Economic confusion in the cities and social instability in the rural areas of Japan was widespread in the closing decades of the seventeenth century. By 1727-28, however, the Kyoｵhoｵ Reforms of shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune (r.1716-1745) had had some success in improving the fiscal condition of the bakufu.1 But the successes of these reforms did not last and proved to be no more than a short respite in the continuing economic downturn that characterized the middle Edo period. When the ample harvests of 1729 caused the price of rice in the urban areas to fall drastically, the samurai saw their purchasing power drop to only about half of what it had been three years earlier.2 Though the last fifteen years of Yoshimune's rule saw a gradual strengthening of shogunal authority, the samurai themselves were never to completely recover the economic well-being they had experienced in the earlier decades of the Tokugawa period. There was more hardship and unrest, both rural and urban, during Yoshimuneﾕs reign than during the rule of any other shogun.3

In the long run, the Kyoｵhoｵ Reforms did no more to improve the lot of peasants than that of the samurai. There was a continual increase in the number and intensity of peasant uprisings. Although there had been 426 occurrences of peasant protest between the years 1681 and 1715; there were 724 uprisings between 1716 and 1750.4A comparison of these two thirty-four year periods shows an increase of almost 60% in the number of peasant uprisings. What is even more significant than the substantial rise in the number of violent incidents is the fact that the scale of the uprisings became greater. A revolt in Iwakitaira (in present-day southwest Fukushima prefecture) in 1738, for example, involved 84,000 farmers.5

During the crop failure of 1721, protesting peasants denounced bakufu officials:

The writings of a well-known author of dangibon (popular Buddhist sermons) known only by his pen name, Joｵkanboｵ Koｵa (fl. 1740-1750), give clear evidence of the samurai's continuing social decline in the 1740s, showing that, in addition to economic power, the respect that the elite class had formerly commanded was quickly eroding.

The first half of the eighteenth century, precisely because it was a socially, economically, and politically unsettled period, was ripe for the production of satire. Satirical literature is usually not produced in a society in which there are favorable economic and social conditions. Rather, it is in a restrictive political environment in which a government tries to strengthen its authority that a popular writerﾕs frustration tends to be expressed through cynicism and satire rather than through dispassionate and straightforward discourse.

It is not surprising, therefore, that there was sarcasm and invective directed against the bakufu and its representatives during this time. It appears that the government's show of determination to restore moral order to society by means of the Kyoｵhoｵ Reforms only succeeded in raising the level of sarcasm directed against it.9

Baba Bunkoｵ (1718-1759), a poor masterless samurai, traveled to Edo in 1750 from Iyo domain in Shikoku. Like many other roｵnin who made their living as professional storytellers, Bunkoｵ told fortunes and gave readings of military tales on the grounds of Asakusa Temple (Sensoｵji, in present-day Taito-ku). Gradually, the focus of his readings and lectures changed from war tales and human interest stories to reports of the latest rumors that he had heard about public officials and about some of the more prominent samurai who were living in Edo at the time.

When Bunkoｵ came to Edo, Tokugawa Ieshige (r.1745-1760), sometimes maligned as the least capable of all the shoguns,10 was at the helm of the shogunal administration. In spite of the censorship laws of 1722 that forbade writing or speaking about the shogun, daimyoｵ families, or samurai, Bunkoｵ began delivering stronger and stronger denunciations against the corruption of some of the most highly placed samurai officials and even made fun of the ruling shogun, Tokugawa Ieshige, by name.

While Joｵkanboｵ Koｵa and other writers of popular literature stayed within the bounds of the bakufu's restrictions by never mentioning actual government bureaucrats by name, Bunkoｵ seemed to go out of his way to expose and humiliate specific public officials. To add insult to injury, Bunkoｵ wrote anecdotes that praised the virtues of the courtesans of the Yoshiwara prostitute district and contrasted "their virtue" with "the immorality of the samurai," who were often government officials. Bunkoｵ was able to get away with this, for a while at least, by taking advantage of the protection offered by staying on the grounds of Asakusa temple, where the Edo city magistrate had no jurisdiction.

Sekine Mokuan, scholar of koｵdan and rakugo, has called Bunkoｵ "the most outstanding of the koｵdanshi (professional storytellers). "11 Yamada Tadao has referred to him as "the first person to pierce the iron curtain of Tokugawa secrecy."Like other koｵdanshi, Bunkoｵ expressed his views orally, rather than in writing, perhaps thinking that he could remain relatively safe from arrest and would not easily be subjected to government censorship. Bunkoｵ used this style of recitation, which had its roots in the medieval-period when public readings of the Taiheiki (Record of the great peace, 1372) and other famous war stories were given on the grounds of temples or at public places. The military heroes and great battles of the past were still popular subjects for the oral storytellers in the Edo period. But the heroes and anti-heroes of the anecdotes that Bunkoｵ delivered were contemporary politicians and cultural leaders, not past historic figures. The entertaining teaching style of koｵdan suited Bunkoｵ's flamboyant personality and unconventional ways of expression, and he was a master at taking advantage of the power and attraction of this oral style to expose the weaknesses and foibles of certain officials of the Tokugawa regime.

