| Samurai Movies (4) |
October 14, 2021
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| He was a member of a guide group in which the members guided tourists from abroad around his city. They used English and guiding was free, it was volunteer work. His city is called a 'castle town', which means there used to be a castle in the city. There are many cities in this country that have, or had, a castle. There used to be so many castle towns because there used to be a lot of domains, called 'han', in the Edo Period and most of them had their own castle. Naturally towns grew around the castles. But, of course, that was the Edo Period, which was about a 150 years ago. He didn't know how many cities are called 'castle town' now. About four hundred years ago, the lord of the clan of this domain started to build the castle. The construction lasted for about 40 years. The location was surrounded by three major rivers. It was an ideal place for the castle in order to be protected from enemies. However, it was hard to construct because of the rivers. Floods washed away the site many times. While making the castle, they started to make the city: roads, bridges, and other infrastructure were built. People started to live there, and shops started their businesses. The guide group couldn't introduce the actual castle building itself, as it was  demolished when the Edo Period ended. But, they could introduce other old houses that were preserved by the city, as well as crafts like ironware, lacquerware, dyeing of kimono, etc. They would introduce temples and shrines, as well. Recently, he wanted to know about common people's things. As a guide, he would talk about sites, events, and famous people like lords, monks, etc., but the more he explained about the history of this area, the more he came to realize that it was all textbook information. If he could explain how common people, common samurai, common merchants, artisans, and farmers lived, it would be more interesting. But, it was not an easy task. He checked on the internet, but it was the same information like what he had studied at school. One day he happened to watch a rental DVD named 'My Lord! That's Interest'. 'Interest' means monthly or yearly pay on a loan. The movie's setting was in a local 'han', during the Edo Period. Inn's owner and another merchant were the protagonists. After a detouring road had been made, their town became poor. For them, taxes and work assigned by the han were too heavy. One day, the merchant was about to appeal about this hardship directly to the lord, which would mean his execution, leaving only a small possibility that his appeal would be accepted and his hope fulfilled after his death. The inn's owner happened to meet him and he stopped him from going to the lord. They started to think about how to earn money by lending money to the 'han', which also had a hard time to meet their financial obligations. He never watched this type of movie in which merchants were the protagonists. Normally merchants are portraited as greedy. He felt the movie had reality, and he checked on the internet about the movie. This movie originated from a historian's book. He didn't know the historian, but he knew about another of his books entitled 'A Samurai Family's Household Account Books'. It might have been some epoch-making book. He ordered the book and it came soon. The preface of the book attracted him: It was in 2001, the historian rushed over to an used book store. There was $1,500 in his pocket which he had withdrawn earlier in the day. He had happened to learn about some documents that he was interested in buying. He called the shop to make sure that they were not sold yet. As soon as he got to the shop, he asked the shop owner to let him look at them. They were the documents that he had been looking for for a long time. They were the account books and notes of a samurai household that had been kept. They were kept for about 40 years, and were very important proof of how a typical samurai family had lived in the Edo Period. (To be continued ...) |
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No.450
*demolish : 解体する
*ironware : 鉄器
*lacquerware : 漆器
*dye : 染める
*artisan : 職人、熟練工
*detouring : 迂回の
*execution : 処刑
*obligation : 義務、恩義
*historian : 歴史家
*preface : まえがき
*household account book : 家計簿