Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600–1900 by Shirane Haruo ed

Author:Shirane, Haruo, ed. [Shirane, Haruo, ed.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literary Criticism/Asian/General
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Asanoshin bows to the sage, who stands on a cloud.

“Masters of the game of go spend their time continually lining up and scattering little round stones. Their wisdom never goes beyond the 360 small squares on the board, and after they die and their souls reach the river on the border to the other world, they’re reduced to piling up stone prayer mounds in the riverbed and clinging to the sleeves of the bodhisattva Jizō, begging him for protection from the club-swinging guards from hell. Masters of Chinese chess, meanwhile, claim the game is basically military strategy, but famous generals like Han Xin or Kong Ming never played chess. If you gave a commander’s rod to one these chess masters and had him lead an actual army into battle, he’d be trampled to death by enemy horses, and his knights would jump too far ahead and be killed by enemy pawns.

“Those who practice the way of incense frown significantly and act as if they ruled the whole universe with their noses. They say they’ve reached an exalted state of peacefulness and spiritual bliss, and they boast that distinguishing subtly different scents increases all their powers of perception and thinking, but it’s actually nothing more than a worthless amusement. And when famous incense masters claim that the names of the six main kinds of incense are the names of the countries from which they came, well, their ignorance of the fact that these countries don’t even exist is truly laughable. Practitioners of indoor archery who get five hundred hits out of a hundred shooting at a standing target can’t get near a moving mouse. And then there’s kickball. But even if you become an expert, all you’ll get are an empty stomach and, if you pay enough money to a master, a permit to wear aristocratic robes in elegant colors.

“Shakuhachi flute masters produce sounds even more delicate than a courtesan’s farts. But they lose their teeth early, and the only work they can get is as spies in vendettas dressed as wandering flute-playing monks. Drummers cry out sharply as they hit their small hand drums or beat out long series of deep sounds on larger drums. Some of them are very skilled, and drumming gives great pleasure, but sounds last only as long as you hear them. No one ever remembers drummers after they die. As for the other activities people usually call arts, they’re all children’s games.

“The only things you really need to study are the Chinese classics, poetry, and painting. But even these are sometimes badly taught by narrow-minded Confucian scholars who only study books and know nothing about the real world. One scholar, for example, is so inflexible and attached to politeness he wears starched formal clothes even to clean out his well.72 And another, knowing nothing about farming, claims the way to save the country is by spreading sweet potato cultivation; but his plan is so unrealistic, it’s like trying to cook sweet potatoes in a tinderbox.73

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