Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns, Isaac Titsingh and Japan 1779-1922

Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns

Isaac Titsingh was intermittently head of the Japan factory (trading station) of the Dutch East India Company from 1779 to 1784. He was a career merchant, but unusual in having a classical education and training as a physician. His impact on Japan was enormous, but he left disappointed in the ability of the country to embrace change. After many years in Java, India and China, he came to London, then settled in Paris, where he devoted himself to compiling translations of prime Japanese texts. His is one of the most exciting anthologies of the period and reveals the almost unknown world of eighteenth-century Japan, discussing politics, history, poetry and rituals. Titsingh’s Illustrations of Japan appeared posthumously in 1820–1822 in English, French and Dutch. This fully annotated edition makes selections from the original English version available for the first time in nearly two centuries. Timon Screech is Reader in the history of Japanese art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, where he has taught since 1991. He is the author of numerous books and articles on the culture of the Edo period in both Japanese and English.

Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779–1822 Annotated and introduced by Timon Screech

First published 2006 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2006 Timon Screech All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Screech, Timon. Secret memoirs of the shoguns : Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779–1822 / annotated and introduced by Timon Screech. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Japan–History–To 1868. 2. Japan–Social life and customs–1600–1868. 3. Titsingh, Isaac, 1744–1812. I. Title. DS835 .S356 2005 952′ .025–dc22 2005005265 ISBN 0–700–71720–X

This work may lead the reader to suppose that the Japanese sink the more important matters in an ocean of frivolities; but before he adopts so harsh a notion respecting a people who are not inferior in politeness to the most distinguished nations of Europe, he ought to consider their present situation, and to acquire a smattering at least of their history. Isaac Titsingh

This edition is dedicated to my father, M. A. Screech

Contents

List of figures Acknowledgements Introduction

xi xv 1

PART I

Secret memoirs of the shoguns

75

1

Before the Tokugawa

77

2

Ieyasu, the Gongen, to Ietsugu

82

3

Yoshimune, the eighth shogun

99

4

Ieshige to Ienari

129

PART II

Essays on Japanese civilisation

159

5

On the legal suicide of the Japanese

161

6

On Japanese poetry

163

7

The character of the Japanese people, and a history of East–West relations

171

PART III

Other observations

183

8

‘Secret Diary’ of Isaac Titsingh

185

9

Titsingh’s ‘Philosophical Discourse’

207

x Contents

Glossary Notes Bibliography Index

217 219 257 263

Figures

Illustrations to the Introduction 1 Katsushika Hokusai, Untitled [the Nagasaki House], illustration to Asakusa Shijin, Kyo¯ ka azuma asobi, monochrome woodblock print; 1799. The British Museum 2 (a and b) Anon., ‘Funeral Process of the Governor of Nagasaki’, illustration to Isaac Titsingh (Frederick Shoberl, trans.), Illustrations of Japan; 1822. London: Maggs Brothers, Ltd 3 Anon., ‘Funeral Process of a Senior Official’, illustration to Isaac Titsingh (Frederick Shoberl, trans.), Illustrations of Japan; 1822. London: Maggs Brothers, Ltd 4 Translators’ signatures, from Motoki Einoshin (Ryo¯ei) (ed.), Shozasshoshu¯, handwritten manuscript; 1795. Kobe City Museum 5 Isaac Titsingh, New Year’s Wishes, handwritten manuscript; 1780, 1782 or 1783. Kobe City Museum 6 Morishima Chu¯ryo¯, ‘Gun-trap’, from his Ko¯mo¯ zatsuwa, monochrome printed book; 1787. Tokyo: National Diet Library 7 Isaac Titsingh (transcribed), illustration to his, Description of Sticking with the Needle and of Burning Moxa in Several Complaints, handwritten manuscript; undated. Manchester: John Rylands Library, University of Manchester 8 Anon., ‘House of the Chief of the Dutch Company’, illustration to Isaac Titsingh (Frederick Shoberl, trans.), Illustrations of Japan; 1822. London: Maggs Brothers, Ltd 9 Hitotsuyanagi Kagen, Untitled [Ko¯saku’s Dutch Rooms], from Tachibana Nankei, Hokuso¯ sadan, monochrome printed book; 1825. Tokyo: National Diet Library 10 Shiba Ko¯kan, Yoshiho Koosak [Yoshio Ko¯saku], ink on paper; 1788. Private Collection 11 Anon. (Morishima Chu¯ryo¯?), ‘Human Movements’, from his Ko¯mo¯ zatsuwa, monochrome printed book illustration; 1787. Tokyo: National Diet Library

8

18

19 22 24 25

26

28

28 30

31

xii Figures 12 Kutsuki Masatsuna, Signature and seal, from a handwritten list of Japanese coinage types sent to Titsingh, 1786. Manchester: John Rylands Library, University of Manchester 13 Nicolas Sanson, Atlas nouveau, monochrome printed title page; 1692. Ex-collection Titsingh and Kutsuki. Kanazawa: Ishikawa Prefectural Library 14 Anon., from Kutsuki Masatsuna, Seiyo¯ zenpu, monochrome woodblock book illustration; 1787. Tokyo: National Diet Library 15 Anon., from G. W. Knorr, Délice des yeux et de l’esprit: collection des différentes espèces de coquillages, vol. 1, hand-coloured copperplate book illustration; 1764–5. Ex-collection Titsingh and Kutsuki. Oita: Oita Prefectural Library 16 Anon., from Matsura Kiyoshi (Seizan), Kasshi yawa, ink on paper; late nineteenth century. Private Collection 17 Anon. (illus.), Isaac Titsingh (inscript.), ink and colour on paper; 1782. Hirado: Matsura Shiryo¯kan 18 Anon. (trad. attrib. wife of Ogino Gengai), ‘Pomegranate’, page from Taishu¯-en so¯moku-fu, ink and colour on paper; 2 vols, 1786. Manchester: John Rylands Library, University of Manchester 19 Anon., from Ehon kaname ishi, monochrome woodblock-printed book illustration; 1782. Private Collection 20 (a and b) Duché de Vancy or Prévost the Younger (Blondelle, sculp.), ‘Japanese Boat’, pages from J. C. de la Pérouse (anon., trans.), Voyage Around the World, monochrome copperplate book illustrations; 1798. London: The British Library 21 Anon. (Morishima Chu¯ ryo¯?), ‘Luftschip’, from his Ko¯mo¯ zatsuwa, monochrome printed book illustration; 1787. Tokyo: National Diet Library 22 Anon., from André van Braam Houckgeest, An Authentic Account of the Dutch Embassy to the Court of the Emperor of China, copperplate book illustration; 1798. London: The British Library

34

35 36

37 41 42

43 45

50

54

59

Illustrations to the Text (Only those illustrations pertaining to the sections included in this edition are reproduced) 23 Anon., ‘Residence of the Djogoun at Yedo [the shogun in Edo]’, frontispiece to Isaac Titsingh (Frederick Shoberl, trans.), Illustrations of Japan; 1822. London: Maggs Brothers, Ltd 24 Anon., ‘Earthquake of the Mountain of Asamayama, in the Province of Sinano [Shinano]’, illustration to Isaac Titsingh (Frederick Shoberl, trans.), Illustrations of Japan; 1822. London: Maggs Brothers, Ltd

177

178

Figures xiii 25 Anon., ‘Earthquake, Volcanic Eruption, & Inundation in the Province of Simahara [Shimabara]’, illustration to Isaac Titsingh (Frederick Shoberl, trans.), Illustrations of Japan; 1822. London: Maggs Brothers, Ltd 26 Anon., ‘Plan of the Dutch Factory in the Island of Desima at Nangasaki [Dejima in Nagasaki]’, illustration to Isaac Titsingh (Frederick Shoberl, trans.), Illustrations of Japan; 1822. London: Maggs Brothers, Ltd 27 Anon., ‘The Chinese Factory in the Street of Teng-chan at Nangasaki [To¯jin in Nagasaki], Founded in 1688’, illustration to Isaac Titsingh (Frederick Shoberl, trans.), Illustrations of Japan; 1822. London: Maggs Brothers, Ltd

179

180

181

Acknowledgements

This book has been made possible through the generosity of several individuals and institutions. The Introduction and much of the text were prepared while I was visiting professor at Heidelberg University, Germany. I would like to thank Lothar Ledderose for the invitation, and Doris Croissant, Melanie Trede and Alexander Hofmann for making my stay so interesting and rewarding. David McKay provided the translation of Titsingh’s ‘Philosophical Discourse’, and permitted me to publish it here; Cynthia Viallé permitted me to reproduce (with minor adaptations) her previously published translation of Titsingh’s ‘Secret Diary’, and Leonard Blussé her series editor concurred. I thank them all. The Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (SIAJAC), offered financial assistance both at the beginning and end stages of the project, for which I thank them. The staff of Special Collections in the Library of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) showed much forbearance in the face of my repeated requests. Titus Boeder and Maggs Brothers, Ltd. generously allowed me to photograph their copy of Titsingh’s Illustrations of Japan, and Glenn Ratcliffe saved the day with the photography. Editorial assistance was provided by Nicholas Sikorsky and Lucy Watts. Toby Screech untangled many problems of the Dutch language for me, and Kobayashi Fumiko likewise with the verses cited by Titsingh. As ever, Zoo Murayama has tolerated the process from first to last, and assisted with numerous observations and ideas of his own. My work on Titsingh would not have been possible without the scholarship of Frank Lequin.

Introduction

During the five years in which he came and went from Japan, Isaac Titsingh conceived in his mind a monumental project. He was already leading an exemplary career in the Dutch East India Company (known by its acronym as the VOC), and would later rise to its summit; but this project was to be his real life’s work. The idea that had generated in Japan continued to be his obsession ever after, as he thought about it, collected data for it, translated and wrote for it, for the remainder of his days. Titsingh had decided to do nothing less than compile a compendium to lay before the reader all there was to know about the shogun’s realm. Such a work was, he felt, crucial, given the importance of the Japanese states, the industriousness and creativity of their people, the widespread European and American sense that this was a country that ought to be known about, and, on the other hand, the paucity of material fit to give proper understanding. Titsingh would provide the key to all Japan. At this time, among European ships, Japan admitted only VOC vessels, and then only at Nagasaki. Titsingh split his time between that port and Batavia (modern Jakarta), capital of the Dutch East Indies, where the VOC’s overseas operations were headquartered. Such a commute took six weeks’ sailing. Titsingh first went to Japan in 1779 to run the VOC trading station, or factory, as its chief negotiant and officer, and he spent three extended periods there, cumulatively forty-four months, before leaving for good in 1784. Titsingh’s length of residence in Japan was far from unprecedented; indeed many outlasted him. On first arrival, for example, he met a German, Albertus Domberg, already six years into a continuous eleven-year stay.1 What set Titsingh apart from such mercantile old hands was that he intended to become an authority on the country. Among those who professed to do this, his stay was the most protracted. Certainly, none who turned author resided in Japan for so long. Titsingh was a man of considerable training as well as aspiration. He held doctorates in law and medicine from the University of Leiden, the bastion of learning in the Republic of the United Provinces (aka Holland). He has been termed the most learned Hollander to visit Japan in this early-modern, or Edo Period, that is, the last period of shogunal rule (1603–1868).2 As Titsingh’s first English editor commented, here was a man whose faculties were ‘not wholly under the dominion of the plodding spirit of commerce’.3 It is important not to forget that for all his talents, Titsingh went East,

2 Introduction as all did, to get rich; it was only after he had made his fortune that he returned to Europe, finally, in 1796, to write his book. Titsingh’s project was not just to compile a monumental work. He also hoped to make it available to all by publishing it simultaneously in the three European languages he regarded as crucial: Dutch, his native tongue and lingua franca – though only just – of East-Asian trade; French, the language of the philosophes and the Revolution; and English, the language of modern science. Titsingh’s book was to be in two parts. The first would be a full history of Japan, from the beginning of recorded history (then thought to be 660 BC) to the present; this would comprise biographies of the dairis (titular sovereigns, today referred to as ‘emperors of Japan’), followed by longer biographies of the actual rulers of the present dynasty, that is, the shoguns of the Tokugawa family (whom Europeans then called the ‘emperors of Japan’, the dairis generally considered to be a kind of Japanese pope).4 This first section would end with an account of the history of Japanese contacts with Europeans, which had begun with the arrival of the Portuguese in 1542 and continued with the coming of the Dutch in 1600. After the expulsion of the Portuguese in 1636, the Dutch persisted alone until Titsingh’s day.5 The book’s second section would be about the human condition. It would open with an essay entitled ‘The Nature of the Japanese People’, and go on to discuss core elements in a person’s life cycle – marriage and funeral (birth being little celebrated in Buddhism) – then expand into a series of discursive essays on matters of special regard, such as food and drink (soya, sake, etc.), the perennially fascinating matter of ritual suicide (seppuku), poetic exchanges (which Titsingh correctly identified as a vital social lubricant), and on and on in a potentially limitless sequence of topics that he never fully demarcated. The book would end with a discussion of the quasi-Japanese periphery of Ezo (modern Hokkaido¯), inhabited by a distinct ethnic group, the Ainu, more Siberian than Japanese. This vast and totalising work would be called simply, in the three languages, ‘A Description of Japan’.6 There was one further feature of the project, and perhaps this is its most remarkable. The book would not be made up of texts written by Titsingh, but only of his translations from Japanese sources. It was this, Titsingh believed, that would give his publication the qualitative edge over all other works on Japan, of which there were already several, though which seldom extended beyond travellers’ tales (albeit often gripping ones).7 On his return to Europe, Titsingh encountered a new book, just published, which he had, above all, to surpass. This was by Carl Peter Thunberg, a noted physician and botanist, who had been in Nagasaki three years before Titsingh, and was now a professor at Upsala (modern Uppsala), in Sweden, where he had succeeded to the great Linnaeus. Thunberg was regarded as one of Europe’s leading scientific scholars.8 He had gone beyond the standard travel-diary format; indeed, he decried the way that offerings of ‘more ridiculous and intrepid narratives than useful information’ were allowed to ‘intrude upon the public’. But Thunberg spoke little Japanese and read next to none. It was in the handling of original sources that Titsingh would stake his claim to superiority.

Introduction 3 This concern to allow the Other to speak for itself, rather than to be spoken for, was novel, and remains one of the most innovative and impressive aspects of Titsingh’s work. He was emphatic, ‘deem[ing] it preferable’ to present the Japanese ‘in their own dress’, with unaltered translations most ‘congenial with the purpose’, adding ‘nothing of my own’.9 Of course, a translator is always a mediator, but Titsingh sought to silence his voice as much as possible. What follows is, accordingly, a sequence of translations from Japanese sources, made by Titsingh over a period of decades, from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century texts. Some of his sources remain common today and continue to form part of the historical narrative; others are exceptionally scarce. But Titsingh’s project failed. How could it have succeeded? Once he left Japan, even though he took with him a good library, he had insufficient access to texts, and more crucially, to assistance and advice. He continued to encounter Chinese, and sometimes Japanese speakers while in Asia (the former were useful as his sources were often written in pseudo-Chinese, or kanbun, which functioned in Japan as Latin did in Europe); but this ended when he returned to Europe. It should be added that although Titsingh never contradicted those who expressed wide-eyed admiration for his language proficiency, considerable doubt remains as to the level of his competence. In asserting that he learned Japanese in two years (which he reported he had done), Titsingh exposed himself to the charge that he could not have learned it very thoroughly.10 Even allowing for total immersion and a degree of genius, this was just not enough time. In all likelihood, Titsingh’s skills were not up to the ambitiousness of his project, and once he left his guides behind, he became unstuck. This accounts for repeated prolongations of the translating and editing stages. When Titsingh died in 1812, he had virtually nothing in print.11 His peripatetic lifestyle had taken him to Paris. Two French scholar friends, Jean-Pierre-Abel Rémusat and his younger colleague Heinrich Julius von Klaproth, both of whom read Chinese and the latter also Japanese, and who will be introduced more fully below, determined to sort out the morass of Titsingh’s papers, and publish what they could, posthumously. They saw through to press the French version of Titsingh’s manuscript, though it took them nearly a decade. This Rémusat-Klaproth edition appeared in 1820, under a more limiting title than Titsingh had hoped for, as Mémoires et anecdotes sur la dynastie régnante des djogouns (Memoirs and anecdotes on the reigning dynasty of shoguns). The publication was a success. This prompted a move to put the other language manuscripts out, and Titsingh’s English version was inspected. Owing to deficiencies of style and idiom, it was rejected, but a new translation was made from the French, by Frederick Shoberl, a journalist and well-known introducer of French authors to the English-reading public. Titsingh’s English manuscript was published the following year, under an expanded, though not entirely comprehensible title, as Illustrations of Japan; it bore the subtitle, ‘Private Memoirs and Anecdotes of the Reigning Dynasty of the Djogouns, or Sovereigns of Japan’, although in the body of the text this was altered to ‘Secret Memoirs’, which is retained here as the title of the present edition. Titsingh’s Dutch manuscripts could not be found, so a Dutch translation was made from the English translation, and published in 1824–5.12

4 Introduction For all the lingering questions of accuracy, this edition has been made in the belief that there is much to learn from what Titsingh wrote, both for the history of Japan and also for other histories – of travel, medicine, the transmission of Enlightenment thought, colonisation and trade. The whole Illustrations of Japan, however, is not given here: excised are parts that have become blatantly redundant. Selections from Titsingh’s history sections form Part I of this edition, and from the essay sections form Part II. Part III brings together two further pieces of Titsingh’s writing, not envisaged as constituents of his magnum opus, but important for grasping the totality of his life and projects: the first is his ‘Philosophical Discourse’, produced for the benefit of a friend, Goto¯ Sho¯zaemon, written in Dutch, and here published in English for the first time; the second is Titsingh’s ‘Secret Diary’, kept during his longest period of residence in Japan, to parallel the official log, or Dagregister (Daily register), that all factory chiefs were required to keep.13 The Discourse is important evidence for the spread of speculative eighteenthcentury ideas from Europe to Japan, while the Diary reveals many of the covert interpersonal workings in which Titsingh was engaged, and without which he would not have acquired Japanese at all, nor gathered the materials for his book, nor made his fortune. This Introduction assesses Titsingh’s life, ideas and interactions, and discusses the formulation and history of his intended book. Additional introductions are given in the form of a preface to the various sections below, as required.

Life before Japan The life of Isaac Titsingh has been told before, though not for eighty years in English and never comprehensively. One full biography exists in Dutch, but based on Western-language sources; most of what is advanced below is previously unknown.14 The Titsingh family was originally from Hessen, in Germany, but they had long been integrated into Amsterdam’s elite.15 They distinguished themselves over several generations in the two areas in which the United Provinces really shone: the arts of the sea and of medicine, sometimes combining the two. Titsingh’s grandfather, also Isaac, had been First Surgeon to the Admiralty. His eldest son, Albertus, Titsingh’s father, was a celebrated physician, known particularly for his development of obstetrics, and also sometime head of the Guild of Surgeons. Grandfather Isaac’s brother, Abraham, had also been head of the city’s Guild of Surgeons, and had three sons, Guilelmus and Adriaan, who had joined the VOC and risen high, and Nicolaas, who had become a surgeon. Of Titsingh’s own generation, Gerard, Nicholaas’s son, was a VOC physician, for a time based in Batavia. On the distaff side, of his mother, Catharina Bitter (second of Albertus’s three sequential wives), less is known, but she was of solid bourgeois stock. The Titsinghs inhabited a large house on the Herengracht. This was all impressive by any standards. Naturally enough, when Titsingh entered university, he studied medicine, but he also took law and it was in that field that he published his Latin thesis (a requirement to receive the doctorate), in 1765, De jure jurando in litem (On the

Introduction 5 swearing of oaths in lawsuits). Thereupon, he joined the VOC and sailed to Batavia, departing Amsterdam’s sea road island, the Texel, in the Huis ten Spijk, that very summer. Doctors of law sometimes joined the VOC, but they generally remained as functionaries at home; all ships and overseas factories required physicians, but most had barber-surgeons. In both regards, Titsingh was tremendously overqualified. He sailed as a regular trader, though family contacts ensured he was pegged at a high starting point, as under-merchant (onderkoopman). The Huis ten Spijk stopped for a month at the Dutch colony on the Cape, as was normal, before sailing on again, and arriving at Batavia in early 1766. Titsingh worked in a series of posts over the years, mostly associated with the fort’s magazine. He rose through the hierarchy, and after five years had become a standard-bearer of the Batavian state guard; four years later he was raised to lieutenant and the following year to captain-lieutenant. These were ceremonial titles, for Titsingh was never a military officer, but in the small and prickly city of Batavia, with its wigs, harpsichord concerts and transplanted European mores, they conferred prestige. Titsingh’s break came after three further years. He was to take it upon himself to write to the VOC’s governing council in Amsterdam, the famous Gentlemen XVII, to suggest that in future factory chiefs might be selected on the basis of educational level, not just business acumen. The Gentlemen replied, in suitable lofty mode, that this was ‘easier said than done’, since they had the impression that Asian people understood ‘sacrifice to Mercury, but never to Pallas’. But recognising talent, and perhaps because he had just become a Freemason, the VOC raised Titsingh to upper-merchant (opperkoopman), and then nominated him to be the next chief (opperhooft) of the Japan factory, to sail thither in spring 1779.16 This would be a one-year posting since, by order of the shogunate, chiefs could not reside for longer. Notwithstanding this, there was scope for money-making, as the chief was permitted a sizeable trunk of private goods, and he alone was not subject to a body-search on arrival (a privilege chiefs much abused). In most of the Tokugawa bureaucracy’s sensitive or trust-based posts, two nominees alternated tenure annually, and the shogunate accepted that factory chiefs could do the same, such that Titsingh would return to Batavia the following season, but go back to Japan again the next, repeatedly. The VOC allowed its Japan chiefs a flexible number of these leapfrogging postings, generally between three and five, before requiring them to hand on to the next lucky individual. One of the incumbent alternating chiefs, Hendrik Duurkoop, had died en route to Japan, on the way to his second period in office, the previous year, which created an unexpected opening.

Nagasaki and Edo On Titsingh’s arrival, the Dutch had been in Japan for approaching two centuries and had been alone among Europeans in Nagasaki for nearly 150 years, since the explusion of Iberians and voluntary departure of the English. They had first arrived accidentally, as a disparate groups of merchants, in 1600, but two years later, the VOC had been created and received a monopoly on the import of Asian

6 Introduction commodities to the United Provinces, news of which reached Japan in 1609. The Dutch (and briefly the English) had used factories on the island of Hirado, just off the coast of Kyushu, in the south-west, easily reachable from Java. However, in 1639, the VOC was relocated to Nagasaki, where they took over the old Portuguese base of Dejima, a tiny man-made island a few metres into the bay. As an island, Dejima was useful in protecting the valuable goods from fire or theft. But it could seem prison-like, especially as VOC staff were not always allowed to leave it. The VOC had once sent many ships to Japan, but in the early eighteenth century the quota was fixed at two. This was contested during Titsingh’s tenure because the fast depletion of Japan’s only bulk export – copper (other than to obtain which the VOC saw no merit in coming to Japan, though they also bought camphorwood) – could not justify such high tonnage. The VOC wanted to scale back even further. Increasing difficulty in obtaining exportable copper was a serious dilemma for the Japanese, since they wanted the VOC to remain, but Titsingh misinterpreted it as a ruse by the town’s shogunal plenipotentiary, the governor of Nagasaki (Nagasaki bugyo¯), to raise prices by cramping supply, and he threatened a pull-out. The VOC were the only Europeans, but Chinese vessels entered Nagasaki, and in greater numbers, though their ships were smaller. A Chinese community in town had its own island store, and a stockaded residential area onshore (they were too many to live on the island). During Titsingh’s tenure as factory chief, the Chinese merchants also intermittently threatened to cut their losses and run.17 Every year, the two VOC ships would leave Batavia in May and arrive in Nagasaki at the beginning of August. There would be intensive negotiations over the sale and purchase of goods. The first day of the eighth lunar month (midSeptember), was the Japanese hassaku, or gift-giving day, known to the Dutch as the ‘Nagasaki recognition’, and the VOC observed the protocols, handing out newly imported ‘rarities’ to those in positions of power. In late summer was the Kuchi festival at Nagasaki’s Suwa Shrine, which the Europeans viewed from stands erected for the purpose. The full process of unloading and reloading would take until early November, and during this period the outgoing factory chief would remain in charge. Since the governorate of Nagasaki was one of the shogunate’s alternating posts, the person who had sat out the previous year in the shogunal capital, Edo (modern Tokyo), would now arrive, the two governors would tour the ships and visit Dejima, and the one who had just completed his year in Nagasaki would return to Edo. The out-going chief handed over control of the factory about a fortnight later, and sailed away with the departing ships by mid-November. Left behind was a skeleton group of a dozen Europeans and about the same number of enslaved Indonesians. It did not make for a life of great excitement. Most VOC staff took advantage of Nagasaki’s notorious red-light district, the Maruyama, whose denizens could visit the island freely and who alone among all Japanese people could overnight there.18 The Maruyama was so imprinted on European sailors’ minds that their deformation of it, ‘miriam’, had, since the early eighteenth century at least, been used as the generic term for pleasure quarters throughout Asia.19 Genuine friendships could be made in this manner, with conversations conducted in rudimentary Japanese, or more often Malay, which all spoke some-

Introduction 7 what, and some spoke well. Daytime male-to-male bonds were also formed with the assorted minders and translators employed by the shognuate to manage the VOC employees and their international affairs. As the Europeans were seldom permitted to wander about town, and the Indonesians never were, the scope for encountering ‘ordinary’ Japanese people was not great. Nagasaki was a city of only 50,000-odd inhabitants, and far from the centres of power. It took about as long to get there from Edo as it did from Batavia. But by time-honoured tradition, three top members of the Dejima factory would go annually to Edo to pay their respects to the shogun and, if there was one, to his designated successor (there was none when Titsingh arrived). The chief always went on this Court Trip (hofeis), as it was known, assuming a semi-ambassadorial role. The factory scribe and normally the resident physician went too. Their stay in Edo was for three weeks, and the whole round-trip might take four months, and thus, for up to a quarter of any year, the small European posse, with a Japanese entourage of some hundred attendants, would traverse the country. This period allowed for a better degree of contact, and undercuts some modern historians’ talk of the sequestration of the VOC in Nagasaki and the ‘closure’ of Japan. To any European of enquiring bent, the court trip was a superlative occasion to view the landscape, to see a range of sights, and to interact with Japanese people of all classes. Although policed, with wandering off not condoned, the entourage lodged most nights in standard inns, and even when they did not (in major cities they had dedicated residences that were kept empty at other times), these were always centrally located. Carl Peter Thunberg, who made the trip in 1776, wrote that, ‘I have never made so pleasant a journey as this.’20 In Edo itself, the three Europeans would encounter one of the world’s largest, finest and most dangerous metropoles. Each trip was fundamentally the same. The entourage would leave Nagasaki in February, just after the lunar New Year, so as to arrive in Edo on the 1st day of the 4th month (mid-May), which was the ritual moment for putting away winter clothes and donning summer ones (or removing the wadding for people with few garments). The arrival of the Europeans was part of the pageantry of the return of warmth and the balmy reawakening of the season. The shogunate promoted the idea that this procession of people from the undeveloped ends of the earth demonstrated their righteous benevolence: the VOC came to seek instructions and do homage. It was a matter of debate as to whether these foreigners were undeveloped or not. Some were recognised as men of learning, and, as we shall see below, Titsingh was one, as Thunberg had been before him. But all were agog at the annual procession of ‘oranda-jin’ (Oranda = Holland; jin = person), or ‘red furred people’ (ko¯mo¯-jin), bearing wonderful arrays of gifts. The VOC was mobbed in the streets. Discussing or depicting political events was forbidden, so few details survive from the Japanese side to reveal the conditions that extravagantly prevailed. One rare image appears in Katsushika Hokusai’s illustrated poetry album of 1799, on the sights of Edo, Kyo¯ka azuma asobi (Leisure time in the east told in ‘mad verse’), showing the VOC hostel, called the Nagasaki House (Nagasaki-ya) (see Figure 1).21 The scene is decently shown to avoid any charge of lese-majesty, and of all

8 Introduction

Figure 1 Katsushika Hokusai, Untitled [the Nagasaki House], illustration to Asakusa Shijin, Kyo¯ka azuma asobi, monochrome woodblock print; 1799. The British Museum.

the illustrations in the book, it alone is unlabelled, allowing Hokusai and his publisher an escape route, if challenged. In practical terms, after setting out, the VOC trip as far as Shimonoseki was overland; from there they went to Sakai by water, and were then carried in

Introduction 9 palanquins to the adjoining city of Osaka; this was a major conurbation ten times the size of Nagasaki. From Osaka, they went by river boat to the city known to Europeans as Miyako and to the Japanese as Kyo¯ or Keishi (though properly always Kyoto, its standardised modern name), similar in size to Osaka. From Miyako, they took the To¯kaido¯, one of the world’s best-maintained highways, the 500 km to Edo. After their official audiences and other less formal meetings, the group would return the way they came, this time in more relaxed mode. Back in Miyako they would commission small quantities of lacquer be sent down to Nagasaki for export (usually privately), and would make tourist visits to temples; in Osaka they would inspect the shogunal copper monopoly (do¯za), and go to the theatre. They arrived back in Nagasaki in late May. After the court trip’s return, the chief would take back control from his deputy, and begin preparations to receive the in-coming ships. Summer and autumn would see the festivals, the unloading and loading, the various hand-overs and departures, and the sailing of the ships.

Titsingh’s Japan Upon nomination, Titsingh made his preparations and sailed to Japan, arriving in August, 1779, again using the Huis ten Spijk, skippered by Hermanus Siedenburg; the second ship was the Roodenreis, under Juriaan Ficke. Titsingh met the incumbent chief, Arend Feith, whom he would have known from Batavia; Titsingh would assume the rotation Feith had expected to have with the deceased Duurkoop. Feith was already on his fifth stint, including the double one forced on him by Duurkoop’s demise en route to take up his post, but he showed no intention of bowing out. During the time the two men were together in Nagasaki, Titsingh had access to Feith’s wealth of information, and, though he was perhaps not formally educated, Feith was a person of scientific interests; he had been instrumental in Thunberg’s securing of the botanical samples that made him famous in Europe, having been chief during the Swedish scholar’s visit too.22 The new chief had to inform his predecessor about world affairs, so that he could dictate a report for forwarding to Edo, to be archived by the shogunate. Titsingh told of fighting at Makassar between the VOC and its host country, Gowa; the place, in modern Indonesia, was important for oil export (hence ‘anti-macassar’); but beyond that, Titsingh stated, ‘peace reigns in the homeland and there is no special news’.23 Before Feith had even gone and Titsingh had taken over formal control, the new arrival threw down the gauntlet to the shogunate, delivering a strongly worded letter from Batavia. The VOC authorities were complaining of two recurrent problems: depredation of Company goods through stealing (the island location did not offer enough security) and other sharp practices, with the lax Japanese followup to such infringements, and insufficient provision of copper; the latter meant diminishing prices paid for imports, as all trade was done on barter, and in effect, the VOC merely swapped what they brought for a pre-agreed quantity of copper, so that unless the quota was adhered to, they could not determine how many goods to bring. In 1698, a body called the Nagasaki Office (kaisho¯ in Japanese, geldkamer

10 Introduction in Dutch) had been established, and all imports had to be sold through it, ending the system of public VOC auctions held in town. The Company was therefore over a barrel. Barring setting some of their imports aside, or making a U-turn with their ships, they had no alternative but to accept in exchange whatever amount of copper was offered by the shogunate, even if it fell short of what had been agreed. The letter Titsingh delivered was so abrupt it shocked the governors, Kuze Hirotami (about to return to Edo) and Tsuge Masakore (just arrived for his year in residence). They sent word that they ‘dare not send it’ to Edo.24 As if to prove the validity of the complaints contained in the letter, not one week later, the camphorwood being loaded aboard the Huis ten Spijk (the second commodity, which, to a degree, could compensate for the diminution of copper) was found to have been adulterated with stones. The shogunal officer in charge blithely took his countrymen’s side, arguing that the packers were required to complete nearly impossible daily allocations, so ‘adding a couple of stones helps’.25 Titsingh only allowed loading to continue after extracting a promise from Hirotami, the returning governor, that he would raise the matter in Edo. Tsuge Masakore was despised by the VOC and by the Chinese, as ‘odious’ and a ‘bad governor’, but Kuze Hirotami was liked and Titsingh called him ‘a fine fellow’ (brave); he trusted him to deal with the problem in Edo.26 The two men rotated as governors for three more years, playing the roles of good cop and bad cop. In late November, despite these hiccups, Feith handed the factory keys to Titsingh, boarded the Huis te Spijk and left. Titsingh took over the official log, making his first entry on the 29th of that month. Much of the data on Titsingh’s time in Japan derives from this source; he deliberately intended no travelogue section in his book, and so kept no records; there is, additionally, the more confessional ‘Secret Diary’, and also many extant letters. Not even a week later, on 3 December, Titsingh had to write that the Roodenrijs had sprung a leak while still in Nagasaki Bay, and as its pump was broken, it could not sail; a spare pump was found on Dejima and rapidly sent out by lighter.27 Both ships departed successfully on the 13th. Three weeks on again, just into the solar New Year, Titsingh got a lesson in Japanese protocol: the dairi, Hidehito, died, aged just 21 (his was an inbred family and all died young).28 Five days’ mourning were required, a hush assisted by an unusual 60-cm fall of snow. The dairi was given the posthumous name, GoMomozono, and, like all Japanese rulers, is known by this (dairis’ and shoguns’ actual names were not released, and though those of the latter are casually used to today, it was not so at the time; using those of the former is still not accepted). Titsingh’s interest was piqued by finding that ‘Go-Momozono’ had no son, leaving him to wonder over the constitutional issues this would provoke (they were enormous).29 To make matters worse, just ten days later, a rumour circulated that the shogun, Tokugawa Ieharu, was dead, which would require 50 days’ mourning, but luckily this turned out to be a false alarm (note the relative importance of the two rulers).30 In early February 1780, the barge used annually to convey the court trip presents to Edo came around from Osaka where it was kept; it was laden and sent on to

Introduction 11 Shimonoseki, where the three VOC officials would join it, and sail with it to Sakai.31 Titsingh now began the first of his two court trips. The factory had been without a physician since the unexpected resignation of Thunberg in 1776; moreover, the scribe, Johan Schartow, was ill. Accordingly, Titsingh travelled with the bookkeeper Ernst van Beckstein (who had also gone in lieu of a physician the previous year) and Domburg, the old Japan-hand mentioned above. Of Nagasaki’s several official Dutch translators, two always accompanied the trip, one of senior and one of junior grade, and in this case they were Namura Genjiro¯ and Narabayashi Eizaemon. The group passed through the Inland Sea to Sakai, and stopped in Osaka and Miyako without problem. They were delayed near Edo by the retinue of one of the great regional rulers (daimyo), or ‘princes’ (to use Titsingh’s term), Shimazu Shigehide, of Satsuma, who was also travelling to court. Shigehide was surely informed that the Europeans were cooling their heels behind him, for his links to the VOC were close, and would become profound. Satsuma was near to Nagasaki and, for many years, factory chiefs had relied on, and obtained, his good will. They showered Shigehide with gifts, including sugar-plums, to which he was addicted, and he built up an extraordinary collection of European items, beyond what anyone else remotely possessed.32 Shigehide had natural-history samples from faraway places, chairs, chandeliers, quantities of porcelain tableware, and unique objects such as a diamond pen for glass etching, a static-electricity generator and a glass bell.33 Shigehide was a bird-watcher and so they gave him rare species and he wrote an ornithological handbook in which the names appear in Latin, Chinese and Japanese.34 But Shigehide was a person of political consequence too, and his significance would be augmented dramatically the following year when Hitotsubashi Toyochiyo, the minor shogunal prince to whom he had espoused his four-year-old daughter, Tadako, was unexpectedly adopted by the shogun (who, like the old dairi, was sonless); in 1786 Toyochiyo would succeed, under the name of Tokugawa Ienari.35 To become father-in-law of the shogun promised power in the highest degree. Shigehide spoke Dutch and used the language to communicate in secret with his spies: he also had his enemies.36 On arrival in Edo, just before the VOC, arsonists lit fires near Shigehide’s lodgings, hoping to compromise him and probably also steal items from his luggage, but his guards extinguished the blazes.37 When Titsingh got to Edo, just after, he was informed of the death of Hiraga Gennai. This was a blow. Gennai was at the centre of many urban intellectual circles, and had been one of the first to argue forcefully, in the mid-eighteenth century, for Europeans and their culture to be taken seriously.38 He knew Shigehide, although differences of status would have made them unable to meet openly, especially after Gennai, a samurai, surrendered his rank to pursue academic and scientific interests. He experimented with electricity, mine-pumping, asbestos, ceramics and oil painting, and travelled to Nagasaki in 1752 and 1770–1, meeting the VOC contingent there, under chiefs Hendrik van Homoed on the first trip, and Olphert Elias then Daniel Armenault on the second. Gennai managed to meet several VOC chiefs when they came to Edo too, and, most famously, in 1762, he

12 Introduction enjoyed a drinking bout with the long-standing Jan Crans, which historians would come to identify as a turning-point in Japanese estimations of the West.39 The facts leading up to Gennai’s death have never been clarified, but it seems he murdered a student in a fit of rage, and was imprisoned. Titsingh heard that Shigehide was secretly using influence to secure his release, but the relevant governor of Edo (like Nagasaki, Edo had two, but they worked concurrently), Makino Nariyoshi, fearing a disturbance – in addition to everything else, Gennai was a wildly popular fictionalist and playwright – had Gennai poisoned in his cell. Titsingh was surely looking forward to a meeting, but instead, could only lament in his log the loss of one who, having ‘trained himself in several sciences through research and observation, and having been a great friend of the Dutchmen’, was now no more.40 Gennai’s student, Morishima Chu¯ryo¯, inherited his mantle, and will be encountered below. Another death was reported, although one that would have affected Titsingh less: the wife of Masakore, of the bad governor, who was himself in Nagasaki, had succumbed in childbirth in Edo.41 The audience with the shogun was held on 5 April. Titsingh recorded seeing ‘his imperial majesty’ standing, which, if correct, is odd, as he would be expected to sit. But the encounter would have lasted about a minute, and Titsingh’s head should have been firmly face-down on the floor. Titsingh summed up his time in Edo: ‘we were received amicably’, in contrast to ‘the usual treatment meted out in Nagasaki’.42 It is not certain whether his stay in Edo was entirely pleasant though, for he later wrote that he would ‘condemn to hell’ the Edo governor whose ‘odious behaviour destroyed my enthusiasm for making proper use of my time there’.43 On the 14th, after the normal three weeks, Titsingh, Van Beckstein, Domburg and their minders began the journey home. Back in Nagasaki, Titsingh extended condolences, not necessarily heartfelt, to Masakore, on the loss of his wife. Some weeks later, he heard of another death, and one that would have affected him deeply. This was of Goto¯ So¯zaemon, head of the Nagasaki Office, who, despite all their differences over the regime of the Office itself, Titsingh had become close to. He had not seen So¯zaemon since his return from Edo, and this he now regretted. So¯zaemon, it will be recalled, was the recipient of Titsingh’s ‘Philosophical Discourse’.44 There was routine work to attend to before the summer came. Repairs were needed on some of the VOC buildings. One warehouse was declared beyond salvage. Masakore offered the use of the two godowns kept by the governors for their own semi-legal imported rarities, but this was only, thought Titsingh (never one to give Masakore the benefit of the doubt), ‘because they are of no use to him’. At the beginning of August, Feith sailed back aboard the Mars, again captained by Siedenberg, this time accompanied by the Canaan, under Ficke. In his deposition for Edo, Feith reported an alliance between Spain and France against Great Britain (France was keen to reap benefits from Great Britain’s American War, and Spain hoped to seize Gibraltar); Feith noted there was a danger of war spilling into the United Provinces.45 Unloading began, with Masakore strongly complaining that ‘the rarities which have been ordered for many years’ had not been imported.

Introduction 13 Quite what he was soliciting is unsure, but they must have been substantial, for in every year fine items had been brought for him (and others) often in response to requests, including ‘clocks, tinderboxes and a magnifying glass’ in 1779, and ‘clocks and other gifts’ that very year.46 Angrily, Titsingh shot back that the VOC was not in a mood to indulge, given continuing price-fixing and theft. Word of a spat between the VOC chief and the governor leaked into town, and rumour spread that Titsingh had commanded the Mars and the Canaan to unload but sail out empty, depriving Nagasaki dealers in exports of their income (a fantasy, as the ships could not sail without ballast).47 After the festivals, the reloading and the handovers, Titsingh left in early November, ending his first tenure in Japan. He remained in Batavia until the next spring, then returned, arriving in August, 1781, with Siedenburg on the Mars. They were hit by severe weather and very nearly sank. It was a mercy for both sides that the Mars got through, for in annoyance, the new VOC governor-general in Batavia, Willem Alting, authorised only a single ship for Japan that year – a high-risk strategy, since if it were lost at sea, the factory staff would be marooned, and Batavia not able to confirm what had happened until the following year’s ships had gone and come back.48 A single ship was more immediately a problem for the Japanese side, with the dealers in imports having little to sell, and tremendous knock-on effects throughout the town and its wider hinterland (copper was a shogunal commodity and its sale had little relevance to the economy of Nagasaki itself, except among hired dockers and porters). Titsingh surely approved of Alting’s strategy, if he did not actually instigate it, yet he could not but have worried about the results on the citizenry of Nagasaki, many of whom were his friends. On arrival, Titsingh stated that Spain and France were now fully at war with Great Britain; the English East India Company had seized the VOC factories on the Coromandel Coast (most importantly, Nagapattinam), and, intriguingly, that a Japanese castaway had opened a language school in St Petersburg.49 True to form, a theft then occurred, of cloves. The good governor, Kuze Hirotami, just in, fulminated at the ‘rampaging of the thieving claws of the coolies’.50 But even so, not long after this theft, another one, this time of books, was reported too. Both are useful indications of how valuable seemingly trivial items might be, not least as both thefts were of small quantities. In the case of the cloves, the Dutch caught the culprit red-handed and had him expelled from Dejima; the person who had taken the books was never found, though the volumes were eventually recovered, but ‘badly damaged’, with ‘all the prints . . . torn out’.51 In the autumn, Tsuge Masakore, the bad governor, took over and Hirotami left for Edo. The Mars left very late, for reasons unknown, on 9 December. As the Edo-bound gift-barge had to be dispatched, also for reasons unknown, unusually early, there was little time to prepare. Just after lunar New Year, 1782, the entourage set out, on Titsingh’s second court trip. The roster was normalised: a German physician, Hendrik Oberkampf, had arrived on the Mars, and Schartow was back in health. The accompanying translators were Hori Gizaburo¯, in senior post, and Nishi Keiemon, as junior. During the seaborne part of the way, foul weather delayed them and once drove them ashore at the town of Muro, where,

14 Introduction alarmingly, they saw seven vessels ‘the size of our barge’ wrecked. However, the forced landing gave them a chance to see the town, to which, Titsingh noted, ‘no Dutchman had been for a long time’. The precedent referred to was in 1691, when the VOC group had included Engelbert Kaempfer, also German, who recorded his experiences in an epoch-making book, The History of Japan, first published in 1727 in English, but probably known to Titsingh in the French translation of 1729, or perhaps the Dutch one of 1733 (it did not have a German edition until 1779).52 Kaempfer, Thunberg and Titsingh were to be the trio of authors by which Japan was reintroduced to the West, after erasure of memories of the Iberian Catholics. Titsingh was as yet unaware that Thunberg was labouring over a manuscript in Sweden, but he knew Kaempfer well enough, and on this second court trip he cited Kaempfer often, comparing their experiences en route (which raises the question of why he had not done so on his first trip; perhaps he had obtained his copy only when back in Batavia, or, more prosaically, had left it behind in Nagasaki before).53 Either way, Titsingh was careless in his citation of the precedent for a stop in Muro, and such sloppiness will soon be recognised as characteristic of him: Titsingh professed to find Muro in ‘very bad shape’, which stood ‘in contrast to the description in Kaempfer’ but actually Kaempfer called Muro ‘nasty’ and its inhabitants ‘mean’.54 In Edo, Titsingh had his official audience with the shogun, again said to be ‘clearly standing’; since an heir-apparent had now been nominated (Shigehide’s daughter’s husband-to-be, Toyochiyo/Ienari), Titsingh was received by him too. They spent about three weeks in Edo, as normal, and when leaving, stopped by Shigehide’s palace, at the daimyo’s request, ‘where his lordship, his family, and several noble women had assembled’, wrote Titsingh.55 They arrived back in Nagasaki after an absence of nearly three months. Summer came around and they waited for ships, or even a ship. Nothing came. Titsingh had foreseen as much, not because of Alting’s pique, but because the United Provinces had been sucked into war, on the Franco-Spanish aide, against Great Britain. This is known as the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War; it had begun in 1780, lasted four years, and now hit the furthest reaches of the Dutch maritime empire. In South-East Asia, the British were strong and able to blockade Batavia, meaning there could be no sailings to Japan. By the end of August, governor Masakore was commanding a trailing through the Nagasaki archives to see if ever before vessels had arrived so late.56 He pointed out that ‘although the Dutch had waged war often in former times, their ships had never failed to sail to Japan’. Knowing he was unpopular, he suspected the tables were being turned on him and the ship(s) deliberately withheld. Titsingh wrote Masakore a memo laying the blame for nonarrival entirely at the door of the Japanese, not even mentioning the British, and arguing that so many years of coming ‘without any compensation’, meant cessation of trade with Japan was the only logical recourse for the VOC. Titsingh was seeking to shift the severe matter of the war to the VOC’s ultimate advantage; he felt compelled, he said, to write his (fraudulent) memo, because it was ‘irresponsible to remain silent’ now that ‘trade has virtually petered out’.57 Then a major theft occurred, of cloth. A boy confessed and Titsingh had him

Introduction 15 punished, with ‘screws on both legs . . . for the holes in the pillory were too large for his feet’. Masakore suggested torture, but Titsingh, to his credit, refused, on the grounds that the boy had fully confessed and named accomplices too; these were arrested, but they refused to confess, perhaps because they had been falsely accused, so Masakore suggested torture, and this time Titsingh agreed. Such brutal sanctions were very rare and not appreciated in town. Titsingh was blamed for not letting the matter rest quietly, as most chiefs did, for the sake of goodwill and because shogunal punishments were so disproportionate. The town ‘was buzzing’, Titsingh wrote, that the thieves had only stolen to feed their families. But becoming high-minded, Titsingh wrote in his log, ‘I considered it my solemn duty to insist on justice.’ Two enslaved Indonesians were then implicated, so Titsingh sent them to Masakore for torture, as the factory lacked ‘the required persons and appliances’; one of these men, Sjako, died the following year, perhaps due to the rigours he had suffered, and Titsingh ordered his corpse to be ‘handed over to the Japanese, wrapped in a piece of sailcloth filled with sand’ and thrown into the sea.58 In the meantime, Nagasaki’s finances were crippled. Some 300 longshoremen had to take up other work, and in desperation committed crimes, until, Titsingh noted, ‘the prisons of the city are getting fuller and fuller by the day’.59 Masakore was still unwilling to believe that no ship would come, and ordered the citizens to visit their local temples and pray for three full days for an eventual safe arrival. Wishful thinking reigned, and ‘every day false tidings of the arrival of the ships’ were ‘strewn around the city’.60 Masakore grew fearful for his own position: no ship meant no graft for him to dispense when back in Edo. He summoned the translators, though it was nothing to do with them, deeply humiliating them by making them appear before him without their swords, and throwing intemperate and disdainful words at them, before sending them away in high choler. When autumn arrived, despite no ships having come, the governors changed again, and Hirotami returned. Perhaps in embarrassment, they skipped the normal formality of inspection of the factory. Just before Masakore quit town, his family estates, in the region of Osaka, were utterly demolished by hurricanes, and Titsingh reported, ‘all Japanese are rejoicing at his misfortune’.61 Back in Edo, Masakore was told his time as Nagasaki governor was over, but still with powerful friends, he was allowed the face-saving measure given most Nagasaki governors regarded as failures, and was appointed Magistrate of Works at Edo Castle (sakuji buygo¯ ), technically a promotion as it carried a higher stipend, but far less lucrative – under normal trading circumstances at least.62 Titsingh would, therefore, be required to stay on for another twelve months – assuming ships came the following summer, or if they did not, he and his staff were cut off indefinitely. There was absolutely nothing to do. Titsingh used his time to improve his language, embark on serious collecting of data, and begin some translations: the date of 1782 appears in certain places in his manuscript (as, though, does 1784) denoting the present time. The court trip was cancelled. Titsingh now had his first protracted contact with the good governor Hirotami, who had been in Edo during his two previous stints as factory chief. They entered into ‘direct and

16 Introduction open contact’, Titsingh claimed, of a kind never before enjoyed by a chief and a governor; not always able to meet in person, they used a go-between, Namura Naosaburo¯, a translator, who, thanks to his job, had unproblematic access to both the VOC island and the governor’s mansion, and, of course, spoke both languages.63 The Hirotami–Titsingh conversation went on uninterrupted for a full year, and it forms much of the stuff of the ‘Secret Diary’. Hirotami is an interesting figure and some space must be given to him. Although from a relatively lowly family (his hereditary stipend was just 500 koku, while the average governor would have about 3,000), but had become close to Tanuma Okitsugu, daimyo of Sagara, who, in turn, was close to the shogun, Tokugawa Ieharu, and who had been nominated his ‘favourite’ (an official post, soba yo¯nin). Okitsugu controlled all that happened in the central shogunal bureaucracy, and he must have sanctioned the special démarches Hirotami made with Titsingh, perhaps having been finally made aware of Masakore’s misconduct in Nagasaki, and its putative consequences.64 Okitsugu’s enthusiasm for Europe is well attested. In 1775, he had sent his secretary for a round of off-the-record discussions with the VOC in Edo on their court trip, under chief Daniel Armenault.65 The shogun, Tokugawa Ieharu, already long in office, was a despised individual. He was thought by all, according to Jan Crans, to be ‘a lazy, lustful, stupid man’.66 His position was largely ceremonial and low levels of competence need not have caused severe disjunctions; so more at issue was the character of Tanuma Okitsugu. Titsingh refers to him several times in his book, using Okitsugu’s title Tonomo-no-kami, and generally approvingly. But not all thought so. Okitsugu had joined the shogunal upper house of fifteen Elders (ro¯ju¯ ), in 1772, gaining the power to steer both it, and the lower house of twelve oxymoronically labelled Young Elders (waka-doshiyori) – these two groups were called by Titsingh the Ordinary and Extraordinary ministers of state. Okitsugu’s policy of liberalisation of trade, including international, stood to help the Company, for all that the depletion of copper was an inescapable fact. When the populace of Nagasaki, who knew little of the central shogunal power brokers, was told that Masakore would not return, hopes rose that there might be a complete rethink of trade, and that the VOC might flourish in Japan and carry the town with it. In June 1783, all waited expectantly for ships. By mid-August there was panic. It was a huge relief when, on the 26th, a vessel was spotted, and shortly after the Trompenburg sailed into port, skippered by Joachin Edlefs. Titsingh expected to find Feith aboard, but he had died in the intervening period. The arriving chief-designate was Caspar Romberg, whom Titsingh had worked with at the Nagasaki factory in 1779–80, when Romberg had served there in a lower capacity. Feith’s estate on the island was inventoried, and it confirms him as a man of intellectual curiosity: found in his trunks were several items for scientific investigation and demonstration, such as a planetarium and a static-electricity generator.67 The Trompenburg was a large vessel, 1,150 tons, and with a crew of 128, perhaps to compensate for no second vessel being dispatched that year also.68 The Trompenburg itself had got through by the skin of its teeth, not only because

Introduction 17 of the continuing war, but because a terrible storm had hit it, and ‘all the seams opened’, which required so many carpenters that Hirotami unprecedentedly summoned them in from neighbouring towns (the shogunate did not like general carpenters working on the ships, in case they tried steal goods, or worse, copied its construction).69 Romberg submitted his report: Spain, France and Great Britain were all at war, but, he untruthfully added, the United Provinces, though fearing embroilment, was not yet involved; Japanese was still being taught in Russia.70 Always the VOC filtered out what it was not in their interest for the shogunate to know, though Edo sometimes found out such matters via the Chinese. Hirotami appended a secret rider to Romberg’s report before it went to Edo, detailing his own interpretation of the reasons for the repeated non-arrival of expected VOC ships, to wit (dissipating any whif of error on the part of the magistracy), war.71 The Trompenburg was unloaded and reloaded. Hirotami’s replacement arrived. Masakore had been relieved, and Tsuchiya Morinao, formerly governor of Osaka, was installed. He and Hirotami toured the ship and visited Dejima, before the latter returned to Edo, and, on 6 November, Titsingh sailed for Batavia ending his second incumbency. Romberg’s first few months went smoothly enough. Next spring, he made the court trip with Oberkampf and a new scribe, Petrus Chassé. They returned in late May to find the new governor, Morinao, seriously ill. He died shortly after, and Romberg and his staff had an unusual and exciting opportunity to learn about elite Japanese funerals. Titsingh missed it, although in 1781 he had been able to view, through binoculars, the body of a less senior Nagasaki official, Takagi Sakuemon, buried ‘by an entourage of priests amid thousands of onlookers’, and to acquire a painting of it.72 Titsingh also managed to obtain a painting of Morinao’s cortege. Both scrolls were used (in reverse order) as pull-out illustrations to his book’s section on funerals (see Figures 2 and 3).73 An acting-governor was hurriedly summoned, Toda Tamitake, on the point of retirement as governor of Sado, not a lofty post, and receiving this special political favour on account of something owed him by powerful forces in the shogunate.74 In August 1784, Titsingh came back for his third round as factory chief. For the first time in four years there was a full complement of ships – or there should have been, as two had sailed from Batavia. Titsingh’s vessel, the Ouwerkerk, got through, severely damaged, but the sister ship, the Vrouwe Everhardina sank, killing all aboard (including Schartow, who had briefly relocated to Batavia).75 Titsingh was quick to point out that even if only one had come, two ships had been sent, which was, he said, thanks to the ‘forceful solicitations’ he had made to the governor-general. The Nagasaki governorate only had his word for this, and anyway, good intentions were not enough. There was ‘general despondency’ in town.76 Before it could be unloaded, the Ouwerkerk snapped its anchor cable, listed and drifted dangerously towards the shore, ruining the cargo, most of which was only fit for dumping. Titsingh offered his report: the VOC was still fighting in Gowa, and worse, they were now in deep crisis in India, not having been able to take back the factories

18 Introduction (a)

(b)

Figure 2 (a and b) Anon., ‘Funeral Process of the Governor of Nagasaki’, illustration to Isaac Titsingh (Frederick Shoberl, trans.), Illustrations of Japan; 1822. London: Maggs Brothers, Ltd.

captured by the British; procurement there was becoming impossible; Titsingh still hedged on the Anglo-Dutch war, claiming only that the war between Spain, France and Great Britain looked likely to engulf the United Provinces, but ‘though the whole country is in a state of unrest, at present peace is maintained’. Titsingh would have left Batavia shortly before news arrived there that peace had actually been concluded, nearly a year before in September, 1783, at the Treaty of Paris (as part of which, Great Britain had recognised the USA).77 Three stints were about enough for most chiefs, although Feith had kept coming back for more. Despite his pro-Japanese stance, Titsingh had grown vexed with the intransigence of the shogunal bureaucracy, even under Tanuma Okitsugu when it arguably reached its most benign manifestation. The ‘direct and open’ contacts had not yielded the fruit expected in terms of an expansion of trade. Titsingh did not complete his third incumbency, but departed that same autumn with the Ouwerkerk. There was a precedent for this truncation: Herbert Vermeulen, had

Introduction 19

Figure 3 Anon., ‘Funeral Process of a Senior Official’, illustration to Isaac Titsingh (Frederick Shoberl, trans.), Illustrations of Japan; 1822. London: Maggs Brothers, Ltd.

stayed from only summer to autumn in 1759.78 Titsingh now handed control back to Romberg, who would thus be chief for two years in succession. Titsingh and the acting-governor, Toda Tamitake, tacitly agreed to the charade that Titsingh had paralysed his arm, making him unable to do springtime homage to the shogun and requiring him to surrender to one who could, extenuating his premature departure.79 Titsingh proposed that, with shipping so haphazard, they formalise a lessening of sailings to two ships then one, in alternate years; this, he noted, ‘was not to their liking’.80 The matter was left unresolved. In 1783, before Titsingh had returned for this third time, after over seven years as governor, Hirotami had been rewarded with elevation to shogunal Minister of Finance (kanjo¯ bugyo¯), one of the top posts in government, and so sensitive it was held by four incumbents.81 The VOC fondly convinced themselves he might be reappointed to Nagasaki, but that could never be.82 Thus, yet another new governor now arrived, Tsuchiya Masanobu, previously governor of Miyako (kyo¯to machi bugyo¯).83 Confusingly, he shares a family name with his predecessor. In the brief interlude when he met Masanobu, Titsingh found him ‘very friendly’. Titsingh sailed out in the Ouwerkerk for the last time on the final day of November 1784. With peace concluded with Great Britain, Romberg was optimistic, but nevertheless, the next summer, in 1785, Batavia sent only one ship again, the Schelde. It brought a new chief, who leapfrogged with Romberg for the rest of the decade, Johan van Reede tot de Parkeler, a Dutch baron and the most elite European ever to work on Dejima.84 Precisely why Titsingh, despite his love of Japan, did not fulfil his third incumbency, much less engage for a fourth, will be elucidated below.

Titsingh and the Japanese scholars: in Nagasaki The happier moments, while Titsingh had high hopes, coincided with the nonarrival of the ships in summer 1782, which allowed him to spend most time in and around the factory, and in communication with Hirotami. The town of Nagasaki was under direct shogunal rule and had no daimyo, so it was in many ways free, as well as international. The Nagasaki Office had been established to prevent VOC

20 Introduction officials building links to Japanese individuals, but was successful only up to a point. It was through friendship links that the Europeans made their fortunes. Titsingh reported one could gain an extra 60 per cent on one’s private trade by establishing relations of trust with buyers in town. The best items to bring, he wrote in a letter to a successor, were value-added, such as glasses for wine and beer or carafes with gilded edges, ideally of crystal.85 He recommended anyone with ‘certain articles that he hopes to smuggle’, to carry ‘the best of their sort, but small in size’.86 Titsingh enjoined keeping them ‘in a secret places onboard’, for ‘initially he must be careful not to trust any Japanese, until he finds out who has earned it’.87 Much that went on in Nagasaki was extra-legal, if not downright felonious, and it was crucial to distinguish friend from informer. An instructive lesson in this respect is someone who played his cards wrong. Despite his long residence in Japan and ability to speak Japanese, Albertus Domberg was double-crossed and expelled. The story goes like this: Domburg had caught a labourer stealing from the VOC stores, and struck him, whereupon the man’s friends claimed he had been seriously injured, though physician Oberkampf could find nothing wrong; the translator Narabayashi Eizaemon, mentioned above, who used thieving networks intensively and detested Domberg precisely because his language skills threatened the translators’ prerogatives, filed false report; Domburg was ordered to leave on the next ship. Titsingh noted he was in ‘utter despair’ because he was ‘on his way to making his fortune’. In sum, it was important to stay on the good side of Japanese officials, since their ‘enmity and revenge’ could be lethal. Titsingh wrote a letter of recommendation for Domburg, to secure him a job wherever he took himself next.88 Titsingh had gone to sea to get rich, but he also had his book project in mind, and he needed a special caste of Japanese associate, not merely the money-oriented kind. His growing command of Japanese would not necessarily have threatened the translators, for he was trying to read quite different sorts of text from the covert missives that went about among so many others. The translators were his principal Japanese human contacts, and he treated them, in the main, with care; he needed them to help with his sources. The translators were part of the large mechanism of the governerate, and housed with it in a walled compound immediately across from the factory island, known as Edo Block (Edo-machi). They were numerous, and five have already been mentioned: Namura Genjiro¯ and Naosaburo¯, Hori Gizaburo¯, Nishi Keiemon and Narabayashi Eizaemon. All posts were hereditary, and funded by the shogunate in senior (dai-tsu¯ji) or junior (ko-tsu¯ji) grades.89 Each New Year, eight men would be nominated to oversee all necessary work, four senior and four junior, with the seniors given five assistants each and the juniors three. Thus, a total of forty translators were on active service at any one time. The Europeans referred to these as the Board of Translators, and to the full collectivity as the Tolken College (tolk, pl. tolken, being Dutch for an interpreter, not actually a translator). One of the four nominated seniors and one of the juniors would work as ‘intermediary translators’ (nenban tsu¯ ji), to liaise between the VOC and the governorate; another two, as seen above, would accompany the court trip to Edo (Edo-ban tsu¯ ji).

Introduction 21 Like many of those who used the translators’ services over the decades and centuries, Titsingh was not uniformly impressed. It was not until 1784 (just before he came back for his last innings), that a system was set up to allow the translators to receive drill from the native Dutch-speakers on Dejima.90 Before that, they instructed each other, usually father to son, which tended towards decreasing proficiency (see Figure 4). On first arrival, Titsingh found Namura Motojiro¯ in place as senior intermediary, and as junior, Domburg’s nemesis, Narabayashi Eizaemon. At New Year 1780, Yoshio Ko¯saku and Shige Setsuemon took over, becoming the two translators with whom Titsingh worked most during his first incumbency. Ko¯saku, at fifty-six, was one of the oldest and most important members of the College. He was the only survivor of the three translators commanded by Tokugawa Yoshimune, the eighth shogun, of esteemed memory, in 1751, to begin the translation of foreign books – an act previously banned (the other two were Nishi Zenzaemon and Motoki Jindayu¯, whose descendants still worked in the College).91 Shige Setsuemon was a much younger man, from a more minor translator family, in his late twenties.92 During his second stint, Titsingh encountered the intermediaries Hori Gizaburo¯ and Nishi Keiemon, who were replaced at New Year by Namura Katsuemon (father of Naosaburo¯, the secret go-between used by Titsingh and Hirotami) and Narabayashi Ju¯bei (nephew of the offensive Eizaemon); Katsuemon was in his fifties and Ju¯bei nearly thirty.93 Since he did not go to Edo that year, Titsingh would have got to know these two men closely. During Titsingh’s short, third incumbency, Ko¯saku was again senior intermediary and Motoki Einoshin (son-in-law of the pioneering Jindayu¯, and from the oldest translator family, in service since the 1630s), was junior.94 Titsingh never wrote a comprehensive assessment of the translators (though there are scattered references), but Baron van Reede did, included in a letter sent to Titsingh some years later, in 1787. The personnel Van Reede knew do not fully overlap with those of Titsingh’s incumbencies, but his opinions are useful nonetheless, as his the only extended appraisal ever made. Van Reede was most pleased with Namura Motojiro¯, the first senior translator Titsingh met; he regarded him as ‘the best, the most obliging and the most capable’.95 By contrast, he found Narabayashi Eizaemon, his junior partner to be (no surprise to those who liked Domberg) ‘an ugly old man . . . a deceitful personality.’ Of the intermediaries during the second half of Titsingh’s first period, Van Reede assessed Yoshio Ko¯saku somewhat fondly as, ‘always the same old rogue, a total villain, but an oracle to the other translators’, and Shige Setsuemon as ‘a good fellow, upright and hard-working’, though ‘not exactly gifted by nature, and also poor’; Titsingh noted that Setsuemon had been ‘instructed by Dr Thunberg’, and was ‘very advanced’, though this may refer to his sideline interest of botany, and oddly Thunberg never mentioned him. Van Reede did not mention Hori Gizaburo¯, the senior intermediary for Titsingh’s second stint, since he had retired (this took place while Titsingh was chief, and he noted it in his log);96 as a result of Gizaburo¯’s departure, his son, Monju¯ro¯, already middle-aged, was moved up from provisional junior translator to junior translator; Van Reede called him ‘a dapper old chap who

Figure 4 Translators’ signatures, from Motoki Einoshin (Ryo¯ei) (ed.), Shozasshoshu¯, handwritten manuscript; 1795. Kobe City Museum.

Introduction 23 speaks good Dutch’; Titsingh identified him as ‘an intimate friend’.97 Another result of the retirement was that Eizaemon was promoted to fill Gizaburo¯’s vacant post, which required him to resign from the junior intermediary position, which now went to Monju¯ro¯. The popular Monju¯ro¯, it should be added, was to be made senior translator in 1788, but dismissed the following year as he had aroused suspicion by standing ‘above his peers in house, dress and servants’, the final straw coming when he purchased a European clock in defiance of the rules. 98 Being nice had evidently paid off, though not for ever. Jobless, Monju¯ro¯ was taken on by Shimazu Shigehide as his Dutch advisor, in which capacity he continued for several years to meet the VOC officers.99 Van Reede went on: Nishi Keiemon, Gizaburo¯’s junior colleague in Titsingh’s second incumbency, was ‘a blustering old fool’; after New Year, in came Namura Katsuemon, ‘an utterly incompetent creature, unable to do anything at all’ (Van Reede conceded he was deft at Dutch expletives); by contrast, his junior, Narabayashi Ju¯bei was ‘a literate and sagacious youth’, though, ‘heavily indebted, which leads him to drink, so we can’t do that much with him’. Finally, the scion of the Motoki family, Einoshin, who served with Ko¯saku during Titsingh’s short, final term, was ‘sensitive to the point of half-wittedness and often unwell’. These are Van Reede’s views and they would not necessarily be shared by all. For example, Titsingh did not find Einoshin ‘half-witted’, and for some decade after leaving Japan, corresponded with him, exchanging information and presents, one being a New Year’s homily on longevity, which the family preserved ever after (see Figure 5).100 Motoki Einoshin (more often called Ryo¯ei), is actually one of the most famous names in the history of East–West relations in Japan, and he taught many Europeanist scholars of note. It was he who introduced Hayashi Shihei, a samurai from Sendai (where his sister was concubine to the late daimyo, Date Muneyoshi) to Western things, when Shihei visited Nagasaki in 1777; 101 Shihei became a renowned scholar, and returned to Nagasaki for more research in 1782; on the former visit he had toured the Roodenrijs and the Zeeduijn, and received a glass, monogrammed with the VOC mark (which is extant);102 on the latter he may have met Titsingh, since their visits coincided. Einoshin also ¯ tsuki Gentaku, the towering presence in European studies at the turn instructed O of the eighteenth century, who will be met below, and most relevantly for this book, Einoshin was a main source for Kutsuki Masatsuna, Titsingh’s best friend in all Japan.103 Finally, it was Einoshin who, in 1792, comprehensively introduced heliocentricity into Japan in his Taiyo¯ kyu¯ ri ryo¯kai (Understanding solar science). Two other translators of this era stand out, and as both had close relations with Titsingh, they must also be allowed the testimony of voices other than Van Rheede’s. First, Narabayashi Ju¯bei. Titsingh confirms he had a drink problem, noting he would not budge without a glass of gin. But Titsingh was a famous toper too, and their shared weakness might have served to unite them.104 Titsingh valued Ju¯bei enough to give him a copy of Noël Chomel’s Dictionnaire oeconomique, of 1709, a household encyclopaedia well known in Japan and imported many times; this transfer became famous, and was mentioned in the best-selling Westernising work of the whole Edo Period, Ko¯mo¯ zatsuwa (European miscellany), of 1787,

Figure 5 Isaac Titsingh, New Year’s Wishes, handwritten manuscript; 1780, 1782 or 1783. Kobe City Museum.

Introduction 25

Figure 6 Morishima Chu¯ryo¯, ‘Gun-trap’, from his Ko¯mo¯ zatsuwa, monochrome printed book; 1787. Tokyo: National Diet Library.

written by Hiraga Gennai’s successor, Morishima Chu¯ryo¯; Chu¯ryo¯ even reproduced a figure from Ju¯bei’s copy of Chomel, of a spring-loaded hunting trap (see Figure 6).105 Ju¯bei probably helped Titsingh with his data-gathering and translations. His dissolute lifestyle, though, was to be his undoing. Shimazu Shigehide gave him 500 koban (a massive sum) to buy ‘rarietes’ for his collection, but Ju¯bei blued it carousing in Nagasaki’s red-light district.106 Though promoted to senior translator in 1788, two years later he was sacked; reinstated only in 1795, he was sent out of Nagasaki to conduct investigations in Ezo, though while returning, he passed through Mito¯, where he is said to have met the daimyo, Tokugawa Haruyasu (a great honour), and, more certainly, he met Tachihara Suiken, rector of the city’s famous Confucian academy, who wrote down all he heard from Ju¯bei, as Yu¯ rin zatsuwa (Narabayashi’s free talks).107 Ju¯bei, though a problematic personality, and to his end unworthy of his great promise, enthused many. Second, Yoshio Ko¯saku. His oracular presence figures large in Titsingh’s writings. Though a translator, he also had a sideline, and a lucrative one, in Western-style medicine. Titsingh referred only to Setsuemon as being taught by Thunberg, but Ko¯saku had been too, and had learnt from him a new treatment for syphilis (Van Sweiten’s method), on which he had grown extremely rich. Although Titsingh laughed at his arrogance and thought Ko¯saku occasionally ‘oozed pomposity’, the two were actually close, in a badinaging kind of way.108 Though he did not practise, Titsingh had trained as a physician and was interested in Japanese medicine, in which he was probably assisted by Ko¯saku, especially with regard to the fields that excited most attention in Europe – acupuncture

26 Introduction and moxibustion – but without analogy in the Western curative arts. Acupuncture had been introduced to Europe by Willem ten Rhijne in his De acupunctura, of 1683, which expounded what he had learned as VOC physician in Japan in 1674–6; the book was old and quite obscure, but had been cited by Lorenz Heister in his de Chirurgie (On surgery), first published in 1718, and required reading for all north European physicians for the rest of the century.109 Back in Europe, Titsingh himself was to translate the texts to the 80 acupunctural diagrams of the Ju¯shi kei hatsugun (Ch.: Shishi jing fahui; Fourteen bodily humours), a fourteenth-century Chinese classic by Hua Pairen, known in Japan in numerous reprints and adaptations.110 Titsingh worked on moxibustion too, and wrote a combined manuscript, Beschrijving van het naalde steeken en moxa branden (Description of acupuncture and moxibustion), though characteristically, he did not bring it to press, which is a pity since it corrected the fundamental Western misconception that the needles were inserted into the place where the pain was felt, not to corresponding points elsewhere (see Figure 7).111 This text was finally published in 1825, but without giving credit to Titsingh and without the illustrations, rendering at least the acupuncture section useless.112 Ko¯saku used his wealth to build a home that exceeded even Monju¯ro¯’s in grandeur, and acquire a fine collection to fill it. Ko¯saku’s mansion was constructed somewhat in the European manner, and its ‘Dutch rooms’ (oranda zashiki) became a mecca for all well-connected people visiting the town. When a physician from Kunisaki, Miura Baien, visited Nagasaki in late 1778 (his second trip), he was most impressed by, ‘the many extraordinary objects (kika) in the Yoshio house’.113 Baien saw two celestial globes, and Ko¯saku explained to him the theory of heliocentricity, which Baien disarmingly noted, ‘I have reflected on deeply, but cannot understand’.114 Baien did figure it out, though, and went on to become one of the period’s foremost philosophers of science; a delicately made globe he fashioned himself is extant.115 Though there is no proof that Titsingh visited Ko¯saku’s home, the ‘old rogue’ was surely someone Titsingh could not do without. An interesting parallel between Titsingh and Ko¯saku was reported by Tachibana Nankei, another physician, who visited Nagasaki from Edo in 1781: just as Ko¯saku lived in Dutch rooms, Titsingh had supposedly remodelled the chief’s suite on Dejima in the Japanese style, because ‘he was so greatly enamoured of local things’.116 Titsingh made a sketch of the chief’s lodgings, which was published in his book, and it does indeed show at least Japanese-style flooring and a karahafu gabled entrance, though Titsingh made no reference to any remodelling (see Figure 8). If the report is true, the result was not to Romberg’s taste, as, once he took over, he had the entire residence demolished and rebuilt.117 Nankei may not have gone onto Dejima, but he visited Ko¯saku’s Dutch rooms, thinking the experience ‘exactly like entering a real European house . . . all very awkward’.118 He included a picture in his Figure 7 (opposite) Isaac Titsingh (transcribed), illustration to his, Description of Sticking with the Needle and of Burning Moxa in Several Complaints, handwritten manuscript; undated. Manchester: John Rylands Library, University of Manchester.

Figure 8 Anon., ‘House of the Chief of the Dutch Company’, illustration to Isaac Titsingh (Frederick Shoberl, trans.), Illustrations of Japan; 1822. London: Maggs Brothers, Ltd.

Figure 9 Hitotsuyanagi Kagen, Untitled [Ko¯saku’s Dutch Rooms], from Tachibana Nankei, Hokuso¯ sadan, monochrome printed book; 1825. Tokyo: National Diet Library.

Introduction 29 published travel diary, showing himself and Ko¯saku being waited on by the translator’s young son and successor (see Figure 9). Another significant guest to Ko¯kaku’s Dutch rooms was the Edo artist and scholar Shiba Ko¯kan, in Nagasaki in 1788; he noted that Ko¯saku had a fine collection of English paintings.119 In exchange for being wined and dined (wine was not commonly drunk), Ko¯kan extemporised a portrait of Ko¯saku, Western book in hand (apparently entitled Heelkunst, ‘the art of medicine’), with the trappings of apotheosis wafting above (see Figure 10).120 Ko¯kan’s six-week stay in Nagasaki was critical for him, for he learned several features of Western-style painting which, on return to Edo, he put into practice, becoming a prominent proponent of the style. Importantly, Ko¯kan was to claim that he met Titsingh in Nagasaki, and received from him a Dutch volume as a gift, Gérard de Lairesse’s Het Groot Schilderboek (Great book of painting), originally published in 1711, but with several later printings, widely translated and used right across Europe and North America.121 Ko¯kan certainly did have access to this book, as elements from it appear in his oeuvre, but it cannot have been Titsingh who gave it to him, as he was not in Nagasaki in 1788 (Van Reede was chief). It is possible that Ko¯kan met Titsingh in Edo, and received the book there, or else, for whatever reason, Ko¯kan gained access to a copy of the book – more than one copy was being passed around and several of its illustrations were reproduced in Chu¯ryo¯’s Ko¯mo¯ zatsuwa – from another source, and fabricated a more impression line of transmission (see Figure 11). It has been claimed that Titsingh brought a painting by Ko¯ kan back to Europe with him, though this is unproven and implausible.122 To complete Ko¯saku’s story, in 1790, while serving as senior intermediary, he was sacked and imprisoned. He was replaced by Ju¯bei, but only for a few days, since, as we have seen, Ju¯bei was arrested and imprisoned too. Both were apparently in on the same act, whatever the act was. They languished for five years. On release, Ju¯bei was sent to Ezo, again as noted above, but Ko¯saku was too old, and his career was over; he died in 1800.123 The sparring quality of Titsingh’s (and others’) relations with the translators was owing to the special proximity of their lives and the nature of their work. A less fraught friendship grew up between Titsingh and the head of the Nagasaki Office, Goto¯ So¯zaemon, who is his only other close Nagasaki associate. So¯zaemon was interested in Western philosophy and science, and the year before Titsingh’s arrival had ordered from Europe that icon of European experimentalism, a static electricity generator.124 So¯zaemon and Titsingh bonded as soon as they met, and had some three or four months of company. So¯zaemon was then arrested, not for smuggling, but for interceding in a civil dispute (kenka) between two Buddhist clerics, who were disturbing the town with a feud. The arrest occurred on 13 December. The very day after, Titsingh composed for him the ‘Philosophical Discourse’, translated here in Part III. We do not know what solace, if any, it brought So¯zaemon, nor even if he really understood its rather difficult concepts, but the gift was an index of real amity and affection. After six months in prison (half of which time Titsingh was on the court trip), So¯zaemon died – a not uncommon eventuality for those in the Tokugawa penal system. Titsingh recorded

Figure 10 Shiba Ko¯kan, Yoshiho Koosak [Yoshio Ko¯saku], ink on paper; 1788. Private Collection.

Introduction 31

Figure 11 Anon. (Morishima Chu¯ryo¯?), ‘Human Movements’, from his Ko¯ mo¯ zatsuwa, monochrome printed book illustration; 1787. Tokyo: National Diet Library.

that he was ‘very favourably disposed towards the Dutch’, well liked in town too, and his death was ‘lamented by everyone because of his kind disposition’.125 Shortly afterwards, a ruling on the turbulent monks came through from Edo, and one was executed (the comeuppance of the other is unrecorded).

