A History of the Japanese People Part 77

THE SEVENTH SHOGUN, IETSUGU

The seventh Tokugawa shogun, Ietsugu, son of his predecessor, Ien.o.bu, was born in 1709, succeeded to the shogunate in April, 1713, and died in 1716. His father, Ien.o.bu, died on the 13th of November, 1712, so that there was an interval of five months between the demise of the sixth shogun and the accession of the seventh. Of course, a child of four years who held the office of shogun for the brief period of three years could not take any part in the administration or have any voice in the appointment or dismissal of officials. Thus, Arai Hakuseki's tenure of office depended upon his relations with the other ministers, and as all of these did not approve his drastic reforms, he was obliged to retire, but Manabe Norifusa remained in office.

ENGRAVING: TOKUGAWA YOSHIMUNE

THE EIGHTH SHOGUN, YOSHIMUNE

By the death of Ietsugu, in 1716, the Hidetada line of the Tokugawa family became extinct, and a successor to the shogunate had to be sought from the Tokugawa of Kii province in the person of Yoshimune, grandson of Yorin.o.bu and great-grandson of Ieyasu. Born in 1677, Yoshimune, the eighth Tokugawa shogun, succeeded to office in 1716, at the age of thirty-nine. The son of a concubine, he had been obliged to subsist on the proceeds of a very small estate, and he therefore well understood the uses of economy and the condition of the people. His habits were simple and plain, and he attached as much importance as Ieyasu himself had done to military arts and literary pursuits. It had become a custom on the occasion of each shogun's succession to issue a decree confirming, expanding, or altering the systems of the previous potentate. Yoshimune's first decree placed special emphasis on the necessity of diligence in the discharge of administrative functions and the eschewing of extravagance. Always he made it his unflagging aim to restore the martial spirit which had begun to fade from the samurai's bosom, and in the forefront of important reforms he placed frugality. The Bakufu had fallen into the habit of modelling their systems and their procedure after Kyoto examples. In fact, they aimed at converting Yedo into a replica of the Imperial capital. This, Yoshimune recognized as disadvantageous to the Bakufu themselves and an obstacle to the resuscitation of bushido. Therefore, he set himself to restore all the manners and customs of former days, and it became his habit to preface decrees and ordinances with the phrase "In pursuance of the methods, fixed by Gongen" (Ieyasu). His idea was that only the decadence of bushido could result from imitating the habits of the Imperial Court, and as Manabe Norifusa did not endorse that view with sufficient zeal, the shogun relieved him of his office of minister of the Treasury.

One of Yoshimune's measures was to remodel the female department of the palace on the lines of simplicity and economy. All the ladies-in-waiting were required to furnish a written oath against extravagance and irregular conduct of every kind, and in the sixth year after his accession the shogun ordered that a list should be furnished setting forth the names and ages of such of these ladies as were, conspicuously beautiful. Fifty were deemed worthy of inscription, and quite a tremor of joyful excitement was caused, the measure being regarded as prefacing the shogun's choice of consorts.

But Yoshimune's purpose was very different. He discharged all these fair-faced ladies and kept only the ill-favoured ones, his a.s.signed reason being that as ugly females find a difficulty in getting husbands, it would be only charitable to retain their services.

He revived the sport of hawking, after the manner of Ieyasu, for he counted it particularly suitable to soldiers; and he pursued the pastime so ardently that men gave him the name of the Taka-shogun (Falcon shogun). He also inaugurated a new game called uma-gari (horse-hunting); and it is on record that he required the samurai to practise swimming in the sea. By way of giving point to his ordinances inculcating frugality, he himself made a habit of wearing cotton garments in winter and hempen in summer--a custom habitually practised by the lower orders only. The very detailed nature of his economical measures is ill.u.s.trated by an incident which has independent interest. Observing that the fences erected on the scarp of Yedo Castle were virtually useless for purposes of defence and very costly to keep in repair, he caused them all to be pulled down and replaced by pine trees. This happened in 1721, and the result was that the battlements of this great castle were soon overhung by n.o.ble trees, which softened and beautified the military aspect of the colossal fortress. To the same shogun Yedo owes the cherry and plum groves of Asuka-yama, of the Sumida-gawa, and of Koganei. The saplings of these trees were taken from the f.u.kiage park, which remains to-day one of the most attractive landscape gardens in the world.

