REKIHAKU

No.123 A Witness to History

Folding screens depicting scenes of the attendance of daimyo at Edo castlethe
transformation of a bakufu ritual into a "famous site"

Figure 1: "En masse Attendance of Daimyo at Edo Castle on a Festive Day" ("Tokugawa Seiseiroku", Museum collection)

Edo castle signified the nucleus of the Tokugawa bakufu (shogunate). One annual ritual involving Edo castle was the convention of attendance at the castle by daimyo (feudal lords). The attendance of the daimyo was an important ritual that confirmed the superior-subordinate relationship between the shogun and daimyo. On the days of certain festivals such as the Five Seasonal Festivals (January 7, March 3, May 5, July 7 and September 9), the first of August as well as on the first day, 15th and last day of every month daimyo formed entourages and headed for the Main Gate (Oote Gate) and inner Sakurada Gate of Edo castle. When they arrived at the gate the daimyo dismounted at an area set aside for dismounting and left behind most of their attendants there before entering the castle compound. Once inside the castle the daimyo reduced their number of retainers again before going to pay their respects to the shogun. The attendants who had been left behind waited for the return of their masters in front of the gate. The areas in front of the Main Gate and the inner Sakurada Gate were crowded with the entourages of the various daimyo and their attendants who awaited their return.

Figure 2: "Folding Screen Depicting Scenes of the Attendance of Daimyo at Edo Castle" (Museum collection)

Figure 1 is taken from the "Tokugawa Seiseiroku", which was published in 1889 by a former retainer. It depicts entourages marching slowly toward the Main Gate and attendants who have spread out straw mats as they form lines to await the return of their masters. However, this is completely at odds with the real scenes when daimyo attended Edo castle during the Edo era.

The "Folding Screen Depicting Scenes of the Attendance of Daimyo at Edo Castle" held in the Museum's collection (Figure 2) is a pair of folding screens with eight panels that depicts scenes of the attendance of daimyo at Edo castle. It was painted in July 1847 by an artist called Kyosai Kiyomitsu, about whom little else is known.

Looking at the screen we see Edo castle's Fushimi turret at the far left, the inner Sakurada Gate on the right side and a sign written with the words "geba" (dismount) along the side of the moat. This is where the daimyo reduced the number of attendants before entering the castle compound. From posters inscribed with family names we see that the entourages making their way to the gate are those belonging to the Okayama domain (first panel), Fukuoka domain (fourth panel), Kurume domain (fifth panel), Tottori domain (sixth panel), Satsuma and Izumo domains (seventh panel) and the Sendai domain (eighth panel). All of these domains were either controlled by members of the Tokugawa family or were large domains controlled by daimyo who were not related.

However, the entourages that one would expect to play the main role in such scenes of attendance at Edo castle cover only a small portion of the painting. Instead, the artist's eye is drawn to other characters, namely, attendants waiting for their entourage, sightseers and merchants carrying their wares on poles hoping to sell their goods to the attendants or sightseers.

Figure 3: Retainers awaiting their masters (third panel)	Figure 4: Sightseers and merchants gazing at an entourage (sixth panel)

The first people to appear are the attendants waiting for their masters (Figure 3). According to the posters, they are members of the Yonezawa domain, Choshu domain and Hiroshima domain. They depict a wide range of poses, including some stretching, some sprawled out taking a nap, some exchanging cups of sake and others playing games (perhaps gambling). This scene is completely different from the scene in the above-mentioned Tokugawa Seiseiroku in which attendants waited for their masters with proper decorum. More than a few of the middle ranks and lowest ranking foot soldiers who were employed as attendants were taken on in Edo. Oral histories recorded during the Meiji period describe these men as "drifters" who frequently changed masters and who "engaged in gambling, swearing contests, sang songs, slept and presented other ungainly sights" while waiting for their masters to return ("Bakumatsu Hyakuwa (A Hundred Tales of the End of the Tokugawa Era)", by Kozo Shinoda, Iwanami Shoten, 1996). The figures depicted in the screen are indeed one and the same as those described in this oral history.

The second group of people to appear are sightseers who are looking at the entourages (Figure 4). We see warriors, priests, apprentices and other townsfolk, as well as those dressed for travel. By this time at the latest the attendance of the various daimyo at Edo castle had become a "famous site" which people who visited Edo included among their sightseeing itineraries.

