24-5 Sakuragaoka-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0031
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Mail: info@japancivilization.org
http://www.japancivilization.org/

Newsletter Vol. 7 Spring 2017

On 7th February, the seventh symposium held by Japanese Civilization Institute took place at Japan
University of Economics in Shibuya,
Tokyo under the theme, “A study
on Edo period’s Innovation after‘Naotora’—a look into the reformist’s family tree.” The discussion
made between historian Michifumi
Isoda and director of Japanese Civilization Institute Naoki Inose, revolved around various themes, including the chaotic Medieval Era inwhich Naotora Ii lived, the recoveryof Japan from there, and the Edo
Period (1603-1868) in which theeconomy developed. By looking
back in time, we looked at the suggestions that could be made towards
the future.
(reprinted from “Shukan Dokushojin,”
14th April, 2017, No. 3185)

Greetings
Ms. Kimiko Tsuzuki—Chairperson of Japanese Civilization Institute
Tsuzuki Education Group has an exclusive academic partnership with both Oxford and Cambridge Universities
of England, and we have deepened our relationship with them for over twenty years. During these years, we havelearned a lot of things from the two leading universities, which hold a history and tradition of nearly 1000 years.
One of them is the huge issue of globalization. It’s an issue that not only concerns universities, but also Japanand the rest of the world. From communicating with traditional universities of abroad, we have learned that themost important thing that’s needed when we think about globalization is national identity. However, there ishardly any chance for Japanese to realize their country today.
For example, it’s most likely that a majority of the younger Japanese generation is unaware of what National
Foundation Day on Feb. 11 means. The younger Japanese generation grow up without learning about theircountry’s history. Having his background in mind, we thought this would be a good opportunity to think about
this country’s education and history—which is no doubt what makes up the country’s origin.
We have invited Mr. Michifumi Isoda to talk about these kinds of things for our seventh symposium. As you
all know, Professor Isoda is a leading historian today who specializes in unraveling Japanese history accurately
using primarily ancient documents. We would like Mr. Isoda to introduce us to historical evidences that remain
hidden, and enlighten us about these kinds of things from various angles.

About the groupJapanese Civilization InstituteEstablished in August 2015

Address: 24-5 Sakuragaoka-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0031
Tel :03-5456-8082 Fax:03-5456-8388
Website: http://www.japancivilization.org/

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A Report on Our 7th Symposium

Edo Period innovation
after ‘Naotora’
The family tree of Japanese reformists

Michifumi Isoda（historian）

From Naotora to
Nobunaga and Ieyasu.
What separates
Japan’s medieval era
from the modern era
is the concept of the“public.”
Inose: NHK television’s big historical epic this year, its so-called “Taiga
Drama,” is “Onna Joshu Naotora”(The Lady Warlord Naotora),” which
is now showing on TV. I understandyou were one of the people who suggested this theme?
Isoda: I don’t know if NHK specifically adopted my recommendation, butthey did come to me for some advice
on historical figures that would be interesting to make a drama about. Naotora
was one name in the list I gave them.
The reason NHK’s “asa-dora” (morning drama) is so popular today is
because people find it exciting to see
the exploits of fictional women characters or women in Japanese history thatthey have never heard of before.
That’s why I suggested they do a taiga

2

vs.

Naoki Inose（ Civilization Institute ）
director of Japanese

drama on a woman in Japanese history
that most people had never heard of.
Other than Naotora herself, I listed
four other women warriors and warlords who lived during the Sengoku
Period (the age of warring states). For
example, there is Gincho from thecouple Tachibana Gincho and Muneshige from the Yanagigawa domain in
Fukuoka Prefecture. Gincho was astrong warrior, so maybe a drama
could be made about her in the future.
Since Naotora is so unknown,some say that she may actually be fictional, or perhaps that the real
Naotora was actually a man, maybe acousin of hers. There are also theories
as to whether she actually regarded
herself as the head of the family ornot. However, it is true that there
were women who really did live likethat in those days. The historical documents prove that.
Inose: So it is at least apparent thatthe daughter of the lord of Iinoya
Castle became a priest named Jirohoshi, and later became a feudal
lord, but we’re not certain for surethat she named herself Naotora, isthat correct? Was the Ii family itself

descended from an estate steward
who had ruled the territory?
Isoda: Yes. The Ii family appears tohave been “ji-zamurai” (lords ofsmaller rural domains in feudal Japan). They owned territory valued atabout “sanzen-goku,” in other words,
capable of producing about 3,000“koku” (bales of rice), so they were
not that big or wealthy. Iinoya lies
north of Lake Hamanako in nearmodern Hamamatsu. The feudal lord
Imagawa Yoshimoto of the Ashikaga
Shogunate used to live in the territory that is Shizuoka City today, notthat far away. Yet Imagawa failed
multiple times to eliminate the Ii
family, and after he was killed in the
Battle of Okehazama by the powerful warlord Oda Nobunaga, theImagawa clan went into decline. The
more power it lost, the more pressure it put on the Ii family.
Japanese society right before thestart of the Edo Period was often
referred to as a society of “gekokujo”(the low bringing down the mighty),
in which retainers would overthrow
their own lords. In historical term,
we would call this state “the normal-