Titsingh and the Japanese scholars: in Edo Nagasaki was a town with a rather special flair, but it was inevitably provincial, seen on a Japan-wide level. Titsingh’s most important links were forged in Edo, for all that he spent no more than twice three weeks in the shogunal capital. In several cases, his brief encounters there were extended over many years, through epistolary exchange, allowing Titsingh to become quite familiar with figures of genuine cultural and political standing. The likes of Tanuma Okitsugu were beyond him, but four remarkably high-level associations were made, and each will be introduced in turn. The first has been mentioned above: Shimazu Shigehide, daimyo of Satsuma. Already in 1771, Shigehide had obtained shogunal permission to visit Nagasaki (as was required, as the town was Tokugawa land); the chief, Daniel Armenault, had taken him aboard the Burgh and given him a Dutch-style dinner at the factory; Shigehide was guided around the town’s important international sites by the translator Imamura Akinari, whom he then wooed from the Tolken College to work for him in his castle town in Satsuma.126 Thereafter, Shigehide’s always retained a personal Dutch interpreter (after Akinari, as we have seen, came the dismissed Hori Monju¯ro¯); he was the first daimyo to do this.127 Thanks to his

32 Introduction daughter Tadako’s fortuitously excellent espousal, Shigehide had increasing opportunity to machinate, with interposing himself in international contacts his forte. Some said he planned to open Satsuma to foreign shipping, in rivalry with Nagasaki, and only held back from this when warned it would provoke a civil war.128 Many years on, Jan Cock Blomhoff, another factory chief, met an ageing Shigehide and described him as ‘the lord most feared in Japan’. They ‘discussed this and that and the other’, Shigehide ‘praised the Dutch nation highly’, and presented Blomhoff with four live pheasants.129 It is not clear how much direct contact Titsingh had with Shigehide. Titsingh is said to have persuaded him to appoint another Nagasaki scholar, Matsumura Mototsuna, to a post at the Satsuma state academy, the Meiji-kan, to teach Western astronomy, though this is not certain (and Mototsuna died almost at once).130 We have also observed that in 1780, under Titsingh, the VOC called at Shigehide’s palace when leaving Edo. Unrecorded exchanges perhaps took place, and indirect ones undeniably did; on the 1782 court trip Titsingh received two Satsuma physicians at the Nagasaki House, in thanks for which hospitality, Shigehide sent some live birds, five bonsai trees and three salmon, and Titsingh reciprocated with ‘some trifles and rarities’, three days after which Shigehide followed up with a brace of pheasants.131 On that same court trip, the entourage also stopped by Shigehide’s palace when leaving Edo, ‘at the request’ of the daimyo himself, where Titsingh found ‘his lordship, his family and several noble ladies had assembled’.132 A French traveller who met him many years later was told by Titsingh that he and Shigehide also exchanged letters, but if so, none is extant.133 One notch down, though still lofty enough, was Titsingh’s prime informant in Japan, Kutsuki Masatsuna. Shimazu Shigehide ruled one of the largest and richest states, and its lands yielded over 700,000 koku. By contrast, Masatsuna’s father, Kutsuki Nobutsuna, though a daimyo too, ruled Fukuchiyama (more romantically called Tanba), which yielded just 32,000 koku. But conversely, the Kutsuki were hereditary loyalists of the Tokugawa (fudai), whereas the Shimazu were mistrusted outer lords (tozama). Masatsuna was thus closer into webs of shogunal assistance and graft than Shigehide could ever be, even after his daughter’s betrothal. Masatsuna was an inheritor, but not (yet) a ruler, and so was much less daunting and had free time; at thirty he was younger than Titsingh too. The two got on remarkably well, enough for him to be called Titsingh’s most important and truest friend, and, with a familiarity only permitted to incomprehending foreigners, addressed by Titsingh by his common name, Sanmon (Titsingh’s ‘Samon’).134 Masatsuna was never in Nagasaki, and strangely, Titsingh left no specific record of meeting him in Edo either, in his official log, but perhaps that was not the place for private encounters. In both 1780 and 1782 his log records only generic meetings with ‘lords and other nobles’.135 In a letter to a colleague several years on, however, Titsingh claimed to have met Masatsuna at the Nagasaki House, though he does not say on which of his two court trips, unless he meant on both: Titsingh wrote, ‘the Lord of Tanba [sic, his son] kept me up ’til 12 every night I was in Edo’; but so excited was Titsingh by this that he was ‘willing to give up food, drink and sleep in order to make the most of the time’.136

Introduction 33 Masatsuna had begun to learn Dutch rather earlier under the great Edo scholar Maeno Ryo¯taku, who served as hereditary physician to Okudaira Masashika, daimyo of Nakatsu; then, following Shigehide, he had engaged a Nagasaki translator, Nishi Masakyu¯ro¯, to help him further.137 Masatsuna himself sponsored several Western-studies students, most notably O¯ tsuki Gentaku, whose tuition expenses in Nagasaki (where he worked with Motoki Einoshin), Masatsuna covered, leading to the link with Einoshin mentioned above. In 1788, Masatsuna wrote the preface to Gentaku’s pioneering Rangaku kaitei (Ladder of European studies) half-encyclopaedia, half-language primer, which had been finished five years earlier, but was without a publisher; the work was successful enough to be reissued two years later, and when Yoshio Ko¯saku saw it in Edo, during his visit accompanying Van Reede, in its year of publication, he wistfully stated, ‘I haven’t written a work like it, and feel ashamed that I’ve been of so little worth and accomplished so little.138 Together with Morishima Chu¯ryo¯’s Ko¯mo¯ zatsuwa (European miscellany), this was the most influential book on Europe in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Gentaku’s teacher in Edo, Sugita Genpaku (himself a sometime student of Ko¯saku), was later to record that Rangaku kaitei ‘circulated widely’, and that ‘many were they who had their eyes opened by it and were enthused by it.139 One such was Imamura Sanpaku, physician to Ikeda Harumichi, daimyo of Tottori, who came to Edo as a result, in 1792, where he made his name translating the 80,000-word Nederduits Woordenboek (Dutch dictionary) of François Halma, though sadly his daimyo was not impressed by this and sacked him; Gentaku, who thereafter lodged Sanpaku in Edo, was to call his own son ‘Hakugen’, fusing the two scholars’ names together (haku/paku + gen).140 Titsingh and Masatsuna often swapped materials relevant to each other’s studies, and there are several extant letters between them, Masatsuna’s were signed K. Samon, and sealed in wax impressed with the amalgamation of a European coatof-arms and a Japanese mon (see Figure 12). At the end of his first stint as chief, on the very last day he was in Japan, 6 November, 1780 Titsingh inscribed and sent Masatsuna his copy of Nicholas Sanson’s Atlas nouveau, which he possessed in a pirated Dutch edition of the (massive though rather outdated) publication of 1692 (see Figure 13).141 Since childhood, Masatsuna’s great love had been numismatists.142 Via the VOC, he found a whole new world of coins to collect. This was an area where Titsingh could certainly help, and at uncertain date – perhaps over an extended period – he furnished Masatsuna with many European and colonial coins. In 1787, Masatsuna published most of these – though oddly, without any word of thanks to Titsingh – in a large and lavish book, Seiyo¯ zenpu (Western coinage) (see Figure 14). Two years later, he put out a more ambitious work, Taisei yochi zusetsu (Illustrated explanation of Western geography), and although again Titsingh is not named, the preface refers to one of his sources as ‘purehosuto’, that is, the well-known travel anthology of Abbé Antoine Prévost d’Exiles (more famous as author of Manon Lescaut), published in French in 1646–61, but taken to Japan in the 2nd Dutch edition of 1755–67;143 Titsingh is the likely donor of this work for a letter exists from Masatsuna thanking him for eight Western titles (three histories and

34 Introduction

Figure 12 Kutsuki Masatsuna, Signature and seal, from a handwritten list of Japanese coinage types sent to Titsingh, 1786. Manchester: John Rylands Library, University of Manchester.

geographies, five language texts and vocabularies), and though Prévost is not cited, it proves a book exchange with Titsingh of a kind that Masatsuna is not known to have had with anyone else.144 Another piece of evidence, still in the Kutsuki collection, is a copy of G. W. Knorr’s luxurious album of shells, Les délices des yeux et de l’esprit (1764–5), bearing Titsingh’s distinctive signature placed, as with Sanson’s Atlas, on the title page, so certainly given by him to Masatsuna’s (see Figure 15).145 A letter also exists from Masatsuna to Titsingh requesting a copy of Chomel’s Dictionnaire (perhaps he had seen the one Titsingh gave Einoshin), and for this, Masatsuna said, he would send Titsingh another recently issued publication of his own, Kaisei ko¯ho¯ zukan (Corrected illustrated mirror of coinage), together with the most widely read Japanese poetry anthology, Hyakunin isshu¯ (One hundred poems by one hundred poets), hand-annotated by Masatsuna himself, in Dutch, for Titsingh’s benefit, and he added that he would be happy to send Japanese coins to Titsingh in exchange for Mughal, Bengali, Ottoman and African ones.146 There is one more important book exchange to note. It would seem that Masatsuna obtained from Titsingh a copy of Johannes Martinet’s Katechismus der Natuur (Catechism of nature), an immensely popular morality tract, which began its long life in 1777, remained in print until 1829, and was translated (sometimes in expanded, sometimes in abridged editions) into more languages than any other piece of Dutch prose of the period.147 In late November 1784, a report appeared in a Rotterdam newspaper, Rotterdamsche Courtant, claiming Martinet was being put into Japanese by ‘Sammon same Landheer van Tamba’ (Lord Sanmon, daimyo

Figure 13 Nicolas Sanson, Atlas nouveau, monochrome printed title page; 1692. Ex-collection Titsingh and Kutsuki. Kanazawa: Ishikawa Prefectural Library.

36 Introduction

Figure 14 Anon., from Kutsuki Masatsuna, Seiyo¯ zenpu, monochrome woodblock book illustration; 1787. Tokyo: National Diet Library.

of Tanba). The newspaper’s source is said to be a letter recently arrived from Batavia, and this would surely have been sent by Titsingh, then in Java. Martinet was a friend of the Titsingh family. His biographer, A. van den Berg (also friend of the Titsinghs’), stated that the author was informed of this Japanising of his text, and was thrilled by it.148 There are problems, however. Titsingh could not have had the whole Katechismus with him, as Volume II onwards appeared only in 1779, long after his departure from Europe and even too late to have been forwarded by a later ship. If he was his source, Titsingh had probably passed to Masatsuna just Volume I, which had been published in time; but no copy of the Katechismus exists in Masatsuna’s surviving collection, nor is there any Japanese translation of it known, even in draft. A significant fact is that Titsingh’s ‘Philosophical Discourse’, sent to So¯zaemon in prison, is, in essence, a précis of the first volume of Martinet.149 Titsingh and Masatsuna kept up their epistolary exchange after Titsingh quit Japan. In 1786, Masatsuna inherited his father’s position and would have become exceedingly occupied; when Titsingh returned to Europe, correspondence became almost impossible, and Titsingh wrote sadly that ‘the continual war’ was ‘a much regretted, but permanent obstacle’.150 Masatsuna’s last letter to him is dated 4 April 1789, and it mentions mutual friends, such as Kuze Hirotami, Shimazu Shigehide and Katsuragawa Hoshu¯ (brother of Morishima Chu¯ryo¯, who will be introduced below). Titsingh wrote his last letter to Masatsuna in June 1807, but only to enquire whether the previous one, sent in May 1801 (on which day he had also penned a letter to Hori Monju¯ro¯) had arrived. Masatsuna had retired in 1800, handing on the

Figure 15 Anon., from G. W. Knorr, Délice des yeux et de l’esprit: collection des différentes espèces de coquillages, vol. 1, hand-coloured copperplate book illustration; 1764–5. Ex-collection Titsingh and Kutsuki. Oita: Oita Prefectural Library.

38 Introduction state to his son, Mototsuna, who pre-deceased him the next year, and Masatsuna followed suit in 1802;151 Masatsuna’s grandson, Tsunagata, the ruling daimyo, either did not receive Titsingh’s last letters, or, with the world then greatly changed, ignored them; Monju¯ ro¯, long since sacked, was still living, but in an unknown location, and his letter was likely undeliverable. The third member of Titsingh’s quartet of associates in Edo was Katsuragawa Hoshu¯, just mentioned. He was a body physician (oku-i) to the shogun, a post that on Titsingh’s arrival he had recently inherited from his father. Hoshu¯ had spent time with Thunberg, and had learned from him Van Sweiten’s cure for syphilis. Years later, Hoshu¯ recorded, ‘I have got to know some thirty Westerners [saijin] in my time, but have never known his equal in complete dedication to the pursuit of knowledge’.152 This was said in reference to Thunberg, and thus, Hoshu¯ found Thunberg more impressive than Titsingh. Nevertheless, he and Titsingh admired each other, and Hoshu¯, as much as Ko¯saku, may have been Titsingh’s source on acupuncture and moxibustion, and he could have been the one who gave Titsingh the set of 80 plates whose captions Titsingh translated: it had been Hoshu¯’s ancestor, Katsuragawa Kunimichi, who had been ten Rhijne’s source some century before, as Hoshu¯ would have enjoyed telling Titsingh (and before him Thunberg, who was also informed about acupuncture), and perhaps emulating his forebear by bestowing additional but similar medical knowledge on European doctors deficient in skill.153 Several gifts came and went between Titsingh and Hoshu¯. The former recorded receiving a collection of minerals from him (he had given some to Thunberg too, and these were by then in Uppsala University). Titsingh and he kept up a correspondence at least until 1787.154 Hoshu¯’s brother, Morishima Chu¯ryo¯, when he needed a generic personal name for his Ko¯mo¯ zatsuwa (to demonstrate how surname followed given name in Europe), used the example of Titsingh: ‘Isaac is the given name and Titsingh the family name. If he were to have a child, it would be called something Titsingh’.155 Titsingh’s official log does not refer to his meeting Hoshu¯ in Edo any more than it mentions Masatsuna, but here too there are hints. On his first court trip, Titsingh noted on two occasions receiving visits by ‘shogunal doctors’ who, he said, ‘asked all manner of questions’; on the second visit, Titsingh was frustrated and snapped, ‘I think the incompetence of my translators [Ko¯saku and Setsuemon] will be a hindrance to them’; Titsingh gave these doctors red pencils as a present to compensate.156 On his second court trip, Titsingh again refers to receiving ‘shogunal doctors’ (as well as the two from Satsuma), though this time his translators (Gizaburo¯ and Keiemon) were up to the job, and the physicians ‘left satisfied’.157 The fourth and final person to introduce here from Titsingh’s prime Edo associates was one of the greatest polymathic minds of the entire period, Matsura Kiyoshi, daimyo of Hirado. (He was later to become known as ‘Seizan’, a name sometimes carelessly applied back to his younger days.) Kiyoshi made his own first contact with European things in Nagasaki, from which Hirado was not far, in 1775, aged fifteen, just months after inheriting his

Introduction 39 state from his grandfather (his father had pre-deceased him). Though far below Satsuma, Hirado was wealthier than Fukuchiyama, and Kiyoshi enjoyed an income of somewhat over 60,000 koku (in 1795 this would be raised to 100,000). Crucially, the Matsura had an important role in the history of East–West relations, since Hirado had been location of the first Dutch, and the English factories in the early seventeenth century, and Kiyoshi was aware of this. When Kiyoshi gained access to Dejima, he was one of the first daimyo to do so.158 Armenault, then chief, was given just one day to prepare for this exceptional visit, but it passed off well, and Kiyoshi sent a present of two kegs of sake to express his gratitude; he stayed on in town to see the arrival of that year’s ships, though one, the Bleijenburgh, was damaged and had diverted to Canton. But he toured the other, the Stavenisse, though whether he met Thunberg, who had arrived on it, is unsure.159 It was Kiyoshi who said his meeting with Titsingh occurred in Edo, and so it must have been in the spring of either 1780 or 1782, when the young daimyo was either twenty or twenty-two. He added the court trip was chaotic that year as the Nagasaki House had just burned down, and the VOC were billeted on a temple. The Nagasaki House did indeed burn down, more than once, most horrifically in 1772, when Feith and his team had actually been in it, in a larger conflagration, and Feith recorded, ‘it seemed the whole town was on fire’; they were relodged ‘in a primitive manner’, with the Edo-based governor of Nagasaki; notwithstanding this, some years later Feith was to tell Thunberg that they were relodged in a temple.160 The next incineration, closer to Titsingh, occurred in 1778, when again Feith was in charge, though this time the building was lost prior to their arrival so arrangements could be made, and they were placed ‘in another inn’; the next spring, Feith was back (doing a double stint because of the death of Duurkoop), and he noted the Nagasaki House had been ‘completely rebuilt’.161 Kiyoshi said he met Titsingh in the VOC’s temporary lodgings, in a temple, in Asakusa, in the north-east of Edo. This could be Feith’s ‘other inn’ since although the he did not mention this was within a religious precinct, he could just have failed to recognise the building – he could hardly have confused an inn with the governor’s mansion. His diary of the time must outweigh his later retelling to Thunberg. Moreover, Feith noted the shogunal crown prince, Iemoto (whose premature death would beckon Shigehide’s future son-in-law), passed by on his way to visit a temple, so a location in Asakusa, the main Buddhist district, would make sense. Thus 1778 might seem likely. But Titsingh was not in Japan then. The Nagasaki House did not burn down either time Titsingh was in Edo. It is possible therefore that Kiyoshi actually met Feith, not Titsingh at all. But to hear him out, looking back, perhaps hazily, Kiyoshi wrote: In a past year, when the Dutch arrived on their court trip, they had to stay at a temple, in Asakusa, because their official lodgings had burned down. I was still young at the time, and conceived the idea of sneaking in at night to visit them in this billet. Their chief was called Titsingh. Later he became very distinguished. Through an interpreter, the foreigners were informed of my position and they showed me great respect.

40 Introduction Kiyoshi claimed to have remained there for many hours (the term used, su¯koku, implies about all night), and Titsingh, if it was he, took advantage to ask his opinion of a pair of sword-guards he had brought from Batavia. During our pleasant conversation, Titsingh rose, opened his luggage, and pulled something out from the bottom of it. He came up to me and said, ‘these are rather special, and I brought them here in secret. Your lordship’s state has a long and close connection with foreign ships like ours, and these objects recall that history. [They look Japanese, but] not being sure whether fine workmanship of this sort is carried out in your country, I brought them here to investigate. I would like your view on them’. They did look Japanese, but Kiyoshi recognised them as of a foreign alloy. Someone then butted in, ‘the guards that Titsingh holds were assuredly made by descendants of Japanese people living abroad. It is known that emigrants produced things like this.’162 The problem was resolved. Titsingh gave the guards to Kiyoshi as a present, and the daimyo carefully sketched them for wider circulation (see Figure 16). Titsingh and Kiyoshi met again, and this time the details are more secure. Just after New Year 1782, Kiyoshi was delighted when divers hauled an old ship’s anchor from the sea off Hirado. It could have been English, but with those contacts dead, a Dutch connection seemed better to press for. The court trip was coming up, Titsingh’s second, and when the retinue arrived in Edo, Kiyoshi approached Titsingh for some kind of antiquarian critique of the anchor. Titsingh wrote a flowery dedication, though he had not seen the anchor as it had not been brought up to Edo, and Kiyoshi added this to the delicately rendered paintings, substantial essays and other reminiscences, in all a dozen celebratory pieces, that he had already ordered to memorialise the find (see Figure 17). Motoki Einoshin (half-wit to some, inspirational teacher to others) helped Kiyoshi with Titsingh’s Dutch.163 The next year, Kiyoshi was back in his home region, and he took the opportunity to visit Nagasaki. He met Ko¯saku, who received him in his European rooms, and Kiyoshi was shown a copy of the Dutch translation of Kaempfer’s English History of Japan, which he then bought, he said, ‘for very little money’ (Ko¯saku parting with it cheaply for the sake of furthering a useful connection, perhaps).164 It was now late 1784, Titsingh had just sailed for Batavia, and Romberg was chief, but his official log contains no mention of a visit by Kiyoshi, and perhaps he did not make one, for visits to the VOC compound by a daimyo were exceptionally rare (during Titsingh’s total of forty-four months, for example, only two visited – Toda Tadato¯, daimyo of Shimabara, and Kuroda Haruyuki, daimyo of Chikuzen).165 Still, Romberg may have met Kiyoshi, for from about this time it became VOC practice to send Kiyoshi two bottles of wine and two of rosewater whenever ships unloaded, suggesting personal connections were being maintained.166 These four powerful contacts – Shigehide, Masatsuna, Hoshu¯ and Kiyoshi – belonged to the shogunal elite. Titsingh had very little knowledge of the opposite court, that of the dairi, in Miyako. The VOC stayed in that city both going to and

Introduction 41

Figure 16 Anon., from Matsura Kiyoshi (Seizan), Kasshi yawa, ink on paper; late nineteenth century. Private Collection.

coming from Edo, but for days, not weeks. They had no official reception with the dairi authorities, though they did meet the shogun’s plenipotentiary in Miyako, the Kyo¯to shoshidai (whom they idiosyncratically called the Chief Justice of Japan, or such like); on Titsingh’s first court trip, the incumbent was Kuze Hiroakira, a close relation of the good Nagasaki governor, Kuze Hirotami; on the second trip, there had been a change (this was not a rotating post: there was only one shoshidai; the change in incumbent was because of Hiroakira’s retirement). Makino Sadanaga had been installed. The audiences were apparently formal and clipped. There is, however, one single reference to Titsingh meeting, in more congenial circumstances, one senior figure of the dairi’s entourage. This was Ogino Gengai, court physician, and one of the greatest doctors of his day. Gengai had already served the dairi for some thirty years, and later would have his excellence confirmed by being summoned to Edo to treat the shogun. Gengai seems to have sought out informed Europeans, and he met Thunberg, who wrote of him,

42 Introduction

Figure 17 Anon. (illus.), Isaac Titsingh (inscript.), ink and colour on paper; 1782. Hirado: Matsura Shiryo¯kan.

I had a private visit from the dairi’s, or the ecclesiastical emperor’s, body physician. He is about the middle age and his name is Ogino Sahyo¯e Ie no Sakon.167 . . . He brought me several herbs, the most of them just gathered, the use of which he was very desirous of knowing, as well as of gaining some intelligence with regard to the cure of certain disorders. Our conversation was carried on through an interpreter; but he was not a little surprised when once, in order to fix the name of a plant in his memory with the greater certainty, I wrote it down before his face in Japanese characters.168 Titsingh did not record so much, but he received more, obtaining from Gengai a superb two-volume hand-painted album depicting seventy-seven plants, entitled Taishu¯ -en so¯moku-fu (Album of plants and trees from the Taishu¯ garden) (see Figure 18).169 An inscription prefacing the album makes it clear that Titsingh dropped a heavy hint that he wanted some such thing, and that the courtly Gengai could not object. The inscription was added by someone who appears to identify himself as a student of Gengai’s called Shimagawa Nanso¯, though he is otherwise unknown;170 Nanso¯ refers to his master by the erudite, Sinicised variant of his name that Titsingh (though oddly not Thunberg, who uses his court title) also referred to him by. He wrote,

Figure 18 Anon. (trad. attrib. wife of Ogino Gengai), ‘Pomegranate’, page from Taishu¯ en so¯moku-fu, ink and colour on paper; 2 vols, 1786. Manchester: John Rylands Library, University of Manchester.

44 Introduction The noble Mr Teki is a gentleman learned in many fields. He is without adequate successor in [my] younger generation of scholars, and there is nothing about which he is ill informed. In this year of hinoe-uma [see below], he commissioned a fine painter to depict one tenth of the plants in his medicinal garden . . . over seventy items in all. The flowers, leaves, roots, branches, petals, stamens and pistils, fruits, bases of flowers and fruits, are the height of accomplishment. He presents it to the European kapitan [chief], who asked in advance. From olden times there are those who have known the names of plants, trees, birds and animals. But only in our fair land are people aware enough of their true properties, to desire to form collections. [The chief] will take this back to his foreign country, discuss whether such plants exist there or not, and compare similarities and differences. This is worth studying comprehensively, but also worth simply enjoying. It so happened that I visited the Teki household, and the old gentleman brought this out to show me, soliciting an inscription of some sort. I immediately wrote one down, as was required of me.171 Hinou-uma occur every sixty years, and this one must be 1786. The two volumes were therefore painted for and sent to Titsingh, by then in Batavia. Genkai seems not to have been especially excited by this, but his sense of social obligation was highly developed and he had something produced that was superb; his assigning of the inscription to a student looks like a snub. Regrettably the name of the ‘fine painter’ (zen-gasha) was not given, although, absurdly, a groundless rumour was initiated by the French traveller who later met Titsingh, mentioned above, (who perhaps actually heard it from Titsingh) that the plants were depicted by Gengai’s wife though Titsingh’s only extant references to the pictures does not claim this.172 When he saw the volumes, this French traveller said he doubted ‘anything more perfect in its kind exists’; Titsingh’s French editor, Rémusat, said the pictures were ‘exquisitely painted on fine Japanese paper’, and he believed when taken with Titsingh’s other acquisitions, they constituted, ‘a flora japonica more complete and more detailed’ – he meanly claimed – ‘than Thunberg’s’;173 Thunberg’s well-received Linnaean Flora Japonica had appeared in 1784. The above leads us (though somewhat circuitously) to the issue of Titsingh’s association with Japanese women. Pace his fleeting encounters with Shigehide’s ladies at the two stop-offs at the Satsuma mansion in Edo, like any European he could not easily meet Japanese women; his female interlocutors would have been restricted to the denizens of the Maruyama, Nagasaki’s red-light district. These women, though, constituted a good route for the ebb and flow of information across the cultural and linguistic boundaries. Few women of the quarter could develop an interest in philosophy or science, but the pleasure districts of the Edo period were not mere sex emporia either, and women there were expected to have proper conversational skills, and the quality of hari (repartee, or perhaps ‘spunk’) was much admired. Titsingh is known to have retained a courtesan named Ukine.174 As with all her

Introduction 45 kind, it is hard to retrieve much personal information about her. Though young (probably in her mid-teens), she held the top, tayu¯, grade, which would certainly have meant she had hari, as well as beauty.175 This was the first time a European had secured the attentions of a tayu¯. Her fee would be 22 monme (slightly over one third of a gold coin), of which 7 went to her and the rest to the bordello.176 Titsingh took home to Europe a model of a Maruyama brothel, in fond recollection, ‘a little masterpiece’, said our French traveller.177 Titsingh fathered no children in Japan, through Maruyama women occasionally gave birth to mixed-race children. Thunberg, who had investigated the matter, heard two rumours about the lives of such offspring: that they were killed, or were deported; he noted, ‘I cannot believe the Japanese to be inhuman enough for the former procedure, nor is there any instance of the latter having taken place’, and he observed a six-year-old girl living on Dejima with her father, whom she ‘much resembled’.178 The Japanese theory that mixed-race children rarely survived into adulthood inclined the authorities to be benign towards them.179 Most information on the connections between Maruyama women and European men is anecdotal, if not outright fictitious. Across Japan, the Maruyama was known as the sole accessible site of international sexual encounter, and this spawned many comments, salacious and humorous, and many pictures (see Figure 19).180 Stories such as of women smuggling imports in their pudenda, or of children born without heels (raised European shoes indicating their absence on the feet) were as rife as the claim that Europeans collected vaginal secretion, some said to prolong life, some said to prolong erections.181 Titsingh would have heard all this, but it has left no specific trace in his writings, nor on writings on him.

Figure 19 Anon., from Ehon kaname ishi, monochrome woodblock-printed book illustration; 1782. Private Collection.

46 Introduction To close, it is also worth mentioning that although Titsingh also had no traceable sexual relations with Japanese men. He did, however, comment on the prevalence of male same-sex activity – as visitors to Japan so often have, throughout the ages. Titsingh considered homosexuality ‘a general public vice’, practised, he opined, either because Japanese women were ‘masculine in character’, or as a form of birth control.182 He retold an earlier story about one of the Japanese translators, unnamed, who had lost his job for repeatedly propostioning a young Dutchman, also unnamed, causing some grief to Yoshio Ko¯saku, who was then in charge.183 Interestingly, Titsingh does not seem to have had a problem with the Nagasaki governor, again unnamed, but probably the favoured Hirotami, turning up for their meetings accompanied by his catamites, to whom, he said, the governor ‘had recourse to pass away the time’; Titsingh readily conceded these boys were ‘as beautiful as the loveliest girls’.184 He noted, in contrast, and no doubt correctly, that Japanese men found it comic how Europeans would only sleep with women, and Morishima Chu¯ryo¯ recorded something similar in his Ko¯mo¯ zatsuwa, using data provided by the scribe on the 1787 court trip, Jean-Baptist Ricard, who informed Chu¯ryo¯ that male–male sex (nanshoku) was considered ‘against nature’ and even prohibited in Europe.185

Ship-building One of the important matters to Titsingh, about which gyrated the competing interpersonal liaisons described above, and which stems from them, must now be addressed. It was the single most concerted effort that Titsingh made to alter the Japan into which he came, and which he intently observed. This related to the building of a shogunal fleet. Fascination with the massive Dutch ships was great. Those who went to Nagasaki, timed their visits (like Kiyoshi), if they could, to coincide with an earlysummer arrival or late-autumn sailing. But it was believed, wrongly, that the first shogun, Tokugawa Ieyasu, had promulgated the law that no Japanese ship could be built with a capacity of over of 500 koku (approx 100,000 litres), and since on his death in 1616, Ieyasu had been deified, as the Great Shining Avatar of the East (to¯sho¯ dai-gongen – hence Titsingh refers to him below as ‘the Gongen’), his laws, however old and outdated, could not be erased. Actually, it was Ieyasu’s grandson, Iemitsu, who had made the law in 1637.186 Still, this mistaken weight of divine prohibition on large wrighting was highly debilitating. The ban made the shogunate totally dependent on the VOC for some commodities, and this stoked increasing anxiety as the VOC margin shrank, and the Company seemed to be toying with the idea of pulling out. Already in 1719, alarm had been registered when, in a freak triple accident, all three Japan-bound ships (the limit of two had not yet been set) did not appear; a group of wealthy Nagasaki merchants consulted the very best soothsayers of Miyako to assess the reasons for this, and were told the day on which the ships would arrive, which, however, came and went, leaving the clairvoyants to be excoriated, stated the VOC chief, Joan Aouwer.187 That had been an isolated year, but by Titsingh’s time, non-arrival was becoming the

Introduction 47 norm. Notwithstanding the taboo caused by belief in Ieyasu’s law, some, like Tanuma Okitsugu, were inclined to venture to surmount it. There was, though, the more practical problem of total loss of once extensive Japanese ocean-going shipbuilding techniques. Although the documentation is scant – these were high political secrets – it appears that Okitsugu, through his hand-picked governor, Kuze Hirotami, privately negotiated with Titsingh on this very matter. Bringing Batavian shipwrights to Japan was one mooted option, but not the preferred one, because of its visibility. Titsingh proposed taking Japanese carpenters to Batavia instead, and was confident he could assemble 20,000 men ‘within a month’, though even a couple of hundred would suffice, he said.188 To impress Hirotami with the excellence of the European stock over any other (he could have sought Chinese help), Titsingh several times permitted a Japanese crew to sail the boats of the Trompenburg around the confines of Nagasaki Bay, which must have been an astonishing spectacle, never seen before or since.189 Hirotami was very nearly convinced, but he wanted to see a model first. Accurate table-top ships had been requested before, the first as far back as 1646, by Iemitsu himself; it had arrived two years later, but owing to a trade spat, the VOC was not invited to Edo for the next two years, so it was delivered only in 1649, and then to the shogun’s son, Ietsuna, as Iemitsu was declining fast and could not grant an audience.190 This gift was well known in Europe as it was recorded in Arnoldus Montanus’s Atlas Japonnensi of 1670, although the vagaries of its bestowal were glossed over; the ship was of silver, and a Dutch jeweller, Cornelius May, accompanied the piece, and explained to the shogun, said Montanus, all its workings, with ‘two hours spent in this instruction’.191 No second model was requested until 1718, in response to which the factory chief, Christiaen van Vrijebergh, ‘made a list of all the dimensions of the ship’ (either the Meeroog or the Termissen), and sent them to Edo. The following year Van Vrijebergh was reminded that a model was desired, and in embarrassment that none had come (and, of course, given the triple disaster of 1719, there was not even a real ship to look at), he lent a model that he owned privately, which was kept by the governorate for several weeks (perhaps secretly sent to Edo and back) before being returned.192 There is no record of the requested second model ship ever arriving, Now, Hirotani asked again. This time, however, the Japanese had also been modelling: as Titsingh was preparing to leave, after his second eighteen-month stay, he was presented by Hirotami with what is described as the model of a ship ‘like the Trompenburg’, which vessel had been lying alone in Nagasaki Bay since 26 August.193 As it was now 12 October, there had been ample time to make a copy, at least approximately, using external observation but there were recalcitrant issues, which is why Titsingh was approached; he was asked to take the object to Batavia, and add ‘the sails and whatever else was lacking in the rigging’.194 Hirotami also requested a Dutch-made piece, to be ‘a model of a vessel with a well-closed superstructure’, that is, a ship that could be smaller than the Trompenburg, but would solve the problem of the open stern typical of Japanese vessels, which made them, whatever their size, liable to take water in heavy seas, and so be non-viable

48 Introduction on the ocean. Titsingh was, in fact, able to have the sails and rigging fitted to the Japanese model before departure, for which Hirotami sent thanks, but also a reminder that he was ‘insisting on a model of a solid boat’ the following year.195 Titsingh duly came back for his short, third stint the next summer, and he brought the model, representing a lighter, that is, a coastal vessel, not ocean-going, but still twice as capacious as the largest Japanese ship and with a securely closed stern. Titsingh left that autumn and never knew the fascinating afterlife of his model. It was over two years later, in January 1787, that Romberg, factory chief, saw an unfamiliar vessel enter Nagasaki harbour; he asked for details, and wrote in his log, it was flush-decked and had, apart from its ordinary mast, another small one resembling a flagpole, and on the bow a sort of bowsprit no thicker than a spar, on which a small sail and another foresail like a jib were set. The poop is closed and heels over backward, while the rudder is like that of a longboat. The Japanese call it Sankoekmal which means ‘copied from three countries’, namely Holland, China and Japan, but it does not resemble anything either Dutch or Chinese and, glancing at it, it does not seem possible that it can carry that much cargo, but one is used to the fact that Japanese tend to overstate the case.196 Romberg was told it had been built using Titsingh’s model. The Sangoku-maru (as its name would now be romanised) soon left Nagasaki, and after some mirth at its expense, the VOC seem to have forgotten it. The court trip departed the next month, taking Romberg to Edo. But while he was gone, the vessel came back, its skipper bearing important news that required an immediate meeting with the senior intermediary, Yoshio Ko¯saku, who transmitted the information to Hendrik Ulps, deputising for Romberg: two three-masters had been spotted at sea, not flying any flag, but with crews ‘dressed in Dutch fashion’; they sailed so close to the Sangoku-maru that each group had been able to see the other.197 Ulps knew no VOC ships were in the vicinity and doubted the veracity of the story, and the resident governor, Mizuno Tadamichi (in Nagasaki for the first time to replace Toda Tamitake), dismissed it too.198 But it was true. The Japanese sailors had just met vessels of Louis XVI, though they were no more aware of this than were the French that they had just encountered the most peculiar object in Japanese maritime history. Anxious for a feat to rival Captain Cook, Louis had dispatched two ships, the Bussole and Astrolabe, from Brest, in summer 1785, under the leadership of JeanFrançois Galoupe, recently ennobled as Count de la Pérouse, in an expedition made up of ‘men of the deepest science and most brilliant talents of France’.199 La Pérouse’s commission was to plot the west coast of North and South America, and proceed to Asia and Australia. By late May 1787, his ships were in the Sea of Japan. La Pérouse’s log was subsequently published, in 1798, as Voyage autour du monde, and almost simultaneously in English as Voyage Around the World. The entry for that 2 June states,

Introduction 49 We descried two Japanese ships, one of which passed us within hail. It had a crew of twenty men all dressed in blue cassocks of the make of those used by our priests. This vessel was about 100 tons burden, and had only one very tall mast in the middle . . . The Astrolabe hailed her as she passed, but we neither understood her answer nor her crew our question, and she continued her course to the southward, hastening, no doubt, to announce her meeting with two foreign ships in seas where no European vessel had ever been seen before.200 La Pérouse and company were as unimpressed by the Sangoku-maru as Romberg had been. They thought it dangerously open to water so ‘it could not be safe in heavy seas’, despite having been based on a model with a ‘well-enclosed superstructure’. The on-board French draftsmen, Duché de Vancy and Prévost the Younger, sketched the ship from varying angles, and two of their renditions appear among the fifty-odd figures contained in La Pérouse’s Voyage, as reworked for publication by one Blondelle. It is labelled bateau japonais (‘Japanese Boat’ in the English), but it was a most abnormal one (see Figure 20). The Sangoku-maru left Nagasaki for the second time in August 1787. Narabayashi Ju¯bei, briefing Romberg after his return from the court trip, mentioned the report of two three-masters, but told him the skipper had proven untrustworthy, and even been arrested for secretly selling part of his cargo ‘to the Chinese on the open sea’ (the vessel was now under the command of another), so the tale could be discounted.201 La Pérouse was shipwrecked as he headed south, and all his crew were lost. Fortunately, his papers collected thus far had been removed at Avatscha and taken safely back to Paris overland, thus allowing publication. No one in Nagasaki seems to have heard anything for eighteen months again. Then, in January 1789, Romberg was told that ‘the Sangoku-maru, the boat which was made after the model that was sent in 1784, has run aground off Matsumae. All thirty crew members were saved by a barge which was sailing alongside it.’ The reference to the barge explains La Pérouse’s mention of two ships, despite depiction of only one. Romberg allowed himself another generalisation: ‘this proves that they should not occupy themselves trying to copy something strange, for they do not know how to to handle it, as I myself witnessed’.202 The Sangoku-maru floundered and sank on the 2nd of the 10th lunar month, 1787, which corresponds to 11 November. This is some eighteen months after Romberg was informed, but under six since being seen by the French.203 Already a shift in politics had cast doubt on the idea of a shogunal fleet. An anti-Okitsugu faction was taking advantage of the unreliability of the VOC to argue the opposite cause, namely that with so many years passing without a full complement of foreign ships, and no massive problems resulting, the Europeans could clearly be dispensed with once and for all. This conservative faction, in a last-ditch attempt to prevent what they saw as Okitsugu’s dangerous slippage towards openness, assassinated his son, Tanuma Okitomo (whom Titsingh refers to by his rank as Yamashiro-no-kami). Okitsugu had haughtily raised his offspring to a young eldership, which was resented by the established shogunal elite; his

(a)

(b)

Figure 20 (a and b) Duché de Vancy or Prévost the Younger (Blondelle, sculp.), ‘Japanese Boat’, pages from J. C. de la Perouse (anon., trans.), Voyage Around the World, monochrome copperplate book illustrations; 1798. London: The British Library.

Introduction 51 free-trade policies had not brought wealth to all, and his detractors came to outnumber his supporters. Across all social classes there was a feeling that the experiment in liberalisation had gone far enough. Added to this was a string of poor harvests, which led the populace to conclude that the regime had gone astray, since foul weather and bad government were held to go together. Any number of scurrilous rhymes circulated, and many were recorded by Titsingh, and appear in his section on poetry below. As Okitomo’s coffin was being carried through the streets of Edo, it was stoned by the masses. Okitsugu scaled back his policies. Titsingh’s hopes came to naught. His truncated third incumbency ended within weeks of the assassination, and he would later claim that he did not know of the murder until he had returned to Batavia, but this cannot be true. The assassination, he later admitted ‘annihilated all our hopes’, and it must have been one reason for his quitting Japan, forever.204 Okitsugu clung to power for another eighteen months, but resigned in summer 1786. Executive authority passed to Matsudaira Sadanobu, daimyo of Shirakawa and a close shogunal relative. He did not take the always-suspect post of ‘favourite’, but carved out a new one for himself as ‘chair of the elders’ (ro¯ju¯ shu¯ za), in effect, chief minister, which he assumed in 1787.205 The shogun, Ieharu, had died the previous year, and his replacement with Shigehide’s intended son-in-law, Ienari, might have formed a liberalising counterweight, but the new shogun was just thirteen, and Sadanobu found ways to restrict Shigehide’s access. He instituted a raft of legislation known as the Kansei Reforms, with ‘Kansei’, the era that spans 1789–1800 (thus as a label it is somewhat anachronistic), having the meaning ‘lenient government’ (kansei). It proved to be otherwise. Whatever misgivings there had been about the regime of Okitsugu, all were united in opposing Sadanobu. He put both town and country under full surveillance, hampered outlets of creativity and commerce, and in both economic and intellectual spheres people found themselves checked and constrained. Titsingh was gone, but Romberg darkly noted that Nagasaki was ‘teeming with informers’ and even among the VOC’s friends, ‘enmity and strive are rife’.206

Japan after Titsingh After Titsingh’s final departure, in late autumn 1784, life on Dejima went on much as before, though with lowered expectations of what the future might bring. The next few governors, who set the pace of encounters, did not excite such emotions, for or against, as had Tsuge Masakore and Kuze Hirotami. One of the Tsuchiyas was already dead and the other went into retirement in 1785, Toda Tamitake likewise, in 1786. Mizuno Tadamichi lasted until 1792, perfectly competently, first rotating with Matsura Nobutane, then with Sueyoshi Toshitake. Lower down in the governorate, many of the translators that Titsingh had known continued to work, and Van Reede’s subsequent analysis of the translators has been discussed above. Among his Edo contacts, Shigehide, Masatsuna, Hoshu¯ and Kiyoshi all had long careers ahead of them. Nagasaki lulled, but some indication of how the lives of the Edo quartet unfolded, after Titsingh was gone, may be useful.

52 Introduction For several years following, all four Edo friends made springtime visits to the Nagasaki House, if they could. On the next court trip, in 1785, Romberg went with Ulps and Hendrik Duurkoop, nephew of the former chief (both were scribes, as again there was no physician at the factory); the accompanying translators were Motojiro¯ and Monju¯ro¯. Shigehide sent along a present, but was too occupied to visit. However, the VOC welcomed Masatsuna and Hoshu¯, together, for dinner.207 No visit by Kiyoshi is recorded. Truly amazingly – and this had never before been noticed – Satake Yoshiatsu, daimyo of Akita, made an appearance at the Nagasaki House. Yoshiatsu had been introduced to Western studies by Hiraga Gennai a dozen years before, and had become one of its main sponsors, as well as being a fine Western-style painter in his own right, under the studio name ‘Shozan’; he had also written Japan’s first treatises on Western art. Yoshiatsu had been known by repute to the VOC (though not personally) as possessor of Japan’s prime copper mines, and consequently, as Crans put it, already in 1760 ‘one of the greatest and most powerful lords of the Japanese empire’.208 But Yoshiatsu died within a week of this encounter, aged thirty-seven, obliterating a potential florescence of East–West relations.209 The next year, 1786, Van Reede went to Edo with physician Johan Falcke and scribe Coenraad Jonas; he again extended the same hospitality to Masatsuna and Hoshu¯, who came together and ‘left highly satisfied at one o’clock in the morning’; three days later, Van Reede received a visit from Kiyoshi, made in secret (apparently his preferred mode); the following week Masatsuna was back for dinner; again, Shigehide could not find the time to come, but sent regrets.210 In 1786, this court trip group had another significant encounter: in Osaka, while viewing the copper ¯ tsuki Gentaku, the pioneer scholar, who monopoly, as they often did, they met O was in merry spirits, having come from a slap-up lunch with the city’s wealthiest and broadest collector and amateur, Kimura Kenkado¯; Gentaku was returning from Nagasaki, where he had spent some seven months studying (although oddly there is no record of his meeting any of the VOC there), and once home he enthused on his encounter in Osaka to Masashige, who, as we have seen, was his sponsor, and whom Gentaku at once met on his return to Edo; Masashige wrote an elegant note to Van Reede, thanking him for his kindness to the promising young doctor.211 The VOC stayed in Osaka, as in Miyako, only a short while, but they met the same figures every year, such as the landlord of their inn (also called the Nagasaki House) and the staff of the copper monopoly, so bonds could be built up. It helped that the landlord of the inn, Tamegawa Tatsukichi, was concurrently a senior monopoly official.212 Titsingh left no remarks on any of these Osaka men, but Van Reede was close enough to the monopoly’s master, Izumiya Kichibei, to give him a copy of Gerard van Loon’s important four-volume numismatic study of 1723–31, Beschrijving der Nederlandschen historipenningen (Description of historical Netherlandish coinage), bestowing it in 1789, when Kichibei went into retirement.213 Shigehide was always busy and Kiyoshi had his secrecy obsession, but receiving Masatsuna and Hoshu¯ for dinner became a habit for the VOC in Edo. In 1787, Romberg again, with physician Jan Loth, scribe Jean-Baptist Ricard, and translators

Introduction 53 Ko¯saku and Einoshin, had them over, both guests leaving, ‘late at night, highly satisfied’, after which both dropped by ‘daily’.214 Hoshu¯’s brother, Morishima Chu¯ryo¯ was then completing the manuscript of his Ko¯mo¯ zatsuwa, and he heard Ricard’s words on homosexuality, and inserted them; much of the information in the book had been relayed to Chu¯ryo¯ by Hoshu¯ over many court trips: Romberg is cited four times, Fredrik Schindeler (who went with Feith and Thunberg) thrice, Feith twice, Van Reede, Jonas, Thunberg and of course Ricard, once each.215 Another multiple link is manifested in the pages of Ko¯mo¯ zatsuwa. It is stated that Masatsuna received from Romberg a Dutch print imported ‘last Autumn’ (sic, must mean summer), 1786, illustrating a sensational new invention, the talk of Europe – the hot-air balloon. The Montgolfier brothers had sent up their unmanned balloon, as is well known, from the Bois de Boulogne, on 21 November 1783. Shortly afterwards, the first manned ascent had taken place, with two young French aristocrats ascending, and within a few days, that same December, Jacques Charles, with Nöel Robert, improved the design and Charles ascended alone, from the Tuilleries, and flew 50 km in his ‘charlière’ – almost twenty times as far as the ‘montgolfière’ had managed.216 Masatsuna’s print is lost, but he permitted Chu¯ryo¯ to copy it for publication in his Ko¯mo¯ zatsuwa, with a long discussion of the ascents, which is, however, garbled, having ‘Tuilleries’ as the French name for the balloon, Montgolfier the name of the inventor, and Charles and Robert the manufacturers.217 Chru¯ ryo¯’s transcription does not inspire confidence that he had looked very carefully at the original print (see Figure 21). Despite the recent resignation of Okitsugu, enthusiasm for Europe had evidently not abated; indeed, it seems to have increased. In Edo, Romberg recorded, ‘I am spending my time as a schoolteacher, which I do not find enjoyable.’218 Masatsuna rather overdid things by sending his twenty-year-old son, Mototsuna, for intensive private coaching in the Dutch language. On this court trip the VOC finally met Shigehide, though initially only by chance, when they ran into him in the street, ‘on foot, dressed as a servant’, surely spying, his staff following at a discrete distance; when Shigehide recognised Romberg, he came in from the cold and greeted him, calling out in not entirely correct Dutch, ‘Romberg, ik heb je in lang niet gezien’ (Romberg, I haven’t seen you for ages’).219 Ten days later, Shigehide came to Nagasaki House, where he stayed for three hours, and left regretting he could not stay longer. Just weeks after this, Matsudaira Sadanobu took control of the Council of Elders. This year, 1787, marked the beginning of the end. When Van Reede arrived the following spring, with physician Johan Stutze (like Thunberg, a Swede) Jonas, Motojiro¯ and Einoshin, he found a distinct change. Masatsuna came to dinner, and stayed until 1 am, but without Hoshu¯, who was under government censure for what was now regarded as an indecently rakish lifestyle.220 Van Reede was told to expect a visit from Shigehide, but it would have to be incognito, even though Shigehide had retired in favour of his son, Narinobu, and ought to have had freer time. Anyway, he cancelled at short notice – the shogun’s own future father-in-law (the marriage to Tadako would be finally concluded just months later) being told he was ‘not allowed’ to go.221 Van Reede was furious to learn that this was the

54 Introduction

Figure 21 Anon. (Morishima Chu¯ryo¯?), ‘Luftschip’, from his Ko¯mo¯ zatsuwa, monochrome printed book illustration; 1787. Tokyo: National Diet Library.

translators’ fault, since, in their ‘imprudence and ignorance’, they had blurted out the impending secret visit; Shigehide was also ‘very bitter and incensed’. This would have been the end of a career, at any rate for Motojiro¯, the senior partner, but nature stepped in, and he died shortly after return to Nagasaki, aged about thirtyfive; this allowed the gregarious and gin-soaked Ju¯bei, ‘who had been passed over twice in the past but is in favour with the new governor’, to be moved up to the post of senior interpreter, in which, of course, he did not last long.222

Introduction 55 The curtain finally came down during the next court trip, in 1789. Romberg, Loth and temporary scribe Jan Stave arrived, with translators Ko¯saku and a new name from the college, Kafuku Yasujiro¯. Masatsuna and Hoshu¯ did not visit, and when Shigemasa attempted to do so, even incognito and without a word being breathed about it, he was ‘turned back’; ‘nor’, Romberg wrote, ‘does any other even dare the risk of sending his attendants’. Conviviality at the Nagasaki House had come to an end. ‘I was very sorry’, Romberg went on, ‘but I have to resign myself to it.’223 In 1790, Romberg was again in Edo (following Titsingh’s and the earlier precedent, Van Reede had returned only for the trading season in 1789, and handed back to Romberg in the autumn), with physician Johannes Schel, scribe Samuel Bernard and Einoshin and Nakayama Sakusaburo¯ (also a new name, though a junior interpreter since 1782). They received no visits of any kind, but sensed spies everywhere, thanks to the policies of ‘the feared and hated counsellor Etchu¯-nokami’, that is, Matsudaira Sadanobu.224 This was the last annual court trip. Thereafter, the VOC was told to come only once every five years, which was a financial saving for the Company, but which sundered existing friendship networks and precluded the formation of new ones.

Titsingh after Japan In early 1785, Titsingh set foot back in Batavia. After a few months, he was nominated as the head of the VOC factory at Chinsura, in Bengal; indeed, it may have been that this was already contemplated and accounts for his shortened third term in Nagasaki. The Chinsura factory, known as Fort Gustavia, was a pleasant spot, some 30 km up the River Hougly (modern Bhagirathi) from Calcutta, not far from the still-struggling French and Danish factories, and the dominant English one. Fort Gustavia was newer than Dejima, having been founded in 1653, but it had a better track-record, and was a far more congenial posting. The war with Great Britain was over, but British expansion was damaging the VOC – and other continental trading consortia: the Austrian Company (operating out of Ostend) had long since been dissolved under British pressure, and the Swedish East India Company, moribund from 1766, finally disappeared in 1784, with the French Company following it into extinction in 1790.225 It was Titsingh’s role to negotiate diplomatically with the British, and to re-establish the factory that they had previously occupied and only just released, and to keep the VOC presence in India afloat. (Fort Gustavia was lost to the British again during the Napoleonic Wars, and in 1824 the Dutch withdrew from India altogether, swapping their possessions there for the British ones in Sumatra.) But in the short term, the new post promised to be very good for Titsingh financially. Improvements in European copper undermined Japanese exports (which were dwindling anyway) and weakened the whole balance of inter-Asian VOC circulation of goods. Tens of thousands of tonnes of European copper were now entering India, and, as a contemporary of Titsingh wrote to the Gentlemen XVII, ‘going into an India weaving village with only Japanese copper to offer’ is next to useless.226 Titsingh had little to import to India.

56 Introduction In Chinsura, the VOC’s principal export was not cloth but opium. There was plenty of it, but supplies were interfered with by the British, whose governorgeneral, Lord Cornwallis (of American War of Independence fame), arriving at the same time as Titsingh to replace the more conciliatory Warren Hastings, began to force the VOC to buy via the English Company, and limit them to 700 chests annually. These charges hurt the VOC, but also left Titsingh with drastically less personal profit than had been promised.227 His predecessor, Johannes Ross, had made half a million rupees, but Titsingh was to garner only half that.228 Titsingh soon wrote to Batavia to recommend a strategic reduction of the VOC in Bengal, but the British did not wish to drive the Dutch out totally, as the VOC was the most efficient way for them to send private money home undetected.229 In 1788, Titsingh was raised to Supernumerary Counsellor (raad extraordinaris) of India. But the low ebb of VOC prestige on the subcontinent came the next year with the Antonetta Incident. A British captain who had bought the freedom of the city of Flushing, in the United Provinces, sailed into Bengal with a Dutch flag on his British ship (the word ‘London’ still visible under a quick paint job on the stern), came up the Hougly and, in defiance of the VOC monopoly for Dutch-flagged vessels, on the grounds that he was a British subject, began to trade. The British were unhappy but could do nothing to a Dutch-registered ship; Titsingh was livid and had the Antonetta seized, only to be told by Cornwallis that this was illegal, which forced him into a humiliating climb-down.230 Although he stayed seven years in India, Titsingh wrote to a friend, ‘I can not accustom me with this country’; his love remained for Japan.231 He wanted to leave as soon as permitted. If business and politics were frustrating, at least Titsingh’s social life was better. The rogue and gambler William Hickey laid on excellent parties, and noted that Titsingh ‘could literally drink gin like water’; once when Hickey invited him and his colleagues to dinner, ‘the mynheers did complete justice to the champagne and burgundy I gave them’.232 Titsingh lived with an Indian woman, whose name is not known, but by whom he fathered his only child, William, whom he would take back to Europe. Titsingh’s intellectual life became more animated too. He had brought from Batavia two Chinese men (Japanese were still not permitted to travel overseas) to assist him with his translations and researches, and despite everything, he was on good terms with many of the British, not excluding Cornwallis. In general, Titsingh professed to find his British opposite numbers more exhilarating than his Dutch colleagues, and at least they were more diverse, British presence being a whole colonial apparatus, not just a factory. Many of the ideas that governed the organisation of Titsingh’s book were formulated during his discussions with British officials such as Sir William Jones (a scholar and friend of Dr Johnson) and Sir Robert Chambers (from 1791, chief justice of Bengal). It was probably at this time that he acquired fluent English (though, said Hickey, always with ‘foreign accent and delivery’). The Dutch had formed an expatriate lecture club called the Bataviaasch Genootschap (Batavian Society), and the year before Titsingh’s arrival, the British had emulated this with the Asiatic Society of Bengal, founded by Jones and placed

Introduction 57 under the patronage of Hastings; it promoted exactly the sort of research that interested Titsingh. Jones was supportive of Titsingh’s project, and asked him to publish on Japan in their society’s journal; he offered the view that Japan’s ‘preeminence among Eastern kingdoms’, was ‘analogous to that of Britain among the natives of the West’.233 His pleas to Titsingh to write were not answered, but then, Titsingh did not write much for the Dutch society’s journal either. Disastrously, in 1789, the Belvliet, bearing a ‘mass of Japanese manuscripts’ to Titsingh from his Edo and Nagasaki friends, was wrecked off Burma.234 In January 1792, a British ship arrived in Bengal with news that the VOC had gone bankrupt.235 This turned out to be premature, but until a corrective came through, Titsingh’s credit was nearly worthless. Two months later, he was recalled to Batavia. It was for his successor, three years on, to surrender Fort Gustavia for a second and final time, to the British. Back in Batavia, Titsingh was appalled at the collapse of the city’s former affluence. Many of the finest houses stood empty. But his own career countinued to rise. He was promoted to Ordinary Counsellor; he applied for, but did not get, the superintendency of the opium bureau; he was offered, but turned down, the presidency of the Bench of Magistrates. From late summer 1792, he worked as Receiver-General, regarded as a lucrative position. But Batavia was no longer a desirable place to be. Titsingh seems to have made no attempt to exchange letters with his Japanese friends, for all that he would have seen several sailings of ships to and from Nagasaki, and he later expressed annoyance at the ‘out of eye out of heart’ (sic) attitude of his erstwhile Japanese correspondents, though he might have been equally guilty.236 At New Year 1793, Titsingh’s contract with the VOC expired. As one of his biographers wrote, he decided to leave ‘the sinking ship in Asia for the gathering storm of Europe’, and determined to live in London, imagining a life of literary symposia, such as he had witnessed in Bengal, but without the attendant worries.237 But while he was still in Batavia, Lord Macartney arrived, with the Lion and the Hindoostan, making a stop on the way to Beijing as first British ambassador to China. Because he spoke English, Titsingh was deputed to assist. He was convinced that the embassy was a scouting party to prepare ‘for their invasion of China’.238 Some months later, the head of the VOC’s Canton factory, Andreas van Braam Houckgeest, proposed that rather than fuming at British arrogance, the Dutch should emulate it. He pointed out that 1796 would be sixtieth anniversary of the reign of the Chinese huangdi (emperor) Gaozong (posthumously, Qianglong), and a congratulatory mission would be well received. To add weight to this idea, Van Braam stated that Britain, France and Spain would be sending ambassadors to the jubilee – though he had just made this up. Van Braam was a mercurial character. He had arrived in China in 1767, and stayed eight years before returning to the United Provinces, very rich. After nearly a decade, in 1783, he emigrated to South Carolina, and the following year became an American citizen. But sadly his children died in an epidemic, which propelled him back to China, where he arrived in 1788 to take up the post of Canton factory chief.239

58 Introduction Of course, Van Braam intended that he should be nominated as ambassador to China. But he was made only Second, with the senior post given to Titsingh, who deferred return to Europe. (Van Braam has a kind of revenge, for one of the most recent books on the subject unaccountably claims the embassy was ‘under the leadership of van Braam’.240) Revolutionary turmoil in Europe meant the VOC embassy was organised in Batavia, without reference to the Gentlemen XVII, much less than to the Dutch state, and so was a kind of trick played on the Chinese court. When Titsingh discovered he too had been tricked by Van Braam’s monstrous fib about the other European powers planning delegations, he attempted to cancel the embassy, but as Beijing had been informed, this could hardly be done.241 Not for nothing did Titsingh ever after regard Van Braam as ‘untrustworthy behind his mask of honesty’.242 Titsingh left Batavia as ‘Dutch Ambassador to China’, in summer, 1794, aboard the Siam; he stopped in Canton to pick up Van Braam and also Chrétien-LouisJoseph de Guignes, son of the distinguished Parisian Asianist, Joseph de Guignes (with whom Titsingh was in correspondence), who spoke Chinese and was enlisted to assist the native-speaker interpreters. In total, twenty-seven Europeans and a rather larger number of Chinese set out; Titsingh became the first Freemason ever to set foot in China.243 They took a local boat to Nanzhang, then went overland to the capital. It was mid-winter, planned so they would arrive for the lunar New Year, but the weather made conditions gruelling. Van Braam lost 8 cm off his generous waistline; one of the Malay servants, Apollo, ‘a strong, robust boy’, died of exposure and fatigue; on arrival, Titsingh was confined to bed for several days.244 The presents destined for the court had not fared better: ‘two magnificent mechanical pieces’ were smashed – and only one could be repaired by the Swiss clockmaker they had prudently taken along from Macartney’s entourage.245 Not only did the embassy borrow, without permission, the sovereign title of the Dutch state, but as the United Provinces was a republic, a concept deemed not to be understandable to the Chinese, the group pretended their stadtholder, William V, was ‘king of Holland’, and Titsingh tendered to the Qing court a letter purporting to be from him, but which was not so at all. Yet the jubilee was a lavish and spectacular sight to see, and as, in the end, the Dutch were the only European delegation (though there were embassies from Korea, Tibet, Tonkin, the Ryukyus and other Asian states), they were warmly welcomed; Titsingh was personally received by the huangdi, whom he thought ‘though advanced in years’, had a ‘good and kind appearance’.246 Van Braam later published a picture of this reception, though it is fictionalised (see Figure 22). The huangdi was impressed by the Dutch, and gave Titsingh and Van Braam 150 taels of silver each.247 A French Jesuit resident in Beijing, Jean-Joseph de Grammont, noted, however, that although the court was pleased, the Dutch embassy was a silly idea fundamentally, for with

Figure 22 (opposite) Anon., from André van Braam Houckgeest, An Authentic Account of the Dutch Embassy to the Court of the Emperor of China, copperplate book illustration; 1798. London: The British Library.

60 Introduction so much else going on, its splash was less than it could have been at any other time; moreover, the use of Cantonese interpreters lowered the tone, and (although this was not the VOC’s fault) their Beijing chargé was ‘a proud enemy of the Europeans, without humanity or decency’, who failed to let the Dutch capitalise on anything, and whose behaviour was so deplorable he was sacked within days of their party leaving the city.248 The group arrived back in Canton in May, after some five months away. Titsingh was perhaps the only European ever to have met the shogun of Japan and the huangdi of China. Van Braam returned to the United States, purchased a large estate near Philadelphia, named it the China Retreat, and rode about with a Chinese driver and footman. The three top Europeans had kept journals, and Van Braam and de Guignes soon published theirs. Van Braam’s, which included the picture of the reception, was published in English, in 1798, then translated into German, in 1798–99, and Dutch, in 1804–06, all dedicated to George Washington; it misspells Titsingh’s name throughout.249 De Guignes’s book appeared only in French, in 1808, and in it he unilaterally upgraded himself from interpreter to ‘ambassadorial private secretary’.250 Characteristically, Titsingh failed to publish his journal. He felt jaded by the embassy anyway, and after Japan, was unimpressed by the ‘coarseness and lack of civilisation’ of the Chinese, even at their court, and he lamented how he had expected ‘a very civilised and enlightened people’ from the reports ‘with which the missionaries have deluded the world for a number of years’, but had not found one.251 It was time for Titsingh to leave Asia. Still in Canton, he learned that never mind there being no ‘king of Holland’, there was no United Provinces either. In 1795, the French army had invaded and annexed the country, renaming it the Batavian Republic. The solution was to revive his plans for London. Since Dutch shipping had evaporated, he sent out his son, William, on a Swedish vessel, in January 1796, insisting at first (but later relenting) that the boy use an assumed name to hide his illigitimacy.252 Titsingh himself sailed that March aboard a British ship, the Cirencester (pronounced ‘sissister’), his baggage, at ten vast trunks, so voluminous he was charged £300 extra.253 The presents received from the huangdi and intended for the ‘king of Holland’ had nowhere to go, so Titsingh kept the half that Van Braam had not taken, but afraid the British would seize this trove (on the correct grounds that William V, though not king, was head of the Dutch state, whose annihilation Great Britain did not recognise, and who, in exile in the London suburb of Kew, had written a Circular Letter, placing all Dutch overseas territories, ports and property in British trust).254 Titsingh, therefore, sent the most fabulous part of his cargo in the vessel of another neutral country, using the Spanish Purissima Conception. The Cirencester made European landfall in late November 1796, but in Ireland, owing to heavy weather. There, Titsingh heard that Britain was now at war with Spain. Worse, he was informed that the British had actually seized the Purissima Conception. As soon as he was able, he wrote to the capturing British admiral, Sir John Jervis, asking for release of the goods.255 The letter went unanswered, and nothing was heard of the ambassadorial cargo again.

Introduction 61

Titsingh in Europe When the Cirencester finally arrived in England, shortly before Christmas, Titsingh went straight to London, taking rooms at the Lothian Hotel in Mayfair. His Bengal-era friends secured him the assistance of the English East India Company, which stored his trunks in their offices in Leadenhall Street. The conditions in the Netherlands, and of the VOC, depressed him, and he also found London ‘far too expensive’.256 He soon became unwell, perhaps additionally overwhelmed by the vastness of the project he had set himself, and which he could no longer delay – the writing of his book. He was persuaded to try Bath, an elegant and fashionable spa, and he moved there in February, after only weeks in the capital. His house, No. 12, North Parade, still stands. Titsingh returned to London occasionally, and he sought to obtain an audience with William V, but failed.257 But Titsingh was introduced to Sir Joseph Banks, former scientist with Captain Cook, president of the Royal Society and a trustee of the British Museum. Two decades before, Banks had befriended Thunberg on his return from Japan, and had also organised his election to the Royal Society; he secured the same for Titsingh. Thunberg’s massive Travels in Europe, Africa and Asia, with its large section on Japan, was now out in Swedish, German, French and English (to accompany his Latin Flora Japonica) and in 1794 he had added to these tomes a fine picture album of Japanese plants, Icones plantarum japonicarum thunbergii (Thunberg’s illustrated plants of Japan). Banks owned all these, probably receiving complimentary copies from Thunberg, and he could not have failed to discuss them with Titsingh.258 But Titsingh pretended to the last that Thunberg did not exist. For his part, Thunberg ignored Titsingh too. In thanks for his encouragement, Titsingh donated to Banks the collection of minerals that he had received from Hoshu¯. He took great umbrage when Sir Charles Blagden, the Scottish army doctor whose friendship with Banks had secured him the secretaryship of the Royal Society, pooh-poohed many of the items as European objects fraudulently inserted; ‘What I can assert’, Titsingh wrote to Banks, ‘is that during my stay in Edo, in 1782, this collection was offered to me by Katsragwa Hozuid’, and, he added fulsomely, ‘I have taken the liberty to offer it to you, as of a feeble testimony, and from the full conviction that if it contain any thing of notice, it could never find a more deserving possessor.’259 Through Banks, Titsingh also met William Marsden, an expert on Malaya (modern Malaysia), who had worked for the English East India Company on Sumatra, returning with a fine collection in 1779; he held the post of secretary to the British Museum, which he had taken over from Thunberg’s old fellowstudent under Linnaeus in Sweden, Daniel Solander. Through Marsden, who was also secretary to the Admiralty, Titsingh met its First Lord, the Earl Spencer, late home secretary, and another cache of powerful figures. In 1799, Van Braam sold up his China Retreat and came to London, where he auctioned his Chinese collection at Christies.260 He and Titsingh preferred not to meet.

62 Introduction After four years of collating and writing, in 1800, Titsingh decided to visit the Netherlands. He hoped to see his relations in Amsterdam, and have William declared legitimate. It had also become possible for him to obtain his outstanding wages from the now truly bankrupt and disbanded VOC (these amounted to over f 35,000).261 He was back in London in 1801, but encountered such horrendous visa difficulties, owing to the situation of the Batavian Republic being occupied by Napoleonic troops, and so, de facto, a part of France, a country with which Great Britain was at war, that he crossed right back and went to Paris, where he settled. Titsingh never came to England again, ‘the remembrance of the treatment I have meet [sic] with in 1801 at the Allien [sic] Office is too lasting’, he told his friends.262 His baggage was sent over, arriving in Paris in the autumn of 1802, which allowed him to continue his work. In 1803, Titsingh made a donation of books to the Bibliothèque impériale (modern Bibliothèque nationale), including the core encyclopaedia Wakan sansai zue (Sino-Japanese illustrated encyclopaedia of the three levels of existence), originally published in China, but reissued in Japan with notations for local readers in 1712; he also gave the core history, Dai-nihon shi (History of Japan), which had been begun under the aegis of Tokugawa Mitsukuni, the daimyo of Mito, in 1657, and was still in progress. The Bibliothèque’s director, Jean-Augustin Capperonnier, wrote to express his thanks for this acquisition of the library’s first books ‘in the Japanese language’, though in fact both texts are in pseudo-Chinese kanbun.263 In 1806, Titsingh moved with William into a newly built apartment in the rue Napoléon (now rue de la Paix). Chained to his desk, as he put it, out of ‘shame for inactivity of so many years’, Titsingh’s life was no longer very social.264 It was already a decade since he had returned to Europe and over twenty since he had left Japan, and next to nothing was done. He re-established contact with de Guignes the younger (the elder was deceased) and met Louis-Matthieu Langlès, precocious Persian expert at the Bibliothèque, but annoyingly for Titsingh, French translator of Thunberg’s travel book, and a bit of a fan.265 More important for Titsingh’s project was his meeting with Jean-Pierre-Abel Rémusat, mentioned above, first professor of Chinese at the Collège de France; Rémusat was a prickly character, not entirely at ease with someone who had actually been to China and met the huangdi, and he alternated between support and superciliousness; he also massaged his name into the more aristocratic-looking Jean-Pierre Abel Rémusat. But it was this scholar who, in the end, ensured the survival of Titsingh’s project. William attended the Ecole de Marine and, in 1810, graduated and sailed to Asia on a Prussian warship, intending to get to Japan. Titsingh enjoined him to ‘have a glass with my surviving friends’, though there were none.266 The next year, William landed in Batavia, but as it was in now a British possession, both he and the Prussian staff were taken as prisoners of war, in which condition they were unceremoniously shipped back to London, only at which point could William prove he was a Dutchman, and secure his liberty. He returned to Paris, arriving in 1812, to find his father dead.

