Old Japan E-Book

Antony Cummins

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 220

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Japan has often been thought of as a closed country, but before the country was closed in 1635 many travellers from the West were able to experience its unique traditions and culture. Their accounts speak of legends of powerful dragons and devils, tales of the revered emperor and the protocol surrounding him, following complex etiquette in everything from tea ceremonies to footwear, and bloodthirsty warlords who exacted cruel and unusual punishments for the smallest of crimes. In Old Japan Antony Cummins uses these captivating eyewitness accounts to reveal fascinating facts and myths from the mysterious Land of the Rising Sun.

Leseprobe

Oh country which has become so dear to me, is this progress really progress, this civilisation really civilisation for you? I, who have admired the artlessness of your inhabitants as well as their simple customs, who has seen the abundance of your fertile fields, who has heard everywhere the happy laughter of your children, and have never been able to discern misery, oh, I fear God, that this scene of happiness is coming to an end and that the Occidental people [Westerners] will bring here their fatal vices.

Journal of Henry Heusken, 7 December 1857

First published 2018

This paperback edition first published 2025

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© Antony Cummins, 2018, 2025

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Contents

Foreword by Lord Redesdale

Introduction: The Magic of Old Japan

The Samurai

Japanese Society

Architecture

The Grotesque and the Macabre

Strange and Curious Things

Putting the Flavour Back in Japan

Bibliography

Foreword byLord Redesdale

My great-grandfather, A.B. Mitford, 1st Lord Redesdale, was everything a dashing Victorian was meant to be: adventurous, a scholar and extremely brave. However, where he differed from many was that he really tried not only to understand but, in a time of fast-moving change, record the culture of the Japan of the 1860s – from the age of the shogun, which tried to prevent foreign influence, to a society that embraced progress, at a rate that led to the loss of many traditions that he experienced first-hand. Most travellers, after a brief stay in a country, believe they have a clear understanding of how that country works. This is probably due to the veneer of globalisation that affects almost all countries these days. However, from Mitford’s writings it is clear that only when he had finished his tour of duty at the Embassy and looked back many years later did he realise that his deep knowledge had left him with far more questions than he had in the first place.

Mitford recorded many customs, practices and folk tales he came across while in Japan; however, most of his writings were published much later in life. His writing may have been influenced through looking back, but the image it evoked is of a culture he loved. His gift as a writer led to the books becoming very popular and, it can be suggested, would have been one of many reasons that there was so much interest in Japanese art and culture.

We tend to forget, being able to travel to Japan in a day, how inaccessible the country was in the nineteenth century. It is hardly surprising that the Victorians would have had little knowledge about the country, and his descriptions would have given a rare insight. Mitford’s recollections would have been one of the few sources available. It is ironic that, for most, their idea of life in Japan was the picture created by the comic opera The Mikado. It is fitting therefore that there is evidence Mitford was consulted on costumes to ensure their authenticity for the opera. I have in the library a book incorporating all the flyers, pictures and descriptions of the many amateur dramatic productions Mitford took part in throughout his life, giving context to his link with Gilbert and Sullivan. The comic opera was the second longest-running musical at the time, showing how the exotic theme touched a chord with London society.

Mitford’s life changed after he returned from Japan: he inherited an estate in Gloucestershire and land in Redesdale, Northumberland, from his cousin. His cousin’s title of earl, however, was not passed to him. Family legend has it that, as a drinking companion of the Prince Regent, Queen Victoria blocked him from taking the title. There may be some truth in this as he was created Lord Redesdale two years after she died. It was as Lord Redesdale that he took part in the Garter mission to Japan, seeing a country that had shifted fundamentally as a culture.

Having read many of Mitford’s accounts, I have always wanted to visit Japan and managed my first trip earlier this year. Japan is a fascinating place that has adopted the trappings of globalised culture in a uniquely Japanese blend. Like Mitford, I am sure I could spend years immersed in Japan without really understanding such a complex and multi-layered society. The one thing that has not changed is the warmth of the welcome. I am sure that even though the changes would make modern Japan totally alien to Mitford, if he were to visit today, unlike many cultures, he would see how much of the culture has survived rather than how much has been lost.

