Voices of Early Modern Japan

Contemporary Accounts of Daily Life During the Age of the Shoguns

Constantine N. Vaporis, Constantine Vaporis

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000280951
• Edition: 2
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Japanese History
• Index: History

In this newly revised and updated 2nd edition of Voices of Early Modern Japan, Constantine Nomikos Vaporis offers an accessible collection of annotated historical documents of an extraordinary period in Japanese history, ranging from the unification of warring states under Tokugawa Ieyasu in the early seventeenth century to the overthrow of the shogunate just after the opening of Japan by the West in the mid- nineteenth century.

Through close examination of primary sources from "The Great Peace, " this fascinating textbook offers fresh insights into the Tokugawa era: its political institutions, rigid class hierarchy, artistic and material culture, religious life, and more, demonstrating what historians can uncover from the words of ordinary people. New features include:

• An expanded section on religion, morality and ethics;

• A new selection of maps and visual documents;

• Sources from government documents and household records to diaries and personal correspondence, translated and examined in light of the latest scholarship;

• Updated references for student projects and research assignments.

The first edition of Voices of Early Modern Japan was the winner of the 2013 Franklin R. Buchanan Prize for Curricular Materials. This fully revised textbook will prove a comprehensive resource for teachers and students of East Asian Studies, history, culture, and anthropology.

Part I

The Domestic Sphere

1Getting Married

“Agreement Regarding a Dowry” (1815)

Introduction

Dating from 1815, this agreement was made between the families of a bride and groom, both of whom were of peasant status, regarding a dowry. More specifically, the document is an acknowledgment by the father of the groom of the receipt of a sum of money and it is addressed to the bride’s younger brother. It is not clear why the bride’s younger brother is the addressee, but presumably he was the head of the household and thus responsible for family affairs. The bride’s father could either have been deceased, divorced, or separated from the family, or simply have relinquished the family headship to his son due to his own advanced age or possibly due to illness. The various parties involved lived in the village of Shimo-Ujiie, in Echizen province (present-day Fukui prefecture), which faces the Sea of Japan in central Japan.

Keep in Mind as You Read

1.In a Japanese official document or even a personal letter, the date, addressor, and addressee come at the end of the text, not at the beginning, as you might expect.

2.The dowry of a woman in Tokugawa times usually consisted of clothing, which the bride, or the bride and any sisters, made by hand, as well as furniture. It could also include land.

3.In some parts of Japan the dowry (money, land) was not transferred until the marriage proved stable and, in some cases, until a child was born.

4.Upon marriage, typically, the couple did not establish a new household, but rather lived with the family of the groom. (In cases where there was an agreement that the groom would be adopted by the bride’s family as successor to the househead as well as becoming their daughter’s husband, the couple went to live with the bride’s family.)

DOCUMENT 1

“Agreement Regarding a Dowry” (1815)

Delivered Document

[Amount:] 10 koku equivalent: 28 ryō

Considering that my son Tsurumatsu has received your elder sister, Shizu, as a bride, I hereby certify receipt of the gold coins written above as the price for furnishing her necessary household goods. Also I promise to return all of the above coin with the girl you entrusted to me, if it is an unsuccessful marriage. In such case we will not then raise a word of protest if there are various arguments, regardless of what the complaints may be …

introducer: The go-between or intermediary, who presumably held a copy of the document for safe-keeping.

ryō: Unit of money, gold coin (see “Money”).

Year of the Boar: According the Chinese sexegenary calendar, which was also used in Japan, 1815 was the Year of the Boar. This is indicated by a Chinese character for “boar” which is listed after the year and before the month when writing the date.

Date: 1815 (Year of the Boar) Twelfth Month [no day given]

[From:] Ichibei, of the village of Shimo-Ujie

Introducer: Gonzaemon

[To:] Jōemon [younger brother of the bride, Shizu]

Source: Translation adapted from Dan Fenno Henderson, Village “Contracts” in Tokugawa Japan (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1978), 141.

Aftermath

Unfortunately there is no further historical documentation on Tsurumatsu and Shizu, so we have no way of knowing whether they remained married or divorced at some later point.

Ask Yourself

1.Why do you think that in this case the dowry consisted of money rather than clothing and furniture, as was more typical?

2.What does the principle of dowry return—meaning that the dowry would be returned to the natal (bride’s) family upon divorce—tell us about marriage in Tokugawa Japan? (There is an old proverb in Japan, “Where there is a dowry the bride is attached.” How is this relevant to the question above?)

3.Why do you think a document such as this was created in the first place? And why was it necessary for the father to assure the bride’s brother that his family would not protest if there were arguments related to a divorce and return of the dowry?

4.European and American visitors to Japan in the mid- to late nineteenth century often remarked about the small size of a bride’s dowry in comparison with the practices in their own countries. What is the significance of this for the bride/wife? What impact might it have had on marriage and divorce (and remarriage)?

