Adakiya Enjirō journeys with Ukina of the House of Floating Fame.
Make love in the morning
and in the evening die fulfilled—
not quite your vintage Confucius,
but hot enough to teach the Way
to those in the floating world
and sung in soft tones and phrases
of a bungo-bushi ballad
about lovers naked to the skin
who’ve made a solemn promise
never to untie alone
the sashes they’ve tied for each other.
But now they doubt each other’s pledge.
Will each be loyal to the end?
Full of suspicion, they pass
along a dike under construction
beside the Sumida River
wondering whether if they jump
they’ll really gain enduring fame
the way the famous ballad claims.
The god of love and marriage
who brings men and women together
and ties them as tightly
as reliable, chemically treated
Nabeya lice-repellant sashes
worn by high-ranking courtesans
looks away from these two now,
abandons them, swelling with anger.
And the passionate quarrels between the two,
she angry as a curling slice of cooking squid,
his face as contorted as if he’d drunk
a swig of spiced soy sauce—
their lovers’ spats are a thing long gone.
Once she walked proudly with wide steps
through the main street of Yoshiwara
but now she stumbles, toes pointed inward.
And as they cry, the lovers’ noses run.
They have no sleeves to wipe their snot
so they wring and wring again
their wet loincloths. An east wind
chills them now, and their skin
is completely covered with goose bumps.
The man’s dim, grimy face looks like
a maze of strangely written words
as if he sought to send a message
by way of some returning geese,
like letters written
in thin ink across the misty sky.
Simple cursive characters
describe a crowbar on the shoulders
and an anchor at the knees
dyed in dark purple on two Edo robes
now entered in a pawnshop book
beside the famous Sumida,
its waters running dark as ink.
As they pass Iozaki Point
they complain about small things
and then the big Chōmei-ji temple bell
booms out ten o’clock,
reminding Enjirō of the shop
that sells Chōmei-ji ointment for men
for lengthening their performance.
All through the night
Enjirō bares his chest to Ukina
and tells her what is in his heart.
And when dawn comes they are revealed,
he with his brand-new scarlet loincloth
loose and dragging on the ground,
and she in a musty scarlet petticoat.
And as the sun now rises high
they’re nowhere near
the famous Hidaka Temple
where a woman turned into a fiery snake
and burned her man to death,28
yet both, naked, press on. (Shamisen flourish and exeunt.)
Cows, they say, ask to have rings put through their noses. And Enjirō? His botched fake love suicide is in such bad taste that great fame comes to him at last. He’s depicted everywhere, even on cheap fans.
[ENJIRŌ]: I just did it for thrills. It’s my own fault, so I can’t complain. But you must be really cold. Everything’s backward now, isn’t it? In a self-respecting love suicide we’d be making our final journey with our clothes on. But here we are making a journey home—with nothing on. It’s ridiculous. Just ridiculous. Everyone will stare at us. We’re very conspicuous in scarlet.
[UKINA]: I really got wrapped up good in someone else’s underwear.
22. Back at home, Enjirō discovers that the highwaymen were in fact his father, Yajiemon, and Sorobei. The stolen robes now hang on a kimono rack. Enjirō, at bottom, is now almost completely wrapped in a felt rug, a visual pun on the saying “to be covered by a felt rug,” meaning “to fail” or “to be disowned.” Enjirō, it is implied, has failed in all his attempts to become a playboy. (From SNKBZ 79, Kibyōshi, senryū, kyōka, by permission of Shōgakukan)
22. It’ s the day the extension on Enjirō’s disinheritance runs out, and he returns home humbled and chastened. There, on a clothes rack in his room, he’s amazed to see the robe that had been robbed from him at the Mimeguri Shrine. Just then, his father, Yajiemon, and the head clerk, Sorobei, come into the room and begin to lecture him. Thanks to them, Enjirō at last understands what the real world is all about and becomes a mature, serious man. Ukina decides she can put up with his bad looks and, since she doesn’t have any other candidates in line at the moment, agrees to marry him. The family is rich, and under Enjirō, the business prospers even more for many long years. As a final sensational gesture to show he’s separating himself forever from his scandalous reputation as a monger of scandalous reputations, Enjirō decides to have his life depicted in a kibyōshi picture book so others can learn from it. He asks Kyōden to write it and teach all the floating-head would-be playboys in the world a good lesson.