Michifumi Isoda

ization of violence.” Violence could
take place anywhere, at anytime, andpeople fought just for their own greed
and self-interest. The only principles
apart from violence that still retained
any force were nobility and the Buddhist and Shinto gods. The Ii family
was an old family that had lived in
Iinoya for approximately 600 years
before the appearance of Naotora.
There are only a few families inJapan that have continued down
across the generations. At the top of allof them, of course, is the Imperial
Family, which is believed to be directly
descended from Amaterasu Oomikami the sun goddess. Another is theSen family, who have served as “guji”(priests) at the Izumo Taisha Shrine
since those ancient times known askuni no miyatsuko (the nation building period) and kodai (the ancientperiod). The same is true of the Oki
family of Okinoshima, the Kiuji of Kii,
and the Asoji of Kyushu. The Suwa
family lands were invaded by the warlord Takeda Shingen, but Katsuyori
from the Suwa family bloodline effectively took over the Takeda family,
maintaining the continuity.
Inose: The Ii family tried to maintain their bloodline by subordinating
themselves to Imagawa Yoshimoto.
However, Kamenojo, the cousin of
the Ii’s 22nd leader and the fiancé of
Jirohoshi, is entrapped in Imagawa’s
plot. He is ousted from the family
and his child nearly murdered.
Isoda: Many Sengoku Period samu-

rai were not able to die “in a tatamiroom,” as the saying goes, in otherwords, die a peaceful death. The fouror five generations of the Ii family before Naotora either all died in battle,
were poisoned, or murdered. Even the
Tokugawa family itself was like that,up until the time of Tokugawa Ieyasu
himself. Old documents of that time
contain the unusual phrase, “to keep apoison,” which sounds strange to us
when we hear it today. It’s most likelythat they often used the poisons of insects and animals. There was even a
vow exchanged during the Sengoku
Period when a lord and a vassal madea contract that went: “We shall notpoison each other.”
Religious customs and family status were highly valued, but in practiceviolence was routine. There is no possibility of achieving progress or economic growth in that kind of society.
So what actually does happen to
the Imagawa family in the end?
Yoshimoto is killed in the Battle of
Okehazama and his son, Imagawa
Uchizane, tries to seek revenge, but heis defeated time and again. In thosedays, “bushi” (samurai) who fought inwars paid their own expenses. They
prepared their own military gear andeven their own food. As a result, thebushi who were fighting for Uchizane
began to wear out. When that happened, the “shogun” (general) had toissue what was called the “Shakkin
Bohiki no Tokuseirei” (special government ordinance for canceling debts)
just to maintain political power.
Inose: In order to rush to Imagawa’s
side these bushi had borrowed moneyfrom merchants, temples and shrines.
But as long as they continued to lose,
they couldn’t pay back their debts.
Isoda: Neither the Imagawa family
nor the Muromachi Bakufu, the shogunate of the time based in Kyoto,
had any responsibility for the public
economy. The feudal lords of Japan’s
medieval era had family finances toattend to, but there was hardly any
economic policy implemented by thestate as we know it today. There were

Naoki Inoseeven people who tried to win popularity by publicly refusing to repay
their debts. And then there were others who demanded 10% of the money they owed just in exchange foragreeing to go along with the Shakkin
Bohiki no Tokuseirei ordinance. We’renot talking about money that they
had actually lent out themselves. It
was the same as saying that if you hadborrowed 10 million yen from thebank, and then paid the government a
million yen back, you wouldn’t needto pay back the remaining 9 million.
That is how chaotic Japanese society
was at the time.
Under such a system, saving money,
investing it, and generating wealth wasmuch too risky, and modern economic
development was simply out of thequestion.
On the other hand, there was room
for religion—ideologies that madepeople wish for something better in
the next life to come—to flourish.
Inose: There were powerful clans inevery region of Japan during the medieval era, so basically it was a worldin which the people with the capability and power to do so seized whatever they wanted, despite the Emperor
and the Shogun existing as the supposed supreme leaders of the land. Intime, however, powerful, unifying
warlords like Nobunaga, Toyotomi
Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu
arise, and the chaotic Sengoku Period
comes to an end. I think the big difference between the modern era and3the medieval era of the Sengoku Period was the way that people perceived
the notion of the “public.”
Isoda: Up through the medieval era,
the people of a domain in effect belonged to their lord. For example,
when medieval era lords needed a lotof money they could, technicallyspeaking, simply sell their people alongwith their houses. They could buy themback again when they had enoughmoney to do so. But with the unification of Japan under the Tokugawa Shogunate and the start of the Edo Period,
the people are suddenly granted a statusof their very own. They are now: “farmers looking after the shogunate’s fields.”
But in the period leading up to
the Edo Period, Nobunaga murderedvast numbers of people in his quest
to unify and rule the country.
Inose: Nobunaga also decisively defeated religious power in Japan. I
think that this was very big.
Isoda: It’s true. I think Nobunaga
was the person who personally madethe Japanese people non-religious.
He thoroughly squashed the “ikoikki” (an uprising by followers of the
Jodo Shinshu sect of Buddhism),
capturing every Jodo Shinshu priest
and his followers and killing themquite savagely. He would set fire tothem and burn them to death or use“haritsuke” (crucifixion) to kill themin order to demonstrate to the people that there was no heaven waitingfor people who were brutally killedin this way. At the same time, hewould show off his own luxurious
and opulent lifestyle as an “owaribushi” (a samurai from the Owari domain) to send the message that, “ifyou work for me, your family willprosper as samurai and continue forgenerations to come.” This is one of
the reasons why the clothes and furniture of the Azuchi Momoyama Period
when Nobunaga was at his height
were so luxurious. In this way, heturned people’s concern away fromthe great religious centers of the day
like Hongan-ji Temple and Enryaku-ji
Temple. Japanese peoples’ brains4

