Pathway to Japanese Literature

1. The Meaning of Rogues

If one speaks of ruffians, they can only be thought of as a tumor upon society.
But there was a time in Japan when these ruffians formed a major element of society.
Not only that, but they are also seen to have exerted particularly great influence on artistic movements.

Regarding the meaning of “rogues,” there are two ways in which it has been considered.
Some say it derives from how they would intimidate others while walking about like rumbling thunder, but I believe this interpretation misses the mark; rather, it signifies those living a life akin to scattered stones.
In the Tokugawa period, they came to be expressed through terms like “homeless individuals,” “unemployed persons,” and “those living without occupation,” but by that time, it can be said they had largely vanished from the surface.

The emergence of rogues has a long history, but that will be omitted here.
This phenomenon gradually became prominent, I believe, around the mid-Kamakura period.
And when it reached its end, imitators of this method began to appear.
Thus, passing through the Muromachi period, the Sengoku period became their era of greatest activity; though this would next give way to the eras of Oda and Toyotomi, among them were those who achieved remarkably exceptional success.
Among today's daimyō aristocracy, if one traces their origins, there are not a few who have risen from the rogues of this era.
For them, there were plenty of such opportunities.
Those who missed this opportunity and fell behind ultimately had to spend the three centuries of Tokugawa rule in disappointment.

2. The Conflation of Itinerant Groups

First, I shall describe how they moved and emerged.

In Japan, I have previously discussed on another occasion that there existed groups of "ukarebito" (itinerant performers) in ancient times.
They were groups that wandered various regions bearing foreign beliefs and exotic arts—song and dance, puppet theater—but later came to settle at strategic land and sea transit points, with the women among them turning their performing arts and prostitution into overt businesses; yet over time, a conflation with other groups emerged among them.
This was because alongside the Yamato Court's unification efforts, there were village shrine workers who lost their positions, or those who fled into self-imposed exile fearing taxation, escaping into wooded mountains and touring regional areas.

On the other hand, while the ukarebito’s lifestyle was gradually transforming, no matter how one looked at it, they could only receive treatment akin to slaves.

Thus, these two groups had long been drawing closer, and by the end of the Heian period, they increasingly became conflated and assimilated.
This was due to the proliferation of such itinerants as Gyōki’s mendicant followers, onmyōji, chanting priests, and shugenja ascetics; yet another major cause lay in how, as the nobility’s power declined and temple-shrine authority likewise decayed, the slaves subordinated to those religious institutions gained their freedom.
At these shrines and temples, there were those called shinjin (shrine workers) and dōji (acolytes) who performed various entertainments at shrine festivals and temple ceremonies, but growing instability in their livelihoods led them to abandon these religious institutions—taking with them both the faith traditions and traditional performing arts of their former shrines and temples—and embark on endless journeys of wandering.
They traveled about adopting the guises of mountain ascetics and chanting priests.
That they became conflated with existing itinerant groups was a natural progression.

Furthermore, by this time, another type of wanderer had emerged and become prominent.
Among the children of regional lords' households across various regions—those who could not receive land as heirs, or those defeated in war and stripped of their domains—wandered through the provinces seeking new territories.
These too became conflated with the earlier itinerant groups.
There were instances where they joined these groups to gain safe passage during their travels.
The term "bushi" used in later eras was in fact an ateji.
The etymology of "bushi" appears to lie in these *nobushi* (field-dwelling ascetics) and *yamabushi* (mountain ascetics).
Moreover, even the earlier wanderers—whose original livelihood as itinerant monks was merely for survival—showed no hesitation in changing trades when advantage appeared.

3. The Temperament of Field Ascetics and Mountain Ascetics

They first established bases in remote mountain recesses; ordinarily traveling up and down the highways, they would ingratiate themselves into the households of other warlords, become their vassals, and receive land grants. Yet among them were those who ultimately supplanted these very warlords.

