The demand for singing-insects increased from this time so rapidly, that
Chūzō soon found it impossible to supply all his would-be customers
directly. He therefore decided to change his business to wholesale
trade, and to sell to retail dealers only. To meet orders, he purchased
largely from peasants in the suburbs and elsewhere. Many persons were
employed by him; and Yasubei and others paid him a fixed annual sum for
sundry rights and privileges.
Some time after this Yasubei became the first itinerant-vendor of
singing-insects. He walked through the streets crying his wares; but
hired a number of servants to carry the cages. Tradition says that while
going his rounds he used to wear a _katabira_[7] made of a much-esteemed
silk stuff called _sukiya_, together with a fine Hakata-girdle; and
that this elegant way of dressing proved of much service to him in his
business.
Two men, whose names have been preserved, soon entered into competition
with Yasubei. The first was Yasakura Yasuzō, of Honjō-ku, by previous
occupation a _sahainin_, or property-agent. He prospered, and became
widely known as Mushi-Yasu,--“Yasu-the-Insect-Man.” His success
encouraged a former fellow-_sahainin_, Genbei of Uyeno, to go into the
same trade. Genbei likewise found insect-selling a lucrative occupation,
and earned for himself the sobriquet of Mushi-Gen, by which he is yet
remembered. His descendants in Tōkyō to-day are _amé_[8]-manufacturers;
but they still carry on the hereditary insect-business during the summer
and autumn months; and one of the firm was kind enough to furnish me
with many of the facts recorded in this little essay.
Chūzō, the father and founder of all this curious commerce, died without
children; and sometime in the period of Bunsei (1818-1829) his business
was taken over by a distant relative named Yamasaki Seïchirō. To Chūzō’s
business, Yamasaki joined his own,--that of a toy-merchant. About the
same time a law was passed limiting the number of insect-dealers in the
municipality to thirty-six. The thirty-six then formed themselves into
a guild, called the Ōyama-Kō (“Ōyama Society”), having for patron the
divinity Sekison-Sama of the mountain Ōyama in Sagami Province.[9] But
in business the association was known as the Yedō-Mushi-Kō, or Yedo
Insect-Company.
It is not until after this consolidation of the trade that we hear of
the _kirigirisu_,--the same musical insect which the poet Kikaku had
vainly tried to buy in the city in 1687,--being sold in Yedo. One of the
guild known as Mushiya Kojirō (“Kojirō the Insect-Merchant”), who did
business in Honjō-Ku, returning to the city after a short visit to his
native place in Kadzusa, brought back with him a number of _kirigirisu_,
which he sold at a good profit. Although long famous elsewhere, these
insects had never before been sold in Yedo.
“When Midzu Echizen-no-Kami,” says the chronicle, “became _machi-bugyō_
(or chief magistrate) of Yedo, the law limiting the number of
insect-dealers to thirty-six, was abolished.” Whether the guild was
subsequently dissolved the chronicle fails to mention.
Kiriyama, the first to breed singing-insects artificially, had, like
Chūzō, built up a prosperous trade. He left a son, Kaméjirō, who was
adopted into the family of one Yumoto, living in Waséda, Ushigomé-ku.
Kaméjirō brought with him to the Yumoto family the valuable secrets of
his father’s occupation; and the Yumoto family is still celebrated in
the business of insect breeding.
To-day the greatest insect-merchant in Tōkyō is said to be Kawasumi
Kanésaburō, of Samon-chō in Yotsuya-ku. A majority of the lesser
dealers obtain their autumn stock from him. But the insects bred
artificially, and sold in summer, are mostly furnished by the Yumoto
house. Other noted dealers are Mushi-Sei, of Shitaya-ku, and Mushi-Toku,
of Asakusa. These buy insects caught in the country, and brought to
the city by the peasants. The wholesale dealers supply both insects
and cages to multitudes of itinerant vendors who do business in the
neighborhood of the parish-temples during the _en-nichi_, or religious
festivals,--especially after dark. Almost every night of the year there
are _en-nichi_ in some quarter of the capital; and the insect-sellers
are rarely idle during the summer and autumn months.
* * * * *
Perhaps the following list of current Tōkyō prices[10] for
singing-insects may interest the reader:--
Suzumushi 3 sen 5 rin, to 4 sen.
Matsumushi 4 „ 5 „
Kantan 10 „ 12 „
Kin-hibari 10 „ 12 „
Kusa-hibari 10 „ 12 „
Kuro-hibari 8 „ 12 „
Kutsuwamushi 10 „ 15 „
Yamato-suzu 8 „ 12 „
Kirigirisu 12 „ 15 „
Emma-kōrogi 5 „
Kanétataki 12 „
Umaoi 10 „
These prices, however, rule only during the busy period of the insect
trade. In May and the latter part of June the prices are high,--for only
artificially bred insects are then in the market. In July _kirigirisu_
brought from the country will sell as low as one sen. The _kantan_,
_kusa-hibari_, and _Yamato-suzu_ sell sometimes as low as two sen. In
August the _Emma-kōrogi_ can be bought even at the rate of ten for one
sen; and in September the _kuro-hibari_, _kanétataki_, and _umaoi_ sell
for one or one and a half sen each. But there is little variation at any
season in the prices of _suzumushi_ and of _matsumushi_. These are never
very dear, but never sell at less than three sen; and there is always a
demand for them. The _suzumushi_ is the most popular of all; and the
greater part of the profits annually made in the insect-trade is said to
be gained on the sale of this insect.