turned from the holy to the common.

Edo Period
agricultural society
was one of themost meticulously
developed societies
in human history
Inose: So Nobunaga crushes religious power and the peoples’ beliefin “gokuraku jodo” (the Land of Perfect Bliss). Then the Edo Shogunate
under Tokugawa Ieyasu built an ideology that if people harvested thefields they would be able to form astable life for themselves in the future. In short, without the end of Japan’s medieval era, Edo society could
never have existed.
The Edo Shogunate began in 1603,
and approximately 10 years later, withthe end of the “Osaka Fuyu no Jin” (theWinter Siege of Osaka), thousands of“ronin” (masterless samurai) surged
into Edo to search of work. For thisreason, the Edo government was urged
to create public work projects, and job
fixers like Banzuiin Chobei, who isfamous as a character in the kabuki
play “Kuchi Ireya” (The employment
agency) began to emerge.
Isoda: Exactly so. Then there werealso the “machi yakko” gangs of working townsmen. The kuchi ireya would
never have emerged unless there was amarket for labor.
Yet on the other hand, I would
guess that many Japanese today havean image that farmers in the Edo
Period were stuck on their land, thatthe farmers were forever farmers themerchants forever merchants, andthat they all had to follow the paththey were born in to.
But in reality, that was not the caseat all. The fact is, Edo Period people
had more freedom to choose theirjobs and relocate for work than in
any other country of the world at thetime. The post of “Oban gashira”(captain of the great guard), who protected Edo Castle as its military com-mander, was hereditary, yet if they
wished, even an Oban gashira could
choose to become a samurai of lower
rank and take a different position.
In fact, if you wanted to succeed in
the Edo Shogunate, I would personally recommend trying to become an
official at the Commissioner ofFinance in the shogunate government.
It was a low-status job, but it was performance based, so if you were accomplished you could climb up the laddereven if you were a farmer’s child.
If fiscal management had been
hereditary, then the Edo Shogunate
would not have continued. The Shogunate avoided collapsing precisely
because they built a groundbreaking
system to incorporate clever and competent people into the government
bureaucracy, no matter if they had
started out as townsmen or farmers.
Inose: So this is how the structure of
Edo Shogunate was gradually arranged and the administration formed.
Over the approximately 100 years
from the start of the Edo Shogunate
until the famous Raid of Akoroshi (aviolent outbreak by lordless samurai
from the Ako domain)—known forthe phrase: “It’s Genroku 15 (1702)”—
Edo experienced a period of rapid economic growth. There were no wars, so
the population doubled from 16 million to 30 million. Once people realized that they could die peacefully athome on a tatami mat, they felt safe
to have and raise children and to dedicate themselves to economic activity.
Isoda: I’m sure that many people remember Taichi Sakaiya’s novel “Togeno Gunzo,” which was also made into an NHK Taiga drama some years
ago. You could say that in 1700, Japan was at its “toge” (the peak of themountain). The world population at
the time is estimated to have beensome 600 million. Japan’s population of 30 million accounted for 5%of the entire world population. In
other words, one in 20 people on theplanet were Japanese. Today Japan’s
population accounts for only 2%. In
2200, when our children are in theireighties, it is said this number will
have fallen to 0.5%.
Inose: At the time, Europe was stillin the middle of The Hundred Years’
War, still trapped in an age of constant conflict. In contrast, the economic system starts to settle into
place in Japan from the Genroku period (1688-1704) to the Bunka/
Bunsei period (1804-1829), and various art forms begin to flourish. Yetfrom 1700 until 1867〜68, when
the Edo Period final comes to anend, Japan’s GDP rises only a little
and the country enters a period ofzero economic growth. Populationsin the Kanto and Tohoku regions actually begin to decline.
Doesn’t that situation strike you as
similar to Japan today? So how
should we survive these times?
I personally believe we can learn a
lot from Ninomiya Kinjiro, the Japanese agricultural leader, philosopher,moralist and economist. I’m presently
writing a book titled, “Ninomiya
Kinjiro wa naze takigi o seotte iru noka? (Why Ninomiya Kinjiro Carries
Firewood on His Back).“ A lot of
people relate to Kinjiro as a model of
hard labor and diligence, but in fact
they have the story all wrong. Kinjiro
is not about that kind of “where
there’s a will, there’s a way” ideology
at all. Kinjiro cuts wood, carries it on
his back as seen in the popular pictures and statues, and takes it to thetown of Odawara to sell it. But infact, it’s a high profit business withproduction and distribution all in his
own hands.
The Edo Period did see the rise ofa market economy, although it wasn’t
accompanied by an industrial revolution as in the West. Kinjiro was pursuing an energy business at a time
when there was no coal or oil. Moreover, Kinjiro was reading “Shisho
gokyo” (The Four Books and FiveClassics of Confucianism, the Nine
Chinese Classics).” I think we needto transform Ninomiya’s image fromthe popular version of the hard-working woodcutter into the smart andsavvy man who gathered market
information about where the bestplace to sell firewood was, and whatkind of goods were selling well where.
Isoda: Edo Period Japan was a society that achieved very high laborproductivity. Yet the precondition
for that, I believe, was the high rateof literacy. When we compare Japan’s
literacy rate around the end of the
Edo Period with other countries, thecountries with the highest literacy
rates of 80-90% were England, Germany, France and the Scandinavian
countries. In Japan, however, it issaid that about 40% of grown women and men could read, which is still
very high for the time. The rate differed by region. It’s said that Shiga
Prefecture’s literacy rate for both
women and men was over 60%.
Inose: Behind that was the existenceof the “terakoya” (private elementary
schools) system. The terakoya taught“yomi kaki soroban” (“reading, writing and abacus”), so it wasn’t allabout writing. They students had tobe able to do math as well.
Isoda: Also, in Japan’s case, learning
was connected directly to work.
Craftsmen read textbooks like theRoad to Peasants and Road to Carpenters to become good craftsmen,
while merchants read Road to Tradeand farmers read Road to Agriculture.
In China and Korea, the elites studied
extremely hard to pass the Chinese
higher civil service examination andbecome government officials calledkakyo, but in Japan, too, people otherthan government officials also received very practical education, resulting in high productivity.
Edo Japan may have lacked steam
engines and the Industrial Revolution, but other aspects of the economy —like the division of labor andfutures trading — were more advanced
than anything in Europe.
You know, one thing I like to dowhen I visit rural towns is to lookthrough their telephone books. I
think that the more finely differentiated the occupations are, the moreadvanced an economic society is.
Considered in that way, Edo wasastonishing! There were even women
specializing in making ear picks andother people specializing in cutting
cigarettes.
One of the examples that amazedme the most was that there was aspecial brush with which you could
draw several “kinpaku” (gold gilt)
lines in just a tiny space 1 mm
across, which was used for making“Wajimura-nuri” (Wajimura lacquerware) and other lacquer products.
In order to make this brush, there
were people who caught mice that
lived inside a grain carrier running
across Lake Biwako northeast of
Kyoto. These particular mice had hairthat is distinctively strong, you see.
Then there were other special craftsmen who plucked the unbroken hairsfrom the armpits of these mice, andtwisted them to make special “nejifude” brushes. Using these brushes,craftsmen who specialized in applying
gold lacquer added several thin lines
in a space of just 1mm to make gold
gilded lacquer for feudal lords.
That is true specialization. In thissense of the word, I believe the agricultural society of the Edo Period
was one of the most meticulously
organized societies in human history.

