Tuteledge of farmers in bujutsu during edo-period.

[Fred27]

I have read more than once that certain classical martial arts taught farmers in the art of war. The main example that comes to mind is the Katori Shinto-ryu tradition which has stated that the school wasn't open to just members of the warrior class but also farmers. The TSKSR isnt the only school (obviously) that taught farmers but it was the first that came to mind.

I can imagine this setup working fine during the Sengoku Jidai era with plenty of farmers turning into soldiers and then going back to the paddy field, but how did it work during the Edo-period? Were farmers allowed to learn martial arts eventhough they weren't allowed to carry & own weapons?

[Ellis Amdur]

Yes. There was no proscription against training with wooden weapons, merely a proscription against carrying two swords. High ranking farmers, and goshi (yeomen - a class between bushi and nomin) had permission to carry one sword. Maniwa Nen-ryu was primarily a goshi martial art. Araki-ryu, in mid-Edo, was taught to villagers - thus called Moro (village) Budo Araki-ryu. Machi (Town) dojos sprung up all over and merchants and artisans trained in kenjutsu.
Best

[Fred27]

Yes. There was no proscription against training with wooden weapons, merely a proscription against carrying two swords. High ranking farmers, and goshi (yeomen - a class between bushi and nomin) had permission to carry one sword. Maniwa Nen-ryu was primarily a goshi martial art. Araki-ryu, in mid-Edo, was taught to villagers - thus called Moro (village) Budo Araki-ryu. Machi (Town) dojos sprung up all over and merchants and artisans trained in kenjutsu.
Best

I see, thanks! Thats a revelation for me :). I always thought that the Tokugawa was very weary of the possibility of a new farmers uprising, like Ikko-ikki, and forbid any non-warrior from being trained in warfare/weapons.

Oh, speaking of yeomen and other people with permission to carry sword, would a village headman be allowed to wear a sword? (Of course I'm assuming they werent all part of the warrior-class to begin with.)

[Ellis Amdur]

Yes, the village headman would carry a single sword - or at least, could. Tokugawa Japan was the most successful fascist state ever created - using fascism in it's real sense of state control of the populace, economy, etc. (thus, neither left nor right). The villages were organized in "gonin-gumi" - males were responsible for their own wives and kids, and groups of five males were headed by one of them, who reported upwards, to a larger level on the "pyramid," etc.
The gradual rise of the merchant class (hooray capitalism) gradually undermined this, because the merchants, at once at the bottom of the caste structure, became wealthy, then educated, cosmopolitan, and eventually, the bushi got in debt to the merchants, which enabled merchants to buy their way up into the bushi class (fluid social boundaries), and bushi dropped down into the farmer class, by either formal renunciation of status, or de facto. This led to increasing social ferment, and that, as much as anything else, made Japan resilient enough to deal with the encroachments of the West, so that it was not colonized and socially destroyed like so much of Asia.
(An aside: Indonesia and Japan were almost mirror-image societies, in social structure and technology at the 16th century. The Dutch turned Indonesia into a plantation, whereas Japan, by shutting itself off and then later, radically innovating kept the colonists out - which is why Indonesia today is 3rd world, and Japan is 1st.).

Best

[Steve Delaney]

Indeed, when I first read the original post in this thread, Maniwa Nen-ryu and Sanjin Araki-ryu sprang to mind.

[Vile]

I think that Kondou Isami was originally from a farmer family and was adopted after he started to study Tennen Rishin ryuu, so that implies that Tennen Rishin ryuu was also trained by other classes besides the bushi.

From what I've read (an OLD article from Journal of Asian Studies) this kind of adoption from outside the bushi class was quite rare though. Most adoption was done from within the bushi class, younger sons from the buke families of approximately the same class. (Moore, Ray; Adoption and Samurai Mobility in Tokugawa Japan; The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 29, No. 3, 1970)

I think another thing worth pointing out is that "Edo-period" is over 250 years -- from the turbulent early Edo-period, through the relatively peaceful era of mid Tokugawa, to the unstability of the late Tokugawa period.

