Literacy in Japan before Neo-Confucius

I view the neo-Confucianist Tokugawa Japan as an era of education and literacy for the Samurai class. Not sure about the Artisans, farmers and merchants. But I inquire about the samurai before Tokugawa time because a Kindle Direct novel has samurai who spend free time with poetry.

The book occurs in 1562, and is about Takeda VS Uesugi. The author acknowledges widespread illiteracy during Sengoku, but the samurai poetry while sipping tea from porcelain.

Why would sengoku samurai care about poetry or reading period? Weren’t they too worried on Buddhism rituals for poetry, and literacy. F;ower arrangements, tea ceremony, praying, zen repetitive tasks, practicing weapons, battle, and praising anything wabi-sab were what they wanti, right? A samurai wouldn’t need to read, because a monk can just lecture onto him.

I figured that Sengoku people would learn reading as needed, right? A merchant could read kanji related to numerals, measurements, and inventory. A monk could read Chinese, you know, for read Chinese texts on Buddha and Confucius. Maybe a samurai who needed to navigate troops could read a map. A samurai with Court could have statesman or religious officials read to him. Some people would write across to Japan, but I saw some. It is Sengoku, what are chances of a commoner in Shimazu region knowing someone in Osaka? Did the people even need kana?

Maybe I am crazy, but the 1562 novel has porcelain and the high ranking Uesugi character views Shinto as a religion of made up spirits. Porcelain can be imported from China and Joseon, but I state my opinion that the author confused tokugawa with sengoku.

And Tale of Genji mentioned by multiple characters, that is Motoori Norinaga, right? 1562 samurai are not 1762 samurai.

Any thoughts and corrections appreciated.

Was jisei *literally* written by the samurai, or scribed by someone who heard him speak it?

I still see edo characteristics in this book. Abundant porcelain. Japanese couldn't make it until they entered Korea, right? (But could be imported. But commoners have it) The samurai following atheism and mock Shintoism. I figured everyone followed some deity during this time. And if their main writing is jisei, would an atheist write it? Jisei was not discussed in the book.

My point with Tale of Genji is that I thought it was a native Japanese study. In this book, the monks teach Genji Monogatari. But I thought that the Tale of Genji entered darkness until Motoori Morinaga brought it back into light. I write about kangaku vs kokugaku. I thought sengoku monks would only care about kangaku. Tale of Genji would not return until 200 years after this book, right?

Literacy was my biggest concern, and I titled this thread as such. But my curiosities go beyond literacy.

And on a different point: There are people who I know who argue that Genji Monogatari is not Kokugaku, but they agree it is not Kangaku as well. I will still title it as kokugaku. It's presence in the book feels wrong regardless, to me, it's like a church in England 600 years ago with a Catholic priest give a homily on Beowulf. Doesn't sound quite correct, right?

To historical scholars, what constitutes 'literacy'? Wasn't the Holy Quran passed for generations without a physical book? The scholars passed them verbally for generations, right? The Prophet, peace be upon, versed the entire Holy Quran, and historians agree that he was 'illiterate'. Yes, I view those men as 'educated', but doesn't match my definition of 'literate'.

So for the question "what constitutes 'literacy'?", I honestly don't know, and am asking. I may be on a completely different page as to what constitutes literacy.

If a Daimyo sits around talking for hours with a Zen monk, and a scribe is jotting their exchanges, couldn't poems come from that? Is the guy educated? Yes. But did he display what I view as 'literacy', no. Does the Diamyo have some degree of literacy? Probably. Is that degree actually 'literate', that's where my question is shifting.

I actually do agree with what Naomasa is writing. But to help me understand my own question, which I now feel foolish for posting without fully understanding, what does a historian view as literate for the sengoku era? Someone who could read 100 kanji? 4000 kanji? Is understanding of kana alone viewed as literate?

I only mentioned the lack of jisei in the book because I'm the one who tossed the notion of an atheist writing it. It was not anything directed to it, and not a 'point', so, meaningless.

