Volume XVI CONTENTS 2008

From the Editors' Desk 編纂者から 1 EMJNet at the AAS 2009 (with abstracts of presentations)

Articles 論文

Sound and Sense: Chōka Theory and Nativist Philology in Early Modern and Beyond Roger Thomas 4

The Early Modern Warrior: Three Explorations of Life

Introduction Morgan Pitelka 33 Banquets Against Boredom: Towards Understanding (Samurai) Cuisine in Early Modern Japan Eric C. Rath 43 Samurai and the World of Goods: The Diaries of the Toyama Family of Hachinohe Constantine Vaporis 56 Encountering the World: Kawai Tsugunosuke’s 1859 Journey to Yokohama and Nagasaki Laura Nenzi 68

Celebrating Kyō: The Eccentricity of Bashō and Nampo Peipei Qiu 84

The Dao of Nineteenth-Century Japanese Nativist Healing: A Chinese Herbal Supplement to Faith Healing Wilburn Hansen 92

Book Reviews 書評

Carol Richmond Tsang. War and Faith: Ikkō Ikki in Late Muromachi Japan Suzanne Gay 104 Editors

Philip C. Brown Ohio State University Carol Richmond Tsang Independent Scholar

Editorial Board

Cheryl Crowley Emory University Gregory Smits Pennsylvania State University Patricia Graham Independent Scholar

The editors welcome preliminary inquiries about manuscripts for publication in Early Modern Japan. Please send queries to Philip Brown, Early Modern Japan, Department of History, 230 West 17th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210 USA or, via e-mail to [email protected]. All scholarly articles are sent to referees for review.

Books for review and inquiries regarding book reviews should be sent to Carol Richmond Tsang, Review Editor, Early Modern Japan, 45 Sunset Drive, White Plains, NY 10604. E- mail correspondence may be sent to [email protected]. Readers wishing to review books are encouraged to specify their interests in an e-mail to the Review Editor, Carol Tsang.

EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

From the Editor: in the process of developing the panel proposal. 編纂者のメッセージ For our own meeting we have typically sponsored one or two panels, but we have been able to get time for as many as four. This year’s presentations This issue of Early Modern Japan: An Inter- focus on new media and coverage of earthquake disciplinary Journal presents essays on a broad disasters (see below for a full description and ab- array of subjects. We begin with Roger Thomas’s stracts). Hope to see many of you there! exploration of the role of sound in thinking of po- ets and Nativists in the eighteenth century. In con- Philip Brown trast to the classical Mediterranean world and an- cient , Japanese interest in the sound of po- etry came quite late. Nonetheless, Thomas argues “Natural Disaster, Media and Modernization: that the early modern efforts at developing a sys- New Media and Two Kanto Earthquakes” tematic understanding of sound in was so closely tied to the Nativist world view that it did Mark the Date! not effectively survive the Restoration transition. EMJ has a long-standing interest in proposals Once again the Early Modern Japan Network for thematically linked essays and with this issue will present an independent panel session in con- we publish one more project of this sort. Three junction with the Annual Meeting of the Associa- articles focus on daily lives of Tokugawa era tion for Asian Studies. samurai. Coordinated and introduced by Morgan Panel details are noted below. PLEASE MAKE Pitelka, the essays by Eric Rath, Constantine Va- A NOTE OF THE DATE, TIME AND PLACE. poris and Laura Nenzi take up food, banquets, and Like all "meetings in conjunction" this panel will consumption habits on the one hand, and attitudes not be listed in the formal AAS Program (an- toward Japan’s increasing contact with interna- nouncements listing the panel will be available at tional visitors in the mid-nineteenth century. I registration). hope that our readers will take inspiration from The Early Modern Japan Network is a sub- this effort and submit other thematically-links sets committee of the Northeast Asia Council of the of papers in the near future. Association for Asian Studies. To promote the We conclude with Peipei Qiu’s study of Bashō field of Early Modern Japanese Studies it sponsors and Nampo and Wilburn Hansen’s exploration of panel proposals for the Annual Meeting of the As- Chinese herbal medicine in the Nativist tradition. sociation for Asian Studies, holds its own inde- As always, we welcome submission of indi- pendent panel sessions in conjunction with the vidual scholarly articles, but in addition, we are Association, and publishes an refereed journal, also interested in , discussions of Early Modern Japan: An Interdisciplinary Journal. teaching and other professionally oriented materi- For further information on any of these activities, als that do not normally appear in scholarly jour- contact Philip Brown [email protected]. nals. EMJNet at the AAS. The Early Modern Japan See you in Chicago! Network was first formed to support the presence of panels and papers on early modern Japan at the Phil Brown Association for Asian Studies. To that end, we act as sponsors for panel proposals submitted to the AAS Annual Meeting Program Committee as well Natural Disaster, Media and Modernization: as sponsoring our own meeting in conjunction New Media and Two Kanto Earthquakes with the AAS Annual Meeting. People interested Date: Thursday, March 26, 2009 in having EMJNet support for proposals submitted Room: Colorado to the AAS or proposing panels at the EMJnet Time: 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. meeting held in conjunction with the AAS should contact Philip Brown ([email protected]) early Earthquakes have long been an impetus for cul-

1 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

tural production in Japan. Emperor Shomu, for gawa government did not take action—in the form example, ordered the construction of Kokubunji of banning the publications and destroying the and the Great Buddha of Todaiji immediately after print blocks—for two months. The government he toured the area between Nara and the Naniwa could have taken action earlier if their intent was Shrine following a major earthquake in the fourth to control the illegal actions of the publishers. In month of 734. From the late Tokugawa Period this paper, using the earthquake yomi- onward, the presence of mass media complicated uri, I explore the reasons for the delayed response and magnified the social impact of earthquakes of the Tokugawa government and the issues that and other disasters. Exaggerated accounts of de- they could not tolerate. struction in the popular press, for example, ampli- fied the psychological impact of a relatively mod- Gregory SMITS, (Department of History, est earthquake that shook in 1830. The Pennsylvania State University), "Authentic 1855 Ansei Edo Earthquake produced a vast quan- Lessons from Ansei Edo Earthquake" tity of broadside prints, journalistic documentary accounts, works of fiction, diaries, poems, and The opening sentences of the 1856 Ansei didactic tales. Many of these works sought to de- Kenmonroku explain that "Amidst the emotions of fine the disaster, explain its significance, and to joy and anger, sorrow and elation, people's think- posit connections between the human and natural ing is apt to become disordered and they loose worlds. Some of these works commented on poli- their ordinary states of mind. By constantly being tics and society in ways that prompted bakufu at- thoughtful and aware, even at times of extreme tempts to control popular readings of the earth- danger or ill fortune, we will be able to act without quake. forgetting our social obligations. Thus we present The papers in this panel examine popular media here exemplary tales that even women and chil- portrayals of the Ansei Edo Earthquake, with dren will be able to understand." What follows are comparative perspective from the 1923 Great 17 episodes, ten of which are morality tales and 7 Kanto Earthquake. The basic pressing question in explanations of natural phenomena. Published the each earthquake was similar: What is the signifi- same year, the Ansei Kenmonshi discusses 30 epi- cance of this event? These three papers examine sodes, 24 of which are human interest tales. The ways of answering this question from the stand- Kenmonshi seeks to create a sense of on-the-scene point of the bakufu, popular writers, and film. reality among readers and claims to have been compiled within three days following the main ABSTRACTS shock. This paper examines representations of the 1855 Ansei Edo Earthquake in popular literature Hidemi SHIGA (Department of Asian Studies, and strategies for imparting meaning and a longer- University of British Columbia), "A Time to term significance to the event. Ban? A Study of Ansei Edo Earthquake Yomi- uri and the Response of the Tokugawa Gov- Alex BATES, (East Asian Studies, Dickinson ernment" College), "Melodrama and Authenticity in Post Quake Cinema" Soon after a huge earthquake struck Edo (now ) on the second day of the tenth month of Melodrama is an apt genre for disaster narra- the second year of Ansei (November 11, 1855 in tives: the suffering is spectacular, the cause exter- the western calender), large numbers of yomiuri (a nal and the pathos palpable. Melodramatic ele- type of print-block newspaper) were published ments often appear in the texts that dealt with the despite government regulations forbidding their Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, and especially in release. Survivors of the earthquake disaster re- the fiction films. About ten fictional films were ceived the yomiuri as useful disaster reports and as made with the earthquake as a major plot event by media to share and communicate their feelings of the end of 1923, though none have survived the anger and sadness for their losses. Aware of the eighty-five years since. Though these films have illegal publications on the earthquake, the Toku- been summarily dismissed by critic Hazumi Tsu-

2 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

neo as "uniformly bad," their interest lies not in the quality of the filming (no longer ascertainable), but in the way they were tied to other discourses of the disaster. In this paper I examine the earthquake melo- drama, Facing Death (Shi ni menshite) through reviews, stills, stories, and plot summaries. These external paratexts show how this film, like others, was tied to the "true" melodramatic stories that were circulating at the time. This connection is deployed to lend an aura of authenticity to the film, an authenticity that is reinforced by stories about the actors actual earthquake experiences in con- temporary fan magazines. Facing Death shows how an attempt by a studio to assert a real connec- tion to the disaster to differentiate itself from the others, resulting in what was advertised by con- temporary critic Itami Saburo as not just a film, but "a living memory of the quake."

Discussant: Gerald FIGAL, Vanderbilt University

3 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

Sound and Sense: pitch stress, one of the salient features of Japanese phonetics, ever play a role in traditional schemes Chōka Theory and Nativist of versification. This relative disregard becomes Philology in Early Modern all the more conspicuous when one considers that Japan and Beyond twenty-four centuries ago, Aristotle had already articulated a fairly complex prosody, and that in fifth-century China such theoreticians as Yue © Roger Thomas, Illinois State University 沈約 (441–513) had established rules for the Poetry simply must attempt to elevate its rhyme schemes, tone patterns, and caesurae of arbitrary signs to the status of natural signs; what came to known as “regulated verse” (lüshi only in this way does it differentiate itself from 律詩). prose and become poetry. In terms of practice, certainly no previous age [Die Poesie muß schlechterdings ihre willkür- was richer in auditory imagery than the early lichen Zeichen zu natürlichen zu erheben modern period, and this has been noted by many 3 suchen; und nur dadurch unterscheidet sie sich careful readers and commentators. In spite of the von der Prosa, und wird Poesie.] proliferation of such imagery and techniques, at- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781)1 tempts to codify them or even to describe the phe- nomenon on any level were a relatively late devel- By the end of the (794–1185), opment and, it could be argued, one that remained poetics had already achieved a high degree incomplete. When concern with sound finally did of sophistication with various schools whose ar- enter poetics in the early modern period, it did so guments demonstrated carefully honed sensibili- with imprecise taxonomies, using terms and con- ties in matters of diction and association of im- cepts that often conflated rhythm of sound and agery. Such works as Fujiwara no Shunzei’s 藤原 rhythm of sense, responses corresponding roughly 俊成 (1114–1204) Korai fūtei shō 古来風躰抄 to what Roland Barthes described as “hearing [as] a physiological phenomenon” contrasted with “lis- can even claim a well-developed periodization and tening [as] a psychological act.”4 The frequently sense of history. One thing conspicuously absent resulting ambiguity complicates attempts at analy- from most early poetics, however, is the question sis. of how a verse should sound. Although the fixed One such imprecise taxonomy, used by poets syllabic prosody did produce a sort of rhythm, and theorists in a wide spectrum of schools, is “alliteration, consonance, and assonance [which] shirabe (tone, tuning), a word originally employed are found in the earliest Japanese songs and were to describe musical effects and therefore indis- used by poets of all periods … never became putably laden with auditory associations. Various obligatory in any poetic form, nor were any rules 2 theories of shirabe proliferated beginning in the ever formulated governing their use.” Neither did latter part of the eighteenth century, most address- ing waka in general or in particular. In the 1 From Lessing’s 1769 letter to the writer and second year of (1765), the nativist Kamo Enlightenment leader Friedrich Nicolai (1733– 1811), in Lessing’s Gesammelte Werke, vol. 2 (Munich: Carl Hanser, 1959), 1103. I have 3 Sound imagery in early modern haikai is treated followed David E. Wellbery’s in his in Horikiri Minoru, Bashō no saundosukēpu: Lessing’s Laocoon: Semiotics and Aesthetics in haikai hyōgenshi e mukete (Tokyo: Perikansha, the Age of Reason (Cambridge: Cambridge 1998), especially 7–104. See also Suzuki Ken’ichi, University Press, 1984), 226. Edo shiikashi no kōsō (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 2 Robert H. Brower, “Japanese,” in Versification, 2004), 161–175. Major Language Types: Sixteen Essays, ed. W. K. 4 Roland Barthes, The Responsibility of Forms: Wimsatt (New York: Modern Language Critical Essays on Music, Art, and Representation, Association, New York University Press, 1972), trans. Richard Howard (New York: Hill and Wang, 44. 1985), p. 245.

4 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

no Mabuchi 加茂真淵 (1697–1769) authored a tant in poetics in Japan as well, having ap- concise introduction to the art of waka entitled peared as early as Kūkai’s Bunkyō hifuron 文鏡秘 Niimanabi にひまなび, which opens with: “In 府論 (820), but although other concepts from ancient poems, tuning (shirabe) was the main con- Chinese theory were adapted to teachings on na- cern, because [the verses] were sung.”5 In his cri- tive poetry, kaku did not appear in waka poetics tique of Mabuchi, the non-nativist Kagawa Kageki until the latter part of the Tokugawa period, where 香川景樹 (1768–1843) took the concept of shir- it is especially common in nativist treatments of 9 abe in a more abstract direction when he wrote chōka. Moreover, the “types” and categories de- that “poetry that arises from … sincerity of feeling scribed in chōka poetics are often evaluated in is an expression of the tuning (shirabe) of the uni- terms of the resulting harmony of sense and sound. verse and … the objects of such poetry cannot fail The link between kaku and auditory effects is par- to resonate in response.”6 Mabuchi’s pronounce- ticularly evident when writers describe the kaku- ment marks a new direction in kokugaku thought: chō 格調, or “tone,” of a verse; it is here that kaku, a quest to recover lost, primeval sounds and har- though a term of ancient Chinese provenance, as- monies. On the other hand, for those in Kageki’s sumed some of the semantic burden of shirabe. school, the Keien-ha 桂園派, shirabe straddled Relatively more important in chōka poetics than the entire spectrum between sound and sense, and shirabe, kaku will be described throughout this was not something that had ever been lost.7 study. In addition to shirabe, one of the most impor- tant terms describing the accord between sense As Susan Blakely Klein has ably demonstrated, and sound is kaku 格, a word borrowed from Chi- belief in “the essential underlying unity of lan- guage and reality” remained very much alive in nese poetics where it refers to established “types” 10 or “poetic frameworks.”8 Kaku had been impor- certain quarters throughout the medieval period. Such ideas, however, became pronounced in poet-

5 ics only in the early modern period. In general, an From Niimanabi, in Nihon kagaku taikei emerging preoccupation with auditory effects was (hereafter NKT), ed. Sasaki Nobutsuna, vol. 7 manifest in sundry theories and among various (Tokyo: Kazama Shobō, 1957), 218. schools, and was arguably one aspect of a growing 6 From Niimanabi iken, in NKT8:216. 7 general consciousness of the presumably unique Some of Kageki’s pronouncements on the qualities of the native language. Over the course acoustic qualities of the sound of the eighteenth century, a reciprocal—one would very much like the nativists he denounces. For be tempted to say “symbiotic”—relationship grew example, in his Kokin wakashū seigi sōron 古今 between poetics and the emerging study of histori- 和歌集正義総論 (NKT 8:226), he links the cal linguistics; there were few works on etymol- sounds of Japanese to the supposed purity of the ogy—or even on grammar and syntax—that were native character, which in turn arises from the land not somehow related to poetry and poetics, and as itself: the present study illustrates, the connection was by In the various foreign countries, their vocal no means unilateral. Significantly, this marriage of sounds are turbid and impure because they are born of natures that are turbid and illicit. Their natures are turbid and illicit because they are Hundred Years of Chinese Poetry, 1150–1650: born of water and soil that are turbid and The Chin, Yuan, and Ming Dynasties (Princeton: unclean. Princeton University Press, 1989), 70, 113. For a general treatment of Kageki’s use of shirabe, 9 Hisamatsu Sen’ichi, “Kakaku gaisetsu,” in Tanka see Roger K. Thomas, The Way of Shikishima: kōza, ed. Yamamoto Mitsuo, vol. 9 (Tokyo: Waka Theory and Practice in Early Modern Japan Kaizōsha, 1932), p. 50. (Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 10 Susan Blakely Klein, Allegories of Desire: 2008), 114–117. Esoteric Literary Commentaries of Medieval 8 John Timothy Wixted renders the term thus in Japan (Cambridge, Mass.: his translation of Yoshikawa Kōjirō, Five Asia Center, 2002), 18–19.

5 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

poetics and linguistics was consecrated for the shō 和字正濫鈔, in which he demonstrates the most part by nativists; the fascination with the incompatibility of contemporaneous theories of supposedly unique acoustic characteristics of the kana with the phonetic conventions of Nara-period Japanese language was part of their broader quest writing, sparked scholarly interest in the sounds of to rediscover a verbal realm whose purity and early Japanese. As Kuginuki Tōru has cogently freedom from foreign taint was worthy of the argued, it was with Keichū’s work that the study “lofty and upright (takaku naoki kokoro)” of kana moved beyond the prescriptive approach that was thought to characterize the people of an- that had prevailed since Fujiwara no Teika 藤原 11 cient Japan. 定家 (1162–1241), introducing not only a sys- tematic methodology of historical inquiry but also I. The Quest for Kotodama reasoned speculation about how the ancient pho- H.D. Harootunian has described what he calls nemes might actually have sounded.14 In this same “the sovereignty of sound” in nativist thought of work, Keichū also speaks of kotodama 言霊, or the early modern period, citing numerous exam- “word spirit,” defining it as “a miraculous virtue ples both of the pride of place accorded by promi- (reigen 霊験) that follows blessing or cursing nent kokugakusha to the acoustic qualities of the 15 Japanese language, and of their denigration of the according to will.” written word as having distorted the purity of the Yamato tongue.12 But what gave rise to this “sov- ereignty of sound”? This study will suggest some different avenues in addition to those proposed by Harootunian. It may strike one as odd that a founding figure of the nativist movement—an intellectual current that eschewed foreign systems of thought—should be the Shingon priest, Keichū 契沖 (1640–1701). But it is perhaps not so strange after when one considers that his sect bore Kūkai’s 空海 (774– 835) legacy of mantras, dharanis, “seed” syllables, and ideas roughly corresponding to modern no- tions of “sound symbolism,” or phonosemantics.13 Keichū’s contributions to recovering lost mean- ings in the Man’yōshū were accompanied by a Figure 1. From Waji shōran shō.16 drive to reconstruct the sounds of the ancient lan- guage. The publication in 1695 of his Waji shōran It was over the century following Keichū’s death—a century during which, according to 11 This characterization of the ancient Japanese is Naoki Sakai, “a typically phonocentric view of seen in Kamo no Mabuchi, Niimanabi, in NKT language developed”17 —that attempts to recon- 7:219. 12 See H.D. Harootunian, Things Seen and 14 See Kuginuki Tōru, Kinsei kanazukairon no Unseen: Discourse and Ideology in Tokugawa kenkyū: gojūonzu to kodai Nihongo onsei no Nativism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, hakken (: Nagoya Daigaku Shuppankai, 1988), 50–56. 2007), especially 47–63. 13 For a treatment of sound symbolism and early 15 Cited in Toyoda Kunio, Nihonjin no kotodama Japanese phonology see Ann Wehmeyer, “The shisō (Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1980), 185. Interface of Two Cultural Constructs: Kotodama 16 Reproduced in Kuginuki, 55. and Fūdo,” in Japanese Identity: Cultural 17 Naoki Sakai, Voices of the Past: The States of Analyses, ed. Peter Nosco (Denver: Center for Language in Eighteenth-Century Japanese Japan Studies at Teikyo Loretto Heights Discourse (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991), University, 1997), 94–106. 240.

6 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

struct the sounds of the ancient tongue were car- ried out in earnest. Analysis of the sounds of early Japanese reached a methodological high point in Motoori Norinaga’s 本居宣長 (1730–1801) Ko- toba no tama no o 詞の玉緒 (1785), san’on kō 漢字三音考 (1785), and Mojigoe no kanazukai 字音仮字用格 (1776), in which he attempts to characterize the auditory qualities of the Japanese Ursprache. In the second of these, he argues that attempts to imitate the sounds of conti- nental speech when Chinese ideographs were in- tro-duced had distorted the original phonemes.18 His argument in the third of these works that the “ya” and “wa” lines each anciently included five distinct sounds drew much commentary and criti- cism.19 Norinaga’s preoccupation with the sounds of ancient Japanese is also evident in his famous argument with Ueda Akinari 上田秋成 (1758– 1813) as recorded in Kakaika 呵刈葭 (1786), Figure 2. Norinaga, self-portrait21 where Norinaga insists that the syllabic “n” (ん) and voiceless labials (handakuon 半濁音) not Not unlike other areas of investigation, after only were non-existent in the archaic tongue, but Norinaga’s generation studies of ancient phonetics that their presence in the modern language be- tended away from empiricism and toward a quasi- speaks degeneration rather than mere change.20 mystical and essentialist cultural nationalism, in- The worldview of an idealized remote past and its cluding an ever-increasing confluence of phonol- subsequent degradation echoed through much of ogy and cosmology. As an outgrowth of their exe- the research on historical phonology of the early getical tradition of the Man’yōshū, nativists came modern period. to be fascinated with the belief that purportedly obtained among the ancient Japanese that sincere poetic utterance possessed an incantatory or man- tric quality that could affect physical reality, that poetic benedictions or maledictions could bring things to pass. Scores of treatises appeared draw- ing on kotodama and related concepts. Toyoda Kunio notes that in the half century following 1 (1818), no fewer than fifty titles begin- 18 See Harootunian’s treatment of this source, 56– ning with the word kotodama appear in Kokusho 62. sōmokuroku 国書総目録, a number which of 19 See his Mojigoe no kanazukai, in Motoori course does not include countless other works 22 Norinaga zenshū, ed. Ōno Susumu, vol. 5 (Tokyo: treating the ancient belief in word spirit. Chikuma Shobō, 1970), 329. An exhaustive analysis of these is impossible 20 This exchange is discussed in Kawamura here, but a few are worthy of special mention. Hi- Minato, Kotodama to takai (Tokyo: Kōdansha, rata Atsutane 平田篤胤 (1776–1843), in his Ko- 2002), pp. 7–13. Kuginuki (pp. 157–174) shi honjikyō 古史本辞経 (1839), argues that maintains, however, that in spite of the fame of the Kakaika controversy, in terms of its intellectual content it pales in comparison to the debates 21 The original is in the Norinaga Kinenkan spawned by one of the chapters of Norinaga’s www.norinagakinenkan.com/norinaga.html. Mojigoe no kanazukai. 22 Toyoda Kunio, p. 182.

7 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

“since [Japan] is the original parent country of it in standard histories might in fact owe to later (oyaguni 祖国) of all others, it is only natural that (especially early modern) constructs. Appearances all things [here] … should be superior,” and that it of the word in early sources are surprisingly few; is a land blessed by kotodama. He continues by most famously it is mentioned in the lines in Ya- maintaining that “since the oracles of the parent manoue no Okura’s 山上憶良 (660–733?) chōka deities who reside in the High Plain of Heaven (MYS #898): have been handed down [there] for countless ages, …kamiyo yori / iitsute kuraku / soramitsu / it is likewise a land where the Way of speech and Yamato no kuni wa / sumekami no / itsushiki language (koe-hibiki-koto no michi 音韻言語の kuni / kotodama no / sakiwau kuni to… 道 ) is correct, propitious, complete (tarai- …from the age of the gods / it has been told totonoeru 足ひ調へる), and superior to that of and retold / that the sky-vast / land of every other land.” Atsutane laments the pollutions Yamato / is an august land, / its rulers of divine descent, / a land blessed / by that have crept into the native language as a result 25 of foreign influence. The beauty of the ancient word spirit … tongue was its simplicity; there were “only the For theorists, however, the ubiquity of kotodama belief in ancient Japan was taken for fifty unvoiced sounds (清音) and an additional granted, its effects claimed to be observable in an twenty that are voiced. But isn’t it marvelous that ever-broadening array of phenomena. with those few sounds we can form the myriad Its link to euphony is perhaps best illustrated words, with no lack?” 23 Similarly Tachibana by Kamochi Masazumi 鹿持雅澄 (1791–1858) Moribe’s 橘守部 (1781–1849) Gojūon shōsetsu who, in his Kotodama no sakiwai 言霊徳用, ar- 五十音小説 (1842) claims that “these fifty sylla- ticulated a theory of word spirit based on the sup- bles were not created by anyone,” but rather “are posedly unique sounds of ancient Japanese something spontaneously transmitted from the 26 speech. Masazumi defines kotodama as “the beginning of the age of the gods,” and “the full mysterious spirit (kushibi naru tamashii 霊異な range of all things in heaven and earth find voice る神魂) present of its own accord in human lan- therein.” Moreover, “the source of that which from 27 antiquity has been called kotodama is none other guage.” But it is not present in just any human than the fifty syllables.” They are the source not language, as his analysis makes clear, and the only of pure language, but are the basis of linguis- most important condition for its presence is based tic study in general; while some have linked their on phonetic qualities. conception to the sounds of Sanskrit, “in reality Significantly, the loss of proper sounds was they should be called kotodama [itself], and there preceded by the loss of proper sense. Masazumi is no [true] study of language that does not pro- notes that, although “in the final analysis, there is ceed thence.”24 These works, and many like them, nothing between heaven and earth excluded from posit mystical origins and properties of the sounds the salutary (sakiwai-tasukuru) [force of] koto- of ancient Japanese. dama,” yet “during the middle [i.e., Heian] period, For modern scholars, both the extent and the teachings of the sages of alien lands came to be precise nature of ancient kotodama belief have practiced, and for everything under heaven, reason remained somewhat elusive, and it is often diffi- became the means and rhetoric the end.” People’s cult to ascertain the degree to which descriptions

25 Citations follow the numbering in Shinpen 23 From Koshi honjikyō, in Shinshū Hirata Kokka taikan. Two other references to kotodama Atsutane zenshū, ed. Shinshū Hirata Atsutane in the Man’yōshū include no. 2511 and no. 3268. Zenshū Kankōkai, vol. 7 (Tokyo: Heibunsha, For an analysis of kotodama belief appearing in 1977), pp. 416–417, 420. Man’yōshū poetry, see Toyoda Kunio, pp. 76–106. 24 From Gojūon shōsetsu, in Shintei zōho 26 The title of Masazumi’s work is based on the Tachibana Moribe zenshū [hereafter TMZ], ed. afore-cited lines from MYS #898. Tachibana Jun’ichi and Hisamatsu Sen’ichi, vol. 27 Kamochi Masazumi, Kotodama no sakiwai 13 (Tokyo: Tokyo Bijutsu, 1967), p. 197. (Tokyo: Kunaishō, 1893), 1r.

8 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

minds were eventually swayed, “and over the sounds (seion 清音).32 For Masazumi, “the fact years the noble, mysterious, and subtle principle that [Japan] is both the center and the head of all 28 of kotodama came to be buried.” However, with nations—that in all things … it is more propitious the revival of ancient learning, “the kotodama that and splendid than all other lands—is a subtle had lain buried for hundreds of years” began to manifestation of kotodama.”33 Though the link to reappear, and especially with the restoration of poetry is only implied in Masazumi’s treatise, imperial rule, “the correct and felicitous sounds of surely there could be no more radical statement of human speech, far superior to what is found in the importance of how language sounds. Such 29 other countries,” was also revived. theories had their genesis in a nativist fantasy of an antiquity free from foreign influence. The Zeitgeist was also manifest in ideas about recording language. From as early as the invention of kana in the ninth century, Japanese had reached a compromise between ideographic and phonetic approaches to writing, and though the former of course prevailed in and the latter in early monogatari, as Naoki Sakai points out, “neither purely ideographic nor purely phonetic inscription dominated the production of intellectual, literary, and legal discourse.” Most texts had reconciled the two principles. Only in the early modern period— and especially the eighteenth century—“did the total rejection of ideography and the adoption of ‘pure’ phoneticism arise as a major intellectual concern.”34 According to many nativists, not only Figure 3. From Kotodama no sakiwai.30 had the foreign ideographs acted as pathogens bearing diseases of intellect, but they had also dis- What exactly was superior about ancient Japa- torted the ancient sounds and added a layer of ob- nese speech? According to Masazumi, “in the fuscating mediation between the mind of the an- chirping sounds of foreign tongues there are many cient and contemporary understanding. turbid [i.e. voiced] sounds,” which are “utterly loathsome, like the sounds of birds, insects, or II. “Poetic Frameworks” and Harmonizing of [inanimate] vessels.” Though he recognizes the Sound and Sense voiced syllables of the ka, sa, ta, and ha lines, yet The amplified attention to auditory imagery he maintains that “in the ancient language of our and rhythmic qualities, as well as the phonocentric country, few syllables were voiced.” Voicing oc- tendencies marking much nativist writing on lan- curred mainly in the second element of com- pounds, or sometimes in the second or third sylla- 32 Kamochi, Kotodama no sakiwai, 5r. ble of a word (like nagai), but never at the begin- Significantly, the purity of human speech and its ning, the “voicing of initial syllables [being] a 31 attendant power of kotodama is also linked to vulgar practice of later ages.” Moreover, he social class; the degree of voicing in speech is claims that this practice came about through imita- supposedly indicative of how low the status of the tion of foreign words. “Since all things are pure individual is, and “in terms of pure sounds (seion) (kiyora), so should the human voice also be pure,” of language, the Son of Heaven ranks above all … and this of course refers to unvoiced, or “pure,” the emperor’s peerless, exalted position between heaven and earth is a plain manifestation of the 28 Kamochi, Kotodama no sakiwai, 1r. pure and subtle principle of kotodama.” (Kamochi, 29 Kamochi, Kotodama no sakiwai, 2r–2v. 9r) 30 Kamochi, Kotodama no sakiwai, 12v.–13r. 33 Kamochi, Kotodama no sakiwai, 9r. 31 Kamochi, Kotodama no sakiwai, 3r–4v. 34 Sakai, p. 252.

9 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

guage, are integrated more than anywhere else in 伝 and Tamakushige 玉くしげ. Soon thereafter the afore-mentioned concept of kaku, which came he formally became a disciple of Norinaga, most to be closely associated with chōka poetics. While of whose instruction was conducted through corre- never departing entirely from its original meaning spondence, although Shigetoshi apparently also of “types” or “poetic frameworks,” in chōka poet- made some trips to Matsusaka. In addition, he also ics the term is extended to description of ancient corresponded or associated with numerous other techniques of rhythm, euphony, and even musical- important kokugakusha, most notably Hirata Atsu- ity. tane. In 5 (1793), at the age of twenty- Mabuchi, who more than anyone else added eight, Shigetoshi inherited the headship of the momentum to the fledgling revival of chōka com- Oguni Shrine with its stipend of 590 . position, also wrote what could be seen as the first Shigetoshi authored numerous works on koku- attempt at poetics for that genre. In his Agatai gaku and doctrine; however, he is best re- susamigusa あがたゐすさみぐさ (published membered now for Chōka kotoba no tamaginu, posthumously in 1796), he critiques several verses which established a methodology followed by of chōka using categories that later theorists would subsequent studies in poetic frameworks. Its pref- also adopt and would call kaku.35 Chōka poetics ace consists of Shigetoshi’s own chōka expressing was developed by three major theorists over the its purpose and including a lamentation: first half of the nineteenth century. Their contribu- …Kara no kuni yori / kusagusa no / tions will be examined in turn. fumi chū mono no / watarikite / so o yominarai / hito mina no / uketōtomite / Oguni Shigetoshi hatehate wa / sono fumi goto ni / The first serious attempt to describe poetic tsukigusa no / kokoro utsurite… frameworks in chōka poetics is seen in Oguni Shi- … from the land of China were imported getoshi’s 小国重年 (1766–1819) Chōka kotoba various things known as books, no tamaginu 長歌詞珠衣 (1801). Shigetoshi, and steeped in their lore, all receive them originally surnamed Suzuki, was born to a family with reverence, in the end fickle holding the hereditary headship of the Oguni hearts shifting to them completely … Shrine in Tōtōmi province 遠江国 (present-day Though many have attempted to imitate the an- Shizuoka prefecture). 36 Aspiring to deepen his cient style of poetry, they fail to understand the knowledge of kokugaku, in the third year of Ten- proper frameworks, and the result is confusion. To mei (1783) he began to receive instruction from remedy this, Shigetoshi wrote the treatise “as a guide for learning the [ancient] language” (koto no Uchiyama Matatsu 内山真竜 (1740–1821), and ha o / manabu shirube to) in composing chōka.37 three years later accompanied Matatsu on a jour- These thoughts are repeated at the beginning of ney to Izumo in order to visit sites mentioned in the essay itself, whose very possibility is credited 出雲風土記 38 the Izumo and ascertain the to the foundation laid by Norinaga. historical veracity of that record. The trip stimu- Shigetoshi notes that “in the configuration of lated Shigetoshi’s desire for further study, and he sequencing (tsuzukuru sama) in chōka, there are began to examine such texts as Kojikiden 古事記 various patterns (aya),” and that even when “peo- ple who think [their own compositions] good ana- 35 Mabuchi analyzes chōka in terms of lyze them somewhat, they are not without errors in “sequencing of words” (kotoba no tsuzuki) and 37 various types of antithetical couples. See Agatai From Chōka kotoba no tamaginu, in Nihon susamigusa, in Zōho Kamo no Mabuchi zenshū, ed. kagaku taikei, bekkan [hereafter NKTB], vol. 9, ed. Sasaki Nobutsuna, vol. 12 (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kyūsojin Hitaku (Tokyo: Kazama Shobō, 1992), p. Kōbunkan, 1932), pp. 257, 279. 15. 38 36 This biographical sketch is indebted to From Chōka kotoba no tamaginu, p. 26. Shiozawa Shigeyoshi, Kokugakusha Oguni Shiozawa notes (p. 67) that Shigetoshi’s work was Shigetoshi no kenkyū (Shizuoka: Hagoromo especially influenced by Norinaga’s Kotoba no Shuppan, 2001). tamao 詞の玉緒 and Tama arare 玉あられ.

10 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

set frameworks (定格, glossed sadamari)”; thus, he implies an essential difference between tanka “it is for the detailed elucidation of these frame- and chōka (ancient examples of which he regards works that [he] wrote this book.”39 Chōka kotoba as songs) when he writes of the verse no tamaginu categorizes all 344 verses of chōka in Mitsumitsushi / Kume no kora ga / kakimotov the Kojiki, the Nihon shoki, and the Man’yōshū ni ueshi hajikami / kuchi hibiku / ware according to two criteria: length and the types of wa wasureji uchiteshi yamamu antithetical phrases (tsuiku) used. For Shigetoshi, O august / men of Kume— / like the ginger the length of a verse is an important factor in de- planted by the fence, / piquant in one’s termining its optimal frameworks, and he proceeds mouth, / I shall never forget [the enemy’s from a broad categorization: “those consisting of insults]—shall we not attack them? seven to fifteen lines are small chōka (shō-chōka that “it is the inclusion of these [first] two lines 小長歌), those ranging from sixteen to fifty lines that makes this a song; the remaining five lines are 42 are medium chōka (chū-chōka 中長歌), and those a tanka.” The implication is that the introductory consisting of fifty-one or more lines are all deter- lines add not only to the sense, but supply euphony and rhythm enough to turn a mere line of mined to be large chōka (dai-chōka 大長歌), for verse into song. Elsewhere, Matatsu points out apart from these three categories it is difficult to lines that form antithetical pairs, but does not ana- demonstrate the merits of verses.”40 Each con- lyze or categorize these. What remains unclear is secutive chapter is subdivided according to these who influenced whom, since the student’s work three “types.” appeared earlier and is not only far longer, but The analysis becomes more complex in its much more systematic and detailed. In any case, treatment of antithetical phrases, which are cate- both Matatsu’s and Shigetoshi’s pioneering work gorized ranging from single-phrase pairings (ikku- in chōka poetics may be seen as an outgrowth of 一句対 tsui , antithetical or contrasting images the Agatai school to which both had connections paired within one line of verse) to complex ar- and whose founder played such a key role in the rangements of four or more sequential antitheses, revival of chōka composition. There can be no examples of which may be found in Appendix I. doubt, however, that Chōka kotoba no tamaginu While most of Shigetoshi’s frameworks appear to was by far the more influential on subsequent be more focused on rhythm of sense than of sound, studies of poetic frameworks. Its careful method- others are specifically auditory. One is the use of ology drew on the best of the kokugaku tradition, reduplicated words and phrases (kasanekotoba 重 and its emphasis not only on antithetical couplets ね詞), such as are seen in MYS #199 (tsuyujimo but on the specific tone or kakuchō produced by no kenaba kenu beku “like dew or frost, resigned their various applications would be advanced by to die if they must” … samoraedo samoraikanete later writers, including Tachibana Moribe. “though they would serve him, yet are they un- able” … Kudara no hara ni [yu] kami-hafuri ha- Tachibana Moribe furiimashite asa-mo-yoshi Kinoe no miya o toko- Moribe was the son of one Iida Chōjūrō Moto- miya to “in [from] the plains of Kudara he is in- chika 飯田長十郎元親, a village headman in the tered as a god, his everlasting shrine at Kinoe pal- 伊勢国 41 province of Ise ( , present-day Mie prefec- ace, famed for hempen garments”). ture). During his lifetime, Moribe at first used the It is worthy of note that Shigetoshi’s first surnames Kitabatake 北畠 and Minamoto 源, teacher of kokugaku, Matatsu, authored a work 古事記謡歌註 titled Kojiki yōka chū (1813) which also addresses poetry in terms of frame- 42 Uchiyama Matatsu, Kojiki yōka chū, in Nihon works. Most of Matatsu’s work consists of annota- kayō shūsei, ed. Takano Tatsuyuki, vol. 1 (Tokyo: tion of words in chōka appearing in the Kojiki, but Tōkyōdō, 1960), p. 195. The verse, appearing in Book Two of the Kojiki, was composed to incited 39 Chōka kotoba no tamaginu, p. 26. the imperial Kume guards to attack the 40 Chōka kotoba no tamaginu, p. 26. Tsuchigumo, a rebellious indigenous tribe living 41 Chōka kotoba no tamaginu, p. 231. in present-day .

11 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

since these appear in the Iida pedigree, but finally kaga 足利 areas. Owing to this base of support settled on Tachibana, his mother’s maiden name, he was able to return in Bunsei 12 (1829) to Edo, which traced back to the Nara-period poet and where he established a school. He was critical of statesman Tachibana no Moroe 橘諸兄 (684– many of the major figures in the kokugaku move- 757). Moribe, who was seventeen years old when ment, including Norinaga, and remained aloof his father died in Kansei 9 (1797), left that same from other schools and factions. Nevertheless his year for Edo to study kokugaku in accord with his work—and especially his poetics—often betrays late father’s wishes. In 6 (1809), he settled unmistakable indebtedness to the very people he in Satte 幸手 in the northeast area of present-day criticizes. Saitama prefecture, where he lived for the next Moribe’s views on chōka are developed sys- twenty years and where, aside from some tutelage tematically in his Chōka senkaku 長歌撰格, a under Shimizu Hamaomi 清水浜臣 (1776–1824), work composed midway in his career in Bunsei 2 he engaged primarily in independent study and (1819) and apparently circulated among his disci- research.43 It is possible that Moribe’s interest in ples before finally being printed in 6 (1873). chōka owed in part to Hamaomi, who was an im- Like significant works on chōka both before and portant leader in the revival of that form. after, kaku is central to his theory. While matters of poetic frameworks had become a concern in waka poetics in general and chōka poetics in par- ticular, he illustrates the auditory effects of native poetry with unprecedented clarity. Words, which he describes as “the sounds of the heart,”45 are to be valued for sonorousness as well as for sense. As Hisamatsu Sen’ichi has noted, Moribe ad- vances two major arguments in Chōka senkaku.46 The first of these is the claim that, since ancient poems were sung, they cannot be properly under- stood apart from the structures (kaku) of the music, a claim reflected also in his contributions in re- Figure 4. Tachibana Moribe44 search on such song genres as kagura 神楽 and 47 Owing in large measure to such popularizers saibara 催馬楽. as Hirata Atsutane, the early nineteenth century A second claim is the indispensability to waka was a time when kokugaku began to find many of special language. Moribe compares common devotees among the peasantry and laboring classes, language with strumming an untuned koto, while and Moribe soon found many students and patrons to achieve the aya (文 pattern, design) of the lan- among the weavers in the Kiryū 桐生 and Ashi-

45Chōka senkaku opens with the following lines: 43 It is difficult to determine exactly what kinds of “Among all living creatures, there is none so noble things Moribe studied under Hamaomi, but the as human beings, and there is nothing more noble fact that he did seek the latter’s instruction is about humans than their heart (kokoro) ... the substantiated in the writings of Chisaka Rensai 千 sound of which is words. Thus, there is nothing in 坂廉斎 (d. 1864), one of Hamaomi’s disciples. this world more noble than words.” TMZ 11:7; NKTB 9:239. See Suzuki Eiichi, Tachibana no Moribe, Jinbutsu 46 sōsho 163 (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1972), Hisamatsu Sen’ichi, “Kakaku gaisetsu: pp. 31–43, 64–68. This biographical sketch is kenkyūshi o chūshin to shite,” in Tanka kōza, ed. indebted to Suzuki’s work and to Tokuda Susumu, Yamamoto Mitsuo, vol. 9 (Tokyo: Kaizōsha, Tachibana Moribe to Nihon bungaku: shin shiryō 1932), p. 56. 47 to sono biron (Tokyo: Asahi Shobō, 1975). See Moribe’s Kagurauta iriaya 神楽歌入文 44 Gunma Kenritsu Bunshokan, (1834) and Saibara- iriaya 催馬楽譜入文 www.gtoweb.com/native/person5_1.htm. (1841) in TMZ 8:1–200.

12 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

guage of waka, one needs to tune the strings and poetics is his linking of chōka and music, in par- play according to rhythm and melody. This com- ticular gagaku. While the importance of the sound parison is followed by a statement that could have effects of chōka was widely acknowledged, been written by Norinaga himself, where Moribe Moribe posited a link with music. In Chōka argues that “waka poetry (uta) is not the same as senkaku, he cites examples of poetry that was in- common language; it should aim to add embel- disputably sung, namely saibara and kagura, and lishment (aya) to the words and to make the tone maintains that likewise, “ancient chōka generally graceful (shirabe no uruwashikaran).”48 Thus, in followed the melodies of gagaku of the period, Moribe’s poetics, as in Norinaga’s, aya often tends and were ‘tuned’ in order to be readily sung (jiki ni to a meaning close to “embellishment.” As Susan utau beku shirabe nashitsureba) ...” When tanka L. Burns has aptly noted, in contrast to Norinaga’s were used in songs, they had to be adapted by re- theory of orality, Moribe claimed that such texts as peating or adding lines, but “the phrase types (ku- the Kojiki were “transformed by the process of kaku 句格) of chōka were directly [related to] the transmission as the people of ancient Japan altered tunes of gagaku.”52 As proof of this, he argues that and adapted [them] through the use of metaphor, “all of the ancient waka in the Kojiki and Nihon 49 allegory, and rhetorical embellishment.” She shoki has been transmitted in song by the Bureau further notes that, according to Moribe, “speech in of Music (gagakuryō 雅楽寮).”53 ancient times had a performative aspect that was 50 Moribe entertained the idea of a link between lacking—that had been lost—in later times.” poetry and music well before writing Chōka Applied to poetry, this “rhetorical embellishment” senkaku, as is evident in his 1816 treatise on is part of the aya which is characteristic of poetic Shinto, Shinpū mondō 神風問答. The question- language. Citing the “Jindaiki” from the Nihon and-answer format contains much fascinating dis- shoki, Moribe argues that “the gods love the or- cussion of waka, including an insistence on its namentation [aya, which is glossed with the char- inherent musicality: acters birei 美麗] of words.” Moreover, “in an- In ancient poetry, which was sung, there were cient times when the ornamentation of words (ko- necessarily types (kaku). If the poem did not toba no aya) was valued, to speak of uta was pri- 51 accord well with its types, then it could not be marily to speak of chōka.” called a true poem ... In attempting to be im- Moribe also emphasizes antithetical phrases bued [with the affection of the ancients], one (tsuiku), just as Shigetoshi before him, but with an first of all makes the ancient tuning (shirabe) expanded vision of what these included. Antithesis his master, and composes according to the can, of course, be a matter of form or content. types (kaku) of a song piece (utaimono).54 While Shigetoshi limits his treatment for the most part to the former, Moribe addresses both form Even the distinction between chōka and tanka and content in his analysis. was drawn in terms of musicality: “Tanka is A strikingly unique aspect of Moribe’s chōka merely something that expresses purport (tada ishi o noburu made no mono), and when it is sung, a 48 Chōka senkaku, in TMZ 11:7–8; NKTB 9:239– tuning (shirabe) is added separately.” As an illus- 240. tration of this, Moribe compares the following 49 Susan L. Burns, Before the Nation: Kokugaku anonymous verse from the Man’yōshū and the Imagining of Community in Early Modern Ide aga koma / hayaku yuki koso / Matsuchi- Japan (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003), p. yama / matsuramu imo o / yukite haya mimu 13. Emphasis mine. Giddyap, my steed, / hurry, and take me there: 50 Ibid., p. 164. / Mount Matsuchi— / I wish to hurry and see / 51TMZ 11:8; NKTB 9:240. For Norinaga’s views my love, who must be waiting. (MYS #3168) on aya, see for example his Ashiwake obune, where he says: “Waka gives pattern (aya) to actual feelings ... it is not entirely without artifice.” NKT 52TMZ 11:9; NKTB 9:241. 7:280. 53TMZ 11:11; NKTB 9:242. 54TMZ 2:401, 402.