ENGRAVING: VARIOUS OCCUPATIONS OF WOMEN, KYOHO ERA

OTHER MEASURES

For the purpose of acquiring accurate information about the condition of the people, Yoshimune appointed officials who went by the name of niwa-ban (garden watchmen). They moved about among the lower orders and reported everything const.i.tuting knowledge useful for administrative purposes. Moreover, to facilitate the ends of justice, the shogun revived the ancient device of pet.i.tion-boxes (meyasu-bako), which were suspended in front of the courthouse in order that men might lodge there a written statement of all complaints. It was by Yoshimune, also, that the celebrated Ooka Tadasuke, the "Solomon of j.a.pan," was invited from Yamada and appointed chief justice in Yedo. The judgments delivered by him in that capacity will be famous as long as j.a.pan exists. It has to be noted, however, that the progressive spirit awakened by Yoshimune's administration was not without untoward results. Extremists fell into the error of believing that everything pertaining to the canons of the immediate past must be abandoned, and they carried this conception into the realm of foreign trade, so that the restrictions imposed in the Shotoku era (1711-1715) were neglected. It became necessary to issue a special decree ordering the enforcement of these regulations, although, as will presently be seen, Yoshimune's disposition towards the civilization of the Occident was essentially liberal.

CODES OF LAW

By this time the miscarriages of justice liable to occur when the law is administered with regard to precedent only or mainly, began to be plainly observable, and the shogun, appreciating the necessity for written codes, appointed a commission to collect and collate the laws in operation from ancient times; to embody them in codes, and to ill.u.s.trate them by precedents. Matsudaira Norimura, one of the ministers of State, was appointed chief commissioner, and there resulted, after four years of labour, the first genuine j.a.panese code (Oshioki Ojomoku). This body of laws was subsequently revised by Matsudaira Sadan.o.bu, and under the name of Osadame Hyakkajo ("Hundred Articles of Law"), it remained long in practice.

LITERATURE

Yoshimune was not behind any of his ancestors in appreciation of learning. In 1721, when his administrative reforms were still in their infancy, he invited to Yedo Kinos.h.i.ta Torasuke (son of the celebrated Kinos.h.i.ta Junan), Muro Nawokiyo, and other eminent men of letters, and appointed them to give periodical lectures. Nawokiyo was named "adviser to the shogun," who consulted him about administrative affairs, just as Arai Hakuseki had been consulted by Ien.o.bu. In fact, it was by the advice of Arai Hakuseki that Nawokiyo (whose literary name was Kyuso), entered the service of Yoshimune. Contemporaneous with these litterateurs was the renowned Ogyu Sorai, whose profound knowledge of finance and of administrative affairs in general made him of great value to the Bakufu. He compiled a book called Seidan (Talks on Government) which, immediately became a cla.s.sic. Special favour was shown to the renowned Confucianist, Hayashi n.o.buatsu. He and his son were asked to deliver regular lectures at the Shohei College, and these lectures were the occasion of a most important innovation, namely, the admission of all cla.s.ses of people, whereas previously the audience at such discourses had been strictly limited to military men.

It is to be observed that in the days of Yoshimune's shogunate the philosophy of Chutsz (Shu-shi) was preferred to all others. It received the official imprimatur, the philosophy of w.a.n.g Yang-ming (O Yo-mei) being set aside. One consequence of this selection was that the Hayashi family came to be regarded as the sole depositories of true Confucianism. Yoshimune himself, however, was not disposed to set any dogmatic limits to the usefulness of men of learning. He a.s.sumed an absolutely impartial att.i.tude towards all schools; adopting the good wherever it was found, and employing talent to whatever school it belonged. Thus when Kwanno Chqkuyo established a place of education in Yedo, and Nakai Seishi did the same in Osaka, liberal grants of land were made by the Bakufu to both men. Another step taken by the shogun was to inst.i.tute a search for old books throughout the country, and to collect ma.n.u.scripts which had been kept in various families for generations. By causing these to be copied or printed, many works which would otherwise have been destroyed or forgotten were preserved.

It is notable that all this admirable industry had one untoward result: j.a.panese literature came into vogue in the Imperial capital, and was accompanied by the development of a theory that loyalty to the sovereign was inconsistent with the administration of the Bakufu.

