The Chaos and Cosmos of Kurosawa Tokiko: One Woman’s Transit from Tokugawa to Meiji Japan

282 Pages·2015·3.55 MB·English

by  Laura Nenzi

T H E C H A O S A N D C O S M O S O F
KUROSAWA TOKIKO
One Woman’s Transit from Tokugawa to Meiji Japan
LAURA
NENZI
THE CHAOS
AND COSMOS OF
KUROSAWA TOKIKO

THE CHAOS
AND COSMOS OF
KUROSAWA TOKIKO
One Woman’s Transit
from Tokugawa to Meiji Japan
Laura Nenzi
University of Hawai‘i Press
honolulu
© 2015 University of Hawai‘i Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
20 19 18 17 16 15 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Nenzi, Laura, author.
Th e chaos and cosmos of Kurosawa Tokiko : one woman’s transit from
Tokugawa to Meiji Japan / Laura Nenzi.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 8248- 3957- 4
1. Kurosawa, Tokiko, 1806– 1890. 2. Women po liti cal activists—
Japan—Biography. 3. Japan— History—Tokugawa period,
1600– 1868. 4. Japan— History—Meiji period,
1868– 1912. I. Title.
DS881.5.K86N46 2015
952'.025092—dc23
[B]
2014028771
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid- free
paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Council on Library Resources.
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc.
C
ONTENTS
Ac know ledg ments vii
Introduction Th e Flight of a Sparrow 1
PART I: Tokiko’s World
1 / A Nest and a Nexus 17
2 / Circles and Circumstances 38
PART II: Th e Chaos and Cosmos of Kurosawa Tokiko
3 / Glimpses of History (Th e Script) 53
4 / From Script to Stage 66
5 / Caged Bird 83
6 / Th e Chaos and Cosmos of Kurosawa Tokiko 98
7 / Transitions 120
PART III: Memory, Manipulation, and Amnesia
8 / Rescuing the Past from the Present 141
9 / Th e Many Reincarnations of Kurosawa
Tokiko 159
10 / Circles Redrawn: Th e View from 1930s Mito 177
11 / Encores: New Scripts 190
Conclusion Th e Doing Th at Matters 199
vi Contents
Appendix 205
Notes 209
Bibliography 241
Index 257
A
C KNOW LEDG MENTS
The first person I wish to thank is Gotō Norio, without whose help,
knowledge, generosity, and friendship this project would have simply never
come to fruition. Also at the top of the list is Anne Walthall, who spent
many hours commenting on chapter draft s, suggesting opportunities to
work and publish in Japan, and writing letters of support for grants and fel-
lowships. For many of the same reasons David Howell is also deserving of
my utmost gratitude. Other academics and friends have off ered invaluable
help during the research and writing phases of this project, giving me access
to archives, proposing alternative interpretations, and answering all sorts of
questions and calls for help. They include Luke Roberts, Bettina Gramlich-
Oka, Itasaka Noriko, Ikeda Kazuomi, Nishizawa Naoko, Yokoyama Yuriko,
Ōguchi Yūjirō, Gaye Rowley, Thomas Harper, Hōya (Kumazawa) Tōru,
Kate Wildman- Nakai, Valerio Luigi Alberizzi, Steven Heine, Gregory
Smits, William Scott Wilson, and Peter Kornicki. Colleagues who invited
me to give talks on Tokiko provided opportunities for constructive criti-
cism; I am especially grateful to Morgan Pitelka, Sabine Frühstück, Linda
Chance, Erik Esselstrom, Adriana Boscaro, and Ron Toby. Paola Perin was
the fi rst to teach me how to analyze a text; this ack nowl edgm ent is long
overdue.
In Shirosato, Ōsawa Toshio treated me to his delicious soba and never
failed to “enshrine” my Tokiko articles and conference papers in the special
room of his restaurant. Th e late Kurosawa Seiichi as well as Horie Katsumi,
Fukihara Katsumi, Nakamigawa Takeo, Saruta Yukio, and Anzō (Hasegawa)
Ryōko made me feel welcome and facilitated my research. I also owe a debt of
gratitude to Kido Shizuko and Saiki Kumi of Ibaraki University and to Sa-
same Reiko at the Rekishikan in Mito. In Tokyo I benefi ted from the assis-
tance of Niels Van Steenpaal, Ōhashi Akiko, Kimura Kazu and Ken, Kimura
Rieko, and Michelangiolo Severini. At the University of Tennessee I wish to
thank Tom Burman, Ernest Freeberg, Marina Maccari- Clayton, Monica
vii
viii Acknowledgments
Black, Noriko Horiguchi, Alan Rutenberg, Chris Boake, Will Fontanez, Anne
Bridges, and the staff of the History Department—K im Harrison, Bernie
Koprince, and Mary Beckley.
My thanks go out to the librarians who made my research possible at the
Rekishikan, at the Ibaraki Prefectural Library, at Ibaraki University, at the
Historiographical Institute of Tokyo University, at the National Diet Library,
at the National Museum of Japa nese History in Sakura, and at the University
of Tennessee.
Financial support and much- needed time off have come fi rst and foremost
in the form of a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Hu-
manities in 2008. Th e National Museum of Japa nese History invited me on a
research fellowship in the winter of 2011; I am grateful to Kurushima Hiroshi
for the opportunity. I also wish to acknowledge the History Department at the
University of Tennessee and the University of Tennessee’s Award for New Re-
search, Scholarly and Creative Projects in the Arts and Humanities for fund-
ing several trips to Japan. Th e University of Tennessee’s Exhibit, Perf orm ance,
and Publication Expense Fund and the History Department kindly shared the
cost of producing the maps.
Pat Crosby and Stephanie Chun at the University of Hawai‘i Press were
dream editors. Th e two anonymous readers did a formidable job of combing
through my manuscript, suggesting avenues for improvement, pointing at in-
felicities, and greatly improving the quality of my work. Tatiana Holway has
been a phenomenal copy editor.
Th is book began during hurricane season in Miami and was completed
during a snowy semester at the Institute for Advanced Study in Prince ton,
where Nicola Di Cosmo, the other resident fellows, and the staff (especially
Marian Zelazny and the dedicated librarians) made the stay pleasant and
rewarding. Funding for the membership came courtesy of Martin L. and
Sarah F. Leibowitz, whose generosity and commitment to research I wish to
acknowledge.
Parts of this book appeared as “Caught in the Spotlight: Th e 1858 Comet
and Late-T okugawa Japan,” Japan Forum 23, no. 1 (2011): 1–2 3, and “Portents
and Politics: Two Women Activists on the Verge of the Meiji Restoration,”
Journal of Japan ese Studies 38, no. 1 (Winter 2012): 1–2 3. Th ey are reproduced
with permission.
Over the years I have benefi ted from the untiring support of my mother,
my sister, my late father, and the late nonna Elena. If this is a book about
(among other things) microcosms, it is fi tting that I would turn to my own
small world to conclude. Th e two other characters who populate it, Peter and
Acknowledgments ix
Furball, have provided countless distractions, mostly in the form of comic
relief and requests to be fed. One of them resorted to strutting up and down
my keyboard to let his need for attention be known. Out of respect I will not
name the culprit, but it goes without saying that all typos are entirely his
fault.