If I've understood correctly, the views on students from lower classes became more liberal in the latter part of the era. Maybe the income of the rich merchants and wealthier farmers (e.g. village heads) was an appealing opportunity for some kenjutsu teachers as the bushi class became poorer and poorer towards the end of the Edo-period.

[ZealUK]

In Kagoshima a method of weapons training for farmers disguised as a folk dance was created to teach rokushaku bo, sanjyaku bo (maybe sword) and a number of other implements including kama. There are still a number of variations of this dance being practiced around Kagoshima prefecture.

[Josh Reyer]

To add Mr. Amdur's remarks regarding non-bushi carrying swords.

The special dispensation that bushi received was called "myoji-taito" 苗字帯刀, meaning they had surnames and the right to wear a katana. The katana and wakizashi were called the "daisho", but the law wasn't specifically that only bushi could wear the daisho, but rather that only bushi could wear a katana with their wakizashi. Everyone else, if they had the money (and no doubt jumped through bureaucratic hoops) could carry a wakizashi for protection. In fact there was a sword called "dochuzashi" 道中差, a short sword commoners were permitted to carry when on the road travelling.

Myoji-taito was sometimes given to non-bushi for various reasons -- distinguished service or contribution, and things like that. Alternatively, someone might be awarded just a myoji (a surname), or just taito (the right to carry a katana). In any case, receiving either or both did not make one a bushi, nor did it make one's family a buke. Many have pointed to William Adams' Japanese name (Miura Anjin) and the fact that he owned a daisho and then assumed that he was made part of the samurai class. However, his work for the Shogunate dealt in commerce and foreign relations, not to mention that he was foreigner. What is more likely is that he was given myoji-taito as a special dispensation. (Adams' is sometimes said to have become a hatamono, but it is my understanding that there is no contemporary record of this.)

[Surgere]

Maybe William Adams wasn't hatamoto, but we all know the good Pilot John Blackthorne was.
"Are you hatamoto? I am hatamoto."

[Fred27]

In Kagoshima a method of weapons training for farmers disguised as a folk dance was created to teach rokushaku bo, sanjyaku bo (maybe sword) and a number of other implements including kama. There are still a number of variations of this dance being practiced around Kagoshima prefecture.

Since they disguised it then I assume that weaponstraining for farmers was not allowed in Kagoshima right? Was it up to individal province who was allowed to train or not?

To add Mr. Amdur's remarks regarding non-bushi carrying swords.

The special dispensation that bushi received was called "myoji-taito" 苗字帯刀, meaning they had surnames and the right to wear a katana. The katana and wakizashi were called the "daisho", but the law wasn't specifically that only bushi could wear the daisho, but rather that only bushi could wear a katana with their wakizashi. Everyone else, if they had the money (and no doubt jumped through bureaucratic hoops) could carry a wakizashi for protection. In fact there was a sword called "dochuzashi" 道中差, a short sword commoners were permitted to carry when on the road travelling.

Myoji-taito was sometimes given to non-bushi for various reasons -- distinguished service or contribution, and things like that. Alternatively, someone might be awarded just a myoji (a surname), or just taito (the right to carry a katana). In any case, receiving either or both did not make one a bushi, nor did it make one's family a buke.

This is a much more complex (and more interesting) than I could imagine.
I found one of those "dochuzashi" by the way:

http://www.edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp/about/josetsu/dai2/2005/1021/img/1_s.jpg

So how does Toyotomi Hideyoshis Sword-hunt and the separation-edict fit into all this?

[nicojo]

How about http://www.koryu.com/guide/ichiden.html Asayama Ichiden-ryu heiho as another example of a koryu with close links to the farming class?