Lord Redesdale

February 2018

Introduction

The Magicof Old Japan

Flavour Not Ingredients

If history were a cake, the individual contests between historians would be the ingredients, the complex parts that make up the whole ‘meal’ of history, while the myths, legends, stories, anecdotes and traditions would be the ‘flavour’. There are plenty of volumes out there with competitive arguments, debates, analysis and historiography, but this book is not one of them. This book is the smell of a scone from a wood-lit stove, it is the waft of bacon in the morning and the aroma of port and cheese – it is the flavour of the story of Japan.

The historical basis for this book are the numerous records of European travellers who have been visiting Japan since the 1500s – those men and women who travelled the gruelling seas and passed entire continents by way of tall ship to arrive in the famed land of the barbarian knights with their savage scimitars. These special accounts are stored in uniformed rows of books in university libraries, packed away in college journals or found in now long out of print diaries. They range from Jesuit accounts of the 1500s, to ships’ logs and seamen’s diaries, to diplomats’ journals and travellers’ letters, all of them the thoughts, statements and recordings of those people who saw the samurai for real and who witnessed such times with their own eyes. From these accounts I have taken the mysterious, the interesting, the exciting and the curious and laid them out here for readers to enjoy in a bite-sized manner. Each chapter holds an array of small sections which in turn hold the essence of the above accounts, removing the laborious but highlighting those parts that are worth remembering. In addition to this are extracts and assimilations from various academic journals and books that hold key and fascinating ideas about Japan but which are locked between long and complex arguments. It is there, inside that space where the interesting is encased in the stonework of historical debate, that I have searched out the best elements and brought them together to form the essence of Japan – a touch of warm nostalgia of days long gone. I want this aroma of old ways to waft over the world as copies of this book reach its far corners, and I wish to spread the experience of a lost world, the accounts and tales to be shared and passed on, generation after generation. Japan, being a most ancient and traditional land, has deep enriched soil filled with the memories of linked generations. The echo of their stories continues down the ages and is brought to the modern world, through these bygone travellers in Japan, and is laid out for you here to relish and enjoy.

Travellers in Japan

Japan is always considered to have been a ‘closed country’ but this was actually a relatively later affair in its history. Before the 1600s, Japan was very much open to trade and influence from others, even having a large Christian community. Many Western travellers came to Japan, all of whom have a great story to tell and in some cases witnessed a great deal of samurai ways and found themselves in Japan in the most exciting times. Examples of these are Francis Xavier, a Jesuit missionary who landed in Japan in 1549 at the height of the warring periods and who wrote fascinating accounts of his times there, and João Rodrigues in the late 1500s, another missionary who wrote extensively on Japanese ways and retired to Macao in the 1600s. Luís Fróis, who arrived in Japan in 1563 as a missionary, wrote many letters and histories; he died in 1597 while still in the country. Not only missionaries but also sailors such as Richard Cocks, an Englishman who stayed in Japan for trade, who wrote an extensive diary on life in Japan and died on the way back to England in 1624. The famous William Adams, the first Englishman to arrive in Japan in 1600, became a samurai and close retainer of the shogun, married a Japanese woman and became the lord of a small area (the novel Shogun by James Clavell is loosely based on his life, and was the inspiration for the television series Shogun). Of course, when the country closed its borders, the number of visitors decreased and then accounts began again in the 1800s when Japan started to open, or at least think about opening, for trade. Diplomats such as Sir Harry Parkes and Townsend Harris began to involve themselves with the Japanese government and the samurai. This even included the sad tale of Henricus (Henry) Heusken, a diplomat and assistant to Townsend Harris, who was assassinated in 1861 at the age of 28. Finally, Lord Algernon Bertram Mitford – second secretary to the British Legation working in Japan from the 1860s – recorded and published much information on Japanese culture and history, presented the Japanese Emperor with the Order of the Garter, was a prominent figure in the changing landscape and was instrumental in bringing Japan to the modern era. He will be mentioned in this book simply as Mitford. All of these people had great stories to tell and, with a small amount of ‘digging’, some fascinating facts about Japanese ways and culture come to the surface, and through these eyewitnesses we see Japan fill with colour.

