B. Gramlich-Oka Tadano Makuzu Hitori Kangae
B. Gramlich-Oka Tadano Makuzu Hitori Kangae
B. Gramlich-Oka Tadano Makuzu Hitori Kangae
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Monumenta Nipponica
BETTINA GRAMLICH-OKA
G IVEN that this piece was written by a woman, her work puts robust men
to shame."'1 Thus wrote in 1848 the copyist of Hitori kangae 114 (Solitary
Thoughts), an essay in which the author, Tadano Makuzu F3jKA; (1763-
1825), expresses frequently iconoclastic views on a wide range of issues.2 Seeing
Confucian texts as harmful not only to the scholars who study them but to soci-
ety as a whole, Makuzu castigates the bushi class, to which she belonged, for its
lack of understanding of the money-dominated culture of the day. She presents
her vision of how the economic misery of her class might be ameliorated, sets
forth original notions of the cosmos, and discusses the relationship between men
and women. Rather than confine herself to the subjects that at the time were con-
sidered appropriate to women, she takes on matters such as political and eco-
nomic conditions thought the proper province of men alone. In her hands the
brush becomes a tool with which to reflect on life itself.
Raised in late-eighteenth-century Edo as a physician's daughter, Makuzu was
directly affected by the political and economic dislocations of the regimes of
Tanuma Okitsugu [3?,t sk(1719-1788) and Matsudaira Sadanobu t{L- '',tS (1758-
1829). During the Bunka-Bunsei 3ZfLiZi period (1804-1829), she came to know
a different reality, that of bushi life in the domain of Sendai, where she moved
after marriage in 1797.
Makuzu first won a degree of fame during the Meiji period, when writers based
THE AUTHOR is a doctoral candidate in the Institut fuir Japanologie at the University of Tuibingen,
Germany. This introduction to Tadano Makuzu and her Hitori kangae took shape in the course of
the long discussions held by the five people who worked together on the translation of Hitori kan-
gae published in this same issue, beginning on page 21. Apart from the people who assisted the
translators with this project and whose names are mentioned on page 21, the author would like to
express her particular gratitude to the other four translators, whose support and suggestions were
instrumental to the writing of the introduction.
1 Hitori kangae, p. 307. Regarding the copyist, see below, pp. 16-17.
2 Makuzu was her pen name and Tadano the name of the family she married into. In Japan, the
recent trend is to call her by her maiden name, Kudo Ayako I j?. Oguchi 1995, p. 247, note
1. She signed Hitori kangae as Makuzu, however, indicating that that was how she would like to
be addressed. Hitori kangae, p. 260.
in Sendai acclaimed her as a poet of remarkable skill. The first of her works to
be published were essays and poems dealing with the Sendai region.3 Early
biographers went on to fashion her into an exemplar of local culture. Filial, she
followed her father's wish that she marry a well-off samurai and left her beloved
Edo for Michinoku, for her an unknown region in the far north. Despite her iso-
lation there, she devotedly looked after her husband's house during the extended
periods when his duties kept him in Edo. Without any children of her own, she
dedicated herself to raising her husband's children from his first marriage and
became a model educator who paid particular attention to the instruction of girls.4
The main source for this portrait of Makuzu as a "true" bushi woman was her
Mukashibanashi (Stories from the Past), a six-chapter narrative relating her per-
sonal history and describing life in the far north.5 Increased awareness of Hitori
kangae, however, led researchers to see Makuzu in a new light. The filial daugh-
ter and dutiful wife became for some a voice challenging the Tokugawa social
and political order. Others identified her as a pioneer feminist or a female critic
of established norms.6 Makuzu's appeal as a female thinker was further strength-
ened by the publication in 1994 of Tadano Makuzu shut 53MAXA (Collected
Works of Tadano Makuzu), which has at last made available the greater part of
her writings, including a more complete version of Hitori kangae and many
pieces printed for the first time.