It's an interesting topic for me, the role of agriculture workers in Japan. It has been presented before, often in popular media, as a strict split between bushi and non-bushi, but it seems to me that the class stratification was a bit more complex than this. Even through the strict regulations of the Tokugawa period, it seems that there were all sorts of exemptions and exceptions allowable. Goshi is just one example. And I think that farmers were considered a higher class than the merchant/artisans until late in the period. Anyhow, the local responses of the landed gentry, of the food suppliers, to the citified government is interesting.

Hideyoshi's sword edict is to me a classic example of pulling the ladder up after one's own ascent, since he was from the farm class himself. But it also laid the ground work for the Tokugawa fascist state Ellis mentioned.

[Josh Reyer]

This is a much more complex (and more interesting) than I could imagine.
I would say that since I started studying up on Japanese history, particularly in Japanese, just about every conception I had about samurai has proven...well, if not wrong, then certainly much more nuanced.

I found one of those "dochuzashi" by the way:
Carried by the great Tanikaze, it would seem.

So how does Toyotomi Hideyoshis Sword-hunt and the separation-edict fit into all this?
The sword-hunt was part of Hideyoshi's plan to divide the classes into castes, disarming the farmers so that only bushi had weapons, as well as de-arm the populace. Initially he banned farmers from having even wakizashi, but by the mid 1600s the country was at peace and commoners were carrying wakizashi again, and the restriction on sword carrying was only on the katana.

That's kinda what I mean about all my conceptions being wrong. Initially my image was "Samurai carry swords and commoners can't!" Then I find out that during the Sengoku period any man of age could carry a katana, and that even in the Edo period commoners carried wakizashi for travel. It turns out that my image was correct for basically only one 80 year period in the roughly 700 years of "samurai" history.

[Max Chouinard]

Here's a good article (although a bit old) mentioning the changes in japanese military hierachy http://web.uvic.ca/ehnorman/PDFs/Soldier%20Peasant1.pdf

It mentions that the Satsuma clan had 20 000 goshi on it's lands, all of wich bearing sword. It seems they acted mainly as enforcers of law upon the lower peasentry (who revolted more often than we think, but for that matter much less in Satsuma) and responsible for counter espionnage against the bakufu.

And if you have acess to JStor, this is also a good one: https://132.203.244.152/http/0/www.jstor.org/view/00730548/di014881/01p00773/3?searchUrl=http%

It explains the relationship between merchants and samurai. It seems that buying a goshin title was common place for wealthy merchants, and that city elders had the right to wear the daisho and a surname (myoji taito) and even to be permitted an audience with the daimyo.

[Nii]

This led to increasing social ferment, and that, as much as anything else, made Japan resilient enough to deal with the encroachments of the West, so that it was not colonized and socially destroyed like so much of Asia.
(An aside: Indonesia and Japan were almost mirror-image societies, in social structure and technology at the 16th century. The Dutch turned Indonesia into a plantation, whereas Japan, by shutting itself off and then later, radically innovating kept the colonists out - which is why Indonesia today is 3rd world, and Japan is 1st.).


This part of your post Ellis has me so intrigued. I had never noticed the fact that Japan was not as affected by the Western influence as other Asian countries. Can you elaborate as to how the social structure prevented colonization? At least I think that's what you meant =/

And what did the Japanese "radically innovate"?

[kabutoki]

Dear Max,
thank you for posting the two links. Could you please post the name of the second article? I have access to JSTOR but the link you provided leads to a secure VPN.

Yours,
Karsten

[Max Chouinard]

Sure, here's the complete source:
Samurai and Merchant in Mid-Tokugawa Japan: Tani Tannai's Record of Daily Necessities (1748-54)
Constantine N. Vaporis
Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Jun., 2000), pp. 205-227

[Fred27]

In Kagoshima a method of weapons training for farmers disguised as a folk dance was created to teach rokushaku bo, sanjyaku bo (maybe sword) and a number of other implements including kama. There are still a number of variations of this dance being practiced around Kagoshima prefecture.

