Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/38

 blest nature. It has been explained that not until after the lapse of many decades and the long-observed example of the great nobles, did the tradespeople of Kyōtō begin to use tiles for roofing their houses or make any attempt to construct them solidly. Yedo showed even slower progress, and may be said to have been ultimately prised out of the old groove, not by an intelligent impulse of improvement so much as by the well-demonstrated danger of conservatism. From the day when it became the capital of the Tokugawa, the city suffered crushing calamities from conflagrations. These, when they had once laid hold on flimsy wooden structures, with roofs of shingle, straw, or board, projecting into narrow streets, could not be prevented from burning until no combustible material remained. The Government seems to have been engaged in constant legislation and organisation for checking these catastrophes. At first the city was divided into forty-seven sections, each having its own band of firemen, and on an alarm being raised, all the bands were ordered to proceed to the scene. But it was soon recognised that the loss of life and the robberies caused by failure to control the crowds thronging the streets were more terrible even than the havoc wrought by the flames. Therefore the divisions of the city were reduced to ten, and a decree directed that only the firemen of the section actually burning should proceed to the place, all the rest remaining to protect their