Japanes Behavior Study

8/3/2019 Japanes Behavior Study

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キーワード：横並び行動 C ountervailing Force to Yokonarabi

アブストラクト：

「横並び」行動は歴史を作らない。歴史を作るのは「反・横並び」の行

動である。元禄15年（1702）12月15日早朝、未曾有の重大ニュースが江

戸市中を貫いた。その前夜、赤穂浪士46人は霏々と降る大雪のなか、本

所・吉良邸に討ち入った。みごとに吉良義央の首級をあげ、夜明けとと

もに品川・泉岳寺まで引き揚げた。首は亡君の墓前に供えて公儀の処置

を仰いだ。46人全員が切腹して果てた。本当は47人いたのだが、リーダ

ーの大石内蔵之助は最下級武士だった足軽の寺坂吉右衛門のみ討ち入り

に参加させずに逃がし、この事件を目撃して亡君・浅野内匠頭未亡人に

討ち入り成功を報告させたのである。

この事件は世に『忠臣蔵』と呼ばれる。爾来、300年間、文学、映画、

演劇はもとより、歌舞音曲等々にもなって、今日なお大衆の絶大な人気

を得ている。元禄時代は五代将軍・綱吉の治世（1680∼ 1709）である。

この時代は260年余に及ぶ江戸時代の中で、巨大な消費需要が発生し、消

費経済が最も繁栄し、G D Pの高度成長を実現した時代であった。21世紀

の現代用語でいうと、まさしく「Bubble」の時代であったといえよう。

人々は贅沢に走り、文化は爛熟した。学芸は発展した。貨幣経済は一

気に浸透した。武士に代わって町人が実力を得た。将軍綱吉は「生類憐

れみの令」を発して狩猟を禁じた。とりわけ、人は「犬」に一指の危害

も加えてはならぬという異常さであった。江戸市民は横並びで、表面上

はたとえ野良犬でも「お犬様」とうやまい、たてまつった。

であったから、死を賭した赤穂浪士46人の討ち入りは、そのような時

代と社会への強烈なアンチテーゼとして理解されなければならない。当

初は亡君の仇討ちが動機だったが、しかし、実は当時の“元禄社会”の

横並びに対する「反・横並び行動」として大きな意味があった。利害を

超えた「反・横並び」の行動が絶大な大衆人気の源泉であろう。

このような「反・横並び」の行動は現代でもさまざまな点で意味を持

― ―19

A Study on the Japanese People’s Social

Behavior: Part One

――From a Historical Point of View:“Yokonarabi Behavior”

and The Countervailing Force to the Social Trend――

Hokaji Mino



っていよう。従って、今回の論文を「Part O ne」として、以下、歴史を

作ってきた日本人の、日本社会における「反・横並び」の行動を歴史か

ら拾い上げ、それが現代にいかなる影響と関連性を残しているか、につ

いて考察する。

Introduction

Japan has a history of thousands of years. A bout five thousand years ago,

the early ancient period began. Thus w e have the long-established structure

w hich has becom e an unbreakable barrier in Japan’s“mura culture”

（village culture）. Japan’s“ yokonarabi behavior”（“ yokonarabi”m eans

copycatting or follow ing the herd or lining up side-by-side）is unique. This is

m y hypothesis that the origin of“ yokonarabi behavior”can be traced back

to the“mura”in the ancient tim es.

T he Japanese w ord“mura”m eans village or ham let in E nglish. T he

“ Mura”is the sm allest and basic adm inistrative unit of local governm ent.

O riginally it w as a self-contained and self-sufficient agricultural com m unity.M any institutions w ere introduced to Japan from the continent of C hina

through the K orean Peninsula in the ancient tim es. The term “mura”is

believed to be closely related to the K orean w ords“mul”（district）and

“mail”（village）and is thought to be derived from the Japanese w ord

“mureru”（“group”as an intransitive verb）and“muragaru”（“cluster

about[or around]”as an intransitive verb）.

A num ber of ancient punishm ents w ere still m aintained in Japan until W orld W ar II in the villages and ham lets as an autonom ous act. For exam ple,

one of those punishm ents w as the so-called“mura-hachibu”and the origin

of this can be traced back to the“K am akura period”（1192− 1297）. It w asequivalent to the ostracism of“shunning”and it w as m ore or less publicly

practiced in the“mura society,”but it has strictly been prohibited in the

m iddle of 20th century.

In m y personal view , there are broadly tw o categories of the Japanese

people’s collective behavior. The one is a strict obedience to the social or

group trend. T he Japanese people are strong group-oriented m ind. For

― ―20



exam ple, w hen one of them said he w ould do som ething, the others said the

sam e and they all do together. W e call this“ yokonarabi behavior.”

C ontrary to this, the other is a countervailing force to the social or group

trend. The Japanese people’s countervailing force to the trend is the origin in

the punitive“mura-hachibu”shunning. You have to adapt yourselves to the

current circum stances and follow your ordinary routine.

The countervailing force to the social trend is disobedient to do altogether

to the tide, rule, order, custom , taboo and the spirit of the tim es or the

zeitgeist . This category is indispensable for transform ation of Japan’s“mura

society”（village society）and to rapid reform .

From the historical point of view , there w ere m any acts of the countervail-

ing force in Japan. This paper focuses to one of the historical facts of“A ko

Ronin Incident.”T his exam ple w ill illustrate w hat I m ean.

1．Ako Incident Story Begins in 1701

Three hundred years ago, on D ecem ber 14, 1702, according to the lunarcalendar then in use − January 30, 1703, according to the G regorian

（W estern）calendar− the capital city E do（present-day T okyo）w as

covered w hite w ith snow . Three hundred years later, on D ecem ber 14, 2002,

a m em orial service w as held at Sengakuji tem ple in Takanaw a, M inato W ard,

Tokyo, to com m em orate the 300th anniversary of the so-called“ Ako Ronin

Incident.”This w as know n to the W est as the m ost fam ous revenge of the

forty-six ronin（m asterless samurai）and also as one of the m ost fam ousexam ples of samurai pledged allegiance to their samurai society’s code of

loyalty to a hanshu（the lord of A ko han）.

The story began in 1701. In early January 1701, K ira K ozuke-no-suke

（1641− 1702）w as sent to K yoto from E do on behalf of the fifth Shogun

Tsunayoshi（1646− 1709）to pay the N ew Year’s greetings to the E m peror

and the Im perial court. This w as one of very im portant annual events for

Tokugaw a B akufu w hich w ere held traditionally at the beginning of January

every year.

― ―21



The K ira fam ily w as called“koke hitto”in Japanese and it w as“a top ele-

vated fam ily”am ong tw enty-six fam ilies w hich included O tom o fam ily,

H atakeyam a fam ily, K yogoku fam ily and so on, all of w hom traced their lin-

eage to the M urom achi period（1333− 1565）. K ira w as given a daimyo

dom ain and also honorary daimyo status.

In response, the T okugaw a B akufu had received official notice from the

Im perial court that the E m peror H igashiyam a’s representatives w as sched-

uled to com e to E do to pay an official visit to Shogun Tsunayoshi on M arch

14, 1701.

Receiving an Im perial envoy from K yoto to E do w as an annual cerem ony

that represented one of the few contacts betw een the E m peror, w ho w as

ruler in nam e only, and the Tokugaw a bakufu, w ho had unified and adm inis-

tered Japan since Tokugaw a Ieyasu（1542− 1616）established the T okugaw a

B akufu in 1603 by m ilitary force and becam e the actual ruler of the country.

The T okugaw a B akufu had prepared im m ediately for the reception of theIm perial envoy. First, Shogun Tsunayoshi had chosen tw o lords as hosts

from am ong the m any daimyo（lords）of above 10,000 koku.（1） O ne w as lord

A sano N aganori（1665− 1701）of A ko dom ain in H arim a province（53,000

koku）and the other w as D ate M uneharu of Yoshida dom ain in Iyo province

present-day E him e prefecture（30,000 koku）. Shogun Tsunayoshi had also

ordered K ira K ozuke-no-suke to instruct them in the court cerem onies for

reception.The Im perial court w as especially particular about their custom s, rules or

unw ritten rules of etiquette, food, attire and so on. B oth lords A sano and

D ate, how ever, w ere country w arriors and they knew nothing about the

Im perial C ourt of cerem onies, m anners, custom s and etiquette.

Som e of the T okugaw a B akufu’s docum ents are still available at the

Tokugaw a Library in Tokyo. A ccording to the docum ents for 1702, on the

m orning of February 4, lord A sano and lord D ate w ere called to the E do

C astle（today’s Im perial Palace in Tokyo）.

T hey w ere given new jobs by the roju（the C ouncil of E lders in the

― ―22



Tokugaw a Shogunate）Akim oto Tajim a-no-kam i that their new jobs as hosts

should be started at once. In those days in 1700s, to act as host for the

bakufu w as an honorable duty.

A sano and D ate had m et K ira and asked him for teach them the w ay, cus-

tom s and m anners of traditonal cerem onies at the Im perial court. N aturally,

they had to m ake a gifts of m oney and articles to K ira as token of their

appreciation. It w as a traditional Japanese-style expression of appreciation.

B ut there w as no know ing w hat m ight becom e a bribe betw een them and

K ira. A ccording to the tradition of“ Ako Ronin Incident,”K ira expected as a

m atter of course to be given m oney and articles from both lords. K ira had a

poor reputation in a high-ranking shogunate official society because he w as a

corrupt official and w as very m ean about m oney m atters. T here w ere,

how ever, no any historical docum ents or evidences to prove this.

It seem s probable that lord A sano did plan to m ake a gifts of m oney and

articles to K ira after the cerem ony w as over as an expression of his thanks.Lord D ate differed from lord A sano in this regard. D ate seem s to have m ade

gifts to K ira before the cerem ony. A ccording to one hypothesis, the vassals

of lord D ate gave K ira a roll of silk and a little box full of koban（Japanese

traditional oval gold coins）. H ow ever, A sano’s vassals offered nothing. The

vassals of A sano w ere not bold enough to give a lot of gold aw ay to K ira

w ithout their lord’s perm ission.

B orn in 1665 as a son of lord A sano N agatom o. A sano grew up as a succes-sor to lord of A ko clan. A s a m atter of course, he w as educated in the neo-

C onfucian tradition and trained in budo（m artial arts）.

Asano w as 34 years old at the tim e. H e had been constant in his devotion

to“ Bushido”（“ Bushido”m eans literally“the w ay of the w arrior.”）

The A sano clan w as fam ous for its rigorous discipline and insisted on

accuracy over their retainers children. Lord A sano’s discipline w as basically

sam urai stoicism from the childhood. A fter his father’s death, he succeeded

to lordship of the A ko clan（53,000 koku）in 1675.

