa Fudoudou (深川不動堂)

hard all day. This meal gave them the strength to work and feed their families. As the waitress said, when she introduced the significance of the meal to us, "Without Fukagawa Meshi, there would not be present-day Tokyo." This restaurant was also next to the Tomioka-hachimangu Shrine, which was closed by the time dinner was over. However, the night view of the shrine was also very pretty and so we wandered around a little. Next to the 

Friends also doing the smoke-brush-
against-body ritual

shrine was a place to wash your hands with sacred water from the temple. I did not know what this meant, as I saw a man scooping up the water and pouring it onto his right hand, then his 

left, then drinking the water and then his right hand again. I asked him what this meaning was and he told me that it was to cleanse your mind and body, by washing your hands and drinking the sacred water. When he left, I also washed my hands to purify my body and soul. Although I did not drink the water, it was quite an interesting experience.

Fukagawa Meshi

Water-cleansing area!

Tomioka-hachimangu Shrine (富岡八幡宮)

My favorite part of the day was exploring the Fukagawa Edo Museum because I was able to walk through a model of a portion of old Tokyo (previously named Edo) and experience what it was like to live during that era. The museum was simply amazing. The lighting inside was controlled to signify 

Viewing the Edo Museum from the top!
Do you see the little cat on the roof??

day and night inside the little town. There was even raining sounds, as if we traveled back 170 years. Although none of the houses and exhibits had any signs, we luckily bumped into an English speaking elderly lady, who was a volunteer for the museum, and she quickly accepted our invitation to be our tour guide. We started at the large merchant house and made our way in a circle throughout the town. She explained that the merchant house was for dried sardines, and next to it there was a warehouse for storage. Across from the merchant house was the vegetable store, where the townspeople would be able to buy their everyday groceries, ranging from potatoes to eggplants to pickles. The model was so real that there were even tatami mats inside the store where the cashier sits at a small table with a hole, in which the customers would drop in their money for payment. The cashier also had an abacus, which was extra longer than the regular one, for simultaneous calculations and

My friend and I stuck inside
the Large Merchant House

 double-checking of the prices. Next to the vegetable store was the rice store, in which the rice man mills brown rice by a machine and sells it. Walking down the street, we encountered a gate, which would be closed not at sunset, but at ten o’clock at night, according to the tour guide. Only samurais and their wives were able to enter through the gates after ten o’clock because the gates served as security for the whole town. Near the river model was a boathouse, a place for fisherman or boat men to rest and have small gatherings with friends as they await their next boat trip. It also serves as a waiting place for regular townspeople who want to get on the boat. Down the corner are the fire watch tower and an open space. Inside the fire water tower is a large bell rung by the 

Vegetable Store

watchman if he sees an incoming fire. Because Edo was prone to lots of fire, this was a significant building. The open space was necessary so that the incoming fire does not spread across the town. Because all the houses and stores are made of wood, they are easily caught on fire, so the open space serves as a temporary block, allotting time for the townspeople to rescue the fire and stop it from spreading. Because it is an open space, there are no permanent stores, only stands, such as tempura stands, soba stands, and resting areas, which can be 

Beautiful "sky" and boat

easily relocated in the event of a fire. The last part of the model were houses of common townspeople. Many houses had mini shrines inside for praying to the gods for protection and safety of their family members. Each house was essentially the size of one modern-day room, with the kitchen, bedroom, living room all in one space. Also, in alleyways, there were public spaces that served as toilets, wells, garbage disposal, and mini shrines for townspeople to pray at.

Fire Watch Tower!

Throughout the entire museum, the tour guide asked us various questions to engage our interests and to promote our understanding of living during the Edo time period. What I thought was interesting was that the town had already had plans to deal with disasters, especially in cases of fire. If fire approached, the watchman would ring the bell to signify the whole town and they would come together to stop the fire. I really enjoyed the museum because of how real the models were and how I was able to imagine myself as one of the townspeople living inside Edo. Overall, the whole day was full of intriguing tourism and fun!

Adult geta (slippers)
and baby ones!

My friend carrying an
udon stand!

Group picture!

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Viewing the town from the top! Look, a cat!!