From the middle of the 17th century to the beginning of the 18th century, the culture that developed around Kyoto and Osaka was called the Yuanlu culture. In the nearly one hundred years since the founding of the state, Japan's economy has developed significantly, with rice production reaching about 18 million stones at the end of the sixteenth century and about 25 million stones in the early eighteenth century. Various industries have also developed, and against the backdrop of that economic strength, a new culture has ushered in the spring.
However, the culture of urban merchants who believed that the Yuanlu culture was only an urban merchant with economic power was too simplistic. Momoyama culture is a culture centered on the world of political rulers and powerful people, and it is true that the people of the Genroku culture are strong, but the so-called shoguns are not necessarily from merchant backgrounds, and there are many people who are active in the Genroku culture, such as Kinmatsumon Zoemon (1653-1724). On the whole, the Yuanlu culture is a gorgeous secular culture, and in this regard, the Taoshan culture and the Yuanlu culture have something in common. For example, the "Swallow Flower Picture Screen" of Mitsurin Oshiata (1658-1716) and the "Beauty Look back" of Lingchuan Shixuan (born unknown, died around 1694) famous as the founder of ukiyo-e are paintings that represent this era.
Odalyph Mitsurin's "Swallow Flower Picture Screen"
Compared with the Momoyama era, the things of the Genroku period make people feel that they have characteristics that may be called intrinsic. It can be said that it was not simply from the culture of the powerful to the culture of the merchant, but the evolution of the culture closely related to the occasion of public gatherings into a culture that expressed the inner nature of the individual.
First of all, let's summarize the changes in Yuanlu culture. In the eighth year of Nobuho (1680), in the year when Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646-1709) became a fifth-generation shogun, Matsuo Basho (1658-1716) entered Basho-an in Fukagawa. From this time on, Basho began to compose haiku. In addition, two years later, in Tenwa ii, Ihara Nishizuru 's (1642-1693) "Lustful Generation Men" was published. This is the original work of Nishizuru's ukiyo-e story, and the starting point for the formal novels of the recent era. Two years later, in the first year of his reign, Takemoto Yoshitao (1651-1714) opened the Takemoto-za in Osaka and staged a performance titled "Sekijō I" created by Zoemon Komatsumon the year before. After that, Takemoto and Konmatsu collaborated and constantly staged new works.
Matsuo Basho statue, Katsushika Hokusai painting
In the first year of the Yuan Lu (1688), Nishizuru's "Nippon Eishiro Collection" was published, which vividly depicts the life of a merchant, and it is the same work that represents Nishizuru's highest achievement, along with the "Ruyi Abacus of the World".
In the second year of Yuan Lu, Basho embarked on the road of creation of "Ghost Path". In the fourth year of Motoroku, the shogunate established a shrine on Yushima in Edo, demonstrating a policy of respect for Confucianism.
The Agricultural Encyclopedia of Miyazaki Yasada (1623-1697), published in the ninth year of Motoroku, is a representative agricultural book of the modern era. In addition, the development of natural sciences such as The activities of Seki Takahata (1637-1708) in the field of harmony arithmetic also characterized this era.
In the sixteenth year of Yuan Lu, the "Martyrdom of Sonezaki" was staged at the left gate of Kinmatsumon. It is a work based on the theme of the martyrdom that actually occurred. Later, Konmatsu continued to create works depicting the lives of merchants, known as "Stories of Helping People".
In the sixth year of Honaga (1709), Tokugawa Tsunayoshi died, and Tokugawa Ieyasu became the sixth shogun, with Arai Shirai serving as his assistant. In the second year of Shotoku (1712), Tokugawa Ieyasu (1662-1712) died, and his son Tokugawa Ieyasu (1709-1716) served as a shogun at the age of five, and died three years later. As a result, the lineage of the second shogun, Tokugawa Hidetada (1579-1632), was severed, and the Kishu family, the lord of Wakayama Domain, Tokugawa Yoshimune (1684-1751), entered the shogunate as the eighth shogun (1716) and implemented the so-called Hemiho reform. Even during the year of the insurance, Konmatsu's activities continue. Generally speaking, the Yuanlu culture is not limited to the Yuanlu period, but includes a period before and after it.
