Songs of the Righteous Spirit: âMen of High Purposeâ and Their ...

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JAPANESE SONGS OF HIGH PURPOSE 143嚴島鏖賊地 At Itsukushima, where the bandits were obliterated,仰想武臣節 I reverently pondered the military vassal’s resolve.6715 赤水傳佳談 Along the red rivers of Akō is told a glorious tale;櫻留義士血 The cherry blossoms preserve the blood ofrighteous men.68和氣存郡名 The “Japanese spirit” lives on in the name of “Wake”county;孰捫清丸舌 Who could suppress Kiyomaro’s tongue?69壯士一谷笛 A stalwart soldier played his flute at Ichinotani;20 義妾芳野雪 And Yoshitsune’s righteous consort danced onYoshino snows.70墓悲楠子志 At his grave, I grieved over Kusunoki’s resolve;城仰豐公烈 At the castle, I gazed up at Hideyoshi’s greatness.倭武經蝦夷田村威靺羯Yamato Takeru subdued the Emishi barbarians;And Tamuramaro’s awesome might reached all theway to Mohe.71no Michizane, who stopped in at Suō while en route to his place of exile in Dazaifu in901. One of the first shrines dedicated to Michizane as the god Tenjin was founded inSuō. Alter natively, Maki Fujio 槇不二夫 interprets this couplet as “While sailing aroundon the seas, when our ship would dock, I would pay my respects to the vassal Wen Tianxiang’sbrush”; see his Bun Tenshō, Fujita Tōko, Yoshida Shōin Seiki no uta shōkai 文天祥・藤田東湖・吉田松陰正気歌詳解 (Bunrokudō, 1902).67The reference is to the defeat of Sue Harukata (1521–1555) and his clan by MōriMoto nari at the Battle of Itsukushima in 1555; the term “military vassal” emphasizes Motonari’srelationship with his former lord Ōuchi Yoshitaka (1507–1551), whom Harukata hadturned against and defeated in a 1551 coup.68The reference is to the “Forty-Seven Loyal Rōnin” of Akō whose avenging of theirlord in 1703 became the celebrated subject of many literary and dramatic works, includingKanadehon Chūshingura.69When Dōkyō attempted to succeed to the imperial throne, Wake no Kiyomaro wasordered to inquire about the succession of the Emperor at Usa Shrine; when he reportedthe prophesy did not support Dōkyō’s bid, Dōkyō banished him. Subsequently, onceDōkyō fell from favor, Wake was reinstated and given command of Bizen and Mimasaka,where Wake county is located today.70The references are to Taira no Atsumori and Shizuka-gozen, both of whom figureprominently in the Genpei Wars of 1180–1185 and in the literature derived from it, suchas Tale of the Heike and the Nō plays Atsumori and Yoshino Shizuka. Atsumori’s “flute” wasa gift from his father Tsunemori and the fact that Atsumori had it with him when confrontedby Kumagai Naozane suggests his filial piety. The purity of Shizuka-gozen’s loyaltyto Yoshitsune is similarly reflected in the “snow.”71Mohe was the name of a northern state populated by a Tungusic tribe that hadcontact with China beginning in the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties.Sakanoue no Tamuramaro 坂上田村麻呂 (758–811) was, like the more shadowy figure ofYamato Takeru, sent to subjugate the Emishi, and presumably “Mohe” refers here to thenon- Yamato peoples who lived in the northern reaches of the Japanese archipelago.
144 MATTHEW FRALEIGH25 嗟此數君子 Ah! These several gentlemen, each大道補分裂 Used the Great Way to forestall division.尾張連伊勢 In Owari and in Ise too,神器萬古存 The sacred treasures have been kept since timeimmemorial.琵琶映芙蓉 With Lake Biwa, where lovely Fuji is reflected;30 嵩華何足論 What need is there to discuss Mount Song or Hua?最是平安城 But supreme above all is this, the capital of Heian;仰見天子尊 Where I gaze up at the imperial majesty.神州臨萬國 The Divine Land reigns over the myriad nations,乃是大道根 For it is the root of the Great Way.35 從墨夷事起 Ever since the matter of the American barbariansarose,諸公實不力 The various lords have truly been powerless.已破妖教禁 Already the ban on the wicked religion has beenbroken;議港洲南北 And debates are held about the northern andsouthern ports of our land.名義早已誤 The “names” and “principles” having long beenmistaken,40 寧遑問失得 How can we have leisure to ask about their pros andcons?天子荐軫念 The Emperor grew profoundly distressed,四海妖氛黒 While malign airs spread black across the four seas.奉勅三名侯 The three lords who received the imperial order鷄棲鳳凰食 Were as phoenixes made to eat among chickens.7245 其他憂國者 And other men concerned for the nation,亦皆溝中瘠 Were all left to rot: skeletons in the ditch.欻忽五六歳 In a flash, five or six years have passed;72The identity of the “three lords” in the first line of this couplet is unclear. Maki suggeststhe reference is to the “Mito samurai, pro-expulsion activists in the capital, and thecourt nobles”; Bun Tenshō, Fujita Tōko, Yoshida Shōin Seiki no uta shōkai, p. 113. The editorsof Yoshida Shōin zenshū speculate that the phrase “might” refer to “the daimyo of Mito,Owari, and Echizen”; 7:309 n. 6. H. Van Straelen holds that the three are the “daimyōsof Satsuma, Tosa, and Chōshū”; see his Yoshida Shōin: Forerunner of the Meiji Restoration(Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1952), p. 109 n. 4. The second line of the couplet, with its image ofthe auspicious phoenix being forced to feed among the much more pedestrian chickens,comes directly from the Wen Tianxiang poem, where it refers to the latter’s being takencaptive by the Mongols.
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Songs of the Righteous Spirit: âMen of High Purposeâ and Their ...