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Description
Six women in the foreground are guards, uniformly dressed in thick black robes and protective headgear. They are responsible for protecting the Ooku evacuees whenever there is a fire or other disturbance. Several carry halberds / naginata sparks, and the woman at left appears to be reporting to the one on horseback, who is probably their officer of the guards. Beyond them are similarly garbed shadow figures and palace buildings silhouetted against burning embers being blown over the Edo Castle walls. Within the hierarchy of the Ooku ranks, certain people were assigned heavy labor duties, such as carrying palanquins and fighting fires, and such women were often recruited from farming or merchant families. The elite guards of the Inner Palace would have come from samurai backgrounds.
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