Wartime Culture as Seen in the Patriotic Hyakunin Isshu: Everything Was Used for and Coerced into Cooperating with the War Effort

When it comes to New Year's games, there are many, but everyone would agree that Hyakunin Isshu is one of them. It is a unique Japanese art and culture consisting of reading cards with elegant illustrations and waka poems that capture love, nature, the changing of the world, and various emotions.
However, during the war, the Japan Literature Patriotic Association (chaired by Soho Tokutomi), composed of writers who cooperated with the war effort, selected what was called the 'Patriotic Hyakunin Isshu,' which was announced by the Information Bureau on November 20, 1942 (Showa 17). This selection was supported by the Ministry of War, the Ministry of the Navy, the Ministry of Education, the Imperial Rule Assistance Association, and the Japan Broadcasting Corporation, with the cooperation of the Mainichi Shimbun (then Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun), and was certified by the Information Bureau.
The Information Bureau wanted it to be used from the New Year as 'wholesome family entertainment.' However, as national strength was becoming exhausted, a product with only text on the reading cards was hurriedly produced at the end of that same year. It appears that products with illustrations on the reading cards were produced by November 24, 1943 (Showa 18). However, this item in the collection was issued on December 20, 1943 (Showa 18), and the reading cards only had text. Because the paper is very thin, the box is extremely shallow.

This Patriotic Hyakunin Isshu consists of works selected as patriotic by 12 selectors (Nobutsuna Sasaki, Mokichi Saito, Mizuho Ota, Shihon Onoe, Kubo Kubota, Shinobu Orikuchi, Ryosuke Yoshiue, Jun Kawada, Ryu Saito, Bumei Tsuchiya, Eiichi Matsumura, and Hakushu Kitahara) from works spanning from the Manyo period to the end of the Edo period. (From 'Complete Record of 20,000 Days of Showa, Vol. 6')

Looking at some representative examples, these kinds of works were selected.

Works that inspire the morale of the subjects and those that exude a bushido-like atmosphere stand out. In particular, loyalty to the Emperor is firmly incorporated.

Also, works that praise the Emperor or sing of the honor of serving him are, naturally, prominent.

And then, there are works that take pride in protecting the Emperor and dying for him.

In that vein, there was this work.

'To serve the Emperor, my mother gave birth to me; how noble she is. - Azumao Sakura'

The idea is that a mother who willingly offers her child for the sake of the Emperor is noble. This smells like nothing but propaganda to get soldiers sent to the front.

Finally, two tanka poems. I feel that there was an intention here to guide the consciousness of the Japanese people at the time. Even so, how should we view the fact that this same consciousness continues even today?

I will omit detailed explanations, but I hope you can sense what the intention was to guide the subjects at the time.
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Now, in addition to this product which is in the form of a card game, there was also a product where the reading and playing cards were printed on paper the size of a newspaper, which the buyer would cut out and paste onto a suitable backing at home. This was issued on August 25, 1943 (Showa 18) by Dainippon Gageki Co., Ltd., known for producing national policy kamishibai (paper theater).

This Patriotic Hyakunin Isshu game also included the 'Seven Rules for Playing Karuta,' which were even more patriotic gestures.

While it is called wholesome entertainment, if you follow these rules, it is like spiritual training. They went to such lengths to keep the subjects in line. They believed that each ritual would create the people of the Imperial Nation. They must have seen it as something that would gradually sink in as one repeated it, starting from the form.
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By the way, in Nagano Prefecture, the Chushin Poets Patriotic Association in Matsumoto City announced the 'Shinano Patriotic Hyakunin Isshu' in February 1943 (Showa 18) after hearing the opinions of poets, tanka poets, and enthusiasts in the prefecture. Also, it is said that at Nagano Middle School (now Nagano High School), students would choose one Patriotic Hyakunin Isshu card in the morning and recite it all together.

The Patriotic Hyakunin Isshu leaves me with a complex, unbearable feeling. Once again, I savored the goodness of an era where there is no war and there is free speech. And where does political intervention begin? Regarding cultural figures, when and what kind of people will appear and what will they start to advocate? It is precisely because we are in an era of freedom of speech that I want to be more sensitive; that was the lesson of the Patriotic Hyakunin Isshu.