Selected Bibliography
Berry, Mary Elizabeth. The Culture of Civil War in Kyoto. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
Brown, Delmer M. “The Impact of Firearms on Japanese Warfare, 1543–98.” The Far Eastern Quarterly, no. 7, 3 (1948): 236–253.
Cooper, Michael. They Came to Japan: An Anthology of European Reports on Japan, 1543–1640. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1965.
Evans-Pritchard, E. “Some Notes on Zande Sex Habits.” American Anthropologist, New Series, No. 75, 1 (1973): 171–175.
Farris, William Wayne. Japan to 1600: A Social and Economic History. Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 2009.
Ihara, Saikaku, Powy Mather, E. (Trans.). Comrade Loves of the Samurai. Tokyo: Tuttle, 1972.
Jansen, Marius. The Making of Modern Japan. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2000.
Kim, Young Gwan and Hahn, Sook Ja. “Homosexuality in ancient and modern Korea.” Culture, Health & Sexuality, no. 8, 1 (2006): 9–65.
Kure, Mitsuo. Samurai Arms, Armor, Costume. Edison, NJ: Chartwell Books, 2007.
Morillo, Stephen. “Guns and Government: A Comparative Study of Europe and Japan.” Journal of World History, no. 6, 1 (1995): 75–106.
Ōta, Gyūichi (J. S. A. Elisonas & J. P. Lamers, Trs. and Eds.). The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga. Leiden, NL: Brill, 2011.
Screech, Timon. “The Black in Japanese Art: From the beginnings to 1850.” In The Image of the Black in African and Asian Art, edited by David Bindman and Suzanne Preston Blier, 325–340. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017.
Shapinsky, Peter. Lords of the Sea: Pirates, Violence, and Commerce in Late Medieval Japan. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2014.
Society of Jesus. Cartas que os padres e irmãos da Companhia de Jesus escreverão dos reynos de Japão e China II (Letters written by the fathers and brothers of the Society of Jesus from the kingdoms of Japan and China—Volume II). Evora, Portugal: Manoel de Lyra, 1598.
Tsang, Carol Richmond. War and Faith: Ikko Ikki in Late Muromachi Japan. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.
Turnbull, Stephen. The Samurai: A Military History. London: Routledge, 1977.
Turnbull, Stephen. The Samurai Sourcebook. London: Cassell, 2000.
Turnbull, Stephen. Ninja: Unmasking the Myth. Barnsley: Frontline Books, 2017.
Chapter 17
The practice of collecting heads: Head collecting has a long history in Japan, and in its most basic form can be seen as the proof of a job well done. Proof that the kill or kills have been made. For the most important of heads, those of senior samurai or lords, protocol was strict and always observed if there was time. Of course in the heat of battle, that was not always possible. In Korea, during the invasions of the 1590s, the samurai tried their best to collect heads, but the sheer number of kills and the distance to courier them back to Japan, not to mention logistical problems of getting them through hostile country, meant that a nose or ear had to suffice. Many, approximately thirty-eight thousand, were interred in a mound in Kyoto called Mimizuka (which actually means “ear mound”). You can still see this gruesome monument today.
The Shigeshoshi: The makeup artists (almost always women) who accompanied samurai armies were a key part of the rituals attending victory in battle. To respect the fallen, heads would be cleaned and made-up, their hair dressed properly and only then displayed to the victorious general. Sometimes victors were known to have conversations with their fallen foe’s head, praying to the soul or asking forgiveness. Nobunaga’s treatment of Takeda Katsuyori’s head was not the only time a victor crowed over his dead enemy, but it is the most infamous.
Selected Bibliography
Berry, Mary Elizabeth. Hideyoshi. Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1989.
Murakami, Naojiro. “The Jesuit Seminary of Azuchi.” Monumenta Nipponica No. 6, 1/2 (1943): 370–374.
Ōta, Gyūichi (J. S. A. Elisonas & J. P. Lamers, Trs. and Eds.). The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga. Leiden, NL: Brill, 2011.
Turnbull, Stephen. The Samurai: A Military History. London: Routledge, 1977.
Turnbull, Stephen. The Samurai Sourcebook. London: Cassell, 2000.