Ninomiya Kinjiro
used double-entry
bookkeeping for his
accounts
Inose: We have to remember that theso-called peasants of those days were
not necessarily all producing crops,
particularly in places where there wasan active labor market. There werealso people in the peasant caste who
were blacksmiths, “kakeya” (craftsmen who fixed metal pots and pans),and oil dealers, who while classified
as peasants were essentially executivesof small businesses.
When I was a student, the history
I was taught in school gave me the5impression that Edo Period peasantswere desperately poor and always rising up in revolt.
There were reasons for this misperception. To begin with, there wasso-called “Satcho” (Satsuma Han andChoshu Han) historiography, created toaffirm the new “han-batsu” (han-centric) government that replaced the Edo
Shogunate after the fall of the Tokugawa
and devalue the accomplishments of
their predecessors. Then in Taisho 6(1917), the Russia Revolution brings
Marxism to Japan, and Japanese Marxist ideologues attempt to equate theRussian serfs and the Edo Period peasantry. The result was a distorted
retelling of history in which Satcho
historiography overlapped with Marxism, and the Edo Shogunate was characterized as a society in which people
were segmented into fixed classes suchas warriors, farmers, artisans and tradesmen. Moreover, the peasants in particular were depicted as oppressed people
constantly suffering from hunger.
Isoda: I once tried calculating theactual tax burden during the Edo Period. It turned out to be smaller than
I had expected, although since therate was fixed nationwide there issome variation depending on region,
climate and environment. At the time,
the land tax for “omote-saku” (firstcrop) rice was 40% of the overall production, but “ura-saku” (second crop)
rice was tax-free. A massive eruptionof the Asamayama volcano in the Edo
Period made the soil of eastern Japan
more acidic, and harvests there deteriorated. But the eruption left northern
Kyushu, where the land is good for
harvesting both rice and wheat, together with areas west of Kumamoto
Prefecture more fertile than they had
been before, and because of it populations there increased.
Inose: Among the people who earned
a lot of money during the Edo Period
were those who started financial businesses. Although there were limitations
on legal interest rates, Edo was rife withpeople who made money from high interest rates in black-market lending.

6

On the other hand, however, there
were people like Ninomiya who madea little money out of selling his firewood, and then used his financial
business to help other people get by.
He would help convert people stuckwith high interest rate loans to lower
interest rate loans. For example, if aperson was carrying a loan of 10 “ryo”(the standard Edo Period gold coin),
he would loan him the 10 ryo needed
to settle the debt, then have him pay
back just 2 ryo a year, so he could
return the total amount over 5 years.
For people in a better position to
repay their debt, he might ask for an
extra 2 ryo in the 6th year. Those 2
ryo were the cost of joining the
Ninomiya Kinjiro Fund. A person
who joined the fund could then borrow money from the fund again if heneeded money in the future.
Kinjiro also reformed the financesof the household of the chief councilorof the Odawara domain. This attracted
the attention of a feudal lord, and Kinjiro was subsequently appointed toreconstruct subsidiary domains andreform various regions around Japan,
including the Soma domain of Mutsu
Province and the villages of Nikko.
Isoda: I’m amazed to hear that Kinjiro was using something akin to double-entry bookkeeping for his accounting when he tackled financial
reform. He leaves his rice fields toother people and keeps his wife athome, while he stays at the residenceof the chief councilor of the Odawara
domain for 5 years. First he calculates the area of the residence’s roofs
and walls and calculates how many
years it will take for them to deteriorate and how much it might cost to
repair them. He includes all the farming equipment, right down to abroom. He calculates in what way thefund will diminish over what periodof time. In other words, depreciation.
Inose: He calculated the necessary
expenses, and slapped a ceiling on
what could be spent. He called thisapproach to financial reform “bundo.”
It was capped so people wouldn’t use
any extra money. The Kinjiro Fund
