Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600–1900

by Shirane, Haruo, ed.

  28. The poem is by Yukihira, found in the Kokinshū (no. 365) and in the play Matsukaze. In the play, Inaba, a distant place, is contrasted with Suma, where the fishergirls live, but here Inaba is the scene of the action.

  29. The trousers of a formal Japanese costume.

  30. It is a mark of friendship or intimacy in Japan to drink saké from the same cup as another person.

  31. Quoted from the no play Rashōmon.

  32. The various sea images have for justification the name Isobe, which literally means “shore area.”

  33. This description of a Buddhist hell is adapted from the nō play Ominaeshi.

  34. Chikamatsu, seemingly carried away by a pun on the name Naruyama, falsely identifies the person at the gate as Chūdayū, Otane’s father. Most likely he intended to suggest here Otane’s misapprehension of the person who later turns out to be Yukaemon.

  35. After having remained continent in hopes of making love to Otane, Yukaemon has almost lost his virtue for an unworthy object.

  36. From a poem attributed to the priest Ikkyū in the miscellany Mottomo no sōshi (1634): “Among men the samurai [is best]; among pillars, cypress wood; among fish, the sea bream; among robes, magenta; and among cherry blossoms, those of Yoshino.”

  37. The kaburo (or kamuro) was a prostitute’s maid. The word suggests kaburu (to put on top), suggesting in turn that the lackeys have had one cup of sake on top of another.

  38. Mention of “rooster plumes” is dictated by the word “barrier” (seki) following it. According to ancient custom, rites were carried out in Kyoto during times of disturbance that involved tying a rooster at the barriers around the city.

  39. Mention of the “barrier” (Osaka Barrier, between Kyoto and Lake Biwa) leads to an allusion to a poem by Ki no Tsurayuki about horses from Mochizuki (Shūishū, no. 170).

  40. This and the following are English approximations of three samurai offices.

  41. Articles borne in a daimyo’s procession, three of which are enumerated here.

  42. The name Tottori is written with characters meaning “bird-take”—hence the design of feathers.

  43. Alludes to the preface to the Kokinshū.

  44. A pun. Mao means both “hemp thread” and “paramour” (cuckold).

  45. Fingernails torn to the quick were sent as pledges of love.

  46. Used in padding cotton garments. An ability to stretch cotton wool or silk wool evenly was considered a household art.

  47. Literally, paying with the debased coinage of 1706 a debt that should have been paid in good Genroku money.

  48. From a poem by Cao Zhi (192–232). By contrast, here Watōnai is the dutiful son, and Ikkan, the valuable minister.

  49. Meaningless words meant to sound like Chinese.

  50. The Ten Evils are those of the body (murder, theft, adultery), the mouth (lying, thoughtless words, slander, causing strife through deception), and the mind (greed, anger, foolishness). The Five Sins are killing one’s father, killing one’s mother, killing an enlightened monk (arhat), killing a priest, and wounding the Buddha. Alternatively, the last three may be replaced by grandfather, grandmother, and sovereign.

  51. A musubi is both a cold rice ball and a rank in sumo wrestling.

  52. Kusunoki Masashige, Asahina Yoshihide, and Musashibō Benkei all were famous Japanese military heroes; Zhuge Liang, Fan Kuai, and Xiang Yu were equally famous in China.

  53. Japanese men shaved the tops of their heads, originally to prevent enemies from grabbing them by the hair.

  54. The Five Constant Virtues are benevolence, justice, courtesy, wisdom, and sincerity.

  55. Based on an anonymous poem: “Tatsuta River—the autumn leaves flow by in disarray. If I should wade across, the brocade will be cut in two” (Kokinshū, Autumn 2, no. 283).

  56. From the “Encouraging Learning” chapter of Xunzi: “When there are precious stones under the mountain, the grass and trees have a special sheen; where pearls grow in a pool, the banks are never parched” (translated by Burton Watson).

  57. From the Analects of Confucius: “Let the prince be a prince, the minister a minister, the father a father, and the son a son” (translated by Arthur Waley).

  58. These opening lines are from the nō play Shunkan. In the play they are Shunkan’s lines as he reflects on his predicament after learning that he, the only one of the three exiles, has not been pardoned. Chikamatsu uses the lines at the opening of the scene to describe the horrible, uninhabited, prison island.