Among Japanese satirists, Hiraga Gennai (1728-1779) is often discussed and considered the most important of the early modern period.13 However, the well-known critic of Edo literature, Nakamura Yukihiko, has questioned Gennai's importance as a satirist and even argues that his work is not really satire at all. Not realizing that the extant texts of Bunkoｵﾕs anecdotes are based on his oral presentations, one might judge that Gennai is a better writer than Bunkoｵ. Nakamura asserts that Bunkoｵﾕs koｵdan is actually better satirist than Gennaiﾕs writings. The spirit behind an author's drive to create satirical literature, Nakamura writes, comes out of the internal discord between oneself and society. When the author can no longer bear to remain silent in the face of what he perceives to be an unjust or immoral world and can no longer make compromises with that society, satire is born. Nakamura questions whether Gennai actually experienced this kind of passionate conflict within himself; and even if he had, it is doubtful that any satirical sense in his writings, hidden as it was behind a thick screen of oblique metaphors, could have been understood by his readers.14

While it may not be necessary to be passionately convinced of one's political position before one can write successful satire, as Nakamura claims, Bunkoｵ is clearly more emotionally involved with his subject matter than Gennai is.

Both Gennai and Bunkoｵ intended their readers to see clearly and objectively the hypocrisy about which they wrote. Gennaiﾕs satire has a major defect however. In order to protect himself, he had to camouflage his writing with metaphors, thus making the text obscure and weakening his attack on hypocrisy. Gennaiﾕs satire, according to Nakamura, sometimes has the opposite effect of what is actually intended.

Ihara Saikaku, another writer more familiar to modern readers than Bunkoｵ, wrote a guarded, carefully crafted style of satire. The merchant class, perceived to be a safe target, is criticized in his works; but the samurai in Saikaku's stories are immune from satirical attack. In Nippon eitaigura (The Japanese family storehouse, 1688) merchants are portrayed as moral weaklings who are led astray by greed and by the carnal temptations of the pleasure quarters, but the ruling class is not mentioned. In addition, Saikaku kept his stories solely on the level of fiction and did not attempt political commentary. The contemporary lack of filial piety and virtue among the samurai, their vendettas, and the frequent violations of their codes of conduct of which Bunkoｵ spoke were only vaguely and indirectly hinted at in Saikaku's works. His samurai were idealized characters of his own creation and could never be recognized as real individuals.

Saikaku writes from the perspective of the detached observer when speaking about the samurai and daimyoｵ, and this is what most clearly contrasts him with Bunkoｵ, who is deeply involved with questions of the day and with morality in government and society. Bunkoｵ is unable to simply observe and report in an disinterested manner. It could be argued that Saikaku did write in a satirical fashion, but his works are confined to either literary or social satire, with his barbs being reserved for the famous classics or for society in general rather than for specific government officials or samurai. Bunkoｵ, on the other hand, attacked openly and with very little restraint bakufu authority and the most powerful political, intellectual, and religious institutions of the day.

Bunkoｵﾕs lectures were characterized by the literary convention known as shukoｵ. This term literally means a design, scheme, or plot. The technique of shukoｵ allows a lecturer, author, or visual artist to use a wide variety of classical or well-known motifs and stories from literature, drama, or art and transform them for his or her own purposes to give a familiar story or plot an entirely new meaning. This device had been used in Japanese literature from ancient times and can easily be found in the imperial waka anthologies, as well as in kabuki drama, popular fiction, and ukiyoe painting of the Edo period. Bunkoｵ was a master of taking a familiar piece of literature that had no political significance and transforming it into an anecdote that was both delightfully humorous and mischievously satirical.

Bunkoｵﾕs technique was to first observe and point out how highly placed samurai officials or other "respectable" persons wanted to be admired for their talents and virtue. Bunkoｵ noted that the desire for respect determined a personﾕs external behavior. He then contrasts the virtuous persona with what is in reality immoral behavior on the part of certain elite members of society, showing that while the outside appears to be honorable, the inner character is corrupt. Bunkoｵ wants to shock his listeners by contrasting the virtue that a person of noble or elite status is thought to possess with what in reality is corruption and vice.

The traditional stories and plots that Bunkoｵ uses to construct his anecdotes are all based on a similar contrast between what is assumed or expected and what is actual. This contrast is a literary device, which is often used in Japanese literature, known as mitate (displacement); that is, the substitution of an expected type of character or behavior with a type that is unexpected. This artistic device employs an incongruous comparison or contrast to make the point that two seemingly unrelated or opposed traits can be joined in the same person.

"The case of the Narukami nun."

An excellent example of the technique of literary transformation (shukoｵ) which employs a contrast of opposites (mitate) is Bunkoｵﾕs anecdote, "The case of the Narukami nun."15 This short piece (cf. Appendix I) is filled with contradictions and incongruous parallels that eventually come together to reveal a shocking truth. Bunkoｵ copies the plot of the one-act kyoｵgen comedy "Onna Narukami" (The female Narukami, 1743). This in itself is an altered version of another play, the kabuki drama "Narukami" (The monk Narukami, 1684).16 It is important to know the plots of both plays in order to appreciate Bunkoｵﾕs literary transformation.

Both the kyoｵgen comedy and the kabuki play have basically the same plot, except that the gender roles are reversed. In the kabuki drama "Narukami," a monk has prevented rain from falling on the earth by holding hostage the Dragon-god, who produces the rain. In order to save the farmers from the resulting drought, the emperor dispatches an imperial princess, Princess Taema, to go to Narukamiﾕs mountain retreat, seduce him, and thereby allow the Dragon-god to escape. The princess is successful; the Dragon-god is freed; the rain begins to fall; and the country is saved. The dramatic climax occurs when Narukami, realizing that the seduction has been a trick to allow the Dragon-god to escape, becomes enraged. His anger transforms him into a hideous monster, and the audience sees that, although externally Narukami had appeared to be a holy man; in actuality, he is not a monk at all but a demon. The Dragon-god, who had at first appeared to be the monster is actually the savior of the nation who brings the long-awaited rains.

