From Country to Nation: Ethnographic Studies, Kokugaku, and Spirits in Nineteenth-Century Japan 1501753959, 9781501753954

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FROM COUNTRY TO NATION

FROM COUNTRY TO NATION Ethnographic Studies, Ko ku g a ku , a n d Spirits in Nineteenth-Centur y Japan

Gideon Fujiwara

CORNELL EAST ASIA SERIES AN IMPRINT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS Ithaca and London

Number 204 in the Cornell East Asia Series Copyright © 2021 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu. First published 2021 by Cornell University Press Printed in the United States of America Librarians: A Cataloging-in-Publication record is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-1-5017-5393-0 (hard cover) ISBN 978-1-5017-5394-7 (epub) ISBN 978-1-5017-5395-4 (pdf ) Tsugaru Customs Painting Scroll (Tsugaru fūzokuga maki) by Satō Senshi. Private collection.

Contents

List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgments

ix

Explanatory Notes

xi

vii

Introduction

1

1. Seeing the “Country” of Tsugaru in Northeastern Japan

13

2. Visions of Japan and Other “Countries” in the World

46

3. Hirata Kokugaku and the National Network

68

4. The Academy and the Tsugaru Disciples

97

5. Locating Tsugaru within Sacred Japan

123

6. Sacred Mountain, Landscape, and Afterlife

151

7. Supporting the Restoration in War and Ritual

172

8. Modern Society and the Tsugaru Disciples

199

Conclusion: Ethnography, Kokugaku, and Community in Modern Japan Appendix

239

Selected List of Characters 241 Bibliography Index

269

253

229

Tables and Figures

Table 1. List of Hirata Disciples in Tsugaru

240

Figures Cover Image Tsugaru Customs Painting Scroll (Tsugaru fūzokuga maki) by Satō Senshi. Private collection. Digital data courtesy of Aomori Prefectural Museum. 1.1. Map: Early Modern Japan and Hirosaki 1.2. Map: Hirosaki domain 1.3. Hirosaki castle 1.4. Hirao Rosen portrait (Private collection) 1.5. Tsuruya Ariyo portrait (Gappo sharimoishi) 1.6. “Nebuta image” (Tsugaru Customs Painting Scroll) 1.7. “Mount Iwaki worship image” (Private collection) 1.8. “Sled pulling image” (Tsugaru Customs Painting Scroll) 1.9. “Winter work and tools image” (Tsugaru Customs Painting Scroll) 2.1. “Steamship” (Taihei shinwa) 2.2. Map: Rosen’s Visit to Ezo 2.3. “Matsumae Harbor image” (Hakodate kikō) 2.4. “Official” “Minor official” (Yōi meiwa) 2.5. “Guangdong officials image” (Hakodate kikō) 2.6. “Mochi-pounding in the twelfth month” (Hakodate kikō) 4.1. Kanehira Kiryō image (Gappo sharimoishi) 4.2. Turtles by Kanehira Kiryō 5.1. “Thunder beast image, Aki province” (Yūfu shinron) 6.1. Mount Iwaki

15 16 17 29 36 41 43 44 45 48 51 54 58 60 64 105 106 148 153 vii

viii

6.2. 6.3. 7.1. 8.1.

9.1.

TA B L E S A N D F I G U R ES

Torii gate, Iwakiyama Shrine Iwakiyama Shrine Shōkonsai; bird’s-eye-view diagram (Ono Wakasa letter). Stone monuments honoring Tsuruya Ariyo and Hirao Rosen, Tenmangū Shrine, Nishi Shigemori, Hirosaki Neputa festival, Hirosaki, August 2011

153 154 194

226 230

Ack nowledgments

I am grateful to everyone who supported me in writing this book. Peter Nosco inspired, then supervised, my studies of kokugaku and taught me to think for myself. He guided me at each stage as I wrote this book. Nam-lin Hur taught me Japanese history and the joy of grappling with primary sources. Kojima Yasunori introduced me to Hirao Rosen and helped me navigate the “country” of Tsugaru. Anne Walthall shared her insights on Hirata kokugaku and reviewed two versions of this book. Hasegawa Seiichi advised me on early modern history while hosting me at Hirosaki University. Helen Hardacre imparted knowledge of Shinto and Japanese religion, while John Bentley refined my readings of poetry and texts. My thanks to Miyachi Masato for teaching me about Hirata kokugaku and late-Tokugawa history, and to Endō Jun, Yoshida Asako, Matsumoto Hisashi, Kate Wildman Nakai, Nakagawa Kazuaki, and Kumazawa Eriko who shared their invaluable knowledge at the monthly Hirata kenkyūkai hosted by the Hirata Shrine. Commuting between Hirosaki and Tokyo by midnight bus, I felt the power of scholarly networks. Kitahara Kanako, Namikawa Kenji, Watanabe Mariko, Honda Shin, Fukui Toshitaka, and Sato Akira generously supported my studies of Hirosaki. For permission to use their precious documents and artwork, I thank the Hirosaki City Public Library, Hirosaki City Museum, Aomori Prefectural Museum, and Aomori Prefectural Library. I thank the owners of Hirao Rosen’s and his disciples’ artwork for permission to use their images. From my MA years studying Japanese Intellectual History at Tohoku University, I have been guided by Sato Hiroo and encouraged by Kirihara Kenshin, Motomura Masafumi, Okawa Makoto, Suzuki Hirotaka, and Nakajima Eisuke. Since my PhD program in Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia, I am indebted to Harjot Oberoi, William Wray, Sharalyn Orbaugh, Joshua Mostow, Christina Laffin, Jessica Main, Chris Rea, David Edgington, Eric Vatikiotis-Bateson, Glen Peterson, Nathen Clerici, Eiji Okawa, Robban Toleno, Jeffrey Newmark, Oleg Benesch, Ben Whaley, and Weiting Guo. I have learned much from Luke Roberts, David Howell, Bettina ix

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Gramlich-Oka, Laura Nenzi, Brian Platt, Caroline Hirasawa, Shion Kono, Job Jindo, Miyamoto Takashi, Hakoishi Hiroshi, William Puck Brecher, and Peter Flueckiger. My sincere thanks to Cornell University Press and Cornell East Asia Series. Mai Shaikhanuar-Cota, Alexis Simeon, and Ange Romeo-Hall provided excellent editorial support and took great care of the images. Julene Knox and Chris Ahn copyedited my work. Mike Bechthold designed the maps. Any mistakes and shortcomings are my sole responsibility. I express gratitude to my University of Lethbridge colleagues and friends. Special thanks to my fellow historians: Chris Burton, Chris Epplett, Sheila McManus, Carol Williams, David Hay, Craig Cooper, Chris Churchill, Janay Nugent, Kristine Alexander, Amy Shaw, Lynn Kennedy, Heather Stanley, and Chris Hosgood, as well as Darren J. Aoki, Carly Adams, and Malcolm Greenshields. I thank my Asian Studies colleagues, especially John Harding, who offered valuable feedback on my manuscript. Bev Garnett provided assistance and chocolates. I thank Darcy Tamayose, Madison Allen, and my many students at the U of L for their enthusiasm for learning and for our great discussions over the years. The Japan Foundation Doctoral Fellowship allowed me to conduct archival research across Japan. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowship supported my graduate studies and dissertation writing. The University of Lethbridge provided research and travel funds, including a subvention arranged by Claudia Malacrida and Erasmus Okine. I have also been funded by the Monbukagakusho (MEXT)/Japan Society for the Promotion of Science ( JSPS), a UBC University Graduate Fellowship, and the Okamatsu Family Scholarship. I wish to thank the following publishers for their permission to reproduce portions of what I previously published with them: The Journal of Japanese Studies; Brill; Iwata shoin; and Seibundō. Full publication data are included in the bibliography. Thank you to my senpai, to all my friends, and to the Ecclesia for their prayers. I thank Mitsunaga Shunsuke, Hiroshi Karaki, Al Wolfe, and Kazumitsu Kawai. I express heartfelt gratitude to my father, Kenichi Abraham, and my late mother, Michiko for their love and sacrifice. My sisters, Sara and Rina, and my brother, John, and their families have always listened and provided encouragement. Sugata Sueo and Hiroko have been there for us constantly. My thanks to my wife Nobuko for her enduring love and support, together with our children, Kiyomitsu, Tabitha, and Leah for lots of love, laughter, and light. Thanks and glory to God, my refuge and strength.

E x p l an ato ry Notes

Japanese and Chinese personal names are written in the native order, starting with the surname. Following the conventions of Japanese scholarship, historical figures are often referred to by their given names, i.e., Rosen, Ariyo, and individuals from the contemporary period are referred to by their surname, i.e., Moriyama, Watanabe. Macrons are used to indicate long vowels in Japanese, except in the case of commonly known place names such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Honshu, and Tohoku, and well-known terms like shogun and Shinto. Dates are given according to the lunar calendar through 1872, i.e., the first month of 1600, and by the Gregorian calendar after January 1, 1873. I have converted Japanese years, but not months or days, to the Gregorian calendar. Personal age is reckoned in the Western manner, as zero at birth, one after a year, and so on. The following abbreviations are used in the notes and bibliography: AKS MNZ NST

SHAZ

Aomori kenshi shiryō hen kinsei gakugei kankei. Edited by Henshū Aomori kenshi bukai. Aomori: Aomori kenshi tomo no kai, 2004. Motoori Norinaga. Motoori Norinaga zenshū. Edited by Ōno Susumu and Ōkubo Tadashi. 20 vols. Tokyo: Chikuma shobō, 1968–75. Ienaga Saburō, Ishimoda Shō, Inoue Mitsusada, Sagara Tōru, Nakamura Yukihiko, Bitō Masahide, Maruyama Masao, Yoshikawa Kōjirō, eds. Nihon shisō taikei. 67 vols. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1970– . Hirata Atsutane. Shinshū Hirata Atsutane zenshū. Edited by Hirata Atsutane zenshū kankōkai hen. 21 vols. Tokyo: Meicho shuppan, 2001.

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Introduction

There was a fascinating group of intellectuals in the nineteenth century who lived in the “country” (kuni) of Tsugaru, otherwise known as Hirosaki domain, on the northeastern fringe of Japan’s main island of Honshu. They consisted of scholars of various backgrounds— merchants, Shinto priests, domainal samurai, and one female painter—who became posthumous disciples of the late Hirata Atsutane (1776–1843), a man who had disseminated his teachings from his academy in Edo, present-day Tokyo, and engaged in kokugaku or Japan studies, the study of classical texts to glean an ancient Japanese Way.1 Led by Tsuruya Ariyo (1808–71) and Hirao Rosen (1808–80), these intellectuals from the north imagined a dual identity

1. The Japanese term kokugaku has been variously translated into English as nativism, National Learning, and exceptionalism. I prefer to translate kokugaku as Japan studies, given that this school covered diverse fields—including philology, poetry, literature, myth, history, ethnographic studies, spirituality, and religious practice—and people in the early nineteenth century used various terms for it aside from kokugaku. Broadly speaking, kokugaku refers to the study of Japan. Specifically, it refers to the study of classical texts to glean an ancient Japanese way. During the Tokugawa period, the kokugaku school emerged from its earlier roots of Japanese studies more generally, partly in reaction to officially sponsored Neo-Confucianism as well as the Confucian Ancient Learning school kogaku, the latter of which inf luenced kokugaku scholarship in terms of its methodology. Kokugaku studies began primarily as literary and philological studies in Japan in the seventeenth century, but became increasingly religious and ideological in the late-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as greater attention was devoted to identity formation based on myth and history, which essentialized Japanese 1

2

INTRODUCTION

that combined the local identity of their native Tsugaru with a renewed national identity for Imperial Japan. The juxtaposition of these two “countries” (kuni)—Tsugaru and Imperial Japan—affords us a nuanced look at how these individuals experienced a multilevel transition of community from early modern to modern times. This book tracks the emergence of the modern Japanese nation in the nineteenth century through the history of some of its local aspirants. It tells the story of intellectuals on the periphery of the nation trying to secure a place for their community in a transforming Japan. Its protagonists are kokugaku scholars from Tsugaru, who wrote of their local “country” on the northeastern edge of the main island as being a part of the sacred “nation” of Japan. Following the “opening” of Japan from 1853 to 1854, Hirao Rosen, a merchant-class ethnographer and kokugaku scholar, visited the northern port of Hakodate in 1855 where he discovered a Japan situated within a world that included Americans, Europeans, and Qing Chinese. This led him to reorient his native Tsugaru’s place within the spiritual landscape of an Imperial Japan blessed by the gods, and to assert the reality of the spirit realm. His fellow aspirants were also active through 1868 and the Meiji Restoration. Fellow merchant Tsuruya Ariyo used poetry to link their sacred country to an enjoyable afterlife; a samurai fought and died for the emperor in the Boshin civil war; and Shinto priests used ritual to deify this fallen warrior along with the spirits of other loyalist martyrs. While Rosen and his Hirata school commoner-fellows celebrated the rise of Imperial Japan and the contributions of both Tsugaru and their academy, their resistance to Western ideas and institutions, as embraced by the Meiji state, ultimately resulted not in the community they envisioned but rather in their own disorientation and estrangement. In the title and throughout the book, I primarily rely on the Japanese term kokugaku to refer to this school and its intellectual tradition, while occasionally referring to it as “Japan studies” and its practitioners as kokugakusha or “Japan studies scholars.” In doing so, I acknowledge the limitations of translating kokugaku as “nativism” or “National Learning,” as explained in the scholarship to date.2 Indeed, no translation can fully and accurately

identity as sacred and unique. Peter Nosco, Remembering Paradise: Nativism and Nostalgia in EighteenthCentury Japan (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Council on East Asian Studies, 1990), 9. 2. I also acknowledge Mark McNally’s argument for the use of “exceptionalism” to highlight the primary objective of some kokugaku scholars who asserted that Japan, its people, and culture were exceptional, unique, and superior in the world, as opposed to identifying this school’s activities with the specific cases of anti-foreign “nativism” that surface in mid-nineteenth-century Japan and the United States. Mark Teeuwen, “Kokugaku vs. Nativism,” Monumenta Nipponica 61,

INTRODUCTION

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represent the depth and variety found within this intellectual tradition, and even “kokugaku” is a problematic and anachronistic label, projected back in time to name this school from its beginnings in the early Tokugawa period. As documented in the following pages, students of this scholarly tradition in Tsugaru and across Japan referred to their work by multiple names, including “Ancient Learning” (inishie manabi), “Imperial studies” (mikuni manabi), “Loyalist studies” (kingaku), and “kokugaku.”3 Nevertheless I argue that the growth of scholarship to date on the subject in Japan and globally allows us to refer to this intellectual tradition as kokugaku or Japan studies, while recognizing the above trends, problems, and debates within the growing historiography.

On Nation, Community, and Kokugaku Scholarship has examined kokugaku, literally the “study of the country, or nation,” primarily in the singular context of Japan. In this regard, Ernest Gellner’s assertion that “it is nationalism which engenders nations” suggests to us one interpretation—which has been dominant to date—that focuses on how kokugaku scholars conceived principles about the “nation” prior to the rise of the Japanese nation in modern times.4 However, the scholarship and life experiences of Japan studies scholars of the Hirata school in Tsugaru demonstrate a more complex “imagining of community”—in the words of Benedict Anderson—on multiple levels not limited to the “nation,” and this book demonstrates the “style” in which these individuals conceived of their specific communities on multiple levels.5 Informed by Prasenjit Duara, I also challenge the linear, teleological history that privileges the “nation,” and introduce the Tsugaru kokugakusha as “historical actors” who appropriated “dispersed meanings” as their own in identifying with and mobilizing various representations of nation or community.6 Anthony D. Smith’s insight on the inner “antiquity” of modern nations is useful for understanding kokugaku and

no. 2 (Summer 2006): 227–42. Mark Thomas McNally, Like No Other: Exceptionalism and Nativism in Early Modern Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2015). 3. Moreover, “Ancient Learning” or kogaku written with the same Chinese characters can refer to either a specific Confucian school or kokugaku itself, rendered as kogaku and inishie manabi respectively. 4. Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983), 55. 5. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Ref lections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, rev. ed. (New York: Verso, 2016), 6. 6. Prasenjit Duara, Rescuing History from the Nation: Questioning Narratives of Modern China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 17.

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community, by showing how the premodern identities of ethnies, or ethnic communities, including their symbols, myth, memory, and territorial associations were fused with modern civic elements to generate the modern nation.7 This book sheds light on the ways in which intellectuals from diverse social backgrounds studied, imagined, and experienced a multiplicity of community, which included but was not limited to the “nation” of “Japan.” As demonstrated in debates between Luke Roberts and Mark Ravina, the early modern notion of community was multidimensional and multileveled and encompassed the “country” of Japan, which converged to varying degrees with the “countries” of the provinces and domains within the bakuhan system, the shogunate-domain political structure founded by the Tokugawa, and an emerging Imperial Japan centered on the emperor.8 Roberts presents the compelling case of the economic sovereignty of domains such as Tosa and its inf luential role in shaping the modern nation, while Ravina shows how Hirosaki officials acted with the autonomy of a “country” until their domain was eventually “destroyed internally by imperialism.”9 J. Victor Koschmann demonstrates how the ideology of Mito reformists affirmed the hierarchy of loyal service from domains to shogunate to imperial court, as well as asserted the domain’s autonomy as a “microcosm” that seriously challenged Tokugawa authority.10 Kären Wigen shows how Tokugawa state leaders and Meiji-era reformers appropriated the classical map for the purpose of administrative reform, while local literati made maps of the entire kuni, or province, of Shinano in Central Japan, envisioning it as a locus of identity.11 Kawanishi Hidemichi chronicles how modern Japan, in its construction of a nation-state, cast the northeastern region of Tohoku to the periphery as a “backward” “outland,” and sheds light on the diversity found within the region and larger nation.12 Further, Kawanishi, Namikawa Kenji,

7. Anthony D. Smith, The Ethnic Origins of Nations (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1999). 8. Luke Roberts, Mercantilism in a Japanese Domain: The Merchant Origins of Economic Nationalism in 18th-Century Tosa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998); Mark Ravina, Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999); Ronald P. Toby, “Rescuing the Nation from History: The State of the State in Early Modern Japan,” Monumenta Nipponica 56, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 197–237. See also Luke Roberts, Performing the Great Peace: Political Space and Open Secrets in Tokugawa Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2012), 41–52. Bakuhan is a compound term derived from bakufu, which means shogunate, and han, which means domain. 9. Ravina, Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan, 209–10. 10. J. Victor Koschmann, Mito Ideology: Discourse, Reform, and Insurrection in Late Tokugawa Japan, 1790–1864 (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987). 11. Kären Wigen, A Malleable Map: Geographies of Restoration in Central Japan, 1600–1912 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010). 12. Kawanishi Hidemichi, Tōhoku: Japan’s Constructed Outland, trans. Nanyan Guo and Raquel Hill (Leiden: Brill, 2015). See also the Japanese original, Tohoku: Tsukurareta ikyō (Tokyo: Chuo koronsha in 2001).

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and M. William Steele critique the nation-state, as they study local history within a global context, shedding light on multiculturalism and recognizing subjective agency in minority groups within Japan.13 This book seeks to further our understanding of community in Japan, not as a monolithic entity, but as a collection of converging, multilayered parts. Scholarship to date has offered us various insights on the relationship between kokugaku and the nation. Susan Burns, writing in 2003,14 describes how kokugaku scholars imagined Japan in their readings of mythical texts before the emergence of the modern nation. Peter Flueckiger in 201115 shows how Confucianists and kokugakusha utilized politicized poetry as a means to express their visions of an idealized society. In his monograph of 2013, Michael Wachutka16 chronicles how kokugaku scholars contributed to the formation of scholarly societies, as well as national studies of history, literature, and language in modern times. However, these works have focused on kokugaku thought primarily as it pertains to the singular community of “Japan,” and none has yet incorporated the above-outlined historiography, which reveals the dynamics and conf licts between the multiple layers of community not limited to the nation. Scholars of Hirata kokugaku who have focused on local communities have regarded the local scene as a source of disciple-recruitment as chronicled by Itō Tasaburō in 1966;17 agrarian villages linked through Hirata nativist ideology to the Ancient Way as shown by Harry Harootunian in 1988;18 or a stage for disciples participating in a social movement surrounding the Meiji Restoration as demonstrated by Anne Walthall in 1998.19 This book examines how the local scene of Tsugaru was very much an “imagined community” and source of identity in its own right for Hirata disciples who inhabited the region and were active in local society. Whereas Wilburn Hansen in 200820 explores

13. Kawanishi Hidemichi, Namikawa Kenji, and M. William Steele, eds., Rōkaru hisutorii kara gurōbaru hisutorii e: tabunka no rekishigaku to chiikishi (Tokyo: Iwata shoin, 2005). 14. Susan Burns, Before the Nation: Kokugaku and the Imagining of Community in Early Modern Japan (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003). 15. Peter Flueckiger, Imagining Harmony: Poetry, Empathy, and Community in Mid-Tokugawa Confucianism and Nativism (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2010). 16. Michael Wachutka, Kokugaku in Meiji-Period Japan: The Modern Transformation of ‘National Learning’ and the Formation of Scholarly Societies (Boston & Leiden: Brill, 2013). 17. Itō Tasaburō, Sōmō no kokugaku (Tokyo: Masago Shobō, 1966). I cite from the reprinted edition, Sōmō no kokugaku (Tokyo: Meicho shuppan, 1982). 18. Harry D. Harootunian, Things Seen and Unseen: Discourse and Ideology in Tokugawa Nativism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988). 19. Anne Walthall, The Weak Body of a Useless Woman: Matsuo Taseko and the Meiji Restoration (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998). 20. Wilburn N. Hansen, When Tengu Talk: Hirata Atsutane’s Ethnography of the Other World (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2008).

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Atsutane’s ethnography of the other world, the current study considers the relationship between Hirao Rosen’s ethnographic studies and Hirata kokugaku to shed light on the interplay between various layers of “countries”—local, foreign, and national. The spirit world of yūmeikai—a major subject of focus for Mark McNally in 200521—is examined here with an emphasis on how it connected local Tsugaru to the larger spiritual landscape of Japan. The early 2000s ushered in a revival for studies in Hirata kokugaku, spearheaded by scholars working with the National Museum of Japanese History and then museum head Miyachi Masato who hosted a Special Exhibit in 2004 entitled “The Meiji Restoration and Hirata Kokugaku.” With the generosity and cooperation of the Hirata family descendants who administer the Hirata Shrine located in Yoyogi, Tokyo, that venerates Atsutane, these scholars have introduced to the public over ten thousand pieces of new historical materials—including diaries, letters, memos, artistic images, and artifacts—surrounding Atsutane; his head school, the Ibukinoya academy; and his national network of students. Analyses of these new materials have yielded a more nuanced perspective on Hirata kokugaku in the context of early modern Japanese society. Endō Jun’s monograph of 2008 was the first to study the new materials, and helped to place Hirata religious thought and practice within Tokugawa society, shedding light on the school’s relationship with the Yoshida and Shirakawa Shinto houses and their priesthoods.22 In 2012, Nakagawa Kazuaki offered new insights on the Hirata family and disciple communities during Atsutane’s lifetime and beyond into Meiji, drawing on analyses of texts and letters.23 Later that same year, Yoshida Asako traced the social history of books and publishing within the academy to demonstrate the spread of Atsutane’s thought among his followers throughout Japan.24 Endō, Nakagawa, and Yoshida have each introduced new sources and reevaluated Atsutane’s writings and the importance of his work broadly in terms of society, religion, publishing, and intellectual history in Tokugawa Japan. My book builds on this new research to focus in depth on the case of Tsugaru and the north— which have received limited attention to date—and to contribute new insights to the broader narrative. In 2015, Miyachi shed light on the thought

21. Mark McNally, Proving The Way: Conf lict and Practice in the History of Japanese Nativism (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2005). 22. Endō Jun, Hirata kokugaku to kinsei shakai (Tokyo: Perikansha, 2008). 23. Nakagawa Kazuaki, Hirata kokugaku no shiteki kenkyū (Tokyo: Meicho shuppankai, 2012). 24. Yoshida Asako, Chi no kyōmei: Hirata Atsutane wo meguru shomotsu no shakaishi (Tokyo: Perikansha, 2012). See also her Hirata Atsutane: Kōkyō suru shisha, seija, kami gami (Tokyo: Heibonsha shinsho, 2016).

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and actions of disciples in Nakatsugawa in contemporary southeastern Gifu and the surrounding area, famous as the stage for the historical novel Before the Dawn (Yoake mae), in which followers of Hirata kokugaku and Revival Shinto (Fukko Shinto) pursued visions of a new era of imperial rule during which they demonstrated political subjectivity at the “grassroots” level.25 Miyachi calls for intellectual histories to be written that are not limited to the canon of major thinkers, but which focus on the subjectivity and personalities of those who adopted and practiced this thought. I too draw on the new Hirata materials to document the reception of Hirata kokugaku and its practice in Tsugaru, and to contextualize this discourse of Tsugaru and Japan within their sociohistorical context. This book bridges the gaps between separate bodies of scholarship on nation, multilayered community, and kokugaku by demonstrating how a diverse group of intellectuals not only studied and imagined Japan as a monolithic entity, but how they studied and engaged multiple “countries”— local, national, and foreign—while experiencing the transformation of community in nineteenth-century Japan. In relative seclusion, many kokugaku scholars imagined the Japanese “self ” and foreign “others” based on the minimal number of sightings of foreigners in Tokugawa society possible under the state’s restrictive foreign policy. Hirao Rosen’s personal observations of Westerners and Qing Chinese in Hakodate after Japan was “opened” therefore reveal unique perspectives and experiences of community in a more global setting.26 The arrival of US Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry (1794–1858) and the resulting treaties and opening of Japan’s ports significantly increased contact and relations between Japan and Western countries. As well established in recent decades, however, Tokugawa Japan was part of a larger regional order of commercial and diplomatic relations, and not fully isolated under a simplistic sakoku (closed country) policy. This book takes a fresh new perspective in examining the dynamic interplay between “countries” in transition from early modern to modern times as expressed through poetry and prose, artwork, historical writing, armed combat, and the carrying out of both religious ritual and reform.

25. Miyachi Masato, Rekishi no naka no yoake mae: Hirata kokugaku no bakumatsu ishin (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 2015). Also see chapter eight for my reference to Shimazaki Tōson’s novel, Before the Dawn. 26. See Ronald P. Toby, State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1991); Arano Yasunori, Kinsei Nihon to Higashi Ajia (Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai, 1988); David L. Howell, “Foreign Encounters and Informal Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan,” The Journal of Japanese Studies 40, no. 2 (Summer 2014): 295–327.

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Studying the “Countries” of Tsugaru and Japan and Chapter Overview My research on the Tsugaru group of posthumous Hirata disciples allows me to join the discussions on statehood, nation, and the transition to modernity by emphasizing the dynamics between local and national identities. Moreover, I build on kokugaku studies in the West and Japan by introducing, as new players to discussions to date, the merchant-class painter and ethnographic researcher Hirao Rosen, merchant and poet Tsuruya Ariyo, and the Tsugaru group; new materials in the form of their essays, poetry, letters, diaries, liturgies, and artwork; and a new vantage point from the northeast in Tsugaru and Ezo, the northern island known today as Hokkaido.27 Focusing on the Tsugaru group will provide an opportunity to examine the Meiji Restoration and the experience of modernity in the context of northeastern Japan. This book has five major goals. The first goal is to highlight the diversity found within “sōmō no kokugaku,” or “grassroots Japan studies,” as demonstrated through this community of intellectual townspeople centered on merchants.28 Hirao Rosen explored the mysterious spirit realm as manifested in his locale in a series of essays; in contrast, Tsuruya Ariyo’s work included essays, waka poetry, and norito, or liturgies—ritual prayers on spirits, the afterlife, and the sacred landscape of Tsugaru. Second, this book pinpoints the dynamics seen in the juxtaposition of two identities—the local “country” of Tsugaru and the national “country” of Imperial Japan. Third, I uncover the links between ethnographic studies and kokugaku, which intertwine within the local-national dynamic, and identify ethnographic studies as a significant component of kokugaku. I analyze Rosen’s rich narratives of the strange and miraculous as witnessed and recorded across Tsugaru to illuminate his scholarly method, which integrates these two intellectual traditions. Fourth, this study documents the adoption of spirituality and religiosity found in Hirata kokugaku, and its expression through worship, writings, and the activities of the Shinto priesthood. In particular, I study Ariyo’s norito and his essay on enjoyment, as well as the Shinto funerary ritual to venerate fallen soldiers of the Boshin War to show how members of the group engaged both spiritually and intellectually with matters of worshipping the kami, or gods,

27. I refer to the community of Hirata disciples in this region as the “Tsugaru disciples” or the “Tsugaru group,” the latter coined by Kojima Yasunori. Kojima Yasunori, “Bakumatsuki Tsugaru no minzokugakusha: Hirao Rosen—Hirata Atsutane to Yanagita Kunio no aida,” Nenpō Shishi Hirosaki 10 (2001). 28. Itō, Sōmō no kokugaku.

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and existential questions of life and death. Fifth, this study traces commoners’ experiences of modernity and their navigation through the multilayered transformation of local community from an early modern domain to a modern prefecture in Meiji Japan. While sharing the attributes of a “country” with provinces and domains, Japan ultimately transcends this designation because it is also the “protonation,” or early modern nation, that transitioned to the modern “nation” through the Restoration and ensuing state-building. The Tokugawa shogunate represented central state authority and generally regarded the domains as subordinate regional political units, although they varied in terms of their political, economic, and military strength and sovereignty relative to the shogunate. Rather than asserting an either/or proposition on the balance of authority and sovereignty, this book focuses on how a group of intellectuals observed and identified with community at the multiple levels of castle town, domain, shogunate, and the “nation” of Japan, while observing contact with foreign countries. These Hirata disciples of Tsugaru pursued the collective interests of their community to favorably position their “country” within the larger, sacred “country” and “nation” of Imperial Japan. Wigen argues that an eighteenth-century geographer and fellow scholar made maps of their entire kuni, or province, of Shinano, representing it “as an integral part of the emperor’s realm.”29 Here, I recognize that the term kuni can be applied to multiple levels of territorial and political entities, including provinces, but primarily apply it in reference to Tsugaru and other domains, as well as to Japan and other nations. Due to Tsugaru’s remote location on the northeastern fringe of Honshu, local leaders and intellectuals from the early Tokugawa period onward harbored insecurities about their place on the periphery of the Japanese state, separated by vast distances from the political and cultural centers, namely Kyoto and Edo. This awareness fueled efforts to demonstrate the vital role of this “country” as well as prove its loyalty and justify its place within the larger state comprised of the shogunate and domains, the Imperial country, and the new Meiji state. Tsugaru represented both a hinterland of Japan’s main island and a gateway to the northern island of Ezo, homeland of the Ainu people, and was repeatedly called on by the shogunate for military duty in the north. In response, in late Tokugawa, Tsugaru frequently stationed its soldiers in Ezo to defend against attacks on the Japanese and, during the Boshin War, the port city of Aomori served as a base to stage the Imperial

29. Wigen, A Malleable Map, 224–30.

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troops in preparation to attack shogunate forces in Hakodate. Hirosaki domain subjugated the Ainu people living on the Tsugaru peninsula, forcing many to assimilate to Japanese society. Furthermore, many from the region expressed anxieties about being far removed from the centers of culture and education. As we will see, therefore, the efforts of the Hirata disciples in Tsugaru to utilize Hirata kokugaku as a means to locate their own local “country” within the larger “nation” of Imperial Japan represent an intellectual and spiritual endeavor to justify the region’s place within the realm of the rightful ruler. As a result, the community, which the Tsugaru group of kokugaku scholars ultimately envisioned, identified with, and secured their place within, expanded from the country of Tsugaru to the nation of Imperial Japan. Throughout this book I use “Hirosaki” or “Hirosaki domain” to refer to the political-geographical unit of the domain located in Mutsu province, within the political state of Tokugawa Japan. However, when referring to the same area in more general cultural, social, and geographical terms, I use “Tsugaru” which is the name of the region’s ruling family and, consequently, the name commonly used to refer to this domain and territory in early modern documents. The domain’s official journal refers to this land as “Tsugaru no kuni,” literally “country of Tsugaru,” or “Tsugaru ryō” which is “Tsugaru territory.” When I juxtapose the local region of “Tsugaru” with the “national” state of Japan, I use “Tsugaru” to denote the region imagined by the Hirata disciples and their contemporaries, rather than the political unit of the Hirosaki domain. I make this distinction because I wish to use the “official” name of Hirosaki, adopted in modern scholarship to date, to be consistent with the Meiji government’s formal recognition of the region and its publicizing of it as “Hirosaki domain” in 1870, along with the more than 260 other domains.30 At the same time, I retain “Tsugaru” in keeping with the way in which this region is identified by the Hirata disciples and others in early modern times. While a case can be made for unifying these as one appellation for simplification, it is hoped that the dual naming ref lects the complex multiplicity of identities. Note, I use “Hirosaki castle town” to refer to the urban center and capital of Hirosaki domain. The main body of this book contains the following eight chapters. Chapter one chronicles the history of Hirosaki domain to late-Tokugawa times, charting rule by the Tsugaru clan and developments in the local politics, economy,

30. Ōtsuka Takematsu, ed., Nihon shiseki kyōkai sōsho, Hansei ichiran (Tokyo: Nihon shiseki kyōkai, 1928–29).

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society, and military defense of Ezo, which was inhabited by the Ainu. We will see how two merchant-class scholars navigated this history: Hirao Rosen established himself as a painter and ethnographic researcher, and Tsuruya Ariyo made his name as a poet in local literati circles. Chapter two begins by outlining Commodore Perry’s arrival and the “opening” of Hakodate port, then documents Rosen’s journeys to Ezo in 1855. On the northern island, Rosen observed Ezo locals and European, American, and Qing Chinese visitors and discovered Japan’s relativized position within the “world.” Chapter three introduces Hirata Atsutane and his thought, and examines the Ibukinoya academy, its succession by his descendants, and the national network of disciples. I read Hirata kokugaku through the lens of the Tsugaru disciples, thus highlighting their common interests, which included ethnographic research, attention to the north and spirits, and faith in the gods. Then in chapter four I chronicle the formation of the Tsugaru group of posthumous Hirata disciples and highlight Tsuruya Ariyo’s efforts as leader. This circle was devoted to poetry composition, study of the Ancient Way, and worship of their late teacher’s spirit, while retaining some scholarly autonomy. Chapter five explores the dynamics between ethnographic research and kokugaku since the late eighteenth century, then focuses on Rosen’s three major works from 1855 to 1865: Strange Tales of Gappo, Echoes of the Valley, and New Treatise on the Spirit Realm. The interplay between Tsugaru and Imperial Japan culminates with Rosen’s full engagement with Hirata kokugaku, following his enrollment as an official Hirata disciple. Rosen recounted the strange, mysterious, and spiritual matters in local society, and utilized the Hirata kokugaku teachings to thrust Tsugaru into the larger spiritual landscape of Imperial Japan. In chapter six, the imagining of the dual “countries” of Tsugaru and Imperial Japan is examined in Ariyo’s poetry and prose about the sacred Mount Iwaki and the gods who preside over the peaks. His Enjoyment Visible and Invisible emphasizes enjoyment as the key to living a meaningful life extending from this world to the afterlife, while his norito ref lect his reverence for gods and ancestors. Chapter seven tells the history of the Meiji Restoration in Hirosaki domain. Amid the turmoil and uncertainty of the Boshin civil war, Hirosaki domain transferred allegiance from the shogunal forces to the new government and demonstrated its loyalty to the court by fighting rival Morioka. Hirata disciple Yamada Yōnoshin (1843–68) died in this battle. Shinto priests then performed the shōkonsai (“call back the soul”) funerary ritual to honor these soldiers who died for the emperor. The eighth and final chapter illustrates how the Tsugaru group experienced modernity in the early Meiji period, including the transformation of their “country” into a prefecture within the modern nation

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of Imperial Japan. The astonishing growth of the Hirata academy followed by its precipitous decline ref lect failed attempts to make Shinto and kokugaku the central ideology of the Meiji state, which increasingly adopted Western thought and institutions for modernizing society. Ariyo served as leader of the group until his death. Shinto priests carried out the Separation of Shinto and Buddhism reform, and Shimozawa Yasumi (1838–96) was commissioned to immortalize Tsugaru history by compiling histories and poetry anthologies. While holding fast to his devotion to the gods and Imperial studies, Rosen was startled by the drastic changes in modern society, which appeared to him increasingly alien to the true nature of Japan.

Ch a p ter 1

Seeing the “Country” of Tsugaru in Northeastern Japan

Hirosaki domain represents a fascinating case of a “country” that underwent transformation within an evolving Japanese state. In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the Tsugaru family asserted its dominance over its conquered territory on the northeastern edge of Japan’s main island. They ingratiated themselves with the rulers of Japan by forming political alliances and even offering the gifts of hawks to these overlords. Tsugaru’s leaders endeavored to secure a place for their “country” within Japan’s political realm by negotiating political alliances and fulfilling military service. The Tsugaru fought for the Tokugawa clan at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and forged relations with leading noble families of the court in Kyoto. Positioned in the northeast, Tsugaru accepted orders from the Tokugawa shogunate and dispatched soldiers to the northern island of Ezo to support the Japanese state in conf licts against the Indigenous Ainu and security threats from the Russians. At home, Hirosaki domain asserted authority over the Ainu inhabiting the Tsugaru peninsula. Mindful of their peripheral location far from Edo and Kyoto, the Tsugaru daimyo sponsored education and scholarship in Hirosaki, inviting NeoConfucian scholar Yamaga Sokō to lecture in the domain and establishing the domainal school of Keikokan. In the backdrop of Hirosaki castle town’s officially sponsored learning aimed at the young samurai elite, two young merchant-class intellectuals pursued culture and education. Hirao Rosen 13

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fostered his childhood passion for art by becoming a painter and ethnographic researcher, while his friend and classmate Tsuruya Ariyo developed his craft as a poet. In their backwater region, these young men learned from notable teachers, while yearning for the advanced scholarship of Edo. Through their artistic and scholarly works, Rosen and Ariyo expressed visions of their local “country” of Tsugaru embedded in a larger Japan.

Hirosaki Castle Town, Tsugaru Country, and Japan’s Northeast Hirosaki domain, or the “country of Tsugaru,” formed the northwestern part of Mutsu province in premodern times and today occupies the western region of Aomori prefecture, positioned at the northernmost edge of Japan’s main island of Honshu (figure 1.1). Encompassing the Tsugaru plain and the central pillar of Mount Iwaki, this region typically experiences short summers and long cold winters, and due to its position on the Sea of Japan coast it receives large amounts of rain and snowfall.1 We will see the seasons described vividly in poetry, prose, and artwork by the intellectuals of this area. From its source in the Shirakami mountains, Iwaki River f lows northward through the Tsugaru plain, draining into Tosa (or Jūsan) Lake and out into the Sea of Japan. The river provided irrigation for agriculture and a transport route for shipping rice as nengu, or grain tax, and other commercial goods to the coast to be shipped further on, usually down the western coast.2 There were four major ports in Hirosaki—Tosa, Fukaura, Ajigasawa, and Aomori—and with the exception of Aomori which faces the southernmost edge of Mutsu Bay, all of them face the Sea of Japan. Accordingly, the domain traded primarily along the western route leading to the “kamigata” region of Osaka and Kyoto, as opposed to the eastern route leading to Edo.3 The major waterway separating Hirosaki from the northern island of Ezo, present-day Hokkaido, is the Tsugaru Strait, referred to from ancient times as the “path of the sea” (umi no michi).4 1. Ravina, Land and Lordship, 115. 2. The Hirosaki region has a rich history of rice cultivation. Excavations of the Tareyanagi remains uncovered irrigated paddies from the Yayoi period (fourth century BCE to third century CE) that are believed to have been the northernmost rice fields from that era. The discovery of rice and farming tools from the ninth to tenth centuries suggests rice cultivation was also practiced during the Heian period (794–1185). Hasegawa Seiichi, Tsugaru, Matsumae, to umi no michi (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 2001), 54–56, 60. Hasegawa Seiichi, Hirosaki han (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 2004), 47, 48, 69–71. 3. Ravina, Land and Lordship, 115. 4. Hasegawa, Tsugaru, Matsumae, to umi no michi, 2.

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Figure 1.1.

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Map: Early Modern Japan and Hirosaki.

The Ushū highway, the major artery of Mutsu and Dewa provinces of the northeastern region, passed through Hirosaki castle town.5 Hirosaki domain (han), also referred to as Tsugaru domain or Tsugaru territory, was regularly identified as the “country of Tsugaru” (Tsugaru no kuni), after the family that established control over the region in the late sixteenth century and successively ruled the domain throughout the Tokugawa period

5. Ravina, Land and Lordship, 115.

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(figures 1.2, 1.3). Historians have pieced together the origins of the Tsugaru family by scrutinizing sources rife with contention and uncertainty. In the latter half of the fourteenth century, the Nanbu clan prevailed over the Andō clan and seized control of the region. Tsugaru Unification Record, or Tsugaru ittōshi, traces the Tsugaru family line back to Ōura Mitsunobu as its early founder, who in 1491 moved from Kuji in Nanbu territory to Tsugaru where

Figure 1.2.

Map: Hirosaki domain.

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Figure 1.3.

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Hirosaki Castle. Photograph by author.

he established Shuri castle.6 Four generations later, Ōura Tamenori, lord of Ōura castle, married his daughter Inu hime to Tamenobu (1550–1607), making Tamenobu the heir to the Ōura line. Ōura Tamenobu asserted authority over the Tsugaru plain and waged war to wrest control of this territory from the rival daimyo house, the Nanbu.7 From 1571 to 1585, Tamenobu led sieges against the Nanbu and drove them from major castles in the region, and by 1585, many vassals from Nanbu defected to the Tsugaru house. In 1727, the fifth daimyo, Lord Tsugaru Nobuhisa (1669–1746), commissioned Kitamura Masakata (1682–1729), Confucian scholar and grandson of Yamaga Sokō, to compile the aforementioned Tsugaru ittōshi, a history of the founding of the domain by Mitsunobu and Tamenobu, as well as deeds of the Tsugaru lords up to Nobuhisa’s birth. As an “official history,” this ten-volume collection was utilized by the Tsugaru lords to justify their conquest and claims over their landholdings. Nanbu records give a vastly different account. They claim that Tamenobu had belonged to the Kuji house, a lesser branch of the Nanbu line; then left 6. Aomori kenritsu toshokan, ed., Tsugaru ittōshi (Aomori: Aomori ken sōsho kankōkai, 1953); Honda Shin, Shiriizu han monogatari: Hirosaki han (Tokyo: Gendai shokan, 2008), 73–74; Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 1–34. 7. Ravina, Land and Lordship, 116–17.

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his family over conf licts with his older brother and aligned with the Ōura house. This version casts Tamenobu as a traitorous defector who seized territory from land formerly held by the Nanbu house and established an independent line.8 In contrast, Tsugaru sources idealize Tamenobu as a “wise, good general” and “gifted with wisdom, benevolence, and courage,” citing the Chinese classical text Doctrine of the Mean. There is general agreement, however, that after Ōura Tamenobu forced the Nanbu out of Aburakawa castle and took over the region, he proceeded to wage war against the Ainu who resisted the new conquerors. Tamenobu forced the Ainu from an area stretching from midstream of the Iwaki River out to the western seacoast of Tsugaru in order to monopolize the trading rights to Tosa port that extended southward down the Sea of Japan coast and northward to Ezo island. A document based on contemporaries’ accounts, offered to Tamenobu, praises Tamenobu for his military leadership and courage in subduing “different areas” and “distant islands,” and in “swallowing up neighboring lands.”9 It also recognizes Lord Tamenobu for being honored with the Fujiwara name and halting the “northern enemy.” In addition to being an effective military leader, Tamenobu proved politically adept, ingratiating himself with the presiding rulers of the realm. Powerful warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537–98) conquered daimyo and gained control of the Sea of Japan coast, Shikoku, and Kyushu through the 1580s, then successfully laid siege to Odawara in 1590, expanding his inf luence into the northeast. Hideyoshi extended his “Sword Hunt” edict into Mutsu and Dewa as part of his unification of the realm. In 1589, Tamenobu aligned himself with Hideyoshi and in the tradition of Sengoku daimyo, Tamenobu sent Kanpaku (Imperial Regent) Hideyoshi a gift of two young hawks, aged one and three years old. Hasegawa Seiichi explains that Tamenobu made this gesture to clearly demonstrate his will of submission under Hideyoshi’s authority, as hawk giving by the Tohoku daimyo represented the incorporation of this region into the early modern state.10 An enthusiastic patron of this custom, Hideyoshi issued a vermillion seal letter to Tamenobu dated the thirty-first day of the tenth month in 1591, which ordered the major lodging areas along the Sea of Japan coast toward the Kyoto capital to provide accommodations and provisions for the hawks. This helped to establish a route for hawk giving, which the Tsugaru and other Tohoku daimyo, along with the Matsumae of Ezo, utilized through the early modern period.

8. Honda, Shiriizu han monogatari: Hirosaki han, 12–14. 9. Honda, Shiriizu han monogatari: Hirosaki han, 12–14. 10. Hasegawa Seiichi, Kinsei kokka to Tohoku daimyo (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 1998), 8–36.

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In 1590, the central regime endorsed Tamenobu’s authority by recognizing the area under his control, the Tsugaru plain, as independent of Nanbu territory, and in that same year he joined the daimyo of Dewa to pay respects to Hideyoshi in Kyoto. He was awarded the family name Tsugaru in the following year. In 1592, Hideyoshi ordered the domains in Kyushu, Chugoku, and Shikoku to mobilize armies to invade Korea and wage war against Ming China, which resulted in two disastrous invasions, also known as the Imjin War, fought across the Korean peninsula and its waters.11 The eastern daimyo were summoned to Nagoya castle to provide support. While there, following a request to him from Tamenobu, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542–1616) with the help of Maeda Toshiie (1538–99), founder of the Kaga domain, mediated a truce between the houses of Tsugaru and those of Nanbu and Akita, who had warred in the Sengoku period. The Tsugaru house offered hawks as gifts to Ieyasu, thus cultivating closer ties with the Tokugawa, a tradition they continued with later shoguns under Tokugawa hegemony. At the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, the Tsugaru house, formerly a vassal of Hideyoshi, supported Ieyasu and fought with his Eastern Army, contributing to its victory. Thereafter, Ieyasu awarded Tamenobu a formal investiture of 47,000 koku of land.12 The Tsugaru daimyo were classified as tozama or “outside” lords, because they were not originally Tokugawa vassals but, nevertheless, fought alongside them at Sekigahara. As tozama daimyo, the vassals of Tsugaru lords could not serve in high positions within the shogunate. In 1610, Ieyasu gave the magnificent eight-fold screens of the battle known as Sekigahara kassen byōbu, or Tsugaru byōbu, to his adopted daughter Mate hime as part of her dowry before her marriage to Tsugaru Nobuhira (1586–1631), Tamenobu’s third son and the second Tsugaru daimyo. These screens attest to the Tsugaru clan’s support for Ieyasu and the Eastern Army.13 In 1805, the Tokugawa shogunate increased the Tsugaru clan’s land holdings to 70,000 koku, and to 100,000 koku in 1808, both rewards for military service in defending Ezo against the Russians, although the domain’s actual holdings by 1700 had reached almost 300,000 koku.14

11. See James B. Lewis, ed., The East Asian War, 1592–1598: International Relations, Violence, and Memory (London and New York: Routledge, 2015). 12. Ravina, Land and Lordship, 117. A koku is a unit used for measuring rice grains, amounting to roughly 180 liters. Land during premodern times was measured, not in area, but by its agricultural yield. 13. Marius B. Jansen, The Making of Modern Japan (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2000), 1; Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 28. 14. Ravina, Land and Lordship, 117.

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Over many subsequent generations the Tsugaru clan made rigorous efforts to justify their rule over the territory they conquered and to enhance their genealogy by associating themselves with elite families of the court. On the twenty-seventh day of the first month of 1600, the Imperial court officially recognized Tamenobu as “Fujiwara Tamenobu,” thus acknowledging the Tsugaru house as originating from the main branch of the Fujiwara house. In the late seventeenth century, fourth daimyo Tsugaru Nobumasa (1646–1710) drew up a genealogy which claimed that in the early sixteenth century the family had changed its name from Genji (Minamoto) to Tōji (Fujiwara), thereby seeking earlier precedents for asserting Tsugaru’s independence from the Nanbu house that claimed descent from the Minamoto clan. Having thus written out the Nanbu connection and written in a Fujiwara connection, the Tsugaru next moved on to trying to incorporate ties with the Konoe family, who were the highest-ranking of the five families descending from the noble Fujiwara clan. In a ceremony resembling sankin kōtai, or alternate attendance, to Edo, the Tsugaru daimyo delivered the family genealogy to the Konoe family by procession to Kyoto, and these gestures were recognized by a seal of certification from the head of the Konoe. From 1679 to 1680, daimyo Tsugaru Nobumasa requested Kanpaku Konoe Motohiro (1648–1722) to create in his own handwriting a new genealogy for the Tsugaru house. For acceding to this request, the Tsugaru clan sent the Konoe family large sums of money and gifts in gratitude. Hasegawa observes that the Tsugaru clan struggled over the issue of genealogy when the Tokugawa shogunate, because of discrepancies between central and local documents, repeatedly inquired about their ties with the Konoe. Tsugaru’s ties with the Konoe noble family would prove to have a fateful inf luence on domainal politics at the time of the Meiji Restoration. Hirosaki domain maintained a proportionately large band of vassals given its small peasant population, according to Mark Ravina. Data from the early Meiji period indicates that in Hirosaki 4,338 retainers were supported by a commoner population of 229,006, equal to 1.89 retainer stipends supported by every 100 commoners.15 While these figures represent the demographics of a relatively stable period after 1868, there were times of instability during the Tokugawa years when this balance was strained. The production of rice grain, consumed both locally and exported, remained the largest source of revenue, while grains and lumber were also major exports.16 Throughout the

15. Compared to other domains, this ratio was lower than in Yonezawa (6.77), but higher than in Tokushima (1.06). Ravina, Land and Lordship, 118. 16. Ravina, Land and Lordship, 119.

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nineteenth century, the government in Hirosaki continued to encourage high grain production, because they could not rely on tax revenue from commercial products that remained underdeveloped. In 1815, taxes on crafts and industries other than sake totaled less than one percent of the domain’s income, and, despite government promotion, Tsugaru nuri, a famous local lacquerware, collected limited revenue. The domain is characterized by limited protoindustrial activity, with a relatively underdeveloped economy. Hirosaki and eastern Japan were decimated by natural disasters, which led to the Tenmei famine of the 1780s and the Tenpō famine of the 1830s. The latter resulted from unusually cold weather and strong rains that destroyed crops throughout the countryside.17 In his journal, Tsuruya Ariyo recorded— albeit two decades after the fact—the harvests during these difficult years: “terrible harvest” in 1833; “bountiful year” in 1834; “bad rice harvest” in 1835; and “half harvest” in 1837.18 These descriptions are consistent with records in the Eihō nikki, or Journal of the Eihō Years. In 1831, the year before the bad harvests began in Hirosaki, the domain collected tax revenue amounting to 156,500 koku, but two years later this plummeted to 22,323 koku, one-seventh the original figure.19 Peasant starvation and f light caused major depopulation. For example, over a seven-year period from 1832 to 1838 the population plunged when 35,616 people died in Hirosaki and another 47,043 f led the domain.20 Such f luctuating demographics caused economic instability, and the Tsugaru regime repeatedly attempted to increase the farming population, including resettling samurai as farm workers and inviting immigrants from other regions. To boost grain production, the domain carried out largescale shinden kaihatsu, or development of new agricultural fields, on a level unprecedented in Japan under Tokugawa rule.21 While many domains during the Kansei Reforms (1787 to 1793) mobilized samurai to work the land,

17. Ravina, Land and Lordship, 147. 18. Tsuruya Ariyo, Kaganabe, vol. 1 (Hirosaki: Hirosaki City Public Library). 19. The following year, in 1834, revenue stabilized again at 158,256 koku, but in 1836 and 1838, figures peaked in the 40,000 koku range, about one-third, and never reached 100,000 in the other years. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 209. 20. Fleeing the domain was merely one expression of commoner dissatisfaction with the conditions in Hirosaki. Protest through breaking and damaging of property (uchikowashi) occurred in Aomori town against wealthy farmers, merchants, and town officials who hoarded grain and were blamed as the root of the fiscal problems. There was also criticism of the lavish personal spending by the daimyo. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 211–12. 21. Over the course of the Tokugawa period, Hirosaki domain increased its number of villages as well as its percentage of arable land many times over. In 1600, there were 133 villages in the domain producing 47,000 koku, while a cadastral survey in 1872 reveals these numbers multiplied to 836 villages yielding 340,000 koku: the domain’s arable land rose 623%, while the number of villages increased by 528%. Ravina, Land and Lordship in Early Modern Japan, 118, 120.

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Hirosaki has been described as the only one to fully implement this policy in land development and reclamation.22 Because of its position on the northern edge of Honshu, Hirosaki domain was continually tasked by the Japanese state to carry out military duty by dispatching soldiers to the northern island of Ezo, a contribution that is emphasized in Tsugaru ittōshi. Ezo was inhabited by the Ainu, Indigenous peoples of the northern part of present-day Japan including northern Honshu, who also lived on Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands. Ainu culture developed through earlier contact with other cultures on the archipelago, and their livelihood was based on fishing, hunting, gathering, and trade.23 The Ainu resided in villages called kotan, established by rivers and the seacoast, and lived revering the kamuy, or deities. In the iyomante or “sending away” ceremony, the Ainu raised bear cubs and ritually killed and venerated them, in the belief that they liberated the bear spirit to return to the world of kamuy.24 The Ainu referred to Ezo as Ainu Mosir, “the land where humans live.”25 From the late sixteenth to early seventeenth century, Hideyoshi and Ieyasu invested the Matsumae family with trading rights in Ezo as a part of Japanese state conquest of the northern island, which led to Matsumae domain’s monopoly over trade with the Ainu under Tokugawa authority.26 Due to the cold, northern climate of Ezo, Matsumae had limited agricultural production and, instead, relied heavily on trade with the Ainu. In response to Matsumae’s exploitative trade policies, charismatic Ainu leader Shakushain (d. 1669) led an alliance of Ainu forces in the sixth month of 1669 to attack the Japanese in Shiraoi on the eastern coast of Ezo, which marked the beginning of a war between the Ainu and the Japanese.27 After receiving reports of Ainu attacks against the Japanese

22. Hashimoto Hitoshi, “Kansei kaikaku to hanshi dochaku seisaku,” in Tsugaru han no kisoteki kenkyū, ed. Hasegawa Seiichi (Tokyo: Kokusho kankōkai, 1984), 331–94. 23. Brett L. Walker, The Conquest of Ainu Lands: Ecology and Culture in Japanese Expansion, 1590–1800 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), 17–47. 24. The bear provided valuable gifts of fur, gallbladder, and meat to kotan villages. Therefore, out of gratitude the Ainu raised and sacrificed the bear, held a feast to venerate its spirit with gifts of sake and rice, and sent it to the kamuy world. The iyomante ceremony was also conducted with owls, eagles, and other animals. Kikuchi Isao, Ainu minzoku to Nihonjin: Higashi Ajia no naka no Ezochi (Tokyo: Asahi shinbunsha, 1994), 57–58, 98–100. 25. In the Ainu language, “Ainu” means “human.” Mai Ishihara, “The Silent History of Ainu Liminars,” in “Hokkaidō 150: Settler Colonialism and Indigeneity in Modern Japan and Beyond,” Tristan R. Grunow et al., Critical Asian Studies 51, no. 4 (2019), 618. 26. Howell, Capitalism From Within: Economy, Society, and the State in a Japanese Fishery (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), 27–35. 27. Walker describes the complexity of Shakushain’s war as a watershed event in the Japanese conquest of Ezo, which entailed not only ethnic conf lict between the Ainu and Japanese, but also fighting between Ainu chiefdoms. Walker, 48–72.

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in Ezo, Hirosaki and Morioka (also known as Nanbu) responded to shogunal orders and mobilized soldiers to help put down the conf lict. Tsugaru vassal Sugiyama Hachibei led over seven hundred troops to Ezo in the ninth month to support Matsumae, though ultimately they saw no fighting as the conf lict was nearly over. In addition, Hirosaki spies surveyed the region and documented conf licts between the Ainu and the Matsumae over natural resources as well as the latter’s exploitative trade practices. Matsumae officials demarcated a border between the “Wajinchi,” or “Japanese territory” in the southern region of Ezo, which the Japanese governed and settled, and the “Ezochi,” the territories where the Ainu resided and pursued their livelihood.28 In principle, the Ainu were only permitted to enter the Wajinchi to conduct uimam, or trade, in which the Ainu presented goods, including fish and animal pelts, and offered greetings to the daimyo, and received goods in return such as rice, cloth, and metal products.29 In turn, the Japanese were prohibited from living permanently in the Ezochi and had to obtain permission to travel there for seasonal trade and fishing. From the perspective of Matsumae, the Ainu not only brought valuable products but also demonstrated ritual submission to Matsumae; while the Ainu appear to have acquiesced to the ritual demands for the practical reason of securing needed goods. Ainu communities resided in northern Honshu in villages across Shimokita and Tsugaru peninsulas. Hirosaki maps and documents referred to these Ainu villages as “Ezo mura” or “Teki mura,” identifying them as foreign communities within domainal territory.30 The Ainu fished salmon and trout from the Iwaki River, sailed the ocean to catch marine life, and hunted and

28. David L. Howell, Geographies of Identity in Nineteenth-Century Japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), 119–130; Tabata Hiroshi, Kuwabara Masato, Funatsu Isao, and Sekiguchi Akira, Hokkaido no rekishi (Tokyo: Yamakawa shuppansha, 2015), 70–98; and Segawa Takuro, Ainu no rekishi: Umi to takara no nomado (Tokyo: Kodansha sensho mechie, 2019), 44–51. 29. While the Ainu are believed to have used the term uimam to mean “trade,” many Japanese assumed uimam was derived from the Japanese word omemie and therefore meant an “audience” with the daimyo. Closely associated with the uimam was the umsa, which originally referred to an elaborate greeting Ainu performed when reuniting after a long time apart. The Japanese began performing the umsa, giving greetings and gifts as part of trade ritual; however, they eventually co-opted this ritual to assert their superior position, forbidding the Ainu from trading with other merchants or issuing other orders. Tabata Hiroshi et al., Hokkaido no rekishi, 93. Howell, Geographies of Identity, 119–25. 30. Using discriminatory language, Hirosaki officials used the Chinese characters 犾村 and 狄村 to represent “Ezo mura” or “Teki mura”; the first of these compounds begins with a character that contains the 犬 radical meaning “dog.” Tanaka, Sakurako (Sherry), “The Ainu of Tsugaru: The Indigenous History and Shamanism of Northern Japan.” (PhD diss., University of British Columbia, 2000), 92–98.

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gathered on land. Namikawa Kenji observes that soon after the uimam was regularized in Matsumae, it was also conducted by Hirosaki domain from 1662 and Morioka domain from 1665, with Ainu inhabiting the Shimokita and Tsugaru peninsulas, respectively.31 In 1707, an uimam was conducted at Hirosaki castle that reportedly confirmed the succession of three Ainu headmen and saw the Ainu present goods to the Tsugaru daimyo in exchange for gifts of sake. This ritual was not limited to the castle. The Tsugaru daimyo, while making official tours of the domain, also conducted uimam when they visited Ainu villages. During a domainal tour in 1694, daimyo Tsugaru Nobumasa visited Minmaya village, on the northern Tsugaru peninsula coast, for an uimam where he witnessed the Ainu perform archery, a sake ritual, and music and dance. Through such rituals the Hirosaki daimyo attempted to demonstrate the legitimacy of their rule, not only to the Ainu but also to the Japanese themselves. The domain recognized the Ainu as a distinct status group. While the Ainu were exempt from paying the nengu (grain tax) and some other duties, they were required to fulfill feudal obligations such as shipping services to and from Matsumae and providing marine products.32 By extension, in 1669, Hirosaki mobilized the Ainu of northern Tsugaru to serve as sailors and interpreters in the state’s war efforts against the Ainu of Ezo. In 1756 and 1806, Hirosaki domain carried out the official assimilation of the Ainu by integrating them into the Japanese census register (ninbetsuchō) as commoners, or “heimin.”33 During the Tokugawa period many Ainu took up farming, women abandoned face tattoos, men shaved their faces and pates, and all spoke Japanese. Others maintained their traditional livelihood and culture, resisting assimilation under state authority into the nineteenth century, with some Ainu villages remaining visibly distinct even into the early Meiji period.34 Moreover, some Japanese lived in Ainu villages, and many Japanese of northern Honshu were culturally inf luenced by the Ainu.35 Hirosaki was called on to help the Tokugawa state deal with the Russians f rom the north. In 1792, a Russian envoy led by Lieutenant Adam Laxman (1766–1806) arrived at Nemuro in Ezo seeking trade relations with

31. Namikawa Kenji, Kinsei Nihon to Hoppō shakai (Tokyo: Sanseidō, 1992), 54–63; Howell, Geographies of Identity, 121–22. 32. Namikawa Kenji, Kinsei Nihon to Hoppō shakai, 71–74; Takeda Ayumi, “Kinsei zenki ni okeru Hirosaki han no Ainu shihai ni tsuite: Matsumae hikyaku kaisō no jittai kara,” Hirosaki Daigaku kokushi kenkyū 118 (March 2005): 25–42. 33. Kikuchi Isao, Ainu minzoku to Nihonjin: Higashi Ajia no naka no Ezochi, 84–86. 34. Sakurako (Sherry) Tanaka, “The Ainu of Tsugaru,” 98–112. 35. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 186–91.

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Japan, and in the fifth month of the following year, the Tokugawa shogunate sent inspectors (metsuke) Ishikawa Tadafusa and Murakami Yoshiaya to meet with the Russian envoy.36 The daimyo of Matsumae domain in Ezo, representing the shogunate, rejected Laxman’s request, stating that trade was only conducted through Nagasaki and issued a permit for a Russian vessel to enter Nagasaki port.37 The shogunate ordered the Morioka and Hirosaki domains to dispatch troops to provide security for this meeting between the Matsumae daimyo, Edo inspectors, and the Russian envoy, and in response Morioka sent 379 men while Hirosaki sent 281.38 Then in the eleventh month of 1799 the shogunate further expanded the role of the two domains, ordering Morioka and Hirosaki to provide security for East Ezo by stationing troops in Hakodate, which would include two or three administrators and 500 foot soldiers (ashigaru). In 1804 this order was extended to provide longterm security in East Ezo.39 In the following year, the Tokugawa shogunate and northern domains faced a serious test on the northern island, which left local residents alarmed at threats from the north. In 1805, Nikolai Rezanov (1764–1807), director of the new Russian-American Company, arrived in Nagasaki with the permit issued by the shogunate to Laxman, and demanded that commercial relations commence.40 These demands were f latly rejected. Angered by the Tokugawa regime’s hard-line policy, in the following years Russian officers led retaliatory raids on Japanese posts in Etorofu, the largest of the Kuril Isles, and Ezo, which were met with Japanese cannon fire along the Hirosaki coast aimed at the advancing Russians.41 The Hirosaki domainal diary records that the Russians then countered with advanced howitzer artillery, capsizing Japanese ships. The records report that as many as 700 Japanese died. It is evident that, from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Tsugaru’s inhabitants were exposed to national security threats from the north. However, the region’s harsh winters and malnutrition caused by inadequate food supplies often caused as many if not more fatalities among security personnel than the

36. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 152. The Russian envoy also came to return two Japanese castaways, including Daikokuya Kōdayū, who proved to be important bargaining chips in its negotiations with the Tokugawa regime. 37. John Whitney Hall, Japan: From Prehistory to Modern Times (Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing, 2002), 248. 38. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 153. 39. As Hasegawa notes, this was not only a security measure, but also an infrastructural one, as part of the work in Ezo involved building and repairing roads and guard houses. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 154. 40. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 155. 41. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 155–56.

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conf lict itself. Service in Ezo brought hardship and a high number of casualties to soldiers assigned to security there.42 In return for their services in securing Ezo, the Tsugaru daimyo received two-month reductions in the alternate attendance travels to Edo.43 In 1822, the shogunate transferred defense of Ezo from Hirosaki to Matsumae domain, but still required Hirosaki to maintain a hundred soldiers for dispatch in case of emergencies.44 Thereafter, in order to defend its own coastline, Hirosaki domain prepared naval fortifications, procured hundreds of guns and cannons, and invested in the small-scale manufacture of arms. In the third month of 1852, Chōshū domainal samurai and military strategist Yoshida Shōin (1830–59), who visited Hirosaki castle town and the domain during his travels in Tohoku and his surveys of military security, noted the relatively small number of personnel defending the domain’s coastline.45 The cost of modernizing the military grew onerous, and the domainal government eventually passed this financial burden onto its retainers. In 1864, the domain issued an order to retainers receiving stipends over 100 koku to provide a gun for every 100 koku of income. Thus, Japan’s encounters with the Russians in 1792 and 1805, and subsequent military confrontations, combined with earlier clashes with the Ainu, heightened awareness among the shogunate as well as local domains assigned to the security mission regarding imminent threats and conf licts. Let us now turn our attention f rom matters of statehood and security to internal matters of learning within the domain. Education and scholarship in Hirosaki domain were supported generously by the fourth daimyo, Tsugaru Nobumasa. An enthusiastic patron of learning, Nobumasa expended considerable resources on studies of Confucianism and military science (heigaku), believing a ruler should be educated and disciplined in order to fulfill his duties.46 He invited Confucian scholar and military strategist Yamaga Sokō (1622–85) and other prominent scholars to lecture in his domain, and he supported the education of samurai in both civil and

42. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 159–60. 43. Ravina, Land and Lordship, 152. 44. Ravina, Land and Lordship, 152. 45. Yoshida Shōin, Tohoku yū nikki, in Yoshida Shōin zenshū, ed. Yamaguchi ken kyōikukai (Tokyo: Daiwa shobō, 1972–74), 9:238–47. 46. Nobumasa enrolled as a disciple in Confucianist Yamaga Sokō’s school and took up studies in Ancient Learning (kogaku), inviting Sokō to give lectures in Hirosaki. In 1670, Nobumasa also enrolled as a student of Yoshikawa Koretaru (1616–94), a Shinto scholar and founder of Yoshikawa Shinto. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 80.

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martial arts. Under his rule, lectures inside Hirosaki castle became a tradition.47 The eighth daimyo, Tsugaru Nobuharu (1762–91), had ambitions to create a domainal school and these were realized after his death by the ninth daimyo, Tsugaru Yasuchika (1765–1833). As plans progressed, in the eighth month of 1794 Tsugaru Nagazane (1773–1828), son of karō councillor Tsugaru Tazen, well educated in Confucianism in Hirosaki and at the Shōheikō academy in Edo, was appointed as the person chief ly responsible for establishing the school.48 Nagazane had often remarked, “It is deplorable that there is no school in Eastern Mutsu (Tōō) and that there are so few Confucianists.”49 He worked with others to oversee the building of the school after the models of the Shōheikō academy in Edo and the Jishūkan domainal school in Kumamoto. The new domainal school Keikokan, built on a 26,400-square-meter lot just southeast outside the Ōtemon f ront gate of the castle, was inaugurated in an opening ceremony on the ninth day of the seventh month of 1796.50 The new school provided education for the children of the daimyo’s vassals and some commoners. Subjects taught included the Confucian classics, military science, history, law, astronomy, writing, and general martial arts within a broad curriculum.51 The school opened with 300 students who were organized into three groups beginning f rom ages eight, fifteen, and twenty.52 Ceremonies were conducted to worship and make offerings to the spirits of Confucius and his disciples; at first, twice a year, then later once annually. As the domainal academy sponsored by the daimyo, the Keikokan serves as a useful point of reference for understanding local intellectual developments f rom late Tokugawa into early Meiji and provides context for the activities of the Tsugaru group of Hirata disciples. Matsuda Kusui (1755–1830) and Kanematsu Sekkyo (or Seigon, 1810–77), who were important instructors of the Keikokan, offered private instruction to a young Hirao Rosen. The Keikokan privileged students of elite status whom they

47. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 173. 48. Shinpen Hirosaki shishi hensan iinkai, ed., Shinpen Hirosaki shishi: Tsūshi hen 3 (Kinsei 2) (Hirosaki: Hirosaki shi kikakubu kikakuka, 2003), 580–81. 49. Shinpen Hirosaki shishi hensan iinkai, Shinpen Hirosaki shishi: Tsūshi hen 3, 581. 50. The following year, in 1797, another school, Kōdōkan, was established in Hirosaki domain’s quarters in Edo for the domain’s samurai and their children residing there. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 173–74. 51. Murakami Nao, ed., “Hirosaki han,” in Han shi dai jiten, vol. 1 of Hokkaido Tohoku hen (Tokyo: Yūzankaku shuppan, 1988), 47. 52. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 174.

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educated and trained, though as noted above, their teachers also taught commoner-class children of high academic standing.53 Financial pressure caused by bad harvests and the ongoing security duty in Ezo forced the domain to downsize the program in 1799 and eventually reduce funding from 3,000 to 300 koku. In 1808, the school was closed at its original location and replaced by a smaller school set up within the castle, with a reduced curriculum that included Confucianism, mathematics, and writing, as well as cuts in the number of teaching staff and lectures.54 Even on a smaller scale, however, the school continued to operate with new additions including a medical school in 1858, and from the late Tokugawa years onward gradually incorporated Western Learning. Osari Nakaakira (1823–1903), a Shinto priest and key member associated with the Tsugaru group, was appointed instructor and later assistant professor of Imperial studies in early Meiji.

Hirao Rosen’s Early Years Having surveyed developments in Hirosaki domain and castle town to the mid-nineteenth century, let us now look at how two merchant-class scholars lived and established themselves in this community. Hirao Rosen was born in the tenth month of 1808, the eldest son of Hirao Tōjirō, who managed Obama-ya, a fishmonger located at 80 Kon’ya-chō, Hirosaki castle town (figure 1.4).55 Rosen’s original name was Sukemune, and his common name was Hatsusaburō, by which he was referred to during his younger years. As an artist he used Kōsai, as well as Rosen as a haikai poet. He took the Japanese pronunciation of Rosen, from 蘆川 (or 芦川), and later changed the characters to 魯僊 (or 魯仙), which have the same pronunciation as the former. This is the name by which he is known posthumously, and for the sake of consistency I refer to him throughout this book as Rosen. Not far from the other side of the river was Nishihama, a port town on the Sea of Japan coast; situated at this junction, Kon’ya-chō was home to a concentration of

53. Shinpen Hirosaki shishi hensan iinkai, ed., Shinpen Hirosaki shishi: Tsūshi hen 3 (Kinsei 2), 598. 54. Shinpen Hirosaki shishi hensan iinkai, Tsūshi hen 3, 594–95. 55. I have based my biography of Hirao Rosen on the following texts: Mikami Sennen, Kudō Sen’otsu, Fujioka Namiki, Iwama Shitatari, and Kanematsu Sekkyo, Rosenshi (Hirosaki: Hirosaki City Public Library, 1877); Nakamura Ryōnoshin, ed., Hirao Rosen Okina (Hirosaki: Published by Hirao Chūbei, 1929); Moriyama Taitarō, “Hirao Rosen,” in Kyōdo no senjin wo kataru (7): Kanematsu Sekkyo, Hirao Rosen, Akita Ujaku, ed. Hirosaki shiritsu toshokan (Hirosaki: Hirosaki shiritsu toshokan, 1971); Kojima, “Bakumatsuki Tsugaru no minzokugakusha”; Moriyama Taitarō, “Hirao Rosen den,” Sunakose Kawaradaira wo aruita hitobito: Sugae Masumi, Hirao Rosen, Tsugaru minzoku no kai, ed. Yamashita Yusuke (Nishimeya, Aomori: Sunakose gakushūkan, 2007).

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Figure 1.4.

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Hirao Rosen portrait (Private collection). Digital data courtesy of Hirosaki City Museum.

domainal storehouses for rice and fish, and thus witnessed the regular bustle of commercial activity.56 Goods were transported and, due to this busy trade activity, information also circulated between this coast and other parts of Japan by way of both the “western route” from Kyoto and Osaka and the “eastern route” from Edo. From a young age, Rosen was recognized as intellectually gifted and perceptive, and he displayed considerable curiosity about the world around him. As a young child, Rosen is said to have memorized poems from the Ogura hundred poem collection (Hyakunin isshu) his mother recited while carrying him. He soon came to be called a “child prodigy.” From age five, Rosen loved to draw and was content to spend his days indoors with brush and paper, instead of playing like other children. For fear that their child might be affected by melancholy, his parents took away his brush and ink, only for the boy to look for charred pieces of wood and wooden shingles to carry on drawing. At age eight, he climbed Mount Iwaki, then on his return home he produced images of scenic stops along the route in the correct sequence, to the astonishment of those around him. He accurately captured the mikoshi palanquin being carried at the local Hachiman shrine, a military

56. Kojima, “Bakumatsuki Tsugaru no minzokugakusha,” 17.

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march formation, and the positions of sumo wrestlers in an arena, and he was praised as a “child artist” for his deft brushwork. Rosen’s devotion to both his studies and artwork opened opportunities for him to learn under esteemed teachers. He read and memorized writings for children. At nine years old, he enrolled in a Terakoya temple school where he read aloud and became versed in the Confucian Four Books and Five Classics. Those around him were impressed when at age eleven the boy listened to his father’s reading of Taikō ki, the biography of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and recited it from memory. That same year, Rosen received the tutelage of Matsuda Kusui, the head of classical studies at Keikokan domainal school, under whom he studied the classics and history. Recognizing that his student excelled beyond the other children and preferred drawing the natural landscape over play, Kusui sent him to study art with Kudō Gohō. After training the young man for some time, Gohō sent Rosen to study with his own teacher, Mōnai Unrin. At age fourteen, Rosen quit school and returned home to assist with the family business. This did not prevent him from learning, however, as he devoted his nights to studying, alternating between his two main subjects—painting one night, then reading books the next. Rosen continued to work and study in this way, with sparse social interaction. One day when he was sixteen or seventeen, his parents suggested that he go out and enjoy some theater. Rosen obliged and happily left home, but secretly went to a friend’s house and spent the day studying art and reading. The young man did not conform to his surroundings, and he was ridiculed for his unusual ways and nicknamed an otherworldly “sennin,” or immortal. Perhaps out of humility and humor, Hatsusaburō added the character “Ro”57 to “Sen” of sennin to adopt the name Rosen. His reading of literature included The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari), the Heian classic by Murasaki Shikibu completed around 1008 CE. Rosen composed the following waka poem, date unknown, which he introduced with a headnote, “upon reading The Tale of Genji”: Uruwashiki fude no aya koso ayashikere masura takeo mo memeshikushinaru (66)58

How unparalleled is beautiful composition by the brush, that even a magnificent man becomes effeminate.

Rosen praised the novel for its beautiful prose. The reference to the “masura takeo,” or “magnificent man,” evokes an image of the story’s protagonist, 57. The character 魯 can be read as “nibui” (dull) or “oroka” (foolish). Sen is 仙 or 僊. 58. Hirao Rosen, Hirao Rosen kashū (Hirosaki: Hirosaki City Public Library, ca. 1877), 5.