  59. Alludes to the Kokinshū, no. 1020. The poem uses the verb hokorobiru in two senses: “the opening of a blossom” and “to tear the seam of a kimono.” The “cricket” was said to make a noise that sounded like the word tsuzurisase, meaning “to sew.” Even the crickets cannot help Shunkan. This also is quoted in Matsumushi, a nō play about the preciousness of friends (now departed) and their past delight in the autumn chirping of pine crickets. References in the play to drinking saké with friends and “chrysanthemum water” suggest associations with “Devil’s Island.”

  60. Hu Di was the name for peoples on the north or west edges of China. This alludes to an incident from Chinese history described in The Tale of the Heike at the end of book 2 in the episode “Su Wu.” Su Wu, wounded with one leg amputated and taken prisoner, sends a note on the wings of a goose to the Han emperor. Su Wu is an example of the loyal man who struggles on even when his situation is most dire.

  61. This is a reference to the Zhuangzi, sec. 26, the story of a small fish trapped in a shrinking puddle that asks a passing traveler for some water. The traveler promises to have his friend the nearby king divert a river to flood the road. The fish gets angry, saying that he will be dead by the time that happens. Chikamatsu often uses it as an image for loneliness.

  62. From The Tale of the Heike, volume 3, “Ario.” Ario was a favorite of Shunkan, and when Shunkan does not return with the others, he goes to the island to find his master Shunkan. These lines of Shunkan are Ario’s description of meeting Shunkan on the island.

  63. Alludes to Shokukokinshū, no. 1616, a poem that is also quoted in the nō play Miwa. The poem describes a priest who is lonely in the mountains where no one visits.

  64. Kamatari vowed love for a fishergirl, as described in the old jōruri play and ballad drama Taishokan, and is taken up in Chikamatsu’s own Taishokan (1711). In these plays the lover-fishergirl proves herself to be loyal and sacrifices herself to help others.

  65. This is a reference to the nō play Matsukaze. Yukihira has relations with two sister fishergirls, Matsukaze and Murasame, at Suma where he is exiled for a period.

  66. This description weaves in an array of images from the sea to evoke the portrait of a beautiful and alluringly erotic nymph.

  67. Like mirume, wakame and arame are kinds of seaweed. The me at the end of each of the three words can be written with the character for “woman” and has been an erotic image in poetry from earliest times.

  68. The ark shell (akagai) is a symbol for a woman’s private parts.

  69. This is a reference to the Narihira poem in The Tales of Ise, sec. 87, set in Ashiya, and also in the Shinkokinshū and in the nō play Nue, again set in Ashiya, the locus of the poem. The poem evokes the severe life of fishergirls along a rough shore, burning brine, who have no time to care for their hair.

  70. From the nō play Shunkan. The Ju Shui (Chrysanthemum Water) River is in Hunan Province. This refers to a practice among Daoists of the feast of chrysanthemum and friendship. Chrysanthemum water is the elixir of life. In the nō play, Shunkan is presented initially as if he were an enlightened figure, a veritable Daoist immortal.

  71. The following until the line “saving net” in Shunkan’s lament is based on the nō play Shunkan.

  72. The modern kabuki version adds the line that on his return Shunkan is to be executed as a common criminal.

  73. The villain of the play The Battles of Coxinga.

  74. A simile, derived from ancient Chinese texts, for
someone who does not know his own limitations.

  75. Customers visiting the licensed quarter by day wear these deep wicker hats (which virtually conceal the face) in order to preserve the secrecy of their visits. But this customer wears a hat even at night, when the darkness normally is sufficient protection.

  76. A play on words centering on the syllables ami, part of the name Amida, and on amigasa, meaning “woven hat.”

  77. Good-quality coinage of about 1720.

  78. The imagery used by the maid has been altered from puns on saltiness (soy sauce, green vegetables, and so forth) to puns on sweetness.

  79. A technical term of pottery making, meaning “hard-fired.”

  80. A period from the sixth to the sixteenth night of the Tenth Month when special Buddhist services were conducted in temples of the Pure Land (Jōdo) sect. It was believed that persons who died during this period immediately became Buddhas.

  81. Tenma, one of the principal districts of Osaka, was the site of the Tenjin Shrine, to the memory of the deified Sugawara no Michizane (845–903).

