| Samurai Movies (35) |
June 9, 2022
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| [Rochu 2] The drama's name was 'Tenka Gomen'. 'Tenka' means society or world, 'gomen' means directly 'sorry'; but, in this case, the name means, "Sorry, but I'm willing to do this." There appeared three famous historical people in the drama. Tanuma Okitsugu was one of them. Another was the protagonist, Hiraga Gennai, who was an inventor, innovator, scientist, novelist, translator, in a word, a multi-talented person. The other was Sugita Genpaku, a doctor, who dissected bodies for the first time in this country, and he also translated medical books written in Dutch. Tanuma Okitsugu worked as a 'rochu' from 1772 to 1786. In the drama Gennai and Genpaku helped Tanuma's new policies. Gennal and Genpake were friends. This is a real fact in history. This drama was broadcasted for one year from 1971 to 1972, he was 14 and 15 years old, and was in the 2nd and 3rd grade of junior high school. But, even now, about a half century later, he was able to remember the theme song of the drama, although he couldn't remember the detailed stories. Unfortunately, the drama wasn't preserved, so nobody is able to watch it again. He heard that at that time video tapes were very expensive, and that they recycled old recorded tapes by overwriting them. What a waste! He thought why he was so excited about watching this drama, it was because those  characters were active and energetic to change the Tokugawa Shogunate's suffocating society. He checked on the internet ~the drama consisted of 46 episodes, each was 60 minutes long. When he became a high school student, a strange thing happened. In the textbook of history, Tanuma Okitsugu was treated as a bad person who received a lot of bribes. He wasn't evaluated well at all. He forgot how he had felt at that time though. But recently he was able to read some information which explained about the situation. Some researchers said that through the whole Edo Period the Tokugawa Shogunate had been consistently encouraging frugality, because they were following Confucianism, and Confucianism said that doing business was a necessary evil. Because of this, merchants in the Tokugawa Era were ranked in the lowest class. Tanuma Okitsugu wanted to change this. He knew about Economics. Before Tanuma, Tokugawa Shogunate didn't get taxes from merchants, it was viewed as a kind of dark money. But, because of this, merchants were prosperous. There were even 'futures trading' and 'exchange markets'. They started earlier than in Western countries. But Tanuma Okitsugu didn't have this perspective toward businesses and he successfully implemented a taxation policy on merchants, and the economy grew and the government's financial situation improved. The Tokugawa Shogunate insisted on rice as the basic economy. They increased rice production, so rice became cheaper and the Tokugawa's income became lower because their tax was in the form of rice, and the samurais' life worsened because their salary was rice. Tanuma couldn't change this, and his time as a 'rochu' ended. But, at least, in Tanuma's era, the economy became better and culture was developed, it was like Tsunayoshi, the 5th Shogun's time. Recently, he happened to learn about the existence of some published books of 'Tenka Gomen'. He ordered them. (To be continued ...) |
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No.481
*innovator :変革者
*dissect :解剖する
*suffocating :息詰まった
*bribe :ワイロ
*encourage :奨励する
*frugality :倹約
*Confucianism :儒教
*necessary evil :必要悪
*prosperous :裕福
*futures trading :先物取引
*exchange markets :為替相場