[FATHER]: Son, haven’t you read Confucius? He says very clearly that young men are full of untamed vitality and must guard against lust in any form. Ideas that exceed proper bounds always fail, so it was natural your plan ended the way it did. We went to a lot of trouble, you know, to dress up and put on our little robber play just to scare the shit out of you. It was all for your sake, so from now on be very careful. I’m confident you’ll never hang out with that Kinosuke again, or Warui Shian, either. Don’t worry. You’re not the first one who’s acted like this. The world’s full of idiots like you.
[ENJIRŌ]: I’ve got to let my mistress go. I’ll really be in trouble if she gets jealous now.
[UKINA]: Because of you, I’ve got a terrible cold.
[Kibyōshi, senryū, kyōka, SNKBZ 79: 86–108, translated by Chris Drake]
FAST-DYEING MIND STUDY (SHINGAKU HAYASOMEGUSA, 1790)
In an attempt to crack down on what the bakufu considered the excesses and moral dissipation of the times, in 1787 Senior Councillor Matsudaira Sadanobu instituted the Kansei Reforms (1787–1793), a series of large-scale political, economic, and moral reforms. The following year, Koikawa Harumachi and Santō Kyōden, among others, produced notable kibyōshi satirizing the reforms; but even though they were set in the past, they did not escape the bakufu’s censure. Many writers, illustrators, and publishers were punished, and those who were samurai, like Harumachi, stopped writing popular fiction.
The result of the bakufu’s pressure was that after 1790 the nature and content of the kibyōshi quickly changed. The obvious political and social satire of the earlier works was replaced with a thick layer of ethical didacticism, as evidenced in Santō Kyōden’s Fast-Dyeing Mind Study. By the mid-eighteenth century, Shingaku (Mind Study, or Heart Learning), the school established by Ishida Baigan (1685–1744), had become extremely popular in the Kyoto-Osaka area. Baigan’s teachings, a unique combination of Confucianism, Shintō, and Buddhism, were specifically aimed at the urban commoner and insisted that the merchant—who officially ranked lowest among the four classes—was the equal of the samurai with regard to moral practices. Baigan, who stressed the Way of the merchant, emphasized moral practice, particularly virtues such as filial piety, diligence, frugality, and honesty. The Shingaku school, whose leaders included Nakazawa Dōni (1725–1803), experienced a revival and spread to Edo in the late eighteenth century, partly as a result of the Kansei Reforms, whose i
deology closely matched that of the Shingaku school. Nakazawa Dōni, who went to Edo, was so popular that he ended up speaking around the country to commoners of all backgrounds and was repeatedly invited to lecture to the highest samurai.
These teachings are dealt with in Santō Kyōden’s Fast-Dyeing Mind Study, which was published in Edo in 1790 in three volumes. In it, the dangers of straying from the fundamental virtues are dramatized through the conflict between the “good souls” (zendama) and the “bad souls” (akudama) over the body of Ritarō, the son of the merchant Rihei. With the aid of Master Dōri, whose name echoes that of the noted Shingaku master Nakazawa Dōni, the good souls are able to regain control of Ritarō‘s body. As it evolved in the late eighteenth century, Shingaku stressed “knowing the original mind” (honshin o shiru), a notion originally found in the Mencius (6A:10), which asserted that if one ignored the good impulses that arose naturally in one’s mind, one would “lose” the true or original mind.29 Fast-Dyeing Mind Study30 had a considerable influence on subsequent kibyōshi, showing that a morally conscious, commonsense style could draw far more readers than had the earlier, pre-Kansei Reforms kibyōshi. The book became the subject of nishikie (brocade) prints, and the phrase “good souls, bad souls” (zendama, akudama) became very popular, with the vigorous, humorous bad souls being widely depicted. The comic depiction of half-naked good and bad souls was made even more famous by a kabuki dance called Sanja matsuri (Three-Shrine Festival, first performed in 1832). Kitao Masayoshi, later and better known as Kuwagata Keisai (1764–1824), was the ukiyo-e artist. Particularly eyecatching was the simultaneous presentation of the human and the spiritual realms and the struggle between the good and bad souls that exteriorize human inner conflict.
