SAMURAI WISDOM- TOKUGAWA YOSHIMUNE - Time and Tide

Japan in the early 18th century. After a century of Tokugawa rule, the nation is at peace. Around 1 million people throng the streets of Edo. It is one of the biggest cities on earth. In 1716, Tokugawa Yoshimune becomes eighth in the line of shoguns. But he takes the helm of a system on the verge of collapse. Festering political and economic challenges are eroding trust in the shogunate. In just four years, Yoshimune will put Japan on a new path that will better the lives of generations to come. How did he do it? Japan, home of the samurai. They were much more than mighty warriors, also possessed of surpassing wisdom. A wisdom they would use to change their world and bring forth a new era of peace. A wisdom bequeathed to the people of modern-day Japan. Samurai wisdom. Yoshimune was born in 1684. He was the fourth son of the daimyo of Ki province in modern-day Wakayama. He counted Tokugawa Ieyasu as his great-grandfather. But as the youngest son in a Tokugawa branch clan, Yoshimune was far from the seat of power. The records of the domain tell the story of his early years. He was raised outside the castle and loved to fish and hunt. The records document his prowess as a fisherman. It's said he stood 180 centimeters tall, far above average for his day. That he threw sumo wrestlers with ease. And with a single shot, he killed a huge boar that took 15 men to carry. But when he was 22, everything changed. In less than a year, Yoshimune's father and two elder brothers died. And he was appointed the daimyo of Ki. But even greater responsibilities were waiting. In 1716, the boy shogun Ietsugu died at the age of eight, leaving no successor. The Tokugawa turned to Yoshimune to succeed as shogun. He was 33 years old. Yoshimune took the reins of a shogunate in dire financial straits. He turned to the daimyos for help. If the problem is not addressed, hundreds of retainers must be dismissed. I therefore ask you to contribute one percent of your rice stores. I swallow my shame and request your compliance. This appeal raised an amount that covered the shogunate's immediate needs. Having saved the shogunate from default, Yoshimune set out to restore its long-term financial health. But that was only one of his challenges. An ancient enemy was stalking the streets of Edo, where more and more people were living in crowded conditions. The new shogun found Edo Castle in the grip of panic. For two months, fires had been raging all over the city. Conflagrations were so common that Edo was known as the City of Fires. The cause was overcrowding. Half of Edo's population of a million was samurai with large estates. That left only one-third of the space for the townspeople who were flocking to the city. The area for townspeople had a density of 60,000 people per square kilometer, ten times that of modern Tokyo. People lived in single rooms in closely spaced row houses. These long, narrow buildings were made of highly flammable materials like wood and paper. Sewers between the buildings were roofed with wooden planks. In a conflagration, these ditches became conduits for flame, spreading the fire with terrifying speed. Overcrowded tenements played a major role in making Edo fires so hard to control. Before Yoshimune, the shogunate relied on fire brigades made up of samurai. Their priority was to protect Edo Castle and their own properties. But when fire threatened the tenements, they had to respond. Ōishi Manabu studies the history of early modern Japan. He says that before Yoshimune, firefighting in the tenement districts was rarely effective. Yoshimune proposed a solution. Townspeople could fight fires themselves. Edo's local fire brigades were born. 47 brigades, each one covering 20 neighborhoods, were created in 1720. And each brigade had a banner called a matoi for its members to follow. These matoi marked a samurai commander's headquarters in the field. Now the townsmen became frontline soldiers defending their neighborhoods. One of them was the Na Brigade. Takayanagi Hirokazu descended from a Na Brigade leader. His family history is the history of Edo firefighting. In the Na Brigade, there was a small hut in front of the tenement house. Young people would go up to the hut and watch the fire. When the smoke would rise, the hut would ring the bell. The bell would ring, and the people would gather. When we were dispatched, we heard the sound of gunfire. This was the 3rd Brigade. The Na Brigade fielded nearly 300 men. Many of its members worked in construction. In the old days, the Edo-Na Shichu was a longhouse like this. It was a six-room longhouse. I've heard that there were longer longhouses. For example, when the north wind blows, let's say there's a fire here. We don't put out this fire. We destroy this. We throw this away. We make a shelter here. In an age without pumps to bring water from rivers and canals, it was hard to fight fires directly. The best strategy was to contain them and wait for them to burn out. If the wind is strong, while we're destroying this, the firewood on this roof will be burned. If that happens, these 200 men will try their best to destroy this, but when they can't, the firewood will die. Takayanagi cherishes a Na Brigade banner handed down by his predecessors. For the town, for the town where I was born and raised, I feel a sense of duty to protect these women and children. I think that's what it means. Yoshimune was an outdoor shogun. In the past, shoguns used to learn music by hand in the Edo castle. They would put musicians next to them. That was the way of the shogunate. In Yoshimune's case, he would go to the Takagari. He would go to the Takagari and observe the life of the common people. I think that's why he cherished the opinion and way of life of the shogunate. 