Difference between revisions of "User:LordAmeth/Notes"

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**Only a few individuals were ever formally invested by the Ming as "king of Japan": they include [[Prince Kanenaga]] (c. 1370-1371?), Ashikaga Yoshimitsu in 1403 or 1404, Ashikaga Yoshimochi in 1408, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1596.
 
**Only a few individuals were ever formally invested by the Ming as "king of Japan": they include [[Prince Kanenaga]] (c. 1370-1371?), Ashikaga Yoshimitsu in 1403 or 1404, Ashikaga Yoshimochi in 1408, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1596.
 
**Ji-Young Lee suggests that investiture, from as early as the Han Dynasty, was a way of bridging the gap between Chinese rhetoric that the Son of Heaven claimed dominion over all, and the real practical limitations on Chinese territorial power - the granting of Chinese imperial titles, honorary positions within the Chinese court hierarchy, to foreign rulers, was a means of incorporating them into "all under Heaven," i.e. into the Emperor's dominion, despite not having the power or resources to actually take over or administer those lands. - Lee, "Diplomatic Ritual as a Power Resource," 322.
 
**Ji-Young Lee suggests that investiture, from as early as the Han Dynasty, was a way of bridging the gap between Chinese rhetoric that the Son of Heaven claimed dominion over all, and the real practical limitations on Chinese territorial power - the granting of Chinese imperial titles, honorary positions within the Chinese court hierarchy, to foreign rulers, was a means of incorporating them into "all under Heaven," i.e. into the Emperor's dominion, despite not having the power or resources to actually take over or administer those lands. - Lee, "Diplomatic Ritual as a Power Resource," 322.
 +
 +
*investiture involved three documents: A zhao 詔 might be called in English an "imperial proclamation letter." Sent by the Ming or Qing emperor, it proclaimed to all the people of Joseon that the Son of Heaven was investing the king. Second, a chi 勅. This is usually translated as edict, but in the context of investiture might be called a "notification." It is written (at least partially) in the second person, addressed to "you", the king, and notified him that he was being formally invested. Third, a gaoming 誥命. This was the "patent," or certificate, of investiture. - Bumjin Koo, "Languages of the Qing Investiture Letters for Chosŏn
 +
before the Conquest of China," talk given at HMC Seminar, University of Tokyo, 29 Nov 2019.
  
 
*The Sinocentric Confucian worldview, the idea of the Emperor as center and source of civilization, and of foreign peoples as expressing a desire to change, or an "inclination towards civilization" (xianghua), still has power today. The standard nationalist view of Qing history, both in the PRC and Taiwan, rejects the notion that Qing China was ever an empire in the imperialist or colonialist sense; according to this narrative, various non-Han peoples of the Qing Empire were incorporated not by force, conquest, or coercion, but by cultural assimilation, the idea being that "frontier peoples willingly accepted the norms of the orthodox Confucian culture because they recognized its superiority." (Peter Perdue, "Comparing Empires: Manchu Colonialism", p255)
 
*The Sinocentric Confucian worldview, the idea of the Emperor as center and source of civilization, and of foreign peoples as expressing a desire to change, or an "inclination towards civilization" (xianghua), still has power today. The standard nationalist view of Qing history, both in the PRC and Taiwan, rejects the notion that Qing China was ever an empire in the imperialist or colonialist sense; according to this narrative, various non-Han peoples of the Qing Empire were incorporated not by force, conquest, or coercion, but by cultural assimilation, the idea being that "frontier peoples willingly accepted the norms of the orthodox Confucian culture because they recognized its superiority." (Peter Perdue, "Comparing Empires: Manchu Colonialism", p255)

Revision as of 08:28, 26 November 2019

NOTES for later articles:

  • Sanpincha = 香片茶
  • Sapporo means Dry land in Ainu.
  • Lake Akan - ainu word for unchanging or everlasting.
  • Ryukyuan painters began studying Chinese painting in Fuzhou in the 17th century. - Junko Kobayashi, "The Demise of Ryukyuan Painting," Okinawan Art in its Regional Context symposium, University of East Anglia, Norwich, 10 Oct 2019.
  • While Japanese traditional painting typically used gofun (seashell, calcium carbonate) as white pigment, Ryukyuan traditional painting used enpaku 鉛白 (lead white). - Junko Kobayashi, "The Demise of Ryukyuan Painting," Okinawan Art in its Regional Context symposium, University of East Anglia, Norwich, 10 Oct 2019.
  • "Since a carved seal could be used by any subordinate, however, it was considered inferior to a kao, and in this sense, it was more polite to sign documents with a kao. Although a carved seal was often used to authenticate official documents addressed to subordinates, many feudal lords recognized the need to sign a letter to an equal partner with a kao." - Kinoshita Ryoma, "Browsing library materials—A look at documents from medieval Japan, Part 5: "Since I have eye trouble"―Medieval etiquette when using carved seals," NDL Newsletter 216 (Feb 2018). http://www.ndl.go.jp/en/publication/ndl_newsletter/216/21604.html
  • The Moon-Viewing Hall (Kangetsu dô) at Kotoku-in was a hall from a 15th century Korean royal palace, relocated from Tokyo to the temple in 1924. - Plaques on-site.
  • On hua-yi discourse: *What did the term 夷 mean in Tokugawa era discourse? What actions or practices marked someone or something as 夷? Should we translate 夷 as “barbarian” or was the term a softer marker of cultural difference? A striking aspect of Tokugawa discourse was the breadth of different, even contradictory, meanings for 夷. Not only did different authors use the term in different ways, but even single, purportedly coherent texts, used 夷 to refer to a striking range of people and practices. In the Tokugawa jikki, 夷 refers to rebels, Ainu and other non-literate “barbarians,” and Westerners. Including Abe no Sadato (1019-1062) who was defeated by the Minamoto; Goryeo; - Mark Ravina, presentation at AAS, March 2018, Washington DC.
  • Nearly all of Ezo (i.e. that outside of what was more directly inhabited and controlled by Matsumae) was considered 異域, a foreign region, throughout the Edo period. - gallery labels, Kyushu National museum.
  • Kawanabe Kyosui, a daughter of Kyosai, was an accomplished painter in her own right. [1], [2]
  • Shin Yu-han writes that even in summer, Japanese cities are quite clean and flies are rarely seen - because decaying fish or meat is buried quite quickly, and excrement is shipped out to the farms and used as fertilizer - thus giving it no time to sit around on the streets and attract flies. - Lee Jeong Mi, dissertation, 149.
  • The gayageum was developed around the 6th century. - Wing Luke Museum Gallery labels [3]
  • Mutsu province was the chief source of gold to the Heian court in the first half of the Heian period, including especially gold used to buy foreign goods from foreign traders at Hakata. However, by the 11th century, Mutsu was no longer able to provide such amounts. Gold (esp. from Mutsu province) fell away as a major Japanese export in the early 11th century, but reemerged in the late 12th. At that time, some 200-300,000 guan 貫of gold was likely being imported into China from Japan each year, chiefly through Ningpo, where the shibosi claimed a tariff of 10%. - Richard von Glahn, "The Ningbo-Hakata Merchant Network and the Reorientation of East Asian Maritime Trade, 1150-1350," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 74:2 (2014), 267, 270.
  • The revival of Uzagaku in the postwar began at least as early as 1992. The opening ceremonies at Shuri castle in 1992 included an uzagaku performance (at the 開門式、performing 太平歌). - ad for 27th Shuri Bunka Sai, Ryukyu Shimpo, 1 Nov 1992.
  • Nibutani is a small village of only about 500 people. Roughly 80% of them are Ainu. - Kanako Uzawa, "Reshaping the Present by Reconnecting to the Past – From a Perspective of Urban Ainu, Japan," talk given at UC Santa Barbara, 21 May 2018.
  • Kodama Sakuzaemon 1929-1970, prof. in Faculty of Medicine at Hokkaido University, collected many thousands of Ainu skulls or other remains. Also did ethnographic-style research on Ainu textile crafts. - Kanako Uzawa, "Reshaping the Present by Reconnecting to the Past – From a Perspective of Urban Ainu, Japan," talk given at UC Santa Barbara, 21 May 2018.
  • Neil Gordon Munro 1863-1942 – buried in Nibutani, alongside Ainu (Uzawa’s grandfather, whose life he saved during WWII) - Kanako Uzawa, "Reshaping the Present by Reconnecting to the Past – From a Perspective of Urban Ainu, Japan," talk given at UC Santa Barbara, 21 May 2018.
  • up until c. 1590 or so, many samurai families pride themselves on genealogies tracing themselves back to Korea or China, connecting them to the continent. After Hideyoshi's invasions, and maybe having to do with some other aspect of Tokugawa rule, samurai families no longer claim foreign descent, but craft Fujiwara, Taira, or Minamoto descent.
    • What origins do the Sô of Tsushima claim? Their identity as vassals of the Korean king is fascinatingly unique.
  • The Northern Fujiwara were one of the chief nikki no ie - houses which maintained records of court ritual, etc., in order to maintain a record of ritual precedents, so that propriety could be observed. Fujiwara no Tadahira (880-949), whose diary Teishin kôki is the oldest surviving courtier diary, included extensive details of ritual practices in that diary. - Conlan, From Sovereign to Symbol, 19.
  • When Mishima Yukio made his speech before SDF soldiers at the Ministry of Defense, they responded not with enthusiastic cheers of support, but with laughter, jeering, and mockery. Mishima then shouted Banzai! several times and withdrew to a room where he performed seppuku. - David Kertzer, Ritual, Politics, and Power (1988), 88.
  • Ryukyuan dance was first performed at a National Theater in 1967, just one year after Noh and Kabuki were first performed in that context. - Hideyo Konagaya, "Crossing Genres in Okinawan Performance: Art, Folk, and Power in the Cultural Protection System," presentation at Assoc. for Asian Studies annual conference, Washington DC, 23 March 2018.
  • Tamon yagura (a certain style of castle tower) were supposedly named after Tamon castle, controlled by the Sengoku daimyo Matsunaga Hisahide, who was perhaps the first to build that style of tower. - Explanatory plaques, Hikone castle.[4]
  • Investiture - Korean kings were receiving investiture from China for some 1000 years by the time of Joseon's founding in 1392. But, as Koryo and its predecessors were strongly Buddhist kingdoms, it was not until the rise of (Neo-)Confucianism as the dominant state ideology in the Joseon period that Korea was able to more fully embrace investiture as beneficial to domestic legitimacy & authority, rather than as a threat to the kingdom's identity. - Ji-Young Lee, “Diplomatic Ritual as a Power Resource: The Politics of Asymmetry in Early Modern Chinese-Korean Relations,” Journal of East Asian Studies 13 (2013), 316-317.
    • Only a few individuals were ever formally invested by the Ming as "king of Japan": they include Prince Kanenaga (c. 1370-1371?), Ashikaga Yoshimitsu in 1403 or 1404, Ashikaga Yoshimochi in 1408, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1596.
    • Ji-Young Lee suggests that investiture, from as early as the Han Dynasty, was a way of bridging the gap between Chinese rhetoric that the Son of Heaven claimed dominion over all, and the real practical limitations on Chinese territorial power - the granting of Chinese imperial titles, honorary positions within the Chinese court hierarchy, to foreign rulers, was a means of incorporating them into "all under Heaven," i.e. into the Emperor's dominion, despite not having the power or resources to actually take over or administer those lands. - Lee, "Diplomatic Ritual as a Power Resource," 322.
  • investiture involved three documents: A zhao 詔 might be called in English an "imperial proclamation letter." Sent by the Ming or Qing emperor, it proclaimed to all the people of Joseon that the Son of Heaven was investing the king. Second, a chi 勅. This is usually translated as edict, but in the context of investiture might be called a "notification." It is written (at least partially) in the second person, addressed to "you", the king, and notified him that he was being formally invested. Third, a gaoming 誥命. This was the "patent," or certificate, of investiture. - Bumjin Koo, "Languages of the Qing Investiture Letters for Chosŏn

before the Conquest of China," talk given at HMC Seminar, University of Tokyo, 29 Nov 2019.

  • The Sinocentric Confucian worldview, the idea of the Emperor as center and source of civilization, and of foreign peoples as expressing a desire to change, or an "inclination towards civilization" (xianghua), still has power today. The standard nationalist view of Qing history, both in the PRC and Taiwan, rejects the notion that Qing China was ever an empire in the imperialist or colonialist sense; according to this narrative, various non-Han peoples of the Qing Empire were incorporated not by force, conquest, or coercion, but by cultural assimilation, the idea being that "frontier peoples willingly accepted the norms of the orthodox Confucian culture because they recognized its superiority." (Peter Perdue, "Comparing Empires: Manchu Colonialism", p255)
  • Shinto shrines: in the medieval period, most shrines maintained three priestly positions: a kamuzukasa, or chief priest, who was typically male and who headed administrative duties; a negi, who performed purely religious/priestly/ritual duties including communicating with the kami and performing shamanistic rituals, and who was typically male, but at certain shrines was always female; and hafuri. - Haruko Nawata Ward, Women Religious Leaders in Japan's Christian Century, Ashgate (2009), 121.
  • Edo period succession ceremonies (or, at least, that in 1710) were very Chinese in their flavor 中国の模倣の色が濃い, unlike the invented Shinto-based ceremonies performed today since the Meiji period. - Watanabe Hiroshi 渡辺浩, “’Rei’ ‘Gobui’ ‘Miyabi’ – Tokugawa Seiken no girei to jugaku” 「『礼』『御武威』『雅び』-徳川政権の儀礼と儒学-」 in 国際研究集会報告書 vol 22, 公家と武家――その比較文明史的研究――, 国際日本文化研究センター (2004), 171.
  • Paper was likely introduced to Japan around the 4th century, along with writing, though the earliest record about paper in Japan is from the Nihon shoki, dating it to around 610 CE. Perhaps because of its associations with sutras, paper was believed to have divine properties that attracted kami and created purification, and it was believed that these properties were enhanced by folding the paper. - Martha Chaiklin, “The Material Culture of Gift Giving in Japan,” TAASA Review: The Journal of the Asian Arts Society of Australia 27:3 (2018), 19.

Offerings made to the kami or to members of the Imperial family are always presented uncovered, because (at least in the case of the kami) of associations with communal feasting. Gifts, and Shinto offerings especially, have long been presented in Japanese customs atop wooden stands that elevate the gift off the ground, thus separating it from impurity. Though in the Heian period circular lacquered stands were common, by the Edo period square or rectangular stands made of unlacquered, unpainted cypress were standard. The holes in the front and sides of these stands are called sanbô. - Martha Chaiklin, “The Material Culture of Gift Giving in Japan,” TAASA Review: The Journal of the Asian Arts Society of Australia 27:3 (2018), 18.