Historical Accuracy and Contradiction

The sections in this book are mainly taken from European eyewitnesses and their records of Japan, but also from a select few academic researchers on Japanese culture, economics, social history and the like, meaning that the foundations for all these stories are solid, no matter how lightheartedly they have been presented. However, the basic premise of history is for historians to counter each other, digging into theory and facts until a truth becomes evident. There is no room or place in this book for long debate on the accuracy of these eyewitness accounts. Therefore, when selecting them I have chosen the ones that appear to have the best claim as accurate examples of Japan itself. For example, many of these witnesses spoke about the Japanese Emperor, but often contradict or directly copy each other. In truth, many of them had never actually seen the Emperor of Japan, while some of them had. To deal with this I either dropped such articles or formed the grammar around them to show a slight wariness of the account, displaying to you that this may or may not be true but it is what was believed to be so. Sometimes I openly point out that a statement may be dubious. I have also avoided overusing the terms ‘it is said’, ‘it was recorded’, ‘one account says’, etc. They are inserted into a few examples to remind you that these are mainly accounts from travellers, but it would be cumbersome to maintain it for each section. In addition to this, there do appear to be many contradictions, such as punishments, the power of women, rules in society, beliefs, etc. However, these accounts are taken from all over Japan, from tip to toe, and span 1,000 years of change. Therefore, contradictions are mainly a result of differences from province to province and from century to century. At one point, the freedom of women is extensive and at others they are virtual prisoners; in another place, the life of peasants may be free and easy at one time and at others oppressed. Remember, 1,000 years is a long time and for some of that time Japan was divided, giving a constant flux of rules, regulations, customs and social situations. Start each story in your mind with ‘once upon a time in Japan’ and you will not go wrong.

The Boring Stuff

The purpose of this book is to simplify and make accessible the ‘flavour’ of Japan, not the details. Therefore, while it is based on eyewitness accounts, historical research, articles, journals and all the other lovely words that carry weight, such as footnotes, endnotes, appendices and the like, it needs those parts stripped away so that you can ‘feast’ on Japanese culture. My task is to read academic and sluggish material, to digest it and to bring it to you, the reader, in a way that you can enjoy, a way that allows you to ingest it in small bites. Therefore, I have added no footnotes to this book, there are no references, Japanese words are kept to an absolute minimum – apart from where they are needed to understand the story or point – and I have removed all macrons from vowels, so Tōkyō becomes Tokyo. Equally, where possible I have avoided using the word ‘century’ and have changed sixteenth century to 1500s, so there is no need to pause and recalculate, the only exception being the twentieth century. Furthermore, I have tried to mix up the subjects as much as possible within each chapter, making it something you can dip in and out of any time you like without having to remember where you were, or what came before. Any points that do build on each other have been kept together but each one can still stand alone. Therefore, read this book during a tea break, place it on a bathroom shelf, dip into it to tell your children short stories about the strange land in the East, or read sections out at a dinner party – it is for these reasons have laid the book out in this manner. For those people who want those rigorous details, the bibliography is at the back of the book and details can be found through them.

Let’s Get Ready to Rumble

With all of the above understood, get ready to engage with the anecdotes and yarns from across Japan’s history, to be awash with its secrets, its blood-soaked memories, its brightness and its moods. Trudge in its dark times and yomp across its spring hills, frolic in its summer stories and wade through its winter tales, but above all enjoy Japan and spread her beauty and culture to the rest of the world.

