Recollections of the Bakumatsu and Restoration, Part 1

A boy learns to carve sacred images in an Edo workshop. His family memories, his father’s advice, and the daily demands of apprenticeship bring a vanished city into view: its barbers and bathhouses, music and entertainments, shopkeepers and craftsmen, and the streets surrounding Asakusa’s great temple.

Then a wind changes, and the city he has described becomes a sea of fire. Left to guard his master’s belongings, the young Kōun is swept into a desperate crowd. His account of finding his father, escaping over rooftops, and returning to the burned ruins gives this opening volume a vivid human center.

Takamura Kōun (1852–1934), a leading Japanese sculptor, looks back with a craftsman’s exact attention and a storyteller’s conversational voice. These sixteen chapters preserve his practical explanations of wood preparation, carving, gilding, and workshop rank alongside a detailed portrait of Edo life. The complete supplied text is presented in a new English translation with concise notes on names, period terms, calendar dates, and remembered history. AI-assisted translation.