― ―23



The A m erican anthropologist Ruth B enedict（1887− 1948）published her

outstanding book“The C hrysanthem um and the Sw ord − Patterns of

Japanese C ulture”in 1946 and the book has w idely been read in Japan and

the W est. The book w ell describes samurai stoicism , relating a story about

C ount K atsu K aishu（1823− 99）（2）in the book. A passage of the episode is as

follow s:−

The tales of sam urai stoicism are fam ous. They w ere forbidden to give

w ay to hunger but that w as too trivial to m ention. They w ere enjoined

w hen they w ere starving to pretend they had just eaten: they m ust pick

their teeth w ith a toothpick.“B aby birds,”the m axim w ent,“cry for

their food but a sam urai holds a toothpick betw een his teeth.”In the

past w ar this becam e an A rm y m axim for the enlisted soldier. N or m ust

they give w ay to pain. The Japanese attitude w as like the boy soldier’s

rejoinder to N apoleon:“W ounded? N ay, sir, I’m killed.”A sam urai

should give no sign of suffering till he fell dead and he m ust bear pain

w ithout w incing. It is told of C ount K atsu w ho died in 1899 that w hen hew as a boy his testicles w ere torn by a dog. H e w as of sam urai fam ily but

his fam ily had been reduced to beggary. W hile the doctor operated upon

him , his father held a sw ord to his nose.“If you utter one cry,”he told

him ,“you w ill die in a w ay that at least w ill not be sham eful.”（3）

To return the m ain topic, lord A sano N aganori m ust have thought it w as a

sin and crim e to give K ira his m oney and articles as a gift beforehand in sucha m atter. Surely, this w as a bribery and this applied to every T okugaw a

bakufu official. H e could not give him any gifts in advance and if he had done

it, his sin and crim e w ould have deserved capital punishm ent.

A s a result, lord A sano w as left to the tender m ercies of K ira. For exam ple,

it w as said that A sano w as never taught by K ira any program s, w ays,

m anners and etiquette. H ow ever, there w ere no any historical docum ents

and evidences to substantiate this.

In fact, lord A sano did not know anything about the cerem onies until the

third day and final day of the reception, on M arch 14, 1701. A sano probably

― ―24



expressed to K ira his concern about that day’s cerem ony and he w as

denounced by K ira to do his job. It appears that A sano w as greatly angered

by K ira’s arrogance. Thus, the story of the“Ako Ronin Incident”had begun

on that day.

A t about 10 o’clock in the m orning of M arch 14, 1701, in a corridor inside

E do castle, A sano and K ira passed each other and suddenly A sano drew his

sw ord from its scabbard and lunged at K ira, w ounding K ira in the forehead

and his back. K ajikaw a Yosobei, w ho w as a bodyguard of an im portant per-

son saw the event as it happened and he restrained A sano.

It w as illegal behavior and a great crim e to draw a sw ord inside the

shogun’s palace of residence. In after years K ajikaw a w rote a m em orandum

about his action at that tim e. A ccording to K ajikaw a’s m em o, A sano w as

taken into custody at the residence of the lord T am ura U kyodayu in

Shim bashi, E do, w here he com m itted ritual suicide（seppuku）later the

sam e day. A t the age of 34.

The Shogun Tsunayoshi w as furious to hear that the cerem ony had been

disrupted. The sw iftness of Tsunayoshi’s reaction w as am azing. O n the sam e

day, Tsunayoshi im m ediately sentenced A sano to death by beheading, but

allow ed A sano the opportunity to keep his honor by com m itting ritual suicide

（seppuku）instead. In the afternoon, lord A sano w as executed at once. N o

one could have a final m eeting w ith him before his execution, not his w ife,

his vassals nor his servants, etc. O n the sam e day, lord A sano’s only brotherA sano D aigaku w as also arrested and confined to his house because he w as

lord A sano’s nearest of kin.

A sano dom ain and A ko C astle in H arim a province（present-day H yogo

prefecture）w ere confiscated by the shogunate. This event instantly becam e

a m ajor incident in a blink inside E do C astle and in the city of E do. Shogun

T sunayoshi m ight have considered that he should punish A sano quickly

because he w as afraid that the sam e sort of incident m ight happen again

inside the high-ranking sam urai society of Tokugaw a adm inistrative pow er.

N eedless to say, Tsunayoshi had a fear of having it becom e“ yokonarabi

― ―25



behavior.”

H e m ay have thought that, if it had not been for his quickness, Tokugaw a

adm inistrative pow er m ight have capsized. In order to be a w arning to oth-

ers, it w as necessary to infect a cruel punishm ent on A sano. W ith its lord’s

death, the A sano clan（53,000 koku）collapsed and several hundred vassals

and servants have scattered w ithout any livelihood. In accordance w ith its

rules, the shogunate also took control of A ko castle in A ko, H arim a.

2．Both Asano Naganori and Oishi Kura-no-suke Were Confucian

Disciples

It seem s to m e that there w as a sense in w hich w as a storm y quarrel

betw een the tw o, K ira and A sano. In the eyes of the ronin and the public.

H ow ever, the shogunate’s decision to order only A sano to com m it suicide

w as partial and lenient punishm ent to K ira. K ira only retired.

O ne of the rules in the E do period w as the established practice and princi-

ple according to w hich both parties in a private fight w ere to be punished. It

w as first institutionalized in the N am bokucho A ge（the A ge of N orthern andSouthern C ourts in 1335− 1392 in Japanese history）in order to prevent the

increasing private fights am ong sam urai. A ccording to this rule, w hen tw o

sam urai engaged in a private fight over territorial rights rather than asking

the shogunate’s judgm ent, the shogunate confiscated both territories and

punished both. This rule w as continued the M urom achi period（1393− 1575）and the A zuchi-M om oyam a period（1576− 1600）. In the E do period（1603−1868）, this practice continued and becam e part of the fundam ental code ofthe T okugaw a shogunate. H ow ever, the Shogun Tsunayoshi’s judge decided

that only A sano had to com m it ritual suicide, K ira w as not guilty and w as

never punished. H e retired soon after the incident.

It w as clearly unfare of K ira to only help him . There w as an outstanding

leader in A ko clan at that tim e, nam ely O ishi K ura-no-suke（1658− 1703）w ho w as a karo of the A ko clan. K aro m eans a head of the vassals in E nglish

and O ishi w as one of the highest-ranking officials in the governm ent of A ko

clan. There w ere tw o karo in the A ko clan and the other w as O no K uro-be-i

― ―26



（unknow n the year of birth and death）. O ishi w as full of com plaints in the

back of his m ind about the bakufu’s unfair disposition tow ard lord A sano. B ut

O no had fled from the country soon before the castle w as confiscated by the

shogunate.

O ishi w as born as an eldest son and a successor of a karo house. H e w as

raised by his grandfather because his father died w hen he w as a child. H e

succeeded to his grandfather’s position at the age of 21. H is nicknam e w as

“hiru-andon”（a paper-lam p in the daytim e）. The nam ing of this w as his tal-

ents w ere so com m on that they w ere of“no use in the daytim e.”O ishi w as

educated C onfucianism by tw o scholars of extraordinary ability, Yam aga

Soko（1622− 85）and Ito Jinsai（1627− 1705）. C onfucian Y am aga w as born

in A izu（present-day A izu-W akam atsu C ity in Fukushim a prefecture）.

Yam aga w ent to E do from A izu w hen he w as at the age of 6, and studied C hu

H si philosophy under H ayashi Razan（1583− 1665）. C hu H si philosophy w as

the official philosophy at that tim e in Tokugaw a Japan. A ny criticism of C hu

H si philosophy as an official philosophy w as not perm it by H ayashi Razan.H ayashi w as em ployed by the founder of T okugaw a shogunate Ieyasu

（1542− 1616）in 1605, at the beginning of the 17th century. In 1635, H ayashi

w as retained by the third shogun Iem itsu（1604− 51）. Yam aga w as invited by

the A ko clan to com e as a teacher of C hu H si philosophy in 1652. H ow ever,

Yam aga shifted his study to A ncient Learning from C hu H si philosophy, in

the 1660s. H ayashi had died several years earlier. Ito Jinsai w as born in

K yoto and he studied first C hu H si philosophy in K yoto but also he changedhis study tow ard A ncient Learning from C hu H si philosophy at the age of 36

in 1662. A t the sam e tim e, Ito founded the H orikaw a school in K yoto. In 1666,

Yam aga Soko w as exiled to A ko from E do in order to severely criticize C hu

H si philosophy and he taught A ncient Learning on C onfucius（552∼ 479

B .C .）to O ishi in A ko after that.

W hy did Y am aga and Ito change their study to the A ncient Learning from

the C hu H si philosophy? According to a chronological table of Japanese

history, it is w ritten that the old C hinese C onfucianism w as first introduced

― ―27



into Japan from C hina around the end of 4th or the beginning of 5th century

A . D ., during the reign of E m peror O jin. O f course, som e theories date its

entry even earlier.

A bout four or five h undred years later, the Sung period（960− 1279）started in C hina. This period w as divided into tw o, i.e., the N orthern Sung

（960− 1127）and the Southern Sung（1128− 1279）. In the Southern Sungperiod, m oreover, the Sung philosophy or the C hu H si philosophy w as

established in C hina and in the K am akura period（1185− 1333）in Japan, the

Sung philosophy or the C hu H si philosophy w as also im ported into Japan

from C hina by Zen m onks. Therefore, the Sung philosopher the C hu H si phi-

losophy w as the one traditionally preserved by the m onks of the Five Zen

M onarsteries in K am akura.

Thus, C onfucianism has a long history in Japan. D uring the E do period

（1603− 1867）, the Sung philosophy, especially the C hu H si philosophy

becam e the golden age of C onfucianism in Japan because the philosophy w as

the m ost rapid developm ent of C onfucianism .

The 1st Shogun of Tokugaw a regim e Ieyasu had show n his great interest

in C onfucianism even before he established the T okugaw a regim e. H ayashi

Razan becam e Ieyasu’s political adviser and gained his trust and confidence.

W hy w as Ieyasu very m uch interested in C onfucianism ? Ieyasu w as born in

1543 as the first son of M atsudaira H irotada, a leader of a sm all fief in

M ikaw a province（present-day A ichi Prefecture）. H e spent his youth as acaptive of his father H irotada’s enem y, the O da fam ily. H e w as continued as a

hostage to his father’s allies, the Im agaw a fam ily. In 1561, he took control of

his father’s dom ain.

U ntil the beginning of 17th century, all his life w as spent in battles and the

alliances, day in and day out. O n O ctober 21, 1600, Ieyasu led an arm y of

104,000 w arriors into the“B attle of Sekigahara”and w on. In the w inter of

1614 and again in the follow ing sum m er of 1615, he attacked the O saka

C astle and w on, respectively. The battle in the sum m er of 1615 w as the last

battle of his life because he passed aw ay on A pril 14, 1616.

