Kawagoe, little Edo

Kawagoe supplied Edo with rice and timber, and its merchants copied the capital’s houses. A fire destroyed the town in 1893, so it was rebuilt in kurazukuri: thick clay walls finished in black, reputed fireproof. Thirty buildings survive along Ichibangai, together with Toki no Kane, a bell tower rebuilt after the fire that still rings four times a day. Kashiya Yokochō, the confectioners’ alley, lines up some twenty prewar sweet shops.