Ryohei Noguchi 'Biographies of Bakumatsu Figures: Exclusion of Foreigners and Opening of the Country' Episode 2: Hikokuro Takayama (5)
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5
Hikokuro was a traveler who energetically toured over 30 provinces. Instead of systematic works, what he left behind were vast amounts of 41 volumes of 29 types of travel diaries.
('Teiyu Spring Travel Supplement 3' (April 1777, travel from Joshu to Edo to Tokai)
(Collection of Ota City Takayama Hikokuro Memorial Museum, Gunma Prefecture / From the museum's website https://www.city.ota.gunma.jp/page/4163.html) **
Hikokuro, who wore his hair in a topknot and carried swords, walked through various parts of the archipelago as a 'somo' (a person of the grassroots/a volunteer outside the government), building a network of teachers and friends with whom he could discuss what 'righteousness' meant. He visited virtuous people in various regions, created records of them, and even honored them on his own initiative.
It was also in the latter half of the 18th century that customs spread where people of various statuses and classes, such as those on study tours, pilgrimages, or group visits to shrines, traveled without regard for their 'station' in life.
(Created based on insights from the map published in 'The True Image of Hikokuro Takayama: The Travel Thinker Who Called for the Restoration' (Asashosha, 1993))
An anecdote from his travels.
When a farmer from Banshu was imprisoned for a minor crime, there was a mountain bandit among his fellow prisoners. When asked if he had ever seen a Tengu, he replied,
'Only once. One night, as I was standing in the mountains, a huge man came along. My three companions and I blocked the road and begged for drinking money, but he shouted, "You insolent fools!" and left. The way his loud voice echoed through the mountains was terrifying. Between that and the fearfulness of his eyes, that must have been a Tengu.'
When the farmer later told this story to his master, he said that it was certainly Hikokuro (|Kanzan Sazan, "Record of the Matter of Takayama Masayoshi").
Takamori Saigo, who was born after Hikokuro's death, wrote a Chinese poem based on this story while he was exiled to Okinoerabu Island by his lord, using it to encourage himself in his plight.
This single incident conveys the subtle way in which Hikokuro left a strong impression wherever he traveled, giving rise to legends and biographies that inspired the patriots of the Bakumatsu period.
An anecdote from October 1782, when he was traveling to Kyoto via the Nakasendo. On the way, a man named Yasoji, who was going on a pilgrimage to Ise, begged to be his travel companion. When he heard that the man was a gambler, he advised him to quit gambling, but Yasoji was displeased, saying that this was why he couldn't say anything to people of higher status, and Hikokuro became angry.
That Yasoji fell ill at a post station in Kiso. Hikokuro asked a local doctor to make a house call and did his best to nurse him, but his condition became critical. When the people at the post station urged him to hurry on, saying no one would blame him, Hikokuro replied,
'Life is something to be cherished, but righteousness is heavier than life. My journey is for the sake of righteousness, but I intend to save a life by sacrificing some of that righteousness.'
As he continued to nurse him, the people at the post station became cooperative. After seeing that Yasoji's life had been saved, Hikokuro headed for Kyoto ('Diary of the Journey to Kyoto').
* Header: From 'Calligraphy of Hikokuro Takayama' copied by Takayoshi Iwayama, 1893
(National Diet Library Digital Collection https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/852964)
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