lower ranks of the household.
Another, and much more personal, record is a diary left by a lord known as Matsudaira, Governor of Yamato (a province he had nothing to do with, his title being a purely nominal one granted by the Imperial court), who died in Edo in his fifty-fourth year, in 1695. He was interested in artistic pursuits and entertainments of all sorts, including calligraphy, perfume-discrimination, nō plays and their comic interludes (kyōgen), puppet and kabuki plays, painting, poetry of all kinds, dancing, wrestling, and hunting. He was in almost daily touch with events in the theatre district, often sending men there to see performances and report on them, or interrogating those who had passed by the theatres about what new signs were up and what the gossip was. His circle of acquaintances was apparently composed of admirers of the puppet-plays in particular, for he often mentions going to parties at other mansions and being entertained by famous performers, besides putting on similar performances for his own guests (22).
(22) Puppet-show in a daimyō’s residence.
It might be a little cynical to suggest that the rarest entertainment for the Shogun’s court was the annual visit from the head (or Captain) of the Dutch factory (trading post) in Nagasaki. This was seen partly as a favor to allow him to escape for a few weeks from his narrow quarters, and partly, of course, as an opportunity to acquire some curious foreign gifts. In 1691 a German doctor, Engelbert Kaempfer, was physician to the Dutch, and went with them to Edo. He has left a vivid description of his journey, and of his audiences with the Shogun. The first of these was formal, but, says, Kaempfer, for their second audience they were
conducted through several dark galleries. Along all these several galleries there was one continual row of lifeguard men, and nearer to the Imperial apartments followed, in the same row, some great officers of the Crown, who lined the front of the hall of the audience, clad in their garments of ceremony, bowing their heads, and sitting on their heels. The hall of audience was just as I represented it in the Figure hereunto annexed (23). It consisted of several rooms, looking towards a middle place, some of which were laid open towards the same, others covered by screens and lattices. Some were of 15 mats, others of 18, and they were a mat higher or lower, according to the quality of the persons seated in the same. The middle place had no mats at all, they having been taken away, and was consequently the lowest, on whose floor, covered with neat varnished boards, we were commanded to sit down. The Emperor [i.e. the Shogun] and his Imperial Consort sat behind the lattices on our right....By Lattices, I mean hangings made of reed, split exceeding thin and fine and covered on the back with a fine transparent silk, with openings about a span broad, for the person behind to look through. For ornament’s sake, and the better to hide the persons standing behind, they are painted in divers figures, though otherwise it would be impossible to see them at a distance, chiefly when the light is taken off behind. The Emperor himself was in such an obscure place, that we should scarce have known him to be present, had not his voice discovered him, which was yet so low, as if he purposely intended to be there incognito. Just before us, behind other lattices, were the Princes of the blood, and the Ladies of the Empress. I took notice, that pieces of paper were put between the reeds in some parts of the Lattices, to make the openings wide, in order to have a better and easier sight. I counted about thirty such papers, which made me conclude, that there was about that number of persons sitting behind....We were commanded to sit down, having first made our obeisances after the Japanese manner, creeping and bowing our heads to the ground, towards that part of the Lattices, behind which the Emperor was. The chief Interpreter sat himself a little forward, to hear more distinctly, and we took our places on his left hand all in a row.
(23) Kaempfer at the Shogun’s court.
In the ensuing conversation the Shogun’s words were directed to the President of the Council of State, who repeated them to the interpreter, for transmission to the visitors. Kaempfer remarks:
I fancy that the words, as they flow out of the Emperor’s mouth are esteemed too precious and sacred for an immediate transit into the mouth of persons of low rank.
After interrogation about the outside world and on medical matters, the foreigners were ordered by the Shogun to
take off our Cappa, or Cloak, being our garment of ceremony, then to stand upright, that he might have a full view of us; again to walk, to stand still, to compliment each other, to dance, to jump, to play the drunkard, to speak broken Japanese, to read Dutch, to paint, to sing, to put our cloaks on and off. Mean while we obeyed the Emperor’s commands in the best manner we could, I joined to my dance a love-song in High German. In this manner, and with innumerable such other apish tricks, we must suffer ourselves to contribute to the Emperor’s and the Court’s diversion....Having been thus exercised for a matter of two hours, though with great apparent civility, some servants came in and put before each of us a small table with Japanese victuals, and a couple of Ivory sticks, instead of knives and forks. We took and eat some little things, and our old chief Interpreter, though scarce able to walk, was commanded to carry away the remainder for himself.
(24) The Shogun attended by ladies-in-waiting (wax models). Behind the tasseled doors in this private apartment in the Nijo Castle an armed guard was always on duty.
(25) The Shogun’s ladies exercising with the halberd.
Kaempfer was a trained observer and one can accept his description as accurate. It is possible that the mats were removed in the area of floor in which the Dutchmen appeared because they wore shoes. The Japanese always left their outdoor footwear at the entrance, and from then on went either barefoot or wearing tabi, the divided socks—unless they were on urgent official business, such as making an arrest, in which case they would go straight in, thus increasing, incidentally, the psychological shock of the irruption.
It sounds as if Kaempfer in this unofficial audience penetrated as far as the semi-private domestic quarters, one of the three main divisions of the Edo Castle: the “front,” where business was conducted, the “middle interior,” referred to above, and the “great interior,” which was the women’s quarters (24). The organization of the latter is believed to have been modeled on that of the Chinese court. In the Edo “great interior” only very few men were allowed in—the Shogun himself, some senior counselors, doctors, and priests. The women had ranks reminiscent of those of the government, with a jealously preserved hierarchy, and they were even prepared to fight if necessary, being trained in the use of the halberd (25). They were recruited from the daughters of direct retainers, and started their apprenticeship at about the age of 12. It was, of course, a great honor to serve in this establishment, and usually it was a job for life, although occasionally a Shogun would release a concubine of whom he had grown tired, giving her in marriage to one of his retainers, just as he might take in some beauty at a later age than was usual. He had a consort (Kaempfer’s Empress), whom he would have married for political reasons, but nobody would have expected him not to have other women—Ienari, the eleventh Shogun (1787-1838), is reported to have had 15 concubines and 24 less regularly chosen companions. The formula used by the Shogun, indicating his choice for the night, was for him to ask one of the senior women: “What is that girl’s name?”
