Thursday, 26 May 2022

NOBUNAGA BIRTHDAY PROJECT ③ Let's Pound the Tenka Mochi!

Inspired by the online event of Nagoya Omotenashi Bushotai dedicated to the birthday of Nobunaga past year, I decided to join the celebrations this year too, providing a new post dedicated to Nobu every week, until June 23 😄
Following the trail of thoughts from past week, today we're talking about this "irreverent" ukiyo-e by Utagawa Yoshitora!

This print is incredibly popular because it bore some troubles to his author, a pupil of Utagawa Kuniyoshi.
The title is Funny Warriors: Our Ruler's New Year's Rice Cakes (道外武者 御代の若餅 , Dōke Musha: Miyo no Wakamochi) and its poem, composed by Sawaya Kōkichi, recites:

君が代を
The Imperial Reign

つきかためたり
was crushed firmly

春のもち
like spring mochi

The print portrays Nobunaga and Mitsuhide pounding the mochi for the new year (春のもち, Haru no mochi), Hideyoshi kneading it and finally Ieyasu eating the finished product while celebrating.
Compared to the poem of the cuckoo, you can tell how the whole "patience is a divine virtue" thing was inverted in a way as to ridicule the behaviour of Ieyasu, who took advantage of his predecessors' hard work.
So, back in the days of its release (1849), this was perceived as an infringments of the current Shogunate regulations about publishing: it was in fact prohibited to portray the crests of samurai clan of Sengoku Era, use their real names and most importantly one couldn't satirize the deeds of the "Divine Sovereign" Tokugawa Ieyasu.
The original publisher didn't notice the satyrical intent, so he released it anyway, but the print became so popular that after half a day it was censored and removed from the market: Yoshitora was imprisoned for 50 days as a punishment and so was his publisher.

Both Yoshitora and Sawaya though, didn't invent anything: apparently the work was based on another, previous humurous motto that went like this:

織田がつき
Oda pounds it

羽柴がこねし 天下餅
  Hashiba kneads it, the Realm Mochi

座りしままに食うは徳川
And Tokugawa sits down and eats it

As usual, the author of the verses is unknown, but it's usually dated around the Tenpō era (1831-45) or the beginning Kaei era (1848-1855), a period when the Shogunate was perceived as weakened.
This poem mentions the Realm Mochi (天下餅, Tenka Mochi), so the making of mochi as the making of the realm; something that you just can't "wait for", but you should contribute to actively.

This said, looking around I found other modern, interesting interpretations.

The most stunning one, is probably a decoration of a yagura (櫓), a votive turret escorted during festivals. This one is associated to the Rige Shrine (里外神社) in Okada, Aichi Prefecture:
According to the website, the yagura was recently renovated (2009), as the previous one, dated 1892, was damaged by the years.
The theme of the yagura is the Taiko-ki, the chronigle of Toyotomi's rule, and it sports the infamous mochi scene, among others.

The title of the decoration here is again Our Ruler's New Year's Rice Cakes (御代乃若餅, Miyo no Wakamochi), and the verses that describe the scenes go as:

信長が餅をつき、こねる光秀
Nobunaga pounds the mochi, Mitsuhide kneads it

秀吉が餅をこね、食べる家康
Hideyoshi kneads the mochi, Ieyasu eats it

It's interesting how, compared to the previous examples, Mitsuhide is included in the picture and he "kneads" the mochi, thus contributing to the foundation of the realm, rather than just helping Nobunaga during the "pounding", as in the ukiyo-e by Yoshitora.

This other contribution, instead, comes from a card game called Realm Collecting Battle Game (天下取りバトルゲーム, Tenkatori Battle Game) dedicated to historical personalities:
Here Ieyasu is portrayed trumphantly as he enjoys his long-waited "haru".

Another depiction of a "trumphant Ieyasu" hails from a tea shop in Matsudaira, yet another city in Aichi prefecture:
Note how this says "Ieyasu" instead of "Tokugawa"-- Trying to get comfy with the Divine Sovereign--?!

The name of the spot is Tenka Chaya (天下茶屋) and of course they serve their personal interpretation of "Tenka Mochi":
Source: Nagoya Net

And since we mentioned customized "Tenka Mochi", the version of Izumi-ya deserves a mention, too:
Source: colocal
Apparently this is no longer on the menu and was substituted by a Tenka Manju, though!

And that's it for today--!
Ah∼ I got hungry, now∼

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