Introduction 63

Titsingh’s Magnum Opus: the sources Titsingh wrote that while in Japan he had collected ‘sufficient stock of material to pass the remainder of my life usefully and with pleasure, putting them to order’.267 This was an understatement. He never fully marshalled the materials. Titsingh tormented himself about this. His papers moved about his desk; his collection of artefacts, which he referred to as the Titsingh Cabinet, sat in boxes. By his own admission, he was looked on as a misanthrope, so single-mindedly did he devote himself to the translations, which did not swiftly advance. He ignored the world outside and did not read a newspaper ‘for upwards of three years’.268 Titsingh turned to wistful musing on Japan. This was an alternative to writing, editing and translating. He made comments to the effect that it was, ‘the most beautiful and agreeable country in the known world, and the best civilised’, and so on.269 A senior VOC official remarked, with some surprise given the life actually led on Dejima, that ‘factory chief Titsingh, a man of advanced years’, declared ‘he had spent his most enjoyable days in Japan’.270 Titsingh was not idle, but he was just not a finisher. His sense of responsibility with regard to putting knowledge of Japan into the public domain, for the first time, properly, was debilitating. His belief that ‘it is a fact, no body exists in Europe but me, who can give such an ample and faithful detail’, was not only rather breathtaking (Thunberg, for one, might have begged to differ), but ultimately self-defeating.271 By the time of his death, Titsingh had produced, but not published, a quite large body of translated materials. Questions of which and how many books Titsingh relied on, and of how accurately he translated them, have never before been asked, but they must be addressed. What follows takes the first ever steps in adjudicating such issues. Books on modern history, or on anything that might impinge on the sacral dignity of the shogunate and its forebears, could not be published in Japan. Abel Rémusat (to use his preferred double-barrelled name) noted that if Titsingh’s manuscripts ever went to press, ‘by an extraordinary singularity, we shall be earlier and better informed than they concerning the events of their own history’.272 The shogunate, however, did tolerate the circulation of such materials in manuscript form, and such documents were Titsingh’s main sources. There is thus a major division in Edo-period writings between printed books (hanpon) and manuscript books (shahon). Each has its own characteristics, but it cannot be asserted that the former circulated more widely than the latter, and it sometimes might have been the reverse: hand copies were made continuously, while a printrun could sell out; naturally, a printed book could be hand-copied too. In addition to diffusion is the matter of standardisation. Printed books, though they could have variant impressions, are fixed in content, whereas manuscripts admit of scribal error, deliberate omission, substitution and insertion; well-known manuscript works are frequently quite diverse in content and can be divided into ‘families’. A third issue is readability. Block type was little used in Japan, and printed texts were calligraphed on paper, transferred to woodblock, then printed a page at a time, but still, print was, on the whole, easier to read than handwriting. Thus, all in all,

64 Introduction Titsingh had an exceedingly difficult task. It may never be known how he selected the sources that he used, though it is most likely that they were chosen for him by Nagasaki or Edo friends, and so represent a good cross-section of what was thought important to informed late eighteenth-century Japanese. As for Titsingh’s language ability, the doctor Tachibana Nankei, using reported information (probably supplied by Yoshio Ko¯saku, when they met in his Dutch rooms) stated that Titsingh praised Chinese characters (in which Japanese is partly written) as ‘very useful for scholarship because they are so precise’, and Nankei was told that, ‘little by little [Titsingh] became able to write in characters and even to read kanbun books, with considerable fluency’.273 Some have trusted this. But it is not a tenable claim. Kanbun Titsingh certainly could not read, though he learned some individual Chinese characters. Therefore, he chose sensibly, or had chosen sensibly for him books in a more anecdotal type of history writing, composed in the vernacular. Most, though not all, of these fit into the colourful genre known as jitsuroku, literally ‘true records’, but belying their name, they stress emotional involvement, motivation and excitement, garrulous, blood-soaked and tear-jerking by turns; they overlap as much with fiction and drama as with veritable history. Some texts can be attributed to specific authors through other sources, but just as very few jitsuroku authors dared to publish, most also left their names off their manuscripts, for safety’s sake, as their prying discussions of those in power put them at the very margins of legality. When encountered by Whig historians in Europe, the narrative content of jitsuroku seemed to be detached from real historical events. An early French reader objected this was ‘not proper history at all’, and if such narratives were what constituted the Japanese past, then ‘their history is a tissue of horrors and atrocities’.274 But with the Whig interpretation of history now gone, the anecdotal nature of much of Titsingh’s contents will, I hope, reversedly, endear them to the reader. The concept of ‘secret memoirs’ is no longer antithetical to that of ‘proper history’. Much of what Titsingh collated offers a totally new, and distinctly more vibrant view of figures who, too often, appear in established records in only leaden guise, later Japanese historiography having also succumbed to Whig interpretations. Titsingh did also use more formal sources too, as will be seen. The first dilemma for Titsingh, in constructing his book, was to establish a chronology. Japanese books, of course, used the Japanese system of era names, not Anno Domini years. Today, concordances are available, but it was not so then. Also, the lunar year began and ended about six weeks later than the Western one, so overlaps were never total. Lunar months were, accordingly, disaligned from their European equivalents, such that, for example, September and the ninth lunar month would share no days in common with each other. By dint of much labour, Titsingh did manage to harmonise the years, but the months eluded him. In his text, where he writes, say, September, he actually means the ninth lunar month, though often, in keeping with the VOC practice, he wisely left the month in Japanese, giving, say, a day in kugatsu (the ninth lunar month), and not attempting to position it with anything in the solar calendar. This was not perfect, but Titsingh was satisfied enough with the result, and he wrote to Masatsuna that,

Introduction 65 ‘with unbelievable difficulty I have reconciled the Chinese and Japanese system of time measurement with ours, and filled in all the significant events in Japanese history’.275 Titsingh identified, at various point in his drafts, nine specific Japanese sources from which he derived his ‘significant events’. Romanisation of Japanese was not yet standardised (witness his spelling of Katsuragawa Hoshu¯’s name), and this has left some scholars bemused as to what books he was referring to. His nine named Japanese sources are here all introduced and defined for the first time. They range from well-worn works that are still consulted today (though more by historians of drama and fiction than of politics), sometimes available in modern printed editions, to the totally obscure. These cannot be the full range of Titsingh’s sources, since he includes information that is not found in any of them. Further, the parts of his chronicle that post-date his departure from Japan are not translations, but are from oral accounts or correspondence with his Japanese friends or VOC colleagues. Repeatedly, Titsingh mentions Nipon-o-day-tche-lan or, in current romanisation, Nihon o¯dai ichiran (Table of the rulers of Japan).276 Its translation was intended as the basis of his section on the history of the dairis. The Table was compiled in 1650 by Hayashi Gaho¯, son of the famous Hayashi Razan, who had formulated a Shintoised Confucianism early in the Edo Period, and, in 1607, had become political advisor to the second shogun, Tokugawa Hidetada, and then rector of Edo’s Confucian academy, the Sho¯heiko¯. Gaho¯ was also a noted scholar, though in 1650 he was just thirty-three. He did not continue the Table up to the present, again, in deference to the regime, but terminated it at the last pre-Tokugawa ruler. The work was published, though only later, in 1663 (it was reissued in 1803), perhaps because it was a necessary reference work for officials, and did not evaluate, but merely listed rulers (it is no jitsuroku). It is a dry affair, and Titsingh acknowledged that translating it was ‘a most tedious task’.277 In the end, the Table was excised from the posthumous version of Titsingh’s book, although it was eventually published separately, by a British press, though in French, in 1834, under the title of Annales des empereurs du japon. It does not figure in the present edition. Gaho¯’s Table was later unscrupulously pirated by Arai Hakuseki, another wellknown Confucian scholar, who, at the turn of the seventeenth century, served the fifth shogun, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. He had then been retained by his son, Ienobu, and later been made preceptor to Ienobu’s son, Ietsuna. Hakuseki will be introduced immediately below.278 The second source is of a different ilk. Titsingh calls it Itokoua Sirik, which is a highly garbled version of Ho¯ka shiryaku (Brief history of currency), better known by the title of Honcho¯ ho¯ka tsu¯yo¯ jiryaku (Short account of the circulation of currency in this realm) – this would not have been possible to trace had Titsingh not named its author, Arai Chikugo-no-kami, that is, Hakuseki himself.279 Titsingh dated the work to 1708, although it is otherwise thought to be from 1711; though minor, the difference is significant, since Ienobu acceded in 1709, and among the policies that Hakuseki sought to persuade the new shogun to adopt was a restoration of currency, several times debased, and this book was part of his ammunition to that end. Hakuseki’s contention was that currency, being made of

66 Introduction precious, or semi-precious metal, is finite and so must not be allowed to disappear overseas too casually; his was not a protectonist argument, for he wished to see international trade conducted, but in the form of credit, or barter. By Titsingh’s time, this is indeed how it was done. The VOC was strictly debarred from taking out Japanese coin, and it was illegal for Japanese to pay them for imports in it. Hori Monju¯ro¯ was dismissed for the offence of buying his European clock in cash, not for buying it as such.280 Because of Hakuseki’s fame, the book has been published fairly often, but only in modern times, never in the Edo Period when it circulated in manuscript.281 It is worth noting in passing some other books by Hakuseki, though unknown to Titsingh: in 1709, he wrote Sairan igen (Collected views and strange words), a treatise on Europe, derived from interviews with an imprisoned Italian priest, and he expanded this, probably in 1715, with Seiyo¯ kibun (Record of things heard from the West). Between these two, in 1712, he produced his real historical study, Tokushi yoron (Treatise on history). Though again none was published until modern times, all were hugely influential as manuscript books; the last work has recently been put into English.282 Titsingh’s third source was Keïzan-dai-feki, or romanised in the modern way, Keian taiheiki (Record of the great pacification of the Keian period); ‘keian’ is the era 1648–51, while ‘record of the great pacification’ refers to a hugely important fourteenth-century chronicle on the establishment of the first, or Kamakura, shogunate in 1192. This book is a jitsuroku detailing an important incident known as the Keian Disturbance (keian so¯do¯), in which the Tokugawa shogunate, half a century in power, was subjected to its most severe early challenge. Some 4,000 rebels attacked Edo, and very nearly overthrew the regime, under the leadership of Tachibana Sho¯setsu, said in the text to be empowered by magic (genjutsu); Sho¯setsu was from Yui, a town in Suruga, not far from Edo, and Titsingh’s translation, following the source, calls him Yui Sho¯setsu or Yui no (= genitive particle) Sho¯setsu. Sho¯setsu’s chief accomplice was Marubashi Chu¯ya, an itinerant military strategist. The text is extant in some twenty manuscript versions, so it cannot have been particularly rare while Titsingh was in Japan; not all copies are dated, but the earliest is from 1753, though the text may be considerably older.283 In 1780, the story was recycled as a play, Go taikeiki hakuseki-banashi (The great pacification as a game of go: a tale of the white pieces). So effective was shogunal censoring of writing on current affairs that other than through these two versions next to nothing is known of the disturbance. The jitsuroku was finally published in 1929.284 His fourth source is referred to by him as Ken-day gen-pi-rok, seemingly, Kindai genpiroku (Modern top-secret records), but no such book exists. The source has not until now been correctly identified, but it can be traced.285 Titsingh abbreviated the title from Kindai ko¯jitsu genpiroku (Top-secret record of public affairs of recent generations) of 1754, which forms a pair with Kinsei ko¯jitsu genpiroku (Top-secret record of public affairs of modern times), of the following year, of similar content. Both are jitsurokus, but of wide scope, covering anecdotes about the reigns of the seventh and eighth shoguns, Tokugawa Ietsugu and Yoshimune, plus that portion

Introduction 67 of the reign of the ninth, Ieshige, that occurred during Yoshimune’s retirement. Its chronological sweep is therefore from 1713 to 1751, bringing it extremely close to the time of composition. Its author is known – Baba Bunko¯. Titsingh was not aware of this authorship, although he had heard of Bunko¯ and cites him (see below), though mistakenly breaking his name into Bababun Ko¯). Little is known of Bunko¯. Some said he was a laicised monk, others a disaffected shogunal administrator.286 All confirmed that he was an excellent raconteur, and from the mid-1750s he laid on paying recitations at the home of one Bunzo¯, in the very centre of Edo, to which up to 200 listeners would come. The proprietor of a local paying library (kashihonya), one Eizo¯, being swift of brush and good of memory, wrote up the content of Bunko¯’s recitations, and these circulated widely (in manuscript); perhaps Bunko¯ himself wrote down versions too. Either way, Bunko¯ was dangerously exposed. In 1758, at the age of forty-one, he was executed by the shogunate for lese-majesty (the only litterateur ever to be so); his pupil, Buncho¯, was exiled to the provinces and Eizo¯ was foced to relocate his business.287 Most of Bunko¯’s work was recalled and incinerated, though seventeen titles by him are known, with the one that Titsingh used his second effort, chronologically; some twenty manuscript copies of it are extant, suggesting it remained in circulation. The Kindai ko¯jitsu genpiroku was published, with its pair, in 1892.288 As his fifth source, Titsingh mentions Giofirok, which sounds like Kyo¯ hiroku, but which cannot be identified; hiroko means ‘secret records’, but kyo¯ has many meanings. It is clearly also a work in the jitsuroku genre, and Titsingh states it is by Bunko¯, though no such title by him is attested. Titsingh also states that it supplies information on the reign of the ninth shogun, Ieshige, or 1745–60, although the anecdotes derived are oddly interlaced with retrospective comments on the third shogun, Iemitsu. This whole matter seems to be confused, and perhaps Titsingh actually had a delectus from several sources. Since Titsingh never stated the source of his longest anecdote, which concerns the planned insurrection of Yamagawa Daini against the tenth shogun, Ieharu, on behalf of the dairi, it is possible that this text actually relates to that, which could then suggest that Kyo¯ hiroku would mean ‘secret records of [the city of] Kyo¯’ (i.e. Kyoto or Miyako); however, no book is known with that title (perhaps it was more totally suppressed), and even if it were, Bunko¯ could not be the author as he was long dead. Titsingh’s other four named sources relate to parts of his text excluded from the present edition, but they should, nevertheless, be briefly mentioned. The first provided material for most of his essay on Japanese coinage (Hakuseki did not write much on actual coins). Thunberg (who had smuggled onto Dejima a set of coins hidden in his shoes289) had included a long explanation of Japanese coins in his travel book, so Titsingh needed to outdo this. Titsingh noted for the record that he was the first to make a ‘complete’ collection of Japanese coins, an impossibility given their many and competing forms, but implying that Thunberg’s collection (on which he had delivered his inaugural lecture at Upsala) was not adequate.290 Titsingh refers to this source in two romanisations, either as Sin sen sen poe or Shin sen sen poe. It is not hard to unravel: Shinsen zenpu (Newly selected manual of numismatics) was written by Kutsuki Masatsuna himself and published in 1781;

68 Introduction Titsingh also referred to it in several letters, including those to Masatsuna himself, and to Ko¯saku.291 It was Masatsuna who gave Titsingh a copy, and, with unwonted alacrity, Titsingh at once began to translate, with a significant portion completed in a few months; however, his speed worked to his disadvantage, for Masatsuna recalled the run, having discovered some mistakes, and reissued a corrected version in 1782, obliging Titsingh to redo much of his work. Titsingh’s copy has been found in St Petersberg.292 The Shisen zenpu was published a third time, after Titsingh had left Japan, in 1790.293 The next two works were used by Titsingh for his treatise on marriage. The first, romanised as Jome tori tiofo ki, is Yometori cho¯ho¯-ki (Treasury for getting a wife), by Endo¯ Genkan, better known as a tea-master; it was probably published in 1697.294 It does not survive in many copies and was never reprinted, so was probably considered outdated by Titsingh’s time. Second is what he calls Kesi koukoro, which must be a shortened title and is not enough to trace it by. Fortunately, Abel Rémusat gave a fuller designation after he went through Titsingh’s papers, as Kourei-kesi fukouro, allowing identification as Konrei keshi-bukuro (Bag of poppies for marriage); this was a much-used, two-volume compendium on household lore by a certain Hakusui, who wrote three such books, but is otherwise unknown; it was first published in 1750, and again, after Titsingh’s departure, in 1795; Titsingh’s copy is now in the Vatican Library.295 For his accompanying section on funeral rites, Titsingh used a work that he did not name, but referred to as ‘two funeral ceremonies, explained for the instruction of youth’, which is unclear. Titsingh had two scrolls of funeral processions, one showing the obsequies of the Nagasaki governor, Toda Morinao, and identified as such, and the other showing that of a senior shogunal officer, unidentified, but probably of Takagi Sakuemon, whose cortege he has seen. Both scrolls were reproduced in the published version of his book, as has been mentioned above (see Figures 2 and 3). Finally there were two sources for the treatise on Ezo (Hokkaido). This treatise was not, in the end, published in the magnum opus, but separately, and in French only. One source is given as, ‘Iesso ki by Kannemon, of 1652’, that is, Ezo-ki (Record of Ezo) by Nakazawa Kan’emon; interestingly, it is not otherwise datable from Japanese sources. The book exists today only in the version edited by Arai Hakuseki, also undated and extremely rare but which was probably the form in which Titsingh had it. With this, Titsingh made available for the first time in Europe, elements of Ainu vocabulary, adding to Nakazawa and Hakuseki’s AinuJapanese equivalents the meanings of the words in French. Of his second source, Titsingh says it was composed by ‘the preceptor of the shogun Tsunayoshi’ in 1720; Tsunayoshi ruled from 1680 to 1709, dying in office; he had no known preceptor writing on this subject in 1720. Titsingh is surely confusing Tsunayoshi with his great-uncle, Ienobu, whose preceptor was, of course, Hakuseki. Titsingh refers to this source as Jesso ki (i.e. Ezo-ki), which does not match any book by Hakuseki, though he wrote five on Ezo, but it is surely a slip for Haruseki’s bestknown work on the subject, Ezo-shi (Data on Ezo).296 It exists in many copies, was printed at the end of the Edo period, in 1862, and has several modern editions.297

Introduction 69

Titsingh’s Magnum Opus: the publication As the translating moved slowly on, various publishers made overtures to Titsingh. Thunberg’s book was selling, but there was space in the market for another offering on Japan. French and English versions ought to be eminently publishable, though it was emotionally hard for Titsingh to accept that, with the turmoil in the United Provinces, publication in his own language, the tongue of the once glorious VOC, was no longer an option; he wrote to the statesman and Arabist, ConstantineFrançois de Chasseboeuf, Comte de Volney, that books in Dutch, ‘are either no more, or ill-researched, and there is room now only for novels and suchlike’.298 In 1809, Titsingh wrote again, this time to William Marsden, at the British Museum, sending a draft of his historical section on the lives of the shoguns, stating that he hoped to see it in print soon, and that he would like the English version to come out first, acidly noting that he would like the French version to be published in London too, ‘in order not to be exposed to the many vexations and impositions of that covetous sort of people’ – the French.299 Even so, Titsingh had put out feelers to a distinguished Parisian press, Nepveu, based in the rue des Panoramas and specialising in travel books. The patron, Auguste-Nicolas Nepveu, was positive, indicating he would take at least the two historical sections, which anyway were all that was approaching being ready.300 Titsingh specified that he wanted his forthcoming book to be dedicated to Kutsuki Masatsuna (unbeknownst to him already deceased), to which Nepveu raised no objection.301 By the time Titsingh died, aged sixty-seven. Nevpeu had not taken receipt of any of the manuscript, nor had anything beyond the partial draft been sent to London. In his will, Titsingh left his academic possessions to the British Museum, which surely delighted Marsden and Banks, but as Britain and France were at war, transfer was not possible. A rumour (repeated by scholars to this day, and though stemming from Titsingh himself, never proven) circulated that while in Bengal, Titsingh had been offered 2 lacs of rupees (£2000, or almost 1/2m francs) for his collection of texts and artefacts.302 The astounding comprehensiveness of the Titsingh Cabinet was amplified in another rumour, circulated by Nepveu (though denied by Abel Rémusat’s fellow-editor of Titsingh’s French manuscript, Klaproth) that Titsingh had spent fourteen years in Japan!303 French officials got wind of this and impounded Titsingh’s possessions. This might have been proceedually correct had they already become British possessions, since it would have been enemy property, but no transfer had yet been made. William challenged the seizure, and the papers, books and artefacts were relinquished into his hands, barring a small number of items withheld for the Bibliothèque. Titsingh had never made an inventory of his holdings, but a list was drawn up by Langlès and de Guigues, containing 169 objects.304 Abel Rémusat, now in negative mode, upon inspection of the whole, expressed disappointment at its quality and range.305 William had no use for these materials in the ‘Titsingh Cabinet’, and soon put a part of them up for auction. But as he held back the best pieces for future disposal, the sale did not arouse much attention. Nepveu attended, hoping to buy his promised manuscripts, but they were not among the lots, and all that did go under

70 Introduction the hammer, he lamented, were ‘ordinary things’.306 William squandered the proceeds, as he was doing all Titsingh’s legacy (said to be considerable).307 Not many months later, William was prevailed upon by Nepveu, with the help of Langlès, to part with all remaining items, which included most of the Japan materials, Titsingh’s letters, and the journal of his embassy to China.308 Nepveu’s acquisition of this, in 1814, was celebrated in an essay by Conrad de Malte-Brun, a widely published travel writer, and editor of the periodical, Annales des voyages de la géographie et de l’histoire; Malte-Brun not only repeated the canard that the British had tried to obtain the collection for a vast sum, but added for good measure that the Russians had sought it too, and yet concluded, ‘happily it remains in the hands of a Frenchman zealous for the national glory’, which it did, though not legally.309 Nepveu now had many interesting Japanese pictures and prints, but also a voluminous, three-language manuscript, probably in a much less advanced state than he had anticipated. Some of the more complete segments were hived off, such as the description of Ezo, which anyway Langlès had suggested to Titsingh to publish separately; Malte-Brun edited this for inclusion in his journal.310 It took Nepveu five years to put out a short book made up of Titsingh’s essays on marriages and funerals, and a few of the other snippets, but this must have sold, since later in the same year he reissued it, with illustrations, and this better version was reprinted within the year.311 The dozen-odd illustrations contained were also published as an album without text.312 It seemed that the market would bear more, so Abel Rémusat agreed to brush up all the rest of the manuscripts, in their French versions, for publication. Langlès lent encouragement, though having waded through translating Thunberg, which he had found extraordinarily trying in the later stages, he declined to get further involved.313 Abel Rémusat therefore engaged Heinrich von Klaproth, who had learned Chinese in the 1790s and acquired Japanese in 1804 from a native speaker (he had met one when he passed through Irkutsk, as a member of the Russian embassy to China); Klaproth was a professor, by appointment of Frederick William III of Prussia, but had the privilege of residing in Paris, not Berlin.314 Abel Rémusat and Klaproth sent the bulk of their edition of Titsingh to press in 1820, under the title of Mémoires et anecdotes sur la dynastie régnante des djogouns, as mentioned at the outset.315 Abel Rémusat was too proud to be thought collator of another man’s work, so he added notes of his own, and elucidations, many of which, however, cloud the issues concerned. But with a stake in the project’s success, he now praised Titsingh’s achievement highly, in public at least, saying Titsingh had managed, ‘as much as Kaempfer and much more than Thunberg’.316 The initial print run was a healthy 1,000 copies, and the edition sold out.317 It was reprinted the next year, twice in fact, once as it was, once with more critical apparatus and additional figures, and this itself was reprinted, again twice, in 1822. Surprisingly, given that he seems to have had a money-spinner, Nepveu went bankprupt, and there were no more French editions of the text. Having worked closely with Titsingh’s manuscript, both Abel Rémusat and Klaproth, in more recherché contexts, expressed doubts over the level of the

Introduction 71 author’s grasp of what he was talking about. Of course they had their own agendas in claiming this. In a university paper, Abel Rémusat stated, ‘one is not to expect from him very exact translations, nor profound research’, and he condemned Titsingh’s ‘extremely incorrect style’. Neither did he believe Titsingh really knew Chinese characters, and this led him into ‘palpable error’, and overall he concluded that Titsingh’s knowledge was ‘pretty superficial’.318 Klaproth went further, averring that Titsingh knew ‘neither Chinese nor Japanese’, but relied solely on the Nagasaki translators, and specifically, he said, on Narabayashi Eizaemon and Yoshio Ko¯saku.319 Still, the English version now reissued in the present book was prepared, and it appeared in 1822, under the more succinct, though not entirely rational title of Illustrations of Japan, put out by the Ackerman press in London, who, extravagantly, gave it full-colour plates. Not trusting to Titsingh’s English, Ackerman had the French re-translated, by Frederic Shoberl, known as a translator from the French and founder and publisher of the admired New Monthly Magazine; he was later author of the definitive histories of Oxford and Cambridge universities.320 Shoberl added a preface, or Address, in which he sought to sell the text not only on the grounds of information of Japan, but also of utility, in that, ‘it seems to me to be a point worthy of consideration, whether British enterprise might not avail itself of this favourable disposition, for attempting, with some chance of success, to establish a connexion with this populous insular empire’.321 The British had already sent a trade mission to Japan, in 1813, though they were too occupied in other parts of the world to pursue it with any vigour, and in 1814, when the United Provinces (renamed, for the fifth time since 1795, the Kingdom of the United Netherlands), became independent again, the British returned Java to its nowgenuine king, the former stadtholder William V, crowned as William I; by ceding control of Batavia, the British surrendered (in European law at least) the right to trade with Japan, in 1816.322 Shoberl also included as front matter to his English Illustrations, translations of Malte-Brun’s article on Titsingh’s collection, Nepveu’s ‘Advertisement Respecting the Manuscripts’ (detailing how he obtained the documents, and quoting the anonymous French traveller who met Titsingh in Bengal), and also Titsingh’s letter to Marsden of 10 October 1809, quoted here above, which had also appeared as front matter to the French edition.323 Shoberl added in third place Abel Rémusat’s foreword, ‘Preliminary Remarks to the Private Memoirs of the Shoguns’, which boldly asserts, ‘there is not any work printed in Japan that furnishes particulars of the occurrences in that empire, since the year 1600’,324 lauding Titsingh’s priority, much too emphatically, and worse, omitting to note the existence of Japanese manuscript books. A Dutch edition of Titsingh’s work appeared in 1824–5, published in The Hague, under the title of Bijzonderheden over Japan (Peculiarities of Japan), but this was not Titsingh’s manuscript, which had somehow been lost (though it has since been found); it was a translation of Shoberl’s English.325 The final exposure of Titsingh’s work came a decade later, in 1834, when, as noted above, the chronicle of the dairis was published independently. It was also edited by Klaproth, who found it necessary to warn the reader that the work was,

72 Introduction ‘hardly very exact or complete’, and who, rather nastily, provided sample parallel texts, giving ‘M. Titsingh’s Version’ and ‘The Original’, side by side, so that discrepancies could be seen.326 Since Hayashi Gaho¯’s original Table had terminated at the beginning of the Edo Period, Klaproth brought it up to the present, using unstated sources, discussing the later dairis, up to the incumbent, Ko¯kaku. Following the bankruptcy of Nepveu, the Titsingh Cabinet was sold again, in 1827, and this time split up. Most lots went to three buyers, known only by surname, as Neveu, Leblanc and Mayer.327 The sale catalogue does not always make clear which lots came from Titsingh and which from the other sellers, though as Titsingh alone had been to Japan, the Japanese items were, it can be assumed, his; but often place of fabrication was unstated, leaving it indeterminate whether a piece was Japanese (and hence Titsingh’s) or not. Of a total of 186 lots, many were lacquer and ceramic, but the largest group is 107 ‘prints of costumes, from peasant to emperor’, though quite possibly these were Chinese. More securely, there are 14 ‘prints of Japanese ladies’ and maps of Japan, Miyako, Osaka and Edo. Prices realised are not recorded. Relevantly, no interest was shown by the Parisian art world, for it was to be another generation before japonisme emerged.328 Abel Rémusat was almost alone in praising the objects qua art, admiring how the paintings and prints showed the Japanese to be, ‘capable of executing better things than those daubs with which we are incessantly reproaching them’, and he added that several of these pictures were worth ‘all the descriptions of Kämpfer and Thunberg’.329 In 1828, Klaproth published his own translation of Hakuseki’s currency book, Ho¯ka shiryaku. Perhaps he had obtained Titsingh’s copy, or perhaps he was cashing in; he does not even mention Titsingh, nor that prior effort. Klaproth romanised the title rather better as Fookoua Siriak, but repeating the erroneous dating of 1708. He correctly identified Hakuseki as the preceptor to Tsunayoshi, though he called him the dairi, not the shogun.330 Many of Titsingh’s books went into the collections of Abel Rémusat and Klaproth; they both sold up in 1833 and 1830 respectively. The titles were further scattered, though many went to Baron Pierre Léopold van Alstein, whose estate in Ghent was then sold in 1863; the plum items were bought by the Earl of Crawford, first collector of Japanese books in England (he already owned at least one book brought by Thunberg from Japan), and Crawford’s descendants, in turn, at the beginning of the twentieth century, gave these to what is now Manchester University Library.331

Afterlife Had Titsingh lived longer, he might have brought his work to a fuller conclusion. But he might not. Jitsuroku sources were often lax and their authors had no access to reference books that could have corrected names and dates. Scholarship has also moved on and clarified certain points. Titsingh might, one would have thought, at least have noticed the confusions of names, titles and dates, and the internal inconsistencies, which are legion, in his work. But then, several translators’ and

Introduction 73 editors’ hands can have introduced, as well as corrected mistakes. Philip Franz von Siebold, the great Dutch physician who visited in Japan in 1823–8 and 1859–61 and who was himself author of an admired book on Japan, complained that Titsingh had been ‘mangled and deformed by his editors’.332 As it stands, the level of finish attained was very modest, whoever is to be held accountable. Abel Rémusalt, Klaproth, Shoberl and now your humble servant have all corrected some errors, and it could have been argued that we should have corrected more (or, regrettably, introduced fewer new ones). But at least in the present edition, I have believed it was right, as far as possibly, to introduce Titsingh’s book as Titsingh’s book, as originally known. Serious errors are identified as such, either in the notes, or with ‘sic’ and a note. Mary Busk, in her Manners and Customs of the Japanese, of 1841, dismissed the English Illustrations as ‘unreadable’, though conceding ‘a few anecdotes may be gathered’ from it; she praised the ‘indefatigable’ Kaempfer and Thunberg, and she pirated much of Siebold but had little time for Titsingh.333 On the other hand, when J. W. Spalding accompanied Matthew Perry to ‘open’ Japan to the West, in 1853, he took with him a copy of Titsingh (as well as of Kaempfer and Thunberg), feeling, ‘these are books whose size might deter the stoutest’, but which would ‘well repay the industrious search of the inquirer’.334 After Perry had done his worst, one of the first new-style histories of Japan was Richard Hildreth’s Japan as It Was and Is, published in 1855, and it undermined the memory of the Illustrations further: the author stated as fact that Titsingh knew no written Japanese at all, but only took down what the Nagasaki translators had told him, viva voce.335 From about this time, in all languages, Titsingh vanished. Early in the twentieth century, James Murdock, the fount of information on Japan’s history for a whole generation, was so sure that no one read Titsingh any more that he blithely borrowed large sections of it for his own monumental, though opinionated, History of Japan.336 The French and Dutch versions have never been returned to print. The English version, unavailable for 175 years, was reissued in 2000, but without an introduction or annotations, and purchasable only as part of a very costly fourteen-volume set.337 A Japanese translation was produced in 1970, by Numata Jiro¯, and it has been helpful to the present edition in identifying many Japanese proper names. But Numata did not attempt to elucidate the text any further, and failed to go back to Titsingh’s sources, thereby introducing many errors in Japanese names and terms. The present editor therefore hopes that by reintroducing Titsingh to the modern English-language reader, with full critical apparatus, he will make those eighteenth-century observations available again, and reopen debate on Titsingh’s role. The desire is not to be hagiographic, but rather to reveal the stresses and confusions, as well as the excitements, in a crucial moment in the history of international encounter.

Editorial conventions This book presents selections of Isaac Titsingh’s Illustrations of Japan, translated by Frederick Shoberl, and published in London in 1822; Part I gives the ‘Secret

74 Introduction Memoirs’ (also called ‘Private Memoirs’) of the Shoguns, and Part II some of Titsingh’s essays. Part III then contains two other items from Titsingh’s oeuvre, the ‘Philosophical Discourse’, of 1779, which has never before appeared in English, and the ‘Secret Diary’, which records his life during his prolonged second stint in Japan, and which previously appeared in English in 1996 (and from which the translation offered here is adapted). All sections that require it are given their own brief introductions in the body of the text. Throughout, subheadings have been added for ease of navigation. Those of Titsingh’s figures that relate to parts of his book included in the present edition, have been included. Two that relate to matters discussed in the Introduction are also reproduced there. Others are omitted. Spelling, punctuation, paragraphing and, most importantly, romanisation have been updated. Manifest printing errors have been corrected. A definite article has been inserted before era names (nengo¯), as modern usage requires, and before titles, such as Taiko¯ (for Hideyoshi) and Gongen (for Ieyasu). Occasionally and unaccountably, Titsingh abbreviates people’s names, and to avoid confusion, and to remain consistent, these are expanded to their full form. Sterling currency annotations were introduced by Shoberl for the benefit of the British reader of the time, but these are haphazard and fluctuating, and have been deleted. All dates appear in the form of day/month/year. Titsingh gives most Japanese elite names in the official form, with surname and kami (‘honourary marshall’) suffix. Modern historians prefer surname and given name, to concord with current international usage. Where it is possible, the given name is provided in the notes, however, it has not been possible to confirm the correct reading of all the given names (since characters admit of many pronunciations), and variants are possible. Errors of fact and inconsistencies have been identified as such in the Notes, although a full fact-checking of all Titsingh’s historical and other claims has not been possible, nor have his mistranslations and glosses been pointed out, except where it is essential to do so. Those who wish to know the clichés of Tokugawa history that circulated in the Edo Period itself, and also see the first aperçus into early-modern Japanese history available in the West, both of which are valuable enterprises, should read on; those who seek factual knowledge, as understood now, in the twenty-first century, should turn to a more modern work, though in doing so, they will lose the panache of the well-turned anecdote.

Part I

Secret memoirs and anecdotes of the reigning dynasty of the shoguns, or sovereigns of Japan

1

Before the Tokugawa

The dairis, or spiritual heads of Japan, were the first sovereigns of the country over which they ruled with absolute power till towards the conclusion of the twelfth century (1185), when Yoritomo was elected commander-in-chief of the empire, and afterwards (in 1192), seii-tai-sho¯gun [Great Barbarian-subduing Shogun]. Their authority, which then suffered a powerful shock, kept gradually declining under the shoguns who succeeded Yoritomo, till at length it received its deathblow during the reign of Ieyasu, or Gongen sama, the first shogun of the present dynasty.1 The dairi is yet considered as the sovereign of the empire, but this is only an empty compliment. His influence in temporals is next to none, so that the supreme power is really vested in the shogun. The consent of the dairi, however, is still requisite in all affairs of importance, and in such cases the ordinances are published in his name. He rarely withholds it, so rarely indeed that I could hear of no more than one instance of the kind, which occurred when it was in agitation to confer the title of kanpaku on Hidetada, son of the Gongen.2 The dairi, convinced that any attempt to disturb the present dynasty in the possession of the sovereign authority would prove vain, seems to content himself with the respect and deference which the shogun pays him from policy, and which that prince, if he be wise, will never refuse him, for the enmity of the spiritual head of the empire might, if not overturn the throne, at least excite the greatest discord in the state. The dynasties of the shoguns are comprised under the denomination of Tenka no shikun [Four Rulers of the Tenka] or So¯so¯ no shikun [Four Self-declared Rulers].3 They are four in number, namely: 1 2 3 4

That of [Minamoto no] Yoritomo That of [Ashikaga] Takauji That of [Toyotomi] Hideyoshi, or Taiko¯ That of [Tokugawa] Ieyasu, or the Gongen

Takauji was of the family of [Minamoto no] Yoshiie, who was descended from Seiwa tenno¯, the 56th dairi.4 He divided the supreme power between his two sons, Yoshinori [sic] and Motouji, giving to each the government of thirty-three provinces.5 The latter, who ruled over the Eastern part, was styled Kamakura no

78 Secret memoirs of the shoguns Shogun, and kept his court at Kamakura, in the province of Sagami.6 Yoshinori, to whom were allotted the Western provinces, resided at Miyako [Kyoto], with the title of Cho¯ko¯ no sho¯gun.7 Takauji, in dividing the empire between his two sons, was influenced by the expectation that in case either of them should be attacked, his brother would afford him assistance. This partition, on the contrary, only served to arm them one against the other. The country was involved in continual war, and the princes, though brothers, were engaged in frequent hostilities, which terminated only with the destruction of the branch of Miyako.8

Hideyoshi, or the Taiko¯ [Oda] Nobunaga, of the family of the Heike, was killed by Akechi Mitsuhide, who designed to usurp the throne and the authority of the shogun.9 A few days after the murder, however, he himself perished, and his death occasioned the proverb Akechi no tenka mikka – ‘Akechi reigned but three days’, which is employed in reference to anything that has lasted a very short time. After the death of Nobunaga, his grandson Sanbo¯shi, son of [his son] Nobutada, was chosen to succeed him. The relatives and friends of the late shogun [sic10] divided among themselves the government of the provinces. Nobuko¯, the uncle of the young prince, to whose share fell the province of Owari, was invested with the administration of affairs during his minority. The other persons who had obtained provinces went to take possession of them, and Hideyoshi alone remained at Miyako. After gaining several victories in the wars which then devastated the empire, he assumed the title of shogun in the 13th year of Tensho¯ (1585).11 Hideyoshi’s origins and youth The annals of the dairis furnish no particulars respecting the origin of this prince [Hideyoshi], and, as he had not any known surname, that of Toyotomi was given to him. Some writers assert that his family belonged to the lowest class of society; others, on the contrary, attribute to him a more distinguished birth. The statement of the latter is as follows: The chu¯nagon Michihagi, an officer of the dairi’s, being accused of a crime which he had not committed, was exiled to Owari.12 He there became enamoured of a female by whom he had a son who received at his birth the name of Hiyoshi-maru. The father’s innocence being meanwhile discovered, he was recalled to Miyako, where his family resided, and reinstated in his post. His mistress, whom he had been obliged to leave at Owari, sunk after his departure into indigence and had no other means of supporting herself and her child than to marry a labourer named Nakamura Yaemon, who took care of the boy and brought him up under his own inspection. After the death of Yaemon, his widow gave her hand to Chikuami, a physician. The son of Michihagi having attained the age of twenty years, entered into the household of Matsushita Kahei, an officer of the shogun, as slipper-bearer. He was next in the service of Nobunaga, who was still only prince of Owari, and it was

Before the Tokugawa 79 then that he assumed the name of Hideyoshi. Such was the attachment that he manifested to his new master, and so numerous the proofs that he gave of prudence and valour, that Nobunaga, on becoming shogun [sic], raised him to the most exalted military dignities.13 After the death of that prince, Hideyoshi seized the reins of government, and as soon as his adopted son was elected kanpaku, he took the title of Taiko¯.14 In person he was extremely short, being scarcely fifty inches high, and had round eyes like those of monkeys, which caused him to be surnamed Sarutsura, or ‘monkey’s face’. In another manuscript I find an account differing from the above. It is as follows: Hideyoshi had married Kitanomaru dono, daughter of the nurse to the prince of Kaga.15 He was then so poor that he had not even a Shigaraki yaki, or common earthen pot, for drinking sake with his bride.16 Hideyoshi first entered into the service of Matsushita Kahei, who held a post equivalent to that of Governor of Nagasaki.17 On leaving that officer, he enlisted under the banners of Nobunaga, and by his great bravery and brilliant exploits won the favour of that prince to such a degree as to be invested by him with the command of the army. These two accounts, though differing in substance, yet concur in proving that Hideyoshi owed his elevation to his personal merit and the favour of Nobunaga. Hideyoshi and his wives At the age of forty, Hideyoshi fell in love with Yodo dono, daughter of Asai Bizenno-kami Nagamasa, who had manifested an inveterate enmity against Nobunaga, and who, being at length vanquished in the 8th month of the first year of Tensho¯ (1573), put an end to his life, as did also his father Shimotsuke-no-kami Hisamasa. Nobunaga, having confiscated his mansion of O¯ dani, committed it to the care of Hideyoshi, and this circumstance afforded him occasion to see Yodo dono, a female who seems to have possessed far stronger claims to admiration for beauty and understanding than for purity of manners. Some writers assert that he married her, others that he merely lived with her but without making her his wife. Be this as it may, he continued steadfastly attached to her, and she bore him in his old age a son, who was named Hideyori. Death had previously deprived him of another son for whom he had a strong affection.18 Cho¯an, in his work entitled Do¯gai den, states that the character and conduct of Yodo dono were highly equivocal, and thence concludes that it is very uncertain whether Hideyori had a right to call the Taiko¯ his father.19 This assertion is unfounded, and had no other motive than to diminish the odium of the usurpation of the Gongen, who dethroned Hideyori. Upon the whole, that work is a tissue of falsehoods, and unworthy of confidence. It appears certain, however, that after the death of the Taiko¯, Yodo dono became the mistress of an officer of Hideyori’s household, named Ono So¯ri Harunaga. This man, devoid of feeling, and of licentious manners, had no other merit than his external accomplishments. Yodo dono, on the contrary, possessed a courage worthy of her high fortune. Her fortitude and the wisdom of her counsels were of great

80 Secret memoirs of the shoguns benefit to her son [Hideyori] in his wars with the Gongen. The latter, therefore, hated her with implacable animosity; and after the capture of the castle of Osaka, he carried her with him to Edo where she is said to have put an end to her life.20 I shall not enter into a detail of the events that established the Gongen on the throne, for which the reader may consult the work of Father Crasset who has omitted no important fact.21 The following brief account will be sufficient for my purpose. Death and successor Hideyoshi, before he had any child of his own, adopted one, as I have already observed. This was his nephew, Hidetsugu, the son of his younger brother, Hidenaga. This young prince, of a cruel and ferocious disposition, caused the old, the blind and the infirm, who fell in his way, to be put to death, saying that they were fit for nothing in this world. He committed other atrocities recorded by Father Crasset.22 The Taiko¯, indignant at his cruelty, confined him in the temple of Ko¯ya-san, where he killed himself together with his attendants. The Taiko¯, perceiving his end approaching, thought it right to take measures for securing the throne to his son Hideyori, then but six years old. He could devise no better expedient than to connect himself closely with Ieyasu [the Gongen], the most powerful of the princes of the empire. With this view, during the illness which terminated his life, he affianced his son to Ieyasu’s grand-daughter, an infant only two years of age.23 He appointed Ieyasu guardian to Hideyori, after exacting from him a solemn oath, signed with his blood, that as soon as the prince should attain his fifteenth year he would recognise, and cause him to be acknowledged, as shogun. Satisfied with these precautions, the Taiko¯ relinquished the government to Ieyasu and five of his principal favourites, and expired on the 18th of the eighth month of the third year of Keicho¯ (1598) at the age of sixty-three. After the death of the Taiko¯, discord soon sprang up among the governors, and led to intestine broils and civil wars. Ieyasu, who had long aspired to the supreme power, took care to foment these disturbances, but disguised his intentions, till, finding his authority sufficiently established, he threw off the mask, attacked Hideyori upon plausible pretexts, and besieged him in his castle of Osaka. Peace was indeed concluded, through the mediation of the dairi, but it was of short duration. Hostilities recommenced with greater violence than ever, and the issue of them may be seen in the above-mentioned work of Father Crasset.24 The particulars respecting them contained in the letters of the Dutch Company’s agents in Japan, though curious with reference to the commerce of that time, are not of sufficient interest for further notice here.25

Rise of the Gongen, Ieyasu The Gongen, having become master of the empire by the defeat of Hideyori and his partisans, thought of nothing but the means of securing to himself the supreme power forever. As there were many persons at the court of the dairi who espoused

Before the Tokugawa 81 the cause of Hideyori, and as it was of the utmost consequence to the usurper to keep that court in absolute dependence, he persuaded the dairi to appoint two of his [the dairi’s] sons high-priests, one in the temple of Nikko¯, and the other in that of Ueno at Edo.26 He thus relieved himself from all apprehension of the dairi, whom he could have immediately displaced to make room for one of his sons, had he ventured to attempt any thing against his usurped authority. Being now easy upon this head, the Gongen adopted such wise regulations that the country, too long torn by civil broils, was restored to the blessings of profound peace, and opportunity was afforded for laying the foundations of that prosperity which it still enjoys. At this period terminate the Nihon o¯dai ichiran, or Annals of the Dairis.27 Since the accession of the Gongen, the printing of any work relative to the government has been prohibited. The curious, however, possess manuscript accounts of all the remarkable events that have occurred under the different princes of the present dynasty. These manuscripts are in great request. The conduct of persons of elevated rank is sometimes as freely censured in them as it could be in any country in Europe. The obstructions which the government throws in the way of the publication of historical works prevent these works from being known, and thus obviate whatever might make an obnoxious impression on the minds of the people and endanger the interests of the reigning dynasty, as well as the tranquillity of the empire. From some of these manuscripts are extracted the particulars here submitted to the public. The Japanese to whom they belong keep them cautiously concealed so that it is difficult to procure a sight of them. If I was fortunate enough to obtain the communication of those from which I have extracted such curious notes, I am indebted for it to the zeal with which my friends assisted me in all my researches. I cannot adequately express my gratitude to them for this service, and for all other acts of kindness which they never ceased to lavish upon me during the five years that I resided among them. I have thought it superfluous to dwell upon what concerns the government, which has but little interest for foreigners, since the empire has enjoyed profound peace. I have, therefore, introduced only so much of these matters as was calculated to make the reader better acquainted with the way of thinking and acting of these people, respecting which Europeans have but very imperfect notions. For this reason I have translated as literally as possible what I have extracted from original works.

2

Ieyasu, the Gongen, to Ietsugu

The first shogun of the reigning dynasty Minamoto no Ieyasu was the son of Zo¯-dainagon Hirosada. His mother, Dentsu¯in den, was the daughter of Mizuno Uemonnodayu¯ Tadamasa.1 He traced his descent from Seiwa tenno¯, the 56th dairi. Before he mounted the throne, he was prince of Okazaki. The Gongen Ieyasu’s children Ieyasu had twelve [sic, sixteen] children, the second [sic, first] of whom, Nobuyasu, was a young prince of excellent qualities.2 He incurred the displeasure of his father who, instigated by false accusations, ordered him to rip up his belly.3 His innocence having been made manifest when too late, the Gongen deeply regretted his death. From his third [sic, second] son [Hideyasu] are descended the present princes of Echizen. He had a son named Tadanao [sic, fourth son, Tadayoshi], who was of a perverse and cruel disposition, and caused several of his servants to be put to death for very slight faults. His father, by way of punishment, obliged him to cut off his hair [become a monk] and banished him to the province of Bungo. Ieyasu’s [third] son, Hidetada, succeeded his father. His sixth child [sic, eighth child, fifth son], Nobuyoshi, died in his infancy and was succeeded by Ieyasu’s ninth [sic, eleventh] son [Yorifusa].4 His seventh [sic, third] child was a daughter, married to the prince of Odawara.5 This prince, having the temerity to take up arms against the Taiko¯, was defeated and obliged to rip up his belly. The Taiko¯ spared the life of his son for the sake of Ieyasu, but made him a priest and confined him in the temple of Ko¯ya-san, in Kishu¯. The Taiko¯, having quelled the insurrection, took him into favour, created him a prince, and granted him a revenue of one hundred mangoku.6 The new prince, however, died of the smallpox before a province could be alloted to him, and without leaving any issue. He was descended from [Taira no] Kiyomori, who was supposed to be the offspring of Kanmu tenno¯, the 50th dairi, but this is erroneous for his father was the 72nd dairi, Shirakawa no ho¯o¯, who died in the first month of the third year of Ninpei (1153). His mother was one of the concubines of

Ieyasu, the Gongen, to Ietsugu 83 Shiragawa, who made a present of her, while pregnant, to Tadamori. Some time after the birth of Kiyomori, while he was yet crawling about on his hands and knees, Tadamori carried him to the dairi, to show him the child, and addressed to him these verses: Imo ga ko wa Totodo no ni koso Nari ni keri. ‘What is to be done with the crawling offspring of a concubine?’ Shirakawa immediately replied with these lines: Tadamori torite Yashinai ni se yo ‘Tadamori, adopt and take care of him’.7 The husband of Hideyuki, Ieyasu’s eighth child [sic8], was a man of great courage, and much dreaded by the Taiko¯, who caused him to be poisoned, according to some with tea, but as others assert with small cakes called manju¯. He was at that time forty years old. His widow afterwards married Asano Tashima-no-kami Naganori, from whom are descended the princes of Aki. Yorinao, the eleventh child [sic, fourteenth child, tenth son] of Ieyasu, was a man of great courage and sound understanding. He is said to have been implicated in the conspiracy of Yui no Sho¯setsu and Marubashi Chu¯ya against the fourth shogun, in the fourth year of Keian (1651), of which we shall treat when we come to the reign of that prince. Lastly, his twelfth child [sic, fifteenth child, eleventh son], Yorifusa, succeeded to the empire on the death of his fifth brother, Nobuyoshi, and was the progenitor of the princes of Mito.9 He did nothing worthy of notice. Death and succession Ieyasu, being wounded, it is said, in the loins, with a pike, at the taking of Osaka, by Sanada Saemon Yukimura, commander of the troops of Hideyori, a man of distinguished merit, brave, enterprising, and by whom he had previously been several times defeated, expired at Suruga, from the effects of his wound, on the 17th day of the fourth month of the year 1616. He was born on the 26th of the 12th month of the 11th year of Tenbun (1542), at Okazaki, in the province of Mikawa. Thus, according to the Japanese computation, he lived seventy-five years.10 Long before this event, in the tenth year of Keicho¯ (1605), he had resigned the government to his third son, Hidetada, reserving to himself the right of superintendence, which he exercised till his death. The tablet which bears his posthumous title, as well as that of all his successors, is placed in the temple at Nikko¯. It is stated that Ieyasu was interred at Sakai, where there is actually a tomb which the inhabitants assert to be his. A circumstance that seems to countenance this

84 Secret memoirs of the shoguns report is that the princes on their way to Osaka visited it with very few attendants, for the purpose of offering up their prayers. Nothing positive, however, is known, because it is forbidden to speak, and still more to publish anything in writing on this subject. Some are of opinion that the tomb in question is that of the Taiko¯, though others affirm that this prince was interred at his mansion at Fushimi.11 Be this as it may, while the Gongen and Hideyori were contending for the sovereignty, Sanada Awa-no-kami Masayuki, who had two sons, named Sanada Izu-no-kami and Sanada Saemon Yukimura, contrived to introduce one of them into the service of the Gongen, and to place the other about the person of Hideyori, in the hope that whatever might be the issue of the contest, his family might find a patron in the conqueror. He was not disappointed in his expectations, since the descendants of the eldest son are still princes of Shinano and possess an income of ten mankoku. As to Sanada Saemon Yukimura, some writers assert that he was compelled to rip up his belly at Osaka, as well as his son Sanada Daisuke. But this account is contradicted by others who relate as follows: Several princes who had come to the assistance of Hideyori, having treacherously set fire to the palace of Osaka, Sanada, his son and several other persons of distinction, finding it impossible to hold out there any longer, escaped in small barques, with Hideyori, to Higo, where they went onboard vessels from Satsuma, which they had previously prepared in case the fortune of war should prove unfavourable to them. These vessels immediately set sail and conveyed them to Satsuma, where the descendants of several of these families are still living, but in poverty and obscurity. The successors of the Gongen have constantly endeavoured, out of policy, to secure the princes of that country in their interest, by intermarriages with them. At this time (1782), the daughter of the present prince of Satsuma is the wife of the heir-apparent to the throne.12

Hidetada, the second shogun The Gongen was succeeded by his third son, Minamoto no Hidetada. He had married the younger sister of Yodo dono, the wife of the Taiko¯. Asai Bizen-no¯ dani, younger sister of Nobunaga, the two kami Nagamasa had had by his wife, O daughters just mentioned, and one son. The latter was thirteen years old when Nobunaga, his uncle, sent for him and killed him with his own hand, either to punish him for the guilt of his father, or fearing lest he should some day attempt to revenge his death.13 The eighth daughter of Hidetada was married to the dairi.14 After the death of her husband she was called To¯fukumon-in, from the gate of To¯fuku. The palace has twelve gates and on the death of the dairi the widow has a house allotted to her and takes her name from the gate near which it is situated. Hidetada’s youngest son [Hoshina Masayuki] had the title of Higo-no-kami, and was prince of Aizu in the province of Oshu¯, which is dependent on that of Mutsu.15 He was a man of extensive knowledge, whom the shogun and his successor consulted on all matters of importance. He detested the religion of Shaka

Ieyasu, the Gongen, to Ietsugu 85 [Buddhism] and would not allow any of his dependents to become priests. His memory is held to this day in profound veneration. Hidetada resigned the government to his son, Iemitsu, in the ninth year of Genwa (1623), and died the 24th of the first month of the ninth year of Kan’ei (1632).

Iemitsu, the third shogun Minamoto no Iemitsu was the second son of Hidetada. During his reign nothing remarkable happened, excepting the war of Arima and Shimabara, of which some notice will be taken in another place.16

Ietsuna, the fourth shogun Minamoto no Ietsuna, eldest son of Iemitsu, succeeded his father in the fourth year of Keian (1651). We find nothing during his reign worthy of being transmitted to posterity excepting the conspiracy of the prince of Tosa, of which the manuscripts furnish circumstantial details. The Tosa conspiracy The prince of Tosa, a faithful adherent of Hideyori’s, had devoted himself to his service and fought for his cause.17 After the discomfiture of his master, he fell into the power of the Gongen, who, in addition to other ignominious treatment, caused his hands to be cut off, which is considered as the height of infamy. The unfortunate prince having reproached the conqueror with his cruelty, his perfidy and the violation of his oath, the Gongen had the barbarity to order his head to be struck off. Marubashi Chu¯ya, son of Tosa, formed the design of revenging his father’s death as soon as he should be of age, but being then destitute of the means of attempting so bold an enterprise, he resolved to keep his intentions as secret as possible and to await a favourable opportunity. Being appointed to the command of the pikemen of Yorinobu, the Gongen’s eighth son, he began to think himself able to carry his plan into execution, and united for this purpose with Yui Sho¯setsu, son of an eminent dyer, a man justly esteemed for his extensive knowledge and who had been tutor to Yorinobu. It is said that Yorinobu himself was implicated in the conspiracy, but there was never any proof of the charge, as Chu¯ya took care that he should not be compromised. However this may be, Chu¯ya had agreed with Sho¯setsu to exterminate the whole family of the Gongen and to make themselves masters of the empire, and divide it between them. Chu¯ya was of a prodigal disposition; he squandered in silly expenses the money which he contrived to obtain for the execution of his enterprise, so that he was frequently reduced to want. Sho¯setsu foretold that the plan would fail through his fault, and the event soon justified his prediction. Chu¯ya, after borrowing from all who would trust him, found himself hard pressed by his creditors, who demanded the interest that was due to them, but he was unable to pay it. He therefore solicited a respite of a fortnight, promising

86 Secret memoirs of the shoguns to pay double the amount due. His assurance excited suspicions, and he was told that with the slender means which he was known to possess, it would be impossible for him to raise, in so short a time, the requisite sum. One of his creditors, a gunmaker named To¯shiro¯, was the most urgent, and Chu¯ya had the indiscretion to reveal to him his design in hopes of inducing him to have patience. To¯shiro¯ pretended to be satisfied, but he lost no time in communicating to the Governor of Edo what he had just heard, and the governor immediately gave information of it to the court.18 The governor had recourse to the following stratagem in order to apprehend Chu¯ya. He caused an alarm of fire to be made before his door. Chu¯ya, roused by the shouts, rushed into the street armed only with a short sabre. Four men immediately fell upon him. He dispatched two of them, but several of their comrades coming to their aid, secured his person after a long resistance. His wife, suspecting from the noise of the combat what was the matter, seized such of his papers as might have betrayed the conspirators, and burned them by the flame of a lamp. Thus her presence of mind saved a great number of princes and of distinguished personages who were implicated in the plot. The Japanese still speak with commendation of the conduct of this generous woman, and when they would praise a female for intelligence and resolution they compare her to the wife of Chu¯ya. The governor, after the apprehension of the chief conspirator, caused his house to be strictly searched, but not finding what he expected, he sent the husband, the wife, and their whole family, to prison. Sho¯setsu was then at Yu¯hi, his birth-place, near Kanbara. Orders for his apprehension were dispatched to the governor of Fuchu¯, but no sooner was he [Sho¯setsu] apprized of the discovery of the plot than he put an end to his life in the usual way, to avoid an ignominious death. His head was nevertheless cut off and exposed on the place of execution, near the river Abegawa. All those who were known to have been intimately connected with Chu¯ya were arrested. In this number were Ichiemon and Hachiemon.19 It was no difficult matter to obtain from either the one or the other an avowal of the part which they had personally taken in the conspiracy. They were too noble-minded to think of excusing themselves by falsehoods, for being concerned in a project which they considered so honourable, but nothing could induce them to name one of their accomplices. The ordinary counsellor of state, Matsudaira Izu-no-kami,20 finding persuasion of no avail, ordered Ishide Tatewaki, the executioner, to put them to the species of torture called kamaboko-zeme, which consists in extending the body of the criminal, plastered with clay, upon hot ashes, till the heat dries the clay and bursts the flesh all over.21 It was on the 21st day of the 8th month of the 4th year of Keian (1651), according to the manuscript Keian taiheiki [The great pacification of the Keian era], that Chu¯ ya and his two friends underwent this cruel punishment. 22 None of them ever changed countenance; they seemed insensible to pain. ‘I have come a great way,’ said Hachiemon, ‘this warming will be good for my health; my limbs will be but the more active for it.’ As the kamaboko-zeme could not subdue the fortitude of these two intrepid friends, recourse was had to the neto-zeme, as follows.23 The back was laid open

Ieyasu, the Gongen, to Ietsugu 87 for the space of eight inches, and melted copper poured into the incision. It was there left to cool, and then removed by means of a spade with such violence, that the flesh in contact with the metal was torn out along with it. The spectators shuddered with horror; the sufferers alone neither uttered a murmur, nor betrayed the least sign of pain. Hachiemon still retaining all his composure, jocosely observed that he was not well, that this operation would be as serviceable to him as that of the moxa, and not fail to cure him. Izu-no-kami, finding that pain had not the power to wrest their secret from them, again pressed Chu¯ya to discover his accomplices if he would spare himself further tortures. ‘Scarcely had I attained the age of nine years,’ replied Chu¯ya with firmness, ‘before I conceived the design of avenging my father and seating myself on the throne. Thou canst no more shake my courage than a wall of iron. I defy thine ingenuity; invent new torments. Do what thou wilt, my fortitude is proof against everything.’ The counsellor of state tired of these tortures which excited the indignation of the spectators without producing the intended effect, ordered the executioner to suspend them, and remanded the culprits to prison. On the 24th, at the fourth hour of the day (which corresponds with our ten in the morning), two men aged about sixty and named, the one Sawara and the other Nagayama, finding it impossible to secrete themselves any longer, repaired to the governor and avowed that they were accomplices of Chu¯ya. Some others, in like manner, came and surrendered themselves. They were all bound and conveyed to prison. The 28th was fixed for the day of execution. In the morning, information was ¯ toriba, received that two of the conspirators had put an end to their lives at Azabu O a village near Edo. The procession began to move at daybreak. Seven subaltern officers went first to clear the way. They were followed by one hundred executioners, each carrying a naked pike; next came one hundred more executioners with long staves, then one hundred more armed with sabres, and afterwards fifty officers (banjo-sen). Next to them walked an executioner carrying a paper setting forth the crime of the conspirators, which he read aloud in the principal streets and crossings. Chu¯ya followed, dressed in two robes of light blue made of the stuff called hafuta, with his hands tied behind him;24 then came Ichiemon with his two sons, Ushinosuke and Kamenosuke, and after them Yoshida Hachiemon, Arai Hachizo¯,25 Sawara Yu¯ bei, Nagayama Heiemon, Wadasuke, mule-driver to Sho¯setsu, and several others, to the number of twenty-seven. Chu¯ya’s wife and mother, Ichiemon’s wife, and four other women closed the procession. In this manner they were conducted through the whole city. In passing the bridge of Nihon-bashi, Chu¯ya heard a man about forty years of age say to another that it was a highly criminal and extravagant enterprise to conspire against the emperor [shogun]. ‘Well it befits thee, miserable sparrow,’ cried Chu¯ya, with a look of indignation, ‘to compare thyself with the eagle or the crane.’ The man reddened with shame and buried himself among the crowd. At the moment of reaching the place of execution at Shinagawa, a man carrying two gold-hilted sabres and dressed in a mantle of gilan stuff,26 rushed through the

88 Secret memoirs of the shoguns crowd, and advancing to Tomita Shu¯ ri dono, the inspector, thus addressed him: ‘My name is Shibata Saburo¯bei; I am a friend of Chu¯ya and Sho¯setsu. Living at a great distance from Edo, I was ignorant of the discovery of the plot. As soon as I heard of it, I hastened to Suruga to make inquiries after my unfortunate friends. I was informed of the death of Sho¯setsu, and, certain of the fate that awaited Chu¯ya, I repaired to Edo. There I kept myself concealed in hopes that the emperor would pardon him, but since he is condemned and about to die, I am come to embrace him and to suffer with him.’ ‘You are a worthy man,’ replied the inspector, ‘it were to be wished that all the world was like you. I have no occasion to wait for the orders of the governor of Edo, I give you permission to speak to Chu¯ya.’ The two friends conversed together a considerable time. Shibata expressed the extreme pain he felt on account of the discovery of the conspiracy, his condemnation, and the death of Sho¯setsu. He added that on receiving this melancholy intelligence he had come to Edo to share his fate, and that he should be ashamed to survive him. He then took from his sleeve a small pot of sake and they bade farewell to each other while drinking it. Tears trickled down Chu¯ya’s cheeks. He thanked Shibata for his kind and courageous resolution, and declared that he was most happy in the opportunity of once more embracing him before he died. Shibata, likewise weeping, replied: ‘Our body in this world resembles the flower asagoa (a magnificent flower before sun-rise, but which immediately afterwards fades and falls), or the kagero¯ (an insect which is produced and dies the same day), but after death we shall be in a better world.27 There we may enjoy each other’s society without interruption.’ With these words he rose and thanked the inspector for his indulgence. All the criminals were fastened to crosses, and the executioners armed themselves with their pikes. Chu¯ya was first pierced by two executioners, who opened his body in the form of a cross. It is stated that those who follow that profession are so expert at this operation that there is not one of them who cannot pierce the criminal sixteen times without touching the vital parts. The sons of Ichiemon excited universal compassion. The eldest said to his brother, who had scarcely attained his twelfth year: ‘We are going to the abode of the gods,’ and he began to pray, repeating several times: Naman-daoubts (namu amida butsu), ‘Amida, pray for us!’28 There was not one whom such a spectacle did not melt into tears. Chu¯ya’s wife requested her husband’s mother to invoke the gods with her at the moment of being reunited to them. ‘I am old,’ replied the mother, ‘but you are yet young, nevertheless, since you desire it I will join you in praying to the gods to turn our thoughts from all earthly objects.’ When they had all been put to death, Shibata called upon the inspector and offered him his two sabres saying, ‘To you I am indebted for the consolation of having conversed with my friend Chu¯ya and bidding adieu to him before his removal to a better world. I entreat you to denounce me to the governor of Edo, that he may order me to suffer like my friend.’ ‘The gods forbid!’ replied the inspector. ‘Were I to do what you desire you would die like Chu¯ya. Your courage

Ieyasu, the Gongen, to Ietsugu 89 deserves a better fate. While all his other friends are hiding themselves in dens and caverns you have braved death to embrace him: such men as you are rare.’ We are not informed what became of Shibata; the manuscript before me makes no farther mention of this generous friend. Owing to the presence of mind of Chu¯ya’s wife in burning the papers which might have compromised the conspirators, and to the fortitude displayed by the condemned persons in spite of their torments, the principal accomplices remained undiscovered. Yorinobu, however, was suspected, and his house was searched, but his secretary, Kano¯ Heiemon, took everything upon himself, protesting that he alone was acquainted with the plot, and had kept it a profound secret from his master. He then ripped up his belly and by his firmness saved Yorinobu, who remained unmolested at Edo. When Yoshimune, a descendant of Yorinobu, became shogun, he rewarded the fidelity of this secretary in the persons of his posterity on whom he conferred the most honourable posts. One of them, Kano¯ To¯tomi-no-kami is at present (l784) extraordinary counsellor of state.29 The shogun, Ietsuna, died on the 8th of the 5th month of the 8th year of Enpo¯ (1680), without issue, and was succeeded the year following by his younger brother, Tsunayoshi.

Tsunayoshi, the fifth shogun Minamoto no Tsunayoshi, fourth son of Iemitsu, was previously to his accession to the throne prince of Kazusa. He kept his court at Tatebayashi, had the rank of saisho¯, and the title of Tatebayashi Saisho¯ no Tsunayoshi.30 His elder brother, Ko¯fu Tsunashige, had ruined himself by his inordinate passion for wine and women. Intoxication had led him into many excesses and he had frequently gone so far as to strike and wound his people. Ietsuna, incensed at his misconduct, sent him an order to rip up his belly. At his death he left one son [Ienobu] who is said to have been adopted by Tsunayoshi, after that the prince had had the misfortune to lose his own son; but the account that is given of the manner in which Ienobu was elevated to the throne proves that Tsunayoshi, instead of adopting his nephew, had cast his eyes on the son of one of his officers, whom he intended to nominate his successor;31 and this design, which would probably have produced commotions in the empire, was frustrated, as we shall presently find, only by the resolution of Tsunayoshi’s wife, who killed her husband and dispatched herself, before it could be carried into execution. Love of learning and dislike of women Tsunayoshi was in his youth a passionate lover of the sciences. On the 21st of the 8th month of the 4th year of Genroku (1691), he founded a university at Edo in the square of Yushima, where is to be seen the portrait of Confucius.32 Shimyo¯-in Dainagon Motosuke, an officer of the dairi’s, caused the inscription Nyu¯toku-mon signifying Entrance to the most valuable Treasures, to be engraved in magnificent

90 Secret memoirs of the shoguns letters over the second gate.33 It was opened in the presence of the shogun, who repaired thither accompanied by the princes of Kishu¯, Owari and Mito, several other members of his family, and the most distinguished personages of his empire.34 The streets were crowded with spectators, and the donations piled up in the form of pyramids. A salary of one thousand koku was assigned to the first professor, Hayashi Daigaku-no-kami.35 The news of this foundation soon spread, and gave a favourable impulse to the sciences throughout the whole empire. The shogun himself cultivated them with such ardour as to impair his health by it. His servant, Yanagisawa Dewa-no-kami, represented to one of the friends of the prince that this immoderate passion for study would not fail to make him ill.36 His friends were sensible that love alone could divert him from occupations to which he was so strongly attached; they would fain have given some relaxation to his mind by engaging his affections, but how to accomplish this object was the difficulty. They at length determined to send him seven or eight of the most beautiful females in Edo in hopes that some one of them would triumph over his passion for study. It is said that all of them were relatives of Dewa-no-kami.37 Be this as it may, the project failed for none of these beauties could, at least for this time, make the least impression on the heart of the shogun. At the expiration of ten months, he fell ill, but though his indisposition was slight, Dewa-no-kami, and Makino Bizen-no-kami feared that it would be aggravated by too intense application.38 They summoned, therefore, the physicians to prescribe medicines, and Gosho¯-in [sic] no Zo¯sho, the priest, to pray to Heaven for the recovery of the prince.39 After his health was re-established the priest was regarded as a god. He availed himself of this influence to prevail upon the shogun to publish a decree prohibiting the putting to death of any living animal throughout the whole empire, and as Tsunayoshi had been proclaimed shogun in the second year of Ten’a (1682), or the Year of the Dog, the killing of dogs was more especially forbidden. A piece of ground was even enclosed with palisades and here a great number of those animals were daily supplied food.40 The priest was rewarded with two hundred ounces of silver. The shogun’s wife and mother presented him with koban,41 silver and costly stuffs, and Bizenno-kami and Dewa-no-kami gave him each thirty ingots of silver. The privilege of presenting in person all petitions to the shogun was also conferred on him. Never was the temple of Gosho¯-in so rich as under the direction of this priest. From among the females who had been introduced to the shogun, he selected, after his recovery, the beautiful Uneme, who soon became pregnant, and, to the high gratification of her uncle, Dewa-no-kami, produced a son, who was named Tokumatsu kimi.42 The shogun was so delighted that he made Dewa-no-kami a present of twenty thousand koku, in consideration of his niece. The first wife of the shogun also became pregnant about this time, but she was delivered of a daughter, who received the name of Tama [sic] himegimi.43

Ieyasu, the Gongen, to Ietsugu 91 Embassy from Korea On the 8th of the 8th month of the second year of Ten’a (1682), three ambassadors of the king of Korea arrived at Edo with a letter from their master to congratulate the shogun on his accession to the throne.44 At their departure, Tsunayoshi delivered to them, in answer, a letter wanting [lacking] one of the seals usually appended to epistles of this kind. It is customary, namely, to accompany every letter of the shogun with another letter sealed with the seals of his four chief officers, who are called tairo¯, and who are of higher rank than counsellors of state, and take cognisance of all public matters. It happened that one of these chief ¯ ta-no-kami, prince of Himeji, had just been disgraced and deprived officers, Sakai O of his post, for maladministration, and for this reason one of the seals was wanting.45 The ambassadors, strict observers of etiquette like all the people of the East, refused to take the letter in that state, and no other expedient could be devised than to send for the prince’s son and create him tairo¯ in the room of his father. Immediately after his nomination he affixed his seal to the letter. The ambassadors no longer hesitated to receive it, and returned to give their master an account of their mission. The Ako¯ incident On the 14th of the 3rd month of the 14th year of Genroku (1701), Asano Takumino-kami Naganori, prince of Ako¯, who had been several times treated contemptuously by Kira Ko¯zukenosuke, having received a fresh affront from him in the palace of the shogun, drew his sabre with the intention of revenging the insult.46 Some persons, on hearing the noise, ran up and separated them, and Ko¯zuke[nosuke] was but slightly wounded. It is an unpardonable crime to draw a sabre in the palace; the prince was therefore ordered to rip himself up, and his descendants were banished forever. His adversary, who, out of respect for the palace had abstained from drawing his sabre, was pardoned. This injustice exasperated the servants of the prince, so much the more since it was Ko¯zuke who, by his repeated insults, had caused the destruction of their master. Forty-seven of them, having agreed to revenge his death, forced their way in the night of the 14th of the 12th month of the following year into the palace of Ko¯zuke, and after a combat which lasted till daylight, they penetrated to his apartment and dispatched him. The shogun, on the first intelligence of this desperate attack, sent troops to the assistance of the unfortunate Ko¯zuke, but they arrived too late to save him. The assailants, not one of whom lost his life in the scuffle, were all taken and condemned to rip up their bellies, which they did with the greatest firmness, satisfied with having revenged their master. They were all interred in the temple of Sengaku-ji, near the prince.47 The soldiers, in token of respect for their fidelity, still visit their graves and pray before them. Ko¯zuke’s son, who had been withheld by cowardice from hastening to the assistance of his father though he was then in the palace, was deprived of his post and banished with all his kindred to the island of Awaji.48

92 Secret memoirs of the shoguns An arrogant officer in Nagasaki Takaki Hikoemon, governor of Nagasaki, having obtained permission of the shogun to wear two sabres and to have a pike in his coat of arms, his people became in consequence so insolent that they treated every one with the utmost haughtiness and disdain.49 On the 20th of the 12th month of the 14th year of Genroku (1701), they were carrying his daughter in a sedan chair to the temple, to receive a name.50 Heavy rains had rendered the road very muddy. Fukahori Kanzaemon, that is, the governor of the village of Fukahori, hastily passing by the chair, had the misfortune to splash it. Hikoemon’s people began to abuse him and regardless of his excuses fell upon and beat him, and then ran to his house in the street called Ura-goto¯-machi, where they destroyed all the furniture. The servants of Kanzaemon took a boat and lost no time in carrying to him intelligence of what had happened. After deliberating on the means of revenging this insult, which could not be washed away but with blood, they returned to Nagasaki with several of the inhabitants of Fukahori, assembled to the number of more than two hundred before the residence of Hikoemon, and as soon as the door was opened rushed in and attacked the master and his people. Hikoemon valiantly defended himself, but his foot having unfortunately slipped, his adversaries fell upon him and cut off his head, which they carried in triumph to Fukahori, as a trophy of their vengeance.51 It was conveyed to Nagasaki, and interred with the body near the temple of Ho¯ren-ji, together with a white dog which had rushed among the assailants to defend his master and been killed after wounding several of them. Two of Kanzaemon’s people ripped themselves up on the bridge near the residence of Hikoemon, calling loudly upon the people to witness the courage with which the inhabitants of Fukahori suffer death in order to revenge injuries. The extravagance of Yodoya Tatsugoro¯ Yodoya Tatsugoro¯, son of one of the wealthiest tradesmen of Osaka, having lost his father, passed his time in the houses of courtesans, where he launched out into foolish expenses.52 His mother allowed him thirty koban a month, but he spent more than a thousand and was obliged to borrow in order to supply his prodigalities. His servants Kanbei and Sho¯bei, and the companions of his debaucheries Gentetsu, the physician, Yagohachi, Kizaemon and Sho¯zaemon, assisted him to procure money and afterwards to spend it. The creditors came, according to custom, before the Feast of Lanterns, to demand payment of what was due to them.53 The mother, to whom they applied, refused to pay them, hoping that the want of money would oblige her son to relinquish his disgraceful way of life. This refusal threw the young man into great embarrassment; he consulted with his friends and stole from his mother’s shop a gold cock, a gold caldron, a large piece of calambac wood and an ancient autograph note of Teika, an officer of the dairi’s whose hand-writing is in great request in Japan on account of its extraordinary beauty.54 Fujiya Ichiemon, the usurer, agreed to advance money on these valuable

Ieyasu, the Gongen, to Ietsugu 93 effects; but as the sum was not sufficient to discharge the debts which he had contracted in the street of the courtesans, Gentetsu advised him to draw a forged bill in the name of Takahashi Yagohachi, upon his master, Yanagisawa Dewa-nokami, for the sum of three thousand koban. Tatsugoro¯, urged by necessity, had the imprudence to draw the bill, which he also signed with his name. He gave it to one of his servants, who, under the assumed name of Yagohachi, presented it to Ikeda Jiro¯bei, the banker. The latter, who was no stranger to the influence which Dewa-no-kami possessed over the shogun,55 and knew, moreover, that the first nobles, when in want of money, frequently give similar bills, made no difficulty to discount that which was now brought to him, so that Tatsugoro¯, after paying all his debts, was enabled to indulge in fresh debaucheries. Returning home one morning after spending as usual the whole night in drinking in the street of the courtesans, he threw off his upper garments, retaining only the white robe which none but the priests, women, and persons enjoying the title of kami, have a right to wear.56 As he was thus walking in the street with a long silver pipe in his mouth, he was met by Matsudaira Inaba-no-kami, the warden of the castle, and Kigane Yaemon, the inspector of the city, who, not knowing him, ¯ kubo O ¯ sumi-no-kami, governor of Osaka, to whom they made asked his name. O their report, ordered Tatsugoro¯ to attend at the palace of the government.57 He accordingly repaired thither dressed in his white robe. When the governor inquired who had given him permission to wear a robe of that colour, he made no reply. Kanbei, his servant, answered for him. ‘My master,’ said he, ‘has inherited from his ancestors the privilege of receiving every year the clothes with the arms of the shogun, and he thinks it his duty, out of respect, to wear a white robe underneath them.’ ‘I cannot admit this excuse,’ replied the governor; ‘no person, the shogun’s officers not excepted, even though possessing an income of ten thousand koku, has a right to wear a white robe, unless he enjoys the title of kami. Of this thy master, one of the principal inhabitants of Osaka cannot be ignorant. If he were determined to wear a white robe, why had he not at least have a small piece of coloured stuff sewed on some part of it? Thy master, therefore, has transgressed the commands of the shogun which is a capital crime.’ The governor, in consequence, ordered Tatsugoro¯ to be conducted to prison till definitive judgement could be passed on the offender. This adventure was soon known throughout all Osaka. The banker, uneasy about his bill which bore the signature of Tatsugoro¯, hastened to Dewa-no-kami’s steward and asked him when it would be paid. The steward, in astonishment, replied that he had not authorised any person to obtain money from him, and that the bill was a forgery. The banker related all that had passed, but being unable to convince the steward both went to prefer their complaints to the governor. The steward, on examining the bill, acknowledged that the signature was his, but declared that the seal affixed to it was false. The governor sent for Tatsugoro¯, who confessed everything. His accomplices were immediately apprehended and brought to the governor’s where they underwent a rigorous examination. The man who had personated the steward was, like all the others, convicted by his own confession.

94 Secret memoirs of the shoguns The crime was too heinous to pass unpunished. The governor communicated the circumstance to the court, and orders were sent to behead all Tatsugoro¯’s accomplices. As for himself, in consideration of the services which his ancestors had rendered to the Gongen, his life was spared at the intercession of Dewa-nokami. Hopes were, moreover, entertained that being still young he might mend, and that the punishment of those who had seduced him into guilt would prove a lesson that he would never forget. All his property, however, was confiscated and he was banished to Yamata, near Fushimi, where he was afterwards admitted into the number of the priests.58 Tsunayoshi’s failings As highly as Tsunayoshi was esteemed at the beginning of his reign for his good qualities and his application to study, so strongly was he afterwards detested for his debauchery and profusion. Satiated with lawful gratifications, he neglected the [female] sex and gave a rein to the disgraceful propensities at that time too generally indulged [in] by the Japanese of all classes.59 He squandered the treasures amassed by his ancestors in expenses so silly and extravagant that his tutor, Arai Chikugo-no-kami, deemed it his duty to represent to him the fatal consequences of such conduct.60 For this purpose he composed in the fifth year of Ho¯ei (1708) [sic] a treatise entitled Ho¯ka shiryaku [Brief history of currency] which I shall have occasion to notice when I come to the description of the gold, silver and copper coins.61 This work he concluded in these terms: As to the wealth of foreign countries, I find in ancient writers that China produced a great quantity of gold under the dynasty of Han, but this abundance gradually diminished. Under the dynasty of Song, small pieces of wood [sic, paper currency] were employed instead of silver; under that of Yuan, it [paper] was almost the only current coin; under that of Ming, copper coin and pieces of wood were used.62 The reason of this is that since the dynasty of Han, gold, silver and copper have been daily becoming more rare in China. The ancient writers compared the metals to the bones in the human body and taxes [sic, currency] to the blood, flesh, hair and skin that are incessantly renewing, which is not the case with metals. Under the dynasty of Han, the mines were too much exhausted, and hence the subsequent scarcity of gold and silver. Under the dynasties of the Zhou, Liao, Kin and Yuan [c. AD 25–136763], China was constantly at war: the greatest part of the gold and silver found its way to Kettan and other countries which traded with the Chinese.64 In more than sixty provinces of the empire, foreign sepikkes only were in circulation, whence we may infer what a prodigious quantity of gold and silver had been exported from China.65 When the doctrine of Shaka was propagated in China, gold and silver became still more scarce because the priests of that deity erected numerous temples and used those metals for the purpose of covering their idols.

Ieyasu, the Gongen, to Ietsugu 95 A thousand years ago, gold, silver and copper were unknown in Japan, yet there was no want of necessaries. The earth was fertile and this is undoubtedly the most desirable species of wealth. After the discovery of these metals, the use of them spread but slowly, and so as late as the time of the Gongen, they were still very rare. This prince was the first who caused the mines to be diligently wrought, and during his reign so great a quantity of gold and silver was extracted from them as no one could previously have formed any conception of, and since these metals resemble the bones of the human body, inasmuch as what is once extracted from the earth is not reproduced, if the mines continue to be thus wrought, in less than a thousand years, they will be exhausted. I estimate the quantity of gold and silver exported from the empire since the Gongen’s time as more considerable than that exported from China into Tartary; and I compute the annual exportation of gold at about one hundred and fifty thousand koban, so that in ten years this empire is drained of fifteen hundred thousand kobans. If, then, serious attention be not paid to this subject and the most rigid economy be not observed in the expenditure, the country will soon be entirely ruined and in less than one hundred years the same poverty of which Chinese authors complain will be felt here. In ancient times, as I have said, and when the people were unacquainted with gold, silver and copper, they knew no want and were good and virtuous. Since those metals were discovered, the heart of man has become daily more and more depraved. With the exception, however, of medicines, we can dispense with every thing that is brought to us from abroad.66 The stuffs and other foreign commodities are of no real benefit to us; formerly, indeed, they were not even known here. All the gold, silver and copper, extracted from the mines during the reign of the Gongen, and since his time, is gone, and what is still more to be regretted, for things which we could do well without. If we squander our treasures in this manner, what shall we have to subsist upon? Let each of the Gongen’s successors reflect seriously upon this matter and the wealth of Japan will last as long as the heavens and the earth. Seeking an heir So far was this prudent advice from making the least impression upon the shogun that he persisted in his career of prodigality and extravagance. His son, Tokumatsu kimi, had died in his infancy.67 Tsunayoshi, enervated by debauchery, and having long renounced all intercourse with women, could not hope for an heir; he therefore resolved in the sixth year of Ho¯ei (1709) to look round for a successor. He cast his eyes on Kai-no-kami, son of Yanagisawa Dewa-no-kami, whom he determined to adopt.68 On the 11th of the first month of the year, it is customary for the shogun to give an entertainment to the princes and chief officers after they have paid him their compliments of congratulation. This opportunity was chosen by Tsunayoshi to declare publicly his intention of adopting Kai-no-kami. His first officer, Ii Kamon-no-kami, represented to him that such a step would displease all the princes and it was much to be feared that it would produce a

96 Secret memoirs of the shoguns revolution in the empire.69 Finding his remonstrances unavailing, he repaired to the wife of the shogun, informed her of his master’s design, and after he had made her sensible that if it were carried into execution a general rebellion would be inevitable, he entreated her to think of some means to prevent such a calamity. Having reflected a few moments, she desired him not to be uneasy as she had bethought herself of an expedient which could not fail to produce the desired effect, and when he urged her to communicate her plan to him, she replied that she could not say more at the moment but he should soon know it all. The day preceding that on which the shogun intended to nominate his successor, she sent to request the prince to take sake with her. The shogun accepted the invitation, and she caused a sumptuous repast to be provided for him. While he was engaged in drinking, she rose, stepped into her closet where she wrote a note to Ii Kamon-no-kami directing him how to act, and then furnishing herself with a dagger, which is usually worn by all women of distinction, she returned to the festive apartment. Soon afterwards she ordered all her women to retire, telling the shogun that she wished to speak to him in private. When they were alone she thus addressed him: ‘During the many years that we have been together you have never refused me any thing. I have today a fresh favour to solicit of you. Will you grant it me?’ He inquired what was her wish. ‘You purpose,’ replied she, ‘to choose the son of Dewa-no-kami for your successor. This measure will excite all the princes to revolt and occasion the ruin of the empire; let me, therefore, entreat you to relinquish your intention.’ At these words he rose in a vehement passion and asked how she durst presume to interfere in affairs of state. ‘The empire is mine,’ added he, ‘I will do as I please. What need have I of the advice of a woman! I will never see thee or speak to thee more.’ He was about to quit the apartment but she followed and held him by the sleeve. ‘If,’ said she, ‘thou art determined to execute thy design, tomorrow the whole empire will be in revolution.’ She then plunged the dagger twice into his bosom and seeing him fall, she dropped upon her knees beside him, begging his pardon for what she had done, since there was no other way to preserve the dynasty of the Gongen and to save the empire, and declaring that she would not survive him. Accordingly, no sooner had he expired than she stabbed herself with the same dagger and sunk lifeless by his side. Her women, alarmed by the noise, ran into the apartment and found them both weltering in their blood. Kamon-no-kami, having read the note addressed to him, repaired with all possible expedition to the palace. He found the gate shut, but it was opened, by order of the inspector, to him as well as to all the other servants of the shogun. He hastened to his master; the dreadful sight made him shudder with horror, though the note which he had received must in some measure have prepared him for the event. When he had somewhat recovered from the shock: ‘This woman,’ said he, ‘has rendered a most important service to the state; but for her the whole empire would have been convulsed.’ She had communicated to him the particulars of her plan, requesting him, in case she should succeed, to conceal the shogun’s death for a month and merely to spread a report that he was dangerously ill. He would have followed these

Ieyasu, the Gongen, to Ietsugu 97 instructions, but in spite of the precautions taken by himself and the inspector of the palace the news transpired and it was soon publicly known that the shogun was dead. She had also expressed a wish that Ienobu, prince of Kai and son of Tsunashige, might be elected shogun, and that a revenue of fifteen mankoku and the government of the best province might be conferred on the son of Dewa-no-kami, in memory of the affection felt for him by her husband.70 The father was summoned the same day to the palace.71 Kamon-no-kami intimated to him that he was dismissed from his post of counsellor of state and enjoined him not to quit his house till further orders. All those who witnessed his disgrace turned their backs to him at his departure. Ii Kamon-no-kami was descended from the Gongen’s chief secretary, who had rendered essential services to his master. For this reason, one of his posterity is at this day chief officer of the shogun, who cannot engage in any affair of consequence without his consent. He has even a right to depose the shogun if he governs ill, and to appoint another. The counsellors of state, both ordinary and extraordinary, are subordinate to him, and it is not lawful for him to receive any presents whatever.72 Several Japanese assert that Kamon-no-kami was present at the death of the shogun and that he even held his hands while his wife plunged the dagger into his heart. She was the daughter of the dairi and had conceived a detestation for her husband on account of his aversion to her sex.73 Successors Besides the son who died young, as before stated, Tsunayoshi had a daughter married to Kii no Chu¯nagon Tsunanori, prince of Kiinokuni.74

Ienobu, the sixth shogun Minamoto no Ienobu, nephew to Tsunayoshi and son of his elder brother Tsunashige, was elevated to the throne agreeably to the desire of the wife of the late shogun. During his reign nothing remarkable occurred. He had three sons, two of whom died in the birth. The third succeeded him. Ienobu died on the 14th of the 10th month of the second year of Sho¯toku (1712), after a reign of about four years.

Ietsugu, the seventh shogun Minamoto no Ietsugu, son of Ienobu, was not of an age to govern when he succeeded his father.75 As he had no title on account of his extreme youth, he was called Nobumatsu kimi. The government was placed in the hands of the counsellors of state during the minority of the prince. At the beginning of the sixth year of Sho¯toku (1716), the shogun fell dangerously ill. Orders were immediately issued that public prayers should be said in the principal temples for his recovery, but they proved unavailing. The most skilful physicians also employed all the resources of

98 Secret memoirs of the shoguns their art, to no purpose. The young prince died on the 30th of the fourth month of the same year. The whole empire went into mourning. He was buried near the temple of San’en-ji, and the priests gave him the name of Yu¯sho¯-in.76 The three principal counsellors of state, Ii Kamon-no-kami, Matsudaira Sanukino-kami and Matsudaira Hyo¯go-no-kami, summoned to a meeting in the palace of Yoshimune, the prince of Kishu¯, the prince of Owari, the prince of Mito (the relatives of the shogun), and the counsellors of state, and consulted them on the choice of a new shogun. They unanimously elected the prince of Kishu¯. He earnestly entreated to be allowed to decline the honour, alleging that he had not the talents necessary for governing and proposed the prince of Owari as being of superior rank. But the prince of Mito rose, took him by the hand, and led him to the throne. He was then proclaimed shogun, and the name of the year was changed to that of Kyo¯ho¯.

