Secrets of the Samurai. Oscar Ratti

Kyoto where the intellectual and exclusivistic influence of the kuge still predominated. In these new, provincial centers, although the principle of absolute loyalty to one’s direct superior (in the case of the provincial lords, to the shogun) was stressed in accordance with strict Confucian patterns governing social relationships, the scope of instruction was enlarged beyond the narrow confines of clan affairs to embrace provincial problems and those of the nation as a whole in order to prepare these lords to comprehend and carry out successfully the directives emanating from the bakufu in Edo. This preparation, however, was still carefully restricted in an effort to reduce the chances of producing an overlord who might develop an enlarged and potentially threatening vision of his own function; but it was clearly broader in scope than the narrow vision of life which the retainers of these lords were allowed to entertain.

      Among the centers of instruction frequented by the buke were the renowned Yokendo in Sendai, the Kojokan in Yonezawa, the Kodokan in Mito, the Chidokan in Kago-shima, and the Meirinkan in Hagi, to mention only a few. The central institution which supervised them all, naturally, was the Seido located in the military capital, Edo. A scholar, Koike Kenji, has described the history, organization, and training program of one of these centers, the Nisshinkan in Wakamatsu, which was primarily concerned with the literary and physical education of the provincial lords, higher retainers, and leading administrators of the ancient Aizu clan. The training of high-ranking children of this clan began systematically and officially when they were eight or nine years old. Before that, as was customary, these children had already been prepared through preliminary indoctrination in martial etiquette, and at the age of five, boys had already received their first samurai costumes and swords (which they would never again be without).

      After receiving his first swords, a boy would join other children in groups divided according to various sections of the town and follow one or more leaders who would be responsible for him to a teacher in a temple or at the institute. Under the strict surveillance of these teachers, the children memorized the literary texts of instruction (without explanation), beginning at about their tenth or eleventh years. From the ages of ten to fourteen, they were taught and expected to practice official etiquette. At thirteen they began to study archery, swordsmanship, and spearfighting, which they would henceforth practice regularly throughout their lives. At fifteen they approached the Chinese Classics, and individual inclinations in the various branches of military administration were encouraged and cultivated by a personal tutor. At sixteen, the group dissolved, and each youth was indoctrinated by a series of teachers in their specialties (listed in Chart 10). This program continued until the boy’s twenty-second year. Then, if he had satisfactorily absorbed and completed the program, he could either stay on at the Nisshinkan Institute or further his education by visiting other institutions throughout the country. In general, he was encouraged to embark upon a specialized career, in accordance with the rank held by the head of his family, whom he was expected to succeed when the latter retired or passed away. Allowances were made for less talented students, who were given more time and extra care in order to help them catch up with the others. Failure, of course, meant utter disgrace, because it often entailed (in characteristically Japanese fashion) the demotion of the entire family to a lower rank in the military hierarchy, due to the son’s inability to follow in his father’s footsteps.

      The Tsu clan boasted of four sheds for the study of jujutsu, three sheds for gunnery, one shed for archery, three sheds for riding, one shed for strategy, three sheds for spearmanship, three sheds for swordsmanship, and one shed for the halberd—all within the same compound, according to Dore. In most central and provincial schools, mornings were devoted to the literary disciplines and afternoons to the military skills, thus combining both bun and bu. The proportion of teachers assigned to different disciplines may be gathered by the list of salaries included in the budget of the Choshu school in 1797. As reported by Dore, this school availed itself of the services of five teachers of Chinese Classics, fifteen teachers of military arts, one teacher of calligraphy, one of mathematics, two tutors, two librarians, and one clerk, as well as two shrine attendants. Concerning the status of these teachers in particular, more is said later in this part.

      The plan of the Nisshinkan Institute included here shows an almost inordinate amount of space allocated for the practice of the listed specializations of bujutsu. Most of the institutions (and sometimes even private houses of warriors of high rank) followed more or less the same design. In almost every one we find shooting ranges, indoor and outdoor, for archery and firearms; various ponds for swimming in armor or without, or on horseback; open squares for horseback riding and all sorts of equestrian maneuvers; long halls for spear-fighting and fencing practice; and smaller halls for man-to-man combat, armed and unarmed, at close quarters.

      The Tokugawa encouraged the establishment of schools for lower samurai, both in the provinces under their direct supervision and in the provinces under the supervision of military governors (the daimyo). These schools (hangaku, hanko) were generally established in castle-towns and were subsidized by the clans, usually through the appropriation of revenues from a certain tract of rice-producing land. The quality of instruction, however, seems not to have compared favorably with that available to the upper category and ranks of the buke, and its content was strictly defined and limited. In some clans, for example, the ranks at the bottom of the lower category of warriors were even excluded (Dore¹, 226). In general, this division between the upper and lower warrior was sharp and unbridgeable, although the lower samurai were clearly in the majority.

      As Fukuzawa tells us, the warriors of the upper ranks of the Okudaira clan of Nakatsu, for example,

      were well-fed and clothed and thus had plenty of leisure time to devote to the arts, literary and military. They would read the Confucian classics and the Books of History, study military strategy, practice horsemanship, spearmanship, and swordsmanship, and generally indulge in all the branches of art and learning which were considered at the time to be cultured and noble. Thus their manners were naturally elegant and aristocratic and many of them could be considered most cultured and refined gentlemen. (Fukuzawa, 313)

      By contrast, warriors of the lower ranks “practiced the military arts in such little time as they could spare from their sidework, but in literature they would get no further than the Four Books and the Five Classics and, at a little more advanced stage, one or two books of Meng Ch’Iu and the Tso Chuang. What they studied most was writing and arithmetic, and in this they were certainly far superior to the upper samurai” (Fukuzawa, 313). In fact, because of such recording and computing abilities, the calligrapher’s rank was considered highest among the lower ranks, and the warriors who attained it were expected to carry out the fundamental duties of administering the clan’s affairs, collecting taxes, and keeping the records of the clan current.