spread widely in the Kanto region, andimplemented government reforms similar to those of today’s Industrial Revitalization Corporation of Japan. In theend, Kinjiro becomes a government
official in the Edo Shogunate, eventhough he had started life as a peasant.
This ideology of his is passed down
to Mikawa domain and then to theindustrialist Toyoda Sakichi. So it’sno exaggeration to say that the ideology that Toyota the automobile
maker later adopts is one that initially came from Ninomiya Kinjiro.
What’s more, there is another Edo
innovation I would like to introduce
here, which is included in the film
“Tono, risoku de gozaru! (The Magnificent Nine),” which was distributed
last year. This film is based on Mr.
Isoda’s historical biography “Mushi noNihonjin (The Unselfish Japanese).” It
is set in a countryside “shukuba-machi” (post town) in the Date domain.
At the time, there was a form offorced labor at the shukuba inns inthese post towns, which were locatedalong the main travel routes acrossJapan. It was called “tenmayaku,” andthe individual shukuba were required
to take care of the horses that carried
messengers and commodities whensamurai were passing through town
free of charge. It cost about 100 ryo a
year, which was shared among the 200
shukuba in the town. If one shukuba
couldn’t pay its share for some reason,
then the remaining 199 shukuba had
to pick up the burden. As more andmore shukuba went bankrupt, thetown’s finances weakened. Seeing thisdismal state of affairs, one sake dealer
in the town decides to put his footdown, and find a way out of his community’s dilemma.
Isoda: Exactly. He tries to raise
enough money that they can create apost-town that will last.
Inose: In the end, what they decided
to do was to save up 1,000 ryo together, by eating simply, stopping
going to the barber, even stopping
using the “sento” (public bath). Understand that 1,000 ryo back then
was the equivalent of about 300 million yen today. They then entrusted
that money with a lord who was indebt. In return, they asked for an interest payment from the lord of 100
ryo a year. The town actually did receive its 100 ryo yearly, and succeeded in paying the money it needed tocontinue to provide the tenmayaku
forced labor service.
This particular post-town avoided
closing down and lasted until late
into the Edo Shogunate. And it is all
based on a true story.
Isoda: What is most different about
this story, actually, is that compared
to what the feudal lords of the medieval era would have done, this thelord actually did pay the town theinterest he owed.
Inose: The story has a happy ending,but the people themselves must havesuffered cruelly during the three tofour years they had to wait until thedecision regarding the settlement
was finally approved by the government. That 1,000 ryo was moneythat poor people gathered with all
their might. Government offices canbe very cruel in that respect.
Isoda: For better or worse, Japan’s
bureaucracy is well organized. When
we look back in time, there’s Ishida
Mitsunari, from the period of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He managed tomobilized 480,000 soldiers fromacross the country for the invasion
what was then Chosen (today’s Korea). In the end, he had close to150,000 men make the crossing.
Consider that Japan’s population at
the time was between 12 and 15 million. Half that number—about 6
million to 7.5 million—would havebeen women and children. In otherwords, Ishida succeeded in mobilizing 1 in 6 of Japan’s adult males—
whose number was only some 3 million—for the campaign.
In comparison, the number ofpeople mobilized for the Sino-Japanese
War was 480,000. Back in Hideyoshi’s
Momoyama Period, when Ishidaaccomplished what he did, Japan’s
population was only about a sixth ofwhat it was during Meiji. So you cansee how splendid his logistics were.
Mechanisms created like this went
on to become the central mechanisms
for other domains as well, and inpeaceful times resulted in the rotating
system of ringi-sei (group-centereddecision making system). I think thatthe cumbersome decision-making ofmany Japanese companies comes
today from basing their management
too closely on the bushi organizationsof the Edo Period. For example, backin Edo, those who stayed in an organization the longest had the best
chance of reaching the higher ranks,
so there was an emphasis on seniority
and staying in one job. Likewise, thetight regulation of employee’s sidejobs and outside work that still takes

