Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
In their leisure pursuits as much as in their working hours, the
samurai
were supposed
to be a class apart. However, many of them spent their spare time in ways that were
frowned on, since they were not encouraged to participate in any of the leisure activities of
the townsfolk, things such as theatre-going and visiting the brothel districts, although it is
quite clear that they did so all the same, and with the minimum of subterfuge. Many oth-
er entertainments were officially available. Of course, lower
samurai,
who might be called
upontousetheirfightingskillifitcametoanencounterwithrobbersorfractiouspeasants,
woulddoacertainamountofmilitarytraining,andwrestling,swordsmanship,archery,rid-
ing, and swimming were all practiced. Upper
samurai,
while learning swordsmanship with
someseriousness,pursuedthestudyofothermilitarysportsinthesamesortofspiritasthey
did tea ceremony and flower-arrangement (
21
)—that is, as something more like a hobby,
but learnt and practiced with great seriousness and a constant search for inner significance.
All these artistic pursuits were organized into “schools”, and learnt from authorized
teachers only, who taught strictly in accordance with the rules of their individual schools.
Differences between them were sometimes quite small, and very often without practical
importance. Even a non-artistic pursuit such as swimming was organized on a “school”
basis,eachoneteachingdifferentstrokesofthearmsandlegs,orthetacticaluseofvarious
swimming styles, or horsemanship in water. The Ogasawara school was supreme in the
study of polite behavior, which included methods of greeting, posture, manners at meal-
times, and so on, and also dealt with archery, a ritualized sport with considerable formality
of procedure, in which as much, or even more, importance was placed upon gracefulness
of movement and correctness of etiquette, as upon hitting the bull's-eye. Cruder archery
competitions were sometimes indulged in, but only by lower
samurai:
one of these that is
remembered took place at a temple in Kyoto, the Sanjūsangen-do, which has a hall over
200 feet long crowded with statues. The outside gallery of this hall was used in a compet-
ition, the object of which was to shoot as many arrows as possible in a given time from
one end to the other. An overhanging roof made it impossible to flight the arrows high (the
beams still bear the marks where stray shots have hit), so that a strong, flat trajectory was
necessary. The best performance is credited to a
samurai
in 1686, who shot 13,000 arrows,
of which 8,033 reached the end of the balcony.