The methods they employed to ingratiate themselves with warlords were varied, but generally speaking, when they traveled the highways, they did so not through force but through religion. They were mountain ascetics who conducted their travels through ascetic rites. When Yoshitsune fled to Ōshū, his traveling in the guise of a yamabushi might appear to later generations as a pretend ascetic, but in those days, it was considered the ordinary way to journey.

They traveled in organized groups.

Regarding mountain ascetics, I had previously touched upon them in *The Origin of Okina*, but their organized group activities did not emerge until the Heian period; however, the pressures of the age eventually compelled them to act collectively. Komusō and Fuke monks constituted a branch of this tradition. That is to say, they emerged through connections with Zen Buddhism. These monks adopted solitary practices. This pattern became markedly prominent around what is thought to be the Nanboku-chō period.

Their groups maintained regulatory overseers.
These guides served as their overseers.
They went from household to household and village to village offering prayers.
Through this practice, they readily secured their means of subsistence.
If a household or village failed to show proper hospitality, they would cast curses rather than blessings.
The mountain ascetics' practice of uttering inverted incantations remained a terrifying prospect through subsequent generations.
While their nefarious activities intensified in the early modern period, they had since antiquity been viewed with both reliance and fear.
Thus they could journey unimpeded throughout the land.

4. Evil Deeds Under Extraterritorial Rights

Since ancient times, political authority never reached into the religious sphere.
There was a reason for this: an unspoken code existed, and they operated entirely outside politicians' authority.
Even after entering the Edo period, magistrates of temples and shrines existed, but the shogunate faced considerable difficulties regulating mountain ascetics.
If runaways, masterless individuals, or exiles threw themselves into their ranks, even politicians could do nothing about it.
Such things had existed even before.
Therefore, there were not a few cases where those who lost military power became mountain ascetics as a means of escape.
It was because of the aforementioned reasons and twofold causes that they could sustain their livelihoods with relative ease.

Furthermore, we must also consider how they continued weakening various daimyōs long afterward, particularly during the early Tokugawa period.
There appeared sufficient reasons for them to have weakened these daimyōs.
For all daimyōs who rose to prominence, they had all relied upon their assistance.
During the Sengoku period, they had almost entirely served as mercenaries lending their strength to provincial warlords.
Of those who later became daimyōs, one could say hardly a single one existed who had not received their aid.
Moreover, there were also those among them who rose to prominence themselves.

The Tokuami father and son, who had lost their domain in Kōzuke under the Tokugawa, wandered through various regions as nenbutsu holy men of the Yugyō school until becoming sons-in-law of the Matsudaira clan in Mikawa's mountains.
When the Edo period began, komusō reportedly received vermilion seals from the shogunate—a development believed to have had an underlying rationale.

Due to these circumstances, they persisted in their willful conduct long afterward, and even daimyos found it difficult to restrain them.
This was thought to relate to their possession of spiritual power.
There had been an instance where mountain ascetics of Hikosan in Kyushu were massacred.
It was surmised that this occurred because their willfulness grew excessive and their evil deeds intensified under the aforementioned conditions.

5. An Aspect as Celebratory Functionaries

They demonstrated such spiritual powers, but the activities of mountain ascetics were not limited to that.
Ordinarily, they performed dances and songs.

They established bases in mountain recesses, as I previously stated.
I visited the mountain recesses of Mikawa on several occasions, and across the three provinces of San, Tō, and Shin—spanning an area of five to six ri—there were many such yamabushi villages.
Of course, they now merely retain vestiges of the yamabushi.
The reason we went to observe was—as I had already described in *The Origin of Okina*—because those villages held a New Year's event called the "Flower Festival."
The Flower Festival was a New Year's event celebrating hopes for abundant rice blossoms that year; its form took shape through dance and had developed quite extensively.

Why did such a dance develop in such mountain recesses? This could by no means be considered accidental. It was precisely because the warlord families who had received their support at the end of the Sengoku period later prospered. On history's surface, their actual contributions remain scarcely recorded, though fragmentary accounts do exist. In Mikawa, many had resided in areas connected to the Tokugawa clan - a circumstance stemming from the protection they received after the Tokugawa rose to prominence.