Topics and Activities to Consider

•Research the history of dowry and bride price. What is the earliest evidence of the practice of dowry? What is the relationship between dowry and bride price? (In what countries were both practiced together?) Has the purpose of the practices changed over time and place?

•Consider the issue of dowry today. Where does it still exist and how is it practiced? Are practices different today than in the seventeenth or nineteenth centuries? Is there a relationship between economic development and dowries? (Why has the practice of dowry stopped in some places and become more prevalent in others?)

Further Information

Goody, Jack. “Bridewealth and Dowry in Africa and Eurasia.” In Bridewealth and Dowry, edited by Jack Goody and Stanley J. Tambiah, 1–58. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973.

Lindsey, William R. Fertility and Pleasure: Ritual and Sexual Values in Tokugawa Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2007.

Ocko, Jonathan K. “Women, Property, and Law in the People’s Republic of China.” In Marriage and Inequality in Chinese Society, edited by Rubie S. Watson and Patricia Buckley Ebrey, 313–346. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

Walthall, Anne. “The Life Cycle of Farm Women in Tokugawa Japan.” In Recreating Japanese Women, 1600–1945, edited by Gail Lee Bernstein, 42–70. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

Wolf, Arthur P., and Chiehshan Huang. Marriage and Adoption in China, 1845–1945. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1980.

Websites

Anderson, Siwan. “The Economy of Dowry and Bride Price.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 21, no. 4 (2007): 151–174. Available at: http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/asiwan/siwan-jep.pdf.

“Code of Hammurabi (c. 1780 BCE).” Ancient History Sourcebook, www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/hamcode.html.

“The Dowry Prohibition Act (India), 1961.” Government of India Ministry of Women & Child Development, https://wcd.nic.in/act/dowry-prohibition-act-1961

“The Imperial Family.” Japan Zone, www.japan-zone.com/culture/imperial_family_members.shtml.

money

A tri-metallic system of coinage existed in Tokugawa Japan. As a result of frequent recoinage and changes in the value of money, gold, silver, and copper were usually exchanged by weight. Early in the seventeenth century the rate was fixed at 1 ryō gold = 50 monme silver = 4 kanme copper. Rates were stable until late in the period, when conversion rates generally were in the range of 1 ryō gold = 50–80 monme silver = 4,000 mon copper. Copper currency was used throughout the country and was suitable for most everyday transactions. Measured in mon, copper coins had square holes in the middle and were strung together in groups of 100 (actually 96) and 1,000 (actually 960). Silver, measured in monme, was the basis for larger transactions in the Kyoto-Osaka region, while gold, measured in ryō, served as the basis for currency in the capital of Edo. In the early nineteenth century a basic lunch of mushrooms, pickles, rice, and soup cost about 100 copper mon. An adult could go to the public bath for about 10 mon, and a night’s lodging in a decent inn would cost about 200–300 mon. A skilled worker such as a carpenter could earn about 420–450 mon a day. (For a look at what Japanese coinage looked like, go to: www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/roberts/coins/Japancash.html.)

2Obtaining a Divorce

An Appeal for Assistance (1850) and Letters of Divorce (1857, Undated)

Introduction

The first selection is an untitled appeal by an Edo townswoman by the name of Kane addressed to officials at Tōkeiji convent (temple) in nearby Kamakura. Unable to convince her husband to grant her a divorce, she likely wrote this letter of appeal to the temple’s officials to help her to obtain one; or, if she was unable to write herself, she had her father or some other person write it for her.

The second and third selections consist of two examples of writs or letters of divorce (rienjō). Both types are known as mikudari-han (lit. three-and-a-half lines) because that is precisely the length of the main body of the document of divorce. The first was a type which any male commoner could write to end his marriage. This particular letter was written by a commoner from Katashina village, located in Kōzuke province (present-day Gunma prefecture), named Heisuke, to his wife Kin, in 1857. The second is the body of a standard type of letter of divorce that a mediating temple such as Mantokuji, also located in Kōzuke province, helped a couple to produce and dates from sometime during the second half of the Tokugawa period.

Keep in Mind as You Read

1.In legal terms, a woman in Tokugawa Japan had no rights to initiate a divorce nor could she refuse a husband’s demand for one. However, she could ask her husband for a divorce or seek the assistance of an outside authority (a temple, in this case) to convince the husband to grant her one. Sometimes the family of the woman seeking a divorce would pay compensation (a fee) to the husband to agree to dissolve the marriage.

2.A woman unhappy with her marriage could return to her parents’ home, but a husband had the right to reclaim her. If a husband did not reclaim his wife within three years of separation, he forfeited that right.

3.A husband had the right to divorce his wife provided that he returned her dowry, both goods (typically, the woman’s clothing, and sometimes furniture) and money.

4.Tōkeiji was one of a very few temples popularly known as “Enkiridera” (Temple for Severing Ties) and Kakekomidera (Temple into Which One Runs for Refuge), state-approved sanctuaries for women of commoner status whose husbands would not grant ...