Edo - the EDOPEDIA -: November 2013

11/21/2013

Business in Edo

Morisada Mankoo 守貞謾稿 Morisada Manko
published about 1837 in 35 volumes
Describing customs of Edo not to be found in Kyoto or Osaka.

The author, Kitagawa Morisada 喜田川守貞, had come to Edo from Osaka and got quite a "culture shock", resulting in this book about local customs, including food.
- reference source : blog.q-q.jp/201309

- reference - Morisada Manko -

under construction -
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geishoonin, gei-shoonin　芸商人 artists as street vendors
- They would perform some tricks to entertain the onlookers and then sell their stuff, mostly food.

gyooshoonin 行商人 Gyoshonin - street vendors
- Many walked around the town to sell their merchandise.
It times with no refrigerators, getting the daily food to town was most important.

. furiuri, furi-uri 振売 peddlers, street vendors .
bootefuri 棒手振り peddlers carrying merchandise with a pole on the shoulders
tenbinboo 天秤棒 shoulder carrying pole

. Kanda renjaku machi 神田連雀町 Renjaku-Cho district .
The name refers to the renjaku 連尺 / 連索 backpacks of the merchants who lived there, carrying their ware around Edo.

- quote
Ishikawa Eisuke 石川英輔
- Chapter 11 - The Value of Time-consuming Efforts
In a city like Edo, street peddlers made an enormous sales in fish and vegetables. Peddlers or small-scale vendors sang their seller's cry and covered every corner of the alleys, wearing down their straw sandals. A close look into the lives of people in Edo reveals that there was an unbelievable variety of vendors. It was those peddlers and vendors who supported a large part of the commercial circulation of other products in addition to fish and vegetables.
A record of Edo vendors shows that almost all everyday goods were available and delivered from vendors in those days.
Oil vendors sold lantern oil mainly, but cooking oil as well. As liquor store sent errands to clients' homes several times everyday, there was no need for customers to go out to make a purchase. There were also many food vendors who served ready-to-eat items. They were, so to speak, portable restaurants. They sold endless lists of food, such as udon (rice noodles), soba (buckwheat noodles), nabeyaki udon (potboiled rice noodles), inari-zushi (vinegared sushi rice in pouches of fried bean-curd), amazake (brewed sweet sake). There were also many who peddled toys and luxury goods.
- source : www.japanfs.org/en/edo

. Ishikawa Eisuke Ishikawa 石川英輔 .
He wrote many books about Edo and the Edo period and often appears on TV.

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- - - - - Since this entry is getting very long, I added some extra entries with ABC lists :

. chin shoobai 珍商売 strange business - typical for Edo .

. daidoogei 大道芸 Daidogei street performance .

. Food vendors in Edo .

. fuuzoku　風俗 Fuzoku, entertainment and sex business .
- - - and
- - - . chaya, -jaya 茶屋 tea shop, tea stall .
- selling more than just tea as part of the fuuzoku business

. naishoku 内職　home worker, side business .
mostly done by poor samurai

. Recycling and Reuse in Edo - リサイクルと　再生　/ 再使用 .

. shuuriya　修理屋 repairmen in Edo .
xxx naoshi 直し, shuuriya　修理屋, shuuri shokunin　修理職人

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- - - - - ABC-List of business in Edo - - - - - to be updated - - - - -

. abura uri　油売り　selling oil - and talking too much .

. Aizuya　会津屋 selling 会津漆 lacquer ware from Aizu, Fukushima.

. akagaeru uri　赤蛙売り selling red frogs (medicine for children) .
- akahikigan 赤蛙丸 "red frog medicine"

. asaodana asao-dana　麻苧店 store selling asao hemp thread
asatonya, asadonya 麻問屋 hemp dealer .

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. bafunkaki 馬糞掻き, bafun tori 馬糞とり horse-shit collectors .

. biwa yootoo uri　枇杷葉湯売り　selling biwa leaves as medicine .

. ema-uri, emauri　絵馬売り　selling ema votive tablets .

. fudasashi 札差 "note/bill money exchange" .

. gamaabura uri, gama abura がま油売り selling toad grease medicine .

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. hanashigame uri 放し亀売り　selling turtles to be set free .
and - hanashi tori uri 放し鳥売り　vendors of birds (sparrows) to be set free at rituals at Hachimangu Shrines in Edo
- - - - - for the annual hoojoo rituals 放生会

. hana-uri, hana uri 花うり / 花売り flower vendor .

. hari-ita uri 張り板売り vendors of wooden plates to dry a kimono after washing .

. hayaokeya, hayaoke ya 早桶屋 "fast coffin maker", undertaker .
- - - - - soogiya　葬儀屋 / saihooya　西方 / koshiya 輿屋 = undertaker

. hikyaku 飛脚 courier, messenger "flying legs" .

. hitsuboku 筆墨売り selling brushes and ink .

. hiuchigama uri　火打ち鎌売り selling tools to strike a fire .
"fire beating sickle" - store Masuya 升屋 near Shiba Shinmei 芝神明 shrine

. hikizuri mochi 引き摺り餅 pounding mochi ricecakes .

. hooki uri ほうき売り / hooki kai ほうき買い .
vendor and buyer of hooki 箒 Hoki brooms

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. jigami uri　地紙売り　kagema boys selling paper for fans .
and talking about kabuki
- - - and
kagemajaya, kagema chaya 陰間茶屋 "tea house with boys in waiting"

. joozai uri 定斎売り selling Josai medicine .

. juukumonya 十九文店 shops selling everything for 19 mon
juukumon ya, juukumon no mise .
(Now we have the hyakuen shoppu 　百円ショップ Shops selling for 100 Yen.)

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. kagami 鏡 mirror maker, mirror polisher .

