The Last Days of Edo

The Last Days of Edo is an English translation of Jikken Garoku 実見画録 by Hasegawa Shinzo 長谷川深造(1842 1918) who was a lawyer and Hokushin Itto School of sword practitioner. The title may be translated as An Illustrated Record of Things Personally Witnessed. Through fifty illustrations, Hasegawa brings to life a world that was already disappearing when he recorded it. The author drew subjects that ranged from Shogunal processions, police, and fires to street vendors, entertainers, children causing mischief, bathhouses, newspapers and the bustling streets of old Edo. He also records the darker realities of the city, including prisons, the parade of the condemned, executions and the handling of the dead. This is not a history of Edo written from a distance. It is a collection of illustrated vignettes that preserve the sights and customs of a society caught between two eras. The Meiji Restoration transformed Japan, but the old world did not vanish overnight. In these pages, Edo survives in the memories of those who witnessed its final years. This is what the end of Edo looked like.