CHAPTER XXIX
Nagasaki and its Vicinity as seen by Kämpfer—Imperial Governors—Their Officers and Palaces—Municipal System—Street Government—Mutual Responsibility—Administration of Justice—Taxes—Government of other Towns—Adjacent Country—The God Suwa and his Matsuri—A. D. 1690-1692.
Kämpfer describes Nagasaki as situated upon an indifferent and barren soil, amid rocks and steep hills or mountains. The harbor, which has its head at the north of the city, where it is narrow and shallow with a sandy bottom, soon grows broader and deeper. When about half a mile broad and five or six fathoms deep, it turns to the southwest, and so runs on between high land and mountains for about a mile (narrowing again to a quarter of a mile in breadth), till it reaches an island or rather mountain surrounded by water, which the Dutch call Pappenburg. This, properly speaking, is the entrance of the harbor, and here vessels lie at anchor to watch a favorable opportunity of getting out, which would be easily done in two hours were it not for the many banks, shoals, and cliffs, which make the passage equally difficult and dangerous.
“There are seldom less than fifty Japanese ships in this harbor, besides some hundred fishing-vessels and small boats. Of foreign ships there are seldom, some few months of the winter excepted, less than thirty, most of which are Chinese junks. The Dutch ships never stay longer than three months in autumn; very seldom so long. The anchorage is about a musket-shot from the town, where ships ride at anchor upon the soft clay, with about six fathom at high tide, and four and a half at low water.
“The town—situated where the harbor is broadest, and where, from the change in its direction, it forms a nearly semi-circular shore—has the shape of a half-moon, somewhat inclining to a triangle. Built along the shore in a narrow valley, formed by the opening of the neighboring mountains, it is about three quarters of a mile long and nearly as broad, the chief and broadest street running nearly that distance up the valley. The mountains which encompass it are not very high, but steep, green to their tops, and of a very agreeable aspect. Just behind the city, in going up the mountains, are many stately temples, beautifully adorned with fine gardens and terrace-walks. Higher up are innumerable burying-places. In the distance appear other high mountains, fruitful and well-cultivated. In short, the whole situation affords to the eye a most delicious and romantic view[147].”
The town is open, as are most other towns in Japan, without either castle, walls, or fortifications. Some bastions are built along the harbor, as it were for defence, but they have no cannon. About two miles from the town, seaward, just beyond the anchorage, are two guard-houses, opposite each other, and enclosed by palisades. They are held each by about seven hundred men, including those who do duty in the harbor guard-boats.
“Three fresh-water rivers come down from the neighboring mountains, and run through the town. For the greater part of the year they have scarce water enough to irrigate some rice-fields and to drive a few mills, though in rainy weather they are apt to increase so as to wash away whole houses. They are crossed by thirty-five bridges, great and small, twenty of stone and fifteen of wood, very simple in their structure, being made more for strength than show.
“The city is divided into two parts. Uchimachi (the inner town) consists of twenty-six Chō, or streets, all very irregular, as if built in the infancy of the city; Sotomachi (or the outer town) contains sixty-one streets, so that there are eighty-seven in all.
“The streets of Nagasaki and other towns in Japan have borrowed their name, Chō, from that of a Japanese measure of sixty fathoms (three hundred and sixty feet); but, though generally short, they are not all precisely of that length. These streets or divisions of streets, seldom containing more than sixty or less than thirty houses, have gates at each end, which are always closed at night, and often in the day, when there is the least occasion for it. The streets of Nagasaki are neither straight nor broad, but crooked, dirty, and narrow, leading some up and others down hill, on account of the irregularity of the ground upon which the town is built. Some of the steepest have staircases of stone. They are full stocked with inhabitants, as many as ever they will hold.
“The houses of the common people are mean, sorry buildings, small and low, seldom above one story high. If there be two stories, the uppermost is so low that it scarce deserves the name. The roof is covered with shavings of fir wood [shingles?] fastened by other pieces of wood laid across. Indeed, the whole structure is of wood, as are most buildings throughout the empire. The walls within are wainscoted and hung with painted and variously-colored paper[148]. The floor is covered with mats wove of a considerable thickness, which they take care to keep exceedingly clean and neat. The rooms are separated from each other by movable paper screens. Seats and chairs they have none, and only some few household goods, chiefly such as are absolutely necessary for daily use in the kitchen and at meals. Behind every house is a back yard, which, though never so small, yet contains always some curious and beautiful plants, kept with a great deal of care.
