當しま　米市

About this print

This nishiki-e shows the rice market at Dojima in Osaka. The title writes the name with different characters, but it refers to Dojima. It is one sheet from Naniwa Hyakkei (One Hundred Views of Naniwa, an old name for Osaka), a series depicting 100 famous places in Osaka, and of the series' three artists, this sheet is attributed to Utagawa Kunikazu. The series was published at the end of the Edo period by the Osaka publisher Ishiwa, but the source gives no year for this sheet.

Rice trading first took place along the Tosabori River in Kitahama, but around 1697 it moved to newly developed Dojima. In 1730 the shogunate officially approved both trading in actual rice and futures trading (sakimono), buying and selling on paper, and the Dojima rice price became the benchmark for the whole country. The Dojima Rice Market is known around the world as a pioneer of organized futures exchanges.

The rice market continued in changing forms after the Meiji era began and closed in 1939. Today a monument marking the site of the Dojima Rice Market stands at the foot of the Nakanoshima Garden Bridge in Dojimahama, Kita Ward, Osaka.

Glossary