300 years have passed, but Edo's citizen firefighters are still on the job. Modern fire brigades are crewed by local residents from all walks of life, from salary men and small business owners to public servants. After work, they gather for fire drills. Takayanagi Yoshimasa is Hirokazu's son. He's in the construction business. He's also a member of the local fire brigade. We are committed to protecting our town and our region. That's why we are working so hard. The spirit of Edo's firemen is still the core of modern firefighting in Japan. As shogun, Yoshimune faced another daunting foe. One of his aides left a first-hand account. A plague is spreading throughout Edo. In a single month, 80,000 have died. There are too many bodies to cremate. Most victims are wrapped in straw matting and cast into Edo Bay. The pandemic that ravaged Edo in 1716 may have been influenza. The city's densely crowded neighborhoods were the ideal environment for the spread of disease. Every year brought new contagions, from influenza to measles and smallpox. And every year, thousands died. Yet most people were forced to rely on prayers and magic charms to ward off sickness. In the early 18th century, Japan relied on medicines and medicinal herbs imported from China. They were expensive, and only available to the privileged few. Yoshimune was determined to change this. Japan had to become self-sufficient in medicines. That meant finding supplies of raw materials. First, to understand medicinal herbs in detail, Yoshimune eased the shogunate's century-old restrictions on imports of foreign books. He obtained books on medicinal herbs written by Dutch experts and thoroughly researched how to cultivate them. And in 1720, he assembled a team of picked experts to study medicinal herbs. Here too, Yoshimune reached out for civilian, not samurai, expertise. Miwa Shohaku was a physician studying medicinal plants. Noro Genjo, another physician, had translated a reference work on botany from Dutch. Abe Tomonoshin hailed from northeast Japan and studied medicinal herbs in China. And Uemura Masakatsu, who had been a farmer. Yoshimune said, since I was a farmer, I should be good at medicinal plants. He was a very easy-to-get-along person. He was very close to me. So Yoshimune didn't grow up in the middle of the mountains, but he was active in the fields. He gathered people like that and formed a group. The four men set out across Japan, researching and compiling data on medicinal herbs and their benefits. Samples were sent back to Edo, where they were compared with Chinese samples. The team discovered 70 medicinal herbs growing wild in Japan. Yoshimune established a medicinal botanical garden in Edo. Today, his garden is preserved as Koishikawa Botanical Garden. Yoshimune experimented with the effects of medicinal herbs and cultivated them in quantity for distribution to merchants. He also set aside part of the garden as a sanitarium that offered free herbal treatments. Edo's growing population included increasing numbers of the poor. Here they could find medical care where lack of money was no obstacle. Yoshimune also launched a nationwide push to disseminate information on medicinal herbs. In 1729, the shogunate published a compendium of information concerning Chinese herbal remedies. Kosoto Hiroshi is a scientist who researches Oriental medicine. He finds that an impressive range of illnesses can be treated at home using Yoshimune's compendium. If you feel the symptoms of a developing cold, you can treat it with five medicinal herbs. This recipe is for an ointment when a child has developed a boil on her head. Dried coptis appears in many prescriptions to treat intestinal complaints like diarrhea. Here's another example of a medicinal herb In case of a cold or headache, take white scallion root porridge. The book includes prescriptions with everyday ingredients even the poor could afford. Yoshimune found innovative ways to listen to the people. One was boxes for submitting suggestions. Using these boxes, members of the public could voice their thoughts directly to the shogun. Yoshimune himself carried the key to these boxes. With this novel initiative, he could incorporate the voices of the people in his policies. The importance of public sentiment was something he never forgot. Asukayama in northern Tokyo. The area is famous for its cherry trees. They began as a gift from Yoshimune of 1,270 trees from Edo Castle. Yoshimune loved hunting with falcons in this area. The cherry trees were originally meant to provide enjoyment for the shogun. But Yoshimune had Asukayama opened to the public. Kubono Kimiko is a historian of Asukayama. She says Yoshimune's ideals drove his creation of this cherry blossom paradise. I didn't just want to soothe the eyes of the powerful. I wanted everyone to come and enjoy this place. I developed and opened this place Sharing joy with the people. Admiring cherry blossoms was a time-honored tradition. But holding banquets under the flowering trees was Yoshimune's innovation. It was a completely new way to enjoy the spring spectacle. I wanted to create a place for the people of Edo where they could relieve their stress. I wanted to create a place surrounded by nature for the people of Edo to relax. People could enjoy themselves and express themselves to the visitors. They could enjoy themselves as the protagonists. They could drink, eat, and sing. It was like the cherry blossoms in Tokyo today. Viewing spring cherry blossoms became one of the year's biggest events for the people of Edo. Flower-viewing box lunches were all the rage. They featured spring delicacies like wild mountain plants and fresh fish from Edo Bay. Thanks to Yoshimune, Edo's citizens soon had many places to enjoy spring blossoms. Cherry trees lined the Sumida River and stood on high ground overlooking the sea. Many aspects of modern Japan can be traced directly to Yoshimune, a shogun like never before. The king, or the emperor, was the one who purified himself and taught people how to live. He taught people how to live in peace. That's what he taught us as a leader. But Yoshimune didn't do that. He chose to work for the people and work with the people to make the society more active and stable. That's why he chose to be a shogun. Yoshimune died in 1751 at the age of 68. Since then, three centuries have passed. Tokyo replaced Edo and became the world's biggest city. The cherry blossoms bear witness to Yoshimune's vision and his concern for ordinary people. He was a shogun who gave them and Japan a better future.