THE MOMO-YAMA EPOCH
MOMO-YAMA
THE epochs of Japanese history from the eighth century until the fall
of the Ashikaga shogunate are generally divided into the Nara, the
Heian, the Kamakura, the Muromachi, and the Higashi-yama. To these
has now to be added the Momo-yama (Peach Hill), a term derived from
the name of a palatial residence built by Hideyoshi in the Fushimi
suburb of Kyoto. The project was conceived in 1593, that is to say,
during the course of the Korean campaign, and the business of
collecting materials was managed on such a colossal scale that the
foundations could be laid by September in the same year. Two months
sufficed not only to construct a mansion of extraordinary
magnificence and most elaborate interior decoration, but also to
surround it with a spacious park presenting all the choicest features
of Japanese landscape gardens. The annals state that fifty thousand
men were engaged on the work, and the assertion ceases to seem
extravagant when we consider the nature of the task and the
singularly brief period devoted to its completion. It was Hideyoshi's
foible to surpass all his predecessors and contemporaries alike in
the magnitude of his designs and in the celerity of their
achievement. Even his pastimes were conceived on the same stupendous
scale. Thus, in 1594, at the very time when his armies in Korea were
conducting an oversea campaign of unprecedented magnitude, he planned
a flower-viewing fete which will live in the pages of history as more
sumptuous and more magnificent than the hitherto unrivalled
festivities of Yoshimasa. The places visited were the cherry-clad
hills of Yoshino and the venerable monastery of Koya, and some idea
of the scale of the fete may be gathered from the fact that to a
shrine on Koya-san, dedicated to the memory of his mother, Hideyoshi
presented a sum equivalent to £14,000 or $68,000.
Still more lavish was a party organized four years later to visit the
cherry blossoms at Daigo in the suburbs of Kyoto. This involved the
rebuilding of a large Buddhist temple (Sambo-in) to accommodate
Hideyoshi and his party as a temporary resting-place, and involved
also the complete enclosing of the roads from Momo-yama to Daigo, as
well as of a wide space surrounding the slopes of the cherry-clad
hills, with fences festooned in silk curtains. Numerous tea pavilions
were erected, and Hideyoshi, having sent home all his male guests and
attendants, remained himself among a multitude of gorgeously
apparelled ladies, and passed from pavilion to pavilion, listening to
music, witnessing dancing, and viewing works of art.
HIDEYOSHI'S FAMILY
A conspicuous figure at the Daigo fete was Hideyori, the
five-year-old son of Hideyoshi. Fate treated Hideyoshi harshly in the
matter of a successor. His younger brother, Hidenaga, perished on the
threshold of a career that promised to be illustrious; his infant
son, Tsurumatsu, passed away in September, 1591, and Hideyoshi, being
then in his fifty-fourth year, saw little prospect of becoming again
a father. He therefore adopted his nephew, Hidetsugu, ceding to him
the office of regent (kwampaku), and thus himself taking the title of
Taiko, which by usage attached to an ex-regent.* Hidetsugu, then in
his twenty-fourth year, had literary gifts and polite accomplishments
much above the average. But traditions--of somewhat doubtful
veracity, it must be admitted--attributed to him an inhuman love of
taking life, and tell of the indulgence of that mood in shocking
ways. On the other hand, if credence be due to these tales, it seems
strange that they were not included in the accusations preferred
finally against Hidetsugu by the Taiko, when the former's overthrow
became advisable in the latter's eyes. For it did so become. Within
less than two years of Hidetsugu's elevation to the post of regent,
another son was born to Hideyoshi by the same lady, Yodo, the demise
of whose child, Tsurumatsu, had caused Hideyoshi to despair of being
succeeded by an heir of his own lineage. A niece of Oda Nobunaga,
this lady was the eldest of three daughters whose mother shared the
suicide of her husband, the great general, Shibata Katsuiye.