What you say kinda reminds me of what is shown in this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuIGV5lNzqA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuIGV5lNzqA)

The clothes and setting doesn't look like a MA demonstration but more of a festival of some sorts.

[ZealUK]

The text says Tennen Rishin Ryu Bojutsu.

Just found these pictures of the Bo Odori in Kuginono (North Kagoshima) http://www.pref.kagoshima.jp/kyoiku-bunka/bunka/museum/shichoson/ookuchi/kuginono.html

[Josh Reyer]

This part of your post Ellis has me so intrigued. I had never noticed the fact that Japan was not as affected by the Western influence as other Asian countries. Can you elaborate as to how the social structure prevented colonization? At least I think that's what you meant =/

And what did the Japanese "radically innovate"?

I don't think Mr. Amdur has suggested that the social structure itself prevented colonization, but that the government's two strategies -- first, shutting itself completely away, and then second, radically innovating -- prevented colonization.

As for what did the Japanese radically innovate? In a word, everything. The Meiji Period was truly a remarkable time in history. When Perry arrived in Japan in 1853, he had state of the art military technology. His ships ran on steam. His squadron was armed with shell guns (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paixhan#Paixhans_naval_guns) and 32 pound carronades (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carronade). His men carried percussion cap (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percussion_cap) muskets and Colt revolvers. His home country had a telegraph and railway systems. Meanwhile, Japan's technology hadn't changed since 1600. Their weapons were matchlocks and swords. Their ships ran on sail and had little in the way of armament. Like just about every other Western imperial power, the U.S. used this technological superiority to force Japan to sign unfair treaties.

The Japanese response was amazing. Every facet of Japanese life changed. They sent delegations to Western countries to study organizations and technology. They invited experts from these countries to come to Japan and teach there. The class-system was abolished (or at least heavily modified). A standing army, using modern weapons and organization, was quickly formed. Japan went from medieval technology in 1853 to opening its first railway in 1878. With their army and navy modernized, they were able to renegotiate fair treaties. And most shocking of all, a mere 50 years after Perry's ships arrived, Japan roundly defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese war. This is roughly analogous to Argentina winning the Falklands War in a rout. The Japan of 1903 was very, very different from the Japan of 1853. And they did this all while fighting two civil wars -- the Boshin War, and the Satsuma Rebellion.

It wasn't just a matter of getting the new technology. How people learned, how they dressed, what they ate, how they lived, it was all ruthlessly examined and, if necessary, changed.

I think a case could be made (and perhaps this is what Mr. Amdur was suggesting) that the Japanese response and innovation was so effective because they were so far behind from being closed off for 250 years. Had Japan stayed engaged with the world from 1600 on, perhaps they wouldn't have adapted to Western ideas to such an extreme, and would have suffered the same fate as the rest of Asia.

[Nii]

Thanks for all the useful information Josh! I didn't realise that a country can advance so much in such short time! Has there been any other examples from other countries similar to this?

It's interesting that a country can change from complete isolation to this radical innovation. It would have been a very big decision to make (didn't it cause a civil war or something? Excuse my ignorance =P).

[Joseph Svinth]

Other rapidly modernizing societies include Turkey under Ataturk, Russia under Stalin, China under Mao, and Germany under Bismarck. Such change involves enormous upheaval, and the methods often aren't pretty.

[JS3]

Gentlemen,
I remember rading an article in Classical Fighting Arts issue 9 dealing with a similar subject.
Henning Wittwer stated in the article “Jigen Ryu Swordsmanship and its Influence on Karate-do”:
“The saber of Jigen-Ryu was not the only weapon of this school which emerged in the kingdom of
Ryukyu. Togo Shigemasa (2nd generation) created a fighting system relying on common tools rather than
“real” weapons. This tradition bears the name Jigen-Ryu Bo-Odori (Stick Dance of the School of Manifestation)
and its purpose was to provide military instruction to as many Satsuma social classes as possible.”