  • On translation: the 1871 publication of Lord Mitford's Tales of Old Japan (the first English-language translation of Japanese literature to be widely commercially circulated) represents a shift in how Western newspapers etc. talk about Japanese books - from talking about their illegibility and focusing on the pictures, to now seeing the stories and the language as quaint, exotic, and curious. The illegibility was somehow ominous, threatening, but now that there were experts who could translate, that threat was gone.
  • was Raku Chojiro (founder of Raku) Korean?
  • Whereas in earlier times attendants and servants were generally hereditary, by the 18th century, it had become quite common to hire attendants or servants on a short-term basis; this connects into a phenomenon discussed by Amy Stanley, of many people coming to Edo seasonally, incl. esp. from places like Echigo, to find work. (see Rebecca Corbett, Cultivating Femininity: Women and Tea Culture in Edo and Meiji Japan, University of Hawaii Press (2018), 122; Amy Stanley, upcoming work on Tsuneno and travel).
  • Thomas B. Van Buren was American consul general in Yokohama in 1880.
  • On omote & uchi - "authorities were less concerned with orthodoxy, or correct belief, than they were with orthopraxy, or correct practice" - Marcia Yonemoto, The Problem of Women, 221.
  • Chinese ancestral altars - typically a long, narrow, high table pushed up against a northern wall so that it faces south. This long table holds either a large paper scroll inscribed with the names of the ancestors, or multiple smaller wooden ancestor tablets, on the west side (stage right). The east side (stage left) holds either paper images or small statues of folk deities. Candlesticks, incense burners, and a flower vase sit in front of the god images or ancestral tablets on both left and right halves of the altar. A lower square table immediately in front of the altar holds foods and other offerings made to the ancestors. Traditionally, the senior woman of the household might light incense for the altar twice a day, bowing with three pieces of lit incense in her hands, and then distributing the three sticks to the ancestors, the gods, and to a third incense burner kept near the door of the house, to help ward off ghosts. The male head of household oversaw offerings on seasonal festivals, family events (e.g. weddings, births) and other major occasions, at which time offerings of food, spirit money, etc. might be made. - Catherine Bell, "Performance," Critical Terms for Religious Studies.
  • The Rokujo Palace was located between Aburanokoji and Nishinotôin, on the north side of Rokujô.
  • Kinrande 金襴手 - a ceramics technique in which gold foil designs are placed atop the enamel layer; it is then incised and re-fired. It's a technique named for how the designs are said to resemble silk brocades. With handling, the gold quickly begins to wear away. [5]
  • Surnames - Townspeople and villagers in Tokugawa Japan were not forbidden from having surnames - they were only forbidden from using surnames in certain (most) official contexts, e.g. writing their full name on official documents. - Herman Ooms, Tokugawa Village Practice, 132.
  • After the death of the Xuande Emperor in 1435, many pottery kilns which had up until then enjoyed imperial patronage fell into decline. The quality of ceramics declined, as well. Those kilns had to turn to merchant and commoner customers, and to overseas buyers. Meanwhile, however, pottery at Jingdezhen began to see some improvement at that same time. - Gallery labels, British Museum.[6]
  • Fahua 法華 - a style of Chinese ceramics in which incised lines separate areas of very bright colors. The term was coined by collectors in the 1920s. [7]
  • Korean court commissioned reproductions of the entire Buddhist corpus - some 80,000 woodblocks - in efforts to earn Buddhist grace and mercy, against the Mongol invasions.[8]
  • CASTLES

-after 1615, castles shifted from being chiefly military fortifications to being more primarily symbols of power and authority, and centers of administration and elite residence; though they were those things before, in a time of peace, these functions became even more primary. -in 1868, there were some 180 castles in Japan with any significant number of surviving Edo period buildings. -after the Meiji Restoration, amidst the construction of "modern" cities and prefectures, (former) castle grounds represent some of the chief areas of open space in the centers of many cities. About 43 are given over to military purposes, and come to be used as garrisons, armories, and strategic headquarters. Even amidst the fall of the Samurai order, and the efforts to establish a "modern" nation-state, the direct rhetorical link between these castles as centers of samurai warrior power, and now as military centers, is maintained and promoted. Further, many cities and prefectures almost immediately began using castles as symbols of the city or the prefecture in their promotional efforts, as they continue to do today. The nation of Japan as a whole also regularly uses castles as a promotional symbol: at the 1964 New York World's Fair, the Japan pavilion was in the form of an Edo period castle, and had the theme of "from Feudalism to the Space Age," including demonstrations of iaido, missiles, and shinkansen. -The military was terrible to the castles, however, demolishing many buildings, coarsely using many others just as they felt like, without care to preserving the historical architecture or interiors. -About 150 castles are demolished in the Meiji period, to make room for government offices, universities, or the like, or they are simply sold off to private buyers. Some 30 tenshu are left intact. -Some individual buildings, or individual elements of buildings, are spared destruction at the urging of Japanese or Western individuals interested in art, heritage, culture. The shachi of Nagoya castle are shown at the Vienna Expo in 1873 as examples of Japanese art/design/craftsmanship. -due to their use as military bases, many castles become direct military targets for Allied air raids during World War II, and only about twelve tenshu survive the war. -many of these sites are then taken over by the Occupation forces, and used as garrisons, headquarters, armories, just as the Imperial Japanese military used them previously. Military parades and the like display US/Allied military power, much as similar events in the 1890s-1940s did. (When the Occupation forces mistreat castle sites, it's a terrible offense against Japanese heritage, but when the Japanese do it themselves...?) -more castles are (re)built in the early postwar period (c. 1945-1960) than were ever built in any 15-year period previously. Today, depending on what we count as a "castle," there are as many as 250 castles in the country. A great many of these were designed by Fujioka Michio 藤岡通夫 and Kido Hisashi 城戸久. Though there is known to have been considerable regional variation in castle architecture in the Edo period, the involvement of these two individuals in reconstruction efforts all across the country contributed to a certain degree of homogenization in the rebuilt castle designs we see extant today. --These include rebuilding many that had already been lost long before 1868 (to what period should restoration be restored?), and a very few (e.g. Atami) are even built where there never was a historical castle at all. -efforts were made to "purify" castle sites of their military associations. This meant considerable efforts to tie the samurai past to "culture," cultural refinement, education, etc., and to the peace of the Edo period. And also in a more general sense, using them as symbols of the city, and as examples of the greatness of Japanese art & architecture without explicitly talking about samurai or war. -universities were built on the former sites of Shuri castle, Sendai castle, Kanazawa castle, while at Odawara, Hiroshima, and Fushimi they built zoos and theme parks. -Castle reconstruction, or renovation, continues today, and continues to be critiqued as it was in the 1940s-60s, from various corners: it's very expensive, and in the 1940s-50s especially many people were concerned about a celebration of feudalism and militarism (incl. under PM Kishi Nobusuke 1957-60). -beginning in the 1990s, we begin to see a replacement of concrete castles with wooden ones, with a turn towards a greater desire for "authenticity." -mascotification of the samurai -building in concrete made sense in the postwar, largely in order to adhere to safety standards for earthquake-proofing and fire-proofing. The experience of the war, and of the 1950 arson at Kinkaku-ji, contributed to these building standards being put and kept in place, and strictly adhered to. -this law is changed in the 1980s, allowing for large wooden buildings to be built again. -today, castles are often run by public-private foundations or associations, with strong ties to local government, but also to organizations like the Chamber of Commerce. All of which are often headed by members of many of the same elite circles (often Tôdai graduates). --All of this from: Ran Zwigenberg, "Citadels of Modernity: Japan's Castles in War & Peace," talk given at Temple University, Tokyo campus, 12 July 2017.