. kamiyuidoko　髪結床 hairstylist shop .
kamiyui　髪結い　hairdo master, hair dresser

. kanbanya　看板屋 Kamban, vendor of shop signs .

. kanzashi uri かんざし売り / 簪 selling hair pins and decorations .

. kaya uri, kayauri 蚊帳売り selling mosquito nets .

. kashihonya, kashihon'ya 貸本屋 booklender, booklender
- furuhonya, furu-honya 古本屋 selling old books in Edo .

. kawaraban uri かわら版売り vendor of a kawaraban newspapers .
yomiuri 読売、lit. "to read and sell"

. kiriezu, kirie-zu 切絵図 selling detailed maps of Edo .

. koi no maneki uri　鯉のまねき売り vendor of small flags "to invite carps" .

. komedonya, kome no tonya 米問屋 rice brokers .
- fudasashi 札差 "bill ex change", forerunners of Japan's banking system.

. koyomi uri, koyomi-uri　暦売り selling new calendars .

. kusuri-uri, kusuri uri　薬売り　selling all kinds of medicine .
Toyama no kusuri-uri 富山の薬売り medicine vendors from Toyama

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. megane uri, meganeuri　眼鏡売り　selling glasses,spectacles .

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mimi no aka tori 耳の垢取り ear-cleaner

. tagaya 箍屋 hoop repairman, clamp repairman .

. taiko uri 太鼓売り vendor of drums .

. takani momen uri 高荷木綿売り street vendor selling cotton .

. takarabune no e uri 宝船の絵売り selling images of the Treasure Ship .
for the first dream on January 2, the New Year

. takeuma furugi uri 竹馬古着売り / 竹馬古着屋 .
selling old cloths hanging on a "bamboo horse" (takeuma) carried over the shoulder

. take uri, take-uri　竹売り bamboo vendor - susudake uri 煤竹売 seller of cleaning bamboo .

. taru kai 樽買い / taruya 樽屋 buying barrels .

. tokkaebee とっかえべえ / tokkaebei とっかえべい
collector of old metal, gives a sweet (amedama) in return .

. tsukegi uri　付木売り　selling wood scraps to light a fire .

. uchiwa uri, uchiwa-uri 団扇売り vendor of round fans .

. uekiya　植木屋, niwashi　庭師　gardener .

. waribashi uri 割り箸売り　selling disposable chopsticks .

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. yoojiten, yooji ten 楊枝店 Yoji, toothpick shop . - Asakusa

. Yotsumeya　四つ目屋 a sex shop .
hiyakuseiguya, hiyaku seigu ya 　秘薬性具屋　selling medicine and sex tools
otona no omocha-ya 大人の玩具屋 toy store for grown-ups

. yubune 湯船 "bath boat" .
small boats with a bath for rent in Edo
and - - - - - yuya 湯屋 public bath house

. zenigoza uri 銭蓙売り vendor of paper mats to place coins .
and
. zenisashi uri 銭緡売り / sashi-uri 繦売り vendor of money strings .
- - - - - - zenisashi, zeni-sashi 銭さし / 銭差／銭緡 string to keep the small coins

. zeniya　銭屋 ryoogaeya　両替屋 Ryogaeya - money changer .

. zooriya　草履屋 vendors of straw sandals .

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Fujiokaya Yoshizoo 藤岡屋由蔵 Fujiokaya Yoshizo (1739 - ?)
Sudoo Yoshizoo 須藤由蔵 - Honyoshi　本由
- reference wikipedia -
The bookseller Yoshizo, writing about peasant uprisings. 「藤岡屋日記」Fujioka-ya nikki

本由は人の噂で飯を食い
honyoshi wa hito no uwasa de meshi o kui
Honyoshi eats his bread
by (selling) the rumours
of other people

Honyoshi 本由（ほんよし）＝本屋の由蔵 the book seller Yoshizo
- reference -

CLICK for more photos !

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図説大江戸おもしろ商売　－ Edo Omoshiro Shoobai
http://homepage2.nifty.com/kenkakusyoubai/zidai/syobai.htm

Shunsetsu 春雪　He solved all kinds of riddles　　/ ねずち　 ?　ねずっち

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江戸商売図絵 Illustrated Business of Edo
- source : hurec.bz/mt/archives

- source : 1000ya.isis.ne.jp TBA

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江戸行商百姿 - 花咲一男 Hanasaki Kazuo (1916 - 2010)

江戸行商百姿 - 20 illustration of street vendors
source :　mookie/ohishi-nyohuuten

source :　blogs.yahoo.co.jp/enoborishinsho

street vendors of Edo - tenugui hand towel 「江戸の物売り」の手ぬぐい

- Motives of craftsmen of Edo - 江戸職人
. mamezara 豆皿 small plates "beans size" .

. shokunin 職人 craftsman, craftsmen, artisan, Handwerker .

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There were many local stores with specialities from the provinces, most ending in xxxYA　屋, like Echigoya　越後屋.
They are introduced in this ABC index.

- special introductions -

. The rich merchants of Edo -　Goshi 豪商　gooshoo .

. kabunakama, kabu nakama 株仲間 merchant guild, merchant coalition
za 座 trade guilds, industrial guilds, artisan guilds .

. shinise　老舗　a long-established store .

