Ningyo - Alan Scott Pate

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poor parents who could not afford mosquito netting. Within Chinese society, these became oft-repeated stories and were a basic part of a child's socialization process. The date of their transmission to Japan is uncertain, but by the Edo period they had become as iconic as they were in China, forming a readily recognizable visual reference in Edo popular culture.

      Of the twenty-four exemplars, one in particular seemed to capture the Japanese imagination: the tale of Moso (Ch. Mengzong), a young man who sought bamboo shoots in the dead of winter to aid his ailing mother. As the story goes, Moso's mother was grievously stricken with a mysterious ailment and desperately craved bamboo shoot broth to help soothe her pains. Though the countryside was covered in snow, and the spring-growing shoots were not likely to be found, Moso dutifully took his shovel and headed into the bamboo groves to search for bamboo shoots. Long he travailed finding nothing but packed ice and snow. Moso never relented. Nearly overcome with grief at the thought of disappointing his ailing mother and with tears pouring down his cheeks, he poked and prodded the frozen ground. But like a miracle, with his tears forming puddles in the ice, he noticed a bamboo shoot poking its head up through the snow where his tears had fallen. As he dug, he found a bed of newly formed and exquisitely tender bamboo shoots. The broth he made on his triumphant return quickly cured his ailing mother. Guo appended this verse to the tale:

      His teardrops transformed winter at the roots;

       Up from the ice crept tender bamboo shoots.

       Instantly, the winter-sprouts matured;

       Heaven's will: a happy, peaceful world.

      The popularity of Nijūshiku-dōji in Edo culture is evident in the inclusion of two of these tales in the yamaboho floats employed in the Gion Matsuri celebrations in Kyoto: Katsukyo and Moso. An illustrated list of floats entitled Kyoto gion-e: Kodai yamaboho zuju shows the float depicting Moso (Mosoyama) as it would have been seen in the mid-eighteenth century It depicts Moso in Chinese costume with a round farmer's hat, a hoe held over his shoulder, and a long bamboo shoot grasped in his right hand. Behind him lies a giant mound of snow at the base of a pine tree through which poke the heads of numerous shoots.

      This extraordinary example of a mitate gosho on page 54 shows the young Mōsō proudly holding a large bamboo shoot in his left hand. In his right hand, he holds a hoe over his shoulder. He wears the simple sedge hat of a farmer, dotted with cotton balls, possibly simulating snow. His elaborately embroidered chirimen silk crepe haragake bib is partially covered by a similarly embroidered sleeveless coat with black velvet trim. The fact that his costuming does nothing to betray his Chinese origins, lacking the ruffled trim or other exotic elements used to symbolize Chinese or foreign figures, speaks of how thoroughly Moso had been absorbed into Japanese culture by this time. His scale is particularly large and the figure well balanced, with his left leg thrust forward and the weight resting principally on his slightly flexed back leg.

      (Detail) Mōsōyama, in Kyoto gion-e: Kodai yamaboho zuju (Kyoto's Gion Festival: Pictures of Yamaboko from Early Times), based on Gion goryo-e saiki (Full Account of the Gion Festival to Meet the August Spirit), woodblock printed book, 1757. Iwazaki Publishing Company

      Mitate Gosho-ningyō: Daimyō Gyōretsu

      When the first Tokugawa Shogun, Ieyasu, decreed in 1603 that Edo become the administrative capital of the new era, little could he have realized the drastic reshaping of Japanese economics and culture he had put into motion. In order to maintain tighter supervision over the newly subdued feudal lords (daimyō) and stymie future war-making capabilities, a formalized system was enacted in 1635 which mandated that each of the 260 to 270 daimyō spend every other year in Edo, alternating residence between their home domain and the capital. At the end of the year in residence, specific permission (oitoma) had to be obtained before they and their retinue could return to their home territories. To further insure compliance, it was also mandated that wives and heirs remain in Edo on a full-time basis, functioning in every respect as hostages. Residences had to be maintained in the capital as well as facilities to accommodate the number of vassals, servants, and support staff required to run these operations and suitably attend the daimyō while in residence. This bold and extremely controversial system was termed sankin-kōtai (alternate residence).

      The result of these regulations was a dramatic population shift from all across the country towards the new capital of Edo. Workers required to construct and maintain the new residences, merchants to supply the material and foodstuffs for the new capital, migrant labor attracted to the opportunities in any number of fields but most importantly the massive canal and earthworks projects required to drain the marshy area around the bay in which Edo was situated, monks to populate the new temples being constructed to insure the safety of the capital and the longevity of the Tokugawa, entertainers to provide diversions, courtesans to provide other diversions, all led to a demographic explosion which resulted in a population of over one million by the early eighteenth century.

      The economic results were staggering as well. The new system required the development and maintenance of an extensive infrastructure of roads, canals, and coastal transport that did much to bring together the disparate areas of the country With international trade strategically limited during the whole of the Tokugawa reign, the sankin-kōtai system functioned as the principal economic engine of the regime, stimulating internal trade, furthering the development of a cash economy, facilitating the transfer of goods and services and dissemination of technology and learning, as well as accelerating the formation of a national language and identity With the flow of people, goods, and services from all over the country to and from Edo, the economic benefits were felt nationally. Osaka, the central entrepôt for the rice market, where merchants converted tax tribute rice from the various domains into the cash required to keep the system running, reasserted its position as the hub of national commerce. Kyoto, recovering from the devastations of the civil war period, and with the support of the Tokugawa government, was upheld as the source of tradition and continuity, the home of the emperor, the spiritual wellspring of the nation. Due to the continued importance of these two locales, daimyō generally maintained residences of varying scales, furthering the economies and cultural mix of these two cities.

      The most visual symbol of the sankin-kōtai system was the annual processions (gyōretsu) of daimyō to and from the capital. The size of these processions varied depending on the power, prestige, and economic wherewithal of the daimyō and his domain. Gyōretsu for domains such as the powerful Tosa clan could number up to 2,700 official members, with additional retainers of the domain traveling on unofficial business. Smaller domains such as Hachinohe would have as few as fifty in their retinue. These processions were staggered. Usually, domains whose turn it was to attend in Edo (Edō-zume) would begin their trip in the fourth month, and those returning to their domains would depart in the sixth month. Exceptions were made for daimyō who were permanently in the governments administrative, who made return trips much less frequently as well as members of the three branch families of the Tokugawa clan (go-sanke) who made their rotation in March.

      The daimyō processions were often grand affairs, with retainers and supporters joining in large, parade-like movements with heralds and banners. These included mounted riders, standard bearers, palanquins hefted on shoulders, and a seemingly endless line of foot soldiers and supply porters. Utilizing the elaborate road system that surpassed any European equivalent of the age, the transition process could take up to a month or more, depending on the size of the retinue and the distance from capital to domain. Towns along the routes experienced swollen coffers and depleted supplies as the processions moved back and forth along one of the many national highways. The gyōretsu were frequently spectacular affairs that captivated the local inhabitants of the towns and villages through which they passed.

      Painted images of these processions provide invaluable insight into the pomp and majesty of the largest of these processions. A hand scroll in the collection of the Tokugawa Art Museum in Nagoya (see page 57) illustrates the procession of the Owari Tokugawa, one of the go-sanke traveling from Nagoya to Edo. Measuring just under twelve inches high and eighty-five feet long, in

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