ABSTRACT
POPULATION OF EDO IN THE GENROKU AGE.-With the advent of the fifth Shogun TSllnayoshi, we enter on the Genroku Age, famous for its prosperity and splendour, although the name Genroku was only actually given to the period from 1688-17°3. The age of economic development is that of Tenwa (1681-3), during which the agricultural administration of the Tokugawa Government was most extended and developed, with the result that fresh fields and farms were opened up everywhere, and new village communities were established; Tenwa was followed by Teikyo (1684-7), and then came Genroku. Tsunayoshi received the posthumous name of Joken-in, and lacquered articles and other objects of art that were made in his age were called Joken-in ware, and were very highly valued. Maps of old Edo city in the 4th year of Empo (1676) show that the extent of the city at that time was no smaller than in the last year of Keio (1868), that is, just a half-century before the time of writing (1920), and if there was any change in these two hundred years between Empo and Keio, it was only in the internal arrangement and not the extent. We have already seen how, when Iemitsu returned to Edo after an audience with the Emperor in Kyoto, he distributed 5,000 kwamme of silver among the Edo citizens, returned as occupying of 35,419 houses. The average of statistics over a half-century show that each house contained 4!- persons, so the number of ordinary citizens in Edo was 148,719. In the census of 1673 we are told that the total population of Edo was 353,582, excluding a good number of wandering priests, beggars, and pedlars. The census of the Temmei era (1781-88) gives, besides the ordinary citizens of Edo, about 14,500 people in the licensed quarters, 52,430 Buddhist priests, 7,230 itinerant priests, and 3,580 Shinto priests, which means that there were about 60,000 to 70,000 non-working people in Edo, beside the ordinary citizens. To these figures we must add 250,000 to 260,000 samurais always in Edo, and we arrive at a total population of over 600,000 in the Genroku era, when the Tokugawa Age was at the height of its prosperity.
