Ieyasu Fireworks

Description

The print Fireworks at Ryōgoku Bridge is the 98th picture from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo by Utagawa Hiroshige, which illustrates that in the Tokugawa Period, during summer and early fall, the Sumida River was the scene of a custom known as “taking in the cool in the evening”. Fireworks displays were conventional activities taken place along both banks of the Sumida River, where an endless variety of entertainment was offered on both land and water.

In this image, there are many pleasure boats on the Sumida River, with the Ryōgoku Bridge in the center. The restaurants (north of the bridge) traditionally supported the major fireworks displays at the site, together with the boathouses. The largest boat in the center is the

In the Edo era, as Sumpu Political Record said, in 1613, when the British King's envoy John Searl visited Sumpu Castle, there was a description that Ieyasu showed fireworks with Chinese people. Unlike the current fireworks, the fireworks at this time were simple ones that sparked fire from bamboo cylinders. It is the origin of fireworks in Japan that Ieyasu ordered Mikawa gunnery team to make fireworks for ornamental use.[4]

Fireworks at the Ryōgoku Bridge openings were interrupted several times due to the Meiji Restoration and World War II. From 1961 to 1977, due to the deterioration of traffic conditions and odor damage due to water pollution at the Sumida River, it was discontinued due to the pollution of the Sumida River water, but in 1978, it changed its name to the current “Sumidagawa fireworks festival” and it was revived, and it continues every year since then.[5]

At present, this tournament, which is expected to have nearly one million people per year, has more than 20,000 fireworks in total at the first venue from the lower stream of Sakurabashi to the upstream of the bridge and the second venue upstream of the stable bridge from the lower Komagata Bridge, at the same time, a fireworks competition will be held.[6]

To sum up, in the Tokugawa Period, maps and pictures were print commodities for which there were an increasing public demand and a fairly large number of audience or consumers; they also contributed significantly to the economic prosperity, particularly in major cities, since the maps and prints could attract plenty of both domestic and foreign travelers and