“The houses of eminent merchants and of other rich people, are of a far better structure, commonly two stories high, and built after the Chinese manner, with a large court-yard before them and a garden behind.
“The palaces of the two resident governors take in a large spot of ground, standing something higher than the rest of the town. The buildings are very neat and handsome, and all uniform; strong gates and well guarded lead into the court about which they are arranged.
“Besides the governors’ palaces there are some twenty other houses in Nagasaki belonging to the principal nobility of the island of Kiūshiū, always occupied by some of their vassals, who take care of them, and in which the owners lodge when they come to town.
“The handsomest buildings belonging to townspeople are two streets all occupied by courtesans. The girls in these establishments, which abound throughout Japan, are purchased of their parents when very young. The price varies in proportion to their beauty and the number of years agreed for, which is, generally speaking, ten or twenty, more or less. They are very commodiously lodged in handsome apartments, and great care is taken to teach them to dance, sing, play upon musical instruments, to write letters, and in all other respects to make them as agreeable as possible. The older ones instruct the young ones, and these in their turn serve the older ones as their waiting-maids. Those who make considerable improvement, and for their beauty and agreeable behavior are oftener sent for, to the great advantage of their masters, are also better accommodated in clothes and lodging, all at the expense of their lovers, who must pay so much the dearer for their favors. The price paid to their landlord or master is from one mas to two ichibu (twelve and a half cents to four dollars), for a night, beyond which they are forbid to ask under severe penalties. One of the sorriest must watch the house over night in a small room near the door, free to all comers upon the payment of one mas. Others are sentenced to keep the watch by way of punishment for their misbehavior.
“After having served their time, if they are married, they pass among the common people for honest women, the guilt of their past lives being by no means laid to their charge, but to that of their parents and relations who sold them in their infancy for so scandalous a way of getting a livelihood, before they were able to choose a more honest one. Besides, as they are generally well bred, that makes it less difficult for them to get husbands. The keepers of these houses, on the contrary, though possessed of never so plentiful estates, are forever denied admittance into honest company.”
Kämpfer enumerates of public buildings three large wooden ship-houses, in which are kept three imperial junks or men-of-war, equipped and ready for launching; a powder-magazine on a hill opposite the town, and a city prison. There are also sixty-two temples, within and without the town—five for the worship of the Kami, or ancient national gods of Japan, seven of the Yamabushi, or mountain priests, and fifty Tera, temples of four different Buddhist sects or observances, including the three temples erected by the Chinese, as mentioned in a previous chapter.
“These temples are sacred not only to devotion and worship, but serve also for recreation and diversion, being for this purpose curiously adorned with pleasant gardens, elegant walks, and fine apartments, and by much the best buildings of the town. The Buddhist temples are not so much to be commended for their largeness or splendor as for their pleasant and agreeable situations, being moreover adorned within with fine raised altars, gilt images as big as life, lackered columns, gates and pillars, the whole very neat and pretty rather than magnificent.
“Those who attend the service of the Kami temples, though not collected into monasteries, like the Buddhist clergy, but secular and married persons, yet assume to themselves a far higher degree of holiness and respect than they think the common bulk of secular persons deserve. They live with their families in houses built for them in the descent of the mountains. Their way of life, as well as their common dress at home and abroad, is no ways different from that of the other inhabitants, except that they do not shave their heads, but let their hair grow, and tie it together behind. When they go to the temple they dress in an ecclesiastical habit, with various head-dresses, according to every one’s office and quality. They maintain themselves by the alms and offerings given them by those who come to worship in their temples, or at their appearance in solemn processions.
“The ecclesiastics of the Buddhist religion have no processions nor other public solemnities, like the Shintō clergy. They always keep within the district of their convent, where they mind little else but their prayers in the temple at certain stated hours. Their maintenance arises from the fees given them for prayers to be said in their temples, or at funerals for the relief of departed souls, as also from voluntary and charitable contributions.”