A number of researchers have pursued one aspect or another of Makuzu's
thought. Some have seen her approach to argumentation as similar to that of
those who, influenced by Western science, advocated jitsugaku t4 (learning
based on experience). Already in the Taisho era one scholar described her schol-
arship as "learning based on experience" rather than knowledge gained from
books.7 Because of her critique of Confucianism and her literary background,
Makuzu is often considered to belong to the nativist school. But some have
likened her views on economics, especially her criticism of the bushi for not rec-
ognizing what any merchant knows, to the mercantilist writings of Kaiho Seiryo
MgTOYTS (1755-1817).8 This diversity in the appraisal of Makuzu suggests that
3 Isozutai bIe/7 U (Along the Coast) and Oshubanashi 9)+'I'f7t U (Stories from OshuI) were
both first published in Meiji 24 (1891). Makuzu presumably completed both in 1817. The first
work is a travelogue about a trip in the Sendai area; the latter relates twenty-nine stories she had
heard, most of which concern Sendai. Both are included in Tadano Makuzu shui.
4 Nakayama Eiko 4P U11 gives an overview of writings on Makuzu, primarily by people based
in the Sendai area, prior to her own 1936 biography. See Nakayama 1936, pp. 13-24.
5 Written in 1811-1812, Mukashibanashi was first published in 1925 in Sendai sosho {ftLJJ
4. Other editions appeared in 1969, 1984, and 1994. See Mukashibanashi 1925; Mukashibanashi
1969; Mukashibanashi 1984; Mukashibanashi 1994.
6 Nakayama Eiko published the first chapter of Hitori kangae in 1936, based on the only man-
uscript then generally known. The main publications on Tadano Makuzu' s Hitori kangae are, in
chronological order: Nakayama 1936; Shiba 1969; Miyazawa 1975; Seki 1980; Honda 1992;
Suzuki 1994; Oguchi 1995; Kado 1998. Seki 1980 is a slightly revised version of Miyazawa 1975.
Also of interest is Nagai Michiko's 7t#MX- 1996 novel based on Makuzu's life.
7 Cited in Nakayama 1936, p. 21.
8 Suzuki 1994, p. 560.
many questions about her life and writings are yet to be resolved. It is hoped that
the following translation of Hitori kangae will contribute to the process of explo-
ration of her views and the context in which they were formulated.
The world in which Makuzu lived was notable for the concurrent existence
and intersection of a variety of different intellectual schools and circles. The
eclecticism of her thought reflects this circumstance. It shows the spread of ideas
associated with these circles, and it also gives us insight into what one woman
made of such ideas despite the general exclusion of women from the forums of
intellectual debate. Drawing in various ways from the views espoused by oth-
ers, Makuzu reflected on the controversies of her time vigorously and creatively
and expressed her thoughts in a strong, idiosyncratic style. Hitori kangae offers
an invaluable window into both the late Edo cultural world and the mind of a
remarkable woman.
Makuzu's Life
What we know about Makuzu' s life comes primarily from her own account. She
was born KudO Ayako TI7 -cf in 1763, the oldest daughter of Kudo Heisuke
AInF- (1734-1800), who served the Sendai domain as an Edo-based physician
to the Date {MA house, and his wife, the daughter of Kuwabara Takatomo 1Y
MA (also known as Josho 01'; no dates), another physician in the service of the
Sendai domain. As Edo physicians employed by a major domain, both families
belonged to the intellectual elite on the fringes of the samurai class.
Born the third son of Nagai Taian A#g-)k (no dates), Heisuke had been
adopted by Kudo Joan 0IUt)4 (1755) at the age of thirteen.9 Joan, a ronin who
had become a physician, obtained employment by the retired lord of Sendai, Date
Yoshimura {JR1;r>+ (1680-1751, r. 1703-1735), in 1746, when he was already
in his mid-thirties. As attendant physician (gokinju Oid'1) on permanent duty
(fozume t') in Edo, he received the sizable stipend of 300 koku. Joan served
in the new lower Date residence in Sodegasaki tLr in Shinagawa MU11 until
his lord's death in 1751.10 In 1754, when he was in his early twenties, Heisuke
inherited his father's position, together with the income of 300 koku.11 He mar-
ried a couple of years later and had altogether eight children."2
9 Ages are given by traditional Japanese reckoning, one to two years older than by Western
count.
10 Accounts of Joan and Heisuke are often contradictory and confusing. The above is based on
various sources, the most reliable being Sendaijinmei daijisho.