  82. The word kami (paper) is the homophone of kami (god). We have thus “Kami who is not a kami”—the paper dealer who is not a god.

  83. The sacred ropes (mishimenawa) at a Shintō shrine. Here mentioned (like the gongs) as a word related to the imagery of Shintō.

  84. The Tenth Month, called Kannazuki (literally, month of no gods), was a time when the gods were believed to gather at Izumo and thus were absent from the rest of Japan.

  85. Both places had well-known cemeteries.

  86. The master at the bathhouse where Koharu formerly worked.

  87. A proverb of Buddhist origin, “Suffering follows one like a dog,” is embedded in the text.

  88. It was customary to refer to the size of shops by giving their frontage on the street.

  89. Magoemon is a dealer in flour (for noodles). His shop name, Konaya—“the flour merchant”—is used almost as a surname.

  90. The reference is to Tenma Tenjin, a deified form of Sugawara no Michizane.

  91. Again, a play on the words kami (god) and kami (paper).

  92. A source of heat in which a charcoal burner is placed under a low, quilt-covered table.

  93. Ichinokawa was the site of a large vegetable market near the north end of Tenjin Bridge.

  94. A pun on the two meanings of kurawasu: “to cause to eat” and “to beat.”

  95. Magoemon’s (and Jihei’s) aunt but Osan’s mother.

  96. Meaningless calculations. Twenty fun made two monme.

  97. The name Osan echoes the word san (three).

  98. The charms issued by the Shintō shrine at Kumano were printed on the face with six Chinese characters, the strokes of which were in the shape of crows. The reverse side of these charms was used for writing oaths.

  99. A formal oath. Bonten (Brahma) and Taishaku (Indra), though Hindu gods, were considered to be protective deities of the Buddhist law. The four Deva kings served under Indra and were also protectors of Buddhism.

  100. It was customary to light the first fire of the winter on this day, which would generally be toward the end of November in the Western calendar.

  101. The medical images are occasioned by considering Koharu’s plight as a sickness. If 750 me is half the sum needed to redeem Koharu, the total of 1,500 me (or 6,000 me in Old Silver) is considerably less than the 10 kanme, or 10,000 me in Old Silver, mentioned by Tahei.

  102. On the last day of the Tenth Month (November 29, 1720). This day was one of the times during the year for making payments.

  103. The name of a male entertainer in the quarter. Fukushima was west of Sonezaki.

  104. The god was so ashamed of his ugliness that he ventured forth only at night.

  105. Mention of New Year is connected with Koharu’s name, in which haru means “spring.”

  106. A sacred text of Buddhism (Karma Sutra). Here Chikamatsu alludes to a line from that text: “If you wish to know the past cause, look at the present effect; if you wish to know the future effect, look at the present cause.”

  107. The blocks from which illustrated books were printed were frequently made of cherry wood. The illustrated sheets mentioned here featured current scandals, such as lovers’ suicides.

  108. November 14, 1720. In the lunar calendar the full moon occurs on the fifteenth day of the month.

  109. Sugawara no Michizane, unfairly abused at court, was exiled to Dazaifu in Kyūshū. When he was about to depart, he composed a poem of farewell to his favorite plum tree. The tree, moved by this honor, flew after him to Kyūshū. The cherry tree in his garden withered away in grief. Only the pine seemed indifferent, as Michizane complained in another poem. The pine thereupon also flew to Kyūshū.

  110. Umeda Bridge. “Green Bridge” is Midori-bashi.

  111. The poem by Michizane bewailing the inconstancy of his pine tree.

  112. Shijimi Bridge. Twelve bridges are mentioned in the michiyuki. The lovers’ journey takes them along the north bank of Shijimi River to Shijimi Bridge, where they cross to Dōjima. At Little Naniwa Bridge they cross back again to Sonezaki. Continuing eastward, they cross Horikawa and then cross the Tenma Bridge over the Ōkawa. At “Eight Houses” (Hakkenya) they journey eastward along the south bank of the river as far as Kyō Bridge. They cross this bridge to the tip of land at Katamachi and then take the Onari Bridge to Amijima.

  113. The characters used for Tenma literally mean “demon.”

  114. A river in the Buddhist underworld that had to be crossed to reach the world of the dead. Mention here is induced arithmetically: one blade plus two people equals three fords.

