When this blog covered January's New Year fire ceremony, we noted its origins reach back to 1659 (Manji 2)—triggered two years earlier by Edo's 1657 (Meireki 3) great fire.
That blaze is famous as the "Meireki Great Fire," Edo's largest, burning the castle honmaru and countless samurai mansions and townhouses. ( =illustration upper= is part of an Edo fire scroll painted in 1814 (Bunka 11) by Kashiyo Yukiharu, Edo-Tokyo Museum collection)
The fire occurred Jan 18–20 on the old lunar calendar—Mar 2–4 today. Exactly 357 years ago yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
The government's Central Disaster Management Council set up an expert panel on passing down disaster lessons, compiling past records—including "1657 Meireki Edo Great Fire" (Mar 2004).
A condensed summary—
Edo had gone 80+ rainless days since the previous year, extremely dry; fires broke out early in the New Year. Northwest winds from the 17th strengthened on the 18th morning when the great fire began. "Meireki Great Fire" names three outbreaks: ① ~2 p.m. 18th from Honmyoji, Hongo Maruyama (present Hongo 5-chome, Bunkyo); ② ~10 a.m. 19th from Koishikawa 3-chome, Bunkyo; ③ night of 19th from Kojimachi 3-chome, Chiyoda. Damage estimates vary, but roughly all of Chiyoda and Chuo, ~60% of Bunkyo, and adjacent parts of Taito, Shinjuku, Minato, and Koto burned—~60% of Edo's urban area. Besides the castle keep (except Nishinomaru), 160 daimyo mansions, 770 hatamoto residences, 350 temples and shrines, 60 bridges, and 9,000 storehouses were lost.
9,000 storehouses were lost, records say.
The report includes =map left= on how the fire spread. On the castle and surroundings, roughly—
First, fire ① from Hongo spread southeast and east. Then ② near the Mito estate in Koishikawa (said to be around Dentsu-in) "crossed moats from Iidamachi to Ichigaya and Bancho; from noon to ~1 p.m. on the 19th flames reached the castle keep... fierce fire burned daimyo and hatamoto mansions at Kaji-bashi (present Marunouchi, Chiyoda). ~4 p.m., north wind shifted west; Nishinomaru, Momijiyama, and the three senior houses' upper mansions escaped." But when wind changed, ③ from Kojimachi townhouses "spread instantly, burning ~50 daimyo mansions; many mansions in Nishinomaru-shita (present Outer Gardens of Imperial Palace) were destroyed. Sakurada fire escaped to Shibaura coast and was extinguished." The Takebashi area, spared once by west wind, may have burned when Kojimachi fire spread westward.
Various sites also say fire ② from Koishikawa "spread from Iidabashi to Takebashi; after noon flames reached honmaru and burned the keep; 4th shogun Ietsuna evacuated to Nishinomaru"—so whether Takebashi burned in ② remains unclear.
Either way, it was no small fire.
The first week of March (1st–7th) is Spring Fire Prevention Week. Still cold, often windy—we needn't recall ancient fires to take every precaution.