The far-reaching consequences of this conception will be dealt with in a later chapter. Here, it is sufficient to say that one of the greatest and most truly patriotic of the Tokugawa shoguns himself unwittingly sowed the seeds of disaffection destined to prove fatal to his own family.

ADOPTION OF WESTERN LEARNING

Yoshimune was fond of astronomy. He erected a telescope in the observatory at Kanda, a sun-dial in the palace park, and a rain-gauge at the same place. By his orders a mathematician named Nakane Genkei translated the Gregorian calendar into j.a.panese, and Yoshimune, convinced of the superior accuracy of the foreign system, would have subst.i.tuted it for the Chinese then used in j.a.pan, had not his purpose excited such opposition that he judged it prudent to desist.

It was at this time that the well-informed Nishikawa Masayasu and Shibukawa Noriyasu were appointed Government astronomers.

Previously the only sources of information about foreign affairs had been the masters of the Dutch ships, the Dutch merchants, and the j.a.panese interpreters at Nagasaki. The importation of books from the Occident having been strictly forbidden by the third shogun, Iemitsu, Yoshimune appreciated the disadvantage of such a restriction, and being convinced of the benefits to be derived from the study of foreign science and art, he rescinded the veto except in the case of books relating to Christianity. Thus, for the first time, j.a.panese students were brought into direct contact with the products of Western intelligence. In 1744, Aoki Konyo received official orders to proceed to Nagasaki for the purpose of seeking instruction in Dutch from Dutch teachers. Shibukawa and Aoki are regarded as the pioneers of Occidental learning in j.a.pan, and, in the year 1907, posthumous honours were conferred on them by the reigning Emperor of their country.

THE SANKIN KOTAI

It has already been stated that the financial embarra.s.sment of the Bakufu in Yoshimune's time was as serious as it had been in his predecessor's days. Moreover, in 1718, the country was swept by a terrible tornado, and in 1720 and 1721, conflagrations reduced large sections of Yedo to ashes. Funds to succour the distressed people being imperatively needed, the shogun called upon all the feudatories to subscribe one hundred koku of rice for every ten thousand koku of their estates. By way of compensation for this levy he reduced to half a year the time that each feudal chief had to reside in Yedo.

This meant, of course, a substantial lessening of the great expenses entailed upon the feudatories by the sankin kotai system, and the relief thus afforded proved most welcome to the daimyo and the shomyo alike. Yoshimune intended to extend this indulgence ultimately by releasing the barons from the necessity of coming to Yedo more than once in from three to five years, and, in return, he contemplated a corresponding increase of the special levy of rice. But his ministers opposed the project on the ground that it would dangerously loosen the ties between the feudatories and the Bakufu, and inasmuch as events proved that this result threatened to accrue from even the moderate indulgence granted by the shogun, not only was no extension made but also, in 1731, the system of sankin kotai was restored to its original form. The experiment, indeed proved far from satisfactory. The feudatories did not confine themselves to a.s.sertions of independence; they also followed the example of the Bakufu by remitting some of the duties devolving on their retainers and requiring the latter to show their grat.i.tude for the remissions by monetary payments. Nominally, these payments took the form of loans, but in reality the amount was deducted from the salaries of va.s.sals. This pernicious habit remained in vogue among a section of the feudatories, even after the sankin kotai had been restored to its original form.

OFFICIAL SALARIES

From ancient times it had been the habit of the Bakufu to a.s.sign important offices to men who were in enjoyment of large hereditary incomes. This was mainly for financial reasons. Salaries were paid in the form of additions to the hereditary estates in other words, the emoluments of office became permanent, and the charge upon the Bakufu being correspondingly increased, it was obviously expedient to fill high administrative posts with men already in possession of ample incomes. This system was radically changed by Yoshimune. He enacted that a clear distinction should be made between temporary salary and hereditary income. Thenceforth, salary was to be received only during the tenure of office and was to cease on laying down official functions. This reform had the effect not only of lightening the burden upon the Bakufu income, but also of opening high offices to able men without regard to their private fortunes.