They would lend their strength to those households during wartime, but also customarily came to those very households—the patrons' homes—in early spring to offer blessings. They had not forgotten their memories of old as wanderers.

Traditionally in Japanese warfare, battles waged through spiritual power flourished. Flags and sashimono banners too arose from this practice. This had a long history, but I will omit that. In any case, their wartime support fundamentally centered on securing victories through spiritual might—the very essence of their endeavors.

6. Alliance with Pseudo-Mountain Ascetics

Now, these mountain people who descend to the villages in early spring exist everywhere in Japan and are by no means limited to the mountain recesses of San, Tō, and Shin.
From unexpected mountain households deep in the mountains emerge Daikoku dances, Ebisu dances, and the like.
They would emerge from nowhere once a year when the year ended or the New Year came, walk through specific villages—the patron villages—bestowing blessings, and then return to nowhere.
The legend of "hidden villages" arose from this phenomenon, giving birth to fabricated tales like those of "blind minstrel hideouts." Moreover, among those who chanced to wander deep into the mountains and discovered these performer villages, there were some who spun even taller tales than the mountain ascetics themselves. Ultimately, what can be concluded is that the hidden village legend was not merely a matter of folklore.

As I also touched upon in *The Origin of Okina*, among performer groups there were two types: those based in mountain recesses and another group called *kugutsu* who established bases on coastal capes and traveled the highways.
However, in the Edo period, such performers became limited to those in mountain recesses.
And while these constituted the authentic mountain ascetics, from the Kamakura period onward into the Sengoku era, pseudo-mountain ascetics—who either imitated them or infiltrated their groups—became rampant. These individuals would attach themselves to various warlord households along the highways, ingratiating themselves until they even attempted to supplant those very households.

7. Suri・Suppa・Rappā

Since they are so well-known, it should be permissible to mention their names.
Hachisuka Koroku, ancestor of the Hachisuka family, is one of their famous representatives.
He gained his position because the Toyotomi clan prospered.

As they traversed the highways, those among them who secured certain patrons (protectors) settled down, while others who failed to obtain such drifted restlessly.
And among them emerged dropouts; those acting alone became *suri*, while those organized in groups came to be called *suppa* and *rappa*.
All were indeed thieving occupations.
The term "craftsmen" referred to those who owned no land, so practices like calling hairdressers "women's work" could be seen as literal interpretations of this concept.
In any case, at that time, such thieving occupations and rogue professions existed as established realities.
To be sure, even today there exist mysterious organizations, and they continue to exist as established realities.

It is said that *suri* were groups who carried tools called *suri*, or that they came to be called so from swapping travelers' luggage, but it is thought their name likely derived from travelers' gear they carried—similar to *hokai* and *kuzutsu* groups. People likely called them that out of fear. Later, having gained skill, they became quite agile, but those of that time must have been much more clumsy.

*Suri* had become independent professions early on, but *suppa*—who in Kyōgen are villains imitating country folk and spoken of similarly to *suri* and *suppa*—were somewhat more organized and maintained bosses.
And furthermore, what was even more organized were the *rappa*.
Koroku was indeed the leader of the *rappa*.
At that time, countless such groups wandered about.
Furthermore, there were also robbers who retained vestiges of gang lanterns.

8. Two Examples

The term "forced-borrowing bandits" persisted as a samurai custom long afterward, but in those days, such groups truly ravaged the villages of common folk. Meanwhile, mountain ascetics—having reinvented themselves as yin-yang practitioners—traveled the provinces conducting Shinto rituals while simultaneously performing dances and chants.
There were masterless samurai who mingled among them; from their ranks emerged the rappa and suppa; some specialized solely in pillaging, while others—the gandō bands—drifted restlessly along coastal highways. Such was the intricate web of lawlessness that characterized those times.

The rappa's specialty lay in becoming mercenaries and lending their martial prowess to provincial warlords.
They would become retainers there, or, maintaining an attitude of neither closeness nor distance, receive protection.
Among them were even those said to have supplanted their master households.