Preface
People say picture books aren’t suited to theory, but the conception underlying the present book is a theoretical one, presented in three volumes for the instruction of children.31 If Big Daddy Buddha in India grasps the truth of this book, he’ll put all his expedient means for teaching in his breast pocket and retire, and Old Man Confucius from Lu will stuff the Will of Heaven in his sleeve and exit gracefully. Even Japan’s own Boss Woman, the sun goddess Amaterasu, and other women readers may well praise it as pure and clean.32
1. Humans have souls. The souls of men are swords. The souls of women, according to Shunkan in the puppet play White Pines,33 are definitely mirrors. And the souls moving across kabuki stages are said to be copper, wrapped in red paper. But these theories aren’t worth listening to. Swords and mirrors are just comparisons. Likewise, a jingle in the back of a popular chronicle claims the soul is made from five elements:34
Hearing from nine woods
of a three-fire secret mountain:
one is earth, seven are metal,
five waters are a guess.
1. Standing among clouds, the Heavenly Emperor blows out new souls from his bamboo tube. With a halo behind his head, signifying his divinity, and wearing an ancient courtier’s robe, as Shintō deities were depicted in paintings, the Heavenly Emperor appears as a distinctly Japanese god. The Heavenly Emperor comically resembles a child playing with bubbles. The bubbles close to the tube are round and perfect, while those carried into the distance by “winds of delusions and dishonesty” change into misshapen ovals. From the 1790 edition. (From SNKBZ 79, Kibyōshi, senryū, kyōka, by permission of Shōgakukan)
But this is sophistry. The soul is only one thing. Alive, the soul is called “energy”; dead, it’s called “ghost.” It’s also called “mind” or “spirit,” and nothing’s more important to humans. Where does it come from? It’s granted by heaven.35
In heaven dwells an august deity named Heavenly Emperor.36 He spends his time dipping a bamboo tube into what looks like a wide teacup. This bowl contains water into which something resembling elm-berry skins have been dissolved. Using the tube, the deity blows out souls. The principle is the same as for children blowing soap bubbles. When the souls are first blown, they are round and perfect, but carried by winds of delusion and dishonesty, some change into ovals, triangles, or squares.
[HEAVENLY EMPEROR]: The illustrators are going to have a lot of trouble depicting me. For today only, I’ll appear as a Japanese god. Don’t let any other countries know about this!
Gather round, it’s the Bubble Man! Everyone buys my bubbles. Everyone!
2. The sliding door and a low two-panel screen demarcate the area of childbirth. This is a sitting-style delivery with the wife sitting up against a panel, covered with a futon. The midwife holds the newborn baby above a tub of water for the first bath while another maid waits with a towel. The good soul, on the left, is about to enter the boy’s body while the Heavenly Emperor prevents the bad soul from doing the same by twisting its arm. The Chinese characters for “good” (zen) and “bad” (aku) are written on their faces. (From SNKBZ 79, Kibyōshi, senryū, kyōka, by permission of Shōgakukan)
2. Near Nihonbashi in downtown Edo lived a merchant named Rihei. He was the owner of the Quick and Easy Shop and dedicated himself to turning a fast profit.37 Rihei’s wife became pregnant, and nine months later she gave birth to a gem of a baby boy.38 Everyone in the house offered their congratulations and made quite a commotion.