  • Helmets in the Heian, Kamakura, and Nanbokucho period were typically made of several iron plates, joined by rivets to form a low rounded helmet bowl called ôboshi. After teppo became widely used, battlefields filled with smoke which obscured the view, and so generals began to wear helmets ornamented with huge and distinctive elaborations, often made of papier-maché or lightweight woods.[11]
  • In the medieval period, most ships plying the Inland Sea followed the coastline. But in the early modern period, many more ships began to sail through the middle of the sea (沖乗り). This had an impact on which towns became more major ports. - Ryukyu shisetsu no Edo nobori to Mitarai, 3.
  • The main territory of Hikone han was in Ômi, but the domain also included “tobi-chi” – far-flung spots of domain territory – in Setagaya in Musashi province, and Sano in Shimousa. (Okazaki Hironori, in Asao (ed.), Fudai daimyo Ii ke no girei, 145)
  • Hakuseki writes in his Tokushi yoron that "the Northern Court was nothing but a creation of the Ashikaga, nobody regarded it as the rightful imperial line ... at the time the northern emperor seems to have been called the Pretender and the Northern Court the Pretender's Court." And further, that the Southern Court was extinguished due to its misrule and loss of virtue, while the Northern Court was raised up by the military houses for their own purposes. - Watanabe Hiroshi, A History of Japanese Political Thought, 1600-1901, International House of Japan (2012), 153, 155.
  • Highway stations (from Asao Naohiro (ed.), Fudai daimyo Ii ke no girei, 326-341.)
    • Samegai-juku (Nakasendo) - within territory of Yanagisawa clan of Yamato-Koriyama
    • Kashiwabara - same
    • Imasu 今須 - overseen by a daikan
    • Sekigahara - overseen by a daikan
    • Tarui (Nakasendo) - overseen by a daikan
    • Narumi (Tokaido) - territory of Owari han
    • Chiryû - territory of Kariya han
    • Okazaki - territory of Okazaki han
    • Fujigawa - overseen by a daikan
    • Akasaka - same
    • Goyu - same
    • Yoshida - territory of Yoshida han
    • Shirasuka - daikan
    • Arai - territory of Yoshida han
    • Maisaka - daikan
    • Mitsuke - daikan
    • Kakegawa - Kakegawa han
    • Nissaka - daikan
    • Kanaya - daikan
    • Shimada - daikan
    • Fujieda - Tanaka domain
    • Okabe - daikan
    • Mariko - daikan
    • Fuchû - Sunpu jôdai
    • Ejiri - overseen by Sunpu machi-bugyô
    • Okitsu - daikan
    • Yui - same
    • Kanbara - same
    • Yoshiwara - same
    • Hara - same
    • Numazu - Numazu han
    • Mishima - daikan
    • Hakone - Odawara domain
    • Odawara - Odawara domain
    • Ôiso - daikan
    • Hiratsuka - same
    • Fujisawa - daikan
    • Totsuka - daikan


  • Road expansions overseen by Watanabe Chiaki and Yamanouchi Teiun, governors of Kagoshima. Construction began in 1882, and was completed in 1887, costing over 500,000 yen, and covering over 400 km (100 ri). National Road 37 (today National Road 3) ran some 105 km (26 ri) through 25 towns, from Kagoshima through Ichiki, Sendai, and Akune, to the border with Kumamoto prefecture. National Road 38 (today, #10), ran some 66 km (16 ri) through 33 towns, from Kagoshima through Shigetomi, Kajiki, and Hama-no-ichi, to the border with Miyazaki prefecture. Plus four Prefectural Roads. - *Plaque at site of Road Opening Commemorative Stele 道路開鑿記念碑, Kagoshima City Central Park.[13]
  • Korea: samhan 三韓 was used in early Chinese sources to refer to the polities which preceded the Three Kingdoms of Korea. The same term was then later used to refer to the three kingdoms that emerged after United Silla broke up again in the 890s, up until they were reunified as Goryeo (Koryo) in 918. Kan 韓 (C/K: Han) was also used in the Nihon Shoki to refer to Korea. - Evelyn Rawski, Early Modern China and Northeast Asia: Cross-Border Perspectives, Cambridge University Press (2015), 198.
  • Since no roof tiles were found in excavations in the ichi-no-kaku (Honmaru) of Nakagusuku, they're assuming it was a thatched bldg. Katsuren, Nakijin, had closer to ten Lords in the same time period as Nakagusuku had four, so it's assumed they had more battles. - castle tour, during Nakagusuku Gosamaru Matsuri, 2016.
  • Itakura Katsuyori 板倉勝従 's wife was an adopted daughter of Okudaira Masashika 奥平昌鹿. - Kurushima, Morisuna, 1366.
  • the boat crossing at Imagire (今切渡船場) was destroyed in the 1854 earthquake. - Watanabe Kazutoshi 渡辺和敏, "Sankin kôtai to honjin" 参勤交代と本陣, Honjin ni tomatta daimyô tachi 本陣に泊まった大名たち, Toyohashi, Aichi: Futagawa-juku honjin shiryôkan (1996), 54.

Timothy Clark, "Edo Kabuki in the 1780s," The Actor's Image, Art Institute of Chicago (1994), 36.