The origins of Hōjō Sōun of Sagami were uncertain.
It is said he was a branch of the Ise Seki clan, but simultaneously considered likely to have been among those rappa.
Upon closer investigation, these individuals—mountain ascetics propagating Mount Hiei and Sannō faiths, or perhaps chanting monks—appeared to have gradually moved eastward during the Sengoku period and operated as mercenaries.
There were claims that his younger sister became a concubine (or secondary wife) of the Imagawa clan, through which he allegedly gained gradual influence—though this account remains dubious.
The act of placing one's sister into the Imagawa clan could indeed have been arranged later—particularly since exploiting both male and female allure constituted a primary method for such men to infiltrate warlord circles.

In any case, the origin of ancestor Ise Shinshirō was in the mountain recesses of Uji, Tahara, and his family appears to have been Anao.
He had likely reached as far as the Seki of Ise.
The retainers he first brought out numbered fewer than ten men, yet each bore names derived from Uji place names.
Hōjō Sōun would later gradually amass power and eventually establish his base at Odawara, but it is believed that initially, he walked the land as a mountain ascetic and worked as a mercenary.

Furthermore, as an older example, the Kobayakawa clan also appears to fit this pattern.
The attachment of the character "ko" (小, small) signifies secondary lineages (illegitimate branches) relative to main family lines. In Odawara there exists a place called Hayakawa, which is considered to have originated as an offshoot of Doi Sanetaira and transformed into itinerants of mountain ascetic lineage.

These were old examples, but in the early modern period they became quite numerous.
However, I shall refrain from listing too many names.

9. Master-Subordinate Hierarchy Born from the Village System

In this manner, from the late Kamakura period through the Sengoku era, rogues who became mountain ascetics or mercenaries were exceedingly numerous; yet among these, those who had failed to secure steadfast patrons by the Oda-Toyotomi period could no longer raise their heads with the Tokugawa pacification. They, unable to do otherwise, swaggeringly became gamblers while calling it “making a living without steady work” or some such. This marked the beginning of the chivalrous outlaws.

Why did they have to become that way?
There was something here that warranted consideration.
Had they been solitary individuals, they might have avoided becoming gamblers even under Tokugawa pacification.
They might have found somewhat better ways to settle down.
However, they had many comrades.
They were initially troubled by how to handle these companions and subordinates.

At this point, I shall briefly address the master-subordinate hierarchy; their oyabun-kobun system is thought to have been adopted from village structures.
In rural communities, there existed multiple households of master lineages and subordinate lineages.
While there were also patron lineages called danzashi-suji, when it came to masters and subordinates, their children became adopted members of the master's household.
When a birth occurred, they reported it to their master just as one would notify a census official.
This parent-child dynamic also governed relationships within *rappa* and *suppa* groups.
Their organizations are understood to have been grounded in these village-based social frameworks.

10. Founding of Labor Brokerage

For the Tokugawa clan too, upon taking control of the realm and consolidating power, their foremost challenge became dealing with these rappa and suppa groups.
Until then, they had benefited from their assistance, but during the Battles of Sekigahara and the Winter-Summer Campaigns, they found themselves at a loss in handling them.
These groups would arrive bringing hordes of subordinates.
Moreover, they wielded spiritual authority.
The time had come to impose order, but regarding how to manage them, they seemed utterly perplexed.

Thus, among them, those who had failed to secure steadfast patrons by the Oda-Toyotomi period completely lost any further opportunity to settle down.

Even so, those that had maintained a solid foundation in the villages were still better off.
Immediately, they returned there and became country samurai.

Moreover, among them were those like the Kōya Hijiri—itinerant monks who abandoned Edo early on and engaged in wrongdoing under the guise of religion.
The sesame ash scams that continued to plague travelers long afterward were one variety of Kōya Hijiri.
Even in Kōya, they were so troubled by this that they went so far as to devise nonsensical titles like "non-affairs officials."