13 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

“these [thirteen] categories all play a part in what with its saibara version is called ‘pattern’ (aya),”57 of which he identifies Ide aga koma / hayaku yuki kose / Matsuchi four types and likewise assigns a special character yama / aware / Matsuchiyama hare / used in scansion. Phrases are the means by which Matsuchiyama / matsuramu hito o / aya is achieved. Moribe’s scansion symbols, de- yukite haya / aware / yukite haya mimu scribed in detail in Appendix II, are illustrated Giddyap, my steed, / hurry and take me there: here in his analysis of lines from MYS #131: / Mount Matsuchi— / ah! / Mount Matsuchi, oh, / Mount Matsuchi— / she who must be ura nashi to hito koso mirame waiting— / I wish to hurry, / ah! / to hurry as having no bay people may see it as such and see her. and concludes: “A thirty-one syllable poem has shio nashi to hito koso mirame been turned into fifty-three syllables to accord as having no brine people may see it as such with the beat.”55 Chōka differs in that the redupli- yoshi e ya shi ura wa nakedomo cations—unlike those of saibara—are there by I don’t care though there be no bay design: “In chōka ... there is design (aya) in the reduplications, which sound indescribably ele- gant.” Moreover, “this is a superior aspect of yoshi e ya shi shio wa nakedomo chōka, which is designed to be sung (utau beku I don’t care though there be no brine shitatetaru).”56 In the example of saibara—and of tanka used in song generally—the poetry preceded the music, but in ancient chōka, this order was reversed. isanatori umibi o sashite … Moribe attempts to demonstrate the auditory [toward the] seashore …58 qualities of ancient chōka through a complex sys- tem of scansion. While Shigetoshi and others of his predecessors had placed increasing emphasis on classification and definition of poetic frame- works, their paradigms for analyzing verses of chōka were rudimentary compared to Moribe’s systematic approach. He identifies thirteen types of phrases (ku) as characteristic of chōka of the Man’yōshū, and assigns to each a peculiar symbol for use in scansion. Moreover, he insists that

55TMZ 11:11–12; NKTB 9:243–4. The saibara verse also appears in Kagurauta, saibara, Ryōjin hishō, Kanginshū, ed. Usuda Jingorō, Shinma Shin’ichi, Nihon koten bungaku zenshū 25 (To- kyo: Shōgakkan, 1976), p. 123. Matsuchiyama, which is employed as a pivot word (matsu, “wait”), is located on the boundary between present-day Nara and Wakayama Prefectures. 56 TMZ 11:14–5; NKTB 9:246. Far from seeing Figure 5. From Chōka senkaku.59 reduplication as tedious in effect, Moribe empha- sized its artistic potential: “... there are always 57 many [verses] that repeat the same thing, changing TMZ 11:19; NKTB 9:250. Here, Moribe uses the a few words each time. That sounds especially character bun 文. elegant ... it improves the tone (shirabe).” TMZ 58 From Chōka senkaku, in TMZ 11:24; NKTB 11:16; NKTB 9:147–8. 9:254.

14 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

One is reminded of John Collins Pope’s insis- branch of the Hirata school. His fame was such tence on the musicality of Anglo-Saxon poetry, that he was invited to lecture on Shinto to Em- which is clearly suggested by his use of musical peror Kōmei 孝明天皇 (1831–1866; r. 1847– 60 notation for scansion of Beowulf; in contrast, the 1866). In his later years, he relinquished his shrine direct connection between Moribe’s complex nota- duties to his eldest son Yoshifusa 是房 and, un- tion and the “musicality”—specifically, the affin- der the sobriquet Suzunoya 篶舎, devoted himself ity with gagaku—which he insists was the essence to teaching in a private school of his own founding. of ancient chōka, is not immediately evident. The bulk of Yoshika’s writing is on Shinto, and includes such noted works as Ken’yū junkō Mutobe Yoshika ron 顕幽順考論 (1855–57) and Ubasunasha The third and final important theorist of poetic koden shō 産須那社古伝抄 (1857). As Miyagi frameworks in chōka was Mutobe Yoshika 六人 Kimiko cogently argues, Yoshika’s kokugaku was 部是香 (1798–1863), a kokugakusha best re- 61 populist in nature—what is often referred to as membered today for his writings on Shinto. Yo- sōmō no kokugaku 草莽の国学—and in this re- shika’s claims regarding the inherent qualities of spect is indebted to Atsutane’s influence.62 Central chōka and the effects of the ancient frameworks to his Shinto theory were two principles governing that genre used are far less sweeping than those of creation: ken 顕, or the bright/revealed/ exoteric, Moribe, but his theories do not want for the char- acteristic “nostalgia” of nativist writing. personified in and the imperial line, Yoshika was the son of one Mutobe Tadaatsu and yū 幽, or the dim/hidden/esoteric, represented 63 六人部忠篤 (d. 1807), a priest at the Mukō by Ōkuninushi大国主 and the Izumo tradition. Shrine 向日神社 in the Otokuni district 乙訓郡 Shinto also appears to have been the chief focus of instruction in his school, but he also left a number of 山城国 (south of Kyoto). of collections of his own verse as well as influen- Upon Tadaatsu’s death, his young son was sent to tial works on poetics, and was active as a teacher 六人部節香 live with Mutobe Tokika (d. 1845), of waka. His most famous poetry student was the Tadaatsu’s younger brother and a noted poet and nun Ōtagaki Rengetsu 大田垣蓮月 (1791– scholar of Shinto. Under Tokika’s guidance, the 1875).64 boy excelled in study of the Chinese and native The work for which Yoshika is best known to classics, and in the sixth year of Bunsei (1823) students of poetry is his Chōka tamagoto 長歌玉 went to Edo to enter Hirata Atsutane’s school, where he won the confidence and respect of his 琴 (1861), one of the most systematic treatments teacher and peers. After his return, he inherited his of frameworks in that genre. It begins with a his- father’s former position at the Mukō Shrine and torical overview, defining the golden age of chōka was recognized as a leading figure in the Kansai as extending from its mythological beginnings— Ōkuninushi’s courtship song addressed to Nuna- kawa-hime 沼河比売 and her response, as found 59 From Chōka senkaku, in TMZ 11:24; NKTB 9:254. 60 John Collins Pope, The Rhythm of Beowulf: An 62 Miyagi Kimiko, Bakumatsu-ki no shisō to Interpretation of the Normal and Hypermetric shūzoku (Tokyo: Perikansha, 2004), pp. 246–266. Verse-Forms in Old English Poetry (New Haven: 63 See the opening lines to Ubasunasha koden shō, Yale University Press, 1942.) in Kokugaku undō no shisō, ed. Haga Noboru and 61 According to one theory, Yoshika was born in Matsumoto Sannosuke, Nihon shisō taikei 51 1806. This biographical sketch is largely indebted (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten 1971), p. 224. to Sasaki Nobutsuna, “Kagakusha to shite no Similarities to are readily apparent. Mutobe Yoshika,” Sasaki Nobutsuna kagaku 64 Rengetsu became his disciple in 1849 and chosaku fukkokusen, vol. 1 (Tokyo: Hon no continued to study under him until his death. Tomosha, 1994), pp. 320–365, and to Suga Shūji, Twelve of her letters to Yoshika are found in Zōho Kyō Ōsaka no bunjin: bakumatsu, Meiji (: Rengetsu-ni zenshū, ed. Murakami Sodō (Kyoto: Izumi Shoin, 1991), pp. 81–88.. Shibunkaku, 1980), 2nd group, pp. 62–71.

15 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

in Book One of the Kojiki65—and continuing until In matters of diction, Yoshika develops an ar- the middle of the ninth century. Ōkuninushi’s and gument differing markedly from that of many of Nunakawa-hime’s verses, “though different from his spiritual forebears in the kokugaku movement. the many poems and poets appearing later in the He insists, for example, that “since no matter how Kojiki and Nihon shoki,” nevertheless have the one attempts to imitate the ancient style, a verse same “tone (kakuchō),” and “it was not until the composed in the present age will of course be a second year of Kashō 嘉祥 (849) that both the product of the present age, and the spirit of each tuning of phrases (kuchō 句調) and the ancient verse must be new.” It follows that “using only frameworks (kokaku 古格) with their figurative ancient diction in composition is a deviation (hen- 偏僻 meanings (tengi 転義) and assertions (hanji 判 peki ) which rather detracts from the ancient 66 style. Thus, one should not adhere too fastidiously 辞) were finally lost” in chōka. These opening to old or new diction.”69 That is to say, mixing lines suggest the overall objective of the work: the words of various vintages has little to do with suc- definition—and the recovery—of an ancient cess or failure in achieving the ancient style, “tone.” which depends for its effectiveness on other things. Yoshika’s allegiances are manifest where he At this point, Yoshika’s arguments call to mind gives credit for the belated revival of chōka to Norinaga, who “composed equally in the ancient Mabuchi, who “possessed a thorough knowledge style and later style,” and who reminded his stu- of the upright inner mind of the ancients,” and dents that they “may believe that [their] poem is in whose “tanka and chōka compositions—though the ancient style, but it tends to contain expres- new in content—follow the ancient frameworks 70 sions and words of the later periods.” Indeed, and diction,” and who therefore “succeeded for the Yoshika makes his familiarity with Norinaga’s first time in creating revival poems (fukko no uta ideas evident two pages later where he writes that 復古の哥 67 ) that accord with the ancient style.” “Master Suzunoya’s [i.e., Norinaga’s] theories Unfortunately, few of his successors “arrange the establish a distinction between old and new dic- couplets or employ figurative meanings (tengi) tion, defining for both tanka and chōka those using and assertions (hanji) to follow the ancient 68 ancient words as being in the ancient style, while frameworks.” those using later diction are of the new tuning (shinchō 新調).” Moreover, Norinaga “observed 65 See Kojiki, Jōdai kayō, Ed. Ogiwara Asao and this distinction in his own compositions, as did Kōnosu Hayao, Nihon koten bungaku zenshū 1 Master Fujinokakitsu 藤垣内翁 (i.e., Motoori (Tokyo: Shōgakkan, 1973), pp. 101–102; Kojiki, Ōhira 本居大平 1756–1833).” The second gen- trans. Donald L. Philippi (Tokyo: University of eration of Norinaga’s disciples, however, “com- Tokyo Press, 1968), pp. 104–107. 66 pose chōka which they claim to be in the ancient Citations from Chōka tamagoto are from a style, yet none accord with the ancient tuning (in- manuscript held in the National Diet Library. The ishie no kakuchō).”71 manuscript is a copy, made in 1884 by Oda Kiyoo Yoshika’s analysis then turns back to antiquity. 小田清雄 and based on Yoshika’s own version, He claims that the greatness of the Man’yōshū dated the twenty-third day of the tenth month, owes to its chōka to a much greater extent than to Bunkyū 1 (1861). The passage cited here is on 4r– 4v. The significance of 849 is the composition of a very long chōka (at 306 lines longer than any in 69 Chōka tamagoto, 12r–13r. the Man’yōshū) by an unnamed priest at Kōfukuji 70 From Uiyamabumi, in Motoori Norinaga, 興福寺 to commemorate imperial gifts received Motoori Norinaga zenshū, ed. Ōno Susumu, vol. 1 during that year. It appears in Shoku Nihon kōki (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō, 1968), pp. 57–58. I have 続日本後紀. See Zōho Rikkokushi, ed. Saeki followed here the translation of Sey Nishimura, Ariyoshi, Vol. 7 (Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1940), “First Steps into the Mountains: Motoori pp. 362–365. Norinaga’s Uiyamabumi,” Monumenta Nipponica 67 Chōka tamagoto, 9r–9v. 42 (1987):484. 68 Chōka tamagoto, 11r. 71 Chōka tamagoto, 13v–14r.

16 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

its tanka, and that the brilliance of two of its great- est stars, Hitomaro and Akahito, is displayed “only in their chōka, the tanka of these two being only of average quality.”72 Five basic frameworks are defined, and re- ferred to collectively as the “constant frameworks” (jōkaku 常格). Each of these five is given names which Yoshika admits are of his own invention and for which he provides no concrete definitions. Their meanings must thus be inferred from his use of them in illustrations. The five are: Introduction (joji 序辞), in one place glossed as hashigaki where referring to the headnote of a tanka, thus implying a similar function; Proposition (hokki 発 起), which frames the imagery; Statement of sig- nificance (jutsugi 述義); Assertion (hanji 判辞), though the characters imply “judgment,” the ex- amples suggest something broader, including statement of intention or resolution; Harmonizing conclusion (kekkai 結諧), the second character implying harmonious resolution. Several examples are given of how these frameworks apply to an- cient verse, the most concise being Akahito’s MYS #320 (see Appendix III). Yoshika then notes that Akahito—obviously one of his favorites— 74 rarely departs from this order of frameworks, but Figure 6. From Chōka tamagoto. Hitomaro and others, “while adhering to these constant frameworks,” often employ variations in Where the beginning and end are in accor- ordering and combinations in order to achieve dance, in some cases “the final line returns to the special effects.73 words used at the beginning, in some verses ac- In addition to these five frameworks, Yoshika’s cord is reached by implying the [same] meaning, poetics also describes principles in the use and while others both begin and end with a couplet.” arrangement of lines and couplets. Two that ap- This principle is illustrated with Emperor Jomei’s pear to be of particular importance to him are re- 舒明天皇 (593–641; r. 629–641) verse, MYS #2, capitulation, or “accord between beginning and which begins end” (shubi no shōō 首尾の照応) and rhetorical Yamato ni wa Many are the mountains breaks, or “phrase caesuras” (danraku 段落). murayama aredo of Yamato

and ends Akitsushima this dragonfly island, Yamato no kuni wa the land of Yamato.75

Also, the longer a chōka is, the more rhetorical breaks it needs to employ, and these “breaks are 72 Chōka tamagoto, 18v–19v. Yoshika further claims (36v) that the chōka elegies of the Man’yōshū achieve a far greater depth of real 74 From Uiyamabumi, in Motoori Norinaga, feeling than the tanka verses of grief (aishō no Motoori Norinaga zenshū, ed. Ōno Susumu, vol. 1 uta) of the Kokinshū and later collections. (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō, 1968), pp. 57–58. 73 Chōka tamagoto, 24v–25r. 75 Chōka tamagoto, 38v.

17 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

necessary where [the poem] shifts to figurative in which the symbol 』 is used to indicate a rhe- 76 meanings.” Hitomaro’s verse, MYS #196, is torical break (bars and symbols to the left of lines used to illustrate rhetorical breaks, the first occur- indicate antithetical pairs). Breaks are illustrated ring after the lengthy introduction (joji): in the same verse following the statement of sig- Tobu tori no Asuka no kawa no nificance and the assertion. The river of bird-ascending Asuka: At the heart of Yoshika’s chōka poetics and of kami-tsu-se ni iwahashi watashi his idea of poetic frameworks are antithetical pairs over the upper rapids they have built a (tsuiku), a preoccupation he shares with Shigetoshi, bridge of stone, Moribe, and most others in the early modern pe- shimo-tsu-se ni uchihashi watashi riod who wrote theory for that genre. Indeed, as over the lower rapids they have built a Hisamatsu Sen’ichi has noted, Yoshika’s analysis crude bridge of wood— of tsuiku and other devices used in chōka could be seen as creatively drawing on both the quantitative iwahashi ni oinabikeru analysis of Shigetoshi and Moribe’s more qualita- trailing the bridge of stone tive, detailed study of the arrangement of ╔╗ tamamo mo zo tayureba ouru phrases.79 Yoshika notes that “it has been an estab- glistening seaweed grows back even if lished principle since the Age of the Gods that by pulled off means of antithetical pairs, the meanings in chōka uchihashi ni oi-ōreru may be deepened and the effect [of the poems] covering the crude bridge of wood made profoundly enchanting (yūen 幽艶).”80 Yo- ╚╝ kawamo mo zo karureba oyuru 』 shika’s eight basic categories of antitheses are de- the waterweed grows back even if scribed and illustrated in Appendix IV. 77 wilted III. “Five-Seven” versus “Seven-Five” An important point upon which these three agree—one which would have important implica- tions for later generations of poets and theorists— is the relative value of the so-called “five-seven mode” (goshichichō 五七調) and “seven-five mode” (shichigochō), the former referring to phrasing beginning with five-syllable lines while phrases of the latter begin with seven-syllable lines.81 In the five lines of a verse of tanka, for example, conceptual breaks occur after the second and fourth lines in five-seven mode, resulting in five-seven phrases. It is typical of the Man’yōshū, and many commentators in the early modern pe- riod claim that it is masuraoburi, or masculine. Seven-five mode breaks a verse of tanka after the

79 Hisamatsu Sen’ichi, “Kakaku gaisetsu,” p. 79. As Susan L. Burns notes (p. 175) however, Yoshika roundly denounced Moribe and his 78 Figure 7. From Chōka tamagoto. theories. 80 Chōka tamagoto, 53r. 81 Though ordinarily a musical term, one of the 76 Chōka tamagoto, 45v. meanings of “mode” is “rhythmical arrangement.” 77 Chōka tamagoto, 46r. For the purposes of this study, it is thus an apt 78 Chōka tamagoto, 46r. translation of chō.

18 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

first and third lines, yielding seven-five phrases. It in Hoida Tadatomo’s 穂井田忠友 (1792–1847) is characteristic of the Kokinshū, and has been afterword to Kondō Yoshiki’s 近藤芳樹 (1801– described as taoyameburi, or feminine. 1880) Kofū santai kō 古風三体考 (1835). Hoida Aside from the three treated in detail here, notes that, though many of his contemporaries nearly all of the theorists of kaku in the early mod- derided the seven-five sequencing, he had “yet to ern period agree that the shift from five-seven to hear an explanation of the origin of this practice,” seven-five mode was a sign of degeneracy in waka 82 and so he proceeds to offer one of his own. His poetry. Though Shigetoshi does not address this speculation begins with a reference to the many issue in specific terms, his preference is obvious in Chinese who were naturalized in Japan during the his examples of tsuiku, all of which are of five- , an important legacy of whom was the seven phrasing. Moribe is more direct in his criti- music of the . It proved so popular cism of the few chōka in the Kokinshū whose de- that “everyone picked up on it, and as time passed generacy is marked by seven-five phrases. For and the new capital [i.e., Heian] was built, the no- example, in his comments on a chōka (KKS ble became very fond of the Chinese style in mu- #1003) by Mibu no Tadamine 壬生忠岑 (d. sic,” from their childhood becoming “accustomed 965?), Moribe cites the following lines: to the tuning of Etenraku,” and “easily lured by … haru wa kasumi ni / tanabikare such strange [poetic] modes as: natsu wa utsusemi / nakikurashi akagarifumu na / shiri naru ko aki wa shigure ni / sode o kashi ware mo me wa ari / saki naru ko fuyu wa shimo ni zo / semeraruru Don’t step on my chapped feet, child behind in spring [my spirits] are drawn thin as the me, mists, I have eyes too, child before me.” in summer I spend my days crying like the Thus, as he illustrates with this verse of cicada, kagura song, it was the introduction of new song in autumn I lend my sleeves to the passing styles that led to a change in poetic configurations, shower, that “beginning with the chanted poems and imayō and in winter I am assailed by the frost of the middle period [i.e., early Heian] … the He argues that while “these sound like cou- seven-five [mode] came to dominate, and so espe- plets (tsuiku), yet they place seven syllables ahead cially when it came to chōka, the configuration of five,” a practice foreign to the ancient age, was lost until there was no vestige of the ancient whose five-seven phrases “were both elegant in style.”85 tone and powerful (ikioi ari).”83 Moribe rejects Norinaga’s argument that, since “there are five-syllable lines with either four or six 85 From Kofū santai kō, in NKTB 9:512–513. The syllables, and seven-syllable lines with either six verse of kagura appears in Kagura, saibara, or eight syllables,” the seven-five mode is really Ryōjin hishō, Kanginshū, pp. 83–84. Hoida’s no different from a five-seven verse with extra (ji- speculation is apparently not beyond the realm of amari) or lacking (ji-tarazu) syllables. Moribe possibility. Eta Harich-Schneider has noted that cites examples of archaic verse with short lines, although “a survey of the development of kagura demonstrating that, even in those cases, the shorter up to the end of the Heian period is an almost 84 line precedes the longer one. impossible undertaking” because “of all musical An interesting parallel to Moribe’s views— forms, [it] is the least reliably documented,” yet possibly influenced by the same sources—is seen she points out that “in 782 the department of Tōsangaku [唐散楽] was abolished, and Chinese 82 Hisamatsu Sen’ichi, Jōdai Nihon bungaku no and other dances of a popular nature were kenkyū (Tokyo: Shibundō, 1928), p. 471. banished from the court programmes. In 83 Chōka senkaku, in TMZ 11:38–39; NKTB consequence they sank down to the semi-religious 9:267. rural kagura.” See her A History of Japanese 84 Chōka senkaku, in TMZ 11:50–51; NKTB Music (London: Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 9:278. Moribe is referring to Norinaga’s Kojikiden. 283. This attests to a pervasive influence of

19 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

The most forthright statement on this matter butomo thus presumes to have established the for- was made by Yoshika. Speaking of the older eign pedigree of seven-five versification, pointing anonymous verses of the Kokinshū, most of which out that “in ancient times there was not a single were composed during the ninth century, he notes verse which, like the iroha poem, begins with that “for the most part they adhered to the so- seven syllables and ends with five,” and argues called five-seven mode, and something remains of that even “such rustic verse as imayō (今様), the ancient effect.” By the time that anthology was which follow the same pattern as the Japanese compiled, however, “not only had all of the an- hymns,” in fact borrowed this pattern indirectly cient frameworks (kokaku) been lost, but the ar- from a foreign . He concludes that “such rangement had shifted to seven-five.” Such a con- versification did not arise naturally in our imperial figuration adversely affects “even the pattern (aya) realm.”89 Though Nobutomo does not employ the of words in chōka,” obfuscating “mutual accord term kaku, he is in fact addressing the same thing (shōō 照応) between beginning and end.” In such here, and implying that the loss of ancient frame- poems, “things are just recounted in seven-five works was the result of alien influences. mode, purporting to be verse but having little to distinguish from prose … one tires of hearing it, IV. The Legacy of Chōka Poetics and Nativist and it grates on the ears.”86 Throughout his trea- Philology in Meiji Japan tise, Yoshika implies that the shift to seven-five The growing preoccupation both with auditory accompanied—and even caused—the loss of such and rhythmic qualities of contemporary poetry and important chōka features as antithetical pairings, with the recovery of the putative primal purity of figurative meanings (tengi), and assertions (hanji). the sounds of archaic Japanese remained distinct These views also resonate in the works of pursuits through the first half of the nineteenth Moribe’s and Yoshika’s contemporary, Ban Nobu- century, but their most striking nexus is in the tomo 伴信友 (1773–1846). In his Kana no moto- chōka poetics of the period. If anything, this con- sue 仮名の本末 (published posthumously in nection became more apparent in the years follow- 1850), Nobutomo, accepting the belief that kana ing the , for though exposure to were invented by Kūkai who then “arranged [the the example of Western literature had opened up forty-seven sounds] into the iroha hymn (sanka new possibilities for the development of Japanese 讃歌),” notes that “the phrasing (kuchō) of this poetry, this was accompanied by a heightened na- hymn begins with seven syllables, alternates tionalistic longing to define what was quintessen- seven- and five-syllable lines, and ends with five tially Japanese, and objects of this quest included syllables,” which is “precisely the same versifica- also the acoustic qualities of the language. 87 It was the appearance in 1882 of a collection tion used in Japanese hymns (wasan 和讃).” of poems in the “new” (i.e., Westernized) style, Significantly, the versification of wasan was based Shintaishi shō 新体詩抄 (Selection of Poetry in on that of Sanskrit hymns (bonsan 梵讃), which the New Style), that led to a reopening of many of were widely used in Kūkai’s Shingon sect.88 No- the old debates about rhythm, sound, and prosody, with some of the old players and arguments recast Chinese melodies, and suggests a possible avenue in modern garb. Its compilers and contributors— for their influence on native versification. It is also Toyama Masakazu 外山正一 (1848–1900), of interest that the iroha poem, also in seven-five Yatabe Ryōkichi 矢田部良吉 (1851–1899), and mode, dates from the period in question. Inoue Tetsujirō 井上哲次郎 (1855–1944)— 86 Chōka tamagoto, 4v–5r. 87 experimented with various forms, both in their Ban Nobutomo, Kana no motosue, in Ban translations of Western verse and in their original Nobutomo zenshū, ed. Ichijima Kenkichi, vol. 3 compositions, but the seven-five mode predomi- (Tokyo: Kokusho Kankōkai, 1907), pp. 389, 392. 88 nated and indeed this became the favored scheme Nobutomo illustrates (pp. 432–433) the seven- for Meiji-period “new style” poetry generally, in- five versification of Sanskrit hymns with the “Four Wisdom Hymn” 四智梵讃 from the Mahāvairocana Sutra 大日経. 89 Ban Nobutomo, pp. 393–394.

20 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

cluding such influential collections as Shimazaki five-seven or seven-five mode, the former having Tōson’s 島崎藤村 (1872–1943) Wakana shū 若 been in common use “until the Nara period” with 菜集 (New Sprouts, 1897). the latter—which he obviously champions—being As Ibi Takashi has pointed out, a conscious- in vogue “after [737–806; r. 781– ness of chōka as a native precedent appears to 806] moved the capital to Heian [i.e. Kyoto],” and this shift “was only natural because the seven-five have been an important factor motivating the crea- 92 tion of Shintaishi shō and even of the devices it mode suited the [sensibilities of the] times.” employs.90 Ogino Yoshiyuki’s 荻野由之 (1861– Since the shift to seven-five mode had paral- leled the decline of chōka over the ninth century, 1924) commentary in his 1887 essay “Kogoto” 小 its advocacy in an essay purportedly endorsing 言 further cemented the conceptual link between “improvement” of that ancient genre may seem the “new style” of poetry and the traditional genre odd. His dismissal of the revival of chōka in the of chōka, sparking a debate which was in many eighteenth century is also at first glance puzzling, respects a recapitulation of literary skirmishes because his own poetic lineage at least nominally from the earlier half of the century. This was pre- included Mabuchi, whom he faults for “writing cipitated when Sasaki Hirotsuna 佐々木弘綱 chōka imitative of the old style.” Moreover, “just (1828–1891), a noted poet and scholar, published as all dogs start barking when one does, [Mabu- an essay in 1888 entitled “Chōka kairyōron” chi’s] disciples have turned from seven-five to (Treatise on the Improvement of Chōka). Though five-seven mode.”93 Also confusing is the fact that Hirotsuna does not specifically mention shintaishi Hirotsuna proposes imayō 今様—a Heian-period (“new style poetry”), his consciousness of it is song form consisting of four lines in seven-five evident as he argues that the history of chōka— mode that had likewise enjoyed a revival in the both its decline in the ninth century and its revival early modern period—as the ideal for a new style by nativists in the eighteenth—demonstrates the of poetry, claiming that it “produces a most ele- necessity of adaptation, and implies that ancient gant tone and deep feeling.”94 Hirotsuna’s ideas forms still have this capacity. Importantly for the are vigorously though not always intelligently present discussion, the debate centered largely on countered by Unagami Tanehira 海上胤平 “tuning.” (1829–1916), a nativist who was best known for Hirotsuna begins by defining “tuning (shir- his skill with the sword but who had also studied abe)” as “the setting in order of the voice [i.e., poetry under Kanō Morohira 加納諸平 (1806– sounds]”; moreover, “the tuning of the voice changes from country to country,” and even “the 1857). Tanehira, demonstrating a fundamental aspect of tuning (shirabe no sama) shifts with misunderstanding both of the history of chōka and each passing age.” 91 For Hirotsuna, successful of Hirotsuna’s arguments, maintains that “the five- “setting in order of the voice” appears to depend seven mode has remained unchanged from past to largely on the ordering of phrases according to present, and should be understood as the correct framework (seikaku 正格).” 95 Moreover, in an

90 argument redolent of Mabuchi’s notions of Ibi Takashi, “Kaigyōron: kinsei chōka to Meiji masurao-buri and taoyame-buri, Tanehira claims shintaishi no hazama,” Bungaku 3:2 (March/April that “five-seven is a bright (yang 陽) mode, while 2002), p. 108. Ibi notes that it is no coincidence seven-five is a dark (yin 陰) mode. Five-seven is that Ōkuma Bengyoku’s 大熊弁玉 (1818–1880) strong, while seven-five is weak.”96 collection of chōka, Yuramuro shū 由良牟呂集, The extent to which this anachronistic squab- had appeared only three years prior to Shintaishi ble had its roots in a previous era becomes obvi- shō. Bengyoku’s chōka were among the first to incorporate modern materials into that ancient form. 92 Unagami, Chōka kairyōron benbaku, pp. 14, 18. 91 Unagami Tanehira, Chōka kairyōron benbaku 93 Unagami, Chōka kairyōron benbaku, p. 20. (Tokyo: Gendōsha, 1889), p. 3. Tanehira quotes 94 Unagami, Chōka kairyōron benbaku, p. 48. Hirotsuna’s essay line-by-line, adding rebuttal and 95 Unagami, Chōka kairyōron benbaku, p. 19. commentary. 96 Unagami, Chōka kairyōron benbaku, p. 48.

21 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

ous upon examining the lineage of the respective same issues. ideas of its participants. Hirotsuna had studied The Chōka kairyōron debate could be dis- poetry under Inoue Fumio 井上文雄 (1800– missed as an aberrant and anachronistic afterclap 1871), an acknowledged leader in the Edo School of early modern controversies were it not for evi- of waka, one of whose founders and guiding lights dence that these ideas maintained partisan follow- had been Murata Harumi 村田春海 (1746–1811). ings for decades afterward. Ibi Takashi has de- Though not now usually numbered as a pioneer in scribed several works from late Meiji through the chōka revival, Harumi did advocate a return to early Shōwa that give evidence of a link between that form, maintaining that over the many centu- theories of “new style” poetry and chōka poetics, 100 ries “the unusual devices and interesting phrases” particularly in matters of phrasing (改行論). of tanka “have all been used up,” leaving it “diffi- One striking example of the currency well into the cult to say anything new ... Only in chōka is one twentieth century of nativist ideology as manifest able to turn a phrase that is unusual or novel, and in chōka poetics is seen in the publication in 1931 produce work that is not inferior to that of the an- of Murayama Morio’s 村山守雄 (1818–1890) cients.”97 Kamukaze no Ise no umi 神風之伊勢の海, a Now such a pronouncement from most nativ- work originally authored in 1880. Murayama, who ists would be a mere commonplace, but Harumi had served as a nativist scholar in the Tamaru 田 was an arch-heretic as far as that movement was 丸 han of prior to the Restoration, concerned, with his slighting of the Man’yōshū analyzed every chōka in the Kojiki and Man’yōshū and his assertion that “in both China and Japan, 98 according to eight categories of kaku obviously poetry is exactly the same thing.” More impor- inspired by those of Moribe, even using scansion tant is his contention that “people of the present symbols. His son, president of the Osaka Asahi age should focus their studies on the Kokinshū,”99 Newspaper Company, Murayama Ryōhei 村山龍 an anthology that received only very qualified en- 平 dorsement from nativists, that was frequently de- (1850–1933), published his father’s work in- nounced by them as too “feminine,” and—most cluding two collections—Roen chōkashū 露園長 importantly for the present discussion—that 歌集 and Meiji chōkashū 明治長歌集—to which marked a transition from five-seven to seven-five the elder Murayama’s scansion symbols are duti- mode, especially in the composition of chōka. fully applied. Nor is this merely a quaint revival of Hirotsuna’s arguments pick up these two nineteenth-century concepts of prosody; it links threads in his literary forebear’s thinking and res- poetics and Shinto cosmology, opening with the urrect them as a basis for a “new style” of modern pronouncement that “the way of waka is the way poetry. Tanehira’s views likewise look backward. of Emperor Jinmu,” thus identifying the art with His own training was under Morohira, whose fa- Japan’s legendary first emperor who was supposed ther Natsume Mikamaro 夏目甕麿 (1773–1822), to have reigned some 2,500 years ago. Murayama though a protégé of Norinaga, was an avid scholar posits the origin of the Way of Waka in the verse of the Man’yōshū and a passionate advocate of its Jinmu composed as he proceeded along the Inland style. The content of Hirotsuna’s and Tanehira’s Sea from Kyushu to conquer the land of Yamato: debate is thus what we might expect if Harumi and Kamukaze no / Ise no umi no / oishi ni / Mikamaro had confronted one another on the haimotōrou / shitadami no / ihaimotōri / uchiteshi yamamu Over the sea of Ise / where divine winds 97 From Utagatari, in NKT 8:164. blow— / like snails / that crawl / 98 For Harumi’s views on the Man’yōshū, see on great boulders, / shall we not creep about 101 Utagatari, in NKT 8:153–54. The quote on the enemy / and then strike them? Chinese and is found in Nishigorinoya zuihitsu, in Nihon zuihitsu taisei: dai ikki (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 1975– 100 Ibi Takashi, “Kaigyōron,” pp. 112–119. 1976), 5:327. 101 Murayama Morio, Kadō hongi Kamukaze no 99 From Utagatari, in NKT 8:154. Ise no umi (Hyōgo-ken Mikage-chō: Murayama

22 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

Murayama, who elsewhere claims that “the guistics and speculation about the phonetic quali- fundamental principles of the Way of Waka are to ties of the ancient language. To this mixture were be found in chōka rather than in tanka,”102 not added such essentialistic notions as theories of surprisingly sees the fountainhead of the art in a kotodama. That the enterprise of chōka poetics verse of the former rather than in Susano-o’s “Ya- became so inextricably tied to nativism and its kumo tatsu ...” verse of tanka, which is conven- accompanying intellectual baggage ultimately af- tionally given that honor. Like Moribe before him, fected the fate of that genre, including later at- Murayama also sees waka as “the basis from tempts to make it a model for Meiji poetry, for its which music sprang,” 103 and his scansion and nascent theory and prosody did not develop inde- analysis of early chōka proceeds from that as- pendently of those ideological foundations and sumption. thus did not survive them. It is nothing less than remarkable that attempts What social and cultural factors in early mod- to revive chōka as a native verse form worthy of ern Japan might have contributed to the growth of the modern world continually found themselves the phonocentrism that was the matrix of these either bogged down in outdated contentions or developments? Perhaps an awareness of the unable to strip the art of the mantle of divinity and sounds of other languages, occasioned by such the elusive quest for kotodama, though there was developments as the rise of Dutch studies (ran- no longer much consensus about what constituted gaku 蘭学) and the interest in vernacular Chinese that quality. While chōka poets continued to pur- seen as early as Ogyū Sorai’s 荻生徂徠 (1666– sue vague essentialisms, “new style” poets in- 1728) school, was one element that spurred such a creasingly ignored them and went their own way. concern among intellectuals and writers. The intel- The fortunes of chōka were thus unable to exceed lectual currents at play are many and varied, and those of nativist thought generally. the chōka revival and its attendant poetics together arguably form an important nexus among them. It Conclusion is an area that begs further thought and study. Though poets of all ages had demonstrated an awareness of auditory effects, theoretical interest in them was a relative latecomer in Japan. When it finally made its appearance in poetics in the early modern period, it tended to assume an ancillary role to specific genres and to certain intellectual currents and schools. Of particular importance for the present study, the most systematic theories of prosody were ar- ticulated for chōka. While various and often vague ideas about shirabe were set forth for waka gener- ally, the greater rhythmic possibilities inherent in chōka made it a more suitable object for the study of “frameworks.” The association of that genre with Japan’s most remote antiquity no doubt also made it ideologically attractive to some of the best minds of the period, which happened also to be engaged with emerging theories of historical lin-

Ryōhei, 1931), p. 3. Jinmu’s verse appears in Book Two, Chapter Fifty-two, of the Kojiki. 102 Murayama, Kadō hongi Kamukaze no Ise no umi, p. 16. 103 Murayama Morio, Kadō hongi Kamukaze no Ise no umi, p. 16.

23 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

Appendix I Categories of phrases described in Chōka kotoba no tamaginu (NKTB IX:27). Shigetoshi provides illustration rather than definition. 1. Single-phrase pairs (ikku-tsui 一句対). Okisoyama Mino no yama Mount Okiso, [of] the mountains of Minu [i.e., Mino] (MYS #3256)

2. Double-phrase pairing (niku-tsui 二句対) kunibara wa keburi tachitatsu over the expanse of land smoke rises and rises, unabara wa kamome tachitatsu over the expanse of water gulls rise and rise (MYS #2)

3. Four-phrase linked pairing (yonku rentsui 四句連対). toki naku zo yuki wa furikeru with no measure of time the snow was falling, hima naku zo ame wa furikeru without pause the rain was falling, sono yuki no tokinaki ga goto like the snow with no measure of time, sono ame no hima naki ga goto and like the rain without pause (MYS #25)

4. Six-phrase linked pairing (rokku rentsui 六句連対). sakashime o ari to kikashite hearing that there was a wise woman, kuwashime o ari to kikoshite hearing that there was a fair woman, sa-yobai ni aritatashi he set out to court her yobai ni ari-kayowase he made the trip to woo her— tachi ga o mo imada tokazute not yet untying the cord of his sword osui o mo imada tokazute not yet loosening his mantle (Kojiki 25:10-20)

5. Four-phrase extended pairing (yonku chōtsui 四句長対). obana chiru Shizuku no tai ni in the fields at Shizuku where pampas blossoms scatter, karigane mo samuku ki-nakinu geese, too, come with their chill cries— Niibari no Toba no ōmi mo and on Lake Toba in Niibari, akikaze ni shiranami tachinu white-crested waves form in the autumn wind. (MYS #1761)

24 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

6. Triple parallel pairing (sanpeitsui 三並対). hotsue wa ame o oeri its upper branches cover the heavens, nakatsue wa azuma o oeri its middle branches cover the eastern lands, shizue wa hina o oeri its lower branches cover the rural areas (Kojiki 133:35-40)

25 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

Appendix II Scansion Symbols Used in Chōka senkaku Types of Phrases Moribe describes thirteen types of phrases (ku) whose applications are unique to chōka. (TMZ XI:16-19; NKTB IX:247-249)

1. Refrain (jōku 畳句). A general term for reduplicated phrases. “The reduplication of the same words for tuning (shirabe) is called a refrain.” “Changing the words slightly [with each repeti- tion] … sounds especially elegant.”

2. Connected refrain (renjō 聯畳). A type of refrain that marks the end of a section. “… use of a refrain to mark the end of a section (shōdan 章段), and does not merely refer to there being many refrains.” asa haburu kaze koso yoseme morning-blowing winds push [the seaweed shore]

yū haburu nami koso kiyore on evening-surging waves [it] approaches (MYS #131)

3. Alternating refrain (kakujō 隔畳). “… refers to reduplication in alternating lines.” tsuyu koso wa ashita ni okite the dew falls in the morning

yube ni wa kiyu to ie [and] in the evening is said to vanish

kiri koso wa yūbe ni tachite the mists rise in the evening

ashita ni wa usu to ie [and] in the evening are said to clear (MYS #217)

4. Varying refrain (henjō 変畳). “… refers to a type [of refrain] that enlivens what follows (shimo o ikashi) through combination of what precedes (kami o awase), either by reduplicating a half line with a full line, or a full line with a line and a half.” [Example follows no. 11.]

5. Antithetical pair (tsuiku 対句). This “… refers to the combination of [two] different things to form a pair.” Moribe acknowledges that most people use this term to refer to what he calls the “refrain,” but he insists that the distinction is an important one.

26 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

amakumo mo i-yuki-habakari even the clouds of heaven are loath to move

tobu tori mo tobi mo noborazu even the birds on the wing do not fly up (MYS #322)

omou sora yasukaranaku ni [though] the sky I ponder gives me no peace

nageku sora yasukaranaku ni [though] the sky for which I sigh gives me no peace aonami ni nozomi wa taenu in the blue waves my hopes have vanished

shirakumo n namida wa tsukinu in the white clouds my tears are spent (MYS #1524)

6. Alternating pair (kakutsui 隔対). “… refers to pairings in alternate passages (shōku 章 句).”

7. Varying pair (hentsui 変対). “… refers to … pairing of five-syllable with seven-syllable lines.” [Example follows no. 9.]

8. Evoking/responding [pair] (shōō 招応). “… refers to a passage that, in order to evoke something remote (kano koto), first states something immediate (kono koto), leading thence to even greater mutual accord (ai-ōjiyuku).” ura nashi to hito koso mirame as having no bay people may see it as such

shio nashi to hito koso mirame as having no brine people may see it as such (MYS #131)

9. Call and echo (kankyō 喚響). “… refers to mutual reverberation between things in differ- ent lines, as if responding to an echoing voice.” moyuru hi o yuki mote kechi a blazing fire quenched by the snow

furu yuko o hi mote kechitsutsu the falling snow melted by the fire (MYS #322)

10. Beginning and end (shubi 首尾). “… refers to bringing to closure those things expressed

27 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

at the beginning, without aimlessness (itazura ni narazaru yō ni).” [Example follows no. 11.]

11. Tuned section (chōdan 調段). “… in ancient waka, a type where a verse is composed in two or three sections [dan, also “stanzas”], and phrases (ku) [are used to] create each of the sections, either at the beginning of the section, or by continuing with things that are not the same.” yoshi e ya shi ura wa nakedomo I don’t care though there be no bay

yoshi e ya shi shio wa nakedomo I don’t care though there be no brine

isanatori umibi o sashite … [toward the] seashore … (MYS #131)

12. Metaphor (hiyu 譬喩). Also “simile.” Moribe provides no definition.

Okinaga no ochi no kosuge Okinaga’s distant young sedge (MYS #3337)

13. Introductory phrase (joji 序辞). Ostensibly the same as jokotoba 序詞 or makurako- toba 枕詞, used to introduce a particular image. Again, Moribe provides no definition.

tamamo nasu [like] [is my love] (MYS #131)

Types of Effects Moribe describes four types of effects that are presumably unique to chōka (TMZ X:119-121; NKTB IX:250-251):

1. Ranging together of objects (renjitsu 連実). “… refers to the arraying of different types of real objects (jitsubutsu) within a single phrase.” haru no hi wa yama shi migahoshi on a spring day one desires to see the mountains

aki no yo wa kawa shi sayakeshi on an autumn night the streams are bright (MYS #327)

2. Brilliance (kōsai 光彩). “… refers to the type that, by adding words of admiration or

28 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

embellishment, expresses things beautifully (uruwashiku), majestically (ogosoka ni), and heroically (ooshiku).” [Example follows no. 3.]

