Page:Sketches of Tokyo Life (1895).djvu/118

90 clothes on her back, to enable him to buy the fish. It was also one of the fireman’s greatest pleasures to pick quarrels, and brawls became a necessary element of his life, almost as essential to his existence as his food. He was also invariably tattooed in gorgeous colours, the beauty of which was his constant boast. As preliminary to a scuffle, he would slip his clothes off his shoulders and make his opponent sick with envy at the sight of his wondrous tattooed figures. He had a peculiar habit of rolling up his tongue and giving a strong trill to his words. His favourite posture was to sit awkwardly, one heel upon the other, with a towel on his shoulder. This towel was an important article with him, for he could not summon sufficient courage for a quarrel unless it was tied tightly round his head, probably to secure his pate from being broken by his enemy’s club. These characteristics of the fireman, which he still retains in a modified degree, also applied more or less to other spirited citizens of Yedo.

Though the Tokugawa Government issued several orders for the suppression of the firemen who were fast growing too rampant and refractory, they were practically allowed to flourish with all their peculiarities as the authorities knew that severe restrictions would lead to their refusal to appear at fires. Many stories are current of the extremes they would resort to in their brawls. The most notorious of these fights was that which took place in 1805, when 381 firemen set upon sixty-three wrestlers in the precincts of a shrine in South Yedo. The daimyo who was ordered to inquire into the case found it both difficult and inexpedient to decide against either party, so that he promised to pronounce judgment after the lapse of fifty thousand fine days.

The assistance firemen give in house-building is not very laborious. Their usual work is the laying of foundations of houses, at which they sing a song in chorus and drop the tup at the end of each verse, that is, at the rate of about once a minute. It appears to be more of a pleasure