The history of Akihabara's big eatery and vegetable market

In Akihabara, there are many restaurants such as Kanda Shokudo, which closed this year, and Gohandokoro Adachi.Big eater set meal restaurantThere were several.
You might be wondering, why a gags restaurant in Akihabara?
However, if we go back in history, the current residents of Akihabara are newer and are the original inhabitants.
The reason for this dates back to the Edo period.

■Its predecessor was the Kanda Fruit Market, which began in Kanda Sudacho

In 1612, the Edo Shogunate invited vegetable merchants from Matsusaka, Ise to Edo to meet the growing population and food needs in the city. In 1613, they also invited Iseya Chobei from Matsusaka, Ise, to Edo and had him live in Kanda-tamachi. (Encyclopedia of Edo Life, edited by Atsushi Kawai)
A vegetable market was formed around them, and it expanded to a vast scale. There are still some landing areas along the Kanda River, and it seems that they handled goods unloaded from these riverbanks as well as from the Kamakura riverbank on the Nihonbashi River.
According to the information board that remains in Kanda Sudacho, the area is an incredible 15,000 tsubo (49500 square meters).
However, the vegetable market at that time consisted of a row of wholesale stores, which is completely different from the image of markets today. It probably resembled a huge collection of greengrocers.

■ Kanda Vegetable Market, one of the three major markets in Edo

Similar markets existed in Senju and Komagome, and were known as the three great markets of Edo.
The areas excelled in both water and land transport, each with its own unique characteristics, and so the products they handled also had their own unique characteristics.
Markets that received a lot of shipments from inland were called earth markets because they sold freshly picked vegetables with soil on them, while areas where a lot of goods were unloaded from the river had a lot of fish and goods from far away, so it seems that each market had its own niche.
The Kanda vegetable market remained in place until the Taisho era, but moved to Akihabara in the Showa era.

■In 3, Akihabara became a fruit and vegetable market

Akihabara has been hit by several major fires in the past. To contain these fires, a large plaza was created as a firebreak, and Akihabara Daigongen was placed there.
That place was commonly known as "Akihabara," and that is the origin of the current name of Akihabara.
Akihabara Daigongen has now been relocated to Taito Ward and watches over the area as Akihabara Shrine.

Now, in Akihabara, the Kanda branch of the Tokyo Central Wholesale Market, commonly known as "Yatchaba," was established in 3.
It is a huge distribution hub that delivers fresh produce from all over the Kanto region to various parts of Tokyo.
Here, Kanda Vegetable Market was transformed into Akihabara's Yatchaba.
The area where UDX is now located was once a vast vegetable and fruit market.

■ The work was hard, but the people gathered had dinner in Akihabara.

The work at the yatchaba is extremely hard work, and I hear stories all over of people who took part-time jobs carrying vegetables only to give up and run away after an hour.
The men in that situation consumed a lot of energy, so they just ate.
The remnants of this tradition of eating, eating and eating to the max are the several gluttonous restaurants that remain in Akihabara.
It's incredible that the amount served is so large that modern Akihabara residents would never be able to finish it, but it's served as a normal portion.
However, at that time there were no energy drinks, so people endured the tremendous energy consumption by eating large amounts of white rice.
It's tempting to hear that a 1 sho (1.8 liter) portion of rice is the norm, but when I asked the owner of Gohandokoro Adachi, he said, "In the old days, young people would ask for a huge refill if they felt like they didn't have enough."

■Yachaba has now disappeared, leaving only his name behind.

Although the Yatchaba was extremely popular, it disappeared in 1989 due to changes in land demand and distribution in urban areas as the economy grew.
UDX was built on the redeveloped site, and the only remaining remnant of Yatchaba is a quiet monument placed in the flowerbed.

Until around 2010, the store names and other remnants of the Yatchaba area remained under the elevated tracks between Akihabara Station and Okachimachi Station, but they also disappeared due to development to reuse the area under the elevated tracks, and the only remnants of that time are"Chabara"と"Yachaba Festival"Only the name remains.

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