Hideyoshi placed her among his consorts, bestowing upon her the
castle of Yodo, hence her name, Yodogimi. Her rare beauty captivated
the veteran statesman and soldier, and won for her suggestions a
measure of deference which they did not intrinsically deserve. Soon
the court became divided into two cliques, distinguished as the
"civil" and the "military." At the head of the latter stood
Hideyoshi's wife, Yae, a lady gifted with large discernment, who had
shared all the vicissitudes of her husband's fortunes, and acted as
his shrewd and loyal adviser on many occasions. With her were Kato
Kiyomasa and other generals and nobles of distinction. The civil
party espoused the cause of the lady Yodo, and among its followers
was Ishida Katsushige, to whom chiefly the ultimate catastrophe is
attributed by history.
*It is by this title, "Taiko," that Hideyoshi is most frequently
spoken of in History.
The birth of Hideyori on August 29, 1593, immediately actuated the
dissensions among these two cliques. Ishida Katsushige, acting in
Hideyori's interests, set himself to convince the Taiko that
Hidetsugu harboured treacherous designs, and Hideyoshi, too readily
allowing himself to credit tales which promised to remove the one
obstacle to his son's succession, ordered Hidetsugu to commit
suicide, and at the same time (August 8, 1595), sentenced his
concubines to be executed in the dry bed of the river Sanjo. Their
heads, together with that of Hidetsugu himself, were buried in the
same grave, over which was set a tablet bearing the inscription,
"Tomb of the Traitor, Hidetsugu." To this day, historians remain
uncertain as to Hidetsugu's guilt. If the evidence sufficed to
convict him, it does not appear to have been transmitted to
posterity. The Taiko was not by nature a cruel man. Occasionally fits
of passion betrayed him to deeds of great violence. Thus, on one
occasion he ordered the crucifixion of twenty youths whose sole
offence consisted in scribbling on the gate-posts of the Juraku
palace. But in cold blood he always showed himself forebearing, and
letters written by his own hand to his mother, his wife, and others
disclose an affectionate and sympathetic disposition. It would be
unjust to assume that without full testimony such a man sentenced a
whole family of his own relatives to be executed.
ENGRAVING: MAEDA TOSHIIYE
HIDEYOSHI'S DEATH
A few months after the Daigo fete, Hideyoshi was overtaken by mortal
sickness. His last days were tormented by the thought that all his
skill as an organizer and all his power as a ruler were incompetent
to devise a system such as would secure the succession to his child.
In June, 1596, he had procured the investiture of Hideyori, then
three years old, with the title of regent, and when, just two years
later, his own sickness began to develop alarming features, he
resolved to place all his trust in Ieyasu. After much thought three
boards were ordered to be formed: one consisted of five senior
ministers (dairo), its personnel being Tokugawa Ieyasu, Mori
Terumoto, Ukita Hideiye, Maeda Toshiiye, and Uesugi Kagekatsu. By
these five statesmen the great affairs of the empire were to be
managed. The second board was formed with three nobles of lesser
note. They were designated the "middle ministers" (churo), whose duty
was to arbitrate between the board of senior ministers and the third
board, namely that of five "administrators" (bugyo). This third board
had been originally organized by Hideyoshi in 1585, but it had not,
of course, been associated with the other two boards which came into
existence after Hideyoshi's death, though its personnel and its
functions remained throughout the same as they had been originally.
Again and again, with almost pitiable iteration, the Taiko conjured
the thirteen nobles forming these boards to protect Hideyori and to
ensure to him the heirship of his father's great fortunes. Each was
required to subscribe a written oath of eight articles:
(1) That they would serve Hideyori with the same single-minded
loyalty they had shown to his father.
(2) That the rules of Hideyoshi's house were not to be altered; and
that if, in the administration of public affairs, the five bugyo were
unable to determine a course of action, they should consult Hideyori
through Ieyasu and Toshiie; or, if necessary before taking action,
the Emperor was to be consulted.
(3) That there were to be no factions among them, personal
considerations and partiality of every kind being excluded from their
councils.
(4) That they must endeavour to work together in the discharge of
their duties, suppressing all petty jealousies and differences.