3. Quantification (sūryō 数量). “… refers to that type which, using various words of quan- tification, expresses things vigorously and elegantly (tsuyoku miyabi ni).” futo shikitatete taka-shirasu Futaki no miyawa [its pillar] set firmly reigning loftily the Palace of Futaki

kawa chikami senoto zo kiyoki the river being close, sound of rapids is clear

yama chikami tori ga ne toyomu mountains being close, bird song resound (MYS #1054)

4. Localization (hōhen 方辺). “[This] is not always limited to types of location like ‘around the mountain’ or ‘at the seashore,’ … but includes all usages indicating up or down, left or right, vertical or horizontal, self or other (jita).” ame no shita yashima no uchi ni under heaven within the eight islands (MYS #1054)

29 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

Appendix III

Ametsuchi to From the time when

wakareshi toki yu heaven and earth were split apart— Introduction

kami-sabite as I gaze up

takaku tōtoki at the Plain of Heaven

Suruga naru in Suruga

Fuji no takane o Fuji’s lofty peak, Proposition ama no hara god-like,

furisake mireba tall and noble—

wataru hi no it hides the light

kage mo kakurai of the sun crossing the sky,

teru tsuki no and the moon’s glow

hikari mo miezu remains unseen;

shirakumo mo it blocks the course

i-yuki-habakari of sailing white clouds, Statement of Significance of Significance Statement

toki-jiku zo and snow falls on it

yuki wa furikeru without regard for season—

kataritsugi to each generation

iitsugi-yukamu let us tell of its fame— Assertion Assertion

Fuji no takane wa Fuji’s lofty peak!1

Conclusion

1 Chōka tamagoto, 21v-22r. Most texts give the reading “ametsuchi no” in the first line.

30 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

Appendix IV

Categories of phrases described in Chōka tamagoto (55r-76v).

1. Ordinary pairing (jōtsui 常対). This refers to “two parallel lines of five-seven syllables each of which there are countless examples in ancient verse.” One example given is from MYS #3 by Princess Nakatsu 中皇命 (d. 665): ashita ni wa torinadetamai in the morning he took out and caressed [his catalpa bow] yūbe ni wa iyosetateteshi and in the evening he had it brought and set up beside him

2. “Meaning” pairs (gitsui 義対). “Among ordinary pairings, there are also ‘meaning’ pairs,” which are bound by related meanings, as in MYS #29 by Hitomaro: harukusa no shigeku oitari it is thick with the grasses of spring, kasumi tachi haruhi no kireru the mits rise, dimming the spring sun

3. Opposing pairs (hantsui 反対). These “pair things that are opposite.” One example is from MYS #16 by Princess Nukada 額田王 (638-705): momiji o ba torite zo shinubu the scarlet leaves we gather and admire, aoki o ba okite zo nageku and the green ones, we leave with regret

4. Short pairings (tantsui 短対). “Short pairings create an antithesis between the two parts of a five-seven line, or between two and three syllables of a five-syllable phrase, or between [two parts] of a seven-syllable phrase.” These include what Shigetoshi called ikku-tsui, and in fact many of the same examples are given. These include lines from MYS #4030 by Ōtomo no Ya- kamochi 大伴家持 (717?-785): moto mo e mo both root and branch

and Hitomaro’s MYS #207 iwan sube sen sube shirani not knowing what to say or do

5. Extended pairings (chōtsui 長対). In general, Yoshika does not have high regard for long, com- plex antithetical arrangements. He writes that “most of the extended antitheses in the collection [i.e., the Man’yōshū] consist of four lines, but some are six or even eight lines long. The long ones are inept, however, and one rarely sees even six-line antitheses among the better ancient poems.” One example given is from Hitomaro’s MYS #207:

tamatasuki Unebi no yama ni naku tori no koe mo kikoezu inaudible even the calling of birds on Mount Unebi, curved like a jeweled cord, tamahoko no michi yuku hito mo hitori dani niteshi yukaneba

31 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

among all who passed on the road, straight as a jeweled spear, not one looked like her …

6. Structured pairs (soshikitsui 組織対). These reverse the order of phrases or images. Yoshika warns that these should be employed with caution, “because in recent ages people have been careless with these structured pairs, writing many inept compositions that contain lame or strange pairings.” One example is MYS #537 by Prince Aki 安貴王: aga tame ni imo mo koto naku for me, my beloved is happy imo ga tame ware mo koto naku and for her, I too am happy

7. Divided pairs (kakutsui 隔対). “Without regard for the length,” these “place one couplet in the middle, flanked by paired antitheses on either side.” One example given is the anonymous MYS #3833: omoiyamu waga mi hitotsu zo I alone am sick at heart chihayaburu kami ni mo na okise do not blame it on the august deities urabesue kame mo na yaki so neither seek divination by baking a tortoise shell koishiku ni itaki waga mi zo my affliction: longing for my beloved

8. Three-phrase sequences (senrentsui 三連対). “Three-phrase sequences occur when a surfeit of meaning cannot be expressed in usual pairings, and the surplus … naturally extends to a third phrase.” One example given is Yakamochi’s MYS #4184, which contains two three-phrase se- quences: the first with each phrase extending over two five-seven lines, and the second with single lines of five and seven: ama no hara furisakemireba teru tsuki mo michikakeshi yori gazing up over the vast plain of heaven, even the shining moon waxes and wanes— ashihiki no yama no konure mo haru sareba hana sakinioi even the treetops on the foot-dragging mountain, in spring are alive with the scent of blossoms, aki-zukeba tsuyu shimo oite kaze majiri momiji chirikeri … but in autumn are covered with dew and frost, their leaves scattering in the wind … kurenai no iro mo utsuroi even scarlet fades with time, nubatama no kurokami kawari even pitch-black hair will grey asa no emi yūbe kawarai and morning’s smile will change in the evening

32 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

The Early Modern Warrior: warlords and the practice of exchanging family members as guarantees of loyalty meant that this Three Explorations of young samurai’s life was not likely to be stable. Samurai Life Premature death and separation from one’s loved ones were in fact common experiences for many warriors. His own father was engaged in a string of campaigns against more powerful warlords Introduction who surrounded and threatened his territory. As a gesture of conciliation, Ieyasu’s father sent him, © Morgan Pitelka, Occidental at the age of five, as a hostage to a neighboring warlord. In transit, however, he was kidnapped College by yet another rival warlord, and two years into his life in that domain learned that his father had The following three essays focus on lesser- died. Later that year he was transferred to Sumpu known aspects of the early modern warrior ex- castle where he became a hostage of the Ima- perience: food, shopping, and travel. While each gawa until the age of eighteen. Young samurai essay is part of a larger scholarly project, the hostages such as Ieyasu were rarely treated as intention of the articles presented here is to serve prisoners. In fact, at Sumpu Ieyasu received a as an introduction to warrior life. This brief full education in the military and cultural prac- opening essay is designed to provide a context tices of the samurai; he learned to love the out- for understanding the rich history of the early doors and the practice of falconry in particular; modern warrior experience. It begins with a brief he was married at the age of fifteen to a relative sketch of one of the most famous warriors in of his captor; and he was sent on his first sortie Japanese history and the founder of the Toku- at the age of sixteen. But even when he seized gawa shogunate, (1543–1616). his independence as head of his natal family at It then reviews warrior demography and society, the age of 18, defeated an uprising at the age of warrior cultural practices, and the urban charac- twenty-two, and unified Mikawa and took the ter of the warrior experience, providing refer- name “Tokugawa” at the age of 24, his successes ences to secondary literature in English while 1 were related to the ongoing disruption of the old contextualizing the essays that follow. system of shogun-dominated warrior authority.2 Contrast these early, insecure experiences Sketch of a Warrior: with Ieyasu’s later life. In 1590 Ieyasu became Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616) ruler of the largest territory in all of Japan, the Tokugawa Ieyasu, one of the most famous eastern provinces formerly controlled by the warriors in Japanese history, was born into a so- ciety in the throes of civil war and into an elite 2 warrior family in difficult circumstances. His This brief outline of Tokugawa Ieyasu’s career father, ruler of the northern part of Mikawa Prov- is based on my ongoing research into his life and ince, was only sixteen and his mother only four- material culture, which uses his letters, extant teen. His talented grandfather, who had helped objects, and the many contemporaneous and establish the family name and built Okazaki Cas- slightly later documents to analyze his rise and tle, was assassinated before he reached the age of establishment of the . twenty five. The constant battles between rival Unfortunately, English-language resources on Ieyasu are few. Conrad Totman’s popular biography, Tokugawa Ieyasu: Shogun (San 1 I extend my gratitude to my collaborators Eric Francisco: Heian International Inc., 1983) is out Rath, Constantine Vaporis, and Laura Nenzi. I of print. A much older biography, A. L. Sadler’s also offer thanks to Matthew Stavros, Rachel The Maker of Modern Japan: The Life of Shogun Saunders, David Eason, Martha Chaiklin, Janice Tokugawa Ieyasu (London: G. Allen and Unwin, Katz, David Spafford, and Linda Pitelka. The Ltd., 1937) is still widely available but is entirely map is by Scott Flodin. unreliable.

33 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

Hōjō, and he set up his new headquarters in the could be displayed through the acquisition of antique paintings or powerful masks. But the methods of confrontation had changed. When Ieyasu died in 1616, he was surrounded by friends, family, and vassals, relatively secure in the knowledge that he had pacified the forces that wreaked havoc on the country for over a century. His successors would struggle to per- petuate this Pax Tokugawa, but Ieyasu’s part, at least, was done. Ieyasu began his life in volatility, and ended it in stability. As the essays in this issue illustrate, the Tokugawa stabilization of society would have profound consequences for all those with warrior status.

Warrior Demography and Society To begin the process of examining the ex- periences of early modern samurai more gener- ally, we must first ask how large the population of warriors was in premodern Japan. An exact answer is not possible because of the limitations of available primary sources, but broad demo- Map 1. Japan circa 1600, detail. graphic trends can be estimated. Samurai appear to have made up a small population of medieval village of Edo. Ten years later, he defeated at Japan, only 1.6 to 1.8%.4 Growth occurred in the Sekigahara a powerful but ultimately disjointed sixteenth century, when shifts in battle tactics assortment of warlords opposed to his preemi- and leadership resulted in much larger armies.5 nent national position and was rewarded in 1603 The warlord ’s invasion of with court appointment to the post of shogun, Kyushu, for example, involved more than allowing him to establish a new warrior govern- ment for Japan. In an act of confidence and to guarantee succession, he stepped down from the and his family’s hawking purposes has been well position of shogun in 1605 and passed it on to documented in Nesaki Mitsuo, Shōgun no taka- his accomplished son Hidetada. Ieyasu then gari (Dōseisha, 1999). spent his remaining years doting on his children 4 Historian William Wayne Farris estimates that and grandchildren and advising his son in Edo. in the early eighth century, Japan’s total From his retirement residence in Sumpu, where population was 5.8 to 6.4 million, with a warrior he had lived all those years before as a child hos- population that hovered around 110,000, or tage surrounded by a violent and insecure world, about 1.8% of the total. William Wayne Farris, he enjoyed not only stability, but also a range of Japan’s Medieval Population: Famine, Fertility, experiences long appreciated by warlords but and Warfare in a Transformative Age (Honolulu: that he now could pursue with vigor: regular University of Hawaii Press, 2006), 97. banqueting, hunting for sport, leisure travel, and 5 On changing tactics and growing armies: patronage of the Noh theater. Like the struggles Delmer Brown, “The Impact of Firearms on of his early career, participation in these activi- Japanese Warfare, 1543–98,” The Far Eastern ties was still a deeply political act: alliances Quarterly 7:3 (May, 1948). Also, parts of could be struck over tea, land could be confis- 3 Geoffrey Parker, The Military Revolution: cated in the name of hunting rights, and status Military Innovation and the Rise of the West, 1500–1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University 3 Ieyasu’s practice of setting aside land for his Press, 1988).

34 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

250,000 warriors.6 Although the national warrior tion for extraordinary service. 9 Rather, those population was never counted during the Toku- who were born into established warrior lineages gawa period, historians estimate that samurai and who engaged in some sort of public military made up around 5-10% of the total population, service maintained this distinct social status. In which rose to nearly 30 million in the late seven- the medieval period, warrior status was part of teenth century and then hovered at that level un- the Kyoto court’s system of ranks and hierarchy. til the nineteenth century.7 These numbers are Nagahara Keiji writes that “the status of samurai significant, as they indicate that during the me- was defined within the framework of the medie- dieval period warriors represented a truly tiny val state which had the Emperor and the nobles fraction of the overall population and in the at the head of its formal structure. The samurai, peaceful years of the Tokugawa period they in short, was a status which qualified one for came to occupy a slightly larger slice of the specified ranks within this state, and the princi- demographic pie. pal function of the bushi was to serve as a mili- Who made up this population of warriors, a tary arm of the state.”10 The warfare of the late group described variably as samurai (“those who fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, however, loos- serve”), bushi (warriors, or, literally read, “mili- ened status boundaries, and the need of warlords tary officers”), or buke (elite warriors)? Member- for larger armies created openings for those not ship in general was defined by both birth and from hereditary warrior families to gain access to occupation. 8 Commoners recruited as foot- the military profession. With the establishment soldiers (ashigaru) were not considered warriors of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603 and the de- unless they won special recognition and promo- feat of the Toyotomi in 1615, opportunities for social mobility between samurai and non- samurai status declined markedly as Japan en- tered into a long period of peace and relative 6 Mary Elizabeth Berry, Hideyoshi (Cambridge, stability. Samurai left the countryside and, pulled MA: The Council on East Asian Studies, from above and pushed from below, permanently Harvard University, 1982), 89. relocated to urban centers, where they performed 7 See, for example, Eiko Ikegami, The Taming of military service or worked in the growing do- the Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the mainal and shogunal bureaucracies. Likewise, Making of Modern Japan (Cambridge, MA: occasions for peasants to prove their martial valor and thereby gain entrance to samurai status Harvard University Press, 1995), 162; and Susan 11 B. Hanley, Everyday Things in Premodern Ja- largely disappeared. These changes hint at the pan: The Hidden Legacy of Material Culture (Berkeley: University of Press, 1997), 9 Little scholarship on ashigaru or lower-ranking 18. Hayami Akira, The Historical Demography warriors is available in English. In Japanese, see of Pre-Modern Japan (University of Tokyo Press, Sasama Yoshihiko, Kakyū bushi ashigaru no 2001), argues that the Japanese population grew seikatsu (Yūzankaku, 1991) and Takayanagi by approximately 1 percent per year in the sev- Kaneyoshi, Zusetsu Edo no kakyū bushi enteenth century, reaching 31 million by the time (Kashiwashobō, 1980). of the comprehensive survey in 1721. 10 Nagahara Keiji, “The Medieval Origins of the 8 Buddhist priests who fought in wars during the Eta-Hinin,” Journal of Japanese Studies 5:2 medieval period, for example, were not (Summer, 1979): 398. categorized as warriors. See Mikael S. 11 Michael P. Birt, “Samurai in Passage: The Adolphson, The Gates of Power: Monks, Transformation of the Sixteenth-Century Kanto,” Courtiers, and Warriors in Premodern Japan Journal of Japanese Studies 11:2 (Summer, (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000), 1985): 369–370; Mary Elizabeth Berry, “Public chapter 6; and The Teeth and Claws of the Peace and Private Attachment: The Goals and Buddha: Monastic Warriors and Sōhei in Conduct of Power in Early Modern Japan,” Japanese History (Honolulu: University of Journal of Japanese Studies 12:2 (Summer, Hawaii Press, 2007). 1986): 237–271; Philip Brown, Central Author-

35 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

profound ways in which warrior identity and Below the Tokugawa shogun were the feudal labor changed over the centuries. warlords (daimyō), defined as direct vassals of One of the defining characteristics of Toku- the shogun with domains assessed at 10,000 koku gawa society was its broad division into four or more. (Koku was a unit of rice equaling about legally-binding social categories. Warriors were 180 liters.) They ruled their fiefs with a fair de- at the top, followed by agriculturalists, who were gree of autonomy and in some cases enormous valued because they fed the nation. Next came wealth. Below warlords in stipend and land own- artisans, who didn’t produce resources but trans- ership were the direct retainers (hatamoto, some- formed them into goods for consumption. Mer- times called “bannermen”) of the shogun, with a chants, whose profiteering was believed to drain stipend of less than 10,000 koku and more than the vitality out of society, were located at the 500 koku. Next in rank and income were house- bottom. The ideological foundations of this men (goke’nin), a term that referred primarily to structure, borrowed from China’s social hierar- shogunal retainers during the Tokugawa period. chy that placed scholar-officials on the top rung, Below these were the lowest-ranking warriors, was more significant as theory than practice, but foot soldiers and clerks who, depending on the still provided the broad structure. Within these source, might not be considered samurai at all. categories, finer status gradations determined the Within the domains of the semi-independent feu- complexities of daily interactions. As Donald dal lords, ranking systems differed depending on Shively explains, “The Tokugawa authorities local tradition and the bureaucracy that had de- viewed society as consisting of dozens and doz- veloped over time. In general, however, samurai ens of status layers piled in hierarchal order. were ranked by hereditary service obligations Each individual was expected to play the type- and their associated stipends.14 These two vari- role assigned by birth and occupation; his behav- ables—duty and economic means—resulted in ior and consumption should be according to his enormous disparities in lifestyle, as we will see level.”12 Because social interactions were based in the essays that follow, among those holding on discrimination, status was used “to regulate samurai status. daily life to its basic details in Tokugawa Japan: Even the most powerful of warriors, those social position, domicile, clothing, travel, hous- who ruled their own semi-independent domains, ing, food, marriage, social interactions, occupa- were categorized and ranked in this society of tion, expenditures, consumption, rituals, the em- distinctions. Warlords were broadly divided into ployment of others, and various privileges, such three groups: Family Lords, or those who were as possessing a surname or wearing swords.”13 related to the Tokugawa (shimpan daimyō); Inner For warriors, subdivisions of status were in Lords, or those whose ancestors had been vassals part a result of gradations in rank. The top posi- of Tokugawa Ieyasu (fudai daimyō); and Outer tion in warrior society was the lord at the summit Lords, or those whose ancestors had not been of the pyramid of feudal bonds of vassalage. In vassals of Ieyasu before the early modern Japan, this position was occupied in 1600 (tozama daimyō). Those in the first and by the Tokugawa shoguns, fifteen of whom ruled second group were given the greatest responsi- Japan before the collapse of this system in 1868. bilities in the shogunal bureaucracy and ruled the most strategically valuable domains in the archi- ity and Local Autonomy in the Formation of pelago, while those in the latter group tended to Early Modern Japan: the Case of be scattered to the more distant regions of Japan, (Stanford: Press, 1993). where they were less likely to mount an assault 12 Donald H. Shively, “Sumptuary Regulation and Status in Early Tokugawa Japan,” Harvard 14 Harold Bolitho, “The Han,” in John Whitney Journal of Asiatic Studies 25 (1964–1965): 143. Hall, ed., Early Modern Japan, vol. 4 of The 13 Douglas R. Howland, “Samurai Status, Class, Cambridge (Cambridge: and Bureaucracy: A Historiographical Essay,” Cambridge University Press, 1991), contains a The Journal of Asian Studies 60:2 (May, 2001): useful summary of domainal politics and 360–361. hierarchies: 225–234.

36 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

on Edo.15 Other means of discriminating among sandals. From other schools there survive warriors were available. Warlords, for example, detailed regulations of seating in the lecture emphasized their genealogical connections (real room and the exact place at which swords or fictitious) to aristocratic families or famous were to be removed by people of different warriors of the past. In the medieval period in ranks—at the entrance, in a waiting room, or particular, they also held various court ranks at their actual seat in the lecture hall.18 through which they could compete with one an- other. Domains of different size produced differ- Maintaining the trappings of rank and status ent incomes, which informed perhaps the ulti- was expensive. Most warriors received stipends, mate display of warrior rank and status in the derived from land that they nominally ruled but Tokugawa period: warlords’ parades to Edo from in fact rarely visited. Over time, however, these their home domains.16 Also important were their stipends became less and less valuable in relative ceremonial seating and rituals within the con- terms. Here we need to make what David Howell fines of .17 calls a distinction between occupation and liveli- An interesting example of how distinctions hood, between hereditary rank with its immuta- of rank influenced the structures of daily life can ble stipend and temporary rank or work with a be seen in the following description of education salary that could not be passed down to one’s during the Tokugawa period: heir.19 Warriors often took short-term domainal positions that earned them additional pay, or took At one school, that run by the government of on artisanal work in the home such as craft pro- the Kaga fief, for instance, it was laid down duction to supplement official wages. But war- that members from the highest families rior status did not inure one to poverty or even should come to the school accompanied by downward mobility. As Howell notes, only two retainers, one additional servant to “[Y]ounger sons of low-ranking samurai who look after the student's sandals during were neither adopted into other households as lectures, and one umbrella-holder on rainy the heir nor given service appointment of their days. The next rank could have one retainer, own dropped out of samurai status entirely.” a sandal-minder and an umbrella-holder. The More famously, in the second half of the Toku- next, one retainer and a sandal-minder, but gawa period, inflation, famine, and an unsustain- they should carry their own umbrellas. able economic system combined to force most Younger sons and those of the lowest rank domainal lords into debt, with many mid- and should come without servants; the school low-ranking warriors becoming regular visitors would provide someone to look after their to moneylenders.20 In such hard economic times merchants and artisans with the means and con- 15 See Albert Craig’s discussion of one particularly important tozama house, the Mōri, in 18 R. P. Dore, “Talent and the Social Order in “Chōshū and the Tokugawa Polity,” the first Tokugawa Japan,” Past and Present 21 (April, chapter of his Chōshū in the Meiji Restoration 1962): 62. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 19 David Howell, Geographies of Identity in 1961). Nineteenth-Century Japan (Berkeley: University 16 Constantine N. Vaporis, "To Edo and Back: of California Press, 2005), 25. Alternate Attendance and Japanese Culture in the 20 See, for example, Bolitho, “The Han,” 213– Early Modern Period," Journal of Japanese 225; Susan B. Hanley and Kozo Yamamura, Studies 23:1 (Winter, 1997): 25–67. Economic and Demographic Change in 17 William H. Coaldrake, “Edo Architecture and Preindustrial Japan, 1600–1868 (Princeton: Tokugawa Law.” Monumenta Nipponica 36:3 Princeton University Press, 1977); Aono Shunsui, (Autumn, 1981): 253–284; Kasaya Kazuhiko, Daimyō to ryōmin (Kyōikusha, 1983); Katsu “Bushi no mibun to kakushiki,” in Asao Naohiro, Kokichi, Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a ed., Mibun to kakushiki, v. 7 of Nihon no kinsei Tokugawa Samurai (Tucson: University of (Chūōkōronsha, 1992), 179–224. Arizona Press, 1991).

37 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

nections could purchase samurai status with its 1591) to organize and facilitate events large and rights and privileges, but sometimes without the small.24 onerous duties of service.21 During the Tokugawa period tea became such a vital social grace for those of warrior Warrior Cultural Practices status that entire tea schools arose catering solely Despite such economic constraints, from the to the samurai. Katagiri Sekishū (1605–1673), time of their first involvement in national politics, for example, was lord of the Koizumi domain in elite warriors in Japan had been serious patrons , near present-day Nara. He and students of calligraphy, poetry, and music, oversaw a major expansion of Chion’in Temple cultural practices of the Kyoto court, as well as in Kyoto in the 1630s, and while living in the the forms of cultural production associated with city devoted himself to studying and practicing esoteric and popular Buddhism and Shintō. In tea. In 1665, Sekishū was appointed tea master to the late medieval period, elite warriors also em- the Tokugawa shogunate, and thereafter regularly braced various cultural practices that the histo- served tea to Shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna and the rian Paul Varley has called “situational” (yoriai) elite warriors who attended him, as well as to a arts, “which brought people together to engage range of domainal lords resident in the capital. socially or collectively in both the creation and Many warriors studied tea with Sekishū before the appreciation of art.”22 In the ritual prepara- he died in 1673, and his school of tea practice tion of tea, for example (often referred to as “the spread among the samurai and some commoners, tea ceremony” in English), a warrior host invited until by the nineteenth century, more than fifty a group of guests to visit a special room or hut branches of the Sekishū lineage of tea could be designed in a rustic fashion, often surrounded by found in Japan.25 The lowest ranking of warriors a carefully designed and maintained garden. The probably did not have the means or the opportu- host arranged art for the guests to admire and nity to study tea, which could be expensive, but served them two or more courses of tea as well it was at the very least part of the aspiration of as a simple meal, all according to prescribed most warriors in early modern Japan.26 rules of etiquette and using choreographed and rehearsed movements. Some medieval warrior 24 On Imai Sōkyū, see Andrew M. Watsky, leaders, such as Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa, “Commerce, Politics, and Tea: The Career of loved versions of these tea gatherings described Imai Sōkyū,” and on Rikyū and his age, see Dale as “extravagant” (basara) in contemporaneous 23 Slusser, “The Transformation of Tea Practice in records. Later elite warriors came to enjoy a Sixteenth-Century Japan,” both in Morgan more muted version of the tea gathering, and Pitelka, ed., Japanese Tea Culture: Art, History, employed professional tea masters such as Imai and Practice (London and New York: Routledge, Sōkyū (1520–1593) and Sen no Rikyū (1522– 2003). 25 See Morgan Pitelka, Handmade Culture: Raku 21 Howell, Geographies, 57–58. Potters, Patrons, and Tea Practitioners in Japan 22 H. Paul Varley, “Cultural Life of the Warrior (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005), 63, Elite in the Fourteenth Century,” in Mass, The for more details. Origins of Japan’s Medieval World, 201. Eiko 26 The low-ranking warrior Morita Kyūemon Ikegami refers to these cultural practices as the served his domain, Tosa, as a potter. In 1678–79 “za arts,” which refers to “the fact that they were the domain sent him to several cities and performed collectively within a group of seated domains in Japan to study ceramic techniques (za) participants.” Eiko Ikegami, Bonds of and to take lessons in tea, which would improve Civility: Aesthetic Networks and the Political his ability to make tea wares for tea practitioner Origins of Japanese Culture (Cambridge: customers. This implies that previously he had Cambridge University Press, 2005), 76. no formal training in tea, though we do know 23 Donald Keene, Yoshimasa and the Silver that the domainal lord of Tosa, as well as other Pavilion (New York: Press, high-ranking warriors in , actively 2003), 145. studied tea. See Louise Allison Cort, “A Tosa

38 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

An even more fundamental social and cul- alternative, he drew his sword and swung tural practice than the study and practice of tea down at the boar, “killing it with one stroke,” ritual was the distinct food production and con- he wrote with great pride in his diary. This sumption of warriors. Eric Rath explores the was the closest [he] had ever come to using “dull” but symbolically powerful practice of elite the military skills he practiced regularly.27 samurai banquets in his article in this issue and illuminates the ways in which warrior diet and Hunting thus appealed to the warrior’s inter- cuisine acted as a means of creating distinctions est in battle and a desire to demonstrate (to him- between other social groups and among warriors. self and to his peers) mastery of certain weapons. These distinctions were heightened in the Toku- Perhaps a more subtle form of hunting that gawa period when new sumptuary laws sepa- inspired zealous devotion was falconry, which rated peasant, commoner, and samurai lifestyles Tokugawa Ieyasu pursued with particular inten- through the regulation of architecture, dress, and sity. Originally the preserve of aristocrats, early cuisine. Warriors and other elites were permitted medieval warriors gradually seized the rights and to eat polished white rice, the common staple of privileges of this practice for themselves. Over the Japanese diet today, while peasants were lim- the course of the sixteenth century the acquisi- ited to grains such as barley and millet. The tion of the proper birds, access to and control of complex shogunal banquet analyzed by Rath appropriate land, and the arrangement of special- here, on the other hand, represents a palpable ized training and care for the animals (by falcon expression of power and hierarchy. Rank and experts or taka yakunin) became closely inter- status were thus imbibed and embodied in the twined with the growing authority of warlords Tokugawa period, omnipresent dictates of iden- like Ieyasu, who once said of the practice: tity that determined even the source and form of nourishment. Falconry is not just for pleasure. It goes A serious passion of many warriors that re- without saying that you can go out to distant lated both to cuisine and to the arts of war was villages and sympathize with the suffering of hunting. Using bows, spears, and swords to hunt the common people and the conditions of lo- rabbit, deer, wild boar, and even raccoon-dog cal soldiers. Physical labor lets your limbs (tanuki), appears to have been common among become nimble. Rather than growing weary warriors in the medieval period, and continued as of the cold and the heat, illnesses and such a rare opportunity to demonstrate one’s battle naturally do not occur. prowess in the Tokugawa period. Luke Roberts notes the following story about a samurai official Even more vigorous is another passage at- in the Tosa domain: tributed to Ieyasu that had clear repercussions for his successors, who were, after all, military One day in 1745 he was out hunting with rather than civilian leaders: friends, lying in wait on a boar’s run. They had hired farmers as beaters who made a Do not see falconry as merely the practice of racket back in the hills to chase the animals catching as many birds as possible. In times into the ambush. A large boar came running. of peace when both low and high laze about, The samurai let loose the charges in their the limbs go slack and people naturally be- muskets, hitting it. The wounded and enraged come unable to rise up and fulfill their duties. boar charged; the hunters scattered to find If this happens, both low and high can exer- safety in the trees. [He] had no tree nearby, cise their bodies through activities such as and the boar came straight at him. Having no deer hunting and falconry. Toss aside your

Potter in Edo,” in Melinda Takeuchi, ed., The 27 Luke Roberts, “Mori Yoshiki: Samurai Artist as Professional in Japan (Stanford: Government Officer,” in Anne Walthall, ed., The Stanford University Press, 2004), for an Human Tradition in Modern Japan (Wilmington, introduction to Morita Kyūemon in English. DE: Scholarly Resources, 2001), 26.

39 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

palanquins and go on foot. Overcome the period, “[t]ransformed from landholding village mountain slope, ford the river’s current. En- notables into stipend-receiving urban consumers, gage in various forms of labor and make your the samurai generated, and depended upon, body strong. Through such activity, vassals dense market constellations.”30 have the opportunity to see the conditions of The most significant urban warrior popula- the strong and the weak on the outskirts [of tions were found in castle towns, which prolifer- the castle town]. Vassals will also exert ated in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centu- themselves, turning them into healthy walk- ries. These urban centers grew up around large ers and preparing them for any kind of ser- fortified structures and over time acquired in- vice. Therefore, falconry for the warlord is a creasing importance as bureaucratic and com- form of military strategizing and training.28 mercial centers. The concentration of warrior bureaucrats and their families created the need Like many of the cultural pursuits explored for licensed merchants and artisans, and as mar- in this issue, falconry was ultimately a means of kets grew and became more profitable, the popu- social and political control, as well as a demon- lation increased, particularly through immigra- stration of status. tion of peasants in search of new economic op- portunities. Some of these towns grew into cities Urban Warriors of significant size. Kanazawa and Nagoya, for The image of an armored samurai running or example, had populations of more than 100,000 riding a horse over a hill into battle is, of course, each, making them larger than contemporaneous a trope of modern American and Japanese cin- European cities such as Amsterdam, Madrid, ema, and therefore immediately comes to mind Milan, and Rome.31 These urban centers did not when we imagine the lives of premodern Japa- grow organically, however, but were carefully nese warriors. In the early modern period, how- planned and regulated by their warlord rulers ever, most Japanese of warrior status lived in with some input from commoner leaders. Indeed, urban centers for the majority of their lives, par- early on in particular, castle towns were centrally ticularly after their rapid urbanization of the late planned and administered. Over time, however, sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. 29 commoners and other urban dwellers came to Though warriors did travel through, work in, and have a greater say in the appearances of their on occasion fight in the countryside, they were streets and neighborhoods.32 In their general out- primarily castle-town or city dwellers, making them central to the development of Japan’s urban 30 Mary Elizabeth Berry, Information and Nation culture and modern infrastructure. Their concen- in the Early Modern Period (Honolulu: tration of samurai in towns and cities and their University of California Press, 2006), 28. frequent movement to and from Edo furthermore 31 McClain, “Castle Towns and Daimyo stimulated the economy and created a thriving Authority,” 268. national consumer culture. As Mary Elizabeth 32 See the many publications of James L. Berry notes about warriors during the Tokugawa McClain for more on this topic, including: Kanazawa: A Seventeenth-Century Japanese 28 Nesaki Mitsuo, Shōgun no takagari (Dōseisha, Castle Town (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), 36-37. In English, see Rachel Saunders, 1982); “Edobashi: Power, Space, and Popular “Pursuits of Power: Falconry in Culture in Edo,” in Edo and Paris: Urban Life Japan,” Orientations 36:2 (March 2005). and the State in the Early Modern Era, ed. James 29 James L. McClain explains that “Japanese L. McClain, John M. Merriman, and Ugawa urban growth during the years from 1580 to 1700 Kaoru (New York: Cornell University Press, constitutes one of the most extraordinary periods 1994); and “Space, Power, Wealth, and Status in of urbanization in world history” in his essay Seventeenth-Century Osaka,” in Osaka: The “Castle Towns and Daimyo Authority: Merchant’s Capital of Early Modern Japan, ed. Kanazawa in the Years 1583–1630,” Journal of James L. McClain and Wakita Osamu (New Japanese Studies 6:2 (Summer, 1980): 267. York: Cornell University Press, 1999).

40 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

line, castle towns spatially mapped social status. city became the playground of wealthy mer- High- and mid-ranking warriors and certain chants, serving a commoner clientele low in Buddhist institutions tended to be housed inside status but increasingly powerful in terms of eco- the major fortifications and close to the central nomic means. Over time, cities became the un- keep, while commoners were usually limited to disputed center for the production of early mod- space outside of the protected areas and sepa- ern popular culture such as bunraku puppetry rated by occupation, a system that amounted to a and kabuki theater, which often possessed kind of status-based zoning.33 themes and scripts that were witty and satirical Warriors also could be found in significant critiques of the warrior overlords. numbers in Japan’s largest cities: Kamakura and Constantine Vaporis explores the urban ex- Kyoto during the early medieval period; Osaka perience of a much lower-ranking and later war- and Kyoto in the late medieval period; and above rior in his essay on the consumer activities of a all Edo during the Tokugawa period because it samurai in Edo. “During periods of service to his was home to the shogun and the required alter- lord in Edo, who was in turn in attendance on the nate residence of every domainal lord and his Tokugawa shogun, the domainal samurai had retinue. Although Edo grew to be probably the ample spare time to take part in the money econ- largest city on the planet, with a population of omy of the Tokugawa capital by dining at restau- more than a million by the early eighteenth cen- rants, food stalls and drinking establishments; tury, in the early seventeenth century it was a searching for medications to treat bodily ail- more modest castle town situated strategically ments or simply to maintain health; going to between two rivers on the Musashino plateau. public baths; making pilgrimages to local shrines Chiyoda castle, the stronghold of the Tokugawa and temples, as well as attending festivals there; shogunate, was located at the center of the city, and, of course, shopping.” Vaporis explores the surrounded by moats and other fortifications and purchases of two retainers serving in Edo from with strategic points of entry occupied by the Hachinohe domain, particularly the souvenirs residences of Tokugawa branch families and and gifts bought for and on behalf of friends and warlord allies. Artisanal and merchant neighbor- family back home. We learn that “a variety of hoods soon grew up around the castle as well, teas and brown sugar, and tangerines (mikan)” primarily to serve the warrior populations that made good gifts because they resisted spoilage first settled the city. As originally conceived, this during the long trip back to the domain, while was a city built by, and for, the shogun and his specialty goods imported to Edo from other do- administration; city officials, for example, re- mains, such as “the Hida lacquerware (shunkei), ferred to Edo as “The Lord’s City” (gofunai) and Osaka tabi and archer’s arm protector from made numerous attempts to clearly demarcate Echizen,” were sought after as well. Rather than the borders and boundaries of what became a commerce-hating Confucianists, as is often as- kind of living organism.34 More and more of the sumed of early modern samurai, Vaporis reveals members of the warrior class of early modern Japan to have been “astute consumers.” 33 The case of Ichijōdani, the castle town The final essay by Laura Nenzi, is a fitting established by the lords of the Echizen domain, conclusion to this exploration of the early mod- is a good example. Ono Masatoshi, an ern samurai. She examines the travels of a young archaeologist who has worked on the excavation and well-off samurai to the cities of Nagasaki of the city and on mapping its original shape and and Yokohama in 1858, just years before the dimensions, provides maps and diagrams revolution that would bring about the demise of demonstrating the relationship between space the Tokugawa shogunate. Though he could not and status in the city in his Sengoku jōkamachi to have known it at the time, this young warrior’s kōkogaku (Kōdansha, 1997), 18–24. “encounter with the foreign” serves as a useful 34 Katō Takashi, “Governing Edo,” in James McClain, John M. Merriman, & Ugawa Kaoru, Early Modern Era (New York: Cornell eds., Edo & Paris: Urban Life & the State in the University Press, 1994), 43.

41 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

prefiguring of what would soon become the task of the nation: making sense of the powerfully attractive and at times completely repellent Euro- American peoples and cultures who within a decade would be deeply involved in Japan’s at- tempt to modernize. Initially repulsed by the for- eigners and European material culture he en- countered, he soon became an admirer of the West who felt confident that it could be met on its own terms. It is therefore with a melancholy sense of irony that Nenzi notes the circumstances of this young samurai’s demise in the wars that brought about the end of his age: “At the end of an era which had witnessed the taming and do- mestication of the samurai, this curious intellect and admirer of things foreign remained loyal to his lord and died the death of a warrior.”

The essays presented here merely skim the surface of the rich, textured histories of the lives of warriors in early modern Japan. They draw on materials explored in the growing Japanese lit- erature on “the history of daily life” (seikatsushi), a field that needs further exploration in English- language studies. These essays also demonstrate that additional study of the lived experiences of the samurai and other status groups of early modern Japan will help us to better understand the relationship between power and identity. Many questions remain to be asked and an- swered: How did early modern warriors of dif- ferent rank negotiate their hierarchical interac- tions and complex identities? What do changes in patterns of samurai material consumption re- veal about shifts in economic power and social norms? Pursuit of these issues will necessarily build on prior scholarship on institutions, intel- lectual traditions, and cultural practices by illus- trating how these structures influenced the daily lives of the samurai, and how the sometimes mundane realities of warriors, in turn, shaped the politics of early modern culture.

42 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

Banquets Against Boredom: ingredients and methods of cooking that signified “an imagined national identity and Towards Understanding cultural homogeneity” lacking in the early 4 (Samurai) Cuisine in Early modern period. From this standpoint, “cuisine” in early modern Japan can only be defined in Modern Japan negative terms by what was absent. Cwiertka, while recognizing a “differentiated gastronomy” © Eric C. Rath, University of Kansas1 in urban areas, nevertheless describes diet in the early modern period as “austere” and

monotonous—in other words boring—in contrast “The pleasures of the table belong to all to the variety of foods available in Japan today, a times and all ages, to every country and view echoed by other culinary historians.5 every day; they go hand in hand with all our But before we dismiss cuisine in early other pleasures, outlast them, and remain to modern Japan entirely it might be useful to think console us for their loss.” more about other meanings of the term besides —Jean-Antheleme Brillat-Savarin, 2 inextricably linking it with modernity. Another The Physiology of Taste approach to cuisine is to put aside references to

traits that would have been anachronistic for the

early modern period and look for other ways that Recent definitions of “Japanese cuisine” cooking and eating generated meanings. Even by designate it as a modern category and imply that Cwiertka’s definition it is not just cooking there was nothing similar in the early modern techniques and ingredients that designate a period (1600–1868), but is that necessarily the cuisine, it is also about the ability of foods to case? Certainly the words for Japanese cuisine evoke cultural meanings like national identity. (washoku, Nihon ryōri) are no older than the Examining the foodways of early modern Japan Meiji period (1868–1912), appearing during a to fully explore this definition of cuisine is time of rapid modernization as a response to new beyond the scope of this article, but sampling notions of national identity, political cohesion, even one meal exemplifying the banqueting and as a way to differentiate native cooking 3 customs of elite samurai suggests evidence of a practices from newly introduced foreign ones. sophisticated system of culinary rules used to According to culinary historian Katarzyna transform foods into “message bearing objects.”6 Cwiertka, what became “Japanese cuisine” grew Ordinary diet for samurai of all ranks from out of a fusion of native and imported shogun to footmen (ashigaru) was indeed boring in contrast to the modern Japanese diet as the 1 The author appreciates the comments provided second part of this article recounts, but banquets by Morgan Pitelka, Phil Brown and the allowed elite warriors such as daimyo and anonymous readers on an earlier draft of this shoguns to partake in a highly refined culinary manuscript called “The Sole of the Samurai: experience in which the symbolic meanings of Warrior Diet and Cuisine in Premodern Japan.” the dishes provided a rich subtext for the dining 2 Jean-Antheleme Brillat-Savarin, The Physiology of Taste, trans. by Anne Drayton 4 Katarzyna, J. Cwiertka, Modern Japanese (New York and London: Penguin Books, 1970), Cuisine: Food, Power and National Identity p. 13. (London: Reaktion Books, 2006), p. 12. 3 Words referencing regional cuisines, such as 5 Cwiertka, p. 95; see, for example, see Naomi- Kyō ryōri, the famous local cuisine of Kyoto, are chi Ishige, The History and Culture of Japanese also modern, coined to establish a contrast with Food (London, New York: Kegan Paul, 2001), p. the category of national cuisine in the same 113. period. Murai Yasuhiko, ed., Kyō ryōri no 6 Sidney W. Mintz, Sweetness and Power: The rekishi, vol. 4 of Shiriizu shokubunka no hakken Place of Sugar in Modern History (New York: (Shibata shoten, 1979), p. v. Viking, 1985), p. 89.

43 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

experience. These dishes may not have events.8 referenced an imagined national identity but they did evoke other culinary meanings important to Iemitsu’s Visitation to the Shimazu their consumers. Following centuries-old customs, on the This was the case on the eighteenth day of eighteenth day of the fourth month of 1630, the the fourth month in 1630 when Shogun daimyo of , Shimazu Iehisa Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604–1651) visited the (1576–1638), hosted a visit by Shogun Iemitsu in mansion of the Shimazu daimyo house in Edo. the Satsuma mansion in Edo, entertaining him The style of eating, the foods served, and the with a tea ceremony, a banquet, noh theater, and manner of the visit itself resonated in wider music from the Ryūkyū Islands. The chef cultural traditions known for centuries among (hōchōnin) responsible for creating this banquet, elite warriors that gradually disseminated to Ishihara Sadomori (d. 1648), recorded the event other social groups in the Edo period through and a subsequent visit three days later by the published culinary books (ryōribon). The retired shogun (1579–1632) Shimazu offered a menu that not only contained in Record of the Shogunal Tea Ceremony and many rare delicacies and bespoke of great luxury Visitation (Osuki onari no ki).9 The menu for and high status, it also referenced Buddhism, both of these visits was almost identical and both five agent theory (gogyō), and Chinese legends; followed the custom of shogunal visitations it evoked connections to the Ashikaga shoguns (onari) that began in the and of the (1336–1573), and even crystallized in the Muromachi era when the demonstrated a degree of playfulness. This menu shogun formally visited his chief retainers and illustrates how cuisine can be defined without prominent Buddhist temples by invitation or reference to nationalism as sociologist Priscilla annually. Visitations in the Muromachi period Clark stated in the context of her research on lasted from the early afternoon around 2:30 PM early modern France: “cuisine is food and ended in the mid-morning the next day transcended, nature transformed in a social around 10:00 AM. They began with a meeting product, an aesthetic artifact, and linguistic between the host and guest in a private room creation, a cultural tradition.”7 Cuisine, in other decorated in the shinden style of the mansions of words, carries special artistic and cultural Heian-period aristocrats. The host greeted the meanings that differentiate it from mundane acts guest with a special drinking ceremony called of food creation and consumption. We can best the “three formal rounds of drinks” (shikisankon) understand how cuisine in early modern Japan described below. After that the host and the functioned in this way by interpreting the 1630 shogun exchanged gifts such as swords and banquet in reference to culinary manuscripts saddles. 10 Then the group retired to a larger (ryōrisho), created by and for the class of chefs “public” room (kaisho) for a banquet. Typically called hōchōnin responsible for creating these alcohol was served before the banquet for the types of banquets for samurai, along with shikisankon but not during it. However, further published culinary writings (ryōribon) written by rounds of drinking followed the meal along with hōchōnin and other authors. Doing so will allow the exchange of more presents such as swords, us to define cuisine in the early modern period provisionally as a repertoire of techniques to 8 For a more extensive discussion of cuisine in enable food to take on special meanings early modern Japan, see Eric C. Rath, Food and distinguished from ordinary acts of consumption Fantasy in Early Modern Japan (forthcoming). and significant to participants in important 9 The culinary customs of the Shimazu house are well documented by Ego Michiko, Daimyō no kurashi to shoku (Dōseisha, 2002); her description of Iemitsu’s 1630 visitation appears 7 Priscilla P. Clark, “Thoughts for Food I: French on pp. 10–15, with the menu itself on pp. 11–13. Cuisine and French Culture,” The French Review 10 Kumakura Isao, Nihon ryōri bunkashi: kaiseki 49.1 (1975): 32–41, p. 32. o chūshin ni (Kyoto: Jinbun shoin, 2002), p. 156.

