Reading Urban Societies of Japan\u27s Early Modernity in Ego-documents

This paper considers residences and lives of samurai in urban societies, with a focus on Edo, the greatest city in early modern Japan, based on ego-documents written by some samurai from outside Edo who were resident in the city to fulfill their responsibilities in the system of "alternate attendance" (sankinkōtai). More specifically, this paper considers: (1) diaries written by samurai from the Hachinohe feudal domain (Hachinohe han) serving in Edo over a period of 10 years in total, and (2) a personal guidebook aimed at those samurai from Kanazawa serving in Edo. This research has clarified the existence of some districts that stand in relation to such samurai, Edo\u27s environment, security issues, and other facts about the city. These issues are not evident in the images of Edo prepared and spread by common citizens resident in the city. Traditionally, images of the urban society of Edo have been dependent on commoners who lived there. This paper should relativize such traditional, commoner-centered images