He goes on to list the weapons taught:
Sanjaku-bo (3 shaku stick)
Rokushaku-bo (6 shaku long staff)
Tenbin-bo (pole for carrying loads on the shoulder)
Ro (oar)
Shakuhachi (bamboo flute)
Kama (sickle)
Ono (axe)
Suki (spade)
Kuwa (mattock)

Could other Ryu in Japan have done the same or is this an isolated instance for Jigen-Ryu?

[Nii]

Other rapidly modernizing societies include Turkey under Ataturk, Russia under Stalin, China under Mao, and Germany under Bismarck. Such change involves enormous upheaval, and the methods often aren't pretty.

How about South Korea? It is quite a wealthy and modernised country.

China comes to mind too... But it is an unusual beast so I really don't know what to say about it.

[Fred27]

The text says Tennen Rishin Ryu Bojutsu.

Just found these pictures of the Bo Odori in Kuginono (North Kagoshima) http://www.pref.kagoshima.jp/kyoiku-bunka/bunka/museum/shichoson/ookuchi/kuginono.html

Ah! I see :). I gotta say that TRR has quite an interesting set of clothes. At least in that clip.

[wmuromoto]

Most budo training was open to all by the heyday of the Edo Period, and probably before, as a means not just of military training, but for sportive and recreational activity. The Takeuchi-ryu budo accepted members from all classes pretty much from the get go, from the 1500s on through the Edo Period. Jujutsu and kenjutsu schools had numerous contests during the Edo Period, the latter developing equipment that eventually became the modern kendo bogu and shinai, and farmers and townspeople flocked to those training halls.

Some ryu did have restrictions based on social rank or relationships, but I suspect (I haven't done a quantitative study) they were not all that frequent. The Eishin-ryu was an "otome-ryu," that is, it didn't teach anyone outside of Tosa Province, and even after the Edo Period, one of its teachers refused to actively teach Nakayama Hakudo, who was then the kendo teacher to the imperial family's children, because he wasn't from Tosa.

The other historical note posed by Ellis is always an intriguing "what if" question asked by anyone who looks and wonders at the transformation of Japan in so short a time. Although the country was shut off from technological and cultural changes, historians point out that society as a whole was primed for radical Westernization in many ways. Even though access to Western knowledge was proscribed, doctors trained in Dutch medicine were prized for their scientific and more successful approach to medical treatment. The rise of the merchant class led to a national system of capitalistic trade and a money economy, with lending and banking institutions that, although they weren't still as "modern" as the West, were really ready for the push into modernization. Education was prized as one of the ways for upward social mobility, so you have even farmers spending their spare time composing poetry and reading literature (and novels and nonfiction tracts).

Even the taciturn Satsuma clan got into Westernization big time just before the Meiji Period when some of their samurai fired on a passing Western ship and got blasted back with modern cannon in return, suffering great humiliation. They realized they needed to upgrade their weapons and tactics.

And although the society was, as Ellis notes, fascist in the dictionary definition, there were enough disgruntled members of the governing samurai class who wanted to change, and who had the influence, arms and vision to change. That doesn't answer the question definitively, but you can point out to a number of factors that allowed Japan to become a First World country in comparison to many other Asian countries. Jared Diamond, who wrote Guns, Germs and Steel, would even point out that environmental policies also impact on a country's ability to modernize and sustain its modernization, and that Japan's Tokugawa policies gave it a leg up, compared to other Asian countries. So it has nothing to do with any inherent genetic or cultural trait of the Japanese people, but more to do with cultural, political and social (and possibly environmental) situations that allowed for successful Westernization.

So even though Japan has its periods of xenophobia, it has a long history of borrowing and adapting from outside, whether from China and Korea early on, and now from the West. Our own "traditional" judogi (and karategi) is, IMHO, a Western-influenced innovation by Jigoro Kano. So there's no getting around the Western influence on Japanese culture.

