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One Hundred Monsters in Edo of Our Time
- University of Hawai'i Press
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0!.%0+( BABA BUNKŌ Z Penaltiesforviolatingthepublicationlawsthatwererepeatedly issued ranged from official reprimands and fifty days in handcuffstoconfiscationofassetsandexile.Themostextreme case was Baba Bunkō (1718–1759), the only writer throughout the entire Edo period to be executed for the crime of violating publication laws. He began his career as a guard in the shogun’s household but was dismissed following the death of the eighth shogun Yoshimune (1684– 1751) and the beginning of the new administration of the ninth shogun Ieshige (1711–1761). As did many other ronin, he first sought success as a Buddhist clergyman and then as a fortune-teller. It was only as a popular lecturer that he gained notoriety. His entertaining renditions of the classics and reports on current events appealed to the Edoites’ insatiable curiosity and their desire for personal enlightenment. He became such a huge success that he established his own hut in Asakusa for his performances. Bunkō did not hesitate to criticize individuals who in his view were inept, corrupt, or hypocritical, whether shogun or kabuki actor, man or woman. He was also democratic in his praise of morally upright individuals whether they were magistrates, scholars, or prostitutes. He was particularly harsh on figures of authority who failed their responsibility. The strong sense of good and bad and equally extreme language of love and hatred 104 GHOSTS, MONSTERS, AND DEITIES seems to have appealed to a downtown Edo audience. He studded his lectures with juicy pieces of contemporary gossip as well as loud invective against ineffectual and hypocritical authorities, expressions of frustration to which Edoites could readily relate. Generally, he found ethical models in the leaders during the reign of Yoshimune and bemoaned the decay of earlier principles in leadership under Ieshige’s rule. Perhaps Bunkō was off-guard since the enforcement of publication laws was neither cohesive nor systematic at the time. He took advantage of a loophole in the law forbidding the “printing” of materials concerning the families of ruling samurai or contemporary sociopolitical events by distributing handwritten copies of his lectures. His downfall had to do with the so-called Kanamori Incident, which involved a series of peasant uprisings against the rigid financial policies and corrupt practices of Kanamori Yorikane (1713– 1763), lord of Gujō Domain in Mino. Uprisings resulted after the peasants hadsentpetitionafterpetitiontothedomainauthoritiesaswellastothecentral shogunate, until the Kanamori household was dissolved and the administrators and peasant leaders variously and quite vigorously punished. The number of individuals punished in the Kanamori Incident was much greater thaninanyotherEdopeasantuprising,andtheinquisitionwascarriedoutin such thorough detail that it inspired curiosity and excitement not unlike the Watergate incident in the United States from 1972 to 1974. It is easy to imaginehowEdocitizens ,whogotwindoftheviolenteventsaswellasofthelater official inquisition, rushed to hear Bunkō’s description and commentary. He was arrested by a town constable who had hidden himself among the audience gathered at a certain merchant’s house where he heard the entire first lecture. Bunkō’s crime was to sell to his audiences and to give away as prizes handwritten copies of his lecture “Dewdrops in the Woods” (Hirakana mori no shizuku). The title looks innocuous but the name Kanamori is hidden in it, “woods” giving the impression of dark secrecy and “dewdrops” suggesting the fragmented and sparse information that was available. In addition to Bunkō’s execution, lending library owners were punished for supplying news to him and for distributing his writings. Bunkō had two faces: one of a frustrated and angry critic of society who was out to educate the public, and the other of a smart entertainer who knew how to excite his audience and make money. He went too far in both directions. No copy of “Dewdrops in the Woods” is extant. The other works attributedtoBunk ōandavailableonlyinhandwrittencopiesfeatureastylereplete with cutting sarcasm and outrageous metaphor. One Hundred Monsters in Edo of Our Time (Tōdai Edo Hyaku Bakemono, written 1758) consists of twenty-three “lectures” concerning twenty-seven scandalous figures of Edo society, samurai and commoners alike, who were the talk of the town. He [44.220.89.57] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 06:39 GMT) GHOSTS, MONSTERS, AND DEITIES 105 calls each of them a monster and pulls no punches in castigating their hypocrisies and ill-doings. In this sense, he makes satirical use of the biographical profile,whichcametoflourishasagenreofwriting.Ashesaysinthepreface, “monsters” refer to those who appear and disappear, tricking people. Presented here are five episodes selected from the work. Each is prefaced by short notes written by the authors of this introduction to provide the reader with necessary contextual information for...