(5) That, in settling matters, the opinion of the majority was
usually to be followed, but, at the same time, if the opinion of the
minority showed no sign of being dictated by personal interests, it
should be duly considered. That without permission from Hideyori no
administrator should dispose of any of his (the administrator's)
territory to another person.
(6) That all accounts were to be kept in a manner above suspicion;
that there were to be no irregularities and no pursuing of personal
interests; that no questions concerning landed estates should be
dealt with during the minority of Hideyori; that no petitions should
be presented to him, and that Ieyasu himself would neither ask for
changes to be made in the matter of land-ownership nor accept any
gift of land from Hideyori during the latter's minority.
(7) That whatever Hideyori desired to have kept secret, whether
connected with his private life or with the Government, must on no
account be allowed to leak out.
(8) That if any of the administrators or their subordinates found
that they had unwittingly acted contrary to orders, they should at
once report the fact to their superiors, who would then deal
leniently with them.
The above document was solemnly endorsed, the gods being called upon
to punish any one violating its provisions. It was further ordered
that Hidetada, son of Ieyasu, should give his daughter in marriage to
Hideyori; that Ieyasu, residing in the Fushimi palace, should act as
regent until Hideyori reached the age of fifteen, and that Maeda
Toshiiye, governing the castle of Osaka, should act as guardian of
Hideyori. It is recorded by some historians that the taiko conferred
on Ieyasu discretionary power in the matter of Hideyori's succession,
authorizing the Tokugawa baron to be guided by his own estimate of
Hideyori's character as to whether the latter might be safely trusted
to discharge the high duties that would devolve on him when he
reached his majority. But the truth of this allegation is open to
doubt. It may well have been invented, subsequently, by apologists
for the line adopted by Ieyasu. Hideyoshi died on September 18, 1598.
His last thoughts were directed to the troops in Korea. He is said to
have addressed to Asano Nagamasa and Ishida Katsushige orders to go
in person to the peninsula, and to provide that "the spirits of one
hundred thousand Japanese soldiers serving there should not become
disembodied in a foreign land." For a time the death of the great
statesman was kept secret, but within three months the newly created
boards found themselves strong enough to cope with the situation, and
the remains of Hideyoshi were publicly interred at the shrine of
Amida-ga-mine, near Kyoto.
HIDEYOSHI'S CHARACTER
In modern times many distinguished Japanese historians have
undertaken to analyze Hideyoshi's character and attainments. They are
divided in their estimate of his literary capacity. Some point to his
letters, which, while they display a not inconsiderable familiarity
with Chinese ideographs, show also some flagrant neglect of the uses
of that script. Others refer to his alleged fondness for composing
Japanese poems and adduce a verselet said to have been written by him
on his death-bed:
Ah! as the dew I fall,
As the dew I vanish.
Even Osaka fortress
Is a dream within a dream.
It is not certain, however, that Hideyoshi composed this couplet, and
probably the truth is that his labours as a soldier and a statesman
prevented him from paying more than transitory attention to
literature. But there can be no question that he possessed an almost
marvellous power of reading character, and that in devising the best
exit from serious dilemmas and the wisest means of utilizing great
occasions, he has had few equals in the history of the world. He knew
well, also, how to employ pomp and circumstance and when to dispense
with all formalities. Above all, in his choice of agents he never
allowed himself to be trammelled by questions of birth or lineage,
but chose his officers solely for the sake of their ability and
attainments, and neither tradition nor convention had any influence
on the appointments he made. He was passionate but not resentful, and
he possessed the noble quality of not shrinking from confession of
error. As for his military genius and his statecraft, it is only
necessary to consider his achievements. They entitle him to stand in
the very front of the world's greatest men. Turning to his
legislation, we find much that illustrates the ethics of the time. It
was in 1585 that he organized the board of five administrators, and
the gist of the regulations issued in the following year for their
guidance was as follows:
(1) No subordinate shall leave his liege lord without the latter's
permission, nor shall anyone give employment to a violator of this
rule.
(2) Farmers must remain on the land assigned to them and must never
leave it untilled. On the other hand, landowners should visit their
tenants and should investigate in company with the latter the actual
amount of the harvest reaped. One-third of this should be left to the
farmer and two-thirds should go to the owner of the land.