place in Japanese companies today
can also be said to be bushi-like in its
samurai-esque demand of total fealty
to your employer. I think it is time
we finally unlocked some of theserestrictions .

Thanks to improved
distribution andtransportation
networks, Edo Period
Japanese could travel
more safely than in
any other country in
the world.
Inose: The bureaucrats were slow atsettling accounts, though, weren’t they?
Isoda: They dispersed responsibility.
They served in monthly shifts, andeven members of the “roju” (the shogun’s council of elders and most senior advisors) had to go out on patrol like any other samurai. The one
domain that didn’t work that way
was the Kumamoto domain in Kyushu. Normally, decision-making in
the Edo Period, was done by the feudal lord or the roju, but in Kumamoto a bugyo (magistrate) was able to
make his own decisions. Their roles
were subdivided, however. For example, other domains had trials at themagistrate’s office, but the Kumamoto domain had an organization specializing only in trials called the“kuiikata,”so other bugyo could
tackle matters such as industrial development. They built aqueducts,
dug irrigation canals and issued loans
for industrial funds. This approach
was a success, and the domain didvery well. In fact, those former samurai who succeeded best after the Meiji Restoration were the ones wholearned from the Kumamoto domain’s speedy administration system.
Inose: The Meiji Restoration government is commonly said to havebeen dominated by the powerful“han” (domains). Yet actually, perhaps it was because most of the for-7

mer shogunate officials simply remained in their posts as before that arotating system like the ringi-sei system still exists to this day.
Isoda: Bureaucratic practices work
well when it comes to routine work
like collecting land taxes and keeping
population statistics. But when Commodore Matthew Perry’s Black Ships
arrived in 1853, suddenly these bureaucrats were ordered to create a navy.
This kind of work, something thatneeds to be done from scratch, isunfit for bureaucratic personalities tohandle. In these circumstances, it’smore effective to add a new organization on to the old one, like an outerlayer. It’s better if you create a new,small Western-style army alongside
your old existing army that still looks
more like a samurai procession. If the
new army works well, you can makeit bigger. For Japanese people, who are
better at following than they are atinnovating, I think it might be more
effective to create a second division
alongside the pre-existing one, anddevelop it from there. Think of it assomething akin to the business “subsidiary” model. That could be one
first step toward reform. It does
require having two different sets ofparallel structures coexisting side byside, however, so it costs more.
Inose: Like Kokudaya Juzaburo inyour book “Mushi no Nihonjin,”
there’s always someone who leads theway. I think the same can be said of
Ninomiya Kinjiro. Japanese people
are good at following, but can they
become the first person to start something new? It doesn’t matter how
small the innovation might be; it’s
great if a person can be that very first
one to blaze a new path.
A market economy was establishedduring the Edo Period and a money
exchange system put into place as
well. In the humorous travel journal,“Tokai Dochu Hizakurige” (a picaresque adventure story of two men
who travel the Tokaido highway
between Edo and Osaka), the protagonists Yaji and Kita are commoners

