San'ya

San'ya (山谷, San'ya) is an area in the Taitō district of Tokyo, located south of the Namidabashi intersection, around the Yoshino-dori. A neighborhood named "San'ya" existed until 1966, but the area was renamed and split between several neighborhoods.

It is a region with a distinct culture, an area of crowded, cheap rooming houses where day laborers live.

San'ya dates to the Edo period. Lower caste workers, butchers, tanners, leatherworkers, and the like, were forced to live in this undesirable region by the predominantly Buddhist authorities. It has retained its association with both lower class workers and with craftsmen. Within the past few years gentrification has begun to encroach on the area.

In recent years, some of the rooming houses have converted to provide cheap accommodation for foreign backpackers.

Since the Edo period, Kichinyado (木賃宿, a type of cheap lodging house that does not serve meals) have been located along the sides of the Ōshū Kaidō and the Nikkō Kaidō routes (two of the five main Edo period routes). To this day, there are many of these simple lodging establishments in areas where day laborers assemble. Throughout Japan, these lodging establishments are called “doya.” Prior to 1966, the address of this area was Taito-Ward, Asakusa, Sanya 1~4 Chome, but due to a government program enforcing the renaming of displayed address across Japan, the name “Sanya” faded away.

Presently, in Tokyo, the area designated “The Sanya District” is in the heart of the Namidabashi (Bridge of Tears) intersection. The simple-lodging establishments are concentrated in the below areas:

Namidabashi (on the borderline of current day Taito-Ward and Arakawa-Ward) is on the boundary of former Edo, nearby there were areas such as an execution site and a temple where the corpses of prostitutes were thrown. Still, in the neighborhood of the southwestern part of Sanya, there is a soapland district formerly known as Yoshiwara (this name also faded away due the government’s address renaming programming in 1966. The area is now known as Taito-Ward, Senzoku – 1 Bureau).

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