It's good. Else we would never have had the California roll sushi.

Wayne Muromoto

[ZealUK]

Even the taciturn Satsuma clan got into Westernization big time just before the Meiji Period when some of their samurai fired on a passing Western ship and got blasted back with modern cannon in return, suffering great humiliation. They realized they needed to upgrade their weapons and tactics.

Shimazu Shigehide was into Western trinkets during the late 1700's, well before the Meiji era. His grandson Nariakira was the real innovator of Western ideas and technology.

I think you are talking about the bombardment of Kagoshima by the British navy. This was actually in reaction to the Namamugi jiken, and was actually initiated by the British side. Satsuma did actually have fairly modern cannon at the time, and although they couldn't match the firepower of the British fleet they did manage to do some damage to the British.

[P Goldsbury]

This part of your post Ellis has me so intrigued. I had never noticed the fact that Japan was not as affected by the Western influence as other Asian countries. Can you elaborate as to how the social structure prevented colonization? At least I think that's what you meant =/

And what did the Japanese "radically innovate"?

I am sure that Ellis will respond when he has the time. I have recently been reading up on late Tokugawa / early Meiji-Taishou and it struck me that the anti-Christian/anti-foreign edicts, for example, were as much to keep the local daimyo in line, as to keep Christians & foreigners out. The shogunate allowed the Dutch to stay in Dejima (as far away from Edo as possible) and grudgingly sanctioned the study of Rangaku, before realizing that they put their eggs in the wrong basket and were studying the culture of a country that was ceasing to count for much.

In my opinion, the 'radical innovation' was the transformation of Japan from a quiet agricultural backwater into a major industrial power, eager to stand shoulder to shoulder with Britain, France and the US. This was basically achieved by samurai from Tosa, Choshu, Saga and Satsuma (all agricultural backwaters), but the slogan was son-nou jou-i (Honour the Emperor; Expel the Barbarians). I think that this anti-foreign theme runs constantly through Japan's history at least from the Pax Tokugawa until World War II. The fact that these samurai went to Europe and that foreigners were invited to Japan to help modernize the country does not imply any change in this basically anti-foreign stance.

Best regards to all,

[Ellis Amdur]

OK - quick reply. The Dutch, in Indonesia, forced a plantation system on the various Indonesian peoples, which was very destructive of local agricultural traditions, damaging self-sufficiency for hundreds of years. They manipulated different ethnic groups against each other, suppressing some and encouraging others. They were appallingly brutal. This was extremely destructive of the development of a) political development b) the development of a merchant class/bourgeoise. Although not "romantic," the development of a strong merchant class in Japan was one of the most significant factors in the Edo period, both culturally, and in development of the economy. This latter, as much as any factor meant that when Japan decided to open up, they had the "software" to do so. Colonized countries, be they Indonesia or the African nations, were hobbled by hundreds of years of fomented ethnic resentment, an agriculture that was oriented towards the production of goods wanted elsewhere (spices, cocoa, coffee, what have you), the lack of a middle class, and a stunted body politic.
Enough, I think. Anyone who wants more should pull out the history and political science books, rather than me.
Best

[Kim Taylor]

Another thing to consider when talking about Japan and the opening to the West is just what the West wanted. As far as I can think of right now, all Japan had to offer the West was a market.

No raw resources, no great agriculture, just people to sell things to and a merchant class to distribute the new goods. So what use to colonize the place? Much easier and cheaper to send shiploads of goods.

And of course what came back was of great interest too, there's a good argument that the modern art of the West was founded at least partly on Japanese woodblock prints.

Japan had people to make things and to buy things, but not much to encourage plantations, mines or other reasons to colonize.

Just a couple random thoughts

Kim Taylor

[Fred27]

And of course what came back was of great interest too, there's a good argument that the modern art of the West was founded at least partly on Japanese woodblock prints.