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- - - - - Reference

http://blog.q-q.jp/201308/article_6.html
http://homepage2.nifty.com/kenkakusyoubai/zidai/syobai.htm - TBA
http://shigoto-creator.com/396/ - TBA

biwa ha yu 枇杷葉湯 biwa leaf tea
chawan gashi 茶碗菓子
choochoo omocha 蝶々（のおもちゃ） toys
choosen no kookeishi 朝鮮の弘慶子（こうけいし） merchants from Korea
kameyama 亀山のお化け
kuma no kusuri 熊の伝三膏薬
kuri no iwa 栗の岩おこし sweet
nana iro toogarashi 七色とうがらし
noborizaru のぼりざる climbing monkey
sanbasoo 三番叟 dance dolls
tokuhei 徳平膏薬 cream from Tokuhei
tsuji uranai 辻占い
Yokanbei 与勘平（よかんべい、よかんぺい）膏薬 cream
http://nora-pp.at.webry.info/201212/article_1.html - TBA

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Edo shobai orai by Kaname Okitsu 江戸商売往来　Merchants' manual

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- source : matome.naver.jp/odai
江戸東京職業図典 - 槌田満文
- - - - - 江戸市中世渡り種
benikan 紅勘べにかん
choochoo uri 蝶々売ちょうちょううり
hamigaki uri - hyaku manako 歯磨売・百まなこ - はみがきうり・ひゃくまなこ
handa inari 半田稲荷はんだいなり
hitoruzumoo ひとり角力ひとりずもう
miyoshi odori 住吉踊すみよしおどり
ningyoo tsukai 人形つかひ . にんぎょうつかい

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渡辺信一郎

Edo nariwai jiten 　江戸なりわい事典　/ 江戸の生業事典　
Dicitionary of occupations in Edo
Introducing about 500 different ones. Most are the subject of humorous senryu.

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- source : www.akamana.com/akame/kiki.html

江戸売り声百景 The voices of street vendors in Edo
(with a CD sample) including 納豆売り、飴売り、薬売り、朝顔売り、金魚売り、梯売り、屑屋、羅宇屋、定斎屋、鋳掛屋、十八文屋。
Some walked around in the morning, selling fresh food, others came in the evening. At their special time and with their special calling, they were some kind of "clock" for the time in Edo.

Edo no urikoe, uri-koe いいねぇ～江戸売り声
宮田章司

Ishikawa Eisuke Ishikawa 石川英輔
大江戸えころじー事情 and his series about life in O-Edo

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昔の職業の読み方
- source : hiramatu-hifuka.com/onyak

早業七人前　(at the National Bibliothek)
- source : http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info

創作紙人形で描く江戸の物売り - paper dolls about vendors in Edo
- source : kagi.blog14.fc2.com/blog-entry-109

お江戸のあきんど - Edo no Akindo - doll collection (TBA)
- source : page.freett.com/honeythehaniwa

- source : haiku about shops and stores

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source :　History In Pictures - twitter

Japanese peddler selling his wares. 1901

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. Hatsuakinai Shusse Sugoroku 初商出世双六 .
Sugoroku for Success in the First Sale of the New Year / 式亭三馬 Shikitei Sanba and 小三馬 Kosanba.

. Japanese Architecture - cultural keywords used in haiku .

[ . BACK to DARUMA　MUSEUM　TOP . ]
[ . BACK to WORLDKIGO . TOP . ]
- #shobai #shoobai #business #edobusiness -
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Sotobori

[ . BACK to DARUMA　MUSEUM　TOP . ]
. Famous Places of Edo and the Edo period .
. hori 堀 moat and districts with this name .
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Sotobori 外堀　/ そとぼり　/ 外濠 - The outer moat of Edo Castle
and the many waterways of Edo

©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

- quote
Sotobori street between Akasakamitsuke - Toranomon goes along Sotobori of Edo-jo Castle and trace of reservoir.
Reservoir was used as water supply in the beginning in the early modern times. A part of the Sotobori stone wall is left in front of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology yard and Toranomon Mitsui Building. Stone wall in front of Mitsui Building in particular is the only oar stand in Edo-jo Castle Sotobori. Stone wall left in the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology yard was copy of Sotobori which surrounded Edo-jo Castle and the Edo Shogunate mobilized daimyos of the whole country and built in (1636) for Kanei era 13 years.
In Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, we stored stone wall based on excavation result with construction of central joint Government building Building No. 7 and established display corner where the total picture of stone wall found in in front of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology yard lounge and new Government building connecting walkway of subway Ginza Line Toranomon Station was seen.
- source : kanko-chiyoda.jp.e.ie.

. Edo Castle, Edo joo 江戸城 Edo-jo Castle .

. Famous Places of Edo and the Edo period .

- quote
Most of the outer moats, Sotobori, were reclaimed by civil engineers of Tokyo local government after the Pacific war ended. They reclaimed the moats with debris of air raids piled up everywhere in Tokyo after the war and built highways or other facilities over them..

A part of the moat remains today between Ichigaya and Iidabashi and a road called Sotobori-dori runs along the moat with cherry trees planted along the roadside. In mid spring, you can see through the window of Chuo-sen train the cherry blossoms in full bloom and reflecting their images on the water of the moat.
- source : hix05.com/english/Street

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Tokugawa Ieyasu had learned about the importance of an outer moat during the siege of Odawara castle.
He later applied this knowledge to the fortification of his own castle and town, Edo.

- quote -
Odawara Castle (小田原城 Odawara-jō)
. . . . . During the Muromachi period, Odawara Castle had very strong defenses, as it was situated on a hill, surrounded by moats with water on the low side, and karahori 空堀 dry ditches on the hill side, with banks, walls and cliffs located all around the castle, enabling the defenders to repel attacks by the great warriors Uesugi Kenshin in 1561 and Takeda Shingen in 1569.
However, during the Battle of Odawara in 1590, Toyotomi Hideyoshi forced the surrender of the Late Hōjō clan through a combination of a three-month siege and bluff. After ordering most of the fortifications destroyed, he awarded the holdings of the Late Hōjō to Tokugawa Ieyasu.
- - - More in the WIKIPEDIA !

