“The prediction was correct...there really was a fire…”

This town has a custom of predicting fires and other disputes by tracking the hoofprints of horses that ran at the Horseback Archery Festival. When the prediction is handed down, locals come together in a meeting called an “Ohimachi.” At these meetings, which are centered around women, they hear the results of the soothsaying, receive protective talismans, and partake in a meal together.

Between housework, child-rearing, and tending to the stores in the shopping district, the women of Shimoyoshida are very busy. Since they don’t have many opportunities to meet, the meetings can suddenly veer away from dire portents and into local gossip and mutual consultation. The community comes together through the ohimachi meetings.

Also, this town has no fire stations. Instead, they have a fire department composed of on-call local civilian firefighters. Everyone takes turns at different roles, and when there’s a fire, they drop everything, whether at work or lunch, don their happi coats, and set off for the scene of the fire.

Back then, it happened just like that - when a fire broke out at Shinsekai Kampai Street.

“Fire! At Shinsekai!”

The call came. The men who heard it cut their drinking party short and flew to the scene. There are many tenement buildings in this town; if a fire broke out, it could spell disaster. Experienced volunteers, the men linked their hose to a fire hydrant and fought the blaze, and rescued the soot-covered victims.

The neighborhood received a “fire forecast” for Shinsekai Kampai Street precisely that year. The locals shuddered at the knowledge that the prediction came true.

While, mercifully, there were no casualties, the stretch of tenement buildings was scorched black. And although the area has been renovated and new stores have been built in Shinsekai Kampai Street, one portion of it was left intact, just as it was back then.