Among them, those most troubled were the groups reluctant to part with Edo, Osaka, and Sakai; how to deal with their subordinates became a major problem. Therefore, they devised the idea of selling off their subordinates to various daimyo households. Thus began the labor brokerage business. And thus, they became the so-called chivalrous outlaws. The master-subordinate hierarchy was—as previously discussed—adopted from the village system; however, today’s widely recognized form of this hierarchy can be seen as having originated from this labor brokerage business. By the time of the renowned Banzuiin Chōbei, such practices had ceased, likely having evolved into genuine labor brokerage—though in earlier times, they had sold off their subordinates to daimyo households.

They called them "yakko."
The name yakko was thought to derive from their hairstyle.
The style of deeply shaven sideburns with thin temples was considered fashionable at that time.
This fashion then reached its peak popularity in Edo.
The term machiyakko (town yakko) emerged because hatamotoyakko (retainer yakko) had appeared - originally they were called kabukimono.
The hatamoto yakko were also known by such terms as kabukimono and kabuki-shū.
However, later these two groups became intertwined until yakko began appearing within kabuki itself.

11. Kabuki and Kabuki Dance

The term *kabuki* appears in old texts, but I believe its direct connection to later eras becomes discernible from the Muromachi period onward.
It carried meanings like "to act violently" or "commit outrages," though this seems to reflect archaic usage.
One peak of its prevalence came during the Momoyama period.
At that time, this cultural phenomenon truly flourished.

I maintain that Okuni's nenbutsu dance came to be called *kabuki* because her repertoire included various performance genres, one of which was specifically termed "kabuki dance."

The nobles and powerful clans of that time took notice of anything and everything that was different.
Okuni too was one thus recognized.
When she came to Kyoto and set up stages at places like Gojō Bridge approach and east of Kitano, these daimyo immediately took notice.
That she was able to rise to prominence was precisely because she had managed to gain such patrons.

As to why their art was called kabuki, I believe it derived from a dance within their repertoire where they chanted “Iza ya kabukan! Iza ya kabukan!” (“Let us revel! Let us revel!”) while performing—a name born from this very practice.
In Okuni’s performances, there would first be a dialogue exchange between Okuni and Nagoya Sanza, followed by the “iza ya kabukan!” chant—this sequence is what apparently came to be called kabuki dance.

12. Precursors to the Hōkan (Jester-Entertainers)

The origin of kabuki dance is attributed to Nagoya Sanza’s teachings, though what Sanza taught Okuni was likely sōka—medieval narrative songs.
I believe Sanza had been a Kōwaka dance master.

This was during Kōwaka dance’s golden age—when people spoke of “dance,” they meant specifically Kōwaka dance.
Other terms like mai-mai dances and maidayu dance masters all referred to elements within Kōwaka.
Kōwaka dance itself had emerged from kusemai narrative dances rooted in senzai manzai New Year performances; those kusemai pieces favored by the samurai class became precisely what we call Kōwaka dance.
Consequently, Kōwaka dance came to feature numerous martial elements.
Yet originally, Kōwaka had been an art form of temples and shrines.

According to legend, Nagoya Sanza was a famously beautiful youth who enjoyed the favor of Gamō Ujisato, but it is also said that before he was discovered, he resided at Sairai-in of Kennin-ji.
At that time, among the famously beautiful youths besides him there was another—Fuwa Bansaku, who received the love of Hidetsugu.
However from the very beginning they were rogues.
It is recorded that after becoming a ronin from the Gamō family Sanza wandered through various provinces; they would attend their new lords' banquet gatherings upon finding them.
Male homosexuality was one means by which they ingratiated themselves with their lords.

Among terms containing meanings akin to *suppa*, there existed one called *shōrori*. Indeed, while some who wandered through various provinces as mercenaries for local warlords became permanent vassals, many remained temporary retainers. However, considering the terms *shōrori* and *sorori*, I believe these groups may also be seen as precursors to what would later become the *hōkan* (jester-entertainers).

In Japan, those who held hōkan-like roles had existed since ancient times.
In the Heian period, the primary duty of court ladies serving nobles was to educate their children; however, this education was quite thorough, and at times they even composed love letters on behalf of those daughters and sons.
This later came to be handled by literate men instead.
The literature of hermits arose from this practice.
The claim that Kenkō Hōshi ghostwrote love letters for Moronao was likely factual.
At that time, it was by no means a rare occurrence.