― ―28



Thus, at the beginning of the 17th century, Ieyasu had gained the highest

political pow er in Japan by m ilitary force. H e felt com pelling to encourage

learning and turn the people’s m inds aw ay from violence and w arfare in

order to strengthen the foundations of his regim e. It w as said that Ieyasu

liked particularly the B ook of M encius（375 − 289 B .C .）am ong the

C onfucian classics. M encius taught that hum an nature is good and he

believed in“the goodness of hum an nature w as expressed m ainly for the

benefit of those w ho w ere in a state of despair and self-abandonm ent.”

Ieyasu w ho w as fond of M encius believed also in the“goodness of hum an

nature,”later in his life. A t any rate, how ever, it is obvious that Ieyasu w as

interested in C onfucianism because of its fundam ental m oral principles and

its concepts of political legitim acy, not because of its literary or exegetical

values, of course. It w as natural that Ieyasu becam e the m ost pow erful and

reliable patron of the C hu H si philosophy.（4）

N early half century after the death of Ieyasu in 1665, the A ncient Learning

originated w ith Yam aga Soko and w as after developed it further by Ito Jinsai（1627− 1705）and O gyu Sorai（1666− 1728）. E specially, the point of the Soraischool’s thought and his m ethodology w as w hat Sorai called“the study of

old phrases and syntax”（Kobunji-gaku）. As Sorai w ill be observed later in

this paper, Yam aga w as dissatisfied above all w ith the m ethods of the C hu

H si school’s practical ethics, the exhaustive investigation of principle, and

“holding fast to seriousness.”Y am aga insisted: Reurn to ancient classics like

the B ook of A nalects of C onfucius（ Rongo）and the B ook of M encius（ Moshi）.

T he“Four B ooks”（Shisho）had constituted the core of the Sung

philosophy, i.e., the G reat Learning（ Daigaku）, the D octrine of the M ean

（Chuyo）, M encius（ Moshi）and A nalects of C onfucius（ Rongo）. The C hu

H si school, how ever, had placed particular em phasis on the G reat Learning

and the D octrine of the M ean as learning texts. B ut the w orld changes and

w ords change historically.

Therefore, an interpretation of the ancient classics based on the current

m eanings of their vocabulary could not grasp the true m eaning of the ancient

― ―29



text. W hen Yam aga Soko criticized the C hu H si philosophy in 1666, he had

given up all hope of life then and determ ined to be sentenced to death, so he

had w ritten his“farew ell m essage”at that tim e.

B ut since he w as only exiled to A ko in H arim a province, he kept it in his

possesion. This“farew ell m essage”is included at the present tim e in his

book“ Haisho-zampitsu”（A n A utobiography in E xile）. H is“farew ell

m essage”w as as follow s:−

Those w ho hold m e to be a crim inal m ust hold the W ay of the D uke of

C hou and C onfucius to be crim inal also. I m ay be incrim inated, but the

W ay cannot be incrim inated. It is the fault of the political currents of our

tim e that the W ay of the Sages is in crim inated.”（5）

It is said that he w as treated as a guest in his place of exile and it is

thought that he taught the A ncient Learning to lord A sano,karo O ishi K ura-

no-suke and retainers of the A ko clan. T hree years later, Y am aga w as

pardoned and allow ed to return to E do. In the beginning of the G enroku era（1688− 1702）in Japan’s history, nearly 80 years had passed since the death

of Ieyasu w ho w as the founder of the Tokugaw a B akufu. A fter he died, the

T okugaw a B akufu had proceeded to carry out step by step a policy of

isolationism in 1633, 1635 and 1639.

From the death of Ieyasu to the beginning of the G enroku era, building up

an internally peaceful society and the com pleting of the internal stabilization

of the country. T he policy of seclusion from the outside w orld w ascom pleted . T hus, all the people’s energies w ere turned internal and

produced the brilliant and enchanting w orks of art of G enroku culture,

including these of the haiku poet M atsuo B asho（1644− 94）, poet and w riterof popular fiction Ihara Saikaku（1642− 93）, Japan’s greatest playw rightC hikam atsu M on-za-e-m on（1653− 1724）, kabuki actors 1st Ichikaw a D anjuro

I（1660− 1704）and Sakata T ojuro（1645− 1709）, Yam ato-e painter O gata

K orin（1658− 1716）, ukiyo-e painter H ishikaw a M oronobu（1618− 94）, potterO gata K enzan（1663− 1743）, and m any others.

The G enroku era betw een the latter half of 17th century and the beginning

― ―30



of 18th century w as the m ost unique period of Japanese history. First of all,

the increase in creative w orks and artistic activities w ere based, of course,

on an eagerness to im prove living standards, but at the sam e tim e these

prom oted dem and. In fact, these creative w orks and artistic activities w ere

concentrated in large cities like E do（present-day Tokyo）, K yoto and O saka.

For exam ple, ukiyo-e painter H ishikaw a M oronobu had m ade a sudden

rise in E do and he becam e a founder of ukiyo-e painting. Perm anent kabuki

theaters had opened in E do and O saka. Playw right C hikam atsu M onza-e-

m on and novelist Ihara Saikaku had played an active role of G enroku

literature and in later years C hikam atsu w as even called the“Japanese

Shakespeare.”T hus, the increase increativity in the cultural sphere

w as closely related to the grow th in the econom ic pow er of the chonin

（m erchants）.

The G enroku spirit first took the form of increasing chonin extravagance.

The passing days and m onths are eternal travellers in tim e. The years

that com e and go are travellers, too. Life itself is a journey; and as forthose w ho spend their days upon the w aters in ships and those w ho

grow old leading horses, their very hom e is the open road. A nd som e

poets of old there w ere w ho died w hile travelling.

T here cam e a day w hen the clouds drifting along w ith the w ind

aroused a w onderlust in m e, and I set off on a journey to roam along the

seashores. I returned to m y hut on the riverbank last autum n, and by the

tim e I had sw ept aw ay the cobw ebs, the year w as over.B ut w hen spring cam e w ith its m isty skies, the god of tem ptation

possessed m e w ith a longing to pass the B arrier at Shirakaw a, and the

road gods beckoned, and I could not set m y m ind to anything. So I

m ended m y breeches, put new cords on m y hat, and as I burned m oxa

on m y knees to m ake them strong, I w as already dream ing of the m oon

over M atsushim a.

I sold m y hom e and m oved into Sam pu’s guest house, but before I left

m y cottage I com posed a verse and inscribed it on a poem strip w hich I

hung upon a pillar;

― ―31



This rude herm it cell

W ill be different now , know ing the D oll’s

Festival as w ell.

（From a Prologue of“N arrow Road to a F ar Province”）（6）

In M arch 27, the 2nd year of the G enroku era（1689）, in the lunar

calendar then in use, in the G regorian calendar M ay 16, 1689, Japan’s

greatest traveler and poet M atsuo B asho left E do and traveled som e 1,500

m iles（2,400 km ）in 156 days. This w as the m ost fam ous journey of haiku

poetry and his longest trip, w hen he w as forty-five. It w as also a long journey

to the m ost underdeveloped part of Japan, the nothern area of H onshu, w ith

little lingering on the w ay even for the illness that plagued him at tim es. H is

account of it,“Oku-no-Hosomichi”（The N arrow Road to a Far Province）, is

the m aster piece of his prose-and-poetry travel diaries. The journey w as a

difficult and perilous undertaking, and the poet and his disciple K aw ai Sora

（1649− 1710）traveled m ostly on foot. B ut then poets like Saigyo（real nam e:

Sato Yoshikiyo, 1118−90）and Iio Sogi（1421

−1502）had trod the sam e path

even centuries earlier. It w as his desire to follow in their footsteps that

prom pted B asho to set off on his arduous pilgrim age. H e w anted to see for

him self the places m entioned in their poem s. H is long journey ended in

O gaki, M ino province（present-day G ifu prefecture）on A ugust 21 of that

the 2nd year of the G enroku era（1689）.

B asho had sold his house in E do before he left, setting off into eternity, as

it w ere, and w as not really expecting ever to return alive. A s m ight have beenexpected, the trip w as difficult. N ow hom eless, he passed the tw o years fol-

low ing his northw ard pilgrim age sojourning at various sum m er cottages lent

him by disciples.

In 1692, his disciples built him a new house nam ed“B asho-an”in E do on

the bank of Sum ida River. In 1694, he set off once m ore, this tim e to w alk to

the southw estern provinces in Japan as far as the great island of K yushu. B ut

alas, he fell grievously ill of dysentry and died on O ctober 12, the 7th year of

the G enroku era（1694）. H e w as fifty years old.

― ―32



3．The Genroku Era; Money and Commercial Economy Spread

Widely

T he m oney econom y w hich h ad already spread w idely w hen the

Tokugaw a B akufu cam e into pow er in the beginning of the 17th century

grew even m ore because of m any feudal vassals and servants concentrated in

the castle-tow ns. The sankin kotai system w as a device to m aintain control

over the m ore than 270 daim yo.

The term referred to the obligation of the daimyo to attend the shogunal

court in E do at fixed intervals, dividing their tim e equally betw een E do and

their local dom ains. M others, w ives and children of alldaimyo w ere to live in

E do com pulsory and perm anently. The first object of this w as detained them

in E do by shogunate in order to prevent the plot ofdaimyo’s rebelion against

Tokugaw a governm ent. B etw een 1635 and 1642 sankin kotai system w as

regularized and m ade com pulsory under the 3rd Shogun Iem itsu. T he

secondly aim w as thatdaimyo had to spend huge am ount of m oney for the

cost ofsankin kotai. A s a result, not only the castle-tow ns and the agricultural

villages but also E do and all feudal dom ains w ere bound closely together bythe com m ercial econom y.

G reat daimyo had tw o kinds of yashiki in E do,kami-yashiki and shimo-

yashiki.Yashiki m eans the E do residences of the daimyo him self, his fam ily

and his vassals and servants.Kami-yashiki w as the residence of daim yo and

his fam ily, and shimo-yashiki w as the residence of his vassals and servents.

The sounds of gaiety w ere echoing through daimyo’s yashiki, and also cam efrom streets in E do. Instead, the aggressive spirit of the A ge of C ivil W ars

had disappeared com pletely in the G enroku era. T he so-called“K eian

Incident”had becom e a tale of bygone days told by old m en. In the year of

K eian 4（1651）, soon after the death of the 3rd Shogun Iem itsu, the“K eian

Incident”occurred in E do.

This w as the plot to overthrow the T okugaw a B akufu. A leader of the

conspiracy w as Yui Shosetsu（1605− 51）w ho w as a teacher of m ilitary

science in E do. A fter studying m ilitary arts under K usunoki Fuden

（unknow n the birth and death）, Shosetsu opened his school, w hich w as

― ―33



attached by several daimyo, hatamoto（direct sam urai retainers of the

Tokugaw a Shogunate）and the ronin（m asterless sam urai）.

W hen a feudal lord had been deprived of his dom ain by the bakufu, the

vassals of all at that han（clan or fief）becam e ronin. T herefore, it w as

said, Shosetsu and his fellow M arubashi C huya（?− 1651）and others

sym pathized w ith ronin sam urai and organized them and hatched a plot to

overthrow the Tokugaw a B akufu.

