Ivan Davydov. M. V. Uspensky. Samurai of the eastern capital.

Samurai of the eastern capital

M. V. Uspensky

History of devoted vassals, I. Kuniesi and Japanese engraving from the 1840s. Per. s close., introd. article, comment M. V. Uspensky. - Kaliningrad: Amber Skaz, 1997. - 128 p.; circulation 3000 copies; ISBN 5-7406-0241-6.

The event discussed in this book is one of the most famous in the history of Japan . Over the years since then, historians have thoroughly restored almost all of its details. It left its mark on Japanese literature of the twentieth century, well known to European readers; echoes of the feat of the “loyal vassals” can be found in both Mishima and Akutagawa. But much earlier, immediately after the incident that struck the eastern capital, Edo , it became the property of traditional theater and folk stories. In the second quarter of the 19th century, a series of engravings containing portraits of heroes and short biographies was published. These sheets still remain unsurpassed examples of one of the genres of traditional ukiyo engraving - the so-called military engraving. It is this series, or rather, that part of it that is in the collection of the State Hermitage, with translations of texts and an introductory article by Mikhail Uspensky, that is included in this book.

But what exactly happened in Edo (now Tokyo ) in 1702? Something unimaginable for the Japan of that time, which had passed the period of feudal wars and existed peacefully under the strict rule of the shogun (military governor, real ruler, as opposed to the nominal one - the emperor). Forty-seven (or so) samurai, vassals of the courtier Asano, who was sentenced to death a year and nine months earlier, stormed the residence of Minister Yosinaka at night and killed the prominent courtier, as well as many of his associates. The night assault was preceded by the following events. In 1701, in the shogun's palace, Asano made an unsuccessful attempt on Yosinaka's life. Why he tried to kill the minister is perhaps the only incomprehensible moment in the history of forty-seven vassals. The portrait of Esinak is included in a series of engravings (sheet 38), and the minister is described as a cowardly scoundrel and bribe-taker who bullied the brave, but not experienced in court subtleties, Asano. Contemporaries also talked about Yosinak’s harassment of Asano’s wife. Be that as it may, Asano was sentenced to suicide, and his entire clan was disbanded. The samurai who served him became ronin (literally “wave man”), that is, warriors who lost their master and, accordingly, their income.

No one doubted that the warriors of the Asano clan would try to take revenge. The government, which established surveillance of the most dangerous of them, had no doubts either. But they went about their business as if nothing had happened, many simply disappeared from sight. Some took up the trade despised by the samurai (for some reason they traded, as a rule, tobacco and rice vodka). And the most famous, Oishi, “surrendered to the wind and the flow,” becoming a regular at drinking and entertainment establishments.

All this was done for the purpose of conspiracy: the loyal vassals had already taken an oath of revenge for the honor of the master. Having chosen the right moment, the warriors stormed the offender’s house, took his head to Asano’s grave and began to wait for the government’s verdict, without even trying to escape. All of them were sentenced to suicide (or, as Japanese officials put it, they were given the right to die). Suicide was an honorable death for a warrior, execution was a disgrace. This is the outer outline of this bloody story.

Society did not condemn the loyal vassals. On the contrary, they became the embodiment of samurai loyalty, a living illustration of bushido - the “way of the warrior,” the code of the samurai. They were heroes rather than criminals, contradictory virtuous, at the intersection of Shinto and Buddhism, preferring a glorious death to a shameful life, from their point of view. This is precisely what explains the popularity of stories and plays about loyal vassals in all subsequent centuries of Japanese history (languid attempts to revise the assessment of both the warriors and their enemy did not gain support). The book about them is read with interest in Russian. If it does not make it clear how ethics arose, unthinkable in any other civilization (is it possible to imagine something similar, say, in medieval Europe?), it does allow us to vividly see the practical implementation of ethical principles. Just see it, since the engravings are no less, if not more, significant than the texts.

Among the forty-seven ronins there were completely different people - old men and sixteen-year-old boys, rough warriors and talented poets, subtle experts in Chinese tradition. But they were united by the desire to fulfill their duty to their master at any cost. The story adds details that are gloomy, in the eyes of a European, but delightful to the Japanese. Thus, samurai mothers committed suicide so that filial piety would not prevent their children from taking part in the matter of revenge. One of the samurai sold his own daughter to a tea establishment in order to raise money for the needs of the conspirators.

By the middle of the 19th century, every child knew the story of forty-seven loyal vassals in Japan. And a series of engravings with their portraits and biographies was doomed to popularity. The texts were written by the famous writer and critic of the time, Ippitsuan. He was also an engraver, but became famous in another form of ukiyo - in the genre of so-called “portraits of beauties,” which, by the way, was banned at the time of the series’ release as immoral. It is not entirely correct to call Ippitsuan's stories biographies, since they rarely talk about the individual traits of a particular character - an exception was made, perhaps, only for the scoundrel Yosinaka. Ippitsuan sought to create the ideal image of a warrior faithful to Bushido. It must also be taken into account that he was forced to maintain brevity due to the format of the engraving. The author of the introductory article even identifies the types of samurai characteristic of these biographies. But the heroes of Ippitsuan sometimes display traits of living people. Thus, we learn about one of the vassals that he was a lover of drink and always carried a large flask of sake tied to the hilt of his sword. With her, one must think, he stabbed himself after the verdict was pronounced. About others - that they studied Buddhist sutras or wrote Chinese poems. In general, the writing of dying poems was an obligatory part of the ritual, and many poems by devoted vassals (or traditionally attributed to them) were included in biographies.

The author of the engravings is Kuniyoshi , an outstanding ukiyo master . The series “Biographies of Devoted and Faithful Vassals” is perhaps the most famous of his works, although experts are not inclined to classify these engravings as the best of his creations. The engravings are not exactly silent about much, being too dependent on the accompanying text, but we should not forget that the concept of understatement, incompleteness was one of the key ones in the traditional aesthetics of Japan. In my humble opinion, sheet 44, the most famous in the series, and sheet 47, depicting a warrior who died before the assault, may well be considered one of the best not only by Kuniyoshi, but in all of military ukiyo. The monstrous cat on sheet 51 is also worthy of attention. Kuniyoshi generally loved to depict cats.

The superbly published book contains, in addition to reproductions of engravings, texts by Ippitsuan and an introductory article by Mikhail Uspensky, his comments on each biography and descriptions of images with explanations. After all, the pose, the costume of the character, and the inscriptions on clothes and standards can be significant here.

Ivan Davydov