Module 3:

“The
Strangeness of
Beauty”
(excerpt)
By Lydia Minatoya
1. Samurai-military nobility in Japan
2. Obsolete -out of date
3. Suppress -forcibly put an end to
4. Figurehead- head without real power.
5. Shrewd – clever/sharp
6. Bankrupt –unable to pay what you owe
7. Calligraphy – visual art related to
writing
8. Literati – educated class
9. Egalitarianism –everyone has the
same political, economic, social 
and civil rights
10. Perquisite – benefit/advantage
11. Ostentation -excessive display
12. Rickshaw – 2/3 wheeled passenger
cart
13. Boisterous – noisy/energetic
14. Refinement – process of removing
impurities
15. Allure – powerfully attractive
16. Eaves – edges of the roof which
overhang the face of a wall
17. Innocuous – not harmful
18. Deference - respect
19. Haughty – arrogantly superior
20. Bumpkins –socially awkward person
from the countryside
 Background Knowledge:
 Inancient times, arranged marriages were considered the
norm in Japanese society. According to Monica Bincsik,
“The social structure of the Edo period (1615-1868)
developed under the strict control of the Tokugawa
military regime. During this period, the families of the
shogunate and provincial leaders (daimyō) arranged
marriages based on political interests, and the consent of
the shogunate was necessary for daimyō wedding. The
betrothed always came from the same social strata.”
 Background Knowledge:
This was done with the help of a go-between
or a matchmaker. According to the New
World Encyclopedia,  omiai (Japanese: お見
合い ) or miai is a traditional Japanese
custom whereby unattached individuals are
introduced to each other to consider the
possibility of marriage.
 Background Knowledge:
 Parentsmay enlist the aid of professional
matchmakers, nakōdo (Japanese: 仲人 ), who
charge a fee to provide pictures and resumes of
potential mates who are rich, cultured, and/or
well educated. The word omiai is used to
describe both the entire process a swell as the
first meeting between the couple, with the
matchmaker and the couple’s parents present.”
 The Strangeness of Beauty
 InWhich I Recount Fuji History – The Fujis are
samurai: warriors belonging to a category of elite
shi families that included nobles, members of the
imperial court, and priests. They have traced
their ancestry back 800 years. By the year 1500,
Japan was divided between 250 continually
warring regional warlords, each hoping to attain
centralized power.
 In Which I Recount Fuji History
 During those years of civil wars, birth into a
samurai family meant a boy might see battle by
the age of thirteen. As a toddler, a son was taught
respect for elders, compassion for women, and
cooperation with other boys. By the age seven,
he spent 10 hours a day drilling in mental
discipline, moral integrity, archery, lancing, and
swordmanship.
 In Which I Recount Fuji History
 Bythe ages 13 and 15, the boy will partake in
genbuku ceremony, where he will receive an
adult name, a haircut shaved and styled into a
topknot, and a suit of armor. Whether he
survived his first year in battle boiled down to
two factors: how well he learned his lessons, and
random dumb luck.
 In Which I Recount Fuji History
 During those days, many samurai daughters also
trained to do battle. In addition, they studied
philosophy, history, and literature – frequently
gaining distinction as poets, novelists, and
scholars. A samurai daughter’s primary duty was
to provide her father with military and political
alliance through marriage, and to provide her
husband with a male heir.
 In Which I Recount Fuji History
 In1180, Tomoe Gozen fought by her husband’s
side at the battle of Uji to allow her husband to
commit suicide which was more honorable than
conceding defeat – the noble lady’s life was
spared and she retired to a monastery, where she
was praised for her holy life. There was also a
female samurai, Hosokawa Jako, who became
famous for spying on an enemy encampment
using her lip rouge.
 In Which I Recount Fuji History
 Despitethis great heritage of courage and honor,
samurai have become obsolete. The decline of the
samurai began in 1606, when warlord Tokugawa
Ieyasu reneged on a deathbed promise. Having
sworn to protect the 6 year old heir of his old ally
Toyotomi Hideyoshi- who succeeded in suppresing
other warlords and seized control of Japan- he
instead killed the boy. Thus began fifteen
generations (1606-1869) of the Tokugawa
Shogunate
 In Which I Recount Fuji History
 Introducing the policy of “peace at home,
isolation from abroad,” the Tokugawa shoguns
prevented the reemergence of domestic military
competitors by developing a military strategy.
