Matsushiro Castle - Domain School: Difference between revisions
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|CastleSubpageNameJse=松代藩校文武学校 | |CastleSubpageNameJse=松代藩校文武学校 | ||
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|CastleSubpageText=Matsushiro-hankō Bunbu-gakkō (Matsushiro, Nagano) 松代藩校・文武学校 ［長野県長野市松代町］ | |CastleSubpageText=Matsushiro-hankō Bunbu-gakkō (Matsushiro, Nagano) 松代藩校・文武学校 ［長野県長野市松代町］ | ||
Latest revision as of 12:38, 25 September 2025
Matsushiro-hankō Bunbu-gakkō (Matsushiro, Nagano) 松代藩校・文武学校 ［長野県長野市松代町］ This gallery shows the Matsushiro Hankō (Domain School), where samurai youth were educated and trained in the arts, from swordsmanship and archery to literature and astronomy. The hankō is called Bunbu Gakkō. 'Bunbu' is an elu
Matsushiro Castle - Domain School
松代藩校文武学校
Matsushiro-hankō Bunbu-gakkō (Matsushiro, Nagano) 松代藩校・文武学校 ［長野県長野市松代町］
This gallery shows the Matsushiro Hankō (Domain School), where samurai youth were educated and trained in the arts, from swordsmanship and archery to literature and astronomy. The hankō is called Bunbu Gakkō. 'Bunbu' is an elusion to Bunburyōdō ('the Way of Both Literary and Military Arts'), which was an idealised retrospective held by Edo period samurai of their heroic forbearers, particularly from the Heian period when great warriors were renowned as much for their cultural pursuits as their achievements on the battlefield. Bunburyōdō is one of the more historically congruent antecedents of the mostly modern concept of 'Bushidō'.
The hankō contains an archery range, main school building with classrooms, and various dōjō. The dōjō show us how martial arts were actually practiced in the time of the samurai. There are hard wooden floors; the only tatami matting were used in viewing galleries. If one looks carefully, it's apparent that the central viewing booth is slightly elevated compared to the others; this is where the sensei or visiting daimyō would've sat to observe his future warriors during their training. One will also note the complete lack of religious accoutrements which adorn modern dōjō. At that time there was no special link with shintō, and the presence of altars was actually mandated by Meiji period law during the time of State Shintō.
Not only were the samurai not governed by bushidō or shintō philosophy, but they were, with few exceptions, not into Zen, despite modern misconceptions about this. Takuan Sōhō, most famous in Japan for inventing a type of pickle, was a Zenist who wrote a series of letters, later collected as a book called 'The Mysterious Record of Unmovable Wisdom', later known in the West as 'The Unfettered Mind', which was adopted by samurai Yagyū Munenori, founder of Yagyū-Shinkage-ryū, a school of kenjutsu. This school would have an outsized influence on Japanese swordsmanship in subsequent centuries, and, along with modern methods of transmission following the defeat of Japan in the Pacific War, warp how Westerners viewed Japanese sword arts.
If the samurai had one governing philosophy or ideology then it was without a doubt a form of Confucianism. Many hankō also had halls or mausolea dedicated to Confucius. The hankō in Matsushiro is actually somewhat unusual in that it doesn't, though maybe it's just no longer extant.
The hankō's more recent exhibitions include a virtual firing range with mock rifles (and even a mortar) where prospective samurai students can learn gunnery! Another display is a video presentation tastefully projected onto the sliding paper doors of the hankō's classroom.
Gallery by ART.
Gallery
