Japan: Its History, Arts, and Literature/Volume 2/Appendix
Appendix
Appendix
Note 1.—These families are often spoken of as the Hei-ke and the Gen-ji, and the long struggle between them as the Gempei war.
Note 2.—Some of these animals are said to have weighed as much as an ox. Twelve great fights took place every month, and when the champion dog was led through the streets, people doffed their head-gear and even knelt down in reverence.
Note 3.—Yoritomo's eldest son, Yoriiye, was deposed from power and imprisoned for life by the Hōjō, who thus became supreme in Kamakura.
Note 4.—Thus, in his old age, riding alone by night among possible foes, he gave his sword to be carried the companion who had most reason to desire his death.
Note 5.—In a moment of fury he ordered a man who had insulted him to be crucified, but before the sentence could be executed, he recognised that the offender's motive had been good, and not only pardoned but promoted him.
Note 6.—To equip himself for his first appearance as a soldier, he robbed his employer of a small sum, and reimbursed him, years afterwards, by a gift of a large fortune.
Note 7.—The title of Taikō (great house), by which Hideyoshi is generally known, was taken by him after he had surrendered that of regent to his heir apparent.
Note 8.—This matter of the evolution of the military class will be described more accurately in subsequent pages.
Note 9.—Another variety of alcove derived from the fashions of the Zen sect took the form of a protrusion instead of a recess. It was, in fact, a reading-nook so contrived that it projected into the veranda, and thus received light on three sides. This kind of alcove is still seen in many Japanese houses. It has undergone no change for six centuries.
Note 10.—It should be explained, perhaps, that the description given in a previous chapter of the suites of rooms and their intercommunications in the mansion of a prince or high dignitary of State holds equally for this epoch. But the division of interior spaces is now planned on a much more elaborate scale, owing to the improved lighting facilities afforded by paper doors. The decorator soon appreciated and applied the principle of congruity in choosing his motives, and thus each room had its own distinguishing pictorial subjects, from which, also, it ultimately derived its name, being spoken of as the "wistaria chamber," the "chamber of the eight scenic gems," the "crane-and-tortoise chamber," and so on. In the houses of military men some of the rooms owed their appellations to the weapons placed in the immediate vicinity of their entrances, as the "bow room," or the "spear room." But such terms found no place in the nomenclature of the "illustrious mansions."
Note 11.—These precautions succeeded well, on the whole. After an area had been swept by a conflagration, the fire-proof storerooms usually remained standing intact among the ruins. But the cost of such edifices being large, many folks preferred an underground storeroom (tsuchi-kura), obviously a relic of the time when ordinary habitations were little better than caves. Pawnbrokers specially affected the latter kind of store, so that during the Military epoch the word "earthen edifice" (dozō) was usually interpreted in the sense of "pawnbroker."
Note 12.—In 1576 Oda Nobunaga built at Azuchi in Omi a castle with a donjon said to have been one hundred feet high. But as there are no remains of that stronghold to-day, and as history contains no exact details of its construction, Hideyoshi's castle at Osaka is taken as the first complete example of such structures in Japan.
Note 13.—The glyptic work on this gate has been persistently attributed to Hidari Jingoro, one of the greatest carvers of Japan. Jingoro was born in 1574, and the gate was erected in the Momoyama Palace in 1585. Obviously Jingoro had nothing to do with it.
Note 14.—Within the enclosure of the mausoleum of Iyeyasu at Nikkō there is an immense rectangular basin carved out of a block of granite. It is so perfectly adjusted on its base that it has stood for two hundred and fifty years with the water welling absolutely evenly over its four edges. This monolith, weighing many tons, was transported from Osaka to Nikkō.
Note 15.—The Japanese pagoda, according to Mr. Conder's researches, is generally a five-storeyed wooden tower, averaging one hundred and fifty feet in height. "The plan is about twenty-four feet square at the base, and each of the four upper storeys recedes somewhat from that below it.... The construction is of very heavy timbers, framed and braced upon the inside in such a complicated manner that there is barely room for the ladderlike staircases which lead from stage to stage. A central post, about three feet in diameter and diminishing towards the top, is framed into the apex of the structure, resting upon a central stone block at the bottom. This is intended to stiffen the tower against swaying in the wind, and the length is so calculated that, after the various stages of the tower have shrunk and settled, the central post shall just bear upon its stone base."
Note 16.—All the dates given here are according to the old Japanese calendar. Roughly speaking, they must be advanced about a month to obtain the corresponding Gregorian date. For example, the so-called "winter," from September 1st to March 31st, would be, according to the Occidental almanac, from about October 4th to May 4th.
