In 1657, Edo experienced a historical big fire. It is called the Great Meireki fire. Meireki was name of the era. There were many fires in Edo, but the Great Meireki fire occurred when Edo started flourishing after a major renovation. Therefore, it became an important turning point for Edo.
Since November 1656, Edo had not had rain. It had been very dry.
On the afternoon of January 18th in 1657, a fire broke out at Honmyoji-temple in Hongo, at the north of the Edo Castle. It was dry and strong north-west winds blew. Therefore, the fire spread fast and burned downtown areas, such as Yushima, Kanda, Nihonbashi. The fire extended in residential areas in Tsukudajima, Ishikawajima in the evening.
There was a checkpoint called Asakusa Mitsuke in Asakusabashi. When the fire spread around Kodenbacho, officers released prisoners for evacuation. However, other officers at the Asakusa Mitsuke Gate misunderstood the situation as prison-breaking and tightly closed the gate. Therefore, about 20,000 people could not escape from the area and died in the fire.
The fire seemed to have extinguished on the morning January 19th. However, another fire started on the noon of January 19th at a samurai residence in the north of the Edo Castle.
It spread toward the south. It burned the Edo Castle and many feudal lords' residences. It also burned the south areas of the Edo Castle.
Literally, these fires destroyed Edo.
They lost the Edo castle, 160 feudal lords' residences, 350 temples and shrines, 60 bridges by the fire. Victims in these fires were about 100,000. The Shogunate gave food and money to the people and built a temple called Ekoin in Honjo to heal the souls of the victims.
Stone wall of the Edo Castle at the East Garden.
I took this photo many years ago.