11 Oguchi 1995, pp. 218-19.
12 Mukashibanashi 1994, p. 14. Since the firstborn died before the seventh night, Makuzu usu-
ally refers only to seven siblings. Makuzu (also Ayako f/T or Michi 4-t) was the eldest
surviving child. The others, in order of birth, were the eldest son, Motoyasu xX (also Ta
or Choan R)V; the second daughter, Shizuko 1> ; the third daughter, TsunekoDzfQ
ond son, Genshiro ATqPI (also known as Jiro 4R14 or Motosuke 5Ti'); the fourth daughter, Taeko
tc+&1+ (or %1); and the fifth daughter, Teruko -CZ Genshiro once compared the siblings to
the "seven flowers of the fall" (aki no nanakusa iR 0) t): kuzubana VtM (arrowroot),fujibakama
t (ague weed), asagao QA, (morning glory), ominaeshi _kMtL (patrinia scabiosaefolia),
obana )Ttt (Chinese miscanthus), hagi R (bush clover), and nadeshiko =T (wild pink). Learning
of this, Makuzu assigned each sibling to one of the flowers on the basis of their personalities
(Makuzugahara, p. 501). This is the derivation of her pen name "Makuzu." When Taeko became
a nun, she chose Hagi-ni E, after the flower, as her religious name.
13 The family spent about 10 ryo a year on tofu. Mukashibanashi 1994, p. 91.
14 Mukashibanashi 1994, p. 81. Hattori Rissai flkPK3A (1736-1800), a Confucian teacher at the
bakufu school in Kojimachi (Kojimachi Kyojusho ft Wfi), decided to live next door just in
case he might need Heisuke's help. Mukashibanashi 1994, p. 66.
15 Suzuki 1994, p. 545. This might explain Makuzu's preoccupation with the issue of gambling
in Hitori kangae.
16 Mukashibanashi 1994, p. 45. Makuzu mentions the names of some of his students; see
Mukashibanashi 1994, p. 44.
17 Sato 1976, pp. 632-34.
18 Heisuke asked others to translate Dutch books for him. Sato 1976, p. 633.
19 Mukashibanashi 1994, pp. 126-27; Sato 1976, p. 632.
20 SatO 1976, p. 634.
Oguchi Yujiro speculates that her reticence may have been rooted in the oath
she, like all those who entered daimyo or bakufu service, took not to reveal affairs
within the residence.29
Tanuma's removal from office seems to have directly affected Makuzu. Her
father had planned to wait until he had risen in rank to find her a spouse, but with
his potential sponsor ousted from power, that day never came. When Makuzu
left service and went home to her parents in 1787, she was already twenty-five.30
In the winter of 1789, with a friend of Heisuke acting as go-between, she was
married to a man substantially older than she, a retainer of the Sakai iJt fam-
ily from Tsuruoka domain M, NM. Since she was not that young herself, her father
said, she had no reason to complain about the advanced age of her spouse. She,
however, was distressed about the situation. It was not her fault, she wrote, that
she was still unwed. When she first met her husband, she saw that his eyes were
red and rheumy and that he had not a single black hair on his head. The first thing
he told her was that he would live no more than five years at the most and that
she should be prepared to take care of all his affairs thereafter. She was so
unhappy that she wept continuously, and eventually was sent back to her par-
ents' house.3"
The Kudo family's ill fortune continued. Already, during the time Makuzu
had been in service, her parents' house had been destroyed by fire. Heisuke had
received condolence gifts of about 200 koku from different lords, but had
encountered difficulties in rebuilding the house. Makuzu recounts that the per-
son entrusted with the money for reconstruction went bankrupt and the family
had to stay temporarily in Hamamachi RJ with a friend. In the same year,
Makuzu' s grandmother died.32 Tragedy continued with the death of her brother,
the designated heir, Motoyasu JEf,, of whom the family had had great expecta-
tions.33 In the 1790s, several other members of the family were brought low by
illness, or, as Makuzu put it, were the victims of bad fortune. The second daugh-
ter, Shizuko, had married a retainer of the Tsugaru domain iffg but fell ill and
returned to her parents' house, where she died not long after. Makuzu was then
twenty-eight years old: The same year, 1790, the third daughter, Tsuneko, was
wed, but she, too, was to die before long.34 When Makuzu was in her early thir-
ties, her mother, who for some time had been ill, died, and Makuzu took her
place in her father's household. The youngest daughter, Teruko, for whom
29 Oguchi 1995, p. 222. Makuzu refers only twice to the time she spent in service. In Hitori ka
gae she mentions a dispute between a slow-witted bushi woman from the countryside and the
more clever townswomen in the inner quarters. Hitori kangae, pp. 288-89. Oguchi notes that in
Mukashibanashi Makuzu cites the name of a person within the inner chambers who knew her
grandfather. Oguchi 1995, p. 222.
