In the Shelter of the Pine: A Memoir of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu and Tokugawa Japan

365 Pages·2021·8.974 MB·English

by  Ōgimachi Machiko, G.G. Rowley

A MEMOIR OF YANAGISAWA YOSHIYASU
AND TOKUGAWA JAPAN
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TRANSLATIONS FROM THE ASIAN CLASSICS
TRANSLATIONS FROM THE ASIAN CLASSICS
EDITORIAL BOARD
Paul Anderer
Allison Busch
David Lurie
Rachel McDermott
Wei Shang
Haruo Shirane
For a complete list of titles in this series, see page 323
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a memoir of yanagisawa yoshiyasu
and tokugawa japan
ōgimachi machiko
TRANSLATED BY G. G. ROWLEY

Columbia University Press
new york
Columbia University Press wishes to express
its appreciation for assistance given by the Pushkin Fund
in the publication of this book.
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Publishers Since 1893
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Copyright © 2021 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ōgimachi, Machiko, 1688-1724, author. | Rowley, G. G.,
1960-translator.
Title: In the shelter of the pine : a memoir of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu and
Tokugawa Japan / Ōgimachi Machiko; translated by G. G. Rowley.
Other titles: Matsukage nikki. English
Description: New York City : Columbia University Press, 2021. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020051788 (print) | LCCN 2020051789 (ebook) | ISBN
9780231199506 (hardback) | ISBN 9780231199513 (trade paperback) | ISBN
9780231553162 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Yanagisawa, Yoshiyasu, 1658-1714—Fiction. |
Samurai—Fiction. | LCGFT: Biographical fiction | Historical fiction
Classification: LCC PL795.O35 M3813 2021 (print) | LCC PL795.O35 (ebook)
| DDC 895.63/32–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020051788
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020051789
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent
and durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover design: Lisa Hamm
Cover image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Kubo Shunman
(Japanese, 1757–1820), Court Woman at her Desk with Poem Cards. CC0.
contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction, by G. G. Rowley xi
Principal Characters xxxv
1 Musashi Moor: From Ages Past Through the Winter of 1690 1
2 In Traveler’s Garb: 1691, Spring to Summer 8
3 Ages Past: Summer 1691 Through Spring 1692 15
4 The Truth of the Buddha’s Law: Summer 1692 Through Spring 1694 20
5 A Thousand Springs: Summer 1694 Through Spring 1696 26
6 The End of the Year: 1696, Spring Through Winter 33
7 Spring Pond: 1697, Spring Through Winter 39
8 Lamp of the Buddha’s Law: 1698, Spring to Autumn 48
9 From the Shores of Japanese Poetry: Autumn 1698 to Autumn 1700 55
10 Chinese Robe: Autumn 1700 Through the Fourth Month of 1701 63
11 Visitors Awaiting Flowers: 1701, Summer to Winter 69
12 Towering Pine: Winter 1701 to Spring 1702 76
vi • contents
13 Villa Amid Mountain Cherries: 1702, Spring to Summer 82
14 Noble Oak: 1702, Summer Through Autumn 88
15 Hills and Streams: Winter 1702 to Spring 1703 95
16 Autumn Clouds: 1703, Spring Through Autumn 102
17 Moon of Old: 1703, Autumn Through Winter 108
18 A Tree Deep in the Mountains: 1703, Eleventh Month Through the
Third Month of 1704 116
19 A Bond with the Blossoms: 1704, Spring Through Winter 122
20 Celebratory Cane: Winter 1704 Through Spring 1705 130
21 Mountain of Dreams: Summer 1705 138
22 Records of Enlightenment: 1705, Autumn Through Winter 146
23 The Grand Courtier: 1706, Second and Third Months 151
24 Garden of the Six Styles: 1706, Summer Through Winter 157
25 House for a Thousand Ages: 1707, Spring to Autumn 164
26 Two Pines: Autumn 1707 Through Summer 1708 173
27 Binding Sash: 1708, Autumn Through Winter 181
28 Blessed Dew: 1709, New Year Through the Second Month 184
29 Path of the Kindling Cutter: Spring 1709 Through the Eighteenth of the
Sixth Month 192
30 Moon and Flowers 201
Glossary 215
Abbreviations 221
Notes 223
Bibliography 295
Index 303
acknowledgments
I
n the Shelter of the Pine is one of many texts written in the long shadow
cast by The Tale of Genji. I first learned of it during my graduate stud-
ies at Japan Women’s University in the 1980s and longed to read it
from cover to cover. Several printed editions were available, but of course
it was not until I began translating the text many years later that I found
out what it really said. That journey of discovery—the time of my life—
was made possible by Miyakawa Yoko. In 2007, she published a new tran-