  • Samurai class was converted to shizoku and sotsu in 1869. In 1872, many lower-ranking sotsu were reduced to regular citizens (heimin). - Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan, Oxford University Press (2013), 65.
  • Wooden samurai saddles took their form in the Heian period, and changed little all the way into the 1800s. - "Saddle with dragons and clouds," British Museum gallery label.[14]
  • The Exhibitions Department of the government (hakubutsu kyoku), in preparation for the 1873 Vienna World's Fair, stated that traditional styles (古風) of Japanese painting would make Japan look bad on the world stage. That Japanese painting had yet to achieve the right level of detail and refinement, and that Japanese efforts at depicting realistic scenery (真景) remained poor. - Foxwell, Making Modern Japanese-Style Painting, 7.
    • Overall, this was the dominant attitude in Japanese art in the early years of the Meiji period - at least among those with their eyes towards what would make Japan look good in Western eyes, and what would sell in Western markets. They felt that they had to adapt to Western modes and styles, in order to accommodate Western desires for detail, realism, and so forth. They would discover, however, that for the most part, Western collectors & art critics wanted Japanese art to look Japanese - to be different from Western art, and to have its own distinctive motifs, style, etc. (Foxwell, 1-2.)
  • Seoul was called 漢城 in the early modern period. - "Qing China as seen from Ryûkyû" 琉球から見た清朝, in Okada Hidehiro (ed.), Shinchô to ha nani ka 清朝とは何か, Fujiwara Shoten (2009), 255.
  • Igarashi and Kôami families were shogunate goyô shônin for lacquerwares. - Christine Guth, Art of Edo Japan, Yale University Press (1996), 95.
  • Ryuchikai split into Japan Art Association (Nihon Bijutsu Kyokai; leaders of traditional painting schools seeking to continue the painting traditions as they had been) and Kanga-kai (founded by Fenollosa & Okakura seeking to create a new blending of traditional and Western styles). Kanga-kai was associated with Tokyo Fine Arts School (Tokyo Bijutsu Gakko), while the Japan Art Association opposed the Ministry of Education's schools, and was associated with the Imperial Household Ministry. - Matsushima Masato, "Japan's Dream of Modern Art," Remaking Tradition: Modern Art of Japan from the Tokyo National Museum. Cleveland Museum of Art (2014), 22.
  • Meiji Art Society (Meiji Bijutsu kai, est 1889), was the "old school". Its members were mostly graduates of the Kôbu Bijutsu Gakko. In contrast, Kuroda Seiki established his own "new school," the Hakubakai, in 1896.
  • Kuge - lit. "official families", or "families of government." Hereditary occupants of the offices of the state. In 1868, there were 137 kuge houses, of which 97 were branches of the Fujiwara, and another 31 were either Sugawara, Kiyowara, Taira, or Minamoto. - Herschel Webb, The Japanese Imperial Institution in the Tokugawa Period, 89.
  • As many as 21,000 muen ("without connections") prostitutes are buried at Jôgan-ji in Tokyo. Most of them were in their 20s when they died, with no one to pay for a proper funeral. - Melinda Takeuchi, Seduction: Japan's Floating World, San Francisco: Asian Art Museum (2015), 11.
  • Tokugawa Ieyasu sent 11 letters to Cambodia in 1603-1610, three to Patani in 1599-1606, and 18 to the Philippines in 1601-1613. - Adam Clulow, “Like Lambs in Japan and Devils outside Their Land: Diplomacy, Violence, and Japanese Merchants in Southeast Asia,” Journal of World History 24:2 (2013), 339.
  • Arima Yorinori (is this a typo for someone else?) was the first lord to have his fief changed after Sekigahara. He was moved from a small 10,000 koku fief to a somewhat larger 20,000 koku one, after supporting Ieyasu in the campaign. - Pitelka, Spectacular Accumulation, 81.
  • Immigration: by 1880, the census shows 148 Japanese resident in the US.[16]
  • Japanese cuisine (料理故実) - The Shijô school of traditional cuisine traces its origins to the time of Emperor Kôkô, who had Fujiwara no Yamakage 藤原山蔭 (Shijô Chûnagon) develop it. The Muromachi Shogunate then employed Ôkusa Kôji 大草公次 of the Shijô school, who developed his own style, the Ôkusa school. The Shimazu clan continued on this Kamakura style of traditional cuisine all the way down to the end of the 16th century, and were quite proud to have maintained the true ancient traditions while so many other daimyô were following new trends. Following Hideyoshi's conquest of Kyushu, the Shimazu began to realize that their old customs were seen as backward, and that they needed to adopt the new customs in order to be seen as properly modern. They invited Ishihara Sado 石原佐渡 of the Ôkusa school; his descendants continued to serve the Shimazu, and the Ôkusa school spread within the domain. Some one hundred documents related to the Kamakura, Shijo, and Okusa schools of cuisine survive today in the collections of the Shokoshuseikan, and have been designated a Tangible Cultural Property by the prefecture. - http://www.shuseikan.jp/culture/culture19.html
  • Fujiwara Hidesato - aka 俵藤太秀郷 Tawara Tôta Hidesato - according to Shikidô Ôkagami, vol 17, p1.
  • Sakanoue Tamuramaro was possibly of mixed Chinese and Japanese parentage. - Gary Leupp, Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900, A&C Black (2003), 52.
  • Vasilii Mikhailovitch Golovnin 1776-1831, who was captured in 1811 and imprisoned in Hakodate for three years, wrote that he and his men received no looks of malice, hatred, or insult as they were marched through the town. - Leupp, 89.
  • On Omote & Naishô - “the law or custom requires that the death of an officer should not be mentioned until the government has either filled up the vacancy, or conferred some rank on his eldest son… This secrecy is, however, only publicly observed: the news is communicated in a confidential way from one to another, until, in a short time, it is known to every body.” - Golovnin, Memoirs, 95.
  • Kaikin: Hamashita Takeshi uses the term 選択的開国, which Schottenhammer translates as "selective opening" - Angela Schottenhammer, “The East Asian Maritime World, 1400-1800,” in Schottenhammer (ed.), The East Asian Mediterranean: Maritime Crossroads of Culture, Commerce and Human Migration, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag (2008), 39.
  • Kaikin was aimed not only at reducing, or controlling, the influxes of foreign influences, but also at developing a more monopolistic control over trade, and imposing a stronger order upon social classes, ... - Kenchi Ono, "Ethics and Entrepreneurship in Tokugawa Japan," in Maritime Asia: Profit Maximisation, Ethics and Trade Structure C. 1300-1800, 223.
  • Kaikin - whatever the motivations were for expelling the Iberians - that is, chiefly concerns about violence & Iberian plots to conquer the realm; and, fears about instabilities caused by Christian daimyô's divided loyalties - none of that really applied to the friendly Dutch. And yet the Dutch were restricted to Hirado, then Dejima, and their wives & children were expelled in 1639, for what? Leupp suggests it was because of a fear of race mixing, as an evil unto itself. - Leupp, 105.
  • Kaikin - not a singular policy initiative instituted in coordinated steps but rather, arguably, a series of policies which only formed a cohesive impact in aggregate, and in retrospect, with each step being taken to address a specific concern of that moment. Still, in aggregate, they can be seen as having been implemented in order to strengthen the legitimacy and security of Tokugawa rule, including severely restricting daimyô power to engage in foreign relations or foreign trade. This was not a blanket policy of seclusion or isolation, but rather addressed each foreign trading partner separately, with differing policies towards each. - William Wray, "Japanese Diaspora," 80.
  • Kaikin - scholars today also generally say that Japan was no more "isolated" or "closed" than other East Asian countries, and that its policies in this regard were thus not extreme or even unusual. Such policies were put into place in order to ensure peace and order within Japan, and in the broader region. - Wray, 74. and the overall volume of trade, in imports & exports in and out of Japan, did not decrease, but only increased going later into the 17th century. (Toby?)
  • Ogasawara Islands - the plaque placed by the British to claim the islands in 1827, on which they inscribed a renunciation of the claim in 1875 is today help in the Australian National Library in Canberra. - Tessa Morris-Suzuki, "The Frontiers of Japanese Identity," in Stein Tønnesson and Hans Antlöv (eds.), Asian Forms of the Nation, Psychology Press (1996), 57.
  • Overseas Chinese or Chinese diaspora - today, there are about 40 million people in the world who consider themselves members of the Chinese diaspora. Some 25 million of them live in Southeast Asia. - Craig Lockard, “‘The Sea Common to All’: Maritime Frontiers, Port Cities, and Chinese Traders in the Southeast Asian Age of Commerce, Ca. 1400–1750.” Journal of World History 21, no. 2 (2010): 246.
  • Kaikin - Korean policies were more restrictive. - Wray, 82. Wray further argues that "sakoku" or "kaikin" should not be seen only through the lens of economic concerns, or volume of trade - these policies had the very real effect of policing the movement of people, not just goods or funds.. These policies were aimed, at least in part, at curbing cultural & religious interactions which might threaten political stability - not just Europeans, and Christianity, but diaspora Japanese as well. Ronin, entrepreneurs, and others gained significant wealth and influence in cities across the region, including positions of power or influence within (or in relation to) foreign courts. Few if any of these figures had any direct loyalty to the Tokugawa, and whether simply through influence or more directly, they could turn these foreign courts (or various non-state entities) against the Tokugawa. By the very nature of their bases of power being so far away, they represented unknown quantities, beyond Tokugawa control, and potential rivals or problems for the shogunate. Thus, the seclusion edicts aimed to sever their direct access to networks of supporters or suppliers/consumers in Japan, and to put some distance between Tokugawa Japan and these outside powers. - Wray 83.
  • Chinese ceramics - Qing monochromes: porcelains with more complex overglaze designs were fired in small updraft kilns at 750-800 C, while single-color porcelains were fired at 950-1100 C, in the cooler parts of large cross-draft kilns.[17]
  • Hokkaido comprises about 20% of Japan's land area. - Kanako Uzawa, "Reshaping the Present by Reconnecting to the Past – From a Perspective of Urban Ainu, Japan," talk given at UCSB, 21 May 2018.
  • A pair of screens today in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum, depicting Chinese lions on one side, and bugaku scenes on the other, may be Hanabusa Itcho's most expensive commission. - [19]
  • maritime restrictions: It is important to note that when the shogunate limited trade at Nagasaki to Chinese and Dutch trading ships, the restrictions were more about the origin or control of the vessels than about the ethnicity or nationality of each member of the crew. Southeast Asian ships captained by Chinese traders, or Chinese ships crewed in part by Southeast Asian sailors, were included among the tôsen, while ships and employees of the Dutch East India company, regardless of their German or Swedish cultural/national/ethnic origin, were wholly permitted under the policies.
  • A type of aromatic sandalwood called byakudan 白檀 was often inserted in small pieces into books, to help keep bugs away. Ginkgo leaves were often used for similar purpose.
  • There were perhaps as many as more than 1000 cases of Korean castaways being repatriated by Japanese authorities in 1599 to 1888. - Geoffrey Gunn, History Without Borders: The Making of an Asian World Region, 1000-1800, Hong Kong University Press (2011), 218.
