The Japanese Woman in the Premodern Merchant Household

The conventional view that women in premodern Japan were uniformly subordinated within patriarchal households does not stand up to close scrutiny of the historical sources. The latter have to be understood very broadly: using poetry, pictorial representations and the histories of important family enterprises alongside such documents as trade directories and temple registers, it is possible to identify women operating at every level of commercial activity. These findings contradict the normative façade of the Confucian and Buddhist teachings of the time. The relations between men and women in the early years of the great merchant houses subvert simplistic categories of public and private, and suggest new ways of examining gender difference in this and subsequent periods. Notes [1] In accordance with Japanese practice, Japanese people mentioned in the body of the article and authors of works in the Japanese language cited in the notes are referred to by their surname followed by their personal name. For evidence that there was no distinction between domestic labour and labour performed outside the home in the premodern period, see Wakita Haruko (1992) Chūsei josei no yakuwari buntan: Kōtō no Naishi, hisagime, kanjin bikuni, in Wakita Haruko, Nihon chūsei joseishi no kenkyū—seibetsu yakuwari buntan to bosei, kasei, seiai (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press), pp. 157–189. For an English translation, see Wakita Haruko, trans. Alison Tokita (2006) Women in Medieval Japan (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press), pp. 71–124. [2] It was not until after the First World War—1920 at the earliest—that this ‘traditional division of labour’ became widespread in Japan. See, for example, Inoue Kiyoshi (1948) Nihon joseishi (Kyoto: San’ichi Shobō). [3] The historians Inoue Kiyoshi (1913–2001) and Takamure Itsue (1894–1964) both refer to the evils of modern (that is, post‐1868) civilization. In works such as Takamure Itsue (1954–58) Josei no rekishi, 4 vols (Tokyo: Kōdansha), women are described as the pawns of patriarchy because of the patrilocal marriage system. Subsequent women’s history has not strayed fundamentally from this viewpoint. My own views are summarized in English in Suzanne Gay (trans.) (1984) Marriage and Property in Premodern Japan from the Perspective of Women’s History, Journal of Japanese Studies, 10(1), pp. 77–99; and David P. Phillips (trans.) (1993) Women and the Creation of the Ie in Japan: an overview from the medieval period to the present, U.S.‐Japan Women’s Journal, 4, pp. 83–105. [4] See Toyota Takeshi (1982) Chūsei Nihon no shōgyō, vol. 2 of Toyoda Takeshi chosakushū (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan); and Iwasaki Kae (1987) Shokunin uta‐awase—chūsei no shokunin gunzō (Tokyo: Heibonsha). [5] Shichijūichiban shokunin uta‐awase, in Hanawa Hokinoichi (Ed.) (1933) Gunsho ruijū (Tokyo: Zoku Gunsho Ruijū Kanseikai), vol. 28, pp. 464–606. [6] Ono Kōji (1989) Nihon chūsei shōgyōshi no kenkyū (Tokyo: Hōsei Daigaku Shuppankyoku); Amino Yoshihiko (1984) Nihon chūsei no hinōgyōmin to tennō (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten); Wakita Haruko (1969, rep. 1977) Nihon chūsei shōgyō hattatsushi no kenkyū (Tokyo: Ochanomizu Shobō). In English, see Wakita Haruko (1975) Towards a Wider Perspective on