Rashomon Gate – A Mystery of Ancient Japan
Page 39
"Look!" she said, bending to point to the twisted old trunk where it rose from the barren ground. Four or five bright green shoots had emerged from the roots and were already reaching eagerly upward. "And there, and over there!" She pointed to shrubs and young trees, and Akitada saw that they were all putting forth new leaves.
And then a nightingale began to sing in the old willow by the gate.
Historical Note
In the eleventh century, Heian Kyo (Kyoto) was the capital of Japan and its largest city. Like the Chinese capital Ch'ang-an, it was a perfect rectangle with a grid pattern of broad avenues and smaller streets, measuring about one third of the great Chinese metropolis, or two and a half by three and a half miles, with a population of about 250,000. The Imperial Palace, a separate city of over one hundred buildings housing the ministries and bureaus of the central administration and including the imperial residence, occupied the northernmost center of Heian Kyo. Both the capital and the Imperial Palace were walled or fenced and accessible by numerous gates. Rashomon (properly Rashoo-mon or Rajoo-mon, the "Rampart Gate") was the most famous gate to the capital but had fallen into neglect and disrepair. By the middle of the century it may well have ceased to exist altogether. A famous tale about this gate, later a part of Ryunosuke Akutagawa's "Rashoomon" and an award-winning film, is in the eleventh-century collection Konjaku Monogatari (no. 29/18). Heian Kyo is said to have been quite beautiful, with its wide willow-lined avenues, its palaces and aristocratic mansions in their tranquil gardens, its temples and government buildings with their blue-tiled roofs and red-lacquered columns and eaves, its rustic Shinto shrines, its parks filled with lakes and pavilions, its many waterways and rivers crossed by arched bridges, and its surrounding landscape of mountains and lakes dotted with secluded temples and summer villas. For some of the details of the description and the maps of Heian Kyo I am indebted to R.A.B. Ponsonby-Fane's work, Kyoto: The Old Capital of Japan.
The imperial university, located just southeast of the Imperial Palace, was founded in the eighth century and patterned after the Chinese system. It was, like the government, soon weakened by the self-interest of the aristocracy and catered only to the sons of the so-called "good people." In later years, its professors seem to have enjoyed neither decent pay nor respect, as we know from the role they play in 1004 in Lady Murasaki's Tale of Genji and from other sources. There were also private colleges, established by several great families like the Fujiwaras and Tachibanas and one institution for the lower classes, founded by the monk Kobo Daishi in one of the temples. The university followed Confucian teachings with emphasis on Chinese language and classics, to prepare the future civil servants for their professions. Students were drawn primarily from families of rank or from civil servants both in the capital and the provinces. They were males who ranged in age from the early teens to middle-age due to the tough qualifying examinations for admission and for intermediate and advanced degrees. Success in these examinations was the only path to a lucrative career for many lower-ranking individuals. By the eleventh century most contact with China had stopped and the authenticity of written and spoken Chinese had declined. Also, interest had shifted away from dry subjects like history, law and ritual to the much more entertaining practice of poetry. Nevertheless, the departments of this early institution of higher learning offered, in addition to Chinese language and literature and Confucian studies, also law, mathematics, fine arts and probably medicine.
Law enforcement in ancient Japan followed the Chinese pattern to some extent in that each city quarter had its own warden who was responsible for keeping the peace. The Imperial Palace was protected by several divisions of the imperial guard. Eventually a separate police force, the kebiishi, was added both in the capital and in the provinces. The kebiishi gradually took over all duties of law enforcement, including trial and punishment. There were several prisons in the capital, but imperial pardons were common and sweeping. Confessions were necessary for convictions and could be encouraged with beatings. The death penalty was extremely rare because of Buddhist teachings, and exile was usually substituted for the most heinous offenses such as treason or murder. Apparently this often was a fate equivalent to a slow death.
Transportation was cumbersome and slow. In the city, one mostly walked from place to place, unless one's rank entitled one to an oxdrawn carriage. In addition, both men and women used horses or litters for travel.
Relations between the sexes in early Japan strike westerners as liberal to the point of immorality. A young man's clandestine visits to the room of a young woman of his class were acknowledged between the lovers by an exchange of poetry the next morning, but need not be continued. If they were continued for three consecutive nights, a marriage had taken place and the groom was accepted into the bride's family by an offering of special rice cakes. He usually took up residence in his wife's home. The status of his new wife depended on his own status, his whim, or her parents' rank, for he might have several wives in addition to more casual alliances with concubines. He could also divorce his wives by simply informing them of such a decision. However, a young woman's family usually guarded her well, often arranging for a desirable visitation through a go-between after negotiating the bride's future status and her personal property. Occasionally, as in the case of the merchant Kurata, a family without sons might adopt the husband of a daughter.
The two state religions, Shinto and Buddhism, coexisted amicably. Shinto is the native religion, tied to Japanese gods and agricultural observances. Buddhism, which entered Japan from China through Korea, exerted a powerful influence on the aristocracy and the government. Certain important observances, such as the Kamo festival described in this novel, and agricultural rituals performed by the emperor and attended by the court, were Shinto, while the daily life from birth to death was governed by the worship of the buddhas, particularly Amida.
Many superstitions were common among all classes and well documented. One could not start the day without consulting the calendar for auspicious or inauspicious signs or directions. Puzzling events were immediately ascribed to the machinations of spirits or demons, or to human malevolence in the form of witchcraft or curses. Shinto is responsible for many taboos, including directional ones, and for the belief in shamanistic practices of divination and exorcism. Buddhism brought faith in relics and miracles along with the concepts of heaven and hell. Monsters, ghosts and demons abounded in the popular superstition, and contemporary literature is full of frightful occurrences. The story of Prince Yoakira's disappearance in this novel is based on two such tales from Konjaku Monogatari (nos. 15/20 and 27/9).
The calendar in ancient Japan was extremely complicated, being based on the Chinese hexagenary cycle and on named eras designated periodically by the government. Greatly simplified, there were roughly twelve months and four seasons as in the West, but the first month began a month later, in February. The work week lasted six days, began at dawn, and was followed by a day of leisure. By the Chinese system, the day was divided into twelve two-hour segments. Time was kept by water clocks, and the hours were announced by guards, watchmen and temple bells. The changing seasons brought many festivities. In this novel, the return of the Kamo virgin, an imperial princess, to her temple on the shore of the Kamo River is celebrated toward the end of spring. On this occasion people and houses were decorated with the leaves of the aoi plant (a member of the ginger family) which was sacred to the Kamo observance. (The modern meaning of aoi is hollyhock, a different plant but one which is more familiar to modern readers.)
It is not clear whether Heian Kyo had a separate pleasure quarter in the eleventh century, but within a few centuries there were two of these in the city. Female entertainers were certainly known at the time. They earned a living by dancing, singing and playing instruments and were held in slightly higher esteem than the later geisha.
The eating and drinking habits of the eleventh century differed little from later times. Tea drinking had not yet become common. Most pe
ople drank rice wine. Meat, with the exception of wild fowl, was rarely consumed. The diet of the poor consisted of vegetables, beans and millet. The well-to-do added rice, fish and fruit.
Many customs, superstitions, and taboos surrounded death. Although interment was known, cremation was preferred after the arrival of Buddhism. For forty-nine days after death the spirit of the deceased was thought to linger in his home (hence Akitada's irrational sensations in the prince's rooms). The dead could also haunt the living if they had suffered unjustly, a fact which accounts for much of Tora's aversion to ghosts. In general, contact with the dead was a form of defilement according to Shinto beliefs, and all funeral arrangements were therefore in the hands of Buddhist monks.
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