  • Some 10,000 people took part in the Chichibu Incident. - Fujitani, Splendid Monarchy, 164.
  • Excavations at the Satsuma Edo mansion dug up some 2000 animal bones, of which roughly 60% were from pigs or boar. This in contrast to the 200 bones found at the Sendai Edo mansion, most of which were from horses, dogs, and cats. - Momoto 14.
  • The Hojoki is often transcribed today using a combination of kanji and katakana (and no hiragana), as it appears in a particular 13th century handscroll version, even though another famous bound-book version of the text, from around the same time, employs hiragana in place of the katakana.
  • Tigers were considered a master of the earthly realm, and were commonly paired with dragons, though typically in an inferior position - the left side of a pair of screens, with the dragon on the right. Leopards (with spots) were mistakenly believed to be the female of the striped tiger, so while a tiger alone is a masculine symbol of strength and power, a tiger depicted alongside a leopard is a symbol of fecundity and succession - appropriate in family areas of a castle, for example, but not in most other places. - timon screech, Obtaining Images, 36. - This likely derived from the Korean belief in a paired spotted female 麒 and striped male 麟, whereas the Japanese kirin was a singular creature. p350n8.
  • The eleven-headed Kannon was one of the first Esoteric Buddhist deities to be worshipped in Japan. - Met Museum gallery label.[20]
  • Horse armor was largely absent prior to the Edo period. It was only around 1600 that samurai began to armor their horses; and before long, it became largely decorative, rather than intended to be militarily effective. [21]
  • The Portuguese, collectively, owed more debt to Japanese than to any other Asian lender. Japanese investors and lenders to Portuguese ventures made considerable profits, often charging interest rates as high as 25-30% on their loans, and were able to do so due to the balance of high risk (weather, pirates) and potential for great profits for the Portuguese ventures themselves. Even Macao's city government itself owed considerable sums to Japanese sources. - Wray, 85.
  • For government of the Kingdom of Ryukyu: Ryukyu had yokome 横目 inspectors, too. The Naha yokome was in charge of investigating matters among the people of Naha. He was under the jurisdiction of the Tomari jitô. - Naha shizoku no isshô 那覇士族の一生 (Naha: Naha City Museum of History, 2010), 14.
  • Samurai armor - many suits of armor were made in the Meiji period explicitly for export, i.e. for foreign consumption as artworks or collectors' items. - Gallery labels, Hotta mansion.[22]
  • Taiping War - There is little evidence that China before the Taiping War was beset by deep or intractable racial animosities. Chinese and Manchus certainly did have resentment towards one another, but ethnic conflict was not the primary cause of unrest, and racial invectives were typically appended to more direct grievances, rather than being the grievance at the center. Even the Taipings did not unequivocally hypothesize irremediable hostilities between Chinese and Manchus based on static racial qualities. But, something did change with the Taipings, who used religion, ideology, and propaganda to promote the idea, to a greater extent than ever before, that “the Chinese people” were enslaved or oppressed by “the Manchus,” a barbarian “slave” race. The Taiping experience seems to have sharpened people’s consciousness of belonging to a “people” – no longer defined above all by their identity as bannermen, they were now Manchus, Mongols, Xibe, or Han, with ethnic histories, and futures. They were still generally quite loyal to the Qing, however, after the Boxer Uprising, these ethnic groups began to become more nationalistic, seeking independent states: once the Han overthrew the Qing and reclaimed China, they hoped to have an independent Manchuria, Mongolia, Tibet, and/or East Turkestan again. - Crossley, Translucent Mirror, 342-343. (Needs to be reworded before posting!)
  • Xinhai Revolution: in 1912, the ROC government promulgated just two "articles of favorable treatment" (優待條件) - one guaranteeing certain privileges of the imperial family, including their continued holding of their private property (until the 1920s, when Imperial property began to be nationalized), and one offering protections for the rights and property of certain designated ethnic minorities. This came as part of a treaty with Mongols, Manchus, Tibetans, and Muslims, to try to protect the new China from antagonisms from newly independent neighboring states. - Crossley, Translucent Mirror, 344.
  • Kyogen - Kyogen costumes are based on the clothing of common people of the Muromachi period; unlike Noh costumes, they contain less luxury materials, such as gold and silver thread, and intricate embroidery. This makes Kyogen characters more approachable, more human or realistic. In the Edo period, however, bolder designs did begin to appear in the costumes. - TNM Gallery label, "Kyogen Masks and Costumes" [23]
  • Omote and uchi: A fine example of omote and uchi: in 1627/4/27, the retired daimyo Hosokawa Tadaoki of Kokura arrived in Edo. However, he was ill, and Shogun Iemitsu was ill too, so they didn’t announce his arrival, and gave the tatemae of his not being in the city. However, this also meant not being able to have any other daimyo (or other people) officially/publicly visit him.
    • Similarly, in 1644, Mori Hidenari, lord of Hagi/Choshu, received his official leave from the shogun, and sent his official notice that he would be departing Edo. But then his stomach began to hurt, and so he stayed secretly recovering for a time. However, a notice came from the roju, which he was obligated to sign. His rusuiyaku submitted it quickly, pretending that though the lord was on his way back to Choshu, this response had simply come quite quickly… (Yamamoto Hirofumi 山本博文, Sankin kôtai 参勤交代, Kodansha Gendai shinsho (1998), 178-179.)
    • When Siebold's daughter Oine was born in Dejima in 1827, the brothel to which her mother belonged filed a report officially stating she had been born in Nagasaki proper - thus seeking to absolve the brothel (and perhaps the mother herself) of violating laws against giving birth on Dejima. A record by the Yoriai ward headman states that he sent interpreters to Dejima to convince the Dutch that the girl was born in Yoriai-cho, and not on Dejima. - Leupp, 120-121.
    • Katsu Kokichi's example, too, of course.
    • (Tinello, 265) When the Shogun Iesada died in 1853, a messenger rushed from Edo to Kagoshima to convey a formal message that the shogun is indisposed and that the ryukyu embassy must be delayed. But, at the same time, the karo receiving this message, Niiro Hisanori, writes in his diary that he heard (由) that it was because of the shogun’s death.
  • Ryôsai kenbo - good wife, wise mother 良妻賢母.
  • In the late Asuka & Nara periods, the militias from the Kantô and southern Mutsu were known for having the best horses, and the best horsemen, and so when larger groups needed to be mobilized, it was these eastern warriors who were often called upon. The system of military conscription was eventually ended in 792, and though foot soldiers continued to form the core of Japanese armies in the 8th-10th centuries, by sometime in the 10th century, mounted warriors from select families - i.e. the samurai, or their precursors - came to be the dominant form of military power. - William de Bary, Sources of Japanese Tradition, vol 1, Columbia University Press (2001), 266.
  • Buddhist temples: Since Buddhism is not congregational, and there are no fixed periodic assemblies, the regular or occasional opening of the doors (kaichô) to show hidden Buddhas (hibutsu) was one way for temples to regulate or at least predict attendance. - Tim Screech, Obtaining Images, 119.
  • Dragons were an auspicious sign. They were believed to appear when the world was in order, and to be absent when the world was corrupt. - Tim Screech, Obtaining Images, 35.
  • The most fundamental purpose of hanging a painting was that it brought auspiciousness, in accordance with the season or occasion. - Tim Screech, Obtaining Images, 40. I imagine something could be said for it simply augmenting or emphasizing the occasion as well, making spring feel more like spring, and making a somber occasion feel more somber, etc.
  • In East Asia, the representation of realistic likeness in painting or sculpture was always considered an expert artisan skill, but not something of artistic talent. This is the work of the anonymous if skilled craftsman, not of a great man whose name should be lauded. Figures such as Wu Daozi and Zhang Sengyou painted creatures as they were, not as they looked, paintings that contained "spirit resonance" or vitality as described by Xie He (気韻生動). - Timon Screech, Obtaining Images, 26.
  • Buddhist sculptures: Traditionally, in the Edo period and earlier, people were generally not concerned with the aesthetic beauty of Buddhist sculpture, but rather with its efficacy. - Tim Screech, Obtaining Images, 119.
  • Portraits - were chiefly made "to aid memory or for the ritual purpose of veneration or funeral." The more elite someone was, the more elite someone would need to be to see that person's portrait; "the rule of thumb seems to have been that if you could meet the person, you could view their portrait; if not, not." - Timon Screech, Obtaining Images, 165.
  • Paired screens were the loftiest format; triptychs were one step down. - Tim Screech, Obtaining Images, 33.
  • Outer Mongolia officially secedes from China in January 1946. - Ping-Ti Ho, "The Significance of the Ch'ing Period in Chinese History," Journal of Asian Studies 26:2 (1967), 190.
  • Though women were banned from professional sumo, and banned from even touching the dôhyô, all the way up until the 1950s there were unofficial, misemono matches with mixed-gender or all-female fighters. ("Tongue in Cheek: Erotic Art in 19th-Century Japan," Honolulu Museum of Art, exhibition website, accessed 30 November 2014.)
  • In the Edo period, there was in most regions no peasant custom as to a widow's obligations to her late husband's family. In widowhood, a woman was particularly free to do as she wished, to remarry or not, to remain with the husband's family or not, to return to her own parents' household or not, to travel, and so forth. Many took the tonsure in order to cement their new status, independent of any family obligations. - Amy Stanley, Selling Women: Prostitution, Markets, and the Household in Early Modern Japan, UC Press (2012), 124.
  • The tomoe is known as taegeuk in Korean. A two-color taegeuk in red and blue, representing heaven and earth, is seen on the South Korean flag. The three-color version in red, blue, and yellow, represents heaven, earth, and man. - gallery labels, Wing Luke Museum, Seattle.[24]
  • Statues: Yamato Takeru in Kanazawa (1880) was the first modern statue of a historical figure. This was followed by statues of Emperor Keitai in Fukui City in 1883, of Emperor Jimmu in Tokushima in 1896 and Emperor Jimmu in Toyohashi in 1899, and one of Yamagata Aritomo in Hagi in 1898. The first equestrian statue was one of Môri Takachika, one of five statues of Môri lords erected in Hagi months before that of Kusunoki Masashige at the Imperial Palace. Several statues of the Meiji Emperor were made, but all that were put on public display were inside indoor memorial spaces, not out in public, and all in somewhat removed locations like Ibaraki and Saitama - not in Tokyo. The first open public statues of the Meiji Emperor would be erected in 1968 (including the one in Okinawa). During WWII, most public statues were melted down for their bronze. Only about 100 statues survived. Many of the statues destroyed at this time were reconstructed after the war, however.

