| Samurai Movies (39) |
July 7, 2022
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| [Rochu 6] In the later part of the drama of 'Tenka Gomen', Okitsugu became 'rochu', one of the 5 executives of the Tokugawa Shogunate. In one episode, Okitsugu invited Gennai to a party with some Dutch diplomats. The Dutch diplomats prepared sheep for a lamb cuisine for dinner, but Gennai asked them to give the sheep to him, if they had more. They had another 6 sheep. He said that if he could breed them, he would make wool from their fleece, which this country had to import and they were very expensive. They accepted Gennai's offer, as Okitsugu was the type of person who was willing to do experiment with new ideas if it was a positive thing for the country and would make a good business opportunity. Okitsugu really wanted to reform the government's finances. Actually, after Okitsugu had become rochu, he pushed to further trade with Holland. As this country's policy was 'sakoku', closing the country. Only Holland, China, and Korea were allowed to import and export; but even so, each trade amount and variety depended on whether the government was positive or not. Before Okitsugu, their trading was very limited. Okitsugu also made efforts to get information and academic knowledge from abroad. Recently he had a chance to watch a TV program which discussed 'Ken-to-shi', 'ken' means 'to send', 'to' is 'Tang Dynasty' in China, 'shi' means 'diplomats'. This country's government sent officers, monks, craftsmen, and other specialists to China  with gifts to study advanced things, like law, religion, medicine, craft-making, etc. There were 20 times 'Kentoshi' happened from 630 to 894. They constructed a big boat and sent over a lot of people (one time about 500 people!). For each person, the living time in China was very long, about 20 years or so, and they had to wait until the next ship came. Because of this length, or their original motivation, there was a record in China that praised those people who bought home some expensive books using their own salaries. Every time they brought various knowledge, skills, and even artistic sense. 'Kentoshi' finished with the end of the Tang Dynasty, but individual culture was born : buildings like 5 stories temples, new types of Buddhist statues, and literature like 'The tale of Genji'. If Gennai had lived in that era, he would have offered to go. In the drama, some sheep became sick. Gennai had been given a book written in Dutch which had information including how to take care of sheep. His Dutch wasn't good, but he managed to figure out that their sickness was related to the word 'zout'. He went to Gennpaku who was at that time struggling to translate a medical dictionary in Dutch with his colleague. The colleague said it was 'salt'. His sheep only ate plants, but lacked salt in their diet. Gennai gave it to them and they soon recovered. After a while, Gennai got some wool from his sheep. Gennai asked Kurenai to make wool cloth from it. First, she made strings by spinning the wool. Then, using a wooden weaving machine, she started to weave line by line. It took time but she finally finished it. It was the first wool cloth made in this country. This reminded him of one thing he had read recently. It was from an interview with an old woman who lived in the late Edo Period. She spoke about her old days as a wife of a low ranked samurai. For the family's clothing, she played an important role. She would buy cotton from farmers in her han, She would spin and make strings by herself, like Kurenai. Then, using a wooden weaving machine, she would weave the cloth. Next, she sewed her family's kimonos with this cloth. It was normal for low ranked samurai's wives and daughters to make kimonos from cotton. She also said that they were weaving not only for their family's use, but also as a side business. The author of the book said, "Samurai were in the ruling class but they were poorer than regular citizens, and their wives and daughters were working side businesses making things to sell, but they didn't lose their dignity. This might be the reason that samurai won respect from ordinary citizens, and they, in turn, kept their discipline higher." (To be continued ...) |
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No. 485
*diplomat :外交官
*experiment :実験
*push :推し進める
*academic :学問の
*Tang Dynasty :唐の国
*artistic :芸術の
*diet :食
*spin :糸をつむぐ
*weave :織る
*dignity :威厳、品位
*discipline :規律