Antony Cummins

2018

The Samurai

The Way of the Warrior

Everybody has heard of bushido – the way of the warrior – but many people think of it as a modern invention because a man called Nitobe Inazo wrote the book Bushido in English in 1900 in response to questions about society in Japan. However, that is simply not true. While the details of this chivalric code may have changed over time, the concept of bushido dates back many hundreds of years and is sometimes referred to simply as budo, a word that today has come to mean martial arts. The earliest record I have personally found for the term bushido is in a c.1495 collection of poetry by Monk Sogi. The ideograms for bushido are 武士道 but, when written down in poem form, the word bushi, meaning warrior, changes its pronunciation to mononofu and do changes to michi, so that the correct amount of syllables are used in the poem. This means that while the ideograms and meaning are the same, the reading changes from bushido to mononofu no michi.

The c.1495 poem goes thus:

Hakanaki mono wa,

Mononofu no michi

Ta ga tame no

Na nareba mi yori

Oshimran

A thing of uncertainty

Is the way of the warrior

For whose glory does a man care

less for life

Than for honour

The Etiquette of Swords

A samurai had to take his katana off his waist when he entered a house and hold it in hand. It was then placed in the correct storage space. At times he also kept it at his side.

The Samurai at Dinner

A retainer was a samurai who served another (normally samurai) master. They formed a bond of master–retainer in which the lower person served with obedience, forming a gap between them at societal level. However, when dining together, the conversation was free; the retainer might talk to whomever he wished and be familiar and merry. When the meal was over, his attitude returned to one of service and the gap was established again.

The Golden Age of Barrierless Society

At the start of the rise of the samurai, between the 1100s and the 1400s, the family a samurai was born into was extremely important. By the mid 1500s, almost anyone could rise to be a great lord, and even merchants became great samurai lords, making this era the greatest time for anyone with ambition. However, even at this point people had to make up false geneographies to ‘prove’ they were of samurai origin and, not only that, but that they descended from an imperial line by being a part of the great samurai foundation families.

Men in Armour

Films and the media often portray the samurai without their armour in the period of peace – the last 250 years of their rule – and in film after film the samurai walk around in the plain clothes of the day. However, even in the last era of the samurai the warriors of Japan still donned their armour for parades, ceremonies, when performing certain duties and in other situations. Even though the samurai were at relative peace for generations, their armour was still a major factor and they would have been used to wearing it – if, of course, they owned it.

Where Did the Guns Go?

The general public will say that the soul of a samurai is his sword, but the more enlightened reader will know that gun production was massive in Japan during the second half of the 1500s and that guns played a large role in the unification of the country – a role that cannot be ignored and a move that changed the face of samurai warfare. In 1600 the country entered into relative peace (it was actually a dictatorship, to be fair) and it is then that we get the age of the samurai with two swords at his side, so the question that springs up is, as Japan was a massive producer of guns, where are they all? Well, they became very restricted and their power had been proven, so the country returned to its glory ideas of the samurai with older weapons, such as the bow and the spear.

Around the time of the fifth shogun – also known as the dog shogun – the gun became an item reserved for the powerful, and strict control was used to stop uprisings. In the 1500s and early 1600s, Japanese guns were of similar quality to Western versions, but because of the closing of Japan, and only a small amount of trade being allowed, and with the restriction on guns, the development of firearms did not match that in the West, so, of course, when the West returned, over 200 years later, the difference was manifest.

Kill Me if You Can

One later account of samurai vengeance states that if a brother or the like was killed, a samurai had to kill the killer in revenge. The samurai would then take the head of their family member’s assassin and place it on the grave of the victim, but they would leave their personal mark such as a small knife (possibly a kozuka) which they stuck through the ear of the severed head, meaning that any family member of the samurai who had just been killed would know how to follow up on the next stage of revenge – and so forming lasting blood feuds.