30 Mukashibanashi 1994, p. 56. Suzuki Yoneko gives the date as 1788. See Suzuki 1994, p. 547.
31 Mukashibanashi 1994, p. 128.
32 Mukashibanashi 1994, pp. 54-55.
33 Kado 1998, p. 164. Motoyasu died at the age of twenty in the twelfth month of Tenmei iH
6 (1786).
34 Mukashibanashi 1994, p. 56.
Makuzu was like a mother, was later to be married to a doctor in Sendai, but she,
too, would die young.35 Apart from Makuzu, only Taeko, the fourth Kudo daugh-
ter, who never married, survived past early middle age. Taeko first served the
Tayasu FEBt family but later followed their daughter to the Shirakawa Matsudaira
i4'Jq21' house, remaining in its employ until her mistress died. She then became
a nun in Reiganjima MNr, taking the name Hagi-ni J.36
Heisuke remarried and found a new spouse for his eldest daughter, Makuzu,
too. Her second husband was Tadano Iga Tsurayoshi Rff fNWff (d. 1812), a
high-ranking Date retainer. The Tadano house had served the Date since the days
of Masamune { (1566-1636). In 1757 the Tadano became the jinushi it
i (landowner/fief holder) of Nakaniida N1hEfIH, in Kami-gun )int1, Mutsu.37 Iga
had an income of 1200 koku and in 1796 had been appointed Edo bangashira
If*= (captain of the lord's guard unit) at the Sendai residence in Edo. His
family remained at his home in Sendai. His wife had recently died, leaving him
with three sons, and a mutual acquaintance suggested to Heisuke that Makuzu
would make him a good second wife.38
The Kudo family hoped that the marriage might help Makuzu's younger
brother Genshiro, the appointed successor to the Kudo household, obtain full
samurai status and a good post within the domain government. Aside from such
considerations, marriage to a well-off bushi of 1200 koku (compared to Kudo's
stipend of a mere 300 koku) meant for Makuzu quite a rise in status and financial
well being. She proudly relates that while in Edo three servants accompanied her
when she went out, in Sendai her entourage swelled to seven attendants.39
Makuzu, who had never before left Edo, nevertheless described her move to
Sendai in the fall of 1797 at the age of thirty-five as a step on "the journey to
hell."40 She apparently got along well with her new mother-in-law and her three
stepsons.41 But her husband remained in Edo, bound by duty to the Sendai man-
sion in Edo. He was unable to join his new wife until the following spring. When
the second winter came, Iga's duty called him back to Edo, this time accompa-
nied by his eldest son. The second son was adopted into another family, and only
the youngest, then eight years old, stayed with Makuzu.42 During their fifteen
35 According to Nagai Michiko, she married into the Nakanome rpE H family, a house that prac-
ticed the obstetric methods of the Chujo 4p*f school, which was infamous for its performance of
abortions. Nagai 1996, p. 346.
36 According to Nakayama 1984, p. 226, Taeko lived until 1835.
37 Regarding the Tadano family and Nakaniida, see Morris 1997, p. 354.
38 Nakayama 1936, p. 15.
39 Towazugatari, p. 375. This is, in fact, a letter from Makuzu to Takizawa Bakin MiIIVV'
dated the eleventh day of the third month of 1819. While Heisuke's official stipend was 300 koku,
he also received income from his school and his work as a town physician.
40 Hitori kangae, p. 260.
41 See the letter from Makuzu to her husband, transcribed in Kado 2000, pp. 72-73. Iga had
four sons, but the eldest had died young. The second son became the heir and took the name Zusho
Naoyuki [113et. Nakayama 1936, p. 142, indicates that Naoyuki was fifteen and the youngest
son seven when Makuzu moved to Sendai.
