Rackety wooden houses with shingled roofs in Tokyo’s Anjincho (安針町) in the Nihonbashi district.
This image was published in the June 17 1872 issue of the newsmagazine The Far East, published in Yokohama by the famous Scottish publisher J. R. Black between 1870 and 1878. So we know this photo is at least as old as that date.
The area looks dilapidated and squalid, quite different from the views of Japan on the souvenir photos that were soon sold all over the world. These portrayed Japan as a land of infinite beauty and charm.
In 1673, an ambitious man by the name of Mitsui Takatoshi (三井高利, 1622–1694), opened a large gofukuya (kimono shop) nearby where this photo was taken.1 This business would eventually grow into the international department store chain Mitsukoshi, while Mitsui himself became the founder of what is now known as the Mitsui conglomerate. The first private bank in Japan, Mitsui Bank, was founded by this company on July 1, 1876, just four years after this photo was printed in The Far East.
The Google map below shows the location of the William Adams monument in Anjincho.
Notes
1 古今・お江戸日本橋。日本橋”町”物語（町々の歴史） – 日本橋室町・日本橋本町。Retrieved on 2009-07-03.
Published
Updated
Reader Supported
Old Photos of Japan aims to be your personal museum for Japan's visual heritage and to bring the experiences of everyday life in old Japan to you.
To enhance our understanding of Japanese culture and society I track down, acquire, archive, and research images of everyday life, and give them context.
I share what I have found for free on this site, without ads or selling your data.
Your support helps me to continue doing so, and ensures that this exceptional visual heritage will not be lost and forgotten.
Thank you,
Kjeld Duits
Reference for Citations
Duits, Kjeld (). Tokyo 1872: Anjincho in Nihonbashi, OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN. Retrieved on April 2, 2026 (GMT) from https://www.oldphotosjapan.com/photos/760/anjincho-in-nihonbashi
Ilshat Khusnutdinov
Very interesting.
And who’s on the wooden structure on the roof? The fire watch?
#000836 ·
Kjeld Duits (Author)
@Ilshat Khusnutdinov: This person may just be posing for the photographer, but these platforms were indeed used to watch for fires. Many had fire bells.
As it happens, exactly three years ago I wrote about Japanese firefighting methods. How fire bells were used is explained in this story.
#000837 ·