(3) If owing to natural calamity the harvest be less than two bushels
per acre, the whole of the yield shall go to the farmer. But if the
harvest exceed that figure, it shall be divided in the proportions
indicated in (2).
(4) No farmer shall move away from his holding to avoid the land-tax
or to escape forced labour. Anyone harbouring a violator of this rule
shall expose to punishment not only himself but also the inhabitants
of the entire village where he resides.
(5) The lord of a fief must issue such instructions as shall
guarantee his agricultural vassals against trouble or annoyance, and
shall himself investigate local affairs instead of entrusting that
duty to a substitute. Landowners who issue unreasonable orders to
farmers shall be punished.
(6) In calculating cubic contents, the regulated unit of measure
shall be used, and two per cent, shall be the maximum allowance for
shortage.
(7) Embankments injured by floods and other mischief wrought by
natural calamities must be repaired during the first month of the
year when agriculturists are at leisure. In the case, however, of
damage which exceeds the farmers' capacity to repair, the facts
should be reported to the taiko who will grant necessary assistance.
There follow various sumptuary regulations. We have next a series of
interesting instructions known as "wall-writings" of the castle of
Osaka:
(1) Intermarriages between daimyo's families require the previous
consent of the Taiko.
(2) Neither daimyo nor shomyo is permitted to enter into secret
engagements or to exchange written oaths, or to give or take
hostages.
(3) In a quarrel the one who forebears shall be recognized as having
reason.
(4) No man, whatever his income, should keep a large number of
concubines.
(5) The amount of sake imbibed should be limited to one's capacity.
(6) The use of sedan-chairs shall be confined to Ieyasu, Toshiie,
Kagekatsu, Terumoto, Takakage, the court nobles, and high priests.
Even a daimyo, when young, should ride on horseback. Those over fifty
years of age may use a sedan-chair when they have to travel a
distance of over one ri (two and a half miles). Priests are exempted
from this veto.
Very interesting, too, is the Taiko Shikimoku, consisting of
seventy-three articles, of which thirteen are translated as follows:
(1) Free yourself from the thraldom of passion.
(2) Avoid heavy drinking.
(3) Be on your guard against women.
(4) Be not contentious or disputatious.
(5) Rise early.
(6) Beware of practical jokes.
(7) Think of your own future.
(8) Do not tire of things.
(9) Beware of thoughtless people.
(10) Beware of fire.
(11) Stand in awe of the law.
(12) Set up fences in your hearts against wandering or extravagant
thoughts.
(13) Hold nobody in contempt.
The sumptuary rules referred to above were that, so far as a man's
means permitted, all garments except those worn in winter should be
lined with silk, and that this exception did not apply to the members
of the Toyotomi family a strange provision showing that Hideyoshi did
not expect his own kith and kin to set an example of economy, however
desirable that virtue might be in the case of society at large.
Further, it was provided that no wadded garment should be worn after
the 1st of April--corresponding to about the 1st of May in the
Gregorian calendar; that pantaloons and socks must not be lined; that
men of inferior position must not wear leather socks, and that
samurai must use only half-foot sandals, a specially inexpensive kind
of footgear. Finally, no one was permitted to employ a crest composed
with the chrysanthemum and the Paulownia imperialis unless specially
permitted by the Taiko, who used this design himself, though
originally it was limited to the members of the Imperial family. So
strict was this injunction that even in the case of renovating a
garment which carried the kiku-kiri crest by permission, the badge
might not be repeated on the restored garment. Supplementary
regulations enjoined members of the priesthood, whether Buddhist or
Shinto, to devote themselves to the study of literature and science,
and to practise what they preached. Moreover, men of small means were
urged not to keep more than one concubine, and to assign for even
this one a separate house. It was strictly forbidden that anyone
should go about with face concealed, a custom which had prevailed
largely in previous eras.
