Chapter 15 The Fifteenth Night of Honjo's Seven Wonders: Okiyokori (1)

In the special area established in Tokyo, including Sumida District, it was called "head office" in the Edo period. The head office is a prosperous area in Tokyo. The government has invested a lot of money in construction several times, and declared that Sumida will replace Singapore in the future and become the world's number one tourist city.Regardless of whether this is an upcoming fact or a Japanese delusion, it's just that one cannot help but be amazed at the prosperity of Sumida District today. However, behind the dazzling Sumida District, there is a tragic history that cannot be recalled.

In 1923, the world-shocking "Great Kanto Earthquake" occurred in Japan, causing the area of ​​our office to suffer the most extensive and longest-lasting fire in Japanese history.For a time, most of the urban area of ​​our office was reduced to ruins, and the most prosperous area in Japan at that time was burned to a mess. Although the firm has suffered such a tragic disaster, it has developed again in just a dozen years. In 1935, the national census conducted by the Japanese government at that time showed that the number of residents in the area of ​​our office had reached 460,000, making it the area with the most concentrated population in Japan at that time.

However, the good times didn't last long. Soon after World War II broke out, the people were killed by the bitter fruit of the government's militarism, and the people were in dire straits for a while. Since 1944, the U.S. military's "Tokyo Bombing Plan" began. After more than a hundred missile and incendiary bombings, the area of ​​our firm was almost razed to the ground. After the war, in 1947, Honsho Ward and Mukoshima Ward were merged into Sumida Ward.After that, the Japanese economy began to recover, and the Sumida District gradually became prosperous again.At first, factories were built on a large scale in the area. As an industrial area, the resident population in Sumida once soared.After the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, especially since Sumida District of Tokyo and Shijingshan District of Beijing concluded a friendly area in 1997, factories in Sumida District have turned to China, thus completing the transformation of Sumida District from an "industrial area" to an "apartment area".Since then, apartment buildings have sprung up, and finally became today's Sumida Ward.

Seeing this, some people may not be able to help asking: Why has the area of ​​our office, which has been destroyed several times, been favored many times and miraculously revived in a short period of time? Perhaps, this is just a coincidence.Perhaps, this is an inevitable theorem of urban development, and there is no need to make a fuss.But maybe, there is some inexplicable power under the land of this firm, guarding this firm... Today, although the highly urbanized Sumida District no longer sees the shadow of the "Edo Honjo" in the past, the various strange legends that have been circulated in the Honjo have made the word "Honjo" mysterious. coat.Who knows, among the tall buildings and the roar of the siren motor, there are still some "somethings", faintly proving its existence to people.

Perhaps, in a certain dark corner, the "Okiyobori", which has been entrenched in our office for a hundred years, will reappear. (to be continued)