Japan: Its History, Arts, and Literature/Volume 3/Appendix
Appendix
Appendix
Note 1.—Mr. B. A. Chamberlain, in "Things Japanese," calls it "an innocent, not to say insipid, little jeu de société, such as might suggest itself to a party of school girls." He can find no explanation of the vogue it enjoyed except that Japan was "in her childhood,—her second childhood."
Note 2.—Vide "The Flowers of Japan and the Art of Floral Arrangement" by Mr. J. Conder, an exhaustive and sympathetic work which clearly sets forth the principles and practice of the art, and from which many of the details here summarised are taken.
Note 3.—The world of covetousness, the world of concupiscence, and the world without love.
Note 4.—The full names of the bucolic mime and the monkey mime were respectively Den-gaku-no-Nô and Saru-gaku-no-Nô or the accomplishment of Den-gaku and of Saru-gaku; and since every feature distinctive of the original Den-gaku and Saru-gaku disappeared in the new development of the fourteenth century, it was natural that the names also should be abandoned.
Note 5.—The descendants of these celebrated Nô dancers and writers called themselves "Kwanze" from generation to generation, a name formed by combining the two first syllables of Kwanami and Seami.
Note 6.—A celebrated Chinese warrior who saved his sovereign's life by a splendid display of courage. The chorus compares Benkei to Hankai.
Note 7.—A pilgrim who has made at least three previous pilgrimages, acts as pioneer of each band.
Note 8.—These four lines are taken bodily from a stanza by the blind poet Semi-maru. They are introduced simply because their celebrity has associated them in the minds of educated people with Osaka in Omi—not the city of Osaka—to which the chorus next refers. Japanese poetry abounds in allusions of this kind, which often defy translation, and can never be appreciated by foreigners. It should be understood that the chorus at this stage describes the journey of the pilgrims, who pace the stage rhythmically meanwhile.
Note 9.—Another instance of the extreme difficulty of rendering Japanese poetry into English. In the original "Itatori" and "woodman" are connected by a jeu-de-mot which disappears altogether in the translation.
Note 10.—There is here another play upon words; quite untranslatable.
Note 11.—Here again the force is lost. "Ata," the first part of the name "Ataka," signifies "enemy," and solely for the sake of qualifying that significance the allusion to flowers attacked by the wind is introduced.
Note 12.—He is called Hogwan in the original, but for the convenience of English readers the name "Yoshitsune" is here used.
Note 13.—A celebrated temple.
Note 14.—The Buddhists regard a and um as the quintessential sounds. The first sound made by the new-born babe is a; the last articulation of the dying, um.
Note 15.—The God of War, supposed to be the special tutelary deity of the Minamoto family.
Note 16.—One part of the chorus interprets here the thoughts of Yoshitsune; another part, those of Benkei.
Note 17.—Yoshitsune owed his misfortunes to slanders whispered in Yoritomo's ear by Kajiwara Kagetoki.
Note 18.—The first line of a couplet.
Note 19.—The last three lines are part of the Buddhist Yennen-mai (life-lengthening dance), which Benkei learned when an acolyte in the Hiyeizan monastery.
Note 20.—Mr. B. A. Chamberlain, in his "Classical Poetry of the Japanese," has given some admirable renderings of celebrated Kyōgen.
Note 21.—This term, originally used in the sense of a gathering, an assembly, had now become, and remains to this day, a synonym for the place where the assembly took place.
Note 22.—This rule has one exception. When a wrestler finds his girdle grasped on either side, he is at liberty to pass his hands under his adversary's arms and give an upward heave, thus applying a breaking strain at a point midway between the adversary's elbows and shoulders. The most celebrated wrestler that ever lived in Japan, Raiden Tamayemon (1625), is said to have snapped the bones of more than one opponent by this method, and he was ultimately forbidden to employ it. The strength required for such a feat is scarcely conceivable. It is recorded of this same Raiden that, strenuous as were his methods in the ring, he once shed tears of regret on throwing a man to whom defeat meant ruin.
Note 23.—This theory is thus expressed in Japan: Taikyoku riyo-gi wo shōzu; riyo-gi shizō wo shōzu; shizō hakkwa wo shōzu (From chaos the two principles are born; from the two principles, the four forms; from the four forms, the eight diagrams).
Note 24.—This lady, Kasuga, deservedly enjoyed high favour. When Iyemitsu was in danger of being set aside for the sake of his younger brother, Kasuga saved the situation by carrying the intelligence to Iyeyasu, who was then living in retirement at Shizuoka. She eluded the vigilance of the intrigues in Yedo by pretexting a pilgrimage to the shrines of Ise.
Note 25.—His consort was the daughter of an eminent advocate of Shintō and through her this influence made itself felt in the Yedo Court circle.
Note 26.—Oshio Heihachiro. He and his followers set fire to Osaka, and after a brave struggle were defeated, Oshio committing suicide.
Note 27.—For an admirable résumé of these writers' views see an essay on "The Revival of Pure Shintō" by the greatest authority on Japan and the Japanese, Sir E. Satow, in Volume III. of "The Asiatic Society's Proceedings."