In the later kyoｵgen version, "Onna Narukami," the main character is a nun, rather than a monk. She is seduced by a prince, Taemanosuke, rather than a princess. The plot is the same as before; and in the end it is the nun, Onna Narukami, who reveals herself to be externally a holy nun, but in reality a she-demon.

The effect of mitate, the contrast of the opposites, comes from the revelation that the monk and the nun are not holy and devout ascetics, as would be expected, but actually are the total opposite: demons. At the end of the performance two opposites, saint and demon, converge through the theatrical transformation of a "saintly" man and woman into personifications of evil.

Bunkoｵ uses the shukoｵ and mitate in the plays to create of his own version of the story. The Narukami nun is transformed from a she-demon in a play into an actual person with whom Bunkoｵ's listeners would have been familiar. The "holy woman / evil demon" character in Bunkoｵﾕs version of the story is the widow of a well-known pediatrician of Tachibana-choｵ, Kanemaki Genjun.17 This woman had always been admired for her faithfulness to her husband while he was alive, and she was respected as a virtuous widow after his demise.

On the death of one's husband, it was not uncommon for an older widow to cut her hair as the normal prelude to becoming a nun. Even though this faithful wife of the late physician, Genjun, was still a young woman, she decided not to remarry and vowed to enter a monastery. A woman of extraordinary virtue, as everyone thought her to be, this young widow did not simply cut her hair; she pulled all of the "long, raven-colored strands of hair out by the roots."18 Bunkoｵ noted that everyone looked on this act of extraordinary virtue with great admiration. Having given the impression throughout her life of being a devoted wife, she was now proving herself to be an exemplar of womanly heroism. She would go every day to one of the temples in Asakusa--Asakusa Emma Hall, Kayadera, or to the stone image of Manjusri--to offer prayers. She always appeared to be intent on listening to the sermons and edifying stories that the monks presented at the temples.

If those who listened to Bunkoｵﾕs description of this "saintly" woman were familiar with the story of the Narukami nun, they would certainly have realized that Genjunﾕs widow was an evil woman who had managed to deceive everyone and hide behind an edifying facade. Bunkoｵ reveals that, far from being a faithful wife, she had been carrying on a scandalous secret affair with the seventeen-year-old kabuki actor, Segawa Kikunojoｵ (1741-1793).19 After her husband died, she was no devout nun, as everyone had thought her to be. The young widow was going to the temples, but not to pray or listen to sermons. She went only to "carry on adulterous affairs with other licentious men in broad daylight."20 She is exposed in the end to be a monster, a she-demon, just like the Narukami nun in the play.

Bunkoｵ is creating a number of incongruous comparisons in which both religious devotion and adultery converge in the person of Genjun's widow. Bunkoｵ succeeded in creating, what was for his listeners, an even more shocking and surprising story than that of the original "Narukami nun." The virtue of the extraordinarily faithful wife who became a nun converges with the licentiousness of the she-demon of "Onna Narukami;" and Bunkoｵ has transformed a fictional play into a shocking expose�.

Bunkoｵ's intention is not to simply make a personal attack on Genjun's widow. More significantly, he intends his anecdote to illustrate what is, in his view, the real relationship between two institutions that are supposedly totally unrelated. By showing that the widow has carried on an affair with a famous actor of the kabuki theater in the confines of the three most sacred shrines of Buddhist devotion, Bunkoｵ is inviting his listener to see the shocking parallel between the "sacred institution" of Buddhism, on the one hand, the "unsavory institution" of the kabuki theater.

The Courtesans

Yoshiwara, the other "unsavory institution" of the Tokugawa period, was a well-spring of inspiration for new genres of literature, drama, music and popular culture. The Yoshiwara colored much of Bunkoｵ's writing and speaking as well, but his presentations were quite unlike the gesaku (popular stories) of the time about the sons of wealthy merchants and their humorous adventures in the prostitute district. Bunkoｵ used the Yoshiwara as a motif with which to attack and satirize the political, academic, and religious institutions of the day. He was also counter-cultural in his passionate defense of the courtesans whom he saw as the impoverished victims of a virtual slave trade.21

In one of his lectures, Bunkoｵ reproached the samurai for frequenting the prostitute district and specifically named Comptroller of Finance (kanjoｵ ginmiyaku) Aoyama Nobunaga22 as one of those officials who "was always in the Yoshiwara district." Because of his preoccupation, Aoyama "was continually strapped for money.....He even pawned his official dress to get the necessary funds to be able to go to the Yoshiwara pleasures quarters."23 Bunkoｵ reports that Aoyama was not only a regular client of the Yoshiwara courtesans; he even sent one of his own sisters as a prostitute to serve the needs of Hotta Masasuke (1712-1761), a member of the shogunﾕs council of state (roｵjuｵ). He sent another sister to junior counselor (wakadoshiyori) Itakura Katsukiyo (1706-1780). Aoyama had used his own sisters to gain his position as Comptroller of Finance and to continue to gain political influence.