3

Yoshimune, the eighth shogun

Minamoto no Yoshimune, before his accession prince of Kishu¯, contributed greatly to the prosperity of the empire, which during his reign kept progressively improving. The safety of the roads and the suppression of robbery, by means of a rigorous police, drew thither great numbers of travellers.1 His fame soon spread throughout the whole empire, and the Japanese at the present day still compare him with the Gongen for humanity and beneficence, as they compare his reign with that of the Chinese emperor, Shun.2

Examples of Yoshimune’s virtuous conduct Of the events of this reign, which lasted thirty years [1716–45], the work entitled Kindai ko¯jitsu kenpiroku [Top secret records of recent affairs of state] records the following as the most remarkable: The honour of the purple cane The counsellor of state, Tsuchiya Sagami-no-kami, a man distinguished for his extensive knowledge, affability and great experience in public affairs, which had caused him to be constantly employed during the reigns of the four preceding shoguns, being far advanced in years, received permission to appear in the apartments of the palace with a purple bamboo cane.3 There are very few instances of such a favour. It was granted by the Gongen, in his palace at Suruga, to Honda Sadono-kami, and at an earlier period Anmei-in dono enjoyed this privilege in the palace of Kamakura.4 But at the time of which we are treating, Sagami-no-kami was the only person on whom it was conferred, as a reward for his services and as the strongest demonstration of the esteem entertained for him by the shogun. Yoshimune rewards virtue It is rare to find just men among the great judges and governors. It is therefore customary to say concerning them, ‘They all pretend to hold their heads very high, but most of them will bend like the pines of Karasaki’, signifying that however upright they may appear without, there is nothing but injustice within. In the time

100 Secret memoirs of the shoguns of the Gongen, three of the chief judges were celebrated at Miyako for their integrity; these were Itakura Iga-no-kami, Itakura Suo-no-kami and Itakura Naizenno-kami.5 Since the Gongen’s reign it would be difficult to produce a parallel to them. But in the sixth year of Sho¯toku (1716), a governor of Ise named O¯ oka Echizen-no-kami, a man as estimable for his probity as for his courage, deserved to have these ancient verses applied to him: Karasaki no Matsu wa bugyo¯ ni Samo nitari Sakuna no tsuredo Magaranu wa nashi that is to say: ‘A governor does not bend like the pines of Karasaki.’6 ¯ oka had originally been appointed Chu¯emon.7 His income then amounted to O five hundred koku. He was keeper of the apartments of the palace.8 Under Bunsho¯in, or Ienobu, he was promoted to be chief steward to the prince and subsequently inspector of the palace.9 These inspectors are ten in number, agreeably to this maxim of Confucius: ‘In what ten eyes see, ten fingers can easily separate the good from the bad.’10 The same shogun afterwards made O¯ oka governor of Ise: the people of Ise had long been at variance with those of Kishu¯.11 They had repeatedly preferred ¯ oka had not ventured their complaints to their governors, but the predecessors of O to pronounce any decision, dreading the power of Yoshimune who was then prince of Kishu¯. O¯ oka, regardless of all considerations but the performance of his duty, investigated their complaints and finding them just, gave an award against the people of Kishu¯. Yoshimune, having become shogun, appointed O¯ oka from a knowledge of his integrity, to be governor of Edo. His countrymen applied to him the following Japanese proverb: ‘There is not a horse, let him be ever so good, ¯ oka, though that can run a hundred miles a day’, meaning, in this instance, that O he had all the qualities of a good governor would never have been governor of Edo if Yoshimune had not been elected shogun. ¯ oka held this post twenty years; he was afterwards usher of the palace.12 His O income, which was only five koku on his entrance into public life, was from this time ten thousand. The duty of ushers of the palace consists in successively announcing, in a loud voice, the names of those who are admitted to the presence of the shogun. Thus when the chief of the Dutch factory appears, the usher cries, ‘Oranda kapitan’.13 The same ceremony is observed in regard to the princes of the country. The ushers formerly had no fixed place allotted to them in the palace and therefore usually remained in the apartment of the one of their comrades who was on duty. O¯ oka being one day in the apartment of Inoue Kawachi-no-kami, the usher, whose turn it was to announce visitors, the latter said to him, ‘Usher, you are not on duty; you cannot remain here.’14 O¯ oka knew not whither to go. This circumstance showed the necessity of providing a hall for the ushers and orders were given accordingly.

Yoshimune, the eighth shogun 101 On the sixth day of the first month [of 1749], an envoy from the temple of Sho¯sha-zan presented himself to be announced to the shogun. His title, Banshu¯ sho¯sha-zan no sha zo¯so¯dai, was rather difficult to be remembered and repeated.15 Accordingly, Inoue Kawachi-no-kami, the usher on duty, blundered in announcing it. His comrades retired quite abashed, but he looked at the shogun and burst into a laugh. The prince, displeased at his impudence and want of respect, removed him from his offices. Rectification of improper confiscations During the reign of Taitoku-in, or Hidetada, and that of Daiyu¯-in, or Iemitsu, the lands of Kato¯ Higo-no-kami, and those of Kiyomasa, of Fukushima Saemonnodayu¯ Masanori, and of Hiraiwa Kashi-no-kami Chikayoshi, had been confiscated for some reason unknown.16 Yoshimune, with a view to repair this injustice, granted a revenue of five hundred koku to the heir of Kato¯ Kiyomasa and three hundred to each of the two others. Promotion of martial arts and scholarship Ever since the time of Tsunayoshi, a fondness for dress and luxuries had crept into the nation and even infected those professions which might naturally be expected to be most exempt from it. The very soldiers were seen to paint their faces, stain their lips red and dress like women. Yoshimune, on his accession to the throne, expressed his indignation at such effeminacy. He issued the most rigid orders that the soldiers should be trained as they had formerly been, to bodily exercises which render them active and robust. At the command of the prince, the men assiduously practised all the exercises which they had heretofore neglected, and, what had not been known before his reign, a great number of them soon acquired the greatest dexterity both in shooting at a mark with a bow and arrow while riding at full gallop, in defending themselves with the pike against five or six antagonists, and fencing with the sabre against twenty persons. Among the archers there were some who would shoot a hundred times at a mark without once missing. The shogun also obliged the persons of his retinue to practise swimming and diving, which had in like manner fallen into disuse since the reign of Tsunayoshi, because in his time the men were wholly engaged in dress and had become so effeminate as to complain that exposure to the sun on coming out of the water rendered their skin brown and coarse. Yoshimune brought this wholesome exercise again into vogue at the beginning of the [first] year [of] Kyo¯ho¯ (1716). He went occasionally and encouraged the swimmers by his presence. Before his time, if a swimmer crossed the river Asakusa-gawa, which is upwards of one hundred and twenty ken, or eight hundred and forty feet broad, he was extolled as a prodigy. During his reign, Yamamoto Tezaemon swam over it thirty-six times successively, and a certain Awatsu Kintaro¯ was seen to cross it, keeping the whole of his body above the navel out of the water. In the sequel, the shogun made a point of going every year on the fifteenth of the fourth month to judge, in person, of the progress of the swimmers

102 Secret memoirs of the shoguns and to confer rewards on such as distinguished themselves. In short, dexterity in gymnastic exercises was found to be the surest way to military promotion. Yoshimune was likewise liberal of rewards to such of his subjects as successfully cultivated the arts and sciences. O¯ yo¯ So¯shichi, the younger brother of O¯ yo¯ So¯emon, excelled in his acquaintance with Chinese literature; Hosoi Shiro¯dayu¯ in writing; Igai Bunjiro¯ and Nishikawa Chu¯jiro¯ in astronomy; and Nagai Magojiro¯ in arithmetic.17 The prince assigned to them fixed salaries by way of reward. A wise governor of Osaka Matsura Yo¯shiro¯ enjoyed an income of four hundred koku when he was appointed inspector to the taishi, or hereditary prince.18 This office he filled but a short time, his extensive knowledge having caused him to be speedily promoted to the post of governor of Osaka, by the name of Matsura Kawachi-no-kami. In this place he distinguished himself by his wise administration of justice. Anecdotes are recorded of him which do honour to his prudence and integrity, and among others the following: A usurer named Tomoya Kyu¯goro¯, residing at Osaka near the bridge of Korea Bashi, one day missed five hundred koban.19 As he had not seen any person enter the house he suspected that the robbery had been committed by one of his servants. He interrogated them all, one after another, but could draw nothing from them. Suspicion, however, fell upon Cho¯tetsu, one of their number; his fellow servants, as well as his master, had no doubt that he was the rogue. He was questioned still more closely, but persisted in his denial and nothing was found by which he could be convicted. His master represented to him that if he would not confess, the matter should be submitted to the governor and if he were found guilty he might expect to be most severely punished. This threat having produced no effect, Tomoya repaired to the governor, accusing Chu¯tetsu of having robbed him and demanding that strict inquiry might be made into the affair and the culprit punished as he deserved. The governor promised to comply. He sent for Chu¯tetsu and examined him. He again protested his innocence, adding that were he even exposed to the most excruciating tortures they should not make him confess a crime which he had not committed. Kawachi-no-kami sent him to prison, and having summoned Tomoya and his people, communicated to them the result of the examination and the answer of Chu¯tetsu. He then inquired if they had any evidence of the crime. Tomoya replied in the negative, adding that neither he nor his family had any doubt on the subject, and that moreover the fellow was an arrant scoundrel from whom the most cruel punishments would not extort confession. Kawachi-no-kami again asked if they persisted in accusing the man and if they were willing to confirm the charge by a writing signed by them all, assuring them that in this case he would order the culprit to be beheaded. They signified their readiness to subscribe such a paper, on which it was drawn up in these terms: Chu¯tetsu, servant to Tomoya, has robbed his master of five hundred koban. This we attest by these presents [presences], and we demand that, by way of

Yoshimune, the eighth shogun 103 example, he be punished with death. We, the servants and relatives of Tomoya Kyu¯goro¯, have confirmed this writing by affixing to it our signatures and our seals. The second month of the first year of Genbun (1736). Kawachi-no-kami took the paper and said to Tomoya, ‘Now that I am released from my responsibility I will go and order Chu¯tetsu’s head to be cut off. Art thou satisfied?’ ‘Yes,’ replied Tomoya, and after thanking the governor and again declaring that he was perfectly satisfied, he retired. Meanwhile a robber, apprehended near the temple of Tenman, having been put to the torture confessed that it was he who had stolen the five hundred koban from the house of Tomoya. Kawachi-no-kami, on receiving this intelligence, summoned Tomoya and all his people before him and asked why they had accused Chu¯tetsu in writing and without proofs. He informed them of the apprehension of the thief and the confession which he had made amidst his torments, and then added, ‘Upon your declaration I have caused an innocent man to be put to death; as an atonement for this crime thyself, thy wife, and thy people shall all be beheaded, and as for me, I will rip myself up as a punishment for not having investigated this business with greater care.’ They were all thunderstruck at this dreadful denunciation. The magistrates and officers solicited pardon for the culprits, but Kawachi-no-kami assuming a stern look replied that prayers were useless and that the more they strove to excuse them the more they aggravated their guilt. The poor wretches then began to weep and to deplore their fate. Kawachi-no-kami, who wished to give them such a lesson as they should never forget, left them for some time in the most agonising distress. At length, ‘Be of good cheer,’ said he to them, ‘the answers of Chu¯tetsu led me to believe that he was not guilty. I kept him in concealment hoping that some unforeseen circumstance would bring his innocence to light. Sincerely do I rejoice that the event has justified my precaution.’ He then ordered Chu¯tetsu to be brought in. ‘Tomoya,’ said he, ‘here is an innocent man whom thy false accusations have long detained in prison and exposed to the danger of capital punishment. Since this misfortune has not happened, I spare thy life, but thou owest some indemnification to this poor fellow for what he has suffered on thy account. Give him then five hundred koban and treat him henceforward as a faithful servant.’ When the shogun was informed of this decision, he publicly expressed his satisfaction with it, praised the equity of Kawachi-no-kami, and said it were to be wished that he had everywhere such governors. Soon afterwards he appointed him inspector of the chamber of accounts and governor of Nagasaki, where his memory is still venerated.20 This man, so distinguished for integrity and extraordinary talents, was nevertheless disgraced during the reign of Ieshige, son of Yoshimune, who stripped him of his offices and ordered him under arrest; but the virtue of Kawachi-no-kami was too exalted for him to be cast down by so unmerited a disgrace.

104 Secret memoirs of the shoguns Another instance of sagacity from the same governor Considerable sums had been stolen from the Castle of Osaka. Nose Shinjiro¯, the inspector, repaired thither to make inquiry into the matter.21 He found that a small box of a thousand koban was missing from the chest in which the gold was kept. The chest, lock and seal were uninjured; the seal was that of Kawara Seibei, the treasurer, and as he alone could have opened the chest without breaking it, suspicion fell upon him and his two associates. They were all three apprehended and examined, but they denied any knowledge of the affair and no traces of the thief could be discovered. Aoyama Chu¯bei and Noma Kakubei, inspectors of the household, were sent, in consequence, from Edo to Osaka to make fresh researches, which at first were attended with no better success than the former.22 Aoyama at length devised an expedient which had the desired effect. He sent agents to all suspicious houses, to the places of debauchery and to the taverns, with directions to make inquiry concerning all persons who should there incur expenses beyond their means. To¯monya Goro¯bei, who kept the house Daikoku-ya in the square of Tenman, called upon the governor and informed him that a person of mean appearance and who, as he believed, had no other source of income than some petty place, came every day to his house to visit a woman named Otone, on whom he spent a great deal of money, adding that he had a bad opinion of this man and had thought it his duty to report to him accordingly. Kawachi and Aoyama commended his prudence and dismissed him, enjoining secrecy and promising to ascertain without loss of time whether there was any ground for his suspicions. Noma Kakubei repaired in consequence to Tenman, accompanied by several soldiers. Here they found the person in question who appeared to them to be a very suspicious character. They secured and bound him and led him away to the governor’s palace. Here he was interrogated by Kawachi-no-kami. He pretended to know nothing of the matter, but as he contradicted himself in his answers he was put to the torture, and pain compelled him to confess his guilt. He declared that he was a servant to the keeper of the Castle of Osaka, that he had long sought an opportunity of appropriating to himself the money in the chest, which he had at length found and seized. He did not, however, disclose the means which he had employed to open the chest without breaking the seal. Kawachi-no-kami sent for Otone and examined her respecting her connexion with the culprit. She was incapable of throwing any light on the circumstances of the robbery, but merely deposed that the thief frequently came to drink sake with her, that he gave her robes and jewels, that he had presented her among other things with two small figures made by Takeda for which he said that he had paid one hundred koban.23 These two figures, one of which represented a young lady, and the other a servant holding a parasol, were so contrived that when made to float in a bowl of sake, the servant would open the parasol and follow his mistress who went first. When the affair had been thoroughly investigated the criminal was beheaded and Kawara Seibei removed from his situation. Nose Shinjiro¯ and the two other inspectors returned to Edo. To the former were given two robes with

Yoshimune, the eighth shogun 105 the arms of the shogun and three o¯ban.24 This reward was announced to him by Honda Nakamunodayu¯, in presence of all the counsellors of state, ordinary and extraordinary.25 Aoyama Chu¯bei and Noma Kabubei had each ten ingots of silver, which remuneration was announced to them by Honda Iwo-no-kami, without any ceremony.

Virtuous women, and Yoshitsune’s conduct towards them The death of Otone The author of the manuscript has thought fit to proceed with the history of Otone, and thus relates her tragic end. She had lived a long time with Sakakiyama Shiro¯taro¯, the comedian, to whom she was strongly attached.26 After spending a great deal of money upon her, he secretly married the widow of Kamei Ju¯jiro¯, the comedian.27 Being determined to part from Otone, he was at a loss in what manner to acquaint her with his resolution. At length he pretended that he had lost all his money at play and had been obliged to pawn his things. At the same time he requested her to lend him twenty koban, hoping that she would not have it in her power and that he might make this a pretext for breaking with her. But she suspected his design, borrowed the money and gave it to him, together with ten more koban, for which he had also asked her, so that he durst not inform her of his marriage. It was not long, however, before she heard of it, when without reproaching him for his inconstancy she sold her clothes and all that she possessed to raise the sum she had borrowed and to pay her debt. This done, she hanged herself in To¯monya Goro¯bei’s great room.28 This event happened in the years Genbun [1736–40]. Among the effects that she sold were the two small figures above-mentioned, for which she obtained but six koban. They now belong to the wife of Toyotaki, the physician.29 Successes of relations of concubines A certain Miura Goro¯zaemon, living in the square of Asakusa, was reputed to be the brother of Miura Shiro¯zaemon who kept a brothel at Yoshiwara. He was extremely devout and went every day to pray in the temple of Asakusa-dera. At the end of about three thousand days, in the years Genbun (1736–40), the god blessed him with a daughter of exquisite beauty who was in the sequel a servant in the palace of the hereditary prince [shogunal heir apparent, Ieshige]. Here she lived at first unknown, but the prince saw and became enamoured of her. He had a son by her, who was named Manjiro¯ sama. Apartments were then assigned to her in the palace, and she was treated with great respect by all the officers of the prince.30 Goro¯zaemon was taken into the service of the shogun. He received a salary of five hundred koku, and a large house situated in the Bancho¯ Street was allotted for his residence. Daiyu¯-in, or Iemitsu, had set a similar example. In his time a female of extraordinary beauty, named Kasuga-no-tsubone, had presented a petition praying

106 Secret memoirs of the shoguns that the brothers of those women who enjoyed the honour of lying with the shogun should be admitted among his officers, and her request was complied with. The other officers, who owed their rank to their personal bravery and good conduct, refused to serve with these new-comers – nay, some of them had the boldness to declare that the brothers of concubines were not worthy to cross sabres with theirs. The shogun, to obviate the effects of this discontent, formed the new officers into a distinct corps by the appellation of shingo-ban, or the new guard.31 Goro¯zaemon was a brave man; he was admitted without solicitation into the new guard, and this promotion he attributed to the favour of the god Asakusa. On the left of the temple of that deity is a cistern dedicated to him by Goro¯zaemon, on which are engraved these words: Rinshin ryo¯sen.32

Yoshimune’s closest advisors and family Kogoro¯, eldest son of Tokugawa Keibu ko¯, younger brother of Ieshige the hereditary prince, was, through the mediation of Yoshimune, adopted by the prince of Echizen, who had no children, on which he changed his name to O¯ gimaro.33 Echizen was related to the shogun and he consented to adopt the young prince with a view to attach him more strongly to himself and for fear the family should become too numerous if he adopted the son of any other house. Yoshimune made a present of five mangoku to Matsudaira Echizen-no-kami. He was the descendant of a powerful prince, but [sic, who] had been stripped of his possessions and exiled to Bungo as a punishment for maladministration and for cruelty to his servants, several of whom had been put to death by his command, together with their wives and children.34 Ieshige had another brother, named Munekore Uemon-no-kami [sic35], a man of sound understanding, who cultivated the sciences and eagerly sought after everything calculated to excite curiosity. He had married the daughter of one of the officers of the dairi, named Konoe dono.36 It is said that when Ieshige ascended the throne, Uemon, regarding him as incapable, from ignorance, to govern the empire, drew up a paper in which he laid before him a sketch of his duties, and gave him advice respecting his future conduct. Ieshige was so incensed at this liberty that he kept Uemon in confinement for three years. Konoe dono, having meanwhile come to Edo, was not permitted to speak either to his son-in-law or to his daughter. It was never known what was the nature of the advice which so highly displeased the shogun. Good and bad shogunal officers Kano¯ To¯tomi-no-kami, Ogasawara Iwami-no-kami and Shibuya Izumi-no-kami were the three officers of Yoshimune in whom he placed the greatest confidence.37 They all possessed a good understanding, a noble and benevolent disposition and tried integrity. The people of Japan therefore declare that they were never so happy as in their time. Matsushita Shinsuke was also in high favour with this prince, and he deserved it for his modesty, zeal and beneficence.

Yoshimune, the eighth shogun 107 ¯ kubo Ise-no-kami, one of the confidential The same praise cannot be given to O servants of Ieshige.38 He was arrogant, a spendthrift and debauchee. He threw everything into disorder and no one durst reproach him for his conduct because he was uncle to Ieshige. Yoshimune being informed of the manner in which he abused his favour, dismissed him from his post. Ieshige had a real friend in Ooka Izumono-kami;39 indulgent and ever ready to excuse the faults of others, he followed in all points the example of the three favourites above-mentioned. Hence the following verses were made on him after his death: Ooka wa Izumo no hoka ni Kami no nashi ‘There is no god like Izumo’, etc. The poet adds that it is superfluous to speak of all the good qualities of Izumo. ‘We have all witnessed them’, says he, ‘and we pay with our tears a tribute of gratitude to his memory.’40 Yoshimune’s devotion to his mother Jo¯en-in, mother of Yoshimune, resided at Wakayama in the province of Kishu¯.41 When that prince had ascended the throne, he removed her to Edo where she died in the years Kyo¯ ho¯ (1716–1735). She was buried near the temple of To¯ eizan.42 As she expired on the 9th day of the month [1726], it was determined that a counsellor of state in ordinary should repair on the 9th of every month to the temple, to perform devotions there in the name of the shogun. Tragedy of the wife of the prince of Mito Yo¯sei-in, mother of the prince of Mito, was accustomed, when she went abroad, to wear a sabre, which the people denominated ‘Amekuni’ (from ame rain, and kuni country), because, according to tradition, it never failed to rain when she wore it. She was granddaughter of Jo¯ken-in, or Tsunayoshi, and was thus related to one of the prime ministers of the dairi, the Kanpaku denka Konoe dono.43 Her grandfather Tsunayoshi, Konoe dono, and the prince of Mito, having died at very short intervals one after another in the sixth year of Ho¯ei (1709), she was deeply afflicted and in her distress composed these verses: Uiki koto wa Tsuzuki ga hara no Tsuyu namida Kusa no tamoto wa Nao shiguretsutsu ‘Our misfortunes follow one another like the links of a chain. Though my garments are moistened with my tears my eyes are incessantly filled afresh with them.’44

108 Secret memoirs of the shoguns The generosity of Ietsugu’s mother is abused Gekko¯-in, mother of Yu¯sho¯-in, or Ietsugu, resided at Fukiage within the gate of Hanzo¯-gomon.45 One day, walking in one of the galleries whence she could see all who passed by, she observed several poor wretches almost naked though the cold was then very intense. Filled with compassion she immediately sent them garments wherewith to clothe themselves. The news of her bounty having quickly spread, great numbers of indigent persons collected from all quarters before her house and she ordered clothing to be distributed among them also. Soon afterwards those whom she had first clothed returned naked as before. She recognised them and having caused inquiries to be made, she learned that they had lost their garments at play. The indignation excited by their conduct closed her hands, which compassion had previously kept open for the relief of the unfortunate. The wife of Ieshige The premature death of the wife of Ieshige, who was called in her lifetime Namino-miyasama, and afterwards Sho¯mei-in, was profoundly regretted.46 She was interred near the temple of To¯ei-zan. One day toward the conclusion of the years Kyo¯ho¯ [1716–35], she was going with a grand escort to the banks of the River Sumida-gawa (at Edo), when the ordinary and extraordinary counsellors, by way of paying court to her, ordered the intendant to plant flowers all along the river. Yoshimune was not pleased with this attention. ‘Women’, said he on this occasion, ‘are like children. If they see flowers on the banks of a river in winter, they imagine that there must be flowers there in every season though they are really to be seen in spring alone, and when they afterwards find themselves mistaken this disappointment makes them angry and fretful.’ Nami no miyasama was the daughter of the dairi; she was brought from Miyako to Edo to marry Ieshige, with whom she lived very unhappily. On this subject she composed the following verses: Omoinaki, Mi ni shiraredomo Furusato no na mo Natsukashiki Miyako-dori kana ‘Never did I conceive the idea of marrying the shogun. Since this union I am cut of from the privilege of going abroad. Miyako is ever-present to my thoughts, and if I perceive any object that reminds me of it, my sorrows are aggravated.’47 Shogunal trophy weapons Here follows a list of the valuables kept in the kinkura, or guard-room within the palace.48 They consist chiefly of weapons, which are carefully preserved in memory

Yoshimune, the eighth shogun 109 of the princes to whom they once belonged. This room is decorated all round with pictures representing lions, whence it derives the name of Shishi-no-ma, or Hall of Lions. The floor is covered with ninety mats, each six feet long and three wide. Here are deposited: 1

2

3

4

5

A pike in the form of a cross, which is always carried in the train of the shogun when he leaves the palace. It was made in the province of Bizen by Nagatsugu in the third year Tensho¯ (1575); it is mounted in silver, and upon it are engraved the arms which the dairi, Kiku-to-kiri, gave to the Taiko¯, and which the latter presented to the Gongen.49 Two sharp-pointed pikes, which are likewise carried after the shogun. It is not known by whom they were made. The family arms of the shogun are engraved upon them.50 A pike with a sheath of tiger’s skin, formerly belonging to Chinzei no Hachiro¯ Tametomo, one of the ancestors of the princes of Ryukyu who are of Japanese extraction.51 The eldest son always has the title of Hachiro¯. This pike is never removed from the palace and is used only at extraordinary ceremonies. A sabre, the hilt of which is enriched with mother-of-pearl. It has never been taken out of the palace since Taiyu¯-in, or Iemitsu, used it in hunting to cleave a wild boar in two. The norimono, palanquin or litter, of Taiyu¯-in, called noda kago, or mailed chair, because it will turn a musket-ball.52 It was made by Okada Kyu¯emon. It is kept in the Kuragari-no-ma, or dark closet.53

All these things are in the care of persons of the shogun’s retinue. Yoshimune’s grandson is born In the spring of the first year of Genbun (1736), it was announced that Oko¯, one of the ladies of the household of Sho¯mei-in, was pregnant by Ieshige, who was then only heir-apparent and who, by the name of Dainagon sama, resided at the palace of Nishinomaru.54 Yoshimune was overjoyed at the news and ordered public prayers to be put up for her happy delivery. On the 11th of the fifth month of the second year of Genbun (1737), Oko¯ gave birth to a son, which event was celebrated with great rejoicings.55 Matsudaira Sakon-no-kami [sic], chief counsellor of state in ordinary, discharged the arrow hikime; it was brought back by his son, Matsudaira Izumi-no-kami.56 The child was suckled after his birth by the wife of Matsudaira Hizen-no-kami.57 ¯ uta-no-kami, prince of Himeji, made him a present of a sabre.58 The whole Sakai O court was intoxicated with joy. Yoshimune, enchanted with the birth of a grandson, immediately repaired to the palace of Nishinomaru where all the princes, and even all his servants, were admitted to pay him their congratulations. The seventh day after the birth of the infant, it was publicly announced in the city that all persons possessing an income of three thousand koku might offer garments, sake and fish, and that their donations would be accepted.

110 Secret memoirs of the shoguns ¯ mi, and Sakai O ¯ uta-no-kami, prince of Himeji, Ii Kamon-no-kami, prince of O solicited Yoshimune to permit the name of ‘Takechiyo’, which the Gongen had borne in his youth, to be given to the infant. He at first refused alleging that it was impossible to foresee how the child would turn out, and that if he proved himself unworthy of the name disgrace would be reflected on the Gongen. Matsudaira Sakon-no-sho¯gen [Sakon-no-kami], Matsudaira Izu-no-kami, Honda Nakatsukasanodayu¯ and Toki Tango-no-kami, having however joined the others in their solicitations the shogun, he at length consented.59 On this occasion, Sagi Niemon sang as follows: Take no sono ha no Hodo mo yoku Chiyo no furu michi Hiki taezu Medetakarikeru Toki to kaya ‘The knots of bamboo (take) are all at equal distances from one another; years and ages roll away without producing any alteration in this arrangement. Thus our happiness will be eternal.’60 Orders were issued throughout the whole empire forbidding all persons whatever to give to their children the name of take, or ‘bamboo’.

Virtuous boys, and Yoshimune’s conduct towards them The boy later known as the prince of Mito The reigning prince of Mito was only eleven years old when he made his first appearance at court, accompanied by Matsudaira Sakon-no-sho¯gen, chief counsellor of state in ordinary, who led him by the hand and pointing to the place where he was to sit when the shogun entered, recommended to him to lay his fan upon the mat, instead of holding it in his hand.61 He then told him circumstantially how he ought to conduct himself. On his repeating these instructions, the young prince replied, ‘It will be time enough to lay down my fan when the shogun comes; respect cannot require me to do it before. Give me then, I pray, more reasonable directions.’ Sakon-no-sho¯gen was struck with this remark, which indicated what Mito promised to become. When Yoshimune was informed of it, he congratulated himself on having in his family a child who at so early an age afforded such proofs of discernment. The boy later known as the prince of Izumo Matsudaira no Kochiyo, prince of Izumo and father-in-law of Kutsuki Oki-no-kami Minamoto no Masatsuna, was likewise but eleven years old when he was admitted for the first time at the palace to pay his respects to Yoshimune.62 The shogun

Yoshimune, the eighth shogun 111 offered him sake in a bowl, which the cup-bearer filled to the brim. The young prince was exceedingly embarrassed, being apprehensive of making himself ill if he drank the whole and not daring out of respect to throw down the sake which the shogun had offered him. Yoshimune, perceiving his perplexity, told him he had better throw away the sake than incommode himself with drinking it. The cupbearer having accordingly brought a vessel to receive the liquor, Kochiyo raised the bowl to his lips, drank a little, and poured the rest into his sleeve, saying that he should deem himself deficient in the respect due to the shogun if he were to throw away what he derived from his bounty. This act was highly applauded. Kochiyo possessed magnanimity; he subsequently distinguished himself in the military profession. His contempt of riches equalled his love of the arts and sciences and especially of painting, which he successfully cultivated. When he mixed his colours he had a custom of trying them on the sleeve of his shirt, which he was in consequence obliged to change very often. The case of Inaba Etchu¯-no-kami Inaba Etchu¯-no-kami, at present one of the life guards of the shogun, was placed at the age of eleven years about the person of the hereditary prince, who was rather younger than himself.63 One day, when the two boys were playing together, Tokugawa Keibucho¯, uncle to the reigning shogun Ieharu and grandfather of the present heir-apparent, went to the palace of Nishinomaru and addressing himself to Etchu¯-no-kami, inquired very sharply how old he was.64 The boy, disliking the tone of this interrogation, would not reply, though the question was several times repeated. Tokugawa urged him to speak, on which, contemptuously turning away his head he said, ‘I am not in his service – what right has he to talk to me like a master? I am here to keep the young prince company. The shogun some years since issued written orders directing that his uncles and brothers should be considered merely as princes. When this man talks to me in so harsh a tone without my having given him any occasion, I need not and will not answer him.’ The case of Takechiyo, later known as Ieharu, the tenth shogun The hereditary prince, Takechiyo, when young, was not deficient in understanding, and wrote a very good hand.65 Yoshimune having one day desired him to write in large letters in his presence, he dipped his pencil and made the letter ryo¯ (the Chinese long) [dragon] from one end of the paper to the other so that no room was left for the dot. When Yoshimune remarked this circumstance to him he placed the dot on the mat, which drew a laugh from the shogun and all the spectators. Another day, he went to the temple of Asakusa, on one of the gates of which is represented Kaminari, the god of thunder, and on the other Kaze-no-kami, the god of the winds.66 Takechiyo asked the priest why the god of thunder had no nipples.67 The priest knew not what to say. In this manner he took delight in puzzling with his questions those with whom he conversed, but his understanding declined with years and at present he is little better than a child.68

112 Secret memoirs of the shoguns

Virtuous officers, and Yoshimune’s conduct towards them Discouragers of extravagance Kan’o Goro¯saburo¯, after having been chamberlain to the shogun and keeper of his wardrobe as well as of his private chest, had become treasurer of the chamber of accounts, by the name of Kan’o Wakasa-no-kami.69 One day, when he had gone to the temple of Nikko¯ to take a general inventory there, he was shown a gold bell made in the shape of a shark, which was much damaged on one side: he therefore ordered it to be turned that the other side, which was in good condition, might be used. The priests, who had already applied to the shogun soliciting him to give orders for the repair of the bell, replied that such a proceeding would be an insult to the memory of the Gongen.70 They also exhibited to Wakasa some gold cups, employed in the funeral ceremonies in honour of that prince and which had likewise sustained injury from the lapse of time, requesting him to order new ones to be bought. Wakasa replied that they would be too expensive and that it would be more economical to have the old ones repaired and new varnished. Hattori Yamatono-kami, governor of Nikko¯, was decidedly adverse to this proposal, observing that the expense of new cups would not he considerable, and declaring that if the old ones were merely repaired he should think it his duty, as long as he held the post of governor, to abstain, out of respect for the Gongen, from using them in the ceremonies in honour of that prince.71 Wakasa was embarrassed, but cut the matter short by declaring that such was the pleasure of the shogun. The governor replied that he was certainly bound to obey, but that for his own part he was determined not to use the old cups again. Hardiness in the ranks Mizuno Sho¯bei, one of the oyoriai, that is one of the persons appointed to attend the ambassadors of the dairi, had the reputation of being very skilful in wrestling. Yoshimune, being informed of it, made him captain of the hyakunin-ban, or guard of one hundred men, and afterwards of the okosho¯-gumi, or guard of the apartments. The latter are of superior rank to the former and are distinguished by the colour of their dress. When he was promoted to the rank of captain, he took the name of Yamashiro-no-kami, and thenceforward exercised his men every day. His attention to this point obtained general approbation. One day, when the shogun was amusing himself with dancing, one of the counsellors of state ordered the captains of the guard to inquire if any of the men under their command understood music. Yamashiro replied, ‘My men are all skilful in military exercises, as their profession requires, but none of them excels in music.’ This answer was universally applauded.

Yoshimune, the eighth shogun 113 Yoshimune’s consideration towards his subordinates72 When the shogun goes out a-shooting, he is always accompanied by some of the guards of his apartments. These men may indeed claim exemption from this duty if they have killed a bird with an arrow. Tani Kingoro¯ had not yet been so lucky, though he had often attended the prince on these occasions; he was overcome with shame and his friends were much distressed on his account. Yoshimune took him once more with him on a shooting party to Meguro, but he was as unsuccessful as ever, and was the more mortified as he was afraid that his awkwardness might cost him his life, or at least his place. The shogun, on their return to the palace, perceived under the New Bridge, near the Gate of the Tiger, a great quantity of carp.73 He ordered Kingoro¯ to shoot one. Kingoro¯ discharged an arrow and having killed a carp presented it to the shogun. He was complimented upon this feat by the whole retinue of the prince. It was conjectured that the shogun was desirous, by way of conferring a particular favour, to afford him an opportunity of retrieving his character, for the number of the carp was so great that it would have been difficult not to hit one of them. One of the soldiers who form the usual escort of the shogun and who had that day, according to custom, to carry his sabre in a wooden box on his shoulder, had the misfortune to fall. The inspector reported the accident to the shogun and asked what punishment should be inflicted on the soldier. ‘How can he have deserved punishment’, replied the monarch, ‘since, notwithstanding his fall and though he has hurt himself, he never suffered the box to drop from his shoulder?’ Yoshimune encourages others to condemn venality Matsudaira Iga-no-kami, grand judge of Miyako, was intimately connected with several of the dairi’s officers, for which reason he was disliked by those of the shogun.74 One day, when the dairi and his court were amusing themselves with reading the Ise monogatari [Tales of Ise] – a work written by Ariwara no Narihira and distinguished for the purity and elegance of its style – a courtier, notorious for debauchery and his inordinate passion for women, expressed a wish that he possessed the genius of the author.75 ‘You possess genius!’ cried Iga-no-kami who was present, ‘Do you suppose that genius can be associated with such manners as yours? It were to be wished that all courtiers like you, were, as a punishment for their licentiousness, to be sent bound to Edo and obliged to put an end to their lives.’ Yoshimune being informed of this answer was delighted with it and conceived such a high esteem for Iga-no-kami that he afterwards appointed him counsellor of state in ordinary.76 Disasters give rise to noteworthy verses There was a considerable fire at Miyako while Toki Tango-no-kami held the office of grand judge there.77 On this occasion a courtier named Kazehaya made the following verses:

114 Secret memoirs of the shoguns Toki mo toki Tango no gogatsuban ni Kaji dashite Edo e shiretariya Mi-shoshi senban78 ‘Such is the time at present: a fire broke out in the fifth night of the fifth month. When the news shall have reached Edo there will be numberless applicants who will harass you without ceasing.’ A few years afterwards there was another fire at the court of the dairi, who was obliged to retire to Iwakura, accompanied by Kazehaya dono and Shimizudani Seicho¯.79 The latter made these verses: Kazehaya to Kiku mo urameshi Teyo no hi wo ‘Whenever I hear a violent wind I dread the breaking out of a fire while it blows.’ His companion immediately replied in these verses: Shimizudani tote Yakemo nokarazu ‘Were it even in a valley watered by a running stream, every thing would be consumed.’ In this manner they mutually alluded to their names.80 The dairi, whose courtiers cultivate poetry, and study to display their wit, applauded this prompt reply. Avoiding causing alarms in the city Toki Tango-no-kami became in the sequel counsellor of state in ordinary. One day, while sitting at the palace in the Hall of Pendulums, with his colleagues, he asked Matsudaira Iga-no-kami, why the counsellors of state made their porters carry them along in their chairs with such speed?81 ‘If,’ replied he, ‘we were to let them proceed slowly to the palace we should be overwhelmed with applicants.’ ‘I am not satisfied’, rejoined Tango, ‘with this answer, for it is our duty to listen to all those who have business with us. If we will not hear them we ought to resign our situations. For my part I shall henceforth order my people to go more slowly that all who need my assistance may have an opportunity of accosting me.’ Matsudaira Sakon-no-sho¯gen then assigned this reason, with which he was better satisfied: ‘If’, said he, ‘any unforeseen circumstance should, as it very possibly might, render it necessary to summon us suddenly to the palace, the people, remarking our extraordinary haste in repairing thither, would immediately be alarmed and infer that some great misfortune had happened. It is to prevent this inconvenience that, agreeably to the commands of the shogun, we are always to repair to the palace with the utmost dispatch.’82

Yoshimune, the eighth shogun 115

Issues of family continuity A problem of filiality and revenge The son of Tani Sho¯bei obtained an inconsiderable post at the palace.83 The following anecdote reflects honour on the courage and filial affection of this young man. Tani Sho¯bei had lent large sums of money to various tradesmen and others, among whom was Ban Rokuzaemon.84 The latter being unable to fulfil his engagements when the time fixed for payment arrived, could not devise any other expedient to extricate himself from the dilemma than to repair to the governor and make declaration that he had lost his djap or seal, and to apply for another to prevent any improper use of the first by the person into whose hands it might have fallen.85 Provided with his new seal, he waited for Tani Sho¯bei, who did not fail to present his bill on the day when it became due. Ban Rokuzaemon, with affected astonishment, denied that he had ever borrowed money of him and even preferred a complaint to Ishikawa Tosa-no-kami, governor of Edo, praying him to investigate the matter.86 The governor ordered both of them to appear before him, compared the bill with Ban Rokuzaemon’s seal, and finding a great difference between them inquired whether the seal upon the bill was his. ‘It is my old seal’, replied he, ‘which I lost in the seventh month of the last year and the bill is dated in the eighth month.’ Sho¯bei was declared guilty of having used the seal of another in making a false bill and sentenced to lose his head. [Sho¯bei’s son,] Sho¯zaburo¯, then twenty-one years of age, convinced of his father’s innocence, exasperated at his unjust death and desirous of paying the last duties to his remains, secretly repaired at night to the place of execution, picked up the head of his father and melting into tears wrapped it in a cloth which he had brought for the purpose. Before he had time to retire, he was surprised by two persons who kept watch there; he drew his sabre, fought bravely, and obliged his assailants to betake themselves to flight. Having escaped this danger he immediately proceeded to the temple of Ho¯sho¯-ji, in the square of Ushigome Shichikenji-machi, asked for the priest, made him a present, and delivered to him the head of his father requesting him to inter it.87 The priest, having inquired into the circumstances of the case, would at first have declined rendering him this service for fear of the unpleasant consequences that might result if the matter were discovered, but at length, moved by the filial piety of Sho¯zaburo¯, he complied with his solicitations and caused the head of Sho¯bei to be interred. The young man, having thus paid the last duties to his father, turned all his thoughts to the revenging of his death upon him by whom it was occasioned. The hereditary prince, Ieshige, went sometimes to take the diversion of hunting to the distance of several miles from the palace of Kosuga. In these parties of pleasure, which usually lasted some days, the counsellors of state followed the prince and stopping at the distance of two miles, formed a kind of circle round him, and provided for his safety. Ban Rokuzaemon having been directed to attend one of these parties, Sho¯zaburo¯ conceived that he had found the opportunity which he sought. He hid in a bamboo one of those sabres which are twenty-three inches long

116 Secret memoirs of the shoguns and are called after the maker Bizen Kunimitsu.88 Disguised like one of the lowest class of the people to avoid being noticed, he awaited the favourable moment. On the 25th of the 12th month of the second year of Genbun (1737), Ban Rokuzaemon, having left his house at daybreak to attend his duty, Sho¯zaburo¯, who was concealed in a thicket of bamboos near the bridge of Yagoro-bashi, saw him pass, preceded by a little boy carrying a lantern. He ran up, threw himself unexpectedly in the way of his enemy and thus addressed him: ‘Thou undoubtedly rememberest Tani Sho¯bei, who fell a victim to thine artifices; in me thou beholdest his son and thy bitterest enemy. Thou knowest the proverb, “A man ought not to live in the world with the enemy of his father.” Every day appeared to me an age in the impatience which I felt to meet with thee; this day is the happiest of my life: now defend thyself.’ With these words he took his sabre from the bamboo and attacked Ban Rokuzaemon. The victory remained for some time undecided. Sho¯zaburo¯ at length laid his adversary at his feet, cut off his head, and lifting it with both hands raised it in silence toward heaven, thus offering it to the manes of his father, as a testimony of his revenge.89 No sooner had Ban Rokuzaemon fallen, than a man, issuing from the thicket, ran up, and perceiving that Sho¯zaburo¯ was alarmed, bade him be of good cheer. ‘My name’, added he, ‘is Takagi Kin’emon; I was well acquainted with the man whom you have killed. I know what instigated you to this action. I witnessed your combat and cannot blame you for having revenged your father, but now that you have performed this duty, permit me to give you a piece of advice which will be not less serviceable to you than to the family of my unfortunate friend. If you do not take the precaution to conceal the body from public view, you will not be able to escape the search that will be made after the murderer and your life will pay for the violation of the laws. Take my advice: put the body into a straw sack, carry it to the wife and children of Ban Rokuzaemon; explain to them the necessity of keeping secret what has passed; tell them to give out that the wretched man died of disease, for if it be known that he was slain in single combat, his son will not be allowed to succeed him in his post. In this manner you will preserve your own place and your life.’90 Sho¯zaburo¯ followed this friendly advice. He carried the body to the house of the deceased and deliberated with his wife and son on the best course to be pursued. It was agreed that the son should report that his father, when in attendance on the hereditary prince, had contracted an illness which had obliged him to return home, where he had died. On the decease of any of the shogun’s servants the counsellor of state who receives information of it sends one of his agents to ascertain whether he died of disease or fell in a duel. Luckily, Takagi Kin’emon was the person to whom the extraordinary counsellor of state, Honda Nakatsukasanodayu¯, gave this commission.91 This deputy did not fail to confirm a report which had been made agreeably to his own advice. The body was consequently interred and Ban Rokuzaemon’s son was invested with his father’s office. This affair seemed to have been long forgotten, when various rumours circulated in the palace called the attention of the counsellor of state afresh to the subject. He

Yoshimune, the eighth shogun 117 summoned Takagi Kin’emon, whom he questioned, and received the same answer as before. But doubting the truth of his account he sent for the high priest of the temple of So¯haku-ji, named Nichijun-no-sho¯nin, who had attended at the house of the deceased previously to the interment, and requested him to declare what he knew.92 The priest replied that it was his duty, when fetched to a corpse, to ascertain whether the deceased had died of disease or in a duel and to make a report to one of the inspectors of the temple, for the purpose of obtaining an order for the interment if it were to take place there; and that the body of Ban Rokuzaemon, being free from any wound, had been buried immediately. The same rumours being again revived the counsellor of state once more summoned the priest before him and insisted on knowing the truth, threatening at the same time to order the grave to be opened. The priest replied that he might do so if he pleased, but if he did he would be never the wiser as the body had been burned. The counsellor of state then required a written declaration, which he made him sign and seal for the purpose of submitting it to the shogun, and thus the matter ended. It appears that the counsellor of state was acquainted with all the particulars, but as it was his duty to make inquiry on the subject, he demanded this paper to cover his responsibility. The two sons of Tani Sho¯bei were still living when the author of this narrative committed it to writing.93 A wise judgement by Yoshimune saves a family from extinction94 Among the officers of the shogun there was one named Itakura Shu¯ri, who had an income of seven thousand koku, and was obliged to commit suicide.95 The particulars of this tragic adventure are curious; they serve moreover to convey some idea of the manners of the Japanese, of the superstitious spirit of the higher classes and of the despotism of a government which pronounces sentence of death without the formality of trial.96 Itakura Shu¯ri was a descendant of Suwa-no-kami, chief judge of Miyako, whose brother, Itakura Naizen, was an ordinary counsellor of state.97 His father was, like his ancestors, an officer of the shogun and he succeeded him in the twelfth month of the first year of Genbun (1739). About this time he was attacked by a dangerous illness which alarmed his relations, who assembled to consult respecting the state of his health. A skilful physician undertook his cure and the patient grew better from day to day. After his recovery he married the daughter of Tatebayashi Minbuno-jo, a woman of superior understanding, and who paid particular attention to her domestic concerns. But whether the medicines administered to Shu¯ ri during his illness impaired his reason, or the ginseng root which he was in the habit of taking affected his brain, he became subject to paroxysms of insanity in which he knew not what he did. Maejima Rin’emon, his chief secretary, who was sincerely attached to his interest and that of his family, and fearful lest in his fits he might commit some act of violence in the palace for which he would be infallibly doomed to lose his employment and to have his revenues confiscated, represented to him that the most

118 Secret memoirs of the shoguns prudent course he could pursue would be to resign his post and to live in retirement; more especially since possessing, as he did, an income of more than three thousand koku, he was entitled to the rank of prince.98 He added that as he had no child of his own he ought to adopt one and that his kinsman, Itakura Sado-no-kami, who had several, would not refuse to give him one of his sons worthy of supporting the splendour of his house.99 Shu¯ri, instead of adopting these wise suggestions, flew into a vehement passion, and could scarcely be restrained from laying violent hands on Rin’emon. He dismissed him, however, from his service, threatening to kill him whenever he should meet him. Rin’emon, finding that his counsel was rejected, went and complained of it to Shu¯ ri’s wife, and having assembled all his master’s relations informed them of what had just happened and of the ill success of his zeal for preserving to their house the income of seven [sic] thousand koku, adding that Shu¯ri so far from thanking him for it threatened his life. All of them censured Shu¯ri’s conduct and gave him advice, which only served to increase his rage to such a degree that his wife was obliged to quit his house. His family and friends were apprehensive lest when he went upon duty to the palace he should commit some act of violence, the consequence of which would be the loss of his post and the confiscation of his property. To prevent such a misfortune, Sado-no-kami sent for Kato¯ Uemon, the confidential servant of Shu¯ri, directed him to inform his master that he must not quit his house till further orders, and laid a special injunction on Uemon to prevent him from going out. Shu¯ri, to whom Uemon communicated these orders, repressed his passion in order to lull distrust, and seemed resigned to what was required of him, while his heart was burning with rage, and persuaded that all the persecutions he experienced were owing to Sado-no-kami, who was desirous of compelling him to resign his office and to obtain it for his son, he swore to sacrifice him to his vengeance. As it would have been difficult to execute his design in the house of the counsellor of state, he resolved to attack and kill him in the palace itself. With this view he eluded the vigilance of Uemon and repaired thither on the 15th of the eighth month, earlier than usual, that he might surprise Sado-no-kami. On that day the great officers and all the servants of the shogun go to the palace to present their offerings to their master, and the princes offer in person a sacrifice of two small porcelain flasks full of sake to the god Hachiman Dai-bosatsu, Hosokawa Etchu¯-no-kami, prince of Higo, repaired according to custom to the palace, though his servants had forewarned him that extraordinary circumstances seemed to portend some great misfortune to him.100 The two flasks of sake which he designed to offer were thrown down, though no person had touched them, and the liquor was spilt on the mats; and a ball of fire had been seen in the first days of the month, flying from the prince’s palace along Shiba Street. Notwithstanding these sinister omens, the prince thought he could not avoid going to pay his respects to the shogun. In passing through the apartments of the palace, followed only by a kurogi kansai, or keeper of the palace, he was met by Shu¯ri, who, taking him in the dark, and owing to the resemblance of his arms, for Sado-no-kami, rushed furiously upon him and gave him a sabre wound, which left him weltering in his blood. The attendant ran away and hid himself so that some time elapsed before

Yoshimune, the eighth shogun 119 the event became known. At length To¯ma Sadagoro¯, one of the inferior officers of the shogun, whose duty brought him accidentally to the spot where the outrage had been committed, finding a wounded man on the ground with a naked sabre by his side, hastened to report the fact to the inspector of the palace, who immediately went thither and ordered search to be made for the culprit. This inspector, whose name was Tsuchida Han’emon, and Komita Ni’emon, on examining the wounded person with attention, discovered that it was the prince of Higo.101 They asked him the name of the assassin, but as the prince was too faint to reply they could not obtain any information from him. They inquired which of the attendants had accompanied him through the apartments, but no one could tell. Han’emon, conceiving that the assassin must be still in the palace, ordered all the doors to be secured, and taking with him a great number of attendants he went through all the apartments without finding any person. Meanwhile assistance was procured for the prince, but it proved of no avail. At length, one of the keepers of the apartments, named Moroi So¯ga, having gone into a private place in which fire is constantly kept, found there a person who seemed to be much agitated and who was cutting off his hair with a pair of scissors. He asked who he was. Shu¯ri, for it was he, replied that he had just killed a man and that he was cutting off his hair in order to become a priest. So¯ga immediately made his report. Two inspectors went to secure the murderer, who made no resistance. He was conducted into the great hall, and there shut up. The report being spread that one of the princes who had come to pay their court to the shogun had been assassinated, a great agitation ensued among the persons of their retinue who were in waiting outside the palace, each being apprehensive for the life of his master. The assassin, being brought before the chief inspector, answered the questions put to him in so confused and incoherent a manner that he was thought to have lost his senses. He was nevertheless recognised to be Itakura Shu¯ri, an officer of the council chamber. All the lords, and among others Sado-no-kami, came to ascertain whether the culprit really was Shu¯ ri, and having thoroughly satisfied themselves that he was, the counsellors of state drew up a report in which they informed the shogun that Hosokawa Etchu¯-no-kami had been assassinated by Itakura Shu¯ri. The old shogun, on reading this report, appeared to be deeply afflicted.102 Then, either doubting the death of the prince, or deeming it prudent to conceal the event for some time, he ordered his wound to be dressed by his surgeons, and boiled rice and water to be given to him. The counsellors of state replied that this could be of no service since the prince had been long dead, but the shogun pretending not to hear them repeated the order to give him boiled rice and water. He caused it at the same time to be publicly reported that the prince of Higo had been wounded by Shu¯ ri, but was still alive, and one of the sub-inspectors, in a loud voice, ordered a person to tell the guard at the gates to desire the prince of Higo’s servants to carry his chair to the back entrance to take up their master. This order produced the best effect and the confusion instantly subsided. The attendants of the other princes were relieved from their anxiety. Even those of the prince of

120 Secret memoirs of the shoguns Higo took courage, thinking their master to be still living, and thus tranquillity was restored. The body of the prince was carried away in his chair, and Nagaoka Kyu¯shiro¯, one of his attendants, seated himself in it beside him, though this is contrary to etiquette in the interior of the palace, but the shogun had given him permission. Nagaoka, before he entered the chair, expressed his acknowledgements for this favour to the counsellors of state, who assured him that the assassin was apprehended and should undergo the punishment due to his crime, and therefore the prince’s people ought to remain quiet till they should hear farther from the shogun. The servants of the prince of Higo were profoundly afflicted by his death. The women burst into tears. His relations assembled and resolved to inform the shogun that the prince had died of his wound. Scarcely had they come to this determination when Hotta Sagami-no-kami, chief counsellor of state, arrived to inquire in the name of the shogun, concerning the state of the prince, and brought a dish of dried smelts in token of his affection.103 The relations were deeply sensible of this extraordinary favour; they requested the counsellor of state to convey their thanks to the shogun and to assure him that they should bear his condescension in everlasting remembrance. After his departure they again deliberated, and finally agreed to defer the report till the following day. Next day, Hori Shikibunodayu¯, ordinary counsellor of state, came on behalf of the heir-apparent to inquire after the health of the prince of Higo, declaring that his master was extremely uneasy about him, and bringing a present of Korea ginseng for the solace of the patient.104 He then announced in the name of the shogun that the permission to adopt his youngest brother, which Hosokawa had solicited in the preceding year was granted and that his adopted son should succeed him even if the father were no longer living. The family received this new favour with the warmest gratitude: it was a great consolation to them under the misfortune which they had experienced. The report of the prince’s death was deferred till the 21st and then that event was publicly announced at the palace. The counsellors of state met to deliberate on the fate of Shu¯ ri, who was unanimously condemned to die, as well as Kato¯ Uemon, who was in some measure the primary cause of the prince of Higo’s murder because he had not performed the orders he had received to prevent Shu¯iri from leaving his house. Ishikawa Tosa-no-kami, chief inspector of the palace, and Suganuma Shinzaburo¯, the sub-inspector, carried on the 22nd a written order, in the name of the shogun, to Mizuno Kenmotsu, prince of Oka, in whose custody Shu¯ri had been placed, to the following effect:105 To Itakura Shu¯ri: Some days since in thy fury thou didst wound the prince of Higo, who has died in consequence of the injury. As a punishment for thy crime, thou shalt rip thyself up at the house of Mizuno Kenmotsu, whose servant shall cut off thy head.

Yoshimune, the eighth shogun 121 On the reading of this order Shu¯ri flew into an outrageous passion, but all resistance was useless and he was obliged to obey. All his relations were commanded not to leave their houses. The order relative to Shu¯ri’s servant, Kato¯ Uemon, was couched in these terms: Itakura Sado-no-kami had enjoined thee to take care that Shu¯ ri should not go from home. Thou hast disobeyed this order and a great misfortune has been the consequence. As a punishment for thy disobedience thou shalt be conducted before the house of Itakura Shikibu; there thy hands shall be tied behind thee and thy head cut off. The order read to Kurogi Kansai, keeper of the apartments, was as follows: Whilst attending the prince of Higo thou wast witness of his misfortune and didst run away instead of assisting him. Conduct so cowardly and so inhuman deserves death, but as thou art but a servant of inferior class thy life is spared and thy property is confiscated. Criticism of deriving advancement from others’ distress The prince To¯do¯ Izumi-no-kami had bought for one hundred koban, a sabre of great value.106 Delighted with the cheapness of his bargain he ran to show it to his father, and told him the price. ‘I cannot conceive,’ said the father, ‘where you have picked up this sabre, or out of what well you have drawn it’ (an expression used in Japan in reference to anything that is sold for less than its value). Izumi acknowledged that it was dirt cheap, and seemed overjoyed with his bargain. The father soon made him ashamed of his exultation. ‘Such a bargain’, said he, ‘proves that the seller is in distress and that necessity compels him to dispose of his sabre. Does it become the prince of Tsu, with an income of thirty-six thousand koku, thus to take advantage of the misfortunes of another?’107 These words were uttered in so austere a tone that the son, ashamed and confounded, went to seek the vender and gave him one hundred koban over and above the stipulated price. The shogun is father of all Mochitsuki San’ei was a man of superior understanding, a very skilful physician and extremely charitable.108 Passing one day over the bridge of Edo-bashi he saw the child of a beggar covered with the smallpox and having nothing but a wretched straw mat for garment and bed. He supplied it with the necessary medicines and sent it food, and these attentions he continued till its convalescence. His colleague, Tachibana Ryu¯an, being informed of his beneficence, reproached him for it.109 ‘You do very wrong,’ said he, ‘to trouble yourself about beggars. You have been prescribing too for the old comedian, Ichikawa Ebizo¯, while he was ill.110 You degrade us by such conduct. We are the physicians of the shogun and ought not to have any thing to do with low people.’ ‘On that point I cannot agree with

122 Secret memoirs of the shoguns you,’ replied San’ei. ‘The shogun is the father of his people and it is our duty to relieve the ailments of his children. Accordingly, when I see a person who is ill in the street, even though it were a beggar, I am anxious to afford him all the succour I can, and in so doing I only perform my duty.’ Ryu¯ an was silenced by this answer, and retired quite abashed. An early instance of Yoshimune’s wise judgements Tsuruoka Dennai, an officer of the prince of Kishu¯ [pre-elevation Yoshimune], enjoyed a yearly salary of one hundred koku.111 He was unmarried, had no family and but one servant, named Genzo¯, a bold, hale man. He was extremely frugal so that notwithstanding the smallness of his income, he acquired in a few years considerable wealth. About the middle of the fifth month of the first year of Kyo¯ho¯ (1716), Dennai, having sold one hundred bales of rice, received payment for it in specie, which he locked up in Genzo¯’s presence. The latter, tempted by the sight of the money, resolved to possess himself of it in the night, and fearful lest his master might awake and prevent the execution of this design, he determined to make him intoxicated and then murder him. To this end he provided a good supper and plenty of very strong sake. Dennai, after eating and drinking copiously, went to bed and soon fell into a sound sleep. About midnight Genzo¯ softly opened the door, approached the bed and finding his master fast asleep, drew his sabre and killed him, after which he packed up the money, clothes, sabres and everything else of value that he could find, and fled with his booty. Dennai had no relation at Edo; his death therefore excited at first but little sensation and no one thought it worthwhile to make search for the assassin. Shimizu Shinjiro¯, however, an intimate friend of the deceased, who resided at Kishu¯, was soon apprised of the fatal event. He had no doubt that Genzo¯, who had absconded, was the murderer. He swore to punish him for the crime, from a conviction that it is a duty incumbent on friendship to avenge the death of those to whom we are attached. Shinjiro¯, in consequence, solicited leave of absence of the prince of Kishu¯, who granted his request. His petition was to this effect: I am one of the servants of your highness; your kindness to me is eminent as a mountain and profound as the sea: I shall never cease to be grateful for it. A dreadful misfortune has befallen me. Tsuruoka Dennai has been assassinated by his servant Genzo¯. The murderer has carried off all the effects of his victim and fled. Search is making for him, but in vain. I solicit leave of absence for some time to seek the villain and beseech your highness to be graciously pleased to grant it. Furnished with this permission, he prepared everything necessary for his journey, then recollecting that Genzo¯, who was a native of the eastern part of the empire, spoke the dialect of Edo, and thinking that he might possibly be still in that city, he proceeded thither without loss of time, hired a house, and began to give lessons

Yoshimune, the eighth shogun 123 on the flute in order to procure the means of subsistence during his stay. Meanwhile, he made diligent search for his enemy, and knowing that Genzo¯ was acquainted with his name, he changed it to that of Yamana Sachu¯. At night he frequented the streets, the public places and the brothels. In one of the latter he met with a young female named Akishino, who was very handsome and lived upon the produce of her charms. He conceived an attachment for her and even promised her marriage. When he was satisfied that she was worthy of his confidence, he informed her of the motive that had brought him to Edo and requested her to assist him in his inquiries. He described as well as he could the age, face and person of Genzo¯, charged her to take particular notice of all visitors to the house, and made her promise to send him word if she met with any resembling the description which he had given, and to conceal him (Sachu¯), in some place where he might have an opportunity of examining and recognising the culprit. One day a messenger brought to Sachu¯ a letter from Akishino acquainting him that there was at that moment in the house a man closely resembling the person he had described and urging him to come immediately to see whether it was the man whom he was in quest of. Sachu¯ immediately obeyed the summons, ran up stairs to Akishino’s apartment and desired her to show him the man in question. Akishino, after begging him not to make so much noise, led him to a place near the room where the stranger was and where he might be seen through the wainscot drinking sake with several of his friends. Sachu¯ recognised Genzo¯, and transported with rage would have rushed upon and killed him, but was withheld by Akishino who represented the danger to which he would expose himself. She told him that Genzo¯ would pass the night at the house, that the next morning he would go to the bath and thence return to his own home. ‘If you will take the trouble to follow him then,’ said she to Sachu¯, ‘you will discover where he lives and be sure of finding him whenever you please.’ Sachu¯ yielded to her persuasions. He waited till the next day, followed Genzo¯ on his return from the bath and when he was about to enter his house called out to him in a terrible voice: ‘Art not thou Genzo¯, the servant of Tsuruoka Dennai?’ Genzo¯, in great alarm, replied that Dennai had no relations and asked by what right he put this question. ‘Thou hast murdered Dennai,’ replied Sachu¯, ‘thou hast stolen his effects and absconded with them. I am not related to Dennai, it is true, but he was my best friend and I will fulfil the duty of friendship to him by pursuing thee unto death.’ ‘Well,’ rejoined Genzo¯, ‘I am ready to give thee satisfaction, but wait till evening and let us choose a more suitable place; here we should have too many witnesses of our combat. I will meet thee at dusk near the temple of So¯sen-ji.’112 Having thus agreed upon the place and hour, Sachu¯ returned home, burned his letters and his pocket-book and called upon Akishino to take leave of her. He begged her to cause his body to be interred, if he should have the misfortune to be killed by Genzo¯, and to inform his relatives of his death. ‘What do you take me for?’ replied Akishino. ‘Am I your wife? You know that by profession I cannot belong to any one exclusively. Why then should I care whether you are killed or not?’ Sachu¯, enraged at her indifference, loaded her with reproaches and on leaving her hastened to the temple of So¯sen-ji to meet his enemy. Genzo¯ soon arrived and both after fresh mutual provocations drew their

124 Secret memoirs of the shoguns sabres and commenced the fight. Sachu¯, being extremely weak, was not able to make headlong against his powerful adversary, and must very soon have fallen had not a handsome young man flown from the temple to his assistance, and going behind his adversary given him a cut with his sabre. When Genzo¯ turned about to face his new assailant, Sachu¯ struck him a blow which brought him to the ground, and cut off his head. He then threw himself into the arms of his deliverer and inquired who he was and what guardian angel had sent him to his assistance. ‘Look at me!’ replied a voice that was familiar to him. ‘I am not what you take me to be. I am your beloved Akishino. Forgive me for having treated you with such apparent harshness. I was frightened at the advantage which Genzo¯’s strength gave him over you. Had you seen me dissolved in tears, and had we given way to our feelings in taking leave of one another you would have gone still weaker and more dispirited to the fight. I, therefore, thought it best to irritate you, that you might be the better able to withstand your antagonist. But as this precaution was not sufficient to pacify my uneasiness, I changed my dress and seizing the sabre of one of the men who are now amusing themselves in the house, I arrived just in time to save you. Thank the gods for the success of your combat and to prevent any unpleasant consequences, lose no time in reporting what has happened to government.’ Shinjiro¯, whom we now call by his real name, warmly expressed his gratitude to her and followed her advice. The matter was minutely investigated and Genzo¯’s crime being proved, Shinjiro¯ was acquitted and allowed to return to Kishu¯. The prince released Akishino from the house in which she lived, by paying her ransom and gave her her liberty. Shinjiro¯ married her as much out of affection as gratitude, and had by her two sons, one of whom was his heir and the other the heir of Dennai. The latter took the name of Tsuruoka Dengoro¯, and had the income of one hundred koku enjoyed by Dennai. Thus Shinjiro¯ revenged the death of his friend and received the reward of attachment. May those who peruse this history imitate what is praiseworthy in his conduct and perform the sacred duties of friendship with equal courage and perseverance! Yoshimune rewards loyalty When Yoda Izumi-no-kami, governor of Edo, was only keeper of the apartments and steward to the shogun, with a salary of three hundred koku, it happened that the prince of Nanbu sent a crane to the shogun.113 The latter was very fond of this bird, but the season in which the physicians permit it to be eaten being past the shogun inquired whether it would do him any harm to eat of it when salted. The physician replied in the negative and the crane was immediately dressed. It is customary for the dishes to be first tasted by one of the officers of the palace. Izumino-kami was on duty the day the crane was dressed and when the dishes were brought for him to taste he forbade the crane to be carried to the shogun, saying that it was out of season and citing the authority of the canonical books which prohibit the eating of animals and fruit except at certain times of the year. He even refused to taste the crane, notwithstanding the opinion of the physician, alleging

Yoshimune, the eighth shogun 125 that the life of the shogun was too precious and that his own was dearer to him than gold and wealth. The shogun being informed of the circumstance commended his conduct and could not forbear expressing a wish that he had many such servants. He appointed him inspector of the palace and afterwards governor of Edo, a post which Yoda filled with honour. Severe rules may be bent to help people It is forbidden upon pain of death for any female, be her age what it may, to pass the guard of Hakone at Edo. In case of a violation of this prohibition, those who accompany the culprit, and the sentinels who have suffered her to pass, share her fate.114 Fuwa Hikozaemon, who lived at Yamabe in Edo, was obliged by some family business to go to Harima.115 He was very poor and had two children, a girl and a boy; the former eleven and the latter nine years old. His wife had been dead a long time. Not knowing any one with whom he could leave his children during his absence, he resolved to take them with him, and to deceive the guard he cut the girl’s hair and dressed her in boy’s clothes. The sentinels, imposed upon by this disguise, actually allowed them to pass. Hikozaemon, pleased with the success of this stratagem, conceived himself out of danger, when a groom running up, congratulated him on having so fortunately passed with a girl dressed like a boy, and asked for something to drink. Hikozaemon, alarmed at this challenge, assured the man that he was mistaken as both his children were boys, at the same time offering him a few sepikkes to get some sake.116 The groom refused them with contempt, demanding koban and threatening to inform of him unless he complied. Hikozaemon, incensed at his importunity, returned no other answer than a few blows with the flat of his sabre on the back. The groom, to revenge himself, immediately ran and informed the guard that a man had just passed with two children, one of whom was a girl. The sentinels were thunderstruck, since, as it has been observed, their lives would be forfeited if the fact were proved. They deliberated for some time and were at length obliged to dispatch men to apprehend the culprit. The commanding officer, however, had had the presence of mind to send on before one of his people with a little boy with orders to exchange him for the girl. Hikozaemon had stopped at a tavern to drink with his children when a man entered, leading a little boy by the hand, and said to him, ‘As I came by the guard-house, I heard a person inform of you for having passed with your daughter disguised as a boy. Feeling for your situation, I am desirous to save you and your family from the fate with which you are threatened. You will be presently arrested, but be not alarmed: substitute this boy for your girl and if the accuser persists in his charge, make no scruple of cutting off his head.’ The house was soon invested: Hikozaemon was called for and ordered to bring his two children; he produced them and both were found to be boys. The groom in astonishment declared that the girl must have been changed, but Hikozaemon affecting the highest degree of rage, drew his sabre and cut off his head. The guards applauded this action, saying that to invent such lies to ruin innocent people was a crime deserving of the severest punishment.

126 Secret memoirs of the shoguns Hikozaemon, after their departure, took back his daughter, thanked his benefactor and proceeded on his way. A false accusation is detected117 One of the inferior servants of the shogun, named Yu¯ asa Go¯zo¯, had a daughter who was constantly ill; he took her to the hot baths in hopes of re-establishing her health. He had been there three weeks when three men belonging to the retinue of the prince of Satsuma came to see him and requested him to lend them ten koban, promising to repay him at Edo.118 Go¯zo¯ declined, alleging that he was poor and his daughter’s illness very expensive and expressing his regret that it was not in his power to accommodate them. They appeared to be satisfied with his excuses, and as he was to set off the next day, they invited him to supper, purposing to detain and make him drunk with sake. Go¯zo¯, having no suspicion of their design, accepted the invitation and after supper finding that it was late, he returned thanks and begged permission to retire that he might take a little rest before his departure. Next morning, very early, he set off, but had scarcely proceeded three miles, when, on examining his sabre, which seemed heavier than usual, he discovered that it was not his own. He immediately returned, went to the persons with whom he had supped the preceding night and delivering to them the sabre, begged pardon for having taken it away in a mistake. Instead of accepting his excuses, they replied that this was an affair which could not be so lightly passed over; that he could not have offered them a greater affront than in exchanging his sabre for one of theirs, and that they would be dishonoured if it were known at Edo that they had not taken a signal revenge for it. They therefore, declared that he must fight them and urged him to fix the time and place for the combat. Go¯zo¯ complained of their injustice, reminded them that he had with him a sick daughter who would be left destitute if he were to perish by their hands and again entreated them to pardon him, assuring them that his daughter and himself would never cease to bear their kindness in grateful remembrance. All his remonstrances were fruitless. Finding, therefore that he could not appease them, he was compelled to accept the challenge and agreed to meet them the following day. Go¯zo¯, on leaving them, reflected on his situation which was in reality terrible, for he had no other alternative than either to perish in the combat, or, if he vanquished his enemies, to die by his own hand. Such was the law established by the prince of Satsuma. In this dilemma he called upon one of his friends, who was a servant of the prince of Mito, related to him what had happened and begged that he would lend him a pike to equip him for opposing his antagonists. His friend not only gave him his pike, but assured him that he would accompany him as his second and assist him if he saw him in danger. Next day Satsuma’s three servants repaired to the field of battle where they were met by Go¯zo¯. They were armed with long sabres while he had nothing but his pike, which, however, he plied with such dexterity and success that with the two first thrusts he extended two of his adversaries at his feet. The third, apprehensive of sharing their fate, ran away. Go¯zo¯, after pursuing him for some time, but without

Yoshimune, the eighth shogun 127 being able to overtake him because fear lent him wings, returned to the place of combat for the purpose of dispatching himself. At this moment his friend ran up, wrested his arms from him and cheered him by representing that justice was on his side as he had been provoked in an unwarrantable manner and obliged to defend himself. ‘I witnessed the combat,’ added he, ‘I will make my report of it and be bail for you. Meanwhile, the best thing you can do is to lose no time in acquainting the governor of Edo with what has happened.’ The governor wrote in consequence to the prince of Satsuma, who soon afterwards returned for answer that on inquiry he learned that the malefactors were not his subjects, but must have come from some other province. Go¯zo¯ was in consequence set at liberty and thus the affair terminated. Punishment lightened because of a history of service119 Sakakibara Shikibunodayu¯ was adopted by the prince of Himeji.120 He was a man of excessive prodigality who distinguished himself in the years Genbun [1736–40] by foolish expenses and neglected the duties of his post. Neither the orders of his master nor the remonstrances of his relatives had weight enough to produce a change in his conduct. Every night he frequented the street of the courtesans and visited in particular the house of Miura-ya, where he found a girl whom he knew named Takao, whose mother had been his nurse.121 In all his debaucheries he took with him two of the most celebrated taiko mochi, or men who make a profession of diverting, for hire, rich libertines, by their buffooneries. The following anecdote will furnish some idea of his profusion. One day, having gone with his two attendants into the house of pleasure called Owari-ya, behind which there was, as usual in such places, a small artificial mount, he covered this mount from top to bottom with koban, as he might have done with flowers.122 Yamabuki, one of his old servants, remonstrated with him and represented the consequences of such conduct if it should reach the ears of the shogun, but he paid no attention to him. Soon afterwards he paid the ransom of Takao and set the girl at liberty.123 The follies of Shikibunodayu¯ could not fail to come to the knowledge of the shogun and the counsellors of state, who severely reprimanded him in writing. It was at first intended to strip him of everything, but as his ancestors had rendered important services to the Gongen in his wars, and it was moreover considered that he was not the son but only the adopted son of the prince, and that before his adoption neither himself nor his family was of any note, it was thought right not to treat him with such severity. He was removed, indeed, from Himeji, but a district, producing a revenue of fifteen mangoku, was assigned to him in the province of Echigo.

The succession124 Yoshimune had four sons, the eldest of whom, Ieshige, his successor, was born in the province of Kishu¯.125 In the second year of Enkyo¯ (1745), Yoshimune resigned ¯ -gosho, which signifies the government to his son, Ieshige, and was then named O

128 Secret memoirs of the shoguns ‘the great palace’. In the fourth year of Kan’en (1751), he was attacked by the disorder of which he died. Three years before, he had a paralytic seizure which at first prevented him from walking. He had however so far recovered from its effects as to be able to take several times the pleasure of the chase. He was again attacked by the same disorder in the fifth month of the last mentioned year, and so rapid was its progress that in the following month public prayers were ordered to be put up for his recovery, in the temple of To¯ei-zan, and in the other principal temples.126 The physicians were specially charged to neglect no means for restoring him to health, but all their efforts were fruitless and he expired on the 20th of the same month, to the great regret of the whole empire.127 The mourning was general. Women and children, the high and the low, wept for him as for a father. He was interred near the temple of To¯ei-zan. Hotta Sagami-no-kami, the ordinary counsellor, O¯ oka-Echizen-no-kami, the lord of the temples, and Kano¯ Wakasano-kami, the inspector of the chamber of accounts, were charged with the superintendence of the funeral. Narishima, his favourite physician, who was very old and himself at the point of death, made some verses on his master to this effect:128 As my master is now exposed to the dew and the rain, so I incessantly steep my sleeves with my tears. Thus heavy showers descend and moisten the trees.129

4

Ieshige to Ienari

Ieshige, the ninth shogun Mimanoto no Ieshige, eldest son of Yoshimune, succeeded to the government by the resignation of his father, as already stated, in the second year of Enkyo¯ (1745). Baba Bunko’s negative evaluation of Ieshige Baba Bunko¯, a servant of Yoshimune and author of the work entitled Kyo¯ hiroku, or, ‘secret history of remarkable occurrences in the palace during the reign of Ieshige’, gives the following account of this prince:1 ¯ -gosho [Yoshimune] in the fourth year [of] Kan’ei (1751), Ieshige On the death of O became sole master of the empire and governed without control.2 An inordinate passion for women and strong liquors had already impaired his health. In his youth and when still but heir-apparent, he had indulged those propensities to such excess that his father had severely reprimanded him on the subject, and with a view to divert him from his bad inclinations, he had frequently in the years Genbun [1736–40] made him pass six or seven days together at the country house of Sugano-goten, where he had no other amusement than hawking.3 After the death of his father, being released from the only curb that restrained him, he again plunged into the same excesses, and spent whole nights either with women or in drinking sake, so that his health declined from day to day. His speech became affected; he could no longer make himself understood but by signs, and he was obliged to issue his orders through Izumo-no-kami.4 He was soon obliged to keep to his apartments on account of a weakness of the urinary organs. According to an ancient custom, the shogun is obliged to go every month to the temples of Ueno, Zo¯jo¯-ji and Momiji-yama to offer up his prayers before the tablets consecrated to his predecessors on the day of their decease.5 It was not without difficulty that Ieshige was able to perform this duty. One day, on the first of the month in the fifth year of Ho¯reki (1755), returning from the temple of Ueno in his palanquin, he had scarcely reached the ginseng warehouse, which is close to it, when he felt a natural call which he could not defer till his arrival at the palace, and which compelled him to order his people to take

130 Secret memoirs of the shoguns him back to the temple, a circumstance heretofore unexampled. The architects were immediately commanded to erect three resting-places for the prince on each of the two roads to the temples of Ueno and Zo¯jo¯-ji, but this precaution was useless as the increasing infirmities of the shogun confined him ever afterwards entirely to the palace. Two examples of virtue in Ieshige’s second wife We have already seen that Ieshige married, during the reign of his father, Nami no miyasama, daughter of the dairi. We have at the same time made mention of Oko¯, the daughter of Hachijo¯ dono, one of the officers of the dairi whom that princess had taken into her service and whom she carried with her to Edo after her marriage.6 Ieshige, having had the misfortune to lose his wife, cast his eyes on Oko¯, and, in the 2nd year of Genbun (1737), had by her a son, Ieharu, who is the reigning shogun (1782).7 Oko¯ was not sparing of remonstrances to the prince on his passion for women, protesting that she did not speak thus from jealousy but for his good and out of concern for his health, which his debauchery threatened to ruin entirely. The prince, irritated by these frequent representations, at length confined Oko¯ in the part of the palace called Ninomaru, and ordered that no person, not even her son, should be admitted to her.8 No sooner was the old shogun informed of this than he directed two counsellors of state to go to his son and tell him, in his name, to set Oko¯ at liberty, to conduct her to him themselves, and to reconcile them with one another.9 He commended the conduct of this female and censured that of his son, who had not scrupled to disgust the empire by confining the mother of the hereditary prince for a cause which rather deserved his warmest gratitude. The indulgence shown on another occasion by Oko¯, in favour of one of her rivals, did her great honour and proved at the same time that it was not jealousy to which the advice and remonstrances that had drawn upon her the displeasure of Ieshige were to be attributed. The daughter of Miura Ho¯zaemon, having become pregnant by the prince at the second palace [Ninomarn], the counsellors of state informed Yoshimune of it and solicited him to send a girdle to her by her nearest relative, according to the custom of Japan.10 Yoshimune refused, saying that he had indeed conferred this favour on the attendant of the dairi’s daughter, but that he could not grant it to the daughter of a person of such low extraction. Ukon-no-Sho¯gen, one of the counsellors of state, having nothing to urge against this reason, proposed by way of accommodation that the girdle should be transmitted without ceremony and presented by Oko¯.11 The latter cheerfully complied and approved this arrangement as consistent with her way of thinking. When this fact became publicly known, the whole empire applauded the liberality of Oko¯, and the name of Ukonno-Sho¯gen, who was then but young, acquired deserved celebrity. Oko¯ did not long survive this event.

