Strong Medicine

Today, we would surely tend to regard the outcome of an earthquake (who died or was injured, who lost property, etc.) as a random matter. Of course, there are things people can do in earthquake-prone areas like bolting bookshelves and other large objects to studs in the walls of a house or, more simply, keeping an emergency kit at hand (be sure to include duct tape!). For the most part, however, what happens in an earthquake is beyond our power as individuals to control. Furthermore, we tend to regard earthquakes as random "acts of God" (an interesting expression--here "God" seems means the cosmic forces in general).

Tokugawa-period Japanese had a roughly similar view concerning the fate of individuals in an earthquake--it was a roll of the dice. But they tended not to regard the occurrence of earthquakes as random events. In the larger scheme of things, many residents of Edo regarded the Ansei Earthquake of 1855 as a purposeful attempt by the cosmic forces to correct a society that had become imbalanced. In this case, the main imbalance was a stagnation of currency in the form of the hoarding of money by Edo’s extremely wealthy residents, the vast majority of whom were merchants. The label “merchant” can be misleading, however. Merchants did not constitute a legally-defined social class, and they ranged from itinerate peddlers barely eking out a living to business tycoons so powerful that they managed the finances of large domains. It was these wealthy and powerful merchants, at least in the thinking of many of Edo’s common people, who caused problems by hoarding goods to manipulate prices and by storing up large quantities of wealth in the form of gold and silver, thereby preventing it from circulating in society. In short, they caused something akin to constipation in the social body, and the earthquake was strong purgative medicine.

The idea of the free circulation of vital essences as the basis of bodily or social health was a core concept in late Tokugawa Japan, embraced by intellectuals and ordinary people alike. For example, nearly all Tokugawa Confucian scholars stressed the need for wealth to circulate for society to be healthy. “The wealth of the realm,” wrote Yamaga Sokō 山鹿素行 (1622-1685), “belongs to the realm. It is not the wealth of a single person. Well should it circulate.” (Yamaga Sokô gorui, Tahara Tsuguo and Morimoto Jun’ichirô, eds., Yamaga Sokô, Nihon shisô taikei 32 [Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1970], p. 152.) While a few Confucian thinkers of the seventeenth century, most notably Kumazawa Banzan 熊沢蕃山 (1619-1691), argued against the free circulation of wealth and asserted that the ruler should keep all wealth under his own control, by the eighteenth century, nearly all writers on socio-political topics saw the unhindered movement of goods as socially beneficial, if not essential. In typical Confucian microcosmic-macrocosmic thinking, Kaibara Ekken 貝原益軒 (1630-1714) likened the flow of wealth in society with the flow of vital fluids through the body and the flow of vital energies through the cosmos:

If the flow of material force (ki) through heaven and earth is obstructed, abnormalities arise, causing natural disasters such as violent windstorms, floods and droughts, and earthquakes. If the things of the world are long collected together, such obstruction is inevitable. In humans, if the blood, vital essence (ki), food and drink do not circulate and flow, the result is disease. Likewise, if vast material wealth is collected in one place and not permitted to benefit and enrich others, disaster will strike later. (Kadôkun, Ekken-kai, eds., Ekken zenshû, Vol. 3  [Tokyo: Ekken zenshû kankôbu, 1911], p. 452.)

In this way of thinking, the essential social role of merchants was to circulate wealth. Notice also the linkage between the circulation of wealth and natural disasters such as earthquakes. This linkage was indisputable "common sense" to most educated Japanese of the Tokugawa period.

Academic discourse especially tended to link this notion of circulation with understandings of the five agents of yin and yang. Accumulating and holding vast quantities of currency prevented the circulation of metal, one of the five agents. In metaphysical terms, this situation could lead to an imbalance in the five agents and thus pave the way for natural disasters including earthquakes. More practically, Tokugawa Japan was chronically short of hard currency owing to economic growth and limitations on bakufu mining and minting capabilities. Ordinary people did not usually express themselves in the metaphysical language of Confucian scholars, but they also regarded the free circulation of goods and currency as essential for social and economic health. Ordinary urban dwellers tended to distrust wealthy merchants and blame them for high prices, and this distrust sometimes erupted in bursts of destructive rioting (uchikowashi 打ちこわし) in the latter years of the Tokugawa period. It is for these reasons that many residents of Edo regarded the Ansei Earthquake as heaven-sent medicine to take money out of the hands of wealthy merchants and put it into the hands of laborers, shopkeepers, workers in the construction trades, and other ordinary people.

A print entitled #Furidashi namazu-gusuri# (Namazu powdered medicine pouches) nicely illustrates the idea of the earthquake as medicine for society. Furidashi was a general name for powdered medicines sold in pouches by itinerate vendors and typically dissolved in hot water and drank like tea. In this print, a world-rectification namazu is dressed as a medicine seller. Instead of pouches of medicine, small figures representing some of the occupations who will benefit from the earthquake are stick into his straw-tipped pole. The text accompanying the image explains in detail the efficacy of this namazu medicine for restoring economic health. It restores the flow and circulation of money that has been collecting in storehouses, restores warmth to the cold hearted, cures poverty, reduces laziness, and reduces the ill effects of luxurious living. This language is similar to that of the Confucian scholar Kaibara Ekken in his well-known essay on healthful living, Yōjōkun.

#Chōsha, kane no yamai# (The metal disease of millionaires) is a typical example of this type of print. Kane 金 can mean metal in general, money in general, or gold, depending on the context. Here, of course, both its meaning of metal (one of the five agents of yin and yang) and money (especially gold coins) are relevant. A world-rectifying namazu presses the belly of a sick-looking rich man crouching next to his destroyed storehouse, forcing him to vomit gold coins. Nearby, two other wealthy men are excreting money. They are sick because of the metal that has accumulated within them, and the namazu is effecting a purgative cure. On a larger scale, the money that the wealthy were forced to spend to rebuild their damaged homes, businesses, and storehouses released money into the ranks of the commoners. Carpenters, plasterers, certain food vendors, building supplies vendors, and even ordinary porters enjoyed not only an upsurge in opportunities for work, but also a sharp increase in the wages they could command. While the earthquake may also have destroyed their own homes, the newly-rich commoners could easily afford to replace them, with money left over for luxuries.