The gardens in and about the city and the neighboring villages abundantly furnish it with all sorts of fruits, vegetables and roots, with firewood, and also with some venison and poultry; but the domestic supply of rice is insufficient, and that capital article has to be imported from the neighboring provinces. The harbor and neighboring coast yield plenty of fish and crabs. The rivers that run through the town provide it with clear and sweet water, “very fit,” says Kämpfer, “for daily drink; the sake, or rice beer, as it is brewed in Japan, being too strong, and that in particular made at Nagasaki of a disagreeable taste[149].”
Except articles made of gold, silver and Sawaas (?),—a mixture of gold, silver, and copper,—for the foreign trade, manufactures at Nagasaki are not so good as in other parts of the empire; and yet everything is sold dearer, chiefly to foreigners.
The inhabitants are mostly merchants, shop-keepers, tradesmen, handicraftsmen, artificers, brewers, besides the numerous retinue of the governors, and the people employed in the Dutch and Chinese trade, by which, in fact, the town is mainly supported. There are many poor people and beggars, most of them religious mendicants.
“The town,” says Kämpfer, “is never without a great deal of noise. In the day, victuals and other merchandise are cried up and down the streets. Day-laborers and the seamen in the harbor encourage one another to work with a certain sound. In the night the watchmen and soldiers upon duty, both in the streets and harbor, show their vigilance, and at the same time indicate the hours of the night, by beating two pieces of wood against each other. The Chinese contribute their share chiefly in the evening, when they burn some pieces of gilt paper, and throw them into the sea, as an offering to their idol, or when they carry their idol about its temple; both which they do with beating of drums and cymbals. But all this is little compared with the clamor and bawling of the priests and the relations of dying or dead persons, who, either in the house where the corpse lies, or else upon certain days sacred to the deceased’s memory, sing a Namida [Namu-amida-butsu], that is, a prayer, to their god Amida[150], with a loud voice, for the relief of his soul. The like is done by certain fraternities or societies of devout neighbors, friends, or relations, who meet by turns in their houses, every day, in the morning or evening, in order to sing the Namida by way of precaution for the future relief of their own souls.”
Nagasaki, down to the year 1688, had, like the other imperial cities, two governors, commanding by turns; the one not in the immediate exercise of authority being resident meanwhile at Yedo. In 1688, the policy was adopted of having three governors; two to be always resident at Nagasaki, to watch each other, and presiding alternately for two months, while the third was to come in each alternate year from Yedo to relieve the senior resident[151]. The resident governors leave their families at Yedo as hostages for their good behavior, and, during the time of their absence from court, are strictly prohibited, so it is stated, to admit any woman within their palaces. The establishments of these imperial governors, as described by Kämpfer, may probably be taken as a specimen of the ordinary way of life with the higher order of Japanese officials. Their salary did not exceed fifteen hundred or two thousand koku of rice (in money, the price of the article being very variable, from seven thousand to ten thousand taels); but the perquisites were so considerable that in a few years they might get vast estates, did not the presents which must be made to the emperor and the grandees of the court consume the greater part of their profits. Out of their allowance they were obliged to maintain an extensive retinue,—two Karō, or stewards of the household, ten Yoriki, all noblemen of good families, who acted both as civil and military officers, and thirty Dōshin, likewise military and civil officers, but of inferior rank.
The business of the Yoriki was to assist the governor with their advice, if required, and to execute his commands, either as military officers or as magistrates. They had, besides their food and a new suit annually, an allowance of one hundred taels a year; but this hardly sufficed to enable them to keep the servants necessary to their dignity, such as a pike-bearer, a keeper of their great sword, and a shoe or slipper bearer, and much less to maintain a family. The Dōshin were a sort of assistants to the Yoriki. They served as guards, and did duty on board ship, especially in the guard-boats, either as commanding officers or as privates. Sometimes they did the office of bailiffs or constables, and put people under arrest, for which purpose they always carried a halter about them. Their yearly allowance, beside their board, did not exceed fifty taels, out of which they must maintain each a servant.[152] The governors had still other domestics, of inferior rank, to dress and undress them, to introduce visitors, and to bring messages, besides numerous menial servants.