42 Kado 1998, p. 176.
years of marriage, Iga's duty allowed him to return to Sendai a mere sixteen
times.43
In Edo, the Kudo family fortunes continued to decline. In 1800, two years after
she left Edo, Makuzu' s father died at the age of sixty-seven following a long ill-
ness that placed a heavy financial burden on the shoulders of Genshiro, the only
surviving son and heir.44 Exhausting himself in the attempt to repay the family's
debts, Genshiro also fell ill and died in 1807 while still in his early thirties. He
left no children of his own. By then, four out of the seven siblings had died. Two
daughters, Makuzu and the youngest, Teruko, were married and living in Sendai,
and Taeko was still in service. To continue the Kudo name, a cousin from the
maternal Kuwabara side was adopted as Genshiro's successor. Makuzu, who in
Mukashibanashi describes in detail the bad relationship that existed between the
two houses, was upset by this development. To clear the debts, she notes, the
new successor sold everything in the household, from furnishings and other
household items down to its store of pickles, for the measly sum of 50 ryo. To
add insult to injury, a book with the seal of her father' s library turned up for sale
in a Sendai bookstore.45
Writings
Makuzu' s writings date largely from the last twenty years of her life. They include
travelogues, essays, and reminiscences as well as a vast number of poems. There
is almost no textual evidence for earlier pieces by her, although one scholar states
that Iga became interested in Makuzu after seeing two of her poems.46 Whatever
the historicity of that episode, the move to the unknown north seems to have
inspired her to write. After arriving in the Tohoku region, she recorded her
impressions of the nearby places that she visited as well as her loneliness and
her longing for her family, in particular for her sister Teruko, who was only
twelve when Makuzu moved to Sendai.47 The brush became not only her com-
panion, but also a tool to understand her new environment.48 Aware of her lone-
liness, Iga encouraged her to use her literary gifts to write prose as well as
poetry.49
In 181 1, at the age of forty-nine, Makuzu embarked on her longest work, the
one for which she is best known today, Mukashibanashi. Stylistically Mukashi-
43 When he did return, he took care to bring news of Makuzu' s family, recent trends, and books.
See Kado 1998, pp. 166-67; Seki 1980, p. 122.
44 Otsuki Gentaku refers to Heisuke's long illness and his subsequent debts. Cited in Suzuki
1994, p. 549.
45 Mukashibanashi 1994, pp. 169-70. We have to rely almost entirely on Makuzu's account for
information about the two families. For another perspective on the Kuwabara family, see And6
1997 and Ando 1998.
46 Cited in Nakayama 1936, p. 15.
47 See, for example, Shiogama mode and Michinoku nikki. Kado 1998, p. 174.
48 Kado Reiko P91- notes that in her writings Makuzu included a number of tales that were
later recorded by Yanagita Kunio ORJ MH19. Kado 1998, p. 169.
49 Seki 1980, p. 122.
banashi belongs to the genre of zuihitsu, but it is also something of a family saga.
While the anecdotes at first appear unrelated, as is common in the zuihitsu style,
Makuzu, as the "narrator" who witnesses or hears them from people in the neigh-
borhood, links them one to the other.50 One of her objects in writing
Mukashibanashi was to provide a remembrance of their mother for her sister
Teruko, who was still a child when the mother died. As the reader soon discov-
ers, however, she expanded this recollection into an account of her father and
his legacy. She relates anecdotes concerning him and describes exotic objects
that he was given. A distinctive feature is the recurrence of references to a wet-
nurse named Shime , whom Makuzu blames for the conflict between the Kudo
and the Kuwabara families. Her presence leads us like a red thread through the
often independently structured stories.
In 1812, while writing the fifth chapter of Mukashibanashi, Makuzu learned
that her husband had died suddenly in Edo (the twenty-first day of the fourth
month). Her sorrow led her to incorporate the tragedy and her feelings into the
text, as if it were a diary.51 Teruko, her youngest sister, who had been living in
the Sendai area, died sometime soon after Iga's death. Now a widow, far from
her birthplace, with only one surviving sibling, and her birth family in ruins,
Makuzu experienced profound despair. The meaning of her life, a life her father
had chosen for her, had evaporated. To continue living she had to find a new
sense of purpose. She had already written in Mukashibanashi that she wanted to
make her father's name known to the world. As long as she could realize this
goal she did not mind if her life was one of hardship.52 She was keenly aware,
however, how difficult it would be for her as a woman to elevate her family's
name. She struggled for years with this dilemma, until, as she recalled later, on
two occasions, two deities, Kannon fi and a "buddha" (mihotoke MI:A) trans-
mitted poems to her. Both poems instructed her to carry out her initial goals,
despite her gender.53 Since she and her sister were women, and therefore not
capable of reviving the Kudo household, Makuzu chose another path: she would
carve a monument to her father through her writing.