Turnbull, Stephen. Ninja: Unmasking the Myth. Barnsley: Frontline Books, 2017.
Chapter 18
Tokugawa Ieyasu, the sycophant: Ieyasu was from a minor family of nobles and grew up a hostage in a rival daimyō’s court. He spent much of his life kowtowing to more powerful men, and was very good at it, gradually rising in power as an ally to Nobunaga and then Hideyoshi. In the end, his patience and respectful demeanor paid off when he became supreme master of Japan and shogun in 1603. His sycophancy should not be viewed negatively; he was bowing to the reality of his world, and working hard to ensure the peace of his small (but growing) realm and its people. Ultimately, the peace he founded at the end of The Age of the Country at War was one of the longest periods of sustained peace in human history, anywhere, a massive boon for the Japanese people. His early respect for the power of others and later careful and wise lawmaking made this possible.
Mount Fuji’s name: Mount Fuji is probably one of the most famous mountains in the world and perhaps the most recognizable. While iconic mountain names such as the Matterhorn are known universally, few mountains other than Fuji have attained the instant recognition of its profile all over the world. The name itself is clouded in mystery, but it is thought to originate with the original settlers of the Japanese islands tens of thousands of years ago, and can therefore be said to have been a holy site for humans far into prehistory. Its name likely comes from the indigenous people of Japan, the Ainu, and is derived from an Ainu term meaning “fire,” coupled with san, the Japanese word for “mountain.”
Houchonin today: Houchonin were cookery masters, highly respected elite chefs to the rich and powerful. The position was often hereditary, and they were sometimes even descended from imperial branch families. As with tea masters, they sometimes taught their art to paying students, and started “schools” with ranks, and allowed students to wear ceremonial clothes of different colors as they progressed in the art (somewhat similar to colored belts in the martial arts). One warlord who studied to be a houchonin was Hosokawa Yusai, Akechi Mitsuhide’s brother-in-law. Today there are still a few men who identify as descendants of houchonin, but the art has declined. One author, Eric Rath, puts this down to the fact that modern sensibilities are too squeamish to appreciate the art of carving and “bringing back to life” dead animals.
Selected Bibliography
Ōta, Gyūichi (J. S. A. Elisonas & J. P. Lamers, Trs. and Eds.). The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga. Leiden, NL: Brill, 2011.
Rath, Eric, C. Food and Fantasy in Early Modern Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.
Sadler, A. L. Shogun: The Life of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tokyo and Vermont: Tuttle Publishing, 2009.
Turnbull, Stephen. The Samurai: A Military History. London: Routledge, 1977.
Turnbull, Stephen. The Samurai Sourcebook. London: Cassell, 2000.
Chapter 19
Akechi’s betrayal: The reason for Akechi’s treachery has been debated for four hundred years, and will likely be for another four hundred. Essentially, we will never know, but the following are some of the theories that have been proposed. (1) Ambition. Akechi felt it was his time. This is unlikely as he did not have sufficient numbers in his army, and the coup was always a very long shot. (2) Nobunaga directly caused the death of Akechi’s mother by reneging on a hostage deal. This is quite likely, if not true, but the story is not certain and if so, Akechi waited a long time to take revenge as the event happened in 1578 or 1579, more than three years earlier. (3) Nobunaga complained about the feast Akechi’d prepared for Tokugawa Ieyasu and threw it into the garden, stamping on it, and humiliating the warlord. If this was the reason for the coup, it may have
been the culmination of many slights (Nobunaga was not overly respectful to his subordinates) rather than for this act alone. (4) Betrayal by Hosokawa Yusai, Akechi’s brother-in-law. Hosokawa was said to have promised to support Akechi, but actually reported the plot to Hideyoshi. If this is true, why didn’t Hosokawa tell Nobunaga, who was much closer than Hideyoshi? In any event his family suffered greatly due to their association with Akechi. Akechi’s daughter, Tama (more often known by her baptismal name of Gracia), who was married to Hosokawa’s son, spent the rest of her life confined to her house or country estate, unable to show her face in public. This theory is unlikely. (5) Protecting the emperor and imperial court. Emperor Ōgimachi did not have an entirely smooth relationship with Nobunaga, despite the extensive funding he received and the other honors Nobunaga paid him. Some have suggested Nobunaga intended to cap a lifetime of surprising deeds with the abolishment of the imperial line. After all, he’d already done the same with the shogunal family, the Ashikaga, whom Akechi had served in the past. The theory goes that Akechi acted as he did to protect the emperor. This, also, is unlikely. Nobunaga had invested great resources in obtaining imperial recognition but it is possible that he believed that he no longer needed such support. The most likely cause is a lifetime of slights and massive frustration.