44 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

imported artifacts, and robes. After a rest and Shōgan no hibo seaweed (nori)13 perhaps a bowl of tea, the shogun returned to the Snacks (osakana) main room to enjoy noh plays and other Tilefish (okitsudai) entertainments accompanied with even more Grilled mollusks eating and drinking. 11 Thus visitations were Salted dried mullet roe (karasumi) highly structured events providing the shogun a Sweets (okashi) chance to demonstrate his authority and giving Rice cake in a twisted shape (yorimizu) the daimyo the task of showing their fealty Persimmons served on a branch through their lavish entertainments. The personal Colored potato (irozuke imo) bond between hosts and guests would [Served with a] toothpick (yōji)14 presumably be strengthened by the visit. The retainer may have gained some cultural and The overall message of this tea menu was political capital but at the expense of hosting a luxury indicative of the elaborate style of costly event. “daimyo tea” not the restrained wabi style of the Tea ceremonies became more prominent adherents of Sen no Rikyū (1522–1591). Rikyū’s aspects of shogunal visitations in the Edo period tea meals can be characterized by their structure and Iemitsu’s visit to the Shimazu began in the of a single soup and three side dishes (ichijū morning with one featuring its own elaborate sansai), but in this case there were two trays with meal. 12 The meal accompanying the tea four side dishes (nijū yonsai) not including the ceremony consisted of two trays of food with pickles and another tray with grilled sweetfish on additional snacks to be passed around: it. 15 Rather than a single meal, Iemitsu’s tea menu can be thought of as a program of meals in Tea ceremony Menu (osukiya gokaiseki) three stages: the first three trays were served simultaneously as stage one while the additional [First Tray] soup (atsumono) and snacks (sakana) were Sea bream and bonito (yorigatsuo) flavored served later as an accompaniment to sake in the in sake (sakabite) [served with] kumquat second stage, later followed by the sweets served Soup of crane, burdock root, and preserved before the tea as a final stage. Another matsutake mushrooms (tsukematsutake) distinction of this menu was the predominance of Skylark (hibari) [cooked] in dark soy sauce meat dishes, which ran counter to trends in [Rice] Rikyū’s wabi style that tended toward vegetarian meals.16 The dishes served here were also grand Second Tray and included freshwater fish, seafood, and game Grey-headed lapwing (keri) grilled with salt, fowl as well as mullet roe (karasumi) considered Japanese pepper (sanshō), one of the three “superlative delicacies” in the and “small greens” (kona) Edo period.17 Fish-paste loaf (kamaboko) By modern standards the sweets (okashi) Pickles served to Iemitsu would not be particularly sweet compared to those available today since they did Additional Tray [ohikimono] not use much if any sugar, but they did hold Grilled sweet-fish Soup (oatsumono) of sea bream roe, squid, 13 Shōgan no hibo, written as shōkan no hiho mashed tofu flavored with yam and fish here, is a type of seaweed, probably served grilled as a snack. 14 Ego, pp. 11–12. 11 Satō Toyozō, “Shōgun no onari to cha no yu,” 15 Kumakura 2002, pp. 27, 29. in Buke chadō no keifu, ed. Bukeshi dankai 16 Harada 1989, p. 17. (Perikansha, 1983, pp. 156–77), p. 159. 17 Richard Hosking, A Dictionary of Japanese 12 Harada Nobuo, Edo no ryōrishi: ryōribon to Food: Ingredients and Culture (Rutland, Vt.: C. ryōri bunka (Chūō kōronsha, 1989), p. 6 E. Tuttle Co., 1996), p. 73.

45 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

other significance for the banquet participants. does not mention any dishes for sweet potato.20 Despite the Satsuma domain’s dominance of the Whatever its principle ingredient, the dyed sweet sugar trade with the Ryūkyū Islands since their prefigures similar five-colored dishes important invasion of those islands in 1609, here the sweets to the shikisankon later in the day. The rice cake served remained true to the original definition of served evoked shogunal largesse since it was one the Japanese word (kashi), meaning fruit. Sugary of the sweets presented by the shogun to daimyo, sweets, both hard and soft, became popular by bannermen (hatamoto), and other bakufu the end of the seventeenth century with the employees annually on the sixteenth day of the greater availability of domestic and imported sixth month in the kajō ceremony. Kajō was a sugar and the diffusion of confectionery tremendous demonstration of shogunal largesse techniques. It is tempting to hypothesize that the for in a typical year the shogun distributed colored potato was another dish that spoke of almost 21,000 sweets. In Hidetada’s lifetime the Satsuma’s trade with the Ryūkyūs. Sweet shogun himself personally supervised this task potatoes called “Satsuma potatos” (Satsuma imo), over the course of several days.21 By serving the originated in Central America or southern distinct rice cake, if the Shimazu were not subtly Mexico and arrived in Kyushu either from China repaying or reminding the shogun for past via the Ryūkyū Islands or from the Philippines generosity, they were at least evoking a special by the mid- to early seventeenth century. The culinary connection between the shogun and culinary book One Hundred Tricks with Sweet daimyo. Potatos (Imo hyakuchin, 1789) contains a recipe Of all the dishes served, pride of place at the for “dyed potatos” using sweet potato dyed in tea meal went to the crane soup, a particular lux- five different colors reflecting an alternate name ury especially prized by elite samurai. Said to for this sweet, “five colors” (goshiki).18 Here the live a thousand years—except when killed for a potato is probably not a Satsuma imo or even if it soup—crane became by the late sixteenth cen- was, it was probably not referred to by that name. tury a dish indispensable for the most formal The sweet potato’s close association with warrior banquets. In 1582 warlord Oda Nobu- Satsuma domain dates to a century later when naga (1534–1582) served crane soup to Toku- Dutch-learning scholar Aoki Kon’yō (1698– gawa Ieyasu (1542–1616) at a banquet, and in 1769) undertook trials of the sweet potato in 1587 Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537–1598) intro- 1735 at the bakufu’s orders and helped to duced crane to the imperial court. Soup appears popularize it in the Kantō area.19 “Imo” can refer to have been a typical way to serve crane, al- to a number of different tubers including taro though the blood was also mixed with sake as a (sato imo) and yam (yamanoimo). Since this is a cocktail on some occasions.22 Confucian scholar dessert, the imo here is probably a yam. Tales of Hayashi Razan (1583–1687) stated that drinking Cookery (Ryōri monogatari, 1643) the first the blood of a white crane was “said to increase published cookbook and a work closer historically to Iemitsu’s banquet than Hundred Tricks with Sweet Potatoes indicates that yams are good for sweets, while taro should be used 20 Ryōri monogatari, vol. 1 of Nihon ryōri hiden only for savory recipes like soups, simmered shūsei, ed. Issunsha (Kyoto: Dōhōsha, 1985), p. dishes (nimono), pickles, and fish and vegetable 31. salads (namasu and aemono). Tales of Cookery 21 For an overview of this ceremony, see Aoki Naomi, Zusetsu wagashi no konjaku (Tankōsha, 2000), pp. 143–47. By decision of the All Japan 18 Imo hyakuchin, in vol. 9 of Nihon ryōri hiden Confectionery Association (Zenkoku wagashi shūsei, ed. Issunsha (Kyoto: Dōhōsha, 1985), pp. kyōkai) in 1979, June 16 is now celebrated as 138–39. “sweet day” (kashi no hi), Nakayama Keiko, 19 Nishiyama Matsunosuke, et al., eds., Tabe- Wagashi monogatari (Asahi shinbunsha, 1993), mono no nihonshi sōkan (Shinjinbutsu ōraisha, p. 45. 1994), p. 154. 22 Ego, p. 38.

46 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

vitality.”23 In the same period as Razan, tea mas- shikisankon usually occurred in a private room ter Endō Genkan (n.d.) published Guide to Meals appropriately decorated for the occasion with for the Tea Ceremony (Cha no yu kondate shinan, armor and objects. Accompanying 1676), the first book on meals (kaiseki) for tea. the sake were snacks (sakana), traditionally This text contained a recipe for crane soup that konbu seaweed, dried chestnuts, and dried approximates the dish mentioned in Iemitsu’s abalone.27 These foods could not be eaten in the menu above except that it is even more lavish. form they were served, and they were instead Endō’s recipe called for “crane in a clear soup surreptitiously dropped into a kimono sleeve or [using the] sinews from the leg, burdock root, wrapped in paper if they were touched at all. The salted matsutake mushrooms, eggplant, shimeji shikisankon menu for Iemitsu offered a more mushrooms, and greens.” He noted that it was formal variation of these symbolic snacks in the important to include some leg meat from the form of the “five varieties of offerings” and it crane so that guests will know immediately that also included a few edible delicacies. they were eating crane soup and not some other bird.24 So important was crane to samurai ban- First Round queting customs that the bakufu enacted sumptu- Pheasant [served on a] tortoise shaped dish ary legislation that prohibited commoners from Rice cake soup (ozōni) serving crane and other game fowl at banquets.25 Chopsticks “Five varieties of offerings” (goshu) “The Three Formal Rounds of Drinks” Salt (oteshio) (Shikisankon) Shogunal visitations in the Muromachi Second Round period began with the “three formal rounds of Grilled salt-cured fish (shiobiki) drinks,” but this event came after the tea Grilled “hawk’s wing” [sea bream] (taka no ceremony in Iemitsu’s visit, following the ha sen) pattern set in the Tokugawa period.26 The three Dried Cod formal rounds of drinks was a toasting ceremony involving the host and the guest drinking sake Third Round from the same shallow cup (sakazuki). Both Dried salted mullet roe (karasumi) participants drained a cup of sake three times for Whole grilled young “winged” sea bass (Shin each of the three rounds of drinking for a total of hane sen) nine cups of sake—or more if the participants Dried rolled squid (makizurume) decided to continue drinking. This formal exchange of drinks between lord and vassal The menu here demonstrates playfulness in signified their personal bond, and the same its clever use of flight imagery on each of the ceremony was used for weddings. The three trays. In addition to the pheasant on the first tray, two of the fish served on the second 23 Hayashi Razan, “Hōchō shoroku,” in Nihon and third trays reference birds. One was a variety zuihitsu taisei, vol. 23, first series, ed. Nihon of sea bream said to resemble the wings of a zuihitsu taisei henshūbu (Yoshikawa kōbunkan, hawk and the other used the nickname “winged” 1976), p. 347. for young sea bass because of the misconception 24 that they could jump through the surface of the Endō Genkan, “Cha no yu kondate shinan,” in 28 vol. 11 of Nihon ryōri hiden shūsei, ed. Issunsha water. Traveling over water may have been a (Kyoto: Dōhōsha, 1985), pp. 29, 95. 25 Donald Shively, “Sumptuary Regulation and 27 Ogura Kumeo, Komatsuzaki Takeshi, Hatae Status in Early Tokugawa Japan,” Harvard Keiko, eds., Nihon ryōri gyōji, shikitari daijiten, Journal of Asiatic Studies 25 (1964–65), p. 135. vol. 2 (Purosatâ, 2003), p. 161. 26 The word shikisankon originated in the 28 Editors’ notation to Complete Manual of Muromachi period as did the rules for it, Cuisine for Our School (Tōryū setsuyō ryōri Kumakura 2002, p. 142. taizen, 1714), Shijō Takashima, Tōryū setsuyō

47 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

reference to Satsuma’s trade with the Ryūkyūs a connection reinforced by the Ryukyuan musi- cians who entertained the guests later in the day. yellow black And the rolled squid may have continued the white flight imagery as it was sometimes shaped into red green the form of butterflies, albeit that was a motif usually reserved for weddings: two butterflies Secret Writing on Carving and Cuisine indi- representing the couple’s future happiness to- cates, “These [piles] are placed inside tortoise- gether.29 shaped dishes. The pheasant is also placed inside The pheasant, rice cake soup (zōni), and a tortoise dish. The five [piles of] things go to the “five varieties of offerings” (goshu) were a set left of the rice cake soup and the diced fowl [i.e., for the first round of a shikisankon according to the pheasant] is to their right.”30 Here too the Secret Text on Carving and Cuisine (Ryōri kiri- ingredients for the kezurimono are left unstated kata hidensho, 1659), the first published treatise but these appear in an older text on warrior cus- on warrior banquet cuisine. That text indicates tom and banqueting ritual Ise Sadayori’s Sōgō that crane was once served cut into pieces and ōzoshi (ca. 1529). Sadayori, a specialist in war- served on decorative paper, but that the dish later rior traditions from a long family line of experts changed to pheasant served with one of its feet in that topic, states: protruding from a pile of its sliced meat. The Use conger eel (hamu, [hamo]) for the color sliced fowl accompanies “the five offerings,” white. Bonito is for the color red. which were also called “shaved foods” (kezuri- Black is made from dried sea cucumber. mono), indicating five piles of finely sliced Green is shark. Yellow is dried squid. meats each of a different color. Although the It is best to slice these finely. One ought to contents of the five piles of shaved foods are not alternate male and female forms. delineated in the menu for Iemitsu, Secret Writ- ing on Carving and Cuisine indicates that they The reference to “male” piles of meats as op- represent “tortoises from the island of the im- posed to “female” ones is evocative but cryptic. mortals” (hōrai no kame), signifying ten thou- Sadayori is clearer in this assertion that the kezu- sand years of happiness. The same text further rimono, which he also called the “islands of the describes how these five varieties of things immortals” (tekake), “represent Mount should be arranged on a plate into five piles ac- Sumeru.”31 Sumeru, the center point of the Bud- cording to their different colors: dhist cosmos, was a mountain said to be wider at the top than at its base. Here Mt. Sumeru is of- fered in five different forms, in male and female ryōri taizen, in vol. 3 of Nihon ryōri hiden shūsei, manifestations. This recalls customs of religious ed. Issunsha (Kyoto: Dōhōsha, 1985), p. 148. offerings such as the large piles of dyed rice 29 Nakamura Kōhei, Shinban nihon ryōri called shishiki and some wake served annually for the wakamiya festival at Kasuga Shrine in gogenshū (Asahiya shuppan, 2004), p. 640. 32 Paper butterflies were also affixed to bottles of Nara. Both the shishiki and the some wake are sake used at weddings for the same reason that these signified felicity, William Lindsey, Fertility and Pleasure: Ritual and Sexual Values 30 Ryōri kirikata hidensho, vol. 1 of Honkoku in Tokugawa Japan (Honolulu: University of Edo jidai ryōribon shūsei, ed. Edo Jidai Ryōri- Hawai’i Press, 2007), p. 83. Complete Manual of bon Kenkyūkai (Kyoto: Rinsen shoten, 1978), pp. Cuisine for Our School contains a recipe for 54–55. makizurume that calls for washing the squid, 31 Ise Sadayori, Sōgō ōzoshi, ed. Hanawa Hoki- tossing it in kudzu starch, rolling it up in a rice noichi, in Gunsho ruijū, vol. 22 (Zoku gunsho mat, boiling it, and then cutting it into pieces, ruijū kanseikai, 1959–60), p. 566. Shijō Takashima, Tōryū setsuyō ryōri taizen, p. 32 For a description of the food offerings at the 204. wakamiya festival see Iwai Hiromi and Niwa

48 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

approximately fifteen centimeters in height and [white / yellow] rice cake, taro, and daikon, served as a set in green, yellow, red, and white [black] dried sea cucumber intestine (iriko), aba- colors. The “four colors” (shishiki) are four piles lone on skewers, large flakes of dried [red] bo- of rice in solid colors whereas the some wake are nito (hiragatsuo), and green shoots (kukitachi)— piles of rice divided into four different colors. enough varied ingredients to suggest a five-color The kezurimono were miniature versions of these combination. 37 About a century later, another religious offerings, measuring 1.5–1.8 cm (5–6 member of the Ise family of experts on warrior bu) according to the culinary treatise Culinary protocol Sadatake (also called Teijō, 1717–1784), Text of the Yamanouchi House (Yamanouchi ry- writing in Teijō zakki, provides a different list of ōrisho) compiled in 1497.33 Though tiny, the ingredients for ozōni but confirms that these re- above descriptions indicate that the dishes were flect the five primary colors (goshiki).38 Zōni is a rich in symbolism evoking Shinto offerings, dish usually reserved for New Year’s in modern Buddhist cosmology, and Chinese folklore. Japan, but it was a typical snack (sakana) for The Shinto offerings at Kasuga shrine tradi- shikisankon since the Muromachi period.39 The tionally had four colors, but the addition of a Shimazu reserved zōni for the most formal occa- black dish for the kezurimono indicates a five- sions such as weddings and trips to the ancestral color combination (goshiki) an artistic motif temple (bōdaiji), so its presence here with the found in the curtains on noh stages and one im- five varieties of offerings and the pheasant dish portant to five agent theory, a connection that marked the solemnity of the event.40 expanded the meanings of the kezurimono and Not all the snacks carried such heavy sym- the dishes served with it even further. Each of the bolism. The dried mullet roe, also seen in the five colors represents one of the five agents. earlier tea menu, and the dried cod were ideal White stands for metal, black for water, green for accompaniments for drinking alcohol like mod- wood, red for fire, and yellow for earth. Besides ern finger foods (otsumami). these agents, each of the colors also represents a direction, a season, a taste, and an internal or- Iemitsu’s Banquet Menu gan.34 One plate of food thus signifies the exter- The banquet that followed the shikisankon nal and internal universe and everything within it. used a style of service that originated among the The five-color combination also connected warrior elite in the fourteenth century called the kezurimono with the other dishes on the tray. “main tray cuisine” (honzen ryōri). 41 Served There were five colors on the wings of a pheas- simultaneously with a main tray with its own ant according to Hayashi Razan, giving the bird dishes of food were an additional number of a decorative function.35 The dyed potato sweet trays with more dishes. Each tray, including the served in the earlier tea ceremony and the rice main one, had at least one soup (shiru, jū) and a cake soup also probably contained five colors.36 number of side dishes (sai), but rice and pickles The recipe for rice cake soup in Ryōri monoga- were usually only found on the main tray along tari calls for a stock made from miso or clear with the chopsticks. A typical formula for de- stock (dried bonito flakes, konbu and salt) and scribing the organization of trays and dishes at honzen banquets was “seven, five, three” (shichi Yūju, Shinsen: kami to hito no kyōen (Hōsei daigaku shuppankyoku, 2007), pp. 337–45. 37 Ryōri monogatari, p. 81. 33 Yamanouchi ryōrisho in vol. 18 of Nihon ryōri 38 Ise Sadatake, Teijō zakki in vol, 18 of Nihon hiden shūsei, ed. Issunsha (Kyoto: Dōhōsha, ryōri hiden shūsei, ed. Issunsha (Kyoto: Dōhōsha, 1985), p. 76. 1985), p. 300. 34 Ogura et al, 2003, vol. 2, p. 290. 39 Kumakura 2002, p. 157. 35 Hayashi Razan, Hōchō shoroku, p. 348. 40 Ego 2002, p. 141. 36 Modern recipes for zōni, though varied, usu- 41 Kumakura Isao, “Honzen ryōri,” in Kyō ryōri ally preserve this five color symbolism in their no rekishi, vol. 4 of Shiriizu shokubunka no hak- ingredients, Matsushita Sachiko, Iwai no sho- ken, ed. Murai Yasuhiko (Shibata shoten, 1979), kubunka (Tokyo bijutsu sensho, 1994), p. 96. p. 45.

49 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

go san). This indicated three trays each with a quet received fewer dishes befitting their rank. In soup, and seven, five, and three side dishes on this instance, the Shimazu’s own high-ranking them respectively. This was the format of the retainers (karō) in attendance received only five banquet for Iemitsu in 1630, and one that was dishes on the main tray:46 On the main tray for typical service for the shogun in the Edo pe- the shogun's meal there were seven items not riod.42 counting the chopsticks, salt, and yuzuke, stand- Three trays was a typical formulation for ing for the obligatory rice. shoguns, but the number of trays and the number of dishes on them varied for guests of other rank. Main tray Large banquets in the Muromachi period might Grilled salt-cured fish (shiobiki) have up to thirty-two side dishes, although some Octopus of these dishes, like a few described below, were Fish-paste cake (kamaboko) decorative and not meant to be consumed.43 In Chopsticks the Edo period, most samurai including daimyo Fish salad (aemaze) were, like commoners, limited by sumptuary Hot water over rice (yuzuke) legislation to just two trays of food at banquets, Pickles albeit daimyo that held their own provinces Fish flavored in sake (sakabite) (kunimochi) were allowed seven side dishes, but Fermented intestines of sea cucumber commoners and hatamoto could only have five (konowata) side dishes. 44 Samurai and commoners who Salt for flavoring (teshio) could afford extravagance were able to get around this rule by serving a third tray separately Looking at the contents of the tray, several of from the first two trays. Thereby they maintained the dishes recall warrior traditions dating to the the appearance of a simple two-tray banquet, Muromachi period if not earlier, perhaps as a even if only temporarily.45 reminder of the fact that the Shimazu house was A notation in the menu for Iemitsu states that one of the oldest warrior lineages, tracing its the three trays would bear seven, five, and three legacy in Kyushu back to the time of the first items respectively, but other guests at the ban- shogun, Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147–1199). According to one Edo-period author the rice dish 42 Maruyama Yasunari, “Kinsei ni okeru daimyo, here, yuzuke (hot water over rice), began with the shōmin no shoku seikatsu: Sono ryōri kondate o third Muromachi shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu chūshin to shite,” in Shoku seikatsu to shoku- (1358–1408). The powerful Muromachi shogun became drunk at a party, poured hot water on his motsushi, vol. 2 of Zenshū Nihon no shokubunka, 47 eds. Haga Noboru and Ishikawa Hiroko (Yūz- rice, and ate it, inspiring others to follow suit. ankaku, 1999), p. 175. The fish salad (aemaze) was another throwback 43 Ogura et al., vol. 2, p. 161. to the Muromachi period, a dish similar to a “raw 44 salad” (namasu), and was typically served on the Maruyama 1999, p. 186; Harada 1989, p. 7; 48 Shively 1964–65, p. 148. main tray at Muromachi banquets. One of the 45 In that case, the third was called an “additional earliest cooking treatises, Shijō School Text on tray” (hikite). The cookbook Threading Together Food Preparation (Shijōryū hōchōsho), dating to the Sages of Verse (Kasen no kumi ito) published 1489, indicated: “By custom, fish salad was in 1748 includes menus of two tray meals followed by a hikite bearing an additional soup and more side dishes than the first two trays combined. Since these trays have soups, the 46 Ego, p. 14. hikite was meant to be eaten at the banquet and 47 Ise, Teijō zakki, p. 260. was not a hikidemono, a tray of foods meant for 48 Sashimi gradually replaced namasu in Edo the guests to take home and eat later: Kasen no period banquets, and the latter was renamed su kumi ito in vol. 7 of Nihon ryōri hiden shūsei, ed. no mono, Ebara Kei, Edo ryōrishi ko: Nihon Issunsha (Kyoto: Dōhōsha, 1985), pp. 57–119. ryōri (sōsōski) (Kawade shobō, 1986), p. 63, 115.

50 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

always used in the middle of the main tray….”49 soybeans, and “sweet seaweed” (ama nori). 53 Namasu is a predecessor to sashimi: it combines This soup complements a second soup made slices of raw fish with vegetables and fruits like from swan. Besides the iriko, the rolled squid citron served with a vinegar-based dressing. and codfish harkened back to the shikisankon Aemaze is a similar but less complicated earlier in the day. The description “servings” of marinade of fish or seafood that used a sake- mollusks indicates that it was probably a based dressing.50 The directions for the cooked decorative dish not meant to be consumed like salad here are not specified and neither are the the hamori and funamori dishes on the third tray. contents of the fish paste cake made from The third tray continued the Muromachi- mashed fish and starch. One Edo-period period style of the banquet: commentator wrote that catfish was the only authentic fish for a fishcake, but he also Third Tray conceded that any fish would do. 51 Shijō Fowl served with its wings (hamori) Takashima (n. d.) who compiled Revised Carp soup Culinary Encyclopedia of Our School, a book Turbo (sazae) about creating ceremonial banquets for the [Spiny lobster] served in a boat shape samurai elite published in 1714, listed twenty (funamori) different fish and seafood combinations that “Cloud hermit” (unzen) soup could be used for making kamaboko.52 The second tray, consisting of two soups and Unzen (or unzenkan) was a Chinese dish five side dishes, contained another Muromachi- adopted in the Muromachi period, a gelatin made period dish, “gathered soup” (oshiru atsume). from grated yam, sugar, and scrambled egg, which was steamed to form a cloud shape when Second Tray floating in soup.54 The carp in the second soup Dried salted mullet roe (karasumi) was the favorite fish of the Muromachi period Jellyfish before sea bream surpassed it in popularity in the “Gathered soup” (oshiru atsume) Edo period, when it still had its fans. Carp, wrote Servings of mollusks (kaimori) Hayashi Razan, was both a delicacy (bibutsu) Rolled squid and an auspicious delicacy nicknamed a “gift to Dried codfish Confucius” since the Chinese scholar received Swan soup one when his son was born.55 However, two other dishes, which also date Oshiru atsume, more commonly known as to Muromachi-period culinary customs, were atsumejiru appeared on the menus of formal especially objects of attention. Fowl served with banquets for warriors in the early sixteenth its wings hamori style featured a duck or quail century when it was often used for the cooked with its feathered wings reattached and shikisankon, but the recipe itself might be older. positioned so that the bird looked like it might Typical ingredients included dried sea cucumber fly away. Spiny lobster in the shape of a boat intestines (iriko) used frequently in this meal for featured a large crustacean whose legs, feelers, Iemitsu, skewered abalone, wheat gluten, and body had been contorted to give the appear- ance of a sailing ship. Both dishes were served 49 Eric C. Rath, trans., Shijōryū hōchōsho, in with additional decorations made from paper and Traditional Japanese Arts and Culture: An flowers. Neither of these dishes was meant to be Illustrated Sourcebook, eds. Stephen Addis, eaten; instead they were spectacle pieces meant Gerald Groemer, and J. Thomas Rimer to show off the cook’s skills and added dignity to (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2006), p. the occasion. The equivalent of food sculptures, 188. 50 Matsushita, p. 98. 53 Nakamura, p. 33. 51 Ise, Teijō zakki, p. 264. 54 Nakamura, p. 96. 52 Shijō, Tōryū setsuyō ryōri taizen, p. 194. 55 Hayashi, pp. 343–44.

51 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

these dishes provided an important artistic di- cluding the shogun ate on a daily basis were not mension to the meal, crucial to the designation of far from what many commoners ate or from the a cuisine as distinct from ordinary foods and description of modern culinary historians who mundane ways of cooking and eating.56 call these meals dull and monotonous. A typical Iemitsu’s banquet ended with a desert course meal for commoners living in Edo consisted of of sweets: “Ice rice-cakes” (kōri mochi), miso soup and pickles with one side dish of tofu, tangerines, and persimmons on a branch.”57 Ice simmered vegetables, or perhaps a fish; and this rice-cakes are made in mid-winter by pounding was comparable to the meals for most samurai.62 non-glutinous rice in a mortar and then using a The monotony of these daily meals made the sieve to make a paste, which is then molded into dishes served at banquets all the more remark- cakes that are frozen before being cut and sun- able and memorable. dried for a month. The cakes need to be softened On the whole, the daily meals for samurai of with hot water to be eaten.58 The tangerines and high and low rank were rather plain. The shogun persimmons would have been sweeter. All three had his daily meals served on two trays, but in are traditional sweets like the ones in the terms of their basic structure, the shogun’s meals previous tea ceremony albeit other members at of rice, soup, boiled vegetables, and fish dishes the banquet were served the Iberian-inspired was otherwise comparable to what people in 59 sponge cake kasutera. Kasutera, the hard other classes ate.63 Some shoguns such as Ienari candy konpeitō, and the softer sugar candy (1773–1841) were noted for their extravagant aruheitō were becoming popular with some meals.64 According to one story, the first shogun members of elite society in this period.60 Four Ieyasu died after gorging himself on sea bream years earlier, when Iemitsu and his father tempura, even though he passed away several entertained Emperor Go’Mizuno’o (d. 1680) at a months after consuming this dish.65 Other sho- lavish series of meals at Nijō Castle in Kyoto gun like the last one, Yoshinobu (1837–1913), they served kasutera and aruheitō in a collection dined rather frugally as described in Record of of seven sweets presented as part of a banquet Inquiries into Bygone Days (Kyūji shimonroku), meal on the morning of the eighth day of the a transcript of interviews with former bakufu 61 ninth month. officials. 66 Yoshinobu disliked eating animals

Banquet Foods in Contrast to a Boring Diet Banqueting aside, the meals that samurai in- 62 Ishige, p. 113. For further information about the diet of commoners in the Edo period, see 56 For a discussion of these dishes, see Eric C. Susan Hanley, “Tokugawa Society: Material Cul- Rath, Food and Fantasy in Early Modern Japan ture, Standard of Living, and Life-Styles,” Cam- (forthcoming). bridge History of Japan, vol. 4, Early Modern 57 Ego, p. 13. Japan, ed. John W. Hall (Cambridge: Cambridge 58 Sanmi Sasaki, Chado, the Way of Tea: A University Press, 1991), pp. 660–705, especially Japanese Tea Master’s Almanac, trans. Shaun pp. 680–89. McCabe and Iwasaki Satoko (Boston: Tuttle, 63 Harada 1989, p. 7. 2002), pp. 612–13. 64 Harada Nobuo, Edo no shoku seikatsu 59 Ego, p. 14. (Iwanami shoten, 2003), p. 127. 60 In 1635, the confectioner Toraya began sup- 65 This dish was not the modern, batter-fried plying the imperial court with Iberian sweets version of tempura but another dish by the same including kasutera, karumera, and aruheitō; and name consisting of fish cooked in oil, garnished in the same period these were becoming local with leeks, and served in a broth. Hirano Masaki, specialties in Kyoto. Nakayama Keiko, Jiten: Hirano Masaki chō, Nihon ryōri tankyū zensho, wagashi no sekai (Iwanami shoten, 2006), p. 114. vol. 11 Shōyu, tenpura monogatari (Tōkyō 61 GoMizunooinsama nijōjō gyōkō onkondate, in shobōsha, 1979), pp. 182–87. vol. 2 of Ryōri taikan, ed. Hasegawa Seihō 66 See Berens, “Interview with a (Ryōri koten kenkyūkai, 1958), p. 18. Bakumatsu Official: A Translation from Kyūji

52 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

that had been hunted, so rabbit, pheasant, crane, fish particularly prawns, tuna, flatfish, false hali- and duck were off of his menu as were tempura but, and sea bream as well as river fish that in- and soymilk skin (yuba), two dishes popular with cluded eel, sweet-fish, striped mullet, and carp. townspeople. He avoided pungent foods such as In autumn, he ate more vegetable dishes. The onion, leek, and fermented soybeans (nattō), and daimyo consumed shellfish such as fan shells he disliked oysters, sardines, cockles (akagai) (tairagai) and Venus clams (hamaguri), but he and Pacific saury (sanma). What then did he ac- avoided foods beloved by commoners such as tually eat? For breakfast one spring (menus tempura, sushi, and grilled fish or vegetables changed according to the season), the shogun topped with sweet miso (dengaku)—dishes that was served two trays of food. The tray first had are synonymous with modern Japanese cuisine rice, miso soup with an egg in it, chilled tofu but may have been too plebian for the daimyo’s (sawasawa tōfu) flavored with flower petals taste. The daimyo of domain did not eat a (perhaps pickled cherry blossoms), and a gelatin large number of dishes, but his daily consump- made from agar agar (kanten), kamaboko mixed tion of eggs and fish indicates a rather luxurious with walnuts, finely cut strips of egg omelet diet.69 (kinshi tamago), konbu seaweed, and slices of Estimates of the daily caloric intake for the sea bream. The second tray presented a grilled daimyo of Sendai domain reveal a diet of ap- bluefin gurnard (hōbō), a small omelet of dry proximately 3,000 calories a day. This is compa- seasoned tofu wrapped in nori, gourd pickled in rable to the diets of modern Japanese, although sake lees, and daikon pickled in miso.67 These the daimyo may have had a lower intake of vi- are fancier versions of the foods commoners ate, tamin C and other essential nutrients. One lower and nothing comparable to the extravagant level samurai, Ozaki Junnosuke Sadamiki who dishes found in Iemitsu’s banquet described ear- lived in the 1860s and kept a scrupulous record lier. of his meals, consumed an estimated 1,868 calo- Daimyo ate more simply than the shogun, but ries at home but when he dined out he averaged their meals followed the same basic structure of 1,934 calories.70 This was only slightly higher rice, soup, pickles, and side dishes. For breakfast that the diet of commoners living in the same in the 1780s, the daimyo of Kumamoto domain period. Estimates of the caloric intake for com- ate rice with tea poured over it (chazuke), pickles, moners living in the Hida area of in 1874 pickled apricot, and a dish cooked in miso reveal 1,850 calories with similar deficiencies in (yakimiso). Lunch consisted of a soup and a side vitamin C, while commoners in the domain of dish. Dinner saw the return of the yakimiso dish Chōshū in 1840s had an estimated daily intake of and pickles to accompany rice.68 The research of 1,664 calories.71 Such estimates provide a lim- Miyakoshi Matsuko on the Date house, daimyo ited but telling view of the commonalities be- of Sendai domain (modern ), tween the diet of lower-level samurai and com- indicates the daimyo usually had two side dishes moners despite sumptuary legislation meant to to accompany rice and soup for breakfast but distinguish the two groups. little more than that for lunch and dinner. Vege- A few diaries provide concrete information table dishes usually made from daikon, burdock about the diet of lower-level samurai in the Edo root, Chinese yam (nagaimo), taro, sweet potato, period, and one of these is Record from a Par- and devil’s tongue root (kon’yaku) were served rot’s Cage (Ōmurō chūki) by Asahi Monzaemon for breakfast, and meat dishes particularly fish, (1674–1718).72 A samurai of the Tokugawa do- gamecock, duck, and chicken appeared more often for lunch and dinner. The daimyo ate eggs 69 Sakurai Jun’ya, “Kinsei daimyo yashiki ni frequently and year round. In winter, he ate more okeru shoku seikatsu,” Shigaku 56.4 (1987), pp. 89–90. shimonroku,” Monumenta Nipponica 55.3 70 Sakurai, pp. 91, 94. (2000), pp. 369–98, especially pp. 369–73. 71 Hanley, p. 687. 67 Harada 2003, pp. 126–27. 72 For an overview of this text and its author, see 68 Maruyama, p. 182. Luke Roberts, “A Transgressive Life: The Diary

53 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

main in (modern Aichi prefec- his diary indicates that he devoted most of his ture), Asahi was supposed to enjoy a hereditary time to drinking, eating, and reading about food stipend of 150 koku, but his actual income had in culinary books. On the twenty-sixth day of the been reduced to thirty-five koku as part of finan- six month of 1861, he wrote that he ate “break- cial retrenchment in his domain. After paying fast of soup, lunch of tofu, and dinner of the seven koku for living expenses, Asahi had only same.”75 Sekijō’s soup was a broth made from twenty-eight koku left. He augmented his income fish paste and egg. All three meals would have by tutoring and hand-copying texts. His diary, been accompanied by rice. Tofu was apparently which covers the years 1686–1717, describes his one of Sekijō’s favorite dishes, but he also ate a passion for eating, which one modern commen- lot of dried sardines, pickles, and rice doused tator has described as his reason for living.73 with tea (chazuke). He broke the monotony of On the twenty-seventh day of the tenth his meals at home by dining out or at a friend’s month of 1697, Asahi invited nine guests to din- house. On these occasions he recorded eating ner, serving them “codfish soup with water-drop sashimi, simmered dishes, and stews; he aug- wart (seri), simmered winter melon with grated mented his usual diet of sardines, tuna, and yam (tororo), grilled Spanish mackerel (sawara), freshwater clams (shijimi), with sea bream, and pickles.” For snacks to accompany drinks salmon, and cockles. While Sekijō rarely missed after the meal, he provided “simmered duck meat, the chance to have a drink with his meals, he sea cucumber marinated in vinegar, salt-cured only ate one egg a week. Whether he was dining fish entrails (shiokara), thick slices of simmered in or out, the vegetables he consumed were usu- burdock root, miso soup with duck gizzard sim- ally daikon, eggplant, green onion, and taro.76 mered in sake with blue-green freshwater nori Sekijō occasionally prepared his own meals, as (Suizenji nori), clams (hamaguri), pears, and on the seventeenth day of the fourth month of other things.”74 It would have been superfluous 1861 when he made “scattered sushi” (chirashi- for Asahi to mention rice in his record, as it zushi) by sprinkling chopped ginger shoots, egg, would have been the indispensable accompani- dried squid, shiitake mushrooms, red seaweed ment for any meal. Salt-cured fish intestines, nori (tosaka nori), Japanese butterbur (fuki), lo- especially those made from sea cucumber, would tus root, [green] nori, dried gourd, udo, bamboo also have been recognized as a delicacy in the shoot, and salmon over rice flavored with vine- seventeenth century as they remain today. gar.77 However, he never described the taste of Sekijō’s d i a r y (Sekijō nikki), the diary of his cooking or of the other meals he ate.78 This Ozaki Junnosuke Sadamiki, an artist who went speaks both to the monotony of his diet and to by the name Sekijō, presents information about the fact that he meant his diary as a personal re- the life of a samurai who lived two centuries af- cord not as a gourmet column. ter Asahi and had an even lower income. Sekijō The diet of lower-level samurai as seen from hailed from (in modern Sai- these two diaries differed from that of elite tama prefecture). He had some talent as a painter samurai in terms of ingredients, but the cooking and his diary, which spanned a period from the techniques employed for their meals were very sixth month of 1861 to the fourth month of 1862, similar. Grilled and simmered dishes appear to includes a few illustrations. Adopted into the be the most typical. Meticulous slicing was also Ozaki family, Sekijō saw his salary of 100 koku important in the preparation of sashimi and scat- reduced to the equivalent of 18 koku after writing tered sushi. Desserts such as fruits and sweets a complaint to the leadership of his domain in were not usually mentioned as part of the meal 1857. Sekijō continued in his official duties, but even for elite samurai, although they may have these did not occupy much of his time. Instead, 75 Harada 2003, pp. 97–109. of a Samurai,” Early Modern Japan 5.2 76 Sakurai, p. 91. (1995): 25–30. 77 Udo looks like celery, but it is much longer; 73 Ebara, pp. 146, 165. both the leaves and stalk are edible. 74 Ebara, p. 161. 78 Harada 2003, p. 112.

54 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

been consumed outside of regular mealtimes. should not lose sight of the diversity and com- The most profound distinctions between samurai plexity of early modern cuisine. In contrast to and other social groups as well as between the modern cuisine, the early modern version was diet of elite and lower-level samurai were appar- heterogeneous, but it had to be in order to reso- ent in the extravagant banquets described above. nate on so many different levels for its practitio- ners and consumers. Conclusion The chance to experience cuisine in its most exalted form in the early modern period was not an everyday experience, and it was limited to a handful of members of society; yet this elite cui- sine was influential in several ways on other sec- tors in society and on the development of Japa- nese cuisine in the modern period. Main tray cuisine (honzen ryōri), which began in traditions of shogunal visitations in the Muromachi period, came to be adapted by commoners in the Edo period who found a use for a version using two trays of dishes for meals at festival banquets, weddings, and in restaurants. The basic compo- nents of honzen dining—rice, soup, side dishes, and pickles—comprised the typical elements of most meals in Japan until after World War II.79 Commoners adopted the samurai custom of shi- kisankon, performing the drinking ceremony at weddings, and adapting it to other occasions such as when a client met a courtesan for the first time.80 Rice cake soup (ozōni) remains a staple of traditional New Year’s meals in Japan to this day, while the festival of kajō gave an excuse to commoners to eat sweets on the sixteenth day of the sixth month in the belief that doing so pre- vented disease.81 Finally, to return to the topic of cuisine raised at the beginning of this article, the evidence from the banquet for Tokugawa Iemitsu examined here helps us to recognize the complexity of dining in early modern Japan and how it could be as much a mental and artistic exercise as a sensory one. In that light, future research should examine how modern Japanese cuisine not only built upon ear- lier cooking techniques, but how it also drew upon older practices of signification found in early modern cuisine. Yet in the effort to isolate the elements that contributed to the national and regional cuisines in modern Japan, scholars

79 Kumakura 2002, pp. 168–70. 80 Lindsey, p. 94. 81 Nakayama 1993, p. 46.

55 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

Samurai and the World of Goods: vast majority, who were based in urban centers, could ill afford to be indifferent to money and the Diaries of the Toyama Family commerce. Largely divorced from the land and of Hachinohe incumbent upon the lord for their livelihood, usually disbursed in the form of stipends, samu- © Constantine N. Vaporis, University of rai were, willy-nilly, drawn into the commercial Maryland, Baltimore County economy. While the playful (gesaku) literature of the late Tokugawa period tended to portray them as unrefined “country samurai” (inaka samurai, Introduction i.e. samurai from the provincial castle towns) a Samurai are often depicted in popular repre- reading of personal diaries kept by samurai re- sentations as indifferent to—if not disdainful veals that, far from exhibiting a lack of concern of—monetary affairs, leading a life devoted to for monetary affairs, they were keenly price con- the study of the twin ways of scholastic, meaning scious, having no real alternative but to learn the largely Confucian, learning and martial arts. Fu- art of thrift. This was true of Edo-based samurai kuzawa Yukichi, reminiscing about his younger as well, despite the fact that unlike their cohorts days, would have us believe that they “were in the domain they were largely spared the ashamed of being seen handling money.” He forced paybacks, infamously dubbed “loans to maintained that “it was customary for samurai to the lord” (onkariage), that most domain govern- wrap their faces with hand-towels and go out ments resorted to by the beginning of the eight- after dark whenever they had an errand to do” in eenth century.3 order to avoid being seen engaging in commerce. While this characterization of engagement Always claiming to be an iconoclast, Fukuzawa with the commercial economy holds for most proudly stated, “I hated having a towel on my samurai, it was particularly true of the Edo-based face and have never worn one. I even used to go retainer. During periods of service to his lord in out on errands in broad daylight.”1 Edo, who was in turn in attendance on the Toku- Of course it is problematic to take Fuku- gawa shogun, the domainal samurai had ample zawa’s comments as representative of all samurai, spare time to take part in the commercial econ- or even those of his lowly economic status. In omy of the Tokugawa capital by dining at restau- fact we know that samurai had a much more rants, food stalls and drinking establishments; complicated relationship with money and the searching for medications to treat bodily ail- principles of commerce and trade. While some ments or simply to maintain health; going to might have felt on a certain level that arithmetic public baths; making pilgrimages to local shrines was the tool of the merchant, the lowest social and temples, as well as attending festivals there; estate in the Neo-Confucian scheme, Dazai and, of course, shopping. Shundai (1680–1747) was representative of a Alternate attendance, therefore, by definition, number of prominent intellectuals who did not created an instant class of consumers, separated see “trade and market economies as functionally from home and family. The domainal samurai, specific to the merchant class…” 2 Whatever like the commoner on pilgrimage, is well known public face some samurai may have put on, the to have bought souvenirs, or miyage, while on 4 duty in Edo for family and friends back home. 1 Fukuzawa Yukichi, The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa, trans. Eiichi Kiyooka (New 3 For Tosa, see Luke Roberts, Mercantilism in a York: Columbia University Press, 1966), p. 11. Japanese Domain: The Merchant Origins of 2 Tetsuo Najita, “History and Nature in Economic Nationalism in 18th-century Tosa Eighteenth-Century Tokugawa Thought,” in (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University John W. Hall, ed., Cambridge History of Japan, Press, 1998), pp. 92–95, 155–56, 171–73. vol. 4: Early Modern Japan (Cambridge, 4 See Constantine Nomikos Vaporis, Breaking England: Cambridge University Press, 1989), p. Barriers: Travel and the State in Early Modern 611. Japan (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Council on

56 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

This, however, only partially describes their ac- amusement and activities for relaxation—parts tivities as consumers. Some samurai of more of a consumer society that in Japan, as well as in substantial means used the opportunity of a year- Europe, is “nearly four hundred years old.”7 long tour of duty in Edo to collect material ob- jects of artistic and/or martial interest. Tosa re- The Toyama and their Diaries tainer Mori Masana, for example, purchased at The Toyama family had a history of service least twenty-one sword guards on his trip to, and to the lord in Edo. With the exception of the stay in, Edo. He was also an avid collector of art founder, the other seven generations completed of various types, including calligraphy, scrolls, at least one tour of duty there. Both Heima, who poem cards and woodblock prints.5 Others, like assumed the family headship in 1791, and his Tosa Confucian scholar Miyaji Umanosuke, took son, Tamuro, who succeeded him in 1825, made advantage of their presence in the largest city in multiple trips. The last three generation-heads the land to purchase a vast array of commodities maintained diaries, spanning more than a century, for household and personal use.6 from 1792–1919, and 109 volumes. The first and While a tour of duty in Edo could have a second of these, Heima (father) and Tamuro transformative effect on an individual’s career (son) both kept detailed diaries of their lives in and life, a samurai serving in Edo could also be- Hachinohe and Edo, designating different vol- come an integral part of a wider human network, umes for their experiences in each locale, even across which the material culture of Tokugawa though much of the contents of what they wrote Japan was dispersed throughout the country. Us- demonstrates the extent to which the two were ing personal diaries brushed by two retainers, intertwined. Their accounts over a period of six father and son, from Hachinohe domain, this years, from 1828–34, are particularly well article will analyze the Edo-based domainal re- documented and thus serve as the chronological tainer’s engagement with the commercial econ- focus of this essay. omy. Specifically, it will focus on the types of The locale in which the Toyama household commodities purchased, rather than the other originated, Hachinohe, was a small, branch do- types of activities mentioned above, and offer an main of Morioka, located in northern Japan, es- assessment of the meanings of these goods. In tablished in 1664. Its ruling family, the Nambu, doing so it will explore the hierarchy of values presided over a domain with an assessed total implicit in them for samurai and the larger soci- agricultural output of only 12,000 koku, just ety in which they lived. Furthermore, it will be 2,000 more than the minimum required. In the argued that consumption may be driven as much mid-eighteenth century the domain had a total by fashion as economic necessity, and that many population of roughly 71,352, which included of the commodities samurai purchased reflected 2,833 people (4%) belonging to the bushi status concerns with personal appearance, a taste for group.8 Hachinohe was also among the minority

East Asian Studies, 1994), pp. 205, 222–24; 7 Ann Bermingham, “Introduction. The Laura Nenzi, Excursions in Identity: Travel and consumption of culture; image, object, text,” in the Intersection of Place, Gender, and Status in Ann Bermingham and John Brewer, ed., Edo Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Consumption of Culture, 1600-1800: Image, Press, 2008), especially chapter six. Object, Text (London: Routledge, 1995), p. 6, 5 I first explored the shopping habits of domainal argues that “consumption is driven largely by samurai in "Edo e no tabi. Tosa hanshi Mori-ke fashion and not economic necessity.” The quote nikki nado ni miru sankin kōtai no sugata,” is from Bermingham, p. 3. Kōtsūshi kenkyū, vol. 34 (December 1994), pp. 8 Hachinohe shi hensan iinkai, ed., Hachinohe 52–67 and Constantine Vaporis, “To Edo and shishi tsūshi hen (Hachinohe: Hachinohe shi, Back. Alternate Attendance and Japanese Culture 1976), pp. 234–35. Figures for the first year of in the Early Modern Period,” Journal of Japa- Meiji (1869) indicate that there were 63,374 nese Studies 23, 1 (1997), pp. 44–46. commoners and 3,968 who were of former bushi 6 Vaporis, “To Edo and Back,” pp. 47–49. status.