MOTIVES OF LEGISLATION
The 7th of August, 1595, was the day of the Hidetsugu tragedy, and
the above regulations and instructions were promulgated for the most
part early in September of the same year. It is not difficult to
trace a connexion. The provision against secret alliances and
unsanctioned marriages between great families; the veto against
passing from the service of one feudal chief to that of another
without special permission, and the injunction against keeping many
concubines were obviously inspired with the purpose of averting a
repetition of the Hidetsugu catastrophe. Indirectly, the spirit of
such legislation suggests that the signatories of these
laws--Takakage, Terumoto, Toshiiye, Hideiye, and Ieyasu--attached
some measure of credence to the indictment of treason preferred
against Hidetsugu.
AGRARIAN LAWS
The agrarian legislation of Hideyoshi is worthy of special attention.
It shows a marked departure from the days when the unit of rice
measurement was a "handful" and when thirty-six handfuls made a
"sheaf," the latter being the tenth part of the produce of a tan. In
Hideyoshi's system, all cubic measurements were made by means of a
box of accurately fixed capacity--10 go, which was the tenth part of
a koku (5.13 bushels)--the allowance for short measure was limited to
two per cent., and the rule of 360 tsubo to the tan (a quarter of an
acre) was changed to 300 tsubo.
At the same time (1583), land surveyors (kendenshi) were appointed to
compile a map of the entire country. A similar step had been taken by
the Ashikaga shogun, Yoshiteru, in 1553, but the processes adopted on
that occasion were not by any means so accurate or scientific as
those prescribed by the Taiko. The latter entrusted the work of
survey to Nazuka Masaiye, with whom was associated the best
mathematician of the era, Zejobo, and it is recorded that owing to
the minute measures pursued by these surveyors and to the system of
taking two-thirds of the produce for the landlord instead of one-half
or even less, and owing, finally, to estimating the tan at 300 tsubo
instead of at 360 without altering its taxable liability, the
official revenue derived from the land throughout the empire showed a
total increase of eight million koku, equivalent to about £11,000,000
or $54,000,000.
Hideyoshi has been charged with extortion on account of these
innovations. Certainly, there is a striking contrast between the
system of Tenchi and that of Toyotomi. The former, genuinely
socialistic, divided the whole of the land throughout the empire in
equal portions among the units of the nation, and imposed a land-tax
not in any case exceeding five per cent, of the gross produce. The
latter, frankly feudalistic, parcelled out the land into great
estates held by feudal chiefs, who allotted it in small areas to
farmers on condition that the latter paid sixty-six per cent, of the
crops to the lord of the soil. But in justice to Hideyoshi, it must
be owned that he did not devise this system. He was not even the
originator of its new methods, namely, the abbreviation of the tan
and the expansion of the rate. Both had already been put into
practice by other daimyo. It must further be noted that Hideyoshi's
era was essentially one of war. The outlays that he was obliged to
make were enormous and perpetual. He became accustomed, as did his
contemporary barons, to look lightly at vast expenditure. Not
otherwise can we account for the fact that, within the brief period
of eleven years, he undertook and completed five great works
involving enormous cost. These works were the Osaka Castle, in 1583;
a palace for the retiring Emperor Okimachi, in 1586; the palace of
Juraku, in 1587; the Kyoto Daibutsu, in 1586, and the Momo-yama
Palace, in 1594. What sum these outlays aggregated no attempt has
been made to calculate accurately, but the figure must have been
immense. In fact, when Hideyoshi's financial measures are considered,
it should always be in the context of his achievements and his
necessities.
COINS
Another important feature of Hideyoshi's era was the use of coins.