Ieshige to Ienari 131 The prince of Chikuzen secures improper privileges through family connections The prince of Chikuzen (or Chikushu¯, a province on the north coast of the island of Kyushu to the east of Nagasaki), one of the most illustrious princes by his birth and personal merit, but not high in rank, privately applied to the two chief counsellors of state to obtain for him the title of sho¯sho¯, which was contrary to custom as none of his ancestors had been invested with it.12 Through their mediation, however, he obtained the honour that he desired. His son had married a daughter of the prince of Satsuma, whose mother was the eldest sister of the shogun’s father.13 She complained that her father-in-law, though one of the most illustrious of the princes, was so much inferior in rank and insisted on his being made sho¯sho¯, a wish which the counsellors of state found means to gratify. Not content with this honour, he was desirous, as being allied to the prince of Satsuma, to be allowed to erect as large a door as that prince had in front of his palace, and solicited from the court permission to that effect, which was refused.14 He then wrote as follows to his son, ‘Since my daughter-in-law is also allied to the shogun, I am desirous of erecting a door similar to that of Mutsu and Satsuma. Those princes, it is true, married daughters of the shogun, and your wife is only a daughter of Satsuma, but have in readiness wood and other requisite materials, and when the wife of Satsuma is coming to pay you a visit, let a door similar to that of Mutsu and Satsuma be erected, and no notice will be taken of the matter.’ His son followed this advice and thus the prince obtained all that he had desired. A proper privilege for a devout lady Honko¯-in, mother of the prince of Chikuzen, was distinguished from her youth by great religious devotion.15 She was profoundly versed in everything connected with religion; the priests themselves consulted her with benefit and found it to be to their advantage to follow her advice. The high priests of the temples of Myo¯ko¯ji, Sho¯so¯-ji and Enmei-in, at Edo, were her kinsmen.16 The two latter temples were aggrandized through her patronage. That of Tanjo¯ -ji, having been consumed by fire and there being no funds for rebuilding it, the high priest of Enmei-in was, on his application, removed to it for the purpose of accelerating its re-establishment.17 On his recommendation, Honko¯-in caused a new temple to be forthwith begun. When it was finished, the high-priest solicited his colleague of the temple of Minobu, of the sect of Hokkei-shu¯, to present Honko¯ -in with a kesa.18 The kesa is a purple scarf which is put on over the ordinary garments and which none but the priests of the sect of Hokkei-shu¯, or the persons most learned in religious matters, have a right to wear. This honour is not enjoyed by priestesses. The kesa was granted to Honko¯-in. Since her time, it has been possible to obtain it with money, which has of course greatly diminished its value. It was by the same means that the prince of Chikuzen attained the rank of sho¯sho¯.19

132 Secret memoirs of the shoguns Unjust levies on regional princes In the fourth year of Ho¯reki (1754), the rebuilding of the central part of the temple of Ueno, at Edo, was commenced. Uesugi Oi-no-kami, prince of Dewa, was ordered to defray the expense.20 Accordingly, he caused a great quantity of wood to be bought and a workshop erected. On every piece of timber was written, ‘To rebuild the temple of Ueno.’ When the work was finished, the inspector and persons sent by the shogun came to examine it and approved the manner in which it was executed. The expense amounted to a considerable sum. Uesugi then received orders to rebuild also, at his cost, the grand entrance to the same temple. As this new expense would have entirely ruined him, he begged to be dispensed from it, but at first without effect. Fortunately, he was related to the prince of Owari, who interested himself in his behalf and who, having sent for Hotta Sagami-no-kami, ordinary counsellor of state, represented to him that it was unjust to require such heavy sacrifices from a prince possessing so little power and property, and above all to impose on him a fresh burden after he had just borne one that was so oppressive.21 He therefore insisted that Uesugi should be relieved from the charge of rebuilding the entrance. Fresh arrangements were in consequence made and the task was transferred to the prince of Kokura.22 A virtuous prince corrects unruly behaviour The grooms of the prince of Owari had rendered themselves formidable by the outrages which they committed publicly, and in open day, upon those who happened to offend them. In the 11th month of the fourth year of Ho¯reki (1754), a man going alone and without attendant met eight of these grooms in the street at Shinagawa.23 He happened, unfortunately, to jostle one of them. The latter loaded him with abuse, which he bore with patience at the same time begging pardon for what had happened, but they all fell upon him and beat him unmercifully. The wretched man could scarcely crawl to the guardhouse, where he stated that he was in the service of Mizuno Yamashiro-no-kami, and that having gone out upon urgent business he had fallen in with a troop of villains who had reduced him to the state in which he appeared, adding that he could not walk and desiring to have a palanquin to carry him to his master’s house, where he died soon after his arrival.24 Yamashiro loved his servants and his soldiers as his children. Incensed at this atrocity, he caused strict search to be made for the discovery of the perpetrators and having ascertained that they were Owari’s grooms he repaired to the palace of the prince, informed him of what had happened and demanded the heads of the eight culprits. Owari admitted that his resentment was just; he declared his readiness to give him satisfaction, but said that he never would consent to sacrifice eight lives on account of the murder of one man. Yamashiro, still more exasperated by this answer, insisted on his demand, protesting that unless he obtained complete justice he would rip himself up before the face of the prince and that his death would not go unrevenged. Owari, seeing that he was resolute, promised to satisfy

Ieshige to Ienari 133 him and Yamashiro, assuring him that he would not retire till the culprits were punished, the eight grooms were brought forth and their heads struck off. This example made their comrades more circumspect. Replacement of a wicked ruler Though a prince is a sovereign in his own palace and possesses absolute power over his subjects and dependents, yet he is equally at the disposal of the shogun, with the meanest of them. Their secretaries, therefore, are in a state of continual anxiety during the time of their residence at Edo.25 Some of them have been known to cause the heads of their servants to be cut off for the slightest faults. Such was the case, about ten years since (1772), with Kii no Chu¯nagon, prince of Kishu¯, and a kinsman of the shogun’s.26 This prince committed many cruelties and sometimes put to death three or four persons with his own hand in one day. His mother, having once severely reproached him for his barbarity, he clapped his hand to his sabre, but his people ran up and confined him in a distant apartment. As the shogun had not sufficient power to depose him, he applied to the dairi, who immediately divested him of the title of chu¯ nagon.27 When he had thus become an ordinary prince, the shogun sent him a written order purporting that he deprived him of his title and that since he was incapable of governing his province, he forbade him to quit Edo. His uncle, a petty prince with an income of five mangoku, was entrusted with the government till his adopted son [i.e. his ward, Shigeyon’s actual son] should be of age to succeed him; he then received orders to rip open his belly.28 At the shogun’s it was asserted that he died a natural death. Prince of Satsuma’s attitude to his retainers’ lives When the dependants of one prince insult those of another, the latter would be dishonoured if he were not to revenge the affront. The prince of Satsuma, whose subjects traffic in the Ryu¯kyu¯ (Loo Choo) Islands, and in all the principal commercial cities of the empire, with a view to prevent quarrels with other princes has decreed that if one of his people is insulted by one of the subjects of another prince, he may revenge himself by killing his adversary, provided he takes his own life immediately afterwards. The lives of two persons, who by their turbulent dispositions are the cause of their own destruction, seemed to him of too little importance to involve their masters in disputes which might be attended with fatal consequences. If one of his people is insulted by another and dares not from cowardice revenge the affront, and if the circumstance comes to the knowledge of the captain or any of the sailors, the coward is conducted to the fore-part of the ship and without a shadow of trial his head is struck off and with the body thrown overboard. Owing to this summary mode of proceeding the people of the lower class treat one another with the greatest politeness and are careful to avoid as much as possible whatever is likely to generate quarrels.29

134 Secret memoirs of the shoguns A beneficial legacy of Yoshimune Matsudaira Ukon-no-Sho¯gen, who is at present ordinary counsellor of state, is indebted for that post to the old shogun, who discovered his merit notwithstanding his youth. On his first appointment every one exclaimed against the danger of conferring such important functions on a person of his years. He did not fail, however, to justify the confidence of the shogun and soon showed that he was capable of conducting the affairs of the government. He possessed activity equal to his abilities. His extreme indulgence to his inferiors won their affection and gained him universally the character of an excellent master. The old shogun, before he died, whispered in his ear so as not to be overheard by any other person, that he was to direct alone all the affairs of the state. Friction between a rightful minister and an upstart ¯ oka Izumo-no-kami, one of the bodyguards of the young shogun, Ieshige, rose O from day to day higher in his favour. The counsellors of state, both ordinary and extraordinary, applied to him to submit their petitions to the shogun, and the placemen from highest to lowest paid court to him. Whoever was desirous of obtaining an employment, or being removed to a better, had recourse to him and offered him presents. Ukon-no-Sho¯gen was the only one who was above calling upon him, nay, he did not even send him the tail of a fish. 30 ‘He is but one of the bodyguard,’ said he, ‘while we are officers of distinction. Let others do as they think proper, I, for my own part, am resolved not to degrade myself.’ Thus there was always some coldness between them. Ukon-no-Sho¯gen gave himself no concern on that account, but continued to perform the duties of his post with zeal and intelligence. Trickery defeated by the cunning of the chief counsellor The inferior officers of the shogun are fed at the palace. They assemble morning and evening to take their meals in a hall appropriated to the purpose. Their food consists of a soup made of beans, called miso (a paste prepared with soya, rice) and cucumbers preserved in sake. The superintendent of the kitchen, a greedy and selfish man, took advantage of his office to enrich himself, selling the articles with which the palace was supplied by the shogun’s people and buying others of the worst quality at a low price in their stead. The fare thus grew worse and worse and the unfortunate servants, being only of the lower class, durst not complain. At length, these tricks came to the ears of Ukon-no-Sho¯gen. He felt indignant that an officer of the palace should have the meanness to speculate in the food of poor people who had but small salaries and were obliged to work night and day. He reflected at the same time that if the affair were to be publicly investigated there would probably be found many peculators who would lose their places, and therefore devised a milder expedient. At the hour of dinner, he went unexpectedly into the kitchen and desired to taste the different dishes. The attendants brought him some of good quality; he said nothing and went away. Next day he again took

Ieshige to Ienari 135 them unawares and went without stopping into the dinner-hall to taste the dishes, which he found extremely bad. The cooks turned pale and gave themselves up for lost, but he said not a word, and retired. From that day the cooks, apprehensive of fresh visits, were afraid to continue their manoeuvres: the fare again became as good as it had formerly been and the poor domestics felt the warmest gratitude and affection for Ukon-no-Sho¯gen. A wicked chief counsellor appointed ¯ -Gosho, or Yoshimune, the old shogun, had ceded the government to his When O son, he went to reside in the second palace. His household, divided into three classes, amounted to ninety persons, each of whom was allowed two gantings and a half of rice per day, or seventy bales a year.31 After his death, these people were discharged by Hotta Sagami-no-kami, and all of them expressed their discontent at such harsh treatment.32 To prevent a tumult, he gave to those who had been in the service twenty years fifty koban, and thirty to such as had served ten years, that, as he said, they might be enabled to support their wives and families. The shogun had given them a place to live in; Hotta Sagami turned them out, and each was obliged to hire a small apartment. Deeply grieved at such a procedure, they consulted together what was to be done and drew up a petition which they presented to the high-priest of the temple of Ueno, soliciting to be employed by the reigning shogun, as they had been by his father.33 On delivering it, these unfortunate people were dissolved in tears. The high-priest promised to lay it before the counsellors of state and to speak to them in their behalf, which he did, but without effect. Among these poor creatures was a man named Nakashima Shinbei, who went every day for three years to entreat the priest to procure his re-appointment, but his efforts proved unsuccessful owing to the malice of the above-mentioned counsellor of state. Such conduct is without a parallel: to treat innocent people in this manner is the height of injustice. Public hatred of the chief counsellor, and his imperviousness to it34 Hotta Sagami-no-kami, whilst yet only keeper of the palace of Osaka, was much esteemed and in great reputation for his extensive knowledge, in which particular he surpassed even that celebrated scholar, O¯ oka Echizen-no-kami, who was surnamed ‘the old lord of the temples’, but his cruelty to so many old servants of the late shogun, whom he turned without cause out of their places, rendered him an object of public hatred.35 One night some person placed over the door of his house a head cut out of a pumpkin, and underneath a label with this inscription: This is the head of Hotta Sagami-no-kami, which has been cut off and placed here on account of the inhuman conduct which he has pursued for several years. The author of this piece of revenge was not discovered.

136 Secret memoirs of the shoguns A servant of the chief keeper of the palace, perceiving something extraordinary over the door and not knowing what to make of it at a distance, approached and saw the pumpkin and the writing. He communicated the circumstance to the porter who carefully removed them both. When Sagami-no-kami was informed of this trick, he related it himself to his colleagues and to the other officers of the palace, who laughed and applauded his firmness. A prince is accursed for desecrating gravestones Inaba Mino-no-kami, prince of Odawara, caused two stones to be brought from the mountain of Hakone;36 they were sepulchral monuments of Soga no Goro¯ Tokimune, renowned for his valour, and of a woman named Tora, both of whom died in the time of Yoritomo Mino-no-kami.37 Having placed two new monuments on their graves, he set up these stones in his garden, called the one Goro¯-ishi and the other Tora-no-ishi, and took care to keep them sheltered from wet and to have them frequently cleaned to prevent decay.38 His second son, Inaba Hoso¯, from whom Inaba Etchu¯-no-kami is descended, in a direct line, being desirous of having one of these stones for the purpose of placing it in his garden, his father gave him the Tora-no-ishi. This was in the time of Daiyu¯-in sama [Iemitsu], about one hundred and ten years ago.39 After the death of Inaba Hoso¯, no care was taken of this stone, which was at length so completely covered with earth that nobody knew where it lay. Since that time (if we may believe the popular rumours recorded in manuscripts), the house of Etchu¯-no-kami has been afflicted with extraordinary calamities: the children born in it could not be reared, but all died young. The priests who were consulted on the subject ascribed these misfortunes to the Tora-no-ishi. Search was made for it in the house and garden, but for a long time to no purpose. At length a dealer in wood, a very aged man, recollected that it must be under ground in a certain place in the garden, which he pointed out. On that spot was actually found, at a considerable depth, a stone which proved to be the Tora-no-ishi. The woodman was ordered to put it into his cart and carry it to the temple, but he refused, alleging that he was apprehensive of some bad consequences and besides, it was not his business but that of a stone-cutter. Mineshima Tokiemon, the mason, was accordingly sent for. The preceding night this man had dreamt that a very beautiful woman had stepped up to him and whispered in his ear, ‘Tomorrow something belonging to my body will be committed to thy charge; handle it, I pray thee, with great care.’ Next day, when he was sent for to the house of Etchu¯-no-kami and had received orders to remove the stone, he recollected his dream and executed the commission with great caution. He had no doubt that the female who had appeared to him was Tora herself. After the removal of the stone to the temple, there was an end of the prodigies at Etchu¯-no-kami’s. When eleven years old, he was placed about the person of the heir-apparent, afterwards shogun, to bear him company. It was he who gave Keibucho¯, uncle to the shogun and grandfather of the present heir-apparent, the

Ieshige to Ienari 137 bold answer which is recorded in the Kendai genpiroku, and has been introduced in a preceding page [p. 110]. Iemitsu’s sabre At the entrance of the palace is to be seen a sabre with a long hilt enriched with mother-of-pearl; it belonged to Daiyu¯-in sama, the third shogun.40 One day when this prince was hunting, a wild boar of enormous size, which had just been wounded, rushed furiously upon several of the hunters. The shogun, armed with this sabre, boldly went to meet the animal and cleft him in two with a single blow. Ever afterwards he caused this sabre to be borne before his norimono whenever he went abroad.41 This practice was discontinued at the death of the shogun. The governor of Edo cleverly seeks out talent When O¯ oka Echizen-no-kami was appointed governor of Edo, he sought out all such persons as excelled in any art or science, but principally in arithmetic.42 He designed one of the latter for the shogun, to be employed in the chamber of accounts. His choice fell upon Noda Bunzo¯.43 Echizen sent for him and told him that having been informed that he was one of the ablest arithmeticians of Edo, he wished to propose a question to him. Bunzo¯ expected some intricate calculation, when the governor asked the quotient of one hundred divided by two. The former, sensible that to return an immediate answer to so simple a question would be to throw a sort of reflection on its absurdity, asked in consequence for his tablets, made the calculation, and replied fifty. Echizen-no-kami commended him and said, ‘Had you answered at once I should have formed a bad idea of your politeness. At present I see that you act in every point with discretion: the shogun wants such a man as you.’ He appointed him first arithmetician; in the sequel Bunzo¯ became inspector of the chamber of accounts, and he continues annually to obtain promotion. Another curse for wickedness Hotta Sagami-no-kami, at present first counsellor of state, has in his district the mountain of Masakado-yama or Sho¯mon-san, which was invested in the first year of Tenkei (938), by Taira no Masakado, a descendant of Kanmu tenno¯.44 During the reign of the third shogun, Daiyu¯-in sama [Iemitsu], the first counsellor of state, Hotta Ko¯zukenosuke, obtained a revenue of one hundred and eighty thousand koku, and the rank of jo¯shu¯-no-sho¯sho¯; he was the favourite of the shogun.45 ¯ tomo So¯go¯, had about The chief bailiff of the village of Sakura-machi, named O this time a quarrel with a servant of Ko¯zukenosuke. The latter was so incensed at it that he caused So¯go¯ to be seized and himself and all his family to be fastened to crosses on the summit of the mountain of Masakado-yama, and pierced with pikes. Butcho¯-ji, his uncle [sic], a priest of the temple, was beheaded.46 On reaching

138 Secret memoirs of the shoguns the place of execution he was at first quite outrageous, but afterwards becoming more calm and resigned to his fate he said, ‘This prince is a barbarian, to treat me thus, who am a priest and have had no hand whatever in the actions of my nephew. Never was there an instance of such injustice. But let him beware, in three years, or if the term be shorter, in one hundred days, he and his will be punished.’47 Ko¯zukenosuke set out soon afterwards from Edo for his district, without giving notice of his departure, agreeably to the order which he had received. The shogun was incensed, confiscated his country and his mansion and gave the direction of it to the prince of Awa.48 After the decease of the shogun, Ko¯zuke died in the province of Awa. It is related that when he left Edo without notice, the soul of So¯go¯, beaming with joy, led his horse by the bridle. Hotta Sagami-no-kami, a descendant of Ko¯zuke, after many years obtained, through the favour of the shogun, a grant of the same country, but with a diminished revenue of eighty thousand koku. He made the old mansion his residence and built the temple of So¯go¯-no-miya to appease the soul of So¯go¯, and afterwards the temple of Ho¯ju¯-in.49 Dotage and succession Though the shogun, Ieshige, had been honoured at his birth with the name of Takechiyo, a name which the Gongen had borne in his youth, the sequel showed that the fears of Yoshimune were well founded. After he had entirely exhausted himself by the excessive indulgence of his passion for women and strong liquors, he became almost an idiot. As it was a crime to call him so, the people applied to him the term anpontan, which is the name of an herb that is said to take away the senses for some time.50 Ieshige had two sons: Ieharu, who succeeded him, and Ko¯nai ko¯ Shigeyoshi, who is still living (1782) and who is said to have for his wife the most beautiful and amiable woman in the whole empire.51 In their infancy, Ieshige ordered Sano Tsushima, prince of Tsushima, to send to China for some of the carp that are caught below the cascade of Ryu¯mon-notaki.52 It is asserted that if these carp are burned, the ashes mixed with water, and children washed with it, the smallpox, when they have it, is extremely favourable, not attended with any danger, and leaves no marks. When the carp had arrived from China, Ieshige ordered them to be prepared in the manner just mentioned and the bodies of his two sons to be washed every season in the water in which the ashes were mixed. Ieshige, dying after a long and painful illness, was succeeded by his eldest son, who ascended the throne in the tenth year of Ho¯reki (1760).53

Ieharu, the tenth shogun Minamoto no Ieharu enjoys the reputation of being a good prince.54 The remarkable occurrences of his reign are as follows:

Ieshige to Ienari 139 Planned insurrection on behalf of the dairi In the third year of Meiwa (1766), Yamagata Daini plotted a conspiracy in which the court of the dairi is said to have been implicated.55 Takahashi Bunchu¯, the physician, and Takenouchi Shu¯an were engaged with him: the latter was an excellent soldier and a man of prepossessing person and agreeable conversation. After consulting with Fuji Umon, an officer of high reputation, they were convinced that they had not among them a person of sufficient influence to ensure the success of the enterprise.56 They found that they wanted a distinguished leader whose name was capable of infusing the utmost confidence into the conspirators and they considered to which of the servants of the dairi they ought to apply in preference. Shu¯an, who had gained many friends at the court of the dairi during his long residence at Miyako, observed that Okamoto To¯an, a physician of Miyako, was, as well as himself, an intimate friend of Tokudaiji-no-dainagon, a servant of the dairi, a man of great bravery and abilities, who had often declared in their hearing that he was ashamed of living in such a mean way with the dairi, while the shogun, nay even the princes, lived in greater splendour than the dairi himself; and that if he had sufficient strength he would overthrow the government.57 They in consequence directed Okamoto To¯an to communicate their design to him in hopes that, if he entered into it, they would obtain a written permission from the dairi. Fujii Umon proposed to Shu¯an to send for To¯an to Edo. Shu¯an, approving this plan, dispatched a messenger to Miyako with a letter containing three koban for travelling expenses. Yamagata Itsuki, the elder brother of Yamagata Daini, was summoned from the province of Kai. Kagami Kazusa, a priest of the temple of Miwa, and his son, Kagami Shinano, accompanied him and fixed their residence in the street of Reigan-jima.58 Many other persons entered into a written engagement, signed with their blood, to join in this enterprise. Among the principal of these were: Oda Mino-no-kami, prince of Ko¯zuke, possessing a revenue of two mangoku; his son Hakushichi; his cousin Oda Tsushima-no-kami, one of the lowest class of princes whose revenue was only two thousand seven hundred koku; Shikibu, son of Tsushima-no-kami and several others of inferior rank.59 Makita Gizaemon, secretary to Mino-no-kami, endeavoured to dissuade his master, representing to him that Oda no Nobunaga, one of his ancestors, had been a great friend of the Gongen, who had conferred lands and wealth on his relatives after they had been stripped of their possessions by the Taiko¯;60 that for this reason it would be an unworthy action in him to draw the bow against the descendants of that great shogun; that Yuino Sho¯setsu, a man of great abilities, was nevertheless unable to make himself master of the castle of Edo; that Marubashi Chu¯ya, notwithstanding his courage had been taken without fighting; that Bunchu¯, Shu¯an, Umon and To¯an, though men of talent, were not to be compared with Sho¯setsu and Chu¯ya;61 that the project was too dangerous and if it proved unsuccessful would cost him his possessions and his life. Mino-no-kami, incensed at these representations, called him a cowardly ignorant fellow, compared him to the frogs in a well which have no idea of the immensity of the ocean, and forbade him ever to

140 Secret memoirs of the shoguns appear again in his presence. The secretary wept bitterly, complaining that his master would not follow good advice, abstained from eating and drinking, and died in twenty-one days. The conspirators resolved to commence operations by setting fire to Edo by means of fireworks, which they ordered Miyasawa Junso¯ and Momonoi Kyu¯ma to prepare. But Shimizu Reiso¯ assured them that those men were not skilful enough to make such fireworks as they would require for the execution of their design. He added that for this purpose it would be necessary to bring to Edo Asakura Ro¯an, a servant of the prince of Amagasaki, and several of his companions.62 Daini agreed to this proposal, and Umon insisted that they ought first to procure a large stock of rice. In this stage of the business, Imamura Genshi, Naito¯ Genshiro¯, Shigeyama Rokuya and Tateki Kurobei, entered into the conspiracy. The first three were servants to Abe Iyo-no-kami, counsellor of state;63 they offered gold, silver, and whatever else was wanting, and thereby gained the confidence of the ringleaders, who acquainted them with their whole plan. These men also signed the engagement with their blood, declaring that if they were trusted, they would do their utmost to seduce all their companions. They were believed and all the particulars of the plot were communicated to them. Umon, having sent for Yawataya Denzaemon, the rice-merchant, requested him to lend him a large sum of money for an affair of importance. The other, wishing to know the purpose to which he alluded, Umon replied that he wanted it to buy rice; that as the season was unfavourable, the crop that year would be small and the price would be very high. ‘Buy up all you can’, added he, ‘and store it away in your warehouses; the price will rise every day and this will be a profitable speculation for you and me.’ Agreeably to this advice, Yawataya bought up all the rice he could meet with in Edo and brought it in vessels to Shinagawa, to the amount of four hundred thousand bales.64 Okamoto To¯an, who lived at Miyako, was in mourning for his wife and confined himself to his house without going abroad, when he received Chu¯an’s letter. He opened it. It contained, as usual, nothing but an invitation to come to Edo to confer on matters respecting which it did not enter into any particulars, with an offer of three koban for the expenses of the journey. This invitation puzzled him; he resolved, however, to set out the next day with the messenger and to leave his house in the care of his faithful servant, Zacho¯. Before his departure, he went to take leave of his friend, Tokudaiji-no-dainagon, and to inform him of his journey to Edo. The latter took pen and paper, and composed some verses, which he gave to To¯an, requesting him to deliver them to Chu¯an on his arrival at Edo. To¯an travelled day and night and was soon at Edo. He proceeded directly to the house of Daini, who lived in the street Nagasawa-cho¯, and with whom Chu¯an lodged. While the servant was announcing his name, there came thither one Takatsuki no Zezo¯, who had been appointed to form connections at Osaka, and who brought intelligence that everything was going on as well as could be wished. To¯an was warmly welcomed by Daini and Chu¯an, and conducted into an inner apartment. He began by acquainting them with the death of his wife, and after

Ieshige to Ienari 141 receiving their compliments of condolence he took from his pocketbook the paper given to him by Tokudaiji-no-dainagon, and delivered it to Chu¯an, who, on opening it, found these verses: Wasaru gusa Wasururu tane no Ari mo tsure Wa e wa wasurenu Mukashi nari keri These lines have a double signification, which constitutes the beauty of poetry in Japan. According to one they mean: The plant, gusa, which is at present forgotten, bears abundance of fruit, I well remember how highly it was esteemed in former times. Taken the other way, which conveys the real meaning of the writer, they signify: Though at the present day people yet wear arms, they have forgotten how to fight, I still recollect how we formerly used them.65 Chu¯an, on reading these lines, wept for joy and declared that if the enterprise should succeed, Tokudaiji should be placed upon the throne. Chu¯an and Daini informed To¯an that they had sent for him to Edo to request him to beg Tokudaiji to obtain for them from the dairi a written order to excite revolt at Edo, with a view to give a degree of legitimacy to their undertaking, and to secure them from being treated as outlaws and rebels. To¯an promised to speak to him in private on the subject after his return to Miyako and to inform them immediately of the result of this interview, after which they might come themselves and concert farther proceedings with him. The garden of Mino-no-kami at Edo, in the place Akasaka Tameike, near a large pond, was that evening the place of rendezvous.66 More than one hundred of the conspirators met there to deliberate on their project. It was on this occasion that To¯an first became acquainted with Mino-no-kami. Chu¯an related to the prince that To¯an was charged with the direction of the conspiracy at Miyako, and that Tokudaiji would, in all probability, join their ranks. In support of this opinion he took the verses from his pocketbook and showed them to the company, who all drew from them the same conclusion. It is related that at this meeting a great noise was heard in the garden. Some persons ran with a light to see whence it proceeded and found a serpent, upwards of ten feet long, coiled round a branch of a pine tree at the foot of which were a number of frogs apparently engaged with the reptile. The wind was very high. An unknown bird descended from the atmosphere and carried away the serpent; the frogs immediately plunged into the pond, from the surface of which rose a

142 Secret memoirs of the shoguns yellowish vapour. All the conspirators were astonished and terrified at this event. Daini and Umon were silent. The brother of the former, [i.e. Itsuki,] said to him, ‘You have seen this prodigy; it is a sinister omen. There will be traitors among us by whom we shall be betrayed.’ ‘I view it in a more favourable light’, replied Umon: ‘all serpents feed upon frogs, but here the frogs were so numerous that the serpent was unable to cope with them. The unknown bird which came and carried it off denotes that we shall make ourselves masters of Edo.’ The conspirators, cheered by this explanation, returned to their respective homes. Abe Iyo¯-no-kami, the counsellor of state in ordinary, being informed that Yamagata Daini and Fujii Umon had for some time past held secret meetings which were attended by a great number of persons, sent for the three servants of whom mention has been made above, and ordered them to use all possible means to obtain admittance to these meetings and to ascertain their nature and object. They succeeded beyond their expectations. On enrolling themselves among the conspirators, they had promised implicit obedience and had subscribed their engagement with their blood, which gained them the entire confidence of Daini and Umon. They were present at the conference in the evening just mentioned and disclosed to their master all that had passed. He shuddered at the recital, and enjoined secrecy. There was a mine at Yokono Ginzan in the province of Tamba.67 Yasuke, servant to Tominaga Do¯ji, a disciple of Daini’s, was sent thither to seduce the workmen. He knew that they were not at liberty to leave the mine; he nevertheless sent them money, victuals and sake, and when he had thus won their confidence and that of their overseer, he told them that he had just received information in a letter from his master that a gold mine had been discovered in the mountain of Nikko¯-san, near the tomb of Gongen; that the shogun had granted him permission to work it, but he was in want of skilful miners and was therefore directed to take ten or twelve of them along with him to Edo. The overseer observed that this could not be done without difficulty, but if he would give the men double pay they would run away in the night. To this he agreed, and engaged ten miners and two carpenters, who secretly carried the necessary implements to the houses of their friends, whence they fetched them at night and fled with Yasuke to Edo. It was a very dark, tempestuous and rainy night, when they reached the house of Daini, who received them in a friendly manner, gave them something to eat and drink, and conducted them to Oda Mino-no-kami. Genba and Tanomo, his secretaries assigned to them for their habitation an empty house surrounded with a bamboo fence, to prevent them from leaving it.68 ‘You are brought hither’, said Genba, ‘at the instance of Oda Mino-no-kami who has good intentions: what he requires of you is to make a secret way under ground by which he may escape in case of need.’ They undertook the job and declared their willingness to set about it immediately. He showed them the place, on which they fell to work and had soon advanced to the distance of three streets, whence they continued their operations to the interior of the place, close to the apartments of the hereditary prince, supporting the passage on either side with shores and rafters. At the commencement of the conspiracy, Daini had consulted two able military officers, Sato¯ Gendayu¯ and Momonoi Kyu¯ma, respecting the means of gaining

Ieshige to Ienari 143 possession of Edo. The former was always in want of money and incessantly applying for more. Daini was at length curious to know how he spent it and finding that he applied it to his personal expenses, he refused any farther supply and thought no more about him. Gendayu¯, exasperated at this treatment, complained of it to Kyu¯ma and Miyazawa Junso¯, representing that the enterprise could not possibly succeed and that it would be better to disclose the plot to the first minister of state: they agreed to do so in hopes of being rewarded by the shogun, and violated their oath. Kyu¯ma and Junso¯, accordingly, went to the house of Matsudaira Ukon-noSho¯gen, the first counsellor of state. He was at the palace. They therefore wrote a letter, which they sealed, and waited at the gate of entrance, where they were joined by Gendayu¯. When the counsellor of state arrived, they gave the letter to one of his attendants, who delivered it to his master in his norimono. Ukon-noSho¯gen, after reading it, desired them to walk in and told them that as it related to a matter of such importance and which demanded a minute investigation, it was his duty to secure their persons. He immediately ordered them to be put in irons and closely watched in an apartment, as though it were a prison. After mature consideration, he sent the next day for Abe Iyo¯-no-kami, showed him the letter and told him that he had detained the three informers. He represented to him that if the examination were to take place in public the conspirators, apprised of the discovery of their design, might accelerate its execution, and that it would be better to keep the matter as private as possible till all the accomplices should be apprehended. Iyo¯-no-kami replied that he had long been acquainted with the whole affair; that three of his people had gained admittance among the conspirators and informed him of all their proceedings, and that he coincided with him in regard to the propriety of secrecy till they should have secured Daini and Umon. To accomplish this object, he ordered his three servants to entice Umon into the street of the courtesans at Yoshiwara, and there to secure his person in the manner which he minutely described, recommending to them to be careful not to hurt him. Daini and Umon knew not that their plot was discovered. The former repaired with Chu¯an, Takatsuki no Zezo¯ and Tateki Kurobei, to Shinagawa, to divide their accomplices between the houses of Fuchu¯ and Hakone, while Umon and Itsuki remained at home to superintend matters in Daini’s absence.69 Genshi and Rokuya found Umon, who had caught a cold, in bed. They advised him to rise and take a walk with them to amuse himself. Itsuki urged him to the same effect, assuring him that he should not mind being left alone to take care of the house. Umon at length consented and dressed himself, on which all three went to the house of pleasure at Kikyo¯-ya.70 The landlord provided a good dinner and meanwhile sent for Kazusa, Yoshino, and Segawa, three female favourites of Rokuya, Umon, and Genshi, with whom they drank copiously, and then proceeded to the house where those girls lived. Kihachi, the chief domestic, offered Umon a large plate full of all sorts of delicacies and several young females came to bear them company, playing on the shami[sen], and dancing. While they were amusing themselves, Rokuya, having gone into another apartment, wrapped himself entirely, with the exception of his

144 Secret memoirs of the shoguns head, in a counterpane of red gilam, and returned in this state to the company, saying that it was the devil’s dress, that he would run after them and whoever he should first touch, should be obliged to take his place.71 The game began, and each strove to avoid him, but at length he touched Umon’s mistress. According to the conditions of the game she should have taken Rokuya’s place, but she begged to be excused; Rokuya affected to insist on her compliance, till Umon offered himself in her stead. As this was just what Rokuya wanted, he made no objection. Umon was therefore wrapped in the counterpane, which was strongly bound on with cords. Then, on a signal which Rokuya gave by whistling on a flageolet, several persons entered and seized Umon. The latter was exasperated to the highest degree against Rokuya and Genzo¯ [sic72] and protested that if he could have foreseen their treachery, he would certainly have killed them. They then put him into a nagamochi, or box, which was tied with a thick rope, and in this manner he was conveyed to the house of Iyo¯-no-kami, who immediately dispatched emissaries to secure Daini also. The chief officer, Tsutsumi Sadaemon, marched before followed by Sumoto Goro¯suke and after him Araki Cho¯shichi, each accompanied by sixty persons: they entered the house, but found there Itsuki only, who told them that Daini and Chu¯an were at Suruga and that Umon had gone out for a walk and was not yet returned. They secured Itsuki, searched the whole house, locked it up, put seals upon the door and left it under the care of the officer of the ward. Shimizu Reiso¯, the physician, seeing so many people go into the house conceived that the plot was discovered and hastily opening Daini’s writing-desk, took out of it a paper, supposing it to be the engagement signed by the conspirators, and escaped by the back door. Without stopping to examine the paper, Reiso¯ ran to the house of Iyo¯-no-kami, and desired to speak with the counsellor of state. Being admitted to his presence, he declared that Daini and Umon had formed a plot for the destruction of Edo; that he had unfortunately been prevailed upon to join them, but foreseeing that their plan could not succeed, he had secured the written engagement entered into by the conspirators, with the intention of delivering it to the government; that he had accordingly come for the purpose of giving it to him and hoped his repentance and the important service he was rendering to the state would obtain him his pardon. This Iyo-no-kami at first promised him: but, on opening the paper he found, instead of the expected document a receipt for making tea. Enraged at the deception practised upon him he sent Reiso¯ to prison. Everything connected with this affair being known to the three servants of Iyo-no-kami, the news of it soon spread. The chief officers, after seizing Itsuki, set out for Suruga, where, as they were informed, they should find Daini and Chu¯an. These two conspirators having proceeded thither with Zezo¯ and Kuro¯bei, their accomplices, had stopped a night at Kanagawa at the house of the host O¯ yamaya Tanbi. They had bathed and were at supper in the hall when the officers arrived at Kanagawa and, learning that the persons of whom they were in search were still there, they surrounded the house. They were seized without difficulty, bound with cords, thrown into carts over which

Ieshige to Ienari 145 nets were fastened, and in this state carried to the residence of the governor of Edo, which they reached about ten o’clock. Asakura Ro¯an, the physician, a skilful mechanic, was in the service of Matsudaira To¯tomi-no-kami, prince of Amagasaki, who transmitted orders to his secretary to arrest him and send him to Edo.73 He was carried thither in a norimono enveloped with a net, and committed to the custody of the prince. The governors had orders to seize To¯an; they accordingly caused him to be apprehended by their people, who left him in the care of the officer of Goto¯ Street. Chu¯an, Umon and Daini, having been examined by Ukon-no-Sho¯gen and Iyo¯-no-kami, counsellors of state, and their declarations corresponding with the deposition of the three servants of the latter, it was deemed unnecessary to continue the interrogatories. Chu¯ an, Daini and Genba were sent to prison; as for Umon, a very strong and resolute man, they were obliged to construct for him a kind of separate prison, called hakoro¯, made of deal planks, two inches thick, joined together with iron plates and covered on all sides with plates of the same metal in the form of crosses.74 Here he was kept, strictly guarded, about a year, during which time search was made at neighbouring seaports for his accomplices, but without effect. At length in the following year, the counsellors of state resolved to bring the affair to an issue. On the 21st of the 8th month of the 4th year of Ten’a [sic] (1767), Abe Iyo¯no-kami read the sentence, in presence of Tsutsu Yamato-no-kami and Naito¯ Chikara.75 Umon and Daini were beheaded; the other accused persons were banished, removed from their posts, or reduced to inferior stations, according to the part which they appeared to have taken in the conspiracy. A list of these condemnations is given below.76 Some writers allow, that so mild a sentence reflects great honour on the humanity of Abe Iyo¯-no-kami, others ascribe it to the fear excited by the relatives of the conspirators, and assert that Okamata To¯an was acquitted from deference to the dairi, and apprehension of his resentment. Yawataya Denzaemon, the rice merchant, a just and pious man, was the son of a poor labourer. After his father’s death, his mother kept him with her for two years, but poverty at length obliged her to put him to service and to retire secretly from Edo to enter herself into the service of a priest near Kokura. Denzaemon, deeply afflicted at the flight of his mother, often went into the temples to pray to the gods that he might find her again. Umon had assisted him in his search, and at length discovered her. Denzaemon was so grateful for this kindness that after the punishment of the conspirators, he requested permission to inter Umon’s body in the temple of his sect, and to erect a stone over his grave, which was granted. He was suffered to keep the rice which he had purchased, but received orders to sell it as speedily as possible and derived great profit from the speculation.

146 Secret memoirs of the shoguns The eruption of Mt Asama77 In the beginning of the month of September, 1783, I received from Edo the following particulars of the dreadful ravages occasioned by the eruption of the volcano, Asama-ga-take, in the districts of Jo¯shu¯ and Shinshu¯.78 On the 28th of the 6th month of the third year of Tenmei (July 27, 1783), at eight o’clock in the morning, there arose in the province of Shinano, a very strong east wind accompanied with a dull noise like that of an earthquake, which increased daily and foreboded the most disastrous consequences.79 On the 4th of the seventh month (August 1st), there was a tremendous noise and a shock of an earthquake. The walls of the houses cracked and seemed ready to tumble. Each successive shock was more violent, till the flames burst forth with a terrific uproar from the summit of the mountain, followed by a tremendous eruption of sand and stones. Though it was broad day, every thing was enveloped in profound darkness, through which the flames alone threw at times a lurid light. Till the 4th of August, the mountain never ceased to cast up sand and stones. The large village of Sakamoto and several others situated at the foot of the volcano were soon reduced to ashes by the ignited matter which it projected and by the flames which burst from the earth. The inhabitants fled, but the chasms everywhere formed by the opening of the ground prevented their escape, and in a moment a great number of persons were swallowed up or consumed by the flames; violent shocks continued to be felt till the 8th of the seventh month and were perceptible to the distance of twenty or thirty leagues; enormous stones and clouds of sand were carried by the wind toward the east and north. The water of the rivers Yokogawa and Karuizawa boiled; the course of the Tonegawa, one of the largest rivers of Japan, was obstructed and the boiling water inundated the adjacent country doing incredible mischief.80 The bears, hyenas and other beasts of prey, fled from the mountains and flocked to the neighbouring villages, where they devoured the inhabitants or mangled them in a horrible manner. The number of dead bodies floating upon the rivers was incalculable. About the middle of the same month a more circumstantial account of this phenomenon was transmitted to me from Edo. It is in substance as follows: From the 4th of the seventh month (August 1st), there was heard, night and day, a rumbling like that of very loud thunder, which gradually increased in violence. On the 5th, a shower of sand and ashes fell on all sides, and on the 6th, the volcano projected at Oiwake an immense quantity of stones, some of which were so large that two persons were not able to carry them. Twenty-seven villages were swallowed up and four only escaped, namely, Matsuida, Yasuue, Takasaki and Fujioka. At the last of these places there fell a shower of red-hot stones each weighing four or five ounces. At two o’clock the same day, the mountain of Asama cast forth a torrent of flames and balls of fire; the earth shook in a frightful manner; the whole country was enveloped in darkness and, though mid-day, it was not to be distinguished from the darkest night. The thunder was so tremendous that the inhabitants were paralysed with terror to such a degree as to appear inanimate. About ten o’clock there fell small stones mixed with sand and ashes, at Fujioka

Ieshige to Ienari 147 the ground was covered with them to the depth of eight or nine inches; at Yasuue they were fourteen or fifteen inches and at Matsueda three feet deep. All the growing crops were totally destroyed. On the 7th, about one o’clock, several rivers became dry; at two a thick vapour was seen at Asama over the river Tonegawa, the black muddy water of which boiled up violently.81 An immense quantity of red-hot stones floating on the surface gave it the appearance of a torrent of fire. Moko¯, one of the [barracks of the] lifeguards, and a great number of men and horses, were swept away by the current, and cast on shore at Nakanose, or carried along by the river Jinmei-gawa. On the 8th, at ten in the morning, a torrent of sulphur mixed with rocks, large stones and mud, rushing from the mountain, precipitated itself into the river Asumagawa in the districts of Jo¯shu¯ and Gunma-go¯ri, and swelled it so prodigiously, that it overflowed, carried away houses and laid waste the whole country. The number of persons who perished was immense. At Jin’ya-chichu¯, on the road to Nakayama, there were incessant and violent shocks from the 6th to the 8th.82 At Sakamoto-chichu¯, there was a continued shower of red-hot stones from the 5th to the 6th.83 At Honsho¯-chichu¯, gravel fell in an incessant torrent.84 At Karuizawa there fell such a prodigious quantity of red-hot stones that all the inhabitants perished in the flames with the exception of the chief magistrate; the exact number of the dead is not known. On the 9th, about one o’clock, large trees and timbers of houses began to be seen floating on the river of Edo which was soon afterwards completely covered with the mangled carcasses of men and beasts. In the country of Shinshu¯, the devastation extended over a tract of thirty leagues. At Sho¯myo¯, Asama-go¯ri and Kamawara-mura, at the foot of Mount Asama, all the inhabitants perished, excepting seventeen.85 Half of the village of Daizen-mura was carried away by the lava. The villages of Nishikubo-mura, Nakai-mura, Hao-mura, Kusakihara-mura and Matsuki-mura totally disappeared. At the village of Tsubo-mura, the warehouse of Sukezaemon was preserved; all the other houses with the inhabitants were swept away by the fiery deluge. The villages of Tsuchiwara-mura, Yokokabe-mura, Koto-mura, Kawato-mura, Ha-mura, Kawaharayu-mura and Harada-mura were likewise swept away. Fifty-seven houses of the village of Mishima-mura were swallowed up and sixteen persons carried away by the torrent, which everywhere left a sediment of sand of the depth of ten feet. At Gunma-go¯ri, Kawashima and Hara-mura, out of one hundred and fifty-three houses, six only were left; the others were carried away. ¯ bashi-mura disappeared. The whole village of O The village of Ono-mura and the guardhouse of Moko¯, were swept away by a torrent of boiling mud. The village of Yamaie-mura was completely buried by sand. Many other villages besides those here named either partly disappeared with

148 Secret memoirs of the shoguns their inhabitants or were swept away. It was impossible to determine the number of the dead, and the devastation was incalculable. The annexed engraving will convey some idea of this tremendous catastrophe (see Figure 24). Fig. 1. The mountain of Asama-yama. 2. Kusatsu-yama, the origin of the fire. 3. A post which marks the boundaries of the provinces of Shinano and Ko¯zuke. 4. A village at the foot of the mountain but ten miles distant from its summit. 5. The village of Oritake, where there are hot springs. 6. A mountain twenty miles from Kusatsu-yama. Assassination of the chief counsellor’s son On the 24th of the third month of the fourth year Tenmei (May 13, 1784), Tanuma Yamashiro-no-kami, counsellor of state, returning home from the council with his father, Tanuma Tonomo-no-kami, counsellor in ordinary, and his other colleagues, was assassinated by a shingo-ban, or soldier of the New Guard, named Sano Zenzaemon, who enjoyed a revenue of five hundred koku.86 From all the circumstances attending this murder it is to be presumed that several persons of the highest distinction were privy to, and encouraged, it, and the general hatred which those two counsellors of state had drawn upon themselves serves to confirm this opinion. It is even asserted that the original intention was to kill the father to prevent the reform which he and his son, who were in the highest favour with the shogun and his family, were successively introducing into the different departments of the state, and by which they had both incurred great odium.87 But it was considered that as the father was old, death would naturally soon put a stop to his projects, whereas the son, who was in the prime of life, would have time to carry into effect all the innovations which they had planned, and that, moreover, it would be impossible to inflict a severer blow on the father than by snatching from him his only son. The death of the latter was, in consequence, determined upon. The counsellors of state, who, as they return to their norimono after the council has broken up, are accustomed to stop on the outside of the third door and converse together, that day separated.88 The three extraordinary counsellors of state – the prince of Dewa, possessing a revenue of twenty-five thousand koku, the prince of Musashi who has twelve thousand and the prince of To¯tomi whose revenue amounts to fifty thousand and thirty-seven koku – left the palace at the same time as Tanuma Yamashiro-no-kami, but as they walked very quickly they left him at some distance behind them.89 Sano Zenzaemon, who was on duty in the hall of Tsuyu-no-ma, seized the opportunity and running up gave him a violent cut with his sabre on the arm.90 Yamashiro had not time to put himself on the defensive and to draw his sabre; he strove, however, to parry the blows of the assassin with the sheath, but received four mortal wounds, which extended him on the floor.

Ieshige to Ienari 149 The guards on duty with Zenzaemon, and those from the halls of Naka-no-ma and Kiku-no-ma, came up on hearing the noise, but so leisurely that there is every reason to believe it to have been their intention to give the assassin time to escape.91 Meanwhile, Matsudaira Tsu-no-kami, chief inspector of the palace, a man upwards of sixty years old, seized him from behind and clasping him in his arms asked him his motive for committing such a crime.92 Zenzaemon quietly offered him his sabre, expressing the satisfaction he felt at having executed his design; he was then secured and committed to the custody of the prince of Harima, who possesses ¯ ta Bingo-no-kami [the a revenue of fifty-one thousand and eighty-nine koku.93 O prince of To¯tomi,] turning back, ordered Yamashiro to be lifted into his norimono, and accompanied him to his house.94 Some assert that he had expired before he reached it and others maintain the contrary. As it is forbidden upon pain of death to draw a sabre in the palace, and this crime is not only punished by the death of the transgressor, but frequently involves his whole family in his fate, a report was circulated that Sano Zenzaemon was insane. On the second of the fourth month (May 20th), it was signified to him that Yamashiro had died of his wounds and that he was sentenced to rip himself up. His eyes sparkled with joy on hearing of the death of his enemy and after taking leave of his friends he courageously executed his sentence. His wife, a lady of exquisite beauty and only twenty-two years of age, when informed of his death, commended his conduct and plunged a dagger into her bosom with a courage equal to that of her husband. The body of Yamashiro was privately interred in the night. The hatred and indignation of the people were so violent that they threw stones from all sides at the coffin and those who accompanied it. Sano, on the contrary, became an object of public veneration. He was considered as a victim who had devoted himself for his country. His grave, on which a stone has been erected as a mark of honour, is visited by all persons of distinction and by the military who repair thither to offer up prayers and thanksgiving for the service which he rendered to the state.95 Sano not only participated in the general hatred of Yamashiro, but was also instigated to the act by motives of private revenge. The shogun had ordered Tonomo-no-kami to build a mansion at Sagara, in the province of Sagami.96 Near this place is the village of Sano, which belonged to Zenzaemon, and the proximity of which obstructed the execution of the order which Tanuma had received. He proposed to Sano to exchange it for another, but he, to whose ancestors this village had been granted by the Gongen as a reward for their services, who not only derived from it a considerable revenue, but even bore its name, thought that it would be a disgrace to him to dispose of it, and rejected the proposal for an exchange. Tanuma dissembled his resentment, but so contrived matters that, about a year afterwards, the shogun, at his instigation, expressed to Sano a wish to possess his village. It was impossible to refuse the sovereign. Sano, to his great regret, was obliged to comply and another village was granted to him in exchange. As the shogun afterwards gave the village to Tanuma, Sano inferred from what quarter the blow proceeded, and conceived, in consequence, the most violent animosity.

150 Secret memoirs of the shoguns This was not all: some days afterwards, the shogun, having gone out to take the diversion of hawking, attended by Yamashiro and Zenzaemon, the latter committed some slight fault; Yamashiro, who had not forgotten the refusal given by Sano to his father, reprimanded him in the harshest terms and forbade him to appear for some time at the palace and in the presence of the shogun. This affront raised Sano’s rage to the highest pitch. He resolved to take revenge, to which he was moreover excited by his mother and his wife, who represented to him that it was better to die with honour than to live covered with shame. He accordingly sought a favourable opportunity, which occurred as I have related, the very day on which he was suffered to return to the palace. After the affair had been minutely investigated, Sano’s insanity was publicly acknowledged; this procedure pacified his family. The following orders were then proclaimed in the name of the shogun: To Matsudaira Tsushima-no-kami, Chief Inspector:97 Tanuma Yamashiro-no-kami has been assassinated by Sano Zenzaemon of the New Guard. You apprehended the murderer. The shogun acknowledges that you have rendered an important service in thus preventing the disturbances which such an event might have occasioned; as a reward for it your revenues are increased two hundred koku. This order was read at the palace in the hall of Hiru-no-ma, in presence of the counsellors of state.98 His salary amounted previously to one thousand koku. To the Second Inspectors Inoue Tosho-no-kami, whose revenue is fifteen hundred koku, Ando¯ Go¯zaemon, who has three hundred bales of rice, and Sueyoshi Zenzaemon, who has two hundred:99 When the counsellors of state were leaving the palace on the 24th of last month, Tanuma Yamashiro-no-kami was grievously wounded near the hall of Kiku-no-ma by Sano Zenzaemon, one of the New Guard, who is become insane. You were present and did not hasten so quickly as you ought to have done to seize the assassin. Yamashiro, who defended himself with the sheath of his sabre, is dead in consequence of his wounds. As inspectors, it was your duty to prevent this misfortune; you are therefore forbidden to appear at the palace till further orders. Ando¯ Go¯zaemon and Sueyoshi Zenzaemon had but a small salary, because their fathers were yet living and both in the service of the shogun. To the Sub-Inspectors. Atobe Daizen, who has two thousand five hundred koku, and Matsudaira Tamiya who has five hundred:100 On the 24th of last month, when the counsellors of state were quitting the palace, Sano Zenzaemon, one of the New Guard, who is become insane, grievously wounded Tanuma Yamashiro-no-kami. You were in the hall of Naka-no-ma. You say that when you saw the assassin running with his drawn

Ieshige to Ienari 151 sabre towards the hall of Kiku-no-ma, you ran after him; but Matsudaira Tsushima-no-kami, who apprehended him, was farther from him than you. You might have saved Yamashiro, who was obliged to defend himself with the sheath of his sabre and died of his wounds. As inspectors it was your duty to prevent this misfortune: as a punishment for your negligence you are dismissed from your places. To Bannen Rokusaburo¯, Ikai Goro¯bei, Tazawa Denzaemon and Shirai Chikara, of the New Guard:101 When the counsellors of state were returning on 24th of last month, from the palace, etc. etc., you were on guard with Zenzaemon. You saw him rise and run towards the hall of Naka-no-ma; you at first followed him, but turned back because no person was left at the guardhouse. This is not a sufficient excuse. When you saw him rise and draw his sabre you ought to have seized and stopped him. As a punishment for your negligence you are dismissed from your places. These three orders were communicated to those whom they concerned in the house of Kano¯ To¯tomi-no-kami, extraordinary counsellor of state, in the presence of the sub-inspector, Yamagawa Shimo¯sa-no-kami.102 To the First Inspectors, Hisamatsu Chikuzen-no-kami, having twelve hundred ¯ sumi-no-kami, who has the like revenue:103 koku, and Otagi O When the counsellors of state were returning on the 24th of last month from the palace, etc. etc., Zenzaemon drew his sabre. You were in the hall of Tsuyuno-ma and saw him; you ought to have seized him. Through your negligence Tanuma Yamashiro-no-kami received several wounds, which occasioned his death. As a punishment you are forbidden to appear at the palace till further orders. This order was signified to them at the residence of the prince of Kazusa, counsellor ¯ ya To¯tomi-no-kami.104 of state in ordinary, in the presence of the first inspector O Information on Ieharu acquired after 1784 Though I left Japan in the month of November, 1784, my correspondence with that country during my residence in India enables me to subjoin the following particulars: The shogun Ieharu died on the 8th of the 9th month of the 6th year of Tenmei (1786), and was interred in the temple of Ueno at Edo. After his death the priests gave to him the name of Sunmyo¯-in. Ieharu had six children: 1, a daughter, who died young; 2, a daughter, married to the prince of Owari, and since dead; 3, a son, Iemoto, elected heir-apparent, but died on the 24th of the second month of the eighth year of An’ei (April 10 [sic 11], 1779), as it is said, of a spitting of blood occasioned by falling with his horse down

152 Secret memoirs of the shoguns a precipice while hunting; 4, a son who died at the age of three years; 5, an adopted daughter married in the fourth month of the third year of Tenmei (May, 1783) to the son of the prince of Kishu¯; 6, an adopted son, the reigning shogun.105

Ienari, the eleventh shogun106 Minamoto no Ienari, grandson of Munekore, fourth son of Yoshimune and adopted by Ieharu, was then betrothed to the daughter of Matsudaira [Shimazu] Satsumano-kami Shigehide, who possesses a revenue of seven hundred and seventy-eight thousand koku. The shoguns always strive to secure the attachment of these princes by marriages and this was the principal cause of his adoption.107 The great fire of Miyako On the 29th of the first month of the eighth year of Tenmei (March 6, 1788), at three o’clock in the morning, a terrible conflagration broke out at Miyako and continued till the 1st of the second month (March 8th), and reduced that splendid city to ashes. This disaster is ascribed to the imprudence of a maidservant who fell asleep near a lighted furnace and whose sleeve caught fire.108 Roused all at once, she hastily stripped off her robe and threw it from her against the paper partition, to which the flames communicated. The whole house was soon in a blaze. Unluckily the wind was just then very high, and as the houses at Miyako are mostly built of planks and covered with shingles, the wind blew the burning materials in every direction, so that in less than an hour, the city was on fire in more than sixty places, and it was impossible to extinguish the conflagration. The whole city was soon in flames and the terrified inhabitants relinquished all thoughts of saving any thing but their lives. The dairi was obliged to quit his palace, and retired to the temple of Shimogamo.109 The streets through which he had to pass were crowded with people, and in order to clear the way his guards were necessitated to kill more than a thousand persons.110 The fire commenced in the south-east part of the city, to the east of the River Gojo¯.111 The wind, which blew with great violence from the east, soon carried the flames from the other side of the river, and of the bridge of Gojo¯-bashi, westward, to the great temples of Higashi Hongan-ji and To¯ji. It then veered to the west, which drove the fire into the heart of the city, and afterwards changed to the southeast, when the whole north-west part, with the castle and the residences of the chief judge and governors, were consumed. The wind once more changed and blew from the north-west, with increased fury; the flames in consequence spread all around and destroyed what was yet left, with the castle of the dairi and all his palaces.112 After this, it again turned and blew towards the River Gojo¯. Everything was nearly consumed, and the fire had raged for three whole days, when it was at length subdued. Nothing was left standing but part of the exterior walls of the castle; all the other buildings, the rice warehouses and magazines that were said to be fireproof, fell prey to the flames.113

Ieshige to Ienari 153 The dairi, who, when he perceived that his palace was in danger, had retired with his whole court towards the temple of Shimogamo, situated at the distance of a mile to the north-east of the city, was forced by the thick smoke and the burning brands blown about by the wind to turn off more to the east, to the temple of Sho¯goin, a mile and a half distant. But thinking himself still unsafe, he left that place and proceeded to the temple on the high mountain of Hiei-zan, three miles to the north-east of Miyako, which he still makes his residence, having the two governors of Miyako for doorkeepers.114 His people saved as much as they possibly could of his most valuable effects, but seven spacious storehouses full of money, curiosities, works of art and rich stuffs were consumed by the flames. The want and distress occasioned by this disaster surpass description. The rice and provisions brought from the neighbouring country for the relief of the inhabitants were carried off by force, on the arrival of the vessels, by the famishing multitude. Not the smallest piece of wood or bamboo was left for the erection of hovels or tents so that the inhabitants were forced to pass the night in the open air. The temples were filled with the servants of the dairi, and other persons of distinction. Of this extensive and magnificent city, so populous and so flourishing, the capital of the empire and the centre of commerce, the streets of which amounted to four thousand and where the wealthiest merchants had their establishments, nothing was left but the walls on the south-west;115 on the north-west, only a few houses; a temple of the national religion of Japan on the east, and another of the Buddhists on the north-north-east.116 Messengers were dispatched in haste to Edo with intelligence of this disaster. They were directed to give information that the palace of the dairi had been reduced to ashes, and that this prince solicited succour in order to rebuild it. At Miyako, a prohibition was published forbidding any person whatever to build, or do any kind of work for himself, till the dairi was provided with a suitable residence. At Osaka, it was likewise forbidden to work in wood or bamboo or to execute any kind of gilding, till the palace of the dairi should be rebuilt and furnished with everything necessary.117 The fire continued to lurk under the ruins and it was not completely extinguished in the evening of the 12th of March, notwithstanding the heavy rain which began to fall on the 11th, and lasted upwards of twenty-four hours. According to another account, it was not to the mountain of Hiei-zan, but to the temple of Sho¯ren-in Gosho, to the east-south-east, that the dairi repaired when forced to shift his quarters for the third time.118 When he first quitted his palace and the city at the beginning of the conflagration, he was in his ordinary carriage which was drawn by oxen, surrounded by his people with drawn sabres in their hands, and by his wives and concubines, armed with sheathed sabres; but being pursued by the fire, and finding the pace of the oxen too slow to secure him from the rapid progress of the flames, he resolved to alight and make his escape on foot. It is customary to pick the rice dressed for the dairi’s use grain by grain with a small stick; the plates, dishes, bowls and other table utensils are broken as soon as he has done with them; in like manner the pots and culinary utensils in which his food is prepared are used only once and then changed for others.119 But in the

154 Secret memoirs of the shoguns general consternation caused by so dreadful a calamity these different customs could not be strictly observed. The dairi was therefore obliged to live for two days on common rice and his cooks during all that time were forced to use the same utensils. The prohibition to sell and to work up materials for rebuilding the houses, before a new palace should be finished for the dairi, was mitigated from an apprehension lest great part of the inhabitants should retire and settle in the adjacent provinces. The prohibition itself was not indeed repealed, but for the encouragement of the inhabitants they were permitted to receive and employ the materials which their friends might send them from the environs by way of presents. In consequence of this permission, all who possessed the means were at liberty to procure for money whatever they had occasion for. It is impossible to state precisely the number of victims who perished in this fatal catastrophe. It was fortunate that the fire did not break out till it was nearly light: had it begun in the middle of the night, the loss of lives would have been much greater. Mankind in general are disposed to ascribe all extraordinary events to supernatural causes, thus there were persons who asserted that this conflagration was kindled by three balls of fire which fell from the sky. So much is certain: that a tremendous tempest of thunder and lightning accompanied with the piercing cries of men and beasts tended to aggravate its horrors. The flames, which at other times destroy wood and other substances of that nature, only consumed iron itself. The very stones seemed to vomit forth fire. Many people, therefore, considered this event as a severe punishment of heaven.120 Collapse of the peak of Mt Unzen On the 18th of the first month of the fifth year of Kansei (1793), about five o’clock in the afternoon, the whole summit of the mountain of Unzen fell in and the cavity thus formed was so deep that it was impossible to hear the noise made in falling by the stones that were thrown into it. Torrents of boiling water gushed from all parts, and the vapour which rose from it resembled a thick smoke. The latter phenomenon ceased in a few days. Eruption of Mt Biwa-no-kubi On the 6th of the second month, there was an eruption of the volcano of Biwa-nokubi, about half a league from its summit. The flame ascended to a great height; the lava which ran down spread with rapidity at the foot of the mountain, and in a few days the whole country for several miles round was in flames. The fire consumed all the trees on the neighbouring heights and the valley in which it made the greatest havoc, was soon covered with relics of burnt matter and filled with stones and ashes. The fire was not like ordinary fire: it was sparkling and of a reddish colour interrupted from time to time by brown blazes.

Ieshige to Ienari 155 The Shimabara earthquake On the 1st of the third month, at ten o’clock at night, a tremendous earthquake was felt throughout the whole island of Kyushu, but particularly in the province of Shimabara. The first shock was so violent that people could scarcely keep on their legs; they were seized at the same time with a complete stupefaction so that they had scarcely presence of mind to provide for their personal safety. Immense rocks were precipitated from the mountain; the earth opened; the houses were shaken with such force that the inhabitants durst not stay in them, for fear of being crushed in the ruins. Neither could they venture to stop anywhere, from apprehension of the inundation which usually follows a violent earthquake, and the recollection of what had happened some years before in Shinano, as already related in the proper place, heightened the terror of the inhabitants. Carrying the sick and the children in their arms, they set out in troops in quest of some place of refuge from a similar calamity. Nothing was to be heard but cries, lamentations and fervent prayers imploring the protection of heaven. The shocks having ceased, in a few hours they returned to their homes. Some houses were demolished and their inmates buried in the ruins. But fortunately, the mischief was not so great as had been feared. The mountain, meanwhile, continued burning and the lava spread obliquely toward the castle, but being stopped in its course by a great number of rocks, it turned slowly to the north.121 The inhabitants were in terrible alarm because the shocks were incessantly recurring, though with less violence than at first. Eruption of Mt Miyama On the 1st of the fourth month, about noon, when everybody was at dinner, a fresh shock was felt with a motion which lasted upwards of an hour and a half and became more and more violent, threatening all around with instant destruction. It was not long before several houses beyond the castle were engulfed, with their inhabitants, which seemed to be the signal for the most dreadful disasters.122 The cries of men and animals aggravated the horrors of the catastrophe. Prodigious rocks rolling from the mountain overthrew and crushed everything that happened to be in their way. A tremendous noise resembling loud and repeated discharges of artillery was heard underground and in the air; at length, when the danger was supposed to be over, a horrible eruption of Mount Miyama took place. The greatest part of it was exploded into the air, fell into the sea, and, by its fall, raised the water to such a height as to inundate both the town and country. At the same time, an enormous quantity of water issuing from the clefts of the mountain met the seawater in the streets and produced whirlpools, which in some places washed away the very foundations of the houses so as to leave not a vestige of habitations. The castle alone remained uninjured, because the water could not penetrate its strong, massive walls; several houses near it were so completely destroyed that not one stone was left upon another. Men and beasts were drowned by the flood; some were found suspended from trees, others standing upright, others kneeling and others again on

156 Secret memoirs of the shoguns their heads in the mud, and the streets were strewed with dead bodies. Out of all those who fled for the purpose of seeking refuge in the castle, a very small number effected their escape and all these had received more or less injury. The cries of those who were still alive beneath the ruins pierced the heart, and yet no assistance could be rendered them. At length, recourse was had to the expedient of sending fifty criminals from the castle to remove the rubbish for the purpose of extricating such of the miserable wretches as were still living, and of interring the dead. Of those who were taken out of the ruins, some had their legs, others their arms, or other members, fractured. The tubs which are used in Japan instead of coffins for burying the dead, were uncovered in the cemeteries, or broken, the large stones laid over them having been carried away by the torrent. Thus, the whole country was all at once transformed into a desert. But the province of Higo, opposite to Shimabara, is reduced to a still more deplorable state.123 Its form seems to have been entirely changed; not the least trace of what it was formerly is now to be discovered. A great number of vessels which lay at anchor in the neighbourhood went to the bottom, and an incredible multitude of carcasses of men and beasts and other wrecks were brought down by the current, so that the ships could scarcely force a passage through them. The wretchedness that everywhere prevails is inexpressible and fills the spectator with horror. The number of those who are known to have perished exceeds fifty-three thousand, and it is impossible to describe the consternation produced by this catastrophe. The annexed plate represents the theatre of devastation (see Figure 25). Fig. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.

Castle of Maebashi (‘hither bridge’) Chief passage of the river Road to No¯den124 South East West North Road to Chikuan-hai125 Focus of the fire A lofty peak Shinagawa Mountain of Chikuan Mountain of No¯den Mountain of the Three Kingdoms126 Mountain of Blue Clouds127 Sacred Central Mountain128

Shogunal titles The ordinary title of the shogun is ‘ko¯ ’, thus he is called Yoshimune ko¯, Ieharu ko¯. He is also styled as follows: Junwa sho¯gaku ryo¯in no betto¯ genji no cho¯sha sei-i tai-sho¯gun.129

Ieshige to Ienari 157 The shogun is also honoured by the dairi with a rank and office at his court. A formal embassy is sent from Miyako to carry the intelligence and deliver the characteristic insignia, and is always accompanied with great pomp and festivity. Besides the above titles, common to all the shoguns, the dairi has conferred on some of these princes particular distinctions: Thus Ieyasu [the Gongen] obtained the rank of Ju¯ichii [First Rank, Second Class] and the office of Udaijin [Great Minister of the Left] Hidetada had the rank of Ju¯ichii and was Daijo¯ daijin [Great Minister of Government] Iemitsu had the same rank and was Sadaijin [Great Minister of the Right, i.e. below the Left)] Ietsuna had the rank of Sho¯nii [Second Rank, First Class] and was Udaijin Tsunayoshi had the same rank and office Ienobu was Naidaijin [Great Minister of the Centre, i.e. below the Right] Ietsugu was also Naidaijin Yoshimune was Udaijin Ieshige and Ieharu held the same office, and, as well as the preceding shogun, had the rank of Sho¯nii The present shogun, Ienari, while heir-apparent, or Taishi [Crown Prince], was Dainagon [Great Minister].130 Though the dairi is considered at the court of the shogun, to use their own expression, as a hand with two fingers, or as a piece of ancient japanned ware that is highly esteemed for its beauty, the shoguns affect to set a high value on favours of this kind – a circumstance which flatters the pride of the dairis and seems to cheer them in their state of dependence. The shoguns have the more reason to act thus, because as the dairi is a descendant of Tensho¯ Daijin,131 and regarded as the supreme head of the empire, manifest proofs of his displeasure might furnish a pretext for enterprises that would occasion the greatest commotions, for many of the most powerful princes, ashamed of the servitude to which they are reduced, would eagerly fly to his assistance, in hopes of putting an end to their own humiliation and shaking off an ignominious yoke.

Part II

Essays on Japanese civilisation

5

On the legal suicide of the Japanese

Mention is so frequently made in this volume and in other works on Japan, of the privilege enjoyed by certain classes of the inhabitants of being their own executioners by ripping up the belly, that the reader will not be displeased to find here some particulars respecting this singular custom. All military men, the servants of the shogun, and persons holding civil offices under the government, are bound, when they have committed any crime, to rip themselves up, but not till they have received an order from the court to that effect, for if they were to anticipate this order, their heirs would run the risk of being deprived of their places and property.1 For this reason, all the officers of the government are provided, in addition to their usual dress and that which they put on in case of fire, with a suit necessary on such an occasion, which they carry with then whenever they travel from home. It consists of a white robe and a habit of ceremony, made of hempen cloth and without armorial bearings. The outside of the house is hung with white stuffs. For the palaces of the great and the places where they stop by the way when going to or returning from Edo, are hung with coloured stuffs on which their arms are embroidered – a privilege enjoyed also by the Dutch envoy.2 As soon as the order of the court has been communicated to the culprit, he invites his intimate friends for the appointed day, and regales them with sake. After they have drunk together some time, he takes leave of them, and the order of the court is read once more. Among the great, this reading takes place in the presence of their secretary and the inspector. The person who performs the principal part in this tragic scene then addresses a speech or compliment to the company, after which he inclines his head towards the mat, draws his sabre and cults himself across the belly, penetrating to his bowels. One of his confidential servants, who takes his place behind him, then strikes off his head. Such as wish to display superior courage, after the cross cut inflict a second longitudinally, and then a third in the throat.3 No disgrace is attached to such a death, and the son succeeds to his father’s place, as we see by several examples in the ‘Memoirs of the Shoguns’. When a person is conscious of having committed some crime and apprehensive of being thereby disgraced, he puts an end to his own life to spare his family the ruinous consequences of judicial proceedings. This practice is so common that scarcely any notice is taken of such an event. The sons of all people of quality

162 Essays on Japanese civilisation exercise themselves in their youth, for five or six years, with a view that they may perform the operation, in case of need, with gracefulness and dexterity, and they take as much pains to acquire this accomplishment as youth among us to become elegant dancers or skilful horsemen – hence the profound contempt of death which they imbibe even in their earliest years. This disregard of death (even they prefer to the slightest disgrace), extends to the very lowest classes among the Japanese. While I was at Edo in 1782, I was told of a circumstance which had recently happened in the palace of the prince of Satsuma.4 To the sheath of the sabre is attached a small knife, the handle of which projects a little in front of the hilt and is commonly embellished with flowers and other ornaments in gold, of superior workmanship. The prince, one night, on retiring to bed, laid aside his sabre. The next morning the knife had disappeared. There was no reason to suspect one person of the theft more than another. Inquiry was secretly made of all the pawnbrokers to ascertain whether the knife had been pledged. Three days afterwards one of these tradesmen brought a knife on which he had advanced money and which was immediately known to be that stolen from the prince. All his servants were summoned to appear before the pawnbroker, who instantly pointed out the man from whom he had received the knife. The culprit frankly confessed his guilt and was commanded to prepare for death. He replied he was quite ready, on which he was lead out into the court and his head cut off, without further ceremony.

6

On Japanese poetry

Editor’s Preface Titsingh offers some extremely interesting examples of satirical political verses. They have scarcely survived in other contexts. The butt of most of what follows is the hated Tanuma Yamashiro-no-kami Okitomo, who was assassinated in summer 1784, when Titsingh was in Japan for his final stint as chief. However, it should not be imagined that these are really examples of what any literary person of the time would have regarded as ‘Japanese poetry’: they are not in the true courtly vernacular form of waka nor even regular examples of popular haikai. Because Titsingh’s translations are not particularly close, new ones have been added by the editor, which are set in square brackets. Titsingh himself supplied translations into Latin, which are here deleted. His own explanations follow, grouped after the verses.

Fragments of Japanese poetry The Japanese suffer no event at all worthy of remark to pass without making it a subject for exercising their passion for poetry. To afford some idea of the nature of their poetical compositions, and the energy of their language, I shall here give some of the pieces written on the occasion of the death of Yamashiro. Verses in a 5:7:5:7:7 metrical count1 Kirareta wa Baka toshiyori to Kikoeta haya Yamo mo shiro mo Sawagu shinban ‘I have just learned that one of the New Guards has excited a tumult at the castle by assassinating a counsellor in his madness.’2 [That which was cut Was the foolish elder,

164 Essays on Japanese civilisation As soon as this was heard In mountain and castle All is turmoil for the New Guards.] Yamashiro no Shiro no o-kosode Chi ni somete Aka doshiyori Hito wa iunaru ‘The white robe of Yamashiro is dyed with blood, and every one calls him the red counsellor.’ [Yamashiro’s White robe Is dyed in blood. The ‘red elder’ Is what they call him3] Azumaji no Sano no watari ni Mizu mashite Tanuma mo kirete Otsuru yamashiro ‘The torrent which in the eastern way runs through the village of Sano, swelled, burst the dyke around the slough, and the castle on the mountain was overthrown.’ [The Eastern region’s Ford of Sano Overflows Cutting through the paddy boundaries, Collapsing the mountain castle4] Hachi uete Ume ka sakura to Saku hana o Dare taki tsukete Sano ni kiraseta ‘Who threw into the fire the plum and the cherry-trees, those valuable trees, which are planted in boxes for the sake of the beauty of their flowers? It was Sano who cut them down.’ [Those potted Plum and cherry

On Japanese poetry 165 Blossoms: Set alight at whose urging? They were felled by Sano!5] Kiraeta wa Baka toshiyori to Yu¯beki ni Sano Shinzaemon [sic] Kore ga tenmei ‘A counsellor in madness has been overthrown. If such a thing was ever heard of, it would be said to be a judgment of heaven.’ [He was cut down And should be called the ‘foolish counsellor’; Sano Shinzaemon [sic, Zenzaemon], This is the will of heaven!6] Remarks on the preceding stanzas: Baka toshiyori: An extraordinary counsellor is called waka toshiyori, or young counsellor; the change in the first letter of his name gives this new signification [‘foolish’], and this play upon words shows how much he was disliked. Yamashiro no: Yama means a mountain, shiro a castle; no is a particle which has no signification, but serves to give fulness and elegance to the language: it is used both in prose and verse.7 These two words comprise the name and quality of the murdered person, as well as an indication of the place where the event happened; the palace of the shogun being on an eminence in the last enclosure of the castle. Sawagu shinban: Properly signifies a new fashion which makes a great noise; but these words are here used metaphorically for a new guard.8 Shiro no o-kosode: A white shirt, or under robe, which no person has a right to wear excepting those who have the title of kami, women and priests.9 Azuma: Edo, according to the division of the empire, is the road to the east of Miyako, the metropolis. Azuma is an ancient word, the origin of which is thus explained by some: Tachibana-hime, wife of Yamatotake-no-mikoto, being overtaken in company with her husband by a violent tempest, threw herself into the sea to appease the marine god Ryo¯jin, and was drowned. Her husband, on landing, ascended the mountain of Osui, which commands an extensive view of the whole country to the east. There, recollecting the loss of his beloved wife, he exclaimed with a deep sigh, ‘Azuma! Oh my wife!’ From this circumstance Japan received the name of Kishi-koku, or ‘country of women’; but others assert that this name was given to it by Tensho¯ daijin, from whom the Japanese suppose themselves to be descended.10

166 Essays on Japanese civilisation When the provinces of Oshu¯ and Dewa, opposite to the island of Ezo, were yet uncultivated, the natives were called Azuma-ebisu, or rude people, savages. The same word is still used to denote a clownish, ill-bred person.11 Sano is the name of a village through which runs a large river, having a bridge composed of boats chained together. It enjoys a magnificent view which has furnished several poets with a subject for beautiful compositions.12 The Gongen gave it to one of Zenzaemon’s ancestors as a reward for the services which he had rendered him in his wars. Tanuma-ta, arable land; noma or numa, a slough [swamp]. When there is a slough near cultivated land the farmers separate them by a dyke. The word here alludes to Yamashiro’s father, who is compared to a slough on account of the innovations which he contemplated, and which caused him to be detested. Yamashiro is properly the name of a castle on a mountain: a castle on the seashore is called umishiro and in a valley hirashiro. The next stanza alludes to the following story: Under Go-Fufakusa-no-in, the eighty-eighth dairi, Ho¯jo¯ Tokiyori was prime minister to Yoritsugu and Munetaka shinno¯, shoguns of Kamakura.13 During his administration, the empire flourished and the people, maintained in the possession of their just rights, were contented and happy. In the 11th month of the eighth year of Kencho¯ (AD 1256), Tokiyori, having formed the plan of traversing the empire to ascertain by ocular demonstration whether the accounts transmitted to him from all parts were correct, resigned his post in favour of his son, Tokimune, then six years old, appointing [Ho¯jo¯] Nagatoki and Masamura to perform its functions till he was of sufficient age.14 He then retired to the temple of Saimyo¯-ji, and shut himself up in an apartment into which he forbade any person whatever to be admitted. In the second year of Sho¯ki (AD 1258), he caused a report of his death, and that of Nikaido¯ Shinano-nyu¯do¯, his counsellor of state, who accompanied him in his seclusion, to be circulated.15 The news plunged the whole empire into consternation and mourning. He then put his design in execution, and spent three years in visiting every part of the empire with Nikaido¯, both habited as priests, to avoid incurring any suspicion. Just after he had reached the village of Sano, a deep snow fell and prevented him from continuing his route. He knocked at the door of a thatched cottage and solicited hospitality for one night. A good woman who opened the door said that he should be welcome to it for her part, but it did not depend on her; that her master was gone out and she would run and fetch him. The master, when he returned, represented to the priest that his house was very small and in so bad a state of repair that he would pass the night very uncomfortably in it. He, therefore, advised him to go eighteen streets farther to the village of Yamamoto where he would find several good houses in which he would be much better accommodated. The priest, however, urged the impossibility of proceeding farther in so dark a night and the master at length agreed to receive him, on his assurance that he should be satisfied with ever so indifferent a lodging. The woman set before him some boiled millet,

On Japanese poetry 167 with an excuse for not giving him rice, as she should have done formerly in her better days. The priest replied that millet was his favourite dish. While they conversed together, the night advanced and the cold became more severe. They had neither bedding to offer to protect him from the cold, nor wood to make a fire. In this dilemma, they determined to cut down the trees which were planted in boxes before the house. The priest, perceiving their intention, insisted that they should not carry it into execution, saying that one of his profession ought not to care about hunger and cold, or even about lying in the open air if occasion required. He desired to see the trees; his host brought them. ‘This is all that is left me,’ said he, ‘of my former prosperity. I had a great number of them, but when I was reduced to poverty I gave them to my friends, with the exception of these three which I most valued (they were an ume or plum tree, a sakura, or cherry, and a matsu, or fir tree), but I shall now cut them down to warm you.’ The priest thanked him for his kindness, but again begged him not to think of cutting down the trees. The owner nevertheless carried them out of the house, cut them down, made a fire, and invited his guests to draw near and warm themselves. Tokiyori expressed his regret at what he had done for him and in the course of conversation asked his name. His host refused for some time to inform him, but at length, unable to resist the importunities of the priest, he told him that he was Sano Genzaemon Tsuneyo, son of Sano Saburo¯ Masatsune. The priest manifested astonishment. ‘Sano Saburo¯’, said he, ‘was a wealthy nobleman; how happens it that you are so poor?’ ‘My uncle, Sano To¯ta,’ replied his host, ‘secretly assassinated my father and made the shogun believe that in a paroxysm of insanity he had put an end to his own life; he then turned me out of doors and it is this that has made me so poor. I have been more than once tempted to kill him to revenge my father, but he is a man of consequence and always surrounded by so many servants that it is impossible to get at him.’ While relating these particulars he shed a flood of tears, as did also the female. The two strangers wept with them. Tokiyori asked why he had not preferred his complaint at Kamakura. He replied he had learned with great sorrow that Tokiyori was dead and that the other counsellors of state no longer governed with such equity as he had done. ‘Though I am poor,’ added he, ‘I have still a cuirass, a naganata (curved sabre with a long hilt), and a bay horse wherewith to hasten to the aid of the shogun, in case war should befall Kamakura.’ The priest, surprised at all he heard, exhorted him to patience and held out to him hopes of better times. While they were thus conversing, daylight appeared, the travellers took leave of their kind entertainers and pursued their way. Tokiyori, having finished his tour, reappeared all at once at the court of Kamakura. This unexpected return overjoyed the people who had believed him to be dead. The first thing he did was to send for Sano To¯ta Toneyoshi and his relatives, and also for Sano Genzaemon Tsuneyo. After a minute examination, he found that the story of the latter was strictly true and caused Sano To¯ta and one of his kinsmen, who was accessory to his crime, to be beheaded on the seashore. He restored to Genzaemon all the estates which had belonged to his father, and gave him in addition the villages of Umeda, in the province of Kaga, Sakurai, in the province of Etchu¯, and Matsueda, in the province Ko¯zuke in allusion

168 Essays on Japanese civilisation to the three trees, ume, sakura and matsu, which he had cut down to warm his guests. Plum and cherry trees are highly esteemed in Japan on account of their flowers. Behind almost all houses are to be seen some of these dwarf trees in boxes, and in the apartments of persons in easy circumstances, a porcelain vase with a branch in flower. The poet here alludes to Yamashiro, as though he would say, ‘who cut down the beloved tree of Tanuma?’ – Sano! Shinzaemon. The n in the first syllable, taken from shin, makes shi, before; sae, one has not; mi, ever; mo, heard; by leaving out the letter mi, it makes the name of Shinzaemon, which is pronounced ‘Zenzaemon’.16 Tenmei. When any misfortune befalls a person, it is customary to say ‘tenmei’: ‘it is a punishment of heaven’. When anyone has committed a crime which cannot be clearly proved and some mishap afterwards overtakes him, the same expression is employed. Here it alludes to the mischief done by Yamashiro in abusing his power, and the time when he was punished for it, which was the fourth year of Tenmei (or tenmyo¯) [1784]. Verses with other scansions Other stanzas on the same subject: Tanuma Yamashiro Fukade janai ga A itashi mitashii Kirarete nigeraru Iyo sano no shinza Dechi wa sanza Yoi kimi jane ‘Tanuma Yamashiro received three cuts with a sabre. Though the wounds were not deep, he suffered great pain. He had endeavored to defend himself; his blood flowed: it is a happy event!’ [Tanuma Yamashiro The cuts weren’t they deep, but Oh, the pain – would that we could meet! Being stabbed and then run off on That Sano Shinza[emon]! Blood flowed and foll-de-roll. The bliss of it17] Ore wa tonomo o Nikumu janai ga Sansa

On Japanese poetry 169 Hitori musuko mo Korosareta Iyo sano shinza Dechiwa sanza Yoi kimi nane ‘We are not ill-disposed towards old Father Tonomo, though his son has been cut off. His only son has been killed. Sano shed his blood: it is a happy event!’ [I don’t dislike Tonomo Foll-de-roll But his only son is killed Hey nonny! Sano Shinza[emon] Blood flowed and foll-de-roll The bliss of it!18] Poems in other genres The following verses contain the names of all the months of thirty days, as well as those that have but twenty-nine. Sho daimyo¯ Musho¯ ni nikumu Nanatsu bo shi Ima shi ku ja reba Shimo no shiawase ‘All the grandees of the empire abhorred the [great] bear (the arms of Yamashiro, which are seven stars); let it shine no more. It is a happy event, even for the lowest servants!’ [All the daimyo Despise the great bear. If it were to fail now The humble would rejoice19] In these lines, those months which have thirty days are, in Roman letters, namely, mu, the 6th; sho¯, the 1st; ni, the 2nd; nanatsu, the 7th; shi, the 4th; ku, the 9th; and shimo, the 11th. All the others, in Italic letters, have but twenty-nine.20 Stanzas to the tune of an old ballad, called utai, composed on Genzaemon, whose memory is still respected on account of his humanity:21 Ide sono toki ni Hachi no ki wa

170 Essays on Japanese civilisation Tanuma ya sano ni Kirareta yo¯ na Sono binbo¯ Kano¯ ni o¯ta Etchu¯ ni sakurada O te ni sugiyama Awajite sanga Shio no sankisu Chichi sansa ni Itaru made So¯ mo ari so na Jichi no shiyo¯ Tango ni toritsuki Kago ni noriteso¯ro¯ ‘At this time an event of great importance occurred. Tanuma was slain by Sano ¯ ta, Etchu¯ and Sugiyama from the back near the palace; he was going with Kano¯, O door towards the front door. His father was deeply afflicted at this circumstance. It was so decreed: his time was come. Tango supported and conducted him to his carriage.’ [‘Well, in those days The potted trees,’ By Tonomo and Sano Were cut, it seems. The poor one [Sano Genzaemon] ¯ ta With Kano¯ and O And Etchu¯ too, at Sakurada ¯ te [Edo Castle entrance], with Sugiyama, O In all swiftness, foll-de-roll . . . [unfathomable] . . . His father, foll-de-roll . . . [unfathomable] . . . Grabbed by Tango Placed in the palanquin, ‘thus indeed it was!’22] Remarks on the preceding stanzas: The name of the extraordinary counsellor of state was Kano¯ To¯tomi-no-kami. ¯ ta Bingo-no-kami. The name of the extraordinary counsellor of state, O The name of the prince of Higo, Hosokawa Etchu¯-no-kami. Sugiyama Tonosuke, keeper of the inner chamber in which the wardrobe of the shogun is deposited. The extraordinary counsellor of state, Yonekura Tango-no-kami Masaharu.