ENGRAVING: VARIOUS OCCUPATIONS OF WOMEN, KYOHO EHA

THE CURRENCY

From the first day of a.s.suming administrative power, Yoshimune gave earnest thought to reform of the currency. His ambition was to restore the gold and silver coins to the quality and sizes existing in the Keicho era. This he effected, though not on a sufficiently large scale. Each of the new coins was equal in intrinsic value to two of the corresponding kenji coins, and the circulation of the latter was suspended, the new coins being called Kyoho-kin after the year-name of the era (1716-1735) when they made their appearance. It was a thoroughly wholesome measure, but the quality of the precious metals available did not suffice. Thus, whereas the gold coins struck during ten years of the Kyoho era totalled only 8,290,000 ryo, a census taken in 1732 showed a total population of 26,921,816.

Therefore, the old coins could not be wholly withdrawn from circulation, and people developed a tendency to h.o.a.rd the new and more valuable tokens.

Other untoward effects also were produced. The shogun paid much attention to promoting agriculture and encouraging land reclamation, so that the yield of rice increased appreciably. But this proved by no means an unmixed blessing. Side by side with an increase in the quant.i.ty of rice appearing in the market, the operation of the new currency tended to depreciate prices, until a measure of grain which could not have been bought at one time for less than two ryo became purchasable for one. In fact, the records show that a producer considered himself fortunate if he obtained half a ryo of gold for a koku of rice. This meant an almost intolerable state of affairs for the samurai who received his salary in grain and for the petty farmer. Thus, a man whose income was three rations of rice annually, and who consequently had to live on 5.4 koku for a whole year, found that when he set aside from three to four koku for food, there remained little more than one ryo of a.s.sets to pay for salt, fuel, clothes, and all the other necessaries of life.

So acute was the suffering of the samurai that a rice-exchange was established at Dojima, in Osaka, for the purpose of imparting some measure of stability to the price of the cereal. Just at this time (1732), the central and western provinces were visited by a famine which caused seventeen thousand deaths and reduced mult.i.tudes to the verge of starvation. The Bakufu rendered aid on a munificent scale, but the price of rice naturally appreciated, and although this brought relief to the military cla.s.s, it was misconstrued by the lower orders as a result of speculation on 'Change. Riots resulted, and rice-merchants fearing to make purchases, the market price of the cereal fell again, so that farmers and samurai alike were plunged into their old difficulties.

Ultimately, in 1735, the Bakufu inaugurated a system of officially fixed prices (osadame-soba), according to which 1.4 koku of rice had to be exchanged for one ryo of gold in Yedo, the Osaka rate being fixed at forty-two momme of silver for the same quant.i.ty of the cereal. Anyone violating this rule was fined ten momme of silver for each koku of rice purchased or sold by him. It is related that the osadame-soba was operative in name only, and that the merchants secretly dealt in the cereal at much lower prices than those officially fixed. The Yedo financiers now concluded that the quant.i.ty of currency in circulation was insufficient and its quality too good.

Accordingly, the gold and silver coins were once more reminted, smaller and less pure tokens being issued under the name of bunji-kin with reference to the Genbun era (1736-1740) of their issue. Thus, the reform of the currency, achieved with so much difficulty in the early years of Yoshimune's administration, had to be abandoned, and things reverted to their old plight.

If this difficulty operated so acutely under a ruler of Yoshimune's talent, the confusion and disorder experienced when he withdrew his able hand from the helm of State may be imagined. The feudatories were constantly distressed to find funds for supporting their Yedo mansions, as well as for carrying out the public works imposed on them from time to time, and for providing the costly presents which had become a recognized feature of ordinary and extraordinary intercourse. As an example of the luxury of the age, it may be mentioned that when the fifth shogun visited the Kaga baron, the latter had to find a sum of a million ryo to cover the expenses incidental to receiving such a guest. In these circ.u.mstances, there arose among the feudatories a habit of levying monetary contributions from wealthy persons in their fiefs, the accommodation thus afforded being repaid by permission to carry swords or by promotion in rank.

The poorer cla.s.ses of samurai being increasingly distressed, they, too, borrowed money at high rates of interest from merchants and wealthy farmers, which loans they were generally unable to repay.

Ultimately, the Bakufu solved the situation partially by decreeing that no lawsuit for the recovery of borrowed money should be entertained--a reversion to the tokusei system of the Ashikaga shoguns.