Note 28.—Historians have expressed various opinions about this remarkable statesman's foreign policy. A letter written by him four years before he became Tairō places the matter beyond all doubt. "To close the country," he wrote, "is not the way to promote the national prosperity and peace. The coast defences are quite inadequate. There are no war-ships fit to cope with foreign vessels. Open the country to the strangers. Make peace with them. In the meanwhile we can complete our preparations so as to have some competence to assert ourselves. If the Americans want our coal, let them have some: there is plenty in Kiushiu. If water and fuel are needed, give them: they cost little. It is right to supply the wants of the needy. Commerce is advisable. It can be carried on through the Dutch. Treat the next comers as the Dutch were treated. Build steamers and war-ships. Train men in the art of navigation, so that we can learn the conditions of foreign nations without obtaining our knowledge through the Dutch. Save money and spend it on the navy and the army. But strictly interdict strange religions. America and Russia have made immense strides in navigation, but our people are bright and quick, and, if well trained, will find no difficulty in competing with foreigners. Provided that our country is relieved from the threat of foreign invasion and secured in the enjoyment of peace, the gods will excuse a few changes of ancient laws and customs. . . . What presses most is to free the people's minds from anxiety. Iron walls are useless unless the nation is united and calm of mind." This letter, addressed to the Shōgun's minister, looks commonplace to-day, but read by the light of the time when it was written, it shows wonderful perspicacity. From the views it expresses Ii Kamon-no-Kami never departed. He died for them.
Note 29.—Mr. Townsend Harris must be excepted from this statement. His appreciation of Japanese politics amounted almost to an intuition; partly, perhaps, because he did not consider deceit inseparable from all Oriental dealings. Alone he maintained the bona fides of the Shōgun's ministers from first to last.
Note 30.—Among them were men destined afterwards to take a prominent part in reconciling the nation to the very policy they then opposed so bitterly; as Prince Sanjô, Prince Konoye, and Prince Madenokôji.
Note 31.—Ansei (1854-60) was the name of the era when these events occurred. The judicial trial was thenceforth known as "the great judgment of Ansei."
Note 32.—This place is now the site of a large arsenal. The beautiful park still survives and attracts many visitors, but the mansion where, forty years ago, Rekkō and his clansmen discussed the possibility of setting the narrowest limits to foreign intercourse, is now the site of a big factory, telling how completely Japan has adopted foreign civilisation.
Note 33.—The samurai that committed these acts of blood had abandoned their houses and their paid service, and devoted themselves solely to a crusade in their country's cause.
Note 34.—Samurai who, as described in a previous chapter, abandoned their feudal service and became a species of knight errant for the purpose of achieving some aim, generally sanguinary.
Note 35.—Of the eighteen rōnin who assassinated Ii, one was killed in the struggle; one, who fled with the Tairō's head, was incapacitated by his hurts and committed suicide; three fell wounded; eight surrendered themselves, and only five escaped.
Note 36.—Yoshida Torajiro, announcing in a letter to his father his intention of forming a band to kill Manabe, the Shōgun's delegate to Kyōtō, said: "If I die in the attempt, death may be considered as life."
Note 37.—Foreigners settled originally at Kanagawa and subsequently moved to Yokohama, two or three miles down the bay.
Note 38.—It is just to note that their suspicion was never shared by the United States Representative, Mr. Townsend Harris. His belief in the sincerity of the Japanese officials never wavered, and when, after the murder of Mr. Heusken, which Mr. Harris must have felt more keenly than any of his colleagues, they decided to move their Legations from Yedo to Yokohama as a protest against the supposed duplicity and inefficiency of the Shōgun's officials, the American Representative remained at his post, and his declared view of the circumstances of the time showed a clearness of insight that contrasts forcibly with the ignorance of other foreigners.
Note 39.—Joint Note on the Political Situation and State of Affairs in Japan, drawn up at two conferences of the Foreign Representatives held in Yedo on the nineteenth and twenty-first of January, 1861.
Note 40.—British State Papers 1855–70.
Note 41.—The lady was not purposely spared. A sword-stroke aimed at her neck shore off a feather in her hat. This attempt to kill a woman excited much indignation among foreigners. But the writer of these pages has been assured by two of the samurai directly concerned in the affair, that the idea of a female being among the party of foreigners did not present itself for a moment to the men of the Satsuma escort. A foreign woman in a riding habit and a foreign man in a coat offered no points for discrimination to Japanese soldiers entirely without knowledge of aliens and their costumes.
Note 42.—The foreign public knew nothing of these things. They imagined that the Shōgun had gone to Kyōtō to receive investiture at the Emperor's hands.
Note 43.—The principal objection urged against it is that as the Straits of Shimo-no-seki are Japanese inland waters, foreign ships had no right to be there, and consequently could not justly complain of the treatment they received. But even if it be admitted that to open fire on a vessel flying a friendly flag is a legitimate method of remonstrating against her illegal presence, the reader will have seen, from what has been recorded above, that the act of the Chōshiu gunners was not a simple protest against trespass, but the deliberate inauguration of an attempt to terminate foreign intercourse.
Note 44.—Now Marquis Ito and Count Inouye, two of the leading statesmen of Japan.
Note 45.—Afterwards Count Goto and Count Fukuoka, prominent statesmen of the Meiji era.
Note 46.—The most prominent among these seven nobles was Prince Sanjō, afterwards prime minister under the Meiji Government.
Note 47.—France had always shown herself particularly friendly to the Tokugawa, and was therefore regarded with some distrust by the founders of the new system.