Furthermore, there were also those who emerged from slavery to serve by their lord’s side.
However, during the Sengoku period, groups like suppa and shyorori infiltrated the social order, and over time, they came to reach a compromise in their way of life with these groups.
As for why they were able to achieve such a compromise in their way of life with those groups, I believe there are points worth considering.

13. The Fascination with Unconventional Fashions and Rowdiness

Okuni Kabuki was a variation of nenbutsu dance that belonged to the lineage of Kōwaka dance—so to speak, it was deeply imbued with Sanza’s artistry.
And I believe this did not originate during the time of the first Okuni, but was instead performed by the second Okuni.
The structure, as I mentioned before, was such that in kabuki dance, there would first be a dialogue between Okuni and Sanza’s ghost, which then transitioned into “Let us revel!”
I believe this fact allows us to infer as much.

Kabukan meant “to act wildly.”
That is, in their dance, they apparently displayed acts of violence.
In later plays, this remained as *rokuhō*.
Furthermore, *rokuhō* also became another name for the *kabuki-mono* mentioned earlier, and among its offshoots emerged groups called *tanzen*.
Both were rowdy individuals who paraded through city streets in ostentatious style.
The emergence of phrases like “rokuhō should be read as muhō” likely stemmed from their very actions.

However, *rokuhō* had existed even before that time.
Around the mid-Muromachi period, there were those known as Rokuhō-shi who paraded through festival processions.

In the streets of Kyoto, unconventional processions at the Gion Festival gained popularity from an early period. While this became clearly established from the Muromachi period, the custom had already existed even earlier, during the Heian period. And what further developed from this were *fūryū* and *Rokuhō*. They donned disguises and rampaged wildly. For that time, this was the height of fashion, and I believe society at large was fascinated by startling public displays. They took pleasure in adorning themselves with foreign imports. Such unconventional fashions and rowdiness were also sexual in nature. At that time, people felt sexual desire toward unconventional fashions and rough behavior.

These tendencies remained on kabuki theater stages for a long time thereafter.
The large obi sashes and such can also be seen as one of these tendencies.

14. Walking Arts

From the Sengoku period through the early Tokugawa era, even among the various daimyō, there were not a few who favored such unconventional fashions and imitated them. Oda Nobunaga was also one such individual.

At that time, society at large centered its fascination on unconventional fashions—so much so that one could say literature and art followed suit. Fūryū and rokuhō were thus born.

Fūryū later came to be known as a term for decorative displays, but originally referred to the act of donning distinctive costumes.
They would don distinctive costumes and parade through festival processions.
This underwent some transformation where movement became primary—what emerged was rokuhō; its offshoot became kabuki; from this came yakko; and by the mid-Tokugawa period, forms called kankatsu also arose—yet fundamentally, all these performing arts belonged to the fūryū lineage.
Therefore, these arts persisted long afterward as walking arts—parading arts, so to speak, the dissipated remnants of festival processions.

When considered in this light, I believe one can discern a particular significance even in that distinctive gait of theatrical *rokuhō*.

15. The Influence of Kōwaka

In kabuki theater, even after entering the Genroku era and beyond, there existed performances where actors would walk across the stage with nonchalant composure.
In plays featuring wakashū as well, there were elements that resembled strolling across the stage.
Leading their attendants in a tone of “What splendid flowers!”, they would stroll across the stage.
However, this involved showing one’s face.
This too was one of the things that must not be overlooked; however, when considering kabuki as a strolling art, there remained other aspects to consider—for instance, how travel scenes incorporated “dance” gestures.
That was because Kōwaka had made its way into this tradition.

Originally, Kōwaka's dance style was born from the ground-stabilizing dance (namely, *hempai* [ritual stomping]), being something performed with foot-stomping movements. Given that kabuki developed from this tradition, it inevitably had to become an art of strolling and footwork. In this way, the strolling art too had its origins. Fūryū pageantry, rokuhō lawlessness, tanzen dandies, yakko attendants, and kankatsu libertines—all of these were walking arts.

