The Imagawa Letter
A Muromachi Warrior's Code of Conduct Which Became a Tokugawa Schoolbook
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10293134 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Carl Steenstrup (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1973 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 295-295 |
| Publication date | 1973-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Monumenta Nipponica (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0027-0741 • E-ISSN: 1880-1390 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2383785 |
| OpenAlex | W2328897212 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
T r O THE JAPANESE of the Tokugawa era, 'Imagawa'1 had two meanings. In the first place it was the name of a warrior clan that had been active and influential during the Muromachi period. Secondly, it meant a particular kind of primer. Most Tokugawa primers served two purposes: as copybooks they taught writing, and as textbooks they taught ethics, history, and the formalities of written correspondence. Many primers were actually collections of model letters, to which had been added vocabularies and some encyclopedic information. In the private schools,2 in which the children of commoners were educated, teaching materials rarely went beyond such primers, whereas the fief schools3 for samurai children started their pupils as soon as possible on a classical Chinese curriculum of the Four Books and the Five Classics. Most primers were intended to teach those facts and expressions which were useful in the gainful occupation of commoners,4 but a few texts were composed with the moral instruction of samurai in view.5 To this class of texts belonged what was commonly called the 'Imagawa Letter',6 translated below. The Letter was studied by the sons of samurai and of commoners alike from the time of Ieyasu until the beginning of the Meiji period.7 An adapted version for girls, Onna Imagawa,8 was extensively used in female education after it first appeared in 1700
Aesthetics · Art · Clan · Literature · Mediocrity principle · Meiji period · Period (music · Political science · Classics · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,19 |
| Citation span | 2005 - 2018 (14) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |