- 著者
- SATHER Jeremy A.
- 出版者
- International Research Center for Japanese Studies
- 雑誌
- Japan review : Journal of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (ISSN:09150986)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.29, pp.39-68, 2017-03-17
This translation and analysis of Imagawa Ryōshun’s Nan Taiheiki examines the events that led him to write the work, namely his dismissal from the office of Kyūshū tandai and his subsequent participation in the Ōei Disturbance. After the rebellion ended in failure, he spent the rest of his life writing and critiquing literature. Nan Taiheiki, written around 1402, was a product of this period and of his rancor toward the Ashikaga chieftain Yoshimitsu. While the original Nan Taiheiki has no chapters or section headings, a close examination reveals three fundamental concerns. First, a focus on the Ashikaga’s status as a collateral family of the Minamoto, which gave them a near divine right to lordship. In order to protect his family from “becoming lowly people without name or rank,” Ryōshun asserts his family’s loyalty to the Ashikaga, in the process laying the groundwork for his criticism of Yoshimitsu later in the work. Second, a repudiation of Taiheiki, not for its overall storyline, but for its omission of the deeds of families that had participated in the Ashikaga’s rise to power, most notably his own. And last, a criticism of Yoshimitsu, whose maladministration led to Ryōshun’s dismissal from the office of tandai. Importantly, his criticism is of Yoshimitsu the individual, not of the Ashikaga family; a large part of Nan Taiheiki is meant to demonstrate Yoshimitsu’s unworthiness as a ruler and to cast Ryōshun’s participation in the Ōei Disturbance as the act of a loyal follower of the Ashikaga. Accordingly, I show that Nan Taiheiki, which Ryōshun did not even title, has been misinterpreted: its criticism of Taiheiki is but one of several aspects of the text, all of which are tied together by Ryōshun’s need to protect his family’s legacy and criticize Yoshimitsu, who he considered the architect of his downfall.
- 著者
- SATHER Jeremy A.
- 出版者
- International Research Center for Japanese Studies
- 雑誌
- Japan review : Journal of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (ISSN:09150986)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.31, pp.25-40, 2017
I have divided the translation of and commentary on Nan Taiheiki into two parts. In part one, I outlined the main concerns that influenced Ryōshun to write the text: the loyalty of the Imagawa to the ruling Ashikaga family, his frustration with Taiheiki (Chronicle of Great Peace), and his resentment toward Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. The overarching theme of Nan Taiheiki, then, is the protection of the Imagawa legacy. In part two, I continue my analysis of this theme through an examination of Ryōshun’s description of Hosokawa Kiyouji and his rebellion against the Ashikaga. Ryōshun’s father Norikuni proposed a plan to the shogun that would have sacrificed his son in an attempt to kill Kiyouji and nip his rebellion in the bud. I then examine the significance of the Kamakura outpost, its overlord the Kantō kubō, and his deputy the kanrei for both Kiyouji’s rebellion, which took place as a result of the strife surrounding the position of kanrei, and later, for Ryōshun’s participation in the Ōei Disturbance, which resulted from the discord between Kyoto and Kamakura. What Ryōshun likely perceived as similarities between his participation in the Ōei Disturbance and Kiyouji’s rebellion motivated him to include the Kiyouji episodes in Nan Taiheiki. Accordingly, Nan Taiheiki demonstrates, through Kiyouji, how easy it was to fall from grace, and, through the idealistic origins of the Kamakura outpost, just how far the Ashikaga had fallen under Yoshimitsu’s rule.
- 著者
- SATHER Jeremy A.
- 出版者
- International Research Center for Japanese Studies
- 雑誌
- Japan review : Journal of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (ISSN:09150986)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- no.29, pp.39-68, 2017-03-17
This translation and analysis of Imagawa Ryōshun's Nan Taiheiki examines the events that led him to write the work, namely his dismissal from the office of Kyūshū tandai and his subsequent participation in the Ōei Disturbance. After the rebellion ended in failure, he spent the rest of his life writing and critiquing literature. Nan Taiheiki, written around 1402, was a product of this period and of his rancor toward the Ashikaga chieftain Yoshimitsu. While the original Nan Taiheiki has no chapters or section headings, a close examination reveals three fundamental concerns. First, a focus on the Ashikaga's status as a collateral family of the Minamoto, which gave them a near divine right to lordship. In order to protect his family from "becoming lowly people without name or rank," Ryōshun asserts his family's loyalty to the Ashikaga, in the process laying the groundwork for his criticism of Yoshimitsu later in the work. Second, a repudiation of Taiheiki, not for its overall storyline, but for its omission of the deeds of families that had participated in the Ashikaga's rise to power, most notably his own. And last, a criticism of Yoshimitsu, whose maladministration led to Ryōshun's dismissal from the office of tandai. Importantly, his criticism is of Yoshimitsu the individual, not of the Ashikaga family; a large part of Nan Taiheiki is meant to demonstrate Yoshimitsu's unworthiness as a ruler and to cast Ryōshun's participation in the Ōei Disturbance as the act of a loyal follower of the Ashikaga. Accordingly, I show that Nan Taiheiki, which Ryōshun did not even title, has been misinterpreted: its criticism of Taiheiki is but one of several aspects of the text, all of which are tied together by Ryōshun's need to protect his family's legacy and criticize Yoshimitsu, who he considered the architect of his downfall.