Selected Bibliography
Ōta, Gyūichi (J. S. A. Elisonas & J. P. Lamers, Trs. and Eds.). The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga. Leiden, NL: Brill, 2011.
Sadler, A. L. Shogun: The Life of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tokyo and Vermont: Tuttle Publishing, 2009.
Turnbull, Stephen. The Samurai: A Military History. London: Routledge, 1977.
Turnbull, Stephen. The Samurai Sourcebook. London: Cassell, 2000.
Uhlenbeck, Chris and Molenaar, Merel. Mount Fuji, Sacred Mountain of Japan. Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2000.
Chapter 20
Nobunaga’s head: There is no evidence for Yasuke having taken Nobunaga’s head; however, Oda family lore has it so. Yasuke’s memory does live on in the families that were most closely associated with him. Another story has him associated with a supposed death mask made for Nobunaga, but this is highly unlikely.
Nobunaga’s legend: Oda Nobunaga is one of the most popular figures in Japanese history. Enter any bookshop in Japan—on many street corners and in most train stations of any size—and you will find a book about him, either fact or fiction. Probably both. It’s open to question why he enjoys such popularity, but his decisiveness, ruthlessness and charisma are cited by the Japanese public as the prime reasons. Anybody associated with him, for example Yasuke, also basks in his glory and popularity.
Selected Bibliography
Ōta, Gyūichi (J. S. A. Elisonas & J. P. Lamers, Trs. and Eds.). The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga. Leiden, NL: Brill, 2011.
Schindewolf, Brandon C. Toki wa ima. Unpublished undergraduate thesis, senior honors. The Ohio State University, 2010.
Society of Jesus. Cartas que os padres e irmãos da Companhia de Jesus escreverão dos reynos de Japão e China II (Letters written by the fathers and brothers of the Society of Jesus from the kingdoms of Japan and China—Volume II). Evora, Portugal: Manoel de Lyra, 1598.
Turnbull, Stephen. The Samurai: A Military History. London: Routledge, 1977.
Turnbull, Stephen. The Samurai Sourcebook. London: Cassell, 2000.
Watsky, Andrew M. “Politics, and Tea. The Career of Imai Sokyu.” Monumenta Nipponica 50, no. 1 (1995): 47–65.
PART 3
Chapters 21 & 22
The Shimazu clan’s domination of Kyushu: Beginning in 1550, the Shimazu family of Satsuma Province fought to expand their territory and by 1574, they had secured their home province and neighboring Ōsumi Province. In 1577, they took parts of Hyūga Province on the eastern side of Kyushu, and fought Ōtomo Sōrin the following year. This was the occasion that a party of Jesuits had to flee for their lives. In 1584, in alliance with Arima Harunobu, they won the Battle of Okitanawate to take control of western Kyushu and had nearly achieved domination of the island, when Hideyoshi led his all-conquering armies against them.
The Fusta: The Jesuits’ galley known as a fusta in Portuguese and a galliot in English was the first ship of its kind seen in Japan and was probably constructed in 1581/1582 by Valignano’s command in Nagasaki. The Portuguese used such ships, descended from the ancient Mediterranean trireme, extensively throughout their empire, although this example, with a crew of up to three hundred must have been on the larger end. Galliots typically had between ten to twenty oars on each side, pulled by two men on each oar. Due to the energy needed to row, replacement crews were needed, and would have taken the oars in turns to keep up speed. Galliots also had sails to make use of wind when available, but were superior warships to galleons due to their ability to move even when there was no wind.
Selected Bibliography
Berry, Mary Elizabeth. Hideyoshi. Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1989.