The conspiracy w as discovered in advance. Shosetsu com m itted suicide.

M arubashi C huya and others w ere executed. It w as believed that Shosetsu

left a note saying that they had only w anted to focus attention on the plight of

the ronin, not to plot the overthrow the bakufu.

In the feudal society of the first half of the M iddle A ges（from the 12th to

the 16th century）in Japan, alm ost all sam urai w ere tied to the soil. They

becam e peasants in the peaceful tim es m aking their living from the soil.

H ow ever, w hen strife broke out over the land or som e other develped

betw een their fam ily or group and an other, they put aside their hoes andtook up their sw ords tem porarily to again becom e w arriors and fought

against the opposing fam ily or group. In contrast to this, in the latter half of

the M iddle A ges（from the 16th to the 19th century）, there w ere a differ-

ence from the feudal society of the M iddle A ges because of the changes in

w arfare that resulted from the introduction of firearm s from the Portuguese

in 1543 and from Toyotom i governm ent’s policy of tying the peasantry to the

soil, depriving them of the right to bear sw ords in 1588.

In the 17th century, these changes could be seen in distinction betw een

the sam urai and the rest of society. A lm ost all of the people w ere clearly

divided into the four classes as a social hierarchy, i.e., the sam urai（shi）, the

peasants（no）, the artisans（ko）and the m erchants（sho）. A t the sam e

tim e, the sam urai class concentrated in the castle-tow ns aw ay from

their land. The sam urai class itself constituted a hierachical group beneath

the top feudal lords. This process w as perfected in the E do period. The

higher-ranking class of sam urai still had his ow n fief and m anaged to

― ―34



m aintain som e contact w ith the land through his fief and the need to tax it.

B ut the vast m ajority of the low er-ranking class of sam urai w ere left w ith only

a sym bolic tie to the land through the grant of a rice stipend.

They received a rice stipend as a salary from the lord. This w as called

“ fuchi-mai”in Japanese and literally m eant“support.”A fter receiving a

rice stipend, it w as exchanged for m oney. The C hu H si scholar A m e-no-m ori

H oshu（1668− 1755）w rote the four classes as a social stratum in his book as

follow s:−

There are the four classes of people: sam urai, peasants, artisans and

m erchants. The sam urai use their m inds. T he com m on people, that

is, the peasants and those below them use their m uscles. Those w ho

use their m inds are superior; those w ho use their m uscles are inferior.

T hose w ho u se their m inds have broad vision s, high ideals, and

profound w isdom . T he peasants and those of low er classes use

only their m uscles to sustain them selves. W hen these positions w ere

reversed, there w ould be, at best, discontent in the land and, at w orst,chaos.（7）（From A m e-no-m ori H oshu’s“Kisso Sawa”）

According to Professor M aruyam a M asao（1914− 1996）, this w as based onthe old C hinese philosopher M encius’s statem ent that“som e m en use their

m inds w hile others use their m uscles. H e w ho is governed by others has a

duty to feed others, w hile he w ho governs others is fed by them . This is the

principle of the w orld.”

For exam ple, 76.4 percen t of the total population in the A kita clan

（present-day A kita Prefecture in nothern Japan）w ere peasants and they

w ere perm itted to exist only to serve the sam urai class and to feed the sam u-

rai fam ily. In particular, the peasants, w ho constituted the vast m ajority of the

com m on people, w ere to exist m erely to pay taxes. Therefore, there w as a

saying tinged w ith evident sarcasm that the pronunciation“no”m eans

“agriculture,”sam e pronunciation“no”m eans“paying taxes”because

agriculture produced equaled the taxes paid.

― ―35



O nly about 10％ of the total population w as in the sam urai class in the

A kita clan. In Tokugaw a feudalism , w hich w as established by the com plete

separation betw een the m ilitary and the peasantry, the w orld of the rulers

w as sharply distinct from the w orld of the subjects. N ot only did the ruling

m ilitary（bushi）class m onopolize all political authority, but socially and

culturally it clearly distinguished its pattern of life from that of the com m on

people（peasants, artisans and m erchant）.

In the E do period, a koku of grain harvest（5.12 U S bushels）w as the

basic exchange unit of society. Land productivity, tax assessm ents, the rice

stipends of sam urai, and the w ealth of daim yo w ere all m easured in koku of

unpolished rice. B ecause a koku w as theoretically enough rice to feed one

person for a year. The follow ing hierachy of m easurem ent units w as adopted

from C hina: 1 koku equaled 10 to; 1 to equaled 10 sho; 1 ssho equaled 10 go;

and 1 go equaled 10 shaku.

In the beginning of the 18th century, an estim ate of the annual yield of

unpolished rice all over the country totaled 30 m illion koku. Paddy fieldsw ere classified in four grade w ith average annual yields of 1.5, 1.3, 1.2, and

1.1 koku for each tan（about 0.1 hectare or 0.25 acre）of the area.

M ultiplying the average annual yields of a paddy field by its num ber of tan

produced its kokudaka, or assessed tax base.Kokudaka protected the farm -

ers from the vagaries of rice prices in an increasingly progressive m oney-

based econom y. The total 30 m illion koku of unpolished rice w as distributed

am ong three groups as the annual incom es of each part: firstly the Im perialC ourt in K yoto, secondly the Tokugaw a Shogunate in E do and the daim yo

house all over the country, and thirdly the tem ples and the shrines in the

country.

4 ．The Ratio of Monetary Conversion in the Year of Keicho 14

（1609）

［Q uantity］

・A single gold coin called a“koban”or one“ryo”

＝Four silver coins called a“chogin”or“mame-ita-gin”

― ―36



・A single silver coin called a“chogin”or“mame-ita-gin”

＝Tw o silver coins called a“shu”

［w eight］

・A single gold coin called a“koban”or one“ryo”

＝Silver 15 momme（3.75 kilogram m s）

・O ne kan（3.75 kilogram m s）of silver coins called a“chogin”or“mame-

ita-gin”

＝Four kan of zeni（copper）coins（15 kilogram m s）

・O ne kan of zeni（copper）coins（3.75 kilogram m s）

＝O ne thousand mon（one mon equaled one copper coin）

As Tokugaw a Ieyasu extended his pow er during the last decade of the 16th

century and the first decade of 17th century, he had set up m ints called

kin（gold） za,gin（silver） za and zeni（copper） za. E ach of za had been

located in several big cities. Ieyasu ordered a goldsm ith and m etalw orker

G oto Sho-zabu-ro（unknow n the birth and death dates）to m int gold coins,

silver coins and copper coins in 1595. T he gold coins, called koban andichibu-kin w ere m inted from 1601. C ontinuously, Ieyasu established

a gin-za in Fushim i, K yoto, in 1601. N ext to Fushim i, Ieyasu established

another gin-za in Sum pu（ present-day Shizuoka C ity in Shizuoka

Prefecture）in 1606, but later m oved it from Sum pu to E do. From the death

of Ieyasu（1616）to the E m po era（1673− 81）, all gin-za operations w ere

directly responsible through G oto Sho-zabu-ro to the C ouncill of E lders

（roju）.

D uring the G enroku era（1688− 1704）, how ever, they w ere placed directlyunder the kanjo-bugyo（a com m issioner of finance of Tokugaw a B akufu）.

T he zeni-za w as first set up in 1636, w hen shog unate ordered a

copper m int established in E do and another in Sakam oto, O m i province

（present-day Shiga P refecture）. Sakam oto w as the birthplace of G oto

Sho-zabu-ro. In the sam e year, the m intage w as called the zeni currency

officially, and in 1670, the use of older coinage w as proscribed. W ith this, the

― ―37



prem odern system of gold, silver and copper w as fully established.

O riginally, Ieyasu’s larger strategy to regulate the com m ercialism and

political life and his aim of directly control the output of gold and silver m ines

w ere all achieved. D uring the follow ing years and centuries,the circulation

and the use of coins increased dram atically, and a great variety of copper

and iron coins w as m inted, reducing their values. A t the sam e tim e,

the speed of issue coins w as so late and could never be able to catch up

w ith the speed of circulation. Therefore, the various dom ains（han）issued

their ow n paper m oney so-clled“han-satsu”（“satsu”m eans paper）. So the

paper m oney“han-satsu”continued to be issued until the M eiji period

（1868∼ 1912）, there w ere 244 dom ains that had their ow n currency in 1860s.

The resulting confusion w as elim inated in 1871, w hen the Shinka Jorei（The

Regulations of the N ew C urrencies）m ade the yen（equivalent to one ryo）

the basic unit of m odern Japan’s currency.

To return the m ain subject of the G enroku era, the fifth shogun Tokugaw a

Tsunayoshi（1646− 1709）ruled for 28 years betw een 1680 and 1709, and

the period of his rule coincided largely w ith the G enroku era. Firstly, hisruling w as characterized by his relying on too m uch his grand cham berlain

（ soba-yonin）. A t that tim e, his grand cham berlain w as Yanagizaw a

Yoshiyasu（1658− 1714）, at the zenith of his career as the favorite of ShogunTsunayoshi. In 1694, Yanagizaw a had been m ade a m em ber of the C ouncil of

E lders（roju）and also had been given K aw agoe（present-day K aw agoe

C ity, Saitam a Prefecture）as his fief, thus he becam e the lord of K aw agoe

C astle w ith an incom e of seventy thousand koku of rice. Secondly,Tsunayoshi w as characterized by lavish spending, and an inflationary spiral

resulting from m isguided financial policies and legislation ensued.

Thirdly, he issued“E dicts on C om passion for Living Things”prohibiting

the cruelty to anim als. H e issued it in 1685 to prohibit falconry, thus strictly

lim ited hunting to authorized persons.

From 1687, the edicts becam e m ost extrem e. The trapping and killing of all

birds and anim als, especially dogs, w ere forbidden. A new post of

“C om m issioner for Living T hings”（shorui-bugyo）w as established in the

― ―38



governm ent to enforce the edicts. In 1695, Tsunayoshi constructed three

large“doghouses”in N akano, Yotsuya and O kubo in E do and it w as said

that about 100,000 dogs w ere h oused in N akano. T herefore, people

nicknam ed him “ Inu-kubo”（dog shogun）. It seem ed that the explanation

for these edicts on dogs w as that Tsunayoshi had been born in the year of

the dog of the tw elve zodiac signs. Tsunayoshi took the death of his son and

his inability to sire another as evidence that he w as not governing properly.

A B uddhist m onk explained the problem to him , in B uddhist term s, as a

consequence of Tsunayoshi’s having taken the lives of m any sentient beings

in a prior incarnation. H e w as advised that he m ight nullify his bad karm a by

show ing com passion for living things, in particular for dogs. H is nephew and

successor, the sixth shogun Tokogaw a Ienobu（1663− 1712）rescinded the

edicts soon after taking office in 1709.

