Japanese hand painted manuscript Street Map of the Great Fire of Nagoya in 1660 (Manji 3), whcih burned half the castle town. This street map shows the main area of the conflagration and details the grid of the famous Horikiri Road, South from Hisaya-Cho to Choja-Machi, with red highlights to show the damage caused by the fire. Because of this terrible fire, the streets would be widened and other fire prevention innovations were put in place. A year before this manuscript was made, Edo had a great fire, the Kogo Fire of 1834, which killed more than 4,000 people. It is obvious that the people of Edo and other heavily populated towns and cities, were interested in these earlier fires, especially one so large as the Manji Fire. Street plans such as these were studied and used to prevent more fires and loss of life.
This collection houses art and artifacts from China, Ethiopia, India and Japan.