Berry, Mary Elizabeth. The Culture of Civil War in Kyoto. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
Cieslik, Hubert. Soldo Organtino: The Architect of the Japanese Mission. Tokyo: Sophia University, 2005.
Cooper, Michael. They Came to Japan: An Anthology of European Reports on Japan, 1543–1640. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1965.
Hesselink, Reinier. The Dream of Christian Nagasaki: World Trade and the Clash of Cultures, 1560–1640. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2016.
Ōta, Gyūichi (J. S. A. Elisonas & J. P. Lamers, Trs. and Eds.). The Chronicle of Lord Nobunaga. Leiden, NL: Brill, 2011.
Sadler, A. L. Shogun: The Life of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tokyo and Vermont: Tuttle Publishing, 2009.
Society of Jesus. Cartas que os padres e irmãos da Companhia de Jesus escreverão dos reynos de Japão e China II (Letters written by the fathers and brothers of the Society of Jesus from the kingdoms of Japan and China—Volume II). Evora, Portugal: Manoel de Lyra, 1598.
Turnbull, Stephen. The Samurai: A Military History. London: Routledge, 1977.
Turnbull, Stephen. Ninja: Unmasking the Myth. Barnsley: Frontline Books, 2017.
Chapter 23
Catholic persecution: When Catholicism became illegal, its practitioners became criminals. It could be compared to the banning of certain sects or extremist political groups like Nazis in the modern world. That is certainly how it was seen at the time and it should not be forgotten that Catholics made up a very small proportion of the overall population and were generally confined to peripheral regions. However, when people refused to recant, the puzzled Tokugawa government got serious. Experience told them that to allow rebellious elements the freedom to defy the law brought chaos and war, something that it had taken nearly one hundred thirty years to exterminate from Japan. From the Catholic perspective of course, things looked a little different. No one knows for sure how many Japanese people had converted, and by the early seventeenth century some Christian families were into their third generation of believers, but the faith was virtually pervasive in the parts of Kyushu where the Jesuits had had their greatest success. Some estimates put the number of Catholics at over three hundred thousand, around 2 percent of the estimated total Japanese population of the time. Some Jesuits, particularly Japanese ones, had gone underground to minister to their flock. The hunt started for them and then leading Catholic citizens came under pressure to set a good example. Anyone found to be assisting the missionaries was also sentenced to death, but could avoid this by apostatizing. This included foreigners as well as Japanese people. To their credit, many resisted and were subsequently tortured and many executed by fire or sword, but large numbers also recanted and stamped on the religious image, the fumi-e, or “stamping picture” which was used to test the faith of potential Catholics between the 1620s and 1856. Those who gave up their faith were treated well, to try to persuade the remaining Christians to follow their example.
The tortures used were particularly horrific. The most common one was hanging upside down in a pit, sometimes filled with excrement or even snakes. One hand was left free to indicate readiness to recant. The victim was literally left there until they made the hand sign that they had had enough or until they had perished. The patron saint of the Philippines, Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, a Chinese Filipino, did not recant and died in the pit. One Portuguese priest, Cristóvão Ferreira, lasted five hours before making the hand signal in 1633. The worst torture was perhaps being suspended over volcanic sulfur pools until nearly dead, then being revived with cold water before being put through the whole ordeal again. It was no wonder most people were not prepared to suffer such horrors for their faith and stamped on the fumi-e.
Africans in China with the Jesuits: As elsewhere, slaves were essential to Portuguese activities in Macao, and a considerable number of these, perhaps around five thousand, were African males. Aside from performing manual labor, Africans in Macao participated in festivals dedicated to them and performed in orchestras and dance troupes in which “they all appeared resplendent in scarlet and other delights.” They also performed for fascinated Chinese audiences as part of Jesuit missions into the Chinese interior, playing “fanfares on their trumpets and shawms (a woodwind instrument a bit like an oboe).” One man, Antonio, a Portuguese-Cantonese interpreter, was described as a “Capher Eathiopian Abissen.” His ability in the local language suggests that he had been in Southern China for some time. The Catholic priest Domingo Navarette also reported Africans working with and for Chinese employers in Guangzhou, and believed them to have escaped slavery in Macao.
Yasuke: In Search of the African Samurai Page 41
