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There is the same overcrowding of exciting incidents, the same mixture of comedy and tragedy, and the same desire to shock the audience with brutal murders and other enormities enacted on the stage, and to pander to their lewder tastes. But although it is heresy to say so, I confess to a preference to Idzumo over his more famous master. 1 Translated into English by Mr. F. V. Dickins, under the title Chiushin- © gura; or the Loyal League; a Japanese Romance, 314 JAPANESE LITERATURE The improbabilities are not quite so startling, the per- sonages are several degrees nearer to ordinary humanity, and their sentiments are somewhat less unnatural and less stilted in their expression. The poetical element is, perhaps, thinner, but that, to the European reader at least, is a doubtful disadvantage. Idzumo died in 1756. He was followed as playwright for the Takemoto theatre by Chikamatsu Hanni, who did his best to attract audiences by startling novelties and spectacular effect. He reduced the share given to poetical narrative, and depended more on dialogue. But in his hands the Joruri declined sensibly. The public got tired of it, the Takemoto Za went into bankruptcy, and after the end of the century this kind of drama became practically extinct. CHAPTER VI EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ( Continued) WAGAKUSHA (STUDENTS OF JAPANESE ANTIQUITY) THE Kangakusha’s extravagant admiration for every- thing Chinese, and their persistent and largely successful endeavours to mould the thoughts and institutions of _ Japan upon Chinese models, were followed by an inevi- table reaction in favour of a more genuinely national development. This movement, which has been fully described by Sir E. Satow in the Zvansactions of the Astatic Soctety of Japan (1875), forms one of the most interesting features of recent Japanese literature. It began with the renewed study of the old literary monuments of Japan, which for centuries had been so much neglected that the very language in which they are written was no longer understood. Iyeyasu’s patronage of literature, and his measures for the preservation of old books, have been already referred to. One of his grand- sons, the famous Mitsukuni (1622-1700), Daimio of Mito, inherited his great ancestor’s love of learning. He appro- priated a considerable part of his revenue to the cost of collecting a vast library of books of all kinds, and to the maintenance of scholars whom he employed in the com- pilation of works of research. The chief outcome of their labours was the well-known Dad Nihonshi, a history ass 316 JAPANESE LITERATURE of Japan in the Chinese language, which is recognised at the present day as the standard work of its class. One of Mitsukuni’s services to literature was the pub- lication in 1678 of an anthology of masterpieces in the Wabun or pure Japanese style, under the title Muso-jzu- yo-shiu, given to it by the reigning Mikado, to whom it was dedicated. It is a fine specimen of the block-printing of the time. A priest named KEICHIU (1640-1701) was the chief pioneer of the revived study of the old literature. He was by birth a Samurai, but out of a love for learning _ abandoned the world for the quiet of a Buddhist monas- tery. His fame as a scholar reached the ears of Mitsu- kuni, who invited him in the most courteous manner to | come to Yedo and be enrolled in his company of learned .men. Keichiu declined this offer, upon which the Prince sent one of his staff to prosecute his studies under Keichiu’s guidance. The latter, not to be outdone in courtesy, compiled and dedicated to Mitsukuni a treatise on the Janydshiu, in twenty volumes, entitled Manyo Daishoki. The task of preparing a similar work had already been vainly assigned to another of the Prince’s protégés, a learned but lazy Wagakusha called Shimo- _ kawabe Choriu. The Dazshok? is now superseded, but it was in its day a work of the highest importance for the study of the old Japanese. Mitsukuni evinced his satis- faction by sending the author a present of one thousand ounces of silver and thirty rolls of silk. Another book of Keichiu’s was the Kokon Yozatshé, which means literally “A Selection of Spare Timber, Old and New.” It is a miscellaneous collection of material prepared by him in the course of his researches for the Daishokt, but not used in that work. He also contributed oe jon. oe KEICHIU 317 to the interpretation of the /se Monogatari and the Genji Monogatarz, and wrote a number of other erudite treatises which are still valued by scholars. Like most of the Wagakusha, he was a poet, and has left both Tanka and Naga-uta, which in metre, diction, and sentiment are little more than echoes of the Manydshiu. They are adorned with the same devices of pillow and pivot words, and are in short the old wine in the old bottles. The following