Bunkoｵ sees the conduct of such public officials as being hypocritical and therefore immoral. He contrasts their behavior with the respectability of some of the Yoshiwara prostitutes. In Buya zokudan (Contemporary talks on worldly affairs in Musashi, 1756.4), a collection of short essays and anecdotes, Bunkoｵ points out the fact that officials of the bakufu take full advantage of the courtesans for their own pleasure and diversion while publicly denouncing the Yoshiwara as a source of social and moral pollution. The women of the Yoshiwara, on the other hand, are virtuous and worthy of our admiration, Bunkoｵ says, because of the hardships that they so gracefully and bravely endure.24

Political figures were not the only ones who patronized the Yoshiwara while publicly condemning it. Some Buddhist monks were also known to hold the courtesans of the Yoshiwara in contempt and, at the same time, avail themselves of the prostitutesﾕ favors. The famous Buddhist monk, Hyakuan (1695-1781), for example, was "a great playboy with quite a reputation in Yoshiwara."25 In a short essay Bunkoｵ wrote in 1756, he contrasted the character of Hyakuan with that of the renowned courtesan of the Matsubaya bordello in Yoshiwara, Echiya Segawa.26 Born into an impoverished family in Shimoｵsa domain, Segawa was sold to the bordello by her parents. As part of her training, she became proficient in the calligraphy school of Hosoi Koｵtaku (1658-1735). In his lectures, Bunkoｵ praised her for becoming an accomplished calligrapher. He presented the monk Hyakuan, on the other hand, as a fraud who used the expensive calligraphy paper of the Koｵtaku school so that people would see it and think that he was a master calligrapher.

Not only was Segawa proficient in calligraphy and other talents expected of a courtesan, such as shamisen, poetry, the tea ceremony, singing, dancing and playing the flute; she also mastered talents that were commonly identified as the purview of men only. According to Bunkoｵ, she could hold her own when discussing philosophy with the leading Confucianist scholars of the day and often embarrassed them with her knowledge and quick wit.27

Another courtesan that Bunkoｵ speaks about is Rizen. Sold to the Oomiya brothel by her husband, a pharmacist by the name of Kuwanaya Yasoｵ, Rizen "had a kind heart, was deeply compassionate, and professed a strong faith in Boddhisatva Samantabhadra (Fugen bosatsu)."28 Bunkoｵ presents her as being more devout than most of the Buddhist monks.He reminds his listeners, who may have been shocked at his associating a prostitute with a boddhisatva, that Samantabhadra, while riding a white elephant, had actually revealed himself to his devotees in the form of a prostitute. Bunkoｵ also spoke aboutr a Buddhist monk of the Heian period, Shoｵkuｵ (910-1007), who taught that "if one wants to worship Samantabhadra, he should go to Harima to see the singing and dancing of the courtesans."29 Bunkoｵ's conjunction of boddhisatvas and courtesans was meant to shock his listeners and also to satirically expose hypocritical Buddhist monks.

In his strong defense and praise of Rizen, Bunkoｵ argues that "Daruma Buddha faced the wall sitting in meditation for nine years. But the courtesan Rizen spent not nine, but ten years confined to her place of business, facing the wall, season after season all day long."30 Bunkoｵ admitted that his inspiration for this insight had come from Hanabusa Itchoｵ. The artist had employed the same type of contrast in his paintings. He once painted the face of a courtesan on the body of the Daruma. This painting of a female Daruma, holding a fan and tobacco pouch and dressed like a courtesan, was a visual expression of the incongruity and contrast of which Bunkoｵ was so fond. On Hanabusaﾕs painting were written the words: "What is nine years of suffering compared with ten years of prostitution?"

The Yoshiwara was often romanticized in the popular fiction of the time, but Bunkoｵ reacted strongly against the sentimentalization of this institution which he saw as demeaning. Rather than romanticize the Yoshiwara courtesan, he shows that their life was "extremely frightening," and he blames the bakufu for their plight.

Bunkoｵ directed his satirical barbs against dignitaries of the Confucian establishment. Hayashi Nobumitsu (1681-1758), head of the Confucian academy (daigaku no kami) and descendant of the illustrious Hayashi Razan (1683-1657), was well known during the years that Bunkoｵ was speaking and writing. Nobumitsu is the primary target of a scathing satirical essay in Toｵdai Edo hyaku bakemono.32 The essay begins by praising Nobumitsu as "a great Confucian and a holder of the prestige title, choｵsantaifu,"33 but it quickly becomes evident that the praise is actually sarcasm when Bunkoｵ's caustically remarks, "No one would suspect that Nobumitsu is actually a monster."

As head of the Confucian academy, Nobumitsu was the ultimate authority on official, government-sanctioned Confucian teaching and responsible for its correct interpretation. So for Bunkoｵ, what was particularly irksome was the incongruity between Nobumitsu's high position as an important teacher of Confucian virtue and his private diversions. In one of his anecdotes, Bunkoｵ alleges that Nobumitsu brought a small entourage of courtesans to his second-floor living quarters for his private pleasure. "There was, on more than one occasion, raucous laughter and the commotion of joｵrui singing and shamisen playing."34

Bunkoｵﾕs accusation of frivolity directed against the daigaku no kami, incriminated a high official of the Confucian academy in the type of immorality that was officially banned. No one else had gone so far in publically exposing the hypocrising that was prevalent in this important bakufu institution.

The Shogun

Bunkoｵ reports that in 1755, when the shogun, Tokugawa Ieshige, was out on an excursion with a group of his retainers, he came to a small shrine in the woods where there were verses of haiku written on strips of paper. "The shogun had one of his retainers read the verses for him and then asked, "Who wrote those verses?" One of the retainers explained to him that they had been written by Somaru (?-1795) and Choｵsui (1685-1784), two well-known contemporary poets. The shogun commented, "They write well. I have never heard of them before."35

The shogunﾕs retainers, unlike Ieshige himself, were quite familiar with not only the poets but also with the verses. The retainers explained to Ieshige, "These are two of the poets who are included in Goshikizumi (The five primary colors, 1731)." One of the retainers explained to the shogun, "The other poets in the collection are Soｵzui [1684-1744],36 Renshi [1679-1742], and Shiseki [1677-1759]." In this anecdote, Ieshige is presented by Bunkoｵ as being culturally backward. What makes the scene even more satirical is that the retainers speak to the shogun in the most polite, formal language, just as Ieshige is exposing more and more of his ignorance. The satire in Bunkoｵ's descriptions lies not only in the content but also in this contrast between the very formal style of language used by the retainers, with its honorific expressions and classical grammatical constructions, and the actions of the shogun that were presented as being base and foolish.