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the Shining Prince Genji, who engaged in love affairs and was “effeminate” in expressing emotion. The “magnificent man” can also refer to male readers whose emotions were stirred by this work, which some identify as the first psychological novel in the world. Here, Rosen’s verses ref lect the famous commentary by kokugaku scholar Motoori Norinaga (1730–1801), titled Shibun yōryō, or Essentials of The Tale of Genji, which declared that the value of The Tale of Genji along with tales (monogatari) in general lies in their ability to express, arouse, and cultivate in the reader the experience of mono no aware, an awareness of a “sensitivity” or “sadness to things.”59 In this regard, Norinaga too has been characterized as “effeminate” in his valuing of emotions and sensibilities to be experienced in life and in literature. Compared to his primary pursuits as an artist and scholar, Rosen did not become a prolific poet, neither by his own estimation, nor by the number of poems he composed. Nevertheless, as they did for individuals throughout Japanese history, his waka poems serve as valuable troves of information and insight on various aspects of Rosen’s life, art and scholarship, and travels throughout Tsugaru. The poem cited above is the sixty-sixth entry out of 116 in total that make up his Hirao Rosen kashū poetry anthology, compiled and collected around 1877 at the request of his f riend and fellow Hirata disciple, Shimozawa Yasumi, also f rom Hirosaki castle town.60 Although the collection was compiled in his later years, the poems themselves were composed at various occasions throughout his life. In the accompanying letter to Yasumi, Rosen admitted, “this old man is ignorant on the matter of poems,” showing a lack of self-confidence in poetry composition.61 Rosen revealed that “there are several hundred pieces resembling poems which I composed when I was enchanted and moved by something,” and yet he confessed to not having shown any of these until sending his selections on receiving his f riend’s request.62 Based on available sources, Rosen did not appear to have actively participated in poetry circles like many of his peers, even after they became the first members of the Tsugaru group of Hirata disciples and pursued poetry as a common interest. At age eighteen, Rosen learned composition and haikai poetry from the prominent poet and leader of the local haikai circle, Utsumi Sōha (1761–1837). 59. Motoori Norinaga, Shibun yōryō, in MNZ, vol. 4., ed. Ōno Susumu and Ōkubo Tadashi (Tokyo: Chikuma shobō, 1969), 1–113; Sagara Tōru, Motoori Norinaga (Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai, 1978), 69–73; Peter Nosco, Remembering Paradise, 178–80. 60. Hirao, Hirao Rosen kashū; See also Fujiwara Gideon, “Hirao Rosen cho Hirao Rosen kashū ni tsuite: (Honkoku) Hirosaki shiritsu toshokanzō Hirao Rosen kashū,” Hirosaki Daigaku kokugo bungaku 32 (March 20, 2011): 54–81. 61. Hirao, Hirao Rosen kashū, 1. 62. Hirao, Hirao Rosen kashū, 1.

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Sōha studied Chinese texts, the Ancient Way, and Buddhism, and is credited with the introduction of “Ancient Way studies” (kodōgaku) into Tsugaru. Under Sōha’s tutelage, Rosen met his lifelong friend and scholarly peer Tsuruya Ariyo who was the same age. One day, Ariyo reportedly lamented to Rosen, “Is it not shameful for us men to be born in the backwater of Eastern Mutsu and wilt in futility among the grass and trees?”63 Captivated by his friend’s words, Rosen joined Ariyo, and both are said to have ventured off for the cultural hub of Edo. While lodging in Ōwani, a nearby village, however, an acquaintance recognized the young men and reported them to their families; the two were promptly called back home. This anecdote reveals the insecurities of these two promising young students, given that they were confined to Tsugaru, a distant “backwater” far removed from the center of culture and scholarship in Edo, and it tells of their desire to “catch up.” Such self-awareness is expressed at various times in their later writings, and foreshadows their eagerness to join the Hirata network of scholars based in Edo and spread out across Japan. Failure at each attempt to set out to Edo reportedly led Rosen to become depressed and fall ill. His worried parents arranged for him to learn yōkyoku singing for noh theater, the tea ceremony, and f lower arrangement. Although Rosen did not particularly care for these cultural pursuits, he took them up, not wanting to defy his parents’ orders. He eventually found comfort again in artwork. While helping with the family business, Rosen continued learning from Unrin and eventually studied under Momokawa Gakuan, who was versed in both painting and literature. He then learned the secrets of coloring in Yamato paintings (Yamato-e chakushoku) from Kano Harukawa’s disciple, Imamura Keiju, and other painting techniques from Edo painter Sō Shihō. All the while, Rosen continued to assist with the family business. Rosen traveled widely across Tsugaru. He enjoyed the scenery, reproduced the landscape in drawings and paintings, and was inspired to compose waka poetry. The following two compositions are from his anthology; the first poem is about Mount Iwaki, and the second is introduced with the words “at Cape Tappi”: Yogire yuku Iwaki oroshi ni fuki tsurete konoha nagara ni arare tabashiru (35)64

Blown about by the wind barreling down Iwaki in gusts, the hail is violently scattered like tree leaves.

63. Nakamura Ryōnoshin, Hirao Rosen Okina, 5. 64. Hirao, Hirao Rosen kashū, 4.

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Kikinishimo masareru Tapi no misaki wa shi natsu sae samuki kaze no fukishiku (108)65

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The Cape of Tappi exceeds what I had heard; even in summer the cold winds blow frequently.

The first poem visually describes gusts of the “Iwaki oroshi,” or strong winds blowing down Mount Iwaki. The poet witnesses this wind continuously “barreling down” and scattering hail as if it were autumn leaves. The next poem tells of a cold, howling wind blowing in from the Tsugaru Strait and Sea of Japan onto the Cape of Tappi, which points across the straits toward Ezo from the northwesternmost tip of Tsugaru. Rosen may have composed this poem en route to or from Ezo. His exclamation that visiting the cape and feeling the cold wind for himself surpasses any secondhand accounts ref lects his own active approach as an artist and scholar to capture what he directly observed. Rosen learned Chinese studies and “Imperial studies” of Japan from another important instructor from the domainal school, Kanematsu Sekkyo. Such tutelage under elite teachers speaks to the fact that Rosen, a pupil of merchant background, was recognized as an intelligent and promising student worthy of high-level education, even though he was not admitted into the elite domainal school Keikokan. A domainal samurai of Hirosaki, Sekkyo was an erudite Confucian scholar who had trained at Shōheikō, the shogunatesponsored Neo-Confucian academy in Edo, before serving in multiple roles as official and scholar in Hirosaki castle town and instructor at Keikokan.66 Sekkyo was an important scholarly peer of Rosen, whose private library Rosen often perused, whose advice he sought, and who offered him current information on politics and society by providing access to key documents of the day.67 Their mutual trust is manifested in the preface Sekkyo wrote for Rosen’s major work Echoes of the Valley, or Tani no hibiki, in 1860, and in Rosen’s biography to which Sekkyo contributed. The biography recorded that “at forty, he was awakened to the right way of Imperial studies.”

65. Hirao, Hirao Rosen kashū, 7. 66. See Aso Ayumi, “Chi no baikainin Hirosaki hanshi Kanematsu Sekkyo no shōgai to shisō,” in Kinsei Nihon no gensetsu to chi: chiiki shakai no hen’yō wo meguru shisō to ishiki, ed. Namikawa Kenji and Kojima Yasunori (Osaka: Seibundō, 2013), 260–88; Kawamura Kingo, “Kanematsu Sekkyo,” in Kyōdo no senjin wo kataru (7): Kanematsu Sekkyo, Hirao Rosen, Akita Ujaku, ed. Hirosaki shiritsu toshokan (Hirosaki: Hirosaki shiritsu toshokan, 1971), 11–45; Mori Rinsuke, Kanematsu Sekkyo sensei den (Hirosaki: Shin shoten, 1931). 67. For a detailed study of how Rosen accessed current political information of this day with the help of Sekkyo, see Gideon Fujiwara, “Channeling the Undercurrents: Fūsetsudome, Information Access, and National Political Awareness in Nineteenth-Century Japan,” The Journal of Japanese Studies 43, no. 2 (Summer 2017): 319–54.

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As Kojima Yasunori suggests, this “Imperial studies” likely refers to Hirata kokugaku. Having been inf luenced by his haikai teacher Sōha, who transmitted Ancient Way studies to Tsugaru, Rosen at around forty is said to have gained conviction in his kokugaku studies, and eventually engaged Hirata kokugaku more formally.68 In 1830, Rosen married Tome, a woman from the Masuda family of merchants.69 From around this time, Rosen’s family fell into financial difficulty and he had to concentrate on the family business, putting his art and scholarship on hold for seven years. At thirty, Rosen pleaded to his father, “My nature is not suited to managing the family business. Fortunately, younger brother Saburōji possesses such acumen, and so I ask, please pass the family fortune on to him. I wish to live separately and focus on researching the way of painting.”70 Rosen’s father granted his eldest son’s request, allowing his younger son Saburōji to manage the business. Rosen moved out and resettled nearby at 178 Kon’yachō, where he resumed his artwork and studies. The year Rosen became independent and began his career as an artist, 1837, immediately followed the Tenpō famine of 1833 to 1836. Rosen struggled to earn a living through his artwork and as his family faced dire poverty, he was no longer able to rely on his inheritance as the eldest son. Out of sympathy, his parents provided him with some clothes and food. Rosen’s biography records that he gave these gifts to his wife, Tome, and handed her the following message: Although I made a nuptial vow to stay with you into old age, our household has fallen into poverty, as you see. No matter how terrible the harvest we face, however, I pledge never to abandon my research on the way of painting. Therefore, we will find ourselves deeply impoverished, and ultimately we will starve. Even the ancients said that a woman’s fortune and misfortune simply lie in the wealth or poverty of her husband. You are still young. Leave quickly and seek good relations with another.71

68. Kojima, “Bakumatsuki Tsugaru no minzokugakusha,” 19. 69. While Rosen’s biographers, including Nakamura, render the name of Rosen’s wife as 登留子 in Chinese characters, they do not verify its Japanese reading, though “Tomeko” is a possibility. Therefore, until it is verified, I will refer to her by her abbreviated name, Tome (登女), a reading that is confirmed. Nakamura Ryōnoshin, Hirao Rosen Okina, 6–7. Kojima, “Bakumatsuki Tsugaru no minzokugakusha,” 19. 70. Nakamura, Hirao Rosen Okina, 6. 71. Nakamura, Hirao Rosen Okina, 7.

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Thus Rosen wrote the customary “three-and-a-half lines” (mikudari han)72 of a divorce paper and delivered it to Tome. His young bride was upset and cried, but she reportedly tore the paper up and replied, “Unworthy as I am, how can I desire wealth or success with another having once accepted orders from my father and mother to marry you, so long as I keep my vow with you to the death? Starvation is a timely fate. Wealth is also a timely fate. In all things, I simply follow the fate of the times.”73 Rosen allegedly tried to convince his wife to leave, but she refused to hear of it. Tome sold clothes and hairpins to purchase brush and paper as she encouraged her husband: “Dedicate your heart to this and persevere in your studies! Never let poverty interfere with your ambition.”74 Thus urged on, Rosen pursued his art with renewed determination, even working on limited sleep and through the winter.75 On days when his hands could no longer endure the cold, he is said to have soaked them in frigid water until he felt warmth returning to them, then resuming to take up his brush. He honed his skills through years of dedication to painting. By age thirty-five, Rosen had gained recognition and his works were in demand, leading to a more stable life. While Rosen’s biographers are prone to hagiography, depicting the tropes of the struggling artist-scholar and dutiful wife, we can gather from these accounts that the couple overcame the vicissitudes of their early years of marriage, particularly during the very bitter years of famine, and established a home based on his professional artwork and her patient support.

Tsuruya Ariyo’s Early Life Rosen’s friend and classmate since his youth, Tsuruya Ariyo (figure 1.5), was born just four months before Rosen on the nineteenth day of the sixth month in 1808. His father was Tsuruya Uhei (1764–1828) and his mother, Masako (d. 1816) was of the Tanaka family.76 The Tsuruya family resided in

72. This document is typically longer than the “three-and-a-half lines” after which it is named. 73. Nakamura, Hirao Rosen Okina, 7. 74. Nakamura, Hirao Rosen Okina, 7. 75. Doki Yasuko, granddaughter of Rosen and Tome, ref lected on hearing her grandmother tell this story and of her determination to support her husband and the actual struggles they faced over the years. Nakamura, Hirao Rosen Okina, 61–62. 76. His original name was Takeda Otokichi. Ariyo’s biography and details about his life and activities are drawn f rom his journal Kaganabe, vol. 1 (1808–62), vol. 2 (1863–68), vol. 3, nos. 1, 2 (1868–71), (Hirosaki: Hirosaki City Public Library). See also Gideon Fujiwara, “Rebirth of a Hirata School Nativist: Tsuruya Ariyo and His Kaganabe Journal,” in Values, Identity, and Equality in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Japan, ed. James Ketelaar, Peter Nosco, and Yasunori Kojima (Leiden: Brill, 2015).

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Figure 1.5. Tsuruya Ariyo portrait (Gappo sharimoishi). Hirosaki City Public Library.

Watoku-chō in Hirosaki castle town. Tragically, Masako died on the sixth day of the twelfth month in 1816 when young Ariyo was just eight years old. In 1819, Ariyo was adopted by the family of physician Wakayama Yūgi, who also lived in Watoku-chō, though he returned home a short time later. From 1822 to 1827, from age fourteen through nineteen, he served merchant Utsumi

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Shigeyoshi, whom he called his master. In 1828, when he was nineteen, Ariyo mourned the death of his father, who died on the first day of the fifth month. That same year, Ariyo began serving the Ikōs, a wealthy merchant family who ran a shop in Honchō-nichōme. He worked for them for eight years, specifically for Ikō Hachitarō, during which time he interacted with other merchants including the successful clothing merchant, Kanagiya Matasaburō. In 1832, Ariyo married the younger sister of Nakanoya Harusaburō. Ariyo’s wife bore a daughter, Ito, on the twenty-first day of the seventh month in 1841. Five years later in 1846, their son Gentarō was born. Like Rosen, as a student of merchant background, Ariyo also acquired an advanced education from his youth and demonstrated an aptitude for poetry. From his teenage years, he nightly studied haikai poetry, essay composition, and Chinese writings, while working during the day. Ariyo studied under the aforementioned scholar Utsumi Sōha, during which time, as noted above, he met his lifelong friend Hirao Rosen. After Sōha’s death, Ariyo resumed his studies under Mitani Kubutsu. Ariyo developed into a prolific poet of threeverse, seventeen-syllable haikai as well as five-verse, thirty-one-syllable waka poetry, and produced several large collections of haikai and waka.77 His journal Kaganabe suggests that serious engagement with “Ancient Way studies” began for Ariyo in 1848, which, at age forty, is close to when Rosen is believed to have earnestly begun “Imperial studies” at around the same age. Ariyo’s poetic ability earned him local recognition, positioning him as a prospective leader of poetic circles and, eventually, the circle of Hirata-disciple kokugaku scholars, a matter we will explore in detail in chapter four.

Rosen’s Art and Ethnographic Studies Rosen was “sincere and honest” and habitually recorded everything that he heard, according to biographer Nakamura Ryōnoshin.78 His skills of perception are on display in meticulous accounts of strange, mysterious, and spiritual phenomena and objects in his Strange Tales of Gappo, or Gappo kidan, and Echoes of the Valley. Rosen regularly kept f lowers on his desk, or carp and other fish in a water tank, to observe them in close detail. His

77. Ariyo’s many volumes of haikai and waka poetry include such printed haikai collections as Kamikaze chō (Book of Divine Wind), Haikai shūyōshū shohen (Haikai Collection First Volume), Renku tsuke ai haikai shūyōshū (Linked Verse and Haikai Collection), Hana senfu (Flower Collection), Hana no i shū (Flower Well Collection), and Hōshinshū (New Collection of Fragrances). Iwaki san sanbyaku shu (Three Hundred Poems of Mount Iwaki) is his collection of over 300 waka poems on the subject of Mount Iwaki of the Tsugaru region. 78. Nakamura, Hirao Rosen Okina, 9.

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artistic productions comprised booklets of sketches and paintings of nature— including f lowers, fish, animals, people, and objects from daily life.79 He stressed the importance of directly observing objects and people before drawing or painting their image, and severely scolded a young disciple for painting the image of a Chinese child without adequately studying the appearance and behavior of actual children.80 Rosen urged the painter to begin with a faithful image of objects in their original state, and idealize the image only later. This method appears to resonate with the following maxim he upheld: “First follow the law, then later abandon the law.” In order to depict historical people with accuracy, Rosen studied kojitsu (rituals), laws, and etiquette. Among his books of sketches and paintings there are some devoted to military armory and weaponry. Rosen also collected and studied ancient earthenware and stone vessels as well as other archaeological findings, particularly in the Tsugaru area.81 He provided sketches of unearthed vessels and artifacts, accompanied by explanations, in Strange Tales of Gappo. Early modern records of Hirosaki document excavations of sites f rom ancient times, including Jōmon sites such as Kamegaoka, located in the southwest part of the Tsugaru plain in marshland just west of current-day Tsugaru city.82 Margarita Winkel observes that scholars conducting ethnographic studies in Tokugawa Japan adopted the practice of evidential research ( J., kōshōgaku; C., kaozhengxue), as developed in Confucianism, toward texts and objects in their studies of history and antiquarian topics.83 Rosen also followed such patterns of obtaining evidence by analyzing both objects and texts and making comparisons between them. His approach was eclectic and drew on various archaeological, botanical, and geological methods. Rosen earned a living by painting on commission. His works are found across current-day Aomori prefecture and include byōbu folding screens, hanging scrolls, other paintings, and sketchbooks that are preserved at the Hirosaki City Museum, in shrines and temples, and in private collections.

79. Some of Rosen’s sketchbooks are archived in the Hirosaki City Public Library, Hirosaki City Museum, Aomori Prefectural Museum, and the Tokyo National Museum. 80. Nakamura, Hirao Rosen Okina, 53. 81. Nakamura, Hirao Rosen Okina, 31–32. 82. Tsugaru ittōshi, a record compiled by the ruling Tsugaru family from the eighteenth century, gives detailed descriptions of archaeological excavations of earthen vessels in Kamegaoka. In the late Tokugawa to early Meiji periods, there were several prominent figures in Hirosaki domain and Aomori prefecture who participated in archaeological excavations, namely Minomushi Sanjin (1836–1900). 83. Margarita Winkel, “Discovering Different Dimensions: Explorations of Culture and History in Early Modern Japan” (PhD diss., Leiden University, 2004).

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A set of ten colorful and vivid paintings of Jū ō zu, or the Images of Ten Kings, by Rosen are stored at the Kōtakuji Zen temple at Ajigasawa on the Sea of Japan coast of Aomori.84 These scroll paintings depict the ten kings dwelling in fiery, torturous hells. According to Buddhist teachings, deceased individuals receive judgments from these ten kings on prescribed memorial days, beginning with the seventh day following death and concluding with the three-year anniversary.85 Although usually kept in storage, these paintings are hung in the temple for public viewing every sixteenth of January, the date of the traditional yabu iri, an occasion when apprentices were permitted to return home for a holiday.86 The paintings are dated Kaei 1 (1848), and appear to have been commissioned by a patron. Rosen was a prolific scholar of the folk culture and life of the Tsugaru region. As Uchino Gorō points out, even before the establishment of modern folklore studies or ethnography in Japan based on imported methods f rom Western Europe, early modern intellectuals displayed a strong interest in the traditions and legends of commoners, and made efforts to gather collections of materials on commoner life.87 Kokugaku scholars were among those who sought out such materials. The itinerant kokugaku scholar Sugae Masumi (1754–1829) and his Roaming Records or Jun’yū ki were studied by Yanagita Kunio (1875–1962).88 Similar ethnographic works, including Matsura Seizan’s (1760–1841) Tales on the Night of Kasshi, or Kasshi yawa (1821–41), and Suzuki Bokushi’s (1770–1842) Snow Country Tales, or Hokuetsu seppu (1835–40), have garnered attention as materials that highlight the “history preceding Japanese folklore studies in the early modern period.”89

84. This set of ten scroll paintings by Rosen is accompanied by an eleventh scroll painting dated 1893 (Meiji 26), added to the series by his disciple painter Kudō Sen’otsu, and a twelfth scroll which was peeled off the back of the eleventh painting when it was being restored. 85. Aomori kenritsu kyōdokan, ed., Hirao Rosen: Aomori no Da Vinchi (Aomori: Aomori kenritsu kyōdokan, 2013). For detailed commentary on the Ten Kings and art depicting Buddhist hells, see Caroline Hirasawa, Hell-Bent for Heaven in Tateyama Mandara: Painting and Religious Practice at a Japanese Mountain (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 85, 94–95. 86. The sixteenth of each month represents a memorial day for Enma, judge of the dead, and January and July are considered best for visiting because Enma himself is believed to be on holiday and, therefore, hell is closed. I thank the people at Kōtakuji Zen temple for allowing me to personally view and photograph this collection in January of 2011. 87. Uchino Gorō, “Nihon minzokugaku ni okeru kokugaku to shin kokugaku,” in Nihon minzoku kenkyū taikei, vol. 10 of Kokugaku to minzokugaku, ed. Nihon minzoku kenkyū taikei henshū iinkai hen (Tokyo: Ōfūsha, 1990), 11. 88. See Melek Ortabasi, The Undiscovered Country: Text, Translation, and Modernity in the Work of Yanagita Kunio (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2014). 89. Suzuki Bokushi, Snow Country Tales: Life in the Other Japan, trans. Jeffrey Hunter and Rose Lesser (New York: Weatherhill, 1986). Other such works include Amano Sadakage’s (1663–1733)

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Uchino, however, makes a clear distinction between these early materials and modern folklore studies, because the former do not display “a clear scholarly consciousness.”90 Adopting John Van Maanen’s concept, Margarita Winkel approaches writings from the Tokugawa period as “ethnographic texts” in order to examine them as works intended to understand and convey “the other.”91 Winkel shows how scholars who were not limited to one school of thought or academy, including Moriyama Chūryō (1756–1810), Santō Kyōden (1761–1816), and Suzuki Bokushi, took a syncretic approach in their “ethnographic research” of culture and history in Japan, in its rural regions, and/or in Dutch, Chinese, and other foreign contexts. Drawing on insights offered by Uchino and Winkel, I also refer to Rosen’s study of local life and culture as “ethnographic research,” or “ethnographic studies,” to distinguish it from the modern ethnography (minzokugaku), or folklore studies, pioneered by Yanagita Kunio, Orikuchi Shinobu (1887–1953), and others in the late Meiji period and onward.92 Rosen’s ethnographic approach permeates his depictions of local Tsugaru landscape and culture, his major treatises, and his waka poems composed throughout his life. All of these works are invaluable visual and written records of local commoner culture in Tsugaru society, and are reproduced and cited regularly in contemporary Aomori prefecture in studies and celebrations of local history and culture, not least in the summer Nebuta (or Neputa) festival. Rosen’s Tsugaru Customs Painting Scroll, or Tsugaru fūzokuga maki, features colorful paintings of local festivals and everyday activities, beginning with the Nebuta festival (figure 1.6).93 This painting depicts a lively scene from Tsugaru’s most famous festival, which is celebrated today in varying forms across the

Shiojiri (1697) and Kitagawa Morisada’s Morisada mankō (Morisada’s Essays, about 1853). Uchino Gorō, “Nihon minzokugaku ni okeru kokugaku to shin kokugaku,” 11. 90. Uchino, “Nihon minzokugaku ni okeru kokugaku to shin kokugaku,” 11. 91. Winkel, “Discovering Different Dimensions,” 4, 43. 92. See chapter five for a fuller discussion of these early studies preceding modern ethnography and folklore studies, and contextualization of Rosen’s activities therein. 93. Tsugaru fūzokuga maki exists only as reproductions, Rosen’s original having yet to be located. Known reproductions include one by Rosen’s disciple Satō Senshi, and a reproduction of this work by Kimura Senshū, disciple of Mikami Sennen, who was one of Rosen’s prominent disciple painters. Senshi’s version is owned privately, and Senshū’s belonged to the collection of the late Moriyama Taitarō. Senshi’s version includes a preface “Kyū han Hirosaki fūzoku ga jo,” whereas Senshū’s contains an inscription, “Tsugaru fūzokuga maki.” Though it is unknown how Rosen himself referred to the work, I use the latter, which has become the accepted name. A reproduction (Senshi’s version) and Hitoshi Narita’s description appear in “247 Tsugaru fūzokuga maki,” in Shinpen Hirosaki shishi: Shiryō hen 3 (Kinsei hen 2), ed. Shinpen Hirosaki shishi hensan iinkai (Hirosaki: Hirosaki shi kikakubu kikakuka, 2000), 775–78.

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Figure 1.6. “Nebuta image” (Tsugaru Customs Painting Scroll, private collection). Digital data courtesy of Aomori Prefectural Museum.

region for a week from late July to early August. “Nebuta” or “Neputa” means “sleepiness,” bouts of which overcame farmers on long days under the hot sun, and the festival is believed to have begun when people sailed lanterns on

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the water to f loat away their sleepiness. This practice then extended to larger f loats depicting warriors in a military procession, heading out for battle.94 In the painting, over a hundred people are marching in a procession. Teams of men, clad only in loincloths, carry large Nebuta f loats that are illuminated from within and depict mythical and historical figures, warriors, an octopus, an assortment of local produce, and a castle. There are taiko drummers, people dancing, and others buying goods from merchants. Tsugaru Customs Painting Scroll features a “Mount Iwaki worship image,” or “Iwaki sankei no zu,” that re-creates the Mount Iwaki worship, a festival to pray for a plentiful harvest and the protection of one’s household.95 Pilgrims set out from local towns and villages on the first day of the eighth month, find lodging along the way, worship at the Iwakiyama Shrine, then climb the mountain through the night to watch the sunrise from the summit. The image shows men climbing the slope, carrying nobori banners and streamers. Exclusively men are depicted here, ref lecting the prohibition against women climbing this mountain, enforced from 1810 until this regulation was abolished in the Meiji period.96 The scroll includes a scene of pilgrims after their descent from the mountain. Some in costume dance vigorously, many don tall eboshi hats, some with fans in hand are accompanied by a group of taiko drummers. Shishi mai lion dancers perform, f lanked by more dancers. These images of the Mount Iwaki harvest festival complement Rosen’s separate, stand-alone print of the same name, “Mount Iwaki worship image” (figure 1.7). This print includes Rosen’s inscription: “Ōshū province, Tsugaru, Mount Iwaki, Image of going to and returning from worship, from the first day until the fifteenth of the eighth month.” The colorful print depicts multiple dimensions of the Mount Iwaki worship, and the layout of images suggests a transition in the activities of this festival. The foreground shows a bustling scene of worshippers, merchants tending shop, taiko drummers, dancers, and entertainers. Several men are carrying nobori banners emblazoned with “Iwaki san daigongen” (Mount Iwaki avatar). Our view is led from the busy festive scene on the right, toward the serene atmosphere of the shrines of Iwakiyama Shrine visited by worshippers, represented in

94. In early modern times this festival was referred to as Nebuta, while today it is known as Nebuta in Aomori city, and as Neputa in Hirosaki. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 178–82. 95. The scroll also includes “Bon festival dance image” (“Bon odori no zu”) which depicts people performing bon dance in the summer festival of the seventh month to welcome back souls of the dead. 96. The prohibition of women from climbing Mount Iwaki was a part of the Bunka regulations enacted in 1810. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 259. Moriyama Taitarō, Nihon no minzoku: Aomori (Tokyo: Daiichi hōki, 1972), 171.

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Figure 1.7.

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“Mount Iwaki worship image” (Private collection). Hirosaki City Museum.

much smaller scale. Clouds separate these two scenes of the bustling people and shrine from the image of Mount Iwaki, as the main object of journey, as if demarcating the line between sacred and secular.97 The culture of everyday life, including work and play as well as day-today objects are similarly prominent subjects of Rosen’s study. “Sled pulling image,” or “Yuki fune hiki no zu,” also from Tsugaru Customs Painting Scroll, depicts a winter setting featuring several tens of men pulling a large object by rope on ski-like sleds (yuki fune) (figure 1.8). A high-ranking samurai wearing a large-shouldered haori vest is pulled on a throne set on sleds, accompanied by several attendants. One man pulls what appears to be a bushel of rice or a barrel on sleds, with a boy sitting aboard. Adults and children play in the snow, and some pile atop one another in a comical game.98 The subsequent “Winter work and tools image” (“Tōki sagyō no zu”) shows men clearing snow from off a rooftop and making pathways below (figure 1.9). After a major earthquake in 1766 f lattened houses already weighted down by snow and started fires, together resulting in an estimated 1,300 deaths, accumulated snow on rooftops was cleared as a safety measure to prevent houses from collapsing or people from being buried alive.99 Rosen outlined 97. Hirao Rosen, “Iwaki sankei zu.” As labelled, this is a print prepared by Seiji in Hirosaki, and reprinted by Ukiyoe artist Utagawa Sadahide (1807–79?) in Edo. One print is housed at the Hirosaki City Museum, another is at Mitsunobu kō no yakata (Lord Mitsunobu Museum) in Ajigasawa, Aomori. 98. Hirao Rosen, “Yuki no asobi no zu,” Shinpen Hirosaki shishi Shiryō hen 3 (Kinsei hen 2), 777. 99. Shiraishi Mutsumi, “Jōka machi no saigai,” in Hirosaki jō chikujō yonhyakunen: Shiro, machi, hito no rekishi mangekyō, ed. Hasegawa Seiichi (Osaka: Seibundō, 2011), 152–57.

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Figure 1.8. “Sled pulling image” (Tsugaru Customs Painting Scroll, private collection). Digital data courtesy of Aomori Prefectural Museum.

the process, and diagrammed tools and gear utilized in such work: A man uses a “yuki oshi” (snow press)—a long shaft with f lat board at its end—to trample the snow to make a path. The next man treads on the snow, wearing cylindrical “yuki fumi” (snow shoes), cut out of tawara straw bags. He and two other men hold “kaeshiki” (shovels) to f latten the snow, and one of the latter wears another f lat, broad-based “yuki fumi” made of tawara straw bags on his feet. A man saws blocks out of “accumulated snow from the second month” for more road making, while another pulls out those cut blocks. A list of tools and gear includes the above, as well as other variations of footwear and ski-like sleds for transporting objects. Thus, Rosen’s approach to recording local life and culture is displayed in his artwork of Tsugaru. This merchant-class artist-intellectual drew and painted images based on direct observation and so, his artwork of contemporary society and his landscapes are primarily scenes of his own surroundings in Tsugaru. In this regard, Rosen’s artwork represented an integral part of his ethnographic studies of his home “country” of Tsugaru. His paintings detail the lively festivals of Nebuta in the hot summer and the Mount Iwaki

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Figure 1.9. “Winter work and tools image” (Tsugaru Customs Painting Scroll, private collection). Digital data courtesy of Aomori Prefectural Museum.

worship festival to pray for a blessed harvest. Locals endured the harsh winter by enjoying sledding and playing games in the snow, and utilizing tools to walk on snow, plow it, and create paths. Let us next turn our attention to how he applied his artistic, ethnographic approach to life and culture in Ezo, including those of foreign visitors stationed in Hakodate.

Ch a p ter 2

Visions of Japan and Other “Countries” in the World

In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry and his f leet of armed “black ships” delivered the American president’s demands to the shogunate, which resulted in the United States and Japan signing a historic treaty the following year to “open” Japan. Hakodate on the northern island of Ezo was opened to Western vessels and their crewmembers, making this port city a window to the world. The crises of foreign policy and domestic politics compelled Rosen to compile a collection of political documents as a record of the events of this period. With such awareness, in 1855, Rosen crossed the Tsugaru Strait and visited Ezo, including Hakodate. Amid his northern travels and observations of foreigners and locals, Rosen rediscovered “Japan,” its regional diversity, and its place within a larger global community. Rosen observed the governance of Matsumae castle town and Hakodate, as well as the diverse populations residing there. As an ethnographic scholar, he was perplexed to see peoples from the United States, England, and other European countries interacting freely, while noticing stark contrasts between the cultures and mannerisms of the Japanese and the Westerners. He was confronted with the realities of international relations at this time. The industrially advanced Western countries posed a potential colonial threat to Japan, while the people of Qing China, still reeling from defeat in the Opium War, revealed the plight of a defeated country. Rosen also documented the 46

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local and Japanese cultures he encountered on the northern island, paying attention to commonalities and differences in the seasonal festivals and ceremonies practiced locally and transmitted there from Tsugaru, Nanbu, and elsewhere in Japan. After observing local life in Ezo and discovering Japan’s place in the wider globe, however, Rosen would not engage the world but rather focused inward to ethnographic inquiries on Tsugaru and then Japan. This later led to his engagement with kokugaku.

Rosen’s 1855 Visit to Ezo On the second day of the seventh month in 1853, US Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry led four steamships mounted with guns and carrying some 967 men to Uraga Bay in Edo (figure 2.1).1 Six days later, Kanagiya Matasaburō, a successful merchant living in the suburbs of Hirosaki castle town, recorded reports of Perry’s arrival in his journal, a remarkable indication of how quickly news of this incursion spread across Japan.2 Perry delivered a letter from President Millard Fillmore (1800–74) addressed to the emperor, relaying a series of demands, namely the abrogation of laws of seclusion and the opening of relations between the two countries. Having asserted American demands and instilling fear in the shogunate and daimyo, Perry left to replenish supplies in China, then returned again in the second month of the following year of 1854. Following negotiations between Commodore Perry and Hayashi Akira (1800–59), the head of the Shōheikō academy in Edo, the Japan-US Treaty of Peace and Amity, or the Kanagawa Treaty, was signed on the third day of the third month. It guaranteed perpetual peace between the two countries; the opening of Shimoda and Hakodate ports; the right to purchase supplies of firewood, water, coal, and food; the protection of American castaways; and “most favored nation” status for the United States. The “most favored nation” clause is a feature of the “unequal treaties” signed between imperial powers and Asian states from the mid-nineteenth century, which granted to the superior nation any and all privileges and rights promised to other nations with which they negotiated agreements. Thereafter, Japan agreed to similar treaties with Britain and Russia. In 1854, out of fear of Russian encroachment southward onto Japanese land, the shogunate declared state control over Ezo, and reestablished

1. Jansen, The Making of Modern Japan, 277. 2. Kanagiya Matasaburō, Kanagiya nikki, in Shinpen Hirosaki shishi: Shiryō hen 3 (Kinsei hen 2), 365–66. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 215.

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Figure 2.1.

“Steamship” (Taihei shinwa). Hirosaki City Public Library.

a magistrate in the port town of Hakodate, located on the southern coast of Ezo within the Wajinchi ( Japanese territory). In the following year of 1855, the shogunate ordered the northern domains to secure Ezo. Hirosaki and Morioka domains received official orders to defend and control West Ezo.3 After assuming direct administration of Ezo in 1855, the Tokugawa state began to oversee a program of assimilation of the Ainu people, whom they had regarded as barbarian. The purpose was to gain international recognition of the nationality of the Ainu as Japanese in order to secure Japan’s territorial claims across Ezo, the Kurile Islands, and southern Sakhalin.4 This assimilation policy—combined with the Japanese settlers’ violence toward Ainu communities and the introduction of epidemic diseases, including smallpox, that claimed Ainu lives—hastened the Japanese state’s conquest

3. These northern domains included Sendai, Morioka, Akita, Hirosaki, Matsumae, Aizu, and Shōnai (Tsuruoka). Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 215–17. 4. Howell, Geographies of Identity, 110–30.

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of Ezo.5 These marked significant steps toward Japan’s modern settler colonization of Ezo, along with the establishment of the Kaitakushi (Hokkaido Development Agency) in 1869 and the subsequent renaming of the island to “Hokkaido.”6 The Meiji state sponsored Japanese migrants from Honshu to settle the island, which resulted in the tragic displacement of Ainu communities within the northern islands. Perry’s arrival in Edo and the ensuing events aggravated the public’s concerns about foreign threats to Japan, the Tokugawa regime’s ability to continue to defend and govern the country, and the question of “opening” ports to Western nations. While state censorship had previously limited the direct reporting of political matters, Perry’s arrival in 1853 sparked an explosive increase in the production of kawaraban, or broadsides, and other print media that now reported openly on this and related events. Unsatisfied with relying solely on public print media, Rosen was compelled by the crises of late-Tokugawa politics and society to access and copy related official documents, letters, essays, poems, paintings, and maps, which he compiled in the six-volume Taihei shinwa, or News of the Great Peace, by the second month of 1855.7 The voluminous Taihei shinwa is an excellent example of a fūsetsudome, a private collection of documents and images of a political nature, which emerged as an important category of informational text across Japan in lateTokugawa times. This collection reveals Rosen’s ability to obtain such uncensored information through samurai contacts who wielded greater political agency than himself, his thirst for knowledge of a wider Japan, and his awareness of national politics. The work is reminiscent of Hirata Atsutane’s Chishima no shiranami, or White Waves of the Kuriles, completed by 1813, following the arrival of Russian and British ships to Japanese coastal waters. The domain of Matsumae, located in southern Ezo, encompassed both Matsumae castle town and Hakodate port and, as described by Robert I. Hellyer, represented another “portal” for foreign relations, like Satsuma and Tsushima, where commercial activities intersected with the interests of the

5. Walker, The Conquest of Ainu Lands, 177–203. 6. Tabata Hiroshi et al., Hokkaido no rekishi, 148–204. 7. Taihei shinwa is archived at Hirosaki City Public Library. This collection begins with a “Notice from Uraga Magistrate about Kaei 6 (1853) arrival of foreign ships—two articles,” and includes letters from the daimyo to the shogunate, letters from Russia, and documents depicting local life in Matsumae. There are also various color images including one of Commodore Perry, American warships, and several maps. For a detailed study of Rosen’s two fūsetsudome, Taihei shinwa and Meiji nikki (Meiji Diary) of early Meiji, how commoner intellectuals such as Rosen accessed political information, and the wide spread of national political awareness in nineteenth-century Japan, see Fujiwara, “Channeling the Undercurrents.”

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shogunate.8 The opening of Hakodate port to foreign vessels in 1854 contributed to commercial development in Hirosaki domain.9 In addition to fulfilling the security mission in Ezo, Hirosaki and Morioka were also tasked with supplying provisions and material goods to Hakodate and Ezo, while merchants from Aomori, Hirosaki, and Noheji were assigned to work for the Hakodate magistrate.10 Fishing was the mainstay of the Ezo economy. As David L. Howell describes, both the Japanese and the Ainu who inhabited Ezo depended heavily on trade with Honshu for their livelihoods, and both their herring fisheries and commercial processing of herring into fertilizer for agriculture provided their main exports.11 Hakodate served as the shipping center for the island’s fisheries, and the Hakodate magistrate sought, above all else, rice in large quantities from Aomori. Esashi village along the southwest coast of Ezo entered its most prosperous period of production in the mid-nineteenth century, attracting laborers in herring fishing from Hirosaki, Morioka, and Akita, who came to be known as “Yan-shū.”12 In 1849, an estimated 1,400 residents of Hirosaki domain traveled to the herring-rich area of Matsumae, and after the opening of Hakodate port in 1854, many women also crossed the Tsugaru Strait to work in Hakodate and Esashi in food preparation, dining services, and prostitution. While there was an active fishing industry and related commerce before the opening of the ports, developments accelerated considerably in 1854.13 These developments likely spurred Rosen’s desire to see Ezo for himself. On the eleventh day of the sixth month of 1855, he left his home in Hirosaki castle town to embark on his journey (figure 2.2). His thirty-three-day excursion entailed crossing the Tsugaru Strait to reach Matsumae port and castle town where he stayed two days. He then traversed east through mountainous forests and the southern coast of Ezo, visiting villages along the way,

8. Robert I. Hellyer, Defining Engagement: Japan and Global Contexts, 1640–1868 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2010). 9. Four years later in 1858, the signing of the Japan-US Treaty of Amity and Commerce ultimately opened ports in Hakodate, Kanagawa, Nagasaki, Niigata, and Hyōgo, along with the cities of Edo and Osaka, to foreign trade. 10. For a detailed discussion on migrant laborers from Japan to Ezo, see Namikawa Kenji, Kinsei Hokuo shakai to minshū (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 2005). 11. In addition to herring, Ezo’s fisheries also caught and exported salmon, trout, kelp (kombu), cod, sardines, dried abalone, dried cuttlefish, and other marine life. David L. Howell, Capitalism From Within: Economy, Society, and the State in a Japanese Fishery (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995). Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 218. 12. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 191. 13. While the treaties with Western countries and official opening of ports contributed to the rise of commercial activity, this point should not be oversimplified. Commerce and trade around the Tsugaru Strait had been conducted with China and domestically within Japan since ancient times, and were already well developed in the early half of the Tokugawa period.

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Figure 2.2.

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Map: Rosen’s Visit to Ezo.

until he arrived in Hakodate where he stayed eighteen days. Rosen recorded his observations and experiences of this Ezo visit in writing and images in Hakodate Travelogue, or Hakodate kikō,14 and in Account of Western Barbarians,

14. As Moriyama Taitarō explains, Rosen completed Hakodate kikō (archived at Hirosaki City Public Library) about a year and one month after his return from Ezo on the twenty-second day of the eighth month in 1856, and this work is a revised version of Matsumae kikō (Matsumae Travelogue) archived at Hakodate City Central Library. Matsumae kikō was reproduced in 1989 by Hakodate City Central Library as Kyōdo shiryō fukusei sōsho 8, and in Nihon shomin seikatsu shiryō shūsei, vol. 20 of

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or Yōi meiwa.15 The title of the latter text reveals Rosen’s ethnocentric views in identifying Western visitors as “barbarians” perceived as less civilized than the Japanese. He did not apply this term to the Westerners described in the text, however, and instead primarily identified them by nation or collectively as “foreigners” (ijin). At the beginnings of both travel accounts, following the titles, Rosen wrote, “Hirosaki recluse Hirao Rosen’s Records,” identifying himself as an “itsumin,” a recluse or hermit not bound to public office, just as he had written in his fūsetsudome compilation News of the Great Peace. Self-denigrating pseudonyms were a convention in Tokugawa-period writing, and here Rosen utilized its dual function: emphasizing his humble commoner status to feign innocence regarding any political agenda, while exploiting this same status to pursue his artwork and studies with relative freedom. Rosen is counted among the growing number, described by Laura Nenzi, of well-educated townspeople of commoner stock who traveled in the latter-half of the Tokugawa period and wrote in detail about what they had seen and experienced.16 Whereas Nenzi observes travelers who sought “escapism” and a “re-creating” of identity by invoking literary traditions associated with famous sites, Rosen was a traveler who investigated a new “world” at Hakodate and Ezo, and devoted himself to documenting fresh discoveries of lesser-known local and foreign cultures. From this perspective, Rosen’s travelogues of his journey to Ezo are also invaluable contemporary records of Ezo—both written and artistic—particularly of Matsumae and Hakodate, from a commoner’s perspective. The primary purpose of Rosen’s journey to Ezo was scholarly exploration and research, but he also performed a public duty in drawing images for Hirosaki domain. Hirosaki’s military base was located in Chiyogadai on the outskirts of Hakodate, and Account of Western Barbarians records that on the

Tanken, kikō, chiri, hoi (Tokyo: San’ichi shobō, 1972), accompanied by Moriyama’s introduction and annotation. Hakodate kikō has been reproduced as Hirao Rosen, Hakodate kikō, in Yōi Meiwa Hakodate kikō, ed. Moriyama Taitarō (Tokyo: Yasaka shobō, 1974). 15. Yōi meiwa, completed on the tenth day of the eighth month in 1856, complements Hakodate kikō, and contains observed accounts of Western visitors to Hakodate. Yōi meiwa was reproduced as Hirao Rosen, Yōi meiwa, Aomori kenritsu toshokan kyōdo sōsho 3, ed. Aomori kenritsu toshokan (Aomori kenritsu toshokan, 1970). Matsumae kikō and Hakodate ijindan (both housed at Hakodate Central City Library), were later revised into Hakodate kikō and Yōi meiwa, respectively, and between the two editions there were two sketchbooks, Matsumae fūkei and Hakodate ikoku jinbutsuzu, both housed at the Northern Studies Collection, Hokkaido University Library. I write about the changes and editing processes between Matsumae kikō, Matsumae fūkei, and Hakodate kikō, and how this is ref lected in Rosen’s later works; see Fujiwara Gideon, “Matsumae fūkei: Hokkaido Daigaku fuzoku toshokan Hoppō kankei shiryōshitsuzō” Hirosaki Daigaku kokushi kenkyū 130 (March 2011): 41–56. 16. Laura Nenzi, Excursions in Identity: Travel and the Intersection of Place, Gender, and Status in Edo Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2008), 92–118.

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twenty-eighth day of the sixth month in 1855, Rosen, accompanied by three domainal samurai, visited Chiyogadai and produced diagrams of the base.17 Rosen shared his experiences in Ezo with others, as evidenced by Tsuruya Ariyo’s essay “A few words on Ezo bow and arrows, and harps” (“Ezo ga kyūsen, koto no kotoba”), in which Ariyo wrote about the Ezo harps that Rosen had seen during his visit to Hakodate.18 Also, in a letter written on the eleventh day of the sixth month in 1869 to Shimozawa Yasumi, Rosen expressed his desire to send Account of Western Barbarians and Hakodate Travelogue to Ibukinoya academy head Hirata Kanetane (1799–1880), stating, “I wish to spread these in society as much as possible.”19 Let us examine Hakodate Travelogue and Account of Western Barbarians to see how Rosen “discovered” the world in Ezo, as well as “rediscovered” the “Imperial country” (mikuni) of Japan, and within that, Ezo and Tsugaru. We begin with how he identified the first local community he visited, contextualized within “Imperial Japan.” After arriving in Matsumae late on the sixteenth day, Rosen set out the following morning to survey the port town, noting a shrine and temple, residences, ships sailing in and out of the harbor, sailors loading and unloading cargo, and the bustling commercial activity taking place on the streets (figure 2.3). He confirmed reports of the island’s prosperity, stating, “Indeed, the fact that this island has remarkable prosperity and local customs is not falsehood, and testifies to the riches of this land.”20 Despite witnessing this economic activity, however, Rosen lamented that the island’s vast potential was still unrealized due to underdevelopment: Ah, how regrettable! If only there were a lone hero to lay down irrigation, reclaim paddies and fields, clear the reef, and secure a Westernbarbarian-style military base! Like “adding wings to a tiger,” growing its fortune, and strengthening the country’s base, how it would benefit not only this particular island, but also profit the Imperial country (mikuni) for ten thousand generations!21

17. “On the twenty-eighth day of the sixth month, I was accompanied by two samurai Iwasawa and Ishibiya, and another samurai belonging to both of their units, three in total, and went to draw an image of a place called Chiyogadai which manages a military base.” Hirao, Yōi meiwa, 102. Chiyogadai is identified in maps contained in Hakodate kikō and Yōi meiwa. However, the whereabouts of Rosen’s image of the military base commissioned by the domain has yet to be determined. 18. Tsuruya Ariyo, “Ezo ga kyūsen, koto no kotoba,” in AKS, 537. 19. Hirao Rosen, Letter to Shimozawa Yasumi, eleventh day, sixth month, Meiji 2 (1869); see “Letters,” in AKS, 617. 20. Hirao Rosen, Hakodate kikō, Seikatsu no koten sōsho 12 Yōi meiwa Hakodate kikō, ed. Moriyama Taitarō (Tokyo: Yasaka shobō, 1974), 121. 21. Hirao, 121, 128.

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Figure 2.3.

“Matsumae Harbor image” (Hakodate kiko¯). Hirosaki City Public Library.

Rosen bemoaned the lack of “a lone hero”—a bold political leader perhaps— to develop Matsumae agriculturally through irrigating and reclaiming the land, as a port city through clearing the reef to improve naval access, or in terms of military defense through building a Western-style base. “Adding wings to a tiger” is an expression Rosen quoted from Legalist philosopher Han Feizi (d. 233 BCE) which means making something robust even stronger. Here, Rosen expressed his vision for Matsumae’s vital role in underpinning the economy, security, and overall development of Japan. Days later in Hakodate, Rosen encountered young men in the port city, which occasioned the following account and provided a glimpse of Rosen’s vision of the people forming the communities here and in a larger Japan: On the night of the Two-Star festival (Tanabata), twenty-three youths of Hakodate got together; some carried the Nebuta, some pulled the rope and chanted, “Yasa, yasa,” some even took off their clothes. There were even some who wore headbands, some who daringly jumped around, and until the very end they followed and propped up [the f loat]. When I see their behavior toward the people of the Imperial country (mikuni no hito), is it not insulting and crude, how they brush them off with such an air of familiarity? Because our languages are not mutually intelligible, this is difficult to know.22

22. Hirao Rosen, Yōi meiwa, Seikatsu no koten sōsho 12 Yōi meiwa Hakodate kikō, 103.

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Rosen described the lively participation of the local youths in the Tanabata festival, when children propped up a Nebuta f loat, and danced in decorative festival attire.23 The Tanabata, referred to here as the “Two-Star festival,” is a festival of the seventh day of the seventh month, when two stars, the Herd Boy and Weaver Maiden, on either side of the Milky Way are said to be reunited once a year. Despite the fact that they were in the Wajinchi of Hakodate, and partook in a common “Japanese” or “Tsugaru” cultural event, Rosen distinguished them from other “people of the Imperial country” (mikuni no hito). First, he pointed out what he deemed their improper and disrespectful attitudes toward the “people of the Imperial country,” when they brush the latter off with an air of familiarity. Second, the language barrier between the youths and himself suggested differing backgrounds—they might have been children of migrant workers from another region of Japan with a markedly foreign dialect, or they might even have been Ainu children, or some combination of the two. Rosen may have been reaffirming boundaries enforced by the Tokugawa state, which dictated where the Japanese and the Ainu could reside, fish, or trade, although breaches were common.24 Due to a lack of details we can only speculate on what he meant; nevertheless, his observations shed light on the ethnic and cultural diversity present in Ezo. For Rosen, simply residing in Hakodate and partaking in local customs evidently did not qualify these youths to be considered “Japanese.” Keeping in mind these boundaries of identity, let us now examine Rosen’s encounter with a new foreign other.

Seeing Westerners and Chinese Account of Western Barbarians opens with a description of a “globalized” Matsumae and Hakodate, whose residents were exposed to the presence of Westerners, to whom locals had grown accustomed. Rosen’s early observations are striking in that the boundaries separating the different Western nations were blurred. At the very start of his travelogue, Rosen depicted the scene late in the sixth month of 1855 of eight foreign ships from four countries— America, England, France, and Germany—docking in Matsumae and Hakodate ports, and noted that those aboard were coming ashore in groups

23. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 178–82. 24. This may also echo Matsumae domain’s efforts to prevent the Ainu from speaking Japanese, a symbol of “civilization” that was seen as defying their “barbarian” status. David L. Howell, Geographies of Identity, 110–30.

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of thirty to fifty, numbering two to three hundred in total.25 Rosen observed that the ships’ designs were very similar and “it is only by the design of their f lags that the countries are distinguishable.” The difficulty Rosen had in distinguishing between Western nations is a recurring issue throughout this text. Furthermore, he expressed surprise at how these Westerners had blended into the local scene in Hakodate and the nearby villages of Kameda and Arikawa, such that they could “rub shoulders” with local residents without the locals batting an eyelid. He discovered an international society within Hakodate where encounters with foreigners had become mundane. This journey to Ezo provided direct contact with Americans and Europeans for Rosen through which he observed how peoples of different countries communicated and interacted. These direct observations shaped his views of foreign people and cultures, in place of an earlier imagined other: The way that people of England [Igirisu] call their own country sounds like “Engeresu,” and America sounds like just “’merica”; with that pronunciation the tip of the tongue is very light as if the sound is emitted from the teeth. Also, though their speech is fast, the five sounds [vowels] are well distinguished, and the high and low [in intonation] of word endings resembles the twang in western provinces of our country. Because Russians are not around I don’t know [about their language], but those of America, England, France, and Germany have all been heard, and yet someone like me has difficulty in differentiating between them. Furthermore, the people from these countries converse and interact with each other in such a way that there appears to be no distinction between oneself and the other. Their headgear, clothing, facial appearance, and complexion look the same and distinguishing between them is difficult.26 Rosen dwelled on the “difficulty in differentiating between” Americans, English, French, and Germans, remarking that these people from different countries spoke and interacted as if there were “no distinction between oneself and the other.” In addition, he observed an openness in interaction and communication between peoples of various Western countries, not seen on the same level across East Asia. Rosen cited the various languages being spoken, and the lack of distinction in appearance and dress, as well as the casualness of their interactions. This contrast between the “international

25. Hirao, Yōi meiwa, 3. 26. Hirao, Yōi meiwa, 22.

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society” of these European states, and Japan and East Asia appears to align with Maruyama Masao’s observations that were reaffirmed by Benedict Anderson. Maruyama had asserted that “national consciousness in Europe therefore bore from its inception the imprint of a consciousness of international society,” whereas in the context of Japan, “an awareness of equality in international affairs was totally absent,” thereby leading expulsionists in Japan to necessarily regard other nations as either inferior or superior.27 While Maruyama and Anderson focused on state-to-state relations leading to conf lict, Rosen witnessed the vague separation between “oneself and the other” and a blurring of boundaries among Westerners at the level of interpersonal, social relations. While unable to clearly distinguish the origins of the ships and the people aboard, Rosen was quick to compare these Westerners in terms of their physical appearance to “people of the Imperial country” of Japan.28 He started with physical stature, noting that the foreigners were generally much taller, with average heights, in centimeters, in the 170s. He also differentiated these Westerners’ manner of dress and walking in terms of their social rank, with officials carrying swords, dressing well, and walking in brisk, long, and orderly strides, in contrast to their juniors, whose strides were fast but disorderly and unregulated (figure 2.4). These were simply the first of numerous observations of Westerners that led to various comparisons with the “Imperial Japanese,” including hairstyles, clothing, eating and drinking habits, ways of slaughtering livestock, Christian funerary rites, and the appearance and manners of women. In many cases, Rosen emphasized the more distinguished and superior sensibilities of the Japanese and expressed prejudices rooted in cultural chauvinism, not uncommon in those days in Japan. While he pointed out racial and cultural differences, however, he also displayed a certain level of objectivity in his observations, perhaps fostered in part as an observant artist and ethnographic scholar. One major conclusion, which Rosen arrived at concerning Western nations, was that they represented real and imminent forces that Japan should not take lightly. Throughout Hakodate Travelogue, Rosen observed the Westerners’ naval and military technology, which he perceived as superior to Japan’s. Furthermore, he recorded a humiliating experience related to him by Tadashichi, head clerk of the wealthy merchant Yamadaya in

27. Maruyama Masao, Thought and Behaviour in Modern Japanese Politics (London and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963), 138–40, quoted in Anderson, Imagined Communities, 97. 28. Hirao, Yōi meiwa, 3.

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Figure 2.4.

“Official” “Minor official” (Yo¯i meiwa). Hirosaki City Public Library.

Hakodate, in which a Westerner exposed to Tadashichi Japan’s vulnerability to Western powers: “He then took out a map of the globe and pointed to the large countries here and there, and watching him raise his hand and looking up, I wonder if he meant to identify countries belonging to him. Also, his pointing to Japan and laughing must mean he is laughing at its small size. He made many hand gestures and pointed to Japan, as if to say, ‘Obtaining this would be terribly easy.’ Also, he circled the country of Japan with his finger, clasped his hands, and said, ‘It is possible to circle Japan in ten days.’ All of them derided this country as a small country, all of them did so, even the sailors. They laughed heartily that the boats are also small and become easily dismantled, and the guns too are small and are no good for military use.” So spoke the man named Tadashichi.29

29. Hirao, Hakodate kikō, 48–49.

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What is notable here is that while Rosen discussed the potential military defeat and colonization of Japan by Western powers, he did not add a rebuttal to challenge such a proposition. By contrast, faced with ridicule that Japan was inferior due to its diminutive size, Hirata Atsutane asserted Japan’s inherent greatness regardless, insisting, “No matter how large it is, an inferior country is an inferior country. No matter how small and narrow it is, a superior country is a superior country.”30 Rosen fatalistically accepted Japan’s vulnerable position vis-à-vis the West, neither challenging nor confronting it. As Rosen witnessed firsthand, however, it was not merely Japan at risk: even the mighty empire of Qing China (1644–1911) had suffered a severe defeat at the hands of England in the First Opium War, fought over a decade earlier from 1839 to 1842—an ominous sign for observers in Asia and Tokugawa Japan.31 Rosen witnessed this reality firsthand among some Qing officials in Hakodate (figure 2.5): Now, these two who appeared to be officials came to a Pure Land temple called Jōgenji, and in written dialogue with the priests said, “In recent years, we went to war with England over trivial matters, and the Qing court lost profit and all the people fell into terrible misery. Our king showed compassion and wanted to save us, surrendering military force to make peace.” . . . These men are distinguished officials even in Guangzhou, and more than ten men are retainers of these two. Everyone suddenly shed tears over the English employing such men as retainers. Ah, even in these changing times, it pains my heart to hear this!32 This is a remarkable passage, written with sympathy for Qing China’s miserable disposition following military defeat, which included paying reparations and making territorial and legal concessions to England under the Treaty of Nanjing. In seeing several men of Qing China employed in servitude to the British, Rosen witnessed the harsh realities of a country experiencing military defeat, and let out a sigh at the predicament of the Chinese. As a kokugaku scholar, Rosen personally experienced such foreign encounters within the international setting of Hakodate, which many of his scholarly predecessors only imagined conceptually. As Peter Nosco observes, “China the reality

30. Hirata Atsutane, “Kodō taii,” quoted in When Tengu Talk, Wilburn Hansen, 192. As Hansen notes, this response is almost a direct quote of Motoori Norinaga’s argument. 31. Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi, “Opium, Expulsion, Sovereignty: China’s Lessons for Bakumatsu Japan,” Monumenta Nipponica 47, no. 1 (Spring 1992): 1–25. 32. Hirao, Hakodate kikō, 65, 68.

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Figure 2.5.

“Guangdong officials image” (Hakodate kiko¯). Hirosaki City Public Library.

was replaced in the popular culture of late seventeenth-century Japan by China the metaphor,” due to the Tokugawa state’s restrictive foreign policy that limited foreign exchange to an imagining of the foreign other.33 Some kokugaku scholars in the Tokugawa period engaged in the construction of a distinctive “self ” or Japanese identity, in part, by way of contrast with a foreign “other” whom they had scarcely seen; and Motoori Norinaga and Atsutane both asserted Japanese identity and superiority by positing contrasting others in the Chinese and Westerners.34 Now that Japan was “opened” in the mid-1850s, Rosen was confronted with the realities of powerful imperial Western nations, a defeated Qing China, and a vulnerable Japan. In concluding my examination of Rosen’s “international” encounters in Hakodate, I look at his one and only reference to Atsutane, which sheds further light on Rosen’s overall experience. Rosen described the clothing and appearance of an Indian man whom he witnessed aboard a ship. Then, he

33. Nosco, Remembering Paradise, 48. 34. Nosco, Remembering Paradise, 11–13, 48–49. See also Katsurajima Nobuhiro, Jitaninshiki no shisōshi (Tokyo: Yūshisha, 2008), 66.

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noted that this man visited the temple to reverently worship and bow before Buddhist statues, which defied Rosen’s understanding of India, as informed by Atsutane. In an annotation Rosen stated, “Incidentally, I state that Master Hirata of Dewa discusses Buddhism, and wrote in his book that Shakyamuni’s Law is in great decline in contemporary India and believers are few, but seeing this man’s actions, I question if it is in such decline.”35 Needless to say, the worship practices of a single Indian sailor in a foreign port city cannot possibly account for the state of Buddhism in India. However, this quote exemplifies that, for Rosen, this visit to Ezo and his discovery of the “globe” there defied and altered many of the preconceived ideas that he had about the “other,” acquired through reading texts or secondhand accounts. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that Rosen openly questioned Atsutane years before his serious engagement with Atsutane’s teachings and official enrollment into the Hirata school. Having left his own domain for the first time, Rosen witnessed the authority of the Tokugawa political state in the recently reestablished Hakodate magistrate. In the appendix to Hakodate Travelogue, Rosen observed the orderly nature of Hakodate as a whole, and praised the magistrate’s governance: Since Takeuchi Lord of Shimotsuke of the Hakodate magistrate has taken office, governance has been extremely peaceful, taxes and corvée minimized, rice prices lowered, relief rice loaned out, and the poor assisted. During this time, even though foreign ships dock one after another, and foreigners come and go through the streets, there has been no further unrest, and the people have been devoting themselves to and enjoying their work. Therefore, the Nebuta event that had been discontinued has been reestablished. Offering this as a spectacle for the elite and exciting entertainment for the humble fully constitutes benevolent government, and everyone says to one another how admirable this is.36 At the close of Hakodate Travelogue’s appendix, Rosen highly praised the accomplishments of Takeuchi Yasunori (b. 1807) who had been appointed to the Hakodate magistrate in 1854. Hakodate’s port had been opened and Americans and Europeans had been permitted to enter the harbor, and since

35. Hirao, Hakodate kikō, 64. Rosen likely learned of Atsutane’s report of Buddhism’s decline in India from one of Atsutane’s treatises on Buddhism and India: Shutsujō shōgo, in SHAZ, vol. 10 or Indo zōshi, in SHAZ, vol. 11. 36. Hirao, Hakodate kikō, 189.

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Yasunori had taken office and succeeded in governing Hakodate, his performance drew praise as “benevolent government.” In this way, Rosen saw the shogunate represented in the newly “opened” port town of Hakodate, and here expressed his approval of the Hakodate magistrate directly and the Tokugawa regime indirectly. Such praise contrasts with his assessment of the socioeconomic underdevelopment of the castle and port town of Matsumae.

Between Ezo and Tsugaru In documenting life, culture, and customs across Ezo, Rosen noted what was transmitted from Tsugaru, Nanbu, or elsewhere in Japan, and made comparisons between them.37 He included examples of the local ceremonies. In Hakodate, Rosen observed that, “according to the folk custom of this area, all boys from all four classes regardless of whether they were poor or rich maintained their topknot, and on turning sixteen or seventeen, they would celebrate their coming of age [genpuku] with an eboshi oya.”38 The person who crowned the young man with the eboshi hat also prepared the ceremonial attire for the occasion and received a “gift” from the young man’s father. Another folk custom dictated that when a girl married, she was to go to a “kaneoya” to have her teeth blackened professionally, and that otherwise she was not allowed to blacken her own teeth. This also involved a gift-giving ritual. Concerning funerals, Rosen explained that when relatives or the abovementioned kaneoya passed away, “members of their group” held a wake for seventeen days after the funeral procession.39 He noted several commonalities between the funerary customs of local Ezo and “our country” Tsugaru. He stated that “sending red bean rice to express appreciation is the same as in our country.”40 Also, whether aff luent or poor, everyone reportedly used a litter instead of a basic coffin, and “people from wealthy houses use a foursided coffin starting inside the temple,” likely carried on the shoulders of four men. Rosen observed that “the sight of the procession bears no difference with that of our country.”

37. Moriyama Taitarō offers a general overview of Rosen’s observations of folk culture in Ezo in his introduction to his transcription of these texts. Moriyama Taitarō, “Kaisetsu,” Seikatsu no koten sōsho 12 Yōi meiwa Hakodate kikō, 200–8. 38. Hirao, “Furoku,” Hakodate kikō, 180. 39. Hirao, “Furoku,” 182. 40. Hirao, “Furoku,” 183.

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Rosen made detailed observations of shrines, temples, and festivals in Ezo, including the “Festival of the Soul in the seventh month,” or the Bon festival. His description of the Nebuta festival as a point of comparison between Ezo and Tsugaru culture was especially important. In Ezo, Nebuta occurred on the sixth day of the seventh month, and was called the Tanabata festival. Children gathered materials from their “schools” to create what “is called a kaku (plaque) Nebuta in our dialect” of Tsugaru.41 On this plaque they wrote “Tanabata festival” and displayed images. They inscribed people’s names, adorned the plaque with various decorations, and tied on a tanzaku (poetry strip). Wealthy people prepared the Nebuta elaborately and Rosen noted that “the decorations are the same as in our country.” He depicted the playing of the taiko drums, f lutes, bells, and shamisen, the lighting of the lanterns, singing and dancing, and the festive scene of the Nebuta being propped up and paraded through the street. Even though Rosen visited Ezo in the sixth and seventh months of the summer season, he reported on year-round events and rituals. He described a ceremony in the twelfth month for pounding mochi rice-cakes in unison with female performers playing taiko drums and shamisen (figure 2.7). He pointed out that although there was no jūnigatsu sekizoro, or “’Tis the season of the twelfth month,” which was a special custom in the twelfth month, nor a New Year’s celebration in the first month, they nevertheless performed the Daikoku mai dance in the New Year. Jūnigatsu sekizoro was a custom performed from year’s end to the New Year, in which two or three people formed a group, veiled their faces with red cloth and dressed up, and sang and danced, while shouting “sekizoro gozareya!” (“’tis the season!”). They uttered blessings for the New Year, walking about and seeking rice and monetary donations. Shōgatsu banzai was also a dance performed in the New Year in which blessings were uttered for a prosperous year ahead. Someone called a banzai shi made visits and performed. Daikoku mai was another popular song and dance performed in the New Year, in which the performer wore a mask and dressed up like Daikokuten, one of the “Seven deities of fortune,” and announced his arrival with a bushel of rice and blessings he had brought for the New Year. The masks were dyed in various colors, and taiko drums and shamisen accompanied singing and chanting. One person jested for the audience. Rosen identified the source of these traditions as Nanbu, Tsugaru’s neighboring domain, stating that “these are mainly products from Nanbu,

41. Hirao, “Furoku,” 184.

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Figure 2.6.

“Mochi-pounding in the twelfth month” (Hakodate kiko¯ ). Hirosaki City Public Library.

and in this region it is said that they belong to the sardine fishers.”42 Rosen reasoned that migrant sardine fishermen from Nanbu likely transported this custom to Hakodate. Kadomatsu pine and bamboo decorations for the New Year were usually small, and because they were expensive, “samples similar to those in our country are scarce,” being displayed only by the wealthy. In this manner, after distinguishing between Western countries and Japan, and based on his explorations of Matsumae, Hakodate, and villages in between, Rosen distinguished between Ezo and Tsugaru, relativizing their positions as distinctive regions and communities within Japan. What significance does Rosen’s visit to Ezo bear on his later work and thought? Although it was such a brief period in Rosen’s life, the fact that it was his sole journey outside his domain, combined with the detailed documentation in his travelogues that underwent multiple rounds of editing, shows the attention he paid to reconstructing these “foreign” and “international” travel experiences. As Nenzi has shown, the act of travelers retouching their travelogues after completing their journeys enabled them to relive these experiences and to make their memories “resonate” throughout their lives.43

42. Hirao, “Furoku,” 186. 43. Nenzi, Excursions in Identity, 116–18.

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Through the editing process thereafter, the artist neatly compartmentalized the places he had visited. At first, Rosen compiled images and written descriptions in Matsumae Travelogue, or Matsumae kikō, in which he combined twelve images from Ezo along with twenty-one of Tsugaru territory for a total of thirty-three.44 Later, however, Rosen separated his records. He transferred eight images of Ezo to the sketchbook Matsumae Scenery, or Matsumae fūkei, then into the final edition of his travelogue, Hakodate Travelogue, completed in 1856. Thirteen images of Tsugaru were moved to Gappo Landscape, or Gappo sansuikan, a three-volume compilation of images of various locations across Tsugaru compiled in 1859. Over the years after returning home, Rosen increasingly compartmentalized his experiences and observations of Ezo and Tsugaru in travelogues and sketchbooks. Rosen highlighted the beauty of Tsugaru in the above-mentioned Gappo Landscape. Many of the images he captured on his way to and from Ezo in the sixth and seventh months of 1855 became part of the fifty-nine total scenes from across Tsugaru in this collection made four years later. After he finished Gappo Landscape, Rosen composed the following verses, introduced with the words “Finished copying Sansuikan”: Uchi hi sasu miyako no hito no idemasaba Sotogahama naru tama wo miseten (26)45

Should people of the sun-blessed capital venture out this way, I wish to show them the jewel of Sotogahama.

Here Rosen boasted of the beauty of Sotogahama on the eastern coast of Tsugaru peninsula, and proposed to introduce its sights to people from the capital of Kyoto should they visit. He appealed for recognition of the beauty of this seashore, which was obscure compared to the sights of Kyoto, made famous through its rich literary and cultural tradition as the capital for over a millennium. The beauty of Tsugaru’s sights rivaled that of Kyoto’s, insisted Rosen, who would have had no better than second-hand knowledge of the latter, having never visited himself. For Rosen, 1855 was a year of self-orientation, for reimagining the “countries” that surrounded him and for situating himself within this renewed worldview. This was a formative period for him intellectually, when he

44. Fujiwara, “Matsumae fūkei: Hokkaido Daigaku fuzoku toshokan Hoppō kankei shiryōshitsuzō,” 41–56. 45. Hirao, Hirao Rosen kashū, 3.

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acquired a great deal of knowledge. From the late 1840s to 1859, Rosen compiled Kōsai’s Records (Kōsai shōshi)46 a 150-chapter edited collection of excerpts from classical and more contemporary Japanese and Chinese texts. Passages were drawn from tales, anecdotes of military generals, histories and anecdotes of Confucianists and literati, Japanese and Chinese histories and miscellaneous works, Hirosaki domainal histories and other records, and the writings of Norinaga and Atsutane.47 Although Kōsai’s Records is not an original, single-authored work, the above-mentioned writings that Rosen copied ref lect Rosen’s interest in Japanese and Chinese history, and in kokugaku and Confucianism, and this edited volume represents his accumulation of foundational knowledge leading up to his departure for Ezo. During his journeys in Ezo, Rosen had a truly “global” encounter that awakened him to the reality of multiple “countries,” foreign and national; the military superiority of the Western powers; the defeated condition of Qing China; and Japan’s military vulnerability to potential Western threats despite its seemingly civilized culture. Within this reconstructed worldview, Rosen oriented his “country of Tsugaru” alongside Ezo within Imperial Japan: in the ensuing years he further engaged this dynamic between the “countries” of Tsugaru and Japan throughout his major works.48 Rosen’s steadfast focus on his domain even after discovering Japan’s place opposite Western nations within the world contrasts with the experience of contemporary Chōshū samurai and shishi (“man of high purpose”), Yoshida Shōin. Kirihara Kenshin explains that after discovering the “West” and “Japan,” Shōin’s purpose as a martial strategist expanded to protect the “Imperial country” of Japan that transcended “Chōshū domain,” and that this represented the broadening of his “self-consciousness f rom that of domainal state to Japanese state.”49 For Rosen, it was amid his sustained and intellectual

46. Kōsai refers to Rosen’s personal name. This work was compiled from the Kaei years (1848–54) to 1859 (Ansei 6). 47. According to Moriyama Taitarō, the 150 chapters of Kōsai shōshi are archived at the Hirosaki City Public Library, but I have yet to locate them. Please see Moriyama’s introduction on this text in his “Hirao Rosen,” 68–71. 48. In the decade from 1855, we see Rosen authoring his major writings: Gappo kidan (1855), Hakodate kikō (1856), Yōi meiwa (1856), Fude no susabi (1860–61), Tani no hibiki (1860), and Yūfu shinron (1865). Rosen’s many works include authored texts, edited volumes, paintings, collections of images, and a poetry collection, but the major works I list here are those authored works he listed in his letter of the eleventh day of the sixth month in 1869 to Shimozawa Yasumi, as representative works he wished to send to Ibukinoya’s Hirata Kanetane. Hirao Rosen, Letter to Shimozawa Yasumi, eleventh day, sixth month, 1869 (Meiji 2); see “Letters,” in AKS, 617. 49. Kirihara Kenshin, Yoshida Shōin no shisō to kōdō: Bakumatsu Nihon ni okeru jitaninshiki no tenkai (Sendai: Tohoku Daigaku Shuppankai, 2009) 42, 49–50.

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inquiry into Tsugaru and Japan that Rosen eventually began to seriously engage Hirata kokugaku, together with his peers. The next chapter looks at the life and thought of Hirata Atsutane, the academy he founded that was maintained by his descendants, and the growing community of disciples that would form a national network. This overview will help us to consider what it was in kokugaku teachings that attracted intellectuals f rom Tsugaru.

Ch a p ter 3

Hirata Kokugaku and the National Network

Who was Hirata Atsutane and why did his thought and academy attract the Tsugaru group of disciples? After moving from his native Akita domain to the political and cultural capital of Edo, Atsutane established his life and studies, eventually carving out his place within kokugaku scholarship. He became a disciple of the late Motoori Norinaga, and eventually was himself recognized as a “Great Man” of the same philosophical tradition. Atsutane asserted his unique approach of subjectively interpreting history and myth. His major contributions to kokugaku thought included new theories on spirits, the spirit realm, and the afterlife, as well as an assertion of Japan’s place of greatness in the world due to the favor and blessings of the gods of the Japanese pantheon. He engaged both peers and rivals among contemporary intellectuals, and at different times formed alliances with the leading Shinto households, serving as an instructor for the Yoshida family and later being deified by the Shirakawa family. Support from Atsutane’s wives and descendants made it possible for the Hirata academy to expand, publish, and disseminate his writings, and gain a following of disciples from across Japan. By reading Hirata kokugaku primarily through the lens of the Tsugaru disciples, I highlight those interests to which these local disciples gravitated, primarily, ethnographic research and a concern for the north, spirits, and faith in the gods. Atsutane studied multiple “countries,” which include writings 68

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on his native domain of Akita, information gathered on the foreign threat from Russia and Russian-language materials, and extensive writing on the history and myth of Japan whose land and people he described as sacred and favored by the gods. We will see how Atsutane’s concern for commoners in the “countries” as well as his religiosity drew a large following of disciples who formed a national network based around the academy, which was succeeded by his son Kanetane and grandson Nobutane (1828–72). To demonstrate social diversity within the academy as well as a basis for comparison with the Tsugaru group, I describe key figures and activities of disciple groups in Shimōsa, Shinano, and Akita.

Hirata Atsutane and Kokugaku Hirata Atsutane was born on the twenty-fourth day of the eighth month in 1776 in the castle town of Kubota in Akita domain of Dewa province. He was the fourth of six sons of Akita domainal samurai Ōwada Seibei Sachitane, who also had two daughters.1 The Ōwada family claimed descent from Prince Katsuhara, son of Emperor Kammu (737–806), and Atsutane himself wrote that he was a “thirty-first generation descendant” of Kanda myōjin, the spirit of the Heian military general Taira no Masakado (d. 940). Therefore, he often signed his name Taira Atsutane. Atsutane had an unhappy childhood, according to various accounts, having twice been given over for adoption and returning home both times, enduring abuse from his parents and brothers, and being despised for a birth mark on his face that his parents allegedly interpreted as an ominous sign about the boy’s future.2 After acquiring basic education in Japanese reading and writing, the young Atsutane began Chinese studies in 1783, at age seven, under the tutelage of domainal Confucian scholar Nakayama Seiga, a disciple of Yamazaki Ansai’s (1618–82) academy, who likely taught him Neo-Confucianism.3 When Atsutane was eleven, he was sent to live with his uncle Yanagimoto to study medicine and become a physician. At age eighteen, Atsutane escaped from Akita domain for Edo on the eighth day of the first month in 1795 to pursue further studies, and supported

1. Watanabe Kinzō, Hirata Atsutane kenkyū (Tokyo: Hōshuppan, 1978). 2. Kamata Tōji, “The Disfiguring of Nativism: Hirata Atsutane and Orikuchi Shinobu,” in Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami, ed. John Breen and Mark Teeuwen (New York: Routledge, 2009), 295–96. Atsutane wrote about this in a letter from his place of exile, Akita, in 1842, but never sent it out. See Kamata for an argument of how Atsutane’s facial disfigurement led to his fascination with the other realm, and added to his conviction of the gods. 3. Hirata Kanetane, Daigaku kun goichidai ryakki, in SHAZ, 6:591.

