The Yotsuya Kwaidan | Page 6

the larger sacred structure.
Now Echizenbori is not a particularly old quarter of the city. Long after
Edo was established, the city, step by step, fought its way down to the
river; filling in lagoons and swamps, and driving their waters into the
canals which were to furnish very largely the means of communication
for its traffic. Yotsuya on the contrary is old. Its poverty is of later date.
In the Edo days it was a favourite site for the homes of do[u]shin,
yakunin, and a whole herd of the minor officials who had the actual
working of the great Tokugawa machine of government in their hands.
In the maps of Ansei 4th year (1857) the shrine of the O'Iwa Inari
figures in Samoncho[u], in its Teramachi; a small part of the great mass
of red, indicating temples and shrines and their lands, which then
covered a large part of Yotsuya. How then did it come to pass that the
shrine was removed to this far off site in Echizenbori, with such
incongruous surroundings? The explanation must be found in our story.
When the Tenwa year period (1681-83) opened, long resident at
Yotsuya Samoncho[u] had been Tamiya Matazaémon. By status he was
a minor official or do[u]shin under the Tokugawa administration.
These do[u]shin held highest rank of the permanent staff under the
bureaucratic establishment; and on these men lay the main dependence
for smoothness of working of the machinery of the Government.
Matazaémon was the perfect type of the under-official of the day;
smooth, civilly impertinent to his equals, harsh to his inferiors, and all
unction and abjectness to his superiors. Indeed, he laid more stress on
those immediately above him than on the more removed. To serve the
greater lord he served his immediate officer, being careful to allow to
the latter all the credit. No small part of his function was to see that
ceremonial form and precedent were carried out to the letter. It was the
accurate and ready knowledge of these which was of greatest import to
his chief, indeed might save the latter from disaster. Matazaémon's
readiness and conduct rendered him deservedly valued. Hence he
enjoyed the double salary of thirty tawara of rice, largely supplemented
by gifts coming to him as teacher in hanaiké (the art of flower
arrangement) and of the cha-no-yu (tea ceremony). He had a more than

good house, for one of his class, facing on the wide Samoncho[u] road,
and with a garden on the famous Teramachi or long street lined with
temples and which runs eastward from that thoroughfare. The garden of
Tamiya almost faced the entrance to the Gwansho[u]ji, which is one of
the few relics of the time still extant. It was large enough to contain
some fifteen or twenty fruit trees, mainly the kaki or persimmon, for
Matazaémon was of practical mind. Several cherry trees, however,
periodically displayed their bloom against the rich dark green foliage of
the fruit trees; and in one corner, to set forth the mystic qualities of a
small Inari shrine relic of a former owner, were five or six extremely
ancient, gnarled, and propped up plum trees, sufficient in number to
cast their delicate perfume through garden and house in the second
month (March).
Such was the home of Matazaémon; later that of O'Iwa San. It was
pretentious enough to make display with a large household. But the
master of Tamiya was as close-fisted and hard and bitter as an unripe
biwa (medlar). His wealth was the large and unprofitable stone which
lay within; the acid pulp, a shallow layer, all he had to give to society
in his narrow minded adherence to official routine; the smooth, easily
peeled skin the outward sign of his pretentions to social status and
easily aroused acidity of temper. With most of his neighbours, and all
his relatives, he had a standing quarrel. Secure in his lord's favour as an
earnest officer, so little did he care for the dislike of the ward residents
that he was ever at drawn swords with the head of his ward-association,
Ito[u] Kwaiba. As for the relatives, they were only too ready to come to
closer intimacy; and Matazaémon knew it.
His household consisted of his wife O'Naka, his daughter O'Mino, and
the man servant Densuké. The garden Matazaémon would allow no one
to attend to but himself. The two women did all the work of the
household which ordinarily would fall to woman-kind, with something
more. Densuké performed the heavier tasks, accompanied his master on
his outings, and represented his contribution to the service of the ward
barrier, the O[u]kido[u], on the great Ko[u]shu[u]-Kaido[u] and just
beyond the O[u]bangumi. The barrier cut off Yotsuya from the
Naito[u]-Shinjuku district, and, as an entrance into Edo, was of

considerable importance. When the