  115. It was customary for Buddhist monks and some of the laity in Japan to observe a summer retreat from the sixteenth day of the Fourth Month to the fifteenth day of the Seventh Month, a period of ninety days. During this time they practiced various austerities and copied out the holy books or wrote the Buddha’s name over and over.

  116. “Opposite shore” implies the Buddhist term higan (nirvana).

  117. The name Onari is used here for the bridge more properly called Bizenjima because of a play on words meaning “to become a Buddha.”

  118. A reference to a poem by Ōtomo no Yakamochi (718–785): “The pheasant foraging in the fields of spring reveals his whereabouts to man as he cries for his mate” (Shūishū, no. 121).

  119. Amida’s paradise lies in the west. The moon is also frequently used as a symbol of Buddhist enlightenment.

  120. The cries have always sounded like kawai, kawai, but now they sound like mukui, mukui. These Japanese sounds seem more within the range of a crow’s articulatory powers than “beloved” and “revenge.”

  121. The invocation of Amida’s name freed one from spiritual obstacles, just as a sword freed one from physical obstacles. Here the two images are blended.

  122. The dead were arranged in this manner because Shakyamuni Buddha chose this position when he died.

  123. “Net” (ami) is mentioned because of the connection with fishermen. It is echoed a few lines later in the mention of the name Amijima. The vow of the Buddha to save all living creatures is likened to a net that catches people in its meshes.

  124. The passage appears in “The Safflower” chapter of The Tale of Genji.

  125. Kaganojō (1635–1711) and Chikugonojō (Takemoto Gidayū, 1651–1714) were important jōruri chanters (tayū). Chikamatsu wrote his first play for Takemoto Gidayū in 1686, after which he wrote only three more plays for Kaganojō, the last in 1699.

  126. A style of chanting used by Okamoto Bunya in the late seventeenth century. Chikamatsu preferred the style used by Takemoto Gidayū (Gidayūbushi), which became the standard.

  127. A concubine of the Tang dynasty’s Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–756), remembered for her great beauty.

  Chapter 7

  CONFUCIAN STUDIES AND LITERARY PERSPECTIVES

  In the early modern period, Confucianism, which had entered Japan together with Chinese cult
ure and writing in the ancient period, emerged as the dominant mode of thought. Specifically, it was the Zhu Xi (1138–1200) school of Confucianism that was welcomed and supported by the samurai rulers, who used it to provide ideological support to the bakufu-domain system. Confucianism is a practical moral philosophy concerned with society and government and was absorbed in Japan primarily through the study of the Confucian classics, particularly the Four Books: Confucius’s Analects (Lunyu, J. Rongo), Mencius (Mengzi, J. Mōshi), The Doctrine of the Mean (Zhongyong, J. Chūyō), and The Great Learning (Daxue, J. Daigaku).

  Confucius (551–479 B.C.E.), a scholar-teacher who lived in the late Zhou period when the kingdom was in a state of decline and turmoil, addressed mainly the rulers (the princes and officials) concerning the restoration of social order and stability based on a moral and social code. The Analects, the collection of his most memorable pronouncements, focuses on the practicalities of interpersonal relationships and self-cultivation in the context of these relationships. Self-cultivation on the part of the rulers was in turn reflected in the conduct of government. Confucius stressed five cardinal relationships in the ethics of a family-centered society, those between lord and subject, father and son, husband and wife, elder brother and younger brother, and friend and friend. The most important of these relationships was that between father and son or parent and child, making filial piety (xiao, J. kō) the primary virtue. Since governance was modeled on the family, the practice of filial piety brought stability not only to the family but to society as a whole. Confucius also stressed humaneness (ren, J. jin), the notion of mutual feeling or reciprocity, with the expectation, for example, that the ruler ideally would treat the people as he himself would want to be treated. Another Confucian virtue was ritual decorum or propriety (li, J. rei), which provided a means of regulating and refining human desires so that they would remain within the proper bounds, giving order to one’s personal life and providing a means for the ruler to express his virtue or moral power. One of the principal assumptions behind Confucius’s thought was the concept of Heaven (tian, J. ten), a cosmic moral order possessing intelligence and will. Adherence to the Heavenly Way, which provided moral guidelines for the individual, made it possible to establish order in human society.