O n the other hand, in 1690, T sunayoshi built a C onfucian shrine at

Yushim a in E do and w rote the w ords“The Palace of Perfection”（Taisei-

den）to be displayed in the shrine. The follow ing year he assem bled the

daimyo, hatamoto, and C onfucian scholars and lectured to them personallyon the C onfucian C lassics. H e w as a shogun w ho believed that“the pen is

m ightier than the sw ord”em phasizing the im portance of learning for gov-

ernm ent.

W hat about the sam urai retainers am ong the sam urai class? A fter they

w ere paid by their rice stipends by their feudal lords, they exchanged the

rice stipends for gold pieces and then turned these in for zeni（copper）coins to purchase their everyday necessities. U ntil the G enroku era in the

17th century Japan, m oney w as not used so m uch in the society.

Instead, people had usually used the“barter”system . In the G enroku era,

how ever, w ith the diffusion of the com m ercial econom y in nationw ide, the

m oney econom y rapidly perm eated the various parts of nation.

The sam urai w ere influenced by this atm osphere in G enroku era and their

w ay of life changed quickly from one founded on real w ealth to one based on

the credit. C om m enting on this situation, a C onfucian scholar in the m iddle

of E do period, O gyu Sorai（1666− 1728）later described it in his“Seidan”

― ―39



（Political discourses）as follow s:−

Thirty or forty years ago, none of the low er police officials had tatami

m ats in their houses, and none w ore form al cerem onial m en’s attire

［kami-shimo］. N ow they have tatami m ats on the floor and sliding doors

covered w ith C hinese paper. The house and private circum stances of

these w ell-to-do sam urai are as good as those of their superiors.

Form erly those w ho w ore form al suits w hen they w ent out w ere the

recipients of sizable stipends. W hen the founder of the T okugaw a

B akufu first established his dom ain in K anto, younger sam urai never

w ore hakama［form al m en’s skirts］. N o one w ore silk or anything bet-

ter. B ut all this changed because it w as said that the hatam oto, being the

im m ediate retainers of the Shogun, should be of equal standing w ith the

daim yo. Then the retainers of the hatamoto cam e to be regarded as the

equals of the vassals of daim yo. Finally even wakato［low est class of

sam urai］ began to live in a grand style.（8）

A s m entioned above, the spread of the G enroku culture to the sam urai

class quickly resulted in a crisis w hich first em erged in the bakufu’s

financial m anagem ent. In the 8th year of the G enroku era（1695）, H agiw ara

H ideshige（1658− 1713）, the bakufu’s F inance C om m issioner（kanjo

gimmiyaku at that tim e, later he becam e kanjo-bugyo）proposed a policy of

recoining gold and silver bullion. The object of this w as to debase the curren-

cy in order to increase governm ent funds. A face value of the Keicho kobanone ryo（one ryo w as a standard m onetary unit）, for instance, had 85.69 per-

cent gold content before the G enroku era, but that of the Genroku koban one

ryo had the gold content reduced to 55.41 percent, about half of keicho

koban. This w as the first debasem ent but not the last. Such debasem ent

occurred nine tim es from 1695 to 1860 as the“yokonarabi behavior.”

In this respect, the 1695 debasem ent w as a m easure of historical

significance vis-a-vis the end of Tokugaw a feudalism in 1868.

B e that as it m ay, in the G enroku era, the am ount of m oney w as raised

― ―40



by the bakufu to h ave been 4.7 m illion− 5 m illion ryo. T he debasem ent,

how ever, of course forced up consum er prices for the necessities of life.

M oreover, as Sir Thom as G resham （1519− 79）already told us,“B ad m oney

drives out good.”T he gold content 85.69 percent of the K eicho-koban

disappeared com pletely from the m arkets to the pots under the floor.

A t any tim e, there are countervailing force to the social trend of the tim es.

In the G enroku era, too, there w ere counter trend to the hedonistic life of the

E do sam urai in E do, i.e., even w hen ronin（m asterless sam urai）w ith secret

hopes for an uprising had nearly all been disposed of, and the“K eian

Incident”（the C onfucianism scholar Yui Shosetsu’s plot to overthrow the

Tokugaw a B akufu in 1651）and becam e a late of bygone days told m en, even

w here the sam urai and the tow nspeople congratulated them selves on their

“E ra of Tranquilty.”W e shall exam ine the grow th of the countervailing to

the trend of the tim es in the G enroku era.

5．The Death and the Dishonor“The A ko F orty-six Ronin Incident”exem plified the spirit of the

countervailing force to the social trend of the G enroku era in the early 18th

century.

Three hundred years ago − on D ecem ber 15, 1702 of the lunar calendar

then in use; on January 17, 1703 of the G regorian（W estern）calendar− the

aw akening citizens of E do w ere greeted w ith an astonishing story. There w as

heavy snow on the day before and during the night that forty-six of the for-m er retainers of the lord of A ko had ventured to assault the residence of K ira

K ozuke-no-suke, their late lord A sano N aganori’s bitter adversary.

K ira’s residence had been relocated from near Edo C astle to a new one he

had built on an 8,500 sq. m eter lot in H onjo, M atsuzaka, near Ryogoku in

E do. It is said that his m ove cam e after pressure from his neighbors in the

daim yo m ansion district outside the castle, as they feared that the A ko ronin

m ight attack him and they could becom e involved in trouble.

A fter killing K ira, they had retired to the Sengakuji Tem ple in Shinagaw a,

― ―41



E do and asked the authorities to pass judgem ent on their act of

vengeance on K ira. The action of vengeance on K ira provoked heated public

discussions. The incident has becom e the m ost fam ous vendetta in Japan.

K now n as“Chushingura”（literally, The Treasury of Loyal Retainers）, the

story has been depicted in a kabuki dram a, joruri（the ballad dram as w ith

sham isen accom panim ent）and m ovies, and told in countless books. The

allure of the values it em bodies has never faded.

W hen the fifth Shogun Tsunayoshi had refused the A ko clan the right to

rebuild, the public sentim ent in E do sw ung even m ore tow ard the ronin

− although no one publicly supported them for fear of the authorities. In fact,

Shogun Tsunayoshi w as view ed as the m ost fearful shogun of all fifteen

rulers of the E do period of 264 years（M arch 24, 1603− N ovem ber 10, 1867）

for the severity of the“E dicts on C om passion for Living Things”w hich he

issued.

N onetheless, as w e saw above, the G enroku era w as a tim e w hen

popular culture bloom ed. It w as also a tim e of prosperity and tranquillity.

Politically and culturally, as historians tell us, the G enroku era w as thehigh point reached by the Tokugaw a B akufu. C om m oners enjoyed life on

tatami m ats and people started taking three m eals a day, som etim es eating

at outdoor stalls selling soba noodle and snacks. Life w as even better

for w ealthy m erchants such as K inokuniya B unza-e-m on（9）（the birth and

the death year unknow n）, N araya M oza-e-m on（?− 1714）and M itsui

Takatoshi（1622− 82）.（10） They m ade their fortunes in the logging business

and spent their m oney very publicly.

T he A ko forty-six ronin spent m any m onths singlem indedly gathering

inform ation on K ira, especially K ira’s new residence, w hich had been con-

verted into a m az-like fortress. M any security guards w ere em ployed by K ira.

T he forty-six ronin disguised as m erchants, peddlers and other

professionals. They repeatedly m et in sm all groups tw os and threes in E do to

exchange intelligence gathered and to report to form er karo（chief retainer）

O ishi K ura-no-suke. Finally, on the night of D ecem ber 14, 1702, as Edo w as

still blanketed w ith unthaw ed snow from the day before, they secretly

― ―42



gathered at one of their hideouts in H onjo near the K ira residence.

C lothed in black coats resem bling those of firefighters, w ith w hite cloth

bands sew n around their sleeves for recognition in the dark, the ronin

proceeded to K ira’s residence. M oreover, they w ere given the passw ords

by leader O ishi“ yama”（m ountain）and“kawa”（river）.

W ith that detail attended to, the A ko ronin split into tw o groups − one

entering K ira’s residence from the front gate, the other from the rear. The

leader at the front gate w as O ishi K ura-no-suke and the rear w as O ishi

C hikara w ho w as a son of O ishi. Just before the entering the gate, O ishi

ordered one m em ber, Terasaka K ichi-e-m on to go aw ay from there and to

record the action and to report it to their form er lord’s w idow and to A sano

D aigaku w ho w as the younger brother of late daim yo A sano N aganori.

Therefore, it is believed the num ber of forty-seven m em bers w as reduced to

forty-six.

A fter tw o or three hours of fighting at K ira’s residence, the forty-six roninachieved finally their goal. A lthough K ira hid him self in the cabin, he w as dis-

covered by them and beheaded. It w as nearly daw n and it w as said that K ira’s

security guards fought w ell, but 17 of K ira’s m en w ere killed and 28 w ere

w ounded. N one of the forty-six ronin w ere killed. From K ira’s residence,

the squad of forty-six ronin paraded dow n the street to Sengakuji Tem ple in

Shinagaw a, E do, w here their late m aster w as enshrined. O n the w ay to

the tem ple, there w ere large crow ds in the street and all the crow ds w erew atching the parade. W hen they arrived at the tem ple, they drew w ater from

the tem ple’s w ell and w ashed the head of K ira and offered his head. O nly

then, did Terasaka K ichi-e-m on leave the com pany and disappear into the

crow d. H e w as of the low est-ranking sam urai“ashigaru”（foot soldier）and

had been given a secret m ission by leader O ishi to report to the late lord

A sano N aganori’s w idow , Yozen-in, w ho had becam e a nun and w as leading a

cloistered life at the tim e, that her husband had been avenged. Terasaka w as

also given the secret m ission to report to A sano’s brother Asano D aigaku

that the attack had been successful!

― ―43



The incident delivered a deadly blow to the relationship betw een the feudal

m aster and the retainers, on w hich the bakufu itself w as based, and also to

the relationship betw een the lord and the subjects on the sam e m oral plane.

It im plied a direct conflict betw een the bakufu’s position as the unifying

political authority and the feudal private relationship. T he incident w as

strongly supported by the public and even the shogun w as sym pathetic. U ntil

the bakufu’s verdict w as decided, the forty-six ronin w ere divided into four

groups and each group w as placed under house arrest at four daim yo

residences outside the E do C astle, i.e., 17 ronin, including O ishi K ura-no-

suke, w ith lord H osokaw a Tsunatoshi of the K um am oto dom ain; 10 ronin,

including O ishi C hikara, w ith lord M atsudaira Sadanao of the M atsuyam a

dom ain; 10 ronin, w ith lord M ouri Tsunam oto of the C hoshu dom ain and 9

ronin, w ith the lord M izuno Tadayuki of the O kazaki dom ain.

