The Great Fire of Angen安元の大火
1The great fire in the third year of Angen — two thirds of the capital burned
およそ物の心を知れりしよりこのかた、四十あまりの春秋をおくれる間に、世のふしぎを見ることやゝたびたびになりぬ。いにし安元三年四月廿八日かとよ、風烈しく吹きてしづかならざりし夜、戌の時ばかり、都のたつみより火出で來りていぬゐに至る。はてには朱雀門、大極殿、大學寮、民部の省まで移りて、ひとよがほどに、塵灰となりにき。火本は樋口富の小路とかや、病人を宿せるかりやより出で來けるとなむ。吹きまよふ風にとかく移り行くほどに、扇をひろげたるが如くすゑひろになりぬ。遠き家は煙にむせび、近きあたりはひたすらほのほを地に吹きつけたり。空には灰を吹きたてたれば、火の光に映じてあまねくくれなゐなる中に、風に堪へず吹き切られたるほのほ、飛ぶが如くにして一二町を越えつゝ移り行く。その中の人うつゝ心ならむや。あるひは煙にむせびてたふれ伏し、或は炎にまぐれてたちまちに死しぬ。或は又わづかに身一つからくして遁れたれども、資財を取り出づるに及ばず。七珍萬寳、さながら灰燼となりにき。そのつひえいくそばくぞ。このたび公卿の家十六燒けたり。ましてその外は數を知らず。すべて都のうち、三分が二に及べりとぞ。男女死ぬるもの數千人、馬牛のたぐひ邊際を知らず。人のいとなみみなおろかなる中に、さしも危き京中の家を作るとて寶をつひやし心をなやますことは、すぐれてあぢきなくぞ侍るべき。
Since I first came to know the way of things, in the forty and more springs and autumns I have passed, I have seen the strange events of this world time and again.
It was the twenty-eighth day of the fourth month in the third year of Angen, I think. On a night when the wind blew hard and nothing was still, about the hour of the dog (戌時), around eight in the evening, a fire broke out in the southeast of the capital and reached the northwest. In the end it spread to the Suzaku Gate, the Daigokuden, the Daigakuryō and the Ministry of Popular Affairs, and in a single night they became ash and dust. The fire began at Higuchi Tominokōji, they say, in a makeshift hut where sick people were lodged.
As it moved this way and that on the shifting wind, it spread wide at its far end like an opened fan. Houses far off choked in the smoke, and near at hand the flames were simply driven down into the ground. Ash rose into the sky and caught the light of the fire, so that all was crimson, and flames torn loose by the wind leapt as though flying and crossed one or two chō (町) at a bound. Could anyone caught inside it keep his wits? Some choked on the smoke and fell. Some were blinded by the flames and died at once. Others barely escaped with their bodies alone and could not bring out their goods. Every kind of treasure became ash, and how great the loss was no one can say.
At that time sixteen houses of the high nobles (公卿) burned. Beyond those, the number is not known. In all it came to two thirds of the capital, they say. Several thousand men and women died, and of horses and oxen there was no end to the count.
Of all the foolish things people do, to spend their treasure and trouble their hearts building a house in the midst of so perilous a capital is beyond all others without point.
Interlinear notes 2
しイ
In another copy "うつゝ", meaning in one's right mind, reads "し".
一イ
In another copy "三分が二", two thirds, reads "三分が一", one third.