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himself by working several menial jobs, including those of cart puller, firefighter, home tutor, and kitchen assistant. After completing his duties in the kitchen, he enjoyed his free time studying. At the age of twenty-two, Atsutane read the “Heaven and Earth” chapter of the Daoist text Zhuangzi and was inspired to take the name Daigaku, which means the vast ocean that is neither exhausted nor overf lows.4 Around this time, Atsutane was discovered by Itakura Lord of Suo from Matsuyama domain, Bitchū province, who introduced the young man to his vassal, Hirata Tōbei Atsuyasu. Tōbei eventually adopted Atsutane into the Hirata household.5 The following year in 1801, at age twenty-five, Atsutane married Ishibashi Orise, age nineteen. In the ensuing year, the couple had a son, Jōtarō, who sadly died after one month. In 1805, Orise gave birth to their daughter, Chie, who later took on the name Ochō, and eventually the name Orise after her mother. The couple had their second son in 1808, whom they named Hanbei, and later renamed Matagorō, but he too died early in 1818 at age ten. Spring of 1801 was when Atsutane first read Motoori Norinaga’s writings, and developed a desire to study “Ancient Learning.” Atsutane’s scholarship became a collective undertaking for the Hirata family. His first wife Orise worked hard to support her husband in household and clerical matters.6 In his major work on human souls and the afterlife, Tama no mihashira, or Sacred Pillar of the Soul, completed in 1812 and first published a year later, Atsutane expressed his desire after death to invite his wife Orise to f ly together as spirits before his Master Norinaga’s spirit and to serve him. A number of scholars have pointed to this gesture by Atsutane as a rare and unique show of marital affection by a husband toward his wife in early modern Japan.7 Atsutane lamented Orise’s death that year due to illness caused by overwork to support his “studies on the Way.”8 He went on to remarry, but his second wife left after a mere two months, perhaps due to Atsutane’s financial hardships. Later Atsutane remarried once more, and renamed his third wife Orise.

4. Watanabe, Hirata Atsutane kenkyū, 520; Yoshida Asako, Hirata Atsutane: Kōkyō suru shisha, seija, kami gami (Tokyo: Heibonsha shinsho, 2016), 19–20. 5. Watanabe, Hirata Atsutane kenkyū, 19. 6. Watanabe, Hirata Atsutane kenkyū, 21. 7. Among them are the following: Miyachi Masato, Rekishi no naka no yoake mae: Hirata kokugaku no bakumatsu ishin (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 2015), 377–80; Aramata Hiroshi and Maita Katsuyasu, Yomigaeru karisumata Hirata Atsutane (Tokyo: Ronsosha, 2000), 62–75. 8. Hirata Atsutane, Tama no mihashira, in SHAZ, 7:180–81. Atsutane made this same admission in a letter written in his later years to adopted son Kanetane. Watanabe, Hirata Atsutane kenkyū, 21.

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The woman who became Atsutane’s third wife was born the daughter of a tofu shop owner in Koshigaya in Musashi province, and was adopted into the household of a wealthy local oil merchant, Yamazaki Chōuemon (1766–1838).9 A fervent believer in the Japanese gods, Chōuemon became a disciple of Atsutane in 1816, renaming himself Atsutoshi. The following year he loaned his teacher the capital to publish Tama no mihashira and Koshiseibun (Ancient History Reconstituted), as well as Koshichō (Meaning of Ancient History) one year later in 1818. In the winter of 1818, Chōuemon Atsutoshi arranged for his adopted daughter to marry Atsutane. This second Orise raised Atsutane’s daughter, financed her husband’s scholarship with help from her aff luent household, and provided further practical support through writing, accounting, and negotiations in publishing matters. During their marriage, Atsutane adopted Kanetane, the eldest son of vassal Midorikawa from Niiya domain in Iyo province. On the twenty-third of the fifth month in 1822, Kanetane officially registered as Atsutane’s disciple, and would later become his successor to manage the academy. Now let us examine some of Atsutane’s early works. Atsutane authored his first treatise, Kamōsho, in 1803 at age twenty-seven, in which he refuted claims made by Confucian Dazai Shundai (1680–1747) in Bendōsho (On Distinguishing the Way) that the Way did not exist in Japan before the arrival of Buddhism during the reign of Emperor Kinmei (509–71) in the sixth century. In Kamōsho, Atsutane asserted the primordial existence of the divine and ancient Way of Japan created by the kami, and he addressed the broadranging discourse on Shinto, or the “Divine Way,” from the perspectives of Confucianism, Neo-Confucianism, Buddhism, divination, and kokugaku in Norinaga’s and Kamo no Mabuchi’s writings. Atsutane’s refutation of Shundai’s assertions on the Way is a part of a larger debate between Confucian and kokugaku scholars on the Way. Maruyama Masao offers an insightful reading of the debate on the Way, describing how Ogyū Sorai identified the Way as a creation of the ancient sages, how Kamo no Mabuchi viewed the Way in nature as the “Way of Nature in Heaven and Earth,” and how Norinaga viewed the Way as a creation of the gods.10 In response to Shundai’s

9. Watanabe, Hirata Atsutane kenkyū, 25–26. 10. Hirata Atsutane, Kamōsho, in SHAZ, 10:144. See Maruyama Masao, Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan, trans., Mikiso Hane (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974). Kuroda Toshio argues, similarly to Shundai, that early appearances of the term “Shinto” in the Nihon shoki of 720 CE do not refer to the religious tradition of Shinto, created later partly in response to Buddhism and Confucianism. See Kuroda Toshio, “Shinto in the History of Japanese Religion,” trans. James C. Dobbins and Suzanne Gay, The Journal of Japanese Studies 7, no. 1 (1981): 1–21.

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interpretation of contemporary worship in Shinto as deriving from a Buddhist inf luence, Atsutane offered a rebuttal, which culminated in his urging the people of Japan to discard the contrived “filthy teachings of foreign countries.” He then declared, “to first learn the antiquity of the Imperial country, to know the precious ways of the Imperial country’s gods, and to revere, approach, and worship the gods well and wholeheartedly with the pure ‘true heart’ (magokoro) is the way of the Imperial country.”11 Atsutane concluded Kamōsho with the inscription “Master of Masugenoya,” referring to his place of residence where, in 1804, he commenced his medical practice and lectures.12 On the fifth day of the third month in 1805, Atsutane sent Motoori Haruniwa (1763–1828) a letter requesting formal enrollment into the Motoori academy, the Suzunoya or “House of Bells” in Matsusaka, explaining his devotion to learning the Way and how, after discarding Chinese writings, he had studied Norinaga’s teachings with faith and dedication. He then confessed to having seen “old man” Norinaga in a dream the previous spring in which they had established a master-disciple relationship.13 Haruniwa replied that he was impressed with Atsutane’s devotion, and he formally approved this disciple’s enrollment into the academy.14 Even as Norinaga’s disciple, Atsutane openly acknowledged departing f rom his teacher’s views and methods, and developed an original hands-on approach to scholarship in subjectively interpreting history and mythology. Norinaga wrote his Kojiki-den commentary on a single text, the Kojiki, or Records of Ancient Matters, believing it to be the authoritative text for studying ancient Japanese history and the Divine Way due to its “interrelationship between essence, entity, and expression,” as well as its emphasis on the ancient lexicon that allowed this text to convey the truth of matters f rom ancient Japan to the present.15 The Nihon shoki, or Chronicles of Japan, was lesser, according to Norinaga, because it concentrated on the beauty of its Chinese prose, which at times compromised the transmission of the

11. Hirata Atsutane, Kamōsho, 155. 12. In 1807, at age 31, Atsutane opened his medical practice, changing his name to Gensui. 13. McNally, Proving the Way, 165–66. 14. Atsutane commissioned “Image of Encounter in Dream” (Muchū taimen zu) to capture this dream, and in response to his request, Haruniwa inscribed on it a message of praise and a description of the encounter. Maita Katsuyasu and Aramata Hiroshi, eds., Bessatsu Taiyō: Chi no nettowaaku no senkakusha (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 2004), 22–23. 15. See Motoori Norinaga, Kojiki-den, in An Anthology of Kokugaku Scholars 1690–1868, trans. John R. Bentley (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University East Asia Program, 2017), 421.

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beauty of ancient Japan. In contrast, Atsutane drew upon a wide variety of texts to uncover the Way. A prime example is Atsutane’s Koshiseibun, or Ancient History Reconstituted, a fifteen-volume ancient history from the Divine Age to the reign of Empress Suiko (r. 593–628 CE), which drew widely from the Kojiki, Nihon shoki, Kogo shūi (Gleanings of Ancient Tales), fudoki (gazetteers), and norito.16 Atsutane perceived a great disparity between these texts’ accounts of ancient history, as well as those of Norinaga’s Kojiki-den and other writings. He therefore resolved to synthesize facts from these various sources and to boldly produce one uniform and authoritative source, written in the style of the Kojiki, using Chinese characters in a combination of Japanese Man’yō gana readings and classical Chinese (kanbun). This work demonstrated Atsutane’s absolute conviction in his own reconstitution of history, especially when considering he wrote the large commentaries Koshiden (Lectures on Ancient History) and Koshichō (The Meaning of Ancient History) on his own Koshiseibun. Upon completing Koshiseibun, Atsutane declared that this was his most representative work, foreseeing what he would become known and slandered for: “that may just be this Seibun.”17

Spirits, the Kakuriyo Realm, and Ethnographic Studies By building on previous cosmologies, Atsutane made his biggest contribution to kokugaku discourse through his comprehensive interpretation of the visible and invisible realms, human spirituality, and spirits. Atsutane drew upon his teacher Norinaga’s theories, as well as those of Norinaga’s disciple Hattori Nakatsune (1756–1824). Nakatsune authored Sandaikō, or Treatise on the Three Universal Bodies, an interpretation of the creation chapters of the Kojiki that asserted the sun was heaven, the earth this world, and the moon the Yomi world. Sandaikō features ten diagrams depicting the creation of heaven and earth, along with various divinities. Norinaga held his disciple’s treatise in high esteem, editing it in part before its completion in 1791, then publishing it as part of his Kojiki-den at the end of volume seventeen. Although Motoori Ōhira was critical of Nakatsune’s treatise, Atsutane supported much of it, incorporating its ten cosmological diagrams, altering numbers five through ten, and asserting his own stance in Tama no mihashira.

16. Only the first three volumes, devoted to the Divine Age, had been published in the year 1818. 17. “Seibun” is an abbreviation for Koshiseibun. Tanaka Yoshitō, “Kaidai: Koshiseibun,” in SHAZ, vols. 1, 2.

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Atsutane completed Tama no mihashira, one of his major treatises, early in his scholarly career in 1812, then published it for the first time one year later. Norinaga had concluded that “everyone in the world, whether noble or base, good or bad, must one and all go to the land of Yomi when they die,” and consistent with past Shinto theologians’ tendencies, he inquired no further into eschatological questions on the afterlife.18 For Norinaga, it was everyone’s destiny to go to the “exceedingly filthy and bad land” of Yomi, which lay beneath the earth—a terribly sad fate but one that could not be avoided. Nakatsune also adopted this view of Yomi as a place where souls were destined to go after leaving their corpses in this world.19 However, at the beginning of Tama no mihashira, Atsutane clearly asserted that “scholars of Ancient Learning must chief ly solidify their Yamato heart,” and that “in desiring to solidify broad and lofty that Yamato heart, knowing where one’s soul will settle is paramount.”20 Atsutane thus made the question of the soul’s destination after death central to his scholarship and, consequently, made discussions of eschatology central to kokugaku. Atsutane refuted Norinaga’s claim that all souls of the dead go to the Yomi underworld after death, stating that his teacher was mistaken, “owing mainly to his insufficient examination of the evidence.”21 After death, all souls go neither to Yomi nor to heaven, maintains Atsutane; rather, it is clear “from the purport of ancient legends and from modern examples that [the souls of the Japanese] remain eternally in Japan and serve in the realm of the dead governed by Ōkuninushi-no-kami.”22 Atsutane cast Ōkuninushi no kami as lord of the hidden realm whom souls of the dead are to serve. The deity Ōkuninushi no kami appears prominently in Izumo mythology and in the Kojiki. While he is referred to by several different names in the Kojiki, he was eventually recognized as Ōkuninushi no kami who ruled over the Central Land of Reed Plains (Ashihara no nakatsu kuni).23 While in the underworld of Ne no kuni, Ōkuninushi was subject to various trials by Susanoo no mikoto, lord of the underworld, which he managed to overcome with

18. Motoori Norinaga, Tamakushige quoted in Nosco, Remembering Paradise, 215. 19. Nakatsune’s view is original in that it equates Yomi with the moon, as the dark land of night wherein no light shines. Hattori Nakatsune, Sandaikō, in MNZ, vol. 10, ed. Ōno Susumu and Ōkubo Tadashi (Tokyo: Chikuma shobō, 1968), 311. 20. Hirata Atsutane, Tama no mihashira, in SHAZ, 7:93. 21. Tama no mihashira, in Ryusaku Tsunoda, Wm. Theodore de Bary, and Donald Keene, eds., Sources of Japanese Tradition, vol. 2 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1963), 44. 22. Tama no mihashira, in Sources of Japanese Tradition, 45. 23. Kojiki, ed. Aoki Kazuo, Ishimoda Shō, Kobayashi Yoshinori, and Saeki Arikiyo, vol. 1 of NST (1982), 60–93; Philippi, Donald. L., trans., Kojiki (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1968), 92–134, 543.

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help from Susanoo’s daughter Suseribime no mikoto. Armed with Susanoo’s divine sword, bow and arrow, and koto (harp), he returned to the visible realm with his new wife Suseribime and, following Susanoo’s command, used the power of these divine treasures to kill his brothers and to rule the land as Ōkuninushi no kami or the “Great Land-Ruler Deity.” Thereafter, he cooperated with Sukunabikona no kami to create and solidify the land. When Amaterasu decreed Takemikazuchi no kami to descend to earth to pacify the Central Land of Reed Plains, Ōkuninushi ceded the land to him and retreated to the invisible realm.24 This spiritual realm of yūmeikai, or kakuriyo, according to Atsutane, is dark and, therefore, invisible to people living in the visible world, though inhabitants of the spiritual realm can see the visible world fully illumined. This invisible realm occupies the same space as the visible realm inhabited by the living, and souls of the deceased dwell near gravesites and shrines whence they can watch over and protect their descendants. Perhaps ref lecting his concern for “practicality” (jissensei) and daily life, Atsutane notes that in the invisible realm “the way of clothing, food, and housing are also provided,” just as in “life” in the visible world.25 As Mark McNally observes, while “direct contact” between the visible arahaniyo realm and invisible kakuriyo realm is difficult and rare, religious acts in this world, such as ancestor worship, made it possible for one realm to affect the other.26 Between 1805 and 1820, Atsutane established his ideas on spirits and the spiritual realm with his Shin kishinron, Kishin shinron (New Treatise on Spirits),27 Tama no mihashira, and Tamadasuki (Precious Sleeve Cord). He then followed up these foundational works with ethnographic studies of the spiritual realm, through collecting the oral accounts of commoners, beginning with Senkyō ibun (Strange Tidings from the World of Immortals) in 1821. With Senkyō ibun, Atsutane extended his inquiry into the spiritual realm through the testimonies of a boy named Torakichi, known to others as a tengu. Tengu are said to live in high mountains, travel to and from the kakuriyo, possess extraordinary spiritual power, and perform superhuman feats.28 Wilburn Hansen describes how Atsutane recorded in his Senkyō ibun results from

24. For ceding the land, Ōkuninushi was granted his request to build a heavenly shrine on the beach of Tagishi in Izumo. This account has been cited as the origin of the Izumo Grand Shrine where Ōkuninushi is enshrined as the main kami. 25. Hirata Atsutane, Tama no mihashira, 170. 26. McNally, Proving the Way, 122. 27. Shin kishinron and Kishin shinron will be examined in detail in chapter five. 28. Watanabe, Hirata Atsutane kenkyū, 171.

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interviews with Torakichi about Torakichi’s experiences of traveling to and observing the kakuriyo.29 The year 1822 was another productive one for Atsutane’s ethnographic studies, as he completed Katsugorō saiseiki (A Recorded Account of Katsugorō’s Rebirth). Atsutane’s ethnographic inquiry, through testimony from the child informant Torakichi, encouraged him to go on to interview one Katsugorō, a young peasant boy, regarding his experiences of the afterlife and invisible realm, thus further consolidating the theories he had asserted in his earlier, foundational texts. Katsugorō saiseiki is an account of Katsugorō’s alleged rebirth from his previous life also as a peasant boy, Fujikura—who had died of smallpox at age six—but into a different family in the same Tama county of Musashino province in 1810. Katsugorō testified to an encounter he had with the Ubusuna kami Kumano avatar in the yūmeikai, before his rebirth into his new life in this world. Then in that same year, 1822, Atsutane completed Kokon yōmikō (On Marvels Old and New), which responded to Hayashi Razan’s Jinja kō (Treatise on Shrines), and urged the people of Japan to worship the kami, revere the kakuriyo, and reject Buddhist notions of paradise. A defining feature of Hirata kokugaku is the founder’s religious faith and the spiritual dimensions that he accentuated in his scholarship. According to Matsumoto Sannosuke, Atsutane is responsible for the “positivization” (sekkyokuka) and “religionization” (shūkyōka) of Shinto; for taking the emphasis away from “passivity” (judōtai) seen in the literary studies of the Motoori school; and for emphasizing actual “practice” (jissensei) in faith and daily life.30 Tahara Tsuguo contrasts the “scholarly, static characteristic” (gakumonteki, seiteki) of Norinaga’s kokugaku to Hirata kokugaku’s “religious tendency” (shūkyōteki keikō) and Atsutane’s “evangelistic character” (dendōshateki).31 Atsutane saw his contemporary age, according to Tahara, as one of decline for Buddhism and revival for Shinto. During and beyond his lifetime into the early Meiji years, the growth of Atsutane’s academy, based in the shogun’s capital and urban center of Edo, to some 4,283 registrants is a result of the “evangelistic” practice by Atsutane, Kanetane, and Nobutane of traveling the countryside and actively recruiting disciples from a broad social spectrum.32

29. Hansen, When Tengu Talk, 200. 30. Matsumoto Sannosuke, Kokugaku seiji shisō no kenkyū (Tokyo: Miraisha, 1972), 93–107. 31. Tahara Tsuguo, Hirata Atsutane (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 1963), 141. 32. Ito Tasaburō provides this total number of disciples who registered from 1804 through 1876. Itō Tasaburō, Kokugakusha no michi (Tokyo: Shintaiyōsha, 1944), 3.

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The large-scale publication of Atsutane’s writings and their dissemination were a major vehicle for expanding the Hirata academy, and the best example may be his Maiasa shinhaishiki, or Morning Order for Worship, a norito for worshipping twenty-five series of deities and shrines.33 Atsutane opened Maiasa shinhaishiki with the following instructions, which he himself was known to have practiced daily: “Awake early in the morning, wash your face and hands, rinse your mouth, purify your body, then first face toward the land of Yamato, and clap your hands twice.”34 Then you are to reverently worship from afar the Heavenly Pillar and Earthly Pillar deities, also known as the wind gods Shinatsuhiko and Shinatsuhime no kami, additionally referred to as Tatsuta no kaze no kami, who rule over the wind and weather. “Next face the heavenly sun, clap both hands, bow in reverence,” and reverently worship from afar the solar deity Amaterasu, the Imperial Musubi gods, and all the eight million gods, beginning with the Great god Izanagi.35 Atsutane’s concern for deity and ancestral worship at the local level is seen in articles twelve through fourteen, where he encouraged devoted worship at one’s local shrine to the tutelary god of that place, and at the altar to the gods in one’s home—a subject for closer examination in chapter six.36 He wrote Tamadasuki, a commentary on the Maiasa shinhaishiki, to expound the Divine Way for his disciples.37 Maiasa shinhaishiki was the most highly published and widely disseminated of Atsutane’s works, with an estimated 13,976 copies published by 1875, followed by Ōharae kotoba seikun (Correct Reading of Liturgy for Great Purification) at 11,191. Tama no mihashira was fifth with around 10,050 copies.38

Looking Northward, to Japan, and Overseas Atsutane integrated his views of “countries” on multiple levels—local, national, and foreign—into a developing worldview. His knowledge and beliefs rooted in rural communities contributed to his understanding of

33. Here I rely on the Maiasa shinhaishiki edition printed originally in 1841 and reproduced in SHAZ, vol. 6. This edition consists of twenty-five total articles instead of twenty-eight in other versions. 34. Hirata Atsutane, Maiasa shinhaishiki, in SHAZ, vols. 6, 4. Watanabe, Hirata Atsutane kenkyū, 209. 35. Hirata Atsutane, Maiasa shinhaishiki, 5. 36. Hirata Atsutane, Maiasa shinhaishiki, 10–11. 37. Atsutane wrote the first nine volumes and Kanetane wrote the tenth and final volume. 38. “Hirata juku kankōbutsu jōi nijūsshu ichiran hyō,” Meiji ishin to Hirata kokugaku, ed. Kokuritsu rekishi minzoku hakubutsukan (Sakura, Chiba: Kokuritsu rekishi minzoku hakubutsukan, 2004), 39.

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Japan, while his interpretations of the myth and history of Japan informed his views of other countries within the world. Memories of the north—his native Akita domain in Dewa province and the neighboring Mutsu province from his early years—evidently remained with Atsutane, and even informed his scholarship, as seen in some of his major works. In Tama no mihashira he offered commentary on the Divine Age passage of Ninigi no mikoto, grandson of the sun goddess Amaterasu, and his famous, mythical descent from the High Plain of Heaven (Takamagahara) down to the Central Land of Reed Plains on earth, which he reconstructed in Koshiseibun.39 Atsutane argued that the oft-debated term “ukijimari” referred not to a “f loating island” that Ninigi no mikoto had crossed on his descent to earth, but served simply as a pillow word to decorate the more substantial word of “sori” in “soritatashi,” which he interpreted as “the force of descending, from heaven to this land, through forcefully parting the way, parting the way . . .” Atsutane then offered a correlating allegory from Akita in order to explain Ninigi no mikoto’s action of parting the thick clouds to clear his way in his descent from heaven: There is something called a sled (sori) one rides in countries with heavy snowfall. Just as I rode and observed while living in Akita of Dewa, the act of riding this object on a snowy path and parting the way, parting the snow and pushing through, how well it matches the expression, “forcefully parting the way, parting the way,” which refers to something that advances with force. Therefore, that term “sori” is a term applied from the intensity of the momentum of parting one’s way through a snowy path.40 Atsutane refers to images of a sled (sori) back in Akita domain in the wintery landscape, forcing its way along, “parting the way, parting the snow, and pushing through,” moving aside the deep snow as it clears a path for itself. By associating the “sori” of the sled in northern Akita with the “sori”

39. Regarding Ninigi no mikoto’s descent aboard a “f loating bridge of heaven” (ameno ukihashi), Atsutane argued that this was more a “f loating” boat, than a fixed bridge between heaven and earth as asserted by Hattori Nakatsune in his Sandaikō. Hirata Atsutane, Tama no mihashira, in SHAZ, 7:150. Though Atsutane is commenting on his own “reconstituted” version of this scene from ancient history in Koshiseibun, Donald L. Philippi translates the corresponding passage from the Kojiki in the following way: “Then AMA-TU-PIKO-PO-NO-NINIGI-NO-MIKOTO was commanded to leave the Heavenly Rock-Seat. Pushing through the myriad layers of the heavens’ trailing clouds, pushing his way with an awesome pushing, he stood on a f lat f loating island by the Heavenly Floating Bridge, and descended from the heavens to the peak KUZI-PURU-TAKE of Mount TAKA-TI-PO of PIMUKA in TUKUSI.” Kojiki, Philippi, trans., 141. 40. Hirata Atsutane, Tama no mihashira, in SHAZ, 7:151.

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of “soritatashi,” he juxtaposed the act of sledding through a snowy path— based on personal observations from native Akita—with Ninigi no mikoto’s descent to earth, to explain this scene from the Divine Age myth which led eventually to his descendant emperors’ rule over the Central Land of Reed Plains. Northern Japan is referenced earlier in Tama no mihashira, as part of Atsutane’s commentary on an early passage of Koshiseibun. The Divine Age scene begins with a single object suspended and f loating in space, from which something resembling reed-shoots sprout.41 From these, deities emerge into existence for the first time. Their names were Umashi ashikabi hikochi no kami and Ameno sokotachi no kami. These two pillars of deities also came into existence as individual deities, and they hid their bodies.42 Based on the fact that these deities sprouted (moe) from the f loating object, Atsutane speculated: What I wonder according to this is whether “kami” is an abbreviation of the word “kabimoe” (reeds sprouting). That is, because this deity is the first deity to be formed, it is thought that “kami” likely and commonly refers not only to these deities, but to other deities broadly. It is said that in the far reaches of Mutsu province, even now kami (gods) are referred to as “kamui” or “kamoe.” This is probably a case of ancient words being preserved there by chance.43 Based on this Divine Age passage wherein two deities Umashi ashikabi hikochi no kami and Ameno sokotachi no kami are formed from what resembles f loating reed-shoots, Atsutane conjectured that the term “kami,” meaning deity or god, was derived from “kabimoe,” which meant “reeds sprouting.” He referred to the “far reaches of Mutsu province,” where “kami” were called “kamui” or “kamoe” even in contemporary times, and suggested that this language had survived from ancient times, possibly derived from the original “kabimoe.”44

41. The corresponding passage from the Kojiki is as follows: “Next, when the land was young, resembling f loating oil and drift-like a jellyfish, there sprouted forth something like reed-shoots. From these came into existence the deity UMASI-ASI-KABI-PIKO-DI-NO-KAMI; next, AME-NOTOKO-TATI-NO-KAMI. These two deities also came into existence as single deities, and their forms were not visible.” Philippi, trans., Kojiki, 47. 42. Hirata Atsutane, Tama no mihashira, in SHAZ, 7:99. 43. Hirata Atsutane, Tama no mihashira, 100. 44. It should be noted that “kamuy” is also the Ainu word for god. Alexander Vovin has demonstrated that “kamuy” in the languages of the Ainu is an early loan from Old Japanese into Ainu. It preserves the earlier form of kamu- in many divine names. Alexander V. Vovin, A Reconstruction of Proto-Ainu (Leiden: Brill, 1993), 27, note 7.

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The language in the north is similarly referenced in Koshiden, Atsutane’s commentary on Koshiseibun. In the first of 165 articles in the Koshiseibun, he comments on the etymology of “musu” from the deity name of Takami musubi no kami, the second of three creator deities that existed even before the creation of heaven and earth, the first being Amenominaka nushi no kami and the third Kamumimusubi no kami.45 “Musu” rendered with the Chinese character 産 (umu, san), refers to birth, the act of giving birth, or fertility, and Atsutane made the point that this word had been abbreviated from its previous, fuller reading of “umusu,” a reading which he said existed in his day in certain provinces. He continued with another reference to his native Akita with the following footnote: “In Akita of Dewa and such, even 蒸 [“musu” or “fukasu,” which means “to steam”] is read ‘umusu.’ Around the summer time, when it is terribly hot, they say, ‘today it is terribly “umushite” [“steaming”]’ and such.”46 Here too Atsutane drew upon his memories of Akita and the language preserved there from ancient times to help him make sense of the ancient history and language of the Divine Age. It is well documented that Atsutane visited the Kanto region, paid his respects at shrines and traveled to local communities there to give lectures and recruit disciples. Here I have shed light on Atsutane’s view of the north, including his native Akita domain and the provinces of Dewa and nearby Mutsu, areas that have received scant attention in Japanese-language scholarship and have been overlooked in English-language studies.47 The worldview Atsutane espoused revolved around his sense of Japan’s greatness and superiority in the world, and was primarily shaped by his studies and beliefs in the origin myths of Japan and the cosmos, while also being inf luenced by information from overseas. In his interpretation of the mythical accounts of creation, Atsutane explained in Koshiden that the male and female creator gods Izanagi and Izanami directly gave birth to the “Land of the Great Eight Islands” (Ōyashima no kuni) of Japan, but that all other countries of the world were formed when brine congealed, separating into large and small islands and ocean water. While acknowledging that Japan and other countries “were equally created by the musubi (creative power) of the great gods of creation,” he asserted that foreign countries were not the direct creations of Izanagi and Izanami.48 For Atsutane, this was why Japan

45. Also rendered as Kamimusubi no kami. 46. Hirata Atsutane, Koshiden, in SHAZ, 1:101. 47. For a study of Atsutane and his roots in the Tohoku region, see Hoshiyama Kyoko, “Hirata Atsutane to Tohoku,” Jinbun ronshū 37, no. 2 (Dec. 2001), 161–75. 48. Hirata Atsutane, Koshiden, in SHAZ, 1:216.

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was dignified and beautiful, and foreign countries were base and ugly.49 He thus incorporated other countries into Japan’s cosmogonic myths, explaining that once created, “foreign countries were all developed and governed by Sukunabikona no kami, who descended from heaven,” thus identifying this kami who descends from the creator gods as governing foreign lands.50 In Kodō taii, or The Great Meaning of the Ancient Way, Atsutane extolled the greatness of Japan and its people, declaring that “Among all countries there are none that compare” to Japan. He continued that Japanese “things and matters are superior to those of all countries, and since its people are from the Divine Country [or Land of the Gods], naturally they are blessed with correct and true hearts. Since ancient times this has been called the Yamato heart and Yamato soul.”51 A belief that the gods first gave birth directly to the Japanese islands and favored the country informed his view of Japan as superior. Atsutane asserted that the emperor, people, land, and even products including rice far surpassed those of Asian and Western countries.52 Atsutane’s erudition was not limited to his studies of Japan, but extended to learning about other countries and taking up “foreign learning” as far as available documents allowed. He had a sound foundation in Chinese studies, as expected of all intellectuals in Tokugawa society. Furthermore, he respected Chinese philosophers, history, and writings. In his works, he cited Confucius and ancient sages including the Duke of Zhou as figures of authority; and, as noted above, at twenty-three, Atsutane was profoundly inspired by Zhuangzi’s Daoist teachings. Yet, he also disparaged the Chinese as being unclean and intellectually inferior to the Japanese. He insisted that the Japanese should prioritize the study of Japan over that of other countries, and that “good aspects” of other countries should be adopted for the benefit of Japan.53 Moreover, Atsutane expressed hatred of the foreign traditions of Buddhism and Confucianism, which he believed sullied Japanese culture and its spiritual purity. His criticisms and abasement of Buddhism in his Shutsujō shōgo, or A Laughing Discourse on the Everyday World, were cited by Shintoists, kokugaku scholars, and ideologues in the state’s destructive anti-Buddhist persecution in early Meiji.54 In his Kanna hifumi den, or The Sacred Letters of

49. Walthall, The Weak Body of a Useless Woman, 129. 50. Hirata Atsutane, Koshiden, in SHAZ, 1:216. 51. Hirata Atsutane, in SHAZ, 8:11. 52. Hirata Atsutane, in SHAZ, 8:29–30. 53. Hirata Atsutane, Ibuki oroshi, in SHAZ, 15:116–17. 54. Atsutane’s Shutsujō shōgo, or A Laughing Discourse on the Everyday World, completed in 1811 is a parody of Tominaga Nakamoto’s (1715–46) Shutsujō kōgo, which is regarded as the first work to critically examine the formation of Buddhist texts in history.

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Japanese Traditional Script, of 1819, Atsutane confirmed the fabricated history that a “divine alphabet” had existed in Japan before writing was introduced from China, and provided as evidence a script that copied the Korean hangul alphabet created in the mid-fifteenth century.55 Toward the West and the Dutch—the only Westerners to whom the Tokugawa shogunate officially granted stay in Japan during his time— Atsutane expressed views ranging from fascination through admiration to downright denigration. He respected achievements in European science, crediting the Dutch genius for scientific, technological, and medical advances imported to Japan. As a physician, Atsutane even studied Western medicine for two years from 1807 to 1809 at the Rankeidō academy of Yoshida Chōshuku (1779–1824), a physician trained in Dutch medicine.56 At a time when Christianity was prohibited in Japan, Atsutane cited in his Tama no mihashira Judeo-Christian accounts of Adam and Eve and creation from the Bible, and was inf luenced by Christian writings by Jesuit missionaries to China, Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), Diego de Pantoja (1571–1618), and Giulio Aleni (1588–1642), to buttress his own arguments on spirits, the afterlife, and cosmology.57 The concepts of the Western God and Heaven learned from the Dutch appear to have inf luenced his own views on the Japanese creator gods as being three distinct entities united as one, and the afterlife as not limited to a dismal underworld but as including a hopeful kakuriyo realm. Atsutane addressed Dutch Learning and its recent popularity in Ibuki oroshi from 1813, and introduced the Dutch to his young students. Holland was described as comparable to Kyushu in land area, with a cold climate, and as utilizing the solar calendar. The country was named after its province of Holland where the monarch resided, which is likened to Japan being named the “Land of Yamato,” after the place where the mythical first Emperor Jimmu was believed to have established his palace.58 Atsutane explained that the merchant class was ranked highly in Holland, unlike in Japan, and due to their cold climate and limited resources they sent ships overseas to engage in colonial trade. While the Dutch sent merchants to Nagasaki, their main

55. Peter Nosco, “Hirata Atsutane,” in Sources of Japanese Tradition, vol. 2, part 1, ed. Wm. Theodore De Bary, Carol Gluck, and Arthur E. Tiedemann (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), 423. 56. Nakagawa Kazuaki, Hirata kokugaku no shiteki kenkyū, 217. 57. Richard Devine, “Hirata Atsutane and Christian Sources,” Monumenta Nipponica 36, no. 1 (1981): 37–54. 58. Hirata Atsutane, Ibuki oroshi, in SHAZ, 15:133–38.

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trade fort in Asia was in Jakarta, Indonesia, especially after they had been expelled from their fort in Taiwan.59 Descriptions of the physical appearance of Dutchmen began objectively, by stating that they were tall, of fair complexion, laughed often, and rarely became angry. From there, however, Atsutane abandoned any rationality, resorting to crude, xenophobic comparisons of Dutchmen to dogs in terms of physical appearance and behavior. Over two decades earlier, physician and Dutch Learning scholar Ōtsuki Gentaku (1757–1827) had discredited similarly degrading characterizations of the Dutch as animalistic in appearance, and yet, Atsutane here resorted to base and distasteful depictions of them. As Donald Keene has reasoned, Atsutane’s abasement of the Dutch, despite his respect for their achievements, may have represented his polemical attempt to discourage the Japanese people, including his own students, from following the ever more popular Dutch Learning.60 What motivated Atsutane’s ethnocentric and xenophobic writings? Tokugawa society during Atsutane’s time had continued its restrictive foreign policy and, therefore, he presumably had minimal to no contact of any sort with foreigners and had limited opportunities to observe them directly, in contrast to Rosen’s “international” experiences in Hakodate, which had been opened to Western vessels and visitors. Therefore, Atsutane’s views on the foreign other seem to come primarily from his imagination, based on what writings and images were available to him. Even while eagerly selecting foreign ideas and objects that benefited his scholarship and cause, as well as that of the Japanese, he was determined to protect Japan from unwanted foreign inf luence and threats of colonialism.61 The impulses that appear to have fueled his anti-foreign rhetoric include a fervent patriotism, an assertion of Japanese sovereignty, a culturally chauvinistic tendency to proclaim Japan’s greatness, a desire to recover Japanese spiritual purity in the face of foreign inf luence, and a need to defend against a growing security threat from Western imperial powers sailing to Japanese waters. His methods of defense and repulsion included rigorous efforts to gather information about the world, polemical and hostile rhetoric, and reliance on the power of kami to protect his sacred land.

59. In a reference to European mercantilism, he points out that unlike in Confucian societies, merchants were respected by the Dutch and were financed to sail overseas to acquire resources through trade. 60. Donald Keene, “Hirata Atsutane and Western Learning,” in his The Japanese Discovery of Europe, 1720–1830 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1969). 61. For a discussion of Atsutane’s appraisal of the West in terms of both appreciation and rejection, see Hoshiyama Kyoko, Tokugawa kōki no jōi shisō to “Seiyō” (Tokyo: Kazama shobō, 2003).

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Atsutane was keenly aware of matters of state security and the foreign threat to the northern island of Ezo around the turn of the nineteenth century. As discussed in chapter one, in 1792 a Russian expedition led by Lieutenant Adam Laxman arrived in Nemuro, seeking commercial trade with Japan. English warships were also entering Japan’s coastal waters, and in 1796 and 1797 William Broughton surveyed the waters around Ezo and the Kuriles. Such activities prompted the Tokugawa shogunate to bolster its military defense of the north, including the transfer in 1802 of all of Eastern Ezo from the jurisdiction of Matsumae domain to the shogunate.62 Several intellectuals drew attention at the time to the issue of Japanese security, but the shogunate discouraged such public discussion. Kaikoku heidan, or The Military Defense of a Maritime Country, by Hayashi Shihei (1738–93), called for Japan’s military armament to defend against Russia’s southward advancement. This work was printed in 1791, but the shogunate banned it that same year, burning Shihei’s book and printing blocks, and putting him under house arrest in Sendai where he died in 1793.63 According to Miyachi, Hirata Tōbei who adopted Atsutane in 1800, was a Yamaga-style military strategist, and Atsutane was thus likely exposed to discussions of national security and Japan’s military preparedness from early on in his days studying in Edo.64 Evidence of Atsutane’s awareness of the foreign threat and Japan’s military defenses is seen in his Chishima no shiranami, or White Waves of the Kuriles, begun in 1808 and completed in 1813. Atsutane stated in the very opening, “This book resulted from the commotion caused last year, when the Russians unexpectedly arrived in Ezo,” pointing to the 1806 and 1807 Russian incursion into the northern island and the panic it caused as the motivations to compile this work.65 Chishima no shiranami is a ten-volume compilation of official documents related to foreign vessels visiting the country’s coasts since the mid-eighteenth century, including the Russian incursion mentioned above, and the incident surrounding the English vessel Phaeton, which entered Nagasaki harbor by force in 1808. With his awareness of the security threat in the north via Ezo, Atsutane began to study Russia around this period, as evidenced by his collection of available materials on Russian language, geography, history, and society.

62. Miyachi Masato, “Ibukinoya to yonsen no montei tachi,” in Bessatsu Taiyō: Chi no nettowaaku no senkakusha Hirata Atsutane, ed. Maita Katsuyasu and Aramata Hiroshi, 102–3; Conrad Totman, Early Modern Japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 493–94. 63. Jansen, The Making of Modern Japan, 263. 64. Miyachi, “Ibukinoya to yonsen no montei tachi,” 104. 65. Hirata Atsutane, Chishima no shiranami, in SHAZ, supp. 5:1.

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These include Roshia go, or Russian Language, a two-volume booklet containing roughly 1,800 Russian words rendered in both Russian and the Japanese katakana syllabary that Atsutane compiled for personal study, and Orosha moji, or Russian Letters, transmitted by former castaway to Russia, Daikokuya Kōdayū (1751–1828), and hand-copied by Atsutane in 1808.66 Although Atsutane did not master the language sufficiently to translate diplomatic notes by Russian naval officer Nikolai Khvostov, at which he appears to have made early attempts, he nevertheless demonstrated a determination to try to learn the Russian alphabet and some words.67

Visiting Kyoto and the Norinaga School In as early as 1816, Atsutane had written to a disciple in Kyoto, Fujita Arinari, about his desire to visit Kyoto and requested help in planning his travels. Atsutane even hoped to witness the anticipated Rite of Imperial Accession for Emperor Ninkō (1800–46, r. 1817–46) that eventually happened the following year, but that visit to the capital did not materialize due to his other travels and the illness of his son.68 Finally in 1823 at age forty-six, Atsutane, now established as a well-published scholar, made his long-awaited and sole visit to Kyoto where he offered his writings to the Imperial court. Leaving Edo on the twenty-second day of the seventh month, Atsutane traveled the Tōkaidō highway, accompanied by his recently enrolled disciple Ōta Toyotarō Tomotaka and servant Matabei.69 Along the highway he passed by

66. Daikokuya Kōdayū, originally from Ise, was a sailor who was shipping rice to Edo in 1783 when he was shipwrecked and washed ashore on Kamchatka in the Aleutian islands, and spent close to a decade in Russia. In 1792, he accompanied Lt. Adam Laxman and was returned to Japan. He wrote of his experiences overseas in Hokusa bunryaku of 1794, edited by Katsuragawa Hoshū. Both Roshia go and Orosha moji are archived along with other documents in the Hirata Atsutane collection at the National Museum of Japanese History in Sakura, Chiba, Japan. See Kokuritsu rekishi minzoku hakubutsukan, ed., Meiji ishin to Hirata kokugaku, 17. For a description and study of Atsutane’s Roshia go and other Russian language study materials, see Iwai Noriyuki, “Bakumatsu Roshia go kenkyū no shinshutsu shiryō ni tsuite: Kokugakusha Hirata Atsutane no Roshia go shiryō,” Meiji Daigaku jinbun kagaku kenkyūjo kiyō 65 (March 31, 2009): 39–59. See also Hoshiyama Kyoko, “Hirata Atsutane no shisō keisei to Roshia kiki,” Jinbun ronshū 41, 2 (March 31, 2006), 117–40. 67. Iwai, “Bakumatsu Roshia go kenkyū no shinshutsu shiryō ni tsuite.” Iwai lists a series of seventeen documents originally in Atsutane’s possession, which demonstrate his interest in Russia. 68. Atsutane wrote the letter dated the fifteenth of the third month in 1816 to Fujita Arinari in Kyoto. Watanabe, Hirata Atsutane kenkyū, 66–67. Emperor Kōkaku abdicated in 1817 and was succeeded by his son Emperor Ninkō. This would be the last abdication by an emperor of Japan until that of Emperor Akihito (Heisei) in 2019, when he was succeeded by his son, Crown Prince Naruhito, which marked the start of the Reiwa era. 69. Hirata Kanetane, Daigaku kun goichidai ryakki, in SHAZ, 6:608.

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the foot of Mount Fuji for the first time in his life.70 On the third day of the eighth month, they paid respects at Atsuta Shrine, then entered the capital three days later on the sixth. In Kyoto, Atsutane had his first of a series of important encounters on these travels with senior kokugaku scholars of the Norinaga school. For his first and only time, Atsutane visited Nudenoya, an academy in Kyoto started by Norinaga disciple Kido Chidate, who taught Norinaga’s teachings, focusing primarily on poetry and prose.71 Atsutane was not received favorably by Chidate and some of the other Norinaga school members at Kyoto, which extinguished his hopes of giving a lecture there on kokugaku. At Nudenoya, however, Atsutane met Hattori Nakatsune who was residing in Kyoto at the time.72 Nakatsune’s treatise Sandaikō of 1791 had inf luenced the theories on the spiritual realm Atsutane articulated in Tama no mihashira of 1812. The two spoke at length, especially in regards to their resolve to pursue studies of the Ancient Way rather than poetry and prose, in line with the desires of their master, Norinaga.73 Nakatsune related to Atsutane that their master Norinaga had recognized Nakatsune as the sole heir of his scholarship on the Ancient Way, and that after the master’s death he designated Atsutane to be his own successor to carry on the teachings on the Ancient Way. Just before his death in the following year of 1824, Nakatsune completed a norito certifying these intentions, which he sent to Atsutane. At the capital, court noble and poet Tominokōji Sadanao (1762–1837) arranged for the presentation of Atsutane’s books to the Imperial court. On the first of the ninth month, an auspicious date of ten on nichi when heaven was believed to bestow blessings upon the people, Atsutane offered to Sadanao copies of some of his major works: Koshiseibun, Koshichō and its opening volume of Koshichō kaidaiki (Meaning of Ancient History Commentaries), Jindai gokeizu (Divine Age Genealogy), Tama no mihashira, and Koshiden shōsha (Koshiden, Selections).74 Sadanao’s daughter Tominokōji Teruko (d. 1828), a junior chamberlain, delivered the books to retired emperor Kōkaku (1771–1840, r. 1779–1817), whom she had been serving.75 Yoshida school Shinto priests Mutobe Tokika and his son Yoshika (1806–65) delivered Atsutane’s works to the current sovereign Emperor Ninkō. Mutobe Yoshika, who

70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75.

Watanabe, Hirata Atsutane kenkyū, 68. Watanabe, Hirata Atsutane kenkyū, 69; McNally, Proving the Way, 56–57. Watanabe, Hirata Atsutane kenkyū, 290–91. Nosco, Remembering Paradise, 232–33; McNally, Proving the Way, 167–70. Hirata Kanetane, Daigaku kun goichidai ryakki, in SHAZ, 6:608. Watanabe, Hirata Atsutane kenkyū, 78–79.

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became a Hirata disciple after Atsutane had been a month in Kyoto, reported to him that the emperor was indeed impressed with his efforts and scholarly interests.76 Atsutane was overjoyed to receive the emperor’s approval of his work. Another purpose of Atsutane’s travels was to meet Norinaga’s sons. Atsutane had been apprehensive about whether Norinaga’s adopted son and successor, Motoori Ōhira, would agree to meet him. In 1808, Ōhira had relocated from Matsusaka to Wakayama where he served as a tutor to domainal lord Tokugawa Harutomi (1771–1853) and opened his own academy. His studies focused on kagura—ritual dance in the Shinto tradition—and poetry.77 In the debate from years ago surrounding Nakatsune’s Sandaikō of 1791, Atsutane largely supported Nakatsune and aggressively rejected Ōhira’s critical stance toward the work. However, during this visit Nakatsune wrote to Ōhira on Atsutane’s behalf to request a meeting, to which he received a favorable response. On the twenty-second of the tenth month, Atsutane met Ōhira in Wakayama. The two exchanged poetic verses, reconciling past differences, and enjoyed conversations over sake.78 As a gift, Ōhira presented Atsutane a shaku, or scepter, that Norinaga had personally crafted, and Ōhira noted that the other two made by their father were owned by himself and his brother Haruniwa. The scepter carried symbolic value as a “mitamashiro” used to revere Norinaga’s spirit. Ōhira also introduced Atsutane to Norinaga’s posthumous disciple Ban Nobutomo (1773–1846), and the two developed a friendship. Later, however, their relations soured through a series of events that included each accusing the other of plagiarism and dishonest scholarship.79 Atsutane left Wakayama on the twenty-fourth day of the tenth month, visited Yamato where an ancient capital had been located, and “paid respects to the old and precious shrines.”80 Then on the first of the eleventh month, Atsutane visited the Suzunoya academy in Matsusaka and met Norinaga’s natural son, Motoori Haruniwa. Going blind in 1794 precluded Haruniwa from becoming the academy’s successor, but he nevertheless managed household matters and the medical practice, while studying philology and poetry.81 During his stay Atsutane received from Haruniwa a brush that had been personally used by Norinaga,

76. McNally, Proving the Way, 167; Watanabe, Hirata Atsutane kenkyū, 79. 77. McNally, “Who Speaks for Norinaga? Determining Succession in Nineteenth-Century Kokugaku,” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 38, no. 1 (2011), 134–36. 78. Hirata Kanetane, Daigaku kun goichidai ryakki, in SHAZ, 6:610–11. 79. Watanabe, Hirata Atsutane kenkyū, 109. 80. Hirata Kanetane, Daigaku kun goichidai ryakki, in SHAZ, 6:611. 81. Watanabe, Hirata Atsutane kenkyū, 65; McNally, “Who Speaks for Norinaga,” 133–37.

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and later used this to write a portion of a polished draft of his Koshiden.82 He visited Ise Shrine on the first, then with an official guide worshipped at the Inner shrine devoted to Amaterasu on the second, and on the third worshipped at the Outer shrine devoted to Toyouke hime the goddess of food. On the fourth, Atsutane paid respects at the grave of Norinaga on Mount Yamamuro on the outskirts of Matsusaka, about eleven years after he completed his seminal work Tama no mihashira, in which, as we saw above, he had expressed a desire in the next life to f ly with his wife before Norinaga’s spirit and to serve him. A memorial was erected next to Norinaga’s grave on Mount Yamamuro with the inscription of Atsutane’s waka poem, which had appeared in his Tama no mihashira of 1812: Nakigara wa izuko no tsuchi ni narinu tomo tama wa Okina no moto ni yukanamu83

No matter where my corpse may turn into soil my soul is bound for the resting place of the Old Man.

This waka expresses Atsutane’s reverence for his master in kokugaku scholarship whom he had never met in this life, while it alludes to the spirit realm of kakuriyo—a focal point in his scholarship—where he believed the two would meet in the afterlife. From Matsusaka, Atsutane and his company rejoined the Tōkaidō highway, and on the twelfth day, stopped by Sunpu, before heading home to Edo. On the nineteenth day of the eleventh month, Atsutane finally returned home after an eventful journey that had lasted close to four months. Atsutane’s long-awaited visit to Kyoto, Wakayama, Matsusaka, and Ise bore much fruit, specifically in the form of imperial and scholarly affirmation of his studies on the Ancient Way. In Kyoto he received the emperor’s praise for his most important writings. Atsutane also received the approval of senior successors of Norinaga, despite not ingratiating himself with some members of the school including Kido Chidate who focused on poetry and prose. In person and later by way of his norito, Hattori Nakatsune recognized Atsutane, twenty years his junior, as carrying on the studies of the Ancient Way that he had succeeded from Norinaga. Further, Atsutane reconciled ties with Motoori Ōhira in Wakayama, then visited his brother Motoori Haruniwa at Matsusaka, receiving from both of them valuable gifts passed down

82. Hirata Kanetane, Daigaku kun goichidai ryakki, in SHAZ, 6:611. 83. Hirata Atsutane, Tama no mihashira, in SHAZ, 7:180.

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from their father. Finally, Atsutane fulfilled another long-held desire to pay respects at Norinaga’s grave to honor his spirit. Atsutane had come full circle with his visit to the Imperial capital of Kyoto and to senior members of the Norinaga school, following many years of studying the Ancient Way guided by the teachings of his deceased master.

The Shinto Priesthood and Atsutane’s Later Years A month after returning from his travels, in the twelfth month of 1823 Atsutane was appointed instructor of Ancient Learning to the Yoshida lineage of Shinto priests. Atsutane and his academy developed strong ties with the major schools of Shinto priests: the court noble Yoshida house; and the Shirakawa house, descendants of the Jingikan (Council of Divinities) leader Jingihaku. In 1665, the Tokugawa shogunate granted the rank and authority to the Yoshida family to oversee shrines and the priesthood, making it the leading Shinto family for a time. While the Yoshidas maintained their inf luence, as seen in their important role in the Daijōsai, or Rite of Great Tasting, following the Rite of Imperial Accession their stature declined in the eighteenth century.84 The Yoshidas were court nobles, and conferred deified names and priesthood licenses mainly to small and mid-sized shrines.85 In 1791, they established an office in Edo in an attempt to extend their inf luence into Eastern Japan and, accordingly, regarded Atsutane in Edo as a key figure for this expansion. From the latter half of the eighteenth century, the established Yoshida and the reemerging Shirakawa houses competed for control over shrines and Shinto priests in the Kanto region and Edo, and their rivalry is ref lected also in their solicitation of ties with Atsutane and the Hirata academy, which expanded increasingly from late Tokugawa into early Meiji. Atsutane was appointed instructor for the Yoshida school in the twelfth month of 1823 to “thoroughly teach the core of Ancient Way studies” to priests of the Yoshida school.86 After 1829, however, Atsutane started to distance himself from the Yoshida house and moved steadily closer to the Shirakawas who, in 1840, appointed him an instructor for their house.87

84. Endō, Hirata kokugaku to kinsei shakai, 166–67. 85. Kokuritsu rekishi minzoku hakubutsukan, ed., Meiji ishin to Hirata kokugaku, 29. 86. Hirata Kanetane, Daigaku kun goichidai ryakki, in SHAZ, 6:612. 87. Endō, Hirata kokugaku to kinsei shakai, 209; Kokuritsu rekishi minzoku hakubutsukan, ed., Meiji ishin to Hirata kokugaku, 30.

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The Shirakawa priests enabled the ritual deification of Atsutane following his death. Two years after Atsutane’s death in 1845, the Shirakawa family conferred upon him the deified name “Kami and Master of the Sacred Pillar of the Soul” (Kamu tama no mihashira no ushi). Then in 1853, the Shirakawas conferred upon the entire Hirata family the deified name “Divinities of the Hirata family ancestors” (Hirata ke so daidai reijin). This official deification of Atsutane by the Shirakawa house—also extending to the Hirata family— contributed to the academy’s expansion and practice of religious rites by disciples in local communities, such as in the Ina Valley, Akita, and Tsugaru. Luke Roberts documents the deification of daimyo lords in the Tokugawa period, an act that had been deemed illegal according to the state’s omote rules but was nonetheless carried out in domains.88 By the latter half of the Tokugawa period, deification had spread across society and was enabled in part by the proliferation of kami spirituality. Domains deified the ancestral founders of their daimyo houses, and these worship rituals involved an increase in commoner participation.89 While Atsutane’s deification also violated the rules of the Tokugawa authorities and similarly attested to the widespread faith in the kami, this act represented the deification of the founder of a growing private academy along with the perpetuation of its intellectual and spiritual legacy. In 1840, a shogunal official questioned Atsutane concerning his writings beginning with Tenchō mukyū reki, or Eternal Calendar of the Heavenly Court, as well as his social standing. Then, on New Year’s Day in 1841, Atsutane at age sixty-four was suddenly summoned by a domainal official to the Akita lord’s residence in Edo. He was ordered to cease both his writing and publishing activities, and was expelled from Edo to his native domain of Akita. As Watanabe states, the real reasons for and process that led to Atsutane’s expulsion to his native Akita domain are unclear.90 Though Atsutane was startled by these sudden orders, without raising objections, he hurriedly gathered his belongings and left his residence with wife, Orise, and servant, Ichitarō.91 Departing Edo on the eleventh, they spent two months in an Akita domainal residence located in Niragawa of Shimotsuke province before proceeding further northeast from the middle of the third month. After arriving in Akita on the twenty-second day of the fourth month, he and Orise lived for a while

88. Luke Roberts, Performing the Great Peace, 136–66. 89. Roberts documents the case of Tosa domain officials having the Yoshida priestly house in 1805 invoke the new deity of Fujinami Myōjin, the kami deification of Yamauchi Katsutoyo (1546–1605), domainal founder, then enshrining this spirit in Fujinami Shrine on the grounds of Kōchi castle. 90. Watanabe, Hirata Atsutane kenkyū, 349–50. 91. Watanabe, Hirata Atsutane kenkyū, 349.

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in the Ōwada family residence in a small room of eight straw mats. The suspension of publishing income put a strain on their finances, and their lifestyle became more meager, even compared to their time in Edo when they were never particularly aff luent. In the fourth month of the following year, Akita domain granted Atsutane a residence in Nakakame. He died here on the eleventh of the ninth month in 1843. His farewell waka poem reads: Omou koto no hitotsu mo kami ni tsutome oezu kyō ya makaru ka atara kono yo wo92

Not even one of the things I wished to complete before the Gods, did I accomplish. Is it today that I die and, alas, leave this world?

Despite his achievements in scholarship and expounding on the gods and Ancient Way, in his last days of illness Atsutane expressed dissatisfaction for not accomplishing more for the gods. Undoubtedly, he would have liked to have returned to Edo to resume his writing and publishing.

Ibukinoya Network: Kanetane, Nobutane, and the Disciples While Atsutane’s writings served as the basis for scholarship at the Hirata academy, which attracted students from across Japan, his descendants worked hard to disseminate the Master’s teachings and helped to expand the academy nationwide even well after his death. During Atsutane’s lifetime, his adopted son Hirata Kanetane assisted his father with managing the academy, publishing, and the growing discipleship. Kanetane enjoyed scholarship from an early age, and was drawn to Atsutane’s work. He met Atsutane on the sixteenth day of the fifth month in 1822, then became his disciple seven days later on the twenty-third. Less than two years later, on the seventh day of the fourth month in 1824, Kanetane married Atsutane’s only daughter Ochō. She would go on to bear seven children. Kanetane became the adopted son and successor to Atsutane, who had lost his two natural sons to early deaths. After Atsutane agreed to adopt Kanetane, family headship of the latter’s home went to Kanetane’s younger brother. Kanetane authored Norito seikun, or the Correct Readings for Norito. He was ordered to serve in the Akita domain’s Kyoto liaison office from the eleventh month of 1862. While

92. Tahara, Hirata Atsutane, 272.

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in Kyoto, his son Nobutane met prominent court noble Iwakura Tomomi (1825–83), then later Kanetane also met Iwakura and gained his favor, developing strong ties that continued into the Meiji period. The support and assistance from the two women, mother Orise and daughter Ochō, were instrumental to Atsutane and Kanetane in their scholarship and management of Ibukinoya. Ochō was intelligent, and is known to have memorized passages from Atsutane’s writings. Kanetane’s eldest son, Nobutarō, was born on the thirteenth day of the ninth month in 1828, and was later renamed Nobutane. Nobutane carried on the scholarship of his grandfather and father, and during the Meiji Restoration participated in national affairs. Nobutane played a significant role in Akita domain, which, similar to Hirosaki, had initially supported the shogunate but eventually responded to orders from the new government authorities and ultimately supported the Imperial court. Nobutane eventually served the Imperial court, from 1868 as Office of Divine Affairs Jingi magistrate, then from the following year as Jingi officer assistant, proselytizer, and tutor to the emperor.93 Owing to Kanetane’s and Nobutane’s devotion to their work primarily as administrators of the Ibukinoya, Atsutane retained his distinction as the original teacher and Great Man (ushi) of the Ibukinoya even after his death. As his adopted son and successor, Kanetane worked not as an independent scholar in his own right, but served primarily to solidify and expand the Ibukinoya academy and its network nationwide. He assisted Atsutane as his secretary in preparing and editing manuscripts for publication, writing countless letters to disciples, and gathering the funds needed to publish many of these works.94 Atsutane, Kanetane, and Nobutane traveled from their base in Edo to rural communities to deliver lectures, then recruit disciples from among the audience. The location of the Hirata academy changed as the family moved residence. In spring of 1804, at age twenty-nine, Atsutane named his house Masugenoya, where he began his medical practice and started to lecture and attract disciples.95 In 1807, “for the sake of scholarly work, he took his daughter Chieko and moved to a place called Moriyama chō,” located in Kyōbashi, and the family moved several times within Kyōbashi.96 Atsutane worshipped at three shrines in Kashima, Katori, and Ikisu in the fourth month of 1816, and while visiting the Hachiman Shrine in Obama village, discovered the

93. 94. 95. 96.

Tahara, Hirata Atsutane, 32. McNally, Proving the Way, 211; Itō Tasaburō, Kokugakusha no michi, 98. Watanabe, “Hirata Atsutane ryaku nenpu,” in his Hirata Atsutane kenkyū, 520. Hirata Kanetane, Daigaku kun goichidai ryakki, in SHAZ, 6:602.

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“Stone f lute of heaven.”97 Inspired by this discovery, he along with his disciples later compiled Amano iwa fue ki, or Records of the Stone Flute of Heaven, and Atsutane deliberately changed the name of his home and academy to “Ibukinoya” or “House of Divine Breath.” He also took on for himself the name “Daigaku,” rendered with the Chinese characters “Large Horn” (大 角), adapted from the earlier “Daigaku” (大壑). The Hirata family moved to Yushima Tenjin Otoko zaka shita in 1820, where the Ibukinoya academy expanded over the next fifteen years, then later to Negishi Shinden in the twelfth month of 1835, where Atsutane lived for six years before his exile to Akita.98 Kanetane, his wife Orise (Ochō), and their family moved into the Akita domain barracks in Torigoe (or Mototorigoe) in Edo as soon as Atsutane became an official retainer, until the family relocated from Edo to Kyoto in the third month of 1868. Aside from short and fruitless trips to Tokyo, Kanetane stayed there until in 1871, he and Orise learned through a letter from their daughter-in-law that son Nobutane was near death. Out of concern for him they returned to Tokyo. By the time of Atsutane’s death in 1843, Ibukinoya academy’s discipleship had grown throughout Japan to 553 disciples, and it continued to expand in the late-Tokugawa, peaking at 4,283 by the early years of Meiji.99 A center of Hirata followers, Shimōsa province of present-day northern Chiba and Ibaraki prefectures produced 110 disciples during Atsutane’s lifetime and over 200 enrolled students around the time of the Restoration, and is described by Itō Tasaburō as Atsutane’s most trusted group of disciples. Among them was Miyahiro Sadao (1797–1858), who was once disowned by his father for excessive drinking and corruption, but later reformed himself into an industrious village headman of Matsuzawa village in Katori district.100 The self-proclaimed “Potato-digging headman” developed new fields, repaired roads, and grew medicinal herbs. Atsutane lectured in this region in 1816, immediately recruiting forty-four disciples. He later sent Kanetane here several times to collect funds for publishing. Prominent figures such as Suzuki Masayuki and Inō Hidenori also emerged from this group. Sadao enrolled in the Hirata academy in 1826 at age thirty.101

97. Maita and Aramata, eds., Bessatsu Taiyō: Chi no nettowaaku no senkakusha Hirata Atsutane, 44. 98. At Yushima Tenjin, they were located in the vicinity of the Shōheikō academy, administered by the Hayashi family, which was descended from Hayashi Razan (1583–1657). Watanabe, Hirata Atsutane kenkyū, 259, 439. 99. Itō, Sōmō no kokugaku, 4–5. 100. Itō, Sōmō no kokugaku, 12. 101. The Ibukinoya diary records that Sadao frequently visited the Hirata academy after his enrollment.

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From that same year of 1826, the Hirata family came to publish Sadao’s Essentials on Agriculture, or Nōgyō yōshū, which taught agriculturalists about the practice and profitability of planting. This was the first of multiple agricultural manuals the Hirata family published, an enterprise in pursuit of which Kanetane visited Matsuzawa, and Sadao visited the Ibukinoya. Initially, 185 copies of this text were sent to Matsuzawa, and later 337 more by courier (hikyaku). Orders among the agricultural communities of Hirata disciples for such manuals reached as many as several hundred, as was the case with Records of Plant Seed Selection, or Sōmoku tane erami, which explained plant gender and argued that planting female seeds would lead to a large harvest.102 As the Hirata family developed its publishing practices, Sadao provided the capital and also served as facilitator beginning in 1833 for book orders placed with Ibukinoya. Sadao’s Thesis on National Profit, or Kokueki honron of 1832, argued for the increase of national profit, the need for peasant education in this process, and the importance of revering and worshipping kishin spirits who bring about prosperity, but whose wrath is incurred when angered, resulting in misfortune.103 Harootunian argues that Atsutane popularized kokugaku among agriculturalists across rural Japan through “routinizing the Ancient Way” and connecting the Way to the everyday life of commoners. He identifies Sadao as one follower who attempted to “cement the relationship between [divine] service and work” in his writings and leadership as head of Matsuzawa.104 The principal hotbed of Hirata disciples was Shinano province, presentday Nagano, which had over 630 students. The Ina Valley provides an especially good example of kokugaku’s penetration into agricultural villages, as it contained the single largest Hirata disciple community with 386 members.105 Anne Walthall describes how following Perry’s arrival in 1853, Katagiri Harukazu (b. 1818), a peasant from Yamabuki domain, collected temple bells in hopes of melting them into cannons, and organized and drilled a unit of soldiers of local samurai and peasants. In 1857, Harukazu met

102. See Jennifer Robertson, “Sexy Rice: Plant Gender, Farm Manuals, and Grass-Roots Nativism,” Monumenta Nipponica 39, no. 3 (Autumn 1984): 233–60. 103. Miyahiro Sadao, “Kokueki honron,” in Kokugaku undō no shisō, ed. Haga Noboru and Matsumoto Sannosuke, vol. 51 of NST (1971), 292. This treatise begins with the opening lines, “The foundation for national profit is the way of education. If the people of the realm establish the Way, the spirits sense this and bestow fortune on the people. If the people turn their backs to the Way, the spirits will be angry at this and bestow misfortune on the people.” 104. Harootunian, Things Seen and Unseen, 176, 297. 105. Anne Walthall, “Nativism as a Social Movement: Katagiri Harukazu and the Hongaku reisha,” in Breen and Teeuwen, Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami, 209–11.

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Kanetane in Edo and became a Hirata disciple, and later sponsored locals as new disciples, eventually leading to the enrollment of a total of fifty-four from Yamabuki. In 1865, Harukazu’s study group founded the Mameo no tsudoi, or “Circle of Sincere Men,” which gathered once a month on the eleventh— the day of Atsutane’s passing—to worship his portrait, hold a festival, recite prayers, then discuss and debate on the Ancient Way and read the Master’s works.106 The Ina Valley disciples provided major support for the publication of Koshiden, Atsutane’s magnum opus, and Harukazu led the construction of the Hongaku Reisha Shrine in 1867 that worshipped the four “Great Men” of kokugaku: Kada no Azumamaro, Kamo no Mabuchi, Norinaga, and Atsutane. Matsuo Taseko (1811–94), a highly-educated peasant woman from this Ina Valley group, participated in the politics of sonnō jōi (revere the emperor and expel the barbarians). Walthall chronicles Taseko’s involvement in the events surrounding the Meiji Restoration, demonstrating that “poetry had given her a voice, national affairs gave her a subject, and the Hirata school gave her an institutional framework within which to be heard.”107 Akita domain—Atsutane’s hometown and place of exile late in life—also became the site of a major Hirata disciple community, known as generous sponsors of the academy, especially for publishing, through book purchases and donations.108 Roughly 330 disciples from Akita had enrolled in the academy by 1872, with over 60 registering before Atsutane’s death in 1843, and another 265 following it.109 Ōtomo Naoe became the first from Akita to enroll as a disciple in Edo in 1812 and the thirty-ninth disciple overall.110 Naoe was a Shinto priest of multiple shrines in Kimura, Hachizawa, Hiraka county, in Akita domain. He studied in the Motoori school as well as with Imperialist scholar Gamō Kunpei (1768–1813),111 and his tuition was subsidized by the Akita domainal lord Satake Yoshimasa (1775–1815). Trained in kokugaku, Naoe was an instructor of Japanese studies (Wagaku) at the Satake domainal school Meitokukan where he trained students in addition to Shinto priests elsewhere. Based on their correspondence, Kirihara Yoshio describes Naoe and Atsutane as peers, more than master-disciple.112 Both men were disciples of Norinaga, as well as physicians—Naoe was an optometrist. A head of

106. Itō, Sōmō no kokugaku, 219. 107. Walthall, The Weak Body of a Useless Woman, 109. 108. Yoshida, Chi no kyōmei, 278–309. 109. Kirihara Yoshio, Hirata Atsutane to Akita no monjin (Tokyo: Bungeisha, 2001), 39. 110. Kirihara, Hirata Atsutane, 40. Hirata Atsutane, Seishi chō, in SHAZ, bekkan:17. 111. Born in Utsunomiya, Gamō Kunpei was an Imperialist scholar who surveyed emperors’ tombs and, based on his surveys, compiled Sanryō shi (History of Imperial Tombs). 112. Kirihara, Hirata Atsutane, 40.

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shrine households in Akita, Naoe carried out administrative responsibilities within the local priesthood, and wielded considerable inf luence in the local Shinto community.113 We have thus examined Hirata kokugaku, highlighting the intellectual and spiritual interests of Atsutane and his work, which would eventually attract the attention of readers in Tsugaru. These mutual interests were ethnographic research and a concern for the north, which in Atsutane’s case included native Akita domain and the security threat from Russia; spirits and the kakuriyo realm; a sacred Japan blessed by the gods; and faith and prayer toward the gods. Atsutane’s interest in folk culture and local communities manifested itself in his populist writings directed to a broad readership including agriculturalists and merchants, as well as to rigorous proselytizing efforts and disciple-recruitment throughout the provinces by him and his successors Kanetane and Nobutane. Such activities resulted in communities of hundreds of disciples forming in Shimōsa, Shinano, Akita, and elsewhere. Having thus far examined Hirata kokugaku, identifying the features that would resonate with the intellectuals from Tsugaru, in the following chapter we look at how the national network extended into the Tsugaru region by way of its first registered disciple, Tsuruya Ariyo.

113. Satō Nobuhiro (1769–1850) became the second Hirata disciple from Akita. He was an economic strategist who wrote on agriculture, economics, politics, military strategy, and national defense. Some of Nobuhiro’s major works include Keizai yōroku (The Essence of Economics), Kondō hisaku (Confidential Plan of World Unification), Tenchūki (Record of the Heavenly Pillar), Yōzō kaikuron (Essays on Creation and Cultivation), and Nōsei honron (The Essentials of Agricultural Politics). See Bitō Masahide and Shimazaki Takao, in Andō Shōeki, Satō Nobuhiro, vol. 45 of NST (1977), 604.

Ch ap ter 4

The Academy and the Tsugaru Disciples

Even before the reception of Hirata kokugaku in Hirosaki, several scholars there had studied kokugaku, and the ninth daimyo Tsugaru Yasuchika had expressed interest in the Hirata school. In Hirosaki castle town, a group of townspeople and Shinto priests had been devoting themselves to poetry composition for years. Then in 1857, Tsuruya Ariyo from that group became the first person from his domain to register as a disciple of Hirata Atsutane and to join Atsutane’s academy. His peers gradually followed suit and they formed the Tsugaru group of posthumous disciples of the late Atsutane. These intellectuals were drawn to Atsutane’s message of a sacred Japan, a spirit realm that touched this world, and a pious faith in the gods. Ariyo experienced a “rebirth” as a scholar and would serve as the leader of this local group. Wealthy merchant Imamura Mitane served as a financial supporter, while Kanehira Kiryō, who was a woman, painter, and poet, was also an active member. The study of kokugaku provided members of the Tsugaru group with guidance on their composition of poetry in the native tradition, pursuit of the Ancient Way, and worship of the gods as well as their late teacher’s spirit. By enrolling in the Ibukinoya academy based in Edo, these local intellectuals satiated a thirst to link their own “country” of Tsugaru to a larger nation of Japan. They achieved this by both engaging Hirata kokugaku and joining a national network that supplied their circle with texts from the academy 97

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and information from across Japan. Ariyo debated with Kikuchi Masahisa, a senior member of the academy from the neighboring rival domain of Morioka, on how to correctly interpret Japan’s myths and Master Atsutane’s teachings. Ariyo refuted Masahisa’s theories with his own essay that asserted his own firm position. Compared to their counterparts in Morioka and Akita, the Tsugaru group was led by a core of merchant-class scholars who helped them to maintain a level of scholarly autonomy within their local community.

Tsuruya Ariyo and the Tsugaru Disciples Prior to the emergence of the Tsugaru group of Hirata disciples, several scholars from Hirosaki pursued kokugaku scholarship, learning from leading teachers across Japan. Takebe Ayatari (1719–74), a kokugaku scholar, painter, and haikai poet from Hirosaki, studied under Kamo no Mabuchi. Ayatari composed haikai poetry in the Ise style. He endeavored to revive kata uta, which he composed in Man’yō style, as a form of haiku. Mayama Sukemasa (1763–1825) was a domainal samurai sent on domainal order to Kyoto to study kokugaku under Hino Sukeki. Sukemasa returned to the domain and served as assistant head of the Keikokan domainal academy. He authored Tsugaru gun chūko hi zu kō, or On Ancient to Medieval Monuments of Tsugaru. Kariya Ekisai (1775–1835) was a notable kokugaku scholar of evidential research with roots in Hirosaki domain, though active primarily in Edo. Ekisai studied under Motoori Norinaga in Matsusaka, and is known for his investigations and commentaries on classical texts. Let us now examine the beginnings of Hirata kokugaku in Hirosaki domain. In 1820, the ninth daimyo, Tsugaru Yasuchika, made a formal request to Atsutane to give lectures in Edo. In a letter to his disciple and father-in-law, Yamazaki Chōuemon Atsutoshi, the wealthy merchant from Koshigaya, Atsutane rejoiced at this gesture: “As I have made you listen all too much to hardships, I will let you in on pleasant matters. There was a request from Lord Tsugaru in Edo to give a lecture. This is something extremely auspicious.”1 Watanabe Kinzō notes Atsutane’s pleased reaction to the favorable evaluation by his readers of his works including Koshichō

1. Atsutane went on to express pride and satisfaction that Naitō, Lord of Suo, had urged him to write on the “meaning of Ancient Learning,” and that the Lord of Mito, Lord of Etchū, kokugaku scholar Hanawa Hokiichi (1746–1821), Shōheikō academy head Hayashi Akira, and others elsewhere had held his Koshichō kaidaiki in high regard. He wrote that these praises were “genuinely good

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kaidaiki, or Meaning of Ancient History Commentary, which was among his many works he published in this same year of 1820. The Ibukinoya diary (Ibukinoya nikki) records continued interaction between Atsutane and the Hirosaki authorities. The entry for the twentythird day of the fifth month notes: “For the first time, visited Lord Tsugaru of Hirosaki, Yasuchika, of Honjo in Edo accompanied by Ishihara Kisaemon (Head of Hanawa Hokiichi’s academy, Ishihara Masaaki).” The diary entry for two days later, the twenty-fifth, reads: “Offered two packages of Seibun and Chō to Lord Tsugaru.”2 As Nakagawa Kazuaki points out, the same diary records that letters confirming prices of the books as well as payment for them were received from Lord Tsugaru’s officials in the following month.3 So we see that from 1820, Atsutane had dealings with Tsugaru Yasuchika, who had opened the domainal school Keikokan in 1796 and strongly supported domainal education. This was the first of several instances when Hirosaki domainal authorities demonstrated a keen interest in Hirata kokugaku, even though no one from the domain enrolled in the Ibukinoya during Atsutane’s lifetime. Tsuruya Ariyo became the first from Hirosaki domain to register as a Hirata disciple in 1857. Ariyo had established himself as a poet and scholar while working as a merchant. His journal and letters show that he studied poetry as well as kokugaku with fellow townspeople, and such collective studies preceded their official enrollment in the Hirata academy. Hirata kokugaku appears to have spread from Ariyo to his fellow merchant poets by way of preestablished networks of bunjin, or literati, who pursued haiku and waka composition. The “bunjin salon” of the late Tokugawa period is described by Ibi Takashi as a place where intellectuals gathered freely to “chat pleasantly, debate, and socialize.”4 The Tsugaru disciples fit Ibi’s characterization of Edo bunjin as “readers” and “intellectuals” who generally showed limited involvement in politics along with a wide array of literary and artistic skills, and who prioritized both inner “spiritual life” and ancient culture. In 1855 Ariyo, along with Shimozawa Yasumi who later also became a Hirata disciple, Inomata Hisayoshi (or Fujiwara Shigenaga), Saitō Norifumi, and others took up “Imperial studies” and the “Way of Poetry” (uta no michi), and entered the tutelage

evaluations from within the realm.” Hirata Atsutane, “Letter to Yamazaki Atsutoshi,” quoted in Watanabe, Hirata Atsutane kenkyū, 46. 2. Seibun and Chō refer to Koshiseibun and Koshichō, respectively. 3. Nakagawa, Hirata kokugaku no shiteki kenkyū, 350–51. 4. Ibi Takashi, Edo no bunjin saron (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 2009).