At the entrance of their palaces, within the court-yard, a guard was kept of four or five Dōshin. No domestic could leave the house without taking from its place in the guard-room a square wooden tablet, which he hung up again on his return, so that it could be known at a glance how many and who were absent. Within the great door or main entrance into the house, another guard was kept by some of the Yoriki, one of whom had charge of a book, in which he entered, as the custom is at the houses of persons of rank, the names of all who go in or out, for the information of the master of the house, who sometimes at night examines the entries.
The governor’s equipage and attendance when going abroad consisted of a led horse, a Norimono, in which he was carried, by the side of which walked four of the gentlemen of his bedchamber, and behind it two pike-bearers, followed by a train of Karō, Yoriki, and Dōshin, with their own servants and attendants.
Kämpfer thus describes the persons who held the office of governors of Nagasaki at his arrival in Japan—“Kawaguchi Settsu-no-Kami is a handsome, well-shaped man, about fifty years of age, cunning and malicious, and a great enemy of the Dutch (who ascribed to him the authorship of the new arrangement for their trade), an unjust and severe judge, but an agreeable, liberal and happy courtier, with an income from his private estates of four thousand seven hundred koku. Yamaoka Tsushima-no-Kami had formerly been a high constable, and had been rewarded with his present office for his services in clearing Yedo of thieves and pickpockets. He had a private revenue of two thousand koku. He is about sixty, short, sincere, humble, and very charitable to the poor, but with so much of his old profession about him, that he often orders his domestics to be put to death without mercy for very trifling faults. Miyagi Tonomo, also about sixty, is a man of great generosity and many good qualities, with a private estate of four thousand koku of yearly revenue.”
To watch the governors, an imperial officer, called Daikwan, was appointed to reside at Nagasaki, and a like service was required of all the chief lords of the island of Shimo.
To secure the harbor and town these same lords were bound to march with their vassals at the first alarm. The princes of the provinces of Hizen and Chikuzen were obliged to furnish alternately, each for a year, the guard at the entrance of the harbor, which was independent of the governors. The inhabitants of the water-side streets of Nagasaki supplied the Funaban or ship-guard with its guard-boats to watch foreign ships in the harbor. There was another fleet of boats employed ordinarily in whale-fishing but whose business it also was to see all foreign vessels well off the coast, to guard against and to arrest smugglers, and to prevent any foreign vessels from touching elsewhere than at Nagasaki. Finally, there was the spy-guard, stationed on the top of neighboring mountains, to look out for the approach of foreign vessels; and on one of these hills was a beacon, which, being fired, served, in connection with other similar beacons, to telegraph alarms to Yedo.
Next in rank to the governors were four mayors or burgomasters, whose office, like most others, had become hereditary, and two deputy-mayors, principally for the affairs of the new town. They would seem to have once been the actual chief magistrates, but their authority had been greatly eclipsed by that of the imperial governors. There were also four other officers annually appointed to solicit the interests of the town’s people at the court of the governors, and to keep them informed of the daily proceedings of the mayors, for which purpose they had a small room at the governor’s palace, where they were always in waiting.
There was no town-house nor other public place of assembly. When the magistrates met on business, it was at the presiding mayor’s house. Besides the various bodies of interpreters and others, connected with the foreign trade, there was a particular corporation of constables and bailiffs, consisting of about thirty families, who lived in a street by themselves. Their office was reputed military and noble, and they had the privilege of wearing two swords,—a privilege which the mayors and mercantile people did not possess.
The tanners, obliged to act also as public executioners, were held in execration, yet they also wore two swords. They lived in a separate village near the place of execution, placed as everywhere in Japan at the west end of the town.
But the most remarkable thing in the municipal government of Nagasaki (and the same thing extended to all the other Japanese towns) was the system of street government, mentioned in the narratives of Don Rodrigo, Caron, and others, but which Kämpfer more particularly describes.