Inspired by this vision, in 1817, at the age of fifty-five, Makuzu embarked on
writing Hitori kangae, declaring, "I wrote this book thinking that unless I pur-
sued my father's goals, he would have developed his ideas in vain."54 Her aim,
she said, was to keep her father from being forgotten by the world, to act herself
as a model for women, and to offer hope to those in a state of despair.55 She wrote
from the standpoint of one who, having suffered much, had risen above her tri-
als and attained a state of enlightenment. As in Mukashibanashi she gives many
details about her own experiences and those of her family. Suzuki Yoneko, the
editor of Makuzu's collected works, concludes from this that Hitori kangae is
one piece in an ongoing autobiography.56 The focus on herself and her family
may indeed be seen as an attempt to establish her identity. At the same time,
Hitori kangae attests to the broad knowledge, including economic matters and
conditions in Russia, she had acquired from her father and brother and from
extensive reading.57 The repeated references in it to her own enlightenment, self-
referential as they may seem to the modern reader, might be interpreted as a tool
to overcome the social restrictions faced by an intellectually ambitious woman
in the Tokugawa environment. As one of the "enlightened" she could raise her
voice in the public space defined as a male domain. Through her "self-writing"
she not only established her identity; more precisely she redefined it.58
Appeal to Bakin
A year after she began to write Hitori kangae, Makuzu sent the text through her
sister to the famous author Takizawa Bakin i (1767-1848) with the
request that he edit and publish it. Why she chose to send a text that meant so
much to her to him is a mystery. At the time Bakin was at peak of his popular-
ity as an author of popular fiction, but as far as can be ascertained, the two had
not previously had any contact. She says only that she acted in response to a sign
from the Buddhist deity Fudo TA.59
Makuzu presumably believed that B akin might be willing to help other authors
publish their works. Amateur authors, he tells us, often sent their writings to him
in hopes that he might accept them as disciples, although he declares he never
did so.60 The timing of Makuzu's overture to Bakin coincides with a strikingly
similar incident. The previous year, Suzuki Bokushi ItXW2 (1770-1842), the
learned gono 1 of Echigo province, tried for a second time to obtain Bakin's
assistance in publishing his Hokuetsu seppu 1L95t (Snow Country Tales), but
the Edo author left him with nothing but empty promises. At this point, the ques-
tion whether there was more than coincidence in two peripheral writers seeking
help from the same central cultural figure in virtually the same year is unresolved.
What is clear is that he failed both.61
In Makuzu no ouna 7ct0ts (Madam Makuzu), written in 1825, Bakin
recaptured for a circle of his literati friends the unusual circumstances under
which he received Hitori kangae.62
Around the end of the second month of 1819, a fifty-something old nun accompa-
nied by one servant called on Bakin at his house in lidamachi MEI WT.63 It just hap-
pened to be a day when all the other family members and servants were out. For
over ten years, Bakin had preferred to live in seclusion and to avoid contact with
others, let alone strangers, so he felt most uncomfortable, but had no choice but to
inquire who was calling.
"I am an acquaintance of the medicine seller Tanaka Choeki E1 4AI~ from
Ushigome GEZL in Kagurazaka f and came to see the master of the house."
"The master left early this morning, and nobody else is here, just me, to watch
the house while everybody is out. But I'll tell him that you came by," Bakin said
with a red face, unwilling to disclose his identity. "This is from a relative of mine
in Michinoku," the nun replied, "Please give it to the master. She wrote this man-
uscript and would like Bakin to read and correct it. He'll find more details in the
letter. I am staying at Tanaka's house for the night, and will be back tomorrow
morning. Please ask him to leave me a note, even if it is only one brush stroke."
Out of her kimono sleeve she took a letter, an envelope with money, and a bundle
containing three volumes.