8

from Edo. Yet they are able to do the
Ise Jingu Pilgrimage with traveler’s
checks, even though they had no cashof their own. The great poet Matsuo
Basho was able to travel the “Oku no
Hosomichi,” “the narrow road to thedeep north” of his famous bookbecause there were village headmen
who were highly cultured, who understood haiku, and treated him as theirguest in their homes. The ukiyo-e
painter Hokusai, too, would travel
200 kilometers to Obuse in Shinshu at
the age of 87 and stay there for amonth, drawing pictures, and thenreturn. There were shukuba in every
important location. River traffic wasso highly developed in Obuse thatcargo reached the area in abundance
ultimately producing rich merchants
who were more than happy to take
Hokusai into their homes.
Isoda: I think the people of the Edo
Period were able to travel more safely
than people in any other country in
the world. If an elderly man fell illon the street or lost his travel expenses, so long as he had a checkpointpassage license he would be carriedon a stretcher from village to village
until he reached his home. The villages he past through paid for thecost. If it had been the medieval era,
he would have been robbed of everything he owned. “Ochimusha” (surviving soldiers from a defeated army)
were known to be worth about 30
million yen if you succeed in stripping them of all their fighting gear,so there were people who were morethan ready to rob them during themedieval era (laughs). I think the factthat Japan’s society transformed itself
from that kind of society into one inwhich sick, elderly people were taken
home for free was revolutionary.
Inose: Flood prevention work was
carried out on a very large scale
during the Edo Period, and both distribution and tourism via sea andriver saw extensive development. A
particular example was the flood prevention work done to change courseof the Tonegawa River which flowed

into Edo from the north, which resulted in a transportation network ofwaterways which served much likethe expressways of today. Direct theflow into the outer moat of Edo Castle, and it plays the role of today’s
Shuto Expressway. Unload the cargo
at Kagurazaka, and a longshoreman
will transport it, resulting in a river
port in Nihonbashi. This is the way
distribution developed.
Soon, when trains make theirappearance, the Tsukiji fish market—the same one that is currently at
the center of a dispute over relocating
it to Toyosu—opens for business in
Showa 10 (1935), and is now linked
to the expressway.
Now we’re in the 21st Century
where commodities you order on theinternet reach you the following day,but if you look back in time, you can
see that it all began in the Edo Period.
Isoda: Because Ninomiya Kinjiro left
home to live with a feudal lord forfive years to help him with his reform, his wife left him. But thinkingof how she would live after they separated, he gave her a loom so she
could make quick money by weaving
fabric. “If people have wisdom andthe will to work, they can get alongno matter what. So make a vow tolive with all your skill.” This is thephilosophy that Kinjiro strongly believed in. I think this kind of philosophy is what has made it possible forJapan to work shoulder to shoulder
with the rest of the world.
Another thing that Kinjiro passed
down is the philosophy that you should
also “provide” if you ever earned money.
Nowadays, we see many countries that
only think about themselves. But
instead, we should think of the world asa giant tarai (a traditional wooden washtub). If you try to gather the water toyou in a circular tarai, it will only swirl
away. But if you push the water awayfrom you, the things that are floating on
it will wash back to you. After passing
through many hands, it finally returns
to you and becomes your profit.
At a time when the world econ-

omy is globalizing and the world is
becoming one, it may no longer work
to think only about ourselves. We
could be making a huge mistake.
Kinjiro tried to create an economy
that would last. I think we should
learn from his ideology that teaches usthat we humans have a mission to use
our labor and wisdom to earn, and toprovide to others if we ever earn a lot.
Inose: It’s all about philosophy, isn’t
it? Philosophy is not just an impulse.
I think it’s something that’s consistent throughout life.
Isoda: Philosophy is often regarded
as something unpractical, like fog.
But I personally believe that you
have to have philosophy at the center of making any reforms in politics, the military, or economics. Philosophy is what makes the impossi-

ble possible and creates somethingfrom nothing. It’s what creates an
economy and saves people.
The people of Edo valued philosophy and morals and worked hard toconvey ideas and ways to live. I feelthat today we think too much about
making money and creating economic
growth, and too little about the ideas
and ideology behind creating economic growth, which I think shouldbe the basic starting point. As a historian who is always looking at the lessons of the past, I think that changing
the way we think is the first step
toward creating innovation.
By now I’ve read the equivalent of ahundred thousand old documents
relating to family lines, and I knowthat in those family lines which
included a person who read books, lis-

tened to other people, and attempted
to change their own way of thinking,that person influenced the line for generations to come. Custom and ideology is passed down from parent tochild, from child to grandchild, and inso many cases, it becomes the strengththat helps them live their lives.
Inose: Simply put, a writer’s job is tocreate ideology and vision, and a politician’s job is to put that into action.
I hope that I, too, can continue tocreate visions for the future to come.
(reprinted from “Shukan Dokushojin”, 14th April, 2017, No. 3185)

