Katsushika Hokusai’s Ukiyo-e I will explain Mitsui Store at Suruga-cho in Edo in Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.
Suruga-cho is the current Nihonbashi Muromachi.
This ukiyo-e Mitsui Mise refers to Mitsui’s Echigoya kimono store in Suruga-cho, which was opened in 1673 by Takatoshi Mitsui.
Echigoya Gofukuten achieved great success in business by setting fixed prices on all products, as the signboard says, “Cash, no discount.”
The signboard of “Cash, no charge, kimono goods, braids, thread” is “Cash, no charge”.
This ukiyo-e is composed as if looking up from the ground, and in front of the line of sight is the figure of a lively working roofer and a kite drifting in the wind.
Three tile makers are depicted on the largest roof on the right. The image of Mt.Fuji quietly blending into the daily life of the common people in Edo is captured.
Among Nihonbashi, Echigoya Gofukuten'' in Suruga-cho,Shirokiya Gofukuten” in Tori 1-chome, and “Daimaruya Gofukuten” in Odenmacho are called “Edo’s three major kimono shops.”
It became a kimono store representing Edo, and after the Meiji period, it developed into a department store, and became ‘Mitsukoshi’, ‘Shirokiya’ and ‘Daimaru’.
During the Meiji period, Kyoto’s Takashimaya opened a department store in Tokyo in 1933.
The meaning of no cash stake is that the stake is to sell something higher than the normal price.
In the Edo period, businesses that set up stores mainly used credit selling, in which the buyers were entered in a ledger and collected at the end of the month, the Bon Festival, or the end of the month.
The “multiplying price” was a high price setting that took into account the interest rate and risk of deferred payment.
The Mitsui Echigoya Gofukuten, which appeared in the Genroku era, abandoned the practice of selling on credit and sold everything in cash.
Instead, it was sold as a shoufuda'' withno discount” and was a great success.
This ukiyo-e is from around 1830 to 1832. Hokusai is around 72 years old.