The list of each group w as as follow s:−

［At the Residence of the Lord H osokaw a Tsunatoshi＝17 ronin］

・O ishi K ura-no-suke ・Yoshida C hu-za-e-m on ・H ara So-e-m on

・K ataoka G en-go-e-m on ・M ase K yu-da-yu ・O nodera Ju-nai

・H azam a K i-he-i ・Isogai Juro-za-e-m on ・H oribe Ya-he-i

・C hikam atsu K an-roku ・Tom im ori Suke-e-m on ・U shioda M ata-no-jo

・H ayam i T o-za-e-m on ・Akabane G en-zo ・O kuda M ago-da-yu

・Yada G o-ro-e-m on ・O ishi Se-za-e-m on

［At the R esidence of the Lord M atsudaira Sadanao＝10 ronin］・O ishi C hikara ・H oribe Yasu-be-i ・N akam ura K an-suke

・Sugaya H an-no-jo ・Fuw a K azu-e-m on ・Chiba Sabu-ro-be-i

・Kim ura O ka-e-m on ・O kano Kin-e-m on ・K aiga Ya-za-e-m on

・O taka G en-go

［At the Residence of the Lord M ouri Tsunam oto＝10 ronin］

・O kajim a Ya-so-e-m on ・Yoshida Saw a-e-m on ・Takabayashi Tada-shichi

・Kurahashi D en-suke ・M uram atsu K i-he-i ・Sugino Ju-hei-ji

・K atsuda Shin-za-e-m on ・M aebara I-suke ・H azam a Shin-roku

― ―44



・O nodera K o-e-m on

［At the Resicence of the Lord M izuno T adayuki＝9 ronin］

・H azam a Ju-ji-ro ・O kuda Sada-e-m on ・Yato Em o-shichi

・M uram atsu San-da-yu ・M ase M ago-ku-ro ・K ayano W a-suke

・K anzaki Yo-go-ro ・Yokogaw a K am -pe-i ・M im ura Jiro-za-e-m on

6．The Countervailing Force to the Trend of the Genroku Era

M ost of the C onfucian scholars, too, w ere in confusion and em barrassm ent

by the incident im m ediately after it occurred. A very conscientious C hu H si

scholar, M uro K yuso（1768− 1734）w rote prom ptly“ Ako Gijin Roku”（A

Record of the R ighteous M en of A ko）,（11） a quick response in adm iration of

the forty-six ronin’s behavior.

H ayashi H oko（1644− 1732）w ho w as the head of the bakufu’s official

C onfucian college proposed that the lives of the loyal forty-six sam urai be

spared, but his opinion w as not accepted by the bakufu’s C ouncil of E lders

（roju）.

W hat w as the attitude of the C onfucian O gyu Sorai（1666 − 1728）? H e w as

retained by Y anagizaw a Yoshiyasu in 1696 w ith a stipend sufficient to m ain-

tain fifteen people. Six years had passed since O gyu becam e a retainer of

Yanagizaw a.

Yanagizaw a had already been m ade a m em ber of the C ouncil of E lders in1694 and been given K aw agoe（present-day K aw agoe province in Saitam a

Prefecture）as his fief from Shogun Tsunayoshi. N one of O gyu’s w orks or

collections on“The Ako Ronin Incident.”A s a C onfucian of the Y anagizaw a

fam ily, O gyu m ust certainly have had som ething to do w ith the incident of

the A ko righteous ronin. O gyu’s fragm entary com m ents about that have

survived and, on the basis of existing historical docum ents, his position

seem ed to have been consistently one of dem anding that the forty-six ronin

com m it ritual suicide.

― ―45



O gyu w rote his view in his book“Sorai Giritsu-sho”（Sorai’s A pplication

of the Law ）.（12） O gyu Sorai w rote:−

Gi［righteousness］is the w ay to uphold one’s personal integrity.

Law is the standard of m easurem ent for the entire society. Rei［rites or

etiquette］ is used to control the heart, w hile gi is used to control to

events. The fact that the forty-six sam urai avenged the w rong done their

lord show s that they possessed the sense of honor of the sam urai. They

follow ed the path of integrity. Their action w as righteous. B ut this aspect

of the situation concerns only tnem and is a private m atter. The fact is

that they cam e to regard K ira as their enem y w hen N aganori［their

lord］w as punished for im proper behavior in the Palace. A nd w ithout

sanction from the governm ent, they conspired to create this public dis-

turbance. A n action of this kind is prohibited by law . If the forty-six

sam urai are judged guilty and, in accordance w ith the principle of rei fit-

ting to a sam urai, are perm itted to com m it seppuku, the petition of the

U esugi fam ily w ill be upheld, and the royal conduct of the forty-sixsam urai w ill be properly honored. This policy w ill best serve the public

interest. If private considerations are allow ed to underm ine public con-

siderations, it w ill be im possible to uphold the law of the land.

In the end, the forty-six ronin w ere dealt w ith in the m anner suggested by

O gyu Sorai. Senior shogunal officials concluded that their attack on K ira

could be interpreted as“an act of righteousness,”but, fataly, one thatstem m ed from “a private cause”because the forty-six ronin took revenge

w ithout having the necessary shogunal approval to do so. Thus, they ruled

that the forty-six ronin w ould be ordered to com m it ritual seppuku or

harakiri（suicide）− the utm ost courtesy for a sam urai’s last hurra.

The Yanagizawa hiki（The Secret Recording by Y anagizaw a）states that

the bakufu w as about to im pose the penalty of execution by decapitation,

but O gyu, through Y anagizaw a, strongly opposed this m easure and had

it changed to death by seppuku（self-disem bow elm ent）. H ere he is clearly

― ―46



in disagreem ent w ith his chief disciple, D azai Shundai（1680− 1747）, w hereas in m any other instances, D azai’s opinion has been ascribed to O gyu,

w ith the result that O gyu’s position on this question has been persistently

m isrepresented. W hat m atters is O gyu’s attitude（G eisteshaltung）.

Although on the one hand he fully recognized“Gi”［the righteousness］

of the sam urai’s conduct − and therefore he opposed extrem e penalties such

as decapitation− he saw this as a m atter strictly lim ited to the private realm ,

based as it w as on personal considerations. H e opposed any tendency

to allow personal considerations to underm ine public ones, that is, he w ould

not perm it private m orality to influence m atters that dem anded political

decisions. Let us consider how the tw o term s w ere used by Sorai. In that

w ork Sorai argued that the“honorable”convictions of the sam urai that

led them to avenge their dead lord w ere a“private”m atter, w hile the

state’s need to punish them w as a“public”m atter. Sorai believed that

to regard inform ing as dishonorable is to adhere to a“private”code of

duty, w hile a w illingness to inform in the interest of the state is an exam ple

of“public”loyalty. In both cases he w as clearly consistent in using theterm s“public”and“private.”That is,“public”refers to political, social,

or external m atters, w hile“private”refers to individual, internal m atters.

O n February 4, 1703. the forty-six ronin sim ultanously finished their lives

by com m itting ritual seppuku（suicide）at the residences w here they had

been held. Their leader O ishi K ura-no-suke w as 45. H is son C hikara w as the

youngest am ong them at the age of 16. The oldest ronin w as 77-year-oldH oribe Yahei, a retired form er Edo-assigned vassal of the A ko clan. This w as

the best possible policy to keep the sim ilar incidents from happening again.

Sh ogun T sunayoshi, Y anagizaw a Y oshiyasu and other m em bers of the

C ouncil of E lders（roju）m ost feared of the possibility of recurrent sim ilar

incidents because“yokonarabi behavior”w as a strong tendency in Japan.

The dead bodies of the forty-six ronin w ere soon buried cerem oniously

next to the late lord A sano N aganori’s grave at Sengakuji T em ple

in Shinagaw a, E do. Three hundred years have just passed since then, yet

alm ost all of Japanese people never forget the“Incident of A ko forty-

― ―47



six ronin”because the Japanese view of their life includes w hat their

form ulas of giri and hum an feelings say it is. A n A m erica’s greatest cultural

anthropologist, the late R uth B enedict（1887− 1948）w rote in her book The

C hrysanthem um and the Sw ord − Patterns of Japanese Culture, the tale of

the forty-six ronin is still the true national epic of Japan.

O n the night of D ecem ber 14, 1702, w hen forty-six of the form er retainers

of the lord of A ko attacked the residence of K ira Yoshinaka（1641− 1702）,there w as heavy snow . Since then, heavy snow has been the backdrop to

som e of T okyo’s m ost epoch-m aking incidents. For exam ple, w hen pro-

em peror, anti-foreigner activists assassinated the shogun’s C hief C ouncilor,

Ii N aosuke（1815− 60）at the Sakurada G ate of E do C astle on the m orning of

M arch 3, 1860. D uring the night there w as heavy snow and the blood stained

the snow .

It becam e a signal fire of the dead knell of the T okugaw a Shogunate.

O n the m orning of February 26, 1936, som e 1,500 young officers and

soldiers of the Im perial Japanese A rm y seeking a true Im perial restorationseized the nation’s capital in an attem pted coup. H eavy snow blanketed the

ground in T okyo.

T hree days later the uprising collapsed, but it w as used by Japan’s

m ilitarists to justify purges that set their fascist state on an even m ore w arlike

course to D ecem ber 8, 1941.

It is true that the w hite dove is a sym bol of peace in today’s Japan, but it

w as true that the w hite snow w as the sym bol of the historical incidents in

Japan. There w as, how ever, another adm irable aspect of the behavior of the

forty-six ronin, they show ed“isagiyosa”in Japanese w hich can be interpret-

ed as“grace w ith pride.”

The attack w as a countervailing force to the social tide in the G enroku E ra.

They fought against the tide and at the sam e tim e they also gave people the

flat refusal of“yokonarabi behavior.”N aturally, the forty-six ronin all knew

they faced death and w hen their tim e to die did com e, they did so gracefully

― ―48



w ith pride in order to live the“ Bushido”（the code of sam urai）. N ow adays

in Japan, although everything of the w orld, the social tide and the tim es

changed perfectly, the spirit of the“ Bushido”and their“isagiyosa”are

still adm ired by today’s people. Indeed, the popularity of“Chushingura”w ill

never m elt dow n like snow .

7．“Hagakure”as the True Spirit of the Way of the Warrior

“ Hagakure,”too, becam e the good exam ple of the countervailing force.

Therefore, w e w ould like to consider here a book called“ Hagakure.”The

book w as com pleted in the 1st year of K yo-ho era（1716）and is a m anual for

the sam urai classes consisting of a series of 1,300 short anecdotes and reflec-

tions that give both insight and instruction in the philosophy and code of

behavior that foster the true spirit of“ Bushido”（The W ay of the W arrior）.

C onsidered one of the classics of“ Bushido,”“ Hagakure”is believed to

have been dictated by Yam am oto T sunetom o（1659− 1719）, a m iddle-rank-

ing retainer in the N abeshim a clan. H is lord w as N abeshim a M itsushige, thethird lord of the clan（present-day Saga Prefecture, H izen Province on the

Island of K yushu）. O n M ay 16, the 13th year of the G enroku（1700）,

Y am am oto’s lord N abeshim a passed aw ay at the age of sixty-nine.