Medieval Commerce, Journal of Japanese Studies, 1(2), pp. 321–345. [7] Wakita Haruko (1988) Chūsei no bungyō to mibunsei, in Nagahara Keiji & Sasaki Junnosuke (Eds) Nihon chūseishi kenkyū no kiseki (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press), pp. 35–67. [8] Kyoto University Archives, ‘Tanaka Mitsutsugu‐shi shozō monjo’, cited in Wakita, Nihon chūsei shōgyō hattatsushi no kenkyū, pp. 385–387. [9] Yasaka Jinja Shamusho (Ed.) (1942) Yasaka jinja kiroku, jō, entry for Kōei 2.12.4 [1343] (Kyoto: Yasaka Jinja Shamusho), p. 90, cited in Wakita, Nihon chūsei shōgyō hattatsushi no kenkyū, p. 326. [10] Wakita Haruko (1970) Chūsei no toshi to nōson, in Hōken shakai no tenkai, vol. 3 of Rekishigaku kenkyūkai & Nihonshi kenkyūkai (Eds) Kōza Nihonshi (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press), pp. 189–226. [11] Wakita Haruko (1992) Bukka yori mita Nichi‐Mei bōeki no seikaku, in Miyakawa Shūichi (Ed.) Nihonshi ni okeru kokka to shakai (Kyoto: Shibunkaku Shuppan), pp. 253–272. [12] Mieidō was the popular designation for the Ji (Time) ssect temple Shinzenkōji, founded 1284, once located west of Gojō Bridge in Kyoto. [13] Naikaku Bunko Archives, ‘Ninagawa‐ke komonjo’, vol. 17, cited in Wakita Haruko (1968) Shōgyō to machiza, in Kinsei no taidō, vol. 3 of Kyoto‐shi (Ed.) Kyoto no rekishi (Tokyo: Gakugei Shorin), pp. 194–196. [14] The Matsushita manuscript of the Tsurugaoka hōjōe shokunin uta‐awase e. See Iwasaki Kae, Hasegawa Nobuyoshi & Yamamoto Yuiitsu (1982) Shokunin uta‐awase sōgō sakuin (Tokyo: Akao Shōbundō), p. 18; and Yamamoto Yuiitsu (1985) Tōhoku‐in to Tsurugaoka hōjōe: Kamakura‐ki shokunin uta‐awase no seiritsu, Kobijutsu, 74, pp. 37–48. [15] See ‘Kita‐in shokunin zukushi e,’ picture no. 23, in Kokushi Daijiten Henshū Iinkai (Ed.) (1984) Kokushi daijiten (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan), vol. 4, facing p. 109. [16] See Joyce Chapman Lebra (1991) Women in an All‐Male Industry: the case of saké brewer Tatsu’uma Kiyo, in Gail Lee Bernstein (Ed.) Recreating Japanese Women, 1600–1945 (Berkeley: University of California Press), pp. 131–148. [17] Obagasake (Auntie’s Saké) in Koyama Hiroshi (Ed.) (1961) Nihon koten bungaku taikei (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten), vol. 43, pp. 107–114. [18] ‘Nōsetsubō no seppō no koto,’ in Shasekishū, Watanabe Tsunaya (Ed.) (1966) Nihon koten bungaku taikei (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten), vol. 85, pp. 284–286. For an English translation of this story, see ‘Nōsetsubō’s Sermon’, in Robert E. Morrell (1985) Sand and Pebbles: the tales of Mujū Ichien, a voice for pluralism in Kamakura Buddhism (Albany: State University of New York Press), pp. 193–194. The author of Shasekishū, Mujū Ichien, was born in 1226 and died in 1312. [19] For further evidence, see Yamaji Kōzō (1993) Gion matsuri no hoko to josei, Josei shigaku, 3, pp. 92–94; and Inomoto Tōru (2000) Chionji‐zō ‘sakezukuri ema’ to josei, Josei shigaku, 10, pp. 145–148. [20] Document no. 62, in Kitano Tenmangū Shiryō Kankōkai (Ed.) (1978) Kitano Tenmangū shiryō: komonjo (Kyoto: Kitano Tenmangū), pp. 34–46. [21] See Tsude Hiroshi (1982) Genshi doki to josei: Yayoi jidai no seibetsu bungyō to kon’in kyojū kitei, in Kasahara Kazuo (Ed.) Nihon joseishi 1: genshi, kodai (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press), pp. 1–42. [22] Wakita, ‘Chūsei no