Another retainer explains to Ieshige that the two poets whose verses they have just read are in fact two of his own samurai. "Somaru's real name in Hasegawa Hanzaemon," one of them explains. "Yes, and Choｵsuiﾕs real name," another adds, "is Sakuma Saburoｵzaemon." Ieshige exclaims in surprise, "Those are my men! I would expect them to use their real names. 'Somaru' and 'Choｵsui' are such low-class, despicable names. The gods at this shrine will never answer their prayers if they insist on using such names."37 At a time when reading even among commoners was increasing dramatically, this characterization of Ieshige as being functionally illiterate is particularly sarcastic.

Bunkoｵ makes an unrelenting stream of jokes out of what he considers to be some of the consequences of Ieshigeﾕs illnesses and inability to rule effectively. The shogun, Bunkoｵ reports, had to go to the toilet very often, so facilities for his use were installed all over the city. Unfortunately, this did not seem to help. "It was not unusual that he would have accidents inside the palanquin."38 On one occasion, Bunkoｵ reports, Ieshige had to leave in the middle of a noｵ play at New Yearﾕs in order to relieve himself. When he finally returned to his place, he made the actors start the play over from the beginning.

In another anecdote the famous artist, Hanabusa Itchoｵ (1652-1724) seems at first to bear the brunt of Bunkoｵ's satire, but the reader quickly realizes that it is Shogun Ieshige who is the intended victim.39 In this anecdote, the owner of the Tomoeya bordello in Yoshiwara commissions Hanabusa to paint portraits of the two most beautiful women from the classical tale, Soga monogatari (Tale of the Soga brothers. 14th century). This tale of two brothers, Juｵroｵ and Goroｵ, whose mother raises them to avenge the murder of their father, was quite popular in the Edo period. The two portraits that Hanabusa is commissioned to paint are to be of Juｵroｵ's mistress, the courtesan Tora Gozen and Keiwazaka Shoｵshoｵ, the shamaness and prostitute who preached to the brothers and to Tora as they traveled.

Hanabusa misunderstands the instructions that he is given because of his confusion of homonyms. He mistakenly thinks that the bordello owner had instructed him to paint a tiger (tora) rather than Juroｵ's mistress, whose name was Tora. Instead of a portrait of the courtesan Keiwazaka Shoｵshoｵ, Hanabusa thinks he is supposed to paint a scene of the Xiang River (read "Shoｵshoｵ" in Japanese).40

While the first part of the anecdote describes a bordello operatorﾕs commissioning of a painting by Hanabusa, the second half of the anecdote decribes the shogunﾕs commissioning of a painting. "The shogun commissioned Hanabusa to do a scroll painting of the story of Momotaroｵ." Ieshige, Bunkoｵ announces, hoped to present the scroll as a gift to the Nishi Honganji temple, the headquarters of the Pure Land sect (Joｵdoshuｵ) in Kyoto. Ieshige, realizing that this temple was renowned for its beautiful Momoyama period art in the style of the Kanoｵ school in which Hanabusa had been trained, seems to have confused "Momotaroｵ" and "Momoyama." Thinking there may be a connection between the two, the shogun is intent on presenting a painting of Momotaroｵ, the hero of a children's akabon (fairy tale), to the Buddhist temple famous for its Momoyama art.

Bunkoｵ is creating a number of contrasting parallels in this anecdote (mitate). A bordello operator and the shogun make up one unlikely twosome. Both are placed in the same role of assigning Hanabusa to do paintings. Secondly, the bordello ownerﾕs request for paintings from classical literature contrasts with the shogunﾕs order to paint a character from a childrenﾕs story book, making the bordello owner appear to be cultured and Shogun Ieshige ignorant, or at best childish. Thirdly, Bunkoｵ associates the Tomoeya, one of the most prosperous houses of prostitution in the middle Edo period, with a completely different type of institution: the Nishi Honganji temple, one of the most influential Buddhist temples of the period.

The use of mitate, the contrast of opposites, is evident in the last book of Soga monogatari. The two courtesans, Tora and Shoｵshoｵ, become Buddhist nuns and are on a religious pilgrimage to pray for the Soga brothers. The prostitute-turned-nun, Shoｵshoｵ, delivers an edifying sermon to the mother of the two brothers instructing her on the meaning of suffering and giving her guidance into the way of the Buddha. (Soga monogatari, of course, was not simply a literary tale but a religious text used by the Pure Land sect to spread popular Buddhism.41) Bunkoｵ uses the shukoｵ and mitate of Soga monogatari and takes it a step further: to demean the shogun and to associate the Nishi Honganji with the Tomoeya. The incongruous and even shocking connections between pimp and shogun; temple and bordello in Bunkoｵﾕs anecdote about Hanabusa Itchoｵ is typical of his satirical style.

The Daimyoｵ

Bunkoｵ ridiculed many of the daimyoｵ, who were obligated to reside in Edo under the provisions of the sankin koｵtai system. In a short piece about a summer fireworks display, Bunkoｵ tells a story that allows his audience to see the humor in the foolishness and ineptitude of a well-known daimyo.

