바킨(馬琴) 일기를 통해 본 19세기 에도의 화재

Fires in Edo in the 19th Century as Described in Bakin’s Diary: Focussing on the Great Fire of Bunsei

江戸は｢火事の都市｣とも呼ばれるほど、頻繁に火事が起こっていたが、その理由として密集した木造建築物と日本特有の気候条件があげられる。そして江戸の多くの人口と限定された都市空間で火事が発生して火の子が飛び散った点もあげられる。このような火事に関しては、多くの公的資料から被害の状況や救恤策などを把握することができ、当時の文人の文学作品や随筆、書簡、日記などの様々な文献を通しても確認できる。個人が直接経験した火事がどのようなものであったか、周辺の人物が火事についてどのように考えて反応したのかを見ることによって、火事に関する生々しい情報を得ることができる。これは当時の状況をより精密に理解するに役に立つ。江戸時代後期を代表する作者である曲亭馬琴の日記に見える文政の大火の様子は、これまで明らかになっていた江戸の火事に関する様々な記録を補う役割を果たす。本稿では馬琴の日常を直接覗き見る日記を通じて文政の大火に関する事実を調べ、文政の大火の発生によって彼の周辺の知人の中で被害を受けた商人や出版業者などに関する逸話と馬琴の火事見舞いのやり方を確認した。

Edo suffered a number of fire accidents, and the city was even called ‘a city of fires’. The frequent occurrences of fires in Edo are due to dense wooden buildings and the weather conditions unique to Japan. Another factor is that Edo hosted a large number of populations and fire sparks were easily spread over the neighbourhood. We can confirm the damages of these fire accidents and the rescue operations based on many public documents as well as various types of literary materials including novels, essays, and diaries. These materials are quite useful for understanding the situations of the time in a precise manner because they vividly tell us about the fire accidents that people at the time actually suffered and also tell us how the people around them thought about the fires and acted. In particular, Kyokutei Bakin, a representative writer in the late Edo period, described the great fire of Bunsei in his diary, and this literary material provides supplementary information about the fires in Edo. In the present article, I survey the facts relating to the great fire of Bunsei through Bakin’s diary, revealing some anecdotes pertaining to his acquaintances (especially, merchants and those who worked in publishing companies) who suffered the great fire and the ways in which Bakin comforted them.