7

The character of the Japanese people, and a history of East–West relations

Editor’s preface This section is extracted from what became the Introduction to the second part of Titsingh’s Illustrations of Japan. He gave it the title of only ‘The character of the Japanese people’, which does not fit the contents, and so is altered here. It is both an analysis of the local character, as he saw it, and a brief history of European relations with Japan.

The nature of the Japanese people On the first arrival of the Dutch in 1609, the Japanese were allowed to visit foreign countries.1 Their ships, though built on the plan of the Chinese junks, boldly defied the fury of tempests. Their merchants were scattered over the principal countries of India.2 They were not deficient either in expert mariners, or adventurous traders. In a country where the lower classes cannot gain a subsistence but by assiduous labour, thousands of Japanese were disposed to seek their fortune abroad, not so much by the prospect of gain, as by the certainty of being enabled to gratify their curiosity with the sight of numberless objects that were wholly unknown to them. This state of things formed bold and experienced sailors, and at the same time soldiers, not surpassed in bravery by those of the most warlike nations of India. Heroism and suicide The Japanese, accustomed from their infancy to hear the accounts of the heroic achievements of their ancestors, to receive at that early age their first instruction in those books which record their exploits, and to imbibe, as it were, with their mother’s milk, the intoxicating love of glory, made the art of war their favourite study. Such an education has, in all ages, trained up heroes. It excited in the Japanese that pride which is noticed by all the writers who have treated of them as the distinguishing characteristic of the whole nation. Having a keen sense of the slightest insult, which cannot be washed away but with blood, they are the more disposed to treat one another in their mutual intercourse with the highest respect. Among them, suicide, when they have incurred disgrace or humiliation, is a general practice which spares them the ignominy of

172 Essays on Japanese civilisation being punished by others, and confers on the son a right to succeed to his father’s post. As with us, the graceful performance of certain bodily exercises is considered an accomplishment essential to a liberal education, so among them it is indispensably necessary for all those who by their birth or rank aspire to dignities, to understand the art of ripping themselves up like gentlemen. To attain a due proficiency in this operation, which requires a practice of many years, is a principal point in the education of youth. In a country where sometimes a whole family is involved in the misconduct of one of its members, and where the life of every individual frequently depends on the error of a moment, it is absolutely requisite to have the apparatus for suicide constantly at hand for the purpose of escaping disgrace, which they dread much more than death itself. The details of the permanent troubles recorded in their annals and the accounts of the first conquests of the Dutch in India, furnish the most complete proofs of the courage of the Japanese. The law, which has since forbidden all emigration and closes their country against strangers, may have taken away the food which nourished their intrepidity, but has not extinguished it. Any critical event would be sufficient to kindle their martial sentiments, which danger would but serve to inflame, and the citizen would soon be transformed into a hero. Expulsion of Catholics and ban on oversea travel The extirpation of the Catholic religion, and the expulsion of the Spaniards and Portuguese, caused dreadful commotions in Japan for a number of years.3 The sanguinary war which we (the Dutch) carried on with those two nations, who were too zealous for the propagation of Christianity, and the difference of our religion, procured us the liberty of trading there, to the exclusion of all the other nations of Europe.4 The Japanese, perceiving that incessant seditions were to be apprehended from the secret intrigues of the Roman Catholics and the numerous converts made by them, found at length that in order to strike at the root of the evil they ought to apply to the Dutch, whose flag was then the terror of the Indian seas. The bold arrest of governor Nuyts at Tayoan, in 1630, showed them that the point of honour might every moment involve them in quarrels for the purpose of revenging the insults which their subjects might suffer in foreign countries or at sea.5 The decree of the shogun, which confiscated the arms of the people of Sankan, wounded the vanity of the Japanese. Numbers of malefactors, to avoid the punishment due to their crimes, turned pirates, and chiefly infested the coast of China, the government of which made frequent complaints on the subject to that of Japan. The nine Japanese vessels then trading with licences from the shogun, were to be furnished with Dutch passports and flags, in case of their falling in either with Chinese corsairs or with our ships cruising against those of the Spaniards of Manila and the Portuguese at Macao. The residence of Japanese in foreign countries rendered their government apprehensive that it would never be able entirely to extirpate popery. These various considerations induced the shogun, in the twelfth year of the nengo¯ Kan’ei (1631), to decree the penalty of death against every Japanese who should quit the country.6 At the same time, the most efficacious

The character of the Japanese people 173 measures were taken in regard to the construction of vessels. The dimensions were so regulated that it became impossible to quit the coast without inevitable danger.7 Cut off from all other nations, encompassed by a sea liable to hurricanes not less tremendous for their suddenness than their violence, and thereby secured from the continuance of hostile fleets in these parts, the Japanese gradually turned their whole attention to their domestic affairs. Their respect for the Dutch by degrees diminished. A mortal blow was given to our importance in this country by the removal of our establishment from Hirado to Nagasaki, in 1640, the chief objects of which were, (1) to afford some relief to the inhabitants of that imperial city, who, since the expulsion of the Spaniards and Portuguese were daily becoming more and more impoverished, and (2) to keep us more dependent, by placing us under the superintendence of their governors. For the sake of our commerce, we patiently submitted to the destruction of our recently-erected storehouses, the heavy expense incurred by the removal and our imprisonment in the island of Dejima, where the Portuguese had their buildings and which we had heretofore in derision denominated their dungeon. The humiliating treatment to which they then first subjected us, according to our records of those times, caused the Japanese to remark that they might act towards us in a still more arbitrary manner.8 Having no idea of the governments of Europe, ignorant that the mightiest empires there owe their greatness and the stability of their power to the benign influence of commerce alone, the Japanese hold the mercantile profession in contempt, and consider the farmer and the artisan as more useful members of society than the merchant.

A history of East–West relations Disrespect for the Dutch The little respect that still continued to be paid us was at length wholly withdrawn on the reduction of the island of Formosa [Taiwan] by Coxinga.9 A native of Hirado, and carrying on an extensive commerce at Nagasaki, Coxinga solicited assistance from the court of Edo against the Chinese. Mito-no-Ko¯mon sama, greatgrandfather of the prince of Hirado in my time, supported him with all his influence.10 The shogun rejected his application because he would not embroil himself with that empire. Coxinga, attacking the Chinese in the island of Formosa, at the same time turned his arms against us. Though he was not openly favoured, yet our archives attest that the Japanese policy encouraged his hostilities since the government took no notice of our complaints, regarding us no doubt as too dangerous neighbours, and not conceiving itself secure so long as the empire should be exposed to the attacks of an enterprising people. The vexations to which we have since been exposed have frequently induced the Company to think of dissolving the establishment. Some of the Japanese, well-disposed towards the Dutch, even advised us to threaten them with it, and to recover our credit by the reduction of Formosa.11 The former was tried with some success, but we were not strong enough to attempt the latter.12

174 Essays on Japanese civilisation Peace Since the suppression of the rebellion at Arima and Shimabara in 1638, the peace of the empire has not been disturbed. It was not interrupted either by the attempt of Yui no Sho¯setsu and Maruhashi Chu¯ya, in 1651, or by that of Yamagata Daini in 1767, the particulars of which I have given in the ‘Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns’.13 At the very commencement of the present dynasty the government made regulations as salutary as the welfare of the state, the happiness of the people and the maintenance of order in the interior of the empire required. The active spirit of the Japanese could not fail to seek new objects, and by degrees their attention was turned to the establishment on fixed bases of all the observances due to each individual, according to his station in the different circumstances of life. So that everyone might have precise rules for the government of his conduct towards others of every class, from the highest to the lowest. These very particular regulations were printed, otherwise a long life would scarcely suffice for acquiring a thorough knowledge of etiquette. Education of boys The military profession, as we have observed, is regarded by the Japanese as the most noble pursuit. A predilection for it is therefore encouraged in boys from their earliest years by a suitable education and by the Festival of Flags, which is held on the fifth of the fifth month.14 As they grow older, they apply themselves to the history of their country and to the study of the duties attached to different offices, in which the sons regularly succeed their fathers. The study of the Chinese language also, in which they seldom make any very great proficiency, though persons above the lowest class devote their attention to it at all ages, affords them incessant employment. As their best works are written in that language, it is a disgrace for persons of distinction to be unacquainted with it. The precepts of Confoutsé [Confucius] have been in all ages explained and commented on in the public schools. From the remotest antiquity the Japanese have respected the Chinese as their masters and paid homage to their superior attainments. To them they went for many centuries to complete their education and to augment their stores of knowledge. Since the prohibition of foreign travel the only resource left them is to study the works of the Chinese, which they purchase with great avidity especially since the zeal of the missionaries, by making them acquainted with the process of printing, has opened a new career to their fondness for study.15 People of note in East–West relations Several of our interpreters were well versed in the history of China and Japan. Among those who most excelled in this respect were Yoshio Ko¯saku, Namura Motojiro¯, Narabayashi Ju¯bei, Narabayashi Zenbei, Nishi Kichiro¯bei, Hori Monju¯ro¯ and likewise Matsumura Yasunojo¯, who at my departure was appointed tutor to the prince of Satsuma.16 I mention their names out of gratitude for the kind

The character of the Japanese people 175 assistance which they afforded me in my researches. During my residence in Japan several persons of quality at Edo, Miyako and Osaka applied themselves assiduously to the acquisition of our language and the reading of our books. The prince of Satsuma, father-in-law of the present shogun, used our alphabet to express in his letters what he wished a third person not to understand. The surprising progress made by the prince of Tanba [Kutsuki Masatsuna], Katsuragawa Hoshu¯ physician to the shogun, Nakagawa Jun’an, physician to the prince of Wakasa, and several others, enabled them to express themselves more clearly than many Portuguese born and bred among us at Batavia.17 Considering the short time of our residence at Edo, such a proficiency cannot but excite astonishment and admiration. The privilege of corresponding with the Japanese above-mentioned, and of sending them back their answers corrected, without the letters being opened by the government, allowed through the special favour of the worthy governor, Tangono-kami sama, facilitated to them the means of learning Dutch. Moves towards internationalisation In the fifth chapter of the first volume of the work of Father Charlevoix, a mixture of good and bad and swarming with errors, the character of the Japanese, as compared with that of the Chinese, is very justly delineated.18 Their vanity incessantly impels them to surpass one another in bodily exercises as well as in the accomplishments of the mind. The more proficiency they make, the stronger is their desire to see with their own eyes all the curious things, the description of which strikes their imagination. When they turn their eyes to neighbouring nations, they observe that the admission of foreigners is not injurious to the government and that a similar admission of strangers into their own country would furnish them with the means of studying a variety of arts and sciences of which they have but vague notions. It was this that induced Matsudaira Tsu-no-kami, the extraordinary counsellor of state, to propose in 1769 the building of ships and junks calculated to afford the Japanese facilities of visiting other countries, and at the same time to attract foreigners to Japan. This plan was not carried into execution in consequence of the death of that counsellor.19 Though many Japanese of the highest distinction and intimately acquainted with matters of government still consider Japan as the first empire in the world and care but little for what passes out of it, yet such persons are denominated by the most enlightened i no uchi no kaeru, or ‘frogs in a well’, a metaphorical expression which signifies that when they look up they can see no more of the sky than what the small circumference of the well allows them to perceive. The eyes of the better informed had been long fixed on Tanuma Yamashirono-kami, son of the ordinary counsellor of state [Tanuma] Tonomo-no-kami [Okitsugu], uncle to the shogun [sic], a young man of uncommon merit and of an enterprising mind.20 They flattered themselves that when he should succeed his father, he would, as they expressed it, widen the road. After his appointment to be extraordinary counsellor of state, he and his father incurred the hatred of the grandees of the court, by introducing various innovations censured by the latter as

176 Essays on Japanese civilisation detrimental to the welfare of the empire. He was assassinated on the 13th of May 1784, by Sano Zenzaemon, as related in my ‘Annals of Japan’.21 This crime put an end to all hopes of seeing Japan opened to foreigners and its inhabitants visiting other countries. Nothing more, however, would be required for the success of such a project than one man of truly enlightened mind and of imposing character. At present, after mature reflection on all that is past, they are convinced that the secret artifices and intrigues of the priests of Shaka [Buddhist monks] were the real cause of the troubles which for many years disturbed the peace of the empire. Proposals to construct a shogunal fleet In 1782, no ships arrived from Batavia on account of the war with England.22 This circumstance excited general consternation not only at Nagasaki, but also at Osaka and Miyako, and afforded me occasion to stipulate with the government for a considerable augmentation in the price of our commodities for a term of fifteen years. [Kuze] Tango-no-kami [Hirotami], the governor, with whom I kept up a secret intercourse, proposed to me in 1783 to bring over carpenters from Batavia to instruct the Japanese in the building of ships and smaller vessels, a great number of barks employed in the carriage of copper from Osaka to Nagasaki having been wrecked on their passage, which proved an immense loss to the government.23 Knowing that it would be impossible to comply with his request because none of the common workmen employed in our dockyards in the island of Java possessed sufficient skill, and the masters were too few to allow any of them to be spared for ever so short a time, I proposed to Tango-no-kami to send with me, on my departure from Japan, one hundred of the most intelligent of his countrymen to be distributed in our yards, assuring him that pains should be taken to teach them all that was necessary to qualify them for carrying his views into execution at their return. The prohibition which forbids any native to quit the country proved an insurmountable obstacle. On the arrival of a ship in the month of August [1783], I caused the boats to manoeuvre from time to time in the bay, with Japanese sailors onboard, which much pleased the governor but did not fulfil his intentions. I then promised that when I reached Batavia I would have the model of a vessel built and present him with it on my return, together with the requisite dimensions and all possible explanations.24 This I accordingly did in August the following year. The death of Yamashiro-no-kami, of which I received information immediately after my arrival at Batavia, annihilated all our fine schemes. Having finally quitted the country for Europe in the month of November in the same year, I know not whether my instructions on this point have been followed or not.25

Figure 23 Anon., ‘Residence of the Djogoun at Yedo [the shogun in Edo]’, frontispiece to Isaac Titsingh (Frederick Shoberl, trans.), Illustrations of Japan; 1822. London: Maggs Brothers, Ltd.

Figure 24 Anon., ‘Earthquake of the Mountain of Asamayama, in the Province of Sinano [Shinano]’, illustration to Isaac Titsingh (Frederick Shoberl, trans.), Illustrations of Japan; 1822. London: Maggs Brothers, Ltd.

Figure 25 Anon., ‘Earthquake, Volcanic Eruption, & Inundation in the Province of Simahara [Shimabara]’, illustration to Isaac Titsingh (Frederick Shoberl, trans.), Illustrations of Japan; 1822. London: Maggs Brothers, Ltd.

Figure 26 Anon., ‘Plan of the Dutch Factory in the Island of Desima at Nangasaki [Dejima in Nagasaki]’, illustration to Isaac Titsingh (Frederick Shoberl, trans.), Illustrations of Japan; 1822. London: Maggs Brothers, Ltd.

Figure 27 Anon., ‘The Chinese Factory in the Street of Teng-chan at Nangasaki [To¯jin in Nagasaki], Founded in 1688’, illustration to Isaac Titsingh (Frederick Shoberl, trans.), Illustrations of Japan; 1822. London: Maggs Brothers, Ltd.

Part III

Other observations

8

‘Secret Diary’ of Isaac Titsingh

Editor’s preface This record was kept for Titsingh to send privately to Batavia, during his second stint in Japan. It parallels, in part, the official log, or Dagregister, that he kept for the VOC. In it, he outlines the extraordinary secret dealings he had with the Nagasaki governor, Kuze Tango-no-kami Hirotami, to augment trade, and to construct a shogunal fleet. The principal addressee is Willem Alting, governor general of the Dutch East Indies. The ‘confident’ Titsingh refers to is the young translator, Namura Naosaburo.

The Secret Diary1 1782 Although I wrote to the best of my knowledge of the inconveniences which sending only one ship every other year would create, when I replied to the question what my considerations were of trading with three ships every two years, I never have foreseen that this would have had such detrimental effects on all the inhabitants of Nagasaki, as these have become manifest to me.2 The governor’s concern, which showed itself first in the checking of our books, and subsequently in the incessant praying for three days in temples, with the promise of large rewards if the prayers were answered, and the lamentations of the whole city, urged me to try every means to bring about some improvement in trade from these events.3 Thus, when the governor asked me for the reason for the nonarrival of the ships, I gave him such answers as are extensively noted in the Diary of the year 1782 under 17–18 September and 23 October.4 Furthermore, I candidly told all Japanese who have access to our island, that the losses the Company is suffering on its trade at present are forcing it to take less interest in trade with this empire, being assured that this would spread around the city and reach the ears of the princes’ attendants who their domicile here, which then could not be kept a secret from court.5 This has been proved true.

186 Other observations 3 December On behalf of the governor, junior translator [Narabayashi] Ju¯bei came to inform me of his proposal to grant Company a larger quota of copper in future, if the Company would bring all such goods as the Nagasaki Office demanded for next year, in reply to which I offered the governor the following document on the 10th:6 10 December Titsingh is willing to accept the proposal if the Company’s trade will benefit, but there are several difficulties which have to be resolved first, namely: 1 2 3

The acceptance of a larger quota of bar-copper. The prices of the imports. The impossibility of being able to supply the demands in full or in part in the very next year.

I do not have to bring to Your Honour’s attention the vexations which the Company has had to suffer here since its removal from Hirado, how it has been burdened by the compulsory trade evaluation,7 by the debasing of the koban, by the fixed export of bar-copper, and the lowering of the prices of its commodities by the socalled shogunal Nagasaki Office – vexations to which our papers have born witness all too well ever since the year 1641, and they would probably increase even today if it were not for the fact that the Japanese are convinced that they have pushed the Company to the brink and that the slightest endeavour in that direction would be followed by our immediate departure, and they foresee that this will lead to the fall of Nagasaki and their own ruin.8 I shall only remind Your Honour of the contract that was made by chief factor [Hendrik van] Homoed in 1751, granting the Company an annual export possible of 11,000 piculs of bar-copper, which the Nagasaki Office adhered to so shamelessly that in 1764 we were given notice of being allowed to export only 8,000 piculs from that year on.9 This forced the Company to decrease its trade to make the costs more bearable, and to send three ships every two years, for that is enough to carry this quantity. The examples of the years 1765 and 1767 made the Japanese fear that this project would be persisted with, and this made them consider that, if the single ship which would be sent every other year were to perish, they would miss out on the substantial profits on our cargoes, the customary gifts, and the necessary ballast for the junks.10 They decided to grant an increase of one thousand piculs and subsequently a quantity of 700 piculs in private trade, which they desired Ju¯ bei to have noted as an acknowledgement of the customary obeisance, although only one ship had come to trade, and it was indeed to induce the Company to send two ships every year, and thus I to have their affairs put in less jeopardy. As it appears from the aforementioned that we are well aware of the manner in which we are being treated, I shall deal more candidly with Your Honour, leaving it up to Your Honour to turn it to account in time.

‘Secret Diary’ of Isaac Titsingh 187 1. Bar-copper is an important commodity for the Company in the factories in India; the people there cannot do without it. This has occasioned the requests emphatically made every year by the chief factors, but the Nagasaki Office has deemed it more to its advantage to deal with the Chinese, and having too great a conception of our profits, thought it could treat us at its own discretion without considering the consequences, and curtail our export from time to time as seemed to best suit its interests. The Company thus being unable to satisfactorily supply the orders of the factories and the Western nations annually, sought another way to obtain copper, and they found it in copper from Sweden, and although it is a long way from being up to the standard of the Japanese, the low price and inescapable need induced the Company to ignore its lesser quality. From that time, it has been attempted to improve the copper that is imported there from different countries, and for some years this has been successful with the Hungarian copper, and now the Company is experiencing the unpleasant consequences in the sense that the Coromandel Coast,11 where the largest quantity of copper was sold annually, has not demanded one picul from Batavia in 1780, and therefore a substantial quantity has remained in the warehouses, and the Company not only loses the profits it used to make, but is burdened as well with the interest on the capital invested, which the Japanese could have prevented by listening to our representations and by enabling us to take the wind out of our competitors’ sails by granting us a larger quota. Because nowadays a large quantity of copper is annually imported from Europe – which can be bought at a lower price than the bar copper – and because the Company cannot lower the present price without incurring heavy losses on the trade with this empire, it is not able to sell its copper, unless it is willing to lower its price and is also enabled by a larger export from here to trade there in such a quantity of bar-copper which at a more moderate price will always be valued more highly than the European kind – as is needed to supply the demand of those peoples. But to that end it is necessary: 2. That the Nagasaki Office pay a price for the imports that is commensurate with the excessive profits it is making on them. This will meet the Company to some extent in the heavy costs which it has to bear here. For the price at present is so low that, if it is calculated accurately, the Company loses a lot, even on the cost price. Sugar, one of the most important commodities in this empire, has been calculated according to the Japanese price, but in all Indian factories and in the Persian Gulf, it sells for ten taels per picul. Pepper is sometimes sold to the Chinese in Batavia as a special favour for 17 or 18 taels per picul, while tin made 38 Japanese taels per picul in China in 1780. To persuade yourself of the truth of all of this, Your Honour can have inquiries made in that empire when the junks depart. As with these three articles, which are annually imported in abundance, the same is the case with the silk and woollen cloth which are especially demanded for Japan from the Coromandel Coast and Bengal, as well as from the Netherlands. Therefore, Your Honour can deduce for yourself that if no other agreement on the trade is struck, the Company will deem it inadvisable to continue trade with this empire any longer and I am not in the position to lend my ear to any contract of that nature, unless it is based on an increase in the prices for the imports.

188 Other observations 3. I am not authorized to commit the Company to promptly supplying all such commodities as the Nagasaki Office may demand for next year on the departure of the ships, for that demand is indeterminate and it depends on more or less sales in this empire, and thus the Company is on an unsteady footing and cannot order a substantial quantity of goods from elsewhere, with which it would be saddled, if they were not needed here; and secondly, because the ships which are sent to transport those commodities sometimes perish, we would be left without them altogether, also because ample time has to be allowed for the ordering of the silk and woollen cloth in the Indies, as well as in Europe. Therefore, to make this proposition palatable for the High Government the Indies, it is necessary to agree to the following five points: i

The Nagasaki Office will fix a price increase on all imported commodities, and will also accept 20,000 catties of prime quality cloves annually, for which I shall commit the Company to importing as much sugar, tin, sappanwood, ducatons, lead, and other commodities as are needed.12 ii The export of bar-copper will be augmented and will be fixed in perpetuity, and no changes may be brought about by the arrival of a few more junks or the pretence of scarcity. iii The commodities which the Nagasaki Office will demand on departure of the ships will be carried hither in the second year, insofar as they are to be imported from India and are not available in Batavia, and in the third year, insofar as they have to be imported from the Netherlands, in order that the Company is given ample time to order them in the required quality and quantity. iv If it should happen that the Company is not able to supply in part or in full the commodities requested for that year, due to the loss of its ships or other misfortunes which cannot be foreseen, and gives sound reasons for what had caused this, this will not bring about the least change in the fixed export of bar-copper, on the understanding that what is short will be satisfied with one of the articles most in demand. v The Nagasaki Office will not decrease the price of any commodity on the pretence of poor quality, unless we ourselves are convinced of the truth of this, and we shall give full satisfaction in which case we are free to accept the prices offered or to return the commodities to Batavia, but when they are imported again and are of good quality, the former price will hold. If agreement is reached on all these points, on which the whole further trade of the Company with this empire rests, two contracts need to be drawn up containing the aforementioned points in clear terms to prevent any arguments, and these contracts have to be signed and stamped by Your Honour and the Nagasaki Office on the one hand and by me, on behalf of the Company, on the other, awaiting the approval of the High Government of the Indies. Although in former times we have always been urged most strongly to secure a greater quantity of copper, Your Honour’s secret letter of 24 June 1781, advising

‘Secret Diary’ of Isaac Titsingh 189 me not to seek a greater quantity because of the decreasing sales and the large quantities of unsold stock, made me reluctant to request a larger quota, the more so because this greater allowance rests on the fulfilling of the Nagasaki Office’s orders for next year, which not only depends on their whims but, because it is impossible always to meet their demands, we are also subject to their caprice in the delivery of copper.13 Therefore, I deemed it more opportune to give this reply, which is a conditional contract and can always be adjusted on the arrival of the ships, in such a manner as your letter indicates would best serve the interests of the Company. On 17 December the said translator [Ju¯bei] came to inform me that my document had been translated and presented, and the secretary had told him that the consequences of this affair were too great and that the governor was not empowered to decide on the price increase, for this was decided by the Nagasaki Office and the shogunal exchequer in Edo, and therefore he could not enter into such a contract on his own authority.14 However, he was willing to present the necessary expositions on his return to court. He also told me how all officials in Nagasaki, including the shogunal intendant, the Town Council,15 officials of the Nagasaki Office, yea, everyone who has a living from the shogun, had only enjoyed three-fifths of their usual income, and the huge expenses for the upkeep of their households have caused many to die from deprivation.16 The prisons were stuffed with criminals and the complaints from the community were increasing to such an extent that it is feared, unless appropriate action is taken, this winter will be one of fire and murder, for Nagasaki will of necessity collapse in ruins because of a shortage in foreign trade, for apart from our commodities, there is nothing here to draw the people from other regions. During those same days, on behalf of the shogunal superintendent of finance, Senior Translator [Yoshio] Ko¯saku proposed that I send for the shipwrights, helmsmen and boatswains to teach the Japanese the construction and navigation of our ships. I had His Honour informed that the staying away of our ships was proof that our state was embroiled in a great war and therefore all shipwrights who could be found in the Netherlands and in the Indies were employed in the construction of warships, which made it impossible for the Company to acquiesce in this proposal, however much it likes to oblige the shogun. If it pleased the shogun to approve that, on the arrival of the ships, a hundred Japanese, who are considered to possess the necessary abilities and can be taught these crafts, be sent to Batavia, I would undertake to ensure that the High Government of the Indies divide them over our shipyards and teach them all that pertains to shipping and, when they are proficient, send them back. I was well aware of the prohibition of Shogun Yoshimune [sic17] of 1635, but the troubles at that time and their fear of the spread of the Roman [Catholic] faith had given cause for that, and since that time they had become more civilized and this empire had enjoyed peace for so many years that one should not now be afraid to leave, for, when upholding a law, one should always keep in mind what advantage or disadvantage one extracts from persisting with it. On his [Ko¯saku’s] departure he promised to present my answer in this way.

190 Other observations 23 December The governor had me informed that the Chinese had brought him tidings that this year no ships had arrived in Canton, and the rumour was doing the rounds that everything was in uproar throughout the Indies and near Batavia a great war was being waged. I had His Honour thanked, and let him know that I did not doubt the rumour about the war, but that one could only rely on the accounts of the Chinese, for nations other than the Dutch, French and English send ships to that empire, and it is not likely that they are impeded in their trade because of our difficulties. 1783 27 January Today I sent a letter in duplicate to Mr Van Heijligendorp with the departing junks.18 Because of the high price of rice, I requested the governor for some from the shogunal warehouses, which he refused, but I am sure that the interpreters have not even proposed it to him. 24 February I have not heard anything of the negotiations on the price increases since the arrival of the junks. Ko¯saku informs me that he has reported to the shogunal superintendent of finance and his answer was that he fully understood the reason for my refusal, but that the proposed means was of the highest importance and he did not think that the shogun would acquiesce in it – the main reason being that the shogun has little sense and is wholly guided by his uncle, Senior Counsellor Tanuma Tonomo-no-kami [Okitsugu],19 who is held in low esteem by the Japanese – although the most sensible among them complain bitterly about their unhappy condition, and if that prohibition were to be lifted, it would be very easy for me to engage 20,000 men, within a month, if it were made known throughout the whole empire. However, it seems that people are giving more and more thought to their condition, and everyone expects that if the crown prince, who is engaged to the daughter of the prince of Satsuma, should eventually rule, a change for the better will occur because of his father-in-law’s instruction.20 1 March The governor had junior translator Ju¯bei propose that I have bird’s nests imported from Batavia to serve as return cargo for the Chinese junks over here.21 I had His Honour informed that bird’s nests rise excessively in price on the departure of the junks from Batavia, and the Chinese had exported them at 1700 Rds a picul in 1781.22 Therefore, it would be necessary to set the condition before hand that – this product being of great importance – if it was imported in a fair quantity, the fixed tax of 300,000 taels for the trade would be insufficient, if the aforementioned contract was accepted. Moreover, the governor would have to commit himself to

‘Secret Diary’ of Isaac Titsingh 191 issuing such strict laws against stealing that we would not be in danger of suffering any loss, for otherwise the whole trade would disappear. To engage his trust, I also showed him the return of the trade of 1781, with the request that he bring to the governor’s attention how much the Company had lost, and I also allowed him to copy the loss that had been made on the commodities of each factory, taking care to turn two pages together when we came to the products from Amboina.23 He returned to the city highly satisfied, assuring me most emphatically that he would give a fair account of this affair to the governor, for he had [previously] always doubted the truth of our declarations and had thought that it was in the nature of all merchants to complain. 2 March In answer to the governor’s proposal to export Chinese satin, silk pansies24 and gold bullion in return for bird’s nests, I declared that the Company itself traded with China and imported a sufficient quantity of these commodities in Batavia, and that His Honour could understand that it was cheaper to receive it first-hand than if it also went through the hands of the Nagasaki Office, one could also not rely on the grade of the Chinese gold and we would be forced to employ an assayer, which would increase the costs of this factory too much. Thus I could not accept this proposal unless a price was fixed for the bird’s nests as well as for the Chinese satin, silk pancies and gold beforehand, and the approval of the High Government of the Indies was also required. I also asked him about the results of yesterday and he told me that the secretary had copied his notes and had promised to show them to the governor, and he did not doubt that His Honour would bring about an improvement in trade. 8 March Today, all rice merchants have been summoned to Government House so that the reason for the high price can be determined.25 The interpreters assure me that not enough rice is grown along the whole of the Short Landroad to feed all inhabitants, and the major part is coming from other provinces.26 The people of the Ryukyu Islands, who export a large quantity to Satsuma every year, have imported rice from thence this year, due to a poor harvest.27 There is no shortage of rice, but the high price is caused by the fear of the princes that, because our ships do not come, a hard-fought war is being waged in the Indies in which Japan might take part at some time, which made them keep the rice in their warehouses so as to be able to wage war. Although this reason seems ridiculous to us, it is nonetheless true: each prince has warehouses for money and for rice in order to be able to bear the costs of a war, and he will never touch the money that has been set aside for that purpose, which is clearly shown by the prince of Chikuzen,28 who has a powerful domain which is burdened with debts, but he prefers paying a high interest to using the funds in his warehouses. The main reason for the high price in Nagasaki is that it relies on the foreign trade and does not produce anything itself and thus it

192 Other observations is only frequented by barges coming from all parts of the empire for the imported commodities. These barges bring a cargo of rice and coal, and the skipper is happy if he makes 200 taels thereon, which serves to pay his crew and for the upkeep on the outward and homeward journey. His profits are derived from what he gains for the transport of the commodities. Because our ships have not sailed hither and few junks have come to trade, few barges have also arrived and of those few three, which were fully loaded, sank in the storm on 26 September.29 This causes the price of rice to rise by the day and the misery of the townspeople increases steadily. The complaints about the abject poverty and the hardship in the city are incredible, and this has forced the governor to send thirty thousand taels to Shimonoseki, on the 15th of April, for the procurement of rice. 26 April I am told as true that, when Governor Nagato-no-kami arrived in Edo, he was in such fear of disapproval of his government that he entered the castle without requesting permission first, and only with the greatest difficulty could his patrons restrain him from cutting open his belly, and he had to relinquish two-thirds of his treasures.30 This shows how the Government in Edo has received adequate information on the situation in Nagasaki. 12 May The governor has shared out three thousand bales of rice, which he paid for out of his own pocket, among the poor in the space of ten days. From the highest to the lowest, the people here love him as a father and sometimes he has the pleasure of hearing words to that effect when he crosses the city by night accompanied by just one servant to listen to the complaints of the people. 3 July One of the shogunal superintendents of finance has arrived from Edo to take account of the Nagasaki Office and he has also been ordered to investigate the reason for the non-arrival of the ships and the junks.31 Everyone in Nagasaki can tell him this, and I hope to be able to contribute my share when the opportunity arises. 20 August I was summoned to Government House. On behalf of the governor, I was asked for the true reason why this year and last year no ships arrived.32 When he was busy translating, the translator let slip that I had said last year that the war was the only cause, which I denied at once, in such a way that the secretaries were clearly aware of my displeasure. I replied that the non arrival of the ships could partly be attributed to the war, but mainly to the loss on the trade, which was

‘Secret Diary’ of Isaac Titsingh 193 apparent from the fact that the Company had been engaged in wars several times before but had still sent ships hither every year, and that letters had also arrived from Europe which told us to decrease the trade with this empire because, in spite of all remonstrations, no improvement had been achieved. The High Government of the Indies was also displeased about the degrading treatment which its chief factors had to suffer, which shed an unfavourable light on the degree of civilisation of the Japanese, for its highest representatives were treated with distinction everywhere else in the world, and therefore I requested the governor to attend to these matters They then asked me if I was expecting any ships, and I answered that I was not giving up hope until the 24th, for in 1720, when also no ships had arrived the year before, this had happened.33 Thirdly, they asked me if I had a shortage of provisions, to which I answered that we were making do, and that the cost of rice was the heaviest the Company had to bear and that I regretted that no favourable response had been given to my request to be granted some from the shogunal warehouses. After all this had been presented on all fours to the governor, the reply was that I should keep my spirits up for, on the arrival of the new governor, His Honour would consult with him what could best be done for us.34 Then I took my leave, but not before I had taken the translators severely to task for their sinister translation. In the evening, someone was sent to me who had told me that on the grounds of what had happened in Government House that morning, the governor doubted if the translators had truthfully translated what I had said, and that His Honour will request my opinions in writing and that I should give my reply to him to offer it to the governor. I requested him to tell His Honour that we could not rely on the translators, not only in this case but in all others, for they only notified the governor of those things they deemed opportune and therefore they deceived both His Honour and us. I promised to give him my reply, to have it translated literally. Today the superintendent of finance decreed that, if the ships do not arrive, all who are in the service of the shogun will receive two fifths of their usual income. This gives rise to the fear that this winter the whole of Nagasaki will be cast into chaos. 22 August The governor requested my opinions about the non-arrival of the ships in this and last year in writing. I handed the translator the following document and a copy signed by me to the governor’s representative, who translated it literally in my presence.35 24 August Today he brought me the translators’ translation which implies that I attributed the non-arrival of the ships to fear of pirates, as I had also declared last year, and that the Company had to be embroiled in a severe war, and furthermore that I had

194 Other observations requested an improvement in trade and that the chief factors should not be searched any longer.36 He told me that the governor was incensed at having been deceived in such a way, but he wanted it to be kept quiet for the moment to see what they will cook up now the ship is anchored near the shore. 28 August Not having received a reply to the aforementioned document, I asked what the reason for this silence was. They said that the governor was most upset about the loss the Company had suffered in the western factories and he could well imagine that it had not been capable of sending a ship hither last year.37 His Honour could not bring about improvements in the trade, for this was a matter that depended on the Nagasaki Office, but when he arrived in Edo he would present our complaints. That afternoon my confidant appeared to inform me on behalf of the governor that the translators who had come on the 26th to take down the news to send it to Court, gave as reasons for the non-appearance of the ships the severe war, that we no longer had factories in India, that the Great Moghul had taken Nagapattinam by surprise, and that the whole of Batavia was at war.38 I considered that these stories would create an unfavourable impression, for the consequences of having Haider Ali as an enemy in India were greater than having the English as enemies, and in my presence I had him translate the treaty which Governor Van Vlissingen had concluded with Haider Ali, of which I had received a copy, literally, and I had him hand it to the governor.39 At the request of the governor I also gave him a scribbled note of the bill of lading with the request that he consider that the Company had sent this ship hither to oblige the Japanese so as not to deprive them of many essential commodities, and therefore I relied on the fairness of His Honour to accept all the goods in full. I promised that if the Company were to send ships next year it would try to fulfil the demand as best as it could, which had not been possible because of the disasters caused by the war. Furthermore, I had him request the governor to have the translators ask me if the Governor General had not sent us any particular orders, for then I could inform His Honour truthfully of the opinions of the Governor General and the Council of the Indies, and tell him in particular how the Company set little store on the Japanese trade in these times, reading to him, under promise of secrecy, from the general letter the prefatory authorized threat to leave without trading, in such a way as I deemed best, being assured that the governor would know of it within half an hour.40 29 August The governor had the Inspector and the senior translators, Ko¯saku and [Namura] Motojiro¯, ask me for the reason why last year no ship, and this year only one had arrived, and if the Governor General had sent me any particulars about this.41 I replied that I would draw up a document and would offer it to the Intermediary [Namura Katsuemon] for the Town Council tomorrow, when the bills of lading were taken up to be offered to the governor.42

‘Secret Diary’ of Isaac Titsingh 195 30 August After the bills of lading had been noted, and the order for camphor as well, on condition that it had to be delivered in new barrels, I gave the Town Council the following document on their departure with the request to offer it to the governor after it had been translated by the translators.43 The same evening I had my confidant translate this document in my presence, and sent him to the governor with it. I also ordered him to request the secretary to ensure that the camphor is delivered in such barrels as had been sent as a trial in 1780, for the High Government was highly displeased about the short weight last year and would otherwise abandon the order. 1 September The discussion I had yesterday with the translators gave me little hope for a favourable outcome and I decided to take a different course and to impress on them their own interests, for they are completely convinced that I am fully aware of everything that concerns the desperate state of Nagasaki. 2 September Today I sent for the Board of Translators.44 After having described in so many words to them how I had tried to obtain an improvement many times, I brought to their notice that the time for thrusting their haughty pretences on me with impertinent faces had past, that I was aware of their desperate state, how each of them was up to his neck in debt, and knew of no way to save himself, and could not get any credit with the merchants, that not only their prosperity, but that of all citizens from the governor down to the lowest person depended on the arrival of the foreigners, for Nagasaki, densely populated at the moment, will fall into ruin within three years, that they also knew that I had information about many particular matters – through my confidants – about Nagasaki and the whole empire and could therefore easily surmise how important our trade was and that if we were to get serious about it, the Japanese would give in to us. Next, I represented to Senior Translator Ko¯saku, who will be Senior Intermediary with the Town Council next year, and will go on the court journey in 1785, how the interpreters derive their largest profits from the court journey through the profits they make on the remainder of the gifts and the sugar which they are granted by the Nagasaki Office, that if they in general had their prosperity at heart and he in particular, they would give credence to my words and represent to the governor: that inasmuch as it was the governor’s duty to guard the interests of the shogun, it was also my duty to promote the interests of the Company, and therefore it was necessary that I inform the High Government of the Indies of the importance of our trade to this empire. I gave them my solemn assurance that, if this year no price increase was granted for our commodities, I would not rest on my arrival in Batavia before the High Government had decided not to send any ships hither next year, thus they could foresee in time the consequences this would have for the governor,

196 Other observations for Nagasaki and for themselves. Their dismay and the conviction that I would keep my word made them promise that they would confer with each other and convey to the governor what I had said. 3 September Today I received a visit from Ko¯saku, Motojiro¯ and the Inspector.45 After a few vapid discourses as a prelude to their sinister goal, they repeated their old song that the changes in trade depend on Edo and the governor would mediate to obtain an improvement when he arrived there. Tired of hearing that insipid talk every time, I assured them with a solemn oath that unless an improvement was brought about this year, I would see to it that next year no ship would be sent, in order to give the shogunal superintendent of finance the time needed to make out their accounts. After having discussed this with each other for a long while, they asked to be given the prices which I wanted for the woollen, silk and cotton cloth, to see to what extent these could be granted. I promised to give them these and straight away I went to check the extracts from the books since the establishment of the Nagasaki Office in 1716. In the evening I gave them the prices which I had stated for all the commodities, of which I note here the highest prices which the Company has enjoyed in different years ever since the establishment of the Nagasaki Office in 1716, and in the other column the price which is demanded now. [Prices given for: different-coloured worsted, cloth rash, crown rash, perpetuanas, taffachelassen, chintzes, cotton thread, powdered sugar, sappanwood, pepper, tin, lead, cloves, mother-of-cloves, putchuk, Surat catechu, mumia, elephant tusks, ducatons, silk cloth, rayskins.46] After having read them through, they said that there were many articles among them which the Japanese did not care for, whilst it was impossible to obtain such prices for the other commodities. However, they would offer the document to the governor and consult with the Nagasaki Office. Conversely, I pointed out to them that it was very well possible that next year no ships would come, and they left. 5 September The translators inform me that the Nagasaki Office was objecting to such a large quantity of cloves, for in 1781 they had notified us that without a substantial reduction in price they would not accept more than one thousand catties. I ordered them to bear in mind that the Company was engaged in an arduous war and needed its ships both to fight the enemy and to send them with its commodities to those factories where it made a profit on them and, only because of its special affection and the consideration that for about two centuries it had been given the exclusive permission to trade with this empire, had it decided to send a ship hither this year, laden with such commodities as it had been able to gather in order not to deprive this country of many articles needed – although it did not make any profit on its commodities and there was still a large quantity of copper in its warehouses, for due to the troubles in India, it was not vendible – with the hope that in the slack

‘Secret Diary’ of Isaac Titsingh 197 season I would fruitfully have employed the necessary means for an improvement in trade; that this consideration merited a fair appreciation on their side, for if the High Government had not taken this course of action for the aforementioned reasons, they would have been in danger of having to beg for their food because of destitution. They seemed to lend an ear to my words and promised to do their utmost to obtain a satisfactory result. In the evening I had my confidant translate the aforementioned and sent him to Government House to hand it to the governor, with the request that His Honour be of assistance in this matter.47 6 September My confidant came to inform me that yesterday’s document had been handed to the first secretary and that he had been given the reply to rest assured, for the governor was willing to make a favourable settlement this year with regard to the commodities and the camphor. 7 September The translators Ko¯saku and Motojiro¯ came to visit me oozing with pomposity.48 After much circumlocution, they sang the old song that the governor could not change anything this year, but would bring about an improvement in trade on his arrival in Edo. I requested them very seriously to leave my house and, unless they had something else to tell me, to spare me the trouble of their visits in future. Because the governor had already given me an undertaking, I could not make good this ruse, unless they want to pay court to the governor by persuading me. It seemed to me to be a last spasm of their impertinence, and it serves as an example of their character, for without the Company they would die of starvation. After having given me many expressions of their desire to help the Company, I said goodbye to them, after which they departed with the same pomposity. The governor let me know quietly that it is not possible to acquiesce in the prices I request, that there were many articles which the Japanese ordered more out of habit that out of necessity, that the prices of the woollens had been lowered in former years, as I could learn from the merchants. He will have the translators present this to me with the request that I deal with it as firmly as His Honour would on his part. I had him thanked for this undertaking, with the promise to do everything that was reasonable and fair. 8 September The governor had his confidant inform me that these price increases for the commodities seemed hopeless to him, for not only the shogun, the counsellors, and other nobles, but especially the shogunal intendant and other regents of Nagasaki, whose income would be cut back by this increase in the price of sugar, were involved, and would fight it with all their might. It would be better to leave the prices at their present level and to give some agio on the trade.49

198 Other observations I thought this consideration very fair, but, on the other hand, I considered that if I could obtain a price increase for the commodities, this would be more profitable for the Company when it sent two ships than the agio. I had the governor thanked for his communication but, at the same time, I presented to him that his offer was very fair, but that the Company was too magnanimous to decrease what it had already set aside as gifts and therefore all the goods which were for the shogun, crown prince, counsellors and other nobles, and the Nagasaki recognition,50 as well would be calculated at the current prices, but for everything that is delivered to the merchants and for what remained after the gifts had been presented in Edo, the prices needed to be increased if a lasting trade was to be enjoyed, for this agio could be considered a pittance, which the Company did not need from the governor or the shogun, but it only desired a fair price for its commodities, and I requested that His Honour attend to the matter satisfactorily. 9 September The aforementioned translators came with a happy countenance to congratulate me on the good tidings which they had for me: that the governor had been so generous as to grant 6000 taels above the usual agio.51 I thanked them for this communication, requesting them to inform the governor that the Company does not need a pittance from the Japanese, but desired a fair price for its commodities, for the 6000 taels had to be considered a reparation for the multifarious costs that we were burdened with on the island. Not succeeding in their goal, they returned disgruntled. 10 September Another visit from the translators, but the leaf was turned completely.52 They informed me that the governor could not acquiesce in the prices requested, for reason of the lower demand for woollens in this empire and the superfluity of other commodities, as well as the disadvantage to the Nagasaki regents caused by the decrease of the gifts for the shogun and nobles. I replied what has already been mentioned on the 8th. They thought this fair, and told me that if I did not agree to an increase in agio, I should go about lowering the prices as firmly as the governor would do on his part, excluding from all increases tin, lead, ducatons, cloves, mother-of-cloves, putchuk, catechu, mumia, and elephants’ tusks, for the first article is delivered to the Chinese at the same price, the next two without any profit to the shogunal minters, and the others, apart from the silk cloths which only serve as gifts, are not really necessary as they are ordered to satisfy the requests of some nobles. I started to draw up my demand again, and after many arguments we agreed to the following increases, on the condition that the Company would import the goods demanded as precisely as possible, if the situation allowed, after which we said goodbye with a hearty show of friendship, with the assurance that they will propose this matter today.

‘Secret Diary’ of Isaac Titsingh 199 11 September I received the news that Ko¯saku had been with Town Councillor Han’emon – who at present has been entrusted by the governor with the charge of the affairs of the foreigners, but without the rank of commissioner53 – until late at night, discussing the price increases and twice he had been on the verge of having a fight with him, having told him, ‘when Your Lordship leaves Government House, he undresses, and if he is tired, he goes to bed; on the other hand, the Dutch are fair game for the enemy, storms, and typhoons at sea before they arrive here, where such low prices are extorted from them for their commodities that they return home with a loss, of which the consequences are felt from the governor down to the lowest citizen’. After vehement altercations they had finally reached a settlement and the town counsellor had agreed to deal with the matter in a favourable way, although not the slightest price increase could be granted for this year. 12 September In the afternoon the governor had my confidant notify me that he has sent the interpreters to inform me that he is granting the Company ten thousand taels in excess of the usual agio this year, with the request not to consider this a pittance, but a token of his desire to continue trade with satisfaction, with the firm pledge that, on his appearance in Edo, he would bring about the prices requested, and also the exempting of the chief factor from the ignominious searches.54 I had His Honour thanked heartily for his goodness, and had him told that I would accept the ten thousand taels on this condition. Shortly after, the joint Board of Translators appeared, informing me with much ado of the aforementioned, requesting a document as proof that they had translated it faithfully. After having again represented to them that the Company would for no reason desist from the increase requested, and that I accepted the ten thousand taels for this year, taking the governor at his frequently repeated declarations, that he could not grant a price increase without the consent of the shogunal superintendent of finance in Edo, but that he would effectuate this on his appearance there, I requested them to convey my gratitude to the governor for his apparent generosity and I handed them the following document, satisfied that I had concluded the matter satisfactorily.55 13 September Because of the objections of the camphor merchant and as a compensation for the short weight, the governor proposed that I drop the new barrels that have been ordered and in future accept camphor in the usual barrels, at the 1780 price, which is one tael a picul less, and I consented happily. The news of the improvement that has been granted has revived all citizens of Nagasaki, being confident that they will see two ships appear again every year.

200 Other observations 14 September I had the translators ask the governor that if the Nagasaki Office had a surplus of copper due to the few junks that had come to trade, to tell me before my departure how much His Honour was willing to grant the Company annually above the usual quota, in order that the High Government of the Indies would have enough time to send such orders to its factories as were necessary to promote its sales and take the wind out of our competitors’ sails, but the reply was that only two ships were allowed to come and trade, and what remained of 1781 and this year greatly exceeded the full export of two ships and for this larger quota – which they considered improbable because of the growing scarcity – they needed permission from Court and they did not dare ask.56 I represented to them that the governor had had Junior Translator Ju¯bei make the first proposals about this last year, if the Company imported all goods which the Nagasaki Office demanded. On their reply that the governor had had no authority to act thus, but would have had to accomplish this in Edo if his proposals had been accepted, for otherwise he would have been transgressing the shogun’s orders, I decided to follow another course and to present the following proposal to the governor, so I could use it as a guide when drawing up the demand.57 The same evening I secretly sent this calculation to Senior Secretary Sugura Kosemon with the request he present it to the governor and to inform me of his opinion thereon.58 18 September My confidant informs me that this matter is of too great importance and the governor did not have the authority to deal with it, for he had seen in the papers at Government House that when the ships failed to arrive in 1719, because of the permitted export of half of the annually fixed quota, the next year also the export of half of the copper quota had been granted, and that His Honour was of the opinion that my efforts would be in vain, but he advised me to await the arrival of the new governor, if I wanted to pursue the matter.59 24 September I sent my confidant to request the governor to assist me in my proposal concerning the carpenters of the island and the sampans, of which I sent copies to him, and I also asked him if His Honour had really requested the silk cloths, or was it an intrigue on the part of the translators?60 25 September The governor has me informed that he will press the Town Council to present the petition concerning the carpenters as soon as possible, for they had not been shown to him yet.61 Also, that he had indeed requested the silk cloths, for no rarities

‘Secret Diary’ of Isaac Titsingh 201 had been found among the private goods in the ship or in the junks, and no taffachelassen had been imported, and as he was forced to share out presents to all nobles on his arrival in Edo, he was in a tight corner about how to accomplish that, and therefore he requested that he be obliged with the silks, without this being used as a precedent in future. I had His Honour informed that, although the High Government of the Indies forbade the selling of silk cloths, I had no objections to obliging him in this instance, on the grounds of the good services he had already rendered to the Company and had promised to render in future, confidant that Their Honours would give their stamp of approval because of the circumstances in which His Honour found himself, on the understanding that this would not be used as a precedent to make other requests.62 Because I had used few silks in the previous presentation, on which footing it can roughly be kept, and on closing the books of 1781/82, after the deduction of the eleven stolen pieces which were restituted by the interpreters, the remaining pieces came to 354, this will suffice for the next presentation, at which time it is to be hoped that the Company’s affairs in India will be restored, with God’s help. 27 September The arrival of the new governor, Tsuchiya Suruga-no-kami, gives me an opportunity to present new petitions about the export, and I handed the translators the following document, ordering them to translate it today and offer it with due haste to the governors.63 His Honour has let me know secretly that the papers concerning the carpenters still have not been presented to him, and he advised me to demand the one about the carpenter of the sampans be returned, for the carpenter was objecting to accepting it, and he did not want to give his spies any opportunity to accuse him in Edo that I had bribed him with my presents to condone such new fancies, and if the Town Council presented it to him, he would be forced to hand it back, but next year, on his return, he would grant me my request.64 Therefore I ordered to demand for the document to be returned. His Honour also requested the sloop with a helmsman and a few sailors, and he would send Japanese sailors for daily instruction by us in the handling of sails. I had His Honour informed that, as soon as work on board permitted, I would gladly oblige him. I again ordered my confidant to speak to the secretary about my proposal about the export of copper until 1786, and to propose to His Honour that it appears from our papers that in 1719 only half of the Nagasaki recognition had been presented because of the halved export of the fixed quota, and therefore to propose to the governor that, although I was not authorized, I was prepared to meet the whole Nagasaki recognition for the past year, only to find out if by exporting a large amount of bar-copper to the factories in India, there would be a way of stopping the large sales of European copper.

202 Other observations 28 September Today Senior Translator Motojiro¯ returned me the document about the carpenter of the sampans and the copper, saying that the intermediary with the Town Council had first sent for the usual carpenter and then for all ship’s carpenters and had presented this contract to them, but none could be found to accept it.65 Furthermore that, because last year there had been no trade, nor a court journey, the Company could not claim any copper, which would never be granted.66 On the first matter I replied that if he had not been so brazen, he could not be so impertinent to dare tell me such outright lies, for I had received the necessary accounts of it, and on the other matter I ordered him to tell the Town Council on my behalf that, if a chief factor sent them documents on account of the Company, to present these to the governor, it is their duty to oblige and to leave it up to the governor to grant or refuse the propositions. No town councillor had the authority to act according to his own whims and the Company would bear in mind the diligence with which they looked after its affairs, when it settled the gifts that were ordered. Moreover, that because they had returned this document unauthorised for reasons of their own, I was obliged to present it myself to the governor when he visited the island. In the evening I sent my confidant to Government House to inform the governor of the impertinence of the interpreters and to complain about the treatment by the town councillors, and to notify His Honour of my reply and my intentions to present this document, of which I await the decision, in person when he comes to visit the island, whilst he assured me of having handed this proposal to the first secretary. 29 September The governor has me informed that he has heard of yesterday’s report: that I should not endeavour to obtain copper for the past year for it could not be obtained. He had had all books checked and had seen how in 1719 the governor had made representations in Edo for the sale of the remainder of the commodities, which had finally been granted by the counsellors with permission to export half of the copper quota; that I could easily understand that because the Nagasaki regents were short of money, they would do everything in their power to let me have the copper, in return for the recognition promised, if there was the slightest chance.67 His Honour also had me requested not to present him with any documents when he comes to visit the island, to which he would have no objections if he was staying here, but, however much he would like to oblige me, because he was leaving, this would only cause problems, for it could not be foreseen how the new governor would react to it, and the burgemeesters, to whom our petitions should be addressed in the first place, would be offended by this and might present the Company’s affairs and him in an unfavourable light, which would only cause an alienation and they would work against us in every way. I thanked His Honour for his well-meant advice, but I also proposed to him, if it was possible, to grant me the 700 piculs which belong to him and about which the Nagasaki Office nor the superintendent of finance had any say. The few junks

‘Secret Diary’ of Isaac Titsingh 203 which had come to trade this year had also exported little copper, but I had been told that there was a sufficient stock in the shogunal warehouses, thus no pretext of scarcity could be offered, and, apart from that, it was up to His Honour to deal with his property as he wished, which the Company would consider a token of his affection, and I eagerly awaited his decision. I discussed this matter with the most trusted among the translators in the evening, and they promised to confer on this matter and as they saw no problems, they would assist me to the best of their ability. Today I delivered the requested silk cloth on the further insistence of the governor, hoping that Your Honours will give your stamp of approval to my action, which, although unauthorised, was executed on the grounds of the aforementioned reasons. 1 October The secretary informs me that I should draft a petition concerning the 700 piculs of bar-copper and have it translated by the translators and sent to the Town Council with the request that it be presented as soon as possible to the governors, promising me to do his utmost to oblige me.68 I had the following petition prepared forthwith and sent to the Town Council: To Their Honours Kuze Tango-no-kami and Tsuchiya Suruga-no-kami, Governors of Nagasaki: The undersigned Chief Factor of the Company’s trade takes the liberty of requesting Your Honours that he be granted the export of 700 piculs of barcopper for 1782, as had been agreed with Governor Bingo-no-kami, annually for the prices fixed by him and which has also been effectuated up till now, with representation of how he has fallen into arrears because of the failure of the ships to arrive and the heavy duties which he has to bear here, and he will consider this grant as a special token of the affection of Your Honours, and will be most grateful.69 4 October The secretary has me informed that the petition for the 700 piculs of copper has not yet been presented. I sent the intermediaries to the Town Council to insist on this and on the request concerning the island carpenter with all due haste.70 5 October Again I have presented a petition about the carpenter of the sampans to both governors, as can be read in the ordinary diary.71

204 Other observations 8 October The Town Council still have not presented the petition for the copper. The secretary tells me to propose it myself when presenting the hassaku [Nagasaki recognition].72 I asked His Honour if it would not be better to hand the governor a document, for if I were to do it orally, the interpreters would translate my words as an expression of gratitude for the improvement in trade or something else. 9 October According to a notification from the secretary, the Town Council presented the governors with the document concerning the copper this morning. His Honour and the shogunal superintendent of finance will take a decision today.73 10 October The Nagasaki recognition has been presented today, but no decision was given about my petitions, although I fear for an unfavourable outcome on the basis of the secretary’s notification.74 11 October Today the translators came to make known to me, on behalf of the Town Council, that however much the governors were willing to oblige me, they were not free to do so, for no trade had been conducted in 1782, and therefore no copper could be granted.75 They understood that we had suffered a great loss by the non-arrival of the ships, but they were assured that, because I had succeeded in improving the conditions of trade and in obtaining the exemption from body searches, I should take comfort from that, and should not take any further steps to promote a case in which they could not acquiesce, and the refusal of which would only be unpleasant for me. Being convinced of the futility of any endeavours towards obtaining last year’s copper and the truth of the governor’s words, I had Their Honours thanked for their polite refusal and I urged for a decision about the request concerning the carpenters. 12 October The outgoing governor sent me the model of a ship like the Trompenburg made by a Japanese, with the request to have the sails and whatever else was lacking in the rigging made.76 He also urged for a model of a vessel with a well-closed superstructure for next year, and also an able carpenter, if he could be spared. I promised His Honour to present both requests to the High Government of the Indies. The reason is that the Japanese build their boats of light wood, and use little ironwork, and thus a strong wind causes many of them to go missing, above all the copper barges from Osaka, which carry a coarse load and, because of their

‘Secret Diary’ of Isaac Titsingh 205 lightness, they are not able to withstand the force of the sea, and the slightest storm smashes them to pieces, and last year six barges, each carrying 700 piculs of copper, foundered. To prevent this they are seeking such a model, for which the model of a lighter will probably be adequate.77 13 October I secretly received the message that five carpenters have been granted the right to tender a bid for the Company’s repairs, and also that these carpenters had been summoned by the current Junior Intermediary Monju¯ro¯, and he had ordered them to make a settlement amongst them in such a way that each of them would get a turn to do the repairs for a year and they would have to pay the board [of translators] ten percent of the fixed sum, which are new funds for this unscrupulous rabble, but which they will have to do without, for one of the carpenters has secretly assured me that he will do the repairs every year for a most civil price, and for only a small profit, without setting store by such orders or threats by the translators, for now he knew whom to turn to.78 The secretary, whom I notified of the aforementioned, informed me that the document about the sampans will be returned and I shall have to make do with the governor’s promise for next year. Before I went to Government House for the audience of leave, the translators came to report that four carpenters had been granted the right to tender a bid for the annual repairs. I emphatically represented to them if there were only four of them, which seemed to take them by surprise, and they answered that there had been five, but the one named Enoshin had been so insolent this year that they had intended to exclude him in future.79 I advised them to be careful and not to meddle with this case, but to leave everything pertaining to this case to the discretion of the chief factor. I ordered them to request the Town Council to have all five carpenters swear an oath at the soonest in order that the repairs to the warehouses the Lelie and the Doorn, could be noted.80 14 October Today I received a stamped statement from the Nagasaki Office as proof that the Company has been permitted an export of 13,000 piculs of copper next year and for 1785 an export of 12,300 piculs.81 I ordered the translators to translate it and to give me two copies signed and stamped by them, the one to be taken to Batavia, and the other to be kept here. At my request, the governors have permitted me to stay ashore for another ten days until the 25th after the departure of the ship which has been set for tomorrow, to take care of business.82 The document about the sampans has been returned by the translators with the assurance that the governor will accede to it on his return next year, for otherwise too many innovations would take place in one year.

206 Other observations 18 October The governor will depart for Edo tomorrow and I again sent my confidant, and subsequently both Intermediaries, together with Ko¯saku, in their ceremonial attire, to wish His Honour a safe journey and an abiding prosperity, and to thank him heartily for his friendship, with the request to bear in mind his promises to obtain the prices for the Company’s commodities and the exempting from the ignominious searches. On their return he had them give me his strongest assurances and he also thanked me for the rigging of the boat, insisting on the receipt of a model of a solid boat next year. Because all particular negotiations end with His Honour’s departure, and because everything necessary has been brought on a firm footing now, I shall take the liberty to conclude these separate notes for the time being, requesting with all due respect that Your Honours will cast a favourable eye over my endeavours towards restoring trade, in which confidence I recommend myself to your powerful protection and heartily wishing You all the blessings which can sweeten this life, I remain with due respect. Japan, at the Nagasaki factory, 25 October 178383 I. Titsingh.

9

Titsingh’s ‘Philosophical Discourse’

Editor’s preface This Essay was sent by Titsingh to his friend Goto¯ So¯zaemon, head of the Nagasaki Office (kaisho¯), or the central shogunal trading organisation, here called the Imperial Exchange Office. This was timely, as Titsingh knew, for So¯zaemon had been imprisoned the day before for interceding in a local clerical dispute. Titsingh never saw him again, and So¯zaemon would die some months later, in incarceration. The content of the Essay is derived from Johanes Martinet’s Katechismus de Natuur of 1777–79, a best-selling and often translated work. Titsingh knew Martinet, and it seems he gave a copy of his book to Kutsuki Masatsuna. So¯zaemon had evidently send a (lost) prior two-question enquiry. But it may be doubted whether So¯zaemon, languishing in prison, had the necessary reference materials to understand Titsingh’s précis fully, but nevertheless, this Discourse marks an important moment in the transmission of Enlightenment thought to Japan.1

Philosophical Discourse2 To the Commissioner of the Imperial Exchange Office and First Chairman of the High Municipal Mayors, Goto¯ So¯zaemon sama: Sir, I have received your reflections on humankind and on the uncertainty of death, or the state of souls after death, and I will respond to them as straightforwardly as possible, in order to clearly present the generally held view.3 And though I will begin with the earliest times, I will take care not to create the impression that I seek to introduce ideas in conflict with the established beliefs of this nation. That is not by any means my intention, as I believe that every people can find happiness after death, whatever its religion may be, by paying homage to the First Being, obeying the laws of its own land and carrying out its duties to its fellows. As soon as an individual arrives at the age when his reason begins to operate and he can make use of his intelligence, he becomes aware, through consideration of himself, that he exists, because he thinks, makes observations, has knowledge of himself, and thus has a sense of his own reality. I search for the cause

208 Other observations of my existence, and ascending in my thoughts to infinity, I conclude from all I see around me that there is a First Being, which created me and which benevolently cares for me and all of creation. I try to form a mental image of this First Being, but since my faculties as a human are too limited to grasp it in its entirety, I must make do with the conviction that it is a being beyond comprehension, containing all the perfections that my weak powers of reason cannot grasp. The first humans, in the state of nature, felt the same way. They knew that they existed, but not whence they came nor how they had been born. They observed the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars, the sea with its fish, the air with its birds, and the earth with its plants and animals and became convinced that there was a First Being, which had brought all this forth. The more attention they gave to the matter, the more they were driven to investigate. They noticed that the sun and the moon rose and set at certain times, that when the sun went down the night approached, and the earth was cloaked in universal darkness, but that this darkness was at certain times dispelled by the moon. They felt the alternation of warmth and cold as the seasons changed. They saw trees blossom, grow leaves, bear fruit, and shed those leaves, to blossom again a few months later. This taught them that the First Being was constantly at work for the good of humankind, and had created all things for a purpose, since an intelligent person does nothing without a reason for it, and a purpose for doing what he does. Although this astounded them, they were pleased to worship the First Being, and to provide for themselves by tilling the soil, and they went on doing so as long as the earth was still sparsely peopled. But once the population grew, and they divided into separate households, into which all the vices, such as avarice, pride, hate, envy, and wrath, began to creep, they strayed further and further from their original purity. The instinct for self-preservation, unchecked by reason, lay the foundation for unjust and violent misdeeds; thus arose the need for a chief or authority to which all others would be subject. Yet these chiefs, who were chosen from among the oldest and most venerable of men, could only control the others by creating certain institutions and laws, which served to promote order and peace in society, and whose violators faced the threat of mild punishments. At first these were successful, but as the people’s respect for them diminished over time, and their evil increased, it became necessary to resort to other means. Since the most intelligent persons, upon reflection, felt something within themselves that gave them pleasure when they did good, and made them uneasy and aware of what they had done when they committed an evil deed which was not corrected through temporal punishment, they concluded that there was a state of reward and punishment hereafter and that the Supreme Being4 would repay humans for their deeds, not always in this life but in the next, the evil with evil and the good with good, and so the reward and punishment of souls in the hereafter became a means of reining in the common folk and bringing order to their lives.

Titsingh’s ‘Philosophical Discourse’ 209 The chronicles of the earliest times teach us that the lawmakers made it their mission to cultivate this feeling, which was entirely in conformity with reason, in the hearts of the people for the good of society, and that to this end certain men were appointed who called themselves priests and who, surpassing all others in godliness and virtue, devoted themselves to the sole task of demonstrating to the people the goodness of the First Being, and their duty to the same. They led lives of piety and were pure in conduct, and answerable to the elders for their actions. When the earth grew more populous, so that the people could no longer all live in a single community, they separated from one another, and divided themselves into regions, and each people was subject to its own authorities, and encouraged to do good deeds and live virtuously by its own priests. Yet when evil grew among them, it extended even to these priests, who corrupted the purity of their teachings, which were meant for the general good of society. They sought to escape the power of their authorities and to build a following by winning the favour of the foolish public, whom they convinced that the First Being had revealed his will to them alone. They propagated ideas of the First Being which accorded with their interests, and prohibited investigation of these ideas. In those earliest times, due to the scant progress made in the arts and sciences, these ideas were highly confused and deficient. The state of the soul, as they understood it, was murky and full of mysteries, and so they formed a variety of opinions, which led to lengthy disputes and disagreements. Through practice and observation, the most intelligent people became convinced that the priests’ ideas were untenable. They concluded that since God had created the world for certain purposes and bestowed on all people the ability to think, by means of which they had come to understand many things that at first seemed incomprehensible, they too could add to their knowledge through practice and investigation, and, thereby, reach that degree of perfection that the First Being had made it possible to attain in this lifetime. It should come as no surprise that they subjected themselves to laws, lived together in fellowship, obeyed their authorities, sought food on which to subsist, and built houses in which to live and take shelter from extremes of weather, from rain and from wind. All these things the beavers, the ants, the bees and other animals had in common with them, but they also devoted themselves to the study of what they called the soul, that certain something they felt inside of which they could not form any notion, which was distinct from the body that it seemed merely to have occupied in order to perform its operations there and yet in some ways bound to that same body. Their theories on the state of souls after death were clouded by many uncertainties. The greatest among them were: Socrates, who based philosophy on ethics, and essentially believed in the doctrine of the afterlife; Pythagoras, a lawmaker and philosopher, who was a believer in the transmigration of souls, and claimed that they passed from one body to another; Plato, who hoped to reconcile the opposing views of Socrates and Pythagoras, stating that the transformation during the passage from one body to another served to purify impure souls, which were no longer able

210 Other observations to regain their original purity due to the evil they had wrought, but that pure and untainted souls would be freed from this transmigration and reunited with nature in general. Others rejected the idea of a future state of reward and punishment, and believed that the soul vanished completely after death. The greatest among them was Zeno. They were all deeply committed to their metaphysical principles, of which they had two. The first was that everything had its origin in a First Principle; the second [was] that this principle was incapable of wrath or of doing harm to anyone, and that there was therefore no need to fear such things. They believed in a general, but not a special providence, and they held that the First Being had entrusted the governance of the regions of the earth to lesser spirits, which, like humans, were subject to passions. According to them, once the soul had left the body, it was no longer subject to the authority of these lesser spirits, but remained part of the First Principle from which it had been torn, and with which it would once again be reunited. At death, thus, the body returned to dust, and the soul to its primal essence.5 Most of them held that this would take place at the hour of death; some, that this would only take place after various wanderings, and others, that this would take place either immediately after death, or later, depending on whether the soul was pure or sullied. The notion that the soul was part of the First Being was accepted by most peoples, and held sway until the 2983rd year of creation, according to our calendar.6 Then people began to learn that the soul was not part of the First Being, but its handiwork, and it was then that they truly began to believe in a future state of reward and punishment. They set out to learn more about where the soul resided and what it comprised, and their theories were once again riddled with idle imaginings. Some located it in the brain and others in the heart, because they held that all the ideas in the head were created by the senses based on the impressions they received from the heart. Some believed that it resided in the blood and circulated throughout the body, and was the cause of all our movements and perceptions, but many rejected this idea, since it entailed that the soul would be noticeably weakened by bloodletting or bloodshed, and that a large part of it would be lost with the blood. Others sought it in the nervous fluids, though it has not yet been established whether there is any fluid contained in the nerves, which run throughout the body and cause all the operations of our senses. This idea was discredited by the argument that someone who lost an arm or a leg in war, or by some other chance, would necessarily lose a piece of the soul as well, since everyday experience teaches us that when such accidents befall persons of sound mind, their souls continue to operate with the same power and swiftness. When finally, after thousands of theses, all of which were disproven, people arrived at the conclusion that our human and natural knowledge is too weak to explain the metaphysical, it was generally agreed: that the soul was a thinking being, given to us by the godhead to govern the actions of humans, and to encourage them to practise virtue by communicating to them a sensation of pure delight, and when they committed evil to convince them with its pangs that they should turn their thoughts to the eternal and recognise that they were not suited for this

Titsingh’s ‘Philosophical Discourse’ 211 earth, but would taste reward or punishment in a future world, depending on whether the body in which they resided had done good or evil. In Europe, where all peoples subscribe mainly to the Christian religion, though they differ in many articles of faith, and each people believes that its faith is the best, the priests teach that those who practise the Christian religion will go on to a state of happiness after this life and that all other peoples will be excluded from that state, which will consist in singing the praises of the First Being, and that evildoers, and those of other religions, will suffer eternal punishment. That the virtuous will be happy in the hereafter is not in any doubt, but our priests claim that they will sing songs of praise forever, not daring to determine in what else the happiness of souls in the hereafter might consist. The following considerations refute the claim that the godless and those of other faiths will suffer eternal punishment. That the First Being, containing all perfections, is also all-knowing, and thus, before humans were created, knew whether they would do good or evil in their lifetimes, and thus would necessarily have taken pleasure in creating evildoers in order to punish them. That the First Being, in his goodness, could not have created humans only to make them eternally unhappy; that while he must have endowed them with free will, given that it is in their power to do a thing or not to do it, their deeds could not anger the godhead so greatly that he would punish them for all eternity; that good and evil were both necessary parts of the world, since we would have no notion of good if there were no evil. It was therefore decided that the evil would be punished, but that their punishment would be to suffer the pangs of conscience, and to be sent to a less perfect world after death, where, by doing good, they would have to make themselves worthy to inhabit a better world. The wisest persons of this age, who do not commit themselves to a particular religion and devote themselves only to ethics and to philosophy, all agree that by virtue of the fact that all the known peoples of the earth have a notion of the First Being, which the subjects of the great Mogul call Brahma, Pseschin and Manadhim, which the Magi or priests of the Persians worship in the guise of fire and the Egyptians in that of an ox, which the Kalmyks call Barchan [Burhan?], or Soul of the World, the Mamelneen, Tinianiaacas [Tloque Nahuaque, an Aztec god of creation?], the inhabitants of Ryukyu Fo, the Siamese, Witsna and the Ceylonese as Badham [all meaning the Buddha] who goes under the names Fo, Shaka [Shakyamuni] and Amida by the Chinese and Japanese and under that of Bisnou [Vishnu] by the Indians, every people can find happiness in its hereafter, since they all admit a First Cause, albeit under different names and guises, and pay homage to it. As long as they refrain from doing evil, and by doing good and showing true gratitude for all its good gifts, make themselves worthy of it, and, in human society, by obeying their authorities and observing their duties to their fellows, comport themselves as good citizens. No one will deny that we owe gratitude to the First Being. When someone does us a favour, whether he does us a service, helps us in poverty or stands by us in need, we are obliged to be grateful, and anyone who were not would be seen as

212 Other observations a bad, repugnant creature. How much greater, then, is our obligation to show gratitude to the First Being, who so lovingly provides for us from our birth to our death, and, by watching over his creatures, spares them many misfortunes. We should obey our authorities. This is self-evident, for without the laws designed to maintain order in society, each individual would do as he pleased, would surrender to the corrupt inclinations in his heart, would be unwilling to subject himself to anyone, would do in anyone who stood in his way, and do still more to disturb the peace of this earth, which has already been disrupted enough among all peoples by superstitious priests and power-hungry women since the earliest days. He should carry out his duties to his fellows, and do unto all others as he would have others do unto him. He must help the poor, who were created by the First Being just as he was, assist the unfortunate with counsel and aid, and by practising all the social virtues, attempt to encourage others to subject themselves to the disasters and misfortunes they meet with on this earth with equanimity, in the assurance that the First Being will not inflict them with a heavier burden than they can bear. I realise that many people meet with accidents, are hounded by slander, are oppressed by calumny, and that many blame the First Being for this, and long to be released from this earth, and that some kill themselves because of this longing. But I ask you, My Lord, whether this behoves an intelligent man. A soldier standing watch may not abandon his post until he is relieved. Let us all look on ourselves as soldiers, who are placed on this earth to fulfil the purposes of the First Being and may not take our own lives, but must subject ourselves to his will until it pleases him to release us from our bodies and call us to him.7 A person who carries out all these duties to the best of his ability can face death calmly, in the certainty that it will bring his reward for the good he has done on this earth. That brings me to the subject of what constitutes the blissful state of souls after death. As [the soul] is amazed even in this life at the most excellent works of creation and at the infinite almightiness of its creator, how much more amazed it must be when it is released from this earthly body by death, goes on to a better place and looks on the regular revolutions of the sun, moon and stars with a more enlightened eye! Then, for the first time, it will learn of the wise laws that govern all of this. Given that there are so many great beings outside of it, and it will remain a limited being in the beginning, it will be unable to understand all at once why it is that all those worlds rotate regularly on their axes and rush past, unhindered, unbounded and free, at such immeasurable distances from one another, distances that confound our understanding. Who can count these worlds, some of which are so astonishingly large that their size infinitely exceeds that of our globe? Here is a summary of the main teachings of learned astronomers concerning our earth, to which I will limit myself: This solar system alone, which is only part of the vast universe, consists of sixteen bodies almost identical in nature to our globe, which are called planets, and named Mercury, Venus, the Earth, the Moon, Mars, Jupiter and its four satellites, and Saturn and its five satellites.8 This is the solar system to which we belong, and these planets derive light and warmth from that glowing ball of fire the sun, which is at their midpoint. The distance between the

Titsingh’s ‘Philosophical Discourse’ 213 sun and our globe, according to the most exact calculation, is so great that a bullet fired from the sun, travelling as fast as five hundred feet in a pulse-beat, would take twenty-five years to reach our earth. This is no speculation, but a generally established truth. Now, our earth is only a small part of the universe, which is evident from the infinite number of stars that cast their own light and exert the same force on one another as the sun does on our planet. How infinitely large is the number of stars in the milky way, which our eye perceives as a white stripe due to their great distance. We know too little of their nature to say anything about them with certainty, but since many of them seem to resemble our globe, it is conceivable that there are creatures there as well, and because some are larger than others, we may also assume that some are more perfect than others and that every human being will be transported to a greater or lesser world after his death, depending on the extent of the knowledge and learning he has built up in this life, in order to increase his understanding there and by virtue of his knowledge make himself fit for a still better world, and so forth, until he finally shares in the great perfection of the First Being, and is reunited with it, after passing through all these worlds. Sir, is it truly credible that a thinking being, whose goodness steadily grows, who passes from one perfection to the other, after seeing the works of its creator for barely a moment on this earth and experiencing so little of its great wisdom and power, should lose all this understanding at death? Man in his present state seems to be suited only to propagating his own kind here on earth. He provides himself with a successor and soon after descends into the grave to make way for him. He does not seem to have been born to enjoy his life, but to surrender it to others. This would not be consistent with the First Being’s purposes. We must look on this world as a school preparing us for the future, and have faith that the many generations of intelligent creatures that follow each other in such rapid succession, and vanish, come to this earth solely to learn the first principles of reason and add to this knowledge in the hereafter. For I cannot imagine, Sir, that souls will lead an idle existence after death, since indolence is clearly a burden even for a lazy man; who is happier in life that he who finds occupations that add to his knowledge of useful things? Consider, Sir, how unpleasant, how sorrowful it would be for a man, endowed by the First Being with reason and knowledge, who had done everything in his power to be of service to his fellows in this life and devoted himself to the study of philosophy and ethics, to face the prospect that his progress in these areas would cease with his final breath. The great Taiko¯ [Toyotomi Hideyoshi], Woosin [Tokugawa Iemitsu9] and Nintoku [a great legendary early dairi], who were the joy of their people and the pride of this nation – would you think that their progress in good deeds and higher learning could have ended at the grave? No, as they were beloved of their subjects for their good deeds and wisdom, so they will increase their knowledge after this life, and by passing on to a better world, be rewarded for the noble needs that they performed here on earth. If we look at humans at the time of death, we can see to our shock and horror, and this is all the more true of elderly people than of young ones, which accounts

214 Other observations for our emotion, that they have not put their lives to proper use, and that they feel certain that they have not performed the duties that were required of them. A virtuous man, by contrast, knows that at his death he must leave behind all honour and all riches he may acquire in this life, and that none of his earthly goods will remain to him. He therefore improves his soul with useful studies, honours the First Being, and fulfils his duties to his fellows; his thoughts reach beyond the grave. Feeling a desire to learn which he cannot fully satisfy in this life, and convinced that it will be satisfied in the hereafter, he is able to face death with equanimity, in the certainty that it will transport him to a better place. The art of reconciling oneself to one’s death thus resides simply in the conviction that one has lived well, and been of great service to the world with one’s good deeds. The assurance of a future life is thus a secret comfort to the soul. I can remain indifferent to whatever misfortunes befall me, as long as I recall my faith in a better state hereafter, in which there will be neither pain nor sickness, where I will no longer taste disaster nor be persecuted by slanderers. When I look on the tombs of the great, my envy withers away. When I see the graves of clerics who unleashed conflict and dissension on the world, then I look upon humanity’s disputes with pity. When I turn my gaze to the graves of my friends, then I draw comfort from the fact that they are not dead, but have taken a journey which still lies ahead of me, and in that brief period have already gained more knowledge than I could ever gain on this earth, even if I were to live to the most advanced age. How pleasant it must be therefore be for you, Sir, to cherish the hope that after your life ends, as a reward for the good that you have done in this world you will be transported to a better one, where your understanding will be increased, and that after having spent a certain number of years fulfilling nobler duties there, you will move on to a still more perfect world. Because an eternity is needed to become acquainted with the First Being in all his perfections, and we cannot progress step by step toward this goal, the transition from a better world to a still more perfect one will be eternally repeated, until all of us, having passed through the same worlds, are reunited in the purity of the First Being, and see the souls of the great men, such as the Taiko¯, Woosin, Gongen sama [Tokugawa Ieyasu], Taito Kongensama [Tokugawa Hidetada], Koosi [Confucius], Leibnitz, Newton, Locke and Wolff,10 who in their lifetimes, through their great deeds and understanding, did honour to the First Being, and contributed to the happiness of their fellows. Having answered your first question, Sir, I will proceed to the second. At first sight, we have every reason to be amazed that despite the great number of birds, quadrupeds and creeping things that fill the earth, many of which die every day, we never see their carcasses, but this amazement ends when we realise that all of creation is bound together, as if by a chain, so that from humans to the most insignificant of animals, there is a similarity that recedes into infinity. Among the created beings, the first are the humans, who walk on two feet, think, and communicate their thoughts to one another by means of speech. They are followed by the orangutans or ‘jungle men’, a kind of ape, but greater by far in size and animal intelligence. They walk partly on their two hind legs and exhibit in their behaviour

Titsingh’s ‘Philosophical Discourse’ 215 every sign of shame, sorrow or joy, as circumstances warrant. I have seen one such orangutan that lacked only the power of speech, and differed in no other way from ordinary Javanese, who are generally stupid and slow. It was his custom to drink three glasses of wine with us every evening, and he held his glass so gingerly in his front paw that he put many others to shame. The orangutan is most lascivious and never leaves a woman in peace if he encounters her on her own, but attempts to satisfy his bestial desires with her, many instances of which can be found among a variety of peoples. Following the orangutan is the category of quadrupeds and creeping things, which includes many creatures that also fall into the category of birds, such as flying cats, bats, bitterns, and flying lizards. There is also a similarity between birds and fish, as shown by the flying fish when pursued by tuna, and boskops.11 The fish, in turn, also belong to the category of mammals as shown by the walrus, which has two front paws and a long tail and comes on land to feed on carrion by the shore, the crocodile, called a caiman in the Indies, which has four legs and preys on humans and animals both on land and in the water, the hippopotamus, which forages on the river bottom, the sea cow, which lives on seaweed, duckweed, and glasswort, and various others, too many to list here. Just as all these are like links in a great chain, so it is in the case of destruction, and the general principle that nothing in nature goes to waste holds true. Man feeds on a variety of quadrupeds, birds and fish. When he dies, his body is buried in the soil, part of it becomes food for the worms, and another part is consumed by the air contained in the soil and lends a richness to the earth that aids in the cultivation of plants. Men use these plants in turn for food, and they give our bodies strength and force until death brings our lives to an end and we become food for worms once again. As it is for humans, so it is for animals as well. There are two sorts, voracious and meek, the first of which devours the second: rhinoceroses, lions, tigers, bears, wolves and many others prey on each other and on lesser animals, and the boar and jackal even hunger for human flesh. There are many kinds of quadrupeds and birds whose carcasses are never found, because they bury one another. This is particularly common among the baboons and apes, of which there are some who make war on each other just as people do, and those who die in battle are carefully carried away by their own people. Furthermore, on numerous tall mountains in North and South America, in Chile, Louisiana, Peru, Hudson’s Bay and many other places, people have found large collections of bones, and concluded that some birds and animals have collective burial grounds just as humans do, and bring their dead there. The few animal carcasses that are observed from time to time carry the source of their own decay and destruction, in the form of thousands of tiny worms that are invisible to the eye but detectable with the aid of a microscope. These worms soon consume them entirely. The bones, which consist solely of earth and an oily substance, dry up when deprived of the necessary fluid by death, rot in the heat of the sun and the open air, and turn back into the earth of which they were formed.

