One important sequel or development from this production

of a series of portraits with different things written on it

which he left was that these portraits were used in the coming years and

decades as a sort of emblem or icon for the fight against

the Tokugawa regime by young warriors in the Chōshū domain.

I'm showing you a slide right here of a printed book,

a woodblock printed book, which was published, printed in Chōshū.

It's a so-called provincial edition of writings by Shōin.

In prison in Edo, right before he was executed, these came back to,

were transported back to Chōshū, read by all of the young men that were there,

and sort of urged them on to battle.

There were two major battles between, or there were two major expeditions

against the Chōshū domain by the bakufu in the years before the Restoration.

And the book that this illustration is in was used by these warriors,

these young warriors,

were actually taken into battle as almost sort of charms or emblem,

almost like charms or talismans to help them succeed in battle.

Today I brought along a copy of the book that this illustration is included in.

This is a traditional thread-bound woodblock print Japanese book.

It's very, very, thin.

Very, very soft, as you can see.

And you can also, you may notice also that there's no title to it.

And when we open up the back, there's no colophon:

there's no information here about when and where the book was published.

We can open up the front though, and we see on the reverse of the front cover.

The name of the academy that Shōin founded and

that he taught in before he was executed in 1859.

This was published later on in the early 1860s,

right before the second bakufu expedition against the Chōshū domain.

It was published after he'd been executed and the frontispiece,

this illustration right here is a copy from one of the several portraits that

Yoshida Shōin had painted by his student Shōdō before he was transported to Edo.

It also says right here, claims that it's Yoshida Shōin, for people who don't know,

who didn't know, perhaps, what he actually looked like.

And included in it is writings, simple writings,

that he composed in the last days, before he was executed in prison in Edo.

This is what the simple woodblock illustration,

which was used by young warriors, in the 1860s of Yoshida Shōin, looks like.

Once again, let's compare that with the portrait itself.

We can see that he's been given a sort of close-up sort of angle here.

We can see that the new adaptation, the woodblock print,

is sort of taken as a sort of close-up.

It's focused in more on him.

We don't see the book that's he's reading or the sword at his side.

There's more emphasis on his face and

his rather idealized expression.

What he's writing about here are quotations from Chinese writers,

especially from Southern Song dynasty in the 13th century,

who were battling, resisting the Mongol Empire,

who had invaded most of China and were just about to start the new Yuan dynasty.

Especially, he is fascinated and quotes heavily a literatus

of the Southern Song dynasty named Wen Tianxiang,

who wrote a poem which we translate as Song of Righteousness,

in Japanese it's Seigi no Uta,

which became a sort of theme song for young activists in this era.

And it's a song of resistance.

Wen Tianxiang was captured by the Mongolian forces.

He was interrogated, tormented, and executed.

And left a lot of writings behind, and became one of the very, very strong,

sort of, anti-Yuan dynasty, sort of patriotic figures

of the era in China, and he was also very, very well read in Japan.

We see him quoting and reinterpreting a lot of the mottoes,

some of the poetic quotations from resistant or

resisting poets like Wen Tianxiang in here.

So there's sort of connection with history using sort of

historical figures and well-known episodes in Chinese,

sometimes Japanese, history to reinforce and, to authorize,

and to motivate younger men into, often armed battle.

We know from contemporary documents that this thin volume was

used specifically in the second expedition against the Chōshū domain by the bakufu,

by Chōshū domain samurai, who would take this and put it within

their collars or their sleeves, or within their battle gear,

and actually carry this book, the living expression of life

left over to them by their mentor, Yoshida Shōin.

1-11 Yoshida Shōin and His Writings I

Words Spun Out of Images: Visual and Literary Culture in Nineteenth Century Japan

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