Movements of one elite woman and one commoner man in Edo

Map of Edo (circa 1850) showing the density of places visited by a high-class woman, Kuroda Tosako (1682–1758, yellow/orange colors) and an upper-level commoner man, Saitō Gesshin (1804–1878, light and dark green color). The list of places was gathered from their diaries, in which Tosako has 330 events spanning 19 years (1735–1753), and Gesshin has 441 events spanning one full year (1830). Edo was a city with strong class-based spatial segregation, and we can see in these visualizations that there is very little overlap between the two. Tosako, who was in her older years, primarily visits temples and the residences of her relatives at her own convenience, most of which were located not far from Edo’s canals, suggesting boats as the main method of mobility besides palanquins (obligatory for her class status). Gesshin mainly sticks to the commoner districts by foot, especially around his residence, and many of his movements are imposed by work duties, although he does travel to farther areas for leisure. The main overlaps with Tosako occur in temple areas. It is possible to compare both individuals’ movements, since Edo’s urban structure remained considerably stable during this whole period.

The map is created by Bébio Amaro by combining data from the following sources: Shinsōsha Press, ed. Tokyo jidai MAP: Ōedo hen (Tokyo: Shinsōsha Press, 2005); André Sorensen. The Making of Urban Japan: Cities and Planning from Edo to the Twenty First Century (London; New York: Routledge, 2005), 26; “Historical Agricultural Environment Viewing System”, Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, NARO (NIAES), accessed June 01, 2020, https://habs.dc.affrc.go.jp/; Tsukada, Takashi. Nihon Kinsei mibunsei no kenkyū, Hyogo: Hyogo Buraku Mondai Kenkyūjo, 1987; Tsukada, Takashi. Mibunsei shakai to shimin shakai: Kinsei nihon no shakai to hō, Tokyo: Kashiwa shobō, 1992; Hattori, Hideo. Kawara no mono – Hinin – Hideyoshi, Japan: Yamakawa Shuppansha, 2012; Groemer, Gerald. "The Creation of the Edo Outcaste Order", The Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 27, No. 2, 2001, 263-293. The base topographic map data is freely provided by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI), https://fgd.gsi.go.jp/download/menu.php ; A special thanks is due to Takahashi Genki for providing access to some map data from the Edo and Meiji periods.

Diary sources: Keiko Shiba. ed. "Ishihara-ki" "Koto no hagusa": daimyō fujin no nikki. Edo-ki Onna Shiryo, Vol. 1 (Tokyo: Katsura Bunko, 2008); Historiographical Institute of Tokyo. ed. Dai nihon ko-kiroku: saitō gesshin nikki. 10 vols. (Tokyo: Iwanami Publishing, 1997-2016).

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