The house-owners of every street were arranged in companies, or corporations, of five Goningumi, or sometimes a few more, each street having from ten to fifteen such companies. None but house-owners were admitted into these corporations; mere occupants were looked upon as dependants on their landlords with no voice in the affairs of the street, nor right to claim any share in the public money, though they paid high rents. Each street company had one of its number for a head, who was responsible for the conduct of his four companions, and obliged, in certain cases at least, to share the punishment of their crimes. The members of these corporations chose from among themselves an Otona, or chief magistrate of the street. The choice was by ballot, and the name of the person having the greatest number was presented to the governor, with a humble petition that he might be appointed to the office, of which the salary in Nagasaki was a ten-fold share of the annual distribution to the inhabitants, derived from the duties on the foreign trade.
DIAL OF OLD CLOCK.
The duty of the Otona was to give the necessary orders in case of fire; to have the oversight of the watch; to keep a register of the deaths, births, marriages, arrivals, departures, &c.; to arrest criminals, and to punish those of smaller magnitude; to compose, if he could, all disputes among the people of his street; and generally to be personally answerable for their good behavior. He had for assistants three lieutenants, the heads of the corporations of house-owners, a secretary, a treasurer, and a messenger. A guard was kept every night, of three or more house-owners, while the street was paced by two sentinels, walking from each gate till they met, and then back. The hours were regularly in the daytime struck on a bell hung for that purpose on the ascent of the mountains, and during the night the street-watch indicated them by beating two sticks together[153].
The street officers were held responsible for the offences of the house-owners; the house-owners for the offences of their lodgers, domestics, and families; masters for servants; children for parents, each corporation for its individual members; neighbors for each other[154]. It was naturally a part of this system that no new inhabitant was admitted into any street, except by consent of all the house-owners in it, which thus became necessary to every purchase and sale of a house.
Every year, a list was made out by the street officers of all the inhabitants in each street, with their religion, shortly after which came the ceremony of Yebumi[155], or figure-treading—that is, trampling upon the crucifix, an image of the Virgin Mary, and other saints—a ceremony which appears to be observed, at least at Nagasaki, down even to the present day. The images used in Kämpfer’s time were about a foot long, cast in brass, and kept in a particular box for that purpose. The ceremony took place in the presence of the street officers. Each house was entered by turns, two messengers carrying the box. The images were laid upon the bare floor, and, the list of the household being called over, they were required, one by one, to tread upon them. Young children, not yet able to walk, were held in their mothers’ arms, so as to touch the images with their feet. It has been asserted that the Dutch were obliged to submit to this ceremony; but the fact was not so.
To prevent smuggling, whenever the foreign ships or junks set sail the street gates of Nagasaki were shut, and kept closed till the ships were out of the harbor, strict searches being made, at uncertain times, on which occasions every inhabitant of the street was obliged to report himself. The same thing took place when criminals were searched for, or other investigations, sometimes very frivolous ones, were made. On these and other occasions of alarm, no one could go from one street into another, except with a written pass, and attended by an officer; nor could an inhabitant of Nagasaki at any time leave the city without a similar pass and an undertaking on the part of his neighbors for his return within a specified time.
Accused persons were often made to confess by torture. Capital punishments were either by beheading or crucifixion. Other punishments—and this class was often inflicted for the misdemeanors of others—were imprisonment, for longer or shorter periods, banishment to certain desolate spots, and islands, and forfeiture of property and office. Punishments were prompt and severe; yet great regard was had to the nature of the offence, the condition of the person who committed it, and the share of guilt to be reasonably laid to the charge of his superiors, relations, or neighbors. The practice of making young children suffer with their parents was possibly intended as much in mercy to them as to aggravate the punishment of the real offenders[156]. It is by this same motive of humanity, that the Japanese justify their practice of exposing such infants as they have not the means or inclination to support and educate.
Persons sentenced to death could not be executed without a warrant signed by the council of state at Yedo, which must likewise be consulted in all affairs of moment, provided they admit of the delay necessary to send a courier and receive an answer. This, however, did not prevent the governors of Nagasaki, and other high officers, from liberally exercising the right of life and death in the case of their own immediate servants and retainers. All servants, indeed, were so far at the disposal of their masters, that, if they were accidentally killed while undergoing punishment, the master was not answerable. Yet, in general, as in China, homicide, even in self-defence or undesigned, must be expiated by the blood of the offender, and even his neighbors were, in many cases, held to a certain extent responsible.