The keyword is *monks* teaching the Tale of Genji. Did someone follow it, sure. Else it probably wouldn't have disappeared. Based on the book's adjectives, we're talking about real deal porcelain.

Fair enough. I’ll try to be specific as possible and knock out cases.

The most complicated script: Chinese. Chinese for this context means a script of all kanji, possibly annotated for the reader (like kanbun), that can be used to communicate kangaku teachings. If in Sengoku, and I need someone who can speak Chinese, I would grab a monk of Buddhist, yes? On death poems, I want to check out Yoel Hoffman’s “Japanese Death Poems”. Though I not yet read, I am not surprised on quick inspection to see that, if I compute right, monk written death poems are in Chinese.

IIRC, Chinese script once also for Japanese Imperial Court. During Sengoku is this script still used? If people within the Shogun’s Emperor’s court write to one another, did they write in Chinese during Sengoku? For a Daimyo’s Clan to write to the Shogun’s or Emperor’s Court (If they actually wanted to), did they send texts in Chinese? I’m guessing international correspondence with any neighbor nation would be in Chinese. What about within a Daimyo’s domain?

‘Samurai’ is also ambiguous and also you misinterpret my English, sorry I don’t always have my proofreader. The point was *as needed for their career*. So if a *Samurai* is statesman who handles correspondence, yes, I think he reads. But I did not expect Universal education standard across them. So, OK, *samurai* for at the moment means ‘governing official’. Could governing official read/write Chinese for the type of communications given?

I still question your original argument, for clarification. Do you have original source to reference? Because I wonder if it says ‘read classics’ VS ‘study classics’. Because I figured widespread oral tradition from monk to samurai would be practiced, at least for kangaku. Kokugaku classics, no comment, I don’t know.

Did you give evidence of literacy? YES! And I agree with you. But I see no mesuremtn of how widespread. Also I don’t bite ‘An illiterate man isn't going to suddenly start composing classical verse’ at all. The Prophet, PBUH, quoted God Almighty, so that's unfair advantage. But Hadith could be imitated to forge weak Hadith, all verbal. They could not imitate Holy Quran, but imposters could learn and mimic word of man, all verbal. Illiterate poets who suddenly entered verse include Homer and Caedmon. So after 30 years of education, could a Samurai be educated replicate poetic structures, but not read? Yes. Why no?

The point of this post was focused on Amazon Kindle Direct Kindle novels for historical accuracy. If you are unfamiliar, KDP means anyone can publish a book, without historical refereeing. I can publish a 300 page novel on the Japanese considering to adopt Korean hangul as their writing if I want. So my possible paper was to find trend in historical inaccuracies from what I call ‘cliché gravy train’. Monks teaching Tale of Genji at school kids, Atheist samurai mocking Shintoism, and porcelain sound good, but would one person encounter it all within days in Sengoku Era? What will not stop someone from watching Kurosawa movies and then concluding that is Samurai throughout history. I am telling you jisei in it is irrelevant, so I;m not understanding why you argue it is irrelevant when I already agree with you. But if I cannot move passed literacy, then I will toss this project. If someone else of Historum wants the potential project, KDP is your oyster

Off a reading these citations, why I view literacy amongst the masses of samurai as not something clearly is now hopethe clearly. Further why I think Chu His Confucianism is a give literacy to samurai masses.

“The newly risen, largely illiterate samurai of the early seventeenth century were in fact poorly equipped to play a kuge-like role as cultured rulers. However, Hayashi and others found in Chu Hsi’s thought a strategy for overcoming this disability.”

Totman, Conrad. Japan before Perry: A Short History, 2nd ed. University of California Press, 2008. Page 152.

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“By the end of the Tokugawa period most domains had at least one official school, and some had more than one. These schools undoubtedly helped transform the samurai from a largely illiterate warrior order at the beginning of the seventeenth century to an educated and disciplined class of loyal bureaucrats with a shared intellectual culture.”

