Editing Edo (section)

==== Shonin ====
[[File:Edo Fukagawa 3.JPG|left|thumb|Typical <nowiki>''nagaya''</nowiki> housing district in backstreets]]
In a strict sense of the word, ''chōnin'' were only the townspeople who owned their residence, which was actually a minority. The ''shonin'' population mainly lived in semi-collective housings called {{Nihongo|''[[nagaya (architecture)|nagaya]]''|長屋|4=litt. "Long house"}}, multi-rooms wooden dwellings, organized in enclosed {{Nihongo|''machi''|町|4="town" or "village"}}, with communal facilities, such as wells connected to the city's fresh water distribution system, garbage collection area and communal bathrooms. A typical ''machi'' was of rectangular shape and could have a population of several hundred.

[[File:Edo Hibachi.JPG|thumb|right|''Chōnin''-room exhibit at the [[Fukagawa Edo Museum]]|alt=Museum room with wood furniture and cooking utensils in center]]
The ''machi'' had curfew for the night with closing and guarded gates called {{Nihongo|''kidomon''|木戸門|4=}} opening on the {{Nihongo|main street|表通り|''omote-dori''}} in the ''machi''. Two floor buildings and larger shops, reserved to the higher-ranking members of the society, were facing the main street. A ''machi'' would typically follow a grid pattern and smaller streets, {{Nihongo|''Shinmichi''|新道|4=}}, were opening on the main street, also with (sometimes) two-floor buildings, shop on the first floor, living quarter on the second floor, for the more well-off residents. Very narrow streets accessible through small gates called {{Nihongo|''roji''|路地}}, would enter deeper inside the ''machi'', where single floor ''nagayas'', the {{Nihongo|''uranagayas''|裏長屋||litt. "backstreet long houses"}} were located. Rentals and smaller rooms for lower ranked ''shonin'' were located in those back housings.

Edo was nicknamed the {{Nihongo|City of 808 towns|江戸八百八町|Edo happyaku yachō}}, depicting the large number and diversity of those communities, but the actual number was closer to 1,700 by the 18th century.

{{wide image|Edo Panorama old Tokyo color photochrom.jpg|750px|Edo, 1865 or 1866. [[Photochrom]] print. Five albumen prints joined to form a panorama.  Photographer: [[Felice Beato]]}}