Of course, credit was completely undermined by the issue of this decree. It is strange that such conditions should have existed under such a ruler as Yoshimune. But even his strenuous influence did not suffice to stem the current of the time. The mercantile instinct pervaded all the transactions of every-day life. If a man desired to adopt a son, he attached much less importance to the latter's social status or personality than to the dimensions of his fortune, and thus it came about that the family names of petty feudatories were freely bought and sold. Yoshimune strictly interdicted this practice, but his veto had no efficiency; wealthy farmers or merchants freely purchased their way into t.i.tled families. From this abuse to extortion of money by threats the interval was not long, and the outcome, where farmers were victims, took the form of agrarian riots.

It was to the merchants, who stood between the farmers and the samurai, that fortune offered conspicuously favourable opportunities in these circ.u.mstances. The tradesmen of the era became the centre of extravagance and luxury, so that in a certain sense the history of the Yedo Bakufu may be said to be the history of mercantile development.

INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS

Yoshimune devoted much attention to the encouragement of industrial progress. Deeming that a large import of drugs and sugar caused a ruinous drain of specie, he sent experts. .h.i.ther and thither through the country to encourage the domestic production of these staples as well as of vegetable wax. The feudatories, in compliance with his suggestion, took similar steps, and from this time tobacco growing in Sagami and Satsuma; the weaving industry in Kotsuke and Shimotsuke; sericulture in Kotsuke, Shinano, Mutsu, and Dewa; indigo cultivation in Awa; orange growing in Kii, and the curing of bonito in Tosa and Satsuma--all these began to flourish. Another feature of the time was the cultivation of the sweet potato at the suggestion of Aoki Konyo, who saw in this vegetable a unique provision against famine.

Irrigation and drainage works also received official attention, as did the reclamation of rice-growing areas and the storing of cereals.

THE NINTH SHOGUN, IESHIGE

In 1745, Yoshimune resigned his office to his son, Ieshige, who, having been born in 1702, was now in his forty-third year. Yoshimune had three sons, Ieshige, Munetake, and Munetada. Of these the most promising was the second, Munetake, whose taste for literature and military art almost equalled his father's. Matsudaira Norimura, prime minister, recognizing that Ieshige, who was weak, pa.s.sionate, and self-willed, would not be able to fill worthily the high office of shogun, suggested to Yoshimune the advisability of nominating Munetake. But Yoshimune had his own programme. Ieshige's son, Ieharu, was a very gifted youth, and Yoshimune reckoned on himself retaining the direction of affairs for some years, so that Ieshige's functions would be merely nominal until Ieharu became old enough to succeed to the shogunate.

Meanwhile, to prevent complications and avert dangerous rivalry, Yoshimune a.s.signed to Munetake and Munetada residences within the Tayasu and Hitotsubashi gates of the castle, respectively, gave the names of these gates as family t.i.tles, and bestowed on each a revenue of one hundred thousand koku, together with the privilege of supplying an heir to the shogunate in the event of failure of issue in the princ.i.p.al house of Tokugawa or in one of the "Three Families."

The shogun, Ieshige, followed the same plan with his son, Yoshishige, and as the latter's residence was fixed within the Shimizu gate, there came into existence "Three Branch Families" called the Sankyo, in supplement of the already existing Sanke.*

*The present Princes Tokugawa are the representatives of the main line of the shogun; the Marquises Tokugawa, representatives of the Sanke, and the Counts Tokugawa, of the Sankyo.

Of course, the addition of the Shimizu family had the approval of Yoshimune. In fact, the whole arrangement as to the Sankyo was an ill.u.s.tration of his faithful imitation of the inst.i.tutions of Ieyasu.

The latter had created the Sanke, and Yoshimune created the Sankyo; Ieyasu had resigned in favour of his son and had continued to administer affairs from Sumpu, calling himself 0-gosho; Yoshimune followed his great ancestor's example in all these respects except that he subst.i.tuted the western part of Yedo Castle for Sumpu.

Ieshige's most salient characteristic was a pa.s.sionate disposition.

Men called him the "short-tempered shogun" (kanshaku kubo). He gave himself up to debauchery, and being of delicate physique, his self-indulgence quickly undermined his const.i.tution. So long as Yoshimune lived, his strong hand held things straight, but after his death, in 1751, the incompetence of his son became very marked. He allowed himself to fall completely under the sway of his immediate attendants, and, among these, Tanuma Okitsugu succeeded in monopolizing the evil opportunity thus offered. During nearly ten years the reforms effected by Yoshimune steadily ceased to be operative, and when Ieshige resigned in 1760, the country had fallen into many of the bad customs of the Genroku era.

