Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan Read Online Free
Author: Giles Milton
true king,” wrote one, “but obeyed by no one.
The emperor’s protector was the shogun, or “barbarian-quelling generalissimo,” who was also the strongman of the feudal lords. But by the 1540s he, too, lacked any real authority, for the country had imploded into anarchy and was fought over by the hundreds of rival warlords, brigands, and mercenaries. The great daimyo , or feudal lords, like Otomo Yoshiaki, lord of Bungo, were engaged in constant internecine warfare, usurping each other’s domains and slaughtering their families and kinsmen.
Effective power belonged to the most ruthless robber barons, banditti, and armed monks, who regularly laid waste the countryside. The success of these warlords depended to a great extent upon the strength of the samurai , or two-sworded warrior class, on their land. These warriors had, in the misty past, been utterly loyal to their overlord. “We will not die peacefully,” was their mantra, “but we will die by the side of our king.” But many could no
longer be trusted, and those living in borderland regions were only too ready to switch allegiance to a more prosperous, or more successful, feudal potentate.
Armed monks presented another threat to the feudal lords and the shogun. Japanese chronicles recount numerous instances of monks laughing in scorn at threats to reduce their hilltop fortress-monasteries. Safely behind stout walls, these monks were in an impregnable position, and many had abandoned prayer in favor of a more raucous cycle of carousing, sodomy, and adultery. Yet not all was gloom in these turbulent times. A few of the greatest Zen Buddhist monasteries produced exquisite calligraphic scrolls. So, too, did the more educated feudal lords. Poetry, the Noh lyric dramas, and the courtly rituals of the tea ceremony also flourished in this troublesome period.
Despite the unrest and the power-jostling, the impoverished court continued to function with aloof grandeur and was held in enormous respect. “Though he [the emperor] lost his position and his services and his incomes four hundred years ago,” wrote the Jesuit Luis Frois, “and is nothing more than an idol, he is still held in great respect.” His shaven-headed kuge, or courtly nobles, were destitute of power, yet were accorded every possible dignity. In this strictly hierarchical society, their honorific titles were more than empty symbols; the most impoverished retainer, once ennobled by the imperial patent, would look down upon the mightiest robber baron with the utmost contempt. It was a peculiarly Japanese phenomenon; foreign arrivals could never quite understand how a powerful feudal lord, controlling two or three provinces, could be accorded so little respect simply because the emperor had not honored him with a position at court.
Pinto was soon followed by several other Portuguese adventurers. In the winter of 1547, Captain Jorge Alvarez visited the land and declared it to be far more impressive than coastal China or the islands of the East Indies. He wrote at length of the mountains and orchards, and concluded his report with a brief analysis of the
Japanese people. There was much to be celebrated. Captain Alvarez was pleased to note that “they are a white race” and “of good appearance,” and he expressed his admiration for their diet, which consisted largely of boiled, glutinous wheat. “They eat it cooked as a gruel,” he wrote, “and each time they eat very little.”
They were pious, too, and would spend the greater part of each morning “with their rosary in their hand to pray.” In old age, many retired to Buddhist monasteries to live the rest of their days in prayer and contemplation. It was a tantalizing vision to the churchmen of Portugal, and the only blemish came at the end of their prayer sessions when the monks would hitch up their kimonos “[and] engage in sodomy with boys whom they instruct.”
Alvarez’s report fascinated his countryman Francis Xavier, a young
The emperor’s protector was the shogun, or “barbarian-quelling generalissimo,” who was also the strongman of the feudal lords. But by the 1540s he, too, lacked any real authority, for the country had imploded into anarchy and was fought over by the hundreds of rival warlords, brigands, and mercenaries. The great daimyo , or feudal lords, like Otomo Yoshiaki, lord of Bungo, were engaged in constant internecine warfare, usurping each other’s domains and slaughtering their families and kinsmen.
Effective power belonged to the most ruthless robber barons, banditti, and armed monks, who regularly laid waste the countryside. The success of these warlords depended to a great extent upon the strength of the samurai , or two-sworded warrior class, on their land. These warriors had, in the misty past, been utterly loyal to their overlord. “We will not die peacefully,” was their mantra, “but we will die by the side of our king.” But many could no
longer be trusted, and those living in borderland regions were only too ready to switch allegiance to a more prosperous, or more successful, feudal potentate.
Armed monks presented another threat to the feudal lords and the shogun. Japanese chronicles recount numerous instances of monks laughing in scorn at threats to reduce their hilltop fortress-monasteries. Safely behind stout walls, these monks were in an impregnable position, and many had abandoned prayer in favor of a more raucous cycle of carousing, sodomy, and adultery. Yet not all was gloom in these turbulent times. A few of the greatest Zen Buddhist monasteries produced exquisite calligraphic scrolls. So, too, did the more educated feudal lords. Poetry, the Noh lyric dramas, and the courtly rituals of the tea ceremony also flourished in this troublesome period.
Despite the unrest and the power-jostling, the impoverished court continued to function with aloof grandeur and was held in enormous respect. “Though he [the emperor] lost his position and his services and his incomes four hundred years ago,” wrote the Jesuit Luis Frois, “and is nothing more than an idol, he is still held in great respect.” His shaven-headed kuge, or courtly nobles, were destitute of power, yet were accorded every possible dignity. In this strictly hierarchical society, their honorific titles were more than empty symbols; the most impoverished retainer, once ennobled by the imperial patent, would look down upon the mightiest robber baron with the utmost contempt. It was a peculiarly Japanese phenomenon; foreign arrivals could never quite understand how a powerful feudal lord, controlling two or three provinces, could be accorded so little respect simply because the emperor had not honored him with a position at court.
Pinto was soon followed by several other Portuguese adventurers. In the winter of 1547, Captain Jorge Alvarez visited the land and declared it to be far more impressive than coastal China or the islands of the East Indies. He wrote at length of the mountains and orchards, and concluded his report with a brief analysis of the
Japanese people. There was much to be celebrated. Captain Alvarez was pleased to note that “they are a white race” and “of good appearance,” and he expressed his admiration for their diet, which consisted largely of boiled, glutinous wheat. “They eat it cooked as a gruel,” he wrote, “and each time they eat very little.”
They were pious, too, and would spend the greater part of each morning “with their rosary in their hand to pray.” In old age, many retired to Buddhist monasteries to live the rest of their days in prayer and contemplation. It was a tantalizing vision to the churchmen of Portugal, and the only blemish came at the end of their prayer sessions when the monks would hitch up their kimonos “[and] engage in sodomy with boys whom they instruct.”
Alvarez’s report fascinated his countryman Francis Xavier, a young
Readers choose
Katharine Davis
Scott Blum
Robin Hardy
Linda Mooney
Naima Simone
Carole Nelson Douglas
Thomas Bernhard
Carina Lupo
Heather Brewer