Walking along the Sogamae fortifications !
About 9 kilometers !
小田原城の大外郭巡り
In the direction of Edo : 江戸口見附跡
- reference andl photos : dakusai.wordpress.com -

soogamae 総構え / 総構 total structure
soogamae （そうがまえ) 惣構、sooguruwa 総曲輪（そうぐるわ）, sooguruwa 総郭（そうぐるわ）
The most outside moat or protection around a toride 砦 fort, castle or castle town

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- quote -
Edo Castle Moat Tour by Boat
When Edo Castle was built, the Tokugawa made use of the natural riverways to create part of the Outer Moat (sotobori). The Outer Moat begins around the Kiji Bridge in central Tokyo (Chiyoda-ku), follows part of the Nihonbashi River before cutting west and creating a spiral around to Iidabashi where it continues East until dumping into the Sumida RIver which finishes off the Sotobori when it flows into Tokyo Bay.

Today the Kanda River flows from the northwest of Tokyo into the outer moat around Iidbashi and then on into the Sumida River. This section of the river from Iidabashi to the Sumida River is completely man made. The course of the river was redirected to create the outer moat. The original river flowed down past the castle to a point farther downriver on the Sumida River. This river is now called the Nihonbashi River and corresponds to the beginning of the Outer Moat spiral. Today it is actually connected to the Sotobori (Kanda River) at the original area in Iidabashi. That also makes it possible to travel from the Nihonbashi River to the Kanda River into the Sumida River and back again.

Thanks to the Consortium of Rediscovery Edo-Tokyo Walk you can take a cruise in a boat around these 3 sections of the former Sotobori. Along the way you can get some great close up views of the stone walls that are difficult to see from outside as they're hidden under the Shuto Expressway. You can find many kokuin (insignias) carved into the stones that are very difficult to see from outside without binoculars. Along the way the guide will show you Edo Period ukiyo-e prints to show what the river was like and talk about the Edo Period river culture.
The tours are in Japanese only, but the cruise is enjoyable for anyone to view Tokyo from the waterways.
- reference source : jcastle.info 2013 -

. Iidamachi, Iida-machi　飯田町 Iidamachi district .

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That map describes four river basins:
Tonegawa 利根川 (Tone River)
Arakawa 荒川
Tamagawa 多摩川 / 玉川 (Tama River)
Sagamigawa 相模川 (Sagami River)
The purpose of this blog is to map and describe all of the rivers and streams in the Tokyo area.
- source : thetokyofilesrivers... -

- quote -
- - - - - Waterways in Edo
To guard against attacks on Edo Castle, a network of strategic moats, streams, and canals was laid out in a spiral pattern. Waterways for freight transport formed a vertical and horizontal grid.

At the points of intersection between the roads and the waterways, bridges were built and short ferry routes called watashi ("crossings") were also developed. Because waterways and roads intersected in so many places, Edo had a huge number of bridges. At the time, Osaka was known as the "water city" because of its many bridges - about 200 in all - but Edo put the "water city" to shame with over 500 bridges.
Landing points called kashi ("river banks") were established at various points along the waterways for unloading freight. Warehouses and markets were set up at the landing points, and these spots became hubs for the distribution of goods in Edo.
- source : web-japan.org/tokyo/know -

The relationship between urban structure and waterways in Edo, old Tokyo
- Abstract -
The purpose of this study is to reveal the relationship between the urban structure and the waterway in Edo, the old Tokyo.
The main findings are:
1) The city of Edo was expanded over the river by changing the route of river waters, and limiting the affected area during times of flooding.
2) The canals in the low city were used as water transport between the city and the farmlands. The urban design of the low city was closely related with the canals.
3) According to the drinking water way, there were some hierarchies between the city and the farming villages, warriors and merchants area, etc.
4) The sewerage was not so dirty, because it was consisted of rainwater and gray water.
Rather, the sewerage had seemed as a charm against evil. Therefore the drainage channels were used as the boundary between residences, residence and street, towns, and town and farmland. Not only Edo, but also many cities in the world were formed by relating with waterway. In these days, it is important that not only promoting some project of the waterway which is suited as the actual needs like attracting the tourist or creating the beautiful landscape of agriculture, but also rethinking about the waterway which has related with the urban structure or the lifestyle of the citizens in every city.
- reference source : Kosuke Sakura -

. 多摩川上水 Tamagawa Josui and 神田上水 Kanda Josui　 .

. Horidomechoo 堀留町 Horidomecho District waterways .
Nihonbashi - two Horidome rivers (east and west).

. Mita Yosui 三田用水 Mita Waterway and 三田上水 josui aqueduct .

. Tameike 赤坂溜池町 Akasaka Tameike district .
"irrigation pond"

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- - - - - H A I K U - - - - -

外堀の割るる音あり冬の月
sotobori no waruru oto ari fuyu no tsuki

the outer moat
makes a cracking sound -
moon in winter
Tr. Gabi Greve

cracking sounds
in the outer moat --
winter moon
Tr. Chris Drake

This hokku is from the winter of 1792. Edo castle was renovated and expanded considerably after it was chosen as the site of the shogunate in the early 17th century. It already had a complex network of inner moats running through the core areas of the castle grounds, but to ensure safety the shogunate decided to add an outer moat as well and forced daimyo domain lords around the country to contribute the money, building materials, and workers the shogunate needed to construct the outer moat, which was 15 km (9.3 miles) long. The spacious area between the inner moats around the castle proper and the outer moat was used mainly for the mansions of various daimyo lords, who were required to stay in Edo in attendance on the shogun every other year. The moat itself, like the rest of the castle, was walled with massive pieces of carefully cut granite brought from great distances. The outer moat walls were so strong that some of them remain in fairly good condition even today after surviving US air raids in WW II and postwar city planning.

