Satsuyu kiko

• Date: 1801
• Japanese: 薩遊紀行 (Satsuyû kikô)

Satsuyû kikô is a travel diary written in 1801 by a Kumamoto han retainer, describing his travels in Satsuma domain. The identity of the author, and the purpose of his journey, are unclear, but the content is nevertheless very informative as to people, places, events, and conditions in Satsuma at that time. The author departed from Kumamoto castle on 1801/4/12, arriving in Kagoshima on 4/25. He stayed for roughly one month, and departed Kagoshima on 5/30. He writes about meetings with the lord of Satsuma and with many retainers, friends, scholars, artists, and the like, as well as with several Ryukyuan scholar-officials, and records a wealth of information learned from such meetings. A meeting with a Satsuma official assigned to Ryûkyû even resulted in the author being able to copy into his diary an official imperial edict from the Jiaqing Emperor.

He also describes a number of day-trips he took out of Kagoshima City to visit shrines, temples, and other famous places.

The authors mixes kanbun (classical Chinese) and wabun (forms of classical Japanese), seemingly simply depending on how he thought about certain things. Most of his objective descriptions are in kanbun, while accounts of his discussions with others, and records of his own impressions and thoughts, are in wabun.

References

• Ono Masako, Tomita Chinatsu, Kanna Keiko, Taguchi Kei, "Shiryô shôkai Kishi Akimasa bunko Satsuyû kikô," Shiryôhenshûshitsu kiyô 31 (2006), 215-258.