Friday, Karl F. Japan Emerging: Premodern History to 1850. Westview Press, 2012. Page 418

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“On the basis of views such as these, Yamaga Soko is generally credited as the formulator of the code of bushido, or the “way of the warrior.” Certainly he was a pioneer in analyzing the role of the samurai as a member of a true ruling elite and not simply as a rough, and frequently illiterate, participant in the endless civil struggles of the medieval age.”

Varley, Paul H. Japanese Culture, 4th ed. University of Hawaii Press, 2000. Page 208.

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“During the Ashikaga era (1333-1573) which followed, when Zen monks assumed the role of advisers and scribes for the illiterate military rulers, a special writing desk, called a shoin, appeared in the houses of the most influential samurai.”

“The shoin study room immediately became a focus of fashion among the samurai, even those who could neither read nor write, and before long it was the finest room in a house.”

Hoover, Thomas. Zen Culture. Random House Inc, 1978.

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On kindle. no page # sorry.

“Before long, deprived of their role as warriors, the samurai, as feudal elites were known, began to take up peaceful occupations. Confucian ethics embodying reverence for scholarship, always strong in Japan, justified action. By the mid-seventeenth century, the samurai’s metamorphosis from illiterate jock to cultivated gentleman scholar was well under way.”

Gifford, Bernard R. Test Policy and the Politics of Opportunity Allocation: The Workplace and the Law. Springer, 1989. Excerpt from The Mandarin Mentality by Carolyn Webber. Page 53.

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I check death poems and find many from the Sengoku, but few from actual samurai. Often monks. Plus, some samurai is also considered as monks. Not interested in monks.

I also checked Japanese sources. But only websites, not actual books. But be English or Japanese source, usually see famous samurai. I not argue whether Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin can read.

Using death poems and government administrators to make literacy evidence, seems citing the best of best and the elite of the elite, not of the majority. My scan of death poems are an anecdotal, I think someone knows Japanese periodical that owns thousands of arbitrary sengoku samurai death poems. But even that number be minimal and anecdotal for conclude literacy relative to the total population of samurai across Sengoku.

How many jisei are known tohave written by sengoku samurai?

Keep mentioning classics. Which classics is that you both speak of? Please give specifics with citations.

How about this definition for samurai? Sengoku warrior abiding by the Zen samurai-subculture.

Bart Dale said:

The same thing was happening in European at the same time. The Samueai was expected to be more than a mere warrior. It was a mark of culture, oover civilization to be able to write poetry, probably play an instrument. Otherwise, how would the samurai be any different than a mere thug, or common soldier? The samurai was more than a man good with a sword.

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Zen samurai not need literacy to experience outside cognition, activities I give in first post is examples so I already adress your question. A pursuer of tea ceremony and flower ordering is considered cultured and enlightened in sengoku, or elevating them above ‘thug’.

I be much satisfied if I see citation saying samurai-subculture had encouraged literacy. Not arbitrary Zen culture because of monks.
I’m sure some Zen samurai did calligraphy to experience outside cognition, but anecdotal. As is even an entire Daimyo who did.

Naomasa298 said:

Attitudes varied. Chosokabe Motochika encouraged his men to be versed in literary arts as well as the arts of war, whereas Kato Kiyomasa felt that men who spent too much time with culture and arts should be executed.

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Baiken’s Zhu Xi Confucianism was introduced to Tosa while Motochika was a youth. (I switched to ‘Zhu Xi’ because my spellcheck changes the name to ‘His’.)

"The Tosa school (the so-called Southern school) of Confucianism got its start under the Zen priest Nanson Baiken, who came to Tosa around 1548 or 1549."

Hall, John W. The Cambridge History of Japan, vol. 4. Cambridge University Press, 1991. Page 399.

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The citation does not state that Motochika was a follower Baiken’s school, but the below does.