57 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

of domains, roughly twenty per cent of the total, points of Edo and Hachinohe. More specifically, in which retainers continued to hold actual—in it included responsibilities such as oversight of contrast to fictive—fiefs. However, their ties to the transport between Edo and Hachinohe, the the commoners residing there were more circum- fixing of prices for domainal products in Edo as scribed in Heima and Tamuro’s time than was the well as the sale of these commodities to whole- case in the seventeenth century. sale merchants there. Their jobs might have In economic terms, the Toyama family was made them more knowledgeable about the Edo relatively well off. In the late-eighteenth century, market and more disciplined recorders of this when Heima had become househead, the family data than many other diarists, but there is little had a landed estate (chigyō chi) valued at 100 about their experience as consumers which koku. In Hachinohe only eighty-five of the 375 would mark them as exceptional for samurai of samurai in the daimyo’s retainer corps had hold- their status. As will be argued below, samurai ings of 100 koku or more. This put the Toyama in could gain knowledge of the Edo market quickly, the top quarter of the retainer corps—the upper through repeated service there, or for newcomers, ranks of Hachinohe’s samurai. As was typical, from those who had served before in the capital, their fief was dispersed, in two areas, the main as well as through guidebooks. Given their eco- one being located at a considerable distance from nomic means, the Toyomas certainly purchased the castle town. However, the family also pur- more than samurai of lesser means. However, in chased some farmland near the castle town, actu- terms of the types of commodities purchased and ally working a portion of it themselves while the practices by which they either made pur- tenant farmers tilled the rest.9 Househeads were chases for others in Hachinohe, or made requests appointed to positions befitting their status as of others stationed in Edo to purchase goods for upper samurai, most often to that of Inspector, them while back in Hachinohe, they were quite Magistrate of Shrines and Temples or City Mag- typical.10 istrate. Official duties, while important, did not con- The Toyama household consisted of Tamuro, sume Tamuro’s time in Edo, in part because most his father Heima, two grandparents, his wife, two jobs, those held in Edo as well as in the domain, brothers and two sisters and an equal number of were shared. During a three-month period in step-siblings born to his father’s second wife. 1828, for example, Tamuro worked forty-eight Tamuro himself only had one child, a daughter out of sixty-eight days.11 In other words, he had named Omasa. Though not part of the immediate roughly three days off for every ten worked; in household, Tamuro’s uncle, Ōta Kimanta, who actual terms this meant that he was off every also served in Edo multiple times, played an im- third or fourth day. In addition, on the days he portant part in the life of the Toyama family. was required to perform his official duties, work usually entailed one of three shifts—the early Life in Edo shift (hayaban), the second shift (atoban) and the The purpose of the Toyamas’ presence in Edo overnight shift (hayadomari)—which left him was to serve their lord, Nambu Nobumasa (1796- with ample time off. The early shift left most of 1842). Both father and son filled several differ- the day free for other activities, and on days ent positions at different times, including that of when he had the second shift he could go out Domain Products Manager (sanbutsu torishimari beforehand. It was also fairly easy for a retainer gakari), which entailed broad responsibility for to adjust his work schedule for convenience sake, domainal commodities moving between the two as when, for example, Tamuro found someone to

9 Information on the Toyama fief and household 10 See Vaporis, “Edo e no tabi” and Constantine comes from the explanatory preface in Miura N. Vaporis, Tour of Duty: Samurai, Military Tadashi, ed., Toyama ke nikki, vol. 1 (Aomori: Service in Edo and the Culture of Early Modern Aomori ken bunkazai hogo kyōkai), pp. 3–7. In Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1845 the family received an additional 25 koku 2008), chapters 5–6. cash supplement. 11 Toyama ke nikki, vol. 1, pp. 71–80.

58 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

take his overnight shift so that he could go to An early example of a guidebook aimed at samu- Asakusa to watch puppet theater. As a result of a rai in Edo, dating from 1689, ran only twelve flexible schedule and light work duties, over the folios in length but contained a wealth of infor- course of his nearly year-long tour of duty (336 mation, including city maps, locations of shrines days), Tamuro was able to go out on as many as and temples, and a list of alternate readings of 145 days. local place names; in terms of consumer activi- For leisure, Tamuro, had a variety of choices. ties, it also contained lists, with addresses, of Like the majority of Edo-bound retainers, though, doctors, dentists, internists and a wide range of most often he got together with friends infor- stores for books, cloth, armor, swords and other mally, to talk, drink tea or sake, and play games weapons.15 A more contemporary example of a like shogi or go. However, when he left the com- similar shopping guide is the Edo kaimono hitori pound his passion appears to have been the pup- annai, which dates from 1824.16 pet theater, which he attended eight times during Although Tamuro purchased commodities on a period of two months in 1828 at various loca- many occasions, most of the time he only wrote tions in the city, such as Kawarake, Shinbashi, in his diary that he was going shopping (chō- Sukiyabashi, Nishikubo and Akasaka.12 On days motsu e mairi or totonoe ni makari idashi). In off he often followed a routine: first a bath at the fact there are only nineteen instances during his public sento, then he had his hair dressed, fol- second tour of duty when he identified either the lowed by a night at the theater. On three occa- type or location of stores he frequented. While sions during this time he went to public festivals, this might not seem like a large number of occur- at Kumano, Konpira and Akiba shrines. At other rences, it is quite unusual, in my experience times he combined activities, shopping, for ex- reading diaries, for this type of information to be ample, on the way home from a day’s outing, as given at all. For example, Tamuro visited a pipe when he stopped by Shinjuku on his way back store named Fujita-ya once and a tailor named from Konpira shrine to buy an unlined kimono Kiyobei seven times, both at Shiba Shinmei; (hitoemono).13 used clothing stores in the Mita area, twice; Mat- suzakaya, a dry goods store and branch of Echi- Shopping goya, twice; and, Daimaru, another dry goods Retainers serving their lords in Edo are well store at , once. He also shopped at known to have bought souvenirs like woodblock unidentified stores in Hikage-chō four times, prints for friends and family at home, but this Akabane once, and took cloth to be dyed at a comprised only a portion of their commercial store in Kōjimachi.17 Based on this limited data, activities. Samurai like Tamuro were fully en- he appears to have carried out his shopping in gaged with the urban economy, and this engage- areas such as Shiba Shinmei, Hikage-chō and ment presumed a certain level of knowledge Mita, which were located fairly close by his do- about its dimension and particularities. It was dependent upon important information concern- Guides such as Edo kaimono hitori annai, pub- ing the city’s layout, especially the location of lished in 1824, informed consumers where to key recreational and shopping areas. This infor- shop. Sectional maps such as the Edo kiriezu mation could be gained first-hand through a prior helped them to navigate the city. On the devel- tour of duty, via word of mouth from others who opment of publishing in Edo, see Nishiyama Ma- had served previously in Edo, as well as through 14 tsunosuke, Edo Culture: Daily Life and Diver- guidebooks, maps and personal investigation. sions in Urban Japan, 1600–1868, trans. and ed. by Gerald Groemer (Honolulu: University of 12 Toyama ke nikki, vol. 1, pp. 71–80. Hawaii Press, 1997), pp. 64–69. 13 Toyama ke nikki, vol. 1, p. 75. 15 Ms. “Edo zuroku kōmoku” (Edo: Sagamiya 14 For a recent study of Edo’s printed culture, see Tahei, publisher, Genroku 2 (1689). Mary Elizabeth Berry, Japan in Print: Informa- 16 Edo kaimono hitori annai, 2 vols. Kyoto: tion and Nation in the Early Modern Period Nakagawa Yoshiyama, Bunsei 7 (1824). (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006). 17 Toyama ke nikki, vol. 1, pp. 71–80.

59 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

main’s residence at Azabu, the headquarters of the act of appropriating goods in the market Hachinohe in Edo.18 As these spots—particularly place, it was inevitably linked with the produc- Shiba Shinmei and Hikage-chō—were quite ac- tion of meanings.22 In this case the cloth was tive, bustling commercial areas, probably he did transformed by human labor into high-quality, not feel the need to go further away to Nihon- high-cost items which aptly reflected the key bashi or Asakusa to find the same goods and ser- place that cloth and clothing occupied in the vices.19 Moreover, having served in Edo before, samurai household budget. Clothing in Toku- he was already familiar with these places and gawa times was far more precious than today. In therefore may have had less desire to travel to fact, it was a woman’s only personal source of more distant shopping areas. wealth, something which in theory even her hus- While Tamuro did purchase some goods and band could not dispose of freely.23 The under- procure some services for himself, much of his clothing purchased, on the other hand, consisted commercial activities were on behalf of other of a mix of new and used material, indicating a people and the goods purchased reflected diverse certain thriftiness. Secondly, we find a variety of consumer needs. In fact, even before setting out handicraft items for women’s use, such as the for Edo Tamuro’s father gave him a list of twenty small chest, mirror, hair comb box, umbrella and goods to purchase there, with a total price tag of cloth bags. Finally, there were also a number of over five ryō. This included: a wicker trunk (tsu- goods that we might classify as daily necessities, zura); a mirror; three bags of cotton yarn; 1,000 such as the tea, pipe, paper, cotton wadding and sheets of gray, recycled paper (kirigami nezumi); yarn. a small chest; a woman’s umbrella; tea; cotton The elder Heima tapped into his considerable padding for futon; a woman’s hair comb box store of knowledge about the commercial market (kushibako) of black lacquer; a woman’s pipe20; in Edo, acquired over the years of service, which a cloth pouch for tissues made of damask or included three tours of duty, to give Tamuro de- sarashina; white cotton cloth; 1,000 sheets of tailed instructions on where he might find the hankami, a thick, higher quality paper used for goods, what specifications they should have, wrapping or for documents such as letters; three particularly color, and what their approximate rolls of silk cloth (one crepe silk, the two others price should be.24 He made special note of where with a flower pattern); one roll of calico for his grandmother; a collar (juban eri) for his mother’s 22 T. H. Breen writes that “as soon as a consumer kimono; a second-hand unlined kimono; and, 21 acquired an object, he or she immediately material for an unlined kimono for his wife. produced an interpretation of that object, a story In this list of goods ordered by Heima, we that gave it special significance.” There were, in see a variety of goods. The majority of purchases other words, “aspects of a single cultural consisted of cloth, mainly for sewing kimono. process.” T. H. Breen, “The Meanings of Things: While this essay focuses largely on consumption, the consumer economy in the eighteenth century,” in John Brewer and Roy Porter, ed., 18 For a study of Hachinohe’s various residences Consumption and the World of Goods (London in Edo, see Miura Tadashi, “Hachinohe han no and New York: Routledge, 1993), p. 250. Of Edo yashiki to hanshu no kōyū,” Rekishi techo course the range of possible meanings attached 18, 3 (1990), pp. 4–13. to a commodity influenced its desirability. 19 For a contemporary description of the Shinmei 23 On clothing for women in the samurai status area, with its shops, small theaters, misemono group, see Kate Nakai’s translation of and other diversions, see Asakura Haruhiko, ed, Yamakawa Kikue’s memoirs, The Women of Edo hanjōki (Heibonsha, 1975), pp. 21–45. Mito Domain (Stanford: Stanford University 20 See Koizumi Hiroshi, Edo o horu (Kashiwa Press, 2001), particularly pp. 39–41. shobō, 1983), pp. 117–28, for a discussion of 24 Heima served in Edo in 1794, 1798 and 1800, pipe types, as found in Tokugawa-era holding various jobs including that of Guard for excavations. Edo castle and domain purchasing agent 21 Toyama ke nikki, vol. 1, pp. 19–21. (sanbutsu torishimari gakari).

60 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

something could be found for a better price, as contacts a range of commodities on a number of was the case with the small chest, which he in- occasions during his tour of duty, from 1829/6 formed Tamuro should be acquired at Kanaroku- until the following fourth month. In fact, he re- chō in the Nihonbashi area. From word of mouth ceived orders to purchase at least eighty goods or personal experience with comparison shop- from nine different people in Hachinohe, other ping, he came to form opinions about which than immediate family members. These included stores were reputable and sold products at rea- regular and great uncles, in-laws and two people sonable prices. For example, the material for with whom there was no apparent familial rela- Tamuro’s mother, Heima instructed, should not tionship. be purchased from Owari-ya, whose goods were The nature of the goods purchased for this not satisfactory, but rather from either Ebisu-ya circle of family and presumably friends can also or Daimaru. The padding, he noted, could be be analyzed by breaking them down into a num- bought second-hand, and because it would be ber of broad categories. As with Heima’s shop- bulky should be sent on the domain boat from ping list earlier, the largest category of commodi- Edo. ties sent from Edo to Hachinohe consisted of Tamuro in turn exhibited an unabashed con- cloth material and clothing, and most of it was cern for the price of commodities he was consid- for his family, primarily his mother. The majority ering purchasing. He routinely recorded the cost of the items were cloth rather than finished, of items he bought or was considering buying ready-to-wear kimono. In other words, materials (e.g. “Tea can be obtained at Yamamoto-ya for like unlined kimono cloth, linen for several types two shu”) as well as where various items could of kimono and more formal kamishimo wear, and be found more cheaply and on a number of occa- crepe silk were transported as rolls of cloth back sions he was able to save money by purchasing to Hachinohe, where they were sewn into fin- goods second-hand, including kimono. The fact ished clothing. Some light kimono and kimono that he noted this fact when he purchased cotton underlinings were also purchased second-hand; padding for futon bedding demonstrates his con- in this case usually a new collar was purchased cern with cost. and sometimes the sleeves were replaced with It is not surprising that Tamuro took avail of new material. This was an economical way to his time in Edo to make purchases for various build a wardrobe. Clothing was supplemented family members back in Hachinohe, which were with foot ware, including both tabi and geta. known as “goods sent down” (kudashimono). Clothing was accessorized with bags for tissue His younger sister, for example, sent him a shop- paper, tobacco pouches and umbrellas. Items for ping list, and money to pay for the goods, in personal make-up and hygiene included hair preparation for her wedding later that fall in chords, white powder (oshiroi), hair oil for men, 1828. Tamuro had to rearrange his work schedule, lipstick, camellia oil (for women’s hair) and a swapping shifts with someone else to leave the toothbrush. A number of other types of cloth domainal residence, but failed to record the items (cotton and silk) material, some in scrap form, that he purchased. 25 Tamuro’s cousin Tomoji were purchased for various uses, including stuff- also wrote to him requesting a number of items, ing for futon, to make furoshiki (wrapping cloth which included woodblock prints, cotton thread, used to transport goods) or possibly to repair white paper, gray recycled paper and tea.26 As a other clothing. Bags of cotton thread, to be used wedding gift for his cousin, Tamuro purchased a back in Hachinohe, as well as a number of ready- formal set of clothing (kamishimo) made of linen made wraps and hand-towels rounded out the and sent it by boat together with the items To- purchases in this general category of cloth and moji had ordered and some Yamamoto tea or- clothing. In terms of household items, there were dered by a woman only identified as Yasu. orders for two small chests, mirrors, sewing nee- Tamuro also purchased for a wider circle of dles, inexpensive tea bowls (100), brooms, five pieces of luggage (nimotsu) of an indeterminate 25 Toyama ke nikki, vol. 1, pp. 84–85. type, a woman’s pipe (for his wife) and writing 26 Toyama ke nikki, vol. 1, pp. 130–31. supplies. The latter consisted of brushes, ink and

61 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

multiple types of paper—a total of 2,000 of new snow on the ground, Heima noted in his sheets—including the recycled grey-colored pa- diary that Tamuro sent fifty-nine tangerines as per noted above. gifts—seven for each of two people and five Since Edo at this time was the main center each for nine different people. Likewise, when for publishing, it is not surprising that there were both he and Heima were back in Hachinohe, they also orders for a number of books, including lit- received over sixty tangerines, three other type erature, dictionaries (e.g., Bunsen jibiki) and of citrus fruit known as kyūnenbo and one citron, other reference works. Some of the books he from a total of seven people.29 acquired, such as the book of heraldry, Daibukan, Sugar was a highly valuable commodity in and works of literature (e.g., Edo sunago) were Tokugawa Japan—according to one source, in directly associated with Edo, the first of them the closing years of the period seven times as being a who’s who of elite members of the samu- expensive as rice30—and therefore it only made rai status group in the Tokugawa capital.27 All of infrequent appearances in Tamuro and Heima’s these books would have been valuable resources accounts. Largely an import item until the early back in Hachinohe, where the Toyama were one eighteenth century, when Shogun Yoshimune of thirty-eight samurai families who were mem- implemented policies for import substitution, bers of a book cooperative which pooled re- domestic sugar began being produced in a num- sources to purchase what in the early nineteenth ber of areas in western Japan, particularly in century amounted to 2,588 volumes in both northern Shikoku (Sanuki and Awa), but to some Japanese and Chinese. 28 Domainal retainers extent in the Kantō region south of Edo as posted to Edo thus served as an important con- well.31 Sugar was used not only for sweets but in duit through which books found in Edo could be a variety of cooking. Carried to Hachinohe from acquired for use in Hachinohe. Edo, it would have made a most welcome gift. Tamuro’s contacts ordered only a limited Unfortunately the quantities Heima and Tamuro amount of food—a variety of teas and brown purchased on these occasions often are not indi- sugar, and tangerines (mikan)—probably due to cated or are not very clear. As part of a large the problem of spoilage during transport. Tanger- year-end shipment of goods in 1830, Tamuro ines, however, were a popular gift at year’s end, sent “sugar packaged in four bags” and a round and could hold up during the two weeks it often container (magemono) of sugar. On yet another required for shipping to Hachinohe. In the mid- occasion he purchased a jar (kame) of sugar for a dle of the Twelfth month of 1828, with two feet

27 Toyama ke nikki, vol. 2, pp. 267, 287. Also, 29 Toyama ke nikki, vol. 1, p. 186. as befitting the samurai status to which those 30 Harada Nobuo, Edo no ryōri to shoku seikatsu ordering goods from Tamuro belonged, there (Shogakkan, 2004), pp. 102–03. were a few orders for short swords, various types 31 The areas mentioned produced white sugar. of standards (flags used by warriors for identifi- Brown sugar, originally only an import from cation), material for sword hilts, sword mount- Ryukyu, via Satsuma, was later produced in ings (koshirae) and one request to have a piece Tosa, Izumi, Suruga, Tōtōmi and Mikawa. Nihon of armor repaired. fūzokushi gakkai, ed., Zusetsu Edo jidai shoku 28 Kobayashi Fumio, “Buke no zōsho to shusho seikatsu jiten (Yūzankaku, 1989), pp. 163–64 katsudo—Hachinohe han shomotsu nakama no and Kitagawa Morisada, Kinsei fūzokushi shokai,” Rekishi hyōron 605 (2000), pp. 68–71. (Morisaka mankō), vol. 5 (Iwanami shoten, The members pooled their resources to purchase 2002), pp. 1125–26. The Toyama’s were most books, which were then available to all on a likely dealing with white sugar, which was used lending basis. The collection was housed in the in a variety of sweets, in tempura, and fish paste residence of a domain Senior Advisor (karō). (kamaboko), to cite a few examples. On Tosa’s The volumes formed the founding collection for attempts to begin a sugar industry in the late- what in Meiji times became the Hachinohe City eighteenth century, see Roberts, Mercantilism in Library. a Japanese Domain, pp. 189–93.

62 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

friend in Hachinohe.32 nohe. Several types of bushes (azalea, rose and Food and clothing are economic necessities laurel) were sent in barrels, sometimes together but the commodities the Toyama purchased were with the tree seedlings. In this, Tamuro was like to a large extent “non-essentials that made life Tosa retainer Shimamura Muemon, who in 1704 more pleasant, interesting, and comfortable.”33 brought back azaleas from Edo to Kochi azaleas. Cloth and clothing were available to the Toya- Some of these he gave or sold to a landed samu- mas in Hachinohe; the purchases made in Edo rai (gōshi) named Fukushima Yasaku, who culti- reflected a concern for price in some cases but vated them for profit.34 The plants that Tamuro also, to be sure, for selection and quality. Tanger- purchased all give evidence of the boom in gar- ines and sugar were not essential for human life dening experienced in Edo and elsewhere in the but rather commodities whose relative scarcity in early nineteenth century. Of course, Tamuro him- Hachinohe made them luxuries. self was caught up in this fad and gave plants he While sugar was still an unusual and expen- cultivated to relatives as well as to merchants sive commodity, and therefore not frequently with whom he did business.35 purchased in Edo by domainal retainers, a sur- When in Hachinohe, Tamuro in turn made prisingly large number of vegetable seeds and use of the human networks of friends and col- roots, as well as full plants, made their way north. leagues who were serving in Edo. In 1840 Eggplant, daikon radish, winter greens (fuyuna), (Tenpō 11/10/3), for example, he sent his own Chinese cabbage and celery were just a few of shopping list to Edo, requesting that the follow- the seeds bought in Edo for use in Hachinohe. A ing items be purchased for him36: large bag of Nerima daikon radish, in root form, was purchased as well. Given the largely agricul- *woman’s cloth bag for tissue paper tural nature of early modern Japan, and Hachi- *pipe and tobacco pouch nohe domain in particular, we can safely assume *cord for tobacco pouch that seeds for these vegetables were available *two tobacco pouches locally to the people who requested them, so *lipstick (beni) there had to be special reasons why they re- *material for a narrow obi (koshi obi) quested them from Edo. Perhaps they simply *metal-working tool (shirogana mono) wanted to try seeds from a different part of the country, although except for the daikon radish root, which is named after a locality in Edo, none This list included typical requests such as to- of the other items have any apparent specific bacco-related paraphernalia, make-up and cloth, geographic association. but also one unusual item, a tool for applying The same was true of the variety of plants, metal to armor. For purchasing these commodi- including trees (, pine, cherry and maple), ties, Tamuro, like his father, gave his colleague which Tamuro purchased for people in Hachi- 34 Shimamura had purchased these from the mer- 32 Toyama ke nikki, vol. 1, pp. 257–58. In Europe chant Kirishimaya Ihei. Hirotani Kijūrō, “Tosa during the late-sixteenth and seventeenth no sankin kōtai to jōhō denpa,” pp. 20–21. Ac- centuries sugar was the central ingredient in cording to Hirotani, by the mid-eighteenth cen- confections, created by a new profession of tury azaleas were grown across the country. To- sugarbaking, the consumption of which was a day, azaleas are the official flower of Kōchi city. mark of gentility. By the late-seventeenth Hirotani Kijūrō, “Engyōji no satsuki,” in his Kō- century “substantial amounts” of sugar were chi shi rekishi sanpo (Kōchi shi bunka shinkō regularly consumed at the middle levels of jigyōdan, 2003), pp. 160–61. society. Woodruff D. Smith, Consumption and 35Toyama ke nikki, vol. 1, p. 476; vol. 2, pp. 194, the Making of Respectability (London and New 257, 287. On gardening culture, see Iwasa York: Routledge, 2002), pp. 97–99. Katsuji, Bonsai bunka shi (Yasaka shobō, 1976). 33 Ann Bermingham, “Introduction. The 36 Toyama ke nikki, vol. 1, (Tenpō 11/10/3), p. consumption of culture; image, object, text,” p. 6. 546.

63 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

Tomabechi suggestions about where he could obtain some of them at a reasonable price and of Edo as National Commodity Center good-quality, thus demonstrating his knowledge Given the extent of these purchases that Ta- of the Edo market. If his friend could not find a muro made for people back in Hachinohe, and bag for tissue paper for five or six monme, for the trouble involved in seeking out, purchasing example, then, Tamuro said, he should look in and transporting them, it is important to consider Shiba Shinmei at Kiyobei’s store, where he could further why these commodities were bought in find one with thick material and an attractive the first place. Were those goods purchased in pattern. For good quality pipes, again, he rec- Edo not available or difficult to obtain in Hachi- ommended Shiba Shinmei. For other items he nohe? If they were available back home as well, might have recommended a general location to was there some positive value associated with look, without specifying a particular store. This their purchase in Edo? Or was it simply a matter implied that his friend had some knowledge of of price: was it less expensive to buy them in the area—indeed this was Tomabechi’s second Edo? Given the lack of consistent price informa- tour of duty—and could make good choices on tion in the diaries, it is difficult to come to Tamuro’s behalf. In some cases Tamuro gave sweeping conclusions, but some evidence from a some specifications for the items requested. For household budget ledger kept by the Toyama example, the pipe should be long, like those household several decades later, in the 1860s, is made in Hachinohe (gozaisho fū). In requesting suggestive in that it reveals that it was more eco- material for the narrow obi, which was used to nomical to purchase material for everyday cloth- keep a tucked-up kimono in place, Tamuro was, ing in Edo.37 like his father Heima, earlier, quite clear about Certain types of goods, and in some cases his color preferences. Under no circumstances particular brands, were clearly associated with should his friend purchase light blue material— Edo. Such was the case of the several varieties of pink, however, would do just fine. Also like his tea which Heima and Tamuro purchased. The father, Tamuro listed the estimated price of the only brand name mentioned was Yamamoto- items to guide his friend in his shopping. This yama, an Edo-based operation whose product also informed his friend as to the approximate was therefore intimately associated with Edo and ceiling price Tamuro was willing to pay for items. thus desirable as a place-marker, tangible evi- To cover the cost of these various goods, which dence that the gift-giver had been in the capital. he calculated would run one ryō, he had that Yet, Yamamoto-yama tea was also desirable on amount transferred via a bill of exchange (ka- its own terms, for its quality, since locally- wase) from the domain accounting office (ginmi produced tea was no doubt available in Hachi- tokoro) to the corresponding office in Hachi- nohe. Known as one of Edo’s famous products nohe’s main residence in Edo, where his col- (meibutsu), the Yamamoto brand frequently ap- league could collect it. pears in the nineteenth century in Edo-based re- The Toyama family also received goods from tainers’ shopping lists, in the quantity of one-half friends and colleagues serving in Edo as well. or a full kin (1.32 pounds).38 Heima’s brother occasionally sent commodities when he was serving in the capital but both Ta- 37 Iwabuchi Reiji, “Hachinohe han Edo kinban muro and Heima were in Hachinohe. There were bushi no kōbai kōdō to kunimoto,” in Chihō shi also the year-end gifts sent by friends and ex- kenkyū kyōgi kai, ed., Rekishi to fūdō tended family to the Toyama household while (Yūzankaku, 2004), pp. 197. He gives the cost of Heima and Tamuro were home, as in late 1828 a flower-patterned cotton material as between 3 when a man named Genzō sent a tobacco pouch shu-1 bu per roll in Edo compared with a price of for Tamuro’s wife and mother, some sugar for his 2 bu 2 shu in Hachinohe. [note: 1 bu = 4 shu in grandfather, three hairpins for his younger sister late Tokugawa] and his daughter, and two kites for Junnosuke, 38 The Yamamoto family came out with a new whose relationship to the Toyama family is not tea in 1816 called Gyokuro that quickly became known. popular among samurai. The sixth-generation

64 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

In the case of some other commodities, they pouches. In the Toyama family’s records of appear to have been purchased in Edo because of goods purchased these pouches are most often their high quality. For example, the Toyama identified as being for tissue paper or tobacco, household purchased hair oil (binzuke) in Hachi- the latter being a product which seems to have nohe for everyday use, but acquired more high- been widely enjoyed by this time, by both men quality types, scented tsubaki abura and oil for and women. dyeing hair black (kuro abura) in Edo. They ap- The nature of Edo in Japan’s urban hierarchy plied the same principle to their strategy of ac- and its central position as fixed by the system of quiring paper, purchasing only recycled paper alternate attendance accounts for much of the locally and higher quality paper from Edo.39 The attraction of commodities purchased there. Since request of a man named Muraji, who ordered a Edo was a city in which goods from across much set of sewing needles (hari), which Tamuro pur- of the country flowed, acting in effect as an en- chased for him in Akabane and sent to Hachi- trepot, it was a place where retainers could pur- nohe via a paid transport service (hikyaku), is chase commodities from distant localities that more difficult to understand. Were such needles may not have otherwise been available in their not available in Hachinohe? Without more in- home domains. Such was probably the case with formation it is difficult to draw any conclusions. the seeds and plants Tamuro bought. Regional The request to have a piece of armor repaired in specialty products from distant areas—e.g., the Edo might indicate that there was some special Hida lacquerware (shunkei), Osaka tabi and service available in the shogun’s capital not archer’s arm protector from Echizen—also found available in Hachinohe. Another commodity their way to Edo, where retainers like Tamuro from Edo, books, would have been highly desir- could purchase them, as he did on behalf of a able, since Edo was the closest major publishing man named Hikoemon. Tangerines, which were center where retainers from northern Japan could typically given in units of 5-10 fruits during the find a wide selection of books (retainers from year-end season, were a valuable gift in Hachi- western Japan also had the option of purchasing nohe, where the climate made cultivation diffi- books in Osaka).40 cult.41 Although the place of origin is not re- Although Kyoto retained its reputation for corded, the sugar that Tamuro ordered from high-quality handicraft production in Japan, by Heima while he was in Hachinohe and later pur- the nineteenth century Edo had become estab- chased himself in Edo most likely came from lished as a center in its own right, particularly for western Japan or the Kantō. what we might call personal accoutrements Of course, Edo, being the largest urban cen- (sōshingu). This was especially true of bags or ter in Japan, offered samurai from the domains, particularly those from smaller ones such as Ha- chinohe, choice—a bountiful selection of stores, head was appointed an official tea master (goyō 42 ) in Edo castle. See the official website of markets and goods from which to choose. The Yamamoto-yama company; accessed 09/28/2006. http://www.iijnet.or.jp/ynp/shinise/07_yamamot 41 Iwabuchi, pp. 195–96. The return gift was 2 o.html sho (3.6 liters) of sake, indicating the high value 39 Iwabuchi, p. 198. Iwabuchi makes this of mikan. conclusion based on a comparison of goods 42 Perhaps the Toyama’s health was better than purchased in Edo vs. Hachinohe in a Toyama most, but many other samurai on a tour of duty household budget ledger from 1862. in Edo made many purchases of medicine. Edo’s 40 While Kyoto was also an important publishing numerous pharmacies offered great selection in center, the number of western daimyo allowed to product and price. While in the capital, Tosa’s stop there was highly regulated and even when Miyaji Umanosuke, for example, was in constant they gained such permission the number of search of efficacious, and affordable, medicine. retainers and attendants who accompanied the Vaporis, “To Edo and Back,” p. 47. On Edo’s lord were few. Vaporis, Tour of Duty, pp. 51, pharmacies, see Tatsukawa Shōji, “Edo no 148–49. kusuriya,” in Tōkyō jin henshū shitsu, ed., Tōkyō

65 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

possibilities could be so overwhelming that a main’s population there or domain monopoly guidebook, or the advice of men with prior ser- goods to the Hachinohe’s warehouses for later vice in Edo, was necessary. sale on the Edo market, would otherwise be re- The cost of transporting goods purchased in turning home empty. Sometimes Tamuro and Edo, added to the cost of the goods themselves, others employed a delivery service (hikyaku), might have inhibited the consumer activity of although it is not clear whether this method was samurai. Such was not the case, however, as resorted to when there was some urgency or there were several means available for transport- when the other means described above were not ing commodities that did not entail an outlay of available.46 cash. Tamuro could of course simply carry some—if they were light, compact objects— Conclusion when he returned to Hachinohe. Otherwise, he Alternate attendance separated large numbers could also ask this of his friends and acquaintan- of retainers from their domains and forced their ces. There was ample opportunity for this, as the participation in the commercial economy, a proc- diaries kept by the Toyama as well as numerous ess that also occurred in many domains that drew other domainal retainers reveal that there was a the samurai off the land and required them to live fairly routine level of traffic between the domain in castle-towns.47 It also was a major mechanism castle town and Edo, not just when the lord, fol- for the circulation of commodity goods, on the lowed by his entourage, made his trip of alter- level of the domain as well as that of the individ- nate attendance. For example, when a number of ual. Furthermore, it had a cascading effect, draw- retainers were returning to the domain on ing in much larger numbers of people than di- 1828/7/7, Tamuro asked one to carry a type of rectly participated in the system with its biennial wrapping paper for some person named An-no-jō requirements of attendance in Edo. and two standards and a collar-piece for a set of The shogun’s capital offered domainal re- armor for another, unidentified, person.43 Several tainers the country’s largest market—a wide se- months later one of the domain’s sumo wrestlers lection of commodities at numerous locations (in Edo for a tournament) delivered to Tamuro a across the city. For retainers from outside the request from An-no-jō, together with money, to Kantō area, Edo provided access to regional purchase a book, and this was later sent with a products probably not otherwise available; for foot soldier returning to Hachinohe. 44 There samurai from Hachinohe this meant from a large were of course limits to how much one could part of the country, from the Kantō region south. carry, or ask others to carry, as when a samurai In this Edo served as a collecting point into only identified as Chūbei declined Tamuro’s re- which goods from across the country flowed. 45 quest because of the large volume of goods. Except for this one occasion noted, however, 46 As suggested above, the transport charge could there always seemed to be someone available to add considerably to the overall cost of the item. bring back to Hachinohe a purchase made in Edo. Tosa retainer Ōgura Sadasuke spent 120 mon to Bulky or heavy items—like the padding for fu- send 150-mon worth of some candy to his ton—could be sent on a domain ship. These ves- household. Ōgura Sadasuke, Ms. “Kaiei ni nen sels, which periodically carried foodstuffs and [1849] haru toradoshi shohikae, sōgatsu jun other commodities to Edo for the use of the do- yori,” folios 16–24 (Kōchi Prefectural Library). 47 Of course villagers in many parts of Japan, o tsukutta hitobito: Bunka no kurie-ta-tachi particularly in the southern provinces of central (Toritsu shuppan, 1993), pp. 178–97. Japan, were drawn, for different reasons, into the 43 Toyama ke nikki, vol. 1, p. 80. market economy. E. Sydney Crawcour, 44 Toyama ke nikki, vol. 1, p. 95. “Economic Change in the Nineteenth Century,” 45 Toyama ke nikki, vol. 1, p. 74. Indeed, in Marius B. Jansen, ed., Cambridge History of Tamuro’s comment that “this time he could not” Japan, vol. 5: The Nineteenth Century implied that he had taken things back to (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Hachinohe before for him. Press, 1989), pp. 587–88.

66 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

There, they were either consumed or sent out again to Japan’s castle towns, through a human network, carried by hand, in horse packs or shipped by boat. The personal diaries maintained by two generations of the Toyama family of Ha- chinohe domain have also revealed how the Edo- based samurai could act as conduits for mercan- tile exchanges for members of their social nexus in the domain. While in other years—those not covered in this chapter—members of the Toyama family might have bought some other items, the same patterns of purchasing for self, home and network of family, friends and colleagues con- tinued, with much the same types of goods and the same varied pattern of transporting them. Far from abjuring material goods, the samurai we witness in the Toyama diaries were astute con- sumers, the contents of their accounts revealing the considerable extent to which they and those in their social nexus were engaged with the commercial economy.

67 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

Encountering the World: ally unknown to English-language readership, making only sporadic appearances in texts de- Kawai Tsugunosuke’s voted, mainly, to other bakumatsu subjects. 2 1859 Journey to Yokohama Placing Tsugunosuke center-stage in an examina- tion of the debate over the “opening” of Japan in and Nagasaki the mid-nineteenth century means attuning our ears to that minority of voices which advocated a conciliatory position in regards to the issue of © Laura Nenzi, Florida International internationalism; it also means opening our eyes University* to (yet more) evidence that mass hysteria and rampant xenophobia, however prominent, were

not the sole and inevitable outcomes of Japan’s

encounter with the world. Tsugunosuke’s near- The samurai Kawai Tsugunosuke (1827– total absence from English-language scholarship 1868) is the subject of numerous Japanese- may indeed be attributed, partially, to the sheer language monographs, the protagonist of histori- number of sources dealing with the issue of Ja- cal fiction, the hero of TV dramas and documen- pan’s position vis-à-vis foreign cultures: virtually taries, and the main attraction in a Nagaoka (Nii- 1 everyone, from commoners to the educated elites, gata prefecture) museum. He is, however, virtu- from government diplomats to base-born rural 3 women, had an opinion and a suggestion. In this * I would like to thank Morgan Pitelka, Philip Brown, Gregory Smits, and the three anonymous 2 Harold Bolitho introduces Tsugunosuke in his readers for their encouragement, suggestions, “The Echigo War, 1868,” Monumenta Nipponica, and constructive criticism. Vol. 34, No. 3 (Autumn 1979): 259–277. The A note about dates: throughout the manuscript, article, however, is mostly a piece on military dates are provided using the lunar calendar em- history and Tsugunosuke appears only toward ployed in the early modern period. To facilitate the end. Moreover, Bolitho does not delve into cross-referencing with the western calendar, the Tsugunosuke’s earlier life experiences, focusing corresponding Gregorian dates are indicated in mostly on his actions in the year 1868, before parenthesis. and during the Echigo War. 3 For the sake of conciseness, I have chosen not 1 The foremost historian of Tsugunosuke is Andō to include direct quotations of the various Hideo, whose works include Kawai Tsugunosuke xenophobic voices of mid-nineteenth century (Tokyo: Shin Jinbutsu Ōraisha, 1973); Japan, mostly because they are readily available Chiritsubo: Kawai Tsugunosuke nikki (Tokyo: and generally well-known. Some of the works I Heibonsha, 1974); Teihon Kawai Tsugunosuke have in mind when I argue that virtually anyone (Tokyo: Shirakawa Shoin, 1977); Kawai had an opinion include the following: for the Tsugunosuke shashinshū (co-edited with reaction of commoners, M. William Steele’s Yokomura Katsuhiro; Tokyo: Shin Jinbutsu “Goemon’s New World View: Popular Ōraisha, 1986); Kawai Tsugunosuke no shōgai Representations of the Opening of Japan” in M. (Tokyo: Shin Jinbutsu Ōraisha, 1987); Kawai William Steele, Alternative Narratives in Tsugunosuke no subete (Tokyo: Shin Jinbutsu Modern Japanese History (London and NY: Ōraisha, 1997). For historical fiction, see Shiba Routledge Curzon, 2003), pp. 4–18. Studies in Ryōtarō’s novel Tōge (The Pass, 1968). TV the intellectual history of late Tokugawa Japan dramas and documentaries include Saigo no are simply too numerous to cite—see for samurai Kawai Tsugunosuke (1999) and Kawai example Harry D. Harootunian, Toward Tsugunosuke: Kakenuketa sōryū (2005). The Restoration: The Growth of Political museum dedicated to Tsugunosuke is the Kawai Consciousness in Tokugawa Japan (Berkeley: Tsugunosuke Kinenkan University of California Press, 1970) and Things (http://www.tsuginosuke.net/). Seen and Unseen: Discourse and Ideology in

68 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

cacophonous chorus of cries for reform and calls mized Japan’s intellectual openness, ability for for the expulsion of the barbarians, of grandilo- tolerance, and quest for intelligent compromise quent declarations of intents and vitriolic verbal in light of the profound changes and great chal- exchanges, Tsugunosuke’s voice may have been lenges of the mid-nineteenth century. lost, but it was certainly not muted at the time. A poised, genuinely inquisitive, and broadminded Tsugunosuke’s Intellectual Journey participant in the debate over foreign encroach- Kawai Tsugunosuke (rarely read ment, Tsugunosuke used intellectual curiosity as Tsuginosuke) was born and raised in Nagaoka an antidote against irrational fears of the un- domain, .4 With an income of known and, as a result, his reactions before the 120 koku, the Kawai family was moderately foreign are characterized by a refreshing degree wealthy and would have placed, as Ōta Osamu of openness and fearlessness. Whereas many of points out, “low among high-ranking samurai, his contemporaries demonized the foreign Other and high among middle-ranking ones.” 5 and prophesized catastrophic scenarios, crying Tsugunosuke’s father, Kawai Daiemon, had foul and plotting heroic actions, Tsugunosuke served the domain and its rulers, the Makino rejected fanaticism in favor of pragmatism. His family, in the Arms Office (obuki yakusho) and intellectual journey emerges more clearly from as Head of Accounting (kanjō gashira); not only the journal of his 1859 trip as well as from the a bureaucrat, he also practiced Zen and the tea letters he exchanged with his family members ceremony, and enjoyed composing Chinese-style while away from home. At a time when, by and poems. He was, like many samurai of the large, that which came from outside of Japan’s Tokugawa period, “a man of letters more than a borders was exorcised by way of mockery, stig- warrior.”6 matized by way of demonization, or exoticized Tsugunosuke received his formal education by way of “Othering,” Tsugunosuke came to em- in the domain’s academy, the Sūtokukan, where brace the foreign and to cherish the prospect of he was first introduced to the Confucian classics; cross-cultural exchanges. He actively investi- he was also trained in sword- and spear-fighting, gated, eagerly asked questions, meticulously archery, horse-riding, and administration. 7 In took notes, thoroughly considered the implica- 1852, at age twenty-six (by Japanese counting), tions of introducing foreign customs, and even- he traveled to Edo to further his education. He tually outlined the benefits of Japan’s encounter began training under Saitō Setsudō (1796–1865), with the world. His writings tell, by example, the whose academy was renowned for its Neo- story of a small group of thinkers who epito- Confucian studies. However, Saitō’s approach did not provide Tsugunosuke with the focus on Tokugawa Nativism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988). More recently, see Susan 4 The yearly income of the domain was 74,000 Burns, Before the Nation: Kokugaku and the koku, which placed Nagaoka among the top three Imagining of Community in Early Modern Japan wealthiest domains in the province. Harold (Durham: Duke University Press, 2003) and Bolitho, “The Echigo War, 1868,” p. 260. Mark McNally, Proving the Way: Conflict and 5 Ōta Osamu, Kawai Tsugunosuke to Meiji ishin Practice in the History of Japanese Nativism (Niigata-shi: Niigata Nippō Jigyōsha, 2003), p. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University 39. Asia Center, 2005). For diplomacy, see Michael 6 Ishihara Kazuaki, Ryōchi no hito Kawai R. Auslin, Negotiating with Imperialism: The Tsugunosuke: gi ni iki gi ni shinan (Tokyo: Ni- Unequal Treaties and the Culture of Japanese hon Keizai Hyōronsha, 1993), p. 2. Diplomacy (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard 7 Inagawa Akio, “Hokuetsu no fūunji Kawai University Press, 2004). Finally, Anne Walthall Tsugunosuke,” Ryōzen rekishikan kiyō, 11 describes the political activities of a peasant (1998): 3–14. Dōmon Fuyuji, “Ore ga ore ga no woman in The Weak Body of a Useless Woman: kenka shitei,” Ushio 4 (April 2005): 222–227. Matsuo Taseko and the Meiji Restoration Ishihara Kazuaki, Ryōchi no hito Kawai (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998). Tsugunosuke, p. 13.

