Bakemono Yashiki | Page 3

name, but without connection with the Banshu[u].
At this point the confusion of terms is to be explained. All through the rule of the first three Sho[u]gun a gradual sifting had been taking place. Into Edo were crowding the daimyo[u] who sought proximity to the great man of the land. Then came the order of compulsory residence, issued by Iyemitsu himself; seconded by the mighty lords of Sendai and Satsuma, who laid hands on sword hilts, and made formal statement that he who balked nourished a treacherous heart. The support of one of them was at least unexpected. The acquiescence of both cut off all opposition. Most of the ground now within the outer moat was devoted to the greater lords in immediate service on the Tokugawa House. The hatamoto were removed to the outer sites in Koishikawa, Ushigom��, Yotsuya; to the Bancho[u], the only closer ward they retained; or across the river to Honjo[u] and Fukagawa. Those in immediate service were placed nearest to the palace. From the beginning the favoured residence site had been just outside the Hanzo[u] and Tayasu Gomon, across the inner moat from the palace. Hence the district got the name of Bancho[u]. Go Ban ([go ban]) in popular usage was confused with ([go ban])--"five" instead of "honoured." In course of time the constant removals to this district made it so crowded, its ways so intricate, that one who lived in the Bancho[u] (Ban ward) was not expected to know the locality; a wide departure from the original checker board design on which it had been laid out, and hence the characters [bancho[u]] (Bancho[u]) used at one time. This, however, was when Edo had expanded from its original 808 cho[u] (20200 acres) to 2350 cho[u] (58750 acres). The original Bancho[u] included all the ground of Iidamachi, and extended to the Ko[u]jimachi road. Ko[u]jimachi (the mura or village) was then in the Bancho[u], and known as samurai ko[u]jimachi [ko[u]jimachi] (by-way), not the present [ko[u]ji] (yeast). In the time of the third Sho[u]gun the Bancho[u] was as yet a lonely place--to the west of the city and on its outskirts. The filling in process, under the Government pressure for ground, was just under way. Daimyo[u]-ko[u]ji, between the inner and outer moats, through the heart of which runs the railway spur from Shimbashi to To[u]kyo[u] station, was being created by elimination of the minor lords. At the close of Kwanei (1624 A.D.) all the Daimyo[u]-koji was very solid ground; an achievement of no little note when the distance from the Sumidagawa is considered. At Iyeyasu's advent to Edo the shore line ran close to the inner moat of the castle. The monastery of Zo[u]jo[u]ji then situated close to the site of the present Watagaru gate, was converted by him into the great establishment at Shiba; and placed as close to the waters of the bay as the present Seikenji of Okitsu in Suruga--its fore-bear in the material and ecclesiastical sense.
The same rapid development of the town took place on the eastern side of the river. Honjo[u] and Fukagawa became covered by the yashiki sites, interspersed with the numerous and extensive temple grounds. Iyeyasu was as liberal to the material comforts of his ghostly advisers, as he was strict in their supervision. One fifth of Edo was ecclesiastical. One eighth of it, perhaps, was given over to the needed handicrafts and tradesmen of the Kyo[u]bashi and Nihonbashi wards along the river, with a moiety of central Honjo[u]--and to the fencing rooms. The balance of the city site was covered by the yashiki. Thus matters remained until the Meiji period swept away feudalism, and substituted for the military town the modern capital of a living nation. So much for the Edo with which we have to deal, apart from its strange legends and superstitions, its malevolent and haunting influences, working ill to the invaders, daring to encroach upon the palace itself and attack the beloved of the Sho[u]gun and his heir, only to be quelled by the divine majesty of his look--as expounded in such tangle of verities as the Honjo[u]-Nana-fushigi (seven marvels of Honjo[u]), the Azabu Nana-fushigi, the Fukagawa Nana-fushigi, the Bancho[u] Nana-fushigi, the Okumura Kiroku, the temple scrolls and traditions, and many kindred volumes.
In reference to the Bancho[u]: the stories outlined in the present volume date from the period of the puppet shows and strolling reciters, men who cast these tales into their present lines, thus reducing popular tradition to the form in which it could be used by the ko[u]danshi or lecturers on history, or by those diving into the old tales and scandals connected with the yashiki of Edo town. In the present volume main reliance for the detail has been placed on the following ko[u]dan:--
"The Bancho[u] Nana-fushigi" of Matsubayashi Hakuen.
"The Bancho[u] Sarayashiki" of Momogawa Jo[u]en.
"The Bancho[u]