Bunkoｵ sets the scene by having his audience imagine a crowd of boisterous, excited people anticipating a fireworks display on a cool summer evening on the banks of the Sumida River at Ryoｵgoku Bridge. As the sun sets, and people are waiting for the fireworks to begin. A short time later there is an announcement that the fireworks display to be sponsored by the "the great daimyo of Sendai"42 would have to be postponed. Bunkoｵ does not mention the daimyoｵ by name, but it clear in the context of the anecdote that "the great daimyoｵ of Sendai" is Date Yoshimura (r.1703-1743).

What Bunkoｵ does not explicitly mention is that Yoshimura's reign was distinctive for an unprecedented number of large fires in Sendai. During his tenure in office, Sendai experienced the incredible number of twenty major conflagrations in which thousands of residences and businesses were destroyed and many lives lost.43 During the thirty-seven year rule of Yoshimura's predecessor, Date Tsunamura (r.1660-1703), there were no major fires recorded in the domain; and during the rule of Yoshimura's successor, Date Munemura (r. 1743-1756), there were only three major fires.

Whether or not Yoshimura actually had plans to sponsor a fireworks display or whether there is any truth at all to the story is less important than Bunkoｵ's holding up an illustrious daimyoｵ family as an object of ridicule, derision, and laughter by implying that Yoshimura's only real claim to fame was the number of fires his domain suffered. The humorous incongruity of the name Date Yoshimura and a summer fireworks display was typical of the kind of satire that Bunkoｵ wrote.

The City Magistrate

Much like his use of literary texts, Bunkoｵ adapted the Shintoｵ teachings of Masuho Nokoguchi (a.k.a. Zankoｵ, 1655-1742) for his own purposes and turned them into political satire that was directed against Edo city magistrate Tsuchiya Masasuke (d. 1764).44 It was Tsuchiya who would later sign Bunkoｵ's death warrant.

Nokoguchi had encouraged a revival of Shinto beliefs and saw Shinto as the only suitable religion for the Japanese. He condemned Confucianism and Buddhism for its foreign connections. Bunkoｵ begins his anecdote about the city magistrate with a statement that he attributes to Nokoguchi: "Yao and Shun, as well as the Buddha, were quite successful at convincing people that they were virtuous, but deep down they were nothing of the kind."45 Bunkoｵ then draws a parallel between these three great religious figures and the city magistrate. Tsuchiya, Bunkoｵ tells his audience, just like Yao, Shun, and Buddha, is perceived to be virtuous but he has only a virtuous facade.

The city magistrate often came up for derision in Bunkoｵ's lectures. It is difficult to pick out the most caustic remark Bunkoｵ made about him, but perhaps it was the comment made just two months before his arrest. Bunkoｵ points out that Tsuchiya was quite inferior to his predecessor, the greatly admired O�oka Tadasuke (1677-1751), who during his tenure as magistrate from 1717 to 1736, was legendary for his wise and just rulings. Bunkoｵ derides Tsuchiya for being capable of nothing more than a poor imitation of Ooka. Referring to the magistrate as "a Tsuchiya somebody" (Tsuchiya nanigashi) or simply as "tsuchi" (dirt), Bunkoｵ implies that he is nothing more than a countrified, ignorant boor. Tsuchiya and Ooka "are as different as heaven and earth,"46 he writes. This pithy contrast between Tsuchiya, who is like dirt/earth and Ooka, whose tenure in office Bunkoｵ associated with heaven, is the most directly insulting commentary Bunkoｵ made on any public official.

It was Tsuchiya Masasuke who cajoled senior counselor Matsudaira Takechika (1716-1779) to give the required approval for the death penalty and then wrote out Bunkoｵ's death warrant five months after these insulting remarks. By law, the city magistrate could not have imposed a penalty more severe than exile on his own authority. Tsuchiya seemed to have gone out of his way to convince the senior counselor that a death sentence was warranted.47

The Arrest

Sekine Shichibei (pen name: Shisei, 1825-1893) gives a full account of Bunkoｵﾕs arrest on the evening 1758. 9.16, just as he had finished the last lecture of a series that had begun six days earlier.48

Outside the shop of a certain Yasuemon, a seller of dry goods in Kuremasa-choｵ (present-day Chuｵoｵ-ku, Nihonbashi, 3-choｵme), Bunkoｵ had put up a placard that read: "'Little known facts: Raindrops in the forest.' Each evening at 6:00 p.m. Speaker: Baba Bunkoｵ." A crowd of about two hundred people had gathered on that fateful evening. As Bunkoｵ lectured, a constable from the office of north city magistrate, Yoda Masatsugu (r.1753-1768), was making his usual rounds patrolling the neighborhood. As the constable entered the shop, Yasuemon called to one of Bunkoｵﾕs companions, a man by the name of Bunchoｵ, and told him there was a constable present. Bunkoｵ was coming to the end of his lecture, and the crowd of two hundred was being worked up into a state of heightened anger and indignation as Bunkoｵ was describing the unjust treatment of the peasants in Gujoｵ under daimyo Kanamori Yorikane (1713-1763). Bunchoｵ tried to signal to his friend by gesturing and pointing to the constable who had just walked into the shop. Bunkoｵ, however, either did not see the signal or did not want to stop speaking just as he was coming to the climax of his lecture.