69 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

economics he desired, so he eventually dropped ars abound. In truth, many of them could be my out.8 The following year he enrolled in the Edo teachers, inexperienced as I am. But while many academy of Koga Sakei (1816–1884), an have made of learning their profession, those authority in Chinese and Western studies (he [devoted to] practical learning (jitsugaku), those would later become head of the “Institute for the who combine talent and virtue, are few and far Study of Barbarian Books,” or bansho between.”11 In the same letter he expressed his shirabesho). 9 At this stage he also became intention to leave Edo and travel to Matsuyama acquainted with Sakuma Shōzan (1811–1864), domain, in faraway Bitchū province, in order to from whom he received training in western continue his studies under Yamada Hōkoku military science and the use of firearms. (1805–1877), a scholar whose work he “truly During Tsugunosuke’s stint in Edo, admired” (jitsu ni kanshin tsukamatsuri sōrō).12 Commodore Perry paid his first visit, arriving at Hōkoku, a prominent Wang Yangming (Ōyōmei- Uraga on 1853/6/3 (July 8, 1853). On that gaku) expert trained under Satō Issai (1772– occasion Tsugunosuke submitted a memorial on 1859), had opened his private school in 1838. domain reform to his lord, Makino Tadamasa, Paramount to his teachings was an emphasis on who was also serving as assistant to the rōjū; the “investigation of things” (kakubutsu) as a impressed, Tadamasa offered him an prerequisite for the performance of meritorious administrative position in the domain. At that deeds. 13 According to Imaizumi Shōzō, point Tsugunosuke left Edo and returned to Tsugunosuke was precisely attracted to Hōkoku’s Nagaoka, where for the next few years he served reliance on practical deeds over intangible prin- the domain in various capacities; he was first ciples.14 And an eye for the practical and for the appointed inspector consultant (under the titles “investigation of things” is indeed what charac- of ometsuke and hyōjōhō shitagai yaku) and later terizes Tsugunosuke’s general approach to the became tozama ginmi.10 issue of Japan’s dealings with the outside world. In the winter of 1859 Tsugunosuke, by then aged thirty-three, returned to Edo and re-enrolled 11 In Andō Tetsuya, Ri ni ikita otoko Kawai in Koga Sakei’s academy. He arrived in the city Tsugunosuke (Niigata-shi: Niigata Nippō in early February and resumed his studies nine Jigyōsha, 2000), p. 87. See also Andō Hideo, days later. However, in a letter to his parents Chiritsubo: Kawai Tsugunosuke nikki (Tokyo: dated 1859/4/24 (May 26, 1859), Tsugunosuke Heibonsha, 1974), p. 195. hinted at a growing dissatisfaction with the Edo 12 Andō Hideo, Chiritsubo: Kawai Tsugunosuke intellectual circles: “This is a big city and schol- nikki, p. 196. 13 Takehiko Okada, “Neo-Confucian Thinkers in 8 Arai Kimio, Nihon o tsukutta senkakushatachi: Nineteenth-Century Japan,” in Peter Nosco ed., Ii Naosuke, Oguri Tadamasa, Kawai Confucianism and Tokugawa Culture (Princeton: Tsugunosuke (Tokyo: Sōgō Hōrei, 1994), p. 165. Princeton University Press, 1984), p. 225. 9 Andō Hideo, “Kawai Tsugunosuke shōden,” in 14 Imaizumi Shōzō, introduction to “Chiritsubo,” Andō Hideo, Chiritsubo: Kawai Tsugunosuke in Miyamoto Tsuneichi, Tanigawa Ken’ichi, and nikki (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1974), p. 274. Haraguchi Torao eds., Nihon shomin seikatsu 10 The hyōjōhō shitagai yaku decided rewards shiryō shūsei, vol. 2 (Tokyo: San’ichi Shobō, and punishments and drafted new laws. In 1969), p. 398. A list of titles included at the end Nagaoka, civil cases were supervised by three of Tsugunosuke’s travel journal Chiritsubo— authorities: the daikan, the district magistrate books he read, acquired, or copied during his (kōri bugyō), and the city magistrate (machi stint in Matsuyama—confirms Tsugunosuke’s bugyō). Cases of particular complexity were interest for Ōyōmeigaku. The list includes such referred to the office of the tozama ginmi, which titles as Yōmei and Ōyōmei zenshū. decided who to put in charge. See Andō Hideo, Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” in Miyamoto “Kawai Tsugunosuke shōden,” pp. 275–276, and Tsuneichi, Tanigawa Ken’ichi, and Haraguchi Ōta Osamu, Kawai Tsugunosuke to Meiji ishin, p. Torao eds., Nihon shomin seikatsu shiryō shūsei, 62. vol. 2 (Tokyo: San’ichi Shobō, 1969), p. 432.

70 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

On 1859/6/4 (July 3, 1859) Tsugunosuke Tsugunosuke’s experience especially meaningful dropped out of Koga’s academy for the second is not so much the destination as the timing of time and embarked on his journey to Matsuyama. his journey, which took place the year after the On his way out of Edo, Tsugunosuke visited the ratification of the Ansei Treaties, signed in the newly opened port of Yokohama. Then, during summer and fall of 1858, and within weeks— his seven-month stint in Matsuyama, which days, in the case of Yokohama—of the official lasted from the summer of 1859 until the spring transformation of the two cities into open treaty of 1860, Tsugunosuke traveled to Nagasaki, the ports (July 1859).19 “historic” international port of Tokugawa Japan To better understand the significance of (see Table 1 for a chronology of his 1859 jour- Tsugunosuke’s journey, it would be useful here ney). Within the span of a few months, therefore, to contextualize it against the frame of Japan’s Tsugunosuke had the opportunity to visit two of own dealings with foreign countries. Conrad the most cosmopolitan cities in the country, Yo- Totman identifies three main phases in the late- kohama and Nagasaki. He was not the first trav- Tokugawa debate on foreign policy.20 The first eler to do so, of course. Others before him had one, spurred by the arrival of Commodore Perry traveled to Nagasaki, leaving detailed accounts in 1853 and lasting through the signing of the of their experiences: Mito official Nagakubo Se- Ansei Treaties in 1858, was mostly defined by kisui visited the city in 1767 and wrote Nagasaki fear of the unknown and by “a pervasive sense of kōeki nikki (Diary of Official Travels to Na- Japanese vulnerability.” Accepting the foreign gasaki), 15 Furukawa Koshōken (1726–1807) (meaning, in this case, the West) “would damage followed suit in 1783 with his Saiyū zakki (Mis- bakufu prestige, undermine public morale, and cellaneous Records of Travels to the West);16 in expose society to all sorts of dangers.”21 Ten 1788 it was the turn of Shiba Kōkan, author of years later, following the attacks on Chōshū and Kōkan saiyū nikki, or Kōkan’s Diary of a Journey Satsuma and the failed restoration attempt of to the West. In 1802 the Nagoya merchant 1863, the realization that the Tokugawa order Hishiya Heishichi (n.d.) also recorded his first- could not be salvaged, much less restored, even- hand experience of Nagasaki’s foreignness in tually set in; with that, a sense of acceptance and Tsukushi kikō (Record of a Journey to Kyushu);17 a quest for engagement ensued. This is the third ten years later Nagasaki welcomed the itinerant and last phase (1864–1868) identified by Tot- nun Kikushani (1753–1826), author of Taorigiku 18 (Plucked Chrysanthemum). What makes existing scholarship on most of these travelers, 15 For a detailed analysis see Marcia Yonemoto, citing their texts here would be repetitive. More Mapping Early Modern Japan: Space, Place, importantly, there would be no chronological and Culture in the Tokugawa Period, 1603–1868 consistency, as their journeys occurred well (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), before the ratification of the Ansei Treaties. pp. 70–81 and Herbert E. Plutschow, A Reader 19 Yokohama officially opened as a treaty port on in Edo Period Travel (Folkestone, Kent, UK: 1859/6/5 (July 4, 1859). Michael R. Auslin Global Oriental, 2006), pp. 46–53. follows the development of Yokohama from 16 Yonemoto, Mapping Early Modern Japan, pp. fishing village to foreign port in Negotiating with 81–90; Plutschow, A Reader in Edo Period Imperialism, pp. 34–60. For a study of Travel, pp. 89–101; Harold Bolitho, “Travelers’ Nagasaki’s evolution as a treaty port see Lane Tales: Three Eighteenth-Century Travel Earns, “The Foreign Settlement in Nagasaki, Journals,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 50, 1859–1869,” The Historian, 57:4 (Summer n. 2 (December 1990): 485–504. 1995): 483–501. 17 Plutschow, A Reader in Edo Period Travel, pp. 20 Conrad Totman, “From to Kaikoku: 247–260. The Transformation of Foreign-Policy Attitudes, 18 Kikusha-ni, “Taorigiku,” in Katsumine Shinpū 1853–1868,” Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 35, No. ed., Keishū haika zenshū (Tokyo: Shūeikaku, 1 (Spring 1980): 1–19. 1922), pp. 315–433. Given the amount of 21 Totman, “From Sakoku to Kaikoku”, p. 8.

71 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

man. 22 But between rejection and acceptance, 9/18 13 October Tsugunosuke leaves between stage one and stage three, there was a Matsuyama to go to critical and turbulent moment—phase two Kyushu (1858–1864). This is when Tsugunosuke set out 9/20 15 Oct. Konpira (Shikoku) on his journey. When he traveled, in other words, 9/24 19 Oct. Hiroshima Japan was at a “beginning, but only a beginning, 9/30 25 Oct. Tsugunosuke crosses of transvaluation,” moving away from fear and into Kyushu rejection toward what Totman has characterized 10/5 30 Oct. arrival to Nagasaki 23 as “grudging accommodation.” In the long run, (10/10) (4 visit to the Chinese Japan accepted the West (Totman’s third stage), November) residence but the transition did not occur without conflict: [date unclear] loud criticism and acts of violence (including, 10/15 9 Nov. visit to Dutch factory more prominently, the assassinations of Ii Nao- 10/18 12 Nov. departure from suke in 1860 and Henry Heusken in 1861) also Nagasaki characterized the second stage, which was 10/22 16 Nov. Kumamoto marred by “frustration, bitterness, and distrust” that “repeatedly stopped short of open civil 10/27 21 Nov. Shimonoseki war.”24 11/3 26 Nov.. return to Matsuyama Man’en 1 1860 Table 1. Chronology of Tsugunosuke’s 1859 Journey 3rd month late March, Completion of train-

early April ing and departure Lunar Gregorian Stages of from Matsuyama calendar calendar Tsugunosuke’s Journey It is against this historical background that Ansei 5 1858 we must read Tsugunosuke’s travel journal, the 12/27 30 January Tsugunosuke leaves unconventionally titled Spittoon (Chiritsubo). As 1859 Nagaoka to resume he informs us, the purpose of the diary was sim- his studies in Edo ply “to record the things I intend to tell my par- 25 Ansei 6 1859 ents some day.” Other than that, he never 1/6 8 February Tsugunosuke reaches meant for his jottings to circulate and much less Edo to be taken as a serious literary effort; hence, 1/15 17 Feb. Tsugunosuke re- rather than using words such as nikki (diary), enters the academy of kikō (travel notes), or zakki (jottings, miscellane- Koga Sakei ous notes)—common choices for many a Toku- 6/4 3 July Tsugunosuke leaves gawa period travelogue title—he chose the self- Koga’s academy to deprecating image of the spittoon to emphasize study under Yamada the literary worthlessness of his random notes. Hōkoku What he dismissed as “foolish ramblings” (gu- 26 6/7 6 July visit to Yokohama chigoto) and “a mess” (funran) are in fact valu- 6/9 8 July Kamakura, Enoshima able commentaries on the mid-nineteenth- 6/11 10 July Hakone century encounter of Japan with the West and with the foreign in general. Tsugunosuke’s posi- 6/14 13 July Mt. Kunō tive engagement with the foreign is all the more 6/25 24 July Ise valuable precisely because it occurred at a time 7/4 to 7/9 2–7 August Fushimi, Uji, Osaka of “frustration, bitterness, and distrust,” a time of 7/16 14 August arrival to Matsuyama insecurity and transition, a time when acceptance

22 Totman, “From Sakoku to Kaikoku”, p. 14 25 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 431. 23 Totman, “From Sakoku to Kaikoku”, p. 12. 26 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo”, pp. 401 24 Totman, “From Sakoku to Kaikoku”, p. 12. (entry for 6/14) and 431.

72 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

of the foreign began to seem inevitable but, to as he set out to explore the still-developing port many, still felt like an unwelcome imposition. of Yokohama, Tsugunosuke could not have an- ticipated any of this. On that quiet day in 1859 Tsugunosuke in Yokohama the war machines he saw were silent, and they Yokohama had been a site of little to no po- were beautiful: “There were two foreign ships in litical, strategic, or economic relevance until Shinagawa. Each one was [as big] as a castle. 1858, when the Ansei Treaties selected it as one One had nine cannons; it was a thing of beauty.” of Japan’s open ports (indeed, Yokohama was In Yokohama Tsugunosuke took notice of the selected precisely because of its marginal value, developing commercial area: “Various shops in in hopes of keeping westerners away from more newly constructed buildings are spread out [all strategically sensitive areas). Within a couple of over the place]. Among them, the lacquerware years, a large and vibrant foreign community stores caught my eye.” At the time of his visit, developed—as testified by the colorful “Yoko- however, Tsugunosuke could not really “investi- hama prints” produced since the early 1860s by gate the trade,” for there was not much trade to Utagawa Yoshitora (active 1850s–1880s), Sada- speak of. He wrote, “The construction [of the hide (1807– ca. 1878), and Yoshikazu (active new buildings] has not yet been completed and 1848–1863) among others.27 Tsugunosuke, how- the value of silver currency has yet to be deter- ever, visited Yokohama on 1859/6/7 (July 6, mined, therefore trade is not very active.” He 1859), only two days after the official opening of predicted, however, that “once everything is the port and before the area fully blossomed as a completed, no doubt it will be splendid.” 30 foreign entrepôt. Three fellow Nagaoka samurai, His description of Yokohama is brief not only Hanawa Keinoshin, Mitsuma Ichinoshin, and because the port had little to showcase only two Udono Shunpū (Danjirō), saw him off there, and days after its official opening, but also because it they all took advantage of this opportunity to was distinctive of Tsugunosuke to write in an “investigate the trade.”28 unembellished prose. 31 He does occasionally En route to Yokohama two warships an- lace his descriptions with on-the-side comments chored at Shinagawa caught Tsugunosuke’s at- and personal impressions, but for the most part tention and enticed his admiration. An avid col- he chronicles his experiences as a dispassionate lector of weapons, he was especially fascinated and relatively unbiased observer. In Yokohama by foreign firearms, at least since his training (as in Nagasaki) he did not produce cartoon-like under Sakuma Shōzan. Later in his life, as he vignettes of foreigners the way another samurai, prepared to face off enemy forces in the show- Sakai Hanshirō from Wakayama domain (Kii down between the Tokugawa and imperial loyal- province), would do one year later. While visit- ists, Tsugunosuke would return to Yokohama and ing the port in 1860, Hanshirō pointed out that trade with a foreign dealer in order to acquire the foreigners he encountered “truly [looked] as hundreds of Minie rifles for his domain, as well they do in the illustrations” (makoto ezu no tōri as two of the only three Gatling guns existing in nite sōrō) and that “the expression in their eyes Japan at the time.29 However, nine years earlier, resembled that of salted fish” (meiro sakana no

27 Ann Yonemura, Yokohama: Prints from Nineteenth-Century Japan (Washington, D.C.: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1990). han no shinheiki,” in Andō Hideo ed., Kawai 28 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 399. Tsugunosuke no subete, p. 113. The third Gatling 29 Andō Hideo, “Kawai Tsugunosuke: sono hito gun ended up in Tosa. to kiseki,” in Andō Hideo ed., Kawai 30 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 399. Tsugunosuke no subete (Tokyo: Shin Jinbutsu 31 Ōta Osamu also emphasizes how Chiritsubo Ōraisha, 1997), p. 25. Tokoro Sōkichi, “is a record (kiroku) more than a travel diary, “Nagaoka-han no gunsei to sōbi,” in Andō Hideo what we may call reportage (ruporutaaju), ed., Kawai Tsugunosuke no subete, pp. 107–108. unique for its time.” Ōta Osamu, Kawai Andō Hideo, “Gattoringu kikanhō—Nagaoka Tsugunosuke to Meiji ishin, p. 49.

73 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

shiomono no me no gotoshi).32 No such appeal to especially those linked to samurai history. In visual metaphors embellishes Tsugunosuke’s Kamakura he took time to visit the city’s “spec- account. His only observation upon seeing a for- tacular historic ruins, many of which made quite eign woman was that “the color of her eyes was an impression.”36 A few days later, on 6/14 (July different, but overall she was beautiful” (bijin 13), he climbed Mt. Kunō, where shogun Toku- nari). 33 Later, while visiting the Dutch com- gawa Ieyasu (1543–1616) was first interred be- pound in Nagasaki, Tsugunosuke would also fore being transferred to Nikkō. strip his characterization of a male member of the foreign entourage of any flair, simply de- scribing him as “a good looking young man” (binan [no] ko nari). 34 Mocking the foreign Other, and wasting words doing so, did not inter- est him. He expressed his opinions and hinted at likes and dislikes, for sure, but he did not let flamboyant rhetoric get in the way of his down- to-earth investigation. What piqued Tsuguno- suke’s curiosity was the foreign in its concrete manifestations, namely technology (the gunboats in Shinagawa) and business (the trade in Yoko- 37 hama)—the practical implications of Japan’s Map 1: Tsugunosuke’s 1859 Journey encounter with the world. On 6/16 (July 15) he crossed Sayo no Naka-

yama, a famous site of poetic renown. The ma- Tsugunosuke on the Road jority of Tokugawa period travelers found it ap- After wrapping up his visit to Yokohama, propriate, upon passing through Sayo no Naka- Tsugunosuke spent the night at the Tamagawaya yama, to recall the verses that twelfth-century in Kanagawa. To reach Matsuyama he first trav- poet Saigyō had composed on location.38 Not eled along the Tōkaidō highway, which ran par- Tsugunosuke, the pragmatist. He simply ac- allel to the Pacific Ocean coast (see Map 1). In knowledged that “these sites are [featured] in the the summer, the main artery of Japan was heav- maps of famous places (meishozu), so I do not ily traveled because a number of domain lords have to describe them.”39 Past Nagoya he made a were on their way to Edo in compliance with the brief detour to Matsusaka, which impressed him requirements of the alternate attendance sys- 35 for its wealth and for being the native home of tem. Tsugunosuke had to put up with crowded the Mitsui family of merchants; he then reached roads, jammed river crossings, and chaotic inns. Ise, where he visited the Outer and Inner Shrines, He visited Kanazawa (Musashi province), Ainoyama, Futaminoura, and the lively quarter Kamakura and Enoshima (Sagami), and then of Furuichi before reconnecting to the Tōkaidō. crossed Hakone Pass into Mishima. He was Early in the seventh month he was in Kyoto, Uji, drawn to sites of historical interest along the way, and Fushimi, and from there went on to Osaka. After a visit to Arima hot springs, he stopped at 32 In Aoki Naomi, Kakyū bushi no shoku nikki: Bakumatsu tanshin funin (Tokyo: NHK Shuppan, 2005), p. 160. 36 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 399 33 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 399. (entry for 6/9). 34 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 418 37 Adapted from Andō Hideo and Yokomura (entry for 10/15). Katsuhiro, eds., Kawai Tsugunosuke shashinshū 35 Tsugunosuke comments on the heavy traffic of (Tokyo: Shin Jinbutsu Ōraisha, 1986), daimyo at various points: in his entry for 6/27 (p. frontispiece. 403), for example, and then again on 10/22 (p. 38 See Shinkokinshū, poem n. 987. 426), though this last entry does not refer to the 39 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 402 Tōkaidō highway specifically. (entry for 6/16).

74 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

the graves of warriors Taira no Kiyomori, Taira cholera epidemic that had been afflicting Japan no Atsumori, and Taira no Tadanori, at Suma since the previous year.42 A proclivity for “no- Temple, Ichinotani, and Akashi. He finally fuss” observation, in other words, characterized reached Matsuyama on 7/16 (August 14) and Tsugunosuke’s way of engaging with people and began his training under Yamada Hōkoku. places. This was true for people and places of It is clear from his account that Tsugunosuke, Japan as much as for the foreign. Tsugunosuke’s in line with his predilection for the “investigation eyes and ears were as open as his mind. of things,” was a curious observer of people and places. He loved to sightsee, he loved to sample Tsugunosuke in Nagasaki local delicacies, and he was intrigued by the en- In the fall of 1859, while Tsugunosuke was counters he made while on the road. Places of still in residence in Matsuyama, Yamada Hōkoku poetic beauty (such as Mount Fuji) captured his was temporarily summoned to Edo by order of attention as much as sites of lesser repute (the his domain lord.43 During his absence, Tsuguno- red-light district of Hakata, to name one). He suke embarked on a lengthy trip that included would occasionally indulge in poetry-writing; in visits to Shikoku and Kyushu (Table 1). Na- Harima, for example, he jotted down verses on gasaki, where he spent two weeks,44 features the pain of separation that comes with long- prominently in his account. Why did Tsuguno- distance travel. 40 His interludes with poetry, suke decide to travel to Kyushu? He does not tell however, are few and far between. It is a keen us exactly, but Ōta Osamu hints at three likely eye for detail and a penchant for observation that reasons. First, being the pragmatist that he was, define his account. There is a camera-like quality Tsugunosuke must have seen Hōkoku’s tempo- to many of his descriptions; the snapshots he rary absence as an opportunity—a journey of captured and the conversations he recorded en- discovery was certainly more tantalizing to him able us to join him along the same roads he trav- than sitting idly in Matsuyama while waiting for eled. We stare with him at the main hall of his tutor’s return. Second, as a samurai, an intel- Mishima jinja and inspect the damage caused by lectual, and an administrator, Tsugunosuke may an earthquake, we eavesdrop on the talks of have wanted to investigate the southwestern do- pack-horse drivers, we smell the intense scent of mains, simmering as they were in sonnō jōi ide- sandalwood, and we partake of his meals, from ology. And last but not least, Tsugunosuke was the delicacies he enjoyed in Enoshima to the interested in international trade, as his brief ex- “absolutely awful” concoctions he was served in cursion through the Yokohama settlement had Konpira.41 Tsugunosuke, ever the avid observer, already demonstrated. It was only natural for him collected notes on the good, the bad, and the ugly, to wish to see firsthand the historic center of Ja- not failing to report on the dire poverty of Oka- yama farmers (“That’s because the [local] lord and his retainers are selfish and bad”) and on the 42 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 406 40 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 405 (entry for 7/15). (entry for 7/13). 43 In the second month (March) of 1859, as part Furusato no Harima mountains. of the Ansei purges, Ii Naosuke had stripped koshiji wa tōshi Far is my home Itakura Katsukiyo, the lord of Matsuyama Harimayama on the road to the north, domain, of his title of Temple and Shrine sumeru tsuki koso and yet the bright moon Magistrate (jisha bugyō). Andō Tetsuya suggests kawarazarikeri remains the same. that Katsukiyo invited Hōkoku to Edo to discuss Koshiji is an old name for the Hokurikudō. the situation and to have him report on the 41 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” pp. 400 reactions to this incident in the domain. Andō (entries for 6/11 and 6/12), 418 (n.d.), and 417. Tetsuya, Ri ni ikita otoko Kawai Tsugunosuke, For Enoshima, see pp. 399 (entry for 6/9); for the pp. 115–116. “absolutely awful meals” (makanai wa itatte 44 From 10/5 to 10/18, or October 30 to warushiki) at Konpira, 411 (entry for 6/20). November 12.

75 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

pan’s exchanges with the world.45 I would add famous for its cosmopolitan ambience that it was that, to a man of culture and erudition like common practice among visitors to collect, as Tsugunosuke, the journey to Nagasaki was a souvenirs, woodblock prints depicting the natural extension of his trip to Matsuyama, an- Chinese and Dutch residents or their ships. Other other chapter in his intellectual growth. He went visitors bought maps of the city which, not to Nagasaki specifically to examine the foreign unlike the “celebrity homes” maps sold in and learn from it, to the point that he dismissed Hollywood today, pinpointed accurately the the Dutch botanical garden as a place “with noth- location of the Chinese residence, of the island ing special to see” (kakubetsu ni miru shina mo of Dejima, and of Nagasaki’s four Chinese nashi) because it only featured Japanese (i.e. temples.50 commonplace, ordinary) plants.46 Of course, most Japanese visitors to Na- A traveler to nineteenth-century Nagasaki gasaki were not allowed to enter the foreign would not have had to look too hard before he or compounds, and could only observe them from she came across something that spoke, in one the outside. At the same time, the Dutch and way or the other, of the foreign: foreign vessels Chinese residences did not exist and operate in a were anchored in the bay, and a few complete social vacuum, and admission, while unmistakably foreign-looking buildings or restricted, was in fact possible, particularly spaces otherwise associated with foreignness through personal connections and with the me- gave an “international” flavor to the cityscape. diation of the interpreters. 51 It was precisely These included four Chinese temples (erected in through the intervention of a well-connected the seventeenth century), the Tōjin yashiki friend, Akizuki Teijirō, and with the help of an (Chinese residence, built in 1689), 47 and the interpreter that Tsugunosuke was able to enter artificial island of Dejima, home of the Dutch. parts of the Dutch factory (which he refers to as By the time Tsugunosuke visited in 1859, a Rankan).52 Akizuki and a Kara tsūshi, or Chi- foreign settlement was also developing by the nese interpreter, also facilitated Tsugunosuke’s shore in Ōura; inhabited, as he points out, by visit to the Chinese residence (which he calls “westerners” (yōjin), it was also a prime spot to Tōkan), even though, as Tsugunosuke admitted, see “blacks” (kokujin) and Indians (indojin). In “it is not an easy place to go see” for there were the fall of 1859 French and British gunboats numerous checkpoints (bansho) to clear before were also present in the bay, and there was even gaining access.53 a British church (or, as Tsugunosuke calls it, a As soon as he arrived to Nagasaki, Tsuguno- British “temple,” Igirisu tera) atop a nearby suke began investigating the foreign. He imme- hill.48 Moreover, as Tsugunosuke adds, “Chinese diately noticed a difference in the manner in and westerners walk[ed] about in the city” and there were “countless shops selling Chinese 50 49 Hosono Masanobu, Nagasaki Prints and Early goods and things western.” The city was so Copperplates, trans. Lloyd R. Craighill (Tokyo: International, 1978), p. 35. 45 Ōta Osamu, Kawai Tsugunosuke to Meiji ishin, 51 See Timon Screech, The Lens Within the p. 51. Heart: The Western Scientific Gaze and Popular 46 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 418. Imagery in Later Edo Japan (Honolulu: 47 , China in the Tokugawa World University of Hawai’i Press, 2002), p. 17. On the (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, importance of interpreters as intermediaries see p. 1992), p. 10. 15. 48 Kawai Tsugunoske, “Chiritsubo,” pp. 420 and 52 Tsugunosuke first met Akizuki, a samurai 419. He adds that he visited Ōura several times; from domain, in Matsuyama (7/28). On 8/1 he also went all the way up the hill to visit the Akizuki had left Matsuyama, but the two met church, but then decided not to enter “out of again in Nagasaki, at the Yamanoshitaya, where restraint.” they both lodged. Kawai Tsugunosuke, 49 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” pp.417 and “Chiritsubo,” pp. 416 and 418 (entry for 10/15). 420. 53 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 417.

76 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

which Chinese and western residents were seen. peculiar difference between Chinese and Japa- He wrote, “The Chinese are gentle-mannered nese eating habits was not lost on the authors and (odayaka), and for this reason the locals love publishers of travel manuals: an 1820 guide to them; they call them a-cha-san. They seem, Nagasaki’s famous places, for example, included [however] to dislike the westerners. Aside from images of Chinese banquets and even of pigs appearance, westerners and Chinese differ pro- roaming freely inside the Chinese residence.59 foundly in the way they behave.”54 The unpleas- By the same token, a humorous poem (senryū) ant character of the western guests transpired proclaimed: from their unruly (kikai, “outrageous”) behavior: they underpaid for sake, broke bottles, instigated Utsukushii With such a lovely face fights, tottered while intoxicated, and bothered kao de Yōkihi Yang Guifei the women on the streets. Far from being a set- buta o kui gobbles down that pork.60 back, however, Nagasaki’s peculiar street scene could not but stimulate Tsugunosuke’s curiosity. And so, while everyone else steered clear of an By playing on the juxtaposition of two especially obnoxious drunken foreigner, contrasting images, the beautiful Tang dynasty Tsugunosuke, ever the inquisitive intellect, fol- concubine Yang Guifei and a sloppy pork eater, lowed him around “just to observe his state” the senryū underscored, humorously, the (tada sono yōsu o miru tame).55 grotesque bizarreness of meat-eaters, in this case The lively street scene of Nagasaki was as the Chinese. While, as Tsukamoto Manabu noteworthy to Tsugunosuke as the much quieter points out, in certain regions the stigma against space of the Chinese residence. In their own meat-eating was not as strong as in others, and ways, they were both subjects of observation and some religious complexes showed various occasions to learn. During his visit to the Tōjin degrees of leniency toward meat-eating and the yashiki Tsugunosuke was accompanied by the slaughtering of animals,61 it is undeniable that, in interpreter Ishizaki, by Akizuki Teijirō, and by a the eyes of most, the consumption of meat dishes certain Toyota.56 equaled barbarism. 62 One Japanese castaway Once inside the residence, the “otherness” of who witnessed the slaughtering of a cow in China did not wait long to manifest itself. As he Hawai’i in 1838, for example, called the process made his way inside, Tsugunosuke noticed pork “a wretched, brutal method.”63 meat hung to dry (“They call it rankan,” he 57 wrote). While fish was a traditional staple of 59 “Nagasaki meishō zue,” in Asakura Haruhiko the Japanese diet, red meat and the meat of four- and Ikeda Yasaburō eds., Nihon meisho fūzoku legged animals were rarely eaten before the in- zue, vol. 15, Kyūshū no maki (Tokyo: Kadokawa troduction of beef delicacies in the Meiji period 58 Shoten, 1983), pp. 115–116. (1868–1912). The Chinese diet, on the other 60 In Tsukamoto Manabu, Kinsei saikō: chihō no hand, included a variety of meat dishes. Such shiten kara (Tokyo: Nihon Editaa Skūru Shuppanbu, 1986), p. 106. 54 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 417. 61 Tsukamoto cites the example of Tokugawa 55 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 417. Ieyasu, who was allegedly bewildered upon 56 Toyota had been a fellow student at the Koga finding out that, following the birth of his son, academy, and now worked for the government the head of a deer had been offered before the (kōgi [no] hito nari). Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chir- gods at Suwa shrine in Shinano, whereas no such itsubo,” p. 419. ritual would have been allowed at Asama/Sengen 57 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 417. shrine in Sunpu. Ieyasu even contacted a resident 58 For more on the consumption of meat in the of the shrine in Sunpu to ask whether such Tokugawa period see Susan B. Hanley, Everyday offering was acceptable. Tsukamoto, pp. 110– Things in Premodern Japan: The Hidden Legacy 111. of Material Culture (Berkeley: University of 62 Tsukamoto, pp. 106–117. California Press, 1997), pp. 65–67. 63 Tsukamoto, pp. 108 and 113.

77 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

Tsugunosuke and his companions were given was prepared and smoked: “place the paste at the a tour of the facility, after which they went back end of a stick, then temper it on the flame of an to “the small room” and were served a variety of oil lamp, place on a pipe head, and inhale; …. foods. The banquet featured pork stew (inoko no lay down on [your] side, rest [your head] on a kakuni), the aforementioned rankan, and other pillow, and inhale.” He characterized its scent as dishes the names of which Tsugunosuke failed to “fragrant” (kōbashiku, yoi nioi).67 As with Chi- memorize. Unlike the merchant Hishiya nese food, it is once again the absence of judg- Heishichi, who had traveled to Nagasaki in 1802 ment that strikes us as remarkable. Although and had remarked that the closer he came to his Tsugunosuke was keenly aware of the role destination, the more bizarre the food appeared had played in the humiliation of China at the due to the “proximity to other countries,” 64 hands of the British, he did not make any men- Tsugunosuke did not exoticize the gastronomic tion of it.68 What troubled him, if anything, was scene of the city port. Of the foods he was not so much the historical role of opium, as the served, he studied the ingredients, the shape, the cost of the addiction. Upon hearing that some taste, and left it at that.65 In fact, at times he was people could smoke up to twenty, thirty monme positively unimpressed: “the Chinese sake,” he worth of opium a day, Tsugunosuke commented wrote, “was a bit vinegary; I did not think it was that, for that kind of money, one could hire a all that good” (later he would make the same group of entertainers instead.69 comment about the wine, budōshu, he was Tsugunosuke missed out on the opportunity offered while visiting the Dutch factory); to bring out the connection between opium and Chinese tea also lost out to Japanese tea on defeat on yet another occasion, during a visit to grounds of being “plain” (tanpaku naru).66 In the house of Ishizaki, the interpreter. There, light of the general propensity to exoticize, Tsugunosuke and Akizuki enjoyed not only a dismiss as barbaric, and/or mock the eating magnificent view of Nagasaki from atop a hill habits of the Chinese (and of the Dutch, of but also a seemingly endless series of Chinese course), Tsugunosuke’s description of the paintings, scrolls, books, and inscriptions. Ishi- culinary scene within the Chinese residence is zaki’s collection was so extensive that Tsuguno- refreshingly non-judgmental, almost “scientific” suke looked at paintings and scrolls “from the in its matter-of-factness. fourth hour of the morning until sunset, and I did On the day he visited the Chinese compound, not [even] see all of them.”70 Among the art Tsugunosuke was offered not only food, but also pieces were works by Emperor Qianlong (1711– opium. Once again, his intellectual curiosity 1799) and by Lin Zexu (Commissioner Lin, kicked in. What interested him, more than trying 1785–1850). Indeed, of all the works he was it, was observing the ways in which the paste shown that day, Tsugunosuke admitted “the one I really coveted was the inscription by Emperor 71 64 Nagasaki ni chikazukitareba ryōri no sama mo Qianlong. I also liked the Lin Zexu.” Emperor ikoku ni chikashi ya to iyō naru koto. Hishiya Qianlong had met, in 1792, with British envoy Heishichi, “Tsukushi kikō,” in Haraguchi Torao, Takeuchi Toshimi, and Miyamoto Tsuneichi eds., 67 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 417. Nihon shomin seikatsu shiryō shūsei, vol. 20 68 We know he was familiar with the Opium War (Tokyo: San’ichi Shobō, 1972), p. 204. because elsewhere in the diary he describes a 65 Of some Chinese cakes he wrote, “they were Chinese guest discussing “the war” in Canton. sweet. Some looked like rice-cake cubes, See below. others—the name escapes me—appeared to be a 69 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 417. mixture of gyūhi and sesame.” Kawai 70 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 421. Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 418. Gyūhi is 71 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p.421. made by mixing steamed rice flour, white sugar, Tsugunosuke also mentions works by Emperor and rice syrup. Song Huizong (1082–1135), seventh-century 66 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” pp. 417 poet Chen Ziang, and painter Wen Zhengming and 418. (1470–1559).

78 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

Lord Macartney, while Commissioner Lin was loss at the hands of the West. While Tsugunosuke the official who had confiscated and destroyed did acknowledge some of opium’s negative as- the supplies of British opium in 1839, setting in pects, calling the paste strong and toxic, he did motion the events that led to the Opium War so briefly and without hinting at its larger social, (1839–1842) and the defeat of China. Despite political, and cultural implications. Such over- their obvious connections to China’s encounter sight could hardly be blamed on ignorance; likely, with the West, neither one prompted Tsuguno- it was a manifestation of his pragmatic approach suke to discuss such chapters of Chinese history. to the foreign and of his penchant for observa- It was another guest, a visitor, who tion.75 While to most opium reeked of aggression brought up the issue more or less directly when and defeat, Tsugunosuke stripped it of its conno- he lamented, “There aren’t any beautiful artifacts tations and simply studied it as he would have like these [paintings and inscriptions] in Canton any other topic. these days. During the war, everyone took them Whereas detached observation was the name away. […] Some ended up as far away as Nank- of the game when it came to China, Tsuguno- ing.”72 In the eyes of Tsugunosuke, however, suke’s initial reaction before the foreign objects Qianlong and Commissioner Lin failed to trans- of Dejima was one of undeniable surprise and mit images of conflict or defeat—they were, if manifest awe. He visited the Dutch factory on anything, admirable examples of China’s artistic 10/15 (November 9) in the company of Ishizaki, achievements. Akizuki, a certain Muta, and a Dutch interpreter. This reluctance to cry foul, to dwell on the Tsugunosuke’s familiarity with role of opium as a metaphor for western aggres- may have prepared him for the relative otherness sion and imperialism, is especially indicative of of the Tōijin yashiki. He was, however, slightly Tsugunosuke’s composure before the foreign. By less prepared for the absolute foreignness of the 1859 most Japanese intellectuals would have Dutch residence, a place that, as he admitted, felt agreed that China had lost its face following the like “a different world” (betsu [no] sekai) and humiliation of the Opium War. Knowledge of the where “there were many objects I had never seen war was by no means the preserve of govern- before.”76 ment officials: accounts, some more fictitious In Tsugunosuke’s report of the visit to the than others, were printed from woodblocks and Dutch residence, glass (biidoro, from the Portu- circulated widely despite the government’s ban guese vidro) plays the same role that pork had on literature that dealt with recent or contempo- played in the case of the Chinese compound: it rary events. Works in the league of Mineta marks the transition into a foreign space. Fūkō’s Kaigai shinwa (1849) stigmatized opium Tsugunosuke’s gaze zoomed in on bottles and as the foremost of all evils associated with for- flasks, glass pictures, windows that looked like eign (western) aggression.73 Moreover, in 1858, “glass sliding doors” (biidoro shōji), and mirrors. in the attempt to secure the ratification of the He noticed how the mirrors placed around a cer- Ansei Treaties, Consul Townsend Harris had tain room created an optical illusion whereby specifically lectured the rōjū Hotta Masayoshi on “one room looked like many.” Still, he was more the risks associated with the opium trade; the intrigued than confused: “One does not see a transcripts of his speech had eventually reached place like this even in paintings,” he remarked. the hands of many a daimyo.74 From the high Further inspection of three or four other rooms spheres of power down to the buzz on the street, fostered his admiration: “They were all beauti- then, opium conveyed images of humiliation and 75 As Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi observes, 72 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p.421. “Bakumatsu anti-foreignism was not monolithic 73 Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi, “Opium, Expulsion, in nature; a particular thinker’s position on the Sovereignty: China’s Lessons for Bakumatsu opium issue revealed the precise character of his Japan,” Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 47, No. 1 anti-foreign thought.” Wakabayashi, p. 24. (Spring 1992): 1–25. 76 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 418 74 Wakabayashi, p. 18. (entry for 10/15).

79 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

ful” (mina kirei nari).77 Shuang). The Kankōmaru was the bakufu’s first Tsugunosuke’s fascination with Dutch glass steamboat; a gift the Dutch had presented the objects is indicative of his curious nature and of Tokugawa in 1854. While Tsugunosuke was in his pragmatism. As a case study, glass is featured Nagasaki, the Kankōmaru made a brief appear- prominently in scholarship that looks at the place ance, carrying on board Naval Minister (funa of material culture in the encounter between Ja- taishō) Yatabori Kō. 81 Tsugunosuke had seen pan and the West. Martha Chaiklin, for example, Perry’s steamboats from afar six years prior in has shown how Dutch bottles, thermometers, and Uraga, and from afar he had admired the two mirrors were popular “exotica” for many Toku- warships anchored off the coast of Shinagawa at gawa period Japanese; she also uses glass as an the onset of his 1859 trip; this time, however, he example of successful technological cross- was invited on board.82 As one would expect, he fertilization, arguing that awareness of Dutch inspected the weaponry (cannons, gunpowder techniques inspired the Japanese to better their storage, pistols), the various components of the own glassmaking methods. 78 Timon Screech ship (mast, padding wheel, ropes, ladders, etcet- adds that glass (in the form of mirrors, lenses, era), as well as the clocks and the pumps used to seeing-glasses, microscopes, bottles, and win- draw water from the ocean and put out fires. dows) “was integral to the notion of seeing in the Many of the instruments, he acknowledged, were manner of Ran” and played a relevant role in the same as the ones he had seen at the Dutch sustaining “scientific” approaches to the study of factory, but there were also things he could not the West, as well as a general curiosity for things make out (wakari mo senu), especially because Dutch (“Hollandomania,” or Ranpeki).79 It is not some of the tools on board were “not at all like surprising, then, that Tsugunosuke would also the ones one sees in the illustrations of the [en- focus on this prominent symbol of western tech- cyclopedia] World Geography with Maps.”83 The nology. Without exoticizing it, however, he sim- tour of the Kankōmaru is another example of ply investigated it in an effort to quench his thirst Tsugunosuke’s interest in foreign technology and for knowledge. In a business-like manner he ob- in the practical advantages of accepting the West. served that, in Dejima, “objects like bottles are One may even argue that, to a pragmatist like more refined (jōhin) than the ones that make Tsugunosuke, the realization that the images he their way to Japan. […] In each country the ob- had seen in the illustrated encyclopedia World jects [people] use for themselves are more pleas- Geography with Maps were inaccurate may have ant than the ones they send out to other coun- 80 tries.” 81 Also present in Nagasaki bay at the time was While high-quality glass items may have not the much more famous Kanrinmaru, which a few made their way to the Japanese markets, months later, in the first month of 1860, would Tsugunosuke did in fact observe some of the po- depart from Shinagawa and carry the members of tential results and practical, powerful manifesta- the bakufu’s first embassy to the . tions of cross-cultural exchanges and interna- 82 The invitation came as a result of Akizuki’s tionalism. This occurred on two different occa- personal connection to Yatabori Kō. sions: his inspection of the Kankōmaru and his 83 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 420. evening with the Cantonese Feng Jingru (Feng World Geography with Maps (Jp: Kaikoku zushi; Ch.: Haiguo tuzhi) was a sixty-volume collection 77 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 418. by Chinese author Wei Yuan (1794–1857). 78 Martha Chaiklin, Cultural Commerce and Printed in China in the mid-nineteenth century as Dutch Commercial Culture: The Influence of a translation of Hugh Murray’s Encyclopedia of European Material Culture on Japan, 1700– Geography (1834), it was brought to Japan in 1850 (Leiden: CNWS, 2003), Ch. 7. 1854 and was widely read by anyone who had an 79 Screech, The Lens Within the Heart, pp. 133 interest in the West. See Masao Miyoshi, As We and 10. Saw Them: The First Japanese Embassy to the 80 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 418 United States (1860) (Berkeley: University of (10/15). California Press, 1979), p. 80.

