{"id":217,"date":"2026-10-10T08:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T23:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iiie-r5.com\/?p=217"},"modified":"2026-10-08T07:48:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T22:48:02","slug":"room-hunting-then-and-now-edo-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iiie-r5.com\/?p=217","title":{"rendered":"In Edo, You Could Rent Your Bedding | Room Hunting, Then and Now: Edo \u2467"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"In
Photo: a tatami room with few belongings (Se. Tsuchiya \/ Unsplash). For illustration. The red stamp, which reads \u640d\u6599\u5c4b (sonry\u014dya<\/em>, \u201crental shop\u201d), is also an illustration.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is the English edition of our Japanese series \u300c\u304a\u90e8\u5c4b\u63a2\u3057\u4eca\u3080\u304b\u3057\u300d (Room Hunting, Then and Now). \u65e5\u672c\u8a9e\u7248\u306f\u3053\u3061\u3089<\/a> \uff0f All English articles<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Edo \u2463 I wrote that a row-house room had only about four tatami mats of floor. Bedding, kimono, pots, dishes. Own all of it, and there is nowhere left to sleep. So what did Edo people do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One answer: rent it<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Edo had a trade called sonry\u014dya<\/em>. A dictionary defines it as \u201ca shop that lends out clothing, bedding, utensils and the like for a fee\u201d (Digital Daijisen).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An encyclopedia adds that they lent not only clothing but furnishings, bedding and accessories. In today\u2019s terms, a rental shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sonry\u014d<\/em> means the rental fee. Literally it is a \u201closs charge\u201d: things wear out when they are used, and you pay for that loss. An oddly honest name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word appears in a book of comic stories from 1773. The phrase kushaku-niken<\/em> from Edo \u2463 appears in another comic book from the same year. Tiny rooms and rental shops belonged to the same world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Light
Then: a tatami room (Photo: Fumiaki Hayashi \/ Unsplash). For illustration.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

They say you could even rent underwear<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

How far did rental go? An article on the Japanese culture site Warakuweb says one of the main items at a sonry\u014dya<\/em> was the fundoshi<\/em>, the traditional loincloth. The rental fee is given as 60 mon<\/em>, against 250 mon<\/em> to buy a new one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Renting cost about a quarter of the purchase price, with no laundry to do. I should note that these figures come from a web article and I have not been able to check the original record. Please treat them as a rough guide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Owning less is not new<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Own little, and rent only when you need something. Today we call it subscription or sharing. From Edo\u2019s point of view, the trend arrived rather late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same thinking works when you look for a home. Furnished apartments. Appliance rental for just the period you need. If you are moving from far away, or staying for a fixed term, compare options other than buying everything. It changes both your upfront costs and how much you have to move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Now: choosing a furnished room (Photo: Stephen Pontes \/ Unsplash). For illustration.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A note on sources: I confirmed the sonry\u014dya<\/em> in dictionaries and an encyclopedia, and the loincloth prices in a web article. I still do not know how much it cost to rent bedding. More homework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next time: fire. How many great fires do you think Edo had?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking for a home in Sapporo?<\/strong>
Message us on LINE: https:\/\/line.me\/ti\/p\/u2qP4VZ5ZU<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please note:<\/strong> Lease contracts and the legally required explanation of important matters (j\u016by\u014d jik\u014d setsumei<\/em>) are provided in Japanese.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Edo had rental shops called sonry\u014dya that lent out clothes, bedding and utensils. Owning less in a tiny room is an old idea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iiie-r5.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iiie-r5.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iiie-r5.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iiie-r5.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iiie-r5.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iiie-r5.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":299,"href":"https:\/\/www.iiie-r5.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions\/299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iiie-r5.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iiie-r5.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iiie-r5.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iiie-r5.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}