Examination of a Prisoner by Torture
“Some will observe,” says Kämpfer, “that the Japanese are wanting in a competent knowledge of the law. I could heartily wish, for my part, that we Europeans knew as little of it as they, since there is such an abuse made of a science highly useful in itself, that innocence, instead of being relieved, is often still more oppressed. There is a much shorter way to obtain justice in Japan, and, indeed, all over the East;—no necessity for being at law for many years together, no occasion for so many writings, answers, briefs, and the like. The case is, without delay, laid before the proper court of judicature, the parties heard, the witnesses examined, the circumstances considered, and judgment given without loss of time. Nor is there any delay to be apprehended from appealing, since no superior court hath the power to mitigate the sentence pronounced in another, though inferior. And, although it cannot be denied but that this short way of proceeding is liable to some errors and mistakes in particular cases, yet I dare affirm that in the main it would be found abundantly less detrimental to the parties concerned than the tedious and expensive law-suits in Europe.”
Certain yearly contributions, under the name of free gifts, were paid by all the house-owners and office-holders of Nagasaki, partly as perquisites to the governor and other officers, and partly for municipal purposes. So far as the house-owners were concerned, it amounted to a regular tax, levied according to the size of the lots; but this sort of levy was said to be unknown in other cities of the empire, and at Nagasaki was much more than made up for by the surplus share of the house-owners in the duty levied on the foreign trade, which, after paying all particular services and municipal expenses, was divided among them. The only other tax was an imperial ground-rent on the house-lots—four mas (fifty cents), in the old town, and six mas (seventy-five cents) in the upper town, for every ken (very nearly six English feet) of frontage, where the depth was not more than fifteen ken. On every lot exceeding that depth the tax was double. This is stated by Kämpfer to be the only town tax levied throughout the empire, whether in the towns of the imperial domain, or in those belonging to particular lords, and the city of Miyako, by a particular privilege, was exempt even from this.
A municipal police, similar to that of Nagasaki, was established in all the other towns, boroughs, and villages, with this difference only, that the magistrates, though invested with the same power, were, perhaps, known by different names, and that their administration was, in general, much less strict than at Nagasaki.
The adjacent country was under the control of an imperial steward (the same forming a part of the imperial domains), who collected the rent, forming, with the house-tax, the entire imperial revenue. This rent amounted to four parts in ten of the crop; whereas inferior landlords exacted six parts in ten. Grain was delivered in kind; garden grounds, orchards and woods, paid a compensation in money.
We may close this account of Nagasaki with a description of the Matsuri, or public spectacle exhibited on the birthday of the god Suwa, the patron of the city, one of the occasions on which the Dutch were permitted to leave the island of Deshima, for the purpose of witnessing the spectacle. This festival was, and still is, celebrated at the expense of ten or eleven streets uniting each year for that purpose; so that every street is called upon thus to contribute once in seven or eight years, except that in which the courtesans reside, which must pay every year. The celebration consists in processions, plays, dances, etc., and as something new must always be got up, at least in the way of dress, it is attended with heavy expense.
The temple of Suwa, according to Kämpfer’s description, stands not far from the town, upon the mountain Tutla (?). A fine staircase, of two hundred stone steps, leads up to it. The temple court, somewhat lower than the Miya itself, extends down the declivity of the mountain. At the entry of this court, next the gate, is a long, open room, or gallery, where plays are acted, for the diversion both of Suwa and his worshippers. This room is curiously adorned with many pictures and carved images, placed there by devout worshippers in fulfilment of vows made in some moment of exigency. Further off stand some small chapels of wood, clean and neat, but without ornaments. In the same court stand the temples of Morisaki Gongen, and Sumiyoshi, each of whom has also his Mikoshi, or small eight-angular shrine, curiously adorned, and hanging in beautiful polls, wherein their images or relics are carried about upon festivals. Kämpfer also observed, in the same enclosure, another small chapel, built in honor of the god and lord of thousand legs, hung about with numbers of his clients, that is, with legs of all sorts and sizes, given by his worshippers.