bungyō to mibunsei’, p. 52; Wakita, Nihon chūsei joseishi no kenkyū, pp. 93–128. [23] Usui Nobuyoshi & Tsugunaga Yoshiteru (Eds) (1970) Noritoki‐kyō ki, vol. 1, entries for Ōei 13.12.27‐28 [1406] (Tokyo: Zoku Gunsho Ruijū Kanseikai), pp. 276–277. [24] ‘Ōtonerihonzachū rensho mōshijōan’, dated [Tenmon 16]intercalary 7.15 [1547], document no. 592, in Kokugakuin Daigaku Koga‐ke monjo hensan i’ inkai (Ed.) (1982) Koga‐ke monjo (Tokyo: Kokugakuin Daigaku), vol. 1, pp. 842–843, photograph p. 844. [25] Kunaichō Shoryōbu Archives, ‘Kō no hai kayaku kankei monjo’; also Kyoto University Archives, ‘Sano Inosuke monjo’, in Komonjosan, vol. 21. See the discussion in Wakita, Nihon chūsei shōgyō hattatsushi no kenkyū, pp. 390–394. [26] Naikaku Bunko Archives, ‘Bakufu bugyōnin hōsho’, dated Chōkyō 2.3.12 [1488]; Kyoto University Archives, ‘Kameya no Goi‐me mōshijō’, dated Tenmon 13.11.21 [1544] and ‘Miyoshi Nagayoshi kudashibumi’, dated Tenmon 13.12.18 [1544], in ‘Tanaka Mitsutsugu‐shi shozō monjo’. [27] Wakita, Nihon chūsei shōgyō hattatsushi no kenkyū, pp. 520–521. [28] In Japanese, ‘Gei ga mi o/tasukuru hodo no/fushiawase’. [29] Yōshūfu shi (A Gazetteer of the Capital in Yamashiro, 1686) in Kokusho Kankōkai (Ed.) (1970) Zoku zoku Gunsho ruijū (Tokyo: Zoku Gunsho Ruijū Kanseikai), vol. 8, p. 203b, reads: In the time when Lord Toyotomi Hideyoshi [1537–98] lived in the palace he named Juraku, Sen no Rikyū summoned a Korean and caused him to come and make tea bowls. Taking the character chō of Chōsen [Korea], he was named Chōjirō. His tea bowls were of two colours, red and black. On the bottom of each he impressed the character raku. This character was taken from Juraku. As a result, it was called rakuyaki, Raku wares ... His descendants now live in the area of the [former] Juraku palace, but the wares they fire are not the equal of the time of Rikyū. [30] ‘Muneiri monjo’, cited in Yabe Yoshiaki (1995) Sen no Rikyū no sōi: hie, shimi, sabi, karabi kara no hiyaku (Tokyo: Kadokawa Shoten), p. 149. [31] On the history of the Mitsui family, especially the Mitsui family women and their marriages, see Hayashi Reiko (1982) Machiya josei no sonzai keitai, in Kasahara Kazuo (Ed.) Nihon joseishi 3: kinsei (Tokyo: Tokyo University Press), pp. 96–108. In English, see John G. Roberts (1989) Mitsui: three centuries of Japanese business, 2nd ed. (New York: Weatherhill); plate 1 shows Mitsui Takatoshi (Sōju) and his wife Jusan as depicted in a late seventeenth‐century scroll painting. [32] Quotations in this section are from Mitsui Takahira, ‘Sōjiku isho’ and ‘Kadenki’ and Mitsui Takaharu, ‘Shōbaiki’, all dated Kyōhō 7.11 [1722], in Mitsui Bunko (Ed.) (1973) Mitsui jigyō shi: shiryōhen ichi (Tokyo: Mitsui Bunko), pp. 1–16, 16–22, 23–46. ‘Sōjiku isho’ (Sōjiku’s will) is translated in Roberts, Mitsui, pp. 513–517. Shinnyodō is the popular name of the Tendai sect temple Shinshōgokurakuji in the Jōdoji section of Sakyō Ward in Kyoto. [33] Modelled on the Great Learning (Chinese Ta hsueh; Japanese Daigaku), a short work attributed to Confucius’ disciple Tseng tzu, A Great Learning for Women (Onna daigaku, 1716) is the classic statement of Confucian morality enjoining women to subordinate themselves to their husbands and their families that circulated widely in early modern Japan. [34] Masaki Tokuzō (1965, rep. 1981) Hon’ami gyōjōki to Kōetsu (Tokyo: Chūō Kōron Bijutsu