Categorising Allies

There were some basic terms used in the samurai world to categorise those who were allies:

Kamon – family members and relatives

Fudai – families who had served for many generations

Tozama – families outside of direct control.

After 1600 and the Battle of Sekigahara, these terms took on additional meanings. As the country was in the power of the Tokugawa family, almost all clans became generational retainers, so this division came to be known as those who did or did not serve the Tokugawa family in their rise to power, meaning that some samurai were born on the wrong side of a war that was long over and over which they had no control.

The Samurai Blood Oath

When a samurai said they would follow a master or they gave a promise, they often used a blood oath, which involved a cut to the finger or other places on the body, depending on the situation, and writing a vow. However, one version of the blood oath was extremely interesting:

Make the vow in speech

Cut the arm or hand

Write the vow on paper in blood

Burn the paper

Mix the ash with liquid and drink it

Samurai on the March

Early in samurai times they would march out to war and search the countryside for rations, despoiling the land as the army moved past. This caused massive issues for locals, as often food was either taken or paid for but still used up. To counter this, new war taxes were established to feed an army on the march.

The Truth of Samurai Honour

One of my main objectives is to bring about a more realistic understanding of Japanese and samurai honour. The version the world understands is the version of pre- and post-Second World War. The twentieth century saw the samurai image being used in Japan and the rest of the world to promote the idea of a form of fairy-tale honour system. The glamorous and chivalric knight who never retreats, never surrenders and always fights. It is not my intent to mislabel the samurai or to veer into negativity, but they must be viewed through the eyes of historical truth.

Retreat: samurai did retreat; they had complex tactics on the subject.

Flee: the samurai did break and flee; many defeated samurai fled and formed villages in distant places and some even fled to South East Asia.

Suicide: some samurai would commit suicide at the death of the lord, as a voluntary custom, but many did not.

Oaths: oaths were given and a samurai’s word was strong, but history is full of samurai who broke their word and changed sides, performed political murders and plainly went against their vows.

Justice: samurai did attempt to keep the peace of the land, but it was not long before many of them wanted more power and war erupted again.

Corruption: unfortunately, corruption goes hand in hand with power, and corruption can be found in samurai ways.

Honour: a samurai was focused on honour but what we consider as honourable may not have been so to them. Honour is an ethical code and all ethical codes change with time.

Consider this. When the Tokugawa Clan took over all of Japan, they had the obedience of the entire population and all families were subject to the shogun and owed him loyalty. But the shogun did not trust this ‘loyalty’ – rightly so, because most did not want to give it but were forced to by their defeat at the Battle of Sekigahara. Therefore, to ensure loyalty a hostage system was developed. Each great house had to put their close relatives and heir apparent in a palace in the capital city, and the warlords had to spend one year at home and one year in the capital. This meant that ‘loyalty’ was ensured but not given. Even with an oath, samurai loyalty was often not so strong when it came to power and climbing the hierarchical ladder.

Loyalty, Loss and Honour

The subject of male bands bounded by loyalty is a complex one, and while there is no doubt that samurai did maintain honour, it must be realised that honour systems are also bound up with fear and loss. There is fear of retribution for lack of loyalty, and fear of the loss of lands and income. While the samurai did value honour, these two elements must be taken into account; often the samurai were looking out for themselves and trying to climb the social ladder.

The Three Roles of the Samurai

We often imagine the samurai to be only warriors, but this is not quite the case. While all of them are considered warriors, there are actually three broad categories that they fall into:

    State administrators or public and private officials

    Agricultural overseers, local gentry and landowners

    Masters of war

East Side and West Side

The USA has East v. West, the UK has North v. South, and likewise old Japan had its own version. The lineage for the Japanese Emperor is divided into Northern and Southern Dynasties, with some people still offering contention on this point 700 years after the fact. The samurai themselves used to divide between Eastern samurai and Western samurai. Here is an extract from a samurai from the east side who is talking about the difference between the two, and he is very biased about the ‘facts’:

Warriors of the East Side