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of Shinto priest of Kumano Okuteru Shrine, Osari Nakaakira.5 The Hirata family’s Gold and Silver Inlay Memo Book, or Kingin nyūgaku chō, recorded by Hirata Ochō, Atsutane’s daughter and Hirata Kanetane’s wife, documents Ariyo’s deposits of three ryō on the seventeenth of the eighth month in 1856, and five ryō on the fifth day of the first month in 1857, which show that he had been purchasing books from the academy before he officially enrolled as a disciple.6 The first letter written by Ibukinoya head, Hirata Kanetane, addressed to Ariyo is dated the twelfth day of the ninth month in 1856.7 Kanetane opened this lengthy letter by asking for verification on whether Tsuruya was his family name or given name, then he thanked Ariyo for a gift of dried abalone—the first of various local products sent from Tsugaru to the head school—and stated that he offered some before the spirit of the late ancestor Atsutane. There is mention of a disciple from Akita, Ogasawara Kenryū (1799–1858), who appears to have served as an intermediary in some capacity for delivering Ariyo’s letters to Kanetane, but Kanetane insisted that Ariyo’s letters be sent directly to himself. The Ibukinoya head encouraged Ariyo and expressed delight in their written communication, stating: “While I am especially busy with correspondence with the provinces, in light of the fact that our scholarship is steadily spreading, I do not begrudge one bit of the labor.” In response to Ariyo’s inquiries, Kanetane provided biographical details about “our Ancestor” Atsutane, including his posthumous title of Kami and Master of the Sacred Pillar of the Soul. Such detailed correspondence thus highlights that Ariyo, based in Hirosaki and seeking to join the Hirata academy, actually had only limited and fragmented knowledge of the academy’s founder. Kanetane urged that “it is most proper that you also conduct worship for his deceased spirit, using a portrait.” While explaining that Atsutane’s portrait was painted in Akita and was used in the spirit worship of the Master within the Hirata school, Kanetane admitted that in his eyes the

5. “Shimozawa Yasumi nenpyō,” in Michinoku sōsho daigoshū Tsugaru han kyū kidenrui, ed. Aomori ken bunkazai hogo kyōkai (Tokyo: Kokusho kankōkai, 1982). 6. Nakagawa, Hirata kokugaku no shiteki kenkyū, 82; Hirata Ochō, Kingin nyūgaku chō, ed. Endo Jun, Kumazawa Eriko, Nakagawa Kazuaki, Matsumoto Hisashi, Miyachi Masato, and Yoshida Asako, Hirata kokugaku no sai kentō 3, Kokuritsu rekishi minzoku hakubutsukan kenkyū hōkoku 146 (March 2009): 93, 96. Nakagawa has also compiled a detailed chart, “Kingin nyūgaku chō no Hirosaki kokugaku kankei no jikō,” of 63 transactions concerning the Tsugaru disciples from the seventeenth day of the eighth month in 1856 to the eighth day of the tenth month in 1873 in the Kingin nyūgaku chō. Nakagawa, Hirata kokugaku no shiteki kenkyū, 360–65. 7. Hirata Kanetane, Letter to Tsuruya Ariyo, twelfth day, ninth month, 1856 (Ansei 2); see “Letters,” in AKS, 602.

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image did not accurately portray the subject’s true likeness. Ariyo’s compiled essays, entitled Tsuruya’s Writings, or Tsuruya bunshū, describe how Ariyo worshipped the portrait of Atsutane sent with this letter. He also mentioned offerings of the Master’s favorite foods. In addition, we see the beginnings of the Tsugaru group’s many book purchases, listed by Kanetane, including hand-copied manuscripts and woodblock printed books he sent to Ariyo.8 The manuscripts comprised five books of Koshiden, volumes sixteen through twenty; one book of Kiyo sōhansho (Writings of Condemnation and Praise); and two books of San’eki yuraiki (Origins of the Three Yi [Changes]). The following printed books are also listed: Volume eight of Tamadasuki, because Ariyo already had volumes one through seven, one small foldable book of Jindai gokeizu (Divine Age Genealogy), an expanded volume of Ōharae kotoba seikun (Correct Reading of Liturgy for Great Purification), one book of Amatsu norito kō (On the Divine Liturgy), one sheet of Hakkaron, and one book of Kōso kyūsho kō (On the Palace of Imperial Ancestors) authored by Morioka disciple Kikuchi Masahisa discussed later in this chapter. Finally, toward the end of the letter, Kanetane restated his pleasure at Ariyo’s interest in the academy from Hirosaki and at his letter, which he read three times. Kanetane continued, “I did not even have one acquaintance in your region, and even though I have contacts in Nanbu, there was no one in your area with whom I corresponded.”9 While acknowledging the dwindling inventory of original writings by Master Atsutane that he could offer exclusively to disciples, Kanetane obliged Ariyo’s request and agreed to send select items.10 Kanetane went on to express his wish and expectation that Atsutane’s teachings would spread in Hirosaki: “Please, like you, above all else I would like to see a growing number in your precious land who share our aspirations.” Here we see that Ariyo’s desire to connect with the academy in Edo and its national network was not one-sided, but was indeed reciprocated by Kanetane’s wish for the school to expand into the far reaches of northeastern Japan. Kanetane’s second letter to Ariyo, dated three months later on the sixth of the first month in 1857, explained the procedure for enrolling in the

8. At the time of Atsutane’s death in 1843, less than half of his works were published. Yoshida Asako emphasizes the importance of data on publishing and texts in discussing the dissemination of Hirata kokugaku thought at the local level. Yoshida, Chi no kyōmei. 9. Hirata Kanetane, Letter to Tsuruya Ariyo, twelfth day, ninth month, 1856 (Ansei 2); see “Letters,” in AKS, 603. 10. Nakagawa, Hirata kokugaku no shiteki kenkyū, 79.

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Ibukinoya, accompanied by a pledge form to be completed.11 Reference was made to Ariyo’s request to formally enroll as Kanetane’s disciple, but the academy head declined, insisting he devote himself solely to spreading Atsutane’s teachings. Gifts from enrolling disciples were offered before the Master’s spirit, and Ariyo, like other students who entered Ibukinoya after Atsutane’s death, was admitted strictly as the ancestor’s posthumous disciple. The pledge form required a vow of devotion to receive Master Atsutane’s guidance on the “Way of the Divine Age of the Divine August Country,” and to learn from the “Way of the Gods.” Observance of the “law of the lord” and reverence for Atsutane were also pledged. The Monjin seimei roku, or Disciple Registry, recorded that shortly thereafter on the twenty-fifth of the second month in 1857, Ariyo was registered as the first disciple from Hirosaki and 819th overall to enroll in the Hirata school.12 It took, therefore, roughly fifty days between Kanetane sending his second letter early in the new year of 1857, accompanied by the pledge form, and Ariyo’s reply and completed form reaching the Ibukinoya, for his enrollment to become official late in the second month. Ariyo was age forty-eight at the time, and was the eldest of all members to join the group from Tsugaru. Official registration as a Hirata disciple proved to mark a decisive moment in Ariyo’s life and scholarly career and represented an intellectual and spiritual “rebirth.” On the eighteenth day of the fourth month in 1857, less than two months after his official date of registration, Ariyo began keeping daily entries in his personal journal, Kaganabe.13 “Kaganabe” is a classical Japanese expression meaning, “adding days upon days” or “days passing by,” cited from the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, making it an appropriate title for his journal. For the next fourteen years, Ariyo assumed the role of leader and manager of the Tsugaru group of Hirata disciples, and such activities account for a significant proportion of his entries in the journal. Through his correspondence with Hirata Kanetane in Edo, Ariyo was now connected with the national kokugaku network, and this desire to spread the Ibukinoya academy’s teachings in his locale and his wish to uphold the academy’s ideals within his circle awakened in Ariyo a sense of responsibility as local leader and a renewed intellectual and literary voice. Ariyo, as the vital link between Ibukinoya and Tsugaru, maintained this journal as a way of documenting

11. Hirata Kanetane, Letter to Tsuruya Ariyo, sixth day, first month, 1857 (Ansei 4); see “Letters,” in AKS, 603. 12. Monjin seimei roku, in SHAZ, bekkan:295. 13. For a fuller discussion about Ariyo’s writing of the journal and his scholarly subjectivity, see Fujiwara, “Rebirth of a Hirata School Nativist.”

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the group’s activities for posterity—presumably in the expectation that it would be read by current as well as future members who he hoped would carry on their activities and perhaps take over his leadership role in the coming years.14 After Ariyo’s entry into the Hirata academy, five others also enlisted that year.15 Enrolling in the fifth month of 1857 were Iwama Ichitarō (or Shitatari, 1811–84), age forty-six; Mitani Chihei (or Ōtari), age unknown; and Masuda Kōtarō (or Minamoto Namiki), age twenty-six; while Ueda Hirayoshi (or Masatake), age twenty-four, joined on the twenty-fifth day of the fifth month; and Imamura Yōtarō (or Mitane 1824–84), age thirty-six, entered on the eleventh day of the sixth month. In 1862 townsman Takeda Seijirō (or Chihiro/ Hiromichi), age thirty-three, registered. Thus, six of the first seven disciples from Tsugaru were townsmen (chōnin) who pursued poetry, while Imamura Yōtarō, better known as Mitane, was a domainal samurai from a family of merchant background who also pursued poetry. These first seven members formed a core group, predominantly of townsmen, which set the tone of this community. Imamura Mitane, the sixth to enroll with the Hirata academy, was a major financial supporter of the group. The Imamuras were a wealthy merchant family that ran a business whose activities included printing paper currency for use in the domain.16 Mitane’s pen name was Momonoya, or “House of Peaches.” He purchased scores of Atsutane’s books, a collection now housed at the Aomori Prefectural Library, many containing his stamp, “Momonoya.” His peers regularly borrowed from Mitane’s collection, such as on the sixth day of the sixth month in 1859 when Ariyo visited “Momonoya’s” and enjoyed reading Atsutane’s Ibukinoya kabunshū, or Ibukinoya Poems and Prose, and on the fifth day of the tenth month in 1863 when he borrowed volume three of Koshiseibun and volume ten of Koshichō.17 Registrations from Hirosaki continued in 1864. Sasaki Awaji (Fujiwara Yoshio), age fifty, followed by his son Sasaki Kensaku (Fujiwara Yoshiyuki), age twenty-two, and

14. Nishikawa Yuko explains that the writing of a diary in premodern Japan was not a solely individual practice but, rather, conformed to the culture of the group to which the author belonged and, therefore, assumed a readership among members of this group. Nishikawa Yuko, “Diaries as Gendered Texts,” trans. Anne Walthall, in Women and Class in Japanese History, ed. Hitomi Tonomura, Anne Walthall, and Wakita Haruko (Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 1999), 243–44. 15. Please see Table 1. “List of Hirata Disciples in Tsugaru” for details of their registration in the Ibukinoya academy. 16. Moriyama Taitarō, “Hirao Rosen,” 74–75. 17. Tsuruya, Kaganabe, vols. 1, 2.

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Hachiman Shrine priest Ono Wakasa (Iwane/ Fujiwara Masafusa 1833–89), age thirty-one, all enrolled. Painter and ethnographic scholar Hirao Rosen finally also joined in 1864 at age fifty-five, some seven years after his close friend Ariyo. When Kanehira Kiryō (1815–78) joined the Hirata academy in 1866 at age fifty-one, she attracted considerable attention by virtue of being a rare female disciple (figure 4.1). Compared to the earlier kokugaku academies of Kamo no Mabuchi, which attracted a significant number of female disciples, and Motoori Norinaga whose student demographic consisted of five percent women, the Hirata academy had the smallest representation of women with merely twenty-nine members or about two-thirds of one percent.18 Today, the most renowned of these female disciples is Matsuo Taseko, owing to the monograph devoted to her by Anne Walthall and her appearance in Before the Dawn. Atsutane paid little attention to women, observes Walthall, and the Hirata academy neither recruited women nor made efforts to welcome them into the school.19 Before and after Kiryō’s official enrollment in the Hirata academy in the sixth month of 1866, Kanetane asked Rosen, Ariyo, and the others about the identity of this woman who requested to be formally registered as a disciple. Kiryō’s haiku accompanied by her name and portrait appear in a local haiku collection, Gappo sharimoishi (1865), edited by Osari Nakaakira and sent to the Ibukinoya.20 It reads: Musubareshi Sprouting buds mamani me wo fuku just as they germinate, yanagi kana (Kiryō)21 Oh the willow! (Kiryō) The entry of this haiku and portrait of Kiryō in the Gappo sharimoishi collection indicates this artist-poet was connected with the poetry circle even prior to joining the Hirata academy.22 This is not surprising because poetry was the tradition in which women were educated and, therefore, it was the

18. Nosco, Remembering Paradise, 208. 19. Walthall, The Weak Body of a Useless Woman, 138. 20. Hirata Kanetane, Letter to Hirao Rosen and others, twentieth day, twelfth month, 1865 (Keiō 1); see “Letters,” in AKS, 613. Hirata Kanetane, Letter to Tsuruya Ariyo and others, twentieth day, eighth month, 1866 (Keiō 2); see “Letters,” in AKS, 614. 21. Kanehira Kiryō, Haiku in Gappo sharimoishi, ed. Osari Nakaakira (Hirosaki: Hirosaki City Public Library, 1865). 22. Paintings of Kanehira Kiryō are housed at the Hirosaki City Museum, and compilations that include her haiku poetry and paintings are archived in the Hirosaki City Public Library.

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Figure 4.1.

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Kanehira Kiryo¯ image (Gappo sharimoishi). Hirosaki City Public Library.

most logical path toward membership. Kiryō, originally named Kikuko, was born the daughter of Kanehira of Komatsuya in Watoku-chō in Hirosaki castle town. Kiryō became a painter who specialized in turtles, and some of her pieces painted in black ink have survived (figure 4.2). From Hirosaki

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Figure 4.2. Turtles by Kanehira Kiryo¯. Hirosaki City Museum.

she moved to Sendai, then to Edo, and while in Fukagawa she met a merchant with whom she married.23 Her first husband died, but Kiryō later met Neriya Tōbei (Kudō Hakuan) also from Hirosaki, and the two returned to Hirosaki together. After Tōbei’s death, Kiryō later married a town doctor in Hirosaki, Kanehira Kiyoshi. She studied painting with artist Matsumoto Kyokue of Sendai, and due to her specialty in painting turtles, she adopted the name Kiryō, formed of two Chinese characters 亀綾 that mean “turtle” and “pattern” or “skill.” In 1872, at age fifty-seven, Kiryō sparked a local controversy when she climbed Mount Iwaki, which had been prohibited for women since 1810. She is considered to be the first woman to have done so. As a female artist and poet who navigated the male-dominated realm 23. Nakahata Chōshirō, Tsugaru no bijutsushi (Hirosaki: Hoppō shinsha, 1991), 100–1; “Kanehira Kiryō,” Aomori ken jinmei daijiten, ed. Tōō Nippōsha (Aomori: Tōō Nippōsha, 1969).

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of scholarship, Kiryō had experiences similar to those of an earlier female intellectual, Tadano Makuzu (1763–1825), who as a poet, author, and political critic in Edo and Sendai, participated in multiple networks while both challenging and reaffirming gender norms of Tokugawa society.24 The Tsugaru group led by townspeople welcomed samurai and Shinto priests among their last registrants to the Academy. In 1866, Nakamura Yorozuya (or Yukihiko) joined the group, and the following year, in 1867, two domainal samurai Yamada Yōnoshin (or Minamoto Tateo), age twentyfour, and Shimozawa Yasumi, age twenty-nine, became disciples. Yōnoshin is documented as having registered with the Ibukinoya and studied kokugaku on domainal orders (see chapter seven). In early Meiji, the final three from Hirosaki, all Shintō priests, became disciples: Inomata Hisayoshi in 1869 at age fifty-six, Koyama Naishi (or Fujiwara Tatemaru) in 1870 at age forty, and Gotō Takayoshi (or Fujiwara Kiyū), the last from the group in 1871, at age twenty-three. Ariyo served as the official sponsor for most members of this group, which was led primarily by townspeople, with a presence also of Shintō priests. The priest of Kumano Okuteru Shrine, Osari Nakaakira, who officially recommended Gotō Takayoshi to join the Hirata academy, does not appear in the Ibukinoya Disciple Registry as an official disciple, but his relationship with the Hirata family and the Tsugaru group makes him a prominent player in this community and an unofficial “nineteenth member.”25

Pursuing Poetry, the Ancient Way, and Information Research to date has identified several major streams of scholarship within the kokugaku school. These are the study of the Ancient Way including the investigations of myth, history, and divinity in the Japanese tradition; scholarship on the Way of Poetry, namely studies and composition of waka; the study of prose including classical works of literature; ethnographic research; and the study of ancient language or philology. While there is overlap between these varying streams, such categorizations have been useful in comparing and characterizing the work of individuals and groups engaged with kokugaku. The Tsugaru group of Hirata disciples by and large engaged in the studies of the Way of Poetry and the Ancient Way, while Hirao Rosen

24. Bettina Gramlich-Oka, Thinking Like a Man: Tadano Makuzu (1763–1825) (Leiden: Brill, 2006). 25. Please see my detailed discussion of Osari Nakaakira in his role as the master of ceremonies of the shōkonsai ritual in 1869 in chapter seven, and leading role in the Shinto reforms in early Meiji in chapter eight.

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also conducted ethnographic studies, and I now examine the activities of their community in Hirosaki.26 Key insights about the Tsugaru group and its activities are narrated in “Iwama Shitatari shichijū gachō jo,” a commemorative essay written retrospectively in 1880 about its most active period to honor the seventieth birthday of Iwama Shitatari.27 The essay describes Shitatari as having “enjoyed studies of the Ancient Way,” or kokugaku, from around age forty, several years before he became the second Hirata disciple from Hirosaki in 1857. Core members of the group, namely townspeople, are described as having become disciples of “Great Man” Hirata Atsutane and Kanetane, as well as purchasing books by Atsutane and Norinaga, which they read and circulated among themselves, and “spreading the Way of the Gods.” The piece indicates that the Tsugaru group was referred to in society as “Tsuruya’s faction,” and that Ariyo was recognized as their leader and representative. It declares that studying kokugaku changed Shitatari’s poetic practices: “Thus, once he had engaged in Ancient Learning, he could no longer compose kata uta poems, and came to wholly favor ancient chōka long poems and tanka short poems of high melody; he played with these freely, himself playfully composing such poems.”28 For poet and Hirata disciple Shitatari, studies of the Ancient Way inf luenced his views on and practice of the Way of Poetry. This experience aligns with that of Ise Shrine priest and literary scholar Arakida Hisaoyu (1746–1804), as described by Mark Teeuwen, who studied kokugaku for the sake of learning Japan’s literary tradition in order to enhance his understanding and composition of poetry.29

26. In reconstructing the group’s activities I have gained insights from the work of Nakagawa Kazuaki in his detailed analysis of letters exchanged between the Hirata academy and the Tsugaru disciples. Nakagawa, “Bakumatsu Hirata juku to chihō kokugaku no tenkai: Hirosaki kokugaku wo rei ni,” in his Hirata kokugaku no shiteki kenkyū, 346–79. 27. “Iwama Shitatari Shichijū gachō jo,” in Kan’un Shimozawa Yasumi sensei wo aogu: Goikō to kankei shokan shū, ed. Tazawa Tadashi (Hirosaki: Kan’un Shimozawa Yasumi sensei no ikō wo yomu kai, 1991), 88. 28. Kata uta poems are considered a form of ō uta, or large poem of the court, sung to music and taught and learned in the Gagaku ryō or Bureau of Court Music. One kata uta poem is formed by three verses of five-seven-seven or five-seven-five syllable lines. In contrast to kata uta, chōka long poems and tanka short poems are considered waka, or “Japanese poetry.” Chōka repeat five-seven syllable verses, often end in seven-seven, and are commonly accompanied by a hanka, or envoy. Tanka generally consist of 31 syllables, made up of five verses of five-seven-five-seven-seven syllables. Chōka appear in the Man’yō shū or Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves, Japan’s oldest extant poetry anthology from the eighth century, but decline after the Heian period (794–1185), whereas the tanka, which came to be synonymous with waka, also appear in the Man’yō shū and maintained their prominence through the premodern period and into modern and contemporary times. 29. Mark Teeuwen, “Poetry, Sake, and Acrimony: Arakida Hisaoyu and the Kokugaku Movement,” Monumenta Nipponica 52, no. 3 (Autumn 1997). 295–325.

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The Tsugaru group regularly held poetry composition sessions. Ariyo’s letter to his fellow Hirata disciples, dated the fifteenth day of the twelfth month late in 1862, outlines designated subjects for poems for the following year, month-by-month: “I present an assortment of subjects for the coming year of the boar, and so please peruse them. Please write them out and distribute to each individual.”30 Ariyo was presumably asking Yasumi to copy the notice for all the other group members. The first month’s poetic subjects or kigo, seasonal phrases, were “early spring, residual snow, plum wind, love encounter, celebration of spring.”31 The subjects for the sixth month in summer were “local mountain, summer moon, field path, summer grass, rain shower quickly passing, love felt though unspoken, rain heard at farm house.” Ariyo’s notice about the poetry compositions for the upcoming year was addressed to eight “Great Men”: Shimozawa Yasumi, Masuda Namiki, Iwama Shitatari, Mitani Ōtari, Ueda Masatake, Takeda Chihiro, Hisasuke,32 and Shigeki. Ariyo along with five of the eight on this list were townsmen poets, as well as registered Hirata disciples by 1862. Although not officially enrolled in the Ibukinoya until 1867, Yasumi was already involved with the group’s poetic activities by this time. Teeuwen has emphasized the predominance of poetry composition in Tokugawa-period kokugaku circles generally, and here too poetry composition formed a large share of the Tsugaru group’s activities, particularly in the early years.33 In letters from Ariyo addressed to a handful of the disciples listed above, plus Imamura Mitane, there is evidence of “meetings.”34 In them, Ariyo requested that meetings soon be held and he suggested his home as the venue.35 The religious aspects of the Tsugaru group’s gatherings are revealed by the gifts Kanetane sent with his letters to Ariyo, namely the Atsutane portrait along with a poem on tanzaku and a sheet of old calendar, both of which were handwritten by Atsutane himself. In his Tsuruya’s Writings, Ariyo introduced these items as follows:

30. Tsuruya Ariyo, Letter to Shimozawa Yasumi and others, fifteenth day, twelfth month, 1862 (Bunkyū 2); see “Letters,” in AKS, 610–11. 31. Tsuruya Ariyo, Letter to Shimozawa Yasumi and others, fifteenth day, twelfth month, 1862, 611. 32. Hisasuke is among the addressees in several of Ariyo’s letters, many of whom are members of the Tsugaru group, yet his identity has yet to be verified. 33. Teeuwen, “Poetry, Sake, and Acrimony: Arakida Hisaoyu and the Kokugaku Movement.” 295–96, 324–25. 34. Tsuruya Ariyo, Letter to Shimozawa Yasumi and others, sixth day, fourth month, year unknown; see “Letters,” in AKS, 622. 35. Nakagawa, Hirata kokugaku no shiteki kenkyū, 352.

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On the single kumogami tanzaku (cloud-patterned poetry strip) which my Master of Ibukinoya made and wrote personally, it states, “written at the beginning of Tamadasuki” and the poem goes: Tamadasuki The Precious Sleeve Cord, kakete wasurana wear it so you won’t forget yoyo no oya blessings of yoyo no mioya no Ancestors of the ages, kami no chiwai wo Gods of the ages. Atsutane Atsutane Also, my lord Master Kanetane included with his letter a single sheet comprising two months taken f rom the ancient solar calendar (“Koreki hibushiki”) and sent it f rom his residence in Mototorigoe in Edo. While that letter is dated the sixth day of the first month in Ansei 4 (1857), it arrived on the first of the second month that same year, and I am safely storing it as a part of the master’s spirit (onreimi), and I have hung the ancient calendar in my study, worshipping it morning and evening . . . I pray to and worship these spiritual treasures (mitama mono) like they were his spirit, saying, “Bless the Way of Ancient Learning (inishie manabi) to which I have devoted myself for years!” Now and repeatedly I enact the Right Way (masamichi) thanks to the grace of this Master.36 The above passage shows how kokugaku studies for Ariyo revolved around ancestor worship, with his daily worship of the handwritten poem and calendar of Master Atsutane as representative of his spirit. His prayer, “Bless the Way of Ancient Learning to which I have devoted myself for years!” ref lects his own growing excitement and expectation in his kokugaku studies to date. One can imagine that these objects, along with the aforementioned portrait were reverently worshipped at the group’s study sessions, much like a portrait was by the “Circle of Righteous Men” in the Ina Valley, where text reading and debates were merely one part of a day full of worship and ceremony.37 The great value of these “spiritual treasures” can be discerned when considering that they offered rare physical and visual connections to Master Atsutane, whom none of these posthumous students had met in person.

36. Tsuruya Ariyo, Tsuruya bunshū, in AKS, 532. 37. See Itō, Sōmō no kokugaku, 210–32; Walthall, The Weak Body of a Useless Woman, 112; Walthall, “Nativism as a Social Movement,” 210–11.

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A norito written by Ariyo sheds light on his religiosity. In this liturgical text, Ariyo included a section entitled “Worshipping before the Great Master Hirata,” dated the eleventh day of the ninth month in 1857—the first anniversary date of Atsutane’s passing after Ariyo officially became a disciple. The liturgy invited, on this anniversary, the spirit of Kamu tama no mihashira ushi to settle at a small, purified alcove.38 Offerings of f lowers, rice, sake, vegetables, and fish were to be reverently made at the alcove, then a prayer was offered which began, “May studies, which the Master guided and conveyed, on the way of the Imperial country’s Divine Age be advanced and let understanding be granted.” Further knowledge of worldly matters, the righting of wrongs, prevention of evil, and protection are also sought in this prayer. The next section, entitled “Uttered on day of meeting,” was written for recitation during the group’s gatherings. It consists of prayers for worshipping the heavenly and earthly gods including Omoi kane no kami, Imbe no kami, and Sugawara no kami, and the spirits of the Four Great Men or Shiushi of kokugaku—Azumamaro, Mabuchi, Norinaga, and Atsutane—all credited with blessing “Ancient Learning” and making it prosper. Although “the persons gathered,” referring to the Tsugaru group, are lost on the path like crabs walking sideways due to the “Chinese heart (mind)”—and here the inf luence of Chinese philosophy was blamed—they sought the divine breath (ibuki) of the pure Shinado wind to blow and cleanse them so that they may be as pure as the Masu kagami mirror. They seek such purification in order to “learn the Ancient Way, understand great works, so that they may progress and their achievements endure.” The next section, simply titled “Again,” is another ritual prayer devoted specifically to worship “before the spirit of our Master Hirata,” with the aim that the “Spirit of Atsutane” remain on the earth to be passed on to those who aspired to carry on his scholarship. Echoing previous liturgies, this one also sought guidance, instruction, and prosperity for kokugaku studies. See chapter six for a more extensive analysis of Ariyo’s norito. Ariyo’s Kaganabe journal confirmed that mitama matsuri, or spirit worship festivals, were held frequently by the Tsugaru disciples to venerate Atsutane’s spirit. In the group’s early days, when the circle of disciples was still small, “Hirata sensei mitama matsuri” was observed on the twenty-third day of the tenth month in 1858, hosted by “Momonoya” Imamura Mitane. At times, these festivals took place on the eleventh day of the ninth month—the anniversary of Atsutane’s passing in 1843—but also on the eleventh or other days,

38. Tsuruya Ariyo, Tsuruya bunshū, vol. 1 (Hirosaki City Public Library).

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as above, of alternative months throughout the year. A mitama matsuri was held on the twentieth anniversary of his passing in 1863, then again a year later in 1864, attended by ten local disciples including Ariyo. The Tsugaru kokugaku scholars actively participated in other festivals conducted by shrine priest Ono Wakasa at the Hachimangū Shrine, such as worship of the “Spirit of the Great Man (ushi)” on the twentieth day of the sixth month in 1861. The attitudes and approaches of Ariyo and the Tsugaru group toward their kokugaku studies can be gleaned from Ariyo’s “Gakusoku” or “Study Rules,” in the second volume of Tsuruya’s Writings. The list contains fortythree rules or guidelines for everyday worship, attitude toward daily life and studies, views of the world around them, proper handling of books, and appropriate daily conduct. Although the date of their composition is unknown, the comprehensive nature of the rules and guidelines suggests that Ariyo, as the eldest and first registered disciple from the group, wrote this list not only for himself but also for the group, including its junior members. The wording and general spirit of the “Study Rules” resemble the Hirata school’s “Juku soku,” or “Academy Rules,” which the school issued to students of the Ibukinoya academy, and Ariyo’s list may have been modeled after that example. And yet, his version is distinctive enough to ref lect his and the group’s character and originality. The daily worship of ancestors and deities is emphasized in the scholarship of the Tsugaru group. Ariyo opened his “Study Rules” with the following two lines urging daily prayer: [1.] Do not neglect to pay your respects to and worship the heavenly and earthly deities every morning.39 [2.] Pay your respects to the divine spirits of your ancestors and parents, and worship them after worshipping the deities. Deity and ancestor worship head this list, and ref lects the priority placed on religious worship within this study group. The list continues, “Those engaging in Ancient Learning must be mindful to embrace an ‘ambition’ (kokorozashi) to serve the country and achieve their goals.” The Hirata academy valued such political awareness, and the mindset of “embracing” such an “ambition” aligned with their efforts nationwide. Imperial ideology is ref lected in rules eight and nine, which state: “The Imperial country is the main realm of divine truth: know that the head of this land is lord and instructor of all countries,” and “Recognize the great foundation of the only Imperial way.” 39. Tsuruya Ariyo, “Gakusoku,” in AKS, 535.

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Ariyo used his “Study Rules” to express his original ideas on the continuity between life and death, as well as his advice on how to maintain good family relations in the current life. Of the forty-three guidelines, number ten best articulates Ariyo’s signature ideas: “The congruity (muteki) of the visible and invisible is the root of my way.”40 While Atsutane asserted that the visible realm of the living, arahaniyo, and the invisible realm of deities, spirits, and souls of the dead, kakuriyo, overlapped and occupied the same space, Ariyo took Atsutane’s thesis further by emphasizing continuity between life and death. Focusing on the current life, he offered guidelines for maintaining good relations with family: [39.] Your birth family is your origin in our world, and so do not neglect to send letters and gifts. [40.] Do not forget intimacy with your relatives because they are far, nor take it for granted because they are close by. Interact and celebrate holidays with them. Here, the message is consistent with those of Norinaga and Atsutane: to live life fully in this world. With Ariyo, however, perhaps even more so than with Atsutane, consideration was given to continuing good relations from this realm in life to the next one in death. After his forty-three points, Ariyo closed his “Study Rules” by stating, “The articles above are old traditions and customs of the Divine Country, and the essence of the classics. I have observed these until now. Why would my students not follow them?”41 This statement, along with the ensuing five “cautions” for when reading texts, shows that indeed Ariyo’s “Study Rules” were not merely a personal expression of daily thought and practice, but also a set of guidelines for his own students, fellow disciples of Atsutane in the Tsugaru group. While the Hirata academy instructed its students on matters of faith and the realm of spirits, it also transmitted news of the contemporary world. Correspondence between the Ibukinoya academy and disciples in local communities served, as Miyachi has demonstrated, as a means of exchanging vital information between Edo and locales nationwide on sociopolitical developments in Edo and the periphery.42 The following letter written by

40. Tsuruya, “Gakusoku,” 535. 41. Tsuruya, “Gakusoku,” 536. 42. For example, Miyachi Masato examines the exchange of political information between the Hiratas in Edo and disciples in peripheral areas, namely in Akita domain. Miyachi Masato, “Bakumatsu Hirata kokugaku to seiji jōhō,” in Bakumatsu ishinki no shakaiteki seijishi kenkyū, ed. Miyachi Masato (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1999), 203–40.

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Kanetane to Ariyo and fellow Tsugaru student Imamura Yōtarō conveys the situation in Edo in the fall of 1858: The aforementioned foreign barbarians from America, Russia, and England began arriving one after another and disembarked their ships. At this time, France arrived by ship. However, their wishes were met in full, and although it is unknown where they are going, it is fortunate that at least there was no incident. However, since their arrival last month a terrible epidemic has spread, and the world is in a state of distress and confusion. You may eventually hear in definite terms, but I think the cause is completely the yōmi spirits that accompanied the foreign barbarians . . .43 The deadly cholera epidemic referred to here likely entered Japan through Nagasaki in the sixth month of 1858, possibly from Shanghai, and was transmitted via the Tōkaidō highway to Edo within a month, spreading across the archipelago and causing large-scale deaths.44 That was the same year in which commercial treaties were signed with five countries: The United States, England, France, Holland, and Russia. Kanetane described the outbreak of cholera that summer, as well as the distress and confusion in Edo society, and blamed it on the yōmi spirits he said accompanied the “foreign barbarians” from abroad. He also mentioned the death of the thirteenth shogun, Tokugawa Iesada (1824–58). Iesada died on the sixth day of the seventh month in 1858, just over a month before this letter was written. He was of weak constitution from birth, and although there were rumors of poisoning, sources say he died of cholera. Kanetane stated that every day the death toll from cholera numbered in the thousands, and he described the symptoms—of chest or stomach pains, diarrhea, and fatigue—leading to death. He also detailed alleged sightings of victims being possessed by fox spirits, and noted that amid “great confusion,” people blamed foxes that they believed had arrived with the Americans, as well as Nichirenists and other Buddhist priests, as the cause of such cases of possession—“rumors” that appeared to ref lect the discourse of wider society. In this way, Kanetane

43. Hirata Kanetane, Letter to Tsuruya Ariyo and others, nineteenth day, eighth month, 1858 (Ansei 5), see “Letters,” in AKS, 607. 44. Bettina Gramlich-Oka estimates that the cholera epidemic of 1858 through 1860 may have led to 20,000 to 40,000 deaths in Edo, and up to 200,000 deaths across Japan. For an informative study of the discourse on socio-economic issues surrounding the 1858 cholera epidemic see Bettina Gramlich-Oka, “The Body Economic: The Cholera Epidemic of 1858 in Popular Discourse,” East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine, no. 30 (April 2010): 32–72.

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transmitted the latest news on social and political developments from Edo to the disciples in Tsugaru. Valuable information concerning the Hirata academy was also disseminated through letters from Edo. Kanetane received an inquiry from Hirosaki about the tengu boy Torakichi who was interviewed by Atsutane after he was allegedly transported bodily to the Senkyō (other world); evidence that the Tsugaru disciples were familiar with the contents of Atsutane’s Senkyō ibun. Kanetane responded in his letter, “You inquired about what has since happened to Torakichi. He has permanently taken up medical divination, and although he lives a worldly life, he has few desires except for enjoying liquor. He has not lost his love of people, though he cares not for common people.”45 Some thirty-six years after the first meeting between Torakichi (now aged fifty) with Atsutane, in 1820—which led to the completion of Senkyō ibun in 1821—this letter provides a rare update on Torakichi’s life, long after he became the center of attention in Edo salons for “informing” Atsutane about spiritual matters and the other world. The Tsugaru disciples also inquired about Katsugorō, the informant interviewed by Atsutane whose visit to the underworld prior to his rebirth was the subject of Katsugorō saiseiki completed in 1822. In this case, however, Kanetane admitted, “Although I know that Katsugorō is also well, I have not received news of his activities in recent years. If a neighbor informs me, I will give ear and surely tell you.”46 In a letter dated the twenty-fifth day of the tenth month in 1866, Kanetane solicited a donation from the Tsugaru group to help fund repairs for the dilapidated grave of kokugaku master Kada no Azumamaro and to pay for a new epitaph.47 The Tsugaru members contributed to this cause less than half a year later, as entered on the thirteenth day of the third month in the Hiratas’ Gold and Silver Inlay Memo Book.48

Relations with Morioka and Akita, Diversity in Tsugaru Examining the Tsugaru group’s ties with disciple communities in the neighboring domains of Morioka and Akita furthers our understanding of its development along with its position within the national network. While

45. Hirata Kanetane, Letter to Tsuruya Ariyo and others, twenty-first day, tenth month, 1859 (Ansei 6); see “Letters,” in AKS, 608. 46. Hirata Kanetane, Letter to Tsuruya Ariyo and others, twenty-first day, tenth month, 1859 Ansei 6), 608. 47. Hirata Kanetane, Letter to Tsuruya Ariyo and others, twenty-fifth day, tenth month, 1866 (Keiō 2); see “Letters,” in AKS, 615. 48. Nakagawa, Hirata kokugaku no shiteki kenkyū, 359, 365.

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the political rivalry between the Tsugaru and Nanbu clans dates back to the sixteenth century and culminated in the Boshin war, an intellectual debate unfolded between leaders of the Hirata disciples in these two domains. Kikuchi Masahisa (1809–67) is an important figure to consider here because he was a trusted and well-published disciple of Atsutane from Morioka, the rival domain to Hirosaki. Both Masahisa and Tsuruya Ariyo were the first from their domains to register as Hirata disciples, and they both served as the leaders of their local circles of kokugaku scholars. The debate that unfolded between the two reveals conf licting interpretations of myth and history within the same academy, as well as Ariyo’s early attempts to assert his own original perspectives on scholarship. A comparative study of the groups in Hirosaki, Morioka, and Akita and their activities allows us to characterize each group by way of contrast. Masahisa of Morioka domain read classical texts and his father, Masamaro, taught him Chinese studies, Japanese studies, and medicine, fields in which the latter was learned.49 Masahisa’s household practiced medicine, taught calligraphy, and farmed to eke out a living. Having learned some kokugaku from his father, the young man went to Edo in the fourth month of 1830 in hopes of further study under Atsutane. After being granted a discount on his enrollment fee on the grounds of financial constraints, reducing it from the regular 200 gold soku down to 100 soku, Masahisa registered as a disciple of Atsutane on the third day of the twelfth month in 1830, at age twenty-one, as the academy’s 394th disciple.50 Atsutane was age fifty-four at the time, and Masahisa visited him on the thirteenth and twenty-third in successive months to study from him directly, which included attending his lectures on Koshiden. Masahisa continued to pursue his medical studies and scholarship in Edo. In 1831 he became a disciple of physician Tachibana Naokata, who was also learned in Dutch medicine, and he later became a disciple of Miyazaki Kōan to further study medicine. From the second month of 1832, Masahisa joined a traveling group and left Edo to pay respects at the Ise Shrine. He also visited Kyoto before returning home to Tsuchizawa in Morioka domain in the fifth month. On the sixth day of the ninth month of that year, Masahisa married

49. I have based this biography of Kikuchi Masahisa’s life on the following sources: Obara Mugaku, “Kokugakusha Kikuchi Masahisa no keireki,” Iwate shigaku kenkyū 5 (May 1950); Nakagawa Kazuaki, “Hirata juku to chihō kokugaku no tenkai: Morioka han wo rei ni,” in Hokuo chiikishi no shinchihei, ed. Hasegawa Seiichi (Tokyo: Iwata shoin, 2014), 245–66. 50. Monjin seimei roku, in SHAZ, bekkan:268.

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Fujimoto Tomi. In 1836, at age twenty-nine, he wrote Rongo kō, a commentary on the Analects. Two years later, both of his parents died, causing much grief. However, Masahisa and his wife persevered in his medical practice, the education of his disciples, and agriculture, as he continued his scholarly writing. In 1840, Masahisa completed On the Palace of Imperial Ancestors, or Kōso kyūsho kō, and On the Land of Yomi, or Yomi no kuni kō. Even after Atsutane’s death in 1843, Masahisa continued to honor his master and visited the academy. In 1844, Masahisa went to Akita to pay respects before Atsutane’s grave. Then in 1855, he visited Edo and stayed with Kanetane, whose house at the time was located inside the Akita domainal compound in Torigoe, Asakusa. There, he read Atsutane’s works and copied the early volumes of Koshiden. Masahisa consulted with the Hiratas over the publishing of On the Palace of Imperial Ancestors, for which Kanetane wrote a preface.51 This first edition was published in 1855, followed by a second edition in 1866.52 Masahisa began distributing copies of On the Palace of Imperial Ancestors thereafter, and as seen in Kanetane’s first letter to Ariyo, Ariyo purchased this work through the Ibukinoya in as early as the ninth month of 1856. In 1866, by the age of fifty-seven, Masahisa had completed several major works.53 That year of 1866, Masahisa was ordered by the daimyo of Morioka to produce polished drafts of his works and to submit them to the domain. Masahisa described this situation in the following note, and expressed his feelings in a poem in Matsunoya kabunshū (Pine House Poetry and Prose): From winter of last year [1865] the customs of Morioka have changed, and the current lord favored Ancient Learning. This year in the fourth

51. Kimura Kahei of Koyanagi machi in Kanda engraved the woodblocks for the manuscript; Kanetane’s third son, Shōkichirō, printed it; and finally Izumiya Kinshichi of Shimoya chōja machi bound it into a book. 52. Nakagawa, “Hirata juku to chihō kokugaku no tenkai,” 250. 53. By 1866, Masahisa, age 58, had completed the following works, archived in the Morioka History and Culture Museum: Rongo kō (On the Analects, 10 vols.), Kōso kyūsho kō (On the Palace of Imperial Ancestors, 1 vol.), Yomi no kuni kō (On the Land of Yomi, 1 vol.), Shōkan zōbyō ronshū kō (On Writings about Typhoid Fever and Various Illnesses, 7 vols.), Ōharae kotoba shūkai (Interpretations of Liturgies for Great Purification, 1 vol.), Shinado no kaze ben (On the Shinado Wind, 2 vols.), Maiasa shin hai ki bun (Text of Morning Order for Worship, 2 vols.), Kenpaku sho (Petition, 1 vol.), Kaizoku bōgyo hisshō roku (Records of Maritime Defence Against Piracy and Certain Victory, 1 vol.), Gojū ga en kashū (Poems on a Fiftieth Birthday Banquet, 1 vol.), Koden kō (On Ancient Records, 26 vols.), Kanji on kigen (Origins of Chinese Character Sounds, 2 vols.), Matsu no ioe (Five Hundred Branches of Pine, 10 vols.), Matsunoya kabunshū (Pine House Poetry and Prose, 10 vols.).

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month, when Masahisa received an order to create polished drafts of his writings and submit them: Magatsuhi no kami Kojikata no ōshiro ni wa inishie manabi ima sakari keri54

In the great castle of Kojikata where the god Magatsuhi had prevailed, Ancient Learning is now f lourishing.

Masahisa asserted that the Nanbu lord’s order to offer polished drafts of his works ref lected a change in “customs” within the castle brought about by the fifteenth daimyo, Nanbu Toshihisa (1827–96), who favored Ancient Learning, or kokugaku. Masahisa composed a waka poem that celebrated such “f lourishing” of Ancient Learning in the castle of Kojikata, a reference to Morioka’s older name of Kozukata, where the deity of Magatsuhi— considered the source of evil in the world—had prevailed, leading to a predominance of Chinese studies. On the eighth day of the eleventh month that same year, Masahisa was ordered to serve as an instructor for the domainal school, Sakujin kan, or the Academy for Character Building. Subsequently, he devoted himself to writing and teaching, but was overcome by poor health. Eventually, in the second month of 1867, Masahisa quit his post, returned home, and died on the twelfth day of the second month at age fifty-eight. Let us now examine Ariyo’s criticism of Masahisa’s theories. As we saw above, in 1856, Ariyo obtained On the Palace of Imperial Ancestors directly from Kanetane at the Ibukinoya. The published version includes a preface written by Kanetane, signed “Ibukinoya second generation, Taira Kanetane,” which describes Masahisa’s studies in the academy and praises him for his novel theories on “matters which the Great Men had not yet even considered.”55 Sometime after obtaining the text, Ariyo wrote Refutation of On the Palace of Imperial Ancestors, or Kōso kyūsho kō ben, in which he criticized his fellow Hirata academy classmate Masahisa for what he perceived to be mistaken readings of Atsutane’s teachings. In On the Palace of Imperial Ancestors, Masahisa noted that, in the Divine Age myths, after the male and female creator deities Izanagi and Izanami made the islands of Japan upon heavenly order, and the eight million deities gave birth to all of creation, Izanagi and

54. Kikuchi Masahisa, Matsunoya kabunshū, quoted in Obara, “Kokugakusha Kikuchi Masahisa no keireki,” 33. 55. Hirata Kanetane, “Kōso kyūsho kō hashigaki,” in AKS, 627.

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Izanami then built a great palace. The location of this palace had hitherto been unclear, but Masahisa argued that it was in the land of Yamato in Kinai province.56 Ariyo attacked this claim as a “contrived statement,” and based on further examination of ancient texts, asserted the location of the great palace built by the two deities was actually on the Onogoro Islands in the land of Awaji, which formed when the drippings from the two deities’ jewelled spear had solidified.57 In making his argument, Masahisa relied primarily on the sections on Emperor Jimmu in the Nihon shoki, which state that the land of Yamato was named by Izanami. In contrast, Ariyo consulted not only the Nihon shoki but also the Kojiki, which recorded that the spacious “Yahiro palace” (Yahiro dono) was built on the Onogoro islands. He further cited both Atsutane’s Koshiseibun, which maintained the Yahiro palace was a divine creation of the deities, as well as Koshichō, which stated this Yahiro palace was inhabited and existed exclusively in the Divine Age.58 Ariyo criticized his counterpart in Morioka, stating, “In Masahisa’s mind, he thinks it is implausible unless it is like a man-made palace one sees today. Is this, therefore, the reason he makes this contrived statement? It is laughable.”59 Ariyo asserted his scholarly integrity and rigor by refuting Masahisa’s arguments on the Divine Age myths and the location and nature of the ancient palace. Ariyo’s acquisition in 1856 of On the Palace of Imperial Ancestors from a Hirata disciple from Morioka, and his subsequent criticism of it in his Refutation of On the Palace of Imperial Ancestors served as one of the formative steps in this Tsugaru scholar’s engagement with Hirata kokugaku. In Ariyo’s refutation, we see keen efforts to accurately interpret ancient texts and a staunch defense of Atsutane’s teachings to which he expressed loyalty. Ariyo’s attitude toward such Ancient Learning is highlighted in his uncompromising strictness regarding a senior disciple of Atsutane who had met the master and personally studied at the academy. Ariyo asserted his stance against this fellow Hirata disciple who was from the same academy, but who also hailed from the neighboring rival domain. Let us now consider how the circle of Hirata disciples in Hirosaki compares to those in Akita and Morioka. First, there are contrasts and parallels between the Hirata disciple communities in Hirosaki and Akita domains. As seen previously in his first letter to Ariyo in 1856, Kanetane made reference

56. 57. 58. 59.

Kikuchi Masahisa, Kōso kyūsho kō, in AKS, 627–31. Tsuruya Ariyo, Kōso kyūsho kō ben, in AKS, 557–58. Tsuruya Ariyo, Kōso kyūsho kō ben, 558. Tsuruya Ariyo, Kōso kyūsho kō ben, 558.

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to one Ogasawara Kenryū of Akita, and urged Ariyo not to go through this Kenryū, but rather to correspond directly with the Ibukinoya academy. Kenryū became a disciple on the twentieth day of the ninth month in 1841, five months after Atsutane had been exiled and returned to Akita. Kenryū, therefore, attended his master’s lectures in Akita. A town physician, Kenryū managed book orders for the Akita disciples, and so his name repeatedly appears in the Hirata family journals and transaction records.60 He played a central role among the disciples in Akita, and there is an indication in Kanetane’s letter to the Tsugaru disciples, that Kenryū had been either mediating between Ariyo and the Hirata academy, or that he at least had some contact with the former. Discipleship in Akita grew considerably from the 1840s to early Meiji, owing to Atsutane’s lectures in his last years and efforts by Kanetane and Nobutane to propagate the academy’s thought in the area. As expressed in Kanetane’s letter of 1856, the emergence of Ariyo and of the Tsugaru community’s interest in Hirata kokugaku pleased the Ibukinoya leader, because it meant Atsutane’s teachings would spread beyond Morioka domain to the northwestern fringe of Honshu. Hirosaki’s close proximity to Akita also created a sense of familiarity for Kanetane with this new group. In his letter to Ariyo dated the third day of the third month in 1858, Kanetane acknowledged that the Tsugaru disciples were located in the “neighboring country” to Akita, and expressed his willingness to send requested items, so long as they were available.61 He made this offer with the desire that the “Ancient Way” be quickly and widely “opened up” in that region through the proliferation of Hirata kokugaku. Identification of the Tsugaru disciples as Akita’s neighbors continued in Kanetane’s letter written two-and-a-half years later, dated the thirteenth day of the eleventh month in 1860.62 The academy head had worried about bad weather in the spring of 1860, but was now relieved to know the late summer was warm enough to yield a bountiful harvest for Hirosaki, as was the case for Akita. The associations made by geographical location and proximity notwithstanding, the disciple communities in Tsugaru and Akita shared both

60. Kenryū’s name appears frequently in the Ibukinoya nikki and Kingin nyūgaku chō for large book purchases and payments, as well as letters written to the academy. Yoshida, Chi no kyōmei, 288–89, 293, 297; Yoshida Asako, “Akita no Hirata monjin to shomotsu shuppan,” Nihon shisōshi gaku 39 (September 2007), 140. 61. Hirata Kanetane, Letter to Tsuruya Ariyo, third day, third month, 1858 (Ansei 5); see “Letters,” in AKS, 605. 62. Hirata Kanetane, Letter to Tsuruya Ariyo, thirteenth day, eleventh month, 1860 (Man’en 1); see “Letters,” in AKS, 609.

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differences and similarities. One difference is size: while Akita boasted around 330 disciples by 1872, Hirosaki had only eighteen by that time. Also, the disciples in Akita were predominantly high-ranking samurai, many with a Confucian education, in a region where Chinese studies were considerably more prominent than Japanese studies. In contrast, we have seen the Tsugaru group was led primarily by townspeople and some Shinto priests. Akita domain and Hirosaki would show their allegiance to the Imperial court in the Boshin War by fighting in support of the new government forces, and chapter seven examines how the Tsugaru group participated in events of the Restoration years of 1868 to 1869. The Morioka group offers another point of contrast, because despite the fact that its first registered disciple, Kikuchi Masahisa, was a prolific scholar who was highly regarded by the Hirata family, only six people from that domain became disciples. These included Shinto priests and Masahisa’s own student who also taught Japanese studies at the domainal school.63 Masahisa died in 1867 just before the Restoration, and the fact that Morioka supported the shogunate and opposed the “Imperial army” in the war, combined with the postwar turmoil, appear to have stunted any potential for growth. Finally, compared to the circles of Hirata disciples in Akita and Morioka, the Tsugaru group demonstrated a greater sense of social and cultural autonomy, by virtue of its early core members being townspeople (chōnin). As outlined earlier, six of the first seven from Hirosaki to enrol as disciples in the Hirata academy were townsmen, most of them from merchant backgrounds, who pursued poetry. Imamura Mitane “Momonoya,” the lone domainal samurai among these first seven, also claimed a merchant background and served as a financial patron to the group, purchasing many books from the Ibukinoya for circulation and copying among the members. Painter and townsman Hirao Rosen joined the group seven years after its inauguration, possibly because he did not share the same level of devotion as the others to waka or haiku poetry and, therefore, did not readily find his place in the group. This group of primarily poetic townspeople met freely at Ariyo’s residence, where they pursued composition of poetry and independent studies as a voluntary cultural and scholarly association, free from control by the domainal authorities or the domainal school. In this sense, the Tsugaru group can very much be considered an example of a civil society in early modern Japan. Despite teaching Japanese studies in the domainal school on official orders, domainal samurai Inomata Hisayoshi and “unofficial disciple” Osari

63. Nakagawa, “Hirata juku to chihō kokugaku no tenkai.” 254–58, 260–64.

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Nakaakira do not appear to have exerted political inf luence on the Tsugaru group from their positions. As was the case in Morioka and Akita, Chinese studies and Confucianism dominated domainal education in Hirosaki. Confucianism was the core of education in Hirosaki domain’s Keikokan, and Dutch Learning became increasingly prominent from the late 1850s. Hirosaki’s ninth daimyo, Tsugaru Yasuchika, expressed interest in Hirata kokugaku, as did twelfth daimyo, Tsugaru Tsuguakira, around the Restoration years. However, it can be argued that the low demand overall for “Japanese studies” or kokugaku at an official level in the domain, combined with the fact that the early carriers of Atsutane’s teachings were townspeople, prevented Hirata kokugaku from penetrating widely within the samurai ranks, or within the domainal school. This chapter examined the collective experience of Tsuruya Ariyo and his fellows in Tsugaru in their reception of the teachings of Hirata kokugaku. The first people from Hirosaki domain to register as disciples in the Hirata school were mostly merchant-class poets. Members of the Tsugaru group ordered Atsutane’s books from Edo, and gathered to study the Ancient Way and to compose poetry. They also conducted spirit worship to venerate the spirit of their teacher Atsutane. Compared to neighboring Hirata disciple communities in Akita and Morioka, the Tsugaru group was led by merchantclass poet Ariyo and other merchant intellectuals and, as a result, they exhibited some scholarly autonomy in their activities while having little inf luence on the domainal school or local politics. Nevertheless, from early on, Ariyo demonstrated academic rigor and integrity in refuting the arguments of a more senior Hirata disciple, Kikuchi Masahisa, from Morioka domain. The following chapter examines how one member of the group, Hirao Rosen, conducted early ethnographic studies of Tsugaru, while increasingly engaging Hirata kokugaku. We will see how and why Rosen eventually adopted Atsutane’s teachings as the theoretical framework for his study of the “countries” he inhabited—Tsugaru and Japan—as well as the spirit realm and the spirits dwelling therein, issues that we will revisit when returning to Ariyo and his ideas in the subsequent chapter.

Ch ap ter 5

Locating Tsugaru within Sacred Japan

During the Tokugawa period, scholars who studied the country of Japan also conducted inquiries on the local country— its practices, culture, and beliefs. Kokugaku was a school of diverse pursuits including the studies of poetry and literature, philology, myth, history, and divinity, as well as ethnographic studies, which maintained their common focus on the study of “koku” or “kuni”—the “country” or “nation.” At the outset of this book I translated kokugaku as “Japan studies” because members of this school pursued questions about an Ancient Way that was native to Japan. However, as observed by a number of scholars, some kokugakusha also conducted studies of local life and culture, everyday practices, and beliefs and rituals of rural communities, which I have categorized as ethnographic studies or research that predates modern ethnography. Motoori Norinaga and, to a greater extent, Hirata Atsutane engaged in ethnographic studies about life, culture, and beliefs at the local level. Thus far, I have characterized Hirao Rosen’s work up to 1855 in documenting folk life and culture across both Tsugaru and Ezo as ethnographic studies. Rosen used art, prose, and waka poetry to capture the everyday life, culture, festivals, rituals, and natural landscapes he observed in local Hirosaki castle town as well as observing Westerners, Chinese, and Ezo locals on the northern island during his travels. From that same year he began to produce his three most important intellectual works over the span 123

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of a decade through 1865. In these works, Rosen conducted ethnographic studies, recording accounts and observances of mysterious phenomena and objects. He wrote of bright objects f lying across the sky, legendary water sprites causing distress, and the dead walking about in broad daylight. While Rosen sought verification of the meaning of such phenomena in the ancient texts of China and Japan, he would increasingly turn to the kokugaku theories espoused by Hirata Atsutane in an attempt to explain matters of spirits and the spirit world. Before we examine Rosen’s three major works, let us consider the examples of his predecessors who similarly engaged both kokugaku and ethnographic research; this will better contextualize Rosen’s work, which straddles both pursuits.

Ethnographic Research and Kokugaku in Tokugawa Japan We can identify some links between kokugaku and ethnographic study in the following late-eighteenth-century statement by Motoori Norinaga under the subheading “On the Remnants of Ancient Practices Surviving in the Provinces”: There are many examples of remote villages that not only preserve the ancient vocabulary, but also preserve various ceremonies with fragments of elegant customs. Moreover, when one of those people infected with learning is among the group that practices one of these customs, he takes a stand against the ancient custom, proclaiming it to be old nonsense. He wants to alter and modernize everything, and it is regrettable that this trend continues all over the country, and various old customs are slowly fading away. There are many interesting examples of funerals and weddings preserving old customs in the provinces. How I would like to travel from shore to mountain and write down all these old customs. What later-era people have done in rearranging funerals and festivals has mostly been inf luenced by the Chinese Heart, and this is a very unbecoming and bothersome problem.1 This quotation from Norinaga’s collection of miscellaneous topics, Tamakatsuma (Basket of Jewels), which he wrote late in life demonstrates his early

1. Motoori Norinaga, “[419] On the Remnants of Ancient Practices Surviving in the Provinces,” in Tamakatsuma: A Window into the Scholarship of Motoori Norinaga, intro. and trans. by John R. Bentley (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University East Asia Program, 2013), 209–10. See also Motoori Norinaga, “Inaka ni inishihe no waza no nokoreru koto,” in Tamakatsuma, vol. 8, MNZ, vol. 1, ed. Ōno Susumu and Ōkubo Tadashi (Tokyo: Chikuma shobō, 1968), 235.

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awareness of and interest in ancient folk culture preserved in rural areas, not urban centers. As John R. Bentley observes, Norinaga wrote Tamakatsuma in classical Japanese style to record information he had gathered throughout his career with the intention of instructing his students on his thoughts on “Ancient Studies” or kokugaku.2 The above quotation, according to Minami Keiji, indicates that kokugaku and early modern ethnography shared certain internal connections and suggests “the inevitable reason” that Tokugawa kokugaku scholars would harbor an interest in ethnographic studies.3 As an example, Minami documents how kokugaku scholars undertook the editing of local geographies in their rural areas. Miyata Noboru interprets the passage as Norinaga’s rallying cry to collect folklorist materials.4 Miyata observes that Edo period scholars who collected stories and materials about the strange, such as Ōta Nanpo (1749–1823), Matsura Seizan, and Negishi Yasumori (1737–1815), studied folk culture by documenting changes in daily life, and had their beginnings in “study groups” where scholars gathered and exchanged data. Hirata Atsutane has attracted perhaps more attention than anyone else as a scholar who pursued both kokugaku and early ethnography. In terms of his kokugaku scholarship, Atsutane is most commonly compared with his teacher Norinaga, but in regard to his ethnographic approach, the contrasts with Norinaga and the parallels with Yanagita Kunio are often emphasized. Haga Noboru observes that Atsutane differs from Norinaga in that he pursued direct methods to elucidate the yūmeikai or kakuriyo spiritual realm, and listened to the adherents of various folk faiths found in Japanese folk societies and reported on their beliefs.5 Examples of these methods are seen in such texts as Inō mononoke roku (Records of the Inō and Spirits) and Kokon yōmikō (On Marvels Old and New). Haga likens Yanagita’s Yōkai dangi (Discussion of Monsters) to these works by Atsutane in terms of methodology and content, and asserts that Yanagita adopted the specific features of Atsutane’s practice of “listening and recording, surveying, and documenting” that appear in his later work.

2. John R. Bentley, “Introduction,” in Tamakatsuma: A Window into the Scholarship of Motoori Norinaga (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University East Asia Program, 2013), 7–8. 3. Minami Keiji, “Kokugakusha no minzokugaku kinsei,” in Nihon minzoku kenkyū taikei, vol. 10, Kokugaku to minzokugaku, ed. Nihon minzoku kenkyū taikei henshū iinkai (Tokyo: Ōfūsha, 1990), 184–85. 4. Miyata Noboru, Nihon wo kataru 1 Minzokugaku e no michi (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 2007), 170–71. 5. Haga Noboru, Yanagita Kunio to Hirata Atsutane (Tokyo: Kakuseisha, 1997), 211–12.

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In studying how modern folklore scholars treated monsters and the invisible world in the Meiji period, Gerald Figal asserts that Atsutane’s work of “opening up and delving into the spirit world” was important to Yanagita and others who took up the topic of bakemono (monsters) in the modern period, as a “scholarly precedent” for studying and reporting on supernatural matters. Figal notes that Yanagita admitted to having received “the gist of the theories on the hidden world” (yūmeiron no kosshi) from Atsutane’s works, but distinguishes his scholarship from his predecessor’s by including the tengu within the hidden yūmei world, unlike Atsutane, whom he accuses of an anti-Buddhist stance that led to an exclusion of the tengu from the spiritual realm.6 Wilburn Hansen makes the tengu the focus of his study of Atsutane’s “ethnography of the other world,” describing how Atsutane collected stories of mountain-dwelling sanjin in his Senkyō ibun, and Hansen interprets this work as a “forerunner of minzokugaku, or Japanese folklore studies.”7 Such connections between kokugaku and ethnographic research from the early modern to modern periods, and the links between Norinaga, Atsutane, and modern ethnographers have thus garnered attention in historiography. Orikuchi Shinobu recognized his own work as shin kokugaku, or “new kokugaku,” acknowledging his debt to the work of past kokugaku scholars. On the other hand, Yanagita mentioned Atsutane sparingly, such as in the aforementioned example, as if to distance himself from him, though his student Orikuchi acknowledges the inf luence his teacher had received from the kokugaku scholar. Understanding this convergence of interests, methods, and inf luence shared by practitioners of kokugaku and ethnographic research from Tokugawa to Meiji helps us to appreciate the significance of Hirao Rosen’s work, and allows us to now examine his three major works, which ref lect these various movements.

Strange Tales of Gappo Kojima Yasunori identifies Rosen as a scholar who engaged both Hirata kokugaku and ethnographic studies and defines him, therefore, as a genuine historical link bridging Hirata kokugaku’s transition into modern folklore studies. Kojima states, “In this sense, Rosen’s work can hereafter be examined

6. Gerald Figal, Civilization and Monsters: Spirits of Modernity in Meiji Japan (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999), 36. 7. Hansen argues that “the goal of Senkyō ibun, was to establish a culture hero whose primary reason for existence was to render the Japanese comfort, assistance, and protection until they reached the Other World.” Hansen, When Tengu Talk, 199–200.

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as something which fills the void in the historiography between Hirata kokugaku and Yanagita-Orikuchi minzokugaku. By positing Rosen between Atsutane and Yanagita, can we not describe the trajectory of kokugaku developing into minzokugaku, and not just into an insular nationalism?”8 Kojima thus sees Rosen’s scholarship as essential for understanding kokugaku’s development into folklore studies, as opposed to merely being a narrow nationalist ideology in the modern period. Moriyama Taitarō correctly, albeit brief ly, noted that Rosen wrote Strange Tales of Gappo (Gappo kidan), Echoes of the Valley (Tani no hibiki), and New Treatise on the Spirit Realm (Yūfu shinron) with the intent of drawing attention to the existence of souls and divine mysteries. Below I explore how over the span of a decade Rosen pursued these intellectual and spiritual concerns and how he found answers to his queries in theories offered in Hirata kokugaku.9 Strange Tales of Gappo is a collection of stories and records of strange, mysterious, and spiritual objects and phenomena gathered from Hirosaki castle town and various locations across Gappo, which is another name for Tsugaru.10 Rosen completed this work in that intellectually formative and productive year of 1855, when he also compiled an edited volume of textual excerpts, a fūsetsudome collection of political documents, and accounts of local and foreign cultures that he observed during his visit to Hakodate and Ezo. Rosen marked the completion of Strange Tales of Gappo with a waka poem, found in his anthology and introduced with the words “Finished writing Strange Tales of Gappo.” It reads: Hinabitaru koto na togamezo hau ari no ari no manimani kakishi fumi zomo (21)11

Do not blame me for its rustic contents. This is a text I wrote just as things are including crawling ants.

Rosen acknowledged that his subject matter was “rustic” or “boorish” in nature, again expressing self-awareness about being based in the local, isolated setting of Tsugaru. Nevertheless, he also revealed his methodology for

8. Kojima Yasunori, “Bakumatsuki Tsugaru no minzokugakusha,” 16–17. 9. Moriyama Taitarō, “Hirao Rosen to Tani no hibiki,” in Tani no hibiki (Aomori: Aomori kenritsu toshokan, 1969), 243. 10. Only the second of the two original volumes of Gappo kidan remains to this day, and is archived in Hirosaki City Public Library. Its transcription along with introduction by Moriyama Taitarō are found in Tani no hibiki (Aomori: Aomori kenritsu toshokan, 1969). 11. Hirao, Hirao Rosen kashū, 3.

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ethnographic research in documenting his subjects “just as things are” on a range of subjects—including “crawling ants,” for which he employed a pun in “ari,” which has the dual meanings of “ant” as well as “are” of the verb “to be.” The second volume of Strange Tales of Gappo opens with the following passage, introduced with the heading “Mysterious Illness” (kishitsu): In the domain, Ishiyama’s maid was seriously afraid of caterpillars. Around the recent Kōka years [1844–48], also in the domain, a man named Kawaguchi made light of this and twisted paper in the shape of a caterpillar to fool her, saying, “That’s a caterpillar,” throwing it at her collar. This made her scream, “Wah!” and faint instantly. Kawaguchi felt helpless and wondered, “What shall I do?” In response, her master Ishiyama sneered, brought oil and applied it to the maid’s mouth, and after a while she revived. When she removed her clothing, the area from her neck down her back to her waist swelled up and became bumpy, as if she had been affected by insect poison. After the lord applied oil to the affected area, it healed gradually. “This is something truly mysterious,” would utter Kawaguchi now and then in amusement.12 Rosen introduced this story of a “mysterious illness” that reportedly occurred sometime within the past decade during the early 1840s. As is characteristic of some entries in Rosen’s three major works, the narrative features individuals bearing realistic names and incites humor, in this case albeit at the expense of Ishiyama’s maid, whom Kawaguchi teased with a paper caterpillar thus frightening her to the point of losing consciousness. The reviving of the maid, as well as the implication that a fake caterpillar can cause harm if the person believes in it, is described in vivid detail, as is typical of Rosen’s writing. Such specifics of the period, names, and descriptions create a sense of familiarity, lending plausibility to the story. Under the subheading of “Mysteries of Toads,” Rosen introduced the mystery and myth surrounding toads ( gama), which he described as “spiritual creatures.” For reference he cited the Chinese work Record of Miscellaneous Matters, or Bo wu zhi, by Zhang Hua (232–300) of the Western Jin, which spoke of the “wonders of three mysteries” (sanki no ayashi); as well as the “Rou zhi zhi ling” section in Bao po zi by Ge Hong (283–343), which in turn discussed a horned toad that causes mysterious phenomena.13 Rosen

12. Hirao Rosen, Gappo kidan, in Tani no hibiki (Aomori: Aomori kenritsu toshokan, 1969), 170. 13. Hirao, Gappo kidan, 175.

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proceeded to ask rhetorically, “Is there any reason to doubt the established theories of the ancients?”14 Then he cited the experience of a haikai poet Katō, who stayed a year in the port city of Aomori and wished to investigate the veracity of a story about “a battle of f rogs” at a temple. On the banks of two ponds on temple grounds, “hundreds of thousands of f rogs” were swarming, hopping, and scuff ling about. Katō observed, however, that the frogs neither attacked nor fought each other and, therefore, the situation did not warrant being called “a battle,” and yet that such great numbers assembled should be considered “a remarkable matter.” He reported that after more than ten days the frogs dispersed. The legend of the “battle of frogs” had been orally transmitted f rom old and is still related among people. Though the origins were still shrouded in mystery, it was illustrated in the seventeenth-century encyclopedia Wakan sansai zue by Terashima Ryōan. Reports of toads gathering in large numbers were also cited during the reigns of Emperor Shōtoku (r. 764–70) and Emperor Kammu (r. 781–806) in the Shoku nihongi.15 Continuing his inquiry into the strange and mysterious, Rosen discussed local sightings of bright objects. One night on the sixth day of the seventh month during the An’ei years (1772–81), a fight broke out in Kon’ya-chō in Hirosaki castle town, involving forty to fifty people fiercely beating each other up. From the west a sound like a great wind blowing through the forest was heard, and a bright object measuring over two feet (shaku) descended into the center of the brawl, dispersing as small particles some eighty feet in all directions. Suddenly, however, the fiery light gathered itself together, became one circular mass again, and f lew off eastward. Rosen said his grandfather had witnessed this light and had often spoken about it to others. Rosen also wrote of “a bright object” witnessed by farmers at Mount Iwaki in the seventh month of 1805.16 The bright light f lew through the sky and into the mountain, f lashing and causing a rumbling sound like thunder. A head measuring six feet (shaku) was followed by a long tail split into seven or eight strands, about twenty-four feet in total length. In autumn in the

14. Hirao, Gappo kidan, 175. 15. Wakan sansai zue is comprised of 105 volumes and 81 books, and was originally completed in 1607 by Terashima Ryōan. He modeled this work on San cai tu hui by Wang Qi of Ming China. Ryōan’s work has entries from Japanese and Chinese, ancient and contemporary sources on astronomy, ethics, land, mountain and water, divided in three categories of heaven, humans, and land. He offers images, along with Chinese and Japanese names, accompanied by a commentary in Chinese script. Shoku nihongi, completed in 797, is second of the six national histories, following Nihon shoki, and covers the historical period starting with Emperor Mommu in 697 to Emperor Kammu in 791. 16. Hirao, Gappo kidan, 181–82.

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eighth month during the early Bunsei years (1818–30), the object was again sighted dashing across the sky, trailed by a white streak measuring two feet, accompanied by a thunderous sound.17 Rosen offered accounts like the above that had been passed down by word of mouth in his local Hirosaki and Tsugaru community, while seeking reference and verification in written records of the past. In “old records” he identified similar phenomena f rom the twenty-first day of the first month in the Genki years (1570–73), when a light left Mount Iwaki and f lew toward the eastern mountains, emitting a thunderous sound. All three or four such examples, Rosen noted, revealed that the bright objects traveled f rom west to east and showed similarities to wind and thunder. To make sense of such phenomena, he referenced several ancient texts including Nihon shoki, which recorded that on the eleventh day of the second month in Emperor Jomei’s ninth year of reign (638 CE), a great star f lew f rom east to west, making a thunderous sound. Also, in the Shi ji, or Records of the Grand Historian, Early Han scholar Liu Xiang narrated that “falling stars which emit sound are called Tian gou xing (Tengu stars). Those without sound are called Kuang fu (madmen).” Wu za zu,18 an encyclopedic resource f rom late-Ming China (1368–1644), was also consulted for its commentary on various stars. So in the case of this “bright object,” Rosen referenced ancient to early modern texts of Japan, China, and even his local Hirosaki domain. Another mysterious object featured in Strange Tales of Gappo is the “Buddha figure in nature.”19 Rosen reported that one night when a fisherman f rom Obashi village in Kami Iso, Aomori, pulled in his fishing net, he discovered a large shellfish amid a large catch. When he threw the strange shellfish onto the rocky shore, it began to glow brightly and attracted pampas grass on all sides. Intrigued, he picked it up, and when he saw it the next morning, its f lesh had dried and it was positioned in such a way as to look just like a Buddha statue with all its limbs. It was pearly in color and radiant. The fisherman washed the rare object and placed it in his Buddhist altar at home. Other unusual objects recorded in the text include excavated artifacts. As Rosen’s early biography noted, archaeology was among his many, broad interests, and he kept written and pictorial

17. One shaku is roughly 30 centimeters. 18. Wu za zu is a 16-volume collection of essays completed in 1619 by Xie Zhao Zhi of Ming China. It provides commentary on the five categories of heaven, earth, humans, things, and matters. 19. Hirao, Gappo kidan, 207.

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records of unearthed objects including vessels, pottery, and f ragments that he assessed, ranked, and categorized. In Strange Tales of Gappo, Rosen introduced accounts of “mysteries” surrounding illness, toads, bright objects, and a Buddha image, and surveyed archaeological finds. Often he sought to verify these cases by citing a variety of authoritative texts from the past. While showing great interest in “marvels” (yōmi) and “ghosts” (yūrei) seen locally, the surviving second volume of Strange Tales of Gappo written in 1855 made no direct reference either to Atsutane’s writings or his theories. Nevertheless, Rosen’s interests in spiritual and supernatural matters, along with his ethnographic method of gathering oral and written local accounts, appear to call forth the more comprehensive and potent theories offered by Atsutane. Next we examine the second of his three major works and there we see an even clearer awareness of spirits and the spiritual realm, as well as the first of his direct references to Hirata kokugaku.

Echoes of the Valley Five years after finishing Strange Tales of Gappo, Rosen completed his next major work, Echoes of the Valley, or Tani no hibiki, in 1860.20 This work was his second collection of stories and accounts of strange and mysterious things and phenomena gathered from throughout Hirosaki castle town and the Tsugaru region. In the five-year period between the completion of Rosen’s first major text and Echoes of the Valley, Tsuruya Ariyo enrolled in the Ibukinoya academy in 1857, and the Tsugaru group of Hirata disciples grew to six members. Although not yet a Hirata disciple at the time of finishing Echoes of the Valley, Rosen made direct references to Atsutane’s writings, showing that he had been reading them, and the text overall ref lects Atsutane’s thought on the yūmeikai spiritual realm.

20. A copied manuscript of Tani no hibiki is archived in the Hirosaki City Public Library. Transcriptions of this text are available, along with Moriyama Taitarō’s introduction, in Aomori kenritsu toshokan kyōdo sōsho 1 Tani no hibiki tsuki Gappo kidan, ed. Aomori kenritsu toshokan (Aomori: Aomori kenritsu toshokan, 1969), as well as with introduction and footnotes by Moriyama in Nihon shomin seikatsushi shiryō shūsei, vol. 16, ed. Mori Senzō and Suzuki Shinzō (Tokyo: San’ ichi shobō, 1970). 1860 and 1861 (Man’en 1, 2) were also the years that Rosen compiled his voluminous 15volume Fude no susabi, or Jottings with the Brush, another collection of quoted and edited passages from various Japanese and Chinese texts arranged under thematic headings, which further demonstrate Rosen’s wide-ranging foundational readings. This collection is similar in style to his 150-chapter Kōsai shōshi compiled sometime between the Kaei years (1848–54) and 1859 (Ansei 6), and due to Fude no susabi’s similarly encyclopedic style, I note it here as a ref lection of his readings more than an expression of his original thought. Fude no susabi is also archived in Hirosaki City Public Library.

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The opening passage of Echoes of the Valley follows the subheading “Orchestra in the Marsh” (Numa naka no kangen), and it explains the origin of the text’s title: During the Kansei years (1789–1801), a man named Ōmiya somebodyor-other, a merchant f rom Hirosaki, visited his relative named Gihei in Sōnai village. One day, Gihei wished to comfort this Ōmiya, and so along with two or three others, boarded a small boat and went fishing on Tappi marsh, where they passed the time getting a plentiful catch. The sun was already setting and so they started paddling to return home, when f rom within the surrounding reeds they heard a shō mouth organ21 being played. While they thought this to be mysterious, the sounds of a biwa lute, Japanese harp, kakko drum, and hichiriki f lute met their ears, and their reverberations were pure and clear, and sounded like it was beyond [the sounds of ] this vulgar world. They felt ineffably glad, but as everyone pricked up their ears and listened intently, the tune seemed to gradually fade and the mood became increasingly eerie and sad, as if the entire body had been doused with water, so that they could no longer stand to stay there, even for a short while. They hastily rowed their boat back to shore. Thus, Gihei said that since long ago there had been accounts of the sound of an orchestra being heard f rom within this marsh f rom time to time. Furthermore, three or four years before, someone named Yosuke f rom the same village claimed that he heard this story and retold it, but thought it must have been the sound of wind blowing the reeds and had hitherto doubted it to be true. However, when considering what had happened this time, he said he understood that the legends of the people of old were not false.22 Rosen described the scene as having occurred some sixty to seventy years earlier during the Kansei years, when Ōmiya, Gihei, and their f riends went fishing on Tappi marsh (Tappi numa), located in the southwest corner of the Tsugaru peninsula, roughly ten kilometers south of Tosa Lake. The men heard the sound of orchestral instruments playing, and the description says “their reverberations were pure and clear” and otherworldly or literally not of this vulgar “world of dust.” The men were at first delighted by the exquisite sound, yet as it faded into silence, this made them fearful,

21. A shō was a mouth organ with multiple vertical pipes. 22. Hirao Rosen, Tani no hibiki, Aomori kenritsu toshokan kyōdo sōsho 1, ed. Aomori kenritsu toshokan (Aomori: Aomori kenritsu toshokan, 1969), 2–3.

