Figures of Showa stage #3 – Ichimura Uzaemon XV as fireman Me-gumi Tatsugoro in “Megumi no Kenka” (The fight of the firemen brigade)

Series
Figures of Showa Stage

Series Number
3

Title in English
Figures of Showa stage #3 – Ichimura Uzaemon XV as fireman Me-gumi Tatsugoro in “Megumi no Kenka” (The fight of the firemen brigade)

Title in Japanese
め組辰五郎 – 十五代目市村羽左衛門丈    昭和舞台姿  その三
Showa Butai Sugata 3 – Megumi Tatsugoro Ichimura Uzaemon XV

Title in French
Portraits de la scène de Showa No.6 – Ichimura Uzaemon XV dans le rôle du pompier Tatsugoro de la brigade Me-gumi dans “Megumi no Kenka” (The fight of the firemen brigade)

The play
The complete title of the play is « Kami no Me-gumi Wagô no Torikumi », but it is better known as « Me-gumi no kenka » (the fight of the firefighters of the brigade Me-gumi). It was premiered in 1890 and is based on a real incident that took place in 1805, a fight between drunken firefighters and a group of sumo wrestlers. The brawl left one firefighter dead and over 100 persons injured. It represents the confrontation between the commoner class (the firefighters) and the aristocracy, patrons of the sumo wrestlers. The play is made of 4 acts and 9 scenes.

Note: Edo firefighters on the West side of the Sumida river were organised in 48 fire brigades identified with a letter of the hiragana alphabet, here め (me) (there are 48 letter in the hiragana alphabet) with an additional 16 brigades for the East side of the Sumida river. In 1850 in the 48 brigades, organized in 8 groups, there were over 24,000 firefighters (hikeshi) who had a reputation for courage, bravado and rough manners. Each fire brigade was very jealous of its prerogatives and defended its territory. It has a symbol called matoi, a flag-like object bearing the brigade’s letter. Firefighters wore multilayered cotton jackets that were reversible with the outside bearing each fire brigade’s insignia, while the inside was more decorated, unique to each. They were also tatooed. Firefighters were equipped with bamboo scales and a long hook in metal (tobiguchi) to tear down the wooden buildings and slow down the spread of the fire.

The story