YM COLUMN ARCHIVE

October 7, 2009

Genealogy of “WA” (ancient Japan and/or harmony) (1)
-----Subject on ancient script-----

Let me talk about “WA” this week. At the opening of the “Seventeen-Articles Constitution” enacted by Prince Shotoku is written “What makes it precious is WA (harmony or peace) and bear it in mind not to fight”. This was quoted from “For being polite and respectful, what makes it precious is WA” in Analects of Confucius. It may not be allowed to interpret such historical documents in one’s own unilateral way, but I vaguely remember that I learned either at elementary or middle school that Prince Shotoku’s Constitution provided for the moral principle of public servants ruled by the Prince. In my ambiguous memory at elementary or middle school, I thought it must have meant just “be friendly one another” or something like that. Loose memory of mine tells me somewhat of my thought at that time, “it may be right, for fighting can’t do a right job”.

Here in this column this week let me discuss the theme from the standpoint of the intrinsic nature of Japanese people. Why I stick to this is because the very subject of this theme, I think, is deeply connected with “preciousness of life”, “creativity of Japanese” and “Japanese contribution to the world in modern society”.

The first thing to discuss “WA” is the theme on the letters. We write sentences by freely using Chinese characters and kana syllabaries (hiragana and katakana) and sometimes even mixed with English alphabets. This modern system of creolized language of Japanese and Chinese is very useful in representing powerful expression sometimes with assistance of some other foreign scripts. Then, how has this writing system of ours been established so far? Although this is such an astounding subject to talk about, I hope you will stay with me for a while, because in this very theme a creative sensibility of “WA” of people on this archipelago is vividly breathing.

Let me begin from ancient times. There have been controversial arguments going on as to if or not this country had our own writing system prior to the import of Chinese characters.

All Japanese letters, which were hypothetically presumed to have been in use from even before the import of Chinese characters, are collectively called “letters from time immemorial”. To tell the conclusion first, there were a number of scholars having believed in existence of such letters in Edo Period, and even today there is a certain number of persons so believed among those followers of ancient traditional history and Shintoism. However, according to the research of modern times by academic Japanese language society, so-called “letters from time immemorial” are not from ancient time but only contemporary concocted to the effect that there had not existed the native letters of this country prior to the Chinese characters having been introduced to this country.

The theory of existence of “letters from time immemorial” was first advocated by Urabe Kanekata, a Shintoist in Kamakura Period. Kanekata said in “Shaku Nihon-ki (interpretation of Japanese history)” written before 1301, “According to Nihonshoki (Chronicles of Japan), there existed divination in time immemorial. How could they do fortune-telling without letters?” On this ground he advocated the possibility of some sort of letters having existed in time immemorial. Kanekata himself seemed to have believed that the letters were syllabary katakana: ever since then Shintoism began to preach existence of letters from time immemorial other than katakana. For instance, Kiyohara Nobukata said rather specifically of its form and vocabulary in Nihonshoki-sho (abridged Chronicles of Japan) written in 1527, “Letters from time immemorial had 15,379 scripts which were covertly kept not for public distribution”. However, real forms of ancient letters had not clearly shown up.

Having entered Edo Period, ancient philosophies were received with more enthusiasm so that theory of existence of letters from time immemorial had more and more of support from people to have made, at last, an appearance of “real letter form”: ever since then the letter forms as introduced as from time immemorial has counted up to as many as several tens, among which most famous are theories written by Hirata Atsutame, who converted to protagonist from denier in the theory of existence of letters from time immemorial, such as “Theory on letters from time immemorial” described in “Koshicho (Notebook on ancient history)” and also “Kannahiminotsutae (story-telling of ancient letters)” and its appendix booklet “Gijihen (quasi letters)”.

On the other hand, every scholar such as Kaibara Ekken, Dazai Shundai, Kamono Mabuchi, Motoori Norinaga and Ban Nobutomo empirically denied the theory of existence of ancient letters and made assertions that those letters were false-made in later years. Their arguments are based on the historical fact that Inbeno Hironari, an elder of Inbeno clan who were responsible for presiding festivities of Imperial court over generations, clearly stated in “Kogoishu (Gleanings on ancient words)” that there did not exist letters in Japan before the import of Chinese characters. This is the valuable evidence five hundred years earlier to Urabe Kanekata.