An infant is truly a white thread waiting to be dyed life’s various colors. As soon as Rihei’s son was born, a distorted bad soul attempted to enter the child by slipping under its skin. The Heavenly Emperor appeared, however, and firmly twisted the bad soul’s arm. He sent in a completely round good soul instead. The deity showed Rihei special mercy because he always kept his mind in good order. Unfortunately ordinary people were unable to see this at all.39
3. Rihei and his wife (right) admire Ritaro’s calligraphy. Throughout the text, the Chinese character ri (profit/use) appears on Rihei’s robe, as it does here, while a different ri (reason/ principle) appears on Ritarō’s robe. Behind Ritarō (left) is a single-panel screen with round and square paintings of bamboo and a piece of calligraphy in intaglio with a Chinese saying, “Green bamboo grows straight as the virtuous man.” The screen and the way in which the good soul points directly to Ritarō show that he is expected to become such a character. The sliding doors behind the standing screen also depict a Chinese-style landscape, indicating that Rihei has pretensions to learning. The scene suggests the kind of children’s lessons for which Nakazawa Dōni was famous. (From SNKBZ 79, Kibyōshi, senryū, kyōka, by permission of Shōgakukan)
[HEAVENLY EMPEROR]: Go in right here.
[GOOD SOUL]: Yes, Majesty! (The curtain closes to the rapid beating of wooden kabuki clappers offstage.)
3. Rihei named his son Ritarō.40 The good soul stayed with the boy constantly and protected him, so as Ritarō grew he revealed intelligence and was well behaved and skillful at everything. His parents could tell he was different from other children. He was their precious jewel, and they raised him with the greatest care. Once a soul is three years old, it never changes until it’s a hundred.41 The child’s future looked very bright.
[RIHEI]: What superb calligraphy! He’s my own child, but I’m already in awe of what he could be.
4. With nowhere to go, five bad souls sit in a circle in the sky, plotting to find suitable bodies. (From SNKBZ 79, Kibyōshi, senryū, kyōka, by permission of Shōgakukan)
[RIHEI’S WIFE]: It’s miraculous. Shouldn’t we get someone famous to teach him?
[NURSE]: He certainly is a clever child.
[GOOD SOUL] (proudly stroking its beard): But surely you exaggerate. . . .
[RITARŌ]: My teacher says he’s going to write out samples of province names for me to copy.
[RITARŌ AND GOOD SOUL]: My dad and mom are very important to me. I’ll never gamble or toss coins into holes. Or pull strings for prizes.
[STANDING SCREEN]: “Green bamboo grows straight as the virtuous man.”
4. After the bad soul got chewed out by the Heavenly Emperor, it had no-where to live. It looked for another suitable body, but in those days people
had pure hearts and earnestly practiced the venerable ways of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Shintō. The bad soul found nobody it could break into. It just dangled in space and plotted, waiting for a chance to get rid of the good soul in Ritarō’s body and live there instead.
[FIRST BAD SOUL] (far right): What do you say to fifty rounds of cards?
[SECOND] (upper right): I’d really like to buy stock in a nice body.42
[THIRD] (middle left): Ever hear of Mind Study? It’s the rage now. Almost nobody’s doing any wrong these days. I can’t find anyone bad to live inside.
5. Ritarō comes of age. With a razor in hand, the clerk (left) is about to shave Ritaro’s forehead and give him an adult hairstyle. In the An’ei-Tenmei period (1772–1789), plucking the hairline at the temples to make the forehead look wider was fashionable, a practice that Ritarō declines and that the Kansei Reforms discouraged. A figure of a standing crane, a symbol of longevity, adorns the screen behind Rihei. The good soul, sitting next to the clerk, admires Ritarō. (From SNKBZ 79, Kibyōshi, senryū, kyōka, by permission of Shōgakukan)
[FOURTH] (far right): Sitting together like this, hey, we look like gamblers without dice. Or maybe we’re Buddhists who forgot to bring our communal prayer beads.43
Each was once the soul of someone who died badly, by suicide or execution. Still attached to their former lives, these bad souls wander, lost between life and death.44
5. When Ritarō turned sixteen, his parents cut off his long hair and dressed him in men’s clothes. He also had a good character to go with his good looks. His father turned over most of the shop business to him, and he proved a model of conscientiousness and honesty. He woke up early and went to bed late, paid close attention to details, and was thoroughly frugal. He honored his parents, showed kindness to the employees, never put down his abacus, and protected the shop both while he was in it and while he was out. Soon he was the talk of the neighborhood.
[RIHEI]: Son, don’t pluck the hairs on your temples trying to look sexy. People will think you’re a bad person.
Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600–1900 Page 101
