Amy Stanley - Stranger in the Shoguns City: A Japanese Woman and Her World

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Copyright 2020 by Amy Stanley

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ISBN 978-1-5011-8852-7

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For Sam and Henry, my sweetest and truest loves

TSUNENOS FAMILY

The reconstruction of Tsunenos family was among the most difficult tasks of writing this book, since there is no family tree among the Rinsenji records. The relationships here have been reconstituted from birth and death records and mentions in letters (i.e., older brother).

Tsunenos Parents

• Emon (17681837): Tsunenos father and head priest at Rinsenji temple
• Haruma (d. 1841): Tsunenos mother

Tsunenos Siblings

• Izawa Ktoku (dates unknown): Tsunenos older brother, probably a half brother from a previous marriage of her fathers, who was adopted by the Izawa family of physicians in Takada and later became a physician himself
• Giy (18001849): Tsunenos older brother who inherited his fathers position as head priest at Rinsenji temple
• Kiyomi (dates unknown): Tsunenos sister, probably younger, who married a priest in a nearby village
• Giry (18071876): Tsunenos younger brother
• Girin (dates unknown): Tsunenos younger brother who raped Giys first wife and was temporarily exiled from the family
• Gisen (d. 1848): Tsunenos youngest brother, who went to study in Edo
• Umeka (b. 1815): Tsunenos younger sister who died in infancy
• Toshino (18171844): Tsunenos younger sister
• Ino (d. 1840): Tsunenos younger sister

Giys Family

• Giys first wife: unnamed in the Rinsenji documents, married in 1828 and divorced the following year
• Sano (18041859): Giys second wife and Tsunenos sister-in-law, mother to Kihaku and four other children
• Kihaku (18321887): Giy and Sanos son, who inherited his fathers position as head priest
• Otake (b. 1840): Giy and Sanos daughter, whom Tsuneno wanted to adopt

Tsunenos Husbands

• The head priest at Jganji (m. 18171831): Tsunenos first husband, in ishida, Dewa Province
• Koide Yasemon (m. 18331837): Tsunenos second husband, a wealthy peasant in shima Village, Echigo Province
• Kat Yemon (m. 18371838): Tsunenos third husband, a townsman in Takada, Echigo Province
• Izawa Hirosuke (later Heiz) (m. 18401844, 18461853): Tsunenos fourth husband, in Edo, a native of Kamda Village in Echigo Province who worked in service to samurai households

OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS, ACQUAINTANCES, AND EMPLOYERS

In Echigo

• Isogai Denpachi: the Rinsenji temple secretary, also a parishioner
• Yamazaki Kyhachir: Tsunenos uncle in Iimuro Village
• Chikan: Tsunenos companion on the road to Edo, a junior Buddhist priest from Jienji temple in Koyasu Village, just outside Takada

In Edo

• Shachi: a rice store proprietor and Chikans relative, a native of Echigo
• Isogai Yasugor: Tsunenos friend from home, a Rinsenji parishioner working winters in the city
• Jinsuke: Tsunenos building superintendent and creditor in Minagawa-ch
• Bunshichi and Mitsu: Tsunenos aunt and uncle in Tsukiji
• Matsudaira Tomosabur (c. 18211866): Tsunenos first employer, a bannerman, later known as Matsudaira Nobuyoshi, the Lord of Kameyama Domain
• Iwai Hanshir V (17761847): a famous kabuki actor, owner of the rental property in Sumiyoshi-ch where Tsuneno briefly worked in 1840
• Izawa Hanzaemon (aka Takeda Yakara and Takeda Gor): Hirosukes younger brother, a man of low connections and dubious character
• Yado Gisuke: a friend of Tsunenos, an acupuncturist and native of Dewa Province
• Fujiwara Yz: an old friend of Hirosukes, working in service in Hong

R eaders in the field of Japanese history will notice that I have translated every Japanese term, even when some of those untranslated terms are commonly used in English-language writing. In the realm of weights, currency, and measurements, I have translated koku as bales, ry as gold pieces, bu as gold coins, shu as small gold coins, and mon as copper coins. I have also converted all traditional Japanese age counts to their Western equivalents. For example, in 1853, when Tsuneno died, she was fifty by the Japanese count, which considered newborns to be one year old, but I have given her age as forty-nine. For ease of reading, I have also converted all Japanese years to their Gregorian calendar equivalents, even though this is not always accurate, because the Japanese and Gregorian years didnt properly align. For example, I render the twelfth month of Tenp 13 as the twelfth month of 1842, even though it was already 1843 in Europe and the United States. Finally, many of the people I write about changed their names or went by more than one name. For the sake of consistency and readability, I always refer to them by the first version of the name I encountered in the record.

O n January 1, 1801, the first day of a new century, President John Adams opened the cold, barely finished White House for a public reception. On the other side of the Atlantic, Londons church bells rang out to herald the Union of Great Britain and Ireland, and a new flagthe Union Jackwas raised for the first time. Napolon spent the day plotting future conquests, while Parisians celebrated the traditional New Year in defiance of the French republican calendar, which did not recognize the holiday. The eighteenth century was over, but its waves of revolution were still crashing ashore. Looking ahead, American newspapers made bold predictions, not just for themselves, but for people everywhere. The tide had turned from tyranny to liberty, from superstition to enlightenment, from monarchy to republicanism. In the next hundred years, they agreed, a greater change, in the affairs of the world, seems to be promised.