- Sven Saaler, "Public Statuary and Nationalism in Modern and Contemporary Japan," Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 15:20:3 (Oct 15, 2017), 1-11.

  • In aftermath of 1616 bans on Christianity, loads of Japanese converts who had simply adopted Christianity at the orders of their lord renounced the religion. A written oath was required in many cases. Christianity enjoyed numbers around 300,000 in Japan at its peak around 1615, but by the late 1630s was reduced to only kakure Kirishitan pockets. - Robert Hellyer, Defining Engagements, 47.
  • In the Edo period, many domains ranked their vassals on three axes: honor ranking (kaku), government office (shoku), and basic income level (hôroku). Mentioned in Ikegami, Bonds of Civility, 133, but explained more fully in Ikegami, The Taming of the Samurai, 267-277.
  • Samurai - up until Ieyasu's reign, peasants/commoners could prove themselves worthy in battle and be promoted to full samurai status. The lines between the status categories were much blurrier. But in Edo, one could only be samurai if one was born into it. - Eiko Ikegami, Bonds of Civility, 129.
  • Kirisute gomen - samurai could not simply kill anyone whenever they so desired without consequences. Only when survivors/witnesses could report that a samurai's conduct was so flawless, and the other party's misconduct so clear, would the samurai be able to escape some sort of punishment. - Luke Roberts, "Mori Yoshiki: Samurai Government Officer," in Anne Walthall (ed.), The Human Tradition in Modern Japan, Scholarly Resources, Inc. (2002), 33.
  • Term "bakuhan taisei" coined by Itô Tasaburô (伊東多三郎). Mercantilism in a Japanese Domain, 22-23.
  • Kangaku: The shogunate was not only concerned about Western books, but also Chinese books coming in through Nagasaki, which might have Christian elements. The shogunate's censorship project began with the establishment of a temple in Nagasaki, and the conscription of two Nagasaki book dealers into the shogunate's service. In 1639, Mukai Genshô, a Saga han Confucian scholar & physician, was appointed chief censor. He was followed by at least seven generations of successors. Book dealers were obliged to issue a pledge of their loyalty to uphold the polity (kôgi), etc., and to report any suspicious printed/written matter - including discussions of Christianity or military matters - which appeared at Edo, Osaka, Kyoto, Sakai, or anywhere else. A list of banned books was also circulated, and a number of prominent intellectuals are known to have possessed copies of the list, indicating their interest in what was censored. (Jansen, China in the Tokugawa World, 72-73)
  • Generally, only samurai, priests, physicians, and a few favored commoners (e.g. goyo shonin) were permitted to have surnames in the Edo period. (Kalland, 28.)
  • Satsuma, Choshu, Hizen and Tosa have together been called the seinan yûhan 西南雄藩, the great southwestern domains which overthrew the shogunate. - Ravina, Land and Lordship, 14.
  • In First and Second Choshu Expeditions (1864, 1866), Fukuoka han contributed 2,000 corvee laborers (fishermen etc who transported troops), who were enlisted away from home for a span of two whole months. - Kalland, 214.
  • Roberts draws a distinction between samurai (retainers with the right of audience, the right to bear two swords, and the right of entry into domainal registers of retainers, known as bugen'iri) and other figures such as ashigaru, kachi, and others not possessing such rights. All were bushi (warriors) or hôkônin (military servants), but samurai made up only the top 10 percent of retainer households. - Mercantilism in a Japanese Domain, 33.

Tsushima officials worked with Korean officials to ensure that Christian devotees or materials were not permitted to enter Japan. Satsuma officials, similarly, sent a special envoy to Shuri to speak to the court about the shogunate's concerns that Christians might have fled to Ryukyu and might be hiding out there; also, that Spanish missionaries from the Philippines should not be allowed to land in the Ryukyus (particularly the more remote southern islands) and preach there. Shuri then strengthened its coastal surveillance efforts in the southern islands. Over the course of the entire Edo period, Satsuma conveyed more than 20 anti-Christian directives to the authorities at Shuri. - Robert Hellyer, Defining Engagements, 47-48.