80 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

reinforced the notion that there is no substitute measure up to the foreigners.86 This process of for direct experience. self-strengthening, however, was not possible If the Kankōmaru symbolized the successful without an open mind. The 1859 trip to Yoko- encounter of Japan with the world from a techno- hama and Nagasaki confirmed what Tsuguno- logical standpoint, the Cantonese guest Feng suke already suspected: that knowledge was the Shuang epitomized the cultural benefits of inter- antidote against fear. First-hand interaction with nationalism. Tsugunosuke was especially im- members of the foreign community arguably pressed by the man’s determination to learn inspired him to fully articulate his budding ideas Japanese customs (“he wants to practice the about the advantages of accepting other cultures ways of Japan”)—squatting Japanese-style, serv- and enabled him to further expand his hori- ing sake according to Japanese etiquette, and zons.87 even making a sincere effort to learn the lan- Tsugunosuke’s openness toward the world guage.84 Seamlessly transitioning from Chinese made him, and those who shared his beliefs, to Japanese customs, and yet never losing his likely targets in the increasingly violent clashes refinement and elegance, Feng Shuang prompted between opposing factions. In the early 1860s Tsugunosuke to acknowledge that “if one meets the supporters of the “revere the Emperor, expel with all other countries, one’s spirit will sponta- the barbarians” (sonnō jōi) movement carried out neously expand.”85 The journey to Nagasaki, in attacks not only against foreigners but also short, encouraged Tsugunosuke’s already strong against those whom they believed had not done interest for the world beyond Japan. And while enough to block the encroachment of the West. the practical aspects of cross-cultural encoun- In 1860 a group of loyalists assassinated Prime ters—trade and technology—remained the center Minister Ii Naosuke (1815–1860), the architect of his attention, people like Feng Shuang offered of the 1858 treaties. On 1864/7/11 (August 12, him real-life examples of the more spiritual 1864), in Kyoto, sonnō jōi activists murdered benefits of opening up to different cultures. Tsugunosuke’s former tutor, Sakuma Shōzan. In a letter to his brother-in-law written on 1864/9/4 Tsugunosuke and the world beyond Japan (October 4, 1864), two months after the death of The 1859 encounter with the foreign, as we Shōzan and five years after his Nagasaki trip, know, was not Tsugunosuke’s first. The arrival of Tsugunosuke sternly criticized blind and sense- Commodore Perry’s black ships at Uraga in 1853 less xenophobia. He wrote: had already exposed him to the West and had arguably piqued his interest in the debate over [The rumors] that these rōnin who call for foreign encroachment. Even then Tsugunosuke the expulsion of the barbarians and revering had reacted with a remarkable degree of aplomb. the emperor (jōi sonnō) circulate are the ut- The memorial he wrote for his domain lord at most absurdities (ugu). […] And what kind that time drew on Chinese historical precedent to of notion is that of “expelling the barbari- examine Japan’s current situation. When the Song dynasty was attacked by the Jurchens, 86 Ishihara Kazuaki, Ryōchi no hito Kawai General Li Zhongding had addressed Emperor Tsugunosuke, pp. 56–58. In this respect he may Huizong (1082–1135) encouraging him to do also have been influenced by the pragmatic away with his life of luxury, cut on all extrava- approach of Sakuma Shōzan, who tried to find a gances, focus on politics, and replenish the compromise between “eastern ethics and western treasury, for this was the only way to fight back science.” the invader. Tsugunosuke believed that Li’s 87 Andō Hideo, “Kawai Tsugunosuke: sono hito words rang true for Japan’s case as well; it was to kiseki,” p. 18. A list of texts Tsugunosuke his position that each domain should strengthen either read or acquired after the Nagasaki trip its finances and its armies in order to be able to indeed reveals a growing interest for the outside world, for it includes the “America” section of 84 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 422. World Geography with Maps. Kawai 85 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 422. Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 432.

81 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

ans”? If, when the western ships arrive, we and Chōshū have come between them, plot- raise our discipline, strengthen the army, and ting to tear them apart. […] enrich the country, there is no reason to be Item: Intercourse with foreign countries is afraid (osoreru ni tarazu koto ni sōrō). But to necessary. If they come to this realization, shout “expel the barbarians, expel the bar- both court nobles and shogunate officials barians” without having made any prepara- without distinction will reform the way of tions, that is the nonsense of cowards politics, the government and the people will (okubyōmono no tawagoto), and that is what be in agreement, and our priority will be to we should worry about. If we prepare, we work hard toward [the creation of] a rich will be able to pave the way for commercial country and a strong army (fukoku kyōhei). relations, take advantage of the circum- […] stances, and promote the wealth of the coun- Item: […] It is possible that our customs and try. As for rumors of these rōnin without an our institutions will be westernized. In the income, is it not reckless behavior? It cannot course of its history, Japan has already as- but be deplored. I cannot help but worry that, similated and absorbed the manners and in- in the end, this [behavior] will lead our coun- stitutions of China. And yet, even foreigners try to war (tenka no ran), which is deplor- have their own way of humanity and justice able.88 (jingi no michi), therefore, from an equal standpoint, we need not fear the coming of This was not Tsugunosuke’s first proclama- western customs and systems.89 tion against the narrow-mindedness of the loyal- ist movement. In an earlier letter to his brother- Having been exposed to the foreign and hav- in-law dated 1860/3/7 (March 28, 1860)— ing assessed its usefulness, Tsugunosuke was not written, therefore, only four days after the assas- afraid of what came from beyond Japan’s borders. sination of Ii Naosuke—he had condemned the Both his missives insist on this point (“we need machinations of Satsuma and Chōshū while try- not fear,” “there is no reason to be afraid”) and at ing to dispel any sense of fear about the outside the same time decry the stupidity (gumō, ugu) of world, and the West in particular. On that occa- blind anti-foreignism. Bravery, to Tsugunosuke, sion Tsugunosuke had written: meant encountering the world face to face rather than hiding in the shadow to carry out sneak- Item: We can no longer avoid great changes attacks. The only existing photograph we have of for our country. That means the influence of him radiates just such confidence.90 It was taken foreign countries is drawing near, and politi- in 1859, during his visit to Nagasaki—while the cal measures advocating the expulsion of circumstances behind its production are unclear, foreigners (jōi) are just foolish (gumō). one may speculate that the photograph was Item: Coastal defense is our priority. How- meant to be a reminder of the encounter between ever, it is much more important for our coun- the warrior and the foreign. Posing before a cam- try to entertain relations with our neighboring era for the first time in his life, Tsugunosuke countries. At this point, an error on our part must have been fascinated. Nevertheless, in the would jeopardize the safety of the entire photograph the young samurai does not look un- country. comfortable, confused, or stiff, nor is he posing Item: The relations between the Kyoto court in a way that could be conceived of as artificial. and the Edo government are a matter of ut- most concern. It is regrettable that Satsuma 89 In Ōta Osamu, Kawai Tsugunosuke to Meiji ishin, pp. 83–84. 90 The photo is included in the following texts: 88 Inagawa Akio, “Hokuetsu no fūunji Kawai Andō Hideo, Teihon Kawai Tsugunosuke; Andō Tsugunosuke,” pp. 9–10. See also Andō Hideo, Hideo and Yokomura Katsuhiro eds., Kawai “Kawai Tsugunosuke: sono hito to kiseki,” pp. Tsugunosuke shashinshū; Ōta Osamu, Kawai 20–21. Tsugunosuke to Meiji ishin..

82 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

His posture relaxed, Tsugunosuke looks confi- Tsugunosuke fought on the side of the Toku- dent and at ease; he stares intently into the lens gawa in the 1868 Echigo War and died later that with the poise of a man who has met the foreign year,93 at age forty-two, as a consequence of and has accepted it, a “man with a vision” and wounds he sustained on the battlefield. We will “with a keen eye, who saw right through never know whether, before dying, he was re- things.”91 minded of the words he had jotted down while passing through Akō, the hometown of the fa- Epilogue mous forty-seven rōnin, on his way to Ma- In the spring of 1860 Kawai Tsugunosuke in 1859—words that rang poetic as completed his training under Hōkoku, left Ma- much as ironic: “Just an ounce of loyalty and tsuyama, and returned to Nagaoka. Two years bravery crushes iron and stone.”94 At the twilight later he was appointed Kyōtozume (Kyoto Offi- of an era that had witnessed the domestication of cial) and sent to the imperial capital. In 1864 he the samurai, this curious intellect and admirer of was transferred to Edo, only to return to Na- things foreign died, in the end, the death of a gaoka as tozama ginmi the following year. Be- warrior. tween 1865 and 1868 Tsugunosuke served his * * * domain in various capacities: as district magis- Tsugunosuke was by no means the only tol- trate, city magistrate, Edo Official, toshiyori, and erant thinker in late Tokugawa Japan. While it is eventually karō, all the while implementing a undeniable that a good degree of anti-foreign series of fiscal and military reforms inspired by sentiment was present, it is also true that even the notion of “rich country and strong army” among those who advocated a general policy of (fukoku kyōhei). resistance against foreign encroachment there Unlike many of the warriors of Tokugawa were individuals who envisioned a compromise Japan, Tsugunosuke actually experienced battle. between western technology and “eastern” ethics. His concern that, some day, the clash between As recent studies have pointed out, even the pro- and anti-Tokugawa forces would result in a voices coming from within the Nativist circles war—a concern he had expressed in the 1864 were far from univocal.95 Tsugunosuke’s case, letter to his brother-in-law—eventually became a then, should not be overstated as a brave reaction reality, and when the Echigo Campaign began in against a dominant, pervasive, and monolithic the fifth month (late June) of 1868, he was thrust anti-foreign discourse, but rather as an especially into action. Even in preparing for war he showed poignant example of a trend toward compromise, his openness to foreign ideas and technology a trend inspired by intellectual curiosity as much when he chose to arm his samurai with efficient as by the desire to steer Japan away from a colli- rear-loading Minie rifles in lieu of the less effec- sion course with the West like the one experi- tive front-loading firearms that were common enced by China. In the case of Tsugunosuke, en- among warriors. After collecting these state-of- countering the world meant observing, learning, the-art weapons in Yokohama in 1868, he loaded and reporting without mocking or exoticizing, them onto the steamship of his friend General without feeling uncomfortable, and without Schnell and transported them to Niigata. 92 drawing immediate and irrational conclusions Tsugunosuke’s interest for the foreign, which based on fear. was born out of his studies, had blossomed with the 1859 trip, and had grown stronger in reaction to the rampant xenophobia of the early 1860s, lasted though the end. 93 Tsugunosuke died on 1868/8/16 (October 1, 91 Inagawa Akio, “Hokuetsu no fūunji Kawai 1868). Tsugunosuke,” p. 11. 94 Kawai Tsugunosuke, “Chiritsubo,” p. 405. 92 Andō Hideo, “Gattoringu kikanhō—Nagaoka 95 Mark Teeuwen “Kokugaku vs. Nativism,” han no shinheiki,” p. 112; Tokoro Sōkichi, Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 61, No. 2 (Summer “Nagaoka-han no gunsei to sōbi,” p. 108. 2006): 227–242.

83 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

Celebrating Kyō: The Eccentricity serious classical linked verse (ushin no ) was also called kyōku.2 In this tradition, to main- of Bashō and Nampo tain the identity of a comic/popular literary genre means, to a great extent, to maintain its eccentric © Peipei Qiu, Vassar College stance. When Yamazaki Sōkan (dates unknown) and Arakida Moritake (1473–1549) attempted to Kyō (madness or eccentricity) has been a no- make comic linked verse an autonomous poetic table aesthetic paradigm in Japanese literature form in the early sixteenth century, kyō became a since the medieval period, but the concept of kyō key element in haikai poetics. However, the kyō has never been monolithic. In fact, the term in of early haikai was centered on vulgar parody existing Japanese texts represents highly diverse and wildness; it was used merely for the sake of authorial intentions and stances, including politi- creating humour. The Danrin School that had cal resistance, religious nonconformity, aesthetic influenced the early work of Bashō also contrib- preference, social criticism, ethical concerns, and uted to the development of the eccentric stance the construction of a literary identity. Kyō as an in haikai by promoting a style that emphasized aesthetic paradigm is fundamentally established exaggerations and falsehoods. Although the Dan- on the reversal of literary conventions. It played rin School breathed life into comic linked verse, a very important role in Edo literature when the its formalistic novelty failed to create profound writers sought novel creative spaces beyond the poetry. In order to transform haikai into poetry classical canons to develop popular genres. of profound meaning, Bashō and his followers This paper examines how kyō or eccentricity reinvented the kyō of haikai by creating the per- constituted an important part of the creativity of sonae of unworldly recluse and carefree wan- both Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), the greatest derer. Through this effort, Bashō transformed the haikai (comic linked verse) poet, and Ōta Nampo nature of kyō in haikai poetics fundamentally, (1749–1823), the best kyōshikyōbun (Chinese- making it a cornerstone of Shōmon (Bashō style eccentric poem and prose) writer. It demon- School) poetics. strates that while both of them excelled at what The celebration of eccentricity was a promi- Haruo Shirane has called “the literature of rever- 1 nent theme of Bashō’s poetry since the early sal”, Bashō’s kyō often works effectively in stage of his haikai school. In a (opening turning the earthy and the aberrant to the lofty verse) written on his journey in 1684, Bashō in- and the spiritual, and Nampo’s tends to bring the troduces himself as an eccentric poet: refined and the classical down to the vulgar, funny, even crude meaning in claiming a distinc- With a crazy verse (kyōku) tive poetic world of his own. and the wintry winds—I must look Kyō, literally meaning madness or insanity, much like Chikusai. implies behavior or thought that so radically transcends worldly concerns that it appears ec- Kyōku kogarashi no / mi wa chikusai ni / centric. In Japanese literary texts before Bashō, nitaru kana3 kyō has always been used to refer to the popular or comic genres that are distinct from their or- 2 thodox counterparts, such as kyōka (eccentric My discussion here owes much to Shirane’s observation in Traces of Dreams, p. 73. tanka or short Japanese poem), kyōshi (eccentric 3 kanshi or poem in Chinese style), kyōbun (eccen- Imoto Nōichi, Yayoshi Kanichi, Yokozawa tric prose), and kyōgen (eccentric drama). Haikai Saburō, Ogata Tsutomu, eds., Kōhon Bashō as the humorous and aberrant counterpart to the zenshū (Henceforth abbreviated KBZ) (Tokyo: Kadokawa shoten, 1962–1969), 6: 59. Translation is from Peipei Qiu, Bashō and the 1 Haruo Shirane, Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Dao: The Zhuangzi and the Transformation of Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Bashō Haikai (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998), p. 2005), p. 74. My translation owes much to 12. Donald Keene’s translation in Landscape and

84 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

the banks of the Fukagawa River at the outskirts The same poem also appears as the first verse of of Edo. Four years after the move, he abandoned a haikai sequence in Fuyu no hi (The winter this temporary shelter to become a constant way- days), a collection of five kasen 4 sequences farer. In “Genjūan no ki,” (“On the Unreal Bashō produced with a group of poets in Nagoya Dwelling,” 1690), a haikai prose text written in in 1684. In Fuyu no hi, there is a prose passage his later years, Bashō describes his unique way before the poem, which says: of life as “my eccentric ways”:

My bamboo hat had worn out in the rains of But I should not have it thought from what I the long journey, and my paper jacket had have said that I am devoted to solitude and become crumpled in the storms. A poor man seek only to hide my traces in the wilderness. utterly destitute, even I felt pity for myself. Rather, I am like a sick man weary of people, Suddenly I remembered that a gifted man of or someone who is tired of the world. What eccentric poetry had visited this province in is there to say? I have not led a clerical life, the past, and I uttered: “With a crazy verse / nor have I served in normal pursuits. Ever and the wintry winds—I must look / much since I was very young I have been fond of like Chikusai.”5 my eccentric ways, and once I had come to make them the source of a livelihood, tempo- Bashō’s verse is a greeting to show his modesty rarily I thought, I discovered myself bound to the hosts and to introduce his new poetic ideal for life to the one line of my art, incapable of fūkyō (poetic eccentricity). The “gifted man of and talentless as I am.6 eccentric poetry” refers to Chikusai portrayed in Toyama Dōya’s (1634) comic tale. According to Bashō claims that he was “fond of [his] eccentric the tale, Chikusai, a charlatan who was crazy ways” ever since he was very young and that this about eccentric tanka (kyōka), once traveled to eccentricity led him to his art, but we know little Nagoya on his journey from Kyōto to Edo. By about his childhood. Existing evidence only tells comparing himself to Chikusai and associating us that Bashō had been teaching haikai before he his eccentric haikai verse (kyōku) with Chiku- moved to Fukagawa, which could hardly be de- sai’s kyōka, Bashō advocates his fūkyō ideal scribed as eccentric. Nonetheless, what is sig- through the eccentric poetic persona. nificant about this passage is that Bashō draws a The poem and prose above show that during direct connection between his “eccentric ways” that period Bashō deliberately reinvented his of life and his art. This emphasis on the integra- poetic identity through the image of an eccentric. tion of his poetic ideals and his way of life re- In fact, not only did Bashō celebrate the eccen- flected Bashō’s belief in the “sincerity of poetry” tric taste in his writings, but he also led the life (fūga no makoto).7 Bashō’s choice to be a hut- of an eccentric recluse and perpetual traveler. In dweller and wayfarer was a genuine effort to 1680, he left the city where he had a successful pursue fūryū, which, as he saw, were embodied career teaching haikai and moved to a cottage on in the aesthetic recluse traditions of China and Japan and were highlighted by the Daoist ideal Portraits (Tokyo and Palo Alto: Kōdansha of shōyōyū (C. xiaoyaoyou). The word fūryū is International, 1971), p. 102. polysemous in both Chinese and Japanese. In 4 Kasen is a genre of linked verse that consists of Bashō’s poetry it implies an aesthetic ideal that 36 links. rejects worldly values and reveres the recluse 5 KBZ, 3: 254–255. Translation is from Qiu, tradition, seeking beauty in a lifestyle or mental- Bashō and the Dao, p. 74. Cf. Makoto Ueda, comp., trans., and with an introduction, Bashō 6 Translation is from Donald Keene, Anthology and His Interpreters: Selected Hokku with of Japanese Literature (New York: Grove Press, Commentary (Stanford: Stanford University 1955), pp. 376. The account in Japanese can be Press, 1991), p. 120; and Haruo Shirane, Traces found in KBZ, 6: 470–471. of Dreams, p. 123. 7Hattori Dōhō, Sanzōshi, in KBZ, 7: 174.

85 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

ity that is free of material burdens and devoted to have no use for the rulership of the world.”9 Evi- arts. Shōyōyū/xiaoyaoyou is variously translated dently, the metaphor of the mole evokes a pref- as free-and-easy wandering, carefree wandering, erence for simplicity and spiritual freedom, and carefree meandering. The Daoist classic which embodies the profound meaning with Zhuangzi advocates it as a spiritual, ethical, and which Bashō seeks to imbue his poem. The aesthetic ideal. Fundamentally emphasizing the mole, therefore, functions as an allusion to the physical and mental freedom of the individual, it Zhuangzi and through this allusion an intertex- highlights a quality or state resulting from being tual structure is formed between Bashō’s verse ziran (natural and spontaneous) and wuwei (inac- and the Daoist classic. In this context it becomes tion or noninterference), which the Zhuangzi clear that the mole is part of a self-portrait of the reiterates as the perfect beauty and the manifesta- speaker as an eccentric who follows the aesthetic tion of the Dao. The xiaoyaoyou ideal had a pro- recluse tradition and finds perfect happiness in found impact on the themes and theories of Chi- solitude. In a haikai prose on the occasion of the nese literature and arts and was adapted by many rebuilding of Bashō-an (Plantain Hut), the hut in Japanese writers, including Bashō. Bashō’s pur- which he dwells, Bashō makes this aesthetic suit for the poetic eccentricity and unconvention- stance even more explicit: ality was clearly seen in the poems written after his move to Fukagawa. Minashiguri (Empty I regard a mind that has no material concern Chestnuts), a collection of haikai published in as venerable, and a person who lacks talent 1683, contains the following poem: and knowledge as perfect. A shelterless per- petual wanderer is next to them. A man of Ice—bitter-tasting— strong free spirit can withstand the attack of just enough to moisten the little quail’s wings…Shaken by the wind, the throat of the mole. the plantain leaves wave like a phoenix’s tail. Torn in the rain, they look like a green Kōri nigaku / enso ga nodo o / uruoseri8 dragon’s ears. Their new leaves grow each day, as what Hengqu has wished for This verse can be viewed to be a humorous por- his learning, and as if they are waiting to un- trayal of the hardship of a recluse’s life. The pe- roll under Master Huaisu’s writing brush. culiar word “enso” (mole) written in two Chi- Nonetheless, I am not following these two nese characters that are not commonly used, great models. I simply spend my carefree however, suggests that this image is not simply days in the shade, admiring these plantain an animal present at the scene, but a word from leaves for their serenity as they are torn in Chinese sources. the wind and the rain.10 As has been frequently pointed out, “enso” (C. yanshu) is from the Daoist classic Zhuangzi While this passage is written in acknowledge- and hence it introduces an important intertextual ment of Bashō’s disciples and friends who built a link. According to the Zhuangzi, Yao, the legen- new hut for him, it is interspersed with refer- dary monarch, wants to cede the empire to a re- ences to many Chinese texts. The opening state- cluse called Xu You. Xu rejected the offer, using ment, which in many ways follows the depiction the mole as a metaphor in his reply: “When the of the Perfect Man in the Zhuangzi, declares the tailorbird builds her nest in the deep wood, she uses no more than one branch. When the mole 9Burton Watson, The Complete Works of Chuang drinks at the river, he takes no more than a belly- Tzu (New York: Columbia University Press, ful. Go home and forget the matter, my lord. I 1968), pp. 32–33. 10“Bashō o utsusu kotoba,” in KBZ, 6: 504–505; translation is from Peipei Qiu, Bashō and the 8 KBZ, 1: 74. The poem is a hokku in the Dao, pp. 65–66. Cf. Makoto, Ueda trans., Bashō collection. Translation is from Qiu, Bashō and (Tokyo and New York: Kōdansha International, the Dao, p. 48. 1970), p. 118.

86 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

essence of the poetic eccentricity in Bashō’s among the literati from around the 1750s.12 Born work. “The attack of the little quail’s wings,” about a century after Bashō, Ōta Nampo served which is a metaphor for the prejudice of small- the Tokugawa government diligently as an offi- minded people to the lofty eccentric, is based on cial for over fifty years. Yet, in his poems the depiction of the little quail’s laughing at the Nampo deliberately and confidently portrayed great Peng bird in the Zhuangzi. Bashō contrasts himself as an eccentric recluse, or, in his own the idleness of the eccentric with the diligence of word, riin, “a recluse in government.” Well- two famous figures in Chinese history. Zhang versed in Chinese poetry and classics, Nampo Hengqu (1020–1077) was a celebrated Song frequently cited Chinese texts in his writings, Confucian scholar and Huaisu (725–785) was a and he also drew upon the same Daoist sources priest and calligrapher of the Tang dynasty; both to which Bashō had referred in creating an ec- were known for having achieved success through centric persona. In his Neboke sensei bunshū hard work. It is said that when seeing the rapid (The Master Sleepy Head’s collection, 1767), he growth of the plantain leaves, Zhang wrote a portrays himself as follows: poem to express his wish that his knowledge would grow equally quickly. Huaisu used plan- The Master is a Chinese beast. His ancestry tain leaves on which to practice writing skills. traces back to Mr. Lu of Handan, who had a Bashō, whose name literally means “plantain”, wild dream of becoming a high official; a announces that he follows the example of neither character derived from him is no doubt also a of the model scholars. What he prefers is to Chinese beast. Hence, the master named spend his carefree days11 in the shade of the himself Sleepy Head. …A late riser who falls plantain leaves, like a Daoist recluse indulging in asleep early in the evening, he never stays up untroubled wandering. till midnight or gets up before dawn. In his Bashō’s eccentric self-portrayal associates sleep he would talk nonsense. He particularly the reclusive life—either that of the poet himself loves the story in which Zhuangzi dreamt he or that of recluse in general—with the Chinese was a butterfly alighting upon a vegetable philosophical and aesthetic recluse tradition, leaf. . .13 making the humorous verse haikai simultane- ously profound. As seen in the examples above, This prose piece typically represents the style of Bashō’s “eccentric way” of life seems to be a kyōbun that has humor and parody as its core. carefully structured aesthetic context for writing Yet, the eccentric self-portrayal of Master Sleepy poems, and the unique quality of Bashō’s poetry Head goes beyond a superficial caricature. The owes much to his eccentric way of life as a hut- prose contains a number of allusions that give dweller and wayfarer. In other words, the eccen- the comic depiction deeper implications. Mr. Lu tric reclusive life provided a context by which of Handan is a poor scholar in a Tang (618–907) Bashō successfully transformed the comic linked tale. He failed the imperial examinations and, on verse to a profound art form. his way home, lodged at Handan, where the Dao- Celebration of the eccentric persona contin- ist immortal Lü Dongbin lent him a magic pillow. ued to be an important theme and aesthetic value Mr. Lu fell asleep on the pillow and dreamt that in Edo literature even after the death of Bashō in he had become the Prime Minister of the state, 1694, though it developed new characteristics. but awoke only to find the pot of millet still One of its most important proponents was Ōta cooking on the fire. Mr. Lu was awakened to the Nampo who was regarded as the most talented writer of kyōshi and kyōbun that became popular 12 Itō Sei, et al., Shinchō Nihon bungaku shōjiten (Tokyō: Shinchōsha, 1981), p. 332. 13 Neboke sensei bunshū, in Nakano Mitsutoshi, 11 Asobite, the word Bashō uses here, literally Hino Tatsuo, and Ibi Takashi, annot. and ed. means “play.” The word is often written in a Shin Nihon koten bungaku taikei (Tokyo: character that is the same as the last character of Iwanami shoten, 1993. Henceforth abbreviated the word shōyōyū. SNKBT), 84: 34–35.

87 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

illusory nature of life by the dream, and eventu- cept that one could achieve lofty reclusion amid ally became a Daoist recluse. The golden millet the bustle in a city, at the marketplace, or even dream became a well-known idiom for delusions when serving as an official, as long as one’s of grandeur in Chinese literature. By calling mind transcended worldly pursuits and remained himself “a descendent of Mr. Lu,” Nampo simul- solely devoted to art. taneously makes a mockery of his career as an Early models of such aesthetic reclusion ap- official and expresses his preference for retreat. peared in medieval Japan, as seen in the work of In this kyōbun, the authorial interest in the Daoist Yoshida Kenkō (ca. 1283–ca. 1352), and this values is further revealed by the overt allusion to type of “reclusion” was widely favored by the the famous parable of the butterfly’s dream in the early modern Japanese literati, particularly when Zhuangzi, which puts the nature of reality and the bunjin (literati) movement flourished in Ja- dream in a relativistic perspective.14 By skillfully pan from the seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth stringing together a group of intertexts and im- century. It was in this context that Nampo cele- ages associated with sleep and dream, Nampo brated riin (recluse in government). Ri means cleverly imparts funny meaning into the recluse “official” and in means “to retreat.” By riin he persona Master Sleepy Head. meant one who has maintained mental solitude While in Master Sleepy Head he creates a while serving as a government official. Shiin is self-image as one with the propensity toward another term used popularly by the literati of becoming a recluse, Nampo never actually Nampo’s time; in a similar vein it referred to physically lived the life of a hermit as had Bashō someone who is able to attain a solitary mental previously. To Nampo and his contemporaries, a state even within a city or marketplace. Both riin mental preference and an aesthetic taste for soli- and shiin can also be used as verbs. Being tude were enough to qualify one to be a lofty termed a riin or shiin did not imply that one was recluse. The practice of reclusion became a mat- insincere. Rather, such people were considered ter of mentality and aesthetic paradigm in China highly admirable for being able to uphold the as early as the Wei-Jin period (220–420). In Jin recluse spirit within corrupting environments. shu (Book of the Jin), a history book compiled in Although reclusive in different ways, the seventh century, reclusion is already defined Nampo's description of "Master Sleepy Head" as existing fundamentally in one’s own mind shares the same carefree attitude as that of the instead of the external environment. The Wei-Jin poetic persona of Bashō. Like Bashō who prefers literati enthusiastically celebrated deliberate ec- to spend his days idly in the shade of the plantain centricity as fengliu (J. fūryū), and their tendency leaves, Master Sleepy Head never cares to stay toward reclusion played an important part in up late or get up early. The similarity between promoting that aesthetic in Chinese literature. Master Sleepy Head and the haikai master in the From the Wei-Jin period onward, it became a Plantain Hut is deliberately created. Evidence generally accepted, even deeply admired, con- shows that Nampo was clearly aware of Bashō’s tradition and consciously included Bashō’s 14 works in his intertextual sources. Yomo no aka The parable in the Zhuangzi relates the follow- 15 ing story: “Once Zhuang Zhou [Zhuangzi] (Filth left by Yomo, 1787), the earliest collec- dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and tion of Nampo’s kyōbun, contains a short fluttering around, happy with himself and doing “Eulogy on Bashō.” The eulogy says: as he pleased. He didn’t know he was Zhuang Zhou. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, He dwells amid broad plantain leaves, and solid and unmistakable Zhuang Zhou. But he wanders on the narrow road of fūryū. His didn’t know if he was Zhuang Zhou who had mind encapsulates the sentiments of winds dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dream- and clouds, and his heart stays with the flow- ing he was Zhuang Zhou.” See Burton Watson, trans., The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu (New 15 It has been noted that the comic title of York and London: Columbia University Press, collection is derived from one of Nampo’s 1968.), p. 49. pennames, Yomo no Akara.

88 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

ers and birds. Is he a priest, a layman, or ern Japan these concepts were widely applied in simply a recluse? He is the singular haikai instructions on literary writing. Although Bashō master.16 rarely used the terms ga and zoku directly, his teaching on haikai emphasized a thorough Readers who are familiar with Bashō’s writings knowledge of the distinction between the high- immediately notice that each sentence of the class literature and vulgar vocabulary and ex- kyōbun alludes to a work or works by Bashō. pressions, requiring his disciples to convey lofty The first sentence refers to Bashō’s prose on re- values through the language of common people. building the Plantain Hut cited earlier and to his Like Bashō Nampo also used the aesthetic of best-known travel account Oku no hosomichi eccentricity to establish his literary world. His (Narrow road to the depths, 1694). The “narrow eccentric persona helped bring his kanshibun road of fūryū” concisely captures Bashō’s pursuit (Chinese-style poems and prose) in line with of his poetic ideal as depicted in Oku no hosomi- "ga" and associate his kyōka with the lofty re- chi. The second sentence of Nampo's text draws cluse tradition celebrated by his Chinese and upon a phrase in one of Bashō’s haikai prose, Japanese forerunners. However, while Nampo’s “Genjūan no ki” (On the Unreal Dwelling, reference to the eccentric tradition sometimes 1690): “My body stays with the winds and also functions to elevate zoku, as Bashō’s kyō clouds that have no destination, and my feelings does aptly, he more frequently uses it as a parody are with flowers and birds.”17 The third sentence of the canonized tradition to bring the lofty down is based on a statement Bashō makes in his travel to the mundane. For example, his kyōbun Nezumi account “Nozarashi kikō” (A weather-beaten o semuru kotoba (Denouncing the rat, circa journey, 1685): “While resembling a priest, I am 1774–1781) starts with an allusion to enso, the full of secular dust; appearing like a layman, my mole that appears in the Zhuangzi as well as in hair is shaven.”18 Clearly, Nampo was both ex- Bashō’s verse. However, instead of borrowing tremely familiar with Bashō’s writings as well as the classical image to glorify recluse values, the consciously seeking inspiration from this singu- narrative immediately shifts to a humorous de- lar haikai master. piction of a rat in an ordinary household: “When Indeed, by the time Nampo was composing, the mole drinks at the river, he takes no more Bashō’s haikai had become part of the canonical than a bellyful. Why did you lick up my inkpad, poetic tradition. Before popular literary genres taking away the color of my seal stone? Would such as haikai, kyōshi, and kyōbun became main- that you will be grazed by a cat at the daybreak, stream during the Edo period, waka, kanshi, and or caught by a trap at sunset. . .”19 The tradi- kanbun were first-class literature and character- tional Japanese inkpad for seal stones contains ized as ga (refined and elegant). Haikai, kyōshi, oil and, therefore, becomes the target of hungry and kyōka were regarded as zoku, or vulgar sub- household rats. Nampo deliberately substitutes genres. As demonstrated earlier, Bashō success- the greedy rat for the modest mole, presenting a fully used eccentricity based on Daoist ideals to funny twist to the classical recluse signifier. elevate the popular linked verse from the status This kind of parody of the lofty recluse tradi- of zoku to profound poetry, ga. Ga and zoku are tion is essential for Nampo who does not dwell pair of concepts initially used in Chinese literary in a hut like Bashō and who wants to maintain criticism. Their characters in Chinese are identi- the iconoclastic nature of the kyōshibun as popu- cal to those in Japanese and are pronounced as ya lar literature. The literature of kyō is fundamen- and su. Ya refers to classical and refined litera- tally literature of reversal; it turns the vulgar and ture whose qualities are considered lofty and profane into the elegant and spiritual on one superior, while su refers to the popular and hand, and gives the earthy, funny, even crude common tastes of ordinary people. In early mod- meaning to the refined and the classical on the other. In order to make the popular linked verse a 16 “Bashō-an Tōsei ō san,” in SNKBT, 84: 268. legitimate literary form, Bashō’s kyō places more 17 KBZ, 6: 463. 18 KBZ, 6: 55. 19 SNKBT, 84: 262.

89 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

emphasis on the former in order to seek out ga or Nampo’s kyōka appended to the prose is an the poetic in the humble and the ordinary. explicit parody of Bashō’s following verse on Nampo, however, wants to be considered new snow-viewing: and popular and knows that he must distinguish himself from Bashō and earlier poets. Nampo’s Now then, let’s go out “On Viewing the Snow” (Yukimi no kotoba, to enjoy the snow…until around 1774–1781) states: I slip and fall!

Going astray into the world of popular poems, Iza saraba / yukimi ni korobu / tokoro I scribbled what kanshi, waka, renga, and made21 haikai didn’t even know, neither fūga nor share. As such, I didn’t care if the Second This poem was an opening verse written when Month snow failed to fall. Bashō was invited to a snow-viewing party hosted by a book dealer in Nagoya. The combi- Now, then, let’s do it— nation of the earthy word korobu, to “slip and making this body of mine fall,” with the poetic activity yukimi, snow- a rounded snow ball viewing, has been considered by some commen- and let me toss it about tators as Bashō’s expression of fūkyō.22 Yet, the in this fleeting world. eccentric gesture here works effectively toward achieving ga, for the eccentric persona demon- Iza saraba / maromeshi yuki to / strates that he “would risk anything for the sake mi o nashite / ukiyo no naka o / of fūga.” 23 Parodying Bashō’s verse of fūga, korogearikan20 Nampo’s poem creates a double-faceted structure of significance through his skillful use of two In order make his poetry distinctively different pivotal words in the second half of the poem. In from the earlier poetic genres, Nampo particu- addition to meaning “fleeting world,” “ukiyo” is larly distinguishes what he writes from fūga and also frequently used to refer to the brothel dis- share, two terms used in the haikai theories of tricts in the Edo period. “Koroge” can also mean the Bashō School. Fūga is written with two Chi- “korogemawaru,” to toss about in bed. Thus, nese characters. Fū literally means “wind,” Nampo’s poem is open to two completely differ- “style,” and “view”. Ga is the same character as ent interpretations, pivoting between ga and the ga in the dichotomic terms ga and zoku. zoku: the world of an eccentric poet who pokes Broadly implying literary elegance and refine- fun at the fleeting world, and that of an erotic ment, fūga is also used to mean specifically re- speaker who indulges in sexual pleasures. fined poetic art. Share in Japanese normally Indeed, Nampo’s eccentricity was established means “witty” or “witticism,” but the word is on pivoting the ga and the zoku and, like other used by the Bashō School of haikai poets to popular genres such as haikai, bringing the ga characterize the great Tang poet Du Fu (712– down to the zoku no doubt met the taste of the 770) in the sense of “natural and unrestrained.” popular audiences of the time. Different from the Evidently, both fūga and share designate ga or culture of Genroku (1688–1704), which was refined poetry in Bashō’s haikai theories. In generated mainly by elite townsmen, the early Japanese literary tradition, viewing snow (yu- eighteenth century witnessed the growth of mid- ) in the Second Month while composing po- dle-class urban culture. The gradual spread of ems is an important seasonal activity and an ex- wealth led to the boom of popular culture by the pression of ga. Nampo, however, tells us that “going astray into the world of popular poems,” 21 Translation of the verse is from Ueda, Bashō he doesn’t care if the early spring snow fails to and His Interpreters, p. 177. fall. 22 See Shūson’s comments quoted in Ueda, Bashō and His Interpreters, p. 177. 20 In SNKBT, 84: 253. 23 Ueda, p. 177.

90 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

Tenmei period (1781–1789) when Nampo gained Kyōka masters his fame. Clearly aware of the popular interests in sloppy dresses are going, of the times, Nampo characterizes his poetry as a one after another, contrast to the classical poetry defined by the over the Emon Slope— canonical preface to the Kokin waka shū (An- the Central Avenue at noon. thology of Japanese poetry: Ancient and present, ca. 905. Also known as Kokinshū),24 saying that Kyōkashi no / hikitsukurowanu / emonzaka / “Popular poems spread the seeds of people’s uchitsureteyuku / hirunaka no chō27 laughter; they are doggerels for people of all trades.”25 Bashō's haikai at times also twists the The names of the two places, “emonzaka” Kokinshū canons. The following poem, for ex- (Emon Slope) and “naka no chō” (Central Ave- ample, creates an unforgettable image of an ec- nue) are both puns in the poem. When read in centric traveler by combining the ga and zoku. connection with the preceding words, “hikitsuku- rowanu emon” also means “sloppily dressed” Let’s go to and “hirunaka also means “noon.” In the topog- the market shoppers, and sell raphy of Edo popular culture, these place names the snow on my sedge hat. are significant in that they imply the path to- wards the brothels: Emonzaka is the slope in Ichibito ni / ide kore uran/kasa no yuki26 front of Yoshiwara, the famous licensed-quarter in Edo, and Naka no chō is the central avenue in In classical Japanese poetry since the Kokinshū, the district. Although Yoshiwara lost much of its snow has always been portrayed as an elegant prestige during the latter half of the eighteenth touch on mountains or in gardens. Bashō’s verse, century, it remained the center of Edo popular however, introduces an eccentric traveler who culture. In contrast with Bashō’s kyōku master sells a handful of snow that is worthless at the who traveled through austere environs amid the marketplace, mockingly contrasting the wan- wintry gusts, Nampo’s kyōka masters are wan- derer’s values with those of the commercial dering toward the licensed quarters. Nampo ap- world. This example shows how, by reworking pears to have no intention of imparting a lofty the canonical image, Bashō’s poetic eccentricity spirit into the kyōka masters in his poem, or, per- or fūkyō highlights the lofty through the mun- haps he considers the total subversion of the ga dane, and in final analysis the image of zoku in with zoku to be the true spirit of kyō of his time. Bashō’s verse often serves to recapture the ga in Characteristic of their poetry, the eccentricity of transforming haikai to a high art form. Bashō and Nampo mirrors the distinct literary With the popular audiences in mind, Nampo identities of the two remarkable poets from dif- creates eccentric personae that are somewhat ferent periods. different from those in Bashō’s poem. The fol- lowing poem is reminiscent of the kyōku poet in Bashō’s poem cited at the beginning of this paper, but the kyōka masters Nampo portrays are clearly representing a different world:

24 The first anthology of Japanese poems compiled by imperial command, organized according to various themes, including the four seasons, love, travel, laments, and miscellaneous topics. It is also known as Kokinshū. 25 Yomo no aka, in SNKBT, 84: 286. 26 Kagami Shikō (1665–1731), ed., Oi nikki (Diary in my Pannier), in KBZ, 3: 276. 27 KBZ, 3: 276.

91 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

The Dao of Nineteenth-Century broad purpose of supporting the assertion that traditional Japanese medicine has not always Japanese Nativist Healing: been just a subset of Chinese medicine. In par- A Chinese Herbal Supplement ticular, this article seeks to suggest in detail how to Faith Healing Chinese medical practices became acceptable to the nineteenth-century nativist Hirata Atsutane, whose extreme anti-Chinese bias made such ac- © Wilburn Hansen, San Diego State ceptance highly problematic. A related goal is to University introduce the little-known medical contributions of Atsutane, who has formerly been seen only as People may think that traditional Japanese a nationalist pedagogue. This short examination medicine in the nineteenth century consisted of of his writings on medicine attempts to illumi- moxibustion, cupping, , the ingestion nate nineteenth-century opinions concerning of herbs, and things of that nature. In other what we today would identify as faith healing words, they may think it similar to traditional and traditional Chinese herbal medical practices. Chinese medicine. Few people would know that A more specific goal is to pinpoint exactly what in the nineteenth century there were Japanese happened in the years between Atsutane’s early physicians who rejected those practices. For medical text Shizu no iwaya 志都能岩屋, The some Edo-period Japanese physicians and intel- Peaceful Stone Hut (1810), and the later work lectuals, Chinese medicine had to be ideologi- Isō Chūkeikō 醫宗仲景考, Thoughts on the cally domesticated before it could be accepted as a legitimate alternative for the treatment of Japa- Medical Lineage of Zhongjing (1827), that re- nese people. versed his opinion on herbal medicine. Also be- The nativist scholar and Japanese physician tween those two works, Daoist origins became so attractive to him that he was inspired to discover Hirata Atsutane 平田篤胤 (1776–1843) initially new strategies to claim that all effective Daoist disparaged the practices of Chinese medicine, practice originated in Japan at the hands of Japa- and only later changed his opinion about its effi- nese kami. cacy. Few know Atsutane as a physician and Atsutane’s Shizu no iwaya shows that his fewer still are aware of his contributions to nine- medical theory, despite receiving early training teenth-century Japanese medicine, yet he wrote based on Chinese pharmacopeias, was highly substantial treatises discussing both faith-healing dependent upon Japanese mythology. His read- practices and physical remedies including herbal ing of this mythology strengthened his convic- medicines. Although he continued to advocate tion that healing depended on faith in the native the practice of healing rituals that relied on kami Japanese kami and the magical power of ritual. 1 summoned by sorcery or magic, he was eventu- According to Atsutane in 1810, Chinese medi- ally persuaded to consider herbal remedies a le- cine was a collection of defective, second-class gitimate form of Japanese medicine. In this arti- healing techniques – a corrupt medical practice cle I show how Chinese medicine, once anath- for fools. ema to certain nineteenth-century nativists, was Atsutane’s teacher Motoori Norinaga 本居 re-envisioned as native practice. 宣長 (1730–1801) also swore by medical tech- Hirata Atsutane’s Written Contributions to nique based on belief in Japanese kami, and early Japanese Medicine in his career Atsutane was not of a mind to break After an initial overview of Atsutane’s writ- with him on this particular point of faith. Schol- ings on medical practices this article traces a ars view Norinaga as the most influential nativist select course through those writings with the of the Edo period and also recognize a virulent strain of xenophobia in his writings. He show- ered China with stinging criticisms, and nativists 1 By “sorcery” and “magic” I mean the followed his lead in classifying Chinese culture mechanisms by which humans induce spiritual as inferior to Japanese culture in all ways. There- beings to effect change on the world.