Lingchuan Shixuan "Beauty Looking Back"
If the Momoyama culture has a strong characteristic of expressing the integrity of the "public" organization (state), while the Yuanlu culture expresses the inherentness of the "individual", then it can be said that this means that the Yuanlu culture is a mature culture. In the Yuan Lu era, everyone thought about their own way of life, or made art in their own way, or conducted academic research. It is not the power that depends on those who have the power, but on the economic ability of themselves or their supporters, and in that context bear the fruits of culture. At the same time as culture matured, and as recent societies have been established for more than a hundred years, a contradiction has arisen between "public" things and personal "things", that is, political power and the way of life of individuals. This antagonistic relationship, specifically, was the increase in the power of the shoguns and the daimyōs, towards despotism. Japan was originally a country that developed as an autonomous organization, but it is natural that the opposite tendency has emerged in the state organizations that have been formed.
Morality, which was originally spontaneous, has gradually taken on the nature of being coerced externally. The fifth shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, was one of those who liked to do so, and he wrote in a proclamation issued in the second year of Tenwa (1682): "Encourage loyalty and filial piety, husband and wife brothers and relatives live in harmony, and compassion should be given to servants." Anyone who is unfaithful or filial piety shall be punished with a felony. Prior to that, there had also been proclamations prohibiting Christianity or the sale of persons, but the moral codes of "loyalty and filial piety" had not been posted at the intersection of towns and villages, and morality had been enforced through punishment. These reflect one side of that era.
The famous Ako Incident (the incident in which Asano Uchi's head of the family attacked Kira Uenosuke in December of the fifteenth year of Motoroku) is an example of the superficialization of this contradiction. This event was later written as a play called KanaEman TadatoshiZo (1748), which has been popular ever since. But if you think about the nature of this incident, you will find that the truth of the matter is not a crusade against the enemy. Because if Kira had killed Asano, it would have been reasonable to say that it was a crusade against the enemy, but that wasn't the case. It was Asano who did it first, and because Asano drew his sword in the temple, he was ordered to commit suicide by cutting his abdomen, which was handled according to the laws of the shogunate. In contrast, Kira did not fight back and was not punished. However, from the perspective of the concept at that time, it was contrary to the principle of "each playing fifty boards".
Ukiyo-e of the Ako Incident, Niseki Yamazaki Nobunaga
Although "fifty boards each" was not the law of the shogunate, people believed at that time that it was the "great law" of the world. It was originally a law that naturally formed in autonomous organizations at the end of the Middle Ages as a practice. Since in the autonomous body, there is no desire for antagonism, the principle of dealing with it in the form of mutual responsibility in that case is formed to prevent the emergence of antagonism. Even in the Edo period, people in society generally believed that it was the principle of dispute resolution, that is, the "great law" of the world. However, the shogunate did not recognize that it was the law, and thus made a judgment based on the shogunate's own laws, so contradictions arose. Originally, forty-six people (one said forty-seven) including Ōishi Kuzusuke, the family of the Ako Asano family, attacked Kira's residence and killed Kira Uenosuke, which was neither to avenge the lord nor to act based on loyalty, but precisely to say that it was the continuation of the dispute, because the dispute that began with the lord ended in failure, and the other party was not harmed at all, it was a disgraceful thing, so it was necessary to achieve the method of "playing fifty boards each by virtue of their own strength" by insisting on confronting the other side. I think that's the nature of things. In other words, there was a contradiction between the political policy of judging based on the shogunate's law and the concept of law as a folk practice. It is the split between the "public" and the "personal" things.
When it comes to endless fights, it's easy to think that it was a death for something boring. However, thinking that the disgraceful deeds of the dead lord are also the disgraceful deeds of the courtiers, and desperately trying to protect their reputations, that is the spirit of the samurai since the "Tale of the Pingjia Story", and that kind of courage probably also touched the ordinary people. This behavior is somewhat similar to the European medieval practice of self-reliance (Selbsthilfe in German), which used force to defend one's reputation. However, because there was no bribe, the claim that he was stabbed by a sword seemed to be fabricated, and there was no such record in reliable historical records at the time, and Oishi and others did not mention such a thing at all.
From the outward appearance, the life of Basho (1644-1694) can also be regarded as the life of a hermit. However, Basho itself never wanted to create art that was divorced from real society. We believe that he has found his own way in order to raise the artistic harmony of the new era as an adaptation to the new reality, that is, the Edo period or the modern era, to the same level as traditional waka and liange, or The tea ceremony of Rishu and the paintings of snow boats. Basho said in his later years that "it should be highly enlightened and return to the world". It was a quote from his protégé Hattori Toyoshi (1657-1730) in a pamphlet called The Three Books. Basho has devoted his life to creating works of art that are not divorced from reality and have a high spiritual realm.
