Representations of a Main Street as Public Space in Eighteenth Century Edo
Journal title STORIA URBANA
Author/s Fumiko Kobayashi
Publishing Year 2026 Issue 2025/181
Language English Pages 16 P. 75-90 File size 971 KB
DOI 10.3280/SU2025-181004
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Early modern Japan witnessed a significant expansion of its commercial publishing industry, particularly from around 1750 in the city of Edo, which by then had become the largest urban centre in the country. Publishers produced large numbers of illustrated books and single-sheet prints for an increasingly literate and socially diverse readership. Visual images played a crucial role in making printed material accessible to audiences with differing levels of education. This article examines how public space was represented in such visual material. Rather than treating images as objective records, it approaches them as visual constructions shaped by specific artistic and ideological choices. The study therefore explores the perception of public space articulated by artists working on fictional publications intended for commercial circulation, a perception likely shared by readers across different regions, social classes, and genders. Despite their fictional nature, these illustrations remain an indispensable source for understanding the appearance and meanings of public space prior to the introduction of Western photography in the mid-nineteenth century. After outlining general trends in Edo-period visual representations of public space, the article focuses on a distinctive work whose illustrations depict only people moving along a major city street, without architectural or topographical features. This approach conveys a conception of the metropolis defined by the number and diversity of individuals inhabiting its streets. The work’s favourable reception suggests that this human-centred understanding of public space resonated strongly with contemporary readers.
Keywords: Edo, Public space, Commercial Publishing Industry, Main Street, Social Class, Peddler, Woman, Craftsperson, Religious Practitioners
Fumiko Kobayashi, Representations of a Main Street as Public Space in Eighteenth Century Edo in "STORIA URBANA " 181/2025, pp 75-90, DOI: 10.3280/SU2025-181004