On completion of the lecture, Bunkoｵ began distributing a six-page abbreviated transcript of his talk, Hiragana mori no shizuku (Raindrops in the forest in hiragana),49 for 300 mon. This was approximately the equivalent of three days wages for a common laborer. This was a phenomenal price for such a short, unpublished pamphlet. Perhaps because of its unusual subject matter, a peasant uprising and a call for a daimyoｵ to relinquish power, it was very popular. This document is no longer extant, but it is the opinion of Yamada Tadao that the Tokugawa jikki citation that bears the title "Mori no shizuku"50 is, at least in part, material that was actually taken from Hiragana mori no shizuku and then rewritten by a bakufu official to be used as evidence to incriminate Bunkoｵ.51

After he had finished speaking at about 10:00 p.m. and the crowd was beginning to file out of the shop, the constable approached Bunkoｵ and said, "You must be crazy to give a lecture like that." Having a cup of tea, Bunkoｵ laughed scornfully at the constable and replied, "Iﾕm not the one whoﾕs crazy. We are all sane here. Itﾕs you people who are the crazy ones." Bunkoｵ was immediately placed under arrest.52

Held by the Edo city magistrate and interrogated for three months, Bunkoｵ remained adamant during his long detainment, refusing to recant his mockery of the shogun, his denunciations of various daimyo, his insults of the city magistrate Tsuchiya Masasuke, or his alleged interference in the affairs of the bakufu. Three months later, at the end of his questioning, Tsuchiya was the city magistrate on duty.53

The Execution

At the end of the year (Hoｵreki 8), the Supreme Judicial Council (hyoｵjoｵsho) cited reasons why it had determined that Bunkoｵ was guilty of serious capital offenses. Tsuchiya Masasuke wrote the document (moｵshiwatashisho)54 that the high court used as evidence to condemn Bunkoｵ to death.

Accused and convicted of "holding the shogunate in contempt" and spreading "heterodox opinions,"56 Bunkoｵ was beheaded at Kozukappara (present-day Minami-senju, Arakawa-ku) on 23 January 1759.

Epilogue

Even though he may have been eccentric, there is no evidence that Bunkoｵ purposely exposed himself to being charged with crimes that would demand the death penalty. In fact, there had been somewhat of a relaxation of the strict enforcement of the censorship laws of 1722 during the years that Bunkoｵ was speaking and writing. In 1752, shortly before Bunkoｵ began lecturing in Edo, the proscription against Joｵkanboｵ Koｵa's Imayo heta dangi (A clumsy homily on the present age, 1752) had been lifted. Though the names of samurai families were not mentioned in this book, it did criticize the elite of the bushi class, calling them "a plague on society."57 The permission given for the publication of this book may have encouraged Bunkoｵ to attempt to go even further in exposing the foibles of government officials by mentioning samurai and even the shogun by name.

Another possible reason why Bunkoｵ did not worry about being arrested is that he was unaware of the specific punishment that would be meted out under the provisions of the censorship laws; and consequently, he wrote and spoke without any fear of reprisal. Law in the Tokugawa period and the precise repercussions that one would have to face if proven to have violated the law were, in fact, not common knowledge.58 Most people were kept ignorant of the penal code and simply knew that if they did certain things, they would be punished; but they did not actually know what their punishment would be. The Osadamegaki hyakkajoｵ (Edict in one hundred articles, 1742),59 which was promulgated by Matsudaira Norimura (1686-1746), was "not allowed to be seen by anyone but the magistrates."60 It was not addressed to the people subject to its provisions and, in fact, was deliberately kept from them. Only the court nobility at Kyoto, the daimyoｵ, and some samurai had access to the documents which promulgated the penal code; and that access was partial and restricted. Even if Bunkoｵ had known the law, he would not have suspected that he was in danger of capital punishment. The death penalty was reserved for those who had committed murder, adultery, arson, counterfeit, or theft of more than ten ryoｵ, or were guilty of having sold medicines that were poisonous.61

Regardless of how much he knew of the law, Bunkoｵ must have been convinced that he could get away with insulting the bakufu and its officials. The laws governing publication had never been very effective in controlling privately circulated manuscripts.62 So Bunkoｵ was probably not worried about the government taking notice of his writings and even less concerned that a constable would appear at his lectures. His only audience, as far as he was aware, was made up of townspeople, peasants, and roｵnin like himself. These are all plausible factors in Bunkoｵ's carelessness in writing such scathing critical satire, speaking openly about public officials, and being apparently caught unawares when arrested.

In the environs of Hama-choｵ² there lived a woman who is called the Narukami nun. She was the wife of the physician, Kanemaki Genjun³ of Tachibana-choｵ.⁴ After Genjun died from an illness, Takane Genryuｵ took the name of this deceased physician and then he became known as Kanemaki Genjun. The wife of the previous Genjun was then taken in by the new Genjun, the former Takane Genryuｵ.

When her husband died, "the Narukami nun" pulled all of her raven-black hair out by the roots to become a nun. Everyone thought it was much too soon to do this since she was still very young. To decide to do such a thing is going to extremes, but she may have done it because of an excessively impulsive temper. Everyone said right away that she had done it in defense of her womanly chastity and that it was admirable and praiseworthy.

But this woman is a monstrous fraud. She is exceedingly fond of the comic interludes (kyoｵgen) at the theater and never misses the change of the program at the kabuki. She is a woman of easy virtue and conducts her life in every way as if it were theater. Recently she had an illicit affair with an unknown man of low class.

Not long ago, she was advised to leave the present Genjun and remarry with a virtuous man from Kanagawa Hongo.⁵ She was distressed over the fact that if she went to Kanagawa Hongo, it would not be possible to meet the aforementioned low-class rogue.

She went to the ballad drama Kanadehon Chushingura (The treasury of loyal retainers)⁶ and saw how Osono, the wife of Amakawaya Gihei, was pressed by her father to remarry. But in the trick devised by O�boshi Yuranosuke, Osono, had her hair cut off and the proposal of marriage to another man had to be canceled.