216 Other observations Still, the most surprising of all such phenomena has been discovered in a particular sort of beetle, known as a burying beetle, which Linnaeus mentions in Chapter Seven.12 Only in recent years did we learn of a unique characteristic of this creature, perhaps more astonishing than any other practice found among the insects: it buries mice, moles and other carcasses. The first observation of this fact is recorded in the proceedings of the Royal Society of Sciences of Berlin of 1752.13 It has been observed that a dead mole lying on soil that is neither too hard nor too wet, and neither too coarse nor too clayey, will, in warm weather, generally disappear within a few hours, and certainly within three days. The cause is this beetle, which buries not just moles but any kind of carcass it finds lying on the ground. In Europe, I have turned my attention to this matter many times, and found that this insect buries not only moles, but also dead birds and fish, and that the bones are for the most part crushed in the process. It has a hard shell and a sharp, pointed head, is black in colour and is about the length of a thumb. It is not visible while it works, but its presence can be inferred from the slight movements of the dead animal it is burying. The beetle digs away the soil underneath the animal until there is a hole large enough to contain it. The animal gradually sinks into this hole, after which the beetle emerges, covers it thoroughly with the excavated soil, goes underground itself, and lives on this food until it has consumed it entirely. Experience has taught us that there are an infinite number of these beetles throughout the world, since whenever moles, mice, rats or other carcasses are laid down in all manner of places, one such beetle sets to work within ten hours. Since this phenomenon has been observed in Europe, it is likely that it takes place here as well. In view of your enthusiasm for the study of nature, Sir, I am sure that this question will now receive your attention, and I have no doubt that you will soon discover what the situation here truly is. Big fish devour little ones, and are in turn caught by humans and used for food or some other purpose. Large birds prey on small ones, and are in turn hunted by quadrupeds, fowl eat mice and insects and are in turn slaughtered or hunted by humans, and so one animal lives on another, and both in their mutual relations and their destruction they are all united like so many links in a single chain. Now having answered both of your questions, Sir, I request this of you: if in the pursuit of one area of study or another, you come upon any matter of which you desire an explanation, present it to me, for I will always be prepared to assist you to the best of my ability. I most respectfully remain Your Honour’s obedient servant, I. TITSINGH Dejima 14 December 1779

Glossary

Chu¯jo¯ Middle Captain; an honorary court title. Chu¯ nagon Middle Minister; an honorary court title. Counsellors Ordinary Counsellors = members of the top shogunal advisory body; ‘privy counsellors’; ro¯ju¯. Extraordinary Counsellors = members of the junior shogunal advisory body; ‘Young Elders’, or waka-doshiyori. Daimyo Great landholder; regional ruler, ‘prince’. Dainagon Chief Minister; an honorary court title. Dairi Ancestor of current emperors of Japan. Den Honorific term; sir, madam, lord or lady. Denka Highness; majesty. Dono Honorific term; sir, madam, lord or lady. Edo-ban tsu¯ji One of two translators participating in court trip in any given year. Emperor Shogun; not to be confused with dairi. Factory Trading station. Hereditary prince Inheriting prince; heir apparent. Himegimi Princess. Ho¯ o¯ Retired dairi. -in Suffix attached to posthumous name of deceased dairi. Intermediary One of two translators nominated to assist the factory in any given year. Kami An honorary office; ‘marshal’ -no-kami attached to the holder’s office and inserted between family and given names. Ko¯ Lord. Kobang/koban Middle-value coin. Kyo¯ Kyoto. Landsheer Dutch term for daimyo. Miyako ‘The Capital’; Kyoto. Miya Prince, princess; miyasama = ditto, often in vocative. Nagasaki office Body to which all imported goods were sold; kaisho¯; geldkamer in Dutch. Nenban tsu¯ji Intermediary translator; rapporteur in Dutch. -no-kami See, kami. Oban Large-value coin.

218 Glossary Rapporteur See, Nenban tsu¯ji. Sama Honorific term; sir, madam, lord or lady. Shaka The Buddha; doctrine of Shaka = Buddhism. Shinno¯ Prince. Shoshidai Shogunal representative in Miyako; known in Europe as the Chief Justice of Japan (or suchlike title). Tairo¯ Member of the top shogunal advisory body; ‘privy counsellor’. Tolken College Collectivity of translators. Tsu¯ ji Translator. VOC The Dutch East India Company.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47

Notes

Introduction 1 All data on the VOC personnel in Japan, their offices and tenures, are derived from Leonard Blussé et al. (eds), The Deshima Dagregisters: Their Original Tables of Contents, 11 vols. (Hereafter, DDR with volume and page numbers.) Note that this series is also available in a second edition, see, Leonard Blussé et al. (eds), The Deshima Diaries Marginalia. 2 C. R. Boxer, Jan Compagnie in Japan, 1600–1850: An Essay on the Cultural, Artistic and Scientific Influence Exercised by the Hollanders in Japan from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Centuries, p. 170. However, there are countervailing views: Japanese historians tend to identify three scholars who visited Japan in this period (the so-called Dejima no san gakusha) who were pre-eminent, namely, Engelbert Kaempfer, Carl Peter Thunberg and Franz von Seibold, such that Titsingh does not figure, see, for example, Katagiri Kazuo, Edo no orandajin: kapitan no edo sanpu¯, pp. 9–102. Note, however, that as Kaempfer and Seibold were German and Thunberg was Swedish, literally Titsingh can still be said to be the most learned Hollander. 3 Frederick Schobel, ‘Address’, in Isaac Titsingh (F. Shoberl, trans.), Illustrations of Japan, p. iii. Note that the 2000 edition of Illustrations of Japan, being a facsimile, has the same page numbers as the original, see note 337. 4 The fraught matter of Japan’s bicephalic monarchy was rarely understood in Europe, but the shogun was always regarded as the ‘emperor of Japan’. One common formulation was to consider the dairi as a sort of pope, and certainly to call him ‘emperor’ – the official title used by his descendants today – is anachronistic. 5 Oddly, Titsingh never mentioned the English factory, and was perhaps ignorant of its decade of existance. For the fullest modern treatments, see Derek Masarella, A World Elsewhere: Europe’s encounter with Japan in the Sixtenth and Seventeenth Centuries, and Anthony Farrington (ed.), The English Factory in Japan, 1613–1623, 2 vols. Note that as England had not yet united with Scotland, the Company was called English, not British, as it did after the Act of Union. 6 No book ever appeared under that title, but Titsingh’s 1,100-page MS (soon lost and only discovered in 1977) bears the title ‘Beschryving van Japan’, see, Frank Lequin, Isaac Titsingh (1745–1812): Een Passie voor Japan, Leven en Werk van de Grondlegger van de Europese Japanologie, p. 209. However, there is evidence that the French version was intended to have the title ‘Histoire politique, géographique et naturelle du Japon’, see Conrad de Malte-Brun, ‘Introduction’ to Isaac Titsingh, ‘Descriptions de la Terre Iesso’, p. 146. 7 The main pre-Titsingh books on Japan (not all based on first-hand evidence) are Caron, Montanus and Kaempfer; Thunberg’s was underway. 8 Carl Peter Thunberg, Resa uti Europa, Afrika, Asia (Upsala, 1788–93); for a modern edition of the English verson, together with a full analysis of its publication history,

220 Notes

9

10

11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

29 30 31

translations and impact, see Timon Screech (ed.), Japan Extolled and Decried: Carl Peter Thunberg and the Shogun’s Realm. Frank Lequin (ed.), The Private Correspondence of Isaac Titsingh, document number 204 (hereafter, PC with document number – NB not page number; numbering is continuous across the two volumes). Heinrich Julius van Klaproth retained this Dedication when he edited Titsingh’s Nipon o daï itsi ran, see pp. v–vi; it is also reproduced in Boxer, Jan Compagnie, pp. 182–84 (for this citation, see, p. 183). Joseph-François Charpentier-Cossigny de Palma published the records of several meetings with Titsingh held in 1787 by a French traveller whom he identified only as ‘le Citoyen ***’ (‘Citizen X’); Boxer, Jan Compangie, p. 147, states that this person is ‘Grandpré’, but gives no first name nor rationale. The traveller was told by Titsingh that he knew Japanese ‘in depth’ and had learned it in two years, see CharpentierCossigny, Voyage à Bengale (1799), the relevant extract was reproduced by JeanPierre-Abel Rémusat, ‘Preliminary Remarks’ to Titsingh, Illustrations pp. xv–xvi, and the full account also appears in, PC, Appendix 1.1. For a list of Titsingh’s oeuvre, Lequin, Isaac Titsingh, pp. 255–59. Isaac Titsingh (Anon. trans.), Bijzonderheden over Japan, see below. See also Lequin, Isaac Titsingh, p. 209. It also exists in a modern Japanese translation, see Chapter 9. There are three articles by C. R. Boxer covering various stages of Titsingh’s life, ‘Isaac Titsingh, 1745–1812’, in his Jan Compagnie, ‘“The Mandarin at Chinsura”: Isaac Titsingh in Bengal, 1785–1782’, and ‘Isaac Titsingh’s Embassy to the Court of Ch’ien Lung (1794–1795)’. The full biography is Lequin, Isaac Titsingh. Lequin, Isaac Titsingh, p. 29. Boxer, Jan Compangie, p. 140. For Titsingh’s Freemasons, see Christopher Haffner, ‘Eastern Masonic Frontiers before the Union’, p. 19. I am grateful to Pauline Chakmakjian for this information. DDR 9/29. Koga Ju¯jiro¯ , Maruyama yu¯jo to to¯ko¯mo¯-jin, p. 768. They were permitted to stay on Dejima for three (later extended to five) nights. Although this term has not made its way into the OED, it appears many times in Kaempfer’s History of Japan, and so would have become widely known, see, for example, vol. 2, p. 391. He did qualify ‘except in Holland’, see Thunberg (Screech, introd. and ed.), Japan Extolled and Decried, p. 34. The book is better known in the shortened colour edition of 1802, entitled just Azuma asobi. Thunberg (Screech, introd. and ed.), Japan Extolled, pp. 257–59. The reports were known as the Oranda fu¯setsu-gaki, see Iwao Seiichi (ed.), Oranda f u¯setsu-gaki shu¯sei, vol. 2, pp. 67–68. DDR 8/186. Ibid., loc. cit. PC 225 (where Hirotami is referred to as ‘Tanga’, i.e. Tango-no-kami); DDR 9/29 and 33. DDR 8/188. Here and hereafter, all ages here are given in the Western manner; however, at this time in East Asia a child was one at birth and advanced one year at each New Year, and, thus, might be classified as up to two years older than in the Western count. An adoption had been made, just in time, of a distant cousin, Tomohito, and this is the dairi who became known as Ko¯ kaku tenno¯ (reviving that old title), see Fujita Satoru, Bakumatsu no tenno¯, esp, pp. 32–53. DDR 8/188. The same Japanese-owned barge was leased every year, called the Hiyoshi-maru, but

Notes 221

32 33 34 35

36

37 38 39 40 41 42 43

44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54

55 56 57

known in Dutch as the hofreisbark. For a convenient reproduction of the only known illustration of the vessel, see Thunberg (Screech, introd. and ed.), Japan Extolled, fig. 3. There are many references to Shigehide’s fondness for sugar-plums, but see, inter alia, DDR 9/171. Martha Chaiklin, Cultural Commerce and Dutch Commercial Culture: The Influence of European Material Culture of Japan, 1700–1850, pp. 63 and 145. Shimazu Shigehide, Cho¯mei binran (1830), see Grant K. Goodman, Japan: the Dutch Experience, p. 158. Tadako and Ienari were the same age; their espousal occurred in 1776, Ienari was adopted in 1781, and the marriage was completed in 1789, after which Tadako was formally known as Midaidokoro (i.e. first wife) Sadako. Protocol required she be adopted into a court family (the Konoe obliged), but this was a technicality, see Takayanagi Kaneyoshi, Tokugawa saisho¯-ki, pp. 215–17. Isaac Titsingh, ‘The Character of the Japanese People’, below. Here and hereafter, where citations used in this introduction appear in the present edition, page references are not given. Satsuma was more properly (though less often) called Kagoshima. Here and hereafter, all references to daimyo’s dates, successions and incomes, are derived from Kimura So¯ et al. (eds), Hanshi daijiten. DDR 8/189. For the best biography, see Haga To¯ ru, Hiraga Gennai, Sugita Genpaku, Rangaku kotohajime, p. 485. DDR 8/189. Ibid., loc. cit. DDR 8/190. In the paragraph above, note that Thunberg also stated the shogun held the audience standing, though Thunberg himself was not present, see Thunberg (Screech, ed.) Japan Extolled and Decried, p. 159. Titsingh, letter to Petrus Chassé, 8/3/1786, see, PC 226. (NB: here and hereafter dates are given as day/month/year.) There is a problem with this letter however: Titsingh refers to the individual as ‘Governor Jedo Isoemo (i.e. Edo Izumo), but there was no such person, so he must mean ‘the Nagasaki Governor Izumo, resident in Edo’; Izumo was the rank (Izumo-no-kami, not actually a name) held by Toda Tamitake, who was not appointed until some years later; the resident governor was actually the one that Titsingh liked, Tsuge Hirotami. He is surely therefore making a confusion. DDR 8/192. Iwao (ed.), Oranda fu¯setsu-gaki, vol. 2, p. 69. DDR 8/185 and 196. DDR 8/193–95. In 1780, Alting had replaced Reynier de Klerk (in office since 1777), though this change was announced in Dejima only later, by Titsingh, see, DDR 8/186. Iwao (ed.), Oranda fu¯setsu-gaki, vol. 2, p. 73. DDR 9/10 DDR 9/17. See, Derek Massarella, ‘The History of The History: the Purchase and Publication of Kaempfer’s History of Japan’, p. 114. It is possible that Titsingh did not obtain a copy of Kaempfer until his second incumbancy, though that seems unlikely. For another comparison with Kaempfer, see DDR 9/19. DDR 9/18. Engelbert Kaempfer, (J. J. Scheuchzer, trans.), History of Japan Together with a Description of the Kingdom of Siam, vol. 2, p. 391. See also Engelbert Kaempfer (Beatrice Bodart-Bailey, trans. and ed.), Kaempfer’s Japan: Tokugawa Japan Observed, p. 308. DDR 9/20. DDR 9/28. DDR 9/30.

222 Notes 58 59 60 61 62

63 64

65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73

74 75 76 77 78

79 80 81

DDR 9/45. DDR 9/28. DDR 9/29. DDR 9/133. DDR 9/36. For an overview of shogunal officials’ salaries, see, Takeuchi Makoto (ed.), Tokugawa bakufu jiten, pp. 416–30. Here and hereafter, all references to shogunal officers, names and incumbencies are taken from Sasama Yoshihiko, Zo¯ho¯ ban: Edo bakufu yakushoku shu¯sei, except for Nagasaki governors’ careers, which derive from Toyama Mikio, Nagasaki bugyo¯: edo bakufu no mimi to me, especially, pp. 197–98. See also note 89 below. Lequin, Isaac Titsingh, p. 67. DDR 9/6, where, however, Titsingh overstates the case by calling Hirotami ‘just a lower servant’. Tsuchiya Masanobu, for example (governor 1784–5) had 3000 koku, see, ibid., loc. cit.. Note that these figures refer to hereditary stipend not salary, which was additional (the Nagasaki governor earned 1000 koku, the amount for most top shogunal offices), see above, note 62. DDR 8/141. Okitsugu is referred to as ‘Thanema Tonomo Cami’ (i.e. Tanuma Tononono-kami). DDR 8/68. J. MacLean, ‘Introduction of Books and Scientific Instruments into Japan, 1712–1854’, p. 37. Lequin, Isaac Titsingh, p. 67. DDR 9/40. Lequin, Isaac Titsingh, p. 67. Iwao (ed.), Oranda fu¯setsu-gaki, vol. 2, pp. 74–75. Contained in ibid., vol. 2, pp. 75–76. DDR 9/15. The whereabouts of the original paintings are unknown, but see, Abel Rémusat’s Appendix to Isaac Titsingh (Shoberl, trans.), Illustrations, pp. 313–25, where a catalogue of Titsingh’s collection is given. Titsingh refers to Morinao as ‘Fout-jeja no kami’, that is, Suruga-no-kami, his title. Takagi is not named, and the identification is more hypothetical. According to Toyama, Nagasaki bugyo¯, p. 197, Morinao left office (probably meaning died) on 18th of 5th lunar month, which corresponds to 26 April, but in the Illustrations, Titsingh puts his death at 16 June, 1784; the captions to the illustration in the Illustrations give the death as 10th of 5th month and interment on 19th, which Titsingh identifies as 6 July, see p. 248; Romberg reports learning of the death on 5 July, see DDR 9/60, perhaps because it was initially concealed. Abel Rémusat’s catalogue states that this ‘roll’, by a Japanese artist, was 17 ft long, see ibid., p. 314. Most sources state that Tamitake had a single incumbency, although some accord him more, see Toyama, Nagasaki bugyo¯, p. 198. DDR 9/63 and 74 n. 6. DDR 9/84. Iwao (ed.), Oranda fu¯setsu-gaki, vol. 2, p. 76. The treaty was concluded on 3 September 1783, so news of it would have arrived in Batavia only after Titsingh sailed. As far as the VOC was concerned, the truncated incumbency had been agreed in advance, and thus, at once upon arrival, Titsingh took charge and kept the factory log, rather than waiting for the autumn departures. See Boxer, Jan Campagnie, p. 143. For the precedent of Vermeulen, see, DDR7/347; he took over from Johannes Reynouts, but then handed back to him again. DDR 9/67 and 71. DDR 9/67. He took over from the retiring Yamauchi Sadasaka; serving with him were Matsumoto Hidemochi, Akai Tadamasa and Kurihara Morisada (who had himself previously served as Nagasaki magistrate).

Notes 223 82 DDR 9/59. 83 DDR 9/67 and 9/63–64. 84 His name appears in DDR as Van Reede, although Lequin, Isaac Titsingh, gives Van Rheede. He would later become Governor of Java. 85 Titsingh, letter to Henry Zelar, 14/5/1801, see PC 294. 86 Chaiklin, Cultural Commerce, p. 19. 87 Ibid., loc. cit. and above, note 34. See also Titsingh, letter to Hori Monju¯ro¯, 12/5/1801, see PC 292. 88 DDR 9/71–72. 89 The Dutch translator families were Kafuku, Hori, Imamura, Motoki, Nakayama, Narabayashi, Nishi, Tamura, Shige and Yoshio; however, not all served throughout the whole period. Those encountered by Titsingh are discussed below. The organisation of the translators is discussed by in the text; for a period Japanese source, see Tachihara Suiken, Yu¯rin zatsuwa, p. 5. The best modern study is Katagiri Kazuo, Oranda tsu¯ji no kenkyu¯; for a table of translators’ periods in office (used here and throughout), see ibid., p. 140. 90 DDR 8/51. This happened just after the New Year, under Romberg. 91 Sugita Genpaku, Rangaku kotohajime, p. 477. The shogun was Tokugawa Yoshimune. Genpaku does not name Jindayu¯, but he can be identity through other sources, see ibid., loc cit., n. 36. The event is not dated, but would have been after Yoshimune’s famous call to study the ‘horizontal language’, at which Noro Genjo¯ and Aoki Bunryo¯ took up the challenge, see ibid., p. 478. Note that the Motoki (like many Edo-period families) used repeated names over the generations, and Ryo¯ ei/Einoshin can also be called Jindayu¯ and Eizaemon. 92 I have not been able to establish the birth date of Shige Setsuemon, but he entered the college as ‘provisional vice-junior interpreter’ in 1766, when he would have been about 15, see DDR 8/221. 93 I have not been able to establish the birth date of Namura Katsuemon, but he was already senior interpreter in 1767. Ju¯bei was born in 1750. 94 Einoshin marred Jindayu¯’s daughter, O-ho¯ . The Motoki are the only translators with a published family tree, see Kobe City Museum (ed.), Nichi-ran ko¯ryu¯ no kakehashi oranda tsu¯ji ga mita sekai: Motoki Ryu¯ei Sho¯ei fushi no ashiato o otte, p. 165. Also, see above, note 91. 95 Caspar Romberg, letter to Titsingh, 30/11/1787, see PC 41; the relevant section appears pp. 70–71; this is partially translated in DDR 9/vi, however, the translation used here is my own. 96 DDR 9/36. 97 Titsingh, letter to Henry Zelar, 14/5/1801, see PC 294. Monju¯ro¯ took that name at this point (spring 1783); previously he had been called Toyosaburo¯ . 98 DDR 9/195. 99 Chaiklin, Cultural Commerce, p. 14. 100 There are two letters extant, one to and one from Einoshin, see PC 13, 25 and 46; the last is to Einoshin, dated 28/3/1788. 101 All scholars mention this connection, but ignore the fact that Muneyoshi had died in 1751 (replaced by Date Shigemura), which was four years before Shihei moved to Sendai, thus, his sister was concubine of the late daimyo, not the ruling one. 102 C. R. Boxer, ‘Rin [Hayashi] Shihei and his Picture, 1782’, pp. 47–49 (with illustration). 103 Sugita Genpaku, Rangaku kotohajime, p. 506. 104 Titsingh, letter to Van Reede, 30/3/1787, see PC 240. for Titsingh’s drinking, see below, note 232. 105 The book is also known as Oranda kibun; it is discussed in more detail below. 106 Petrus Chassé, letter to Titsingh, 21/6/1789, see PC 56. 107 Tachihara Suiken, Yu¯rin zatsuwa, for the biography of Narabayashi Ju¯bei, see ibid., pp. 19–24. The claim that he met the daimyo appears in Niimura Izuru, ‘Tenmei

224 Notes

108 109

110

111 112 113 114 115 116 117

118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130

jidai no kaigai chishiki’, p. 1254, although this is not entirely credible both because of their differential statuses and because it was almost unheard of for daimyos of Mito to be visit their state (unlike other daimyos, they resided permanently in Edo). Haruyasu is also known as Bun-ko¯ . DDR 8/195, and ‘Secret Diary’ (the latter criticism was also directed at Motojiro¯ ). For ten Rhijne’s book, see J. Z. Bowers and R. W. Carruba, ‘The Western World’s First Detailed Treatise on Acupuncture: Willem ten Rhijne’s De Acupunctura’; more generally, see G. T. Haneveld, ‘The Introduction of Acupuncture into Western Medicine: The Influence of Japanese and Dutch Physicians’. The section on acupuncture appeared for the first time in the 2nd edition of de Chirurgie, of 1724, but was retained in all subsequent editions and translations, see George Rosen, ‘Lorenz Heister on Acupuncture: An Eighteenth-Century View’, p. 387. Sarlandière (see below, note 112) gives the author as ‘Kyozjo’, a corruption of the Japanese reading of his surname, Hau (‘Kotsu’). There were many versions, but the best-known in Japan was by Okamoto Ippo, Ju¯shi keikaku hatsugun wage (1693), which is probably what Titsingh used. For a reproduction of another of Titsingh’s plates, see Haneveld, ‘Introduction of Acupuncture’, p. 56. This appears in French in Jean-Baptiste Sarlandière, Mémoires sur l’électro-puncture (Paris, 1825), pp. 83–137, where is it said to be the work of ‘un savant hollandais’, and is given the title Traité de l’acupuncture et du moxa. Miura Baien, Kizan-roku (1776), p. 167. Miura Baien, Zeigo (1786), quoted in Krieger, Infiltration, p. 71 (adapted). Baien’s first trip was in 1745, but no record of it survives. For his globe, see Taguchi Masayasu, Miura Baien, p. 77 (with illustration). Tachibana Nankei, Hokuso¯ sadan ko¯hen (earliest extant MS, 1804; first pub. 1825), p. 155. Nankei is also known as Miyagawa Shunki. He travelled for five years before being appointed physician to the dairi and being awarded the title Iwami-no-kami. Titsingh does not refer to rebuilding his lodging (note that, by contrast, he does state that the VOC hostel in Miyako was rearranged to his own plans, see, DDR 9/19 and 186), so there is some doubt. If the report is true, it probably occurred during Titsingh’s long, second incumbency, as in May 1783, massive storm damage require rebuilding on much of the factory. For Romberg, see DDR 9/56–57, and a plan was made for Romberg in autumn 1785, showing the resulting layout, see Kobe City Museum (ed.), Nichi-ran ko¯ryu¯ no kakehashi, cat. 10 (with illustration). The building was destroyed by fire in 1789, see DDR 9/186. Tachibana Nankei, Hokuso¯ sadan, p. 155. Shiba Ko¯ kan, Ko¯kan saiyu¯ nikki, p. 105. Ko¯ kan described making the portrait in ibid., p. 124. A second version of this work exists, attributed to O¯ tsuki Genkan; for a convenient reproduction, see Timon Screech (Murayama Kazuhiro trans.), To¯kaido¯ o ayunda seiyo¯jin. Shiba Ko¯ kan, Seiyo¯ gadan, p. 493. Lairesse’s book exists in English as, John Fitch (trans.), The Art of Painting in All Its Branches (1783). Lequin, Isaac Titsingh, p. 123. Lequin provides no supporting evidence for this claim. DDR 9/234. For Ju¯bei, see above, note 107. Chaiklin, Cultural Commerce, p. 63. DDR 8/192. So¯ zaemon died on 20 June. DDR 8/98. For Akinari, see Krieger, Infiltration, p. 59. DDR 9/187. This serious claim appears in DDR 9/119, see also, DDR 9/132 n. 1. F.R. Effert (ed.) Matthi Forrer (introd. and annot.), The Court Journey to the Shogun of Japan: A Private Account by Jan Cock Blomhoff, pp. 78 and 98. The year was 1818. Niimura Izuru, ‘Tenmei jidai no kaigai chishiki’, p. 1253. Mototsuna is also called Annojo¯ and Suigai.

Notes 225 131 DDR 9/20. 132 Ibid., loc. cit. 133 See above, note 10. The claim was reiterated by Abel Rémusat, review of Titsingh, ‘Cérémonies usitées au japon’, in Journal des Savants (1819), quoted in PC Appendix 1.13. 134 Lequin, Isaac Titsingh, p. 96. 135 DDR 8/190 and 9/20. 136 Titsingh, letter to Chassé, 8/3/1786, see PC 226. Throughout, Titsingh believed Masatsuna to be ‘lord of Tanba’, an error generally perpetuated in the modern literature, however, he did not inherit until the end of 1787. Titisngh refers to ‘being in Japan for a month’, which must be an error for ‘being in Edo for a month’ (although in fact he was there only three weeks). 137 This required Masakyu¯ ro¯ ’s disaffiliation from the Nishi, and he assuming the new name, Arai Shu¯ju¯ro¯, see Niimura, ‘Tenmei jidai’, p. 1254. 138 Krieger, Infiltration, p. 86 (adapted). 139 Sugita Genpaku, Rangaku kotohajime, pp. 482 (incl. n. 24) and 506. 140 Ibid., p. 509 n. 103. Halma’s dictionary had innumerable editions, but Sanpaku is thought to have used that of 1729. 141 Matsuda Kiyoshi, Yo¯gaku no shoshi-teki kenkyu¯, p. 22. 142 To¯ no Haruyuki, Kahei no nihon-shi, pp. 214–22. 143 Antoine Prévost d’Exiles, Histoire générale des voyages (Paris, 1746–61), 20 vols. The Dutch version, anonymously translated, is, Historische Beschrijving der Reisen (1747–50 and 1755–67); for a discussion, see Matsuda, Yo¯gaku, p. 21. 144 Ibid., loc. cit. PC 2. 145 Ibid., p. 22. 146 Kutsuki Masatsuna, letter to Titsingh, 28/4/1785, see PC 2. Kaisei ko¯ho¯ zukan is normally said to be undated, although Masuda, ibid., loc. cit., gives 1785; it is an exceptionally rare book, and, although published, exists today in just one copy. 147 Frank Lequin, ‘Isaac Titsingh’s Discours philosophique of 1779’, p. 1230. 148 A van den Berg, Levensberichten van J. F. Martinet (Amsterdam, 1796), pp. 34–35, quoted in Matsuda, Yo¯gaku, p. 31. Martinet died in 1796, 149 Lequin, Isaac Titsingh, pp. 104–08. 150 Titsingh’s Dedication for his MS, ‘Chronology of Japanese and Chinese Culture’, dated 1807, is reproduced in Boxer, Jan Compangie, pp. 182–84. 151 PC 52, 291 and 292. 152 Katsuragawa Hoshu¯, appendix to O¯ tsuki Gentaku, Ran’en tekiho¯ (MS 1792, published 1817), quoted in Soda Hajime, Nihon iryo¯ bunkashi, p. 192. However, Sosa mistakenly dates the book to 1799. 153 P.F. Kornicki, ‘European Japanology at the end of the Seventeenth Century’, p. 150. 154 See PC 238 and 239. 155 Morishima Chu¯ryo¯ , Ko¯mo¯ zatsuwa, pp. 473–74. 156 DDR 8/190. The pencils had been previously requested. 157 DDR 9/19. In both years, Titsingh also refers to receiving unnamed shogunal astronomers. 158 So far as I have been able to trace, Toda Tadato¯ , daimyo of Shimabara, had been the first daimyo to visit Dejima, and had done so the previous month, see DDR 8/145. Kiyoshi inherited Hirado from his father, Sanenobu, in the 2nd lunar month of 1775 and visited Dejima that 13 June. 159 DDR 8/144. Thunberg refers to meeting ‘some of the princes’, but gives no details, see Thunberg (Screech, ed.), Japan Extolled, p. 88. 160 DDR 8/118–19. The governors that year were Niimi Masanobu and Natsume Nobunasa. 161 DDR 8/180. Thunberg (Screech, ed.) Japan Extolled, says he was told that they moved ‘three times that night . . . and last of all to a temple’, p. 154.

226 Notes 162 Matsura Seizan, Kasshi yawa (undated), series 3 vol. 15, pp. 11–15. See also Matsuda, Yo¯gaku, pp. 343 and 623–45. 163 Matsuda, Yo¯gaku, ibid. 164 The facts of the acquisition are written into the copy of the book, which is extant, see Krieger, Infiltration, pp. 75–76. 165 DDR 9/24; see also, DDR 8/91. For Toda Tadato¯, see above, note 158; this was now his second visit. The daimyo of Chikuzen (properly called Fukuoka) was a special case ¯ mura) in policing the Nagasaki as he rotated with the daimyo of Hizen (properly called O coastline on behalf of the shogunate. As far as I have been able to discover, the first visit by Chikuzen was that of Kuroda Haruyuki, in 1770, see DDR 8/91, and by Hizen was ¯ mura Sumiyasu the following year (aged just nine), see DDR 8/146. Severe that of O complications were narrowly averted in 1774 when Sumiyasu was arrested, though Titsingh states his retainers took blame and the daimyo was released, see DDR 8/135. Nearer to Titsingh’s own time, Haruyuki visited in 1781 and also in 1783 (on the latter occasion, he overlapped with Matsura Kiyoshi), see DDR 9/33, 36 and 49. It appears, however, that Sumiyasu was not trusted to visit again and was only sent delegates. 166 DDR 9/68; Titsingh refers to this as ‘established custom’. 167 Gengai was aged forty and had the title, ‘member of the left palace guards’. The previous year (1775) he had been awarded associate sixth rank, although Thunberg does not record this. 168 Plant names would be written in Chinese characters, not Japanese, although possibly Thunberg had only mastered the native syllabary. 169 P. F. Kornicki, ‘The Japanese Collection in the Bibliotheca Lindesiana’, p. 297. Taishu¯en would seem to be the name of Gengai’s garden. 170 The name is very hard to read; it could be Nansen. He refers to himself as ‘gomonkyaku’, i.e. ‘your humble student’, which just possibly could mean a student of Titsingh, though as Titsingh never metioned him, must mean a pupil of Gengai. I am grateful to John Carpenter for assistance with this name. 171 I am grateful to Andrew Lo and Akiko Yano for help in deciphering this text. Taki is the Chinese reading on the first part (ogi) of Gengai’s family name; he refers to Japan as ‘fuso¯’ (‘this fair land’). 172 Charpentier-Cossigny, Voyage, see PC Appendix 1.1. The error is been repeated in Lequin, Isaac Titsingh, p. 203. See also PC 257 and Lequin, A la Recherche du Cabinet Titsingh, pp. 22, 130–32. 173 Charpentier-Cossigny, Voyage, see PC Appendix 1.1. See also Abel Rémusat, ‘Sur une collection d’ouvrages rélatifs au Japon formé par M. Titsingh’, p. 271. 174 Koga, Maruyama yu¯jo, p. 454. 175 Nagasaki bordellos had three grades of women: tayu¯, mise and nami, see, Frits Vos, ‘Forgotten Foibles’, p. 618. 176 Koga, Maruyama yu¯jo, pp. 454, 729 and 779. For a sense of value, 60 monme = 1 koban (gold coin); 1 koban = 6.8 VOC rixdollars; 4 rixdollars = approx. £1. Thus, the sum is very roughly equivalent to 2.5 rixdollars or 8 shillings sterling. 177 Charpentier-Cossigny, see PC Appendix 1.1. 178 Thunberg (Screech, ed.), Japan Extolled, pp. 109–10. 179 This was claimed by the noted thinker Ando¯ Sho¯ eki, see Vos, ‘Forgotten Foibles’, p. 629. 180 See, Timon Screech, Sex and the Floating World: Erotic Images in Japan, 1700–1820, pp. 280–88. 181 Hanasaki Kazuo (et al. eds), Shokoku no yu¯ri ezu, pp. 278–82. 182 Charpentier-Cossigny, Voyage, see PC Appendix 1.1. 183 The story, which Titsingh must have found in the VOC papers, occurred in 1757 under chief Herbert Vermeulen, required the translators to sign a promise (dated 20/12/1757) that it would never happen again, see Lequin, Isaac Titsingh, pp. 240–42. Of course it is not in the official log, see DDR 7/322.

Notes 227 184 Titsingh jotted this as marginalia in his copy of Abbé Pierre-Claude Lejeune, Observations critiques et philosophiques sur le Japon (Amsterdam and Paris, 1780), p. 118, see Lequin, Isaac Titsingh, p. 240–41 (with illustration). 185 Morishima Chu¯ ryo¯ , Ko¯mo¯ zatsuwa, p. 467. 186 Fujii Kenji, Tokugawa Iemitsu, p. 106. 187 DDR 4/158. 188 See below, ‘Secret Diary’. 189 See below, ‘Character of the Japanese People’. 190 DDR 11/201. For trading problems and the illness of the shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu, see Reinier Hesselink, Prisoners from Nambu: Reality and Make-Believe in Seventeenth-Century Japanese Diplomacy, pp. 154–62. 191 Arnoldus Montanus (John Ogilby, trans.), Atlas Japonnensi, p. 147. 192 DDR 9/138 and 142. 193 See below, ‘Secret Diary’. 194 DDR 9/247. 195 See below, ‘Secret Diary’. 196 DDR 9/125 (original spelling of ship’s name restored). 197 Ibid., p. 137. 198 Mizuno Tadamichi had been appointed in 1786, but spent his first year in Edo. 199 Jacques Brosse (Stanley Hochman, trans.), Great Voyages of Discovery, Circumnavigation and Science, 1764–1843, pp. 77–83. J. C. de la Perouse, Voyage around the World (London, 1798), translator’s preface, vol. 1, p. 3. 200 La Perouse, Voyage, vol. 2, p. 21. 201 DDR 9/138. 202 Ibid., p. 185. 203 Adachi Hiroyuki, Iyo¯ no fune: yo¯shiki sen do¯nyu¯ to sakoku taisei, pp. 101–22. 204 There are two reasons for doubting Tisingh: his dating suddenly goes vague at this point in the narrative, and he states he was informed of Okitomo’s death ‘immediately’ on return to Batavia, whereas that information could not have arrived there other than on the ship in which he was sailing, see ‘Character of the Japanese People’, below. 205 For the career of Matsudaira Sadanobu, see Timon Screech, Shogun’s Painted Culture: Fear and Creativity in the Japanese States, 1760–1829, and Herman Ooms The Charismatic Bureaucrat: A Political Biography of Matsudaira Sadanobu. 206 DDR 9/200. 207 DDR 9/82. They visited on 16/4/1775 and the present was received the next day. 208 Ibid. 8/130. Crans refers to Yoshiatsu as Setaeki Akita (i.e. Satake of Akita). 209 Satake Yoshiatsu’s two treatises on Western art are reproduced in, Sakazaki Tan, Nihon garon taikan, vol. 2, pp. 100–01. Yoshiatsu permitted his retainer, Odano Naotake (who had met Gennai in Akita in 1773), to go to Edo and assist in Sugita Genpaku et al., in the Kaitai shinsho project. Yoshiatsu’s visit was on 4 June 1785, and he died on the 10th of the 6th lunar month, which was the European 12 June. Akita is also called Kubota. 210 DDR 9/102. The two dinners were held on 9/4 and 19/4; Kiyoshi visited on 11/4. 211 Ibid., p. 103. Van Reede does not mention meeting Gentaku, but see Krieger, Infiltration, p. 81; ditto for Kenkado¯ . For the letter, see ibid., p. 82, although there is an error here as the letter is said to have been sent to ‘Durkop’ (i.e. Hendrik Duurkoop), who had been chief in 1777, but was now dead; his similarly named nephew was in Japan (he had accompanied Romberg on the court trip of 1775, see DDR 9/79), but in 1776 stayed in Nagasaki and so had not met Gentaku, and, in any case, as a mere notary he would not have been the proper recipient of such a letter (though he might have been the one to copy and archive it). 212 For Tamegawa (also called Nagasaki-ya) Tatsukichi, see Katagiri Kazuo, Edo no oranda-jin: kapitan no edo sanpu¯, pp. 205–06.

228 Notes 213 Matsuda, Yo¯gaku, p. 32. 214 DDR 9/129. 215 Ibid., loc. cit.; Morishima Chu¯ryo¯ , Ko¯mo¯ zatsuwa, pp. 455–56, 463–68, 475 and 478. Van Reede is referred to, confusingly, as ‘furehyu¯ru’ from his second given name, Johan Fredrik. 216 I have examined the arrival of information relating to the hot-air balloon in Japan in, Timon Screech (Kazuhiro Murayama, trans.), Edo no shiko¯ ku¯kan, pp. 265–87. 217 Morishima Chu¯ryo¯ , Ko¯mo¯ zatsuwa, p. 460. Masatsuna is referred to as Ryu¯ko¯ seishi (‘Ryu¯ko¯, the heir-apparent’); for a convenient reproduction, see Screech, Edo no shiko¯ ku¯kan, p. 274, fig. 14. 218 DDR 9/129. 219 DDR 9/127. The encounter occurred on the group’s way into Edo, probably in Shinagawa. 220 This had occurred in 1786, but after the court trip; it is surprising he had been able to visit in 1787; see Tozawa Yukio, Katsuragawa-ke no sekai: Edo geien no kiun, p. 309. 221 Shigehide was refused entry to the Nagasaki House on 15 April, and the marriage was concluded on the 8th of the 8th lunar month, which corresponds to 17 September, see DDR 9/128 and Takayanagi, Tokugawa saisho¯-ki, p. 217. 222 DDR 9/185, 159 and 178. I have not been able to establish the birth date of Namura Motojiro¯, but he was ‘provisional junior interpreter’ in 1763, when he would have been about fifteen, see DDR 8/221. 223 DDR 9/187. 224 DDR 9/222. 225 The British had demanded dissoluton of the Austrian company in exchange for accepting the accession to the throne of Austria of Maria Theresa. Christian Koninckx, The Swedish East India Company, 1731–1766. E. Keble Charterton, The Old East Indiamen, p. 161. 226 I. Tadama, letter of 10/03/1788 to the Gentlemen XVII, quoted in Holden Furber, John Company at Work, p. 103. 227 Boxer, ‘“The Mandarin at Chinsura”’, p. 6. 228 Furber, John Company, pp. 78, 88 and 107. 229 Ibid., pp. 79 and 96. 230 Ibid., p. 107 n. 75. For the Antonetta, see ibid., pp. 153–59. 231 Titsingh, letter to William Chambers, 3/5/1786, see PC 15. 232 William Hickey (Alfred Spencer, ed.), Memoirs of William Hickey, vol. 3, p. 286; see also PC 5, and Boxer, ‘“The Mandarin at Chinsura”’, p. 10. 233 Boxer, ‘“The Mandarin at Chinsura”’, p. 8. 234 Some short essays appeared in the Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap (Proceedings of the Batavia society), the first in 1781, after his first Japan stint, the last in 1787. For the wreck, see Lequin, A la Recherche, p. 31 and PC 83. 235 Boxer, ‘“The Mandarin at Chinsura”’, p. 12. 236 Titsingh, letter to William Marsden, 10/10/1809, see PC 205. Seventeen letters are extant from that period, but none was sent to Japan, see PC 109–26. The sailings while Titsingh was in Batavia were as follows: spring 1792, Gijbert Hemmji to Nagasaki; New Year 1793, Petrus Chassé arrives in Batavia; spring 1793, the ship to Japan, without a new chief; New Year 1794 returns without chief (Hemmij dies in Japan). In all cases, a single ship was used, the Elfprins. 237 Boxer, ‘“The Mandarin at Chinsura”’, p. 13. 238 Titsingh, letter to Jan Titsingh (his brother), 10/4/1793, see PC 116. 239 A biography appears in, Anon., ‘Advertisement of the Editor’, to André [sic] van Braam, An Authentic Account of the Dutch Embassy to the Court of the Emperor of China (1798), pp. vii–xv. See also J. J. L. Duyvendak, ‘The Last [sic, first] Dutch Embassy to the Chinese Court (1794–1795)’, pp. 5–30.

Notes 229 240 James Hervia, Cherishing Men From Afar: Qing Guest Ritual and the Macarthey Embassy of 1793, p. 213. 241 Duyvendak, ‘Last Dutch Embassy’, p. 18. 242 Titsingh, letter to Johannes Kluppel, 7/3/1797, see PC 175. 243 C. R. Boxer, Isaac Titsigh’s Embassy’, p. 15. Haffner, ‘Eastern Masonic Frontiers’, p. 19. 244 Duyvendak, ‘Last Dutch Embassy’, pp. 44–64. 245 Ibid., p. 46. 246 Untitled report attributed to Jean-Joseph de Gramont, SJ and reproduced in, Henri Cordier (ed.), ‘Deux documents inédits tires des papiers du Générale Decaen [sic, de Caen]’, p. 7. Gramont, a Jesuit in the service of the Chinese court. See also Duyvendak, ‘Last Dutch Embassy’, p. 56. 247 Duyvendak, ‘Last Dutch Embassy’, p. 80. 248 De Gramont (attrib.), in Cordier (ed.), ‘Deux documents’, pp. 6 and 9. 249 It should be noted that Van Braam himself only oversaw the Philadelphia editon, and the more widely known London one was pirated. Titsingh’s name appears as ‘Titzing’, however, Van Braam also appears as ‘André’. For the publishing history, see, Boxer, ‘Isaac Titsingh’s Embassy’, pp. 30–31. See also Duyvendak, ‘Last Dutch Embassy’, p. 99. 250 Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes, Voyage à Pékin, Manille et l’Ile de France (Paris, 1808), title page. 251 Boxer, ‘Isaac Titsingh’s Embassy’, p. 22; Duyvendak, ‘Last Dutch Embassy’, p. 57. 252 Titsingh, letter to Jan Titsingh (his brother), 28/10/1792, see PC 111. 253 Boxer, Jan Compagnie, p. 154. 254 Jonathan Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, p. 1127. 255 Titsingh, letter to Sir John Jarvis, 12/3/1787, see PC 181. 256 Titsingh, letter to Johannes Klüppel, 23/2/1797, see PC 163. 257 Titsingh, letter to Diderricus Hermanus van Rossum, et al., 16/12/1796, see PC 153. 258 The copies of all three of Thunberg’s books on Japan now in the British Library bear Banks’s library seal. The Icones plantarum japonicum thunbergii is also inscibed ‘Sir Banks’, which is incorrect usage and may suggest that Thunberg wrote it in to indicate a gift. 259 Titsingh, letter to Sir Joseph Banks, 10/12/1797, see PC 196. 260 There is no evidence of a meeting in London between Titsingh and Van Braam, see Boxer, ‘Isaac Titsingh’s Embassy’, p. 24. 261 Klaproth, ‘Preface’ to Tisingh, Nipon o daï itsi ran, p. 1 n. 1. 262 Titsingh, letter to William Marsden, 20/9/1806, see PC 199. 263 Titsingh, letter to Jean-Augustin Chapponnier, 6/4/1803, see PC 295. The books, five in number, also included three Confucian texts, each was a multi-volume set and in total Titsingh gave 143 volumes. See also Abel Rémusat, ‘Sur une collection’, p. 273 n. 1. 264 Titsingh, letter to Marsden, 15/6/1810, see PC 206. 265 Charles-Pierre [sic] Thunberg (L.-M. Langles, trans. and ed.), Voyage de C.-P. Thunberg au Japon (Paris, 1789). 266 Titsingh, letter to Nicolaus Engelhard, 27/11/1810, see PC 210. Only Shimazu Shigehide was alive (he died in 1833). 267 Titsingh, Dedication of his ‘Chronology’, in Boxer, Jan Compagnie, pp. 182–83. 268 Titsingh, letter to Marsden, 15/6/1810, see PC 206. 269 Charpentier, Voyage, see PC 2/782. 270 J. F. van Overmeer Fisscher, Bijdrage tot de kennis van het Japansche rijk (1833), quoted in Effert (ed.) and Forrer (introd. and annot.), Court Journey to the Shogun of Japan, p. 16. 271 Titsingh, letter to Marsden, 14/6/1810, see PC 206. 272 Abel Rémusat, ‘Preliminary Remarks’, p. xii, in Titsingh, Illustrations. Abel Rémusat ignores the existence of MS books.

230 Notes 273 Tachibana Nankei, Hokuso¯ sadan, p. 155. 274 Conrad de Malte-Brun, ‘Notice sur la collection’, Annales des Voyages de la géographie et de l’histoire (1814). PC Appendix 1.11. He had of course seen only the MS, not the published book. 275 Titsingh, letter to Kutsuki Masatsuna, 30/3/1787, see PC 237. 276 Titsingh is inconsistent in his romanisations; given here is how the name first appears in Illustrations of Japan, p. vii, but see also PC vol. 2, p. 920. 277 Titsingh, letter to Marsden, 2/3/1809, see PC 204. 278 John Brownlee, Japanese History and National Myths, 1600–1945, The Age of the Gods and Emperor Jimmu, p. 44. 279 Titsingh, Illustrations, p. 28. 280 See above, note 98. 281 See, inter alia, Imaizumi Sadasuke (ed.), Shin Arai Hakuseki zenshu¯, vol 3, pp. 668–75 and Kaitei shiseki shu¯ran vol. 17, pp. 602–11. 282 Arai Hakuseki (Joyce Ackroyd, trans.), Lessons from History: Tokushi yoron by Arai Hakusei. This ends with the death of Oda Nobunaga, thus safely before the beginning of Tokugawa rule. Sairan igon exists in several modern editions. 283 Here and hereafter, unless otherwise stated, all reference to numbers and locations of MS are taken from Narisue Yoshikage et al. (ed), Kokusho so¯mokuroku. 284 Tsubouchi Yu¯etsu (ed.), Kinsei jitsuroku zensho vol. 12, pp. 1–183. Note also that a copy of this MS is now in Cambridge University Library (MS 1297), which once belonged to Franz von Siebold, see Hayashi Nozomu and Peter Kornicki, Early Japanese Books in Cambridge University Library, p. 230; for an image taken from that MS, see Peter Kornicki, The Book in Japan, fig. 7. 285 Numata Jiro¯, implausibly identifies it as the Buke kenbiroku (anonymous, undated) see Isaac Titsingh (Numata Jiro¯ , trans. and ed.), Teichingu nihon fu¯zoku-shi, p. 52. 286 The best modern sources are Imada Yo¯ zaburo¯ , Edo no kinsho, pp. 21–54, and Okada Satoshi, Baba bunko¯-shu¯, pp. 303–33. 287 The book for which he was killed was Hiragana mori no shizuku (1758). 288 See Bibliography. 289 Thunberg (Screech, ed.), Japan Extolled, p. 175. 290 Charpentier, Voyage, see PC Appendix 1.1 Thunberg’s lecture was entitled InträdesTal, om de mynt-sorter (Introduction to types of coinage; 1779); it was translated into Dutch and German. 291 Titsingh, letters to Jan Titsingh (his brother), 12/8/1790, to Kutsuki Masatsuna, 4/6/1807, to ditto, 30/3/1787 and to Yoshio Ko¯ saku, 30/3/1787 (NB these last sent on same day), see PC 81, 201, 237 and 246. 292 Titsingh, ‘Dedication’, in Boxer, Jan Compagnie, p. 183. Lequin, A la Recherche, p. 107. 293 The Preface is dated 1782, but the first (recalled) edition – which is very rare – is not itself dated; the 1782 and 1790 editions are not rare. 294 The preface is dated to 1697. Endo¯ Genkan, also known as Ko¯ cho¯-ken, wrote some ten tea-related books, as well as two samurai genealogies. 295 Abel Rémusat, ‘Sur l’acupuncture’, p. 273. The book is also known as Konrei shiyo¯ keshi bukuro. Lequin, A la Recherche, p. 126. 296 The four other titles are Ezo-ko¯, Ezo jiryaku, Ezo fu¯do-ki and Ezo ran kjii. 297 For example, Imaizumi Sadasake (ed.), Shin Arai Hakuseki zenshu¯, vol. 3, pp. 681–89. 298 This comment is made in a letter to Volney, discussing the possibility of having the French edition published in the Netherlands, see Lequin, Isaac Titsingh, pp. 207–08. The letter is omitted from PC. 299 Titsingh, letter to William Marsden, 10/10/1809, see PC 205. Note that two years before, Titsingh had sent Marsden the MS of his ‘Chronology of the Japanese and Chinese’ with a transcription of the plates on his moxibustion figures, but had heard nothing back, see PC 204.

Notes 231 300 August-Nicolas Nepveu, ‘Advertisement Respecting the Manuscripts’, in Titsingh, Illustrations, p. vii. 301 Titsingh, letter to Marsden, 3/2/1809, see PC 204. 302 Inter alia, Emanuel Delaubépin to Hugues Maret, Duc de Bassano, 4/5/1812, see PC 300. No equivalent record exists from the British side, but see PC 227 and Lequin, A la Recherche, p. 31. 303 Nepveu, ‘Advertisement’, in Titsingh, Illustrations, p. vii; Abel Rémusat himself stated fourteen years in his ‘Preliminary Remarks’, in ibid., p. xi, but Klaproth denied it in his Preface to Isaac Titsingh, Nipon o daï itsi ran, p. 1. 304 Lequin, Isaac Titsingh, p. 217, and his A La Recherche du Cabinet Titsingh. 305 Abel Rémusat, ‘Sur un collection d’ouvrages rélatif au Japon’, p. 267. 306 Nepveu, ‘Advertisement’, in Titsingh, Illustrations, p. viii. 307 Richard Hildreth, Japan as It Was and Is, p. 425. 308 A catalogue was included in the published versions of Titsingh’s book, see Isaac Titsingh, Illustrations of Japan, Appendix. 309 Malte-Brun, ‘Notice sur la collection’, see PC Appendix 1.11. 310 Isaac Titsingh, ‘Description de la Terre Iesso’, in Annales des voyages de la géographie et de l’histoire 23 (1814), pp. 145–213. This exists in a modern edition, see Peter Kapitza (ed.), Japan in Europe, pp. 940–51. 311 Isaac Titsingh, Cérémonies usitées au Japon pour les Mariages et les Funérailles and Atlas de l’ouvrage sur le Japon: Cérémonies usitées au Japon pour les Mariages et les Funérailles (both, Paris, 1819). 312 See, Lequin, Isaac Titsingh, pp. 61, 72–74 and 114 (with illustrations). 313 Lequin, ‘Isaac Titsingh’s “Discours philosophique”’, p. 1128. Langlès had written somewhat acidly in the Translator’s Preface that, ‘M. Thunberg’s busy schedule left him no time to give order to his work’, see Thunberg (Louis, Langlès, trans.), Voyage de C.-P. Thunberg, p. iii. 314 For a brief biography of Klaproth, see P. F. Kornicki, ‘The Japanese Collection in the Bibliotheca Lindesiana’, pp. 212–13. 315 Klaproth’s collection is now in the British Library, see Frank Lequin, ‘Titsingh Revisited: The Private Correspondence of a Pioneer in Japonology’, p. 897. 316 Abel Rémusat, ‘Advertisement’, in Titsingh, Illustrations, p. xiv. 317 Lequin, Isaac Titsingh, p. 209. 318 Abel Rémusat, ‘Sur une collection’, pp. 266–76 and 281, ‘Sur l’acupuncture’, p. 374 and review of Titsingh, ‘Cérémonies usitées au japon’, in Journal des Savants (1819), quoted in PC Appendix 1.13. 319 Klaproth, ‘Preface’ to Isaac Titsingh, Nipon o daï itsi ran, p. 2. He gives the name ‘Zenbei’, which is the common VOC garbling of Shinbei (that is, Narabayashi Eizaemon). 320 Dictionary of National Biography, q.v. 321 Frederick Shoberl, ‘Address’, in Titsingh, Illustrations, pp. iii–iv. 322 Stanford Raffles, as governor of Java, sent a British trade mission to Japan in 1813, see his, Report to the Secret Committee of the English East India Company (pub. 1929), and more generally, Demetrius Boulger, The Life of Sir Stanford Raffles. It was never accepted by the shogunate that the right to trade with Japan went with possession of the port of Batavia. 323 Nepveu mistakenly thought it was Charpentier-Cossigny who met Titsingh (rather than who anthologised the account), see above, note 10; see Nepveu, ‘Advertisement’ in Titsingh, Illustrations, p. x. 324 Abel Rémusat, ‘Preliminary Remarks’, in Titsingh, Illustrations, p. xii. 325 This book is rare, but for its anonymous translator’s preface, see PC Appendix 1.15. 326 Klaproth, Preface to Titsingh, Nipon o daï itsi ran, p. 1, n. 1. 327 The sale catalogue is entitled Objets d’art et d’industrie chinoise; peintures récemment rapportées de Chine à Nantes (Paris, no press given, but distributed by Bonnefous de

232 Notes

328

329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337

la Vialle, 1827). The catalogue noted the sale was held on 25/4/1827. The copy in the British Library has hand annotations giving names of purchasers. Japonisme is said to have ‘begun’ in 1862, see Klaus Berger (David Britt, trans.), Japonisme in Western Painting, from Whistler to Matisse, p. 17. Berger also notes the minimal impact of Titsingh’s prints, but mistakenly thinks the Cabinet was sold off at the first sale in 1712. Abel Rémusat, ‘Advertisement’, in Titsingh, Illustrations, p. xv. Klaproth, Fookoua Shiriak, or traité sur l’origins des richesses au japon (Paris, 1828), title page. Kornicki, ‘Japanese Collection, pp. 209–12 and cat. nos 148 and 225–30. Boxer, Jan Compagnie, p. 163. Siebold’s book was entitled Nippon: Archiv zur Beschreibung von Japan (Leiden, 1832–51). Mary Busk, Manners and Customs of the Japanese, pp. 8 and 231–32. A second edition (which deletes Busk’s name) was published in 1973. Beatrice Bodart-Bailey, ‘Writing the “History of Japan”’, p. 14. Hildreth, Japan Was It Was and Is, pp. 424–25. James Murdock, History of Japan, vol 3; this volume appeared posthumously, in 1926, edited by Joseph Longford. Catharina Blomberg (ed.), The West’s Encounter with Japanese Civilisation, 1800–1940, vol. 3, see above, note 3.

1 Before the Tokugawa 1 Tokugawa Ieyasu was deified under the title of To¯sho¯ Dai-gongen (‘great avatar radiant in the east’ – ‘Gongen’ for short) upon his death in 1616. 2 There is no corroboration of this claim, which Titsingh appears to have heard aurally. The office of kanpaku had been held by Hideyoshi and then by his son, Hidetsugu, who died in 1595, after which it remained vacant until 1600, whereupon it reverted to established court families. 3 The Tenka (‘that under Heaven’) denotes the Japanese states. Titsingh’s number 3, Hideyoshi, was never shogun (he makes this error throughout). 4 Minamoto no Yoshiie (1039–1109), regarded as having established his family’s power in the East; Takauji was his grandson. Seiwa tenno¯ is the posthumous name and title of Korehito (r. 858–76). Dairi up until the middle ages (and then again from the nineteenth century) had the formal title of tenno¯. 5 Yoshinori should read Yoshiakira. 6 ‘No’ is the genitive particle, thus ‘Shogun of Kamakura’. This was the title of the previous, Minamoto dynasty, who had ruled in Kamakura; actual power went with Yoshiakira (see above, note 5), who ruled from the Muromachi district of Miyako (Kyoto). 7 No such title is attested. They were known as Muromachi [no] sho¯gun. 8 This is fictional and there was no such fighting. The last Muramachi shogun was Ashikaga Yoshiaki, who was exiled in 1573 and took refuge with Hideyoshi; he died in 1597). 9 Nobunaga was not of the Heike clan. Mitsuhide’s motive in murdering his lord is disputed. 10 Oda Nobunaga was a warlord who attained high court rank, but was never shogun. 11 See above, note 3. In 1585 he was made kanpaku. 12 Chu¯nagon is a ‘middle counsellor’. The following tale is myth. 13 See above, note 3. [Original note:] ‘His exploits are very concisely related in the Taiko¯ -ki, a work which my occupations have not left me leisure to translate. The author, on the other hand, expatiates on those of Ieyasu, with a view to flatter his descendants. The Japanese, nevertheless, still regard Hideyoshi as one of their greatest princes.’

Notes 233 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

26

27

Toyotomi Hidetsugu was made kanpaku in 1591. Dono means a lord or lady. Shigaraki ware, which is still produced, has a rough finish. This may seen a perverse point of comparison, but Titsingh, like all Europeans in Japan, resided in Nagasaki and knew that city best. Hideyoshi’s first son, Toramatsu, had died in infancy, leading to the adoption of Hidetsugu, who was forced into suicide after Hideyoshi’s son, Hideyori, was born. This book (which Titsingh romanises as Dougouaï-den) cannot be identified, nor can Cho¯an (whom Titsingh gives as Tchoan). The title would seem to mean ‘accounts from outside the way’. Yodo (usually called Yodogimi) and Hideyoshi both perished in the destruction of Osaka Castle in 1615. Jean Crasset, Histoire de l’Eglise du Japon (1685, published 1715), a celebrated book by this French missionary. [Original note:] ‘Hist. de l’Eglise de Japon, tom. II. p. 48.’ Hideyori married Ieyasu’s granddaughter Sen hime in 1603, by which time she was 6. [Original note:] ‘Tom. II. 1. 15.’ The diary of the Dutch East India Company is published for the years 1641–1800, see Leonard Blussé et al. (eds), The Deshima dagregisters: Their Original Tables of Contents, 11 vols. 1. Also of interest is the Diary of Richard Cocks, head of the English East India Company in Japan. Cocks lodged a Portuguese priest, Apollinario, who had been with the Toyotomi faction in Osaka. The dairi was Kotohito, posthumously, Go-mizuno-o. Nikko¯ had an ancient temple complex (the Rinno¯ -ji), but was not given a prince-abbot until becoming the site of Ieyasu’s mausoleum in 1617. Ueno refers to the Kan’ei-ji (on Ueno Hill) founded in 1625. Each generation, the dairi did indeed send his second and third sons (his first was generally designated as inheritor) to those two institutions. See Introduction.

2 Ieyasu, the Gongen, to Ietsugu 1 The Tokugawa also used the family name associated with the first shogunate, Minamoto, which linking them with Seiwa tenno¯. Zo¯-dainagon (actually just dainagon) was a high court rank. Probably ‘den’ is Titsingh’s mispronunciation of ‘dono’ (see above, note 15). 2 It is odd that Titsingh omits all mention of the supposedly (actually non-existent) ‘first’ son. 3 That is, commit seppuku (‘harakiri’). Ieyasu made Nobuyasu do so in 1579, to prove the family’s loyalty to Oda Nobunaga. 4 The succession was to the post of daimyo of Mito. However, when Nobuyoshi did so, in 1603, he was 21. 5 The sixth to ninth sons (Tadateru, Matsuchiyo, Senchiyo), are omitted, as is the first daughter (Kame hime); the tenth son (Yorinao) appears out of place below. Ieyasu’s second daughter (third child), Toku hime was in fact Hideyoshi’s second (adopted) daughter; she married Ho¯ jo¯ Ujinao. 6 Ujinao did not commit seppuku, but remained alive until the following year, 1591. Ujinao and Toku hime were childless, but after the former’s death, in 1594, Toku hime remarried Ikeda Terumasa. One koku (or goku) is c. 180 litres of rice, supposedly enough to sustain an adult for a year; it had a currency unit equivalent of one koban. Man means ten thousand. Ujinao is thus here said to have 1m koku, which is surely an exaggeration. 7 Ho¯o¯ designated a ‘cloistered emperor’ or one who has retired. Modern scholarship concurs that Kiyomori’s father was Sadahito, posthumously Shirakawa (r. 1072–86). The verses form a single stanza, together, and can be more accurately rendered ‘My

234 Notes

8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24 25 26

27 28

sister’s child/of him what/will become?/Just take Tadamori,/Keep and raise him’. The verse puns tada mori, ‘just keep’, with the boy’s name. This is the third daughter (seventh child), Fure hime; her husband was Kamau Hideyuki. It is unclear what ‘succeeded to the empire’ means, since neither Nobuyoshi or Yorifusa became shogun. Children were considered one year old at birth and became two the following New Year’s Day; all people advanced a year that day, not on their actually birthday. This must be a local rumour. It is not otherwise attested. Shige hime, daughter of Shimazu Shigehide, married the shogun Ieharu’s adopted son, Ienari (who succeeded in 1787). Shigehide spoke Dutch and knew Titsingh well. ¯ dani, which was the toponym of Nagamasa’s main Asai Nagamasa married Oichi (not O landholding), sister of Nobunaga. Nagamasa’s first daughter, Yodo gimi, married Hideyoshi, the Taiko¯, and his second, Oeyo, married Hidetada; the matter of Nagamasa ¯ dani’s son is obscure; they are known to have had two, but only the first is named, and O Manpuku-maru, and their deaths are unclear. Nagamasa himself took his own life when surrounded by Nobunaga in 1573. This significant liaison took place in 1620, when Kazuko (later, To¯fukumon-in) married Kotohito, posthumously, Go-Mizuno-o. For some reason Titsingh omits his name, Hoshina Masayuki (his surname changed when he was adopted out); he turned Aizu (which Titsingh mistakenly calls ‘Aiso’) into a centre of learning. Titsingh never wrote accounts of these battles. They are actually the same event, a Christian uprising, which put in chain the prohibition of that religion, in 1637–38, and known either as the Arima Ikko¯ or the Shimabara no Ran. This extraordinary dismissal of Iemitsu’s period cannot easily be accounted for, except that Titsingh was without adequate sources. In fact, it was a time of great cultural growth and of institution of the crucial system of ‘alternative attendance’ (sankin ko¯tai) which brought all daimyo to Edo one year in two. The great Meireki Fire of 1657 also took place in his reign. This was Cho¯ sogabe Morichika. They had been daimyo of Tosa until expelled by the Tokugawa in 1600, after which they were likely rebels but no longer ‘princes’. It is not certain that Chu¯ya (see below) was his son. There were always two Governors of Edo (machi-bugyo¯), and the incumbents were Kamio Motokatsu and Asakura Arishige. These are generic townsmen’s names, and the two men’s identities are not known; below Hachiemon is given the surname Yoshida. Matsudaira Nobutsuna. The original title is ro¯ju¯. Literally, ‘constriction torture’. The accepted text does not name this torture, so either Titsingh is glossing or he was working from a non-standard manuscript. The Keian is the era 1648–52. For this book, see Introduction. Since this is the source for the entire story, it is unclear why it is named only now. The accepted text clearly states that the torture took place on the 24th (not the 21st day). ‘Taiheiki’ is a borrowing from a famous fourteenth-century chronicle of the 12-century wars, see Introduction. In the modern edition of the Keian taiheiki, this section appears on p. 166. Literally, scalding water torture, though this seems inapposite. The colour of the robe is asagi, or lilac, and hafuta is not a cloth but a two-layer haori (tunic). This is a mistake for Aritake Hachizo¯ , see Anon., Keian taiheiki, p. 171. Gilan is a rough silken cloth. The text (which does not specify the location as Shinagawa, although as it says the group had crossed Nihon-bashi, it is compatible with that location) says he was wearing a haori of kuro kirimen, or black crepe, see ibid., p. 171. These are the morning glory and the gossamer. Namu amida butsu is the invocation of Amida, the Buddha of the Western Pure Land.

Notes 235

29 30 31

32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43

44 45 46

47 48 49

50 51 52 53 54

It is not clear why Titsingh gives two romanisations. The first, however, may be a garbling of namu daibutsu, ‘hail to the Great Buddha’. Kano¯ Hisakata was made wakadoshiyori in 1767. The 8th shogun was Yoshimune, see below. Saisho¯ was the grade below chu¯nagon. Tsunayoshi was made daimyo of Tatebayashi in Kazusa (not Ko¯zuke) at the age of fifteen. Ienobu the next, sixth, shogun, was not properly adopted, but hurriedly taken into the family after Tsunayoshi’s murder, as is made clear below. Tsunayoshi had himself sought to adopt the son of Dewa-no-kami. Titsingh anomalously omits half of Tsunayoshi’s name for the next three appearances (restored here). The Confucian academy, called the Sho¯ heiko¯ or the Yu¯shima Seido¯ . A closer translation would be Gate of Entry into Virtue. The familes of Kishu¯ (Kii), Owari and Mito were the three Tokugawa collaterals, or Gosanke. This is the famous scholar, Hayashi Razan (1583–1657). Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu (1658–1714). Actually, Yanagisawa Dewa-no-kami Yoshiyasu was himself probably Tsunayoshi’s lover. Makino Narisada, another confident of Tsunayoshi. The abbot (zo¯ sho) was Ryo¯ ken, preceptor to Tsunayoshi’s mother, though his temple was the Goji-in, not the Gosho¯-in. These infamous ‘mercy laws’ (awaremi no rei) caused great offence. A gold coin. Kimi means lord or prince. Tokumatsu died in childhood, as appears below. Tsunayoshi had borne the same childhood name. Tsunayoshi’s much abused wife was daughter of the court noble Takatsukasa Norihira. They married in 1664. Himegimi means princess; Tama was the name of Tsunayoshi’s mother, not wife, who was Tsuru, as appears below. She married the daimyo of Kii. However, Tsuru hime was not the daughter of Tsunayoshi’s principal wife but of his second wife, Oden; Uneme was his third. From the time of Hidetada, this was standard practice of the installation of each new shogun. The king was Chongjo wang. Sakai Tadakiyo was disgraced in 1680. This was one of the great events of Edo legal history, and the source of countless plays, pictures and verses. It became known as the Ako¯ Incident, or, in its fictionalised form, the Treasury of Loyal Retainers (chu¯shingura). The protagonists are normally called Asano Naganori and Kira Yoshinaka. This temple, in Takanawa in Tokyo, remains a major pilgrimage sight. Kira Yoshinaka’s son, Yoshichika, who had been adopted in from the Uesugi, his father’s wife’s family, was exiled to Suwa in Shinano, not to Awaji. Takaki Hikoemon was not governor (bugyo¯) of Nagasaki, but a city elder (machidoshiyori). Wearing two swords was the mark of a samurai, and Hikoemon would have been entitled to this anyway. Titsingh probably received this report from oral sources in Nagasaki. The child is being formally made part of the family. [Original note:] ‘While I was in Japan, a woman was still living at Nagasaki who recollected seeing the murderers pass by, holding by the hair this head dripping blood.’ Presumably a reference to Osaka’s red-light district, the Shinmachi. The cho¯chin-matsuri, or O-bon, is the feast of the dead and occurs on 13–15th of the lunar 7th month. Calambac (kara) is fragrant Cambodian eaglewood. Fujiwara no Teika (1162–1241), was a great court poet, calligrapher and compiler, in 1205, of the verse anthology Shin kokin wakashu¯. In the Edo Period, the ‘Teika-style’ was still practised, especially in

236 Notes

55 56 57 58

tea circles, but as virtually no writing by Teika himself survived, the ‘note’ (i.e. piece of calligraphy) would have been exorbitantly valuable – also also a fake. See above, note 37. That is, the people with the title X-no-kami, literally ‘marshal of X’, but in fact entirely honorary. ¯ kubo Tadakata was O¯ saka Matsudaira Nobuoki was O¯ saka shirodai 1687–90 and O machi-bugyo¯ 1704–8. There is thus a discrepancy in the dates. There is no place called Yamata, and it is unclear what has been garbled. [Original note:] ‘The inventory of Tatsugoro¯ ’s effects, drawn up for the confiscation, seems to contain some curious particulars. We here give them from M. Titsingh’s manuscript, adding in parentheses such explanations as appear necessary: Valuable effects A cock of pure gold, brought from China, which had belonged to the emperor Xuanzong huangdi [r. 713–55]; A picture, painted by the emperor Huizong huangdi [r. 1101–22] representing a cock and hen and considered of inestimable value; A mat, to be used as a window-blind, made of red coral; Two tiles of the palace of the Chinese emperor Han [Han was a dynasty not an emperor, 206 BC – AD 220]; Four tiles of the palace of the Chinese emperor [of the] Song (Gaozu Huangzi) [Song was the dynasty; 920–1206]; Three letters of the celebrated writer [Fujiwara no] Teika, officer of the dairi; A lump of gold weighing seven hundred and fifty taels [1 tael = c. 65 grains Troy], which the Taiko¯ gave as a present to one of his relations; A gold censer, in the shape of a chariot; Sixteen figures of starlings in gold and silver; Thirty little gold idols; A gold caldron; A gold vessel for boiling water; Three gold tea-caddies; Two gold tea-cups; A chaplet [necklace for wearing on the head] of one hundred and twenty-eight beads of red coral. one hundred and eight of the size of pigeons’ eggs and twenty of smaller dimensions; Ten branches of coral; Five silver tea-cups; Seven saucers of calambac wood; A chess-board with chess-men of gold and silver, in an ebony box; A large Chinese ink-stand enriched with a precious stone; A magnificent Chinese water-pot; Forty-eight carpets each thirty feet long and eighteen wide; Five hundred smaller carpets; Three hundred and thirty different Japanese pictures; One hundred and seventy sabres of all lengths; Thirty-seven pikes or sabres; Three pairs of harness for horses; One hundred and twenty thousand kobans; Eighty-five thousand taels in silver. Houses and lands At Osaka: Twelve large houses;

Notes 237 Sixteen of middling size; Fifty-six smaller; At Sakai: Eleven houses; At Fushimi: Seventeen houses; A field, 2,700 feet, or 7 rues in length (a rue is 300 ft or 60 Japanese ken [meaning ri, or c. 4 km; 1 ken is c. 820 m]); At Miyako: Thirty-five houses; In the Province of Izumi: A field, 2,880 feet, or 8 rues in length In the Province of Tamba: A field, 3,240 feet, or 9 rues in length In the Province of Awa: A field, 17,280 feet, or 48 rues in length In the Province of Yamato: A field so extensive as to require 200 koku of seed to sow it (a koku is about 308lb); The money owing by several princes amounted to 200,000 taels; A bond of Gongen sama’s, signed and sealed with his own hand, for 80,000 koban, advanced to that prince by the ancestors of Tatsugoro¯ ; The shogun, by way of acknowledgement for the distinguished services rendered by his ancestors to the Gongen, gave to Tatsugoro¯ in exchange for this bond the abovementioned field of 200 koku and the picture of [i.e. by] the Chinese emperor Huizong zuangdi; Ikeda Jiro¯ bei lost the three thousand kobans which he had advanced and he was moreover considered culpable for having discounted the bill without making the necessary inquiries; Ichiemon, the usurer, had his house and furniture confiscated for having received in pledge articles of such value, without apprising the government; This sentence was pronounced the first day of the fifth month of the fourth year of Ho¯ei (1707).’ 59 This refers to homosexuality, the prevalence of which in Japan foreign travellers have perennially remarked upon. 60 Arai Kimimi, better known as Hakuseki, one of the great Edo Period scholars. His tutoring of Tsunayoshi was only occasional. 61 Omitted from the present edition. 1708 was indeed the fifth year of Ho¯ ei, but Hakuseki’s book was composed in 1711, the first year of Sho¯toku; it was not published until modern times, and is generally known by the longer title of Honcho¯ ho¯ka tsu¯yo¯ no jiryaku; for the following extract, see Arai Hakuseki, Honcho¯ ho¯ka tsu¯yo¯ no jiryaku, pp. 609–11. 62 The original more logically gives paper money (ko¯sho¯). 63 Titsingh’s translation is loose here: the original states, ‘during the time of the Five Ko (goko) and the Five Generations of Liao (godai ryo¯)’; the latter (who actually had nine generations) jumps and extends the period under discussion, as they ruled 907–1101, and the insertion of Yuan (1271–1367) prolongs it further. The former group were Mongol and Tibetan invaders of the Later Han and Tsin periods, and the latter Khitans. 64 Kettan was the kingdom of the Khitans or Liao, see note above. Hakuseki’s original gives generically ‘barabarian lands’ (iteki no chi), see ibid., p. 609. Since the Dutch East India Company was in Japan primarily to export copper, this passage had special significance for Titsingh.