"You are aware that the master is quite exhausted from writing so much," Bakin
said, in an attempt to escape his dilemma. "I cannot accept this from you. I am just
here to watch the house while everybody is out. If I keep it, I'll be scolded." But
the nun would not listen, and Bakin ended up with the bundle in his hands. Saying
"I'll be back tomorrow around the fourth hour [10 A.M.]," she left.
Bakin rushed upstairs to his study and opened the letter. The content was more
or less what the nun already had told him, but when he saw its ending, he became
furious. It said, "To Mister Bakin, from Makuzu in Michinoku." No address, noth-
ing. He was stunned by her haughtiness. Even letters he received from high-ranking
persons were never that disrespectful. She had to have some proper identification,
to be somebody's wife. Or a mistress, or someone at the daimyo's residence in
Sendai. She could not be just "Makuzu."
When Bakin started reading the manuscript, however, he had to admit that this
woman had astonishing ideas. The lamentable thing was that she really did not
know the Way (michi B.). Not having studied or received the tutelage of a teacher
(fumon TUM), she inevitably was wrong about many things.
Bakin nevertheless decided that night to respond to her. He wrote that she should
have known that he had long since withdrawn from society-it was common knowl-
edge. There were many Confucian or nativist scholars in Edo, so why should she
send her manuscript to him? But what had most stunned him was her haughtiness.
If she asked someone to be her teacher, she should observe the proper etiquette.
"Kyokutei" W3 and "Bakin" were his pen names, and used only in this context
and among his friends. How embarrassing to be addressed as such by an old woman
who obviously did not know him since she was ignorant of his real name. Even
worse, he did not have any idea who she was. Therefore she could not simply write
"to Bakin"! It also was contrary to proper etiquette for a man and woman to
exchange writing on their own without appropriate go-betweens. He thus had to
reject her request.
When the nun came back the next morning, Bakin said, "The master went out
again very early today. I was told to say that this is his answer," and gave her the
letter.
Despite this somewhat awkward beginning, Bakin and Makuzu entered into
a regular correspondence. Towards the end of the year, however, Bakin sent her a
sixty-page (in modern printed form) critique, entitled Dokkoron (Discourse on
Solitary Thoughts). In it he examined Hitori kangae paragraph by paragraph,
discussing Makuzu's arguments and largely dismissing them as diverging from
the "Way."64 Together with this critique Bakin sent a letter requesting an end to
their correspondence because of his busy writing schedule.65 Many questions
remain about what might have caused him to take this step after having earlier
praised Makuzu for her intellect and talent. The following spring he received
one letter each from Makuzu and her sister, accompanied by gifts (a brush, a
bookmark, and paper, all specialties from Echizen). With this their correspon-
dence came to a close.66 Knowing only Bakin's side, we are left to conjecture
how Makuzu must have felt.
Makuzu stopped writing not long after. Some speculate that Bakin's sharp,
meticulous, and lengthy criticism of Hitori kangae may have undermined her
self-confidence.67 On the other hand, she had already written that her right hand
had been bothering her for some time and that her eyesight was worsening, and
this was perhaps another factor.68
In Makuzu no ouna, written five years later, in the tenth month of 1825, Bakin
expressed regret for having initiated the rupture in their relationship. He again
praised the "manly spirit" (otokodamashii 18 4) that had impressed him so much,
and noted that he still wept at night when he thought of her and her sad life. He
later learned, having asked a friend who was going to Sendai to inquire after her,
that when he wrote this essay, Makuzu was already dead.69 She had died in
Sendai on the twenty-sixth day of the sixth month of 1825 at the age of sixty-
three. Several treasured items were placed in her grave: her favorite hairpins and
rice bowl and her reading glasses.70
Expository Style
According to Makuzu, her grandmother Kuwabara Yayoko k J1 -T (no dates)
was skilled in womanly tasks, including calligraphy, and was also well known
for an essay on the date of composition of Utsuho monogatari @;gtaffil (Tale
64 In saying that Makuzu diverged from the "Way," Bakin meant that she was not educated in
classical Chinese, nor trained in discussing theories or philosophy. See Makuzu no ouna, p. 249.
65 Makuzu no ouna, p. 251.
66 Nakayama 1936, p. 119.
67 Seki 1980, p. 163; Oguchi 1995, p. 247.
68 Towazugatari, p. 376.
69 Makuzu no ouna, p. 257.
70 These were discovered in 1933, when her remains were moved to a different site. Nakamura
1936, p. 207.