Shuppan). Hereafter cited in the text as Gyōjōki. [35] Nakano Kōji (1992) Seihin no shisō (Tokyo: Sōshisha), pp. 16–26. [36] Go‐Mino’o is the preferred pronunciation in Kyoto of the Emperor more usually known as Go‐Mizuno’o. [37] Naikaku Bunko Archives, ‘Zeni‐nushi kubarihikitsuke’; complete text in Kuwayama Kōnen (Ed.) (1986) Muromachi bakufu hikitsuke shiryō shūsei, gekan (Tokyo: Kondō Shuppansha), pp. 237–288. Wakita Haruko (1981) Nihon chūsei toshi ron (Tokyo: Tokyo University Press), pp. 308–315. In English, see Wakita Haruko (1981) Dimensions of Development: cities in fifteenth‐ and sixteenth‐century Japan, trans. Susan B. Hanley, in John Whitney Hall, Nagahara Keiji & Kozo Yamamura (Eds) Japan before Tokugawa: political consolidation and economic growth, 1500–1650 (Princeton: Princeton University Press), pp. 295–326. [38] A knowledge of the Confucian Four Books and Five Classics was indispensable to the education of a cultured person in premodern and early modern Japan. The Four Books are: Analects, the sayings of Confucius (551–479 BC) and his disciples; Mencius, the teachings of Mencius (371–289 BC); Great Learning, attributed to Confucius’ disciple Tseng tzu; and Doctrine of the Mean, attributed to Tzu Ssu (492–431 BC), grandson of Confucius. The Five Classics are the Book of Changes (I ching), Book of Documents (Shu ching), Book of Odes (Shih ching), Book of Rites (Li chi), and Spring and Autumn Annals (Ch’un ch’iu). [39] Collected in Noma Kōshin (Ed.) (1960) Saikaku shū, ge, Nihon koten bungaku taikei, vol. 48 (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten). Hereafter abbreviated as NKBT. For an English translation of Nippon eitaigura see G. W. Sargent (1969) The Japanese Family Storehouse or the Millionaires‘ Gospel Modernised (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). For an English translation of Seken munesanyō see Masanori Takatsuka & David C. Stubbs (1965) This Scheming World (Rutland, VT and Tokyo: Tuttle). For an English translation of Saikaku oridome see Peter Nosco (1980) Some Final Words of Advice (Rutland, VT and Tokyo: Tuttle). [40] Noma Kōshin, ‘Kaisetsu,’ NKBT, 48, p. 3. [41] The story is found in Saikaku oridome, NKBT, 48, pp. 337–339. In the English translation of this work, the manager of the Ōgiya is assumed to be the husband. See Nosco, Some Final Words of Advice, pp. 68–70. See also Egashira Tsuneharu (1959) Ōmi shōnin (Tokyo: Kōbundō). [42] Nosco, Some Final Words of Advice, p. 69. [43] The ‘Isle of Women’ is the final, fantasy destination of Yonosuke, hero of Saikaku’s novel Kōshoku ichidai otoko, 1682. For an English translation, see Kengi Hamada (1964) The Life of an Amorous Man (Rutland, VT and Tokyo: Tuttle). [44] National Diet Library, Yorozu kaimono chōhōki, vol. 4, 1692. [45] Saikaku oridome, NKBT, 48, pp. 426–33. Nosco, Some Final Words of Advice, pp. 189–199. [46] Nippon eitaigura, NKBT 48, pp. 51–54. Sargent, The Japanese Family Storehouse, pp. 30–32. [47] Saikaku oridome, NKBT 48, pp. 423–24. Nosco, Some Final Words of Advice, pp. 184–186. [48] Nippon eitaigura, NKBT 48, pp. 106–7. Sargent, The Japanese Family Storehouse, pp. 77–78. [49] Nippon eitaigura, NKBT 48, p. 107, n. 30. Sargent, The Japanese Family Storehouse, p. 196, n. 20. [50] Saikaku oridome, NKBT, 48, pp. 423–24. Nosco, Some Final Words of Advice, pp. 216–217

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