Kamigeni
06-02-2008, 07:32 AM
While still searching around Manila for the legacy of Lord Ukon with Wigent-san, I have another historical person that I would like to share with you. He's not one of the favorite subjects that I would like to discuss (samurai), but he's something worthy of being mentioned, particularly for me as a Filipino. I think youmight find it interesting too. ;)
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Nowadays in the Philippines, we have places or streets named after famous (and not so famous) people. In Japan years ago, it was different; it was the other way around. It was not uncommon to find people who have their families named after a place. It was practical for "commoners" back then because they were not allowed to use family names, and one way to distinguish two persons of similar name is to add the name of their birthplace. Even among samurai, many famous family names orginated from one place or another: the Ashikaga shoguns took their name from Ashikaga in Shimotsuke province (now Tochigi Prefecture); the Nitta warriors from the Nitta district in Kozuke province (now Gumma Prefecture); and even Takeda Shingen's family are from Takeda in Kai province (now the city of Nirasaki in the Yamanashi Prefecture).
Then there's this one Japanese by the name of Luzon Sukezaemon.
Now see, chances are that after I mention that name after giving that long introduction, you might stop and wonder if he got his family name from a certain very familiar place. Well chances are, you are correct. Luzon Sukezaemon (or Ruson Sukezaemon) was once known as Naya Sukezaemon. The island of Luzon in the Philippines must have mattered to him very much because in 1593, he dropped his family name and adopted the name of Luzon.
Sukezaemon was not a samurai, but was a Japanese merchant from the port of Sakai. He was the son of Sakai merchant Naya Saisuke. He became successful and wealthy in the Southeast Asian trade, but his biggest fortune came from selling ceramic jars he obtained from Luzon in the Philippines. Known as 'matsubo' or 'Ruson tsubo,' the Luzon jars had symbols of native scripts from Philippines and were marked as Rusun-tsukuru "made in Luzon." These jars were highly admired by powerful lords who were practitioners of tea ceremony, and so they were sold at very high prices. It is said that even the great tea master Sen no Rikyu prized some of the tea wares brought back by Sukezaemon. But the biggest admirer of them all is none other than the national unifier, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. (More of him later.)
How valuable were these ceramic jars? For the Japanese, the Luzon jar was important because it was the only vessel capable of storing high-quality tea to their liking. Tea leaf kept its quality in these canisters if it touched the bottom or sides of the jar. Thus, it appears that contact with the clay (that is unique in Luzon) was required to preserve the tea. Some reported that the jars also appeared to have medicinal and spiritual properties. Hideyoshi even had a tsubo or pot purposely manufactured in Luzon during his reign. Even during the Tokugawa bakufu, the Shoguns' tea deputies used nine choice jars in the Shogun's palace, all genuine speciments of Luzon pottery.
And so, Sukezaemon owed much of his success to our own Luzon back then, and so it is no surprise that he changes his family name to a place that he feels more attached to. From his fortune, he built himself a lavish Western-style house in Sakai and lived a rather luxurious lifestyle for several years. Alas, this mansion must have put the local castles to shame, because it eventually attracted the attention and the ire of Hideyoshi. Indeed, Sukezaemon and Hideyoshi seemed to have a history together. (Again, more of this later.) In 1598, the Hideyoshi accused the merchant on bogus charges, and confiscated all his possessions. Fearing for his life, Sukezaemon entrusted his home to his family's temple, the Daian-ji, and fled to Cambodia. Some say that he first settled back here in Manila. In 1607, when the Spanish began to interfere in the Philippines, Sukezaemon finally went to Cambodia. He earned the trust of the local authorities and began to trade once more.
Shiroyama Saburo made a novel about Sukezaemon and the 1978 NHK Taiga drama "Ogon no Hibi" was based on that novel. The title roughly means "The Golden Days", which refers to the best years of Sakai. Now, let me just share the early part of the story. Given some level of independence by the Ashikaga bakufu government, Sakai is self-governed by a group of wealthy merchants. We are introduced to Sukezaemon as a little boy. He meets a young low-rank samurai, who gave him a foreign coin. It leads Sukezaemon to dream about foreign countries, sailing seas by his own ship. The samurai was none other than Kinoshita Toukichirou. Who is he? Toukichirou is the person who would eventually be known as Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the ruler of Japan who unified the country. As two characters rise their steps--Sukezaemon in trade, Toukichirou in the battlefield--the conflict starts to becomes apparent. Collision is inevitable. Well, the rest they say is history. I've never seen the Taiga drama, but if there's already an English translation of the novel, I'd settle for that.
So, I think we as Filipinos should celebrate the history of Luzon Sukezaemon, not just for the fact that our country matters much to him, and for the fact that he disavowed his family's name and established a new identity that is connected to us, but also because he reminds us that we do have resources here in our country that would prove to be quite valuable to other cultures--one of them is the Ruson tsubo.
Sukezaemon was eventually allowed to return to Japan. He spent his last days in his homeland of Sakai. He was buried at the Daian-ji. A bronze statue of him can be seen in that city. You can see the statue in the Wikipedia article of the guy (see link in the sources).