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causing them to row back to shore. Citing this example, Rosen confirmed the credibility of the “people of old” and their wise accounts concerning such mysterious phenomena. This was the first of numerous examples of how Rosen’s ethnographic findings would serve as verification for such legends f rom the past. Rosen continued to describe the mystery and remoteness of this Tappi marsh. According to some, he explained, a f lute sound was heard when the wind blew through the reeds, and when waves hit the shore a drumming sound naturally occurred; these were generally called the “f lute of reeds” and “drum of waves.”23 “Everyone” said these sounds were caused by the wind and not by anything that could be called mysterious (ayashi). Rosen, however, insisted there was something extraordinary about this marsh. Tappi marsh measured over three li, or about twelve kilometers, in circumference; ref lected the light of the sky like a mirror; and had dense reed growth along its banks; with a chilling wind blowing through.24 He asserted, “Truly, it is in an extremely remote place (hekichi), and so it is unknowable whether or not the gods of the kakuriyo are present.”25 Tappi marsh was described here using the term “hekichi,” whose reading meant “remote place” or “backwater.” Rosen’s use of the Chinese characters “yū chi” (幽地; C., “yōu dì”) and particularly the character yū (or yōu) denoted that there was a spiritual dimension that further distinguished this locale. He continued, “How narrow-minded an act to determine something by using principle (kotowari) that is readily available before one’s eyes. Not just this marsh, but all places, especially Hirataki marsh and the like are full of mysterious things.” Above all, Rosen asserted that the remoteness of this marsh made it impossible to even measure the presence or absence of the “gods of the kakuriyo,” which was a direct reference to Atsutane’s theories on the kakuriyo spiritual realm. Echoes of the Valley begins with this story of the mysterious Tappi marsh, a prelude that sets the stage for tales and accounts of strange, mysterious, and spiritual phenomena and objects throughout Tsugaru. Over the five volumes that make up Echoes of the Valley, Rosen related various stories that stress the powers wielded by the spirits. Story eleven of volume two is entitled “Dreaming Soul Kills Wife.”26 During the Tenpō

23. The word I have translated here as “drum” is represented in the original text as “是” with the reading “tsutsumi,” which may refer to “堤” “tsutsumi” as in water “bank,” but can also refer to “鼓” “tsutsumi” as in drum with the same reading. I acknowledge the dual meanings, while prioritizing the meaning of drum. 24. A li is a unit of measurement of 3.9273 kilometers. 25. Hirao, Gappo kidan, 3. 26. Hirao, Gappo kidan, 48–49.

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(1830–44) years, a man named Mitsuhashi from Hirosaki castle town served on official duty in Aomori. Mitsuhashi became acquainted with a woman there, but could not marry her because he already had a wife. Eventually, he completed his duties and returned to Hirosaki, but he secretly exchanged love letters with the woman. The following year, he returned to Aomori for duty, and the two embarked on an intimate affair. Once his lover learned he had a wife, however, she became deeply resentful. One day at an inn she related to a woman there, that after dozing off, she dreamed she had arrived at Mitsuhashi’s house and saw his wife, looking pure and attractive as she sewed clothes. Enraged with jealousy the mistress bit into the wife’s throat, which horrified her mother-in-law and children. The woman f led the scene, then awoke from her dream. She confessed to the woman at the inn to having a bad taste in her mouth. With her heart thumping in fear she asked what this could be about, but the woman chided her for saying such sad things then turned away to tend to other matters. The following morning, a courier came to the nearby district office and reported that Mitsuhashi’s wife had died a violent death. Stunned, Mitsuhashi requested permission to return home where he asked his mother about what happened. She explained that during the previous afternoon, f rom out of nowhere, “something resembling a human soul came f lying” into the house and she saw it enter the room where his wife had been sewing. Immediately, she heard a voice scream, “Ahh!” Alarmed, she ran to investigate and found that her daughter’s throat had been ripped open and she had stopped breathing. She immediately applied medicine, but it had no effect on the wounds to her vital organs and she died instantly. Through tears his mother said, “Whose resentment could this be! What a mysterious and fearful thing.” Although Mitsuhashi had an idea, he could not bring himself to confess his affair, and instead grieved wholeheartedly for his wife. Thereafter, Mitsuhashi neglected his lover, and once his official duties were concluded, he stopped seeing her. Rosen explained, “Mitsuhashi’s mother told this story periodically, and, over time, people came to know and quietly spoke of the story of the woman’s dream.”27 That the human soul acts with real purpose and formidable strength even beyond the consciousness of individuals is a consistent message in this and other similar episodes.

27. This narrative of Mitsuhashi’s lover killing his wife in a dream is reminiscent of some episodes in the Tale of Genji, when the spirit of Lady Rokujō kills several of Genji’s women out of jealousy.

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In the ensuing section, article twelve of volume two there is an episode of divine protection of humans, entitled “Gods’ Protection” (kami no yōgo).28 When Rosen was a young boy, he and four or five of his friends played together, gathering wood chips and bark and piling them up to form a wall in the yard. They created a small hut with four sides, each measuring one foot. For fun, one of the children proposed setting fire to the hut to enact a house fire. The young Rosen went with him to fetch fire, timing his entry into the kitchen so that no one was there. They lit the kindling, stretching out their sleeves to shield themselves, then carried the fire and attempted to set light to the hut. Yet, it seemed as if someone were present and put the fire out. As the hut collapsed, they rebuilt it, and though they tried to set it on fire again, it was once more extinguished. The same thing happened four or five times, until eventually one of the grandmothers saw what they were doing and scolded the children. Rosen recollected that it was a day in the fourth month with a strong wind and optimal conditions for fire to blaze and spread widely. Yet, he explains, “It appears as though a person were there to extinguish the fire, because the spirits of the ancestors saved us. And so, even in places like this, you can’t know what sort of deities are present, invisible to the human eye.”29 Directly following these words, Rosen continued the discourse on spirits, the soul, and the afterlife: “How foolish it is for sly people of this world to conclude that because people die and their souls return to heaven and earth, and nothing remains, that neither deities nor spirits exist.”30 Rosen then referenced Ruan Dan (210–63) of Jin who, in On the Non-Existence of the Soul, or Wu gui lun, argued that the spirits of the deceased did not exist, then cited Fan Zhen (450–510) of Liang who in On the Mortality of the Soul, or Shen mie lun, asserted that once somebody died, their soul also perished. He then related an episode from 1839 concerning the daughter of his distant relative Hachigorō, from when she was about three or four years old. The young girl was playing at the edge of the fireplace and fell into the fire. However, she immediately rolled over three or four feet to the other side, and managed to avoid any burns. Shocked and afraid, Hachigorō and his wife ritually purified and worshipped the fire. Rosen concluded that “this too is a case of the gods being present and having helped. Otherwise, how can a three- or four-yearold child who fell into the fire possibly tumble out on her own?”

28. Hirao, Gappo kidan, 52–53. 29. Hirao, Gappo kidan, 53. 30. Hirao, Gappo kidan, 53.

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Continuing on the topic of invisible, spiritual matters, the story entitled “Dog Barking at Shapeless Object” comes from the ensuing section: item thirteen.31 Notably, Rosen interpreted this set of stories on the basis of Atsutane’s theories on the kakuriyo. He cited a recent incident in 1856 in Shimo Tsutsumi machi observed by Shimaya Shirōzaemon and others, of five or six dogs gazing up at a banner and becoming agitated and barking at a “shapeless object” for no apparent reason. Eventually, Shirōzaemon made his servant chase the dogs away. Rosen then cited a similar incident that happened near his home, when two dogs looked up at a persimmon tree and barked intensely for some time, and though Rosen gazed up at the tree he saw nothing mysterious. Because of the great ruckus, he chased the dogs away, but they rushed straight to the foot of the hedges behind his home and again became agitated and resumed barking. At last, they snuck beneath the hedges and barked at the house behind Rosen’s. The dogs were chased away by the lord of that house, and finally stopped. Ref lecting on such accounts dating from 1824 or 1825, Rosen concluded, “thinking about it now, it must have been something coming from the kakuriyo. In Mr. Hirata’s Yōmikō,32 he documents dogs similarly barking at shapeless objects, and argues these are gods in the kakuriyo. Indeed, that is how things are.”33 Yōmikō, cited here, is an abbreviation of Atsutane’s Kokon yōmikō. Unlike Tales of Gappo from five years earlier, Rosen’s Echoes of the Valley in 1860 explicitly references Atsutane’s theories on spirits and the kakuriyo, even though such Hirata kokugaku theories were not yet a basis for Rosen’s arguments. It is also notable that Atsutane is referred to here in moderately respectful terms as Mr. Hirata (Hirata shi), as opposed to being addressed reverently as Master (ushi), or affectionately as Old Man (okina) as in later writings. As a part of Rosen’s sustained ethnographic inquiry, item seven of volume five introduces metochi, the river-dwelling creature of Tsugaru: this example can be categorized among mysterious sightings which, in this case, join an ongoing discourse in Tokugawa times on the kappa water sprite.34 One day during the Kan’ei years (1624–44) in Wakadō machi, a child drowned and died in a small back river. Those present exhausted every means to induce the child to regurgitate the water, but to no avail. Suddenly

31. Hirao, Gappo kidan, 54. 32. On Marvels Old and New is a seven-volume treatise Atsutane completed in 1822 and published six years later in 1828. 33. Hirao, Gappo kidan, 55. 34. Hirao, Tani no hibiki, Aomori kenritsu toshokan kyōdo sōsho 1, 143–44.

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grumbling sounds came f rom the boy’s stomach, and something exited via his anus. The creature was described as “shaped like a snake,” measuring around fifty centimeters35 with a wide f lat body and large head. It “ran about acting madly”; as soon as they saw it, the people tried to catch it but it eluded them and jumped into the water. A person named Chiba quoted a man, Takase, who had said, “This must be what they commonly call metochi.” One hot day during the Bunka years (1804–18), when Takase and his f riend were fishing they decided to cool off in the river. Takase’s f riend dove down to the river bottom, but Takase sensed danger when he didn’t see him for some time. Slowly, his f riend f loated up and yelled, “Let’s stop bathing in the water!” A mass of bubbly oil f loated to the water’s surface. The f riend described what had happened: a “band-like object” wrapped itself twice around his stomach, closed up, and pulled him to the bottom. Alertly, he grabbed a rock and with all his might struck its head, shattering it. Its grip loosened, the water clouded, and the creature disappeared. The episode suggests that while the creature could be dangerous to humans, it was not invincible, and Rosen concluded by identifying it as the “metochi”: “Indeed, serious trouble was avoided. Is this not what they call metochi? It is something to be feared.” This detailed description of the metochi was twice cited by Yanagita Kunio, as part of his inquiry into the river-dwelling kappa. In “Kappa and mizuchi” Yanagita wrote: In Aomori prefecture in the north, the word medochi has survived. Apparently, it is not found outside in Nanbu, but among old works that write about Tsugaru, there is a book [Tani no hibiki] by someone named Hirao Rosen. It is a book that was completed very close to Meiji, and inside medochi are written of in great detail. People there distinguish these from kappa, and seem to think there exists a certain species of animal called medochi.36 Yanagita noted that medochi37 was a term that had survived in Tsugaru, but not in Nanbu, and cited his source as Rosen’s “book,” by which he meant Echoes of the Valley. In Discussion of Monsters, in a section entitled,

35. This converts to one foot and six or seven sun. A sun is a unit of measurement that spans 3.03 centimeters. 36. Yanagita Kunio, “Kappa to mizuchi,” Yōkai dangi, in Teihon Yanagita Kunio shū, bekkan 3 (Tokyo: Chikuma shobō, 1970), 142. 37. While Hirao Rosen and Yanagita Kunio spelled “metochi” and “medochi” respectively with the same katakana letters, Yanagita applied the daku-on on the second letter “to” making it a “do” sound.

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“Discussion on Medochi after Bon Festival” (“Bon sugi medochi dan”), Yanagita cited “Old Man Hirao Rosen” again as differentiating between medochi and the kappa or water sprite. Medochi were described as snakelike in appearance, but Yanagita here expressed his opposing view, insisting, “I still believe this is a local name for the kappa, because there are words resembling this even at some distance f rom this place.”38 As examined above, Echoes of the Valley ref lects Rosen’s engagement with both ethnographic studies, which attracted Yanagita’s attention, and Atsutane’s theories on spirits and mysteries associated with the invisible kakuriyo, cited to give context for and explain the mysterious phenomena and objects he discovered across Tsugaru. Such kokugaku teachings form an even clearer basis for the third of Rosen’s major works.

Spirit Discourse and New Treatise on the Spirit Realm On the eleventh day of the ninth month in 1864, Rosen’s name was entered in the Ibukinoya Disciple Registry, as the 1,344th Hirata disciple, on the twentyfirst anniversary of Atsutane’s death.39 Rosen became the eleventh to join from Hirosaki, some seven-and-a-half years after close friend and Tsugaru group leader Tsuruya Ariyo had registered. Several reasons could be cited for his relatively late enrollment, but I argue that Rosen had remained so preoccupied with his ethnographic studies of Tsugaru—in terms of local commoner life and culture, as well as cases of the mysterious and spiritual—that he delayed full commitment to the Hirata school and studies of “Imperial Japan” until 1864. Another reason, related to the first, could be that Rosen— who admitted his own lack of aptitude in poetry composition, even while composing poems throughout his life—did not share the same devotion to poetry as the early members of the group. As we will see, Rosen cited several of Atsutane’s works in his writings. At some point he read Koshiseibun, Atsutane’s revised interpretation of ancient Japanese history, and composed the following poem, the sixty-fourth waka in his collection, introduced by a header, “Upon reading Koshiseibun”: Kami yo kami kami narazute wa ikani kono

Gods of the Divine Age; without the gods how could

38. Yanagita Kunio, “Bon sugi medochi dan,” in Yōkai dangi, vol. 4 of Teihon Yanagita Kunio shū (Tokyo: Chikuma shobō, 1970), 352–53. 39. Monjin seimei roku, in SHAZ, bekkan: 327.

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Furukoto fumi wo one possibly correct ikade tadasan (64)40 the Kojiki? By posing this rhetorical question, Rosen acknowledged the magnitude of Atsutane’s ambition in wanting to “correct” the Kojiki (Furukoto fumi), or Record of Ancient Matters, Japan’s oldest extant history. Norinaga had considered the text wholly sacred and authoritative, whereas Atsutane regarded it as f lawed and in need of revision, when cross-referenced with other sources. Ultimately, Rosen assessed that such a major task could only be undertaken successfully with the presence and help of the Divine Age gods, and this expression of faith in the gods and admiration for Atsutane’s work would be extended further to his works on spirits and the spirit realm. Of Rosen’s writings, his New Treatise on the Spirit Realm, or Yūfu shinron, completed in the fifth month of 1865, best expresses his kokugaku thought. Rosen based his argument on Atsutane’s theories, particularly from Kishin shinron (New Treatise on Spirits) of 1820, as he confirmed and built on Atsutane’s arguments on the spiritual realm yūmeikai or kakuriyo and on the divine spirits (mitama), spirits (kishin), and souls (tama) that lived and moved actively in this realm. Rosen supported these claims by citing numerous Japanese and Chinese texts. Let us look at how the debates on spirits (C., gui shen; J., kishin) developed from ancient China to Tokugawa Japan. The discourse on gui shen, or kishin—a compound word composed of Chinese characters gui (C.), or ki or oni ( J.), and shen (C.), or shin or kami ( J.)—spanned well over two millennia, originating in ancient China.41 The following excerpt f rom the Analects represents an early dialogue on gui shen that draws attention to existential questions with which they are associated: Zilu asked about serving ghosts and spirits. The Master said, “You are not yet able to serve people—how could you be able to serve ghosts and spirits?” “May I inquire about death?” “You do not yet understand life—how could you possibly understand death?”42

40. Hirao, Hirao Rosen kashū, 5. 41. “Gui” 鬼 can mean a person’s soul or spirit, spirit of the deceased, ghost, or ogre. “Shen” 神 carries the meanings of deity, spirit, or powers unfathomable by reason. 42. Confucius, Analects: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries, trans. Edward G. Slingerland (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Co., 2003), 115.

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Disciple Zilu’s inquiry to his teacher Confucius about serving “ghosts and spirits” ( gui shen) could be interpreted as worship or veneration of divinities or ancestral spirits. Confucius admonished his disciple, urging him to place priority in serving humans over “ghosts and spirits.” He also responded to Zilu’s inquiry about death with a rhetorical question that insisted his disciple focus on life in this world. Wing-Tsit Chan characterizes this passage as “a most celebrated saying on humanism,”43 while Edward G. Slingerland interprets it as an expression of “Confucius’ practical orientation,” which expected the gentleman or noble person to devote themselves more to “virtuous conduct and concrete learning rather than empty speculation.”44 According to Koyasu Nobukuni, Song dynasty (960–1279) Confucianists took up the issue of gui shen, regarded previously as a matter of faith and worship, and interpreted it philosophically.45 Zhang Zai (1020–76) asserted that “the negative and positive spiritual forces ( gui shen) are the spontaneous activity of the two material forces (yin and yang).”46 Such an interpretation of gui shen through association with the more widely recognized “two material forces” of yin and yang was Zhang Zai’s innovative way of incorporating gui shen into a “coherent metaphysical system,” according to Wing-Tsit Chan.47 Furthermore, Cheng Yi (1033–1107) stated that “negative and positive spiritual forces are the function of heaven and earth and are traces of creation.” Thus, Cheng Yi interpreted gui shen as both the cause of natural phenomena and as the visible natural phenomena and objects themselves, an interpretation that Miura Kunio described as reducing gui shen from the “supernatural” down to the “natural.”48 Zhu Xi (1130–1200) asserted his own view that “basically gui is the spirit of yin, and shen is the spirit of yang. In relation to one material force, essentially that which extends is shen and, conversely, that which returns is gui. That is truly only one thing.”49 Thus, the Song

43. Confucius, Analects, in A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, trans. Wing-Tsit Chan (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963), 36. 44. Confucius, Analects: With Selections, trans. Slingerland, 115. 45. Koyasu Nobukuni, Shin pan Kishin ron: Kami to saishi no disukūru (Tokyo: Hakutakusha, 2002), 34. 46. Chang Tsai, Correcting Youthful Ignorance, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, 505. 47. Chang Tsai, Correcting Youthful Ignorance, 505. 48. Miura Kunio, “Shushi kishin ron no rinkaku,” in Kami kannen no hikaku bunka ron teki kenkyū, ed. Tohoku Daigaku bungakubu Nihon bunka kenkyūjo (Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1981), 749. 49. Cited from Zhong yong zhang ju, quoted by Miura, “Shushi kishin ron no rinkaku.” Further, to paraphrase Zhu Xi’s assertions in his Zhu zi yu lei, gui shen is material force, and this material force “contracts and extends.” Gui shen are simply the “decline and prospering” of yin and yang, causing birth and growth of creation, and functioning of nature. Shen is “extension” and gui “contraction,” such that the early occurrence of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning are shen, and the residing of these phenomena gui. Zhu Xi, Zhong yong zhang ju, quoted in Miura, “Shushi kishin ron no rinkaku,” 751.

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Confucianists, including Zhu Xi, incorporated gui shen into their system of material force and yin and yang. Confucianists in Tokugawa Japan joined the discourse on kishin. Itō Jinsai (1627–1705) of the Ancient School (kogaku) has been characterized as a faithful interpreter of Confucius, for considering the limits of human action and knowledge.50 In Interpretation of Confucius and Mencius’ Sayings, or Go Mō jigi, Jinsai offered this broad definition: “Kijin are heaven and earth, mountains and rivers, mausoleums, the gods of five offerables, as well as that which cause all human misfortune and fortune by the divine spirit—all of these we call kijin.”51 Arai Hakuseki (1657–1725), Confucian scholar and personal advisor to sixth and seventh Tokugawa shoguns Ienobu (1662–1712) and Ietsugu (1709–16), acknowledged in his Treatise on Spirits, or Kishin ron, the sheer challenge in defining or grasping kishin: “The matter of kishin is truly difficult to speak of. Not only is it difficult to speak of, but it is also difficult to comprehend. Not only is it difficult to comprehend, but it is again difficult to believe. The difficulty of believing is due to the difficulty of knowing.”52 Hakuseki observed the challenges of understanding kishin intellectually, which made them difficult to believe. Ancient School Confucianist Ogyū Sorai (1666–1728) historicized the Ancient Sages of China, according to Maruyama Masao’s famous thesis, but Sorai also historicized the matter of kishin.53 He asserted in On Distinguishing Names, or Benmei: “Now, the names ‘ghosts’ and ‘spirits’ were ones that the sages formulated. How could anyone doubt them?”54 Elsewhere, he insisted that, “therefore, the Sage regulated the spirits (ki, oni) to unify their people, built and founded mausoleums, and created the autumn ritual of making offerings to the ancestors (C., cheng chung; J., jōshō) and thus conducted worship.”55 Based on this, Koyasu asserted that Sorai credited the Sages with “regulating” the kishin spirits, making them the clear object of

50. Koyasu, Shin pan Kishin ron, 69–75. 51. Itō Jinsai, Go Mō jigi, in Itō Jinsai, Itō Tōgai, ed. Yoshikawa Kōjirō and Shimizu Shigeru, vol. 33 of NST (1971), 83. 52. Arai Hakuseki, Kishin ron, in Arai Hakuseki, ed. Matsumura Akira, Bitō Masahide, and Katō Shūichi, vol 35 of NST (1975), 146. For a study of Arai Hakuseki and his role in Tokugawa bakufu politics see Kate Wildman Nakai, Shogunal Politics: Arai Hakuseki and the Premises of Tokugawa Rule (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988). 53. See Maruyama Masao, Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan, trans. Mikiso Hane (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974). 54. Ogyū Sorai, Benmei, in Ogyū Sorai’s Philosophical Masterworks: The Bendō and Benmei, trans. John A. Tucker (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i, 2006), 272. 55. Ogyū Sorai, “Shigi taisaku kishin ichidō,” in Sorai shū (Sorai shū, or Sorai’s Collected Writings), quoted in Koyasu, Shin pan Kishin ron, 20–21.

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spirit worship, and thereby established human society as a “worshipping community” (saishiteki kyōdōtai). With his Shin kishinron (New Treatise on Spirits) completed in 1805, Atsutane became the first kokugaku scholar to join the debate on kishin spirits, which had been previously dominated by Confucianists. Atsutane wrote Shin kishinron only four years after he had begun to read Norinaga’s writings, and it stands as one of his first major works on kokugaku spirituality. Motoori Ōhira honored Atsutane’s request to write a preface for this text, and this endorsement from Norinaga’s adopted son and successor seems to have helped Atsutane’s cause when that same year he requested admission into the academy from Motoori Haruniwa, his teacher’s first-born son. Atsutane officially became Norinaga’s disciple the following year in 1806. He revised and reordered the title of this work to Kishin shinron in 1820, the edition obtained by Rosen. Several scholars have assessed the significance of Atsutane’s entry into this Confucian debate. Mark McNally argues that in both his first major treatise Kamōsho, a refutation to Bendōsho by Confucianist Dazai Shundai, and his second work, Shin kishinron, Atsutane engaged Confucian issues primarily as a means to attract attention to his scholarship.56 Others, however, have taken Atsutane’s thesis on kishin more seriously. Koyasu asserts that Atsutane’s thought achieved some legitimacy by assuming an “epistemological character” also demonstrated by the early modern Confucianists.57 Gerald Figal credits Atsutane for identifying, through Kishin shinron, previous Confucian interpretations of kishin spirits as “an administrative construct” employed to mediate and control the beliefs of commoners in spirits, and to curb their “human passion” related to these beliefs.58 Now let us examine Rosen’s contribution to this debate. New Treatise on the Spirit Realm is prefaced by two formal introductions, one by Osari Nakaakira, priest of the Kumano Okuteru Shrine in Hirosaki, and another by Tsugaru group leader and close friend Tsuruya Ariyo. Nakaakira praised the virtues of the Imperial Way of Japan since ancient times and the efforts of past kokugaku masters, before introducing the “Old Man called Hirao Rosen

56. McNally, Proving the Way, 94. 57. Koyasu, Shin pan Kishin ron, 64. 58. Atsutane’s work, Figal argues, represents a larger effort to control “spirits” by relegating them into “the realm of folklore and superstition” as “supernatural ideology,” all for the modern control of the “Japanese Spirit.” Figal, Civilization and Monsters, 36, 197.

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in Hirosaki of our Tsugaru.”59 Nakaakira observed that for over ten years since Ansei (1854–60) Rosen had “morning and night devoted himself ”60 to “Studies of the Imperial country,” “and called upon the spirit of the Naobi deity,” while showing disdain for Chinese and Buddhist studies. These years indeed correspond to Rosen’s increased engagement with Hirata kokugaku. Ariyo further elaborated on Rosen’s intellectual development by pointing out that his earlier writings had been based on a “Chinese heart” (karagokoro), but from the Ansei years he engaged with the writings of Norinaga and Atsutane, came to know “the preciousness of the Imperial country,” and corrected his past ways.61 Ariyo praised Rosen for “[solidifying] the pillar of the soul” as a “brave warrior of the Yamato heart”—a direct reference to Atsutane’s objectives outlined in Tama no mihashira (Sacred Pillar of the Soul).62 Both peers confirm Rosen’s gradual immersion into Hirata kokugaku, culminating in his writing of New Treatise on the Spirit Realm. Ariyo even acknowledged that Rosen showed momentum in becoming “head student of our way.” In New Treatise on the Spirit Realm, Rosen introduced numerous stories on spiritual matters, originating from across Tsugaru, to confirm and expand upon Atsutane’s theories. His work is comprised of eight volumes, and considerably exceeds Kishin shinron in length. Rosen eventually sent a manuscript of his treatise to Hirata Kanetane at the Ibukinoya academy in Edo in 1867, received high praise from Hirata Nobutane, and was even granted an offer to publish it at the Ibukinoya.63 Ultimately, Rosen did not accept the offer, and the circumstances surrounding his decision will be examined in chapter eight. Rosen opened the first volume of New Treatise on the Spirit Realm, entitled “Heavenly deities,” by stating, “In China (Morokoshi), as in the Imperial country, there are no details on transmissions of spirits in antiquity (mukashi), but the fact that they fear the heavenly deities (amatsukami), and worship the spirits (kishin) is [known] because traces of the wondrous works of all those deities have been passed down to the current age.”64 He pointed out that

59. Osari Nakaakira, “Introduction,” Yūfu shinron, Hirao Rosen, in AKS, 571. 60. Osari, 571. 61. Tsuruya Ariyo, “Introduction,” Yūfu shinron, Hirao Rosen, in AKS, 572. 62. Hirata Atsutane, Tama no mihashira, in SHAZ, 7:93. Atsutane’s stated objective for scholars of “Ancient Learning” was for them to solidify their Yamato heart by first understanding the fate and destination of souls after death. See chapter three for a more detailed discussion on these theories. 63. Hirata Nobutane, “Tsugarujin Hirao Rosen no chojutsu Yūfu shinron no hyō,” in AKS, 600–601; Kojima, “Bakumatsuki Tsugaru no minzokugakusha,” 25–28. 64. Hirao Rosen, Yūfu shinron, vol. 1 “Tenjin ron,” in AKS, 572.

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since the dynasties of the Xia (2100–1600 BCE) and Shang (1600–1045 BCE), and through the Zhou (1045–256 BCE), “those remnants” of the existence and works of the spirits had been passed down and included the concepts of “heaven and earth,” “mountains and rivers,” “mausoleums” for worshipping divine and ancestral spirits, and the “gods of the five dwellings.” Rosen, an erudite scholar of Chinese studies, acknowledged and demonstrated appreciation for spiritual traditions passed down from antiquity in China that proved the observance of spiritual traditions of worship and reverence. Rosen presented some of his major claims of New Treatise on the Spirit Realm in volume one where he asserted the reality of kishin as well as their animate nature: Spirits (kishin) are real entities and not the dead ones described by the empty theories of Song Confucianists who assert that they are “traces of creation of the spontaneous activity of the two material forces” and such. They all have hearts and corporeality and their traces are evident, and I wish to enlighten others on the matter of how they must be feared and revered.65 Thus, Rosen challenged the theories of Zhang Zai and other Song Confucianists for their interpretation of kishin as abstract and lifeless, and argued they were in fact “real” and dynamic, with personified features. He asserted that documentation of spiritual matters in China was sparse and misleading. In emphasizing the power and actions of deities, Rosen argued that references to “heaven” in Chinese writings in fact referred to creation deities from the Japanese pantheon—Ame no minakanushi no kami and Musubi no kami. He identified their functions, stating, “these deities created heaven and earth, gave birth to the solar deity and lunar deity, make the four seasons function, and give life to all things and such. They are truly wondrous, truly mysterious, and incomprehensible events are entirely the works of these great deities; the four seasons do not change on their own.”66 As central themes throughout the text, Rosen asserted that spirits (kishin) were living, personified entities with “minds” and “corporeality,” and that the three creator deities of the myths narrated in the Kojiki and Nihon shoki—Ame no minakanushi no kami, Kamu musubi no kami, and Takami musubi no kami—possessed the ability to create heaven and earth, as well as the solar and lunar deities, and to cause seasonal change.

65. Hirao, Yūfu shinron, 573. 66. Hirao, Yūfu shinron, 576.

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What was Rosen’s reason for writing New Treatise on the Spirit Realm? He stated his purpose clearly in the first volume: However, the Great Man of Ibukinoya was the only one to argue the fact that spirits (kishin) are real entities that have minds and corporeality, and explained the truth of the matter that they must be greatly feared and respected, and this terribly startled people in the world and caused them to fear. And so, while an unlearned person like me can add little more, [let me say that] this Kishin shinron from the Old Man (Okina), which is still a manuscript and not yet a published book, is a rare find in our country of Tsugaru (waga Tsugaru no kuni), and it is terribly lamentable that there are so few people who have seen it. And so, with this text as a basis, I write all that I have collected from here and there over the years regarding matters of spirits (kishin), and wish to show it to my friends, people who are unaware of gods (kami), and reveal to them the notable evidence of their great spiritual power, which must be feared and respected . . .67 Rosen fully adopted Atsutane’s arguments as authoritative, namely his assertion that spirits (kishin) were “real entities” with “minds” and “corporeality,” and admitted there was nothing more he could add. He lamented the fact that Atsutane’s Kishin shinron remained an unpublished manuscript unavailable to people of “our country of Tsugaru,” or “Tsugaru no kuni.”68 The copy of Kishin shinron that Rosen and the Tsugaru disciples read was indeed a hand-copied manuscript, and Hirata Kanetane confirmed the order for this book in his letter addressed to Tsuruya Ariyo, dated the thirteenth day of the eleventh month in 1860.69 Now a disciple of Atsutane, Rosen in Yūfu shinron referred to Atsutane affectionately as the venerable “Old Man” (Okina), and declared he wrote New Treatise on the Spirit Realm for “my friends” who were ignorant of deities, and that he wished to enlighten them on the “great spiritual power” of the deities and on their “notable works.” Tales of Gappo and Echoes of the Valley dealt almost exclusively with cases based in Hirosaki castle town and the surrounding Tsugaru territory and,

67. Hirao, Yūfu shinron, 580. 68. As Yoshida Asako explains, Kishin shinron was first published as a woodblock print in the third month of 1865 (Keiō 1)—the same year that Rosen completed the New Treatise on the Spirit Realm. For a detailed, historical outline of Kishin shinron’s various editions see Yoshida, Chi no kyōmei, 437–45. See also Hirata Kanetane, Letter to Tsuruya Ariyo, thirteenth day, eleventh month, 1860 (Man’en 1), in “Letters,” in AKS, 609–10; Nakagawa, Hirata kokugaku no shiteki kenkyū, 357. 69. Hirata Kanetane, Letter to Tsuruya Ariyo, thirteenth day, eleventh month, 1860 (Man’en 1), in “Letters,” in AKS, 609–10.

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therefore, required minimal direct reference to the area as a whole. On the other hand, New Treatise on the Spirit Realm took up accounts of Tsugaru, Japan at large, and China, and therefore, Rosen referred to his home region as “our country of Tsugaru” because he needed to contextualize and orient Tsugaru within Japan. In engaging discussions on spiritual matters and, thereby, challenging established theories of esteemed Confucian scholars from ancient times through the Song dynasty, Rosen anticipated criticism of “someone like Rosen, born and raised in a backwater.” However, by quoting Confucius, that “when it comes to the practice of humanity, one should not defer even to his teacher,” Rosen insisted he must enlighten people who believed in mistaken theories and to rectify the sad reality that they scornfully disregarded “heavenly deities and earthly deities.”70 Rosen identified Tsugaru residents in general as the intended readers of his work. In addition, he explained that he repeatedly quoted lengthy passages from Atsutane’s Kishin shinron to introduce such teachings to “those just beginning their studies.”71 Citing “the Old Man’s Kishin shinron,” Rosen reiterated that because ancient records had not survived, it was not easy to comprehend the fact that “heavenly deities” controlled all things in the world—including “matters of human life and death, and fortune and misfortune” that were beyond human strength. As a result, even Confucius, as quoted by Atsutane, declared: “At fifty I knew the Mandate of Heaven.”72 When he had completed this work, Rosen too was entering his late-fifties. In addressing the Tsugaru group, which included his juniors, some of whom were thirty years younger, Rosen too must have desired to convey to later generations Atsutane’s direct teachings regarding the elusive and incomprehensible matter of heaven. A major thesis of kokugaku thought that Rosen drew upon was the explanation for the deities responsible for good and evil in the world. Rosen quoted a passage from Kishin shinron that compared Ōmagatsuhi no kami with Ōnaobi no kami, good with evil, and fortune with misfortune, in the eighth and concluding volume: To begin with, in the world Ōmagatsuhi no kami and Ōnaobi no kami, and also Magakami cause calamity, but their various works differ

70. Hirata Kanetane, Letter to Tsuruya Ariyo, thirteenth day, eleventh month, 609–10. Confucius, Analects, in A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, 44. 71. Hirao Rosen, Yūfu shinron, manuscript, vol. 8, “hito oni” (Hirosaki: Hirosaki City Public Library, 1865), folio 63, front. Confucius, Analects: With Selections, trans. Slingerland, 9. 72. Confucius, Analects, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, 22.

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greatly. And the one called Ōmagatsuhi no kami has another name Yaso magatsuhi no kami or Ōyahiko no kami, and this is the deity of the spirit that scatters filthy things. And so, when there are impurities in the world, they become terribly angry. When they become enraged, they become entities that are beyond even the strength of Naobi no kami, and they cause even terrible calamity.73 Rosen cited Atsutane’s arguments regarding the evil deity, Magatsuhi no kami, and rectifying deity of good, Naobi no kami, rooted in Norinaga’s teachings. This passage is a clear example of Rosen attempting to offer established kokugaku theories to people of Tsugaru, for them to comprehend the mysterious spiritual phenomena of their region. By conveying verbatim the words of the kokugaku masters to the Tsugaru locals, Rosen intended to show them that incomprehensible things often occurred in the world, such as good people suffering calamity and misfortune or bad people reaping good fortune, but that deities existed in the spiritual realm that caused such realities. While conveying kokugaku thought propounded by the Great Men was one major objective of Rosen’s New Treatise on the Spirit Realm, this text’s originality and value lie in its presentation of local stories and accounts from the Tsugaru region within the framework of kokugaku theory. As an example, I cite from volume five, stories of the “thunder deity” and “thunder beast” (Figure 5.1). Rosen showed that the occurrence of thunder was not simply a natural phenomenon, but a result of the anger of the “thunder deity” and such “deity’s rage.”74 The thunder deity, he explained, was a “very severe, very powerful deity” born out of anger, and it possessed the ability to cause works of “spiritual matters (kamigoto)” that caused the world to prosper, and used its “great spiritual power” that brought about “all things.”75 Rosen then demonstrated the thunder deity’s power with the following story from “our country of Tsugaru, Ōshimizu village” as an example.76 In the Bunsei years (1818–30), a father and son were cultivating the fields. Suddenly it began to rain, then thunder rumbled so fiercely that the boy became afraid and asked to return home. His father became infuriated and proceeded to taunt and curse at the thunder aggressively. Then, before he could finish uttering his

73. Hirao, Yūfu shinron, manuscript, vol. 8, folio 64, back—folio 65, front. 74. Hirao, Yūfu shinron, manuscript, vol. 5, “kaminari ron jō” (Hirosaki: Hirosaki City Public Library), folio 2, back—3, back; folio 44, back. 75. Hirao, Yūfu shinron, manuscript, vol. 5, folio 2, back. 76. Hirao, Yūfu shinron, manuscript, vol. 5, folio 13, back—14, front.

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“Thunder beast image, Aki province” (Yu¯fu shinron). Hirosaki City Public Library.

words, lightning struck him, “tearing his body and limbs to pieces.”77 In this way, just as Rosen established in volume one that his purpose for writing this treatise was to enlighten people on the deities’ “great spiritual power,” here he explained that it was the “great spiritual power” of the thunder deity that

77. Hirao, Yūfu shinron, manuscript, vol. 5, folio 14, front.

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worked to create the fearful, natural phenomena of thunder and lightning, and he illustrated this with such an example from Tsugaru. Another mystical account that Rosen recorded dealt with “works done by the soul (tama) in the spiritual realm (yūmei).”78 The story is about Matsuya Chūemon, a sake brewer from “our country of Tsugaru, Hirosaki Dote town.”79 In 1806, Chūemon fell ill for two or three days, and died on the first day of the sixth month. That very same day, Chūemon’s good friend, Yoshiya Chōemon, of the same town visited a temple and on his return from the temple saw Chūemon wearing a dull hemp katabira garment, walking with a young boy and a tedai servant, Manjirō, who had been under his care. Good friends Chūemon and Chōemon met and conversed for some time before parting. Chōemon walked on, and as he approached the front of the torii gate at Sumiyoshi Shrine, he met Yoshisuke, a member of Chūemon’s household. Yoshisuke then said, “My master Chūemon’s chronic illness f lared up three or four days earlier, and without any notable signs, he died just a moment ago. I panicked and became f lustered, but because he stopped breathing, nothing could be done. I came to also notify your household as well as the ancestral temple.” Chōemon became very suspicious and replied, “Just now in Shintera machi at the edge of town, Master Chūemon was in formal wear walking along with Manjirō, and I met him. How can that be? A prank can be taken only so far!” With that he rebuked Yoshisuke bitterly. Although Yoshisuke too was puzzled, rather than contradict Chōemon, he relayed to him the details of Chūemon’s illness and medical treatment. Still baff led, Chōemon had to verify it for himself, and so he rushed directly to the Matsuya residence. There he was shocked to find Chūemon’s wife and child in tears, and to hear them speak of his death. Finally, Chōemon saw for himself his friend’s corpse. He explained to the family about having met Chūemon that morning, then called Manjirō and questioned him, but Manjirō replied he had been nursing Chūemon all along and had not once stepped outdoors. All who heard this story were astounded. Following the story, Rosen explained that “works done by the soul in the spiritual realm are accounts which cannot be believed through human wisdom,” and that such souls which were active in the spiritual realm had the power to move people in the visible world.80 Through such various examples from Tsugaru, Rosen deemed the spiritual

78. Rosen heard this story from fellow kokugaku scholar, Iwama Shitatari, and presented it in volume eight. Hirao, Yūfu shinron, manuscript, vol. 8, “hito oni,” folio 35, front. 79. Hirao, Yūfu shinron, manuscript, vol. 8, folio 33, back—35, front. 80. Hirao, Yūfu shinron, manuscript, vol. 8, folio 35, front.

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realm to be real, and the spirits, deities, and souls straddling both the spiritual and visible realms to also be real, powerfully active, and bringing an inf luence to bear on people’s lives in the present realm. Rosen’s three major works, completed over a decade from 1855 to 1865, display an evolving, dynamic interplay between his ethnographic inquiries and work on kokugaku. The merchant scholar’s fascination with inexplicable mysteries and spiritual matters was apparent in his first major work, Strange Tales of Gappo. Yet in 1855, the stories were simply introduced as “strange” with little explanation of their origin or cause. Thereafter, however, it became clear that Atsutane’s theories about spirits and the kakuriyo offered answers to Rosen’s growing intellectual concerns and spiritual thirst, because in 1860, he was clearly engaging with such theories, explicitly citing Atsutane and referring to the “kakuriyo” in Echoes of the Valley. By 1865, the merchant intellectual had completed his most comprehensive study in New Treatise on the Spirit Realm. By interpreting the mysterious phenomena of this local region through the lens of Norinaga’s and Atsutane’s established theories on spirituality and cosmology, Rosen sought to help Tsugaru inhabitants to comprehend the mysteries of the world around them and to urge those “unaware of deities” to live with awareness of the existence and power of the invisible deities that surrounded them. Therefore, New Treatise on the Spirit Realm represents Rosen’s efforts to locate “our country of Tsugaru” within the larger spiritual landscape of Imperial Japan. Other members of the Tsugaru group also sought to orient their local country within the larger nation—the subject of the next two chapters. We shall next examine group leader Tsuruya Ariyo’s conceptions of a sacred mountain and landscape, as well as their connections to the spirit realm, as portrayed in his poetry and prose.

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“Mount Iwaki worship image” (Private Collection). Hirosaki City Museum.

C2 and C3 “Sled pulling image,” top two images. “Winter work and tools image,” bottom two images. (Tsugaru Customs Painting Scroll, private collection).

Ch a p ter 6

Sacred Mountain, Landscape, and Afterlife

Like Rosen, group leader Tsuruya Ariyo expressed visions of Tsugaru’s place within the spiritual landscape of Japan. Through poetry and prose, Ariyo described Mount Iwaki as the most prominent feature of Tsugaru’s physical landscape which also represented a spiritual symbol that invoked beliefs and ideas associated with Shinto-kokugaku doctrine. By 1866, Ariyo compiled an anthology of waka that depicts Mount Iwaki as a pillar of the “country of Tsugaru,” an abode for the gods, and a “passageway” to the spirit realm. The merchant-class poet described the shrine on the summit as well as the natural hot springs near the base that offered healing. His own experiences of climbing the peaks through thick clouds reminded him of accounts of the Imperial ancestral kami descending from heaven to earth in Japan’s Divine Age myths. Ariyo wrote of the supremacy of the “Imperial deity” Ōkuninushi and other gods of this mountain over the Buddhist deities associated with these peaks. In a prose work completed that same year, Ariyo emphasized the reality of the spirit realm by citing a case of a local samurai facing divine abduction while on the mountain. In Enjoyment Visible and Invisible, completed in 1867, Ariyo validated Atsutane’s view that souls of the deceased were active and served Ōkuninushi in the spirit realm. Most importantly, Ariyo asserted his signature idea that people ought to experience “enjoyment” in this life and after death in the 151

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kakuriyo, which gave greater meaning to the worship of deities and ancestors in the current life. He both criticized and affirmed ideas on “enjoyment” articulated by Confucianist Kaibara Ekiken, while turning to Confucius, Norinaga, and Atsutane to substantiate his claims. Ariyo’s adoption of Hirata kokugaku encompassed not only ideas but also religious practice. Atsutane’s norito appealed to his posthumous disciples of the Tsugaru group, because they upheld visions of “sacred space” at the local level, affirming the worship of local deities and shrines. Ariyo received these norito and produced his own localized liturgies for the worship of kami, shrines, and the spirits of ancestors and great teachers in Tsugaru and at home. During the politically turbulent times of the late Tokugawa years, Ariyo and Rosen continued to write about spirits and the spirit realm; however, these concerns would give way to more politically urgent matters in the late-Tokugawa to Restoration years.

Mount Iwaki in Ariyo’s Waka Poetry Mount Iwaki stands 1,625 meters tall at the center of Tsugaru plain in Hirosaki domain (figure 6.1). Down to today, the peaks have long been an object of worship as well as a sacred site for pilgrimage. Visible from most anywhere in the Tsugaru region on a clear day, Mount Iwaki for centuries has been reverently personified and affectionately known as “O Iwaki sama” or “Oyama.”1 It has also been called “Tsugaru Fuji,” or the Mount Fuji of Tsugaru, in an association with Japan’s most sacred mountain. Iwakiyama Shrine (Iwakiyama jinja), located near the base of the southern slope, has facilitated worship of the sacred mountain and marks the point where pilgrims begin their ascent toward the summit (figures 6.2, 6.3). The mountain’s history includes a lengthy tradition of Shugendō ascetic training. In premodern times, farmers determined when to begin planting crops based on the amount of snow covering Mount Iwaki’s summit, while fishermen on the coastal waters looked to the mountain to orient themselves and carried on board an ofuda or talisman from Iwakiyama Shrine for protection. In his Kaganabe journal, Tsuruya Ariyo also referred to this mountain as a spatial point of reference when recording sightings of comets in the night sky in the eighth month of 1858 and the fifth month in 1860.2 For the people of Tsugaru, Mount Iwaki was both the region’s most recognizable landmark, and its most important spiritual symbol. When Ariyo described the

1. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 183. 2. Fujiwara, “Rebirth of a Hirata School Nativist,” 140.

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Figure 6.1.

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Mount Iwaki. Photograph by author.

Figure 6.2. Torii gate, Iwakiyama Shrine. Photograph by author.

sacredness of Mount Iwaki in connection to the gods and its central place within the “country of Tsugaru,” he lent a literary voice to long-held beliefs in the region. In communities around the world, mountains have historically been viewed as sacred symbols with numerous spiritual functions. People have believed that mountains have a central and cosmic role as pillars connecting

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Figure 6.3.

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Iwakiyama Shrine. Photograph by author.

heaven and earth, and as a dwelling place of the gods.3 The view of the mountain as axis mundi, or cosmological center, prevalent in societies across the globe was also a core belief associated with the sacred mountains of Japan. Within Japanese religions, Allan G. Grapard identifies three types of “sacred space”: a “sacred site” or residence of divinities such as a shrine; a broader “sacred area” such as a pilgrimage route; and a “sacred nation,” which spans the broadest space.4 According to this categorization, “sacred site” encompasses shintai—the “body/support of the divinity”—as well as shin’iki, or “sacred region,” and these both include mountains. Grapard observes that, over time, a vast “historical process” took place whereby sacred space was gradually expanded from a limited “sacred site” to that of a broader “sacred nation,” essentially making all of Japan a “sacred site.”5 In the context of Japanese folk religions, mountains have also represented “the world of the dead,” acting as a “passageway from this world to the next,

3. Ichiro Hori, “Mountains and Their Importance for the Idea of the Other World in Japanese Folk Religion,” History of Religions 6, no. 1 (August 1966), 3. 4. Allan G. Grapard, “Flying Mountains and Walkers of Emptiness: Toward a Definition of Sacred Space in Japanese Religions,” History of Religions 21, no. 3 (Feb. 1982), 196. 5. Grapard, “Flying Mountains,” 220.

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from the profane to the sacred and from earth to heaven.”6 Furthermore, in Japan, mountains are believed to represent “the world of spirits”—a dwelling place of deities, buddhas, and bodhisattvas—where shamans and ascetics had to undergo the austerities of hell in order to receive powers and blessings from paradise, and where souls of the deceased had to undergo initiation to enter paradise or the Buddhist Pure Land.7 These theories on the history of belief and sacred tradition associated with mountains provide useful guidelines for understanding the visions of Mount Iwaki of Tsugaru, as expressed by Ariyo. Let us now examine how Ariyo portrayed the local mountain in Three Hundred Poems of Mount Iwaki, or Iwaki san sanbyaku shu.8 As evident in the title, this anthology, completed in 1866, contains over three hundred waka poems devoted to Mount Iwaki. A collage of images and metaphors associated with the mountain are presented in the introduction. First, Ariyo proclaims its grandeur, describing the mountain as “filling the heavens and filling the earth, the place facing the morning sun, where sets the evening sun, where rest the great gods who protect the country of Tsugaru, to which boats dock in our land of Mutsu.”9 Such descriptions are analogous to the image of the mountain as axis mundi, or center of the cosmos—in this case, the center of the Tsugaru region. Second, Ariyo’s metaphors depict the mountain’s natural, physical characteristics, along with its functions. The three peaks are likened to three imposing swords pointing skyward. The central peak is named “Iwaki san,” the southern peak is “Chōkai san,” and the northern peak is known as “Ganki san.” Further, Mount Iwaki is depicted as fearsome, possessing great power to protect the “Northeastern” region of the “Great Imperial country,” and guard against and repel wild and uncivilized barbarians. A chōka long poem that opens the anthology adds that Mount Iwaki “encompasses the country of Tsugaru to serve as a shield (mitate),” and “stretches to form a barrier,” and that “the wide Iwaki summit fills the land, the high Iwaki peaks fill the heavens and soar into expansive skies, as the supreme mountain in

6. Hori, “Mountains and Their Importance for the Idea of the Other World in Japanese Folk Religion,” 22. 7. See also James C. Duncan, The City as Text: The Politics of Landscape Interpretation in the Kandyan Kingdom (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), and Hirasawa, Hell-Bent for Heaven in Tateyama Mandara. 8. Please see chapter one where I list Ariyo’s various poetry collections. 9. Tsuruya Ariyo, Iwaki san sanbyaku shu (Hirosaki: Hirosaki City Public Library, 1866), folio 1, front.

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the land.”10 Third, Ariyo emphasizes the sacredness of Mount Iwaki, as a place where the “great gods reside” who protect “the country of Tsugaru.” “Imperial gods” rule over this mountain and the “great gods” protect this land, “defending [it] against enemies from foreign countries.” Mount Iwaki is sacralized as an abode for the gods who provide protection and rule, and is depicted as integral to “national” security, albeit in a symbolic, spiritual sense. These three characterizations of the sacred mountain of Tsugaru are reasserted in poems throughout the collection. After the opening chōka long poem, 304 tanka short poems follow in various subsections. The first groups the tanka by their associated locations on the mountain and in its vicinity, and the first of these place names are Shimo Orii no miya, or shrine of Lower Orii; Yudono, a hot spring site; Maki no Koma; Takasu; Ōishi Shrine; Oni Shrine (Oni jingū), or Shrine of Demons; and Futamori. Next are tanka grouped by season—spring, summer, autumn, winter—followed by those categorized by themes: morning and evening; “Outlook” (Chōbō), or distant perspectives; “Divine Spirit” (Shinrei); miscellaneous; and others. Next there are a number of longer sedōka poems, followed by more irregular-syllable poems, with some additional tanka to conclude. The first poem I cite here draws inspiration from the lower part of the mountain, with its scattering of hot springs. Dake Hot Springs has been a well-known site of baths and inns in the region for climbers and visitors from premodern to contemporary times, but “Yunosawa,” literally, “a hot water stream,” is another such site of hot spring baths, to which Ariyo devoted the following verses: Morobito wo sachie tamawaru kusuri yu no Iwaki no yama no Kami no Yu no sawa11

Yunosawa of the gods of Mount Iwaki is a medicinal bath, bringing blessings to all people.

Yunosawa, identified with the gods of Mount Iwaki, was cast as a “medicinal bath,” or “kusuri yu,” that offered blessings to visitors including rest and healing for the weary and ill. While the hot spring baths are the explicit subject of this poem, the broader message of bestowing blessings on many people is consistent with the sacred and prosperous image of this sacred mountain.

10. Tsuruya, Iwaki san sanbyaku shu, folio 3, front. 11. Tsuruya, Iwaki san sanbyaku shu, folio 11, front.

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The religious traditions associated with Mount Iwaki were diverse and included Shugendō, Buddhism, Shinto, and popular beliefs.12 Shugendō is based on the belief that ascetic training on sacred mountains endows people with supernatural powers, enabling mountain priests—yamabushi or shugenja—to offer people healing and protection through prayers and rituals to the mountain deities. By the late Tokugawa period, Shugendō across Japan consisted of the main branches of the Tendai Buddhist Honzan sect, Shingon Buddhist Tōzan sect, and other branches including the Haguro sect based on the Three Mountains of Dewa.13 In early modern Hirosaki, the head institution of Shugendō was Daigyōin Temple, affiliated with the Ōmine sect of the Shingon Daigo sect, which had the greatest number of yamabushi.14 Yamabushi inf luenced the development of the Mount Iwaki worship, the aforementioned festival that involved large groups of pilgrims climbing to the summit and praying for an abundant harvest or protection of one’s household.15 Yamabushi conducted prayers and rituals among the residents of Hirosaki domain, but were expected to do so outside the areas designated for Shinto priests, or risk opposition from them. Despite the presence of Shugendō and Buddhism on Mount Iwaki, Ariyo sacralized these peaks by granting exclusive dominion over them to the kami of the “Shinto” tradition. He categorized the next verses under the “Autumn” season, and associated this mountain with Japanese divine myth: Amagumo wo

(An awesome) Parting the way, parting the way (itsu no) chiwaki ni chiwaki te through the heavenly clouds, Iwaki ne no let us climb up the rocky peaks Iwane noborau of Iwaki peaks, manly friends! Masurao no tomo16

12. For a study on the diverse religious traditions associated with the mountain, see Nicola Liscutin, “Mapping the Sacred Body: Shinto versus popular beliefs at Mt. Iwaki in Tsugaru,” in Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami, ed. Breen and Teeuwen (New York: Routledge, 2009), 186–204. 13. The Three Mountains of Dewa are Mount Haguro, Mount Gassan, and Mount Yudono. 14. In Hirosaki there were also yamabushi of the Haguro sect within the Tendai sect. Shinpen Hirosaki shishi hensan iinkai, ed., Shinpen Hirosaki shishi: Tsūshi hen 3 (Kinsei 2), 666–7. 15. Moriyama Taitarō, Nihon no minzoku: Aomori (Tokyo: Daiichi hōki shuppan, 1972), 167–71. Ellen Schattschneider provides an ethnographic study on mountain asceticism and Akakura Mountain Shrine on the lower slope of Akakura Mountain—the north-east face of Mount Iwaki—based on anthropological fieldwork in Aomori: see Ellen Schattschneider, Immortal Wishes: Labor and Transcendence on a Japanese Sacred Mountain (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003). For a study on Shugendō and Buddhist spirituality associated with mountains, see also Miyake Hitoshi, Shugendō: Essays on the Structure of Japanese Folk Religion, ed. and intro. H. Byron Earhart (Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2001). 16. Tsuruya Ariyo, Iwaki san sanbyaku shu, folio 18, front.

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The expression “Parting the way, parting the way” (chiwaki ni chiwaki te), cited from the Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters, 712 CE) and evoking the Ōharae norito, or the liturgy for the Ritual of Great Purification in Shinto practice, was used to describe how the heavenly deity Ninigi no mikoto, grandson of the sun goddess Amaterasu, had descended from the High Plain of Heaven (Takamagahara) by order of Heavenly Decree, separating thick cloud, and making a path down toward earth.17 Here, Ariyo draws parallels between the climb up this cloud-covered mountain and the mythic heavenly descent, and calls out to his “manly friends” to join him in a climb up the slopes. Again, it will be recalled that Mount Iwaki, not unlike other sacred mountains across Japan, prohibited women from climbing it from early modern times to early Meiji. Once Ariyo and his friends made it to the top, they saw the small shrine located on the summit that still stands there today. “Omuro,” also known as the “Rear shrine” or “Okumiya,” corresponds to Iwakiyama Shrine near the base of the southern slope and has been worshipped by climbers. The poem reads: Amatsu miya The heavenly shrine takanari mashite echoes a high sound Iwaki ne no on the Iwaki peaks, kami no mamorasu whose gods protect Tsugaru kuni hara18 the plains of Tsugaru country. The shrine is aptly described as the “heavenly shrine,” given that it is situated at the highest elevation in all the domain. The “high sound” may refer to the wind gusting around and whistling through the small wooden shrine, emitting the high pitch that Ariyo heard when he had reached the summit. The gods of Mount Iwaki, wrote Ariyo, protect the plains stretching across Tsugaru country. Certainly, the 360-degree panoramic view of Tsugaru plain from atop the mountain gives one a sense of the territory’s expanse, of the region under divine protection of the gods. The reality of these gods is the subject of the next two poems, which are selected from the category of “Divine Spirit” (Shinrei or Mitama). These ref lect aspects of sacred mountain beliefs, including the image of Mount Iwaki as both an abode for gods and as a “passageway” linking the present

17. For my discussion on Hirata Atsutane’s reference to the same expression, “parting the way, parting the way” (chiwaki ni chiwaki te), see chapter three. 18. Tsuruya, Iwaki san sanbyaku shu, folio 8, back.

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and future worlds, the profane and sacred, and earth and heaven. Moreover, Ariyo’s clear Shinto-kokugaku stance comes to the fore in his privileging of kami and his emphasis on the spiritual realm: Mitsune naru Iwaki no yama no mitsu kami no Sumera mikami wa Ōkuni mitama19

Among the three gods atop Mount Iwaki of three peaks, the Imperial god is the spirit of Ōkuni.

Tadabito no me ni wa mienedo Iwaki ne no kami no yūfu wo utagau beshi ya20

Though invisible to the eye of common people, how can one doubt the spirit realm of gods of the Iwaki peaks?

From premodern times, locals believed that three deities were associated with the peaks: Kunitokotachi no mikoto occupied the central peak of Iwaki san; Ōkuninushi no mikoto resided on the southern peak of Chōkai san; and Kuniyasutamahime no mikoto, a local female deity also known as Anju hime, had jurisdiction over the northern peak of Ganki san.21 From his Shinto-kokugaku stance, Ariyo declared that the central deity or Imperial god (Sumera mikami) among the three atop the triple peaks was the great spirit of Ōkuni or Ōkuninushi, and he asserted the real existence of the “spirit realm” of the gods of Mount Iwaki, invisible to common people. Also, from an array of possibilities, in the second poem Ariyo deliberately chose the Chinese characters yūfu to depict the spiritual realm, which aligned with Rosen’s wording in his magnum opus, Yūfu shinron, completed a year earlier in 1865. Ariyo reaffirmed Rosen’s assertion of the reality and activity of the spiritual realm, while depicting Mount Iwaki as a link between the visible realm and the invisible other world. The portrayal of this mountain as a link between the multiple realms, and Ariyo’s concern for the spirit realm, are consistent themes throughout his major works. The peaks are visible from afar, as sketched in a series of tanka categorized under “Outlook.” The following two poems illustrate that Mount Iwaki is positioned at the center of the “country of Tsugaru” within Japan, whence

19. Tsuruya, Iwaki san sanbyaku shu, folio 25, front. 20. Tsuruya, Iwaki san sanbyaku shu, folio 25, back. 21. Liscutin, “Mapping the Sacred Body,” 194.

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it looks out at enemies and outsiders. These two pieces highlight the mountain’s strategic place within the region: Haruka naru Ezo no Chishima mo kagirohino hitome ni miyuru Iwaki ne zo kore22

These are the Iwaki peaks visible at a glance through the spring air, from Chishima of far off Ezo.

Mutsu no Tsugaru oguni ni aritatsuru itsu no mitate no Iwaki yama kami23

Forever standing in small country Tsugaru within Mutsu, the mighty shield, the gods of Mount Iwaki.

The first poem notes that Mount Iwaki on the northern tip of the island of Honshu is visible from the northern island of Ezo, even, presumably, from the northern Kuril Isles. The Tokugawa shogunate expanded its control of Ezo, whereby Matsumae domain was given jurisdiction over “Japanese territory” that was being developed and settled opposite “Ezo territory” inhabited by the Ainu peoples.24 In this way, from the perspective of the Japanese state, the island of Ezo represented both “Japan” and a frontier with “foreign” lands, making it a buffer in Tokugawa state security. Seen from the northern islands, Mount Iwaki would appear as a landmark of “Japan” proper, and an important symbol of sovereignty for Hirosaki domain. The second poem reinforces the mountain’s place in the “small country” of Tsugaru, Mutsu province. It invokes once more the metaphor of the mountain as a “mighty shield” defending against enemies and outsiders, particularly from the north, and again emphasizes the authority of the resident gods.

The Gods and Mount Iwaki The year 1866 was a productive one for Ariyo’s writings on Mount Iwaki, because he also completed another work, Mount Iwaki Spirit Records, or Iwaki san shinreiki, with this one in prose.25 In the opening of this work, Ariyo explained that he wrote it, along with another entitled Mount Iwaki Writings,

22. Tsuruya, Iwaki san sanbyaku shu, folio 21, back. 23. Tsuruya, Iwaki san sanbyaku shu, folio 22, front. 24. See Tabata et al, Hokkaido no Rekishi, 70–172; also, Walker, The Conquest of Ainu Lands; Howell, Geographies of Identity. 25. Tsuruya Ariyo, Iwaki san shinreiki (Hirosaki: Hirosaki City Public Library, 1866).

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or Iwaki no yama fumi, in response to Engi (Origins), a history of Mount Iwaki from Buddhist perspectives, introduced to him by friend, fellow poet, and Hirata disciple Iwama Shitatari.26 The title of Engi refers to a genre of origin tales of temples and shrines, or mysterious legends concerning deities, and represents an important category of Buddhist and/or Shinto writings from medieval times.27 According to Engi, which Ariyo cited extensively, Mount Iwaki was originally small, but from the Hōki years (770–81) grew miraculously into a “large mountain.” Such ideas appear to have still had currency in recent times when a kaichō, or exhibition of temple relics, was conducted on Mount Iwaki in 1784, at which time it was noted that 1,008 years had passed since the seventh year of Hōki (776). Ariyo took exception to such accounts, noting that shrine and temple records often contained inaccuracies, and he discredited Buddhist documents as unreliable. Ariyo privileged the presence and works of the “indigenous” gods of Japan atop the Mount Iwaki peaks over those of Buddhist deities. Inf luenced by Tendai Buddhism and Shugendō, locals in medieval times adapted a cult of the gongen, or avatar, to the beliefs associated with Mount Iwaki, thus leading some to view the kami of this mountain as Buddhist deities.28 Within this context, Engi’s claims are founded in the honji suijaku theory of “Original Substance, Trace Manifestation,” which explains Shinto deities from a Buddhist perspective, asserting that the “original substance” of particular Buddhist deities appeared as “trace manifestations” in the form of particular Japanese deities to save living beings in Japan. Based on this perspective, Engi explains that after Mount Iwaki grew into a “large mountain,” Buddhas in the form of “original substance” were designated to its three peaks: Amida nyorai on its central peak of Iwaki san, Kanzeon Bodhisattva on its “left” (northern) peak of Ganki san, and Yakushi nyorai on its “right” (southern) peak of Chōkai san.29 These three deities combined are said to be worshipped as the Great Avatar of the Three Shrines of Mount Iwaki (Iwaki san sansha daigongen). However, Ariyo criticized these claims, and rejected the theory of “Original Substance, Trace Manifestation” as unsubstantiated and false. According to this Buddhist theory, Princess Anju, also called Kuniyasutamahime no

26. Tsuruya, Iwaki san sanbyaku shu, folio 2, front—folio 3, front. 27. Helen Hardacre, Shinto: A History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), 199. 28. Liscutin, “Mapping the Sacred Body,” 194. 29. Note that these three Buddhist deities are associated with the three peaks where, alternatively, kami deities were also believed to reside: Amida nyorai on the center peak of Iwaki san, instead of Kunitokotachi no mikoto; Kanzeon Bodhisattva on the northern peak of Ganki san, as opposed to Kuniyasutamahime no mikoto (a.k.a. Anju hime); and Yakushi nyorai on the southern peak of Chōkai san, instead of Ōkuninushi no mikoto.

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mikoto, was merely the local manifestation of what the theory saw as the more fundamental, original prototypes of these three Buddhist deities. Ariyo rejected this view and contended that it was rooted in a “theory that is blind to the next world.”30 Mount Iwaki would not exist without the works of the kami, insisted Ariyo, and the thought of identifying three Buddhist deities who “have name only, without reality” (yūmei mujitsu) as the “main objects of veneration” (honzon) caused the kami to grieve deeply. Mount Iwaki Spirit Records relates tales of Mount Iwaki featuring spiritual and supernatural events. One such episode involves the samurai Uchikoshi Jōzaemon, who lived around the reign of the fourth daimyo Tsugaru Nobumasa (r. 1656–1710). Jōzaemon was climbing Mount Iwaki, accompanied by two retainers, when suddenly the skies clouded over, thunder cracked, rain fell so heavily it was “as if the Milky Way ran over her banks,” the wind blew fiercely, and darkness fell over the land. When the weather cleared and it became light again, Jōzaemon was nowhere to be seen. His two retainers thought this was mysterious and pondered committing ritual disembowelment, for it would be unacceptable to let their master die alone. They continued to search for Jōzaemon and hurriedly climbed from a pond, Tanemaki Nawashiro, up to the summit. And there was Jōzaemon at the summit, kneeling on a rock, beating the blade of his sword. The two retainers approached their lord and asked if he had been abducted by a mononoke spirit, but received no answer. The disappearance of Jōzaemon follows the well-known motif in Japanese folklore of kamikakushi, or divine abduction. In his commentary on this mysterious story about Jōzaemon, Ariyo drew on Atsutane’s Kishin shinron (New Treatise on Spirits). He noted that his “teacher” cited various people in his discussion on kishin spirits, including Zhang Hengqu (1020–77) of Song China, about whom Ariyo related a story in which Zhang sent his lower official to attempt to destroy a shrine (hokora). When this official became lame in both legs,31 he rode a palanquin to the shrine, where he cracked open the idol. Upon looking inside, he saw a box from which a large white insect ran out. He captured and killed the insect by pouring hot oil over it. Then, this lower official suddenly felt the pain in his legs subside and he was healed. Ariyo lamented that people with restless minds who do not consider things deeply, foolishly and mistakenly compared such acts of mere courage by humans to more wondrous matters concerning the truly remarkable and

30. Tsuruya, Iwaki san sanbyaku shu, folio 3, back. 31. This story is cited from Xingli Ziyi by Chen Chun (1159–1223).

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precious kami. Following the storm, during which Jōzaemon disappeared and was later found again on the summit, only he saw the evil spirit that remained invisible to the other two men. As in his poem cited above in which he asserted the reality of the “spirit realm” (yūfu) of the gods of Mount Iwaki, invisible to the common person, Ariyo presented this example of Jōzaemon and his retainers, comparable to Zhang Hengqu and his officials, straddling the boundaries of the visible and invisible realms in their mystical experience atop the peaks.

Enjoyment Visible and Invisible Building on his previous poetry and prose, in 1867 Ariyo advanced his thesis in Enjoyment Visible and Invisible, or Ken’yū rakuron. His core idea is articulated in his “Study Rules,” introduced in chapter four, which contains forty-three rules for daily worship, life, scholarship, and views of the world. The tenth article of the “Study Rules” states, “The congruity of the visible and invisible is the root of my way.” While Ariyo agreed with Atsutane that the visible arahaniyo realm of the living and the invisible kakuriyo realm of spirits and the deceased overlapped and occupied the same space, he took Atsutane one step further with his original proposition which emphasized how the enjoyment that one can experience in the current life can carry over into the afterlife, thereby, bridging the two realms. Enjoyment Visible and Invisible represents the Tsugaru group leader’s most important work of scholarship, and best demonstrates his engagement with Hirata kokugaku. Ariyo drew heavily from Atsutane’s writings Tama no mihashira and Morning Order for Worship in directing criticism at Teachings on Enjoyment, or Rakukun, by Neo-Confucian scholar Kaibara Ekiken (1630–1714).32 While acknowledging reports that Ekiken was “sincere,” Ariyo was critical of this Confucianist’s ignorance of the “Divine Way unique to the Imperial country,” and of his narrow discussions of “enjoyment” that limited the scope to this life, with no mention of the kakuriyo that was such a central component of Hirata kokugaku.33 Thus, Ariyo joined the discourse on “enjoyment,” debated previously by Ekiken and others in Confucian terms, and offered his perspectives grounded in kokugaku thought and Shinto beliefs. Ariyo prioritized spiritual matters in this debate as ref lected in the title of his treatise. While Ekiken completed Teachings on Enjoyment at age eighty-one,

32. Kaibara Ekiken, Rakukun, Ekiken zenshū, vol. 3, ed. Ekiken kai hensan (Tokyo: Ekiken zenshū kankōbu, 1911). 33. Tsuruya Ariyo, Ken’yū rakuron, in AKS, 538.

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Ariyo repeatedly noted that he completed his Enjoyment Visible and Invisible at the milestone age of sixty.34 This milestone of kanreki, or “returning to the calendar,” marked the completion of the calendar and one’s return to their original sign at birth in the Chinese zodiac. The originality of Ariyo’s treatise lies in the emphasis on living life in this world and the next with enjoyment. He begins with the following poem: Utsushiyo mo mata kakuriyo mo tanoshikaru waga Oya kami no Michi zo masamichi35

The way of our ancestral deities is the true way enjoyable to both those in the visible and invisible realm.

Immediately following this poem is a question and answer exchange on existential matters concerning life and death. The first person cited the four sources of life’s sorrows as poverty, illness, aging, and death. He observed that, “after death, the spiritual realm is uncertain,” and asked: “Is there any method to calm the mind?” Ariyo answered boldly: “There is a way not only to bring calm, but also enjoyment.” Echoing previous kokugaku scholars, he asserted that human beings were created by the heavenly ancestral deity Takami musubi no kami, the Imperial deity of creation, and that, accordingly, all people had the innate virtues—of reverence, love, righteousness, benevolence, wisdom, and courage—as well as “enjoyment” that had been bestowed from the beginning. Ignorance of such truth—that people descended from the deities and inherited “supreme treasures” from their ancestors—led to a wasted life and was the root of needless suffering and pain in this life and that after death. To define “enjoyment,” Ariyo drew on a wide variety of sources including the Kojiki, the Nihon shoki, and A Collection of Tales from Uji (Uji shūi monogatari). He quoted the Doctrine of the Mean: “The superior man does what is proper to his position and does not want to go beyond this,” and if he was in a “noble station” he acted according to his level of wealth and honor. Likewise, if this superior man was in a “humble station,” he acted in a way suited to his own poor and humble position.36 Next, Ariyo quoted the Analects: “Confucius said, ‘With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and with

34. By contemporary Western accounts Ariyo was age fifty-nine, but according to convention in early modern Japan he was sixty from the beginning of 1867. 35. Tsuruya, Ken’yū rakuron, 538. 36. Tsuruya, Ken’yū rakuron, 542; Confucius, The Doctrine of the Mean, in A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, 101.

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a bent arm for a pillow, there is still joy. Wealth and honor obtained through unrighteousness are but f loating clouds to me.’”37 Ariyo asserted that people, whether noble and rich, or poor and humble, experienced “enjoyment” as well as “suffering” in their diverse situations and living standards, and that poverty and fortune could not be measured superficially. He declared, “If one suffers in their mind, one hundred things will not happen. If one feels enjoyment, ten thousand things will not fail to materialize.” Since Motoori Norinaga taught that there was inevitably both fortune and misfortune in the world, Ariyo urged, “one’s enjoyment must never cease,” even if misfortune befell them. While Ariyo’s criticism was aimed at Ekiken for neglecting to acknowledge the spiritual realm in his Teachings on Enjoyment, this did not equate to an outright rejection of Ekiken’s work. Far from it, Ariyo cited extensive passages from the first volume of Teachings on Enjoyment, adopting some messages and, in some cases, building on them. In one such exegesis, Ekiken is quoted as urging, “One should cherish each moment and not live even a single day in vain. One should not rely [on the future], saying, ‘today is ending, yet there is always tomorrow.’”38 This attitude of living actively in the present also served as one of Ariyo’s keys to living an enjoyable and meaningful life. Ekiken explained the importance of people understanding their “role” or position in society; emphasizing that the “role” a person was born into in society allowed them to “accept their role, and not resent heaven or blame people.”39 Ariyo affirmed this way of thinking by citing Norinaga’s famous analogy of the gods as puppeteers controlling people as puppets, and he agreed that everything happened according to divine will and, therefore, each person must observe his or her “role.”40 He went on to quote Ekiken on celebrating the study of the “Ancient Way”: “To have the leisure to read books and enjoy the Ancient Way, this is an extremely pure and blessed form of enjoyment.”41 While both discussed the “Ancient Way,” Ekiken referred to the Confucian Way while Ariyo imagined the corresponding concept within the Shinto-kokugaku tradition. Yet, Ariyo adopted the term into his discussion without acknowledging a distinction. Ekiken described how such individuals “make their hearts refined” and read old books, compose poetry,

37. Tsuruya, Ken’yū rakuron, 542; Confucius, Analects, 7:15, in A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, 32. 38. 39. 40. 41.

Tsuruya, Ken’yū rakuron, 543. Tsuruya, Ken’yū rakuron, 543. Tsuruya, Ken’yū rakuron, 541. Tsuruya, Ken’yū rakuron, 544.

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enjoy the moon, f lowers, and nature, and enjoy the beauty and f lora of the changing seasons. Similarly, Ariyo echoed this desire to follow such scholarly and cultural pursuits as “Ariyo’s wish in old age,” and reiterated this in concluding the work, which I cite later.42 After quoting from Teachings on Enjoyment, Ariyo outlined some “methods for maintaining peace of mind.”43 This discussion included suggestions for the maintenance of physical and mental health, including the use of medicine, and he began by stating, “Now, illness is unavoidable, and it is reasonable to say that people in this world are vessels for illness.” He asserted that when illness struck, people ought to take medicine, make a plea to the gods, and pray and perform incantations in order to heal. They should not envy others, nor harm themselves in spirit. He then described his personal experience during the New Year of this, his sixtieth year. After an enjoyable night of drinking, his chronic illness f lared up worse than usual, and unbearable pain caused him to wake up early in the morning and to suffer and scream. Taking medicine helped to ease his condition, and while regulating his “vital energy” ( J., ki; C., qi) through abdominal breathing, he ref lected on being able to rest in his humble home with the help of his wife and children. Ariyo realized “the joy of regulating himself in daily life, food and drink, and medicine, as befitting his role (bun).”44 The latter half of Enjoyment Visible and Invisible in particular draws upon the works of Atsutane, including Koshiden, Morning Order for Worship, and A Recorded Account of Katsugorō’s Rebirth, along with other works from Japan and China to assert the existence of the spirit realm, and of the workings of spirits and souls, as well as the realities of death and the possibilities of a pleasant afterlife. Quoting Atsutane’s farewell poem, which expresses regret about dying before having served the gods satisfactorily, Ariyo praised his teacher for having written numerous books to explain the truths of the Divine Way, which had become corrupted, thereby clearing up over a thousand years of confusion.45 While acknowledging his teacher’s regrets, Ariyo praised Atsutane for his heart of serving the gods, which surpassed words and moved him to tears. He also reasserted blame toward Buddhists for instilling fear in people with teachings on hell and paradise. He quoted Atsutane’s Koshiden, volume six, in order to explain understandings about the 42. Tsuruya, Ken’yū rakuron, 548. 43. Tsuruya, Ken’yū rakuron, 544. 44. Later, Ariyo cited Ekiken’s discussion from Yōjōkun (Advice for a Healthy Life), completed in 1713, on regulating breathing through the abdomen to draw strength and courage. Tsuruya, Ken’yū rakuron, 544, 548–49. 45. This poem is cited in chapter four (see p. 91). Tsuruya, Ken’yū rakuron 549.

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afterlife: “From the Middle Ages, the teaching that if people die their souls all go to that world (Yomi) has been prevalent due to the folly of not properly elucidating the facts of the Divine Age, and of not considering the divine will of the great god who is Ōkuninushi.”46 The concluding passage of Enjoyment Visible and Invisible sheds light on what follows death: As long as we are all born of the deities of the Divine Country, we should have enjoyment to the fullest, and, when we die, publicly we become people of Ōkuninushi no kami, and serve the Ubusuna no kami. In private we serve our ancestors and parents and bless our descendants; how precious and how enjoyable it is to interact with friends, read books, compose poetry, view the moon and f lowers, and not be distressed even when the rain falls and wind blows, but to perfect our enjoyment for eternity.47 Ariyo reiterated that those born in the Divine Country, Japan, should have “enjoyment to the fullest.” After death they officially belong to the deity governing the invisible realm, Ōkuninushi no kami, as established by Atsutane, and serve the deities of birth and fertility, Ubusuna no kami. In stressing close, personal relationships, Ariyo also identified the role of spirits of the dead in serving ancestors and parents, and blessing their descendants. He extolled the life of enjoyment that overcame adversity and that ultimately “perfect[ed] our enjoyment for eternity.” In a previous passage, Ariyo quoted Atsutane’s views on the hierarchy of authority in the visible world headed by the emperor, and that of Ōkuninushi no kami in the invisible realm: The Lord (Ōkimi) [emperor] dwells in and presides over the base of divine governance. Just as the emperor appoints people to govern their allotted provinces and places, matters in the base of the divine realm are governed by Ōkuninushi no kami, and what is beyond is apportioned to and presided over by deities of the world such as the Tutelary of a region (Chinju no kami), clan deities (uji gami), and Ubusuna no kami. And to say nothing of the time lived in the society, they govern people even before birth and after death.48

46. Tsuruya, Ken’yū rakuron, 551; Hirata Atsutane, Koshiden, in SHAZ, vol. 6. 47. Tsuruya, Ken’yū rakuron, 556. 48. Tsuruya, Ken’yū rakuron, 554.