Tsunetom o had gone into the service of his lord as a child and w as at that

tim e forty-tw o years of age.

Tsunetom o w anted to perform junshi（com m itting suicide as self-im m ola-tion in sym pathy follow ing the death of his lord）very m uch because he w as

one of the closest retainers of lord M itsushige. H ow ever, in the 3rd year of

the K anbun era（1663）, the 4th Shogun Tokugaw a Ietsuna（1641− 80）had

already prohibited junshi and the prohibition against junshi w as form ally

added to the Buke Sho-hatto（The Law s of M ilitary H ouses）.

So T sunetom o asked to retire, w as granted perm ission and becam e a

B uddhist priest. In the sum m er of 1700, he m oved to a sm all herm itage in a

place called K urotsuchibaru to live. O n M arch 5, in the 7th year of the H oei

era（1710）, a young sam urai Tashiro T suram oto visited him and asked him

― ―49



for the true m eaning of life and proper advice how to live. A t that tim e,

Tashiro w as 33 years of age. Their conversation lasted for seven years, and

Tashiro w rote dow n Tsunetom o’s utterances as a first-class record of his

advice and thought, experiences, intellect and so on. O n Septem ber 10 of the

first year of the K yoho era（1716）, Tsunetom o’s utterances w ere arranged

as a book and given the title of“ Hagakure,”a w ord that could m ean in

Japanese either“H idden by the Leaves”or“H idden Leaves.”

Three years later, Tsunetom o died at the age of 61.

T he w ork’s often oft-quoted second entry expresses the them e that is

elaborated upon throughout the w ork: only a sam urai prepared and w illing to

die at any m om ent can devote him self fully to his lord. W hile“ Hagakure”

once served as a handbook for young sam urai vassals of the H izen dom ain, it

becam e a source in the h istory of“ Bushido.”T he second entry of

“ Hagakure”reads as follow s:−

The w ay of the Sam urai is found in death. W hen it com es to either/or,

there is only the quick choice of death. It is not particularly difficult. B e

determ ind and advance. To say that dying w ithout reaching one’s aim is

to die a dog’s death is the frivolous w ay of sophisticates. W hen pressed

w ith the choice of life or death, it is not necessary to gain oen’s aim .

W e all w ant to live. A nd in large part w e m ake our logic according to

w hat w e like. B ut not having attained our aim and continuing to live iscow ardice. This is a thin dangerous line. To die w ithout gaining one’s

aim is a dog’s death and fanaticism . B ut there is no sham e in this.

This is the substance of the W ay of the Sam urai. If by setting one’s

heart right every m orning and evening, one is able to live as though his

body w ere already dead, he gains freedom in the W ay. H is w hole life w ill

be w ithout blam e, and he w ill succeed in his calling.（14）

T he w ork represents an attitude far rem oved from our m odern

pragm atism and m aterialism . It possesses an intuitive rather than a rational

― ―50



appeal in its assertion that“B ushido is a W ay of D ying,”and that only the

sam urai retainer prepared and w illing to die at any m om ent can be totally

true to his lord. A s m entioned above, how ever, w e saw the trend of the tim es

in the G enroku era in w hich from all levels of society cam e the sounds of

gaiety and the w arlike atm osphere of the Sengoku era（the A ge of C ivil

W ars）had vanished com pletely. E ven daim yo from the outlying regions

abandoned their old political am bitions and plunged into the hedonistic life of

Edo.

Yam am oto Tsunetom o w as exceedingly dissatisfied. T he 63rd entry of

“ Hagakure”reads:−

E very m orning, the sam urai of fifty or sixty years ago w ould bathe,

shave their foreheads, put lotion in their hair, cut their fingernails and

toenails rubbing them w ith pum ice and then w ith w ood sorrel, and

w ithout fail pay attention to their personal appearance. It goes w ithout

saying that their arm or in general w as kept free from rust, that it w as

dusted, shined, and arranged.A lthough it seem s that taking special care of one’s appearance is sim i-

lar to show iness, it is nothing akin to elegance. E ven if you are aw are

that you m ay be struck dow n today and are firm ly resolved to an

inevitable death, if you are slain w ith w ith an unseem ly appearance, you

w ill show your lack of previous resolve, w ill be despised by your enem y,

and w ill appear unclean. For this reason it is said that both old and

young should take care of their appearance.A lthough you say that this is troublesom e and tim e-consum ing, a

sam urai’s w ork is in such things. It is neither busy-w ork nor tim e-con-

sum ing. In constantly hardening one’s resolution to die in battle,

deliberately becom ing as one already dead, and w orking at one’s job and

dealing w ith m ilitary affairs, there should be no sham e. B ut w hen the

tim e com es, a person w ill be sham ed if he is not concious of these

things even in his dream s, and rather passes his days in self-interest and

self-indulgence. A nd if he thinks that this is not sham eful, and feels that

nothing else m atters as long as he is com fortable, then his dissipate and

― ―51



discourteous actions w ill be repeatedly regrettable.

The person w ithout previous resolution to inevitable death m akes cer-

tain that his death w ill be in bad form . B ut if one is resolved to death

forehand, in w hat w ay can he be despicable? O ne should be especially

diligent in this concern.

Futherm ore, during the last thirty years custom s have changed; now

w hen young sam urai get together, if there is not just talk about m oney

m atters, loss and gain, secrets, clothing styles or m atters of sex, there is

no reason to gather together at all. C ustom s are going to pieces. O ne

can say that form erly w hen a m an reached the age of tw enty or thirty, he

did not carry despicable things in his heart, and thus neither did such

w ords appear. If an elder unw ittingly said som ething of that sort, he

thought of it as a sort of injury. T his new custom probably appears

because people attach im portance to being beautiful before society and

to household finance. W hat things a person should be able to accom -

plish if he had no haughtiness concerning his place in society!

It is a w retched thing that the young m en of today are so contrivingand so proud of their m aterial possessions. M en w ith contriving hearts

are lacking in duty. Lacking in duty, they w ill have no self-respect.（15）

“H agakure”m ay be regarded as an expression of Yam am oto Tsunetom o’s

sincerity. H is extrem ism and singularity w ere not held in check by any antici-

pation of judgm ent from the outside, and it is doubtful that he w ould have felt

any such restraint in the first place. H is m entors and perhaps geographicalposition gave encouragem ent to his ow n radicalness, and the single idea that

focused his thought w as not prone to com prom ise or dissuasion. Tsunetom o

dw elt on death as the greatest act that a sam urai could perform for his

m aster but w as not sim ply a rom antic w ho brooded on dark thought. H e w as

keenly aw are of the events and issues of the day and responded to them

w ithin the fram ew ork of his ow n insights. This he set dow n in“ Hagakure.”

− To be continued.−

― ―52



Notes

（ 1） In the E do period, a koku of harvested grain w as the basic unit of the

society. 10,000 koku equaled 51,200 U S bushels because 1 koku w as

5.12 U S bushels. Land productivity, tax assessm ents, the rice stipends

of sam urai, and the w ealth of daim yo w ere all m easured in koku of

unpolished rice.

（ 2） K atsu K aishu w as born in E do as an eldest son of a low -ranking and

poorest hatamoto retainer of the Tokugaw a Shogunate. H is nam e w as

Rintaro in his boyhood. In his boyhood, he studied a Japanese fencing,

the W estern m ilitary technology and the D utch language. H e opened

his private school on the D utch sciences in E do and gained a good

reputation as an expert in the W estern m ilitary technology. H e w as

greatly instrum ental in the form ation of the m odern Japanese navy.

So he rose from relatively hum ble origins to prom inence, becom ing a

com m issioner of w arships in 1862. A t the tim e of the M eiji Restoration

in 1868, he acted as the chief negotiator for the T okugaw a Shogunate.

W hen the shogunate collapsed, he argued for surrender and follow edthe 15th shogun T okugaw a Yoshinobu into retirem ent, though he

returned to service as naval m inister from 1872 to 75. H e spent the

rem ainder of his life in scholary pursuits, and in 1887 he w as aw arded

the title of count.

（ 3 ） Ibid., pp. 148∼ 9. R uth B enedict also w rote on the page 148 as

follow s:− The full significance ofgiri to one’s nam e cannot be under-

stood w ithout placing in context all the non-aggressive virtues w hich areincluded in it in Japan. V engeance is only one of the virtues it m ay

require upon occasion. It includes also plenty of quiet and tem perate

behavior. The stoicism , the self-control that is required of a self-respect-

ing Japanese is part of his giri to his nam e. A w om an m ay not cry out in

childbirth and a m an should rise above pain and danger.

（ 4 ） The golden age of C onfucianism w as the T okugaw a period（1603−1868）and w e can see the m ost rapid developm ent of C onfucianism in

this period. In the 17th century in Japan, civil w ar had becom e endem ic.

A founder of the T okugaw a shogunate Ieyasu w on out over all rivals and

― ―53



in 1603 he becam e the first shogun. The Tokugaw a bakufu continued for

tw o and a half centuries and w as ended in 1868.

This long Tokugaw a era is one of the m ost rem arkable in history.

W hy w as that? M y personal opinion is that an arm ed peace w as m ain-

tained up to the very last generation before it ended and it put into effect

a centralized adm inistration that adm irably served the T okugaw as’

purpose. The social and political structure of Tokugaw a feudal society

w ere com parable w ith those on w hich C onfucianism w as based in the

C hinese em pire. T his m ade it easy to apply C onfucian ideas in

Tokugaw a Japan.

（ 5 ） Yam aga’s“farew ell m essage”quoted from his“ Haisho Zampitsu”

（An A utobiography in E xile）w hich w as included in his book“Seikyo

Yoroku”（Essential Teachings of the Sacred）.“Seikyo Yoroku”w as

published in the 6th year of the K anbun era（1661− 73）in E do. A

fam ous philosopher in Japan T etsujiro Inoue（1855− 1944）edited

“ Nihon Kogaku-ha no Tetsugaku”（The Philosoph y of the A ncient

Learning School in Japan）in tokyo, 1915, pp. 16−7.

（ 6 ） This is the opening pagraphs of M atsuo B asho’s travel essay“Oku-

no-Hosomichi”（N arrow Road to a Far Province）, Iwanami Library,

Tokyo, 1998, pp. 1− 2. M atsuo B asho w as a Haiku poet, essayist and

w rtiter of travel sketches in the G enroku era. H is nam e w as K insaku in

childhood and M atsuo M unefusa after com ing of the age. The nam e of

“B asho”（banana plant）w as a sobriquet, he adopted around 1681 after

m oving into a hut w ith a banana plant alongside. B asho w as said to havehad m ore than 2,000 disciples all over the country at the tim e of his

death. In present day Japan, B asho's influence has reached outside

haikai circles: som e considered B asho a W ordsw orthian figure w ho

sought a m ystic union w ith nature; to others B asho seem ed alm ost a

precursor of French sym bolism ; to m odern novelists such as the late

A kutagaw a Ryunosuke（1892− 1927）, B asho appeared to be a hum anist

for w hom the highest good w as poetry. W ith the increasing interest in

haiku outside Japan, B asho’s reputation has becom e to be international-

ly m inded.

