English
Indeed there is a passage in the fifth part of the Hzzakurzge which seems intended as a repudiation of the suggestion, Yaji is here repre- 372 JAPANESE LITERATURE sented as involved in cruel embarrassments by an attempt to impose himself on some provincial virtuosos as the renowned poet and novelist Jippensha Ikku. Ikku says elsewhere that Yaji was intended as a fada no oyajt or “ordinary elderly man.” But in truth he is neither Jippensha Ikku nor yet a tada no oyajt. He and his younger companion belong to that class who having never lived can never die. They are humble but not unworthy members of the illustrious fraternity which includes Falstaff, Sancho Panza, Sam Weller, and Tar- tarin—to us far more real personages than any originals which may have supplied hints for them. Yaji and Kida are by no means heroes. They are cowardly, superstitious, and impudent. Lies, “gross as a mountain, open, palpable,” fall from their lips on the smallest provocation or in mere wantonness. Yaji has a certain share of good sense and bonhomie which goes some way to redeem his character, but Kida is a fool positive whose idiotic sallies and ill-advised amorous schemes are continually entangling him in scrapes from which it requires all the wit and savoir faire of his elder companion to extricate him. Nor is Yaji, from a moral point of view, much better. Both are, in sooth, shame- less wights, whose moral principles are on a par with those of Falstaff or Sir Harry Wildairs, and for whose indecency of speech and conduct even Rabelais hardly affords an adequate comparison. The most that can be said for them is that their grossness is the grossness of the natural uncultured man, and not the cox amore con- centrated filth which revolts us in some European authors, and that with two continents and a wide gulf of social and racial differences intervening, their indecency some- how creates less disgust than if they were Englishmen IKKU 373 or Frenchmen. Still, people of nice taste had better not read the Azzakurige. It is hopeless by translation to give any idea of the copious flow of rollicking humour which pervades every page of this really wonderful book. Those who have read it will not forget the scene in a roadside inn where some terrapins laid on a shelf overnight come out when Yaji, Kida, and their party are all sound asleep, and in- sinuate themselves among the bedding ; or Kida’s misad- venture at the river ford with the two blind men who had agreed that one should carry the other over on his back. Yaji cleverly substitutes himself, and so crosses over dry- shod. But Kida, in endeavouring to follow his example, is detected, and shot off in mid-stream. Then there is the scene in which a strolling medium (a young woman) delivers to Yaji a terrific but untranslatable message from his deceased wife, who adds a climax to his fright by proposing to come and pay him occasional friendly visits ; and one where Yaji, fancying that Kida is a fox which has taken the shape of his friend, belabours him soundly to make him resume his natural vulpine form. Another amusing scene is one in which the owner of the pack-horse which Kida is riding, meets a man to whom the animal had been assigned as security for a debt. The creditor threatens to foreclose then and there. As the negotiations between the two sway backward and forward, Kida is made alternately to mount and dismount, until at last the situation is cleared by the horse bolting with debtor and creditor in hot pursuit, while Kida is left bruised and shaken on the ground where he had fallen. The great drawback to the fun of the Hzzakurige is that it is unrelieved by more serious matter. Doubtless 25 374 JAPANESE LITERATURE Bottom the weaver and Falstaff would still be amusing even if they stood by themselves, but they gain immea- surably by contrast with the poetry of fairy-land and the stately court of Theseus in the one case, and with grave political surroundings on the other. In the Hzzakurige there is no suggestion of serious thought or feeling ; all is broad, frequently even farcical humour. It is, how- ever, excellent fooling of its kind. There can be no greater contrast than that between Ikku and the romantic school of novelists. He repu- diates utterly their entire equipment of fantastic notions of right and wrong, artificial sentiment, supernatural interventions, impossible exploits, and euphuistic fine- writing. He is a realistic writer in the good as well as in the bad sense of the word. The Hizakurige is a picture of real life, for every detail of which Ikku has drawn on his own observation.. We know that he actually travelled through the places which are the scenes of his heroes’ exploits ; but