Kabuki theater was born from that lineage, yet still incorporated violent gestures and unconventional fashions that startled onlookers. Of course, there was reason for this—as I have mentioned before, to *kabuku* meant to act wildly. *Kabuki-mono* and *kabuki-shu* were bands that rampaged through society in outlandish styles. Later, to such an extent that even terms like “vagrants” emerged, they were originally rogues through and through. That Sanza met his end by the sword in Tsuyama stemmed from his being a rowdy individual. I believe even Danjūrō’s onstage murder bore connection to this legacy. That *aragoto* roughhouse acts came to be performed was assuredly no accidental development. This lawless violence even permeated puppetry—hence arose the *Kintarō-mono* plays of heroic bravado.

16. Why Courtesans Were Called Tayū

In this manner, violence and unconventional fashions stood at the center of society's interest during that era. From this arose arts like Kabuki, but this trend was by no means confined to the male world alone. Women too partook of it equally. This manifested in Yoshiwara and other pleasure quarters.

If one asks why courtesans in Yoshiwara and Shimabara were originally termed tayū, I believe it stems from their origins as female dance tayū of the Kōwaka tradition. At that time, these female dance tayū attained extraordinary popularity. The reason for this, I maintain, lies in men generally exercising discernment and thus rarely dancing, while women performed these dances with such vigor that society embraced them wholeheartedly.

They each possessed their own troupes and initially performed here and there throughout the city, but ultimately came to be confined to Yoshiwara.

Nevertheless, they performed this at set intervals.
As it gained popularity, imitators gradually emerged; these performers too began styling themselves as tayū, until eventually this even became the designation for courtesans.

However, when they first maintained troupes, their styles differed by village.
Consequently, they retained the dialects of those respective villages.
The "-zamasu" and "-arinsu" speech patterns are thus considered surviving vestiges of this practice.
Moreover, these linguistic traits became preserved as pleasure quarter jargon long after Shin-Yoshiwara's establishment.

17. The Hachimonji: Women’s Rokuhō

Be that as it may, what appears to have been directly influenced by men’s kabuki and rokuhō was the hachimonji they displayed during their journeys.
The *hachimonji* was unmistakably women’s *rokuhō*.

When this became exaggerated, it reached the point of being celebrated in the *Ichikotsu-bushi* ballad “Katsuyama,” wherein in *Ichikotsu-bushi* narratives, she dropped her undergarment during her journey but continued traveling as she was—an act that was greatly praised.
From our perspective, one might wonder where the value in praising such a thing lies; however, in essence, for that era, it conformed to *women’s rokuhō*.
And that was also erotic in nature.

Even if we speak of *iki* and *hari*, they have now become things incomprehensible in today’s world; ultimately, they were the union of female and male will.

Such trends were not confined to Yoshiwara alone.
Kyoto’s Shimabara and Osaka’s Shinmachi—these pleasure quarters too bore witness to them.
Thus did rogues and troublemakers extend their influence even into such domains.

18. Aesthetic Violence

As discussed above, regarding the origins of kabuki theater, there existed the fact—beyond what had traditionally been considered—that it arose from the lives of such vagrants and ruffians; furthermore, as a direct cause, there was the matter of those who left their positions as Kōwaka dance tayū descending into the populace.

And so, these two groups came together and initiated aesthetic violence.
Even if we called it aesthetic, it did not stem from an aesthetic viewpoint.
However, among them were works like *Sukeroku* that possessed both beauty and power.
Particularly when viewing this with the trends of that era in mind, I believe Danjūrō’s intentions in creating this work become readily apparent.

Thus, the original meaning of the terms 'kabuki' and 'kabuku' was to commit violent acts and lawless behavior, and kabuki theater was born from this; however, in today’s kabuki, such original meaning has all but vanished.
However, even today, it cannot be said that it has completely vanished.