― ―54



（ 7 ） See“Kisso Sawa, B ook I.”“Kisso”m eans“by the w indow”and

“Sawa”m eans“talking over tea.”T his is contained“ Nihon Rinri

I-hen”（Collection of W orks on Japanese E thics）, ed., Inoue Tetsujiro

and K am inoe Yoshim aru, Tokyo, 1901− 03, P. 320. The author A m e-no-

m ori H oshu w as born in Takatsuki, O m i（present-day Shiga Prefecture）

in 1668.

H is father w as a m edical practitioner in Takatsuki and he studied

m edicine under his father in his boyhood. H e w ent to K yoto to study

m edicine in later years, but he changed his academ ic interest from

m edicine to C onfucianism . W hen he w as 17, he w ent to E do to study

C hu H si philosophy under the C onfucian K inoshita Jun’an. A t the age of

22, he w as em ployed as a C hu H si scholar by the T sushim a clan.

Tsushim a is an island and is located in the T sushim a Strait or K orea

Strait, betw een K orea and K yushu, Japan. H e also studied C hinese and

K orean languages and becam e a good speaker of tw o languages,

C hinese and H angul. H e w as a first class internationalist in Japan at that

tim e. In 1717, he m et O gyu Sorai in E do and associated w ith him forlong tim e. H e devoted his life as a C onfucianist and a retainer of the

Tsushim a clan to a good neighbor relations betw een K orea and Japan.

H e died at 88.

（ 8 ） O gyu Sorai’s“Seidan”（Political D iscourses）is contained“ Nihon

Keizai Taiten”（C ollection of Japanese E conom ic H istories）IX, pp. 77−8,“Seidan,”B ook II, ed. Takim oto Seiichi in Tokyo in 1928− 30.

（ 9 ） K inokuniya B un-za-e-m on w as born in 1660s in K ii Province（now W akayam a Prefecture）. H e planned to sail across the Pacific in w inter to

carry full cargo of oranges from K ii to E do in the bad w eather. H e did it

at great risks of his life and got a huge profit. H e becam e a top of the

w ealthiest m erchants in Japan in the m iddle of the E do period（1680−1730）. A fter that, he changed his business to a lum ber m erchant in the

H atcho-bori district of E do. H is view of business w as alw ays ahead of the

tide. There w ere a lot of fires in E do every year. The lum ber from K ii

w as in good dem and. H e died in 1730s presum edly.

（10） M itsui Takatoshi w as born in 1622 in M atsuzaka, Ise Province（now

― ―55



M ie P refecture）. H e w as the fourth son of a sake brew er and paw nbro-

ker. H e m ade his initial fortune as a rice broker and m oneylender. In

1673, he w ent to K yoto and E do, and opened E chigo-ya kimono shops

（now M itsukoshi D epartm ent Store）in K yoto and E do, accepting only

cash and selling goods at a low profit in large quantities. Takatoshi also

instituted a system for the division of labor in his stores and encouraged

productivity by granting bonuses. H e later becam e the official m oney

exchanger to the shogunate. H e is a founder of the largest departm ent

store in Japan“M itsukoshi, Ltd.”

（11）“ Ako Gijin Sansho”（C ollection of W orks on the R ighteous M en

of A ko）, ed. N abeta M iyoshi in E do in 1851− 52 contains“ Ako Gijin-

roku”（A R ecord of the R igh teous M en of A ko）. M uro K yuso w as

natural as the C hu H si scholar to w rite this, w hich in accordance w ith its

rationalistic w ays. H ayashi H oko w as also adm ired the forty-six ronin’s

behavior. B ut he w as the head of the official C onfucian college that tim e.

The situation w as not so sim ple. H e com posed a poem expressing his

anger and frustration because he proposed that the lives of the loyalforty-six ronin be spared. This is ow ned by the N ational D iet Library in

Tokyo.

（12）“ Ako Gijin Sansho”is also contains“Sorai Giritsu-sho”（Sorai’s

Application of Law ）, V ol. I, Supplem ent, p. 150, ed. N abeta M iyoshi in

E do, 1851− 52. This is the m ost im portant docum ents concerned w ith

“Ako Ronin Incident.”“Sorai Giritsu-sho”survived as a docum ent

paper of a H osokaw a fam ily’s papers. H osokaw a w as w arlords andshogunate of the M urom achi period（1333− 1568）; subseqently daim yo

in the E do period. A t the“B attle of Sekigahara”in 1600, a lord

H osokaw a T adaoki（1563− 1646）fought on the side of T okugaw a

Ieyasu and he w as aw arded w ith a large dom ain in K yushu area after-

w ard and becam e the lord of H igo province（now K um am oto prefec-

ture）, assessed at 540,000 koku. H osokaw a w as the m ost im portant

tozama daim yo am ong the outer daim yo. A fter the“A ko Incident,”the

forty-six ronin w as divided into four groups and one group of 17 ronin

w ere placed under the residence of the lord H osokaw a in E do.

― ―56



（13）“ Hagakure”is translated into E nglish by W illiam Scott W ilson. It w as

published by K odansha International Ltd. in Tokyo in 2002.

（14） op. cit., pp. 17− 8.（15） op. cit., pp. 33− 4.

Glossary

・ashigaru: Foot soldiers of the M urom achi（1333− 1568）through the Edo

（1600− 1868）periods. They w ere the low est-ranking samurai in the

retainers.

・bakufu:（literally,“tent governm ent”）. The sam e as shogunate.

・budo: T he m artial arts. T hose w ere considered essential in training

samurai in the E do period.

・bushido:（literally,“the w ay of the w arrior”）. Bushido involved not only

m artial spirit and skills, but also loyalty to their lord.

・daimyo: D om anial lords. In this term ,dai m eans large and myo stands for

myoden（literally,“nam e land,”it m eans a private land）. A ll lords

w ere sw orn vassals of the shogun, expected to provide absoluteloyalty and obedience.

・ fudai:（literally,“successive generations”）. The term took on particular

im portance during the E do period, w hen a hereditary vassal fam ily

w ho served a pow erful samurai fam ily w as know n as fudai to

distinguish them from tozam a. Tozam a m eans“outside vassal”w ho

had becom e retainer recently.

・gi:（literally, social obligation）. It refers to the obligation to act accordingto dictates of society in relation to other persons.

・han: A feudal dom ain or fief.

・hanshu: A feudal lord. A llhanshu w ere the feudal lords of the m anors

and all of them w ere also daimyo. There w ere 260 hanshu in the E do

period. T hey w ere classified by size of its m anors, resources and

the history of their relationship to the shogunal house as kinsm en,

hereditary vassals, or allies called“outside lords.”

・hatamoto:（literally, direct samurai vassals of the T okugaw a shogunate）.

A bout 5,000 hatamoto in num ber in the E do period, they occupied

― ―57



positions asthe official corps in a standing arm y or the bureaucracy of

a central Tokugaw a feudal system . Father of K atsu K aishu w as one of

the low est-ranking hatamoto.

・hyakusho:（literally, peasant or farm er）. In the ancient tim es, this term

originally pronounced hyakusei.“ Hyaku”m eans“m any”or“a lot of”

or“plenty of”and so on.“Sei”m eans“fam ily nam e.”Therefore,

hyakusei m eant“peope w ith a lot of nam es.”B y the E do period, the

pronounciation ofhyakusei changed to hyakusho and becam e the syn-

onym ous w ith peasant and farm er because hyakusho had the largest

population in the E do period.

・hyakusho-ikki:（peasant uprisings）. A ccording to the statistics of a book of

“ Hyakusho-ikki no Nenji-teki Kenkyu”（A C hronological Study of

Peasant U prisings）, from 1590 to 1867, m ore than 2,600 hyakusho-

ikki occurred in Japan. They raised a riot defiance against Tokugaw a

governm ent authorities. They attacked the governm ent authorities

and also set on w ealthy m erchants and other privileged segm ents of

rulal com unities for lent gouging, loan-sharking, and other exploitivepractices. T he author of this book is A oki K oji. P ublished by

Shinseisha in Tokyo, 1966.

・karo:（literally,“the house elders”）.Karo w as the highest-ranking posi-

tion in the officials of daimyo during the E do period. U sually tw o to

four karo com m only held office at one tim e and had general responsi-

bility for the adm inistration of dom anial affairs.

・koke:（literally,“elevated fam ilies”）. The hereditary officials of the E doperiod; m asters of rites and cerem onies for the T okugaw a B ajufu.

There w ere 26 fam ilies eligigible for the position included the K ira

fam ily.

・koke-hitto:“ Hitto”m eans the top of the tree. K ira w as in a different fam ily

of higher than the rest because of very good lineage.

・roju: Senior councillors in the Tokugaw a shogunate. The position of this

w as usually occupied by m en of m iddle level fudai daimyo status.

・ronin: A retainer w ho had been dism issed from service or w ho had lost his

m aster.

― ―58



・samurai:（w arrior）.Samurai w as also know n bushi（the m ilitary gentry）

in Japanese. T he term designated the w arrior elite of prem odern

Japan that em erged in the provinces from at least the early 10th

century and becam e the ruling class of the country from the 12th

century until the M eiji Restoration of 1868.

・sankin-kotai: The term of this m eant the system of alternate attendance

by a daimyo in E do. A lldaimyo or territorial lords w ere required

to reside in alternate years in E do in attendance on the shogun.

T he system w as a device to m aintain control over the m ore than

260 daim yo w ho w ere the virtually autonom ous feudal rulers of

four-fifths of the country. Their m others, w ives and children w ere kept

perm anently in E do.

・shogun: A n abbreviation of the ancient title seii tai shogun, w hich w as

usually rendered as“barbarian-subduing generalissim o.”A s chief of

Japan’s w arriors, a shogun w as expected to keep the national

seclusion and prohibit doing the foreign trade betw een Japan and the

foreign countries except N agasaki and the N etherlands.・shogunate: Synonym ous w ith bakufu. There w ere three shogunates, the

first situated in the K am akura period（1192− 1333）, the second w as inthe M urom achi period（1338− 1573）and the third w as Edo period

（1603− 1868）. The Japanese refer to the balance of pow er betw een theshogunate in E do and the various daim yo dom ains as centralized

feudalism . The T okugaw a central shogunate adm inistration in E do

w as far m ore com plex and pervasive than either K am akura and theM urom achi shogunates.

・seppuku: Ritual suicide by disem bow elm ent. D uring Japan’s early period,

suicide by self-disem bow elm ent gradually becam e m ore ritualized and

by the tim e of the E do period, it had becom e one of the five grades of

punishm ent for w rong-doers am ong the sam urai class. A ll aspects of

the ritual seppuku w ere prescribed w ith precision: apparel, site, tim e,

w itnesses, inspector, and assistant.

― ―59



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― ―61



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