Yaoya

View over Yaoya Town including the Mine residence in Yaiba

Yaoya Town (八百八町 ,Yaoya-chō) is a fictional district in Tokyo and the main setting of Yaiba, where most of the characters live in or close to. It also appears in chapter 18 of Magic Kaito and OVA 1 of Detective Conan. In Kenyuu Densetsu Yaiba for the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it's just called "S Town of C City" (C市S町 ,C-shi S-chō) for some reason.

Geography

Places of interest

Locations implied to be in, close to or otherwise related to Yaoya Town:

Ekoda

Aerial shot of a good chunk of Ekoda, including Ekoda High, Seibu Ekoda Station and part of the Seibu Ikebukuro Line in Yaiba

The Ekoda Area (江古田地区 ,Ekoda-chiku) is a real part of Tokyo encompassing several neighbourhoods (including one district directly named Ekoda) on the border between the wards of Nakano and Nerima, close to a quadripoint they share with Toshima and Shinjuku. Sayaka Mine attends high school there in the epilogue, implying Yaoya to be inside its catchment area. Part of it, including Ekoda High School, Seibu Ekoda Station and a segment of the Seibu Ikebukuro Line, can be seen when Yaiba Kurogane flies away with Sayaka in chapter 255 of Yaiba.

Kurogane residence

The Kurogane mansion in Chapter 238 of Yaiba

The Kurogane residence (鉄家 ,Kurogane-ie) is a pompous mansion with adjacent park belonging to the Kurogane family. Kenjuro Kurogane was born and raised as the heir to the Kurogane Group here and attended the unnamed middle school during his early years, thus being in its catchment area, implying it to be close to it and Yaoya by extension. Yaiba Kurogane was also born here, but kidnapped by his own father to an unnamed jungle shortly after, to train him to be the world's greatest samurai. It is currently inhabited by Michiko Kurogane and her daughter Moroha, as well as Kenjuro every now and again.

It is modeled after the Palais du Luxembourg in Paris.

Mine residence

The Mine residence in Chapter 42 of Yaiba

The Mine residence (峰家 ,Mine-ie) is a stately mansion in the style of a classical samurai house, inhabited by the Mine family (including Raizo, Shizuka, Sayaka Mine and her grandmother), Yaiba Kurogane, Musashi Miyamoto, Gerozaimon Geroda, Namako-Otoko (later accompanied by Kumo-Otoko) and a bunch of mice living in the attic, who get harrassed by the street cat Dokuro. Kojiro Sasaki also moves in there for a brief time. It's got its own pond and dojo.

The mansion and its inner courtyard also appear in chapter 18 of Magic Kaito and OVA 1 of Detective Conan.

National Diet Building Japan / Onimaru Castle

The National Diet Building Japan in Chapter 17 of Yaiba

The National Diet Building (国会議事堂 ,Kokkai-gijidō) is a real government building in Tokyo, which in Yaiba is shown to be only a few blocks away from the Mine residence and thus close to Yaoya several times. It gets conquered and remodeled by Takeshi Onimaru to serve as his Onimaru Castle.

Onimaru residence

The Onimaru residence in Chapter 10 of Yaiba

The house of the Onimaru family (鬼丸家 ,Onimaru-ie) is a mansion in the style of a classical samurai house, just like the residence of the Mine family. Its current inhabitants are Takeshi Onimaru, his sister Ayame and their grandfather. It has a corner with lots of cages for pigeon breeding and a secret cellar containing statues of Raijin and Fujin, with the latter holding the legendary Fujin-ken. It's in the catchment area of the unnamed middle school, implying it to be close to it and Yaoya by extension.

Ultra Eleven

The Ultra-Eleven store in Chapter 168 of Yaiba

Ultra Eleven (ウルトラ イレブン ,Urutora Irebun) is a super market in Yaoya, seemingly a parody of the Ultra Seven from Ultraman as well as the 7-Eleven chain. The latter one in real life has more than 2,600 stores in Tokyo alone.

Unnamed middle school

The middle school from Yaiba

A so far unnamed middle/junior high school (中学 ,Chūgaku) attended by Sayaka Mine, Takeshi Onimaru, Keiko Momoi and, briefly, Yaiba Kurogane until three years ago (the time Yaiba happens in as whole, except the epilogue). Past students were Kenjuro Kurogane and Raizo Mine. Seems to be associated with Ekoda High School, since Sayaka and Keiko attend it in their second year of high school later on.

Location

The location of Yaoya Town seemingly changes somewhere in the middle of the Yaiba series.

First it's very clearly somewhere around where the south-eastern part of the Chiyoda Ward is in real life, at least partly being identical to or in the close proximity of the historical district of Kōjimachi, which is heavily hinted by the Mine residence being relatively close to the National Diet Building Japan, which later gets conquered and remodeled to be Onimaru Castle, with Yaiba Kurogane watching it several times from the encircling wall of the mansion, which seems to be to the north-west of it, roughly fitting the location of Kōjimachi. Tokyo Station is also close enough to the residence to be reachable by foot in a seemingly short amount of time, which is situated in the Marunouichi District of Chiyoda. Takeshi Onimaru later on blasts Yaiba out of the courtyard of the Mine residence against a skyscraper called "Oniento" neighbouring it, which is an allusion to the real Oriento skyscraper, which is also located in Kōjimachi.

During the Kaguya story arc and all following chapters it's suddenly hinted to be closer to the Shinjuku and somewhere around the quadripoint of that ward it shares with Toshima, Nerima and Nakano, just like Magic Kaito, with the Nishi Shinjuku skyscrapers and what appears to be Toshima's Sunshine City being visible several times in the background close to the Mine residence and Sayaka Mine's middle school. This is reinforced by her going to Ekoda High School in the Ekoda area three years later.

Trivia

• The name "Yaoya" is one of the nicknames for Edo, meaning "808 blocks", fitting with other allusions to Edo and the era of samurai in Yaiba. It could additionally be a reference to the famous historical person of Oshichi Yaoya, who lived in the Bunkyō Ward of Edo, which appears several times in the series.

See also

• Setting