Note 17.—It will be observed that the chō (thirty-six hundred tsubo) was a square having a side of sixty double paces (i. e. sixty ken, the double pace, or six feet, being called ken). The chō thus became a unit of lineal measurement, and, in accordance with a principle of uniformity which will be at once apparent, thirty-six chō were taken as a measure of distance and called one ri.
Note 18.—The loss of volume caused by hulling was counted as fifty per cent.
Note 19.—Mention may be made of another system of measurement found in the pages of early history. The unit was the shiro, a word signifying "exchange," and owing its employment to the fact that rice was the basis of all barter. The shiro signified the area of land that produced a "sheaf," and fifty shiro consequently formed a tan. Grants of land made in old times by way of salary and allowances to officials were spoken of in terms of the shiro. Five hundred thousand shiro represented the area afterwards called "one thousand chō," and gave an income of twenty thousand koku (two hundred thousand sheaves) of unhulled rice.
Note 20.—Raw silk and raw cotton were also among the articles levied, but they seem to have been taken instead of silk or cotton fabrics.
Note 21.—The ryō was the principal monetary unit. It was divided into sixty parts, each called a momme.
Note 22.—The length of the bow and arrow were determined with reference to the capacity of the archer. In the case of the bow, the unit of measurement was the distance between the tips of the thumb and the little finger with the hand fully stretched. Fifteen of these units gave the dimensions of the bow. Hence, with a six-inch stretch, the bow would be seven feet six inches long. The unit for the arrow was a hand's breadth, and from twelve to fifteen units gave the length,—i. e. from three feet to three feet nine inches.
Note 23.—Seventeen masters are universally recognised as the greatest that ever forged a blade. They are Amakuni of Yamato province, and his pupil Amaga; Shinsoku, priest of the Shrine of Usa in Buzen; Yasatsune and Sanemori, also of Buzen; Munechika of Kyōtō, commonly called Sanjo no Kokaji (the little smith of Sanjo); Miike Denta Mitsuyo of Chikugo; Maikusa Yukishige of Oshiu; Genshōbō Jōshin, a Buddhist prelate of Hiko-san in Bungo; Ki-no-Shindayu Yukihira of the same province; Gyobu-no-Jo Norimune of Bizen; Kunitomo, Hisakuni, Kunitsuna and Yoshimune of Kyoto; Yoshihiro of Yetchiu and Goro Nyudo Masamune of Soshiu. The last of these ranks highest.
Note 24.—The method by which this result was obtained is explained in the chapter on Applied Art.
Note 25.—The clay was first plastered over the whole blade, and then removed along the edge by means of a bamboo stick. Thus the upper margin of the tempered section showed a more or less irregular line, which, like the marks of the forger's hammer, furnished a means of identification. The presence of this line of demarkation has betrayed many persons into the erroneous supposition that the edge of a Japanese sword is welded to the body of the blade.
Note 26.—For fuller information on all these points see an admirable essay by Mr. Ed. Gilbertson, in the fourth volume of the Japan Society's Transactions, and another by Professor Hütterott in the Proceedings of the German Asiatic Society for 1885.
Note 27.—First among the swords of Japan ranked the sacred blade which formed one of the Imperial Regalia. Then came the Hirugoza (daily companion), the Hateki (foe-smiter), and the Shugo (guardian) of the Emperor; followed by the "Beard-cutter" (hige-kiri) and the "Knee-severer" (hiza-kiri) of the Minamoto, so called because, after cutting off a head, one divided the beard also, the other gashed the knees, of the decapitated man; then the "Little Crow" (ko-garasu) and the "Out flasher" (nuki-maru) of the Taira, and then innumerable other celebrated blades preserved in the families of feudal nobles.
Note 28.—Religious influence often showed itself in the legends on flags. A common inscription was Namu Amida Butsu (hear! Oh, Amida Buddha) or Hachiman Daibosatsu, a compound of Shintô with Buddhist tenets; or Namu Horengekyo, the formula of the Nichiren sect. The celebrated soldier Katō Kiyomasa always used this last legend for his pennon.
Note 29.—A tent was simply a space enclosed with strips of cloth or silk, on which was blazoned the crest of the commander. It had no covering.
Note 30.—These two last principles are based on the idea of not driving the foe to desperation. There is reason to think that when the Japanese invested the Chinese forces in Ping-yang, in 1894, they acted upon the advice of the third-century strategists, for they deliberately left a road of escape for the enemy, who took it.