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Here Atsutane asserted that the hierarchy of authority starting with the emperor of Japan at the apex and beneath him lesser rulers appointed over “provinces and places” mirrored governance within the divine realm, in which Ōkuninushi no kami was at the top, with the deities of the world beneath him, such as the Chinju no kami, or tutelary deity, of a circumscribed region or land; the uji gami, or the tutelary kami, of a given clan; and ubusuna deities, or the tutelary kami, of one’s birthplace. These structures of authority in both the visible arahaniyo realm and invisible kakuriyo realm made up Imperial Japan according to Hirata kokugaku. The question of how Ariyo and the Tsugaru group adopted the religiosity of Hirata kokugaku, particularly in practice, and how this enabled him to locate Hirosaki within a larger spiritual landscape of Imperial Japan will be explored next in further detail in Ariyo’s norito.

Reception of Kokugaku Religiosity and Its Practice Religious thought and practice in Hirata kokugaku are exemplified in Atsutane’s liturgical text, Morning Order for Worship, which provides instruction on the worship of deities, shrines, and ancestors. By early Meiji nearly 14,000 copies had been printed, making it the most widely disseminated of all works from the Hirata academy.49 Atsutane himself is known to have practiced the form of worship it describes each morning, purifying himself and facing the directions of the various shrines and clapping his hands in prayer. This practice by Atsutane, as well as other members of the Tsugaru group to be examined later, resonates with Joseph M. Kitagawa’s characterization of norito, or “ritual prayer,” as “performed text” that offered “proper orientations for the practical performance of rituals, prayers, and charms.”50 While major deities and shrines of Japan and its classical texts are treated throughout the text, Atsutane also devoted articles twelve through fourteen, out of a total of twenty-five, to kami worship at the local level and in the home.51 In article twelve, Atsutane instructed: “Next face the direction of the chief tutelary shrine (ichinomiya) in that country and worship as

49. By 1875, 13,976 copies of Maiasa shinhaishiki were in circulation. See “Hirata juku kankōbutsu jōi nijusshu ichiran hyō,” in Meiji ishin to Hirata kokugaku, ed. Kokuritsu rekishi minzoku hakubutsukan, 39. 50. Joseph M. Kitagawa, preface to Norito: A Translation of the Ancient Japanese Ritual Prayers, trans. Donald L. Philippi (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990), xix. 51. For an examination of the Maiasa shinhaishiki, see Endō Jun, Hirata kokugaku to kinsei shakai, 143–45. For a study of the liturgy including a table outlining the edition with twenty-eight sections, see Hardacre, Shinto: A History, 342–45.

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[above],” then “With sincerity, fearfully revere and worship from afar those kami shrines called chief tutelary shrines which are located in ones counties within ones provinces.”52 So with a broad readership in mind, Atsutane instructed his followers across Japan to worship the “chief tutelary shrine” of a local region, thereby encouraging his disciples and other adherents to worship at their local shrines. Article thirteen similarly instructs one to face in the direction of the “Tutelary of a region” (Chinju no kami) of the place in which one finds themselves, and to sincerely revere and worship the local “Ubusuna no ōkami who protects the whole village.”53 Then in article fourteen, Atsutane directed the practitioner to face the kami altars within the home, and to worship as in the previous articles, erecting a himorogi, a sacred space marked off at the worship alcove (kamitoko or “altar”). On a daily basis, one was to worship first the great deities of the dual shrines at Ise; the solar deity, Amaterasu, and the deity governing food, Toyouke hime. Next one was to worship the eight million kami, from the heavenly deities (amatsu kami) to the earthly deities (kunitsu kami); and the myriads of kami resting at the many shrines, large and small; and still other lesser deities and shrines in “countries” or provinces across the Japanese islands. This structure is likewise seen in Ariyo’s collection of norito, ritual prayers, that make up the first part of Tsuruya’s Writings. The following are the titles of the first twelve norito among twenty-eight total in the collection. Each morning facing the direction of the Mountain of the Tutelary deities Worshipping before the Tutelary deity of Hirosaki Worshipping the shrine of the August Deity Amaterasu Facing the direction of the chief tutelary shrine of Mutsu province Each morning facing the shrine of the Great Deity Ubusuna Each morning worshipping before the Great Deity of Sugawara Worshipping all shrines In addition, offering prayer Each morning worshipping before Master Utsumi Each morning worshipping before the image of late parents Worshipping before the Great Master Hirata (Ansei 4 [1857], ninth month, eleventh day) Uttered on day of meeting54

52. Hirata Atsutane, Maiasa shinhaishiki, in SHAZ, 6:10. 53. Hirata Atsutane, Maiasa shinhaishiki, in SHAZ, 6:10. 54. Tsuruya Ariyo, Tsuruya bunshū, vol. 1 (Hirosaki: Hirosaki City Public Library, n.d.).

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This list includes a wide variety of norito, some to be recited each morning, including the range of deities being worshipped. The first norito on the list instructs one to face the local sacred mountain of Hirosaki domain, Mount Iwaki, and its three tutelary deities, which refer to Kunitokotachi no mikoto; Ōkuninushi no mikoto; and Kuniyasutamahime no mikoto or Anju hime. This is followed by norito worshipping the tutelary deity of Hirosaki, the Ise Grand Shrine of Amaterasu, the chief tutelary shrine of Mutsu province, the shrine of the Great Deity Ubusuna, the Great Deity of Sugawara the god of scholarship, all shrines, Ariyo’s earlier instructor Master Utsumi Sōha, Ariyo’s parents, Master Hirata Atsutane (dated the anniversary of his passing), a prayer to be uttered on the day when the group of Hirata disciples gathers, and so on. The second norito on the list, entitled “Worshipping before the Great Tutelary deity of Hirosaki,” reads: I solemnly pay respects before the Great Deity of Hirohata no Hachiman whom we worship as Great Tutelary of Hirosaki. If I should make mistakes, please watch over, listen to and correct me, please make my family and grandchildren prosper continually and increasingly. May our lives endure like a firm rock and everlasting stone, prevent various calamities, be our protector by night, our protector by day, and bless us. I worship with fear and reverence.55 Looking specifically at this localized norito among the wide-ranging collection, we can see that through worshipping Hirohata no Hachiman as a guardian of Hirosaki, Ariyo showed that he too participated in maintaining Hirosaki’s position within a larger and sacred Imperial Japan, which itself was governed by the emperor and lesser rulers in the visible realm, as well as by Ōkuninushi and a whole pantheon of deities in the invisible realm. This effort at locating Hirosaki domain and Tsugaru region within the spiritual landscape of Japan accords with Ariyo’s waka poetry and prose that sacralize Mount Iwaki—in the manner described by Grapard—as a “sacred site” within the “sacred space” of Tsugaru. Such efforts parallel works by Rosen and further crystallize Tsugaru’s place within the “sacred nation” of Imperial Japan. During a time of socio-political upheaval in the late Tokugawa period, merchant-class intellectuals Ariyo and Rosen devoted themselves to scholarship, focusing on spiritual matters related to Tsugaru, Japan, and the other

55. Tsuruya Ariyo, Tsuruya bunshū, vol. 1, folio 1, back.

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world. Ariyo, like Rosen, placed emphasis on the invisible kakuriyo ruled by Ōkuninushi no kami, a distinct perspective taken from Hirata kokugaku. In terms of how the Japanese pantheon of kami was represented, scholarship to date has described how concern with and the immediate relevance of such “spiritual” and “otherworldly” matters were being eclipsed by more worldly political concerns, with the emerging primacy of the solar deity Amaterasu and creator deities, ancestral deities of the emperor, especially after the young monarch was thrust to the fore in politics of “this world.”56 As we will see in the next chapters, Ariyo and Rosen as commoners continued to primarily observe the sociopolitical developments of the late Tokugawa and Restoration years, rather than actually participating in politics of the day.57 However, political and military confrontation between forces variously aligned with the Imperial court and shogunate from late 1867 resulted in crisis and confusion for domains across Japan. Leaders in Hirosaki domain would be forced to make a fateful decision about whom they would support politically and militarily. In this unfolding turmoil, we will see how other members of the Tsugaru group took action and participated in the events of the Restoration, in particular the Boshin War, and then in the war’s aftermath in conducting funerary rites for the fallen soldiers. This will be the subject of the next chapter.

56. See Harootunian, Things Seen and Unseen; Katsurajima Nobuhiro, Bakumatsu minshū shisō no kenkyū: bakumatsu kokugaku to minshū shūkyō (Tokyo: Bunrikaku, 2005). For a discussion of the Pantheon Dispute (saijin ronsō) that divided allegiances within the Shinto world between the Ise and Izumo Grand Shrines, see Hardacre, Shintō and the State, 1868–1988 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989), 48–51. 57. For a discussion that characterizes how many commoners in Edo were “cynical spectators” of the Meiji Restoration more than they were socio-political players involved in bringing about change—a role taken on primarily by samurai—see M. William Steele, “Edo in 1868: The View from Below,” Monumenta Nipponica 45, no. 2 (Summer 1990): 127–55. A revised version appears in Steele, Alternative Narratives in Modern Japanese History (London: Routledge, 2003). I demonstrate how Tsuruya Ariyo was an “active observer” throughout the Restoration period. See Fujiwara, “Rebirth of a Hirata School Nativist.”

Ch a p ter 7

Supporting the Restoration in War and Ritual

From 1867 through 1869 the Meiji Restoration and Boshin War caused political and social upheaval, forcing domainal authorities to make difficult decisions. The powerful southwestern domains announced the “Restoration of Imperial Rule” and their armies waged war in the name of the emperor, clashing with the Tokugawa shogunate and their supporters. Amid uncertainty and confusion, Hirosaki domain deliberated over the events in Kyoto and Edo. Faced with pressure from the court in Kyoto and reports on the civil war extending to the northeast, the Tsugaru daimyo made a pragmatic decision to side with the prevailing new government forces. The domain would thereby honor both its venerable ties to the Konoe family and its loyalty to the Imperial court. Hirosaki withdrew from their alliance with other northeastern domains and dispatched their armies to fight for the Imperial forces against nearby rival domains. The domain’s decision to support the emperor politically and militarily impacted the Tsugaru group of kokugaku scholars. Hirata disciple and domainal samurai Yamada Yōnoshin fought enemy troops of Morioka domain at Noheji, and was killed in combat. The Battle of Noheji was a costly defeat for Hirosaki to its rival Morioka, but it contributed to a larger victory for the Imperial army in the Boshin War. Yōnoshin and fellow soldiers from the “country” of Tsugaru died in combat for the emperor who would become the head of the larger “nation” of Japan. For their service and 172

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sacrifice, these soldiers were venerated as loyalist martyrs in the Shōkonsai of the sixth month of 1869. Shinto priests Osari Nakaakira and Ono Iwane performed this funerary ritual to “call back” these fallen spirits. Merchants Rosen and Ariyo observed and recorded this ritual that honored the fallen soldiers. Rosen also chronicled, in collections of political documents, how the Boshin War affected his domain, while celebrating Tsugaru’s role in the “Imperial” victory of the new Meiji government over the defeated Tokugawa shogunate.

The Boshin War and Its Northeastern Front By the middle of 1867, the rift between powerful daimyo of southwestern domains and the Tokugawa shogunate was deepening, and the political authority (kōgi) comprised of the shogunate and the Imperial court became increasingly fractured.1 Daimyo of Satsuma, Chōshū, and Tosa secretly discussed plans to overthrow the Tokugawa regime, news of which reached the shogunate. On the fourteenth day of the tenth month, court nobles aligned with Satsuma and Chōshū convinced the young Emperor Meiji (1852–1912) to issue a secret imperial order addressed to the Satsuma daimyo to overthrow the shogunate with military force. This order was utilized to rally the forces of Satsuma and their allies to Kyoto. Meanwhile, after receiving Tosa domain’s petition from Lord Yamanouchi Yōdō (1827–72), Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu (1837–1913) summoned high-ranking domainal vassals2 stationed in Kyoto for consultation at Nijō Castle, and the following day, also the fourteenth, the shogun formally returned political authority to the emperor (Taisei hōkan). The anti-shogunal domains of the southwest had strengthened their position of “protecting” the Imperial court, and on the ninth day of the twelfth month, court nobles who had aligned with this faction proclaimed the “Restoration of Imperial Rule.” Shogun Yoshinobu along with Aizu and Kuwana domainal forces f led the turmoil in Kyoto to Osaka Castle. From Osaka, Yoshinobu dispatched an army to challenge Satsuma and the new government forces, which had fortified their position in Kyoto. This resulted in

1. Hōya Tōru, Sensō no Nihonshi 18: Boshin sensō (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 2007), 1–26; Ishii Takashi, Boshin sensōron (Tokyo: Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 2008); Hakoishi Hiroshi, Boshin sensō no shiryōgaku (Tokyo: Bensei shuppan, 2013); Charles D. Sheldon, “The Politics of the Civil War of 1868,” Modern Japan: Aspects of History, Literature, and Society, ed. W. G. Beasley (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975). 2. These were the fudai daimyo, vassal daimyo, or vassal lords.

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the start of the Toba-Fushimi Battle beginning on the third day of the first month of 1868, and concluded with the new government soundly defeating the Tokugawa supporters. The victorious new government led by Satsuma and Chōshū declared they would expel Shogun Yoshinobu; Aizu daimyo and designated Protector of Kyoto, Matsudaira Katamori (1835–93); and others whom they branded enemies of the court, urging domains to rally in their support in Kyoto. This Toba-Fushimi Battle marked the beginning of the Boshin War whose frontline gradually advanced northeastward. On the fifteenth of the first month, the court issued an order to the Tohoku domains, including Hirosaki, to join the war against the shogunal forces. Conf licting reports regarding the Toba-Fushimi Battle were issued to Hirosaki from both the shogunate and new government, which resulted in indecision when in the following months the domain received calls to arms from both sides.3 As the Boshin War extended to the northeast, Hirosaki leadership faced a tough decision over whom to align with in this conf lict. On the twentyfirst of the first month, in Hirosaki domain’s Edo residence, the Edo rusui liaison officer4 issued an order to domainal samurai to return to Hirosaki. On the twenty-fourth, back in Hirosaki, samurai were summoned to the castle. There, daimyo Tsugaru Tsuguakira (1840–1916), drawing on available information, reported on the current situation and sought to unify the domain. Without pledging allegiance to either side in the conf lict, Tsuguakira declared the domain would work for the “Imperial country for eternity” and that if necessary it would dispatch troops. Despite requests received from both the new government and Tokugawa shogunate, Hirosaki domain declined to respond to either, citing its remote location, insufficient military preparation, and heavy snowfall preventing a mobilization of troops. The reality was that local leaders questioned the reliability of the various reports on the battles. In the face of a looming civil conf lict, in the third month of the same year, Hirosaki domain established a military office and undertook a modernizing reform of its military.5 The Tohoku domains were among the last to modernize, as evidenced by their disadvantaged position in the ensuing battles against the new government forces. Hirosaki domain urged its samurai to upgrade their weapons to Dutch guns and cannons, even though many

3. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 226–27. 4. Rusui were officials fulfilling service as diplomats and liaison officers. They either served the rōju senior councillors as caretakers in the Edo castle when the shogun was away, or as caretakers at the domanial residence in Edo while the daimyo returned to his domain. 5. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 227.

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insisted on fighting with swords and spears. On the eighteenth of the third month in 1868, the Hirosaki domain issued an order to abandon its traditional battle formation based on the style of Yamaga Sokō’s military strategy, and initiated a full reform to a Dutch-style formation armed with Western guns.6 Once Hirosaki entered the Boshin War, it was compelled to order its troops to use Western guns; and on the fifth day of the second month, the domain procured 1,000 Gewehr guns despite the high costs imposed on the domainal budget.7 Toward the end of the second month, the new government forces appointed Minister of the Left Kujō Michitaka (1839–1906) to the position of Ōu-Subduing Governor to pacify the northeastern provinces of Mutsu and Dewa. The following month, Michitaka left Kyoto with 500 troops from Satsuma, Chōshū, and Fukuoka, sailing from Osaka and arriving in Sendai. He ordered a strike on Aizu, but neither Sendai nor the other northeastern domains mobilized. Instead, both Aizu and Shōnai (Tsuruoka) domains established an alliance ready to counter the new government troops. In the fourth month the Ōu-Subduing Governor ordered Akita to attack Shōnai, and for Hirosaki to provide assistance; he then sent Chrysanthemum crest banners—a symbol of the Imperial court—to their respective domainal lords Satake Yoshitaka (1825–84) and Tsugaru Tsuguakira. The court branded Shōnai domainal lord Sakai Tadaatsu (1853–1915) an enemy of the court, and Imperial forces began their attack on Shōnai. Sendai and Yonezawa domains requested that Michitaka halt his offensive on Aizu because its lord wished to surrender, and summoned the leaders of Mutsu and Dewa domains to gather in Shiraishi to discuss Aizu domain’s apology and plea. The twenty-five domains of the Ōu (Mutsu and Dewa) provinces and six domains of Echigo province formed the Northern Alliance (Ōu Etsu reppan dōmei) in the fifth month to oppose the new government’s order to attack Aizu domain.8 Despite receiving orders to support the new government forces, Hirosaki leadership deliberately obscured its allegiances and accumulated arms until it could determine the direction of this conf lict. From the start of the Boshin War to the signing of the Northern Alliance, other Tohoku domains such as Sendai and Akita tried repeatedly to persuade Hirosaki to join the alliance in support of the shogunate. Kudō Takeshi has argued that Hirosaki’s response was passive and its attitude characteristic of a “small domain”

6. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 228. Hasegawa, Tsugaru, Matsumae, to umi no michi, 122. 7. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 228. 8. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 228.

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before it consequently succumbed to these petitions to join the alliance.9 Even after joining the Northern Alliance, Hirosaki took a cautious, “waitand-see” approach. Hirosaki and shogunate-supporting domains dispatched envoys back and forth. Early in the sixth month Hirosaki declared amity with Shōnai and borrowed its Western-style cannons and steamships on the premise of joining an attack against Akita.10 Sendai had also sent a platoon of soldiers to support Hirosaki. However, when the liaison official Nishidate Heima, who had been stationed in Kyoto, returned by steamship to Hirosaki on the fifth day of the seventh month, he presented the domain with a compelling case for allegiance to the court based on the following documents. First, in a statement issued in the sixth month, the Dajōkan, or Council of State, of the Imperial court declared, “Governance of the realm is restored, and with all governmental matters to now be decided by the ruler, nobles great and small gathered before his majesty.”11 While these nobles supported the Restoration, the Dajōkan acknowledged that information was slow to reach “distant lands,” which was one reason that “crooked vassals depend on their lords and are ‘indecisive like mice peeking out of their holes,’ and were thoroughly ambivalent.” Lamenting over domains that defiantly supported the shogunate, the Dajōkan resolved to approach them to “convey their ancestors’ will of Imperial loyalty, to secure their direction, and to steadfastly and firmly observe” loyalty to the court. Finally, the court gave notice of the Imperial army’s imminent major offensive, and thus directed Hirosaki: “endeavor to cooperate, do not evade the task of security and defense, . . . lest the forces over many generations be undermined; this we order.” Second, a letter dated the nineteenth day of the sixth month, issued by court noble Konoe Tadahiro (1808–98) and son Tadafusa (1838–73), warned that six enemy domains beginning with Sendai had been dispossessed of their Kyoto residences, and it urged loyalty to the Imperial court. The Konoes warned, “once someone is labeled an enemy of the court, the shame upon that country (kokujoku) is irreversible; meanwhile, in facing war all the same, if one’s name is just, it is obvious the court’s favor is upon you.”12 This 9. Kudō Takeshi, “Tohoku sensōki ni okeru Tsugaru han no dōkō,” in Tsugaru no kisoteki kenkyū, ed. Hasegawa Seiichi (Tokyo: Kokusho kankōkai, 1984), 431–73. 10. Shinpen Hirosaki shishi hensan iinkai, ed., Shinpen Hirosaki shishi: Tsūshi hen 3 (Kinsei 2), 231. 11. Dajōkan, Letter to Tsugaru Tsuguakira, sixth month, 1868 (Meiji 1), “Chōtei yori no kinnō sonshu no reisho shitatsuke,” no. 536, Shinpen Hirosaki shishi: Shiryō hen 3 (Kinsei 2), ed. Shinpen Hirosaki shishi hensan iinkai, 1494–95. 12. Konoe Tadahiro and Tadafusa, Letter to Tsugaru Tsuguakira, nineteenth day, sixth month, 1868 (Meiji 1), “Chōtei yori no kinnō sonshu no reisho shitatsuke,” no. 536, Shinpen Hirosaki shishi: Shiryō hen 3 (Kinsei 2), 1495.

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message urging Imperial loyalty was reinforced in a letter from inf luential court noble Iwakura Tomomi.13 As we saw in chapter one, since the late seventeenth century, the Tsugaru ruling family had constructed their genealogy to link themselves to the high-ranking Konoe clan and they thereby created ties to the court to justify their political rule.14 Tsugaru’s ties to the Konoe help us to understand the extent of the latter’s inf luence. Heima delivered these compelling messages f rom the court to the leaders of Hirosaki. In addition, since he had been stationed in Kyoto f rom the fall of 1867 to gather intelligence for Hirosaki domain—and was even present at Nijō castle to witness Shogun Yoshinobu’s return of political authority to the emperor—Heima delivered intelligence reports of battle along with assurances of military support f rom the new government forces.15 All this combined input convinced Hirosaki to unite in its commitment to support the Imperial forces and the new government. Moreover, Akita had left the Northern Alliance on the fourth day of the seventh month and, in response to continued orders f rom the Ōu-Subduing Governor Kujō Michitaka, mobilized its forces to attack Shōnai. Thereafter, Hirosaki quickly announced to other domains its withdrawal f rom the Northern Alliance, returned cannons and naval ships to Shōnai, and asked Sendai to withdraw its supporting platoon. Thus, spurred on by both pressure f rom the court and knowledge of the new government’s military gains, Hirosaki resolved to transfer allegiance f rom the shogunate to Imperial forces, choosing the side that appeared to promise the domain’s own survival. In a letter dated the fourth day of the ninth month, Lord Tsuguakira reasserted to Konoe Tadahiro and Tadafusa in Kyoto that the Tsugaru house had f rom the beginning observed its loyalty to the Imperial court, and despite being pressured by the situations of other domains, it should not veer toward “vague measures.” Tsuguakira declared, “Since we have received serious instructions and warnings, without elaborating on how domains in alliance may be punished, we shall certainly fulfill our original ambition of Imperial loyalty. Please take solace in the fact that we endeavor repeatedly for the sake of the Imperial

13. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 230–31. 14. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 7–11. 15. Hasegawa, Tsugaru, Matsumae, to umi no michi, 123–24. Sakamoto Hisao, “Tsugaru han ishinki no kenkyū jittai to sono mondai ten,” Nenpō Shishi Hirosaki 1 (1992), 61, 67.

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country.”16 The Tsugaru house thereby confirmed its domain’s loyalty to the court by honoring its ties to the Konoe family.17

Yamada Yo¯noshin: A Loyalist’s Fight and Death Swayed by intelligence reports and calls f rom the Konoe family for the Tsugaru family to honor its historic ties to the court, Hirosaki domain transferred its support from the shogunate to the new government and its cause in the Restoration and Boshin War. This directly led Hirosaki to committing its military forces to fight rival domains of the northeast; bloody conf licts led to significant casualties. Even a local Hirata disciple, samurai Yamada Yōnoshin, took up arms and fought enemy troops of neighboring Morioka domain. The night before he was killed, Yōnoshin had expressed his loyalty to the Imperial court along with his desire to slay men of Morioka whom he regarded foes since the founding of his domain. We will see how this samurai and kokugaku scholar carried out his Imperialist visions on the battlefield, and how such actions would be remembered by his peers through a funerary ritual. Let us now look at Hirosaki domain’s direct involvement in the Boshin War, including fighting by a member of the Tsugaru group. After pledging allegiance to the Imperial forces, the Hirosaki war office immediately dispatched troops to support Akita in battle against Shōnai. Ten soldiers from Hirosaki were killed in this conf lict. In the eighth month, the new government ordered Hirosaki to attack neighboring Morioka domain.18 Early in the ninth month, Hirosaki engaged in military planning with Chief-of-Staff of the Governor’s Office Maeyama Seiichirō (1823–96) of Saga domain.19 A two-pronged offensive by land and sea was proposed for the Hirosaki army and Saga navy against Noheji. While Hirosaki was slow to commit troops, Admiral Nakamuta Kuranosuke (1837–1916) led the Kaga maru, a

16. Tsugaru Tsuguakira, Letter to Konoe Tadahiro and Tadafusa, fourth day of ninth month in 1868, in Shinpen Hirosaki shishi: Shiryō hen 3 (Kinsei hen 2), ed. Shinpen Hirosaki shishi hensan iinkai, 1509. 17. Hasegawa parallels the case of Hirosaki domain honoring allegiance to the court via Tsugaru’s familial ties to the Konoe family, to Aizu domain maintaining its loyalty to the shogunate on account of the (ruling family) Matsudaira’s shared lineage with the Tokugawa. Hasegawa asserts that the examples of both the Tsugaru and Matsudaira families show how blood lines shaped Hirosaki’s and Aizu’s senses of self-recognition respectively and inf luenced their actions through to the end of the Tokugawa period. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 7–11. 18. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 231. 19. Shinpen Hirosaki shishi: Tsūshi hen 3 (Kinsei 2), ed. Shinpen Hirosaki shishi hensan iinkai, 249–50.

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Western-style warship, leaving Aomori port on the ninth and arriving at Noheji bay on the tenth, where it began firing on Noheji. Not only did the Kaga maru fail to inf lict much damage on its enemy, but the ship sustained two shell shots. This failed naval attack spurred Morioka to strengthen its defenses at Makado guchi on its border with Hirosaki. Eventually, the Hirosaki army mounted an attack on Makado guchi.20 Six platoons, led by Commander Kimura Hanshirō, departed Hirosaki castle town on the twenty-first day of the ninth month, traveled the plains, and on the night of the twenty-second divided into three units, which advanced separately.21 Along the way, troops hastily set fire to Makado village, only to be engulfed by the f lames, which impeded them from advancing their cannons. The battle began near Noheji River, when Hirosaki forces opened fire with rif le and cannon, causing Morioka troops to f lee. Hirosaki forces pursued the retreating enemy, but as they closed in on Noheji, they were greeted with a counterattack. The Morioka camp had set up cannons atop hills from where they targeted the oncoming enemy, and their troops hid themselves behind trees and houses. The Hirosaki soldiers, by contrast having nowhere to hide, sustained major casualties. Although Hirosaki had planned a night attack, it continued to fight into the morning of the twenty-third and sustained major losses due to a lack of unity and low-level of reconnaissance: 49 out of 180 soldiers died or were injured, compared to 10 casualties for Morioka. Although some have interpreted the Battle of Noheji as the culmination of collective enmity built up over generations between the Tsugaru and Nanbu daimyo families, Hasegawa argues that, above all, Hirosaki attacked Noheji in the first place with the objectives of demonstrating its loyalty to the court and recovering the trust of the Imperial forces.22 The forty-nine Hirosaki casualties at Noheji included a Hirata disciple from the Tsugaru group, Yamada Yōnoshin. Yōnoshin had enrolled in the Hirata academy in the tenth month of 1867.23 He visited the Ibukinoya in Edo and met with academy head Hirata Kanetane. In a letter, dated the twenty-third day of the tenth month, addressed to another Hirata disciple and academic head of the Yoshida Shinto school, Yano Gendō (1823–87), who was residing in Kyoto at the time, Kanetane explained that Yōnoshin was going immediately to the capital on domainal orders and wished to take

20. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 231. 21. Shinpen Hirosaki shishi: Tsūshi hen 3 (Kinsei 2), ed. Shinpen Hirosaki shishi hensan iinkai, 252–53. 22. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 232. 23. Nakagawa, Hirata kokugaku no shiteki kenkyū, 365–67.

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up “Loyalist studies,” so he asked Gendō to instruct him. Kanetane explained that Yōnoshin came to Edo to enroll as a disciple, and that, “in this way, finally, he has become a disciple in Edo. In fact, it is by the Lord’s orders, and it is for the sake of Loyalist studies.”24 From this, we can see that Hirosaki authorities highly regarded Hirata kokugaku, to the extent of sending a domainal samurai to Edo to become a Hirata disciple, then onto Kyoto to further pursue kokugaku studies. At the Battle of Noheji, Yōnoshin served as a scout, advancing ahead of his unit to gauge the enemy’s positions. On the morning of the twenty-third, Yōnoshin was standing near Commander Kimura Hanshirō on the battlefield when he spotted a soldier armed with a gun dash onto a bridge and approach their position. Yōnoshin fired and killed the Morioka soldier. He then turned back toward his own troops, calling out, “The enemy has begun to f lee.”25 Fellow soldiers advanced; the commander and his troops took their positions. Yōnoshin shouted, “The commander is at risk. Lord, I shall be your shield.”26 He continued, “Lord, please retreat when you can”; but just as he uttered these words, Yōnoshin was struck by a bullet and killed.27 Commander Hanshirō, who had closely trailed Yōnoshin, reportedly carried the soldier’s fallen corpse and wept. In later accounts of these events, Tsugaru Major General Akashi Reijirō stated that of all deaths on the Hirosaki side, Yōnoshin’s was most lamentable. He was praised as naturally gifted and reliable, without pretense.28 The night before the assault, Yōnoshin’s face had beamed with joy as he revealed to a friend, “In tonight’s attack, I shall finally dissolve my anxieties built up over many years,” then drew his sword and swung it around in excitement, slashing doors and walls.29 He continued: My brother, even if tomorrow’s battle is not a personal conf lict, one aim is to respond to the court’s grace, and another is to slaughter enemies despised since the time of our domainal founders. When considering

24. Yano Gendō, “Yano Gendō ate Hirata Kanetane shokan,” in Kokugaku bunken shūkai, ed. Kondō Kiyoshi (Tokyo: Chuo koronsha, August 1944), 164–65. 25. Henshū Aomori kenshi bukai, Aomori kenshi, vol. 5 (Aomori: Aomori-ken, 1926), 619. 26. Note that Yōnoshin’s other name, Tateo, which later makes up his deified name, begins with the Chinese character 楯 that means “shield.” 27. Henshū Aomori kenshi bukai, Aomori kenshi, 5:619. 28. Henshū Aomori kenshi bukai, Aomori kenshi, 5:620. 29. Yōnoshin’s words were remembered by Saitō Jirō (later Ren)

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this, it is indeed a precious opportunity. Tomorrow, I will fight decisively with honor; I will crush the hearts of the Nanbu people (Nanbujin).30 As documented earlier, Hirosaki domain entered the battle against Morioka domain primarily as an act of loyalty toward the Imperial court and new government based on pressure from the court and intelligence reports. Still, Suzuki Hirotaka interprets Yōnoshin’s words, amid the unfolding conf lict, as ref lecting some of the collective antagonism Tsugaru soldiers harbored toward their Nanbu enemies, and similar to sentiments carried over into the modern period.31 In other words, while politics and pragmatism determined Hirosaki’s initial decision to go to war with Morioka, once engaged in battle, Yōnoshin and his fellow soldiers found sufficient motivation in Imperial loyalism and historical memory to risk their lives to slay their enemies. On a piece of cloth Yōnoshin composed his farewell poem, in anticipation of death, then tied it to the shoulder of his armor. It reads: Ochiba nasu ada wo minagara chirasazuba f uki kahesajina Soto no hama kaze32

If while watching the foe who fall like autumn leaves I should survive the scattering, do not dare blow back wind of Soto no hama.

When the Hirosaki army attacked Morioka, they anticipated that fighting could last deep into autumn and winter. As illustrated in these verses, the rival “Nanbu people” of Morioka were perceived as a fierce enemy who caused “leaves to fall,” or casualties, among their enemy Hirosaki forces. Yet even if he were to remain unscattered, Yōnoshin pleaded with the wind of Soto no hama (or “Sotogahama”) on the eastern coast of Tsugaru peninsula not to blow back and force retreat. Hirosaki domain suffered a costly defeat in the Battle of Noheji, but the new government forces eventually won the Boshin War. Despite being routed at Noheji due to poor military planning and execution, Hirosaki’s participation in it nevertheless demonstrated and confirmed its allegiance to the Imperial court, at a sacrifice of forty-nine casualties. Morioka continued negotiations through Akita domain, and on the twenty-fifth, two days after the victory at Noheji, Morioka formally submitted a letter of apology

30. Henshū Aomori kenshi bukai, Aomori kenshi, 5:620–21. 31. Suzuki Hirotaka, Hara Takashi to Kuga Katsunan: Meiji seinen no shisō keisei to Nihon no nashonarizumu (Sendai: Tohoku Daigaku Shuppankai, 2015), 35. 32. Henshū Aomori kenshi bukai, Aomori kenshi, vol. 5, 621.

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and surrender to the Ōu-Subduing Governor. He accepted Morioka’s surrender, announced a ceasefire, and ordered that they hand over their arms.33 Morioka castle was surrendered on the fifth day of the tenth month. To atone for its battles against Akita and Hirosaki, Morioka karō senior councillor Narayama Sado was ordered to commit suicide by ritual disembowelment, and the domain was forced to pay reparations of seventy thousand ryō. With the surrender of the Tohoku domains that supported the shogunate, the Imperial forces folded the camps that they had stationed throughout the region to quell local resistance groups.34 On the seventeenth of the tenth month in 1868, the new government announced that the northeast was pacified and ordered a withdrawal of its troops, signaling the close of the Tohoku theater of the Boshin War.35 As we shall see, Yamada Yōnoshin’s service and death were significant for the domain, as well as for the Tsugaru group of Hirata disciples who would help venerate their fellow who died for the Imperial cause. Almost five months after urging Hirosaki to support the court and new government in the war, court nobles Konoe Tadahiro and Tadafusa addressed a letter dated the thirteenth day of the eleventh month in 1868 to Lord Tsugaru Tsuguakira to laud his steadfast loyalty. The Konoe father and son acknowledged their special relationship with the Tsugaru house, stating, “While our house shares historical roots with some of the Ōu domains, this is thoroughly and clearly the case with your venerable house.”36 They continued: The other day when we expressed at length our intentions through Heima, you settled on the just course, needless to say, and your Imperial loyalty became evermore steadfast. You extended guidance to all ranging from samurai to commoners, such that there is absolutely no vacillation within your revered domain. With exceeding loyalty to this day, you have responded with sincerity to the exceptional faithfulness of the court. The growing joy and relief of our house cannot be sufficiently expressed in writing. Indeed, needless to say, your precious house is but the pride of our house, we hope you will further establish

33. Shinpen Hirosaki shishi hensan iinkai, ed., Shinpen Hirosaki shishi: Tsūshi hen 3 (Kinsei 2), 254. 34. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 233. 35. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 233. 36. Konoe Tadahiro and Tadafusa. Letter to Tsugaru Tsuguakira. Thirteenth day of eleventh month, 1868, in Hirao Rosen, Meiji nikki, Aomori kenritsu toshokan kyōdo sōsho 2, ed. Aomori kenritsu toshokan (Aomori: Aomori kenritsu toshokan, 1970), 279–80.

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your cause and cultivate your people, and we pray for your steadfast Imperial loyalty evermore. After the shogunate supporters in the northeast had surrendered one after another to the Imperial forces, Tadahiro and Tadafusa expressed their wholehearted approval of Tsugaru’s decision to live up to its historic ties to the Konoes and the court, and of the domain’s determination to instill this loyalty among its samurai and commoner subjects, while urging even stronger support in the coming months and years. The final stage of the war, the Battle of Hakodate, was yet to be settled. Although the new government in Kyoto had been preoccupied with the Restoration and Boshin War on the main island, in the fourth month of 1868 it finally set up the Hakodate constabulary in an effort to control Ezo territory.37 The new government ordered the Matsumae, Hirosaki, Morioka, Akita, and Sendai domains to secure Ezo.38 On the twentieth day of the tenth month in 1868, however, Enomoto Takeaki (1836–1908) led the shogunal forces in landing on Ezo, then on the twenty-sixth captured the Goryokaku star-shaped fortress, which the shogunate had built in 1864 as a magistrate office in Hakodate for defense against the north.39 Takeaki established an independent regime that resisted the new government, declaring Ezo a republic.40 Rosen paid special attention to Hirosaki’s support of the new government’s efforts in the late stages of the Boshin War, as outlined in “Report on Battle of Hakodate” (Hakodate sensō hōkoku) that appears in volume two of Meiji Diary, or Meiji nikki, his fūsetsudome. He reported that the Imperial forces were stationed in Aomori port during the winter months while they awaited dispatch to Ezo territory to punish the shogunal troops in Hakodate led by Enomoto Takeaki. Rosen also provided data about the armies, numbers of troops, and sites for the domains of Chōshū, Bizen, Iga (province), Chikugo, Fukuyama, Tokuyama, Ono, Matsuyama, Hirosaki, and Kuroishi.41 These forces, according to Rosen’s sources, numbered 6,343 troops, joined by over 3,000 local support staff and some 300 ships’ crew amounting

37. Hōya, Sensō no Nihonshi 18: Boshin sensō, 265. 38. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 233. 39. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 234. 40. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 234; Hasegawa, Tsugaru, Matsumae, to umi no michi, 126. 41. The domains or provinces, their numbers of troops, and station sites are as follows: Chōshū (776) in Aomori; Bizen (500) in Noheji; Iga province (180) in Aomori; Chikugo (150) in Aomori/Noheji; Fukuyama (621) in Aburakawa/Shinjō; Tokuyama (150) in Aomori; Ono (163) in Okunai; Matsuyama (552) in Aomori; Hirosaki (1,886) in Kagansho; and Kuroishi (160) in Kominato. Hirao Rosen, Meiji nikki (Hirosaki: Hirosaki City Public Library, n.d.); Hirao Rosen, Meiji nikki, Aomori kenritsu toshokan kyōdo sōsho 2, ed. Aomori kenritsu toshokan (Aomori: Aomori kenritsu toshokan, 1970), 126–29.

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to approximately 10,403 in total.42 Sakamoto Hisao explains that Hirosaki regarded this task of hosting thousands of Imperial army troops as an opportunity to demonstrate the domain’s loyalty to the Restoration cause and to make up for disappointing military performances, including conceding the devastating albeit hard-fought defeat to Morioka in the Battle of Noheji.43 The burden of hosting in excess of ten thousand in military and logistical support personnel exacted a severe drain on domainal finances, and the new government struggled to deliver on its promises of compensation in the early Meiji years. We know from other sources that on the ninth of the fourth month, the Otome division of the new government army commenced landing on Ezo. The new government forces captured Matsumae on the seventeenth, and on the eleventh of the fifth month mounted a full attack on Hakodate from land and sea. After intense skirmishes and losses on both sides, the shogunal forces abandoned Benten battery and became isolated at the Goryokaku fortress with an estimated 1,000 troops. Enomoto and the shogunal army surrendered on the eighteenth of the fifth month, handing over the fortress and weapons to the new government forces.44 Though remaining in Hirosaki castle town with little direct involvement in these events, Rosen nonetheless reported information on the Boshin War in a letter to friend and fellow Hirata disciple from Tsugaru, Shimozawa Yasumi, who was in Edo at the time: I was surprised to hear the news you disclosed to me of our domain. How I worried at first because of the various rumors concerning the uprising in Matsumae. I fear that the divine punishment for attacking the emperor is hard to escape, and the Imperial forces number at least four thousand (However, this is just the soldiers. Counting luggage carriers and laborers the total rises to ten thousand). In just thirty days, [the Imperial forces] broke through over seven hundred positions including narrow roads and difficult terrain. On the eighteenth of the fifth month, the remaining one thousand and two or three hundred of the enemy surrendered. Five hundred eighty-three of them came

An alternative source cites a total of 6,651 soldiers, also including those from Kagoshima, Mito, Tsu, Kurume, and Kumamoto domains, along with 5,337 support personnel, for a total of 11,988. This data is quoted from Tsugaru Tsuguakira kō den, 200–1, cited in Shinpen Hirosaki shishi: Shiryō hen 3 (Kinsei hen 2), ed. Shinpen Hirosaki shishi hensan iinkai, 269. 42. The discrepancy between the above figures and the totals suggests that some of the numbers are estimates. 43. Sakamoto Hisao, “Chapter 9: Ishin to hantaisei no hōkai, kaisetsu,” in Shinpen Hirosaki shishi: Shiryō hen 3 (Kinsei hen 2), ed. Shinpen Hirosaki shishi hensan iinkai, 1404. 44. Sakamoto Hisao, “Chapter 9,” 1404; Hōya, Sensō no Nihonshi 18: Boshin sensō, 277–86.

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to our domain, along with another seven generals (these seven went to Tokyo the other day). On the ninth and eleventh days of the sixth month, [the enemy] came to Hirosaki, and were divided among the seven temples of Saishōin, Yakuōin, Kōshunin, Shinkyōji, Teishōji, Hongyōji, and Hōritsuji, with security there heavily enforced.45 Rosen thus gave a report on the Battle of Hakodate, which he referred to as “the uprising in Matsumae.” By denouncing Enomoto Takeaki and the “rebel” forces, he thus indirectly expressed loyalty to the emperor. He described the strength of the Imperial forces, breaking through the enemy lines and putting down Takeaki’s troops in about a month. He then reported that the defeated troops came to Hirosaki, where they were divided among seven Buddhist temples. Hirosaki domain did well to align itself with the Imperial faction in the Boshin War. The new government rewarded the domain for breaking away from the Northern Alliance, and granted daimyo Tsugaru Tsuguakira continued authority over Hirosaki and jurisdiction over the defeated Tohoku domains such as Sendai, Morioka, and Fukushima.46 In this manner, Hirosaki domain managed to “survive” the Meiji Restoration, even if for only a few more years. Yōnoshin died a martyr fighting for the emperor, and his contribution to the Restoration would be memorialized by his peers of the Tsugaru group.

Celebrating the Restoration with Fu¯setsudome Rosen’s scholarly works reveal that he celebrated the Meiji Restoration and the reassertion of Imperial rule. As an intellectual living far from the political and cultural centers of Edo/Tokyo and Kyoto, Rosen continued in his efforts to connect to a wider Japan, both through engaging Hirata kokugaku and gathering the latest political information, thereby demonstrating his keen awareness of national politics from the 1850s through the 1870s. Rosen copied numerous political documents and compiled them in two fūsetsudome (compilations of documents and images of a political nature): the aforementioned News of the Great Peace, or Taihei shinwa, in 1855; and Meiji Diary, or Meiji nikki, sometime after the fall of 1870.47 Through these collections, Rosen

45. Hirao Rosen, Letter to Shimozawa Yasumi, eleventh day, sixth month, 1869 (Meiji 2); see “Letters,” in AKS, 617. 46. Hirao, Letter to Shimozawa Yasumi, eleventh day, sixth month, 1869 (Meiji 2), 617. 47. Hirao Rosen, Meiji nikki (Hirosaki: Hirosaki City Public Library, n.d.); Hirao Rosen, Meiji nikki, Aomori kenritsu toshokan kyōdo sōsho 2, ed. Aomori kenritsu toshokan (Aomori: Aomori kenritsu toshokan, 1970).

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documented the many events surrounding Perry’s arrival and the “opening” of Japan, as well as the late Tokugawa years and Meiji Restoration.48 The fact that he was able to gather sensitive political materials—including edicts, letters, reports, memorials, inquiries by authorities, essays, maps, images, and literature including poetry—shows that he was utilizing personal contacts among samurai connected to political authority to access political information through unofficial channels. This national political awareness, which Rosen demonstrated through accessing unpublished political documents as a merchant-class intellectual, shows how far the “quiet revolution in knowledge,” described by Mary Elizabeth Berry, had reached within the early modern nation of Japan.49 Rosen’s two main contacts were, most probably, fellow kokugakusha Shimozawa Yasumi, who worked for the Hirosaki authorities as scribe and editor of commissioned histories and poetry anthologies; as well as Confucian scholar Kanematsu Sekkyo who also worked for local authorities as a teacher in Keikokan and later in Tōōgijuku Academy, was a tutor to Rosen himself, and later served in multiple political roles. Despite his merchant status, Rosen earned the respect of both Yasumi and Sekkyo for his scholarship, artwork, and even poetry and thereby established “weak ties,” in the words of Mark Granovetter, that were more “casual, f lexible, and open” than primordial relations based on class—a product of the “network revolution” of Tokugawa society, as observed by Eiko Ikegami.50 Rosen’s interactions with these two samurai scholars predated his official entry into the national Hirata network and so, while the kokugaku network certainly enhanced his ability to gather information, Rosen, based on merit, earned the respect and trust of local samurai intellectuals who most likely supplied him with his documents. In Meiji Diary, made up of five volumes of documents, Rosen chronicled the new government’s victory over the Tokugawa shogunate and its supporters through the Meiji Restoration and Boshin War. The volume contains official documents and letters issued by Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu, various daimyo, high officials, the emperor, and even British diplomat Harry Smith

48. See Fujiwara, “Channeling the Undercurrents,” 319–54. 49. Mary Elizabeth Berry, Japan in Print: Information and Nation in Early Modern Japan, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), 209. 50. Ikegami adopts Mark Granovetter’s concept of “weak ties” to describe unofficial relations that developed between groups of individuals who participated in hobbies and cultural activities such as haikai composition, or groups in private academies. Eiko Ikegami, Bonds of Civility: Aesthetic Networks and the Political Origins of Japanese Culture (New York: Cambridge, 2005), 12–14, 366–68.

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Parkes (1828–85).51 Even though Rosen added no written commentary in his second fūsetsudome, his arrangement of the documents shows a celebration of the Restoration, the victory of the Imperial court, and the contributions made by his home domain Hirosaki to this victory. On the local level of victory and defeat, he featured documents of the surrender and apology issued by rival Morioka domain that led to the end of the Tohoku theater of the Boshin War in the tenth month of 1868. Rosen closed the volume with a letter dated the tenth month in 1870 that reported on the Emperor Meiji observing a military demonstration, followed by excerpts from army diaries. These pieces celebrated the Restoration as well as the emperor’s political will and military might that were believed to have protected the people of Japan.

Sho¯konsai in Hirosaki: Calling Back the War Dead Following the conclusion of the Boshin War, shōkonsai festivals were held across Japan to “call back” and venerate souls of soldiers fallen during the war. Various historical developments led to the emergence of shōkonsai in the late Tokugawa period.52 During the Kaei years (1848–54), Mitogaku scholars held Nankō festivals to commemorate General Kusunoki Masashige (1294–1336) who had served Emperor Go-Daigo (1288–1339) and fought in support of his Kemmu Restoration (1333–35), a short-lived attempt to restore the emperor to the center of politics. In 1336, in a struggle for the realm, Masashige followed Go-Daigo’s orders and, against great odds, led his forces to fight the powerful Ashikaga Takauji’s army at the Battle of Minatogawa. Masashige was overwhelmed by the enemy, and when the battle was lost he, along with his brother Masasue and some vassals, committed ritual disembowelment. Posthumously referred to as “Nankō,” Masashige became a celebrated symbol of Imperial loyalty, and in late Tokugawa, Nankō festivals were held to honor those deemed to have died loyal deaths (chūshi) in service to the court. After 1853, the Chōshū domainal government itself performed shōkonsai to honor those who died loyal deaths in combat or otherwise. From 1863, Chōshū waged battles with Western nations and the Tokugawa shogunate, and from 1865 the domain erected a shōkon site (shōkonjo) for conducting

51. Harry Smith Parkes was a British diplomat who served as governor of Shanghai, then as British ambassador to Japan from 1865 to 1883. 52. Murakami Shigeyoshi, Irei to shōkon: Yasukuni no shisō (Tokyo: Iwanami shinsho, 1974); Akiko Takenaka, Yasukuni Shrine: History, Memory, and Japan’s Unending Postwar (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2015); see also Takashi Fujitani, Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), 89–90.

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shōkonsai. In 1867, the Tsuwano domainal school, Yōrōkan, became the site for a Nankō festival conducted by the daimyo. The first Nankō ki, or memorial for Masashige, performed after the Restoration of Imperial Rule, was held on the twenty-fifth day of the fifth month in 1868, when the Jingikan held an elaborate Nankō festival on the Kawa Higashi military training grounds in Kyoto. Shortly thereafter on the second day of the sixth month, a shōkonsai was held in Edo castle, to jointly “call back” the war dead from the Boshin War, who had died in the fourth and fifth months. The concept of shōkon or “calling back the soul” is based on the idea that spirits of those who die by violence become confused and rage in the other world, and are likely to cause harm to the living. In order to comfort these spirits, the living “call” them to come and dwell in an object in the phenomenal world, such as a sword, a polished metal mirror, or other object of worship. In that form, prayer and ritual can be offered to the spirits, which calms them and assuages their confusion, thus defusing the possibility that they might inf lict harm on the living. Then one deifies them as kami in a shrine, where they can receive this worship and honor continually. Murakami Shigeyoshi observes that “shōkon,” or the “concept of calling back the souls of those who died for national affairs,” fostered in the political and military strife of the late Tokugawa period, was combined with the creation of “the modern emperor system which unifies every value to the emperor,” and these developed into “yasukuni,” the belief that soldiers who died loyal deaths for the emperor are honored as kami. Sato Hiroo chronicles changes f rom the faith of appeasing distressed goryō spirits and the anonymity of the dead of Heian times, to the increasing deification of commoners in the early modern period, to the immortalization of the memory of the war dead who sacrificed for the emperor and nation-state of modern times.53

53. Sato Hiroo, “Shisha to kami no aida: Yasukuni no shisō to katarareru shisha no keifu,” Nihon shisōshi gaku, no. 47 (Sept. 2015): 5–12; Sato Hiroo, “Yasukuni no shisō to kioku sareru shisha no keifu,” Shisō, no. 1095 ( July 2015): 89–104. For lively debates on Yasukuni Shrine from varying perspectives and the surrounding controversies, see John Breen, ed., Yasukuni, the War Dead, and the Struggle for Japan’s Past (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008). For a study on the complex history of the shrine, see Takenaka, Yasukuni Shrine. Murakami, Irei to shōkon, i. Yasukuni Shrine, located in Kudanshita kita, Chiyoda ward in Tokyo, enshrines the souls of over two-and-a-half million people who died in war for Japan. The shōkonsai ritual was conducted in Tokyo shōkonsha, which in June 1879 had its named changed to Yasukuni Shrine. For a discussion of the deification of individuals as yonaoshi gods or deities of “world renewal,” see Takashi Miura, Agents of World Renewal: The Rise of Yonaoshi Gods in Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i, 2019).

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The rites performed in 1868 were not the first of their type. The first national shōkonsai was performed at the Reimeisha facility for Shinto funerals on Higashiyama Ryōzen in Kyoto on the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth month in 1862. Emperor Kōmei (1831–66) officiated this shōkonsai and a total of sixty-six people participated in this inaugural ritual for “loyal warriors serving the country” (hōkoku chūshi) conducted in Shinto style. Akiko Takenaka observes that this was the first time that men from multiple domains were memorialized collectively in the emperor’s name and honored for their efforts to overthrow the shogunate.54 Participants included prominent Hirata disciples such as Shirakawa house chamberlain for the Kanto region Furukawa Mitsura (1810–83), Tsuwano domainal samurai Fukuba Bisei (1831–1907), and Chōshū domainal samurai Sera Toshisada (1816–78).55 Nagura Tetsuzō clearly distinguishes the shōkonsai as a ritual inaugurated around the Boshin War meant solely for the victors, which excluded those who died for the “enemy” shogunal forces.56 As Nam-lin Hur shows, Buddhist temples had established a monopoly on funeral services since early Tokugawa rule, but from the late eighteenth century Shinto priests of Tsuchiura, Tsuwano, and elsewhere spearheaded a movement to legitimize and spread Shinto funerals, even though their efforts achieved limited success by the Meiji period.57 The emergence of the shōkonsai, therefore, can be understood in the contexts of both the broader Tokugawa history and the decades leading to the Restoration. According to the idea of shōkon, as a result of the domain’s decision to fight in support of the Imperial court, Hirosaki was qualified to observe a shōkonsai to “call back” and venerate the souls of those that died “loyal” deaths for the emperor. Let us now examine the shōkonsai ritual of Hirosaki held in the sixth month of 1869 and introduce the key figures involved.58 The

54. Takenaka, Yasukuni Shrine, 33. 55. Murakami, Irei to shōkon, 7. 56. Nagura Tetsuzō, “Shōkon: Boshin sensō kara Yasukuni wo kangaeru,” Gendai shisō: Tokushū Yasukuni mondai 33, no. 8 (August 2005). Analyzing the Bakumatsu ishin zen junnansha meikan, or Late Tokugawa Restoration Martyrs’ Complete Name List, he tabulates that 3,588 “loyal” souls died for the emperor and were thus “called back,” while “enemy” souls who died for the shogunate, and were hence not “called back” in the shōkonsai, numbered over 8,625. 57. Nam-lin Hur, Death and Social Order in Tokugawa Japan: Buddhism, Anti-Christianity, and the Danka System (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2007). 58. Shibuya Yuko offers a detailed account of how Hirosaki domain buried its war dead, then honored them through shōkonsai, irei, and kuyō, even erecting monuments in the former-enemy territory of Morioka, where they faced the problem of vandalism. She provides a list of all 67 war dead from Hirosaki, including three men who died of wounds after the shōkonsai. Shibuya Yuko, “Boshin sensō ni okeru senshisha no itai shori to irei, kuyō: Hirosaki han no jirei wo chūshin ni,” in Kinsei Nihon no gensetsu to chi, ed. Namikawa Kenji and Kojima Yasunori (Osaka: Seibundō, 2013), 204–33.

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central figure was Osari Nakaakira (1823–1903), Shinto priest of Hirosaki Kumano Okuteru Shrine, poet, and kokugaku scholar. Nakaakira hailed from a lineage of several generations of Shinto priests, and his father Osari Nakayoshi also served as priest of the same Kumano Shrine. Under the authority of the Saishōin Buddhist temple, both the Osari family and Ono family of priests of Hirosaki Hachiman Shrine were shakegashira, heads of the shrine families, who were responsible for ensuring that the shrines correctly performed their ritual duties. From a young age, Nakaakira pursued Shinto studies and waka poetry, and became a notable poet in Hirosaki domain. In 1851, he was granted the honorary title Satsuma no kami, or Lord of Satsuma. In the tenth month of 1869, he was appointed instructor of Imperial studies in the domainal school Keikokan, and a year later in 1870, he became assistant professor of Imperial studies. In the ninth month of that year, he was sent on domainal order to Kyoto for the purpose of Shinto reform, where he studied with Hirata Kanetane. He interacted with many other kokugaku scholars and poets, and his own disciples numbered in the hundreds. Although not a registered Hirata disciple, Nakaakira provided the recommendation when Shinto priest Gotō Takayoshi enrolled as a disciple in 1871. Nakaakira can be regarded as an unofficial member of the Tsugaru group, based on his close and active associations with the Hirata disciple community in Hirosaki and Kyoto. As the next chapter examines, Nakaakira played an instrumental role in the Shinto reforms at the local level, particularly the Separation of Shinto and Buddhism. The shōkonsai was held on the open field of Uwano, located just southwest of Hirosaki castle town, a site used frequently from late Tokugawa as a military training ground. On the fifth day of the sixth month, one day before the ritual, a kiyomi harae ritual of cleansing and purification was conducted to purify the site. Master of ceremonies Nakaakira performed a norito he had composed for this occasion, entitled “Kiyomi harae norito,” or “Liturgy for Cleansing and Purification,” rendered in traditional Man’yō gana script. The norito begins, “With awe I humbly offer my plea and praise to the heavenly and earthly gods, the eight million gods, Shinatsu hiko no mikoto and Shinatobe no mikoto, as well as Seoritsu hime no kami, Haya akitsu hime no kami, Ibukido nushi no kami, and Haya sasura hime no kami, who dwell at the harae do place of purification.”59 Shinatsu hiko no mikoto and Shinatobe no mikoto, who appear in the Divine Age sections of the Kojiki and Nihon

59. Osari Nakaakira, “Kiyomi harae norito,” in Tsugaru kinsei shiryō 4 Hirosaki han kiji 2, ed. Sakamoto Hisao (Hirosaki: Tsugaru kinsei shiryō kankōkai, Hoppō shinsha, 1987), 393.

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shoki, are deities that govern the wind. According to the Nihon shoki, these two names represent the same deity, which was born when creator deities Izanagi and Izanami were making the world, when Izanagi blew away the morning fog with his breath. The following four deities—Seoritsu hime no kami, Haya akitsu hime no kami, Ibukido nushi no kami, and Haya sasura hime no kami—are known as the Harae do no kami, or gods that preside over purifications at the place of purification. As is often the case, these kami are male-female pairs, neither complete without the other. These four deities appear in the Engishiki norito for the Ritual of Great Purification (Ōharae) on the last night of the sixth month, and are believed to drive away sin (tsumi) and impurities (kegare). Nakaakira announced that rituals were conducted “according to our Lord’s instruction to ‘carry out shōkonsai for those people whose lives ended in military combat in armies at various places from last summer to the fifth month of this year,’” confirming it was daimyo Tsugaru Tsuguakira who ordered the shōkonsai to worship and honor the domainal soldiers who died in the battles of the Boshin War.60 The daimyo chose the open fields of Uwano as the location and, according to his instructions, there in the middle of the field the shrine ritualists “piled up the pure soil as a platform, to make a sacred garden,” which was ritually purified. There, offerings of sake and food were presented on a table followed by rituals performed before the gods. Nakaakira called upon Kamu Naobi no kami Ō Naobi no kami, the great rectifying spirits, to erase the evil deeds of the Magatsuhi no kami, the deities of calamity. In the second part of the norito, Nakaakira declared himself present before the sixty-four divinities at the field of Uwano, and vividly narrated local events related to the Boshin War. In the previous spring, some lords within Mutsu province rose up against the Imperial court, which necessitated a punitive attack and subjugation. In response to the Imperial court’s order, the Tsugaru daimyo called his Hirosaki troops and commander to raise arms against Morioka’s army and to “expose and correct Nanbu’s sin and to punish it.” Nakaakira invoked memories of the autumn wind blustering at Noheji— alluded to in Yōnoshin’s poem cited above—when he described soldiers of Hirosaki army fighting in fierce battle as “bowing down and obeying, like grass yielding to the autumn wind of Noheji.” The metaphor of grass yielding to the wind symbolizes both the sacrifice of soldiers falling in battle, as well as the loyalty of bowing down to the Imperial will.

60. Osari, “Kiyomi harae norito,” 393.

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The Hirosaki shōkonsai ritual itself was observed on the sixth day of the sixth month of 1869 at Uwano to venerate the souls of sixty-four fallen soldiers from Hirosaki domain who died at the Battles of Shōnai, Noheji, and Hakodate.61 According to the Hirosaki domainal journal, on this date, Lord Tsugaru Tsuguakira took part in an “Uwano earthen platform festival (dotansai).”62 Nakaakira served as the master of ceremonies conducting the ritual, while Ono Wakasa, priest of Hirosaki Hachiman Shrine and Hirata disciple, served as assistant master of ceremonies and person in charge of the Tsugaru kagura dance. Based on a survey of domainal records, Tsutaya Daisuke estimates that there were a total of forty-two priests, including master of ceremonies Nakaakira, his two assistants Kubo Harima and Osari Buzen (also known as Tomoo), assistant master of ceremonies Wakasa, and thirty-eight guides for purification.63 The rituals commenced just before eight o’clock in the morning. Master of ceremonies Nakaakira “invited” the spirits and began the great clapping (daihakushu). Shrine attendants placed offerings for the spirits. Rosen recounted the events of the day in great detail in his letter to Yasumi: On the sixth of this month in Ueno, there was a ceremony for pacifying the souls of seventy-three people who died in battle this past spring in Shōnai domain, Nanbu domain, and recently in Matsumae. The master of ceremonies was Osari Satsuma [also known as Nakaakira], and the assistant was Ono Wakasa. As representations of the soldiers, wood was cut in hexagons with their common names written on the back, and their title and “spirit” (shinrei) names on the front. (Though upper ranks are written as divinities (reijin), middle ranks as spirits (shinrei), and lower ranks as souls (reikon).) Offerings of fresh vegetables, fish, and sweets were prepared. The Lord oversaw the rites sitting on a stool; the principal retainers read aloud the sacred texts and

61. Although the souls of 64 fallen soldiers were worshipped at the actual shōkonsai ritual, three more domainal samurai died from wounds sustained in battle over the next month, by the seventh day of the seventh month, and so the list is later updated to 67 war dead. I draw upon the following documents to reconstruct the event of the shōkonsai ritual: Hirosaki domain’s official journal, Goyō dome gaki: goyōnin (gijōdō); Osari Nakaakira’s records of the shōkonsai ritual, Meiji ni mi doshi: shōkonsai goyō domeutsushi; and Ono Wakasa’s and Hirao Rosen’s letters addressed to Shimozawa Yasumi. All of these documents are archived in the Hirosaki City Public Library. 62. Goyō dome gaki: goyōnin (gijōdō), entry for the sixth day, sixth month, 1869 (Meiji 2) (Hirosaki: Hirosaki City Public Library, 1869). 63. Tsutaya Daisuke, “Ishinki ni okeru chihō shōkon jigyō no keikaku to sono tenkai: Hirosaki han no shōkon jigyō wo chūshin ni,” in Hokuo chiikishi no shinchihei, ed. Hasegawa, 272–73.

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called forward children of the soldiers, making them bow in respect, and immediately they accepted those offerings and mementoes. The kagura song and dance concluded, there was music such as Genjōraku, and dances performed by the shrine maidens as well as various others. At this time, once the kagura began, members of over forty platoons formed a procession to the drums, f lutes, and trumpets, arranged in formation, and cannon and rif les were fired. Once concluded, everyone bowed in reverence to the shrine. Truly everything was exact. Orders having been given for people to pay respects at this event, the observers—old and young, male and female—numbered in the tens of thousands; there were that many at spacious Ueno.64 Rosen described the shōkonsai in vivid detail, including the wooden representations of the fallen soldiers, with inscriptions of names, titles, and three ranks of “spirits.” According to shrine records, the fallen soldiers were ordered by rank, beginning with Commander Kojima Sakon, Narita Kyūma, Takasugi Sazen, Commander of Half-Company Taniguchi Nagayoshi, and Chief Flag Bearer Fujita Toranosuke, all of whom were designated the highest rank of “divinity.”65 Sixth on this list is Yamada Yōnoshin, identified as “second son of Hirayoshi” and conferred the posthumous middle-ranking spirit name of “Tateo Spirit” (Tateo shinrei). Rosen described the performance of various rituals, including daimyo Tsuguakira conducting rites. Ono Wakasa performed the Tsugaru kagura, which was also followed by the Genjōraku ancient court dance, as well as dance performances by shrine maidens. Kagura originally represented an offering to the kami, and were typically performed in front of an altar.66 Following the kagura, spirit tablets (reiji) along with offerings were handed to the families of the deceased, the daimyo left his seat, and everyone returned to their designated places, thus bringing the shōkonsai to a close.67 Rosen noted that “some tens of thousands” responded to orders to pay respects and gathered at Uwano in a festive atmosphere.

64. Hirao Rosen, Letter to Shimozawa Yasumi, eleventh day, sixth month, 1869 (Meiji 2); see “Letters,” in AKS, 617–18. There is a discrepancy in Rosen’s numbering the souls of seventy-three fallen soldiers as pacified, as opposed to sixty-four; and in referring to Uwano as Ueno. 65. “Hirosaki shōkonsha hōsai shimei,” Aomori ken gokoku jinja. 66. Hardacre, Shinto: A History, 183–84. 67. Hardacre, 183–84; Tsutaya, “Ishinki ni okeru chihō shōkon jigyō no keikaku to sono tenkai,” 273–74.

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The shōkonsai ritual and related events were also reconstructed in a letter that assistant master of ceremonies Ono Wakasa wrote to Yasumi seven days after the event, on the fourteenth day of the sixth month in 1869. Wakasa also described the proceedings of the shōkonsai and offered a valuable bird’s-eyeview diagram of the ritual that illustrated the positioning of individuals including daimyo and priests, the various parties, and structures and objects including the shrine and offerings (figure 7.1).68 Later in his letter, Rosen described a “festive” scene, characteristic of matsuri. He reported that vendors were on hand doing business, including vendors of snow, water, candy,

Figure 7.1.

Sho¯konsai; bird’s-eye-view diagram (Ono Wakasa letter). Hirosaki City Public Library.

68. Ono Wakasa, Letter to Shimozawa Yasumi, fourteenth day, sixth month, 1869 (Meiji 2) (Hirosaki: Hirosaki City Public Library).

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soba noodles, and tokoroten jelly. Those in attendance enjoyed cloudless skies and an event described as “the spectacle of recent years.”69 Finally, he expressed his dislike of Western inf luence when he noted that “the manner of the military drill was British-style, which was a little detestable.” In the same letter, Rosen documented Yōnoshin’s activities within the Hirata academy. The previous year when one of their peers, Nakamura Yorozuya, went to Tokyo, he delivered Yōnoshin’s work, On Heavenly Descent or Amakudari no kō, to have it viewed by the “current Great Man” of the Ibukinoya. According to Yorozuya, Yōnoshin’s manuscript had been left unattended at the head academy for some time. Rosen echoed Yorozuya’s keen desire for their classmate’s work to be published barring complications, adding, “Indeed, if it is published in such a way, how happy Yōnoshin’s soul would be!”70 So, between Rosen, Yorozuya, and Shimozawa Yasumi, efforts were made to have Yōnoshin’s writing published and thereby honored. In particular, Rosen stated his desire to please “Yōnoshin’s soul” in the afterlife. Merchant poet and Tsugaru group leader Tsuruya Ariyo wrote in his diary Kaganabe an entry recording the shōkonsai ritual, which he followed up with a haiku to commemorate the passing of Yōnoshin: Kuni tama wo Wakete manabitoru Yamada kana71

Ah, Yamada! Who parted the land spirit and studied it

Ariyo honored the memory of his young classmate of the Hirata school by describing how Yamada, whose name is comprised of two characters— “mountain” and “field” or “paddy”—“parted” or dissected the kunitama or “land spirit,” and studied it. Thus, Ariyo utilized his craft of poetry composition and documentation to immortalize the memory of a scholarly peer and fallen soldier through the pastoral imagery invoked by the young man’s name. Here, Yamada was recognized by Ariyo for his scholastic achievement more than for his sacrifice on the battlefield. Thus, members of the Hirata disciple community in Hirosaki were closely involved in the shōkonsai ritual. The two Shinto priests Osari Nakaakira and Ono Wakasa conducted the ritual as master of ceremonies and assistant master of ceremonies respectively, with the latter performing the kagura dance. Merchant townsman Hirao Rosen took part in the “festivities,” and

69. Hirao Rosen, Letter to Shimozawa Yasumi, eleventh day, sixth month, 1869 (Meiji 2); see “Letters,” in AKS, 617–18. 70. Hirao Rosen, Letter to Shimozawa Yasumi, eleventh day, sixth month, 1869 (Meiji 2), 617–18. 71. Tsuruya, Kaganabe, vol. 3, no. 1.

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he along with Wakasa meticulously reported the events in his letter to Yasumi, while group leader Tsuruya Ariyo also documented the funerary ritual while remembering his deceased classmate through poetry. Finally, Yamada Yōnoshin, who had sacrificed his life in the Boshin War, was venerated and deified through the shōkonsai ritual. The war dead of Hirosaki were memorialized by their celebrants in multiple ways. As a poet, Nakaakira composed a waka poem to honor the memory of Ono Masanosuke, a soldier from Hirosaki who was injured at the Battle of Noheji then died on the following twenty-fourth day of the ninth month at Shichinohe. Masanosuke was born in the fourth month of 1847 in Hirosaki, and at age nineteen became an instructor in cannon operation. The young man succumbed to injuries sustained at Noheji at the age of twentyone. Sometime later, Nakaakira composed the following verses, which were published in Poems of Mourning or Tsuitō shika: Shiro dachi no hitori nuki dete suteshi mi no nokoshishi na koso yo yo ni kagayake72

A silver sword drawn out alone as a sacrificed body. May the name he leaves shine on through the ages.

Although Masanosuke’s life was sacrificed at the Battle of Noheji, Nakaakira declared him to be an exceptional young man—compared to a silver sword drawn for battle—who would be remembered evermore. This poem, the memorial collection in which it belongs, and the shōkonsai ritual itself all contributed to commemorating the memory of Masanosuke and his comrades in arms. Hirosaki leaders continued to support the observance of shōkonsai festivals and began developing the shōkondō, or soul-inviting halls, in the two cities of Hirosaki and Aomori. The former remained, while the latter was eventually abandoned.73 Osari Nakaakira, his family, and other priests of Hirosaki Kumano Okuteru Shrine who had played leading roles in the shōkonsai were instrumental in establishing the shōkon facility. A year after the original shōkonsai, on the ninth day of the third month in 1870, a shōkondō was erected

72. Arai Kiyoaki, “Osari Nakaakira no waka: Osari Nakaakira kyūzō no shomotsu to monjo (1),” Nenpō Shishi Hirosaki 9 (2000): 108. 73. See also Tsutaya’s study of the planning for shōkonsai and shōkon halls and shrines in Hirosaki and Aomori in early Meiji. Tsutaya, “Ishinki ni okeru chihō shōkon jigyō no keikaku to sono tenkai,” in Hokuo chiikishi no shinchihei, ed. Hasegawa, 267–93.

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next to Hirosaki castle town in Tomita village.74 At this shōkondō, the souls of Hirosaki’s fallen soldiers were worshipped, as well as those of 208 Kumamoto domainal soldiers who had been dispatched to the northeast but were killed in a shipwreck off the coast of Kazusa province, present-day Chiba. Soldiers from other domains who died in the Boshin War were also ritually added to the spirits enshrined there. In December 1888, the shōkondō was moved to Kami Shiragin machi in Hirosaki city, then in January 1910 transferred to its current location inside Hirosaki Park, on the former grounds of the castle, where it was renamed Hirosaki shōkonsha, or Hirosaki “soulinviting” shrine. Tsutaya observes that, following the separation of the two traditions under the Separation of Shinto and Buddhism policy, “hall” or “dō” is associated with Buddhist structures, representing syncretism with Shinto, whereas the “shrine”—“sha” or “yashiro”—symbolizes a Shinto structure.75 In 1936 as the Imperial Japanese Army continued its occupation of China during the Fifteen Year War, the shrine Hirosaki shōkonsha was renamed Aomori ken shōkonsha. Then in the opening year of the Second World War in 1939, it was recognized as Aomori ken gokoku jinja, or Aomori Prefecture Nation-Protecting Shrine, by the twelfth edict of the Home Ministry.76 Currently, the Aomori ken gokoku jinja, retaining its name from prewar times, is an official religious institution that venerates the souls of 29,171 individuals who have died in military service since the Meiji period. This chapter has documented how Hirosaki domainal leadership, amid uncertainty about political and military developments in the early months of the Meiji Restoration and Boshin War, redirected its loyalty away from the Tokugawa regime and toward the Imperial court and new government. The domain decided to follow orders from the court in Kyoto, including the Konoe family, as well as intelligence on the war. Hirosaki’s decision to loyally support the Imperial court not only accorded with the political aspirations of the local Tsugaru disciples, but it directly implicated one of its members, domainal samurai Yamada Yōnoshin, who fought against enemies from Morioka domain in the Battle of Noheji and died in combat. After the Imperial army secured victory over the Tokugawa army and its supporters, in the sixth month of 1869 Hirosaki domain joined other victorious domains

74. “Aomori ken gokoku jinja” pamphlet, Aomori ken gokoku jinja. 75. Tsutaya, “Ishinki ni okeru chihō shōkon jigyō no keikaku to sono tenkai,” 285–86. 76. Helen Hardacre observes that the practice by Yasukuni Shrine and the prefectural NationProtecting Shrines of enshrining the war dead during a span of over seventy years resulted in a new kind of kami: a growing number of the individuals fallen in war were divinized at these shrines. Hardacre, Shinto: A History, 395–97.

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in carrying out the shōkonsai funerary ritual to “call back” their war dead, whom they honored as martyrs for the emperor, to console and venerate their spirits through norito prayers and ritual. Fellow Hirata followers Osari Nakaakira and Ono Wakasa, both Shinto priests, led the shōkonsai ritual. This ritual developed into the veneration of war dead in the domain and eventually Aomori prefecture, culminating with the creation of the Aomori Prefecture Nation-Protecting Shrine by the time of Imperial Japan’s military campaigns in the Second World War. Building on this discussion of the Meiji Restoration, Boshin War, and shōkonsai, the following chapter examines the beginnings of the Meiji state, including religious reform carried out in Hirosaki. Thus far we have seen how Rosen celebrated the Restoration and the return of the emperor to the center of government. How did Rosen and his fellow members of the Tsugaru group observe and experience the “new dawn” they had come to anticipate following the Restoration of Imperial Rule in Japan? We will see how members of the Tsugaru group held tightly to their ideals as they faced some unexpected realities of a new age, all while they variously experienced, facilitated, and struggled with modernity in Meiji society.

Ch a p ter 8

Modern Society and the Tsugaru Disciples

Celebrations of the Restoration of Imperial Rule and its promises of a “new dawn” would be short lived for members of the Tsugaru group. Rosen observed that the Meiji state compromised Shinto-kokugaku thought while embracing an amalgam of ideas and institutions, increasingly favoring Western imports. Shinto priests struggled to implement the state directive for the Separation of Shinto and Buddhism and to preserve a “pure” Shinto. Membership of the Hirata academy had grown exponentially through the Restoration and early Meiji years, but such growth was halted abruptly in 1871 as the academy faced crisis and conf lict. Ariyo was honored for his leadership in spreading studies on the Imperial Way; however, his death early that year hurt the Tsugaru group, while Hirata Nobutane’s passing a year later deprived the academy of a key leader at the national level. Shimozawa Yasumi memorialized the legacy of the Tsugaru family and domain through commissioned histories and poetry collections. Even as he felt disoriented in a rapidly changing society, Rosen continued his artwork and scholarship, while educating children of the neighborhood on the Imperial history of Japan. When it had appeared, however, that Rosen, his fellows, and the “country” of Tsugaru itself had secured a long-sought place in the Imperial nation of Japan ruled by the monarch, Japan was evolving

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beyond what the kokugaku scholars had envisioned, into a modern nation that looked increasingly unfamiliar and foreign.