In Issa's time commoners were allowed to go only as far as the outer side of the outer moat, part of which ran along the edge of a large park, so this is presumably where Issa is standing and looking at the clear, bright winter moon above. Its bright, hard light throws sharp shadows everywhere, and when the ice in the moat makes cracking sounds, moonlight, too, may synesthetically seem to be breaking up into solid pieces. In the silence the sounds of cracking ice must seem rather loud and penetrating to those near the moat. Is the moon's reflection dully visible on the ice on the moat, as if it had something to do with the cracking? Is Issa suggesting the shogunate itself, like the ice, is cracking apart (something that didn't finally happen until 1867)? There's nothing definite in the hokku to support these interpretations, but there's also nothing to rule them out.

The photo at this link shows a portion of the outer moat that still remains in Hibiya Park near downtown Tokyo. In Issa's time the water level was of course much higher.
http://www.jcastle.info/photos/view/2287

Chris Drake

外堀にりんとゐのこのかがりかな
sotobori ni rin to inoko no kagari kana

by the outer moat
bonfires strong and forceful --
night of the wild boar
Tr. Chris Drake

The hokku is from the 10th month (November) of 1815, when Issa, living in his hometown, is back in greater Edo on a three-month visit. The hokku evokes the night of the first Day of the Wild Boar in the 10th month, the month governed by the wild boar according to Sino-Japanese zodiacal calendrical thought.

On this day people of all classes eat special rice cakes believed to increase fertility and protect against disease. They also light hearths, ovens, leg and hand warmers, and other fires for winter and spring use. Edo castle uses the occasion to display of its power and magnificence by lighting large, bright bonfires in iron baskets hanging at key points in and around the castle and at the gates in the wall at the inner ends of two bridges that cross the outer moat. On a practical level, the bonfires are used to light the way for daimyo domain lords and shogunal officials who live outside the moat as they arrive at around sundown to attend an obligatory celebration in the castle on the night of the first Day of the Wild Boar.

All daimyo lords and shogunal officials, including those who live inside the outer moat, are required to attend this celebration, during which they symbolically acknowledge their subservience and pledge once more their fealty to the shogun by accepting fancy rice cakes made from newly harvested rice. The lords and officials and their men are in their most formal clothes and closely follow strict protocol as they go through the gate. Both the lords and the hanging bonfires are imposing, yet there is something utterly serious and as cold as the November night about the whole scene. Issa, who must be standing outside the outer moat, seems to realize that the bonfires are as much for spectacle and for use in identifying each attendee at this mandatory event as they are for simple illumination and that this gravitas and well-lit formal precision are a consciously used image of power itself.

Chris Drake

. Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 in Edo .

Boar, the Twelfth Month
Ishikawa Toyomasa　石川豊雅 (act. 1770–1790)

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. hori 堀 moat and districts with this name .

. kawa　江戸の川 -- 江戸の河 the rivers of Edo .

. Japanese Architecture - cultural keywords used in haiku .

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- #sotobori #odawaracastle #sogamae #iidabashi #waterways #josui -
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11/09/2013

ISSA - susu harai soot

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. Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 in Edo .

cleaning off soot, susu harai susuharai 煤払 (すすはらい)
..... susu haki 煤掃（すすはき）, susu oroshi 煤おろし（すすおろし）
day for cleaning, susu no hi 煤の日（すすのひ）

This was done not only at home but in temples and shrines too. With long bamboo poles and sakaki sacred branches the bad influences of the passing year, the vicious demons hiding somewhere in the corners and the roof beams, were cleared away, together with the real soot.

source :　tukitodora.exblog.jp

. WKD : susuharai 煤払 cleaning off soot .

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隅の蜘案じな煤はとらぬぞよ
sumi no kumo anji na susu wa toranu zo yo

corner spider
rest easy, my soot-broom
is idle
Tr. David Lanoue

. ISSA and his spider haiku 蜘蛛　 .

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庵の煤掃く真似をして置にけり
io no susu haku mane o shite okinikeri
(1817)

Making a gesture
of sweeping the cobwebs,
I leave it at that.
Tr. Max Bickerton

my hut's soot--
going through the motions
of sweeping it
Tr. David Lanoue

- - - an earlier version reads

庵のすすざっとはく真似したりけり
io no susu zatto haku mane shitari keri
(1813)

my hut's soot--
I go through the motion
of sweeping it
Tr. David Lanoue

- - - - -

I briefly pretend
to sweep soot --
enough is enough
Tr. Chris Drake

朝々にうぐひすも鳴けいこ哉
asa-asa ni uguisu mo naku keiko kana

singing practice
every morning
with the warbler

These two hokku appear in this order in Issa's diary for the 12th month (January) in 1814, a few months after he had finally been able to move into the half of the house left to him by his father in his hometown. It is the first time Issa has experienced various year-end activities in his own house, and he is honest about his lack of interest in housekeeping. In the middle of the 12th month almost everyone in the village is doing a big year-end cleaning -- washing everything and sweeping not only the floors but the soot-covered pillars, beams, rafters, and dark corners -- yet Issa feels no need to do anything but move his broom around for a short time, and he soon gets bored with his own pretense.

Bush warblers (Heronries diphone) have begun to sing again, though it's still a couple of weeks before the new year and lunar spring. In the 12th month not many people listen to them, but Issa hears one loud warbler outside singing morning after morning, and he feels the bird must be practicing its song so it will be perfect when the New Year comes and people strain to hear the "first warbler song" of the new year. Hearing it every morning, Issa seems to find himself repeating the warbler's call to himself and wonders if he, too, needs to improve his warbler singing technique.

It is also possible to read the second hokku as, "every morning it practices singing uguisu." However, if Issa intended uguisu to be the sound the bird makes, I think he would probably have used katakana syllabic letters. There is a folk etymology that takes the name bush warbler (uguisu) to be onomatopoetic, this theory is not widely accepted. Issa seems to have believed the bird's name originally meant "first appearing deep in the mountains" (oku ni izu). In Issa's time the main call of the warbler was usually described as hou-(hou-)hokekyo, a sound that suggested, when translated, Lo-Lotus Sutra or Lo-Lo-Lotus Sutra.