The panelists
Michifumi Isoda
Associate Professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies.
Born in Okayama Prefecture in 1970. He acquired his Ph.D. at the Graduate School of Letters, Keio
University, and is a professor of history. He previously was Associate Professor at the College of
Humanities, Ibaraki University, becoming Associate Professor, Faculty of Cultural Policy and Management, Shizuoka University of Art and Culture, in 2012. He was made a full professor at thesame university in 2014 before assuming his present post. He has written numerous books, including “Bushi no kakeibo” (Abacus and Sword),” which won the Shincho Document Award andwas made into a movie in 2010 by film director Yoshimitsu Morita. In 2010 the film won the 15th
NHK Chiiki Hoso Bunka Award for “explaining history—in which he specializes—to the audiencein a simple manner, and contributing to regional revitalization and the improvement of broadcasting culture.” In 2015, he won the 63rd Japanese Essayist Club Award for his book, “Tensai kara
Nihonshi o yominaosu (Rereading Japanese History From the Perspective of Natural Disasters).”

Naoki Inose
Author. Born in 1946. In 1986, he received the Souichi Ooya Nonfiction Award for his book “Mikado
no Shozo (Portrait of the Emperor).” In 1996, he received the Bungeishunju Readers’ Award for his
book “Nipponkoku no Kenkyu (A Report on Japan).” Since then, he has actively worked to abolishand privatize government-affiliated corporations. In June 2002, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
appointed him to the Promotion Committee for the Privatization of the Four Highway-Related
Public Corporations. He included the story of his battle to achieve this in his books, “Doro no
Kenryoku (Authority of the Road)” from Bunshunbunko and “Doro no Ketchaku (Settlement of theRoad),” also from Bunshunbunko. In October, 2006, Inose was appointed Research Professor at
the Tokyo Institute of Technology and from June, 2012, served as Vice Governor of Tokyo. He served
as Tokyo Governor from December 2012 to December 2013.
Translation: Ayako Karino
9Japanese Civilization Institute 2017 8th Symposium
Zen spread itself to the world after Daisetsu Suzuki’s English book “Zen and Japanese Culture” came out
before WWII. Entering the 21st Century today, we see “mindfulness” quickly spreading amongst people at
Silicon Valley. It’s bee incorporated in new employee orientation programs at famous companies including
Google. We would like to capture mindfulness in the context of commonness and look into its disparity tocontemplate what zen means for Japanese Civilization.
For the occasion, we would like to hold a panel discussion with Mr. Issho Fujita, director of the Soto Zen
Buddhism International Center who is acquainted with both zen and mindfulness and who has taught zen for
17 years in the U.S. We would also like to invite Ms. Kimiko Bokura-Shafe, founder of MiLI (Mindful
Leadership Institute), who introduced the employee orientation program based on neuroscience andmindfulness developed by Google’s main office to Japanese companies.
▶ Panel discussion:Issho Fujita

Zen and Mindfulness
Kimiko Bokura-Shafe

A monk of Soto Zen Buddhism andinternational missionary. 2nd director of
the Soto Zen Buddhism International Center.

Founder and chairman of MiLI
(Mindful Leadership Institute).

MC：

Naoki Inose

Writer and director ofJapanese Civilization InstituteParticipants can actually experience meditation while sitting down.

Date: 2 6th May 2017, 7 p.m.-9 p.m. (doors
scheduled to open at 6:30 p.m.)
Venue: J apan University of Economics, Tokyo
Shibuya Campus 246Hall (the hall seats 100
Address: 2
 5-17, Sakuragaoka-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Traditional Crafts
Online Site

How to attend: a pply through the site below:
http://www.japancivilization.org/
Contact: J apanese Civilization Institute03-5456-8082
Address: 2
 4-5 Sakuragaoka-cho, Shibuya-ku,
Tokyo 150-0031

Worldwide：https://shops.japancivilization.org
Japanese：http://japancivil.shop9.makeshop.jp

Messages from Director
Japanese Civilization Institute has been introducing and selling traditional crafts of Japan.
Although it is said that there is approximately 1,200 types of traditional crafts in Japan, its
production is declining. As part of our activities, we hope to discover valuable traditional crafts
spread across the nation, enjoy Japanese craftsmanship and its beauty inherited over the
centuries, and develop it with you.

Tsumami Kanzashi(Crepe)Folding Screen(half size)

Folding Screen(full size)

KYO-YAKI
Earthenware

Japanese Bamboo
Basket Tokyotrad

Odoshi Samurai Armor

Contact：Japanese Civilization Institute24-5 Sakuragaoka-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0031 Phone : 03-5456-8082 Mail : info@japancivilization.org