Further down in modern age, Dr. Shinkichi Hashimoto studied in details the documents of Nara era such as “Manyoshu (The Anthology of Myriad Leaves)” that was written in Manyo kana and found special way of using kana called “special usage of kana of ancient times”. He also clarified that there were eighty-eight syllabic sounds including dull sounds in Nara Period and that the number of letters in ancient times was almost same as those of Heian Period such as in “I-Ro-Ha poem (ABC poem) or Japanese syllabary of fifty sounds, which proves nothing but the historical fact that the letters from time immemorial were all created only after Heian Period.

Some of Japanese ancient letters resemble Hangul scripts of Korea very closely such as “Abiru letters” or “Hifumi” which are closely connected with local ruling family of Abiru clan of Tsushima Island.

http://deliver.vector.co.jp/screenshot/425/425926_01.jpg

But the Hangul scripts were devised in 1443, which means, therefore, that Abiru letters were also created after 1443, unless there will emerge the evidence that Hangul scripts were worked out in reference to Abiru letters. Let me also introduce below ancient letters called “Katakamuna scripts”.

http://deliver.vector.co.jp/screenshot/422/422191_00.jpg

In the last place, I will introduce some incident that occurred early twentieth century, although you may find it absurd.

There is a religious institution called “Sumi-Oya-Sumira-Oo-Tamashii-Tamaya Amatsukyo” in Isohara town of Kita-Ibaragi city, Ibaragi prefecture. The document called “Takenouchi Monjo (Takenouchi written document) is said to have been handed down as a religious scripture of Amatsukyo in this religious institution. This written document consists of a series of collected documents i.e. documents of ancient legendary stories such as the document written in ancient letters, duplicate copies translated in Chinese characters and katakana by Hegurino Matori, grandchild of Takeuchi Sukune, by order of Emperor Buretsu and stones and swords engraved with letters. The duplicate copies are said to have been destroyed by fire and therefore it is believed, as of today, to be an apocryphal book or a false history.

On March 29, 1928, the sixty-sixth chief priest of the shrine by the name of Takeuchi Kiyomaro to have professedly claimed himself a descendant of Takeuchi family to which he was adopted, publicly disclosed the existence of the documents. At disclosure of the documents he said, “Most of the documents were destroyed by fire but I recompiled the rest of the old documents of the Southern Dynasty”. At that time he was accused of using Imperial Emblem of Chrysanthemum of which charge he was arrested by special political police of Interior Ministry to have been sentenced lese majesty.

This is so-called “Amatsu kyo lese majesty” incident. The case was brought up to Imperial Court (present supreme court), as a result of which he was discharged of not guilty on December 12, 1944 for the reason of “not suitable for legal judgment because of its nature of religious principle”.

By using the data disclosed at that time, Ryokichi Kano and Shinkichi Hashimoto developed criticism of the ancient letters. A part of “Takeuchi Documents” is to be referred to in the URL below. Please click the URL to visit the website. You can have a rough idea what the ancient letters were like.

http://www.interq.or.jp/www-user/fuushi/5-anc/5h-genngo/5h-amatu-1.htm

Nevertheless, there seems to be a number of people still believed in the ancient letters and history may repeat itself. As of today, however, the accepted theory is that the ancient letters were concocted in later years. Many of ancient remains have been excavated recently, along which have been discovered clay /metal vessels and wood strip engraved with letters, from those data what kind of letters were used before “Kojiki (A Record of Ancient Matters) and Nihonshoki (Chronicles of Japan) are beginning to be uncovered. From this archaeological knowledge, I think the theory of non-existence of Japanese native letters prior to the import of Chinese characters is a reliable and fair theory.

For this reason, therefore, I would like to proceed to next discussion next week on the premise that there did not exist the letters from time immemorial.

I welcome your comments on this column to the following E-mail address.
matogawa@planetary.or.jp

Copyright (c) 2000 The Planetary Society of Japan. All rights reserved