This is Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX, I'm Lizzie Peabody.

It's the early 1800s.

You're watching the sunset on the largest city in the world, Edo, Japan, known today as Tokyo.

The sun is just dropped beneath the horizon in the distance and the last bit of light

drains from the orange sky.

You light a candle, a breeze comes through the window catching a spark off your flame

which lands on the paper wall beside you, a black cinchmark, blooms into an orange circle,

picking up speed as it gets larger, larger, larger, and then erupts into flames.

The fire begins looking upwards at the wooden beams crossing the ceiling, it spreads to

the next wall.

Grey smoke fills the air just above your head and churns into angry black swirls.

You struggle to breathe.

You run to the window and scream for help.

In the distance, you can hear a bell ringing.

And down the road, a throng of men approach on foot.

I would have pulled up in a gang that would have been this very intimidating group.

It's the fire brigade.

And this is Kit Brooks, curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art.

Kit says some of these firefighters would have worn heavy jackets soaked in water, but

others would have been nearly naked, wearing only loincloths and tattoos.

But not just any tattoos, dragon tattoos.

In East Asia, dragons live in the sky and they bring storms and are creatures of the

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