During the time of the Ashikaga shogunate, two kinds of gold coins
were minted, and both were called after the name of the era when they
first went into circulation; they were known as the Shocho koban
(1428-1429) and the Tembun koban (1532-1555). But these coins were so
rare that they can scarcely be said to have been current. As tokens
of exchange, copper coins were imported from China, and were known in
Japan as Eiraku-sen, Eiraku being the Japanese pronunciation of the
Chinese era, Yunglo. These were of pure metal, and side by side with
them were circulated an essentially inferior iron coin struck in
Japan and known as bita-sen. Oda Nobunaga, appreciating the
disastrous effects produced by such currency confusion, had planned
remedial measures when death overtook him, and the task thus devolved
upon Hideyoshi. Fortunately, the production of gold and silver in
Japan increased greatly at this epoch, owing to the introduction of
scientific metallurgical methods from Europe. The gold mines of Sado
and the silver mines of Ikuno quadrupled or quintupled their output,
and Hideyoshi caused an unprecedented quantity of gold and silver
coins to be struck; the former known as the Tensho koban and the
Tensho oban,* and the latter as the silver bu (ichibu-giri) and the
silver half-bu (nishu-gin.)
*The oban was an oval plate measuring 7 inches by 4, and weighing 53
ounces. It contained 63.84 per cent, of gold and 20 per cent, of
silver. The koban was one-tenth of the value of the oban.
Gold and silver thenceforth became the standards of value, and as the
mines at Sado and Ikuno belonged to the Government, that is to say,
to Hideyoshi, his wealth suddenly received a conspicuous increase.
That he did possess great riches is proved by the fact that when, in
September, 1596, a terrible earthquake overthrew Momo-yama Castle and
wrecked all the great structures referred to above, involving for
Hideyoshi a loss of "three million pieces of gold," he is described
as having treated the incident with the utmost indifference, merely
directing that works of reparation should be taken in hand forthwith.
The records say that Osaka Castle, which had suffered seriously and
been rendered quite uninhabitable, was put in order and sumptuously
fitted up within the short space of six weeks. Of course, much of the
resulting expense had to be borne by the great feudatories, but the
share of Hideyoshi himself cannot have been inconsiderable.
LITERATURE, ART, AND COMMERCE
It has already been shown that in spite of the disorder and unrest
which marked the military era, that era saw the birth of a great art
movement under the Ashikaga shogun, Yoshimasa. It has now to be noted
that this movement was rapidly developed under the Taiko. "The latter
it was whose practical genius did most to popularize art. Although
his early training and the occupations of his life until a late
period were not calculated to educate esthetic taste, he devoted to
the cause of art a considerable portion of the sovereign power that
his great gifts as a military leader and a politician had brought
him." His earnest patronage of the tea ceremonial involved the
cultivation of literature, and although he himself did not excel in
that line, he did much to promote the taste for it in others. In the
field of industrial art, however, his influence was much more marked.
Not only did he bestow munificent allowances on skilled artists and
art artisans, but also he conferred on them distinctions which proved
stronger incentives than any pecuniary remuneration, and when he
built the celebrated mansions of Juraku and Momo-yama, so vast were
the sums that he lavished on their decoration, and such a certain
passport to his favour did artistic merit confer, that the little
town of Fushimi quickly became the art capital of the empire, and
many of the most skilful painters, lacquerers, metal-workers, and
wood-carvers within the Four Seas congregated there.
Historians speak with profound regret of the dismantling and
destruction of these splendid edifices a few years after the Taiko's
death; but it is more than probable that the permanent possession of
even such monuments of applied art could not have benefited the
country nearly as much as did their destruction. For the immediate
result was an exodus of all the experts who, settling at Fushimi, had
become famous for the sake of their Momo-yama work. They scattered
among the fiefs of the most powerful provincial nobles, who received
them hospitably and granted them liberal revenues. From that time,
namely, the close of the sixteenth century, there sprang up an
inter-fief rivalry of artistic production which materially promoted
the development of every branch of art and encouraged refinement of
life and manners. Not less noteworthy in the history of this military
epoch is the improvement that took place in the social status of the
merchant during the sixteenth century. Much was due to the liberal
views of the Taiko. He encouraged commercial voyages by his
countrymen to Macao and to Cambodia, to Annam, and to other places.
Nine ships engaged in this trade every year. They carried licences
bearing the Taiko's vermilion stamp, and the ports of departure were
Nagasaki, Osaka, and Sakai.
ENGRAVING: SIGNATURE OF TOKUGAWA IEYASU
ENGRAVING: MOUNTAIN "KAGO"