Kim Taylor

This (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japonism) article is featuring something called "Japonism" which is referred to as:
Japonism, the original French term, which is also used in English, is a term for the influence of the arts of Japan on those of the West.

Pretty neat :).

[Sukeyasu]

I can't buy that argument. Pottery, lacquer (that's why it is still called 'Japan' in some places), gold at a fraction of the price per ounce of that of the international market: the Shogunate had a real problem with that last one. They couldn't figure out why their gold stocks kept decreasing, so the size of their coins got smaller and smaller.

And silk. By the turn of the twentieth century, Japan was the world's largest silk supplier, oh-so important for the Western ladies and their pantihose.

Maybe it was because Japan had such a developed infrastructure that they were never colonized. It was much easier to exploit the country through the hated 'unequal treaties' than to invade and oversee the production of goods oneself.

[john_lord_b3]

(An aside: Indonesia and Japan were almost mirror-image societies, in social structure and technology at the 16th century. The Dutch turned Indonesia into a plantation, whereas Japan, by shutting itself off and then later, radically innovating kept the colonists out - which is why Indonesia today is 3rd world, and Japan is 1st.).

Best

(OOT mode on)

Heheheh, very good observation Mr. Amdur!

BTW, my grandfather joined the Japanese Imperial Army as PETA (native volunteer militia) during the War Years of 1942-1945. I wonder what I'd become now had the Japanese won the Pacific war... :)

Sorry for the drift!

(OOT mode off)

[Michael Wert]

I've just joined this thread, but to get back to the original question, I'll be sending out an article I've just completed on this very topic to either Monumenta Nipponica or The Journal of Japanese Studies later this semester. Given how slow the wheels of academic publishing turn, however, it won't come out for about six months to a year.

But to give you a heads up, besides the example of Maniwa Nen-ryu, there were many styles in the countryside being taught by and to peasant elites (village headmen mainly) and psuedo commoner-bushi types (goshi) such as the sennin doshin. Some of these styles no longer exist, such as a kenjutsu style near Mt. Akagi that lasted from the early to mid 18th century and was dominated by six major peasant families in the area.

As Fuse Kenji shows in his new book Kakyu Bushi to Bakumatsu Meiji, domains such as Kawagoe had two sets of styles, officially supported styles in which middle and upper ranked bushi trained, and unofficial styles used by lower rank bushi. These "lower" styles often had commoner students outside the confines of domain dojo.

The trick is proving that peasants and other commoners practiced bugei throughout the Edo period. As John Rogers points out in his dissertation (page 134--he's the guy who did the Monumenta Nipponica articles on the Honcho Bugei Shoden mentioned on this forum before) although styles like Katori Shinto ryu claim to have taught non-bushi, where is the historical evidence...

The other issue is that although we would expect to see commoners doing martial arts in the beginning and end of the Edo Period, when the "rules" were just being established in the former or were falling apart in the latter, what about the rest of the period....in this article I've written I provide the evidence that in fact, commoners do practice bugei throughout. The question then becomes why do they practice bugei...and here I add on ideas about social and cultural capital and reactions against new types of violence that occur in the nineteenth century....

Best
Michael Wert PhD
Assistant Professor
Dept of History
Marquette University

[Max Chouinard]

I'll be very eager to read this article Mr.Wert.

[BVoigtmann]

I'm really looking forward for this article, too.

Since our facultie's library now has a more or less complete access on J-Stor, I would like to ask, if some of you propably have recommends on articles about bugei and associated topics, respectively recommandable articles on edo-jidai cultural life.

As I read the answers on this topic, I just noticed, that the one or other still mentions the four different "classes" of edo-time Japan. In the case, that I'm informed correctly, the "shinôkôshô"-classification is obsolete in japanese history-studies since some time now. It's a rudimental point of view in western Japanese-Studies, founding on confucianistic norm-literature of confucianistic scholars like Hayashi Razan.
Therefore, they tried to project the ideal society of ancient China on the society of Japan.
Many examples were given, which prove this image false.
The "class-boarders" were merely fluent. So where some of the rights or titles, given to diverse people. Some where affiliated to a specific position in social life, like the commsioner for the "hinin" in Edo (Alas, I forgot the static name connected to this position), who himself was inherent of that status, but was given permission from the bakufu, to own a name and swords (some of you mentioned it above as myôji taitô).