Surprisingly, another statue of him is here in Manila as well. Although, the problem is I don't know where his statue is located. [:(]
Source:
Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan
Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luzon_Sukezaemon)
Paul K. Manansala. Luzon Jars (http://sambali.blogspot.com/2006/09/luzon-jars-glossary.html).
********
Nowadays in the Philippines, we have places or streets named after famous (and not so famous) people. In Japan years ago, it was different; it was the other way around. It was not uncommon to find people who have their families named after a place. It was practical for "commoners" back then because they were not allowed to use family names, and one way to distinguish two persons of similar name is to add the name of their birthplace. Even among samurai, many famous family names orginated from one place or another: the Ashikaga shoguns took their name from Ashikaga in Shimotsuke province (now Tochigi Prefecture); the Nitta warriors from the Nitta district in Kozuke province (now Gumma Prefecture); and even Takeda Shingen's family are from Takeda in Kai province (now the city of Nirasaki in the Yamanashi Prefecture).
Then there's this one Japanese by the name of Luzon Sukezaemon.
Now see, chances are that after I mention that name after giving that long introduction, you might stop and wonder if he got his family name from a certain very familiar place. Well chances are, you are correct. Luzon Sukezaemon (or Ruson Sukezaemon) was once known as Naya Sukezaemon. The island of Luzon in the Philippines must have mattered to him very much because in 1593, he dropped his family name and adopted the name of Luzon.
Sukezaemon was not a samurai, but was a Japanese merchant from the port of Sakai. He was the son of Sakai merchant Naya Saisuke. He became successful and wealthy in the Southeast Asian trade, but his biggest fortune came from selling ceramic jars he obtained from Luzon in the Philippines. Known as 'matsubo' or 'Ruson tsubo,' the Luzon jars had symbols of native scripts from Philippines and were marked as Rusun-tsukuru "made in Luzon." These jars were highly admired by powerful lords who were practitioners of tea ceremony, and so they were sold at very high prices. It is said that even the great tea master Sen no Rikyu prized some of the tea wares brought back by Sukezaemon. But the biggest admirer of them all is none other than the national unifier, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. (More of him later.)
How valuable were these ceramic jars? For the Japanese, the Luzon jar was important because it was the only vessel capable of storing high-quality tea to their liking. Tea leaf kept its quality in these canisters if it touched the bottom or sides of the jar. Thus, it appears that contact with the clay (that is unique in Luzon) was required to preserve the tea. Some reported that the jars also appeared to have medicinal and spiritual properties. Hideyoshi even had a tsubo or pot purposely manufactured in Luzon during his reign. Even during the Tokugawa bakufu, the Shoguns' tea deputies used nine choice jars in the Shogun's palace, all genuine speciments of Luzon pottery.
And so, Sukezaemon owed much of his success to our own Luzon back then, and so it is no surprise that he changes his family name to a place that he feels more attached to. From his fortune, he built himself a lavish Western-style house in Sakai and lived a rather luxurious lifestyle for several years. Alas, this mansion must have put the local castles to shame, because it eventually attracted the attention and the ire of Hideyoshi. Indeed, Sukezaemon and Hideyoshi seemed to have a history together. (Again, more of this later.) In 1598, the Hideyoshi accused the merchant on bogus charges, and confiscated all his possessions. Fearing for his life, Sukezaemon entrusted his home to his family's temple, the Daian-ji, and fled to Cambodia. Some say that he first settled back here in Manila. In 1607, when the Spanish began to interfere in the Philippines, Sukezaemon finally went to Cambodia. He earned the trust of the local authorities and began to trade once more.
Shiroyama Saburo made a novel about Sukezaemon and the 1978 NHK Taiga drama "Ogon no Hibi" was based on that novel. The title roughly means "The Golden Days", which refers to the best years of Sakai. Now, let me just share the early part of the story. Given some level of independence by the Ashikaga bakufu government, Sakai is self-governed by a group of wealthy merchants. We are introduced to Sukezaemon as a little boy. He meets a young low-rank samurai, who gave him a foreign coin. It leads Sukezaemon to dream about foreign countries, sailing seas by his own ship. The samurai was none other than Kinoshita Toukichirou. Who is he? Toukichirou is the person who would eventually be known as Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the ruler of Japan who unified the country. As two characters rise their steps--Sukezaemon in trade, Toukichirou in the battlefield--the conflict starts to becomes apparent. Collision is inevitable. Well, the rest they say is history. I've never seen the Taiga drama, but if there's already an English translation of the novel, I'd settle for that.
So, I think we as Filipinos should celebrate the history of Luzon Sukezaemon, not just for the fact that our country matters much to him, and for the fact that he disavowed his family's name and established a new identity that is connected to us, but also because he reminds us that we do have resources here in our country that would prove to be quite valuable to other cultures--one of them is the Ruson tsubo.
Sukezaemon was eventually allowed to return to Japan. He spent his last days in his homeland of Sakai. He was buried at the Daian-ji. A bronze statue of him can be seen in that city. You can see the statue in the Wikipedia article of the guy (see link in the sources).
Surprisingly, another statue of him is here in Manila as well. Although, the problem is I don't know where his statue is located. [:(]
Source:
Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan
Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luzon_Sukezaemon)
Paul K. Manansala. Luzon Jars (http://sambali.blogspot.com/2006/09/luzon-jars-glossary.html).