92 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

fore, it should have been a betrayal of nativist career attacking all things Chinese,3 could in his principles for Atsutane to approve of practices, maturity make an abrupt about face and embrace such as herbal medicine, that are clearly products Daoism and Chinese herbal medicine as valuable of Chinese civilization. fields of study for nativists. The textual evidence In 1827 Atsutane wrote another work on also shows that while his faith in the nativist medicine titled Isō Chūkeikō in which he re- principle of Japanese superiority never wavered, evaluated Chinese herbal medicine. In this work his historical narrative was malleable. he introduced a new argument that the Eastern This textual evidence suggests that a personal Han physician Zhang Zhongjing 張仲景 (150– relationship with a certain strange but talented 4 219), whose well-known work on pharmacology Edo street urchin named Torakichi may have Shang Han Za Bing Lun 傷寒難病論, On Cold been the catalyst leading to this intellectual Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases, was held reversal, and so we must examine a certain text in high esteem by most Japanese physicians, was Atsutane wrote about this boy titled Senkyō ibun actually the Daoist master Ge Xuan 葛玄 (164– 仙境異聞, Strange Tales from the Realm of 244). Ge Xuan was the grand-uncle of the better- Immortals, written in 1822. A further compelling known 葛洪 (284–364), and both reason to delve into Senkyō ibun is that it also were reputed to have become immortals with functions as a medical text. In fact, it contains great power. The association of herbal medicine scores of pages detailing nineteenth-century with Ge Hong’s Daoist immortal practice was Japanese medical theory and technique. essential to Atsutane’s plan for appropriating Furthermore, it occupies a pivotal position Chinese medical techniques for Japanese physi- among Atsutane’s medical writings, and cians. foreshadows an impending change in his thought. In Isō Chūkeikō in 1827, Atsutane revisited Therefore before examining Senkyō ibun we the subject of the relative merits of magical healing ritual and herbal medicine and this time pronounced them to be “two wheels of the same 3 cart;”2 that is, essentially equal. His final words Atsutane’s “writing sample” sent to nativist from this text are an admission that the practice academies in 1803 when applying for of herbal medicine should be considered a proper membership was a vitriolic diatribe titled Kamōsho, 呵妄書 , A Criticism of Deceitful addition to other shinsen 神仙 practices, that is, Writings in SHAZ, vol. 10. This was a direct Daoist immortal practices he had earlier declared criticism of certain people he thought were too to be Japanese, but he added the caveat that enamored of Chinese culture. herbal medicine without kami worship would be 4 The real life story of an uneducated teenage a heretical practice. boy rising out of poverty on the streets of Edo Fortunately, there is textual evidence from and making a name for himself as Tengu Kozō the time period between his first stance and Torakichi, claiming to have been abducted and subsequent reversal that shows what may have raised by tengu in the mountains, is the subject moved him to revalue medicine formerly for a fascinating biography just waiting for a considered Chinese in origin. Without this biographer. The Japanese scholars mentioned in textual evidence it would be nearly impossible to note 12 have written extensively on him as have offer any explanation as to how a rabid some Western scholars including myself. What xenophobe such as Atsutane, who had started his we know of his life story is too complex to explain in this venue. As a teaser I will reveal that he could channel spirits, see the future, and 2 Hirata Atsutane, “Isō Chūkeikō,” in Shinshū on one occasion he made it rain. For further Hirata Atsutane zenshū (Meichō shuppan, 1978) details please see Wilburn Hansen, When Tengu [from hereon SHAZ], vol.14, p. 548. All Talk: Hirata Atsutane’s Ethnography of the translations of Atsutane’s work in this article are Other World (Honolulu: University of Hawaii my own. Press, 2009).

93 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

should know more about Atsutane’s pre- shinsen teachings and practices. A traditional Torakichi medical thought. power credited to the legendary Chinese immor- tals was the power of healing, and Ge Hong Atsutane’s Pre-Senkyō Ibun Medical Theories wrote in great detail about those healing arts of Atsutane began to study herbal medicine at the immortals. In essence, Atsutane’s theory of age eleven from his uncle, and as an adult he was magical faith healing was very similar to, and employed as a physician at the same time as he most likely dependent upon, ideas from Chinese worked as a Shinto lecturer and master of his magical medicine, which developed during the own academy. In 1810 Atsutane drafted the early stages of the growth of the Daoist religion medical text Shizu no iwaya, also known as Idō in China.6 However, Atsutane’s one major depar- taii 醫道大意, The Essence of the Way of Heal- ture from Ge Hong’s methods was that in 1810 ing. This comprehensive draft of his theory of his medical theory had no room for Ge Hong’s healing was completed ten years before Atsutane herbal healing techniques. met the boy Torakichi, and it is a document that Atsutane accepted a theory of disease that shows disillusionment with Chinese herbal agreed with certain Daoist teachings. Many Dao- medicine created by his fervent belief in Japa- ists believed that one cause of illness was a soul nese nativist theories. influenced by evil beings into corrupting the In Shizu no iwaya Atsutane claimed that the very body it inhabited, leading to sickness, death source of all healing practices and remedies was or demonic transformation. They believed the the kami of Japan: namely, Onamuchi and Su- certain method for fighting off these evil beings kunabiko. Atsutane understood disease to be was to name them and command them to leave caused by the inhabitants of the Other World, or surrender, either orally or in written form on a and therefore sought metaphysical solutions to talisman. In other words, they believed that evil 7 problems caused by metaphysical beings. He beings followed a code of conduct. Years after explained that although all divine healing knowl- the writing of Shizu no iwaya, at one juncture in edge was originally imparted to the ancient his conversations with the self-styled tengu ap- Japanese, much of it had been lost by their de- prentice Torakichi, Atsutane confirmed his con- scendents in the time since the Age of the Kami. tinuing belief in this spiritual code of conduct: However, the true healing knowledge imparted by the two kami of healing was not irretrievably It seems that even in the case of sanjin or lost. Some of this had been spread to other lands as the kami traveled, allowing the divine knowl- 6 See Michel Strickmann, Chinese Magical edge to diffuse to foreign shores. Fortunately, Medicine, ed. Bernard Faure (Stanford: Stanford there were some wise foreigners who managed to University Press, 2002), particularly Chapter preserve parts of the healing traditions, most no- One on “Disease and Taoist Law”. Strickmann's tably in China. In other words, the Chinese re- ideas are echoed by Edward L. Davis, Society ceived all of their correct knowledge of healing and the Supernatural in Song China (Honolulu: from Japanese kami. University of Hawaii Press, 2001). In brief, ill- One of the Chinese Atsutane praised for pre- ness was considered to be a spiritual matter serving the ancient kami tradition of healing 5 caused usually by some moral failing on the part overseas was Ge Hong, who was relatively of the sufferer or some part of his/her very ex- well-known in Japan in Atsutane’s time for his tended family. 7 Again the above mentioned works by Strick- 5 Atsutane was not always in agreement with Ge mann and Davis expound on the belief that ill- Hong on specifics. For example, Ge Hong felt ness- causing demons obey their superiors, and that the most important practice in becoming an for further study of the bureaucratic model in immortal was the drinking of mineral and metal Daoism see also Robert Hymes, Way and Byway: elixirs while Atsutane seemed much more , Local Religion, and Models of Divinity interested in internal refinement and in Sung and Modern China (Berkeley: Univer- circulation practices. sity of California Press, 2002).

94 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

tengu abduction, the words of the tutelary Blacker categorized Senkyō ibun’s tales of Tengu kami cannot be resisted. Furthermore, when Kozō Torakichi as an example of a folklore pat- it comes to ghosts, they cannot harm anyone tern involving the supernatural abduction of who is protected by his tutelary kami. 8 children. Her work on Senkyō ibun is thought- provoking and informative. However, the abduc- Reading Senkyō Ibun for Medical tion I focus on in my studies of Senkyō ibun is Information: A New Approach Atsutane’s abduction of Torakichi’s stories of the Senkyō ibun reveals Atsutane attempting to Japanese Other World, using them to gain sup- establish a new discourse on Japan that includes port for his own nativist assertions concerning information on supernatural healers. It contains Japanese identity and capability.11 For this article detailed descriptions given by the boy Tengu I concentrate on medical examples only. Kozō Torakichi 天狗小僧寅吉 of the world of Japanese scholars know Senkyō ibun as an the supernatural in which he claimed to have example of Atsutane’s supernatural research and been raised. Some of these descriptions are of not as a medical text. As a result, these scholars the activities of a new type of supernatural being have not made any serious commentary on this 12 inhabiting this newly discovered world: sanjin particular facet of this multi-faceted text. The 山人, who disguise themselves as tengu 天狗, medical information is impossible to miss, and but are actually benevolent, wise, powerful, and there is no particular reason for this omission by devoted servants of the native Japanese kami.9 those scholars other than lack of interest. The only in-depth treatment of Senkyō ibun in English, previous to my work, is a lengthy Senkyō Ibun as a Turning Point in article from 1967, in which Carmen Blacker10 Atsutane’s Medical Thinking translated several passages and provided a folk- In Senkyō ibun we are told the story of how lorist’s description and assessment of this text. Atsutane met, befriended, and took in a young

11 For my previous writings concerning Atsutane 8 Hirata Atsutane, “Senkyō ibun” in Hirata and Torakichi see Hansen, When Tengu Talk, and Atsutane zenshū [from hereon HAZ], ed. Wilburn Hansen, “The Medium is the Message: Muromatsu Iwao (Itchido, 1911–1918), vol. 3, p. Hirata Atsutane’s Ethnography of the World Be- 94. yond,” History of Religions 45.4 (2006): 339– 9 I have argued elsewhere that to read Senkyō 372. ibun and undervalue or ignore the thick descrip- 12 Kamata Tōji 鎌田東二 published the most tion of this new nativist champion and religious virtuoso, whom Torakichi and Atsutane collabo- recent in-depth treatment of the relationship between Atsutane and Torakichi in Japanese in ratively dubbed sanjin 山人, is to miss Atsu- 2002. See Kamata Tōji, Hirata Atsutane no tane’s attempt to create a new nativist discourse shinkai fiirudowaaku (Sakuhinsha, 2002). first seen in the Senkyō ibun text. Moreover, Koyasu Nobukuni 子安宣邦 added to the what is usually overlooked or missed in analyses of Senkyō ibun is that there is more than enough commentary on Atsutane and Torakichi in 2001. evidence to conclude that Atsutane manipulated See Koyasu Nobukuni, Hirata Atsutane no sekai Torakichi’s testimony in order to spread his own (Perikansha, 2001). Haga Noboru’s 芳賀登 nativist message. However, it should also be fairly recent works have on occasion included made clear that Torakichi soon learned his role important insights into this relationship. In fact, and participated actively in the joint creation of a there is also a long history of prewar Japanese public spectacle in Edo salon society that at- scholarship on the Senkyō ibun text and the tempted to give birth to a new Japanese religious relationship between Atsutane and Torakichi, hero, the sanjin. which includes commentary by Muraoka 10 Carmen Blacker, “Supernatural Abductions in Tsunetsugu 村岡典嗣, Watanabe Kinzō 渡辺 Japanese Folklore,” Asian Folklore Studies, 金造, and Origuchi Shinobu 折口信夫. See XXVI-2 (1967): 111–147. Hansen, When Tengu Talk, pp. 6–9.

95 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

Edo street urchin who had already convinced revealed by Torakichi are serious and detailed certain pockets of Edo intellectual society that he instructions for healing a number of troubling had been raised by tengu in the mountains of human ailments. These records of Torakichi’s Japan. Senkyō ibun is rare among Atsutane’s information concerning healing practices in the works because it is not meant to be a Other World signal a change in the direction of straightforward explanation of his nativist Atsutane’s research interests. In Senkyō ibun theories as most of his other works are. This Atsutane began directing his inquiries toward work is more like a diary or at least a running stories of Daoist immortal, or shinsen, practice in record of interactions with Torakichi that took the mountains of Japan. place over a period of several months. I have Although Atsutane at first disagreed with argued elsewhere in great detail that this work is Torakichi on medical theory, his interactions reminiscent of ethnographic studies conducted with Torakichi could be understood as the stimu- by nineteenth- and twentieth-century lus that aroused his interest in the possible exis- anthropologists, complete with the problems and tence of native Japanese shinsen practices related shortcomings accompanying that genre of to Torakichi’s medical anecdotes. However, even writing and investigation.13 though Atsutane recorded his stance that herbal Among the many fantastic tales and remedies such as Torakichi’s were inferior in fascinating facts about the Other World 14 quality, the text also shows Atsutane seeking some rationale that could include them as valu- 13 See James Clifford, “Introduction: Partial able knowledge acceptable to a nativist. After Truths,” in Writing Culture, The Poetics and meeting Torakichi, Atsutane’s own attitudes to- Politics of Ethnography, ed. James Clifford and ward health and healing shifted concretely to- George E. Marcus (London: University of ward a Daoist understanding of longevity and California Press, 1986), pp. 23–24, as well as the disease prevention. The sheer number of texts Atsutane authored on Daoism in the decade sub- works referenced in note 7. 15 14 Atsutane had long suspected, believed in, and sequent to his daily interactions with Torakichi theorized about the existence of this Other World. stand as evidence of this shift. These works H.D. Harootunian, in Things Seen and Unseen strongly suggest that in the 1820’s Atsutane’s (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), p. brand of Japanese nativist health and healing 153, wrote about this as follows: theory was expanding to include herbal medicine Atsutane posited that there was another verified by Japanese mythology. world within the tangible and visible world in which humans normally lived. His faith in Torakichi’s Medical Knowledge the verity of certain stories from the most an- in Senkyō ibun cient Japanese texts suggested to him that Atsutane’s sanjin were actually the Japanese such a world did exist. equivalent of the Chinese immortals and as such medical practices were also essential to their For Hirata [Atsutane], kamigoto [affairs 16 of the kami] represented an unseen reality. identities. In Senkyō ibun recorded in 1822, An invisible domain where the gods carried Torakichi claimed that his master who had out their affairs, it concerned the creation of heaven and earth as well as the sacred affairs achieving genuine happiness. The question of the world of darkness and concealment. was rhetorical, since Hirata had already Elevation of this realm to equivalence with established the coexistence of a realm that the world of the living provided authority to remained unseen and hidden to all but the his argument concerning consolation. “It is departed spirits and a visible world inhabited difficult to accept the old explanations that by the living. dead spirits migrate to the land of Yomi. But 15 See Hansen, When Tengu Talk, pp. 110–111. where do the spirits of people who have died 16 See Benjamin Penny, “Immortality and in this country go?” If this question were not Transcendence,” in Daoism Handbook, ed. Livia clarified there would be no chance for Kohn. (Leiden: EJ Brill, 2000), pp. 125–126.

96 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

trained him in the medical arts was a kami- Fourteen-year-old Torakichi himself was a worshiping sanjin, a practitioner of the shinsen healer. On the very day that Atsutane had Toraki- arts in the mountains. Torakichi’s sanjin master chi dragged into his house,18 Atsutane found he was to become the model for Atsutane’s new had come down with a fever, which relegated nativist culture hero, and this new hero was a him to his bed. He recorded that Torakichi came healer. In fact, this sanjin’s first appearance in to his bedside and administered a cooling spell Senkyō ibun was in a medical role when Toraki- that quickly made the fever go away. chi first spotted his master-to-be selling pills on On the several occasions when the visitors to the street. Atsutane’s salon asked Torakichi about the medi- Torakichi’s explanation of his meeting with cine practiced in the Other World, he was always his Japanese immortal master shows his indebt- ready with recipes and regimens used to cure all edness to the tradition of Daoist immortals and sorts of complaints and diseases. their medical associations. Torakichi said that one day while playing by a temple he saw a man Kunitomo Yoshimasa put a question to who had been selling medicines roll up his rug Torakichi saying, “A certain person asked and put himself and all his wares into a very me...Isn’t there some kind of medicine that small jar which then levitated and flew away. His can cure the sicknesses which the medical story of his first sighting of his future sanjin treatises label to be incurable, such as, pa- master is taken directly from Daoist literature. ralysis, tuberculosis, stomach ailments, and The precursor to his story can be found in Go- leprosy? What about that?” kansho, 後漢書, Later Han Writings, from fifth Torakichi said, “For paralysis eat black- century China, which contains the story of the ened toadstools that grow on plum trees. For Daoist student named Fei Changfang who saw tuberculosis blacken both female and male Sire Gourd, an exiled immortal, selling medi- geckos and without letting the sick person cines and later climbing into his gourd. Sire know, slip them in to whatever you feed him, Gourd then invited Fei Changfang to join him in and get him to eat it somehow or other. For the gourd, which contained a Chinese immortal’s stomach ailments the fresh of a crane is heaven.17 effective. For leprosy take a piece of cotton soaked in shōchū, light it and while it is burning pat it down over and over [on the af- 17 The story of Sire Gourd and the Immortal’s flicted areas].” Heaven found in his gourd seems to have been well-known in Edo Japan. Drawings of this kind Somebody asked, “I know someone who of tale decorated gourds, silks, and even game suffers from gout, isn’t there some treatment pieces in this era of the nineteenth century. It is for that? Also, do you know any medicine for likely that Torakichi heard the story somewhere burns or hemorrhoids, and do you know any or saw it, or both. See Chigiri Kōsai, Sennin no methods to stop bleeding?” kenkyū (Tairiku Shobō, 1976), p. 520. The name Torakichi said, “For gout, scorch flat of this legendary character was mentioned once moss from a plum tree, knead it with rice as a topic of conversation in Senkyō ibun, but there was no elaboration. In addition, in his work Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth: Kassenōden 葛僊翁伝, Biography of the Im- A Translation and Study of Ge Hong’s Traditions mortal Master Ge, Atsutane mentioned Fei of Divine Transcendents (Berkeley: University of Changfang, who also appears in Ge Hong’s Shin- California Press, 2002). senden, 神仙伝, Biographies of Immortals. Still, 18 Torakichi at first stayed at a rival academic’s this imitation never seemed to have been a rea- house. Atsutane had already met with him on a son to doubt Torakichi; rather, it seemed to be couple of occasions, but was unsatisfied with the held in his favor. For more on gourd heavens see restricted access to the boy, that is, until the day Rolf Stein, The World in Miniature (Stanford: Atsutane’s students brought him over kicking Stanford University Press, 1990), or Robert Ford and screaming.

97 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

starch and smear it on. This has a potent ef- Torakichi answered questions that sprung fect. For burns, grind young Japanese cedar from Atsutane’s theory of demonic causes of leaves and cold rice together and smear this disease, yet Torakichi’s answers in no way rec- on. If you do this over and over, the heat will ognized evil beings as the source of all illness. be drawn out of the afflicted area, the pain He only recognized them as an overall source of will go away, and it will heal without leaving calamity and did not relate them specifically to a scar. For hemorrhoids, first dry out clumps diseases. Torakichi’s medical theory was based of algae that have washed up on the seashore, on the idea of poisons (or reptiles), which could and then scorch them before applying them. be physically located and expelled. To stop bleeding a Kumano fire starter19 is Torakichi’s inventory of herbal medicines very effective….” listed in Senkyō ibun could easily have come from traditional Chinese pharmacopeias. Knowl- Someone asked, “For years I have suf- edge of herbal medicine had been collected in fered from colic and spasms, do you know of several famous pharmacopeias in China, which any medicine for those things?” had been transmitted to Japan centuries earlier. Torakichi said, “For colic, scorch some However, Torakichi claimed that the cures that silver vine powder and bitter oranges, com- filled those volumes were also well known in the bine equal portions, and drink the mixture mountains of Japan. According to Torakichi, the frequently. For spasms, pickle a kangarasu20 Japanese sanjin like the Chinese immortal had in a chamber pot for thirty days. Wash it and the technical know- how to cure all diseases blacken it without gutting it. Eat that mixed without consulting Chinese medical books. with an equal part of the powder of the fried shell of the red conch. These cures are effec- Difference of Medical Opinions tive for gas, heartburn, and all other stomach Medicine was one of the few subjects where ailments.” Torakichi’s opinion seemed to differ radically from Atsutane’s. Atsutane had been affecting and An example of the extraordinary range of manipulating Torakichi’s responses in many complaints which could be cured by the sanjin other fields of knowledge throughout the period came up when Torakichi was told a story of a of their collaboration, but he did not do so at all woman who went to sleep during the middle of times, and only occasionally in a heavy-handed the day only to find that a snake had crawled into manner.22 Torakichi stood firm in his claim that her vagina. The woman subsequently died, but Torakichi claimed that sanjin medical knowledge 22 An important question to ask about the could have saved her. relationship between Atsutane and Torakichi is just who was influencing whom. In my previous Torakichi said, “When a snake enters the va- work concerning this relationship I detail various gina or the rectum and does not come out, scholars’ opinions about the power relationship one should take five shaku of sake mixed between Atsutane and Torakichi. I conclude that with one go of tooth dye, heat it, and drink it Atsutane was using Torakichi to give spiritual and the snake will come out. However, it is verification to theories Atsutane truly believed in. quite rare that a snake would enter anyone 21 In other words Atsutane was not duped by like that.” Torakichi, but rather found him useful. For example, in this case Atsutane was using Torakichi’s stories as evidence to argue for the 19 This is a type of ignition device made of nativist appropriation of shinsen practices. Some cattails, used in this case to cauterize. Japanese scholars do suggest that Atsutane was 20 This is a type of crow with a white patch on its taken in by Torakichi, a suggestion which smells back. a bit like an apology for some of Atsutane’s 21 Hirata Atsutane, “Senkyō ibun,” in HAZ, vol. more irrational and outrageous claims. Other 3, pp. 68–69. scholars see differing levels of cooperation

98 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

there was nothing as effective for illness as mikoto. Furthermore, in the most ancient of herbal medicine and that it was foolish to per- times, spells came first. After that, all the form any spell or chant incantations without try- spells got mixed together with Buddhist ing medicines first. He did state that one should methods. If we could take those Buddhist pray to the kami, but only after medicines had methods out and get rid of them, figure out been administered. the true spells from ancient times, then the Torakichi made his position on herbal medi- spells would surely come first, with medi- cine clear when Atsutane asked him why he cines coming second. I am convinced that seemed reluctant to perform magical healing that would be the best and right way.24 rituals comprised of chanting spells and drawing apotropaic symbols. The position that Atsutane was advancing in his dialogue with Torakichi was extensively Torakichi said, “The common people explained years earlier in Shizu no Iwaya. seem to be enamored of mystical spells, but personally I’m not much in support of them. Because of the ancient legends we know But sometimes I like to do them just in fun…. that the kami Onamuchi and Sukunabiko Besides that, I think it is foolish to per- established the magical techniques. Even form mystical spells first when the best though the physicians we have now do not course of action is to take medicine appropri- use it, magic was used for most illnesses long ate for the illness. Once you have been seen ago in ancient Japan and even in foreign by a good physician and have taken his lands. Even in Chinese medical practices, herbal medicine as the first course of action, people first started healing by means of then you should pray to the kami. People magical shamanic incantations.25 think that the constant evidence of effect of the mystical spells is due to the concentration Atsutane went on to document in Shizu no of the ritualist and the faith of the patient, but iwaya that ancient Chinese sources prove this that’s not the case.”23 assertion and also cited sources that show a gradual development of medicinal treatments This statement was directly opposed to Atsu- secondary to the development of magical tane’s firm belief in the power of faith-dependent treatments. Although such documentary magical healing rituals and he immediately coun- evidence was not available for Japan, he claimed tered Torakichi’s argument. that the development must have followed the same path, and Japanese physicians were You [Torakichi] have said that the [medi- ignorant of the history of medical treatment. He cal] incantations and spells do not seem to be backed up this claim for the priority of magical effective… and on top of that, you claim re- treatments by explaining his etiology of disease. sults from taking herbal medicine. You are right when you say prayer to the kami works, All illness is caused by the actions of the but I am not at all satisfied with your answer. kami of calamity. Therefore whether you use It must be common knowledge in the Other medicine or spells, only the spirit of the kami World, just as we know it here from reading of recovery cures illnesses. When the the texts concerning the Age of the Kami, suffering person believes in this spirit and that both spells and medicines come from receives it, then this kami of treatment Onamuchi no mikoto and Sukunabikona no between the two, and yet others see Atsutane as a scheming manipulator who would lie if it 24 Hirata Atsutane, “Senkyō ibun,” in HAZ, vol. brought him some advantage. 3, p. 182. 23 Hirata Atsutane, “Senkyō ibun,” in HAZ, vol. 25 Hirata Atsutane, “Shizu no iwaya,” in SHAZ, 3, p. 181. vol.14, p. 450.

99 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

responds to this belief. This is a certain cure herbal medicines.28 for illness.26 Atsutane had a textual source that laid the Atsutane did not absolutely deny claims of blame for the start of herbal medical practice in effectiveness for all herbal medicine treatments, Japan at the feet of foreigners. but he explained that it was not the herbal medicine itself that had salubrious effect. In The first herbal medicine ever taken in- Atsutane’s theory of healing, herbal medicines ternally in Japan seems to have been brought were taken by those who were spiritually over from foreign shores. According to the impaired. They were tools employed by the weak, Kojiki this happened in the reign of Oasazu- and as such he did recognize their merits but not mawaku no Sukune, the twentieth emperor without adding his lamentations and even following Emperor Jimmu, later known as contempt for a world replete with weaklings who Ingyō Tennō. It is said that a person named needed such things to nurture them. Komuhachimu Kamukimu cured Emperor Ingyō’s lingering illness. Even though that Therefore, if people had faith in spells passage does not clearly indicate that he in- there would be no need for herbal medicines. gested something, all indications point to this If both are effective, what is the difference probably being the first case of drinking between them? Compare the situation to the medication. When we wonder why we do not pacification of an enemy. It is like the differ- see people drinking medicine in ancient ence between conquering with words or times, the answer is truly due to the precious weapons…you can directly strike and de- nature of Japan, which provided an ancient stroy the various areas of illness or aid the past devoid of any illness….This explains patient’s own divine qi in driving off the ma- how from early on foreign lands had numer- levolent qi. The latter is similar to crushing ous illnesses owing to weakness in their na- the foe using weapons. To continue the tional [ethnic] make-up, and therefore turned metaphor, you first make the patient take ag- their attention to Sukunabiko no mikoto, and gressive herbal medicines like daiō or developed extensive medical treatments rely- hazu. 27 Then you let them take soothing ing on his august spirit. These arts were herbal medicine and then follow it with then quickly refined. That is the reason that something like rice gruel. It is the same as af- within the medical treatises that have come ter having subdued the enemy with arms, and over from foreign countries there are so then comforting them by providing compas- many entries for cures never seen nor heard sion and benevolence…Even though ill- of in this country.29 nesses were cured by spells in ancient times, over the generations the hearts of the people In summation of this section concerning At- were perverted and they lost their belief in sutane’s opposition to Torakichi’s medical beliefs spells. When there was no faith in them they before his forthcoming “Daoist epiphany,” it became ineffective, and so gradually the should be noted that in 1822 in Atsutane’s first practice died out. That is how we ended up year of association with Torakichi he takes virtu- where we are now curing illness by means of ally the same stance on the efficacy of herbal medicine in comparison with magical healing practices as he had in 1810’s Shizu no iwaya. That is, faith-based magical healing is qualita- tively different, and has greater divine legitimacy 26 Hirata Atsutane, “Shizu no iwaya,” in SHAZ, vol.14, p. 452. 28 Hirata Atsutane, “Shizu no iwaya,” in SHAZ, vol.14, pp. 453–454. 27 Both of these are plants used for their 29 Hirata Atsutane, “Shizu no iwaya,” in SHAZ, powerful laxative effects. vol.14, p. 456.

100 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

than herbal practices, which to their detriment what are called the unaging and undying have an unfortunate association with Chinese techniques. The lower entryway to your res- culture. It should also be noted that Atsutane had ervoir of qi is called the tanden. It seems to already admitted that there were examples, be called that because it is the den [field] that which he brought up himself, that verified the stores your medicinal tan [cinnabar elixir of undeniable efficacy of some of the practices of life]. Chinese herbal medicine. Among the various practices for cultivat- ing and storing the qi below your navel, there Atsutane’s Daoist Epiphany is one that is quite simple. My father lived to In Senkyō ibun as well as earlier writing we be eighty-four years old and when I was see that Atsutane was pre-occupied with pre- young he got sick quite often, far more than scriptions for preventing illness and living a long usual; that is, until he learned a technique and healthy life, perhaps this was the tendency from a certain elderly man. For over thirty that made him susceptible to Torakichi’s “Dao- years he practiced this technique unfailingly ist” influence. In his work Kassenōden written in and never got sick again in all that time. If 1825 a few years after he met Torakichi, he in- others learn this and become accustomed to it troduced and critiqued, usually quite favorably, they will not doubt the miraculous effect the Daoist alchemist Ge Hong’s writings on the when they are living long lives without ill- practices of immortality and longevity. In this ness.30 text Atsutane exhibited his admiration of and adherence to many Daoist beliefs and practices. Obviously, Torakichi did not introduce Atsu- Although Atsutane wrote in Kassenōden that tane to longevity practices of qi circulations, in the previous years, the early 1820’s, he had which Atsutane himself described as foreign in learned of certain qi circulation techniques that origin; however, meeting Torakichi encouraged would allow people living in the unnatural envi- him to embrace the Chinese Daoist connection ronment of the city to live for two hundred years rather than water it down with the first attribu- or longer, these longevity techniques were not tion to Brahmanical Indian practice as we see he attributed to Torakichi. Even if they had been, we did in 1810. Torakichi’s stories of Japanese im- know from the following quote that Atsutane’s mortal sanjin from 1822 gave Atsutane the op- belief in the benefits of a hybrid form of qi circu- portunity and rationale to claim shinsen practices lation can be traced back to Shizu no iwaya, clearly rooted in Chinese Daoism as originally which was written long before he met Torakichi. Japanese. Furthermore, after meeting Torakichi, Atsutane’s father’s lifespan of eighty-four years The most important part of medical trea- was no longer as impressive to him when he tises and the fundamental reason for having learned certain people such as Torakichi’s moun- medical treatises, no matter your occupation tain master could aim for thousands. or your Way of practice, is to enlighten us on Atsutane’s expanded interest in shinsen re- how to compress and store up our qi. This search led him further into Daoist studies as can was studied in India long before Shaka’s time. be seen by another qi circulation ritual recorded Even in the Brahman practices they had after meeting Torakichi. something called the cultivation of mind. That thing which might be referred to as the Instructions for Technique Number Five goal of tranquility in which all religions alike Qi Circulation take refuge is nothing other than this. This is From the two openings behind the area of also what has been handed down as the Way the lower tanden and following the vessels of the Sacred Immortals from China. This is along the spine ascending to the niwan,31 also what the Daoists strive to achieve. They know that if they can accumulate and keep 30 Hirata Atsutane, “Shizu no iwaya,” in SHAZ, all their qi, they will not get sick. Not getting vol.14, pp. 504–505. sick serves to sustain longevity. These are 31 The spiritual center at the crown of the head.

101 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

which is the spiritual name of the brain will come for it to be released to the public, palace. 32 Three consecutive inhalations for they should read about this. Anyway, [Ge promote the release of the inner original qi Hong’s] teachings concerning the realm of retained in the lower tanden. The intent is to the immortals, about which I was just writing, force it out and into the two openings. were perfected and practiced by the original Visualize the two lines of white qi rising up practitioners of the Way of the Kami. The in tandem along the spine drawn directly into traditions of celestial immortals and terres- the niwan. The fragrance infiltrates all the trial immortals can be seen in classical palaces radiating luxuriantly downward sources on the kami.34 through everything, the hair, face, head, neck, both arms, and down through the fingers. This quote specifically cites Atsutane’s con- Then it goes down into the stomach and into versations with Torakichi; that is, Senkyō ibun, as the central tanden, reaching the kami of the an authoritative source on Japanese shinsen prac- heart palace. Then it is forced through the tices, which he equates with ancient practices five organs circulating back into the lower created by the original practitioners of the Way tanden and even lower through the three vital of the Kami. He further claims that this assertion points in the lower limbs running down all can be backed up with textual evidence, “classi- through the thigh and knees pooling up into a cal sources.” Atsutane is claiming that there is a bubbling spring.33 historical trail of evidence that proves that the traditions attributed to Ge Hong are Japanese in This is just part of one of many qi-related origin, worthy of nativist adoption. Two years practices which Atsutane recorded, praised, and later in Isō Chūkeikō Atsutane would claim that attributed to Ge Hong. His knowledge and his the famous Chinese herbalist Zhang Zhongjing passion for these longevity practices increased as was Ge Hong’s ancestor the Daoist immortal evidenced by his Daoist related writings from the master Ge Xuan, wrapping up a genealogical decade of the 1820s and the fact that he ex- lineage of Japanese medicine that includes herbal presses no distaste for using Daoist terminology healing. in describing qi circulation. Yet, as Chinese and Daoist as his textual production became during Conclusion the 1820’s, and even though he seriously adopted This article locates the textual sources from the Daoist terminology, he never abandoned his nineteenth-century Japan that reveal Atsutane’s fundamental religious article of faith that any changing thought processes concerning the value technique that works owes its efficacy to the of Chinese medicine. These sources document kami of Japan. Atsutane embracing first one historical position Atsutane’s own writing strongly suggests that asserting the deep connection between the his talks with Torakichi inspired him to attempt failings of herbal medicine and the influence of to appropriate Daoist immortal (shinsen) prac- Chinese culture, and then a decade or so later tices as original Japanese practices, which can be reversing his stance with as much intensity as he seen in the following direct quote from Atsu- had embraced his earlier position. The reversal is tane’s 1825 Kassenōden, his study of Ge Hong. clearly illustrated in the medical text from 1827 Isō Chūkeikō wherein he announced his approval An explanation concerning the realm of of a famous ancient Chinese text on herbal the immortals appears elsewhere in a work medicine. called Senkyō ibun, which is a secret record chronicling my investigations of it. The time In the preface of Shang Han Lun it is written, “When kami resides in the herbal 32 A dwelling of one of the many gods inhabiting medicine, its essence seeks to fulfill the the human body in Daoist thought. 33 Hirata Atsutane, “Shinsen shiyōhō,” in SHAZ, 34 Hirata Atsutane, “Kassenōden,” in SHAZ, vol. Shinshu hoi 4, p. 558. 14, p. 411.

102 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

magical ritual.” This should make us aware that this work has its origins in the Ancient Way [of Japan]. Therefore, the person who practices medicine must first thoroughly study the Way of the Sacred Immortals [Daoism]. He must learn the magic rituals to control potential illnesses as well as the herbal medicines to control manifest illnesses. Potential illnesses are eternal while manifest illnesses are contingent. How does he who does not know how to control the eternal then know how to control the contingent? Thus to depend carelessly on the measuring spoon after learning only about herbal medicine is to steal the title of physician for a gang of idiots who only busy themselves calculating their own profits. How can this be called a humane and benevolent profession when those kinds of people pursue an occupation with the power over life and death and have no qualms about recommending those herbs to their fathers and their Lords?35

This is not a ringing endorsement of the practice of herbal medicine in Atsutane’s Japan; however, it does show an important adjustment in Atsutane’s attitude concerning the effectiveness of these techniques. Instead of herbal medicine being the inferior and sometimes dangerous techniques of the depraved Chinese healer, it is being revalued and redeemed by the insertion of Japanese spiritual power, and given the nativist seal of approval based on the claim of a textually traceable Japanese origin for the practice. If not for Torakichi and Senkyō ibun, Atsutane’s reversal would be an act bewildering to all who are familiar with his former medical theory and his standard and consistent line of xenophobic argumentation.

35 Hirata Atsutane, “Kassenōden,” in SHAZ, vol. 14, p. 411. Hirata Atsutane, “Isō Chūkeikō,” in SHAZ, vol.14, p. 548.

103 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

Carol Richmond Tsang composed mostly of commoners undifferentiated from one another in sources. I admire that Tsang War and Faith: Ikkō Ikki in eschews such approaches in favor of a careful Late Muromachi Japan and thorough treatment of sources, but the result Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia can be a challenging read. Center, 2007 To her credit, Tsang does characterize the Ikkō ikki as part of the larger ikki phenomenon. © Suzanne Gay, Oberlin College Although its immediate causes were local as she points out, the Ikkō ikki can be seen as part of a

larger historical trend starting in the early medie- Carol Tsang has produced a comprehensive val period with the formation of estate ikki fol- history of an important social and religious lowed by debt amnesty ikki, religious ikki (Ikkō movement, the Ikkō ikki, a phenomenon com- and Lotus), and provincial ikki, and eventually prised mostly of commoners that commanded the extending into the Tokugawa period. Her com- attention of medieval political leaders. The topic parative discussion of the contemporaneous Ikkō has been treated in less detail in studies of the and Lotus (“Nichiren”) ikki is especially useful Jodo Shinshu school of Buddhism and in various and illuminating. As Tsang makes clear, the ikki works of political history, including several stud- phenomenon cannot be generalized simply as ies of . No other work in English, lower orders rising up against elites. These however, gives the Ikkō ikki central considera- leagues were each formed for a specific purpose tion. My comments here are chiefly on Tsang’s and as a result they could have a socially diverse work as political and social history, but she does membership. Even more emphasis on Ikkō ikki not ignore the religious basis of the movement. as part of the larger ikki phenomenon might have She places its early history in the emergence of provided greater narrative coherence. sectarian Patriarchs, and she ties its evolution A related way of contextualizing the Ikkō both to their teachings and to their control over ikki might be to characterize the entire Sengoku their followers. Tsang employs a wide array of period, from the Onin War until the Tokugawa primary sources. She gives sectarian sources victory, as one in which Japanese society became careful attention but includes aristocratic diaries militarized at many levels. This is not so much to and other non-religious sources as well. say that warfare was endemic but rather that Tsang weaves political, military, religious, many people came to be organized in a military and organizational aspects into a chronological or paramilitary fashion that could dominate their narrative. This is both a strength and a shortcom- lives at times. In the sixteenth century we see ing: her approach reveals the full social and po- religious ikki phenomenon evolving into an all- litical complexity of the age, but as a result the consuming lifestyle. Appropriately, Tsang fo- narrative is sometimes dense and lacking in the- cuses on the exclusive nature of Lotus and Ikkō matic coherence. At times one feels that there is teachings that drove its members to fight not too much information to absorb and too few vis- only each other but adherents of older forms of ual aids. (A genealogical table of Rennyo’s fam- Buddhism as well. ily, for instance, would have been helpful to the Tsang firmly lowers the curtain in the late non-specialist of religion.) This is especially sixteenth century, noting factually that the Ikkō frustrating when, as is often the case in medieval ikki were destroyed and that religious ikki had no topics, there is also a lack of the kind of defini- direct descendants in Tokugawa times. She as- tive information that allows clear-cut conclusions. serts that the lasting legacy of the Ikkō ikki was I sympathize fully with this dilemma and can the firmly anti-Christian stance of early modern supply no easy remedy. The fact is that model- or rulers. Participants in ikki, Tsang argues, were theory-driven narratives of medieval topics often basically defending their own temples, encour- veer toward misrepresentation in their tendency aged by the Patriarch’s guarantee that participa- to oversimplify and omit. Nor can a character- tion in ikki—in warfare, that is—would be re- driven narrative be fashioned for a phenomenon warded with rebirth in paradise rather than in

104 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

hell. Furthermore, she characterizes the Honganji as regarding the emergence of one national leader (Nobunaga) as contrary to its interests. It is logical to think that Nobunaga’s Ikkō ikki ex- perience made clear to subsequent rulers that their grip on power could be threatened by those holding allegiance to a spiritual cause; how much more so if that cause could be backed up by foreign military power? Ikkō ikki were too subversive to exist in the early modern world of political confederation; from the perspective of the rulers they had to be destroyed. Christianity likewise would not be tolerated. These are useful observations, implicitly acknowledging the early modern exercise of authority as a new beast. Re- ligious or not, however, ikki occurred frequently in the Tokugawa period. The impulse to form a league based on a common goal was fundamen- tal to all ikki, from medieval through early mod- ern times. As social and political events, there- fore, they were a sty in the eye of the authorities over about seven centuries. This does not contra- dict Tsang’s analysis of the demise of the Ikkō ikki, but simply acknowledges their significance in a larger historical context.

105 EARLY MODERN JAPAN 2008

Basic Style Guidelines for 1700," in The Cambridge History of Japan, Final Manuscripts Volume Four: Early Modern Japan, edited Early Modern Japan: An Interdisciplinary by John W. Hall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991): 373-424. Journal Thesis citations: Please use Times New Roman 10.5 point font for the Willem Jan Boot, "The Adoption and Adapta- main text, Times New Roman 14 point font bolded tion of Neo-Confucianism in Japan: The for the main title, and Times New Roman 12 point Role of Fujiwara Seika and Hayashi Razan" bold for the author’s name, followed by the author’s (D. Lit., University of Leiden, 1983). institutional affiliation in normal, e.g., Adriana Delprat, "Forms of Dissent in the Ge-

saku Literature of Hiraga Gennai (1728- Early Modern Japanese Art History 1780)" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, ©Patricia J. Graham, University of Kansas Princeton University, 1985)

Subheadings should be Times New Roman 10.5 Book citation: point font bold, and flush left. Bernard Faure, Chan Insights and Oversights: An Epistemological Critique of the Chan Italicize Japanese words in the text. Do not italicize Tradition (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univer- Japanese words that commonly appear in English sity Press, 1993). language publications such as samurai, shogun, ba- Helen Hardacre, ed., The Postwar Develop- kufu, , noh/nō, etc. ment, 205. Cf., however, Mark Teeuwen, Watarai Shintō: An Intellectual History of If possible, produce macrons over vowels; if you the Outer Shrine in Ise (Leiden: Research can not produce macrons over vowels, choose a School CNWS, 1996). consistent, distinctive (e.g., not used for any other purpose in your essay text, notes, or citations) EMJ can use color illustrations. Please submit these symbol, e.g., circumflex or umlaut, and clearly note in a standard format (e.g., jpg, gif, tiff, or pdf; how- on the title page what convention you are following ever, we can handle anything that Adobe Photoshop so our search-and-replace routines can quickly make version 6.01 can edit.). Originals may be submitted the substitutions. in color, but you should test to see how well they convert to grayscale before you decide to include EMJ employs footnotes, not endnotes. Please fol- them. Clearly label illustrations in sequence and low the Chicago Manual of Style, 13th edition. We provide captions clearly associated with each illus- use the same font and size for notes and the main tration. text. Italicize the names of books, newspapers, journals, etc. AUTHORS WILL BE ASKED TO

Article citations: IMPORT THEIR FINAL DRAFTS Gregory Schopen, “Archaeology and Protes- INTO AN MS Word TEMPLATE tant Presuppositions in the Study of Indian THAT WILL FORMAT TEXT FOR Buddhism,” History of Religions 31 (1991): 1-23. PUBLICATION. THIS WILL RE- W. J. Boot, “Approaches to Ogyū Sorai: Trans- QUIRE THAT AUTHORS RE- lation and Transculturalization,” Monumenta FORMAT CHARTS AND TABLES, Nipponica 54, no. 2 (1999): 247-258. Timothy H. Barrett, "Tominaga Our Contem- LINE BREAKS IN POETRY, ETC. For porary," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, reference, each EMJ column is 20.03 characters Third Series 3, no. 2 (1993): 245-52. wide with the font setting as noted above. Bitō Masahide. "Thought and Religion: 1550-

106