238 Notes 65 I have not been able to trace the term ‘sepikkes’, but Hakuseki’s original gives ‘copper coin’ (do¯zen), see ibid., loc. cit. 66 This was a familiar cry of the isolationists. 67 Tokumatsu, who has appeared above as Tsunayoshi’s son by Dewa-no-kimi’s niece, died in 1683. 68 Yanagisawa Yoshisato, the eldest of five brothers. To excuse Tsunayoshi’s favours to him, it was put out that he was the boy’s father by Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu’s wife. 69 Ii Naokane (also known as Nakaoki). He was daimyo of Himeji from 1676, but the dating does not fit as he was not elevated to tairo¯ or ‘first officer’ until 1711; the incumbent was still Yanagasawa Yoshiyasu. 70 This is indeed what happened, and Ienobu, adopted by Tsunayoshi, became shogun in 1709 aged 45. 71 I.e. Yanagisawa Dewa-no-kami Yoshiyasu, father of Yanagisawa Kao-no-kami Yoshisato, the intended successor. 72 This is fiction. 73 She was not a daughter of the dairi, but of a senior courtier, see above, note 43. 74 The daughter, Tama, was mentioned above too, see note 43. 75 He was four years old. 76 San’en-ji is properly San’en-zan Zo¯ jo¯ -ji, one of the great Edo institutions with many shogunal tombs (destroyed in the Second World War). Yu¯sho¯ -in is the shogun’s posthumous name; all shoguns (like dairi) were known by such names, although Titsingh had not introduced any until this point. 3 Yoshimune, the eighth shogun 1 Thither presumably meaning to Edo, certainly not to Japan in general, although Yoshimune did somewhat relax import controls. 2 More generally, Yao and Shun (legendary figures of high antiquity) are taken as the paragons of rulership. Yoshimune is still regarded as the best of the Tokugawa shoguns. 3 Tsuchiya Masanao. He had been appointed ro¯ju¯ in 1687. 4 Probably Honda Sadanobu, but no Anmei-in is known; the Kamakura Period is 1185–1333. 5 Itakura Katsushige, Shigemune, and perhaps Shigenori (although this last was postGongen Ieyasu). 6 O¯ oka Tadatomo. The poem is not ancient, since it was written to praise Tadatomo (though the simile of uprightness as like the pines at Karasaki – a famous beauty spot – is ancient and generic). A closer translation of the verse would be, ‘Karasaki’s/Pines indeed resemble/The governor/Though they do not bloom/They never bend’. Titsingh was confused by the ‘though they have do not bloom’ (which might seem like a negative comment) and so omitted it, but it merely points out pines have no showy blossoms. 7 Chu¯emon is a name not a rank, and was O¯ oka’s casual name. 8 The original is shoin-ban. Titsingh interpolates that they are ten in number. 9 Ienobu’s posthumous name has not been introduced before. The posts are okachigashira and metsuke. 10 This opaque saw is not to be found in the Analects of Confucius. 11 The post is Ise-Yamada bugyo¯. 12 The original is so¯sha-ban. 13 That is, ‘Dutch captain’. This Japanised title was given to the head of the Dutch trading station, the opperhooft; he was not a ship’s captain. Titsingh would have experienced this form of greeting when he was in Edo in 1780 and 1782. This section is an interpolation into the Japanese text. 14 Inoue Masasada. 15 The temple is the Sho¯ sha-zan Enkyo¯ -ji. The title is Chief Representative of the Monastic Community of the Sho¯ sha-zan in Banshu¯ (or Harima).

Notes 239 16 The two shoguns are given their posthumous, as well as living, names. The first two confiscands are actually one, Kato¯ Higo-no-kami Kiyomasa – as he appears below. ¯ yo¯ So¯emon is the great scholar O¯ gyu¯ Sorai; Hosoi Ko¯taku was one of the most noted 17 O calligraphers of the period; Nishikawa Seikyu¯ was a very prominent astrologer (son of the equally famous Nishikawa Joken), whose appointment by Yoshimune over the heads of the established Kyoto astronomers caused fury; Nagai Magojiro¯ is otherwise unknown. 18 Matsura Nobumasa. ‘Hereditary prince’ means inheriting prince, i.e. heir apparent; at this time he was Ieshige, later the ninth shogun. Nobumasa was governor of Osaka 1729–30. 19 Ko¯ rai-bashi would translate as Korea Bridge. 20 There was indeed a Kawachi-no-kami who served as Nagasaki bugyo¯ in 1745–52, but he was Matsudaira Nobumasa, a different person from this Kawachi-no-kami, who is Inoue Masasada. Perhaps Titsingh heard tales of the governor and was led astray by their titles. 21 The original text gives the name as Nose Genshiro¯ and his post as Edo omote-metsuke see Okada, Baba Bunko¯ shu¯, p. 103. 22 Aoyama Yoshinaga and Noma Teruna. 23 The great Osaka automaton maker, Takeda O¯ mi, was active in the early eighteenth century. His descendants ran an automatic theatre there for many generations, and a print of 1796 shows the VOC visiting it (for a convenient reproduction, see Timon Screech, The Lens Within the Heart, fig. 35). 24 The shogunal ‘arms’ (mon) is the trefoil hollyhock. An o¯ ban is a coin larger than a koban. 25 Honda Tadayoshi; the officers referred to are ro¯ju¯ and wakadoshiyori, Tadayoshi being one of the latter. 26 The kabuki actor Sakakiyama Shiro¯taro¯, performed until 1747, after which he changed his name to Koshiro¯ II, handing the old name to a student, who became Shiro¯taro¯ II, until 1766. I am grateful to Drew Gerstle for this information. The original text notes that Shiro¯ taro¯ is ‘currently called Koshiro¯ ’, see Okada, Baba Bunko¯ shu¯, p. 105. 27 Kamei Ju¯rijo¯ is unknown. Note that theatrical reference books of the period do not include information on actors’ home lives, although for general comments, see Takei Kyo¯zo¯ , Edo kabuki no onnatachi. 28 This ia a garbling. The original states that she ‘went to the upstairs of the annex [tamonya] and strangled herself’; having misunderstood the architectural term as a surname, Titsingh elides it with the person named above, see Okada, Baba Bunko¯ shu¯, p. 106. 29 The original says Toyotaki is a jo¯ruri (puppet drama) chanter, see Okada, Baba Bunko¯ shu¯, ibid. 30 Thus the half-brother of Ieharu. He had two brothers, see below, note 125. 31 The shingo-ban had been established in 1643 to ride ahead of the shogun when he left the castle; its head had the large salary of 2000 koku. 32 Literally, ‘forest trust, clear choice’, although the signification is obscure and this cystern is otherwise unknown. 33 Tokugawa Keibu is properly Tokugawa Munetada (Keibu, ‘Ministry of Punishments’ is a honorary court rank, not a name), and he was himself adopted by Yoshimune in 1740 making him younger brother of Ieshige, see above, note 30. His son, Kongoro¯ or Ogimaro, was adopted by Matsudaira Shigemasa of Echizen. 34 It was not Shigemasa but his ancestor, Matsudaira Tadanao, who had been exiled, in 1623. 35 This is jumbled: Uemon is his given name so cannot be followed by ‘no kami’. Ieshige’s second brother was Tokugawa Munetake (not Munekore); he married into the Konoe family and established the Tayasu Tokugawa house, which is what must be intended. See above, note 30.

240 Notes 36 37 38 39 40

41 42 43 44 45 46 47

48 49 50 51 52 53 54

55 56

Konoe Iehiro, one of the great calligraphers of the age. Kano¯ Hisamichi, Ogasawara Masanobu, Shibuya Yoshinobu. ¯ kubu Tadatada, although it is odd to refer to his uncle as his ‘servant’. It seems that O a contrast is being made between Yoshimune’s virtue and Ieshige’s lack of it. ¯ oka Tadamitsu, was favourite (sobayo¯nin) of Ieshige, and supposedly the only one O who could understand the shogun’s speech. In 1760 he was give 10,000 koku and made daimyo of Iwatsuki. The verse is more fully explicated below, but more closely, it means, ‘Mostly/Outside Izumo/There are no gods’. It involves a pun on kami, meaning marshall and god; the province of Izumo was home to one of the greatest shrines, where the gods were said to repair every 10th month (which was accordingly known as the ‘godless month’). Thus, the verse can also be understood to mean, ‘Mostly/Other than Izumo/There are no [good] marshalls’. Kose Monshi (or Yuri) lived in Kii (Kishu¯ = Province of Ki[i]’). Monshi was buried at the To¯ei-zan Kan’ei-ji. Titsingh has misread the name as ‘Rakueizan’ (here corrected). Kanpaku (regent), denka (his highness). Tsunayoshi appears with his posthumous name. More literally, ‘Fleeting things [i.e. life]/Pampas moorlands/Dew-tears at the roots/Even now falling.’ That is, Hanzo¯-mon, at Fukiage, part of Edo Castle. Ietsugu appears with his posthumous name. Ieshige is Yoshimune’s son, and later his successor. Miyasama means prince or princess, and Nami was so-called as she was daughter of the dairi Teruhito, or posthumously, Sakuramachi (r. 1720–30). Kawa (or gawa) means river. More literally, ‘Though my body is without memories/The name of its old home brings/nostalgia/The capital bird.’ The verse refers to her having left the capital while still too young to know love, unlike the famous Ariwara no Narihira who famously wrote of hearing the same bird when wandering in (what later became) the Edo area, and longing for his lover back in Kyoto, see Anon., Ise monogatari pp. 88–89, or in English, H. Jay Harris (trans.) Tales of Ise, p. 48. The original gives Kin no ma (gold vault), see, Okada, Baba Bunko¯ shu¯, p. 111. This is garbled: the dairi gave the pike, inscribed with Hideyoshi’s arms of kiku to kiri (chrysanthemum and paulownia) to him, and Hideyoshi handed it on to Tokugawa Ieyasu. The Tokugawa arms are the mitsubaoi (three hollyhock leaves). Chinzei is an antique name for Kyushu, under the domination of which Ryukyu (modern Okinawa) had fallen. Ryukyuan’s are of mixed ethnicity. Interesting that Iemitsu should have had a bullet-proof palanquin. Noda means the countryside. ‘Turn’ = deflect. Neither person or room is traceable. Oko¯ was thus lady-in-waiting to Nami, Ieshige’s wife. Ieshige had the title Dainagon (Great Counsellor of State) and resided in the Second Enceinte of Edo Castle, as was normal for the shogunal family. The child would become the tenth shogun, Ieharu, the incumbent during Titsingh’s visit; Oko¯ was daughter of Maenaka Chu¯nagon Baikei Tsu¯jo¯. The birth of this boy, later to be the shogun Tokugawa Ieharu, occurred on the 22nd not the 11th of the fifth month. Matsudaira Noriaki and his son Norisuke. ‘Sakon-no-kami’ is an error for Sakon-nosho¯gen, ‘commander of the left palace guards’ (and honorary title), which Titsingh corrects below. [Original note:] ‘Hikime signifies literally ‘frog’s eye’. This name is given to a wooden arrow, perforated at top with three small holes, which, as it flies through the air, produces a whizzing noise. The Japanese are accustomed to discharge arrows of this kind in all circumstances, whether fortunate or adverse, and

Notes 241

57

58 59 60

61 62

63 64

65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75

76 77

attribute to them the property of repelling evil spirits. It was with one of these sounding arrows, called by the Chinese Mign-ti, that Mothun, the celebrated emperor of the Hioung-nou, killed his father, Theou-man.’ [All these putative Chinese names are unclear.] The name of Matsudaira Tadane’s wife is unknown. [Original note:] ‘It is not till the eighth day after its birth that a child begins to be suckled by the mother. For the first seven days it is suckled by another woman, because during that time the mother’s milk is considered unwholesome.’ Sakai Tadayuki. His son became a famous painter under the name of Sakai Ho¯itsu. Titsingh now corrects his manner of referring to Matsudaira Noriaki, see above, note 56. The other two men are Matsudaira Nobuiwa and Toki Yoriine. The verse is ‘sung’ (composed) by Sagi Niemon, otherwise unknown, and puns on the boy’s name, literally, ‘Bamboo Thousand Generations’. A more literal translation would be ‘The leaves of the bamboo/Better even than them/The thousand-generation pathway/Never peters out/What an auspicious time!’ Tokugawa Harunori (also called Bun ko¯), ruled 1766–1805 and was 11, by the inclusive Japanese count, in 1761. Kochiyo was the boyhood name of Matsudaira Munenobu; he was 11, by the inclusive Japanese count, in 1739. Izumo is the poetic name of Matsue. Kutsuki Masatsuna is mentioned because he was a friend of Titsingh’s. From this point on Titsingh often notes the current status of the figures he refers to, if they were alive during his period in Japan. Inaba Masaaki. Ieshige is still ‘hereditary prince’. ‘Keibucho¯’ appeared earlier as Keibu, see above, note 33; cho¯ means ‘head’. Ieharu’s sons has both predeceased him, so he adopted Ienari, the grandson of Keibu, to be heir apparent (and who had become so when Titsingh arrived in Japan for the second time). He would become shogun in 1787. Since this is still the reign of Yoshimune, Takechiyo is not the ‘hereditary prince’ but his son; the heir apparent was still Ieshige, as he appears below. Takechiyo would become heir apparent in 1741 and shogun (under the name of Ieharu) in 1760. Kaminari is lightening. These are famous images of the gods Fu¯jin and Ranjin. The replacement statues now within the gate are also without nipples. Ieharu was middle-aged when Titsingh was in Japan. His intellect was derided by many, see Screech, Shogun’s Painted Culture, p. 20. Kan’o Haruhide was a ‘treasurer of accounts’ (kanjo¯ bugyo¯), better rendered minister of finance, 1737–53, and concurrently, ‘governor of Nikko¯’ (nikko¯ bugyo¯) until 1746, hence this anecdote. Nikko¯ was the mausoleum site of Ieyasu (Gongen) and Iemitsu. I have not been able to determine details of this official. This section and the next appear in the modern established text of Buko¯’s Kindai ko¯jitsu kenpiroku in reverse order; either Titsingh jumbled them, or he was using a variant manuscript, see Okada, Baba bunko-shu¯, pp. 120–21. Meguro was somewhat outside Edo. The Gate of the Tiger (Toranomon) was one of the main gates of Edo Castle; the new bridge is Shinbashi. Matsudaira Takechika was shoshidai from 1717 to 24. He was highly influential under Ieshige. The Tales of Ise dates from the tenth century and is one of the great court classics, though it is anonymous and only attributed to Narihira (whose name Titsingh entirely garbles as Ariba no Nari). Since Narihira was also a great lover, the debauched courtier’s remark is not out of place. Also, see above, note 47. Matsudaira Tadachika was made ro¯ju¯ in 1724. Toki Yoritoshi was shoshidai 1734–42, but there is no specific fire recorded – unless this is a slip for the calmitous Nishijin Fire of 1730 (when Matsudaira Norisada was shoshidai).

242 Notes 78 The poet is Kazehaya Yoshizane, and he puns Tango, one of the five main festivals of the year (falling on the 5th day of the 5th month), with the lord’s toponym. A more literal translation would be, ‘At this very time/On Tango’s evening/Fire broke out/Edo was informed/For the noble governor/Much [trouble].’ Titsingh’s romanisation is so wayward that he may have been using a variant manuscript with a slightly different form of the verse, however, it has been amended in line with the standard version. 79 Shimizudani Seicho¯ is unknown, but probably a descendant of the Shimizudani Sanenari who compiled the famous 100-verse anthology for the dairi Reigen-in in 1703. 80 A more literal translation is, ‘The fast wind [Hayakaze]/Even when I hear it – how powerless!/I am afraid fires’, and ‘Even the valley of freshwaters [Shimizudani]/Is burnt,/Nothing remaining.’ Between the two, these constitute a full formal verse, capping a sequence of 5:7:5 syllables with one of 7:7. Titsingh’s version of the first part of the paired verse is quite different from that in the standard text, which reads, Hayakaze to kyo¯ kimi ga na no tsurasa kana (Hayakaze [strong winds]/Today my lord’s name/Most problematic’, see, Okada, Baba bunko shu¯, p. 120. 81 The Hall of Clocks (Tokei-no-ma) is intended. Palanquins were always carried at running pace when the destination was the castle. 82 A third and more likely explanation in that speed showed due expedition in attending to shogunal needs. 83 The established text gives the name as Tani Kingoro¯ and his status as hatamoto (bannerman), see Okada, Baba bunko¯-shu¯, loc. cit. 84 Titsingh breaks Ban Rokuzaemon incorrectly as Banroku Saemon (Banrokuo-saïmon), then abbreviating it as Banroku. Here corrected. 85 It is impossible to discover what Japanese word is intended here. Normally a seal is an ‘in’. 86 Ishikawa Masatomo. 87 This Nichiren temple was formerly in Ushigome Yanagishima (modern Ushigome Yanagicho¯), but is now in Sumida-ku; it is also known as Yanagishima no Myo¯ken. 88 There were many swordsmiths of this name, but probably referred to is Kunimitsu Shito¯go, who founded the line in the fourteenth century. 89 ‘Manes’ are the defied souls of departed ancestors. 90 This is a gloss on the actual law. Sons could not inherit if their fathers had died in unlawful combat or in improper suicides. Sho¯zaemon will also be punished for taking the law into his own hands. 91 Honda Tadayoshi held the honorary title of nakatsukasa (chamberlain), to which –dayu¯ is suffixed. He was never ‘extraordinary counsellor of state’ (wakadoshiyori), though did become an ‘ordinary counsellor’ (ro¯ju¯) in 1734. 92 This Nichiren temple if now in Shinjuku. Nichijun must be the concurrent abbot of the Myo¯go-in and Kyo¯zo¯ -in in Edo, who famously rebuilt the ravaged Honmon-ji; however, he died in 1717 and he is not otherwise associated with the So¯hakuji. Sho¯nin is the honorific title of a senior cleric. 93 The established text contains no such claim, although if the date is still 1737, then, as Bunko¯ compiled his book in 1755, the sons could well have been alive, see Okada (ed.), Baba bunko-shu¯, p. 126. 94 From here for several anecdotes the order departs from the of the established version of Bunko¯’s text, Okada (ed.), Baba bunko-shu¯, pp. 126–45 and below, note 119. The next anecdote begins at p. 139. 95 Itakura Katsukane, a Tokugawa house retainer. 96 This is a curious change of tone, when Titsingh is generally so laudatory. 97 Itakura Suwa-no-kami Shigemune was ‘chief judge of Miyako’ (shoshidai) 1619–54; his brother, Itakura Iga-no-kami Shigenori was ‘ordinary counsellor of state’ (ro¯ju¯) 1665–8. 98 This is incorrect. A ‘prince’ (daimyo) had to possess in excess of 10,000 koku. 99 Itakura Katsukiyo, a waka-doshiyori.

Notes 243 100 This ritual is unclear. Hachiman Dai-bosatsu is the god of war; Etchu¯-no-kami is Hosokawa Munetake. 101 Tsuchida Takatoyo; Komita is unknown. 102 Since this anecdote is dated 1739, it is not clear why Yoshimune, at 53, is suddenly ‘old’. 103 Hotta Masasuke. Titsingh misnames him ‘Sota’. He was ro¯ju¯ 1745–61. 104 The identity of this person is unclear. Although ginseng was grown in Japan, the imported Korean type had the higher reputation. 105 Ishikawa Masatomo; Suganuma’s formal given name is unknown; Mizuno Tadatatsu, daimyo of Okazaki. 106 The title is used anachronistically: the son would not have a -kami title as a child. The person concerned is To¯do¯ Takatoyo (or Takahochi), born in 1718; he would inherit from his father, Takaharu, in 1735, so this event must date to the early 1730s. 107 36,000 koku would be quite low for a daimyo; the income of Tsu was actually 270,950 koku. 108 Mochitsuki Kimihiko, body physician (oku-i) to the shogun. 109 Probably Tachibana Genshu¯, body physician to the shogun. 110 One of the great names in Edo kabuki. Ichikawa Danju¯ro¯ II used the name Ebizo¯ from 1735 until his death in 1758. 111 Yoshimume was prince of Kii until the summer of 1716, whereupon he became shogun; this anecdote appears here probably because its denouement occurred many years later. 112 The So¯sen-ji is a Zen temple at Komame-zawa (Itabashi) in Edo; it is famous for having the grave of Hiraga Gennai. 113 Yoda Masatsugu became machi-bugyo¯ of Edo in 1753, together with Nanbu Toshimi. A crane was an appropriate and auspicious gift. 114 Hakone is the great barrier on the To¯kaido¯ near Mt Fuji, some 100km from Edo. An old saying was that it was built to prevent guns passing in to Edo and women passing out, i.e. to predict insurrections (importing weapons or exporting womenfolk augured war). In fact, women with correct documents could pass the barrier. Here Titsingh interpolates. 115 There is no Yamabe in Edo; the established text text gives ‘Aoyama-be’, or in the vicinity of Aoyama; it gives the name of the person concerned as Heizaemon, and states he was a masterless samurai (ro¯nin), see Okada (ed.), Baba bunko-shu¯, p. 169. 116 The term ‘sepikkes’ appears elsewhere in Titsingh’s text, but is not known as a unit of currency; perhaps it is a corrupt pluralisation of zeni; at any rate, a low unit of value in intended. The established text gives 24 mon, see Okada (ed.), Baba bunko¯-shu¯, loc. cit. 117 In the established text, the death of Yoshimune occurs at this point, see Okada (ed.), Baba bunko-shu¯, pp. 172–73. 118 The prince of Satsuma was Shimazu Shigetoshi (r. 1742–55). 119 Titsingh here returns to the established version of Bunko¯’s text, see Okada (ed.), Baba bunko shu¯, p. 127. 120 Sakakibara Masamine. Usually Shikibudayu¯, not Shikibunodayu¯. For the prince of Himeji, see above, note 58. 121 The Miura-ya (or the Omiura – ‘Great Miura’) was one of the oldest and finest establishments in the Yoshiwara; Takao was not a person but a myo¯seki or name passed down among the house’s top courtesan (tayu¯). Sakakibara Masamine’s affair was with Takao XI, last of the long line, as the Miura-ya went out of business in 1756. 122 This is a shimadai or ornamental tray that standing in the centre of a room; it is not an actual mountain. The Owari-ya was one of the top houses of assignation (ageya), that is, not a house with its own courtesans, but one to which women would be called for encounters. Business faltered for ageya and by the 1750s, the Owari-ya was the only one left; it too closed around 1760.

244 Notes 123 Courtesans ( ju¯jo) were indentured and could not leave until termination of their contract, unless their advance was redeemed. 124 In the established text, this had appeared before, see above, note 117. 125 The Yoshimune had only three sons; the other two were Tokugawa (Tayasu) Munetake and Tokugawa (Hitotsubashi) Munetada (who appears here as Keibucho¯). 126 The To¯ei-zan Kan’ei-ji was Edo’s great protective temple in the north-east of the city. It had many shogunal graves. 127 The fourth year of Kan’en was terminated part way through (for the baleful reasons Titsingh outlines) and became the first year of Ho¯reki. 128 Narishima Do¯chiku. The established text notes this verse was inscribed on a stele and placed at Atago-yama, but it does not say he was a physician, and indeed he was not, but a physician but a court cleric (oku-bo¯zu), see Okada (ed.), Baba bunko-shu¯, p. 173. 129 Titsingh does not give the original of the verse, probably because it is in kanbun, not Japanese. Moreover, either his translation is either utterly wayward, or the verse appeared differently in his manuscript. A more precise translation would be, ‘Yu¯tokuin [Yoshimune] scatters in the eight directions/Between the four seas, all turns to sadness’. 4 Ieshige to Ienari 1 Titsingh incorrectly breaks the name as Babun Ko (here corrected). He was a mideighteenth-century storyteller specialising in political satire, and, accordingly to one theory, a shogunal official. Titsingh is unaware that the source he has been using hitherto was by Bunko¯. See Introduction. No book with such a title is known, although it is possible that Kyo¯ here means the city of Miyako (Kyoto), since most of what purports to derive from this source is the insurrection there is Yamagata Daini. 2 O¯ -gosho, literally ‘great palace’ is the generic name for retired shoguns. 3 The shogunal retreat at Kosuga is intended; goten is a palace. ¯ oka Tadamitsu, see above, Chapter 3, note 39. 4 For O 5 Ueno is the site of the Kan’ei-ji, called elsewhere by Titsingh, To¯ei-zan; it and the Zo¯jo¯ -ji , in Shiba, housed the mausolea of all shoguns except Ieyasu and Iemitsu, who were interred at Nikko¯. The two temples were geomantically sited at the north-east and south-west of Edo respectively. Momiji-yama had a small To¯sho¯gu¯ (shine to the deified Ieyasu) and was within the castle grounds. Since Ieshige was ninth shogun, there would have been eight trips annually, one to each memorial site, so they would have occurred, on average, about every six weeks. 6 See above, Chapter 3, note 46. 7 This is anachronistic as Oko¯ did not die until 1748. The bracketed date recurs, and denotes the year Titsingh was in Japan for the second time, suggesting his draft was made at that time. 8 Ninomaru is the Second Enceinte, as it appeared above, see Chapter 3, note 54. 9 We revert to the period of Yoshimune’s retirement. 10 The daughter of Miura Goro¯zaemon was called Oyu¯. The prince of the Second Palace is Ieshige, so this has now reverted to the shogunate of Yoshimune. 11 Ukon-no-Sho¯gen, ‘commander of the right palace guards’ is an honourary title, not a name (cf. Sakon-no-Sho¯gen above). He is Matsudaira Takemoto, counsellor of state (ro¯ju¯), 1747–9. 12 Chikushu¯ was an appellation for Chikuzen, just as Kishu¯ was for Kii (shu¯ meaning province). The lord is Kuroda Tsugutaka, a major daimyo of the tozama class. Sho¯sho¯ is the honorary rank of ‘lesser captain’ of the palace guards. There were six chief counsellors of state (ro¯ju¯) not two, and the identity the two intended here is unclear. 13 Kuroda Tsugutaka’s son, Shigemasa, had married the daughter of Shimazu Shigetomi; however, Shigetomi’s mother was not sister of Ieshige’s father (i.e. sister of Yoshimune), but Yoshimune’s adoptive daughter.

Notes 245 14 This refers to an architectural gateway, or mon, the size of which was status-dependent and carefully policed. 15 Ho¯nko¯-in is her posthumous name; in name in life is unknown. 16 Myo¯ko¯-ji is a Pure Land temple, but is in Osaka; no Enmei-in or Sho¯so¯-ji are known. 17 There are several temples of this name, though none in Edo; perhaps the Tanjo¯-ji in central Kyoto, belonging to the Honmon Butsumotsu school, is intended. 18 The Minobu was a nickname of the Kyu¯en-ji, a stronghold of the hokkei-shu¯ (Lotus sect), properly called the Nichiren School. A purple kesa (surplus, not scarf) was an indication of high ecclesiastical rank. 19 Simony was by no means rare in the allocation of ranks, clerical or lay. 20 The temple is the Kan’ei-ji and the lord, Uesugi Shigesada. 21 Hotta Masasuke was ro¯ju¯ 1745–61. 22 The daimyo of Kokura was Ogasawara Tadanobu. The daimyo of Owari (properly, Nagoya), was a shogunal collateral, and thus had great power of patronage. The incumbent was Tokugawa Munekatsu. 23 Shinagawa was main exit point from Edo along the To¯kaido¯; it was also an illicit brothel area, and this may be why rowdy behaviour was seen there, even in broad daylight. 24 Probably Mizuno Tadatoki, daimyo of Okazaki, but he was not, of course, Yamashirono-kami, which was Tanuma Okitomo’s rank, indeed, he had no kami rank, but (like his father) was kenmotsu; he appears as Iga-no-kami, but this is not correct either. Since the daimyo of Owari was a shogunal relative, it took bravery to challenge him. 25 The period of residence was generally one year out of two, the other being spent in the daimyo’s home state. The system was known as ‘alternate attendance’ (sankin ko¯tai). 26 The direct shogunal line died out with the childless Ieshige, and the daimyo of Kii, or properly of Wakayama (a rather distant relative) was selected, and installed as Yoshimune. The incumbent in 1772 was Tokugawa Shigenori, although this famous event actually took place slightly later, in 1775; he lived on until 1829. 27 The dairi was Go-Momozono (r. 1770–9). 28 This took place in 1775, not 1772. The uncle was Matsudaira Yorizumi, daimyo of Saijo¯ (also called Nishijo¯), who assumed the name of Harusada and ruled until his death in 1789, after which Shigenori’s eldest son, Harutomi, returned (promoted to dainagon). 29 That is, the lower class of samurai. Among commoners such honour-codes were not maintained. 30 [Original note:] ‘This expression alludes to the practice of the Japanese of sending fish among the presents which they are accustomed to make on different occasions. See the Ceremonies attending Marriages in the second part.’ This is not included in the present edition. 31 The ganting (or gantang) was a Malay unit of measure, equivalent to c. 4.5kg. It was not used in Japan. 32 Hotta Masasuke was Osaka shirodai 1728–9 before becoming ro¯ju¯ in 1745. 33 For the abbot of the Kan’ei-ji in Ueno, see above, Chapter 1, note 26; the incumbent was Ko¯juun (I am grateful to Lucia Dolce for this information). 34 This anecdote leaps back to the time of Yoshimune 35 This was O¯ oka Tadaharu. He was Edo machi-bugyo¯ 1717–36, whereupon he became magistrate of religious institutions (jisha bugyo¯), until 1751, hence his ‘surname’ (nickname). 36 Inaba Tadanori. 37 Soga no Goro¯ (also called Tokimune) and his lover Tora gozen, were mediaeval figures known through plays and stories. Goro¯ and his brother Ju¯ro¯ avenged themselves against Yoshimune for their father’s death during the battue (makigari) held in the foothills of Mt Fuji, near Hakone, in 1193. Minamoto no Yoritomo was shogun 1192–9. Titsingh confuses the family name Minamoto with Mino-no-kami, which was never Yoritomo’s title. 38 Ishi means stone.

246 Notes 39 The second son of Inaba Tadanori was named Masayori, and the meaning of the style Hoso¯ is unclear. Daiyu¯-in is the posthumous name of Tokugawa Iemitsu (r. 1623–51), thus this anecdote (and the next) leap back about a century. Etchu¯-no-kami is Inaba Tadaaki. 40 Tokugawa Iemitsu. 41 Norimono is a palanquin. The sabre was mentioned above. ‘Abroad’ means outside the palace compound. ¯ oka Tadaharu was machi-bugyo¯ 1725–36. 42 O 43 Unknown, but perhaps an ancestor of the famous nineteenth-century wasan mathematician Noda Hajime. 44 Hotta Masasuke retired in 1761 (see above, note 21), so the phrase ‘ at present’ must refer to the time of creation of Titsingh’s (unidentified) source and after having been mentioned above, it is odd that this fact is introduced now. Masakado-yama and Sho¯mon-zan are different readings of the name of the same mountain, situated in Ko¯zuke (Gunma). Taira no Masakado (?–940) rebelled against the Heian court, carved out an separate kingdom, and, in 938 nominated himself New Emperor (shinno¯), renaming the mountain after himself and ‘investing’ it as the centre of his rule. After his death just two years later, his head was said to have flown miraculously to a mount in the centre of what was to become Edo. The dairi Kanmu tenno¯ reigned 781–806. 45 Hotta Masanobu, daimyo of Sakura, was a favourite of Iemitsu, but never ‘first counsellor of state’ (ro¯ju¯). Titsingh is confusing him with Hotta Masasuke (whom Titsingh acknowledges as his descendant). Jo¯shu¯ is the alternate name for Ko¯zuke (from which Masanobu’s style derives) and sho¯sho¯ is the honorary rank of minor captain in the palace guards. 46 Butcho¯-ji is the name of the temple, not the uncle. 47 I.e. three inclusive numbers of years. Presumably the execution took place late in the year, which would be one; two would then begin after New Year, and three might come before a hundred days elapsed, if the new era was declared before the end of winter. 48 The daimyo of Awa (properly called Tokushima) was Matsudaira Tadateru. 49 The former is a shrine, the latter a temple. 50 Anpontan does indeed means stupid, but it is not related to a plant. 51 Tokugawa Shigeyoshi established the Shimizu shogunal collateral house. His wife was Sadako, daughter of the dairi’s relation, Fushimi no miya Sadatatsu; however, she had died in 1762. 52 ‘Sano Tsushima’ should be So¯ Yoshinaga, the name of the daimyo of Tsushima (properly called Fuchu¯). It is said that fish which can leap to the top of Ryu¯mon-notaki (Dragon’s Gate Falls) turn into dragons. Tsushima is an island mid-way to Korea, so its daimyo is an appropriate person to furnish continental things. 53 The other son, Shigeyoshi, established the Shimizu Tokugawa line. 54 This was not the universal view (see Introduction), but as he was reigning when Titsingh was in Japan, it was necessary to be diplomatic. 55 Better known as Yamagata Masasada. Since we have gone back in time, the dairi is here Go-Sakuramachi (r. 1762–70), most unusually, a female. 56 Takenouchi Shikibu Takamochi and Fujii Naoaki. 57 The dairi was female, see above, note 55, thus properly ‘herself’. Okamoto To¯an is unknown, though perhaps a descendant of the famous early eighteenth-century physician Okamoto Ippo¯. Tokudaiji Ko¯ji; dainagon is a high court rank. 58 No Miwa-dera is known. Rengen-jima a small island in the moat system of Edo Castle. 59 Oda Nobukuni was daimyo of only a minor part of Ko¯zuke. His son, properly Nobuyuki, was known as Yaoya though not as Hakushichi; Oda Nobushige. 60 Oda Nobunaga, one of the great ‘unifiers’, was assassinated in 1582, which allowed the rise of Toyotomi Hideyoshi (the Taiko¯), and the loss of power to the Oda clan. Ieyasu (the Gongen), restored some of the Oda lands when he in turn displaced the Toyotomi. 61 Uemon is here referred to as Onu – perhaps a misprint.

Notes 247 62 The daimyo of Amagasaki was Matsudaira Tadaoshi; below he appears as To¯tomi-nokami, and Ro¯an as a doctor. 63 Abe Masamigi, counsellor of state (ro¯ju¯) 1766–86. 64 A ‘bale’ (hyo¯), is not a fixed unit of measurement. 65 Japanese verse often carried double meanings in puns, although that is not the case in this verse, which simply carries the real meaning in metaphor. The translation and gloss are accurate except it should read ‘seed’, not ‘fruit’. 66 Thus the mansion is just outside Edo Castle, as will become significant below. Tameike means a large pond, or lake. 67 Ginzan means ‘silver mine’; no Yokono is known. Numata, Teichingu, p. 142, suggests Yo¯no. 68 The story contains a Kichida and a Tsuda, who may be these two people. 69 Having been correct before, Zezo¯’s name is now give as ‘Tachikawa’ (here corrected). 70 This establishment, is called The Bellflower (Platycodon grandiflorum); it is otherwise unattested. 71 Gingham, an Indian cotton cloth made from pre-dyed threads, was popular in Japan. This sounds more like the game of dressing in the red robes of Bodhidharma, who was, however, not the devil, but the founder of Zen Buddhism. 72 Above he was called Genshi. 73 The daimyo’s name had not been given before, see above, note 62. 74 Literally, a ‘box prison’. 75 There was no 4th year of Ten’a as the era terminated in its third year, which was 1684; this is an error for the 4th year of Meiwa, which is indeed 1767, and in that year Tsutsu Tadao and Naito¯ Nobuatsu were chief inspectors (o¯metsuke). 76 [Original note:] ‘Fuji Umon was decapitated and his head set up at Shinagawa. Yamagata Daini, beheaded. Takeno Chu¯an, banished to an island. Miyazawa Junzo¯, Momonoi Kyu¯ma, Sato¯ Gendaiyu¯ and Shimizu Reiso¯, exhibited in public three successive days with their hands tied behind them, and then banished to an island. Yamagata Itsuki, banished. Oda Mino-[no-]kami, was forbidden to go beyond his own garden and all his property was confiscated. Oda Yaoshichi [above called Hakushichi, though both are wrong, see above note 59] had a revenue of two mangoku assigned him elsewhere. He was looked upon as innocent, and as having been led astray by his father. He had one mangoku in the province of Okushu¯ and the other in the province of Dewa, where the land is of bad quality. Oda Tsushima-no-kami was deprived of his place. Oda Shikibu was removed to another post. Baiso¯, high-priest of So¯fuku-ji, was banished. Yoshida Genba, after a long confinement in prison, was ordered to rip himself up. His house and effects were confiscated. Tsuda Tomomo, Sekino Sadaemon, Matsubara To¯daiyu¯, Tsuda Shiro¯ and Matsu Genshiro¯, were banished grievously, that is to say, from the dominions of the shogun. Ichikawa [above called Takatsuki and also Tachikawa no] Zezo¯, Tateki Kuro¯bei, Sawada Bunji and Asakura Ro¯an, banished. Yoshimi Cho¯emon and Fukushima Denzo¯, servants, the one to Mizuno Iki-no-kami, the other to the prince of Yoshida, punished by their masters. The three servants of Abe Iyo¯-no-kami, having entered into the conspiracy from no other motive than to discover it, could not be considered as guilty. Yoshida Hachizo¯ and Teramizaka Umon were not found guilty. Makita Gizaemon, secretary to Oda Mino-no-kami, was much regretted. Had he lived

248 Notes he would have been rewarded for his good advice and taken into the service of the shogun. Takami Kazusa and Takami Shinano¯ [above surnamed Kagami] were pronounced innocent and had permission to return home. Takahashi Buncho¯ and Yawata-ya Denzaemon were found innocent and set at liberty. Yasubei, servant to Yamagata Daini; Magoshichi, servant to Itsuki; Tominaga Do¯ji, disciple to Daini and Yasuke, servant to Do¯ji, were judged innocent and had permission to return to their homes. 77 Titsingh has included no information on his own period in Japan up to this point. 78 There is a two-decade gap between the previous entry and this one. During the interim, Titsingh arrived in Japan. Oddly, it is not recorded in the Dagregister (then being kept by Romberg), although has Titsingh here uses the Dutch (solar) calendar, it suggests he is recording from direct report. Jo¯shu¯ and Shinshu¯ are Kazusa and Shinano. 79 Titsingh gives a non-standard reading of the era name as Tenmyo¯ (ten-mio), but it is here corrected to the received one. 80 There is no river Karuizawa; it is the name of the region. 81 The mountain is anomalously given as Asouma, and Yonegawa is given as Tanigawa (both corrected). 82 Jin’ya-chichu¯ is not a toponym, but means ‘within the area of the military compound’. 83 Chichu¯ is not part of the toponym, but means ‘the area around’. 84 See note above. 85 Mura means village, and go¯ri district. 86 Titsingh proceeds to confuse the family name, Tanuma, with the older Tanuma’s title Tonomo-no-kami. I unify the usage to give Tanuma for the father (known to historians today as Tanuma Tonomo-no-kami Okitsugu), and Yamashiro for the son (Tanuma Yamashiro-no-kami Okitomo); the son had been made an extraordinary counsellor, or young elder (waka-doshiyori), in 1784. See Introduction. 87 Titsingh’s ‘Secret Diary’ offers ideas of some of the reforms underway. This comment (on the involvement of senior figures in the assassination) is rare information and routinely cited in modern scholarship, and it shows the value of Titsingh’s account. 88 This is the third gate of Edo Castle. 89 These are the three wakadoshiyori: the daimyo of Matsuyama in Dewa, Sakai Iwamino-kami Tadayasu; the daimyo of Kanazawa in Musashi, Yonekura Tango-no-kami Morimasa, and the daimyo of Kakegawa in To¯tomi, O¯ ta Bichu¯-no-kami Sukeyoshi. 90 Tsuyu-no-ma would be the Dew Hall, but there was no such room in Edo Castle. Numata, Teichingu, p. 157, suggests an error for Fuyo¯-no-ma, or Lotus Hall. 91 The Central Hall and the Chrysanthemum Hall. 92 Matsudaira Tsu-no-kami is Matsudaira Tadasato; Titsingh gives his title here mistakenly as Hida-no-kami (corrected), though he has it right below. 93 This would be Wakizaka Yasutomo, daimyo of Tatsuno, but other documents do not suggest he was present at the time. 94 An error for O¯ ta Bichu¯-no-kami, or O¯ ta Sukeyoshi, daimyo of Kakegawa, who has figured above as the prince of To¯tomi. In 1793 he would be promoted to ro¯ju¯. 95 Tanuma Okitsugu’s grave is in the Sho¯rin-ji at Komagome. 96 Sagara is in O¯ mi not Sagami. 97 Above he had appeared as Tsu-no-kami, see above, note 92. 98 No Hiru-no-ma or ‘Noonday Hall’ exists; Numata mistakenly renders it Fuyo¯-no-ma, turning this into the same hall as above (see note 90), see Numata, Teichingu, p. 104. Titsingh intends the O¯ -hiroma, or main audience chamber, the proper place for an important announcement of this kind. 99 Inoue Masaari, Ando¯ Koretoku (properly Go¯emon, not Go¯zaemon), Sueyoshi Toshitaka.

Notes 249 100 Atobe Yoshihisa, Matsudaira Tsunetaka. 101 Bannen Yoritoyo, Ikai Sasatane, Tazawa Masanori, Shirai Toshitsune. ¯ ya To¯tomi-no-kami, that is, O ¯ ya Masatomi (NB 102 Kano¯ To¯tomi-no-kami is an error for O he is not to be confused with the daimyo of To¯tomi, nor with Matsudaira To¯tomi-nokami, both of whom are mentioned above. Yamagawa Sadamiki was a metsuke, elsewhere rendered as Inspector, not Sub-Inspector. 103 Hisamatsu Sadafuda; Otagi Osumi-no-kami is an error for Makino Osumi-no-kami, or Makino Nariyoshi. 104 See above, note 102. 105 These children are: (1) Chiyo-hime, (2) Manju¯-hime (married to Tokugawa Haruyasu), (3) Iemoto (who died falling from a horse given by the Dutch East India Company – which caused a diplomatic fracas), (4) Teijiro¯, (5) Tane-hime (daughter of Ando¯ Munetake and married to Tokugawa Harutaka), and (6) Ienari, his successor, of the Hitotsubashi Tokugawa house. Six children was irresponsibly unfecund by the standards of the time. 106 Naturally, all the information in this section was also acquired by Titsingh after he left Japan. 107 In other words, Ienari’s claim to become shogun was strategic but quite tenuous. Titsingh does not note that the adoption occurred late and in a hurry. Munekore is an error for (Tokugawa or Hitotsubashi) Munetada. Shimazu Shigehide was one of the most powerful ‘outer’ (tozama) daimyo, so adopting the betrothed of his daughter (whose name was Shige-hime or Tada-hime), constituted a sensible strengthening of the shogunal hand, although it also gave Shigehide great power; they were not married until some years later. 108 Many scapegoats were found, and, as normal, most were women. 109 The court normally fled to Shimogamo (a Shinto shrine, not a temple) in time of urgency, but on this occasion, while en route, it too burned, so they fled to the temple of Sho¯go-in, see below. 110 Needless to say, the official Japanese sources are silent on this revealing point. 111 Gojo¯ (‘fifth avenue’) not the river, which is the Kamo, but the street leading up to the main bridge, and then crossing it, hence Gojo¯ Bridge (Gojo¯-bashi, usually Gojo¯ Great Bridge, Gojo¯-o¯hashi) that follows. 112 The dairi had just one, rather modest, palace compound, and no castle. 113 This is only a small exaggeration; just four major buildings in the centre of the city survived: the Sanju¯sangen-do¯, the Great Buddha Hall, the abbacy of the Kennin-ji, and the shogunal castle (thanks to its moat). 114 This was rumour: the court did not flee to Mt Hiei (the temple of Enryaku-ji), and indeed, Titsingh corrects himself below. The ‘two governors of Miyako’ would be the shoshidai (elsewhere called the chief justice) and one of the two machi-bugyo¯, either Mizuno Yadamichi, or Sueyoshi Toshitake. 115 The city was not walled, as Titsingh knew, so he is perhaps referring to the walls of the castle. 116 Probably this refers to the Ho¯koku-ji (daibutsu), which was Japan’s largest temple, and Silver Pavilion (Rokuon-ji), although both are Buddhist, not Shinto (‘national’); the latter was outside town so not in harm’s way. 117 If accurate, this would have been considered a flagrant abuse of power, although not untypical of the then dairi, Ko¯kaku tenno¯. 118 The Sho¯ren-in (gosho designates palace, which was added after the court moved there) became home to part of the court, and the Sho¯go-in, mentioned above, to the rest. The court only moved once as they never installed themselves at the Shimogamo Shrine, and the moves to the Sho¯go-in and Sho¯ren-in were not sequential. 119 The court ate off plain wood, and discarding the vessels was a sign of purity, not extravagance. The image of smashing china dinner services is mistaken. 120 Van Reede was chief in Dejima and may be Titsingh’s source. He wrote in the

250 Notes

121 122 123

124 125 126 127 128 129

130 131

Dagregister that, ‘people are considering it to be a great and extraordinary heavenly portent’, see DDR 9/155. Shimabara Castle (properly, Moritake Castle), the seat of the daimyo, Matsudaira Tadayoshi. This event took place on the 1st of the 3rd month, not the 4th. Geographically, there is a leap, from Shimabara (in Kyushu) to Miyama (in Kanto¯), and now to Maebashi; this last had actually been terminated as a daimiate in 1764 and its daimyo, Matsudaira Motonori had transferred to Kawagoe, governing Maebashi as a subsection (bunryo¯) of that expanded domain. At this time, the daimyo of Kawagoe (with Maebashi) was Matsudaira Naotsuna. Probably this is intended to mean ‘agricultural fields’, that is, to the countryside generally, or it could mean ‘offering hall’ and so be a temple structure. Untraceable. Presumably, Sankoku-zan, although this placename is not attested. Presumably, Seiun-zan, although this placename is not attested. Presumably, Seichu¯-zan, although this placename is not attested. Literally, ‘Rector of the two precincts of Junwa and Sho¯gaku, hero of the Genji, great barbarian-subduing shogun’. The Junwa and Sho¯gaku colleges were placed under the control of the second, Ashikaga shogunate in 1381, and although defunct by Edo times, their rectorships (betto¯) remained technical shogunal offices. Genji was the clan of the first (Minamoto) shogunate. The shogunal heir apparent was called the Seishi; Taishi is the dairi’s heir apparent. Amaterasu o¯mikami, the Sun Goddess.

5 On the legal suicide of the Japanese 1 Titsingh does not use the Japanese terms samurai, or seppuku (‘karakiri’). 2 When the chief travels (not of course if he were to commit suicide), the arms of the Dutch East India Company, with the ‘VOC’ monogram, were displayed outside his lodgings. 3 Titsingh is right to correct the notion that (despite the title of this section) seppuku is suicide: the death stroke is always given by another. In fact, although he does not mention it, normally the condemned person would not cut themselves at all, but only touch their stomach with a blade. 4 Shimazu Shigehide. 6 On Japanese poetry 1 This was a standard verse metre, ultimately derived from waka. 2 ‘Mountain and hill’ does refer to Yamashiro[-no-kami], as Titsingh notes, but also to Yamanote, the Edo Castle area. 3 The final phrase, ‘hito wa iu nari’ is a fixed epithet derived from Kinsen ho¯shi’s celebrated verse in the Kokinshu¯ anthology (number 983). 4 Sano is in Ko¯zuke, in the Azumaji (Eastern) region. 5 This is a pun on the famous mediaeval no¯ play Hachinoki (The potted trees), which tells of the travels of Ho¯jo¯ Tokiyori (referred to below); the play includes the figure of Sano Genzaemon, which conjures up the Sano Zenzaemon of this incident. 6 There is a pun in the last line on tenmei, both the ‘will of heaven’ and the Tenmei era (1780–9), as Titsingh explains below. 7 There is probably also a reference to Yamanote, the upland region of Edo inhabited by the shogunal elite, see above, note 2. 8 Sawagu is to make a noise or cause a stir, although this is poetic licence as the verb should be in the causative, as sawagaseru; shinban ‘new guard’ is homophonous with ‘new version’ or fad.

Notes 251 9 More formally put, the right to a white kosode was restricted to those above the level of daiyu¯. 10 This extraordinary etymology must derive from several oral sources, though mostly it does stem ultimately from the ancient chronicles. The god Yamatotake-no-mikoto was married to Princess Tachibana; Ryo¯jin is the Dragon God of the Sea; Osui is unclear. The name Azuma includes the character denoting ‘wife’. Kishi-koku is unclear, although koku is country. Azuma is literally East; Tensho¯ Daijin is the sun goddess (otherwise known as Amaterasu); the dairi was said to be descended from this goddess, though not the Japanese people generally. 11 Ebisu means a barbarian; Oshu¯ and Dewa are across from Ezo (modern Hokkaido). Oshu¯ and Dewa constitute Mutsu. 12 The pontoon bridge at Sano was celebrated in many verses and paintings. 13 The dairi Go-Fukakusa (r. 1243–1304); in Edo times, mediaeval and later dairi were referred to as XX-no-in (not XX-tenno¯, as they are today). Shinno¯ means a prince. The Ho¯jo¯ were technically regents, not prime ministers, to the Kamakura shoguns; Fujiwara Yoritsugu and Munetaka shinno¯ ruled successively, 1244–66. 14 Ho¯jo¯ Tokiyori’s tour of inspection was a famous legend, thought perhaps not historical, best known from the no¯ play Hachinoki. 15 Nikaido¯ the Lay Monk of Shinano, better known as Nikaido¯ Do¯an, and usually given the toponymic of Dewa. 16 This is confused. Titsingh appears to have mistakenly read Zenzaemon as Shinzaemon (though he had it right above), and tried to force an interpretation. 17 This verse and the next, retain no vestiges of the waka (court verse) style, but are popular songs (kayo), and so able to be more directly abusive. The line A itashi mitashii mocks a love-type lyric, ‘oh the pain [of separation], would that we could meet!’; sanza is a typical tune-filler, hence ‘foll-de-roll’. The last line puns yoi kimi, ‘blissful feeling’ with its homophone ‘a good lord’. Once again, Titsingh gives Sano Zenzaemon as Shinza[emon]. 18 Tonomo is Tanuma Okitsugu. The last line puns yoi kimi, ‘blissful feeling’ with its homophone ‘a good lord’, as in the previous verse. 19 Each year the disposition of ‘long’ and ‘short’ months differed, and rhymes were devised to memorise their fall. 20 [Original note:] ‘Jeux d’esprit of this kind, which may be compared to our rebuses and charades, are very common in the poetry of the Chinese. It is obvious that it must be very easy to compose them in a language in which each syllable, taken separately, may have many different significations. The Japanese find the same facility in forming double entendres, by employing the pronunciations attached among them to the Chinese characters. The words of their native language also furnish occasion for numerous allusions, as may be seen in the preceding specimen.’ 21 Utai means simply ‘song’; however, this story was best known from the no¯ play, Hachinoki (The potted trees), to which the verse alludes. 22 Titsingh omits translation of the first half of the verse. It is indeed difficult to translate as the sounds serve often to refer to the no¯ play rather than to give clear sense. It opens with a quotation from the no¯, and the last phrase uses typical no¯ diction. 7 The character of the Japanese people, and a history of East–West relations 1 The first Dutch ship arrived (under the English pilot William Adams) in 1600. 1609 was the year that the VOC established a factory, on Hirado. ‘Nature’ is Titsingh’s term, but it is adapted here in the chapter title. 2 The East Indies. 3 These events occurred over a number of years, with the Iberians finally banned in 1636, together with forced apostasy (or torture to death, or both) of all Japanese Christians. 4 The Dutch were fighting for their independence, which was finally recognised by Spain

252 Notes

5

6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 25

at the Treaty of Münster in 1648. The shogunate was aware of this, but it was not the reason the Dutch retained trading rights. This famous contretemps occurred when Pieter Nuyts, governor of Taiwan, had insulted and imprisoned some Japanese sailors. The VOC was forced to surrender him to the shogunal authorities, who eventually pardoned him. The events unfolded over several years, culminating in 1632. Nuyts had been the first to map any part of Australia, hence the Nuyts Archipelago there, ‘discovered’ by him, accidentally, in 1627. Nengo¯ means ‘era’. The size of vessels was limited to 500 koku, making navigation on the high seas too dangerous. It is not clear what records Titsingh is referring to. The Dagregister was begun only in 1640. The Chinese warlord Coxinga (Guo Xingye) ousted the Dutch from Taiwan (Formosa) in 1661, but died the following year. Tokugawa Mitsukuni, daimyo of Mito (known as the Mito Minister, or Mito ko¯mon) and a great scholar. The prince of Hirado was Matsura Kiyoshi (Seizan), whom Titsingh knew (see Introduction), but evidence of his blood relationship to Mitsukuni is otherwise lacking. That is, the capturing of Taiwan. The Dutch threatened to pull out of Japan on more than one occasion, although they never initiated a formal severance of ties. This is, of course, an exaggeration. Sweet flag, or iris. The event is commonly called the Boy’s Festival. Japanese woodcuts had no connection with Jesuit metal-type printing, and indeed predate it by many centuries. Zenbei is Narabayashi Eizaemon, and Yasunojo¯ is Matsumoto Mototsuna. Titsingh is surely in error as Nishi Kichiro¯bei (also called Kichibei) entered the Tolken College (as a vice junior translator) only in 1788; Titsingh must mean Kichiro¯bei’s kinsman, Nishi Keiemon. See Introduction. All discussed in the Introduction. Pierre-François-Xavier Charlevoix, Histoire et description générale du Japon (Paris 1736). Matsudaira Tadasato; he appeared above as ‘chief inspector of the palace’; he was an extraordinary counsellor (waka-doshiyori), 1747–68 and had thus left office, due to illness, in the year Titsingh states. He died in 1770. See also ‘Secret Diary’ below. Both Tanumas have bad reputations, so this corrective view is useful. Okitsugu was not the shogun’s uncle, except in a metaphorical sense, as his minister and mentor. This is the third title ascribed to the ‘Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns’, in as many references. The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, 1780–4. Kuze Hirotami, governor of Nagasaki, 1775–84. See Introduction. There is a time leap here: Titsingh left Japan finally in 1784, but returned in Europe only in 1796. His ship model had been used to construct the Sangoku-maru, see, Introduction.

8 ‘Secret Diary’ of Isaac Titsingh 1 Translated by Cynthia Viallé, and reproduced here (with minor adaptations, notably turning the term ‘interpreter’ into ‘translator’; see also note 5 below), with permission, from DDR 9/237–48. The text can also be found in Leonard Blussé et al. (eds), The Deshima Diaries Marginalia 1740–1800, pp. 763–74.

Notes 253 2 For most of the eighteenth century the Dutch sent two ships, but this had now been curtailed. 3 The governor concerned is Kuze Hirotami. 4 The English prevented the ships from arriving, as Titsingh informed the authorities, who, however, were unsure whether to believe him, see DDR 9/30 and 33. 5 Here and throughout, Viallé’s original translation (see Introduction) gives ‘lord’, but the term is altered to ‘prince’ to harmonise with the body of the text. 6 In the Dairy for 3/12, Titsingh noted, ‘today I received a certain proposal from the Governor of Nagasaki’, DDR 9/35. 7 The taxatie handel, or the notional assessment of a ship’s cargo, on which gift levels would be based; this generally exceeded the real value. 8 In 1640 the Dutch had been forced to relocate from Hirado to Nagasaki, a process completed in 1641. 9 After much haggling, Homoed had reached this agreement in summer 1752 (not 1751), see, DDR 7/236. The lowering occurred under Jan Crans, and in return it was proposed that the court trip take place only every other year (although this did not happen), see, DDR 8/29. 1 picul = 1 Japanese kin, or 60.5 kg. 10 In 1765 and 1767 the Company sent only one ship (the Burgh and the Vreedenhoff), although in 1766 it sent two, as expected (the Burgh and the Landskroon). 11 North-east coast of India. 12 10 catties = 1 picul; ducatons (or ducatoons) are normally minted silver coins, but here mean bulk silver (which will be minted into coin in Japan). 13 Not mentioned in DDR, see 9/8. 14 On 17/12, Titsingh noted, ‘today I negotiated on the afore-mentioned matter’, see DDR 9/35. The shogunal exchequer is the kanjo¯ bugyo¯-sho, called by the Dutch the rekenkamer. 15 The machi-toshiyori, called by the Dutch the stadsburgermeester. 16 This was the period of the terrible Tenmei famines. 17 Tokugawa lemitsu had prohibited the making of ocean-going ships. 18 This is also mentioned in DDR 9/35. Cornelius van Heijligendorp, chief factor of the VOC station in Canton. 19 Tanumu Okitsugu, not Ieharu’s uncle, but his minister and close confident. 20 Ieharu’s adoptive son Ienari was married to Shige hime (also called Tada hime), daughter of Shimazu Shigehide, prince of Satsuma; he became shogun in 1787. 21 In the Diary, Titsingh states, ‘the governor has made new proposals, which I shall communicate by private letter’, DDR 9/36. 22 Rds = rixdollars, the VOC’s accounting unit, equal to the tael. 23 Amboina (modern Ambon, in Indonesia), was captured by the Dutch from the Portuguese in 1605; they expelled the English in 1623, who, however, would recapture the island in 1796. It exported cloves and nutmeg. 24 Meaning unclear. 25 See also DDR 9/36. 26 The Saikaido¯, or overland highway from Nagasaki to Shimonoseki, known to the Dutch as the Korte landweg. 27 In the Diary, Titsingh states only that the Ryukyus have not been able to export rice to Japan, see DDR 9/36. 28 The daimyo of Chikuzen (properly called Fukuoka) was Kuroda Naritaka; one of the wealthiest daimyo in the Nagasaki region, and intermittently responsible for policing the harbour on behalf of the shognuate. 29 In the Diary for this date Titsingh noted, ‘we were struck by a terrible typhoon’, see DDR 9/32. 30 Tsuge Masakore, had come to the end of his tenure (his post passed to Tsuchiya Morinao), and he returned to Edo to take up a new position of magistrate of works (sakuji-bugyo¯) – the normal successor-post to the governorship of Nagasaki.

254 Notes 31 Also recorded in DDR 9/38. 32 In the Diary, Titsingh stated, ‘Around 9am I went to Government House, where my opinion was asked about why the ships have stayed away this year . . . I shall communicate this in the Secret Diary’, DDR 9/39. 33 In 1720, under Johannes Aouwer, the Commerrust and the Noordwaddingsveen arrived on the 24th, the latest dates ever; thereafter, arrivals were still be possible, but ships could barely be unloaded, reloaded and dispatched again before the winds turned, see DDR 4/168. 34 This refers to Tsuchiya Morinao. 35 Titsingh gives the text in DDR 9/39–40. 36 This search, which was regarded as demeaning, had been introduced in 1773; Titsingh’s letter had noted, ‘in all places in the world where it sends its ships, the persons who represent its authority are treated with the highest regard, while the contrary is the case in Japan’, see DDR 9/40. 37 What Titsingh omits is that one ship, the Trompenburg finally did arrive on 26th, and so, as the Diary puts it, ‘it seems all fear has disappeared’, ibid., loc cit. 38 The go-between was Namura Naosaburo¯, see Introduction. None of this appears in DDR. The Mughal emperor was Shah Alam II. These were indeed ‘stories’, see note below. 39 Since Titsingh has now been without news for over a year, his remarks are out of date. In 1781, the British had seized the Dutch factory at Nagapattinam (also Nagapatnam), in south-east India, which the VOC had held since 1648, and the following year had defeated Haider (or Hyder) Ali, de facto ruler of the state of Mysore. Haider Ali had then died, but his son, Tipu Sahib, continued rearguard action, until making peace with the British in 1784. Reinier van Vlissingen was Dutch governor of the Coromandel coast (which included Nagapattinam) from 1773, until ousted by the British in 1780. He is not to be confused with Johannes van Vlissingen, a minor VOC employee then on Dejima. 40 See also DDR 9/40. Since 1780, the governor-general of the Indies was Willem Alting. 41 An Inspector is a metsuke, known to the Dutch as a dwarksijker. 42 The intermediary of the town council is the nenban tsu¯ji, known to the Dutch as the rapporteur burgemeesters. Two were chosen annually, one from the senior- and one from the junior translators. 43 The text is included in DDR 9/41. 44 The ‘board of translators’ is the collectivity of translators in service in any one year. This also appears in DDR 9/41. 45 Also mentioned in DDR, ibid., loc. cit. 46 The list of prices is omitted. Cloth and crown rash are smooth English cloths of silk, wool or a blend of both (ras in Dutch, rasha in Japanese); perpetuana is a coarse, white English woollen cloth; tafeeachelas is striped or checked cloth, usually cotton; motherof-clove is the ripe clove fruit; putchuk is the spice custus, commonly known in English as costmary; Surat catechu is betel nut from Surat (the Mughal port in Gujarat); mumia is Egyptian mummy (believed to have medical uses). 47 Not included in the Diary. 48 Noted in DDR 9/40–41. 49 These discussions do not appear in DDR. The confidant is still Namura Naosaburo¯. Agio is the percentage charge made to change paper currency into cash, or any less valuable currency into a more valuable one; thus, excess value of one currency over another. By extension, currency charges generally. 50 The ‘Nagasaki recognition’ is the hassaku, see below, note 72. 51 The Diary states, ‘the two interpreters [translators] . . . made an offer of a small increase in agio’, see DDR 9/42. 52 Not included in the Diary. 53 Hisamatsu Han’emon is acting junior intermediary; Motojiro¯ the senior, and as seen below, Hori Monju¯ro¯, the official junior intermediary. Why Han’emon was acting in

Notes 255

54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72

73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83

this interim manner is unsure; he was promoted to commissioner of the Nagasaki Office in 1785. These discussions are not in the Diary. Also stated in DDR 9/42. This crucial matter does not appear in the Diary. These discussions do not appear in the Diary. The text of the proposal appears in the Diary under 27 September, see DDR 9/44. Unidentified; probably the name should be Sugiura Kozaemon. This does not appear in the Diary. In 1719, during the tenure of Joan Aouwer, all three scheduled ships were wrecked, see ibid., 4/155–57. For the new governor, see above, note 30. Included in DDR 9/44. There was an on-going dispute about costs charged by Japanese carpenters to repair damaged Company junks, which appears in the Diary, although the rest of the exchange does not, see ibid., loc. cit. This is an odd statement as no such prohibition is known. DDR has Tsuchiya Morinao arrive the day before, see ibid., loc. cit. As Tsuchiya Moronao has arrived, Kuze Hirotami is leaving for Edo; they will swap locations the following autumn. This appears in DDR, loc. cit. Titsingh means the trading year (summer to summer) not calendar year: the court trip of spring 1783 was abandoned because no ships arrived in 1782. Nagasaki regents run the Nagasaki branch of the shogunal trading institution (ito wappu). DDR also states that Kuze Hirotami and Tsuchiya Morinao announced they would visit Dejima and the Trompenburg on the 3rd. This refers to Ishiya Kiyomasu, Nagasaki governor 1762–70. DDR states this was a festival day and no work was undertaken in town, see, DDR 9/45. See ibid., loc cit. Not stated in DDR. The hassaku, called in Dutch ‘fassak’, or the ‘Nagasaki recognitie’ (Nagasaki recognition) was a ritualised offering of presents to the Nagasaki governors by the people and officials of the city, which included the VOC. The event traditionally took place on the 1st of the 8th month, which in 1783 was 28 August; however, Titsingh implies the presentations occurred on 10th October, which was 15 of the 9th month in Japan. The reason for the discrepancy is unclear. Not noted in DDR. The intendant of finances (kanjo¯-bugyo¯) was in Edo. Kuze Hirotami is now leaving Nagasaki to take to over that post from Yamauchi Sadasaka; he would continue in office until 1797. Also noted in DDR 9/45. Mentioned, briefly, in DDR, ibid., loc. cit. Not mentioned in DDR. The Trompenberg has arrived in late August. The Trompenburg is, of course a three-masted East Indiaman; Titsingh interprets the request for a model as meaning a coastal vessel, or lighter. Hori Monju¯ro¯ was made junior translator and junior intermediary that year, and promoted to senior in 1788. Not in DDR. They are surprised at Titsingh’s secret knowledge. The Dutch had (and still have) the habit of naming barns and warehouses; the Lelie (‘lily’) and the Doorn (‘thorn’) were long-standing structures on Dejima, though often repaired and rebuilt. Not mentioned in DDR. The Trompenberg will head into the Nagasaki roadstead and continue to load there; Titsingh will remain on shore, and join it later by small boat. Titsingh joined the Trompenberg on the 26th, and it sailed off on 6 November, see DDR 9/47.

256 Notes 9 Titsingh’s ‘Philosophical Discourse’ 1 The link to Martinet has been established by Frank Lequin, Isaac Titsingh, pp. 104–08. See Introduction for further details. The Dutch original can be found in PC Appendix 2.1. 2 Translated for this edition from the text in PC Appendix 1.15, by David McKay. 3 This original query is lost. 4 Titsingh suddenly uses Opperweesen (Supreme Being) rather than Eerste Weesen (First Being). 5 Eerste Weesen can mean not only ‘First Being’ but also ‘Primal Essence’, and Titsingh conflates the two; the Primal Essence to which the soul is being said to return is the First Being. He also seems to see the First Principle (Eerste Begindse) as identical to the First Being. 6 This is unclear. Titsingh would appear to be using the famous dating system of James Ussher, archbishop of Armagh, in his Annals of the World (1658), which became generally accepted in the early eighteenth century. Ussher dated the beginning of the world of 4004 BC, and placed all biblical dates in precise years. Titsingh thus refers to 1021 BC, although Ussher sets no specific event in that year – the nearest significant one was the accession of Solomon in 1015 BC. 7 This forceful injunction stands out in the light of Titisngh’s writing of seppuku. 8 Uranus, Neptune and Pluto were not yet discovered. 9 Seemingly a corruption of the posthumous name is Tokugawa Iemitsu, Taiyu¯-in. I am grateful to Matthew McKelway for this suggestion. 10 Titsingh puts the three first Tokugawa shoguns in the wrong order: it should be Ieyasu, Hidetada then Iemitsu. Ieyasu has appeared throughout as the Gongen (sama = lord), and Hidetada is identified here by his posthumous name, Taitoku-in; however, he was never considered a gongen, or ‘kongen’ (an avatar). Titsingh also gives heterodox spellings for all the Western writers (here corrected); the only one not perhaps familiar today is Caspar Freidrich Wolff whose Theoria generationis (theory of evolution) of 1761 was highly influential. Interestingly, Locke was to be known in Japan, though perhaps not very widely or deeply, when Van Reede commissioned a set of lacquer plaques of portraits of Eurpean worthies, including Locke, to send to his father in 1793, see, Oliver Impey, Japanese Export Lacquer, p. 133. 11 Boskoppen is the plural of boskop, and presumably refers to a kind of fish, but I have been unable to trace it. 12 It is unsure what edition of what book Titsingh refers to. Certainly, the information does not appear in Linnaeus’s major works, Oeconomia naturae (1749) or Philosophia botanica (1751). 13 Presumably meaning Abhandlung der Königlichen Akademie des Wisschenschaften, but the collection for 1752 has no such matter.

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Index

Note: Bold entries refer to illustrations. Abel Rémusat, see Rémusat actors/theatre 105, 121–22, 239 Ainu 68 Ako¯ Incident 91–92 Alting, Willem 13, 14, 185 Arai Hakuseki (Chikugo-no-kami) 65–66, 67, 94; Ezo-ki 68; Ezo-shi 68; Ho¯ka shiryaku (Honcho¯ ho¯ka tsu¯yo¯ jiryaku) 65–66, 72, 94 Armenault, Daniel 16, 31, 39 Baba Bunko¯ 67, 130; Kindai ko¯jitsu genpiroku 66–67, 99 Banks, Sir Joseph 61, 69 Beckstein, Ernest van 11, 12 Blomhoff, Jan Cock 32 Bram, Andreas van 57–60, 61 British Museum 61, 69 Busk, Mary 73; Manners and Customs of the Japanese 73 Chambers, Sir Robert 56 Chassé, Petrus 17 China/Chinese 6, 10, 17, 49 Crans, Jan 12, 52 Domberg, Albert 1, 12, 20, 21 Duurkoop, Hendrik (the elder) 5, 9, 39, 52 Duurkoop, Hendrik (the younger) 52 Endo¯ Genkan 68; Yomeiri cho¯ho¯-ki 68 England 5–6, 29, 40; see also Great Britain Feith, Arend 9, 12, 16, 39, 53 Freemasonry 5, 58 Go-momozono (Hidehito) 10

Goto¯ So¯ zaemon 4, 12, 29–31, 36, 207 Great Britain 12, 71; war with United Provinces (4th Anglo-Dutch War) 14, 17, 18, 176 Guignes, Chrétien-Louis, Joseph de 58–60, 62, 69 Hakene (barrier) 125–26 Hastings, Warren 56–57 Hayashi Gaho¯ 65, 72; Nihon o¯dai ichiran 65, 81 Hayashi Razan (Daigaku-on-kami) 65, 90 Hayashi Shihei 23 Heister, Lorenz 26 Hiraga Gennai 11–12, 25, 52, 243 Ho¯jo¯ Tokiyori 166–68 homosexuality 46, 53 Hori Gizaburo¯ 13, 20, 21, 23, 38 Hori Monju¯ro¯ 21, 31, 36, 38, 52, 66, 174, 205 hot-air balloon 53 India 13, 17, 55–57, 169, 194, 201; embassy to China 57–58; see also England Indonesia/Indonesians 6–7, 9, 15 Jones, Sir William 56 Kabuki see actors Kaempfer, Engelbert 14, 40, 70, 72, 73 Katsuragawa Hoshu¯ 36, 38, 52, 61, 65, 175 Katsushika Hokusai 7 Kimura Kenkado¯ 52 Klaproth, Heinrich Julius von 3, 69, 70–73 Ko¯kaku (tenno¯ ) 72 Korea 91

264 Index Kutsuki Masatsuna (of Fukuchiyama/ Tanba) 23, 32–38, 52, 53, 64–65, 69, 207; Shinsen zenpu 67–68 Kuze Hirotami (Tango-no-kami) 10, 13, 15–16, 17, 19, 21, 36, 41, 46, 47, 51, 176, 185

Rémusat, Jean-Pierre-Abel 3, 44, 62, 68, 69, 70–71–73 Rhijne, Willem ten 26 Ricard, Jean-Baptist 46, 52–53 Romberg, Caspar 16, 17, 19, 26, 40, 48–51, 53, 55

Langlès, Louis-Matthieu 62, 69–70 Linnaeus, Carl 2, 216

Sangoku-maru (ship) 48–51 Satake Yoshiatsu (Shozan, of Akita) 52, 227 Schartow, Johan 11, 13, 17 Shiba Ko¯ kan 29, 30, Shige Setsuemon 21, 25, 38 Shimazu Shigehide (of Satsuma) 11–12, 14, 23, 25, 30–31, 36, 51, 52, 53–54, 84, 162, 174, 190 Shoberl, Frederick 3, 71, 73, 74 Siebold, Philip Franz von 73 slaves/slavery 15 Soga brothers 136–37 static-electricity generator 11, 16, 29 Sugita Genpaku 33 Sweden 2, 14, 55, 60, 187

Maeno Ryo¯ taku 33 Malte-Brun, Conrad de 70, 71 maps 72 Marsden, William 61, 69, 71 Martinet, Johannes 34–36, 207 Matsudaira Sadanobu 51, 53, 55 Matsura Kiyoshi (Seizan, of Hirado) 38–40, 41–42, 52, 226, 252 Miura Baien 26 Mizuno Tadamichi 48 model ships 47–48, 204 Morishima Chu¯ryo¯ 12, 25, 29, 31, 33, 36, 38, 46, 53 Motoki Einoshin (Ryo¯ ei) 21, 22, 23, 33, 40, 53 Nakagawa Jun’an 175 Namura Genjiro¯ 20, Namura Katsuemon 21, 23, 194 Namura Motojiro¯ 21, 52, 174, 194, 196–97, 202 Namura Naosaburo¯ 16, 20, 21, 185 Narabayashi Eizaemon 20, 21, 71 Natabayashi Ju¯bei 21, 23, 25, 29, 49, 53, 174, 186, 189 Nepveu, Auguste-Nicolas (publishers) 69–70, 72 Nikko¯ (temple) 81, 83, 112 Nishi Keiemon 13, 20, 21, 23, 38, 252 numismatics 33–36, 52, 67 Oberkampf, Hendrik 13, 16, 17, 20 Ogino Gengai (Teki) 41–44 ornithology 11 O¯ tsuki Gentaku 23, 33, 52 La Pérouse, Jean-François Galoupe 48–49, 50 Portugal 6, 172–73 prostitution 6, 44–45, 123–24, 226 Reede tot de Parkeler, Johan, van 19, 21, 23, 29, 33, 52

Tachibana Nankei 26, 64 Takeda O¯ mi (automaton maker) 104, 239 Tales of Ise (Ise monogatari) 113 Tanuma Okitomo (Yamashiro-no-kami) 16, 49–50, 175; assassination of 51, 148–150, 163–66, 168–70, 176 Tanuma Okitsugu (Tonomo-no-kami) 16, 28, 31, 47, 49–50, 53, 148–50, 175, 190 Tensho¯ Daijin (Amaterasu Omikami) 157, 165 Thunberg, Carl Peter 2, 7, 9, 11, 14, 21, 25, 38, 39, 41–42, 44, 45, 53, 61, 62, 63, 67, 69, 70, 72, 73 Titsingh, Isaac: Annales des sempereurs du Japon 65; Bezonderheden over Japan 71; children 4; heavy drinking 56; Illustrations of Japan 4, 71, 73, 171; medicine 25–6, 38; Mémoires et anecdotes sur la dynastie régnante des djogouns 3, 70; publications 2, 4; rivalry with Thunberg 2, 44, 61, 63, 67; Titsingh, William 60, 62, 69–70 Toda Tamitake 17, 19, 20 Tokugawa Hidetada 65, 77, 82–85, 101, 157 Tokugawa Ieharu 10, 16, 51, 67, 111, 138, 151–52, 156, 157 Tokugawa Iemitsu 46, 47, 67, 85, 101, 105–6, 109, 137, 157, 213, 214

Index 265 Tokugawa Iemoto 39, 151 Tokugawa Ienari (Hitotsubashi Toyochiyo) 11, 51, 152, 157 Tokugawa Ienobu 65, 68, 89, 97, 157 Tokugawa Ieshige 67, 105–9, 129–30, 134, 138, 157 Tokugawa Ietsugu 66, 97–98, 108, 157 Tokugawa Ietsuna 47, 65, 85, 157 Tokugawa Ieyasu (the Gongen) 46–47, 77, 80–81, 82–84, 94, 95, 99–100, 109, 110, 127, 157, 214 Tokugawa Tsunayoshi 68, 72, 89–90, 94–97, 107, 157 Tokugawa Yoshimune 21, 66–67, 99–102, 106–7, 109, 110–13, 122, 127–30, 135, 152, 156, 157, 189 Toyotomi Hideyoshi (the Taiko¯ ) 77, 78–80, 82, 84, 109, 139, 213, 214 Translators 20–23, 30, 46

Tsuchiya Masanobu 19 Tsuchiya Morinao 17, 201 Tsuge Masakore (Nagato-no-kami) 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 51, 192 Ukine 44–45 Ulps, Hendrik 48 Volney, Comte de (François de Chasseboeuf) 69 William V of Orange (William I of the United Netherlands) 58, 60, 71 Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu (Dewa–no-kami) 90, 93, 95–97 Yoshio Ko¯ saku 21, 23, 25–29, 33, 38, 40, 46, 48, 53, 55, 64, 71, 174, 189, 190, 194–97, 199, 206

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