Nishizuru Ihara's "Lustful Generation Of Men" depicts a man named Seinosuke who socializes with a variety of women from the ages of seven to sixty. These fifty-four years are very meaningful. The Tale of Genji in the Heian period consists of fifty-four stickers. At that time, as long as there was a certain degree of classical knowledge, the number fifty-four would immediately be associated with the "Tale of Genji", and Nishizuru also considered this at the beginning. Therefore, "Lustful Generation Of Men" was called "Vulgar Genji" at that time. The word "vulgar" here does not mean vulgar, but rather a statement that uses the real world as a stage to create a literary work that is comparable to the highest peak of the classical classics, The Tale of Genji. Nishizuru's novels also changed in the early and late periods. Yukihiko Mura, a member of the Chinese literature family, believes that in the early days, Nishizuru repeatedly tried to create various works such as "Telling Rare Stories, Such as "The Lustful Generation of Men", "The Lustful Five Women", etc.), Tan Li (reasoning, exhortations, such as "Twenty Filial Pieties of the Dynasty" and "The Tale of the Martial Arts"). In the creation of "Japan's Eternal Generation Collection" and "The Wishful Thinking of the World", he proposed the "Heart of the World" to express concern for the spiritual world of real people in society, which is the situation reached by Nishizuru in his later years. Because he had such an experience, he created a novel that really touched the essence of life in depth.
Statue of Ihara Nishie
Komatsumon Saemon says in a book called Namba LocalEsan that his opera "is righteous" in a book called Namba LocalEsan. It is often thought that sad stories can only be written in tears, but this is not the case. He himself wrote sad stories based on righteousness. The righteousness here is the attitude to life that we must have as a human being. That attitude is not so simple, it is intricately intertwined in all kinds of interpersonal relationships, and there are all kinds of tragedies happening there. It is not because of accidental forces from outside that lead to an unfortunate fate, but sometimes because the individual's own ideas that he must do so create complex problems under a wide variety of conditions. It can be said that this is precisely the drama that is similar to the nature of the concept of tragedy in European art.
Kinmatsu gate left guard door image
Whether in Kinmatsu or Nishizuru, words like "righteousness" mean honesty as a human being, and since it is honest, it must be obeyed. Therefore, if others are honest with themselves, they must also be honest with others. Kinmatsu's famous "Heart Tenzushima" depicts the suicide incident that occurred on Tsunashima in Osaka, and there is a saying in the play that "righteousness between women". Koharu, a prostitute in Sonezaki, and Shimabei, a paper shop owner with two children, develop an affair. Therefore, zhibingwei's wife wrote to Xiaochun, hoping that she would break up with her husband. As a result, Koharu becomes cold to the guards and is subsequently redeemed by another rich man. Zhi Bingwei's wife thought that Koharu was forced to break up with the person she loved, and would definitely commit suicide, and she was distressed because of this. It was at that time that words such as "righteousness among women" appeared. For those who keep their promises, they must also treat each other with sincerity, which is the righteousness in this case. This doctrine is close to the idea of personal ethics. Nakamura pointed out that there are various people who are active in the Motoroku culture, but there is one commonality there. For example, Basho said "the sincerity of style and elegance", haiku was originally a game, and for Basho, it was the art of expressing the truth of the human heart, so he pursued "the sincerity of style and elegance". In addition, Nishizuru tries to discover the truth of man in the true state of the "heart of the world", and Konmatsu also said "righteousness". In addition, the Sinologist Qi Chong (1640-1701), who had studied the ManyoShu, also said that "the truth of the world" is also said. It was the words in a letter inviting a friend to listen to someone to teach the Manyo Collection. He wrote in his letter that because the world is "the custom of the world" and the learning is the "truth of the world", even if there is a little time in the world, I hope to come. "Customary" and "true" were originally Buddhist terms, because the art world such as the Manyoshu has nothing to do with Buddhism, so it is "customary". The truth of human nature that is connected with Buddhism is also depicted there, and he is only trying to expound on them.
All in all, at that time people used words like "vulgar" to represent new realities, trying to seek ethics in the new reality, or a conscientious way of life. It can be considered that a major feature of Yuanlu culture is the formation of an excellent "customary" culture.
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(This article is excerpted from "The History of Japanese Culture" by the Sasakawa-China Friendship Fund "Reading Japanese Books", Nanjing University Press.) The pictures in the article are from Wikipedia, please leave a message to get permission. ）