For example, in Japanese theater, there are not a few cruel or sexual scenes referred to as *nureba* (erotic scenes) and *koroshiba* (murder scenes).
Among scholars, there are those who view this as a strange insertion that does not align with the Japanese national character.
I recall that the opinions of Dr. Tsubouchi and Dr. Fujioka were also of that nature; however, even these matters, when considered in light of the aforementioned origins and sources of this phenomenon, can be given a tentative interpretation.

Of course，such things could develop pathologically depending on the tastes of the era and other circumstances．

However，in kabuki theater―since its very origins were an art form that incorporated violence and unconventionality―and that was erotic―even if such things―cruel or erotic scenes―were abundant，this should by no means be regarded as strange．

19. "Shidō" and "Bushidō"

Generally speaking, I believed there was a point requiring consideration regarding how much value the morality that people generally consider today actually holds from a historical perspective.

What people generally consider today as the so-called Bushidō was largely conceptualized during the Tokugawa era.
The Tokugawa clan, at the very moment they seized control of the realm, first sought to cultivate the populace through Confucianism.
Thus, to effect moral cultivation that would prevent rebellion and resistance, they initially consulted Zen priests regarding this matter.
The preeminent systems of *shidō* (warrior ethics) such as those formulated by Yamaga Sokō were established subsequently.

When examining Bushidō historically, one must consider it divided into two distinct aspects.
Those after Sokō constitute *shidō*, while those before are rogue morality bearing lineage to the yabushi and yamabushi previously mentioned.
That is to say, their morality lay in loving things that were ever-changing, restless, beautiful, and resplendent.
Therefore, within their morality, there are elements that remain incomprehensible when considered through today’s moral sensibilities.

20. A Life Centered on Whim

To give an example: when Hōjō Sōun attacked Miura Arajirō, upon hearing that Miura’s castle had fallen, over a dozen of Sōun’s retainers turned toward the Miura faction and committed seppuku.
It is said this was because they felt gratitude for the favorable treatment received when captured by the Miura faction long ago.
In today’s world, does such magnanimity truly exist?

Among later generations of chivalrous outlaws and rogues, a moral sense somewhat akin to this permeated.
If glared at, to glare back was their way of life.
Driven by whim—if moved by someone’s spirit—they would readily become allies, yet just as swiftly turn into enemies.
We could taste such sentiments, if only partially, at ritual grounds; even that has now grown exceedingly faint.
The moral force of each successive era cannot but transform all things.
At the same time, the literature and arts of each era cannot come into being without engaging with this.
One might declare modern morality splendid.
But today, that is thought to have become somewhat fixed.
Consequently, it has lost its capacity for profound emotion.

It was thought that such reasons existed why modern literature and art no longer placed importance on this.

21. Conclusion

I think the discussion has diverged considerably at various junctures, but in essence, Japanese rogues have an ancient history. And then, after the Kamakura period, they became allied with mountain ascetics and began to prominently surface in society. This was because they came to ingratiate themselves with daimyō by utilizing esoteric practices.

However, their bases lay in mountain hinterlands; they typically made their living through dances and performances, while at year's start would tour patron households offering blessings. Among them were those who remained in the mountains, others who emerged into villages, and among these latter some even became daimyō or their retainers—but those who ultimately missed their chance initiated labor brokerage in the early Tokugawa era, behaving arrogantly even toward daimyō and hatamoto.

Kabuki theater was an art form born among them, to which Kōwaka dance exerted significant influence.

Kabuki theater subsequently underwent tremendous development, reaching a point where it had lost all traces of its former visage; yet even so, its connection to these original elements from its inception was never entirely severed. One must recognize that there existed enduring continuities throughout this period. Furthermore, within rogue art, there exist literary aspects that warrant mention.

Japanese literature began with the literature of ladies-in-waiting during the Court era; next arose the literature of recluses; then collaborated with rogue literature; and that which was born baptized by these—this became the townspeople’s literature of the Edo period. Regarding these points, I may perhaps elaborate on them in detail on another occasion. Herein I have discussed kabuki theater’s emergence as an art of rogues. In broad terms, I believe I have covered its essential characteristics.