Here is a good recording of the call:
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oftfpDAfLHE

By putting these two hokku next to each other, Issa might be suggesting that for him it's more important to learn about other voices and improve his singing/writing than to clean all the sooty beams in his house.

Chris Drake

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かつしかや煤の捨場も角田川
katsushika ya susu no suteba mo sumida-gawa

名月や松の天窓の煤もはく
meigetsu ya matsu no atama no susu mo haku

外は雪内は煤ふる栖かな
soto wa yuki uchi wa susufuru sumika kana

煤掃て松も洗て三ケの月
susu haite matsu mo araute mike no tsuki

煤けたる家向きあふて夕涼み
susuketaru ie mukiaute yûsuzumi

煤くさき畳も月の夜也けり
susu kusaki tatami mo tsuki no yo nari keri

行雁がつくづく見るや煤畳
yuku kari ga tsuku-zuku miru ya susu tatami

and many more - 76 haiku
- translations by David Lanoue -

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. WKD : Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 - Introduction .

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- quote -
Karei no Susuhaki 嘉例のすゝはき Seasonal Rite of Cleaning Up

- Utagawa Toyokuni III
This illustration shows the scene of Susuharai, the annual custom of indoor cleaning and the cleansing of shrines. In the Edo period, Susuharai was set to take place on December 13th and so this was a kind of Shinto event called such names as
'Jū san-nichi (13th) Sekku' 十三日節供（せっく）.
The tradition called "Susuharai", or the year-end cleanup, was enjoyable only when all the work was finished. As it can be seen in this painting, people enjoyed eating onigiri (rice balls) and nishime (simmered vegetables) contained in a lacquered box. This was called "osame no iwai" (celebration of finishing the cleanup) at which the food and wines were offered to the people who joined the cleaning.
During the occasion, some people were being tossed in the air in celebration and others made a special performance. Indeed, this ukiyo-e depicts not only the occasion of "susuharai" actually held at the end of each year, but represents another meaning.
This nishiki-e (colored wood-block prints) was published in November, 1855 (Ansei 2), which was one month after the Ansei Earthquake. It has been pointed out that this painting has a purpose to let the public know of the fact that these actors survived the earthquake, as it can be understood that this depicts the neighborhood of Saruwaka-cho, as the rooftop of Sensōji and the five-story tower are painted behind two people. These two people in this painting were supposedly popular kabuki actors such as Nakamura Kantarō and Iwai Kumesaburō, as Shibai-machi was still in chaos.
- source : Tokyo Metropolitan Library -

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- #susuharai -

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11/08/2013

ISSA - kumo spider

spiderweb in my garden, Gabi Greve 2005

. WKD : kumo 蜘蛛 spider, Spinne .
kigo for summer

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隅の蜘案じな煤はとらぬぞよ
sumi no kumo anji na susu wa toranu zo yo

Spiders in the corners,
Don't worry!
I'm not going to sweep them.
Tr. R. H. Blyth

Don't worry, spiders,
I keep house
casually.
Tr. Robert Hass

corner spider
rest easy, my soot-broom
is idle
Tr. David Lanoue

Spiders in the corner--
Don't you be anxious,
I won't break your webs.
Tr. Lewis MacKenzie

Spiders in the corrner
Don't worry!
I won't sweep your house
Tr. Nanao Sakaki

- quote
Recently, the Robert Hass 'version' of the subject Issa haiku was brought up in a mainstream poetry workshop I attend. One of the participants registered displeasure at the idea of people 'translating' poetry from languages they don't know.He didn't think such efforts should be called 'translations'. It was pointed out that Robert Lowell called his poetry translations 'imitations', and Hass calls his translations of haiku 'version', but that didn't mollify the participant.

So I sent a 'version' of the following as an email to the workshop leader, hopefully showing why a practicing, award-winning poet can be a better 'translator' of poetry even if the poet doesn't know the source language of the poetry being translated, than translators who do know the source language, but aren't poets themselves.

MORE
. Discussion of the translations - Larry Bole .

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蜘の子はみなちりじりの身すぎ哉
kumo no ko wa mina chirijiri no misugi kana

the spider's children
have all gone off
to earn a living
Tr. Addiss

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蜘の巣に月さしこんで夜のせみ
kumo no su ni tsuki sashikonde yoru no semi

むだにして蜘が下るや花御堂
muda ni shite kumo ga sagaru ya hanamidoo

- Translations by David Lanoue

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. WKD : Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 - Introduction .

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11/06/2013

ISSA - Yoshino

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. Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 in Edo .

Yoshinoyama　吉野山, the Mountains of Yoshino, has been a spot famous for cherry trees since long ago. After it became the holy tree of Gongen Zao of a Buddhist mountain sect about 1,300 years ago, it continued to be planted as an offering.
The cherry trees of Yoshinoyama were loved by writers and artists from the days of old.

. WKD : Yoshinoyama - 吉野山 Mount Yoshino .

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うつるとも花見虱ぞよしの山
utsuru tomo hanami-jirami zo yoshino yama

they get on you, but hey,
they're blossom-viewing lice --
Mount Yoshino
Tr. Chris Drake

This humorous hokku is from the beginning of the 3rd month in 1811, at the end of March, when the cherry blossoms were at their peak. At this time Issa was living in Edo and doing a lot of renku sequences with Edo poets.

