Laura Nenzi

Portents and Politics: Two Women Activists on the Verge of the Meiji Restoration

This essay examines the deployment of revelations and prophetic dreams in the writings of two female political activists of the bakumatsu period, Kurosawa Tokiko and Nomura Bōtō. As a rhetorical device, the supernatural enabled Kurosawa and Nomura to foster their affiliation with the loyalists, to envision order, and to justify their actions. As a weapon and as a shield, it offered a sense of entitlement and the illusion of invulnerability. Studies of bakumatsu ideology often emphasize its rational qualities; these two case studies, however, shed new light on the multifaceted expressions of political activism on the verge of the Meiji Restoration.

Caught in the spotlight: the 1858 comet and late Tokugawa Japan

Abstract In the fall of 1858 a large comet crossed the skies of Japan. Casting its light over a society in turmoil, torn apart by political factionalism and threatened by a virulent cholera epidemic, economic collapse, and foreign encroachment, the 1858 comet quickly became the centerpiece of diverging interpretations on the state of society, the country, or the world in general. To some, the ‘strange star’ was an ominous symbol of impending catastrophe, while others saw it as the broom that would sweep away the misery of old and usher in a much-needed world renewal. Through an examination of personal diaries, official records, astronomers’ reports, and popular literature, this article argues that the 1858 comet served as versatile metaphor for all that was frightening, puzzling, or inspiring about life at the twilight of the Tokugawa era.

The worldwide impact of Donati's comet on art and society in the mid-19th century

Donatis comet was one of the most spectacular astronomical events of the nineteenth century. Its extended sword-like tail was a spectacular sight that inspired several literary and artistic representations. Traces of Donatis comet are found in popular magazines, childrens books, collection cards, and household objects through the beginning of the twentieth century.

Travel and Gift Exchange in Nineteenth-Century Japan

As he was making the rounds on New Year’s Day, 1825, the head (shōya 庄屋) of Muramatsu 村松 village (in Echigo 越後 Province) could not help but notice the voluminous amount of gifts that visitors and residents exchanged. At the height of the Bunka-Bunsei 文化文政 eras (1804–1829), during which a degree of prosperity had spread to the rural areas as well, the practice of offering and receiving material objects should not have struck the shōya as extravagant or even noteworthy, but it did, and he took action. While he acknowledged the popularity of leisurely travel and of trips to hot springs resorts, he also called for a moratorium on the exchange of gifts between travelers and home-based peers.2 With his request, the Muramatsu village head failed to see (or did he? More on this below) that gifts were more than just inert objects with a price tag: they were material manifestations, and reminders, of bonds between individuals. Scholars have long posited that the exchange of presents marks transitional moments in a person’s life cycle and have made a case for the symbolic meaning of a gift as a mirror of social relations. For example, Morita Toyoko 森田登代子 has used records pertaining to gifts exchanged on festive and sad occasions (births, marriages, funerals, memorial services, visits to shrines) by the members of one family of medicine wholesalers in Kyoto, from the late

The Chaos and Cosmos of Kurosawa Tokiko: One Woman's Transit from Tokugawa to Meiji Japan

Chaos and Cosmos of Kurosawa Tokiko is the story of a selfdescribed obase-born nobodyo who tried to change the course of Japanese history. Kurosawa Tokiko (1806u1890), a commoner from rural Mito domain, was a poet, teacher, oracle, and politicalactivist. In 1859 she embraced the xenophobic loyalist faction (known for the motto orevere the emperor, expel the barbarianso) and traveled to Kyoto to denounce the shogunAEs policies before the emperor. She was arrested for slander, taken to EdoAEs infamousTenmach? prison, and sentenced to banishment. In her later years, having crossed the Tokugawa-Meiji divide, Tokiko became an elementary school teacher and experienced firsthand the modernizing policies of the new government. After her death she washonored with court rank for her devotion to the loyalist cause. TokikoAEs story reflects not only some of the key moments in JapanAEs transition to the modern era, but also some of its lesser-known aspects, thereby providing us with a broader narrative of the late-Tokugawa crisis, the collapse of the shogunate, and the rise of the Meiji state. The peculiar combination of no-nonsense single- mindedness and visionary flights of imagination evinced in her numerous diaries and poetry collections nuances our understanding of activism and political consciousness among rural non-elites by blurring the lines between the rational and the irrational, focus and folly. TokikoAEs use of prognostication and her appeals to cosmic forces point to the creative paths women have constructed to take part in political debates as well as the resourcefulness required to preserve oneAEs identity in the face of changing times. In the early twentieth century, Tokiko was reimagined in the popular press and her story rewritten to offset fears about female autonomy and boost local and national agendas. These distorted and romanticized renditions offer compelling examples of the politicization of the past and of the extent to which present anxieties shape historical memory. That Tokiko was unimportant and her loyalist mission a failure is irrelevant. What is significant is that through her life story we are able to discern the ordinary individual in the midst of history. By putting an extra in the spotlight, The Chaos and Cosmos of Kurosawa Tokiko offers a new script for the drama that unfolded on the stage of late-Tokugawa and early Meiji history.