Ishikawa Rokudayu

• Other Names: 石川六兵衛 (Ishikawa Rokubei)
• Japanese: 石川 六大夫 (Ishikawa Rokudayu)

Ishikawa Rokubei, also known as Ishikawa Rokudayû, was a wealthy merchant in Asakusa, known for his wife's excessive extravagance earning the wrath of Shogun Tsunayoshi on May 8th, 1681, and resulting in the couple being expelled from Edo, and having much of their property confiscated.

Sometime prior to that, Ishikawa's wife is also said to have traveled all the way from Edo to Kyoto to attend a fashion contest (date kurabe) held by the wife of Naniwaya Jûemon, herself a prominent fashionista in Kyoto. Ishikawa's wife is said to have won that contest by surprising those attending with decorative highlights on her kimono made of bits of coral.

While the 1681 confiscation of their property, and expulsion from the city, is taken to be historical fact, the accuracy of other stories about the couple is unclear. Nevertheless, they are taken as indicative of the attitudes and activities of at least some commoners at the time regarding fashion.

References

• Japan Chronik
• Eiko Ikegami, Bonds of Civility, Cambridge University Press (2005), 273-274.