scription of the holograph, complete with extraordinarily detailed notes.
Her edition is the result of countless visits to the Yanagisawa Bunko
Museum over decades and a commitment to going back to the original
manuscripts and deciphering them. Miyakawa-san has been a generous
friend to me for almost forty years, ever since we first met at the Genji
reading group hosted by the late Professor Teramoto Naohiko. This trans-
lation is for and because of her.
It is a pleasure to be able to thank several other colleagues and friends
for their encouragement and help. I should like to acknowledge my debt
to Lucy North, whose review of Daughters of the Moon by Victoria V. Ver-
non first opened my eyes to the wealth of literature written by women in
early modern Japan, none of which I had ever heard of before. I should
also like to thank Micah Auerback of the University of Michigan, who
brought to my attention several texts I had never thought of looking at;
Rebekah Clements of ICREA and the Autonomous University of Barce-
lona, whose different interest in the world of this text was a salutary
reminder of the bigger picture; Nicola Liscutin of Tokyo University for
posing a question about the relationship between form and function that
viii • acknowledgments
I hope finally to have answered here; Kim Mc Nelly of the University of
California, Los Angeles, and Rajyashree Pandey of Goldsmiths University
of London for their helpful suggestions on the introduction; and Yama-
moto Yoshitaka of the National Institute of Japanese Literature for cor-
recting one of my long-standing misprisions concerning the place of
women in Japanese literature.
For invitations to speak about Machiko and her work at conferences
and symposia, I am grateful to Haruo Shirane of Columbia University;
Marcia Yonemoto of the University of Colorado; Peter Kornicki of the
University of Cambridge; Bettina Gramlich-Oka of Sophia University;
Charles De Wolf on behalf of the Asiatic Society of Japan; Matilde Mas-
trangelo of Sapienza University of Rome; the organizers of “The Woman
in the Story: Female Protagonism in Japanese Narrative” conference—
Torquil Duthie of the University of California, Los Angeles, Christina Laf-
fin of the University of British Columbia, and Amy Stanley of Northwestern
University; and most recently, Unno Keisuke of the National Institute of
Japanese Literature. I benefited greatly from the comments and questions
of the audiences on all these occasions.
I am grateful to my colleagues in the Faculty of Law at Waseda Univer-
sity who granted me the year’s sabbatical leave that made it possible to
complete this translation. I should especially like to thank Professors
Monden Yasuhiro, Tsuchiya Akio, and Ōmori Nobunori for their patient
advice on Chinese materials.
Intellectual life in Japan is inclusive and lively in good measure thanks
to the profusion of study groups that meet regularly to read and discuss
difficult texts. It is a great privilege to belong to two of these groups. One
is the Network Studies reading group organized by Bettina Gramlich-Oka
at Sophia University, at which the estimable Umezawa Fumiko led a group
of us—Thomas Harper, Kate Nakai, Luke Roberts, Anne Walthall, and
Yamamoto Yoshitaka—plus occasional visitors through Rai Shunsui’s
diary. The other is the Genji reading group led by Miyakawa Yoko, during
which we have read the Kawachi manuscript of The Tale of Genji and are
currently reading the Ikeda manuscript. The encouragement and forbear-
ance of Miyakawa-san, her husband Miyakawa Takehisa, and the other
members of the group—Aikawa Keiko, Jeffrey Knott, Midorikawa
Machiko, Saito Tetsuya, Torii Kana, Michael Watson, and Yamanaka
Yūki—have been a great solace.
Heartfelt thanks also to my sisters, Pamela Rowley and Stephanie
Wood, who did more than their fair share of caring for our parents, both
of whom died over the years I was working on this book.
acknowledgments • ix
The reader reports for Columbia University were generous and helpful
in equal measure, and the introduction and annotation owe much to their
suggestions. Christine Dunbar adroitly guided the book to publication; I
am grateful also to Christian P. Winting for his swift attention to every-
thing, and to KGL project manager Ben Kolstad and copy editor Peggy
Tropp.
As ever and forever, my greatest debt is to Thomas Harper, who cheer-
fully volunteered to check my draft translation as I finished each chapter,
made countless painstaking corrections, and was kind enough to tell me
that I was improving. Needless to say, all errors that remain are mine
alone.