In middle to late spring, around the time cherry blossoms are in full bloom, lice also begin to show what they're made of and crawl in large numbers into and onto people's robes, bodies, and hair, so they are called "blossom-viewing lice" at this time of year. In the hokku Issa declares that fear of lice is no reason to stay home and not go out to view the cherry blossoms. Even lice feel the urge to go view the blossoms, and humans surely appreciate blossoms at least as deeply as lice. Issa suggests that fellowship with lice is an added feature that should make blossom-viewing even more moving, and he stresses his point by implying that viewing blossoms together with lice makes the experience the equal of viewing the cherry blossoms on Mount Yoshino, the most famous place for viewing blossoms in Japan and a symbol of cherry blossom beauty in general.

Mount Yoshino, a mountain sacred to Buddhists, Shinto believers, and Yamabushi mountain ascetics and written about from the days of ancient waka, was in Issa's time nearly covered by thousands of cherry trees, making it a natural wonder. Issa is in Edo, however, far from Mount Yoshino. By implication, he evokes the humans and lice who are now viewing the blossoms on the slopes of distant Mount Yoshino, but the main image in the hokku seems to be based on a comparison: even the blossoms in Edo are surely as beautiful in their own way as those on Mount Yoshino if viewed while close relationships are developing between Edo lice and their human hosts. Perhaps there is the further implication that, for the lice, the human bodies they crawl onto are something just as beautiful as the blossoms of Yoshino are for humans.

Chris Drake

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百尋の雨だれかぶる桜哉
momohiro no amadare kaburu sakura kana

a thousand gallons
shower from the eaves...
cherry blossoms
Tr. Chris Drake

This haiku has the prescript, "Yoshino."
Yoshino is a famous place for viewing the cherry blossoms. Literally, Issa says that the blossoms are "showered by 100 fathoms of eavesdrops," but since most English speakers think of a "fathom" as a unit of ocean depth, this term would be confusing. I substituted "a thousand gallons" for "a hundred fathoms" to express the idea of an enormous amount of water spilling from the eaves. To help me visualize this, Shinji Ogawa sent images of a temple's multi-tiered pagoda. An amadare is an eavesdrop, where water falls from a roof's overhang.

This hokku was written sometime between 1789 and 1809. The hiro unit was used when measuring length (especially of cloth, rope, and fishing line) or depth (of the ocean), and one hiro was of varying lengths in different contexts but was most commonly 5.97 feet, so the raindrops are literally falling about 600 feet, but the number 100 was frequently used to mean a vague large number, a meaning Issa seems to be using here. The most common term for the length Issa mentions was hyaku-hiro, and it was often used metaphorically for something perceived as being very long. Hyakuhiro (Hundred Hiro) Falls, just west of Edo/Tokyo, for instance, actually drops its water not 600 feet but 120 feet.

Issa, however, chooses an old word for a hundred, momo. The old word is even vaguer than hyaku-, a word that was often used to make exact calculations, and momo is appropriate to the hokku's setting, given by Issa in a headnote, since centuries earlier the emperor and Kyoto aristocrats, who normally used the word momo, often made trips to Mt. Yoshino, regarded as a holy mountain, in order to pray and view the many cherry blossoms there. In Issa's time almost the whole mountain was covered with cherry trees, and when they were in bloom the mountain was regarded to be one of the most beautiful places in Japan.

Amadare in the second line can mean rain dripping from the eaves down onto an eavesdrop (amadare-ochi), but it also means simply raindrops. For example, it is used to translate the "Raindrop" in the title of Chopin's "Raindrop" Prelude into Japanese. Issa, too, seems to be talking about raindrops here. Since the length of the raindrops' fall is stressed, perhaps long sheets of slanting rain are falling on Mt. Yoshino just when its thousands of cherry trees are in full bloom. The hard-hitting raindrops will no doubt take most of petals with them to the ground, and the hokku implies that it is a very painful sight to behold.

Chris Drake

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唐の吉野もかくや小夜ぎぬた
morokoshi no yoshino mo kaku ya sayo-ginuta

is even the Yoshino
in China like this?
fulling cloth at night
Tr. Chris Drake

Chris Drake's Comments are here :
. WKD : fulling block .

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鮎迄もわか盛也吉の川
. ayu made mo waka-zakari nari yoshino kawa .

人に喰れし桜咲也みよしの山
hito ni kuwareshi sakura saku nari miyoshino yama

春立やよしのはおろか人の顔
haru tatsu ya yoshino wa oroka hito no kao

川は又山吹咲ぬよしの山
kawa wa mata yamabuki sakinu yoshino yama

小日和やよし野は人を呼子鳥
ko-biyori ya yoshino e hito wo yobu ko tori

衣打槌の下より吉の川
koromo utsu tsuchi no shita yori yoshino-gawa

みよしのへ遊びに行や庵の蜂
miyoshino e asobi ni iku ya io no hachi

みよしのの古き夜さりを砧哉
miyoshino no furuki yosai o kinuta kana

みよしのや寝起も花の雲の上
miyoshino ya neoki mo hana no kumo no ue

唐の吉野へいざと紙子哉
morokoshi no yoshino e iza to kamiko kana

長旅や花も痩せたるよしの山
nagatabi ya hana mo yasetaru yoshino yama

菜の花も一ッ夜明やよしの山
na no hana mo hitotsu yoake ya yoshino yama

菜の花のさし出て咲けりよしの山
na no hana no sashidete saki keri yoshino yama

三文が桜植けり吉野山
san mon ga sakura ue-keri yoshino yama

よしの山変桜もなかりけり
yoshino yama kawari sakura mo nakari keri

- source and translations : David Lanoue - Issa

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11/05/2013

I Ching

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I Ching, I-Ging 易經 / 易经 The Book of Changes
"Buch der Wandlungen“ - „Klassiker der Wandlungen“

- quote
The I Ching (Wade-Giles) or "Yì Jīng" (pinyin),
also known as the Classic of Changes, Book of Changes or Zhouyi, is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts.
The book contains a divination system comparable to Western geomancy or the West African Ifá system; in Western cultures and modern East Asia, it is still widely used for this purpose.