Other examples for a non-existence of a four-class-system can be given easily, since there where many people who can't be fitted in this system. Eta/hinin, medics, monks, actors and curtisans etc. etc.

In Germany, unfortunately, you find this image of Edo-time Japan quite often in several books on japanese history, martial arts and such alike.

[wmuromoto]

Prof. Wert notes that:

"...The trick is proving that peasants and other commoners practiced bugei throughout the Edo period. As John Rogers points out in his dissertation (page 134--he's the guy who did the Monumenta Nipponica articles on the Honcho Bugei Shoden mentioned on this forum before) although styles like Katori Shinto ryu claim to have taught non-bushi, where is the historical evidence... "

And he says he has some material to prove that non-bushi trained. Perhaps this might help a bit, or not, but...

The Takeuchi-ryu main branch has reprinted its reconds of every student who did keppan and nyuumon from the Bunsei Era (1818) on in its book, Takeuchiryu (Nihonjujutsu No Genryu). I suppose if you really wanted to, you could cross-reference those names to any surviving family records in the Kumegun area and find out which of them were farmers, but frankly, I'm not that into it. But the documents are there. I'm sure they are also available in other ryuha, like the TSKSR, which would show non-bushi enrolled.

--Wayne Muromoto

[Louvere]

According to Shimazu Kenji Headmaster of the Yagyu Shingan Ryu Heihojutsu - Kyodensho 'Chikuosha', when Takenaga Hayato the founder of the Yagyu Shingan Ryu completed his training and work under Yagyu Munenori, he returned to his home in Sendai. There he taught Yagyu Shingan Ryu to ashigaru who were by profession common farmers engaged in agriculture. Takenaga Hayato taught there until the end of his life.

Book source: Kacchu Yawara - Yagyu Shingan Ryu; Shimazu Kenji. 1979 Book Tokyo: Nito Shoin.
Shoden Yagyu Shingan Ryu Heihojutsu; Shimazu Kenji & Hoshi Kunio. 1998 Book Tokyo: Nihon Bujutsu Shiryokan.

Simon

Simon Louis

[Ellis Amdur]

In Ise-Zaki han, starting in mid-Edo, there was an explicit division of Araki-ryu into that taught to the bushi and what was called Moro Budo Araki-ryu. (Moro is a word that means "village") The non-bushi menkyo kaiden are explicitly listed.

Best

[Michael Wert]

A very good and recent book that might help people better understand the status system would be David Howell's Geographies of Identity in Nineteenth Century Japan (California U Press 2005) in particular the first three or four chapters.

On a completely different topic, another newish book that might be of interest to people here is Punishment and Power in the Making of Modern Japan (Princeton U Press 2005) by Daniel Botsman. I have students in my violence seminar read it and it has always been a hit.

Best

[Max Chouinard]

Thank you, I'll look into those, if you have any other suggestions (outside of the subject of this topic) feel free to share.

[Ron Tisdale]

Hi Ellis, this bi-furcation is very interesting. Are there any stories or records of the relationships between the heads of the two groups? Any ideas on interactions for training, competitions, etc.?

Best,
Ron

[Ellis Amdur]

IT wasn't really a split. Simply, the non-bushi were designated as doing Moro Budo. Furthermore, there were not "heads," in the sense that we think of soke today. There were shihan, each independent, all co-equal. Even two generations ago, there were three separate lines of Araki-ryu in one town, doing some kata in common and some differently. Unfortunately, there are not, to my knowledge, any stories of note. Perhaps there would be in the annals of the Ise-zaki han, or in family records.
Best