  • Though the term chôtei is used quite standardly today to refer to the Imperial Court, the terms used in the Edo period were, much more commonly, kinri 禁裏 and kinchû 禁中. - Watanabe Hiroshi, Luke Roberts (trans.), "About Some Japanese Historical Terms," Sino-Japanese Studies 10:2 (1998), 38-39.
  • David Noble translates 中華 as "central flowering." - Mitani Hiroshi, David Noble (trans.), Escape from Impasse, 38.
  • The word yari is said to appear for the first time in the Miidera chapter of the Taiheiki, and in no earlier literature. - Told Round a Brushwood Fire, 142, 294n180.
  • Samurai were required to provision themselves. Arms and armor were not provided by the lord, but rather each man was expected to show up fully equipped and prepared, or else suffer severe consequences. (see docs read in sorobun class)
  • Scholar-officials came to be known as "mandarins" from a Sanskrit word for "councilor" which entered Hindi, then Malay, where it was picked up by the Portuguese and was then adopted by other Europeans. - Craig, Heritage of Chinese Civ, 109.
  • In the Forbidden City, during the Tang Dynasty, emperors sat together with their grand councilors to discuss matters of state. In the Song, officials stood in the emperor's presence. In the Ming, the emperor sat on a raised dais, and the officials knelt in his presence. Behind the audience hall were the emperor's private chambers and harem. In 1425, the palace had 6300 cooks serving 10,000 people every day. By the 17th century, there may have been as many as 9000 court ladies and 70,000 eunuchs. - Craig, Heritage of Chinese Civilization, 107-108.
  • Railways expanded from 350 to over 2000 miles of track in 1885-1895. The last link in the Tokaido line connecting Tokyo to Kobe was completed in 1889. In 1891, this line was extended to connect Ueno to Aomori, and by 1901, down the other way as far as Shimonoseki, where it connected up with Kyushu railroad networks already in place. By 1907, there were over 5000 miles of track. - Takashi Fujitani, Splendid Monarchy, 202.
  • The number of county seats in the Chinese bureaucracy remained relatively stable over the centuries, as county boundaries were regularly redrawn to accommodate the growing population. They numbered 1180 in the Han, 1235 in Tang, 1230 in Song, 1115 in Yuan, 1385 in Ming, and 1360 in Qing. - Benjamin Elman, A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China, University of California Press (2000), 130.
  • Agriculture began in China in the Yellow River valley c. 5600-4000 BCE. The chief crops were millet, taro, and yams, with rice cultivation first emerging in southern China & Vietnam, and wheat being later introduced from the west. - Craig, Heritage of Chinese Civilization, 2.
  • Bronze appears in China c. 2000 BCE, which is 1000 years later than Mesopotamia, and 500 years later than in India. - Craig, Heritage of Chinese Civilization, 6.
  • Watanabe Kazan, in his Saikô seiyô jijôsho 再校西洋事情書, wrote that the major part of India had become a British possession, and that some coastal areas were Portuguese and French colonies. - Rambelli, Idea of India, 263.
  • The character 士, which comes during the Warring States era to refer to scholar-bureaucrats, did prior to that refer to warriors. (Craig, Chinese Civ, 12) Thus, the Japanese usage, as in bushi 武士、士族, sort of comes back around, referring specifically to the warrior class while also possessing the connotation of the refined, cultured, cultivated scholar-bureaucrat.
  • Hawaii enjoyed most favored nation status, and thus extraterritoriality in Japanese ports. - Masaji Marumoto, "Vignette of Early Hawaii-Japan Relations: Highlights of King Kalakaua's Sojourn in Japan on His Trip around the World as Recorded in His Personal Diary", Hawaiian Journal of History 10 (1976), 62.
  • The popularity of imported karamono in the Muromachi period, and the need/desire to display them, contributed to the development of shoin architecture, including the chigaidana shelving, tokonoma alcove, etc. - H. Paul Varley, "Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and the World of Kitayama: Social Change and Shogunal Patronage in Early Muromachi Japan", in John Hall and Toyoda Takeshi eds., Japan in the Muromachi Age, 1977, University of California Press, (Berkeley), 192.
  • Heian gardens are viewed from a stationary position from within the palace, versus Zen gardens meant for contemplation – not for beauty or for poetry - , versus Edo gardens which are walking gardens, for moving through.
  • The earliest extant record listing the names of kyogen pieces dates to 1464 and is known as the Tadasu-gawara Kanjin-Sarugaku. The diary of Shôjô shônin of Ishiyama Honganji, written c. 1532-1554 indicates some as well, and a volume known as the Tenshô-bon, written in 1578/7, contains synopses of over 100 pieces. Kyôgen no Hon (1642), written by Ôgura Toraaki (d. 1662), 13th head of the Ôgura school, is the earliest real volume of kyogen scripts. In addition to other writings by Toraaki, four other anthologies of kyogen plays were compiled between 1646 and 1660. - Andrew Tsubaki, "The Performing Arts of Sixteenth-Century Japan: A Prelude to Kabuki," Educational Theatre Journal 29:3 (1977), 302.
  • On origins of samurai/bushi, Karl Friday writes that during the Heian period, they were essentially miyako no musha, with much closer associations to their social peers within the Court & aristocracy than to a warrior or bushi identity, and that it was only after the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate and of the gokenin hierarchy that a distinctive bushi identity began to emerge. More details of his argument/explanation can be seen at: Karl Friday, Samurai Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan, Routledge (2004), 10.

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Roger Keyes, Ehon, NYPL 2006, p70.

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  • hikime kagihana 引目鉤鼻 - simple line for the eyes, hook for the nose (in Heian/Kamakura emaki, e.g. Tale of Genji.
  • fukinuki yatai 吹抜屋台 - "blown off roof" pictorial technique.

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Lane p311 for pigments

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  • Several historical figures are believed to have been manifestations of the Guze Kannon, starting with Queen Srimala (勝鬘夫人) who heard the dharma directly from Shakamuni, the Chinese monk Nanyue Huisi 南岳慧思, King Songmyong 聖明 of Paekche, and finally Shotoku Taishi, believed the final living manifestation of Guze Kannon. - Rambelli, The Idea of India, 245.
  • Ataka & Kanjincho take place in Komatsu, Ishikawa-ken
  • Noodles from millet first made in China c. 3000-2000 BCE. (Crossroads & Cultures p379)
  • Tsuruya Shôgen 鶴屋将監 - wakô raider
  • Kaiin Jôko, a monk from Kyoto who became abbot of Shuri Enkakuji
  • Hachisuka clan were not samurai!? but were merchants, arms merchants.
  • Wet rice cultivation in mainland SE Asia by c. 1st century CE, spread to Java by 8th century.

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"The magistrate offices of North and South Edo, which took turns overseeing city administration, from fire prevention and publishing activities [i.e. censorship], to the adjudication of civil suits, operated with a staff of about 500 samurai officers. Of this number, only 24 were assigned to 'patrol duties' resembling the function of a modern police officer." - Ikegami Eiko, Bonds of Civility, p307.

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It is believed that over two thousand travel accounts were composed in the Edo period, including more than sixty relating to the island of Ezo. -- Plutschow Edo Period Travel Reader, p2

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Over 11,000 terakoya were established in the Edo period. - Arts of the Bedchamber exhibition website. Honolulu Museum of Art. (http://shunga.honolulumuseum.org/index.php?page=1)


  • See Dusinberre (Hard Times in the Hometown) pp34-36 for effects of Meiji changeover on port towns. after 1871, han are abolished, and local/regional taxes come to be paid in cash, not in kind, eliminating a large sector of the shipping of rice and other goods through the inland sea. Domainal monopolies and monopsonies also come to an end, exposing local industries to international competition – local industries in salt, cotton, etc. suffer or struggle. // most private merchant shippers (kitamaebune operators) cannot afford to purchase steamships, and so lose out to corporations like Mitsubishi, who can afford such investments, and who then come to dominate the shipping industry.
  • Chinsuko = 金楚糕