Just as she had seen in this drama, Genjun's wife became a nun and gave up remarrying. It was only for outward appearance that she shaved her black hair for her deceased husband and became a nun. It was all to show herself off as a praiseworthy woman. She is a great monster. Since last year at the Festival of the Dead when she attended the drama in which Segawa Kikunojoｵ⁷ performed the role of the Narukami nun in "Onna Narukami,"⁸ she has had the appearance of a nun but is really filled with sexual passion. She is called Rokoｵ's nun and is quite shameless.

At the performance she was wearing beautiful jewelry and had on a sheer black kimono with a matching black satin obi and black velvet waist sash. Her head was almost completely covered in black crepe.

Accompanying her were two very beautiful servant girls, whom she dressed in plain kimonos with a flower pattern showing the foot of a mountain. On the shoulder of one of the girls she had dyed the characters for "white cloud," and on the other girl's shoulder the characters for "black cloud."⁹ They were dressed like Narukami's disciples, Hakuun (white cloud) and Kokuun (black cloud). Every single day this fickle woman went, attended by these maidservants, to such places as Asakusa Emma Hall, Kayadera,¹⁰ and to the stone image of Manjusri where she heard sermons and edifying stories. She committed adultery there with licentious men in broad daylight.

In appearance, she showed herself as one who had once set out on the path of the Buddha and was living according to the Buddhist law. It must be said, however, that in licentiousness this monster has no equal.

When Itchoｵ was a student, he was only one of a hundred foolish masters. All of them are strange monsters who often change their appearance, but Itchoｵ is the one who is the celebrated old fox.

He was asked to do paintings of Tora and Shoｵshoｵ¹² that would be displayed in the New Yoshiwara district. In the room where he was supposed to paint Tora he painted instead a tiger in a bamboo grove. In the room where he was supposed to paint Shoｵshoｵ he painted a scene of the evening rain on Xi Hu.¹³

While doing these paintings at the Tomoeya, Itchoｵ munches on dumplings. On one occasion he ate a plate of eighty-one dumplings in about a minute--a monster of great accomplishments. Now it is said that everyone in Yoshiwara died of laughter over this.

Not long ago, when the shogun was traveling to the capital to the Jodoｵ sect temple, Nishihonganji,¹⁴ he commissioned Itchoｵ to do a painting on a scroll so that he could present it to Honganji. The painting was to be a biographical scroll of Momotaroｵ. The Honganji was extremely pleased with the painting.

As a reward for his effort, Itchoｵ received a request for an audience before the shogun where he was given one serving of soba which he ate in the shogun's presence. It is said that the food lay very heavy on his stomach, and he complained about it. There were a lot of people in attendance including the son-in-law of Nakamura Ribei of Sakai and Yamagataya Soｵemon¹⁵ of Shinmuragi-choｵ.¹⁶ These fellows are also a couple of the great monsters of Edo.

NOTES

1. "Narukami" was a kabuki play first performed at the Nakamuraza in 1684. It is one of the "Eighteen Favorites," written by Ichikawa Danjiroｵ I (1660-1704).
2. An area in present-day Chuｵoｵ-ku, Nihonbashi 1-3 choｵme where, during the Edo period, there was a high concentration of daimyo mansions.
3. According to Imayo ika jinmei roku (List of contemporary physicians) in National Diet Library, Tokyo, Kanemaki was a pediatrician of Ryoｵgoku, Muramatsu-choｵ.
4. Present-day Chuｵoｵ-ku-ku, Higashi Nihonbashi 3 choｵme.
5. Present-day Yokohama, Totsuka-ku.
6. Kanadehon chushingura, Act X.
7. This must be Segawa Kikunojoｵ II (1741-1793) since Bunkoｵ a few lines later calls her "Rokoｵ's nun." Kikunojoｵ I (1693-1749) had also been famous for performing "Onna Narukami" roles.
8. This is a genre of kyoｵgen first performed in 1696.12 at the Nakamuraza. The play referred to here is "Onna Narukami omoi no takitsuse," written by Tsuuchi Kuheiji (dates unknown) and first performed at Ichimuraza in 1743.3.
9. These are two comic priests who stand guard over Narukami as he prays.
10. This is a temple in Asakusa, Kurobune-choｵ.
11. The title in Edo hyaku bakemono is "The monster of painting." Itchoｵ (1652-1724) was born in Osaka and came to Edo at the age of fifteen to receive painting lessons from Kanoｵ Yasunobu (1613-1685) and took the name Kanoｵ Shinkoｵ. Having published a collection of satirical designs which offended the shogunal government, he was banished to Miyakejima, one of the seven Izu Islands, in 1698 where he lived for twelve years. It was after his exile that he took the name Hanabusa Itchoｵ.
12. Tora Gozen and Kewaizaka Shoｵshoｵ are two characters in Soga monogatari (Tale of the Soga brothers, 1361-1388).
13. Xi Hu , a lake in Chekiang, is one of the eight views of the Xiang (Shoｵshoｵ) River, which flows through eastern and southern Hunan province. It is an area famous for its beautiful scenes and many historic sites.
14. The headquarters of the Pure Land sect in Kyoto.
15. Two merchants of the Edo period.
16. In present-day Shibuya, Tokyo.
 
 

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16. Akita Suginao monogatari 秋田杉直物語 (Tale of Akita Suginao, 1758). National Diet Library MS. Hayakawa Junzaburoｵ, ed. Rekkoｵ shimpi roku zen 列候深秘録全 (Complete record of the secrets of the daimyo). Tokyo: Kokusho kankoｵkai 國書刊行会, 1914.

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