For example, a group from Takashiba-mura, Kuji-gun in Hitachi Province (present-day Daigo-machi, Ibaraki Prefecture) that had set out in January 1812 to make a pilgrimage to Ise and to the 33 temples in the Kansai Region housing the Kannon (Goddess of Mercy) spent four days in Edo. On January 15, the day they left Edo, they went early in the morning to the Main Gate of Edo castle to see daimyo visiting the shogun (Volume 9, "History of Daigo-machi", Daigo-machi, 1986. Reference provided by Mr. Mitsumasa Yamamoto from the Museum). The following impression of the spectacle is described in the diary as follows, "It was particularly splendid and difficult to describe in words. There were lords from Kaga, Yonezawa, Ii and Mori, and the entourage of Nabeshima Shinano-no-kami was indeed splendid". For these onlookers the sight of the coming and going of entourages belonging to the head of domains from provinces from all over Japan was an astonishing sight that was almost impossible to render into words. Not only does the entry identify the domains, but it also states that the entourage of Nabeshima Shinano-no-kami from the Saga domain was the most splendid of all. In another instance, while visiting Edo in 1823 for the purpose of a lawsuit, a village official from Tazawa-mura, Chikuma-gun, Shinano Province (present-day Toyoshina-machi, Nagano Prefecture) visited the various famous sites of Edo, which included "watching the attendance of daimyo at Edo castle" on March third ("Famous Sites of Edo and Urban Culture", by Shosei Suzuki, Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 2001).

Figure 5: People believed to be selling Kawaraban News and/or Bukan (fourth panel)

It is quite likely that these people obtained at their places of accommodation information on the days when daimyo went to the castle as well as information that identified the entourages. What is more, people wearing straw hats walking around carrying sheets of paper are depicted (Figure 5), and it is most probable that these people are engaged in selling "Kawaraban News", or woodblock print news sheets, and "Bukan" (a directory containing information on daimyo and warriors). This being the case, it is possible that information on a daimyo's halberd and carriage, etc., from which it is possible to identify an entourage, was being sold. It is interesting to note that when envoys from the Ryukyu Islands and emissaries from Korea visited Japan, information on their entourages was published and sold in the sections of Edo through which they were scheduled to pass ("Entourages and Spectacles", Asahi Shimbun, 1994). Another example can be found in an excerpt from the "Bakumatsu Hyakuwa" referred to earlier, which tells of the New Year visit of the Shogun to Kan'ei-ji Temple and the peddlers and their assistants who wandered around selling "Amendments to the List of Daimyo and Public Officials" and an abbreviated portable version of the "Bukan". It has also been suggested that "Bukan vendors" appeared in front of the Main Gate and inner Sakurada Gate ("Printing of Bukan and Early Modern Society", by Kumiko Fujizane, Toyo Shorin, 1999 and "Encyclopedia of Shogun Retainers During the Edo Era", by Kyoichi Ogawa, Kodansha, 2003), something that is entirely possible.

Figure 6: Merchants (fifth panel)

The third group of people to appear are the merchants with their wares suspended from poles who have come to target the attendants waiting for their masters to return as well as the sightseers (Figures 4 and 6). Although there is a strong possibility that the sumo wrestlers, tree vendors and vendors of used clothing that are depicted are fictional background characters, the aforementioned vendors of Kawaraban News as well as the soba noodle stands and the impromptu drinking stands made using empty barrels and planks of wood actually existed.

Another painting depicting a similar scene is the "Folding Screen of New Year Attendance at Edo Castle" held in the collection of the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Tokyo. In addition to depicting the attendance of daimyo at Edo castle, this screen from the Edo-Tokyo Museum, just like the screen described in this article, includes the painstaking drawing of the three groups of people who appear. Taking another look at the "Tokugawa Seiseiroku" adopting this perspective we discover that the person believed to be a Kawaraban News vendor on the right of the painting is but roughly drawn (Figure 7). In the painting from "Tokugawa Seiseiroku" a stationary figure was intentionally emphasized. But it is precisely the lively scene in the "Folding Screen Depicting Scenes of the Attendance of Daimyo at Edo Castle" that is a realistic depiction of the scene of the attendance of daimyo at Edo castle.

Figure 7: A Kawaraban News vendor from "En Masse Attendance of Daimyo at Edo Castle on a Festive Day" ("Tokugawa Seiseiroku", Museum collection)

The screen held in the collection of the Edo-Tokyo museum is a pair of six-panel screens painted in 1898 by Eiko Satake and shows the Main Gate and Sakurada Gate in the right screen and the Sakanoshita Gate and Nishimaru Main Gate in the left screen. Because it has been said that Eiko was commissioned by a wealthy Tokyo merchant to paint ten pairs of screens on attendance at Edo castle, we may assume that the screens were produced for the purpose of recollecting the days of Edo. However, since the screen held in the collection of the National Museum of Japanese History was produced during the Edo era there is a different reason behind its production. It is likely that this scene was drawn because it had become a "famous site" in Edo. This raises the question of who ordered the screen and for what purpose? Further research will be conducted concerning this point using a survey of similar works and other means.

As symbols of authority, entourages were put on display and were also worthy of people's attention. Then, during the development of urban culture during the 19th century, the bakufu ritual of the attendance of daimyo at Edo castle became a "famous site". This was not something that was undertaken deliberately by the bakufu, though the people who visited this "famous site" saw the authority of the bakufu and the daimyo at firsthand. The land on which this "famous site" stands was eventually expanded to become the front plaza of the Imperial Palace where various rituals took place ("Imperial Palace Front Plaza" by Takeshi Hara, Kobunsha, 2003), something that has continued through to the present day.

Reiji Iwabuchi
(History Department, National Museum of Japanese History)