There are several festivals sacred to Suwa, of which the chief is on the seventh, eighth, and ninth days of the ninth month[157]. On the eighth the god is diverted in his temple, at the expense of rich and devout people, with a musical concert, performed by boys beating upon drums and bells—the very same music made use of to appease the supreme kami Tenshō Daijin, when, out of disdain and anger, she hid herself in a cavern, and thereby deprived the world of light and sunshine[158].
The great festival of the ninth consists of processions through the principal streets, and spectacles exhibited in a temporary building of bamboo, with a thatched roof, open towards the square on which it is erected. “The whole building,” says Kämpfer, “scarcely deserves to be compared to one of our barns, it is so mean and simple, for it must be purposely built according to the sorry architecture of their indigent ancestors.” A tall fir is planted on each side of the front of this temple, and three sides of the square are built round with benches and scaffolds for the convenience of spectators.
Festival with Mikoshi
“Everything being ready, the Shintō clergy of the city appear in a body, with a splendid retinue, bringing over in procession the Mikoshi of their great Suwa, as, also, to keep him company, that of Sumiyoshi. Morisaki Gongen is left at home, as there is no instance in the history of his life and actions from which it could be inferred that he delighted in walking and travelling.
“The Shintō clergy, upon this occasion, style themselves Ōtomo(?)—that is, the high great retinue—which pompous title notwithstanding, the alms-chest is one of the principal things they carry in the procession, and, indeed,” says Kämpfer, “to very good purpose, for there is such a multitude of things thrown among them by the crowds of superstitious spectators, as if they had a mind out of mere charity to stone them.
“When they come to the place of exhibition, the ecclesiastics seat themselves, according to their quality, which appears in good measure by their dress, upon three benches, built for them before the front of the temple. The two superiors take the uppermost bench, clad in black, with a particular head ornament, and a short staff, as a badge of their authority. Four others, next in rank, sit upon the second bench, dressed in white ecclesiastical gowns, with a black lackered cap, something different from that worn by their superiors. The main body takes possession of the third and lowermost bench, sitting promiscuously, and all clad in white gowns, with a black lackered cap, somewhat like those of the Jesuits. The servants and porters appointed to carry the holy utensils of the temple, and other people who have anything to do at this solemnity, stand next to the ecclesiastics, bareheaded.
“On the other side of the square, opposite to the ecclesiastics, sit the deputies of the governors, under a tent, upon a fine mat, somewhat raised from the ground. For magnificence’ sake, and out of respect for this holy act, they have twenty pikes of state planted before them in the ground.
“The public spectacles on these occasions are a sort of plays, acted by eight, twelve, or more persons. The subject is taken out of the history of their gods and heroes. Their remarkable adventures, heroic actions, and sometimes their love intrigues, put in verse, are sung by dancing actors, whilst others play upon musical instruments. If the subject be thought too grave and moving, there is now and then a comic actor jumps out unawares upon the stage, to divert the audience with his gestures and merry discourse in prose. Some of their other plays are composed only of ballets, or dances, like the performance of the mimic actors on the Roman stage. For the dancers do not speak, but endeavor to express the contents of the story they are about to represent, as naturally as possible, both by their dress and by their gestures and actions, regulated according to the sound of musical instruments. The chief subjects of the play, such as fountains, bridges, gates, houses, gardens, trees, mountains, animals, and the like, are also represented, some as big as the life, and all in general contrived so as to be removed at pleasure, like the scenes of our European plays[159].
“The actors are commonly girls, taken out of the courtesans’ houses, and boys from those streets at whose expense the solemnity is performed. They are all magnificently clad, in variously colored silken gowns, suitable to the characters they are to present; and it must be owned that, generally speaking, they act their part with an assurance and becoming dexterity, not to be exceeded, nay, scarce to be paralleled, by the best European actors.
“The streets which bear the expense make their appearance in the following order: First of all is carried a rich canopy, or else an umbrella, made of silk, being the palladium of the street. Over it, in the middle, is placed a shield, whereupon is writ, in large characters, the name of the street. Next to the canopy follow the musicians, masked, and in proper liveries. The music is both vocal and instrumental. The instruments are chiefly flutes of different sorts, and small drums; now and then a large drum, cymbals and bells, are brought in among the rest. The instrumental music is so poor and lamentable that it seems much easier to satisfy their gods than to please a musical ear. Nor is the vocal part much preferable to the instrumental, for although they keep time tolerably, and sing according to some notes, yet they do it in so very slow a manner that the music seems to be rather calculated to regulate their action, and the motions of their body in their ballets and dances, wherein they are very ingenious and dexterous, and little inferior to our European dancers, excepting only that they seem to want a little more action and swiftness in their feet.