First they banished the emperor and his court to
figurehead status. Then they demanded that
regional lords and their samurai leave their wives
and children at the shogun’s Edo (Tokyo) court.
 In Which I Recount Fuji History
 Finallythey forced these lesser lords and samurai
to spend half their time alone in their home
provinces, and half visiting their families in Edo.
The shogun’s plan was a shrewd one. The
expense involved in maintaining residences
neatly removed any money that could be used for
mounting insurrections. More important, the
policy made hostages of family members living
lavish yet closely surveyed court lives.
 In Which I Recount Fuji History
 As a result, during the two centuries of
Tokugawa power, the lives of the samurai
changed. Cut off from their lands, taught to
believe in a society where “no man should be too
rich or too poor,” they were suspicious of trade,
in which they were forbidden by law from
engaging and which they saw as benefiting some
and bankrupting others.
 In Which I Recount Fuji History
 Samurai families grew accustomed to living on
government stipends, embracing genteel poverty,
and searching for meaning in relative inactivity.
Samurai men trained for war – being always
ready for battle in the event of foreign assault.
Yet they are largely worked as government
functionaries for whom literacy and numeracy
were the most needed skills.
 In Which I Recount Fuji History
 The samurais were educated by Buddhist priests
and Confucian scholars to be students of
philosophy , poetry, calligraphy, and tea, samurai
turned into intellectuals. Finally, the Tokugawa
shogunate finally crumbled, the Boshin Civil
War ended 263 years of Tokugawa shogunate
rule.
 In Which I Recount Fuji History
 The House of Fuji is female, where women are
born to serve fathers, brothers, and husbands.
Their curse is that they are only all
daughters/women. The family curse turned the
Fuji name into an embarrassment. For in a class
where the honor of one’s family name meant so
much, who could respect a family incapable of
producing a boy?
 In Which I Recount Fuji History
 Matchmaking was impossible, other houses only
offered wastrel/neglected sons. And as is
customary in high families that lack a male heir,
Chie took a yoshi. As eldest daughter, she
married a second son who-having no obligation
to continue his family name-was willing to
change his surname to hers. That man was Kan.
 A Meeting with the Go-Between
 Afternumerous failed arranged marriages, Chie
and her parents was on her way to another one. It
takes place on a teahouse (Mikado) on one April
afternoon in 1888. Chie liked the teahouse and
she based her judgments on two philosophical
principles vital to the samurai life:wabi(simple
quite strength) and sabi(rustic timeless elegance).
 A Meeting with the Go-Between
 These two seemingly simple ideas, linked with
the concepts of giri to the world(duty to bring
honor to one’s nations, employer, family, and
associates) and giri to one’s name (personal
integrity), had for thousands of years governed
every aspect of samurai conduct. They also
underlay behaviors like how to arrange one’s
body during sleep: men flinging arms and legs
boldly outward in the shape of the written
 A Meeting with the Go-Between
 character for dai, or “greatness”; women curling
carefully inward in the modest dignifies shape of
the character kinoji or “self-control.” Chie would
be the first, after two generations of girls in her
household, who upon marriage would not be
expected to blacken her teeth. Blackened teeth
was not a traditional custom, for it evidenced
lack of seriousness, not in keeping with a warrior
woman’s nature.
 A Meeting with the Go-Between
 Indeed,Fuji women began blackening their teeth
only as a means of resisting the dictated Western
vanity of white teeth and, after a short time, had
relinquished the custom. When the two families
meet in a private
 A Meeting with the Go-Between
 Chie was a matriarch figure, meaning she is
accustomed to having her own way. Because of
that, she made ridiculous actions, which made
her unlikable to Kan’s parents. But in the end,
Kan chooses to serve her and carry her family
name.