even if there were no record of the fact, it is obvious to every reader who knows Japan. There is little word-painting or description of scenery, but the human life of the great highways is depicted with photographic accuracy, and with a verve and humour which no mere observation, however minute, could ever impart. We see the Daimio’s train, slow-moving, silent, and imposing—but nevertheless containing a rowdy ele- ment—and hear Yaji and Kida’s very free criticisms as they squat humbly -by the roadside until the great man has passed. The religious processions, noisy and dis- orderly, are treated by them with more open ridicule. We meet provincial Samurai, the butt of the more quick- witted citizens of Yedo, obsequious innkeepers, facile waiting-maids, begging priests, Ronins, Komusé (criminals -IKKU 375 of the Samurai class who have been permitted to become priests, and who lead a wandering life with their faces wholly concealed under immense basket-hats), pilgrims (who nowadays travel by excursion trains with tickets available for two months from date of issue), boy pilgrims to the shrines of Ise with all the precocious shrewdness of a gamin or a street arab, Tomeyonna or female touts who beset the highway near their master’s inn at sun- down and wheedle or hustle the traveller into it, coolies with their degraded dialect (all Ikku’s personages use the language and speak the dialect proper to them), thieves, jugglers, rustics, ferrymen, horse-boys, and many more. Most of these have disappeared for ever, but they still live in Ikku’s pages to delight many a future generation of readers, It has been said that there are no terms of vulgar abuse in the Japanese language. The compliments exchanged by the coolies and pack-horse men in the //zzakurzge are a sufficient answer to this rash assertion. There is more truth in the statement that profane language is unknown in Japan. A European Yaji and Kida would certainly have been as richly supplied with terms of this kind as Ernulphus or our armies in Flanders, but the only oath uttered by the heroes of the Hzzakurige is the very mild Namu San or Namu Sambé, that is to say, by the three holy things, namely, Buddha, the Law, and the Priest- hood. Paradoxical though it may appear, this is pro- bably owing to the want of any very deep-seated sentiment of piety in the Japanese nation. Their lan- guage is equally deficient in such phrases as “ God bless you,” “Thank God,” and “ Adieu.” 376 JAPANESE LITERATURE THE NINJOBON All students of Japanese literature are familiar with the Ninjdbon or Sentiment Book, a species of novel which flourished most in the third and fourth decades of the nineteenth century. It was at last prohibited by the Government, like its predecessor and model the Share-bon. — The best known writer of this class of story was TAMENAGA SHUNSUI, who also called himself (after 1829) Kiokuntei. He was a pupil of Samba. Shunsui was a bookseller of Yedo. He began his literary career with some tales of an unedifying character, which he styled Fujo Kwanzen no Tame (“For the Encouragement of Women in the Paths of Virtue”). He died in 1842 whilst undergoing a sentence of confinement to his own house in handcutls for publishing works of a tendency pre- judicial to public morals. The blocks fron: which they were printed were at the same time destroyed. Even his admirers cannot say that Shunsui’s punishment was ‘altogether unmerited. One of Shunsui’s best known stories is the Mume Koyom: (‘Plum Calendar”), with its continuation en- titled Shunshoku Tatsumt no Sono (“Spring- Colour Eastern-Garden”), which appeared in 1833. It is a novel of low life, and the characters are singing-girls, harlots, Ronins, professional jesters, and the like. Its morality cannot be defended, but in decency of lan- guage it is superior to the Hizakurige, and even to the Ukiyo-furo. The /roha Bunko, which is considered Shunsui’s greatest work, is not a typical Ninjobon, though from some points ee SHUNSUI 377 of view it belongs to this class of literature. It is one of the numerous versions of the story of the revenge of the forty-seven Ronins. Few worse arranged books have ever been written. The scenes of which it is composed have no sort of order, chronological or otherwise, and in many cases have no obvious connection with the main action of the book. Shunsui, in writing it, seems to have had two objects in view, irreconcilable with each other. One was to produce a historical narrative (he describes it as a true record) enriched by matter drawn from genuine documents; the other to enhance the interest of the story by the addition of imaginative details. As a contribution to historical research the /roha Bunko is worthless.