Structure
The text of the I Ching is a set of oracular statements represented by 64 sets of six lines each called hexagrams (卦 guà). Each hexagram is a figure composed of six stacked horizontal lines (爻 yáo), each line is either Yang (an unbroken, or solid line), or Yin (broken, an open line with a gap in the center). With six such lines stacked from bottom to top there are 26 or 64 possible combinations, and thus 64 hexagrams represented.

The hexagram diagram is composed of two three-line arrangements called trigrams (卦 guà). There are 23, hence 8, possible trigrams. The traditional view was that the hexagrams were a later development and resulted from combining two trigrams. However, in the earliest relevant archaeological evidence, groups of numerical symbols on many Western Zhou bronzes and a very few Shang oracle bones, such groups already usually appear in sets of six. A few have been found in sets of three numbers, but these are somewhat later. Numerical sets greatly predate the groups of broken and unbroken lines, leading modern scholars to doubt the mythical early attributions of the hexagram system, (Shaugnessy 1993).

When a hexagram is cast using one of the traditional processes of divination with I Ching, each yin and yang line will be indicated as either moving (that is, changing), or fixed (unchanging). Sometimes called old lines, a second hexagram is created by changing moving lines to their opposite. These are referred to in the text by the numbers six through nine as follows:

Nine is old yang, an unbroken line (—θ—) changing into yin, a broken line (— —);
Eight is young yin, a broken line (— —) without change;
Seven is young yang, an unbroken line (———) without change;
Six is old yin, a broken line (—X—) changing into yang, an unbroken line (———).

Trigrams

The solid line represents yang, the creative principle. The open line represents yin, the receptive principle. These principles are also represented in a common circular symbol (☯), known as taijitu (太極圖), but more commonly known in the west as the yin-yang (陰陽) diagram, expressing the idea of complementarity of changes: when Yang is at top, Yin is increasing, and vice versa.

In the following lists, the trigrams and hexagrams are represented using a common textual convention, horizontally from left-to-right, using '|' for yang and '¦' for yin, rather than the traditional bottom-to-top. In a more modern usage, the numbers 0 and 1 can also be used to represent yin and yang, being read left-to-right. There are eight possible trigrams (八卦 bāguà):
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !

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I Ching - Nr. 24 Fu - Return (The Turning Point) -Wendezeit

. winter solstice -
the dark
growing darker .

Tao and Haiku
. Tao - About Non-doing (wu-wei) .

. Tao - Yin and Yang 陰陽 .

. Ezra Pound and the I Ching 易經 .

. Abe no Seimei 阿倍晴明 .
Onmyodo, onmyoodoo 陰陽道 The Way of Yin and Yang

. Chinese origin of Japanese kigo .

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- - - - - H A I K U - - - - -

sanrai-i: mountain thunder; jaw or mouth

一人前菜も青けりけさの霜
ichinin-mae na mo aomi keri kesa no shimo

on a full tray
the food, too, pale --
frost this morning
Tr. Chris Drake

This hokku was written on 8/30 (Oct. 15) in 1803, when Issa was on a trip to a town just northeast of Edo. The hokku is written on the theme of the 27th hexagram, in Japanese sanrai-i (山雷頤), of the ancient Chinese Yi Jing (I-ching), or Book of Changes, which Issa had been studying, along with other Japanese and Chinese classics. The six-line hexagram is made up of two three-line elements representing "mountain" and "thunder," and together they suggest an open mouth or lowered jaw, yielding an image of eating or talking. As a divinatory sign, this hexagram contains contradictory elements and is usually taken as a warning against immediate or exaggerated expectations that nevertheless holds out the possibility of long-term success if changes leading to self-improvement are made. In terms of eating, it suggests there will be soon be serious eating and related disorders if the person does not realize the existence of the problem and change his (or her) poor eating habits.
For the Legge translation of the Chinese text of the Yi Jing explaining the 27th hexagram:

- source : www.sacred-texts.com - Legge

This hokku is one of a series in Issa's diary that try to capture in a single image an important aspect of a chapter or stanza in various Chinese classics, and much is implied rather than stated. Frost can have many meanings, but here it above all seems to be suggesting whitening or making things pale. It may also be warning of colder times ahead and the need for caution. The meaning of the frost influences how aomikeri or "[is] pale" in the second line is interpreted. The verb can mean 1) for plants to turn a vibrant green in early summer, 2) for the moon to look bluish and pale or plants to turn a pale, sickly green, or 3) for sick or exhausted people to look pale, literally "blue-greenish." The word ao refers to both blue and green, so in Japanese this wide range of meanings is natural.

Because winter has come and frost now whitens many plants, I take Issa to be using meaning 2 here and closely linking two areas of paleness -- the frost and the food -- by using the word "too." Since hexagram 27 is about changing one's awareness and taking action, there is probably the further suggestion that the man's face is also pale (meaning 3 above) because of his bad eating habits. The man having breakfast surely senses he's not completely healthy, and he realizes he's losing his appetite, since he feels the various kinds of food (na) on the small dishes on his tray look as pale as the frost outside. In Issa's time an ordinary commoner's breakfast usually consisted of brown rice, miso soybean soup, and several small dishes of pickled vegetables, beans, tofu, and/or seaweed. Since it's winter, it's unlikely there are many raw leafy greens on the man's tray, though leaves of mustard spinach (komatsuna), daikon radishes, and leeks were sometimes used in miso soup in winter. The overall paleness of the man's complexion, his food, and the frost outside will, if the man is wise, cause him to make basic changes in his eating habits.

Chris Drake

. Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 Issa in Edo .

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