Tsugaru and Japan in Modern Times The early years of Meiji saw the “countries” of Tsugaru and Japan undergo a series of transformations, which reshaped the surroundings in which the local Hirata disciples lived. Following its victory in the Boshin War in 1869, the Meiji government awarded Hirosaki domain for its military and logistical support. Within the year, Hirosaki was recognized as a “Distinguished Domain of Imperial Loyalty” (Kinnō shukō han); and for its achievements in the Tohoku Boshin War, daimyo Tsugaru Tsuguakira was presented a “permanent stipend” of ten thousand koku on the second day of the sixth month. This was followed by a separate three-year payment of ten thousand koku on the fourteenth day of the ninth month for his contributions in the Battle of Hakodate.1 Domainal samurai who had fought received prizes from the twelfth month of 1869 into the following year, based on surveys of their achievements on the battlefield that identified 2,530 qualified recipients, later increasing to 2,641. However, the fact that these were small amounts divided from the award received by Tsuguakira, combined with the significant reductions to official stipends by the new government from the sixth month of 1869, caused discontent among the recipients who felt they were not being satisfactorily compensated for their military service.2 The dismantling of the domainal army and its reorganization, on the order of the Ministry of the Military, constituted a major component of the new government reforms. The Hirosaki army numbered 2,272 soldiers in various units when this reform was initiated on the twelfth day of the sixth month in 1869, and was gradually reduced to 821 soldiers in eight companies by the fourth day of the fourth month in 1871, a size regulated for Hirosaki.3 The sociopolitical landscape was being redrawn both locally and nationally. In the seventh month of 1870, the town office (machi yaku) in Hirosaki was abolished, and a gonin gumi, or five-person mutually responsible group, was formed to take its place.4 Infrastructural improvements included the

1. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 238–39; Shinpen Hirosaki shishi hensan iinkai, ed., Shinpen Hirosaki shishi: Tsūshi hen 3 (Kinsei 2), 289–90. 2. Shinpen Hirosaki shishi hensan iinkai, ed., Shinpen Hirosaki shishi: Tsūshi hen 3, 296. 3. Shinpen Hirosaki shishi hensan iinkai, ed., Shinpen Hirosaki shishi: Tsūshi hen 3, 303–5. For a study of the formation of the modern Japanese conscript army see D. Colin Jaundrill, Samurai to Soldier: Remaking Military Service in Nineteenth-Century Japan (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2016). 4. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 247.

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building of new bridges, as well as the draining of swamp lands for development as grounds for nine elementary schools and the renewed academy of Tōōgijuku.5 The reform of 1869 ordered that domainal land be symbolically returned to the central authority, and domainal lords were converted into domainal governors. Furthering these reform measures, on the fourteenth day of the seventh month in 1871, the Meiji government announced the “Dissolution of Domains and Establishment of Prefectures” (haihan chiken). On this day, former daimyo and now domainal governor Tsugaru Tsuguakira was among 261 governors to visit the capital of Tokyo to receive this Imperial edict from the Dajōkan, which reorganized the roughly 260 domains throughout Japan into seventy-five prefectures. The prefecture of Hirosaki was formed in the ninth month of 1871 by amalgamating the former domains of Hirosaki, Kuroishi, Shichinohe, Hachinohe, and Tonami together with Tate prefecture (old Matsumae domain) to create a large territory that spanned from present-day south Hokkaido to northern Iwate.6 Following the assembly of the domainal governors in Tokyo, new officials were dispatched from the capital to govern the prefectures.7 In Hirosaki, Noda Hiromichi (1844–1913) was appointed as councillor in the ninth month of 1871, and he quickly transferred the prefectural office from Hirosaki to Aomori where it opened in the twelfth month. Hiromichi successfully petitioned for the new prefecture to be renamed Aomori.8 The county of Ninohe-gun was absorbed into Iwate prefecture, and Aomori prefecture with its current-day territory came into existence from the fifth month of 1876. As a result, the “country of Tsugaru” became annexed with other “countries” and absorbed into the modern prefecture of Aomori. Hirosaki domain’s twelfth and final daimyo, Tsugaru Tsuguakira, provided important leadership in guiding the domain into modern times. He was born the fourth son to the lord of Kumamoto domain, Hosokawa Narimori, on the twelfth day of the eighth month in 1840 at the domainal residence in Edo.9 At age five, the boy moved to Kumamoto where he was raised in the castle, receiving an elite education in the civil and military arts. After the sudden death of Tsugutomi, the heir to Hirosaki’s eleventh daimyo Tsugaru Yukitsugu in 1855, the daimyo sought to adopt a son from among

5. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 247–48. 6. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 247–48. 7. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 249. 8. Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 249. 9. Tsugaru Tsuguakira kōden kankōkai, Tsugaru Tsuguakira kōden (Tokyo: Rekishi toshosha, 1976), 1.

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the Konoe, Tayasu, and other related, high-ranking families to become his successor. He eventually adopted the boy Tsuguakira from the Hosokawa family. This agreement was reached in the eighth month of 1856, and was approved by the shogunate in the following year. Young Tsuguakira arrived in Hirosaki castle in the seventh month of 1857, then in the following year married Tsugutomi’s widow, Tsune hime. After becoming the twelfth daimyo for Hirosaki in 1859, Tsuguakira led the domain through a series of major decisions and developments. He oversaw its management of and security for Western Ezo territory, and dispatched troops in defense of Kyoto. He headed military reform in late Tokugawa, ordering the production of modern weapons. Following the Restoration and the outbreak of the Boshin War, Tsuguakira listened to intelligence reports, followed orders from the Dajōkan and Konoe family in Kyoto, and ultimately led the domain in transferring allegiance from the shogunal forces to the Imperial cause. Furthermore, in 1870, the new domainal governor enacted the Kiden hō, or “Return to Land Law,” whereby the government forcibly purchased farm land from wealthy merchants and distributed it to samurai for them to develop. Tsuguakira was a supporter of Western Learning and was aware of the need to borrow from Western models to make his own society modern and competitive. His biographer notes that “the Lord kept up with the times, and recognized that English studies would become necessary, and so selected a group of youth and made them study.”10 Eventually, in the first month of 1872, even Tsuguakira himself took up Englishlanguage study from Hirooka Torajirō of Kumamoto and continued studying for several years. Social and intellectual change in Hirosaki—the backdrop for the Tsugaru Japan studies scholars’ experiences—can be gauged in part through the transformation of the domainal school Keikokan into Tōōgijuku academy. The domainal school had opened in 1796 and educated primarily retainers’ children, but later also taught a limited number of commoners in a broad curriculum that included Confucianism, military science, history, law, astronomy, writing, mathematics, and general martial arts. The school published actively, including Chinese classics; writings by Confucian scholar and military strategist Yamaga Sokō, who was a visiting lecturer to Hirosaki; and those by one-time professor of the school Yamazaki Ranshū (1733–99). The academy even produced its own “Keikokan calendar.” Western studies were incorporated into the curriculum from late Tokugawa, with the addition of

10. Tsugaru Tsuguakira kōden kankōkai, Tsugaru Tsuguakira kōden, 336.

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a medical school in 1858 to train physicians, Dutch Learning in 1859, and English-language education in 1866. When daimyo Yukitsugu established a hall for Dutch Learning in Keikokan in 1859, he encouraged the research of Dutch Learning, and supported samurai and town physicians with scholarships.11 Domainal physician Kitaoka Taijun (1799–1878) established the medical school, served as head, and supported town physician Sasaki Genshun (1818–74) who established a vaccination clinic and spread its techniques in the domain.12 From 1862, the operation of Western cannonry and firearms was added to the curriculum for military training as part of a general trend toward “practical learning.”13 Kitahara Kanako demonstrates how the reception of Western Learning in Meiji-period Tsugaru was driven largely by two major forces: the former samurai class of Hirosaki endeavoring to modernize their region through education and Christian missionaries offering Western-style education at this school as a basis for proselytizing activities.14 By comparing the “academy regulations” and curriculums of Tōōgijuku and Keio Academy of Tokyo founded by educator Fukuzawa Yukichi (1834–1901) in 1858, Kitahara reveals considerable inf luence from this central school that specialized in Western Learning. Keio’s strong inf luence on Tōōgijuku was brought to bear through its core members such as Yoshikawa Taijirō (1852–95), who was sent from Keio Academy, as well as Narita Isoho and Kikuchi Kurō (1847–1926), who had also studied at Keio.15 When the Meiji state required that all existing schools including ex-domainal schools be abolished, some responded by merely changing their names, while Tōōgijuku was among those that tried to adjust their system to adapt to the new social conditions.16 A contributing factor to the continuity evident between Keikokan and its successor, Tōōgijuku, was the financial support the school received from daimyo Tsuguakira, a unique factor that enabled its survival.17

11. Tsugaru Tsuguakira kōden kankōkai, Tsugaru Tsuguakira kōden, 4. 12. Fukui Toshitaka, “Bakumatsu ki Hirosaki han ni okeru shutō no juyō to igakukan no setsuritsu,” Kokuritsu rekishi minzoku hakubutsukan kenkyū hōkoku 116 (February 2004). 13. Shinpen Hirosaki shishi hensan iinkai, ed., Shinpen Hirosaki shishi: Tsūshi hen 3 (Kinsei 2), 598. 14. Kitahara Kanako, Yōgaku juyō to chihō no kindai: Tsugaru Tōōgijuku wo chūshin ni. Vol. 3 of Kindai shi kenkyū sōsho (Tokyo: Iwata shoin, 2002), 240–42. 15. Kitahara, Yōgaku juyō to chihō no kindai, 31–37. 16. Kitahara, Yōgaku juyō to chihō no kindai, 18–47. Kitahara here cites Kanbe Yoshimitsu, “Hangaku kara Meiji no chūgakkō e no renzokusei ni kansuru kōsatsu,” in Kokushikan Daigaku bungakubu jinbungakkai kiyō 18 (1986); see also Brian Platt, Burning and Building: Schooling and State Formation in Japan, 1750–1890 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004), 100–43. 17. Kitahara, Yōgaku juyō to chihō no kindai, 18–47.

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The Fundamental Code of Education promulgated by the Ministry of Education in 1872 set forth the Meiji state’s intention to establish a modern education system across Japan, and Brian Platt documents how local society responded actively to state policy to help shape the new educational system from below.18 Local educators echoed ongoing concerns about the backwardness of their region and saw education as essential for it to thrive. Kitadai Masaomi, an early Aomori prefectural governor, argued that education was the key to freeing Aomori from being “backward and conservative,” and that Tōōgijuku would be an essential institution to serve this purpose.19 In the eleventh month of 1872, the domainal school Keikokan was transformed to Tōōgijuku academy under the Aomori prefectural government. Local authorities petitioned the Meiji government to fund the school’s continuing operation, but it remained a private institution.20 Another early educator and principal of Tōōgijuku, Honda Yōitsu (1848–1912),21 a Methodist active in ministry, also promoted the merits of education in this region: Our hometown is very inferior to other places of Japan because of the cold winter climate, the dullness of the people, the lack of political power and the poor economy. Education is the only way to save this district. We believe that the most important thing for Tsugaru is simply education.22 Like their predecessors in earlier centuries, local politicians and educators perceived Aomori prefecture’s place within Meiji Japan as disadvantaged and backward and, consequently, they placed great weight on the education offered at Tōōgijuku as a means of saving the region and its people. Fundamental to modernizing the school was the hiring of foreign instructors (oyatoi gaikokujin), which added to Tōōgijuku’s prestige and credibility. Five foreign instructors were invited to teach at Tōōgijuku, and among

18. Platt, Burning and Building. 19. Kitahara Kanako, “Christianity in the Tsugaru District During the Early Meiji Era,” in Guo, et al., Tsugaru: Regional Identity on Japan’s Northern Periphery, 39. 20. Kitahara, “Christianity in the Tsugaru District,” 39. Kikuchi Kurō was an important founder and financer of Tōōgijuku in the early years. 21. Honda Yōitsu was a Christian, Methodist Church leader, educator, and politician. Born in Hirosaki to a domainal samurai, he studied in Yokohama under James Hamilton Ballagh, received baptism, experienced the revival of the Yokohama Band, and commenced his ministry. In 1874, he returned to Hirosaki and became the principal of Tōōgijuku academy. Honda carried out ministry with John Ing and was a part of the “Hirosaki Band” revival. Along with Ing, he established Hirosaki Church. Honda devoted his life to education, ministry, and politics. 22. Quoted from Kikuchi Takenori, ed., Hakushaku Chinda Sutemi den (Tokyo: Kyōmeikaku, 1938), 312, in Kitahara, “Christianity in the Tsugaru District,” 40.

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them were missionaries Charles H. H. Wolff (1840–1919), Arthur C. Maclay (1853–1930), and John Ing (1840–1920).23 When financial assistance from the local government ceased in 1883, the Methodist Mission helped to fund the school, and in 1888, John Wier, a leading missionary, was elected school principal.24 While administrators struggled to keep Tōōgijuku a private school, in 1900 it came under the jurisdiction of Hirosaki city as a public school and continued operation until it closed its doors in 1913. Having chronicled the transition of Hirosaki’s domainal school to the modern academy into the Meiji years, let us now examine the development of the Hirata academy in the context of Meiji politics and society.

The Hirata Academy in Early Meiji Following the establishment of the Meiji government, the policy of Saisei itchi, or “Unity of Rites and Government,” was proclaimed by Fukuba Bisei (1831–1907), Ōkuni Takamasa (1792–1871), and their faction of kokugaku activists within the government, thereby asserting the emperor’s dual role as both high priest and political head of the Japanese state. As part of this state-building policy, the Jingikan (Council of Divinities), an institution from the eighth-century Ritsuryō state, was resurrected in 1868. At first, the Jingikan was positioned within the Dajōkan (Council of State); however, on the eighth day of the seventh month in 1869, it was made independent and the superior of the two councils. This institution played an important role in administering shinbutsu bunri, or the Separation of Shinto and Buddhism policy, throughout the country. The rapid rise of the Jingikan, however, was reversed rather quickly. Although it had been elevated above the Dajōkan

23. John Ing, an American from the Methodist Mission, was well respected as a teacher who drew from American models and textbooks to redesign the curriculum, teaching oratory skills that trained students to participate in the Freedom and People’s Rights Movements in the 1880s. During his tenure, Ing baptized at least thirty-five people, but despite his popularity with students and administration, anti-Christian movements emerged. In the Meiji Imperial procession to the Tohoku region from June 2 to July 21, 1876, Emperor Meiji praised the high quality of education at Tōōgijuku, and gave the students five yen to buy dictionaries. The emperor even offered John Ing an Imperial audience. Kitahara, “Christianity in the Tsugaru District,” 44. Prominent graduates of the private academy include Chinda Sutemi (1856–1929) and Sato Aimaro (1857–1934), both Japanese ambassadors to the U.S., and famous newspaper journalist Kuga Katsunan (1857–1907) who founded the newspaper Tokyo Denpo (Tokyo Telegram), which he later renamed Nihon ( Japan). Starting in 1877, many students from Tōōgijuku, like Chinda and Sato, traveled abroad to the United States to study in universities, supported by the foreign instructors hired at Tōōgijuku. Kitahara, “Christianity in the Tsugaru District,” 37, 44. 24. Kitahara, “Christianity in the Tsugaru District,” 47–48.

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in 1869, two years later in August of 1871, the Jingikan was reduced to the Jingishō, or Ministry of Divinities. In the third month of the following year, it was absorbed into the Kyōbushō, or Ministry of Education, and shortly after in the tenth month, this latter ministry was amalgamated with the Monbusho. These rapid developments with the promotion of “Shinto” and its pantheon of kami, as well as the enhanced role of the emperor, signaled the arrival of a “new dawn” to many Hirata disciples, as portrayed in Shimazaki Tōson’s novel Yoake mae, or Before the Dawn, about protagonist Aoyama Hanzō, based on the author’s father and Hirata disciple Shimazaki Masaki (1831–86).25 Michael Wachutka has demonstrated how many kokugaku scholars contributed to the modern transformation of Meiji society and took active roles in politics and religion, as well as in developing educational programs and scholarly societies.26 Hirata Kanetane and many Hirata disciples were appointed to important government and educational posts. Kanetane took on the role of magistrate in the Jingikan and Office of Domestic Affairs. Along with kokugaku scholars Tamamatsu Misao (1810–72) and Hirata disciple Yano Gendō, Kanetane successfully petitioned for the establishment in 1868 of the Kōgakusho (Institute of Imperial Studies) in Kyoto, which specialized in kokugaku education, in contrast to the Kangakusho (Chinese Studies Institute), which taught Chinese education. In the ninth month of 1868, Kanetane was appointed as a special consultant at the Kōgakusho and served in a series of important roles, such as tutor to the young Emperor Meiji, as well as special consultant on National History and for the Kyōdōkyoku (Bureau of Preceptors). In the eighth month of 1869, the Daigakkō, or National University, was established in Edo (soon to be Tokyo) for studies on Japan, as well as Chinese and Western studies, and Kanetane was inf luential in its establishment, serving as an administrator and senior professor.27 Kanetane assumed the role of titular head, assisted by his son Nobutane, while the top Hirata disciples joined the faculty. Due to conf licts with governmental authorities, however, the National University was closed in 1870, a decision for which Fukuba Bisei and his faction have been held responsible. Later, in 1879, Kanetane achieved another significant role when he was appointed Senior Prefect of Instruction (Taikyōsei) in the Meiji state’s Great Promulgation Campaign (Taikyō senpu).28

25. Shimazaki Tōson, Yoake mae (Tokyo: Shinchō bunko, 1998); Shimazaki Tōson, Before the Dawn, trans. William E. Naff (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1987). 26. Wachutka, Kokugaku in Meiji-Period Japan. 27. Walthall, The Weak Body of a Useless Woman, 294; Byron K. Marshall, Academic Freedom and the Japanese Imperial University, 1868–1869 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), 22–28. 28. For a comprehensive study on this campaign, see chapter 2, “The Great Promulgation Campaign,” in Helen Hardacre, Shintō and the State, 1868–1988, 42–59; Helen Hardacre, “Creating State

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The year 1871 represents a watershed for both the Meiji state and the Hirata academy. The “Dissolution of Domains and Establishment of Prefectures” policy was implemented, redrawing the Japanese map and its borders, thereby drastically altering the geopolitical and social landscape in the country’s transition to a centralized modern state. Also, some fifty Meiji governmental officials, accompanied by as many students and elite tourists, embarked on the Iwakura Mission overseas to study government, society, education, law, and industries across Europe and the United States for a duration of one year and ten months, from the eleventh month of 1871 to September 1873.29 Such major events exemplify the direction Meiji Japan was taking to advance its policy of “Civilization and Enlightenment,” thus increasingly adopting Western thought and institutions. Against this backdrop, the Hirata academy also experienced a dramatic rise in enrollment and participation in state-building in the first years of Meiji, followed by a steep decline after 1871. The Ibukinoya Disciple Registry, or Ibukinoya monjinchō, shows a sharp increase in disciple enrollment from the early 1860s, rising to a peak of 988 new disciples in the Restoration year of 1868, followed by 756 new disciples in 1869, some 458 more in 1870, then tapering to 270 in 1871.30 Then, in an astonishing descent, a mere eight new disciples registered in 1872. This data quantifies the ebb and f low within the Hirata academy. During these early years of Meiji, a conf lict arose between the Hirata disciples on one side and Fukuba Bisei and his followers on the other. As mentioned above, Bisei and his faction promoted the “Unity of Rites and Government” policy, which called for the harmonious unification of the worship of gods (sai) and politics of the state (sei). At the core of this principle was the emperor who increasingly served both a religious role as head priest of modern Shinto and a political role as head of the Japanese state.31 The Hirata disciples supported representation of a broader pantheon of kami including earthly kami (kunitsu kami) and stood for a more popular, commoner representation of kami worship.32 Past scholarship has regarded the faction led by Bisei and Ōkuni Takamasa as having caused a divide between the people on one hand, and government authorities and the emperor on the

Shinto: The Great Promulgation Campaign and the New Religions,” The Journal of Japanese Studies 12, no. 1 (Winter 1986): 29–63. 29. Jansen, The Making of Modern Japan, 355–61. 30. Kojima, “Bakumatsuki Tsugaru no minzokugakusha,” 24–25. 31. See Donald Keene, Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852–1912 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002). 32. Haga Noboru, Kokugaku no hitobito: sono kōdō to shisō (Tokyo: Hyōronsha, 1975), 196; Haga, Henkaku-ki ni okeru kokugaku (Tokyo: San’ichi shobō, 1975), 250–51; Walthall, The Weak Body of a Useless Woman, 299–300.

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other.33 Yano Gendō became a leading spokesperson for the Hirata faction, himself an inf luential disciple in the academy who focused his writings on spirits and the unseen. These factional tensions boiled over in 1871 in an event that represented a major crisis for the Hirata academy, and signaled its decline. Gendō, the leader of the Hirata faction, insisted that the Daijōsai enthronement ceremony for the emperor be performed in Kyoto, a suggestion that Bisei rejected, on grounds that it obstructed progress and enlightenment.34 In addition, a radical faction of angry grassroots activists schemed to return the emperor to Kyoto by force. Their plot was discovered, however, giving the government a reason to punish the dissidents in this “Offense against National Affairs Incident” (Kokuji ihan jiken). The authorities punished 257 individuals, executed 9, and permitted 2 nobles to commit suicide.35 Anne Walthall observes that this incident—including the arrests of Gendō and others, combined with the government, under Bisei’s inf luence, closing down the National University— marked an end to the kokugakusha’s ambitions to leave a lasting impact on the modern Meiji state. In the tenth month, following the incident, Kanetane and his wife Orise in Kyoto received a letter from their daughter-in-law that Nobutane was near death. Concerned for their son, Kanetane and Orise returned to Tokyo.36 Nobutane died on the twenty-fourth of the first month in 1872 at age forty-five. At a time when disciple enrollment was in steep decline, the death of Nobutane, a key administrator of the academy, dealt a decisive blow to the Ibukinoya and its national network.

Hirao Rosen and the Tsugaru Disciples in Meiji More than any of his classmates in the Tsugaru group, Hirao Rosen wrote openly of his hopes and disappointment in regard to changes he observed in Meiji society both locally and nationally. Rosen sent a manuscript of his magnum opus, New Treatise on the Spirit Realm, or Yūfu shinron, to the Ibukinoya and received a formal review from Hirata Nobutane, dated the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month in 1867. It was favorable and included an endorsement to publish and disseminate the text widely. Nobutane’s piece is entitled

33. Katsurajima Nobuhiro, Bakumatsu minshū shisō no kenkyū, 53–83. 34. Walthall, The Weak Body of a Useless Woman, 300–1. 35. For a discussion of how this event impacted disciples in Tōnō and Nanshin, see Miyachi, Rekishi no naka no Yoake mae, 243–48. 36. “Hirata kokugaku kankei nenpu,” in Meiji ishin to Hirata kokugaku, ed. Kokuritsu rekishi minzoku hakubutsukan, 72.

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“Review of Tsugarujin (Tsugaru native) Hirao Rosen’s work, Yūfu shinron,”37 showing that the academy identified Rosen with his native Tsugaru. Nobutane wrote: As I stated above, Yūfu shinron will indeed rend the hearts of foolish Confucians who say that in the world spirits are the spontaneous activity of the two material forces. Therefore, if possible, I hope you will reconsider the single matter of solar eclipses, then disseminate [this work] widely across society.”38 Nobutane praised this text for its potential to correct the “foolish Confucians” who believe that the actions of spirits in the world can actually be attributed to the workings of yin and yang forces. Most of the review is devoted to urging Rosen to reconsider his interpretations of solar and lunar eclipses. Nobutane insisted that eclipses were not heavenly warnings of misfortune, as Rosen contended, but rather celestial phenomena that could be foretold through astrological methods. While offering such input, Nobutane encouraged him to publish and distribute this work broadly beyond the stated readership among Tsugaru residents and friends, and to aim at a wider audience across Japan, including Confucians. Thus encouraged, Rosen even expressed his personal ambition to publish in a letter he wrote two years later to a friend and fellow Hirata kokugakusha of the Tsugaru group, Shimozawa Yasumi, dated the eleventh day of the sixth month of 1869. In this letter, Rosen listed major works he had written until then, and echoed Nobutane’s endorsement, stating, “I wish to disseminate them as widely as possible in society.”39 While Rosen appeared on one hand to welcome Nobutane’s proposal to publish his work for a broader readership, in the very same letter he rationalized his unwillingness to travel to Tokyo to bring this ambition to fruition: Still I wish to penetrate the depths of the Way and enlighten people ignorant of the precious reason which makes the Imperial country the Imperial country. However, I can only lament that unfortunately I am

37. Hirata Nobutane, “Tsugarujin Hirao Rosen no chojutsu Yūfu shinron no hyō,” in AKS, 600. 38. Hirata Nobutane, “Tsugarujin Hirao Rosen,” 601. 39. Rosen listed his major works in this letter, including Yūfu shinron, Fude no susabi ( Jottings with the Brush), Tani no hibiki (Echoes of the Valley), Gappo kidan (Tales of Gappo), Yōi meiwa (Account of Western Barbarians), Hakodate kikō (Hakodate Travelogue), and artwork in Gappo Sansuikan (Gappo Landscape), and plant and f lower images in four seasons. Hirao Rosen, Letter to Shimozawa Yasumi, eleventh day, sixth month, 1869 (Meiji 2); see “Letters,” in AKS, 617.

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getting old, have difficulty in walking, and am poverty stricken and therefore cannot afford the costs of travel.40 Rosen expressed his resolve to continue research on “the depths of the Way” and to educate people on the nature of Imperial Japan. Despite his ambitions as a youth to travel to Edo and previous travels within his domain and to Ezo to see the “world,” in 1869 at age sixty Rosen cited the reasons of age, declining health and mobility, and financial constraints for turning down this invitation and not venturing out to the center of academic activity in Tokyo. In any event, Rosen here declared his intent to spend his remaining scholarly career and life in Tsugaru. In 1871, Rosen requested Yasumi to send the manuscript of New Treatise on the Spirit Realm back to him from the Hirata academy once corrections were completed.41 Then in the first month of 1874, he apologized to Yasumi for his indecision and cited the reasons of expenses and the text being too “roundabout” or ineffectual as justification for his ultimate decision not to publish.42 In that lengthy letter of 1869, Rosen also expressed concern over future succession to the leadership role of the Tsugaru group. After admitting the conditions that inhibited him from visiting the Ibukinoya academy in Edo, Rosen praised Yasumi as having “sound memory” and being “reliable” and “blessed by the gods to receive an order to ascend to the capital of Tokyo.” Rosen continued: because you are near the Great Master, and can moreover receive the distinguished teachings of high disciples, please study as much as you can, unlock the great meaning of Imperial studies, and devote yourself mindfully to establishing a respectable name in the realm.43 Rosen urged Yasumi, at age thirty-one and thirty years his junior, to take advantage of his position in Tokyo and learn directly from Kanetane and the elite disciples of the academy, to advance in his kokugaku research, and to establish his reputation as a scholar. Rosen acknowledged that aging group leader Tsuruya Ariyo was also declining in health, and admitted, “I have yet

40. Hirao Rosen, Letter to Shimozawa Yasumi, eleventh day, sixth month, 1869 (Meiji 2), 617. 41. Hirao Rosen, Letter to Shimozawa Yasumi, twenty-first day, tenth month, 1871 (Meiji 4), see “Letters,” in AKS, 619; Hirao Rosen, Letter to Shimozawa Yasumi, sixth day, third month, 1877 (Meiji 10; likely), in Fujiwara Gideon, “Hirao Rosen cho Hirao Rosen kashū ni tsuite,” 70. 42. Hirao Rosen, Letter to Shimozawa Yasumi, seventeenth day, first month, 1874 (Meiji 7); see “Letters,” in AKS, 621. 43. Hirao Rosen, Letter to Shimozawa Yasumi, eleventh day, sixth month, 1869 (Meiji 2), 617.

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to see anyone who could succeed him, in the event he retires.”44 While diplomatically describing the future as “good” with the likes of fellow kokugakusha Ono Iwane and Rosen’s own disciple painter Mikami Sennen, he stated, “their determination to break out of their shells is shallow, as you know.” As if to urge Yasumi to take on a central role within the Tsugaru group, Rosen asserted that “studying is number one,” prioritizing it ahead of “the Way of Poetry,” which could be pursued as a source of comfort. As it turned out, Yasumi became preoccupied in his service to the domain and prefecture as a scribe, historian, and editor, and would not take up the role of successor to Ariyo that Rosen seemed to suggest for him here. Nonetheless, we see that in 1869, Rosen was clearly concerned about the group’s future. Over two years later, in a letter dated the twentieth day of the tenth month in 1871, Rosen expressed his concern over waning interest in kokugaku studies and, in contrast, the emergence of Western studies: “Imperial studies (kōgaku) are in great decline; and instead there is an inclination toward Western studies (yōgaku) which I truly deplore. How are Imperial studies in Tokyo at this time? Please fill me in.”45 Rosen lamented the downturn in “Imperial studies” in Hirosaki in 1871, a pivotal year for both the Japanese state and Hirata academy. The death of Tsugaru group leader Ariyo earlier that year had significant bearing on this downward trend. Rosen likely referred to the growth of officially sponsored Western Learning at the local academy Tōōgijuku, including Western languages and sciences, as well as the growing inf luence of both the Keio Academy in Tokyo and American instructors. To illustrate such developments, Nakagawa Kazuaki points out that from 1861 to 1871, twenty-seven people from Hirosaki traveled to Edo/ Tokyo to register with Keio.46 After asking Yasumi for information on the state of Imperial studies in Tokyo, Rosen discussed the death of Tsuruya Ariyo on the ninth day of the fourth month in 1871 and his own emotional struggles in coping with the passing of his good friend and group leader: Now, Ariyo passed away in the fourth month, but since the rest of the group is all devoted to their activities, I believe inquiring about [his death] would only cause commotion, and so I don’t pursue it. I am retired by myself “downtown” and see no signs of overcoming

44. Hirao Rosen, Letter to Shimozawa Yasumi, eleventh day, sixth month, 1869 (Meiji 2); see “Letters,” in AKS, 617. 45. Hirao Rosen, Letter to Shimozawa Yasumi, twenty-first day, tenth month, 1871 (Meiji 4); see “Letters,” in AKS, 619. 46. Nakagawa, Hirata kokugaku no shiteki kenkyū, 373–74.

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melancholy, so simply lament the state of the world. As a result, there are many of Sensei’s works that I have yet to see. Recently, I have invited children from among our neighbors and am currently running a school for them. It is unlike anything I at first imagined, and is very lively and remarkably good for overcoming melancholy. This has helped rejuvenate my aging body, and so I personally delight in it. Please be reassured. Rosen shared with Yasumi his melancholic state and how he retired from society, admitting failure to keep up with “Sensei” Yasumi’s writings. Then he discussed his successes in running an academy—this one for children— when in early Meiji he succumbed to the requests of others and built a school house in the backyard of his residence where he taught neighborhood children.47 Teaching these children helped to lift up his spirits and refresh his aging body. Rosen produced his own textbooks on moral education for the children, including Educational Poems for Children and Three Teachings for Early Education, or Dōmō kyōkunka and Hatsugaku sanyu, both contained in a single volume.48 His students included boys and girls, some of whom went on to graduate from higher normal school and became teachers themselves. Despite this emotional boost from educating children, Rosen continued to struggle with sadness caused by Ariyo’s death, upheaval in local and national society, and old age. Sometime after Ariyo’s death, Rosen wrote a poem in his honor, with the introductory words “Prostrating myself before Ariyo’s grave.” The ninety-fourth poem in Hirao Rosen kashū reads: Utsushiyo to waki wa aretomo kami ni negite otozure kosene yume ni naritomo (94)49

Although there may be a partition with the present world, I pray to the gods, “Please send me word, even if it be a dream.”

Rosen acknowledged the “partition” between this “visible world” and the invisible kakuriyo where he believed Ariyo now dwelt, a major subject of inquiry for both scholars. Although death had severed their lines of communication in this realm, Rosen prayed to the gods—who dwelt and worked actively in the spiritual realm, while being able to inf luence and

47. Nakamura, ed., Hirao Rosen Okina, 10–11. 48. Hirao Rosen, Dōmō kyōkunka and Hatsugaku sanyu (Hirosaki: Hirosaki City Public Library, 1871). 49. Hirao, Hirao Rosen kashū, 7.

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interfere with the visible realm of humans—to intercede and relay word on Ariyo’s behalf to his f riend Rosen. The death of Ariyo dealt a blow to the Tsugaru community of Hirata disciples. Ariyo was the group’s undisputed leader and administrator. Rosen deeply mourned his loss and painted a portrait of Ariyo’s likeness, which he mounted and sent to Hirata Kanetane, via Yasumi, requesting that he inscribe on it some words of praise. Kanetane composed the following waka poem in response: Waga michi ni mi wo tsukushitaru Tsurunoya no Ariyo no oji ga akashi sugata zo50

A brilliant figure is that of Old Man Ariyo of the “House of Cranes,” who devoted himself to this Way of ours.

One can imagine how this poem, composed by the academy head in praise of the late Ariyo as “A brilliant figure,” brought honor to Ariyo’s family and the Tsugaru group. “House of Cranes” is a literal translation of the original “Tsurunoya,” which is simply another rendering of Ariyo’s family name “Tsuruya,” with the particle “no” inserted to achieve the proper five syllables. Kanetane’s appreciation of Ariyo for “devoting himself ” to the Way propagated by Atsutane and his descendants echoes the gratitude he expressed in his early letters to Ariyo from 1856 to 1860, for the Tsugaru leader’s devoted study of Hirata kokugaku from such a distant locale as Hirosaki domain.

Priests and the Separation of Shinto and Buddhism in Tsugaru In the third month of 1868, the new Meiji government issued the shinbutsu bunri rei, or the Separation of Shinto and Buddhism order, as part of its policy of promoting Shinto doctrine nationwide.51 The objective of this order was to forcibly remove Buddhist elements—images and relics—from Shinto shrines and to preserve a “pure” Shinto. As James Ketelaar documents, Shinto priests including kokugaku scholars carried out this anti-Buddhist policy resulting in many cases of destructive and violent persecutions of

50. Aomori ken bunkazai hogo kyōkai, ed., Michinoku sōsho daisankan: Tsugaru han kyū kidenrui (Tokyo: Kokusho kankōkai, 1982), 488. 51. Tanaka Hidekazu, Bakumatsu ishinki ni okeru shūkyō to chiiki shakai (Osaka: Seibundō, 1997), 147–243; Hasegawa, Hirosaki han, 245–47.

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Buddhists unevenly across Japan.52 According to John Breen and Mark Teeuwen, this separation policy was part of a larger religious reorganization that abolished the role which the Yoshida and Shirakawa families had previously held in licensing priests, and redefined Shinto’s relationship with the state.53 From 1868, the newly revived Council of Divinities, under the leadership of Ōkuni Takamasa and Fukuba Bisei, assumed authority over shrines and their priests. Helen Hardacre observes that zealous kokugaku ideologues within the Council of Divinities enforced the separation policy and coordinated with local partisans to undo centuries of syncretic worship.54 Their efforts resulted in a major reorganization of shrines and kami, leading to the incorporation of all people of Japan in shrine life and, thereby, enabled the state to “manipulate shrines with unprecedented intensity.” The policy was carried out with local variation across Japan. Let us look at how it affected religious practice and society in Hirosaki.55 The Meiji government issued the separation order to Hirosaki domain in the fifth month of 1868. Preoccupied with fighting in the Boshin War, Hirosaki delayed administering this directive.56 Eventually, starting in the second month of 1869, the order was announced throughout the domain. The Commission for Temple and Shrine Affairs (jisha bugyō) was converted into the Shrine and Temple Office (shaji goyōsho), and a new Shinto priesthood was formed that was made independent of Buddhist priests (bettō jiin). Newly appointed as head priests (shakechō) in Hirosaki were Ono Iwane (formerly Wakasa), head of the old Hachiman Shrine; Osari Nakaakira of the old Kumano Shrine; and Saitō Nagato of the old Shinmei Shrine. Starting in the ninth month of 1869, shinbutsu bunri was carried out under the leadership of these three, beginning with the large shrines and moving on to smaller shrines in villages. Other Hirata disciples in Hirosaki also active in implementing shinbutsu bunri included Inomata Hisayoshi,

52. James Edward Ketelaar, Of Heretics and Martyrs in Meiji Japan: Buddhism and Its Persecution (Princeton University Press, 1990). 53. John Breen and Mark Teeuwen, A New History of Shinto (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 7–11, 65, 110, 224. 54. Hardacre, Shinto: A History, 368–71. 55. For example, Hardacre observes the following results in varying combinations among the four cases she studied across the southern Kanto region: temples and shrines were restructured in relation to the population; Buddhists suffered a loss of prestige and state patronage, although they did not face violence; and most institutions surveyed were incorporated into a national system of shrine ranks. Helen Hardacre, Religion and Society in Nineteenth-Century Japan: A Study of the Southern Kanto Region, Using Late Edo and Early Meiji Gazetteers (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2002). 56. Tanaka, Bakumatsu ishinki ni okeru shūkyō, 203.

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priest of Itō Shrine; Koyama Naishi, priest of Iwakiyama Shrine; and Gotō Takayoshi, priest of Takateru Shrine. The basic policy carried out in Hirosaki did not entail the all-out destruction of Buddhist statues, relics, and temples in the form of haibutsu kishaku— or the destruction of Buddhism—as in other regions such as Satsuma and Mito.57 Nevertheless, the primary objective of the policy in Hirosaki was the forced removal of Buddhist elements from shrines, leaving intact the local tutelary deities (ubusuna kami), or the name of the “original” kami worshipped there, to make it a “pure” Shinto shrine. In the case of Iwakiyama Shrine, which included both kami and Buddhist idols and relics, all Buddhist objects were relocated to nearby Hyakutakuji Temple, which was eventually eliminated; Iwakiyama Shrine was made a uniformly “Shinto” Shrine.58 The Restoration and the Separation of Shinto and Buddhism policy significantly altered Shinto practice and institutions in Hirosaki. Tanaka Hidekazu notes that the above-mentioned local ubusuna kami were a vital part of the pantheon of kami in statewide Shinto, which placed the solar deity Amaterasu at its pinnacle.59 In the case of small shrines, ubusuna kami rooted in long local tradition were preserved, but the smallest shrines were eliminated, creating for the most part “one shrine per village” (isson issha).60 In this manner, the new Japanese state reorganized the priesthood and shrines to establish modern Shinto in Aomori prefecture by the fourth month of 1873.61 During the Boshin War, Hirosaki Hachiman Shrine offered formal prayers on seven different occasions, including prayers for military victory and protection of the state. Following the war and conclusion of Hirosaki’s security roles in Ezo, however, these became limited to prayers for good weather and crops,

57. Further, Ketelaar explains that the “institutional fall of Nativism” in early Meiji was caused by two aspects of Hirata nativism: the “spiritualization” of the emperor’s role in politics; and “organized attacks upon Buddhism.” In this way, he argues, nativism showed itself to be too religious to rule in politics, and Buddhism was too integrated in society and economy to be eliminated. Ketelaar, Of Heretics and Martyrs in Meiji Japan, 6, 8–10, 12, 43–86, 130. See also Sarah Thal, Rearranging the Landscape of the Gods: The Politics of a Pilgrimage Site in Japan, 1573–1912 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005). 58. Tanaka, Bakumatsu ishinki ni okeru shūkyō, 207. See also Kawanishi, Tōhoku: Japan’s Constructed Outland, 40. See the case of Konpira, which is comparable to that of Tsugaru. Sarah Thal, Rearranging the Landscape of the Gods, 129–36. 59. Tanaka Hidekazu, “Kindai jinja seido no seiritsu katei—Tsugaru chihō no shinbutsu bunri to jinja kaisei,” in Hokuo chiikishi no kenkyū, ed. Hasegawa, 346. 60. Tanaka points out there was public opposition to this new reorganization of shrines, specifically when the locality (zaichisei) of a shrine was lost. Such concerns were based on the belief that a shrine belonged specifically to a village, and this could be disrupted if the locations for shrines were determined according to the new ward system. Tanaka, “Kindai jinja seido no seiritsu katei,” 313–52. 61. Tanaka, “Kindai jinja seido no seiritsu katei,” 345.

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and prayers for the well-being of the domainal lord’s family.62 Not surprisingly, after Tsugaru Tsuguakira was relieved of his role as domainal governor, the shrines ceased to offer official prayers for domainal matters. The appointment of Ono Iwane, a Hirata disciple, as one of the heads to carry out the shinbutsu bunri policy in Hirosaki, allowed the local priesthood to correspond directly with the Jingikan because Iwane exchanged letters with Hirata Kanetane, who was appointed a magistrate within the Jingikan in 1868. Relying on the works of Tanaka and John Breen, I examine Iwane’s struggles in carrying out national policy at the local level.63 In late Tokugawa, Iwane had traveled to the Yoshida Shrine in Kyoto and obtained a license, ritual training, and clerical garments.64 Many shrines in the early modern period were located within the compound of a Buddhist temple, and the Ono family was subordinate to the clergy of the Tendai temple Saishōin. However, as we saw in chapter seven, the Ono family was also one of two shakegashira households, along with the Osari family, responsible for overseeing that shrine priests correctly performed ritual duties, for holding study sessions, and for conveying instructions to other shrine priests. In the summer of 1869, Iwane received orders from the domain, which he passed onto shrines in his jurisdiction, and was also notified that he had been released from the authority of the Saishōin temple and its priests. At his shrine, Iwane was now worshipping Hachiman Daijin, a Shinto kami, instead of Hachiman Daibosatsu, the Buddhist bodhisattva. He inspected shrines under his control, making sure there were “no obvious signs of mixing” between Shinto and Buddhism, and his non-rigorous stance ref lected attitudes of both the domain office and the Jingikan in Tokyo at the time, which emphasized that “the appearance of mixing” be avoided.65 By summer and autumn of 1870, Iwane had grown frustrated over the question of conducting shrine rites. Buddhist priests were now prohibited from performing rites at “Shinto” shrines, the Yoshida and Shirakawa had lost their roles as license providers for shrine officials, and the Hirata academy, which was expected to take a lead role in ritual matters, was embroiled in a bitter conf lict between the factions of Fukuba Bisei and Hirata Kanetane within the Jingikan.66 Despite correspondence with the Jingikan, Iwane was

62. Tanaka, Bakumatsu ishinki ni okeru shūkyō, 181–83. 63. Tanaka, Bakumatsu ishinki ni okeru shūkyō; John Breen, “Ideologues, Bureaucrats and Priests: On ‘Shinto’ and ‘Buddhism’ in Early Meiji Japan,” in Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami, ed. John Breen and Mark Teeuwen (New York: Routledge, 2009). 64. Breen, “Ideologues, Bureaucrats and Priests,” 244. 65. Breen, “Ideologues, Bureaucrats and Priests,” 244. 66. Breen, “Ideologues, Bureaucrats and Priests,” 244–245.

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neither made aware of the tumultuous state of the Jingikan, nor received instruction on shrine rituals. In autumn of 1870, bureaucrats were sent from Tokyo to their new appointments in Hirosaki, and they promptly dismissed Iwane from his post of shakegashira. Due to a lack of qualified personnel to carry out religious reform, however, Iwane was reinstated, and this time he carried out what became a more rigorous policy on Shinto shrines. A tutelary shrine containing Buddhist symbols was required to have them removed and transferred to the Saishōin temple, while having its “original” deity restored. On the other hand, shrines that were not tutelary (ujigami) were to be destroyed. Their Shinto symbols were removed and transferred to the closest tutelary shrine. In 1870, 246 out of 252 non-tutelary shrines in Hirosaki were destroyed. Shugendō priests and the shrines and temples they controlled were also targeted. If the institution was deemed a shrine, the priest either had to cede it to shrine priests, or to undergo reform in order to “convert” to a Shinto priest.67 Those who suffered financially were urged to seek permission to undergo such “conversions.” If, however, it was deemed a Buddhist temple, the Shugendō priest was permitted to continue as Buddhist clergy. As a result of the policy, Shugendō, which had drawn elements from both Buddhism and Shinto, was ultimately abolished in Hirosaki by 1872. Iwane and other shrine priests faced financial hardship as shrine stipends were cut drastically as a result of the strains of domainal reform. This caused multiple protests by Iwane and other priests against Hirosaki’s Shrine and Temple Office in late 1870. Iwane also petitioned the prefectural authorities in the eleventh month of 1871 to provide financial assistance to priests who had been expelled from their shrines.68 Iwane was sorely disappointed that the government was evidently not fulfilling its promises of the “Unity of Rites and Government.” The domain proceeded to dismiss many long-serving priests in favor of “skilled” new priests who would be salaried to carry out state ritual. Iwane too was relieved of his role in the twelfth month of 1871. That day, he made a fervent statement to the prefecture, citing that he was the thirteenth generation of Ono priests to serve at Hachiman Shrine, but now he was being suddenly and sadly dismissed. He stated he had been working diligently and tirelessly: “I can not recall having laboured so hard or suffered so much in all my life.”69

67. Tanaka, Bakumatsu ishinki ni okeru shūkyō, 254–61. 68. Breen, “Ideologues, Bureaucrats and Priests,” 247. 69. Breen, “Ideologues, Bureaucrats and Priests,” 248.

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The separation policy in Hirosaki resulted in the forced removal of Buddhist elements from shrines, the preservation of the local tutelary deities (ubusuna kami), or “original” kami of that place, and the establishment of “pure” Shinto shrines. Such reorganization of Shinto in Hirosaki was a complex and demanding process. Iwane’s experience of shinbutsu bunri to the end of 1871 epitomizes the uncertainty and hardship experienced by local shrine priests even while serving as agents of national policy at the local level, in large part because they still represented the local religious tradition.

Shimozawa Yasumi: Immortalizing “Tsugaru” While Iwane, Nakaakira, and other Shinto priests participated in carrying out shinbutsu bunri, another Shinto priest and member of the Tsugaru group, Shimozawa Yasumi, was commissioned by daimyo Tsuguakira to compile histories and poetry anthologies to preserve the memory of the Tsugaru family and the domain it ruled. Shimozawa Yasumi was born in 1838, the eldest son to a samurai of Hirosaki domain, Shimozawa Washizō. Yasumi studied poetry under Nakaakira and kokugaku under Kanetane, officially registering as a Hirata disciple on the twenty-eighth day of the eleventh month in 1869, with a formal introduction from Ariyo. Shimozawa was a poet, scholar, Shinto priest, and historian. He was appointed an official agent and scribe for the Hirosaki domainal residence in Kyoto, and in this capacity served and studied poetry with Lord Konoe Tadahiro of the court family with whom the Tsugaru clan had forged ties.70 Rosen sent a copy of his Anmon Travelogue and Images, or Anmon kikō zu, to Tadahiro in Kyoto through Yasumi, and in return was honored with the gift of a poem on a tanzaku.71 Later, Yasumi served as a scribe for records of the Hirosaki domain shrine and temple, and as priest at the Iwakiyama Shrine. On a national scale, Shimozawa Yasumi made a major contribution to Japanese literature by helping to popularize the annual New Year Poetry Ceremony (Outa kai hajime) held at the Imperial court. After consultation with Fukuba Bisei, in the twelfth month of 1873 Yasumi submitted a petition, care of Bisei, to the Imperial Household Ministry, urging the acceptance of poems by commoners in the annual ceremony.72 As a result, on the twelfth

70. Miyamoto Takashi, Outadokoro to kokugakusha (Tokyo: Koubundou, 2010), 191–92. 71. Hirao Rosen, Letter to Shimozawa Yasumi, eleventh day, sixth month, 1869 (Meiji 2); see “Letters,” in AKS, 617. 72. For this discussion I draw valuable information from Miyamoto Takashi, Outadokoro to kokugakusha, especially chapter five, “Outa kai hajime no eishin seido to Meiji no kokugakusha,”

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day of the first month of 1874, the Ministry issued the following notice: “On the occasion of the New Year Poetry Ceremony in the first month of every year, poetry submitted regardless of background by officials, peers, and commoners alike will be collected and recorded, and offered for review by His Majesty.”73 In this way, Yasumi contributed to enabling commoners to participate in this traditional ceremony for poetry composition and, thereby, made the emperor more accessible to the common people. Yasumi’s very act of editing histories and poetry anthologies commissioned by daimyo Tsuguakira represents an exercise in immortalizing the Tsugaru daimyo as well as the history of Hirosaki domain of the early modern period. A representative poetry anthology that Yasumi was commissioned to edit was Tsugaru Old and New Poetry Collection, or Tsugaru kokin taisei kashū.74 This collection is comprised of twenty volumes of thirty-one-syllable waka poems composed from the mid-sixteenth century through to the early years of Meiji, and through its arrangement and ordering of poems captures the sociopolitical standing of important historical figures within the domain. Volume one is a collection of poems by founders and other instrumental figures of Hirosaki domainal history, beginning with head of the noble Konoe family and Grand Minister of State, Konoe Sakihisa (1536–1612);75 and Ōura Tamenobu, or “Fujiwara Tamenobu,” known as the founder and first daimyo of Hirosaki domain. These are then followed by several poems by the second daimyo, Tsugaru Nobuhira (r. 1607–31); third daimyo Nobuyoshi; then, suddenly, twelfth and final daimyo Tsuguakira. Waka poems by former daimyo, daimyo’s wives, domainal samurai, and various notable figures of Hirosaki domainal history follow in successive volumes. The first of the Hirata kokugakusha community whose poems appear are those of the samurai who also served as Shinto priests, beginning with Inomata Hisayoshi in volume five, then Osari Nakaakira at the start of volume six. Poems by townspeople from the group appear in volume fifteen, headed by Tsuruya Ariyo, Ueda Masatake, and Hirao Rosen.76

187–219. I have also gained insights from Tazawa Tadashi, ed., Kan’un Shimozawa Yasumi sensei wo aogu: Goikō to kankei shokanshū (Hirosaki: Kan’un Shimozawa Yasumi sensei no ikō wo yomu kai, February 1991). 73. Miyamoto, Outadokoro to kokugakusha, 10. 74. Shimozawa Yasumi, ed., Tsugaru kokin taisei kashū (Aomori: Aomori Prefectural Library, n.d.). 75. Konoe Sakihisa was well versed in Chinese and Japanese poetry. 76. The 47 poems by Hirao Rosen contained in this collection were selected f rom among the 116 poems in Hirao Rosen kashū. See Fujiwara, “Hirao Rosen cho Hirao Rosen kashū ni tsuite,” 54–81.

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This effort to immortalize figures from domainal history is also evident in a collection of biographical records edited by Yasumi that also displays the Tsugaru authorities’ “official” categorization of individuals and assessments of their social rank. In 1874, daimyo Tsuguakira ordered Yasumi, Higuchi Tateyoshi, Kanematsu Sekkyo, and others to consult various documents and compile biographies of the Tsugaru lords from the domain’s foundation until its abolition in 1871.77 This work, titled Tsugaru Domain Personal Records, or Tsugaru han kyū kirui, highlights major events and accomplishments by the Tsugaru lords and was completed in 1877. These represented the “main” volumes of the biographical collection and were followed by “successive” volumes devoted to daimyo wives and domainal vassals with a similar but slightly different title, Tsugaru Domain Biographical Records, or Tsugaru han kyū kidenrui.78 As a collection, these two multivolume sets function as a valuable “who’s who” of early modern Tsugaru history, and the “successive” volumes themselves feature some 164 major figures and over 280 in total. Similar to the poetry anthology above, toward its end this “official” biographical survey also introduces the Hirata disciples, again in order of social rank beginning with samurai Inomata Hisayoshi and Osari Nakaakira in sections devoted to “Literature” and “Waka Poets” respectively. Hirao Rosen is introduced in the “Artists Section”; followed by his disciple, artist Mikami Sennen; and his teacher of art, writing, and literature, Momokawa Gakuan. Tsugaru group leader Tsuruya Ariyo is the fourth and last of the group taken up here, appearing toward the end in the “Haikai Poets Section.” Yasumi, who is credited with having edited this section on Ariyo, wrote about the group leader: Ariyo favored Imperial studies, and in Ansei 4 (1857) became a disciple of Hirata Daigaku Kanetane, along with his disciple Imamura Mitane, whose common name is Yōtarō, and several others. They cooperated with each other and invested thousands of gold pieces in purchasing books and widely expanding Imperial studies.79

77. Narita Matsugorō, “Tsugaru han kyū kidenrui kaisetsu,” in Tsugaru han kyū kidenrui, Michinoku sōsho daisankan. ed. Aomori ken bunkazai hogo kyōkai (Tokyo: Kokusho kankōkai, 1982). 78. As Narita explains in his introduction, the original set of main and successive volumes was kept in the Tsugaru household and remained unpublished. They are presumed lost, perhaps destroyed in fires during the Second World War. The transcription of Tsugaru han kyū kidenrui that I have used here was published by Kokusho kankōkai, based on a manuscript archived in Hirosaki City Public Library. This manuscript had been copied from the original lent to the library by the Tsugaru family, as part of the Ministry of Education’s (Monbusho) recognition of this library’s excellence in 1928. Narita Matsugorō, “Tsugaru han kyū kidenrui kaisetsu.” 79. Narita Matsugorō, “Tsugaru han kyū kidenrui kaisetsu,” 488.

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This official biography commissioned by local authorities recognizes and praises Ariyo’s endeavors in transmitting Hirata kokugaku to Hirosaki. Yet, such recognition appears incongruent with his “official” social standing. As explored in chapter four, despite the high esteem Ariyo earned for his poetry composition and leadership role within the voluntary association of the Tsugaru group, he was regarded within Hirosaki domain as a townsperson of relatively low social standing, albeit, one of considerable cultural achievement. Now that we have tracked the experiences of several members of the Tsugaru group in the Meiji years and have considered how they were remembered, let us now return to the central figure of our study to examine his later years and how he grappled with modernity.

Hirao Rosen: The Twilight Years Of commoner class, Rosen navigated his own way through changing times. His granddaughter, Doki Yasuko, recalled the daily routine of her grandfather in his sixties. He arose early in the morning, and always washed his face with cold water even in cold weather, paying particularly close attention to cleansing his eyes.80 Rosen then knelt, closed his eyes, and clapped his hands in reverence to the kami. Breakfast was served on a dining table, and Yasuko was tasked with bringing out his tobacco and pipe. After his meal, Rosen smoked his pipe, then entered his study to work. Unless he was hosting guests, he would again enter his room at nine o’clock at night. Rosen kept this exact routine every day which, Yasuko remarked, was not always productive, as commissions for paintings built up. When Rosen’s wife, Tome, pressed him about this, he scolded her and Yasuko for their lack of empathy for an artist’s struggles, grumbling, “Do you think I can paint just so long as my hands are free? It is not that simple!”81 As a professional artist, Rosen was certainly aware of and even sensitive to how his work was being evaluated. The following waka poem, number eighty-nine in his anthology, is presented with the introduction “When they

80. In giving a personal view of his grandfather, Rosen’s grandson, Mikami Omoikiyo, recollects that in the early Meiji years his grandfather enjoyed drinking tea, as well as sake, in “modest” amounts of two cups (gō). Rosen’s favorite fish and seafood included perch (suzuki), sashimi, squid, raw herring roe, carp (funa) wrapped in kelp (konbu), and cod grilled in miso. His favorite foods also included nattō (fermented soy bean) soup, tofu, eggplant, bean sprouts, and thinly cut udon noodles. He rarely ate between meals, kept a conscientious diet, and maintained good health. Rosen was known to be frugal, using paper with care, and reusing one piece multiple times. Nakamura, ed., Hirao Rosen Okina, 43. 81. Nakamura, Hirao Rosen Okina, 49.

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speak of ‘judging calligraphy and painting,’ usually it is determined by that person’s likes and dislikes. I feel it is truly a foolish thing to say, ‘I am certain [of the outcome]’”: Sukeba yoku sukaneba ashi to onoga shishi kotoage shinuru akashi to iwabaya (89)82

Does this not validate each one giving voice to their own thoughts, “If they like it, it’s good,” “If they dislike it, it’s bad”?

Rosen complained cynically that the assessment of artistic work was typically subjective according to the judge’s tastes, and not based on an objective evaluation of technical criteria. Yasuko remembers her grandfather’s lessons on Japanese history as a highlight.83 A history enthusiast herself, she brought a history book with her to the dinner table which she would ask her grandfather to read to her, after she had finished eating. Yasuko did not consider this “studying,” but took pleasure in listening to him read, then comment on the passage; her grandfather was entertaining and easy to understand because of his thoughtful explanations. The sight of Yasuko shedding tears upon learning that the Ashikaga clan’s disloyalty brought an end to Emperor Go-Daigo’s Kemmu rule and resulted in division into Northern and Southern Courts from 1336, in turn moved Rosen to tears. He remarked, “How precious! [This history] is not just a matter of the past. It is something graceful, upheld even now with painstaking effort.”84 He then proceeded to recite the words of Kitabatake Chikafusa: Japan is the divine country. The heavenly ancestor it was who first laid its foundations, and the Sun Goddess left her descendants to reign over it forever and ever. This is true only of our country, and nothing similar may be found in foreign lands. That is why it is called the divine country.85

82. Hirao, Hirao Rosen kashū, 6. 83. Nakamura, Hirao Rosen Okina, 58–59. 84. Nakamura, Hirao Rosen Okina, 58. 85. Although Nakamura’s biography contains the original passage, I quote the translation from Kitabatake Chikafusa, Chronicles of the Direct Descent of Gods and Sovereigns (Jinnō shōtō-ki), in vol. 1 of Sources of Japanese Tradition, ed. Wm. Theodore De Bary, Donald Keene, George Tanabe, and Paul Varley (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001), 358. See also A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns. Translated by H. Paul Varley (New York: Columbia University Press, 1980).

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Yasuko was impressed by these words that her grandfather urged her to commit to memory, agreeing that Japan was indeed a precious country blessed by the kami. Later, she was moved even more to learn they were the opening lines of Jinnō shōtōki (A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns) by court noble and historian Kitabatake Chikafusa (1293–1354). Purchasing books was beyond Rosen’s means, and so he borrowed texts from others and hand-copied essential portions, as seen in his 150-chapter Kōsai’s Records, or Kōsai shōshi. When questions arose, he consulted with specialists in the relevant fields, and pursued his inquiry until he had obtained an answer. Once he visited Kanematsu Sekkyo twice in the same day to peruse his books. Yasuko insisted that her grandfather studied not for its own sake, but because he found enjoyment in learning, which helped him forget his worries and aging. Likewise, his devotion to painting and writing from morning to night helped him to overcome fatigue and idleness. She also observed that although Rosen professed his devotion to the way of the gods, he respected his wife’s Buddhist faith. He neither objected to her offering food and water at the window of their home to commemorate unmourned spirits of the deceased, nor to her visiting the temple.86 In February of 1873, Rosen completed his Household Precepts with Commentary or Kakun teiyō, which outlines guidelines for various aspects of his life, work, household, and faith in line with his earnest attitude and industrious work ethic.87 Rosen’s work serves as a valuable example of household precepts (kakun) from early Meiji when there were many produced by merchant literati, and declining numbers by individuals with samurai-level education.88 Rosen laid out twenty-seven articles, beginning with three that call for upholding the law of the Imperial court, filial piety, and diligence in one’s occupation. Other notable articles include number five, which calls for storage of food in preparation for bad harvest years; number seven, which instructs one to rise early, visit one’s parents, then worship gods and ancestors; and number fifteen, which states that “scholarship is something that requires practical learning (jitsugaku).” In private worship and in his writings, Rosen expressed his faith and devotion to the kami, including early morning worship of gods and ancestors as outlined in his Household Precepts. His faith in the kami appears to have even

86. Nakamura, Hirao Rosen Okina, 51. 87. Sato Kazuo, “Shiryō kaisetsu: Hirao Rosen Kakun teiyō ni tsuite,” Hirosaki Daigaku kokushi kenkyū 72 (1980). 88. Kondō Hitoshi, Sengoku jidai buke kakun no kenkyū (Tokyo: Kazama shoten, 1978), quoted in Sato, “Shiryō kaisetsu: Hirao Rosen Kakun teiyō ni tsuite,” 30–31.

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inspired his amazement at the works of creation. The twenty-third poem in Rosen’s poetry anthology has the introduction “Viewing various small objects using a microscope”: Tama chiwau Takami musubi no kami waza wa tae ni kusubi ni gyō tarawashite yū ni iwarezu (23)89

The divine works of the blessed spirit of Takami musubi are so wondrous and mysterious, they cannot be described even by adding a line.

The poem captures Rosen’s excitement at viewing objects in fine detail through a microscopic lens. Yet, while using an instrument of modern science and technology, Rosen’s poem focuses on the “wondrous and mysterious” nature of the “divine works” of one of the three creator deities, Takami musubi no kami. He thus utilized this Western scientific import in order to better appreciate the spiritual wonders engendered by Japan’s indigenous deities. By adding an extra sixth line, comprised of seven syllables, this waka poem takes on the form of bussokuseki katai, literally, the “poetic form of the Buddha’s footsteps,” further emphasizing his awe and appreciation.90 Poems commemorating the life of Shakyamuni Buddha were composed in this form consisting of 5/7/5/7/7/7 syllables and were inscribed on tablets at the Yakushiji Temple in Nara. Ironically, Rosen drew upon a Buddhist convention to salute a Shinto deity over discoveries made possible by a microscope imported from the West. In his later years, Rosen prepared his artwork with great anticipation to be viewed by the emperor. Sources, however, indicate that his wish went unrealized. On June 2, 1876, Emperor Meiji left Tokyo to embark on an Imperial visit through the Tohoku region, accompanied by 230 people, including cabinet ministers, official historians, chamberlains, and physicians. He arrived in Aomori on July 14 for his tour of the prefecture.91 For this occasion, Rosen repainted his “Anmon bakufu no zu” (Anmon Falls Image), “Nishi hama no zu” (Nishi hama Image), and “Zue Iwaki san” (Image of Mount Iwaki) to exhibit before the emperor. Rosen composed the following waka poem: Waga kakishi Although it is mono nari nagara something I painted, tootoshiya how precious!

89. Hirao Rosen, Hirao Rosen kashū, 3. 90. Roy Andrew Miller, “The Footprints of the Buddha”: An Eighth-Century Old Japanese Poetic Sequence (New Haven, CT: American Oriental Society, 1975). 91. Keene, Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 260.

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Akitsu Mikami no If it was touched by the hand mite ni furureba92 of a visible god. In an expression of modesty, Rosen remarked that although these paintings of scenic locales throughout Tsugaru were his own humble works, their value would be enhanced by virtue of being touched (metaphorically) by the hand of the Emperor Meiji, believed to be a “visible god.” This poem reveals Rosen’s awe at the prospects of having his artwork viewed and personally appraised by Japan’s monarch. After many years of “Imperial studies,” such a “personal” experience for someone of commoner class like Rosen became possible for the first time in the Meiji period. The Imperial viewing of his works, however, failed to materialize, and his disappointment apparently lasted for his remaining years.93 As Takashi Fujitani describes, during his Imperial tour of Tohoku and elsewhere, Emperor Meiji recognized commoners for their individual contributions to industry, culture, and education, and visited various institutions, “touching them with his authority and bringing them into the order of which he was to be the center.”94 The kokugaku scholar Rosen would have been cognizant of Imperial symbols and official myths to which, as Fujitani explains, many of the multitudes witnessing the sovereign would have been oblivious. In 1875, at age sixty-seven, Rosen fell seriously ill. Distraught, his disciples organized an event at the Tenmangū Shrine to celebrate their teacher’s life, which was attended by hundreds of literati and painters, who were also joined by thousands more from among the general public. Vendors who set up shop on site reaped profits. A book comprised of paintings, poetry, and writings from that day, along with a byōbu screen, were offered to the shrine. Overjoyed by the occasion, Rosen composed haiku and waka poems. In the end, he would live for another five years: Rosen died on February 21, 1880, at the age of seventy-one. His funeral was conducted in Shinto style, and his grave with tombstone are located on the grounds of the Teishōji Temple in Shintera machi in Hirosaki. Following the deaths of Ariyo in the fourth month of 1871 and Rosen in 1880, their disciples held a gathering to paint and to compose Chinese poems, waka, and haiku. Disciples of the two men erected stone monuments adjacent to each other in honor of their 92. Nakamura, Hirao Rosen Okina, 14. 93. While Nakamura and others document that Emperor Meiji viewed Rosen’s paintings, letters exchanged between Rosen’s descendants in 1895 reveal that the Imperial viewing of his works went unrealized despite Rosen preparing his artwork for the occasion. In that same year, his descendants sent Rosen’s Anmon bakufu no zu paintings in three volumes and a travelogue of the same title to Konoe Atsumaro (1863–1904), President of Gakushuin, as a gift to the Imperial court. Aomori kenritsu kyōdokan, ed., Hirao Rosen: Aomori no Da Vinchi, 135. 94. Fujitani, Splendid Monarchy, 47–48.

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Figure 8.1. Stone monuments honoring Tsuruya Ariyo and Hirao Rosen, Tenmangu¯ Shrine, Nishi Shigemori, Hirosaki. Photograph by author.

teachers in the precincts of Tenmangū Shrine in Nishi Shigemori in Hirosaki, which fulfilled a promise made between Ariyo’s disciples and their teacher during his lifetime (figure 8.1). This was an appropriate site since the shrine was devoted to the worship of Sugawara no Michizane, the god of learning. It was on October 25 of the same year, 1880, that Ibukinoya head Hirata Kanetane also died at age eighty-two. And so, just as Rosen’s passing marked the end of an era in kokugaku studies in Hirosaki, so too did Kanetane’s death signal the end of an era at the Hirata academy and within the national network throughout Japan. In his later years, Rosen was markedly less active than when he had traveled Tsugaru and Ezo years before, or when he had written a series of substantial scholarly texts. Naturally, Rosen was slowed by aging. Yet, after facing disappointment that Japan in the modern period would be built not solely on Shinto-kokugaku thought and “indigenous” institutions, but that Western ideas and institutions were actively embraced in state-building, Rosen appears to have begrudgingly accepted a fate for local and national society that denied the promises of a “new dawn” heralded by Hirata kokugaku and its followers through the Restoration and early Meiji years. After his journey to Ezo in 1855, and his direct observations of peoples of the West, Qing China, local Ezo, and Imperial Japan, Rosen confronted neither the West

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nor the wider world for that matter, but ever more deeply engaged Tsugaru and Imperial Japan in an effort to locate his local community in a larger spiritual landscape. Now in his later years, when he again “encountered” the West, this time in its growing inf luence over Meiji Japan, combined with the reality that people in Hirosaki and throughout Japan were abandoning kokugaku and Imperial studies, he appeared to similarly avoid any real confrontation or engagement with the West or the world. Anne Walthall demonstrates how Hirata Nobutane, his relatives, and their supporters in Akita adopted Western technology and engaged in foreign trade in their attempts to adapt economically to changes in early Meiji, thus showing f lexibility in preserving traditional values while adjusting to a new world.95 In contrast, Rosen rejected such engagement and instead retreated again to himself and his immediate environment, continuing his artwork and scholarship, and teaching neighborhood children and his own grandchildren Japan’s history centered around the Imperial court. Rosen’s resistance to Western inf luence and modernity, as embraced by the Meiji state and society, ultimately gave rise not to the community he had imagined but instead to his own disillusionment and alienation. As Kojima Yasunori has noted, Rosen was not a man who took courageous action or championed a political cause like the shishi (“men of high purpose”), or like the Imperial loyalist activists across Japan and within the Hirata academy through the late Tokugawa, Restoration, and early Meiji years.96 In addition to being a painter, Rosen was a scholar who pursued truth through scholarship to the last years of his life. Based on ethnographic research and informed by theories of Hirata kokugaku, Rosen conducted his inquiries on spirits, the human soul, and the spiritual realm.97 Rosen composed the following poem, date unknown but number seventy in his Hirao Rosen kashū, introduced by the words “Upon copying an image of Old Man Hirata”: Misugata wa ōyoso utsushi matsuredomo utsushi e gataki Ushi no mikokoro (70)98

Though I may replicate his image generally, the Great Man’s heart is hard to replicate.

95. Anne Walthall, “Shipwreck! Akita’s Local Initiative, Japan’s Foreign Debt, 1869–72,” The Journal of Japanese Studies 39, no. 2 (Summer 2013): 271–97. 96. Kojima, “Bakumatsuki Tsugaru no minzokugaku Hirao Rosen,” 27–28. 97. In the late Tokugawa years, Rosen wrote Shinron sōkō, or New Treatise Manuscript, a substantial work of 14 volumes that builds on his discussion in Yūfu shinron. This text is housed at the National Diet Library in Tokyo, in the Kotenseki shiryō shitsu. 98. Hirao, Hirao Rosen kashū, 5.

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As an artist, Rosen professed he could copy the likeness of his teacher, Atsutane, with some accuracy. As a scholar and disciple, however, he humbly admitted that the depths and extent of the “Great Man’s heart”—his thought and intentions—were actually difficult to reproduce. We can see that compiling New Treatise on the Spirit Realm was Rosen’s attempt to “replicate” “the Great Man’s heart” within his own environment in Tsugaru, a project toward which he was highly driven and motivated. The depths to which Rosen engaged Atsutane’s teachings intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually gave further meaning and direction to his scholarly work up through the Restoration, but ultimately compounded the disappointment he felt when facing rapid and drastic change in the Meiji years.

Conclusion Ethnography, Kokugaku, and Community in Modern Japan

My several visits to the city of Hirosaki and region of Tsugaru include a year-long stay during which I conducted most of the research for this book. During these visits, I experienced the summer festival of Neputa in three different years (figure 9.1). In the months leading up to the event, numerous associations pitched tents across the city to construct Neputa f loats in the shapes of fans, depicting warriors and other historical and mythical characters of the past. Then in the week-long festival from late July into early August, tens of thousands of people descended upon the heart of town, lining the streets that wound around the park surrounding Hirosaki castle; the Japan Rail station; and through the shopping, business, and entertainment districts. Full days of preparation led to the festivities that began at dusk and lasted into the night. Spectators chanted in unison with the f loat bearers, drummers, f lutists, and dancers, cheering them on. People, from men, women, and young children to the elderly, danced and made noise, partaking in the energy. In the summer following the Great East Japan Disaster—the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis beginning on March 11, 2011—the festival and its crowds grew especially large and spirited, because the Neputa festival in Hirosaki, along with the Nebuta in Aomori, symbolized for many people the spirit of recovery, perseverance, and rebuilding. Accordingly, the Neputa was promoted as one of the “Six Souls of Tohoku” (Tohoku rokkon)—festivals 229

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Neputa festival, Hirosaki, August 2011. Photograph by author.

performed across the six prefectures of the northeastern region. That summer I witnessed the power of matsuri (festival) bringing together a community. The observance of the Neputa in contemporary times constitutes a living link to the early modern past. Hirao Rosen’s painting of the Nebuta captures the vivid colors and striking movements of the region’s most important cultural event, and enables us to relate scenes enacted today to those of Rosen’s time in the nineteenth century. The preceding pages documented the transition of the country of Tsugaru from early modern Tokugawa society to the modern Meiji nation-state, through the experiences of the Hirata school kokugaku scholars residing in Hirosaki castle town. Now let us tie the narrative together and explore the significance of their efforts to identify their place of belonging from country to nation, and furthermore consider the legacy of their work and experiences. From the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries Tsugaru’s leaders tried to secure a place for their “country” within the realm of the rightful ruler of Japan—be it Hideyoshi, the Tokugawa shogun, or Emperor Meiji—through negotiating political ties or fulfilling military service at various times. The Hirosaki domain subjugated the Ainu peoples on the Tsugaru peninsula, which resulted in the assimilation of many of their communities by the nineteenth century; although some Ainu villages maintained their distinct identity into the early Meiji years. The Tsugaru group of scholars established

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themselves in Hirosaki castle town—Hirao Rosen as an artist and ethnographic researcher, and Tsuruya Ariyo as a poet—and both utilized their crafts to capture visions of what they saw in their local “country” embedded in a larger Japan. From their youth, Rosen and Ariyo learned from notable teachers in their local town; yet they yearned for the advanced scholarship of Edo inaccessible to them in their backwater. Rosen fed his growing thirst for information by accessing political documents via samurai contacts and compiled these into two fūsetsudome collections, which demonstrate his keen awareness of national politics starting in the mid-1850s. When he visited the northern island of Ezo, including Hakodate, in 1855 soon after the port was “opened” by the Japan-US Treaty of Peace and Amity, he rediscovered “Japan” and its regional diversity, as well as its place among a community of nations that included the industrially advanced and militarily dominant United States, Britain, and European countries, as well as the once-mighty Qing China still reeling from defeat in the Opium War. After seeing Japan’s place in this wider context, Rosen did not engage with the world, but rather pursued ethnographic inquiry on Tsugaru, and then on Japan. Starting in 1857, Ariyo, his fellow poets among the townspeople, and Shinto priests became posthumous disciples of the late Hirata Atsutane, drawn to Atsutane’s message of a sacred Japan, a spirit realm that touched this world, and pious faith in the gods. Joining the Ibukinoya academy centered in Edo helped to satiate a thirst to link their own “country” of Tsugaru to the larger nation of “Japan” through Hirata kokugaku. The Hirata academy recognized the Tsugaru group as a valuable link in the north, and this circle led by merchant-class scholars exhibited scholarly autonomy in comparison to neighboring disciple communities in Morioka and Akita. The national network supplied their circle with texts from the academy and information from across Japan. By studying Japan’s Ancient Way, Iwama Shitatari, the group’s second registrant after Ariyo, was able to enhance the quality of his composition of waka poetry. Meanwhile, Rosen carried out ethnographic studies of the folk culture and spiritual mysteries of Tsugaru for over a decade. By engaging Hirata kokugaku, Rosen discovered a powerful theoretical framework for rationalizing local mysteries that had hitherto seemed to be isolated incidents in a remote backwater. He used these kokugaku theories of the kakuriyo to explain the working of the gods behind mysterious phenomena in his New Treatise on the Spirit Realm completed in 1865. For the two most active scholars of the group, Rosen and Ariyo, Atsutane’s theories served as a potent lens for reenvisioning with clearer resolution their country of Tsugaru within a larger spiritual landscape of the nation of Imperial Japan, underpinned by

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both a common kakuriyo and the pantheon of gods dwelling therein. Ariyo’s poetry and prose, completed in 1866, describe Mount Iwaki as a gateway to this kakuriyo, where the Imperial gods dwelt between the visible and invisible realms. His most important essay, Enjoyment Visible and Invisible, completed in 1867, asserts his signature idea of an enjoyable afterlife in the kakuriyo as an extension of life and faith in this world. Furthermore, Ariyo and his peers drew on Atsutane’s norito that affirmed visions of “sacred space,” even at the local level, to promote the worship of local deities and shrines with localized norito. From late 1867 through 1869, the Restoration and Boshin War caused political and social upheaval. While Hirosaki domain began by dithering over what to do, its pragmatic decision to side with the new government forces meant it could honor both its venerable ties to the Konoe family and its loyalty to the Imperial court. Hirata disciple and domainal samurai Yamada Yōnoshin died in combat at Noheji in a costly defeat to rival Morioka domain, which nevertheless contributed to a larger victory for the Imperial army in the Boshin War. Yōnoshin and fellow soldiers from the “country” of Tsugaru made sacrifices for the emperor who would represent the “nation” of Japan as its sovereign, and for this they were venerated as loyalist martyrs in the shōkonsai held in the sixth month of 1869. Shinto priests performing this funerary ritual, as well as Rosen and his peers through their writings, honored the Restoration and the Imperial court’s victory, along with Hirosaki’s contributions. Yet, celebrations of the Restoration of Imperial Rule and the promises of a “new dawn” in the first few years of Meiji were short-lived. Rosen observed that Shinto-kokugaku thought became compromised as the state embraced an amalgam of ideas and institutions, increasingly favoring those adopted from Western nations. Shinto priests struggled to implement the Separation of Shinto and Buddhism policy and preserve a “pure” Shinto. After a meteoric rise in registrations following the Restoration, the Hirata academy faced sudden decline with falling enrollment, crisis, and conf lict. Ariyo’s death in 1871 proved to be a major loss for the Tsugaru group, while Hirata Nobutane’s passing a year later deprived the academy of a key leader at the national level. Although it had appeared that Rosen, his classmates, and the “country” of Tsugaru itself had secured a long-coveted place in the “nation” of Imperial Japan ruled by the monarch, Japan was evolving beyond what the kokugaku scholars had envisioned into a modern nation that looked increasingly unfamiliar and foreign. What is the legacy of the Hirata disciples in Hirosaki domain and Aomori prefecture? What lessons can be learned f rom their experiences?