長宗我部元親（1539～1599年）
戦国時代、宗部郷（岡豊付近）の長宗我部国親の長男として生ま れた元親は、永禄3年（1560年）、21代目の当主となります。天正3年（1575年）には土佐を平定し、元親の居城のあった岡 豊は土佐の政治の中心となります。天正13年（1585年）には四国 をほぼ平定しましたが、豊臣秀吉に敗れ、土佐一国の領主に納まりま した。やがて城は現在の高知市へ。元親は 1587年に長宗我部検地 を始め、1597年には「百箇条の掟」を発布しました。また、仏教や儒学、南学にも精通した教養人で、国分寺金堂（国分）を再建するなど、神社への加護厚い武将としても知られます。

http://www.city.nankoku.lg.jp/download/?t=LD&id=2453&fid=25599

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I admit I did ask about Sengoku samurai, yet I also argued that it was Neo-Confucianism that elevated them into mass literacy. So I do not find referencing a Momoyama Zhu Xi Confucianist Daimyo as that compelling of an example.

Naomasa298 said:

An illiterate man isn't going to suddenly start composing classical verse.

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I only referenced non-Japanese illiterates practicing oral tradition. Here is a citation verifying the existence of illiterate Japanese poets.

“Prior to the arrival of a writing system, Japanese literature consisted of an oral tradition that placed a great emphasis on poetry.”

Miller, Scott J. The A to Z of Modern Japanese Literature and Theater. Scarecrow Press, 2010. Introduction Page XLI

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As they had no writing system, they would’ve been by default illiterate. And as they were poets, they were illiterate poets.

Bart Dale said:

The samurai was more than a man good with a sword.

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I know what you mean, but this sentence is debatable.

Consider Toyotomi’s era as part of the Sengoku. Then every historian I’ve read discussing the Momoyama era considers the three social ranks of samurai, merchant, and peasant. The samurai-class defined as those excused from Toyotomi’s katanagari. A momoyama samurai is literally anyone with a sword (or at least permitted to carry one), not even ‘good with a sword’, just own a sword.

There is more

Zen-samurai culture demands entering satori with experiencing outside cognitive senses as their doorway. If samurai cleans his floor every morning, he learns where every scratch in the floor is, and know over time where to push down harder to clean every groove fully, to the point unconscious. If that’s what a samurai needs to find the floor’s moment of Zen immortalized during its construction, and thus experience Zen, so be it.

Swordsmanship can also offer a moment of Zen. Every groove in the hilt of the sword, how the blade glides in the wind, practice to the point that every motion of the blade is in the subconscious.

I doubt any samurai conducted one and only one activity to achieve satori.

Naomasa298 said:

Kato Kiyomasa felt that men who spent too much time with culture and arts should be executed.

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You're probably right, but where did you get this from?

redDog said:

I only offered two sources, but after reading those, a monk of 1562 lecturing people on the Tale of Genji now does sound odd to me. But as far as what it is that I think you want to do, this fact doesn’t seem to suggest your book’s author confused history with the Tokugawa period.

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True. But remember that I am pointing out a multitude of concerns with the book. In another post, I mentioned that it was monks teaching schoolkids the Tale of Genji, I actually can't remember if they said at a temple or not. Actually, I think it was Buddhist nuns, not monks. But my point is this sounds like a terakoya.

I have legit citations on terakoya stating they are Edo-era, but they don't give it in clear sentences. So check out the Wikipedia article to verify that they were Edo-era schools.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terakoya

Another multitude of issues is atheist samurai. More specifically Uesugi samurai. Do these Uesugi singing like atheists? Sutra starts at 0:25 and again at 0:41. I try linking for exact time, but forum make it the whole video.



What is that? It must be 毘沙門天.

Was Kenshin esoteric? I sought “uesugi kenshin shingon” and inspection on Google appears to give truth to my think. Knowing exact sutra might give me help.

Naomasa298 said:

Kiyomasa's own writings. I'll see if I can find a reference.

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Do you mean they were forced to commit suicide? I heard that.

But 'executed' sounded to me like a third party person carrying out the execution.