simple effusion is in its way not unpleasing :— THE First DAY OF SPRING “ Bending its magic bow,! The spring hath come: The eternal heavens, Likewise the ore-yielding earth, Are dim with haze; The snow begins to melt On the mountain's rim, And the ice dissolves From the surface of the pond; The nightingale’s tender note Sounds (oh! how lovely /) From amid the first blossoms Of the plum branch, Now from the memory fade Our regrets for the bygone year. How many days must pass Before we can go forth into the meadows And pluck the young pot-herbs 2? When will the willow Flame into bud? 1 Haru in Japanese means ‘‘to bend” and also ‘‘spring.” Hence this con- junction. There is no intention of personifying spring as an archer. A small bow forms part of a magician’s outfit in Japan. 2 An old custom in early spring. 318 JAPANESE LITERATURE When will the cherry-flowers open? Such are the expectant thoughts That on this day f Crowd into all men’s minds.” About the same time Kitamura Kigin, a scholar em- ployed by the Shogun’s Government, performed a useful service by editing and annotating most of the classical. works of the Heian period. His editions of the Genz Monogatari and Makura Zosht are still much esteemed by students. Kigin also wrote Tanka and Haikai. Kada Adzuma-maro (1669-1736), -the son of the guar- dian of a Shinto shrine, was Keichiu’s successor as a student of Japanese antiquity and the old classical litera- ture. He presented to the Government a memorial, in which he protested vigorously against the exclusive study of Chinese, and urged the establishment of a school for the cultivation of the Japanese language and literature at Kidto. This project received the approval of the Shégun’s Government, but was never carried out. Kada was suc- ceeded by his nephew and adopted son, Kada Arima- maro (1706-1751). Arima-maro took up his residence in Yedo, where he continued his uncle’s teachings with some success. Among the elder Kada’s pupils the most distinguished was MABUCHI (1697-1769). Like his master, Mabuchi came of a family of guardians of Shinto shrines. In 1738 he removed to Yedo, where he spent the remainder of his life. He formed there a school which produced many famous men, and soon rivalled the Kangakusha in popularity and influence. Motoori, who was one of his pupils, describes him as “the parent of the study of antiquity.” “It was he,” he adds, “ with whom began that style of MABUCHI 319 learning which consists in devoting oneself to the exa- mination of the ancient language and thought with a mind wholly detached from Chinese prepossessions. Before the time of this master the study of poetry was confined to the Kvkinshiu and later collections. The Manyoshiu was thought obscure and incomprehensible. _. Nobody dreamed of judging between the good and bad, of distinguishing the old from the more recent poems, or of mastering their language so as to use it as his own. But now, thanks to the teachings of “this master, we have appropriated the ancient language. It has become possible to compose poetry in the style of the Manyoshiu, and even to write prose after the manner of antiquity. The men of this day fancy that this is due to their own exertions, but in reality they owe everything to Mabuchi. It is now universally acknowledged that in studying ancient books like the Kazk¢ and Nzhongz, it is necessary to avoid being misled by Chinese notions, and having first thoroughly mastered the old language, to guide ourselves by its meaning. This is the very spirit of Mabuchi’s teaching of the JZanydshiu.” Mabuchi was a purist in style, and aimed at the - exclusion from his writings of words of Chinese deriva- tion as far as this was possible. He has left numerous commentaries and other works of research, indispen- sable even now to the student of the older Japanese language. Among them may be mentioned treatises on pillow-words (Kanjzko), on poetry, and on prose com- position, and commentaries on the Manydshiu, on the Norito (Worito Ko), the Genji Monogatart, and other classical books. He was also a writer of Tanka and Naga-uta. The greatest of the Wagakusha, and one of the most 320 ' JAPANESE LITERATURE remarkable men whom Japan has produced, was MOTO- Or NorinaGA. He belonged to a family which had been originally Samurai, and was born in 1730 at Matsuzaka, in the province of Ise. There can be no doubt that the proximity of his native place to the famous shrines sacred from antiquity to the worship of the Sun Goddess and the Goddess of Food, had a considerable influence on his career. Stories are told of his youth, of his omnivorous appetite for knowledge, his precocious talent, and his boyish ambitions, which it is needless to repeat here. At the age of twenty-one he was sent to Kidto by his widowed mother to study medicine. There he became acquainted with the works of Keichiu, which he read with avidity.