THE TENTH SHOGUN, IEHARU

After his abdication in 1760, Ieshige survived only fourteen months, dying, in 1761, at the age of fifty-one. He was succeeded, in 1760, by his son, Ieharu, who, having been born in 1737, was twenty-three years old when he began to administer the country's affairs. One of his first acts was to appoint Tanuma Okitsugu to be prime minister, bestowing on him a fief of fifty-seven thousand koku in the province of Totomi, and ordering him to construct a fortress there. At the same time Okitsugu's son, Okitomo, received the rank of Yamato no Kami and the office of junior minister. These two men became thenceforth the central figures in an era of maladministration and corruption. So powerful and all-reaching was their influence that people were wont to say, "Even a bird on the wing could not escape the Tanuma." The shogun was not morally incapable, but his intelligence was completely overshadowed by the devices of Okitsugu, who took care that Ieharu should remain entirely ignorant of popular sentiment. Anyone attempting to let light into this state of darkness was immediately dismissed. It is related of a va.s.sal of Okitsugu that he was found one day with three high officials of the shogun's court busily engaged in applying a moxa to his foot. The three officials knew that their places depended on currying favour with this va.s.sal; how much more, then, with his master, Okitsugu! Everything went by bribery. Justice and injustice were openly bought and sold. Tanuma Okitsugu was wont to say that human life was not so precious as gold and silver; that by the liberality of a man's gifts his sincerity might truly be gauged, and that the best solace for the trouble of conducting State affairs was for their administrator to find his house always full of presents.

Ieharu, however, knew nothing of all this, or anything of the natural calamities that befell the country under his sway--the eruption of the Mihara volcano, in 1779, when twenty feet of ashes were piled over the adjacent country through an area of several miles; the volcanic disturbance at Sakura-jima, in Osumi, which took place about the same time and ended in the creation of several new islands; the outbreak of the Asama crater, in 1783, when half the provinces of the Kwanto were covered with ashes; and the loss of forty thousand lives by a flood in the Tone-gawa. Of all these visitations the shogun remained uninformed, and, in spite of them, luxury and extravagance marked the lives of the upper cla.s.ses. Many, however, were constrained to seek loans from wealthy merchants in Osaka, and these tradesmen, admonished by past incidents, refused to lend anything. At last the intolerable situation culminated in a deed of violence. In April, 1784, Sano Masakoto, a hereditary va.s.sal of the shogun, drew his sword upon Okitsugu within the precincts of the castle in Yedo and wounded him severely. Masakoto was seized and sentenced to commit suicide, but the justice of his attempt being recognized, the influence of Okitsugu and his son began to decline. Two years later (1786), there appeared a decree in the name of the Bakufu, ordering that the temples in all the provinces, the farmers, the artisans, and the merchants should send their gold and silver every spring to the Central Government, to the end that the latter might lend this treasure to the feudatories, who would pledge themselves to pay it back after five years.*

*The funds thus obtained were called yuzu-kin (accommodation money).

There is reason to believe that the shogun himself knew nothing of this ordinance until a mult.i.tude of complaints and remonstrances found their way, in part, to his ears. At all events, the extraordinary decree proved to be the last act of Okitsugu's official life. He was dismissed from office, though whether the credit of that step belongs to the Sanke and the elder officials or to the shogun, is not certain, for Ieharu is said to have died just before the final disgrace of the corrupt statesman was consummated. The Yedo upon which he closed his eyes in October, 1786, presented features of demoralization unsurpa.s.sed in any previous era. In fact, during the period of forty-one years between the accession of the ninth shogun, Ieshige, in 1745, and the death of the tenth, Ieharu, in 1786, the manners and customs of the citizens developed along very evil lines.

It was in this time that the city Phryne (machi-geisha) made her appearance; it was in this time that the theatre, which had hitherto been closed to the better cla.s.ses, began to be frequented by them; it was in this time that gambling became universal; it was in this time that parents learned to think it an honour to see their daughters winning favour as dancing girls, and it was in this time that the samurai's n.o.ble contempt for money gave place to the omnipotence of gold in military and civil circles alike.