A history of the Japanese people

by F. Brinkley; Dairoku Kikuchi

CHANGE OF CALENDAR

A noteworthy incident of Tsunayoshi's administration was a change of calendar, effected in the year 1683. The credit of this achievement belongs to a mathematician called Shibukawa Shunkai. A profound student, his researches had convinced him that the Hsuan-ming calendar, borrowed originally from China and used in Japan ever since the year A.D. 861, was defective. He pointed out some of its errors in a memorial addressed to the Bakufu under the sway of the fourth shogun, but the then prime minister, Sakai Tadakiyo, paid no attention to the document. Shunkai, however, did not desist. In 1683, an eclipse of the moon took place, and he demonstrated that it was erroneously calculated in the Chinese calendar. The fifth shogun, Tsunayoshi, was then in power, and the era of his reforming spirit had not yet passed away. He adopted Shunkai's suggestion and obtained the Imperial sanction for a change of calendar so that the Husan-ming system went out of force after 822 years of use in Japan.

JAPANESE LITERATURE

Tsunayoshi did not confine his patronage to Chinese literature; he devoted much energy to the encouragement of Japanese classical studies, also. Thus, in 1689, he invited to Yedo Kitamura Kigin and his son Shuncho and bestowed upon the former the title of Hoin together with a revenue of five hundred koku. This marked the commencement of a vigorous revival of Japanese literature in the Bakufu capital. Moreover, in Osaka a scholar named Keichu Ajari published striking annotations of the celebrated anthologies, the Manyo-shu and the Kokin-shu, which attracted the admiration of Tokugawa Mitsukuni, baron of Mito. He invited Keichu to his castle and treated him with marked consideration. These littérateurs were the predecessors of the celebrated Kamo and Motoori, of whom there will be occasion to speak by and by.

FINE ARTS

Tsunayoshi's patronage extended also to the field of the fine arts. The Tokugawa Bakufu had hitherto encouraged the Kano School only whereas the Tosa Academy was patronized by the Court at Kyoto. This partiality was corrected by Tsunayoshi., He invited Sumiyoshi Gukei—also called Hirozumi—the most distinguished pupil of Tosa Mitsuoki, bestowed on him a revenue of two hundred koku, and gave him the official position of chief artist of the Tosa-ryu, placing him on an equal footing with the chief of the Kano-ryu. It was at this time also that the ukiyoe (genre picture) may be said to have won popular favour. Contemporaneously there appeared some dramatic authors of high ability, and as the ukiyoe and the drama appealed mainly to the middle and lower classes, the domain of literature and the fine arts received wide extension. Thus, Chikamatsu Monzaemon, of Osaka, the greatest dramatist that his country ever possessed, composed plays which have earned for him the title of the "Shakespeare of Japan;" and as for the light literature of the era, though it was disfigured by erotic features, it faithfully reflected in other respects the social conditions and sentiments of the time.

THE MERCANTILE CLASS

From the commencement of Japanese history down to the second half of the seventeenth century, the canons and customs were dictated solely by the upper class, and neither merchants nor artisans were recognized as possessing any social or literary influence whatever. But in the middle period of the Tokugawa Bakufu—the Genroku period, as it is commonly called—the tradesman became a comparatively conspicuous figure. For example, in the realm of poetry, hitherto strictly reserved for the upper classes, the classic verse called renga (linked song) was considered to be sullied by the introduction of any common or every-day word, and therefore could be composed only by highly educated persons. This now found a substitute in the haikai, which admitted language taken from purely Japanese sources and could thus be produced without any exercise of special scholarship. Afterwards, by the addition of the hokku, an abbreviation of the already brief renga and haikai, which adapted itself to the capacities of anyone possessing a nimble wit or a sparkling thought, without any preparation of literary study, the range of poetry was still further extended. Matsuo Basho Was the father of the haikai and the hokku, and his mantle descended upon Kikaku, Ransetsu, Kyoriku, and other celebrities. They travelled round the country popularizing their art and immensely expanding the field of literature. The craft of penmanship flourished equally, and was graced by such masters as Hosoi Kotaku and Kitamura Sessan. Yedo, the metropolis of wealth and fashion, became also the capital of literature and the fine arts, and a characteristic of the era was the disappearance of charlatans, whether laymen or bonzes, who professed to teach the arcana of special accomplishments. In short, every branch of study passed out of the exclusive control of one or two masters and became common property, to the great advantage of original developments.

REMOVAL OF THE ROJU

What has thus far been written depicts the bright side of Tsunayoshi's administration. It is necessary now to look at the reverse of the picture. There we are first confronted by an important change of procedure. It had been the custom ever since the days of Ieyasu to conduct the debates of the council of ministers (Roju) in a chamber adjoining the shogun's sitting-room, so that he could hear every word of the discussion, and thus keep himself au courant of political issues. After the assassination of Hotta Masatoshi this arrangement was changed. The council chamber was removed to a distance, and guards were placed in the room where it had originally assembled, special officials being appointed for the purpose of maintaining communications between the shogun and the Roju. This innovation was nominally prompted by solicitude for the shogun's safety, but as its obvious result was to narrow his sources of information and to bring him under the direct influence of the newly appointed officials, there is strong reason to believe that the measure was a reversion to the evil schemes of Sakai Tadakiyo, who plotted to usurp the shogun's authority.