Range of Ideas
The ideas set forth in Hitori kangae are not always easy to grasp or categorize,
owing partly to the stylistic issues discussed above. Makuzu labels each section,
lending the text the appearance of an orderly structure. Its content, however, is
not strictly organized according to these headings, nor does her argumentation
follow what a modern reader might regard as conventional logic. Her strategy,
rather, is to take up repeatedly certain issues she considers particularly impor-
tant. As in Mukashibanashi, she lays out a red thread for the reader. Since Hitori
kangae is a treatise rather than a narrative, she in fact sets out a number of such
threads, which she raises, drops, and picks up again along the way. A thorough
analysis and discussion of her ideas and reasoning must await another opportu-
nity. For now, I would like to draw attention to some of the notions that figure
prominently in Hitori kangae.80
Makuzu notes that after her experience of enlightenment she realized that the
Confucian "Way" was a human construction and therefore not immutable. This
perspective, which echoes the arguments of Norinaga and Mabuchi, was prob-
ably drawn from her reading of their works. Having rejected the premise of a
fixed moral order, she held that the only certainties in this world are the "rhythm
of heaven and earth" and the "number of days and nights" (chaya no kazu 2J
ODt). "Phenomena that never change," she writes, "are the revolutions of the sun
and moon, the number of days and nights, and the rhythm that floats through
them all."981 Although she does not closely define these terms, "rhythm" might
superiority, Makuzu disagreed with the perspective found in works such as Onna
daigaku !x;k* (Greater Learning for Women). As Oguchi Yujiro notes, her
views on this issue were extraordinary for her time.87 Yet the divergence between
her argument and that characteristic of better-known works such as Onna
daigaku also suggests the need for a reevaluation of the scope of the discourse
on women in the Edo period.
Makuzu's premise that the struggle for superiority was a fundamental of
human existence led her to further conclusions about the nature of society.
Everyone, she observed, was pitted against the lord. Positioned at the pinnacle
of society and therefore the target of everyone below, he was, she noted with
regret, doomed to suffer defeat without even realizing it. Constrained by imprac-
tical ideas of Confucian virtue, the lord was not equipped for a battle in which
the actual weapon was money. Merchants preyed on him as moneylenders, peas-
ants evaded their taxes, and even the lord's retainers greedily clung to their share
without considering whether the domain might go bankrupt in the process.
Reflecting ideas she presumably got from her father and his knowledge of Russia,
Makuzu suggested that the lord should be a mercantilist instead of a virtuous
Confucian ruler.88 As her sympathy with the ruler indicates, despite her recog-
nition of struggle as rooted in human nature, Makuzu did not reject the princi-
ple of a class society. Instead she called for reform to restore the upper class,
namely the bushi, to their proper position. With the bushi in control of material
wealth, society would once again be in tune with the "rhythm of heaven and
earth."
88 Hitori kangae, pp. 269-72, 277. It is in regard to these points that some see her ideas as rese
bling those of Kaiho Seiryo.
89 These first appeared in print in 1912 and 1928 respectively.
90 Tamai added a number of comments to the text. In the translation we have identified these as
by the "copyist."
91 Seki Tamiko PARf found the piece and identified it as being by Makuzu after writing the
analysis of Hitori kangae included in Seki 1980.
92 See Suzuki 1994, p. 598. Suzuki Yoneko has also discussed the differences among these copies
in Suzuki 1987. The copy of the first chapter held by the Tadano family includes one paragraph
("Kimizu tsumaru koto" %7*(T t Z I, The Matter of Ether and Water Filling Up Space) not found
in the Seikado Bunko manuscript. Suzuki describes the Tadano family copy as having been done
by Ito Tadakaze tPOfi,1 but he in fact signs himself as Takanarita Tadakaze A)ZFII2t.
Regarding Takanarita, see also Nakayama 1936, pp. 19-20.
93 See Sugiura 1990, pp. 63-89.
94 The two at times give quite divergent renderings of the handwritten text. An example is Hitori
kangae, p. 306, [XIA (people of foreign countries), and Sugiura 1990, p. 89, RTXA (people of
our country). In the translation, unless noted otherwise, we have followed Suzuki's reading.
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