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The document Namelist of Festival Participants (Shukusaiten yūshi meibo)1 dated May 1898 shows us that Osari Nakaakira led annual festivals to venerate the Four Great Men of kokugaku some three decades after the Restoration, as well as the shōkonsai festival and the religious Separation of Shinto and Buddhism policy he helped to carry out.2 In the spring, members worshipped and praised the merits of these revered teachers, and the festival was proposed again for autumn in that same year of 1898. Among the most notable of their achievements celebrated by Nakaakira were the establishment of Kokugaku, “elucidating the Imperial Way of the Imperial country,” fostering strong patriotism, and allowing the “Yamato spirit” (Yamato damashii) to f lourish. Nakaakira then identified the effects of the kokugakusha’s endeavors: “Achieving total victory in the Sino-Japanese War of Meiji 27, 28 (1894 and 1895), and illuminating all countries with Imperial authority was attributable to the truth of awakening others to the significance of being the people of the Imperial country.”3 Japan’s victory over China in 1895 signaled the nation’s emergence as an imperial power in East Asia and this document marked the spread of Japanese colonial expansion and inf luence. Even in Aomori prefecture, Nakaakira connected the inf luence of the kokugaku scholars to the modern empire’s military and imperialist advances. To the participants he proposed that the Great Men’s spirits be ritually added to the kami they already worshipped, and asked for fifty sen to worship as in past years and an additional payment of ten sen for each ancestor they wished to venerate. The list of notable supporters included the late Shimozawa Yasumi’s eldest son, Tadakazu; the “father” of apple farming in Aomori, Kikuchi Tatei (1846–1918); and deceased Tsugaru group leader Ariyo’s son, Tsuruya Toshiyo. While the ritual worship itself was reminiscent of the Tsugaru group’s earlier mitama matsuri held to venerate Atsutane’s spirit, this new festival was truly a product of modern times, adopted by a few descendants of the Hirata disciples as well as notable members of local society.4

1. Osari Nakaakira, Shukusaiten yūshi meibo (Hirosaki: Hirosaki City Public Library, 1898). 2. As seen before, these Four Great Men, are Kada no Azumamaro, Kamo no Mabuchi, Motoori Norinaga, and Hirata Atsutane. 3. Osari, Shukusaiten yūshi meibo. 4. They are identified as Kudō Mafumi, Hayashi Bunnoshin, and Shimozawa Tadakazu, and the endorsers are Kikuchi Tatei, Doki Yoshihiro, and Tsuruya Toshiyo, who is the son of Ariyo. Kikuchi Tatei was a Hirosaki domainal samurai and agriculturalist. He was appointed forest surveyor for Aomori prefecture, and began test-planting apples and other fruits and vegetables imported from Western countries. He researched and taught on apple farming.

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A distinctive break appears between the collective activities of the Tsugaru group, which were largely apolitical when it was led by Ariyo and when Hirao Rosen was participating as a prominent member, and the strong political and ideological tones of this festival document written over one or two decades after their passing. This represents in part, the transformation of community during the Meiji period. Japan, which had already adopted Western ideas and institutions and was becoming increasingly “foreign” to Rosen by the early 1870s, had developed by 1896 into a formidable nation-state and empire in the modern world. Japan was governed by a constitutional monarchy inaugurated in 1889, which drew from Japanese traditions as well as Western and Chinese inf luences. Shinto priest Osari Nakaakira had led the shōkonsai almost three decades prior to honor the sacrifices that Yōnoshin and other soldiers had made fighting a civil war for the emperor as a teenaged monarch just beginning his rule over the nation. Now, Nakaakira led a celebration that was, in modern terms, distinctly nationalistic and “imperial,” and anachronistically gave credit to past kokugaku masters for Japan’s recent military victory over China. While this association appears ahistorical on the one hand, it is strikingly political and ideological on the other, and this makes it classifiable alongside the work of ideologues who appropriated kokugaku scholarship to serve nationalistic and imperialistic objectives of the state, from Meiji through Imperial Japan’s colonial and military campaigns to the end of the war in 1945.5 The nationalistic elements that surface in some kokugaku writings— assertions of the greatness and superiority of the Japanese people, land, culture, and emperor, and expressions of xenophobia toward foreign peoples—can easily be appropriated by nationalistic impulses and agendas. This has had tragic consequences in the past. Only with a stern historical conscience can we guard against such misappropriations today and in the future. Nor should such elements be allowed to shroud and obscure the worthwhile and productive contributions of kokugaku scholars and their work.6 Kokugaku

5. For studies of how the kokugaku thought of Norinaga, Atsutane, and others was appropriated during modern Japan’s imperial and military campaigns, see Tanaka Kōji, Motoori Norinaga no Dai Tō A sensō shisō hō (Tokyo: Perikansha, 2009) and John S. Brownlee, Japanese Historians and the National Myths, 1600–1945: The Age of the Gods and Emperor Jimmu (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1997). For discussions of how kokugaku was appropriated in modern times for ideological agendas of the Japanese state and society, see Burns, Before the Nation. 6. For discussions about the historical significance of kokugaku in the context of when it was studied in early modern society, before its appropriation by ideologues in modern times, see Mark Teeuwen, “Kokugaku vs. Nativism,” Monumenta Nipponica 61, no. 2 (Summer 2006); Susan Burns, Before the Nation.

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scholars of the Tokugawa period indeed were on a “quest for meaning” during uncertain times.7 The concerns of the Tsugaru group from the 1850s through the 1860s mirror those of many kokugaku scholars of the Tokugawa period, and these include the uncovering of a Way that was native and not imported; decoding classical writings of myth and history; rediscovering Japanese aesthetics and sensibilities through poetry; documenting everyday life, nature, and the mysterious; proving the existence and workings of spirits and the spirit world; and the daily veneration of ancestors and prayer to the kami. Many of these pursuits largely waned among surviving members of the group after the deaths of Ariyo and Rosen and, admittedly, some of these resulted in “dead ends,” leaving a limited visible legacy, in spite of their inherent value.8 The interests pursued within Hirosaki castle town in the country of Tsugaru, which captured visions of Tsugaru and Japan in paintings, documents, poetry, and writings, became overshadowed in the late 1890s by grander visions and the successes of the modern nation on a world stage. That in itself provides another example of how the focal point of the Tsugaru group’s visions, after many members had died, shifted collectively from the country of Tsugaru to the modern nation of Japan. Rosen’s experiences in Ezo in 1855 reveal some of the possibilities, limitations, and pitfalls. In line with his own artistic and scholarly philosophy, Rosen attempted to see people and things as they were, and his ethnographic writings supported by his artwork approach “thick description,” which, as explained by anthropologist Clifford Geertz, offers a rigorous interpretation of culture and its meanings on multiple levels that will help guide the reader to knowledge and understanding not heavily swayed by ideology.9 Rosen showed relative openness to foreigners in his observations of Europeans, Americans, Qing Chinese, and one Indian man in his 1855 visit to Ezo; and he produced valuable records of northern Japan’s global contact post-Perry through the port city of Hakodate. His attempts at direct observation and documentation of others enable a relatively honest assessment of the actual situation of his own communities. His views are nevertheless tinged with cultural chauvinism manifested as a preference for Japanese culture and practices, and a dislike of Western inf luence. Rather than pursuing any serious anti-foreignism or efforts to “expel barbarians,” or seeking even to engage

7. Nosco, Remembering Paradise, xi. 8. I adopt this expression of “dead ends” from Anne Walthall’s assessment of the legacy of Matsuo Taseko’s life and thought in modern Japan. Walthall, The Weak Body of a Useless Woman, 353. 9. Clifford Geertz, “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretative Theory of Culture,” in The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, 1973).

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the West and learn further, as various contemporary activists and leaders did, Rosen instead retreated back into the more familiar surroundings of Tsugaru and Japan, and limited his intellectual scope to these spheres, along with that of the kakuriyo realm of spirits. Rosen and his fellow Tsugaru group members were concerned with casting Tsugaru and Japan as sacred and worth protecting, but appear to do so from a position of isolation. All groups who engage in the world have to confront modernity and the assortment of questions it presents. Meiji Japan offers various examples of how groups dealt with this challenge of modernity intellectually as well as spiritually. Recovering from severe state persecution at the hands of Shinto priests, including kokugaku scholars in early Meiji, Japanese Buddhists strategically renewed the presentation of their faith to make it appeal more broadly in both the West and Japan itself.10 Meiji intellectuals, including Christians, drew from preexisting elements of samurai culture to reinvent the martial ethic of Bushido to appeal to both global and local communities.11 Michael Wachutka and Anne Walthall have shown how kokugakusha were not all singularly bound to tradition and averse to change, and the works of many kokugakusha have been compatible with and even served as agents of modernity. When looking at the individuals in the Tsugaru group, we also find a variety of experiences. Yamada Yōnoshin was among the early men to fight and die for the emperor, and then to be deified among the loyalist kami. Rosen epitomized the struggle with modernity and resistance to Western inf luence. Ono Iwane labored to carry out the Separation of Shinto and Buddhism policy, the modernizing project of the state, as he found himself caught between central bureaucratic authority and the reality of local shrines and temples, which themselves had a long tradition of particular worship practices. While empathizing with Rosen’s lament over drastic changes in society, Shimozawa Yasumi helped the Tsugaru family in Meiji to document their history through poetry anthologies and histories, and brought the emperor closer to the people by initiating the popularization of the New Year Poetry Ceremony of the court. Whither the country of Tsugaru? The Restoration and Boshin War shaped the politics and memory of both victors and losers well into the

10. See John S. Harding, Mahayana Phoenix: Japan’s Buddhists at the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions (New York: Peter Lang, 2008); Robert H. Sharf, “The Zen of Japanese Nationalism,” in Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism Under Colonialism, ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 107–60; Ketelaar, Of Heretics and Martyrs in Meiji Japan. 11. Oleg Benesch, Inventing the Way of the Samurai: Nationalism, Internationalism, and Bushidō in Modern Japan (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014).

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Meiji period, particularly in the Tohoku region.12 Kudō Takeshi identifies both future Prime Minister Hara Takashi from Morioka (Nanbu) domain, which fought for the shogunate, and novelist Dazai Osamu (1909–48), native of Tsugaru, which switched allegiance to the Imperial cause, as individuals whose thought and sense of self-identity were significantly inf luenced by the Boshin War. While I have focused on one of the “victorious” domains in the Restoration, Michael Wert examines one of the “losers” to argue that local commemoration efforts by memory activists have helped to alter regional and national interpretations of the Restoration.13 Looking at the most villainized of domains, Hiraku Shimoda shows how Aizu, long estranged from the nation due to treason, eventually recovered its place in Imperial Japan through the efforts of local “mythmakers.”14 Even as a victor and loyal supporter of the court, Tsugaru would cease to be the “country” that it was in Tokugawa times, but instead lived on as a distinct locale. Tsugaru’s identity was remade in modern times, preserving tensions with Nanbu within the same Aomori prefecture in the Japanese nation. Nationalist journalist Kuga Katsunan and author Dazai Osamu identified and/or grappled with Tsugaru well into modern times.15 Kawanishi Hidemichi explains the dynamics of modern Tsugaru and the Tohoku region and the Japanese nation-state by asserting that in constructing the modern nation-state, Japan subsumed Tohoku as a “backward” and “primitive” “outland” to justify its “advanced” and “civilized” center. Conversely, the northeastern region expressed “ardent provincialism” in seeking assimilation with the majority society as equal subjects of the emperor, observes Kawanishi, and the Freedom and People’s Rights Movement led by Aomori activist Honda Yōitsu represented an effort to “Japanize Tōhoku”—an example of “nationalism from the bottom up.”16 Rosen’s paintings of scenes of Tsugaru and Ezo—vivid and detailed pictures of daily life and culture throughout the seasons including the Nebuta, Mount Iwaki worship, and work and play in the snow—help to document Tsugaru’s past when it was a “country” within the Tokugawa state of Japan. They are seen in shrines and museums across Hirosaki and Aomori, and

12. Kudō Takeshi, “Bakumatsu no Tsugaru han: Kyoto hantei no dōkō wo chūshin ni,” in Hokuo chiikishi no kenkyū: Kita kara no shiten, ed. Hasegawa Seiichi (Tokyo: Meicho shuppan, 1988), 217–18. 13. Michael Wert, Meiji Restoration Losers: Memory and Tokugawa Supporters in Modern Japan (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013). 14. Hiraku Shimoda, Lost and Found: Recovering Regional Identity in Imperial Japan (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2014). 15. Suzuki Hirotaka, Hara Takashi to Kuga Katsunan; Roy Starrs, “Nation and Region in the Work of Dazai Osamu,” in Guo, et al., Tsugaru: Regional Identity on Japan’s Northern Periphery. 16. Kawanishi, Tōhoku: Japan’s Constructed Outland, 47.

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even adorned the walls inside the elevator at Hakodate’s Goryokaku Fortress Museum when I visited in the summer of 2010. Rosen’s art provides useful materials for the boom of promoting local society for tourism and culture. The Neputa festival, Tsugaru-style shamisen and lacquerware, a distinct local dialect, locally brewed sake, and locally grown apples are recognizable cultural markers of this region.17 Recognition of Rosen’s name has grown in recent years, owing to the work of researchers, including those who organized the Aomori Prefectural Museum’s exhibit in 2013 devoted to Rosen, who introduce him as the “Da Vinci of Aomori,” for his vast array of interests, pursuits, and expertise. Many more recognize his works, including his colorful paintings of the Neputa festival. For three centuries, Tsugaru was a “country” whose leaders, educators, and students continually sought to bridge the distance between their remote region and the cultural and political capitals of Kyoto and Edo, and to legitimize their political and intellectual standing. In the late Tokugawa period, local intellectuals who had carried on this yearning for “Japan” and its center discovered in Hirata kokugaku a means through which they could situate their locale in the spiritual landscape of the sacred nation of Japan, touched by the kakuriyo realm of spirits. In this sense, the efforts of the Tsugaru group in the late stages of the early modern period represent a form of backwater nationalism to orient their country of Tsugaru within the nation of Japan, which is favored by the gods and ruled by the emperor. By the first and second decades of Meiji, members of the Tsugaru group found their community and their basis for self-orientation and identification, far surpassing and even betraying what they had even imagined, to have transitioned drastically from the country to the nation.

17. Even the “Fuji apple,” which has become a global brand, originated in the town of Fujisaki within the Tsugaru region of Aomori, not Mount Fuji as popularly believed. Nanyan Guo, translator’s preface to Kawanishi, Tōhoku: Japan’s Constructed Outland, ix–x. See also Nathan Hopson, Ennobling Japan’s Savage Northeast: Tōhoku as Postwar Thought, 1945–2011 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2017).

Appendix

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List of Hirata Disciples in Tsugaru

819

826

827

828

829

830

1105

1342

1341

1340

1343

1582

1597

1865

1892

3414

3824

4106

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

NO. JAPAN-WIDE

1

NO.

Gotō Takayoshi (Kiyū)

Koyama Naishi (Tatemaru)

Inomata Hisayoshi (Shigenaga)

Shimozawa Hachisaburō (Yasumi) 1838–96

Yamada Yōnoshin (Tateo) 1843–68

Kanehira Kiryō 1815–78

Nakamura Yorozuya Yukihiko

Hirao Hatsusaburō (Sukemune, Rosen) 1808–80

Ono Wakasa (Iwane) 1833–89

Sasaki Kensaku (Yoshiyuki) (Son of Awaji, Yoshio)

Sasaki Awaji (Yoshio)

Takeda Seijirō (Chihiro, Hiromichi)

Imamura Yōtarō (Mitane) 1824–84

Ueda Hirayoshi (Masatake)

Masuda (Fujioka) Kōtarō (Namiki)

Mitani Chihei (Ōtari)

Iwama Ichitarō (Shitatari) 1811–84

Tsuruya Otokichi (Ariyo) 1808–71

NAME

1/15/1871

7/9/1870

9/24/1869

11/28/1867

10/18/1867

7/12/1866

6/1866

9/11/1864

8/21/1864

7/1864

6/1864

11/16/1862

6/11/1857

5/25/1857

5/1857

5/1857

5/1857

2/25/1857

DATE OF REGISTRATION

23

40

56

29

24

51

26

55

31

22

50

33

33

24

26

46

48

AGE AT REGISTRATION

Osari (Nakaakira)

Tsuruya Ariyo

Nakamura Yukihiko

Tsuruya Ariyo

Tsuruya Ariyo

Tsuruya Ariyo

Tsuruya Ariyo

Tsuruya Ariyo

Tsuruya Ariyo

Tsuruya Ariyo

Tsuruya Ariyo

Tsuruya Ariyo

Tsuruya Ariyo

REFERENCE

Shinto Priest

Shinto Priest

Shinto Priest

Domainal Samurai

Domainal Samurai

Townsperson

Merchant Townsperson

Shinto Priest Hachiman Shrine

Shinto Priest

Merchant Townsperson

Domainal Samurai

Merchant Townsperson

Merchant Townsperson

Merchant Townsperson

Merchant Townsperson

Merchant Townsperson

SOCIAL BACKGROUND

Based on Monjin seimei roku. Shinshū Hirata Atsutane zenshū, vol. bekkan (Tokyo: Meicho shuppan, 2001) and Nakagawa Kazuaki, “Hyō ni Hirosaki no monjin,” in Hirata kokugaku no shiteki kenkyū (Tokyo: Meicho shuppankai, 2012), 353.

Table 1.

Selected List of Characters

Ainu アイヌ Akashi Reijirō 赤石禮次郎 Akita han 秋田藩 Amakudari no kō 天降考 Amano iwa fue 天之石笛 Amano iwa fue ki 天之石笛記 Amatsu norito kō 天津祝詞考 Anju hime 安寿姫 Anmon kikō zu 安門紀行図 Aomori ken gokoku jinja 青森縣護國神社 Aomori ken shōkonsha 青森県招魂社 Arai Hakuseki 新井白石 bakuhan 幕藩 Bao po zi 抱朴子 Bendōsho 弁道書 Benmei 弁名 Bo wu zhi 博物志 bussokuseki katai 仏足石歌体 Chen Chun 陳淳 cheng chung 丞嘗 Cheng Yi 程頤 Chinda Sutemi 珍田捨巳 Chinju no kami 鎮守神 Chishima no shiranami 千島の白波 Daigakkō 大学校 Daigaku 大壑 (大角) Daikoku mai 大黒舞 Dajōkan 太政官 Dake Onsen 嶽温泉 Dazai Osamu 太宰治 Dazai Shundai 太宰春台 Dewa 出羽 Doki Yasuko 土岐安子 241

242

S E L EC T E D L I ST O F C H A R A C T E R S

Doki Yoshihiro 土岐吉広 Dōmō kyōkunka 童蒙教訓歌 dotansai 土壇祭 eboshi oya 烏帽子親 Echigo 越後 Eihō nikki 永宝日記 Engi 縁起 Enomoto Takeaki 榎本武揚 Ezo 蝦夷 Ezochi 蝦夷地 Ezo mura or Teki mura 犾村 狄村 Fan Zhen 范縝 Fude no susabi 筆のすさび fudoki 風土記 Fujita Arinari 藤田有成 Fujita Toranosuke 藤田虎之助 Fukuba Bisei 福羽美静 Furukawa Mitsura 古川躬行 Gakusoku 学則 Gamō Kunpei 蒲生君平 Gappo kidan 合浦奇談 Gappo sansuikan 合浦山水観 Gappo sharimoishi 合浦舎利母石 Ge Hong 葛洪 Go-Daigo 後醍醐 Go Mō jigi 語孟字義 goryō 御霊 Gotō Takayoshi 後藤孝吉 haibutsu kishaku 廃仏毀釈 haihan chiken 廃藩置県 Hakkaron 八家論 Hakodate kikō 箱館紀行 Hanawa Hokiichi 塙保己一 Han Feizi 韓非子 hanseki hōkan 版籍奉還 Harae do no kami 祓戸神 Hatsugaku sanyu 初学三諭 Hayashi Bunnoshin 林文之進 Hayashi Razan 林羅山 Hayashi Shihei 林子平 Higuchi Tateyoshi 樋口建良

SE L EC T E D L I ST O F C H A R A C T E R S

243

Hirao Rosen/Hatsusaburō 平尾魯僊／魯仙／蘆川／芦川／初三郎 Hirao Tome 平尾登女／登留子 Hirata Atsutane 平田篤胤 Hirata Chie 平田千恵 Hirata Hanbei 平田半兵衛 (Matagorō 又五郎) Hirata Jōtarō 平田常太郎 Hirata Kanetane 平田銕胤 Hirata ke so daidai reijin 平田家祖代々霊神 Hirata Nobutane 延胤 (Nobutarō 延太郎) Hirata Ochō 平田おてう Hirata Orise 平田織瀬 Hirata Shōkichirō 平田圧吉郎 Hirata Tōbei Atsuyasu 平田藤兵衛篤穏 Hirosaki han 弘前藩 Hirosaki shōkonsha 弘前招魂社 Hisasuke 久輔 Hokuetsu seppu 北越雪譜 Honda Yōitsu 本田庸一 honji suijaku 本地垂跡 honzon 本尊 Hosokawa Narimori 細川齊護 Hyakutakuji Temple 百沢寺 Ibukinoya 気吹舎 Ibukinoya kabunshū 気吹舎歌文集 Ibukinoya nikki 気吹舎日記 Imamura Keiju 今村渓寿 Imamura Mitane/ Yōtarō 今村真種／要太郎 inishie manabi 古学 Inō Hidenori 伊能頴則 Inō mononoke roku 稲生物怪録 Inomata Hisayoshi/Shigenaga 猪股久吉／繁永 Ishibashi Orise 石橋織 Itō Jinsai 伊藤仁斎 Itō jinja 善知鳥神社 itsumin 逸民 Iwaki no yama fumi 岩木の山ふみ Iwaki san 岩木山 Iwakiyama jinja 岩木山神社 Iwaki san sanbyaku shu 岩木山三百首 Iwaki san sansha daigongen 岩木山三社大権現 Iwaki san shinreiki 岩木山神霊記

244

S E L EC T E D L I ST O F C H A R A C T E R S

Iwakura Tomomi 岩倉具視 Iwama Ichitarō/Shitatari 岩間市太郎／滴 Iwama Shitatari shichijū gachō jo 岩間滴七十賀帳序 iyomante イヨマンテ Jindai gokeizu 神代御系図 Jingi gon hanji 神祇権判事 Jingikan 神祇官 Jingishō 神祇省 Jinja kō 神社考 Jinnō shōtōki 神皇正統記 jisha bugyō 寺社奉行 Jomei 舒明 Juku soku 塾則 jūnigatsu sekizoro 十二月節季候 Jun’yū ki 巡遊記 Kada no Azumamaro 荷田春満 Kaganabe 加賀鍋 (炫鍋／日々並べ) kaichō 開帳 Kaikoku heidan 海国兵談 Kaitakushi 開拓使 Kakun teiyō 家訓提要 kakuriyo/ yūmeikai 幽冥／幽冥界 kami 神 kamikakushi 神隠し Kammu 桓武 Kamōsho 呵妄書 Kamu tama no mihashira no ushi 神霊能真柱大人 kamuy カムイ Kanagiya Matasaburō 金木屋又三郎 Kanehira Kiryō/Kikuko 兼平亀綾／菊子 Kanematsu Sekkyo/Seigon 兼松石居／成言 Kangakusho 漢学所 Kanna hifumi den 神字日文伝 Kariya Ekisai 狩谷棭斎 Kasshi yawa 甲子夜話 Katsugorō saiseiki 勝五郎再生記 Keikokan 稽古館 Kemmu 建武 Ken’yū rakuron 顕幽楽論 Kiden hō 帰田法

SE L EC T E D L I ST O F C H A R A C T E R S

Kido Chidate 城戸千楯 Kikuchi Kurō 菊池九郎 Kikuchi Masahisa 菊池正古 Kikuchi Tatei 菊池楯衛 Kimura Senshū 木村仙秀 kingaku 勤学 Kingin nyūgaku chō 金銀入覚帳 kinnō shukō han 勤皇殊功藩 kishin 鬼神 (C., gui shen) Kishin ron 鬼神論 Kishin shinron 鬼神新論 Kitadai Masaomi 北代正臣 Kitamura Masakata 喜多村政方 Kitaoka Taijun 北岡太淳 Kiyo sōhansho 毀誉相半書 kiyomi harae 清祓 kodōgaku 古道学 kogaku 古学 kōgaku 皇学 Kōgakusho 皇学所 Kogo shūi 古語拾遺 Kojiki 古事記 Kojima Sakon 小嶋左近 Kokon yōmikō 古今妖魅考 Kokueki honron 国益本論 kokugaku 国学 Kokuji ihan jiken 国事違反事件 Kōmei 孝明 Konoe Motohiro 近衛基熈 Konoe Sakihisa 近衛前久 Konoe Tadafusa 近衛忠房 Konoe Tadahiro 近衛忠熈 Kōsai 宏斎 Koshichō 古史徴 Koshichō kaidaiki 古史徴開題記 Koshiden 古史伝 Koshiden shōsha 古史伝抄写 Koshiseibun 古史成文 kōshōgaku 考証学 (C., kaozhengxue) Kōso kyūsho kō 皇祖宮所考

245

246

S E L EC T E D L I ST O F C H A R A C T E R S

Kōso kyūsho kō ben 皇祖宮所考弁 Koyama Naishi 小山内梓 Kudō Hakuan 工藤伯庵 Kubo Harima 久保播磨 Kudō Gohō 工藤五鳳 Kudō Mafumi 工藤眞文 Kuga Katsunan 陸羯南 Kuji 久慈 Kujō Michitaka 九条道孝 Kunaishō 宮内省 Kusunoki Masashige 楠木正成 kusuri yu 薬湯 Kyōbushō 教部省 li 里 Mate hime 満天姫 Maeda Toshiie 前田利家 Maeyama Seiichirō 前山精一郎 Maiasa shinhaishiki 毎朝神拝詞記 Makado guchi 馬門口 Masuda Kōtarō/ Namiki 増田幸太郎／並樹 Masugenoya 眞菅乃屋 Masugenoya no Aroji 眞菅舘のあろじ Matsuda Kusui 松田駒水 Matsudaira Katamori 松平容保 Matsumae fūkei 松前風景 Matsumae kikō 松前紀行 Matsumoto Kyokue 松本曲江 Matsunoya kabunshū 松の屋歌文集 Matsuo Taseko 松尾多瀬子 Matsura Seizan 松浦静山 Mayama Sukemasa 間山祐真 Meiji 明治 Meitokukan 明徳館 Mikami Omoikiyo 三上思清 Mikami Sennen 三上仙年 Mikuni / Kōkoku 皇国 Mikuni manabi 皇学 Mikuni no hito 皇国人 Minmaya 三 Minomushi Sanjin 蓑虫山人 mitama matsuri 御玉祭り

SE L EC T E D L I ST O F C H A R A C T E R S

mitama mono ミ玉もの mitamashiro 御霊代 Mitani Chihei/ Ōtari 三谷治平／大足 Momokawa Gakuan 百川学庵 Momonoya 桃の舎 Mōnai Unrin 毛内雲林 Monjin seimei roku 門人姓名録 mononoke 物怪 Morioka han 盛岡藩 Motoori Haruniwa 本居春庭 Motoori Norinaga 本居宣長 Motoori Ōhira 本居大平 Muchū taimen zu 夢中対面図 Mutsu 陸奥 Nakamura Yorozuya/ Yukihiko 中村万弥／行彦 Nakamuta Kuranosuke 中牟田倉之助 Nanbujin 南部人 Nanbu Toshihisa 南部利剛 Nankō sai 楠公祭 Nankō ki 楠公忌 Narita Isoho 成田五十穂 Narita Kyūma 成田求馬 Negishi Shinden 根岸新田 Negishi Yasumori 根岸康守 Neriya Tōbei 練屋藤兵衛 Nihon ryōiki kōshō 日本霊異記攷証 Nihon shoki 日本書紀 Nishidate Heima 西館平馬 Noda Hiromichi 野田豁通 Nōgyō yōshū 農業要集 norito 祝詞 Norito seikun 祝詞正訓 ofuda お札 Ogasawara Kenryū 小笠原見龍 Ogura Hyakunin isshu 小倉百人一首 Ogyū Sorai 荻生徂徠 Ōharae 大祓 Ōharae kotoba seikun 大祓詞正訓 O Iwaki sama お岩木様 Okumiya 奥宮 Ōkuninushi no kami 大国主神

247

248

S E L EC T E D L I ST O F C H A R A C T E R S

Ōkuni Takamasa 大国隆正 Omuro 御室 Ono Masanosuke 小野政之助 Ono Wakasa/ Iwane 小野若狭／磐根 onreimi 御霊実 Osari Buzen 長利豊前 Osari Nakaakira/ Satsuo 長利仲聴／薩雄 Ōshū 奥州 Ōta Nanpo 太田南畝 Ōta Toyotarō Tomotaka 太田豊太郎朝恭 Ōtomo Naoe 大友直枝 Ōtsuki Gentaku 大槻玄沢 Ōu (Mutsu and Dewa) 奥羽 Ōu Etsu reppan dōmei 奥羽越列藩同盟 Ōu-Subduing Governor 奥羽鎮撫総督 Ōura Mitsunobu 大浦光信 Ōura Tamenobu 大浦為信 Outa kai hajime 御歌会始 Ōwada Seibei Sachitane 大和田清兵衛祚胤 qi 気 ( J. ki) Rakukun 楽訓 Rankeidō 蘭馨堂 Reimeisha 霊明舎 Reiwa 令和 Rongo kō 論語考 Ruan Dan 阮膽 Saisei itchi 祭政一致 Sakai Tadaatsu 酒井忠篤 Saitō Nagato 斎藤長門 Saitō Norifumi 斎藤規文 Sakujin kan 作人館 Sandaikō 三大考 San’eki yuraiki 三易由来記 sanjin 山人 sankin kōtai 参勤交代 Sanryō shi 山陵史 Sasaki Awaji/ Yoshio 笹木淡路／祐雄 Sasaki Genshun 佐々木元俊 Sasaki Kensaku/Yoshiyuki 笹木健作／祐行 Satake Yoshimasa 佐竹義和

SE L EC T E D L I ST O F C H A R A C T E R S

Satake Yoshitaka 佐竹義堯 Sato Aimaro 佐藤愛麿 Satō Nobuhiro 佐藤信淵 Satō Senshi 佐藤仙之 Senchū Wamyō ruishū shō 箋注倭名類聚鈔 Senkyō ibun 仙境異聞 Sera Toshisada 世良利貞 shaji goyōsho 社寺御用所 shakegashira 社家頭 shaku 尺 Shakushainシャクシャイン 沙牟奢允　 Shen mie lun 神滅論 Shi ji 史記 Shimazaki Masaki 島崎正樹 Shimazaki Tōson 島崎藤村 Shimozawa Tadakazu 下澤忠一 Shimozawa Yasumi/Hachisaburō下澤保躬／八三郎 Shimozawa Washizō 下澤鷲蔵 Shin kishinron 新鬼神論 shinbutsu bunri 神仏分離 Shinkoku 神国 Shinto 神道 Shiushi 四大人 Shōheikō 昌平黌 shōkonsai 招魂祭 Shoku nihongi 続日本紀 Shōtoku 称徳 Shukusaiten yūshi meibo 祝祭典有志名簿 Shutsujō shōgo 出定笑語 Sō Shihō 宋紫峯 Sōmoku tane erami 草木撰種録 sonnō jōi 尊王攘夷 Sugae Masumi 菅江真澄 Sukemune 亮致 Sukunabikona no kami 少名毘古那神 Sumera mikami 皇御神 Susanoo no mikoto 須佐之男命 Suseribime no mikoto 須勢理毘売命 Suzuki Bokushi 鈴木牧之 Suzuki Masayuki 鈴木雅之

249

250

S E L EC T E D L I ST O F C H A R A C T E R S

Tadano Makuzu 只野真葛 Taihei shinwa 太平新話 Taikyō senpu 大教宣布 Taira no Masakado 平将門 Taisei hōkan 大政奉還 Takasugi Sazen 高杉左膳 Takebe Ayatari 建部綾足 Takeda Otokichi 武田乙吉 Takeda Seijirō/ Chihiro 竹田清次郎／千尋 Takemikazuchi no kami 建御雷之神 Takeuchi Yasunori 竹内保徳 Tamadasuki 玉襷 Tamakatsuma 玉勝間 Tama no mihashira 霊能真柱 Tanabata 七月 Tanaka 田中 Tani no hibiki 谷の響 Taniguchi Nagayoshi 谷口永吉 Tappi numa 田光沼 Tenchō mukyū reki 天朝無窮暦 tengu 天狗 ten on nichi 天恩日 Terashima Ryōan 寺島良安 Tohoku 東北 Tohoku rokkon 東北六魂 Tokugawa Ienobu 徳川家宣 Tokugawa Iesada 徳川家定 Tokugawa Ietsugu 徳川家継 Tokugawa Ieyasu 徳川家康 Tokugawa Yoshinobu 徳川慶喜 Tominokōji Sadanao 富小路貞直 Tominokōji Teruko 富小路明子 Torigoe, Asakusa 浅草鳥越 Tosa 土佐 Tosa no mizūmi ( Jūsanko) 十三湖 Toyotomi Hideyoshi 豊臣秀吉 Tsugaru han 津軽藩 Tsugaru gun chūko hi zu kō 津軽郡中古碑図考 Tsugaru han kyū kidenrui 津軽藩旧記伝類 Tsugaru han kyū kirui 津軽藩旧記類

SE L EC T E D L I ST O F C H A R A C T E R S

Tsugaru kokin taisei kashū 津軽古今大成歌集 Tsugaru no kuni 津軽の国 Tsugaru ittōshi 津軽一統志 Tsugaru Nagazane 津軽永孚 Tsugaru Nobuharu 津軽信明 Tsugaru Nobuhira 津軽信枚 Tsugaru Nobumasa 津軽信政 Tsugaru Nobuyoshi 津軽信義 Tsugaru nuri 津軽塗 Tsugaru Tazen 津軽多膳 Tsugaru Tsuguakira 津軽承昭 Tsugaru Tsugutomi 津軽承祜 Tsugaru Yasuchika 津軽寧親 Tsugaru Yukitsugu 津軽順承 Tsuruya Ariyo 鶴舎有節 Tsuruya bunshū 鶴舎文集 Tsuruya Masako 鶴舎雅子 Tsuruya Toshiyo 鶴舎年節 Tsuruya Uhei 鶴舎宇兵衛 Tsuitō shika 追悼詞華 Ubusuna kami Kumano gongen 産土神熊野権現 Uchikoshi Jōzaemon 打越常左衛門 Ueda Hirayoshi/ Masatake 植田平吉／正健　 uimam ウイマム Uji shūi monogatari 宇治拾遺物語 ushi 大人 Ushū kaidō 羽州街道 uta no michi 歌道 Utagawa Sadahide 歌川貞秀 Utsumi Sōha 内海草坡 Uwano 宇和野 Wagaku 和学 Wajinchi 和人地 waka 和歌 Wakan sansai zue 和漢三才図会 Wu za zu 五雑組 Wu gui lun 無鬼論 Xingli Ziyi 性理字義 Yahiro dono 八尋殿 Yamada Yōnoshin/Tateo 山田要之進／楯雄

251

252

S E L EC T E D L I ST O F C H A R A C T E R S

Yamaga Sokō 山鹿素行 Yamanouchi Yōdō 山内容堂 Yamato gokoro 大倭心／大和心 Yamato no kuni 大和国 Yamazaki Ansai 山崎闇斎 Yamazaki Chōuemon/ Atsutoshi 山崎長右衛門／篤利　 Yamazaki Ranshū 山崎蘭州 Yanagita Kunio 柳田国男 Yano Gendō 矢野玄道 Yan-shū ヤン衆 Yasukuni 靖国 Yoake mae 夜明け前 Yōi meiwa 洋夷茗話 Yōjōkun 養生訓 Yōkai dangi 妖怪談義 Yomi 黄泉 yōmi 妖魅 Yomi no kuni kō 黄泉国考 Yoshida Chōshuku 吉田長淑 Yoshida Shōin 吉田松陰 Yoshikawa Taijirō 吉川泰次郎 yū chi 幽地 (C., yōu dì) Yūfu shinron 幽府新論 yūmeikai or kakuriyo 幽冥界／幽冥 Yunosawa 湯野沢 Yushima Tenjin Otoko zaka shita 湯島天神男坂下 Zhang Hengqu 張横渠 Zhang Hua 張華 Zhang Zai 張載 Zhong yong 中庸 Zhong yong zhang ju 中庸章句 Zhu Xi 朱子／朱熹 Zhu zi yu lei 朱子語類

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Index

Account of Western Barbarians. See Yōi meiwa Ainu, assimilation of, 23, 48–50, 55, 55n24; in Ezo, 9, 11, 13, 22–23, 22n25, 48,55n24, 160; livelihood, 22–24, 50, 55; Shakushain and war, 22–24, 22n27, 26; in Tsugaru, 10, 13, 18, 23–24, 230 Akita domain, 9, 48n3, 50; in Boshin War, 175–78, 181–83; and Hirata Atsutane, 68, 69, 62n2, 78–80, 90–93, 100; and Hirata disciples, 90, 95–96, 98, 100, 113n42, 115–17, 119–22, 231; and Hirata Nobutane, 92, 227 alternate attendance. See sankin kōtai Amakudari no kō (On Heavenly Descent), 195 Amano iwa fue, 93 Amaterasu (sun goddess), 75, 77–78, 88, 158, 169–71, 215 Americans (United States/America), 2, 2n2, 11, 46–47, 48f, 49n7, 55–56, 61, 114, 211, 225 Ancient History Reconstituted. See Koshiseibun Ancient Learning (inishie manabi), 3, 3n3, 70, 74, 89, 98n1, 108, 110–12, 117–19, 143n62 Ancient Learning (kogaku), 1n1, 3n3, 26n46, 141, 143n62 Ancient Way (kodō), 5, 11, 32, 34, 37, 71, 81, 86–89, 91, 94–95, 97, 107–8, 111, 120, 122–23, 165, 231 Anju hime (Princess Anju, also known as Kuniyasutamahime no mikoto), 159, 161n29, 170 Anmon kikō zu (Anmon Travelogue and Images), 218 Aomori ken gokoku jinja (Aomori Prefecture Nation-Protecting Shrine), 197, 197n74 Aomori ken shōkonsha, 197 Arai Hakuseki, 141 bakuhan (shogunate-domain) system, 4, 4n8 Basket of Jewels. See Tamakatsuma Before the Dawn. See Yoake mae

Bendōsho (On Distinguishing the Way), 71, 142 Benmei (On Distinguishing Names), 141 British (English), 46–47, 55–56, 59, 84, 114, 141, 186n51, 231; English studies/ language, 202–3; style of military drills, 195 Buddhism, 32, 39, 61, 61n35, 71–72, 71n10, 76, 81, 114, 126, 130, 143, 151, 155, 157, 161–62, 161n29, 166, 185, 189–90, 197, 199, 205, 213–18, 215n57, 223–24 232–33, 236. See also shinbutsu bunri (Separation of Shinto and Buddhism) bussokuseki katai (poetic form of the Buddha’s footsteps), 224 Cheng Yi, 140 China, 19, 50n13, 82, 124, 129n15, 130, 130n18, 139, 141, 143–44, 146, 162, 166, 197, 233–34; Chinese in Hakodate, 2, 7, 11, 59–60, 235; Qing dynasty of, 46, 59–60, 66, 226, 231 Chinda Sutemi, 204n22, 205n23 Chinese studies, 69, 81, 116, 118, 121–22, 144; Chinese Studies Institute (Kangakusho), 226 Chinju no kami (Tutelary deity), 77, 162, 167–70, 215, 217–18 Chishima no shiranami (White Waves of the Kuriles), 49, 84 Christianity/Christians, 57, 82, 203, 204n21, 205n23, 236 Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns, A. See Jinnō shōtōki Chronicles of Japan. See Nihon shoki Confucianism, 1n1, 38, 121; and Hirao Rosen, 30, 66, 69; and Hirata Atsutane, 71, 71n10, 81; in Hirosaki, 26–28, 122, 202; 38, 66, 69, 71n10, 81, 122, 202; and Kaibara Ekiken, 163, 165; and kishin (gui shen) spirits, 139–42, 144, 146; Neo Confucianism (Song), 1n1, 69, 71, 144 Confucius, 27, 81, 140–41, 146, 152, 164–65 269

270

INDEX

Council of State. See Dajōkan country (kuni), 1–4, 7–11, 13–15, 39, 44, 46, 49, 53–59, 62–64, 66, 72, 81–82, 84, 97, 102, 112–13, 120, 123–24, 143, 151, 153, 155–60, 163, 167–68, 172, 174, 176, 178–79, 199, 201, 205, 209, 222–23, 230–33, 235–38 Daigakkō (National University), 206 Daigaku (Hirata Daigaku), 70, 76, 93, 220 Daikoku mai, 63 Dajōkan (Council of State), 176, 201–2, 205 Dake Hot Springs (Onsen), 156 Dazai Osamu, 237 Dazai Shundai, 71, 71n10, 142 Discussion of Monsters. See Yōkai dangi Distinguished Domain of Imperial Loyalty (kinnō shukō han), 200 Divine Country/Land of the Gods (Shinkoku), 81, 113, 167, 222–23 Doctrine of the Mean (Zhong yong), 18, 164 Doki Yasuko, 35n75, 121–23, 221, 233 dotansai (earthen platform festival), 192 Dutch, 40, 116, 122; and Hirata Atsutane, 82–83, 83n59; medicine, 116; military style, 174–75 Dutch Learning, 82–83, 122, 203 eboshi oya, 62 Echigo province, 175 Echoes of the Valley (Tani no hibiki), 11, 33, 37, 66n48, 127, 131–38, 131n20, 145–46, 150, 209n39 Educational Poems for Children (Dōmō kyōkunka), 212n48 Eihō nikki (Journal of the Eihō Years), 21 Engi (Origins), 47, 161 Enjoyment Visible and Invisible (Ken’yū rakuron), 11, 151, 163–67, 232 Enomoto Takeaki, 183–85 ethnocentric views, 51–52, 80–83 ethnographic studies, 1n1, 6, 8, 11, 14, 37–47, 57, 68, 75–76, 96, 104, 107–8, 122–28, 131, 133, 136, 138, 150, 157n15, 227, 231, 235 Ezo, 8–9, 11, 13, 14, 18–19, 22–26, 22n27, 25n39, 28, 33, 45–53, 50nn10–11, 51f, 51n14, 53n18, 55–56, 61–66, 62n37, 84, 123, 127, 160, 183–84, 202, 210, 215, 226, 231, 235, 237 Ezochi (Ezo territory), 23, 160, 183, 202 Ezo mura or Teki mura, 23, 23n30 Fillmore, Millard, 46–47 Fude no susabi (Jottings with the Brush), 66n48, 131n20, 209n39

fudoki (gazetteer), 73 Fujiwara clan, 20; Tsugaru lords as Fujiwara, 18, 20 Fukuba Bisei, 189, 205–8, 214, 216, 218 Furukawa Mitsura, 189 fūsetsudome, 49, 49n7, 52, 127, 183, 185–87, 231; definition of, 49 Gakusoku (Study Rules), 112–13, 163 Gappo kidan. See Tales of Gappo Gappo sansuikan (Gappo Landscape), 65, 209n39 Gappo sharimoishi, 104 Go-Daigo, 187, 222 Go Mō jigi (Interpretation of Confucius and Mencius’ Sayings), 141 Gold and Silver Inlay Memo Book (Kingin nyūgaku chō), 100, 100n6, 115, 120n60 goryō (spirits), 188 Gotō Takayoshi, 107, 190, 215, 240t Great East Japan Disaster, 229–30 haibutsu kishaku (destruction of Buddhism), 215 haihan chiken (Dissolution of Domains and Establishment of Prefectures), 201 Hakkaron, 101 Hakodate, 2, 7, 10–11, 25, 45–60, 50n9, 61–62, 64–65, 83, 127, 183–85, 192, 200, 231, 235, 238; Battle of, 183–85, 192 Hakodate kikō (Hakodate Travelogue), 51, 51nn14–15, 53, 53nn17, 54n22, 57–59, 59n32, 60–62, 60f, 64f, 65, 66n48, 209n39 Han Feizi, 53–54 Harae do no kami, 190–91 Hayashi Razan, 76, 93n98 Hayashi Shihei, 84 Higuchi Tateyoshi, 220 Hirao Rosen (Hatsusaburō/Sukemune/ Kōsai), 1–2, 6–8, 11–14, 27–28, 29f, 48, 66nn46, 104, 107, 121–23, 126, 128–38, 131n20, 151–52, 159, 170–73, 195, 230–31, 236, 240t; as artist, 34–35, 37–39, 220, 237–38; on Boshin War, 183–85; death of, 225–26, 235; early years and education, 28–34; enrolling in Hirata academy, 104, 121, 138; and ethnographic studies, 37–45, 107–8, 122–24, 126–27, 138–39, 142–50, 149n78, 208–10, 231, 235; visit to Ezo, 46–47, 50–67, 51f, 231, 235; and kokugaku, 34, 61, 122, 136, 138–39, 142–50, 149n78, 208–13, 231, 236; marriage, 34–35, 35n75; on Meiji Restoration, 185–87, 198; as poet, 31; on shōkonsai, 192–96, 193n64,

INDEX 233; and Tsuruya Ariyo, 32, 138, 142–43, 211–13, 225–27, 231; twilight years, 221–28, 221n80, 225n93, 226f, 234 Hirao Tome, 34–35, 34n69, 35n75, 221; Buddhist faith, 223 Hirata academy. See Ibukinoya Hirata Atsutane, 1, 6, 11, 67–68, 170; and Akita, 69–70, 78–80, 90–91; early years and education, 69–70, 69n2; early scholarship, 71–72; and ethnographic studies, 75–76, 123–27; faith in kami and religiosity, 76–77, 77n37, 90–91, 168–69; and Hirata academy, 91–93, 93n98; Hirata kokugaku and Hirao Rosen, 34, 59–61, 131, 136, 138–39, 142–43, 145–47, 150, 228; Hirata kokugaku and Tsugaru, 68–69, 97–113, 131, 210–11, 231–35, 240t; Hirata kokugaku and Tsuruya Ariyo, 119, 152, 163, 166–71; marriage, 70–71; registered in Motoori school, 72, 142; on national security, 84; and Shinto priests, 89–90; on spiritual realm and afterlife, 73–76, 142; study of Russia, 84–85, 85n66; visit to Kyoto, 85–89; worldview, 77–84 Hirata Chie, 70, 92 Hirata disciples, 9–11, 27, 31, 93, 98, 102, 189, 200, 206–7, 213–15, 220, 240; in Akita, 90, 95–96, 98, 100, 113n42, 115–17, 119–22, 231; in Morioka, 115–22, 231; in Ina Valley, 90, 94–95, 110; in Shimōsa, 93–94; in Shinano, 69, 94–95. See also Tsugaru group Hirata Hanbei (Matagorō), 70 Hirata Jōtarō, 70 Hirata Kanetane, 53, 66n48, 69, 70n8, 71, 76, 77n37, 91–96, 100–102, 102n11, 104, 108–10, 113–15, 117–20, 143, 145, 179–80, 190, 206, 208, 210, 213, 216, 218, 220, 226 Hirata ke so daidai reijin (Divinities of the Hirata family ancestors), 90 Hirata Nobutane (Nobutarō), 69, 76, 92–93, 96, 120, 143, 199, 206, 208–9, 227, 232 Hirata Ochō, 70, 91–93, 100 Hirata (Ishibashi) Orise, 70–71, 90–93, 208 Hirata Shōkichirō, 117n51 Hirata Tōbei Atsuyasu, 70, 84 Hirosaki domain/Tsugaru domain/“country,” 1–3, 5–7, 9–11, 16f, 17f, 21n20, 48, 48n3, 50, 52, 98–99, 108, 120, 122, 130, 168–71, 181, 185–86, 197–98, 200, 213–15, 217; as “backwater,” 10, 14, 32, 127, 146, 204, 231, 238; in Boshin War, 172–85, 178n17, 187, 232; distinction between Hirosaki and

271

Tsugaru, 10, 15; in early Meiji, 200–203; in famine, 21, 34–35; formation as prefecture, 201; geography and climate, 14–15; as seen by Hirao Rosen, 32–33, 39–45, 62–67, 133, 143, 145–50, 226–27, 230–31, 235–37; history memorialized, 218–21; history to mid-nineteenth century, 16–28; incorporated into Aomori prefecture, 201; shōkonsai in, 189–96, 189n58; as seen by Tsuruya Ariyo, 21, 151–53, 155–63, 170–71, 231–32, 235 Hirosaki castle town, 9–10, 15, 26–8, 31, 33, 36, 47, 50, 97, 105, 123, 127, 129, 131, 134, 145, 179, 184, 190, 197, 202, 211, 229–31, 235 Hirosaki shōkonsha, 197 Hisasuke, 109, 109n32 Hokuetsu seppu (Snow Country Tales), 39 Hokkaido, 8, 14, 49, 201 Honda Yōitsu, 204, 204n21, 237 honji suijaku (Original Substance, Trace Manifestation), 161 Honshu, 1, 9, 14, 22–24, 49–50, 120, 160 Hosokawa Narimori, 201 Hyakutakuji Temple, 215 Ibukinoya (Hirata academy), 6, 11–12, 53, 66n48, 68, 77, 89, 91–94, 93n101, 97, 99–104, 107, 109–10, 112–13, 115, 117–18, 120–21, 131, 143, 145, 168, 179, 195, 199, 205, 207–8, 210–11, 226–27, 231–32 Ibukinoya kabunshū (Ibukinoya Poems and Prose), 103 Ibukinoya nikki (Ibukinoya diary), 93n101, 99, 120n60 Imamura Keiju, 32 Imamura Mitane/Yōtarō (Momonoya), 97, 103, 109, 111, 114, 121, 140, 220–21, 240t Ing, John, 204n21, 205, 205n23 inishie manabi. See Ancient Learning Inō Hidenori, 93 Inō mononoke roku (Records of the Inō and Spirits), 125 Inomata Hisayoshi/Shigenaga, 99, 107, 121, 214–15, 219–20, 240t Itō Jinsai, 141 itsumin (recluse), 52 Iwaki no yama fumi (Mount Iwaki Writings), 160–61 Iwaki san. See Mount Iwaki Iwakiyama Shrine (Iwakiyama jinja), 42–43, 152, 153f, 154f, 158, 215, 218 Iwaki san sanbyaku shu (Three Hundred Poems of Mount Iwaki), 37n77, 155–62

272

INDEX

Iwaki san sansha daigongen (Great Avatar of the Three Shrines of Mount Iwaki), 161 Iwaki san shinreiki (Mount Iwaki Spirit Records), 160–61 Iwakura Mission, 207 Iwakura Tomomi, 92, 177 Iwama Ichitarō/Shitatari, 103, 108–9, 149n78, 161, 231, 240t Iwama Shitatari shichijū gachō jo, 108 iyomante, 22, 22n24 Japan, beliefs in greatness and superiority of, 57, 59, 80–81, 83; change in modern times, 199–201, 204, 207, 226–27, 232–34, 238; creation myths of, 80–81; as imperial power, 233–34; military inferiority to Western nations, 57, 59, 80–81, 83; “opening of,” 7, 46, 59–60, 185–86, 231; as “protonation” or early modern nation, 9; as “sacred nation,” 2, 69, 81, 96–97, 154, 170, 222–23, 231, 236, 238; in Second World War, 197–98, 234 Japan studies. See kokugaku Japan-US Treaty of Peace and Amity, 7, 47, 231 Japanese studies (Wagaku), 1n1, 95, 116, 121–22 Jindai gokeizu (Divine Age Genealogy), 86, 101 Jingikan (Council of Divinities), 89, 188, 205–6, 216–17 Jingishō (Ministry of Divinities), 206 Jinja kō (Treatise on Shrines), 76 Jinnō shōtōki (A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns), 222n85, 223 jisha bugyō (Commission for Temple and Shrine Affairs), 214 Jomei, 130 Juku soku (Academy Rules), 112 jūnigatsu sekizoro (’Tis the season of the twelfth month), 63 Jun’yū ki (Roaming Records), 39 Kada no Azumamaro, 95, 111, 115, 233n2 Kaganabe journal, 21, 35n76, 37, 102–3, 111, 152, 195 kaichō (exhibition of temple relics), 161 Kaikoku heidan (The Military Defense of a Maritime Country), 84 Kaitakushi (Hokkaido Development Agency), 49 Kakun teiyō (Household Precepts with Commentary), 223

kakuriyo/yūmeikai (spiritual realm), 6, 75–76, 82, 86, 88, 96, 113, 125–26, 131, 133, 136, 138–39, 147, 149–52, 159, 163–65, 168, 171, 212–13, 227, 231–32, 236, 238 kamikakushi (divine abduction), 162 Kammu, 69, 129, 129n15 Kamōsho, 71–72, 142 Kamu tama no mihashira no ushi (Kami and Master of the Sacred Pillar of the Soul), 90, 100 kamuy (deity), 22, 22n24, 79n44 Kanagiya Matasaburō, 37, 47 Kanehira Kiryō/Kikuko, 97, 240t; painting, 104n22, 105–6, 105f, 106f; poetry 104–5; as female scholar, 97, 104, 106–7 Kanematsu Sekkyo/Seigon, 27, 33, 186, 220, 223 Kangakusho (Chinese Studies Institute), 206 Kanna hifumi den (The Sacred Letters of Japanese Traditional Script), 81–82 Kariya Ekisai, 98 Katsugorō saiseiki (A Recorded Account of Katsugorō’s Rebirth), 76, 115 Keikokan, 13, 27–28, 30, 33, 98–99, 122, 186, 190, 202–4 Kemmu Restoration, 187 Ken’yū rakuron. See Enjoyment Visible and Invisible Kiden hō (Return to Land Law), 202 Kido Chidate, 86, 88 Kikuchi Kurō, 203, 204n20 Kikuchi Masahisa, 98, 101, 116–19, 117n53, 121–22 Kikuchi Tatei, 233, 233n4 Kimura Senshū, 40n93 Kingin nyūgaku chō. See Gold and Silver Inlay Memo Book kinnō shukō han. See Distinguished Domain of Imperial Loyalty kishin (C., gui shen) spirits, 94, 139–45, 150, 162 Kishin ron (Treatise on Spirits), 141 Kishin shinron or Shin kishinron (New Treatise on Spirits), 75, 139, 142–43, 145–46, 145n68, 162 Kiyo sōhansho (Writings of Condemnation and Praise), 101 kiyomi harae (cleansing and purification), 190–91 kogaku. See Ancient Learning kōgaku (Imperial studies), 211

INDEX Kōgakusho (Institute of Imperial Studies), 206 Kogo shūi (Gleanings of Ancient Tales), 73 Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters), 72–74, 78n39, 79n41, 102, 119, 139, 144, 158, 164, 190 Kokon yōmikō (On Marvels Old and New), 76, 125, 136, 136n32 Kokueki honron (Thesis on National Profit), 94, 94n103 kokugaku (Japan studies), definition, 1–4, 1n1, 2n2, 3n3; Hirao Rosen and, 59–61, 66, 126–27, 136, 138–39, 142–50, 209–13, 226–28; Hirata, 68–83, 94, 96; and modern society, 206, 234nn5–6, 236; new approach toward, 4, 7–8, 10–12; Norinaga, 31; scholarship on 5–8; Tsuruya Ariyo and, 37, 112–13, 118–19, 151–52, 159, 163–71, 220–21, 231–32 Kokuji ihan jiken (Offense against National Affairs Incident), 208 Kōmei, 189 Konoe Sakihisa, 219, 219n75 Konoe Tadafusa, 176–78, 182–83 Konoe Tadahiro, 176–78, 182–83, 218 Korea, Japan’s invasion of, 19; hangul, 182 Koshichō (Meaning of Ancient History), 71, 73, 86, 98, 99n2, 103, 119 Koshichō kaidaiki (Meaning of Ancient History Commentaries), 86, 98–99, 98n1 Koshiden (Lectures on Ancient History), 73, 80–81, 86, 88, 95, 101, 116–17, 166–67 Koshiseibun (Ancient History Reconstituted), 71, 73, 73n17, 78–80, 78n39, 86, 99n2, 103, 119, 138 kōshōgaku (C., kaozhengxue) evidential research, 38 Kōso kyūsho kō (On the Palace of Imperial Ancestors), 101, 117–19 Kōso kyūsho kō ben (Refutation of On the Palace of Imperial Ancestors), 118–19 Koyama Naishi, 107, 215, 240t Kuga Katsunan, 205n23, 237 Kuji, 16–17 Kujō Michitaka, 175, 177 Kusunoki Masashige, 187–88 kusuri yu, 156 Kyōbushō (Ministry of Education), 206 Kyoto, 9, 13–14, 18–20, 29, 65, 85n68, 91–93, 98, 116, 179–80, 185, 188–90, 197, 202, 206, 208, 216, 218, 238; during Boshin War, 172–77, 183; Hirata Atsutane’s visit to, 85–89

273

Lectures on Ancient History. See Koshiden Loyalist studies (kingaku), 3 Mate hime, 19 Maeda Toshiie, 19 Maeyama Seiichirō, 178 Maiasa shinhaishiki (Morning Order for Worship), 77, 77n33, 163, 166, 168, 168n49 Makado guchi, 179 Masuda Kōtarō/Namiki, 103, 109, 240t Masugenoya, 72, 92 Matsuda Kusui, 27, 30 Matsudaira Katamori, 174, 178n17 Matsumae fūkei (Matsumae Scenery), 52n15, 65 Matsumae kikō (Matsumae Travelogue), 51n14, 52n15, 65 Matsunoya kabunshū (Pine House Poetry and Prose), 117–18 Matsuo Taseko, 95, 104, 235n8 Matsura Seizan, 39, 125 Mayama Sukemasa, 98 Meaning of Ancient History. See Koshichō Meaning of Ancient History Commentaries. See Koshichō kaidaiki Meiji, Emperor, 2, 11, 92, 171–73, 177, 184–87, 189, 189n56, 198–99, 205n23, 206–8, 219, 224–25, 225n93, 230, 232, 234, 236 Meiji society, 198, 206, 208 Meiji (new) government, 10–11, 92, 121, 172–78, 181–85, 197, 200–201, 204–5, 213–14 Meiji Restoration, 2, 5–6, 8, 11, 20, 92–93, 95, 121–22, 152, 171–73, 171n57, 176, 178, 183–89, 197–99, 202, 207, 215, 226–28, 232–33, 236–37 Meitokukan, 95 Merchants, status of, 1, 8, 11, 13, 28, 33, 37, 44, 47, 50, 82–83, 83n59, 96–99, 103, 121–22, 150–51, 170–71, 173, 186, 195, 202, 223, 231, 240 Mikami Omoikiyo, 221n80 Mikami Sennen, 40n93, 211, 220 Minmaya, 24 Minomushi Sanjin, 38n82 mitama matsuri (spirit worship), 100, 111–12, 122, 233 Mitani Chihei/Ōtari, 103, 109, 240t Momokawa Gakuan, 32, 220 Mōnai Unrin, 30, 32 Monjin seimei roku (Disciple Registry), 102

274

INDEX

mono no aware (awareness of a “sensitivity” or “sadness to things”), 31 Morioka (Nanbu clan/domain), 11, 23–25, 47–48, 48n3, 50, 62–64, 98, 137, 237; and Boshin War, 116, 172, 178–87, 189n58, 192, 197, 232; and Hirata kokugaku, 101, 115–22, 231; Nanbu history, 16–20 Morning Order for Worship. See Maiasa shinhaishiki most favored nation status, 47 Motoori Haruniwa, 72, 72n14, 87–89, 142 Motoori Norinaga, 31, 60, 66, 68, 71–74, 86–89, 95, 98, 104, 108, 111, 113, 123–26, 139, 143, 152, 165, 233n2, 234, 234n5 Motoori Ōhira, 73, 87–88, 142 Mount Iwaki (Iwaki san), 11, 14, 29, 32–33, 37n77, 42, 42n96, 43f, 44, 106, 129–30, 150c, 151–53, 153f, 155–63, 157n15, 161n29, 163, 170, 232, 237 Muchū taimen zu (“Image of Encounter in Dream”), 72n14 Mutsu province, 10, 14–15, 18, 27, 32, 78–80, 155, 160, 169–70, 175, 191 Nakamura Yorozuya/Yukihiko, 107, 195, 240 Nanbu. See Morioka Nanbu Toshihisa, 118 Nankō, festival, 187–88; memorial, 188 nation, 2–12, 47, 52, 55–57, 60, 66, 77, 97, 123, 150, 154, 170, 186, 199–200, 230–33, 235, 237–38 nation-state, 5, 188, 230, 234, 237 national consciousness, 57 national political awareness, 49, 49n7, 186 national security, 13, 25–26, 25n39, 28, 50, 54, 83–84, 96, 156, 160, 202, 215 nationalism, 3–4, 127, 237–38 New Treatise on the Spirit Realm (Yūfu shinron), 11, 66n48, 127, 139, 142–47, 145n68, 150, 159, 208–10, 209n39, 227n97, 228, 231 New Year Poetry Ceremony. See Outa kai hajime News of the Great Peace. See Taihei shinwa Nihon shoki (Chronicles of Japan), 71n10, 72–73, 102, 119, 129n15, 130, 144, 164, 190–91 ninbetsuchō (census register), 24 Nishidate Heima, 176–77, 182 Nōgyō yōshū (Essentials on Agriculture), 94 norito (liturgy), 8, 11, 73, 77, 86, 88, 91, 101, 111, 152, 158, 168–70, 190–91, 198, 232

Norito seikun (Correct Readings for Norito), 91 Northern Alliance. See Ōu Etsu reppan dōmei Ogasawara Kenryū, 100, 120, 120n60 Ogyū Sorai, 71, 141–42 Ōharae (Ritual of Great Purification), 77, 101, 117n53, 158, 191 Ōkuninushi no kami/mikoto, 74–75, 75n24, 151, 159, 161n29, 167–68, 170–71 Ōkuni Takamasa, 207–8, 214 Ono Masanosuke, 196 Ono Wakasa/Iwane, 104, 112, 211, 240t; in shinbutsu bunri, 214, 216–18, 236; in shōkonsai, 173, 192–96, 194f, 198 onreimi, 110 Opium War, 46, 59, 231 Osari Nakaakira/Satsuo, 28, 100, 104, 107, 107n25, 121–22, 142–43, 218–20, 240t; reference and unofficial member of Tsugaru group, 107, 121–22, 190; in shinbutsu bunri, 214; in shōkonsai, 173, 190–92, 192n61, 195–96, 198; venerating kokugaku masters, 233–34 Ōshū province, 42 Ōtomo Naoe, 95–96 Ōtsuki Gentaku, 83 Ōu (Mutsu and Dewa), 15, 18, 175 Ōu Etsu reppan dōmei (Northern Alliance), 175–77, 185 Ōu-Subduing Governor, 175, 177, 181–82 Ōura Mitsunobu, 16–17, 43n97 Ōura Tamenobu, 17–20, 219 Outa kai hajime (New Year Poetry Ceremony), 218–19 Ōwada Seibei Sachitane, 69 Parkes, Harry Smith, 186–87, 187n51 Perry, Matthew Calbraith, 7, 46–47, 49n7, 235 Phaeton, 84 Precious Sleeve Cord. See Tamadasuki qi ( J. ki, vital energy), 166 Rakukun (Teachings on Enjoyment), 163, 165–66 Record of Ancient Matters. See Kojiki revere the emperor and expel the barbarians. See sonnō jōi Rezanov, Nikolai, 25 Russia/Russians, 13, 19, 24–26, 25n36, 47, 49, 49n7, 56, 68–69, 84–85, 85nn66–67, 96, 114

INDEX Sacred Pillar of the Soul. See Tama no mihashira Saisei itchi (Unity of Rites and Government), 205, 207 Sakai Tadaatsu, 175 sake, 21, 22n24, 24, 87, 111, 191, 221n80, 238 Sakujin kan (Academy for Character Building), 118 samurai, 1–2, 13, 21–22, 26, 27n50, 33, 43, 49, 53, 53n17, 69, 94, 98, 103, 107, 121–22, 162, 171n57, 174, 178, 180, 182–83, 186, 192n61, 197, 200, 202–3, 204n21, 218–20, 223, 231, 233n4, 236, 240 Sandaikō (Treatise on the Three Universal Bodies), 73, 74n19, 78n39, 86–87 sanjin, 126 sankin kōtai (alternate attendance), 20 Sasaki Awaji/Yoshio, 103, 240t Sasaki Genshun, 203 Sasaki Kensaku/Yoshiyuki, 103, 240t Satake Yoshimasa, 95 Satake Yoshitaka, 175 Satō Nobuhiro, 96n113 Satō Senshi, 40n93 Senkyō ibun (Strange Tidings from the World of Immortals), 75–76, 115, 126, 126n7 Separation of Shinto and Buddhism. See shinbutsu bunri Shakushain, 22, 22n27 Shi ji (Records of the Grand Historian), 130 Shimazaki Masaki, 206 Shimazaki Tōson, 7n25, 206 Shimozawa Tadakazu, 233, 233n4 Shimozawa Yasumi/Hachisaburō 12, 31, 53, 66n48, 99–100, 107, 109, 184, 186, 192, 194–96, 199, 209–13, 233, 236, 240t; editing histories and poetry anthologies, 219–21; and New Year Poetry Ceremony, 218–19 Shin kishinron. See Kishin shinron shinbutsu bunri (Separation of Shinto and Buddhism), 12, 81, 190, 197, 199, 205, 213–18, 215n57, 232–33, 236 Shinto, 1–2, 6–8, 11–12, 26n46, 68, 71–72, 71n10, 74, 76, 86–87, 89–90, 95–97, 100, 107, 107n25, 121, 151, 157–59, 161, 163, 165, 171n56, 173, 179, 189–90, 195, 197–99, 197n76, 205–7, 213–19, 224–26, 231–34, 236, 240t Shiushi (Four Great Men), 111, 233, 233n2. See also ushi (Great Man) Shōheikō academy, 27, 47, 93n98, 98n1

275

shōkonsai (“call back the soul” funerary ritual), 11, 107n25, 173, 232–34; in Hirosaki, 189–96, 189n58, 192n61, 194f, 198; origins, 187–89, 188n53, 189n56 Shoku Nihongi, 129, 129n15 Shugendō, 152, 157, 157n15, 161, 217 Shukusaiten yūshi meibo (Namelist of Festival Participants), 233–34 Shutsujō shōgo (A Laughing Discourse on the Everyday World), 61n35, 81, 81n54 Sino-Japanese War, 233 Sōmoku tane erami (Records of Plant Seed Selection), 94 sonnō jōi (revere the emperor and expel the barbarians), 95 Sugae Masumi, 39 Sukunabikona no kami, 75, 81 Sumera mikami (Imperial god), 159 Susanoo no Mikoto, 74–75 Suseribime no Mikoto, 75 Suzuki Bokushi, 40 Suzuki Masayuki, 93 Tadano Makuzu, 107 Taihei shinwa (News of the Great Peace), 48f, 49, 49n7, 52, 185 Taikyō senpu (Great Promulgation Campaign), 206 Taira no Masakado, 69 Taisei hōkan (the return of political authority to the emperor), 177 Takebe Ayatari, 98 Takeda Seijirō/Chihiro, 103, 109, 240t Takemikazuchi no kami, 75 Takeuchi Yasunori, 61–62 Tales of Gappo (Gappo kidan), 11, 37–38, 66n48, 127–31, 127n10, 136, 145, 150, 209n39 Tamadasuki (Precious Sleeve Cord), 75, 77, 101, 110 Tamakatsuma (Basket of Jewels), 124–25 Tama no mihashira (Sacred Pillar of the Soul), 70–71, 73–75, 77–79, 78n39, 82, 86, 88, 90, 111, 143, 163 Tanabata festival (Two-star festival), 54–55, 63 Tani no hibiki. See Echoes of the Valley Tappi, Cape of, 32–33 Tappi marsh (Tappi numa), 132–33 Tate prefecture, 201 Tenchō mukyū reki (Eternal Calendar of the Heavenly Court), 90 tengu, 75, 115, 126, 126n7, 130

276

INDEX

ten on nichi, 86 Terashima Ryōan, 129, 129n15 Three Hundred Poems of Mount Iwaki. See Iwaki san sanbyaku shu Three Teachings for Early Education (Hatsugaku sanyu), 212 Tohoku, 4, 18, 26, 174–75, 182, 185, 187, 200, 205n23, 224–25, 229–30, 237 Tohoku rokkon (six souls of Tohoku), 229–30 Tokugawa Ienobu, 141 Tokugawa Iesada, 114 Tokugawa Ietsugu, 141 Tokugawa Ieyasu, 19, 22 Tokugawa Yoshinobu, 173–74, 177, 186 Tominokōji Sadanao, 86 Tominokōji Teruko, 86 Torigoe, 93, 117 Tosa domain, 4, 90n89, 173 Tosa Lake (Tosa no mizūmi, Jūsanko), 14, 132 Tosa port, 18 Toyotomi Hideyoshi, 18–19, 22, 30, 230 Tsugaru domain/“country.” See Hirosaki domain Tsugaru group (of Hirata disciples), 8, 8n27, 10–11, 31, 131, 138, 146, 150, 168, 230–33, 235–36, 238; and Boshin War, 171–72, 182, 185; and Hirata kokugaku, 68–69, 97–113, 131, 210–11, 231–35, 240t; and information from Hirata academy, 113–15; in Meiji society, 198–99, 208–13, 220–21, 233–35, 238; and poetry, 107–9; and religious rituals, 109–13, 122, 152, 168; scholarly autonomy of, 11, 98, 121–22, 231; and shōkonsai, 195–96 Tsugaru han kyū kidenrui (Tsugaru Domain Biographical Records), 220, 220n78 Tsugaru han kyū kirui (Tsugaru Domain Personal Records), 220 Tsugaru kokin taisei kashū (Tsugaru Old and New Poetry Collection), 219 Tsugaru ittōshi (Tsugaru Unification Record), 16–17, 22, 38n82 Tsugaru Nagazane, 27 Tsugaru Nobuharu, 27 Tsugaru Nobuhira, 19, 219 Tsugaru Nobumasa, 20, 24, 26, 26n46, 162 Tsugaru Nobuyoshi, 219 Tsugaru nuri (Tsugaru lacquer), 21, 238 Tsugaru Tazen, 27 Tsugaru Tsuguakira, 122, 218–20; background, 201; during Boshin War, 174–78, 182, 185, 200; governance, 202–3, 216; and shōkonsai, 191–93

Tsugaru Tsugutomi, 201–2 Tsugaru Yasuchika, 27, 97–99, 122 Tsugaru Yukitsugu, 201, 203 Tsuruya Ariyo (Takeda Otokichi), 8, 36f, 53, 171n57, 233n4, 240t; death of 211–13, 225–26, 235; early life, 35–37; enrollment in Hirata academy, 101–2, 131; and Hirao Rosen, 32, 138, 142–43, 211–13, 231, 225–27; and Hirata Kanetane, 100–101, 113–14, 120, 213; and Kikuchi Masahisa, 98, 116–19, 122; and kokugaku, 37, 112–13 118–19, 151–52, 159, 163–71, 220–21, 231–32; marriage, 37; on Mount Iwaki, 151–53, 155–63, 170; norito and religiosity, 111–13, 168–71; as poet, 2, 11, 14, 37, 99, 109, 122, 195–96, 220–21; as Tsugaru group leader, 1, 12, 96–97, 99, 101–4, 107–10, 112–13, 122, 210–11, 213, 220–21, 234 Tsuruya bunshū (Tsuruya’s Writings), 101, 109–12, 169–70 Tsuruya (Tanaka) Masako, 35–36 Tsuruya Toshiyo, 233, 233n4 Tsuruya Uhei, 35, 37 Ubusuna kami, 76, 167–70, 215, 218 Uchikoshi Jōzaemon, 162–63 Ueda Hirayoshi/Masatake, 103, 109, 219, 240t uimam, 23–24, 23n29 Uji shūi monogatari (A Collection of Tales from Uji), 164 United States. See Americans Unity of Rites and Government. See Saisei itchi ushi (Great Man), 28, 68, 90, 92, 108, 111–12, 136, 145, 195, 227–28. See also Shiushi (Four Great Men) Ushū highway, 15 uta kai hajime. See Outa kai hajime uta no michi. See Way of Poetry Utagawa Sadahide, 43n97 Utsumi Sōha, 31–32, 34, 37, 169–70 Uwano, 190–93, 193n64 vital energy. See qi Wagaku. See Japanese studies Wajinchi (Japanese territory), 16f, 23, 48, 55, 160 waka (Japanese poetry), 8, 30–32, 37, 37n77, 40, 88, 91, 99, 107, 108n28, 118, 121, 123, 127, 138, 151, 155, 170, 190, 196, 213, 218–21, 224–25, 231

INDEX Wakan sansai zue, 129, 129n15 Way of Poetry, (uta no michi), 99, 107–8, 211 White Waves of the Kuriles. See Chishima no shiranami women, Ainu, 24; in “Dream Soul Kills Wife” story, 133–34, 134n27; Hirao Tome, 34–35; Mount Iwaki prohibition toward, 42, 42n96, 106, 158; from Hirosaki to Ezo, 50; Japanese and Western, 57; of Hirata household, 70–71, 92; as kokugaku scholars, 95, 97, 104–5; in Neputa festival, 229; as poets, 104–5; as scholars, 106–7 Wu gui lun (On the Non-Existence of the Soul), 135 xenophobia, 83, 234 Yahiro palace (Yahiro dono), 119 Yamada Yōnoshin/Tateo, 107, 180n26, 240t; in Battle of Noheji of Boshin War, 11, 172, 178–82, 180n29, 232, 236; and shōkonsai, 185, 191–93, 195–97, 232, 234, 236 Yamaga Sokō, 13, 17, 26, 26n46, 175, 202 Yamanouchi Yōdō, 173 Yamato heart/spirit (Yamato gokoro/ damashii), 74, 81, 143, 143n62, 233 Yamato, land of, 77, 82, 87, 119 Yamazaki Ansai, 69

277

Yamazaki Chōuemon/Atsutoshi, 71, 98 Yamazaki Ranshū, 202 Yanagita Kunio, 39–40, 125–27, 137–38, 137n37 Yano Gendō, 179–80, 206, 208 Yan-shū, 50 Yasukuni, concept of, 188, 189n56, 197n76; Shrine, 188n53, 189n56, 197n76 Yoake mae (Before the Dawn), 7, 104, 206 Yōi meiwa (Account of Western Barbarians), 51–55, 52n15, 53n17, 66n48, 209n39 Yōjōkun (Advice for a Healthy Life), 166n44 Yōkai dangi (Discussion of Monsters), 125, 137–38 Yomi (underworld), 73–74, 74n19, 76, 82, 117, 167 Yōmi (marvel), 114, 117, 131 Yoshida Shōin, 26, 66 yū chi (C., yōu dì), 133 Yūfu shinron. See New Treatise on the Spirit Realm yūmeikai. See kakuriyo Yunosawa, 156 Yushima Tenjin, 93, 93n98 Zhang Hengqu, 162–63 Zhang Zai, 140, 144 Zhong yong. See Doctrine of the Mean Zhu Xi, 140–41, 140n49 Zhu zi yu lei, 140n49