Note 31.—The Japanese military man is called indiscriminately samurai or bushi. Samurai originally signifies "guard," and shi is the Sinico-Japanese pronunciation of the same ideograph, which, with the prefix bu (military), makes the compound bushi, or military guard. The terms samurai and bushi are used in these pages without distinction.
Note 32. The term hyaku-sho, here translated "working-man," means literally "one engaged in any of the various callings" apart from military service. In a later age a further distinction was established between the agriculturist, the artisan, and the trader, and the word hyaku-sho then came to carry the signification of "husbandman" only, a sense which it possesses at the present time.
Note 33.—It sometimes happened that the samurai made a habit of attending performances given by shira-byoshi (the geisha of that era), and deadly brawls often resulted.
Note 34.—The act of cutting open the stomach was called harakiri or seppuku, different pronunciations of ideographs having the same meaning.
Note 35.—Yamato is the old name for Japan.
Note 36.—Little credence can be attached to a statement often advanced by Japanese historiographers that the crime of high treason has never been known in Japan. There are several instances. The elder brother of the Empress plotted against the life of the Emperor Suinin (29 B.C.–71 A.D.). Soga no Umako caused the Emperor Susun to be assassinated (591 A.D.), in order to place a princess on the throne. The Emperor Kōbun was attacked by his uncle and driven into the mountains, where he committed suicide (478 A.D.). The Empress Dowager and her favourite, a Buddhist priest (Dokyo), drove the Emperor Junnin into exile (764 A.D.), banishing with him many princes of the blood and killing others. Mototsune, a representative of the Fujiwara family, seized the Emperor, Yozei (885 A.D.), and placed him in confinement. In 939 A.D. the Taira chief, Masakado, raised the standard of revolt and endeavoured to win the Throne for himself. The Hōjō chief, Takatoki, sent an army to attack the Palace of the Emperor Godaigo, took him prisoner, dethroned him, and sent him into exile (1331 A.D.). Ashikaga Takauji, in 1335 A.D., reduced the sovereign's stronghold and placed him in confinement. Such a record cannot be reconciled with any theory of invariably reverential loyalty to the person of the Emperor.
Note 37.—The names of such great captains as Oda Nobunaga, Hideyoshi (the Taikō), Uyesugi Kenshin, Takeda Shingen, etc., are connected with liaisons of this description.
Note 38.—The Taikō resembled Napoleon I. in his determined manner of overriding obstacles and his ruthless indifference to the feelings of others. Writing to his wife from Odawara, where he was besieging the Hōjō stronghold, he said: "Send Yodo to me here. I like her. You shall have me at your side when I return."
Note 39.—It is curious to observe the difficulty that attended the abolition of the custom of junshi. When Tadayoshi, the fourth son of Tokugawa Iyeyasu, died in 1601, not only did three of his most trusted vassals commit suicide, but a fourth, who had been banished to Oshiu in consequence of some offence, hastened to Yedo and killed himself within the precincts of the Temple Zōjō-ji. In the same year Hideyasu, second son of Iyeyasu, died. Two of his attendants immediately committed suicide, and his chief factor was about to follow their example when peremptory vetoes arrived from Hidetada, the reigning Viceregent, and from Iyeyasu himself. In his letter forbidding the act, Iyeyasu declared that should the practice be resorted to by any feudatory's vassals thereafter, the fief would be confiscated, his view being that true loyalty required, not sacrifice of life, but transfer of services to the deceased lord's successor. Nevertheless, when Kunimatsu, the eight-year-old son of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, was put to death in 1615, his tutor, Tanaka Rokuyemon, committed suicide; and when the second Tokugawa Shōgun, Hidetada, died in 1632, although, as has been said, he had himself interdicted the junshi, his squire, Morikawa Shigetoshi, followed him to the other world. So, on the demise of Date Masamune in 1636, several of his vassals committed suicide; and on the death of the third Tokugawa Shōgun, Iyemitsu, in 1651, five men and one woman killed themselves, and four other men, attendants of the suicides, took the same step. At length, in 1663, the fourth Shōgun, Iyetsuna, decreed that if the junshi were practised in any fief, the latter's revenues should be confiscated; and six years later, when, on the death of Matsudaira Tadamasa of Utsunomiya, one of his vassals adhered to the old custom, the Yedo administration reduced the estates of the fief by twenty thousand koku, executed the two sons of Sugiura Matsubei, who had committed suicide, and banished his grandson. Not until the exaction of these terrible penalties did the custom receive its death-blow.
Note 40.—Mr. J. Conder in his admirable work, "Landscape Gardening in Japan."
Note 41.—Conder's "Landscape Gardening in Japan."