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Filial Piety Culture in the Edo Period
親孝行の江戸文化

Motoi Katsumata

Abstract

　In the Edo period, filial commendations were presented by rulers of various status levels, including not only Shōgun(将軍) and Daimyō (大名) but also lower-level officials such as Guindai(郡代) and Nanushi(名主). This convention continued until the end of WWII with more than 20,000 recipients.
　Filial commendation and filial piety were not objects of cultural study until the end of the war because they were a fundamental part of life. Many of the modern studies on filial piety in the Edo period try to discern how rulers utilized this virtue to strengthen feudalism. In Japan, filial piety was considered to be the foundation of loyalty, as shown by sayings such as "Filial piety and loyalty are united(忠孝一本)" and "A good son makes a loyal retainer(忠臣は孝子の門に出づ)". Scholars have tended to interpret filial commendation as a technique to keep the status quo.
　I believe this viewpoint is a result of modern perspective. This was likely very different from the thinking held by those in the Edo era. My goal is to understand Edo society and culture from the viewpoint of those who lived at that time. For this purpose, I will discuss three ways to approach the issue.
　1) Focusing on the cultural driving force of filial piety: During the Edo period the belief in filial piety was very strong. No sect or class doubted the goodness of this virtue. Such strong belief naturally produced many cultural phenomena. So, while it is common to criticize the filial theme as "crusted" virtue without artistic value, in the Edo period, this usage was being "literary".
　2) Interchange of various phenomena: Filial piety culture consisted of various factors -- the filial individual, the political activity of filial commendation, day-to-day gossip, writing the biography of a filial person, and the commercial activity of publishing books relating to filial themes. It's hard to find such various and vital movement within society other than thorough filial piety.
　3) A holistic approach to understanding the early Edo period: One of the problems of preceding studies was that research tended to be limited to a specific clan. I try to include all available sources from the 17th century, the early Edo shogunate, in an attempt to give a more complete picture of cultural evolution in the early Edo period.

　This book consists of four chapters.
　Chapter 1 "An Introduction of Filial Piety Culture Study (孝文化研究序説)" discusses fundamental issues which lay the ground work for the following discussions.
　Section 1 proposes that most people in the Edo period saw commendations by feudal lords as overwhelmingly positive. Chinese classical filial stories and filial commendations were common in society, yet no negative comments concerning this have been found from the period.
　Section 2 applies this theory to the novel "Honchō Nij ū Fukō 本朝二十不孝 (Twenty Unfilial People in Japan)" by Ihara Saikaku（井原西鶴）. Recent studies have tried to read this as a satire about the feudal system. However, in the Edo period, stories with ethical themes were a kind of entertainment. Before Saikaku there were a lot of stories in which an unfilial person came to a bad end. He merely followed this pattern of moral stories to promote filial piety.
　Section 3 investigates the driving force behind the creation of biographical writings and other works related to filial piety. While modern scholars have generally regarded these as propaganda, Edo era artists cooperated willingly because they genuinely believed in the virtue of filial piety and wanted to celebrate the recipients of filial commendation.
　Section 4 describes one typical process of how a filial person became fictionalized, taking as an example of Gorōemon(五郎右衛門)in Suruga province. His story shows how commendation played an important role in enhancing filial stories.
　Chapter 2 "Development of Filial Commendation and Filial Biography（表彰と孝子伝の発生）" first includes a chronological history of commendations and filial biographies, then deals with issues particular to each clan.
　Section 1 clarifies the chronological development of filial commendations in the Edo period. Most studies have credited the 5th shōgun Tsunayoshi（徳川綱吉） as the developer of this system. However, before him, the Aizu（会津）, the Okayama （岡山）, the Fukuchiyama（福知山）, the Shimabara（島原） and various other clans had already been awarding filial commendations. Tsunayoshi must have been influenced by such precedents.　　
　Section 2 focuses on a pair of brothers who concocted a scheme in which one brother pretended to be a Kirisitan (Christian) ,which was a crime at that time. Then, the second brother informed on the first and claimed the bounty in order to give money to their parents. When the plot was revealed, the brothers were commended due to the importance of filiality. At that time the brothers came to be seen as icons of filial piety. This example indicates that commendations served a social function to define morality.
　Section 3 compares two filial biographical books from the Okayama clan. It shows the change of the function of filial biography from literary work to propaganda tool.
　Section 4 argues for the cultural value of filial biography. For example, Matsudaira Tadafusa（松平忠房） commissioned filial biographies from Confucian scholars in the Tokugawa government. These served mainly as gifts for filial persons and for Tadafusa himself, rather than as propaganda to the common people.
　Chapter 3 "The Creation of Representative Filial Persons in Japanese History（孝子日本代表の形成）" investigates how, why, and by whom representative filial persons in Japanese history were chosen.
　Section 1 argues that Japanese filial biographical culture has its roots in Chinese Buddhism in the Ming dynasty, taking two examples, “Shakushi Nijūshi Kō 釈氏二十四孝 (Twenty Four Filial Monks)” by the Japanese monk Gensei（元政）and “Shakumon Kōden 釈門孝伝 (Filial Monks)” which was authored by the Chinese monk Kōsen（高泉）.
　Section 2 investigates the development of biographies which showcased icons of filial piety in Japan. Although the common usage was as propaganda, the choice of subject differed widely due to additional purposes. For example, one was for practicing Chinese poetry, while another demonstrated the author’s prejudice against Buddhism.
　Section 3 focuses on the controversy just after the publication of "Honchō Kōshi Den 本朝孝子伝 (The Paragons of Filial Piety in Japan)". It quickly became a best seller but also met with a great deal of criticism. This enabled and inspired the author to make extensive revisions in subsequent editions.
　Section 4 gives the example of a filial person from the late 17th century. His story had been ignored in the century since his commendation. However, in the Meiji period he was suddenly selected as one of eight important filial persons in Japanese history. His inclusion demonstrates the complexity of the subject and shows that the appreciation of a filial person could depend on the devotion of following generations rather than his own actions.
　Chapter 4 "The birth of ‘Honchō Kōshi Den’: The Chronological Biography of Fujii Ransai (藤井懶斎伝―いかにして『本朝孝子伝』は生まれたか)" is an attempt to provide the first thorough investigation into the author of the first orthodox filial biographies. At the same time, this research gives insights into the life of a typical rōnin zjugakusha 浪人儒学者. These masterless Confucians were an educational force in Kyoto.