page_title: Fires in Edo
section_title: Machibikeshi
hierarchical_section_title: Fires in Edo / Tokugawa shogunate's fire prevention measures / Firefighting organizations / Machibikeshi
caption_attribution_description: Toei Uzumasa Studios, Kyoto, Japan I contribute my rights in the file to the public domain. People and organizations retain rights to images in the file. Matoi of Megumi firefighters
context_page_description: Fires in Edo, the former name of Tokyo, during the Edo period of Japan were so frequent that the city of Edo was characterized as the saying "Fires and quarrels are the flowers of Edo" goes. Even in the modern days, the old Edo was still remembered as the "City of Fires".
  Edo was something of a rarity in the world, as vast urban areas of the city were repeatedly leveled by fire. The great fires of Edo were compared to the Chinese gods of fire Shukuyū and Kairoku, and also humorously described as "autumn leaves".
context_section_description: When Tokugawa Yoshimune assumed power as the eighth shogun, the firefighting tasks in Edo were distributed among daimyō hikeshi, jōbikeshi, and tanabikeshi (店火消, business firefighters), of which the latter was chōnin firefighters consisting of merchants and artisans. While daimyō hikeshi and jōbikeshi were experienced firefighters, they were never really concerned about fires occurring in chōnin's residential areas; in the meantime, tanabikeshi was nothing more than bands of amateurish firefighters who themselves would flee from intimidating fires.
  In 1720 (Kyōhō 5), Tokugawa Yoshimune institutionalized machibikeshi as part of the Kyōhō Reforms. He ordered machi-bugyō (町奉行, town commissioner) Ōoka Tadasuke (大岡 忠相) to establish new firefighting units that would be truly capable of protecting chōnin's residential areas. Under the machibikeshi system, each town was required to dispatch its chōnin to firefighting tasks. Ōoka accepted suggestions from town officials and organized towns' firefighting groups. Forty-eight groups were formed to the west of the Sumida River. All of them except four were designated using single hiragana letters and thus were collectively referred to as the iroha 48 gumi (いろは 48 組, "48 alphabetical groups"). Sixteen other groups were formed in Honjo and Fukugawa to the east of the river. Each group had its own unique matoi (纏, a flag-like identification object) and uniform. Rapport was usual within each group, but discord between groups was common as well. In 1730 (Kyōhō 15), these firefighting groups were reorganized into larger groups to increase the scale and efficiency of fire-time mobilization.
  Although machibikeshi were initially only responsible for chōnin's residential areas, their capabilities became recognized and were later dispatched to fight fires in locations within the samurais' residential areas, such as bridges, shrines, rice granaries, and even inside Edo Castle. By the time of the Meiji Restoration, they had become the main firefighting force of Edo, while in contrast, buke hikeshi were greatly reduced by that time.
caption: Matoi of me-gumi (め組), one of the firefighting groups
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