Tokyo Funny Famous Places: Nihonbashi Land-sky Fish Market

Such was the passion of Tokyoites for the first bonito of the season that it is said that they were "willing to put up their wives as collateral to eat it," with this luxury food fetching the equivalent of tens of thousands of yen in modern day prices. The fishmonger cheated of this precious merchandise by a kite yields a shouldering pole in hot pursuit but is yet to notice that there is also a dog running off with a bonito in its mouth. A comical scene of Nihonbashi by Utagawa Hiroshige III. The fish market which was previously located in Tsukiji and is now found in Toyosu, was originally in Nihonbashi. The Oedo fish market thrived in the area from Nihonbashi to Edobashi from its origins of fishermen selling surpluses of fish presented to Edo Castle through the many years preceding the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. This delightful and skillfully rendered depiction of a Meiji scene is a Kaika-e enlightenment picture showing the red-brick warehouse with the Mitsubishi company logo, the gaslights and lines of the horse tramway, which also employs traditional Ukiyoe methods, with the bonito expressing the early summer.