“The musicians are followed by the necessary machines and the whole apparatus for the ensuing representations, the largest being carried by laboring people, the lesser—as benches, staffs, flowers, and the like—by the children of the inhabitants, neatly clad. Next follow the actors themselves, and after them all the inhabitants of the street in a body in their holiday clothes and garments of ceremony. To make the appearance so much the greater the procession is closed by a considerable number of people who carry stools and other things, walking two and two.
Two Styles of Drums
A Flute-player
Musical Instruments
“The dances and shows of each street commonly last about three quarters of an hour, and being over, the company marches off in the same order they came in, to make way for the appearance and shows of another street, which is again followed by another, and so on. All the streets strive to outdo each other in a magnificent retinue and surprising scenes. The processions and shows begin early in the morning, and the whole ends about noon.”
The following were among the presentations by the different streets at the matsuri at which Kämpfer was present.
1. “Eight young girls, clad in colored gowns, interwove with large white flowers, with broad hats, as if to defend them from the heat of the sun, with fans and flowers in their hands, dancing by turns. They were from time to time relieved by a couple of old women dancing in another dress.
2. “A garden, with fine flowers on each side of the place where the act was performed, a thatched house in the middle, out of which jumped eight young girls, dressed in white and red, dancing, with fans, canes, and flower-baskets. They were relieved by a very good actress, who danced by herself.
3. “Eight triumphal chariots, with oxen before them, of different colors, the whole very naturally represented, and drawn by young boys, well clad. Upon them stood a Tsubaki [camellia] tree, in flower; a mountain, covered with trees; a thicket of bamboos, with a tiger lurking; a load of straw, with an entire tree, with its root and branches; a whale, under a rock, half covered with water. Last of all, another mountain appeared, with a real boy, magnificently clad, who stood at the top, under an apricot-tree in full blossom. This mountain was again drawn by boys.
4. “Some dancers, acting between six flower-beds, which, and a green tree, were drawn upon the place by boys. Nine other boys, in the same dress, and armed each with two swords and a musket; a peasant, dancing.
5. “A mountain, carried upon men’s shoulders; a fountain, with a walk round it; a large cask, and a house, were severally set upon the place. Then two giants, masked, with prodigious great heads representing some Indian deities, began a dance. They were met soon after by a third, of a still more monstrous size, who came forth out of the mountain, armed with a great broadsword. He was followed by seven Chinese, jumping out of the same mountain, though to all appearance quite small, and dancing about in company with the giants. After some time spent in dances, the great monstrous giant beat the cask to pieces, out of which came a young boy, very handsomely clad, who, after a fine long speech, which he delivered in a very graceful manner, danced with the giant alone. Meanwhile, three monkeys, with roe’s heads, crept out of the fountain, and, jumping on the walk round it, performed a dance, mimicking that of the giant and boy. This done, every one returned to his place, and so the scene ended.
6. “The pompous retinue of a prince, travelling with his son, very naturally represented by boys.
7. “Several huge machines, accurately resembling, both in size and color, the things they were to represent, but made of a thin substance, so that one man could easily carry one upon his back. But, besides this load on the back, every one of these men had a very large drum hanging before him, which some others played upon with bells. After this manner they crossed the stage, dancing, though not very high, because of their load. The things which they carried were, a well, with all the implements for extinguishing fires; a large church-bell, with the timber work belonging to it, and a dragon wound round it for ornament’s sake; a mountain, covered with snow, and shaped like a dragon, with an eagle on the top; a brass gun, weighing twenty-four pounds, with all the tackle belonging to it; a heavy load of traveller’s trunks, packed up in twelve straw balls, according to the country fashion; a whale in a dish; several shell fish and fruits, as big as the life, carried each by one person.”