Page 57 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

written by Kaibara Ekken (1630-1714), or by some accounts by his wife:

However many servants she may have in her employ it is a woman's duty not to shirk
the trouble of attending to everything herself. She must sew her father-in-law's and
mother-in-law's garments and make ready their food. Ever attentive to the require-
ments of her husband, she must fold his clothes and dust his rug, rear his children,
wash what is dirty, be constantly in the midst of her household, and never go abroad
but of necessity... (Chamberlain 1905, 506).
The wives and daughters of daimyo in the Edo period were
spared some of the worst of the chores, which they could pass on to a
retinue of maidservants and wet nurses, but their lives were still ex-
tremely circumscribed. Married to men chosen for them by their pa-
rents, regarded in many cases as little more than fruitful wombs, they
were held as hostages in the Edo yashiki. Travel beyond the yashiki was
infrequent, uncomfortable, and called for special permission. The system
of sankin kotai, whereby the daimyo alternated between Edo and their
domains, while their women were held in Edo, involved prolonged pe-
riods of separation between the daimyo, his senior retainers, and their
wives. Inevitably, wives had to cope with insecurity, loneliness, and their
husbands' infidelity. Even when a woman enjoyed the devotion of her
husband, the Confucian and samurai traditions forbade open expression
of those feelings. A samurai like Nakae Tójü (1608-1648) could earn
universal respect by expressing his filial piety to his aged mother by
quitting his lord to care for her. Less independent-minded samurai and
daimyo were constrained from expressing such devotion to their moth-
ers, much less to wives who, in Confucian thinking, owed them submis-
sion. Devotion to a woman could only be a distraction from more
important feudal loyalties. There were, of course, samurai as well as
shopkeepers who put human affection (ninjô) ahead of obligation (gin).
Such cases were turned into brilliant fiction by Edo dramatists and story-
tellers like Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724) and Iharu Saikaku (1641-
n
1693). I n rea l life an< ^ i fiction stern duty took a heavy toll on human
affection. The Japanese social anthropologist Nakane Chie has argued
that the demands of feudal loyalty and male bonding were so intense in
Edo-period samurai society that a samurai had "little room left for a wife
or sweetheart. . . . [His emotions should be] completely expended in
devotion to his master" (Nakane 1970, 71). Women in the upper reaches
of Edo-period samurai society therefore had to find what enjoyment they
could in their children, in the companionship of other women in the
household, in self-cultivation, and in occasional trips for pilgrimage or
entertainment beyond the narrow confines of the yashiki. Although self-
indulgence in any form was frowned upon under the samurai code,
sexual dalliance with courtesans was not serious cause for censure and
marital fidelity was not expected of a man. Wives, however, were held to
higher standards of virtue. For a woman to disgrace the honor of her
husband and his family carried the gravest consequences.
The private, or family, aspect of daimyo life also contributed to
the arts. Robes for the daimyo, their wives, and family members fre-
quently flew in the face of bakufu sumptuary prohibitions against exces-
sive luxury. Ceremonies for the birth of an heir, coming of age (genpuku),
or marriage of sons and daughters called for elaborate robes, cosmetic
cases, new armor, swords, writing utensils, and lacquerware. No expense
was spared in commissioning objects from the finest craftsmen, who
were encouraged to produce work of extreme refinement. Many of these
objects incorporated a pervasive and complex symbolism of design that
made them subtle advertisements for their user's level of literary cultiva-
tion. Among objects of this kind displayed in the exhibition is a sumptu-
ous lacquer dressing case belonging to the Mori family. In samurai

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