Deciphering the Hashihara Castle Town Map: The Imaginary Town of MOTOORI Norinaga | Public Relations "Obayashi Quarterly"

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Deciphering the Hashihara Castle Town Map: The Imaginary Town of MOTOORI Norinaga

Deciphering the Hashihara Castle Town Map: The Imaginary Town of MOTOORI Norinaga

Speculative Reconstruction by Obayashi Project Team

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MOTOORI Norinaga was an Edo-period intellectual giant known for his meticulous study of the classics. The Hashihara Castle Town Map (Hashiharashi Joka Ezu) is a map of a fictitious ideal town that he drew along with the Genealogical Table of the HASHIHARA Family (Hashiharashi Keizu) at the age of nineteen. The map depicts the entirety of a castle town surrounded by natural terrain, and it contains the names of people in the genealogical table. The map also shows many shrines and temples in the surrounding mountains, with rivers and bridges having names derived from the classics, suggesting a culturally vibrant town. What was the significance of this map for Norinaga? This project closely examines the Hashihara Castle Town Map and visualizes the process of deciphering the map. Its goal is to create a three-dimensional reconstruction of the town envisioned by the young Norinaga and give physical form to his ideas.

Prologue: Discovery of the mysterious map and genealogical table

Born in 1730 in Matsusaka, Ise Province, MOTOORI Norinaga later became one of Japan's leading Kokugaku scholars. The main subject of this project is an old map he drew at the age of nineteen, when he was still going by the name OZU Yoshisada.

The Hashihara Castle Town Map (Hashiharashi Joka Ezu) 517×720mm　Museum of Motoori Norinaga collection

View The Hashihara Castle Town Map in Detail

This map known as the Hashihara Castle Town Map has long been part of the collection at the Museum of Motoori Norinaga in Matsusaka City, but its origins are shrouded in mystery. While some people had pointed out its resemblance to the townscape of Kyoto, the town on the map is inconsistent with any known town or city, and no one had been able to find a definite answer to the question of what Norinaga intended to draw.

However, the key to solving this mystery emerged in an unexpected way. In 1978, an ancient document was discovered during a survey of the museum's collection by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. It was the Genealogical Table of the HASHIHARA Family that Norinaga had written on the back of a draft of a waka poem anthology entitled Kokinsen. The genealogical table contains Okeizu, which traces the HASHIHARA family from its ancestors to its 15th head, Nobumasa; Gokeizu, which traces the direct lineage from Nobumasa; as well as extensive genealogical records of more than two hundred vassals, classified in order of rank: Gobunke, Gohokyaku, On'ozamurai, Osamuraikoke, and Osamurai.

The Genealogical Table of the HASHIHARA Family (Hashiharashi Keizu). 　Museum of Motoori Norinaga collection

At the beginning of Okeizu is the name of a non-existent divinity, "Omichisaki no Honushi." In addition, the years and names of places in the genealogical table were all created by Norinaga. However, the table contains a staggering volume of information and level of detail.

High-ranking samurai are described in detail from their origins to their chigyo-chi (territory) (*1), kokudaka (yield), the location of their mansions and suburban residences, year of birth/death, childhood names, official positions, and even their mothers, wives, and vassals. Details for lower-ranking samurai are simplified according to their rank but still include their kokudaka, the location of their residences, year of birth, and official positions.

*1　Land granted by daimyo (feudal lords) to their vassals

OKAMOTO Masaru, a scholar of Japanese literature who was present at the discovery of the Genealogical Table of the HASHIHARA Family, noticed a surprising fact. After carefully examining the names of people and places listed in the genealogical table, he found that they were almost exactly the same as those depicted in the Hashihara Castle Town Map. For example, the locations of samurai mansions and suburban residences listed in the genealogical table correspond exactly to the layout of buildings on the map. This discovery suggested that the Hashihara Castle Town Map is a counterpart to the Genealogical Table of the HASHIHARA Family and can be deemed a so-called blueprint of the castle town ruled by the HASHIHARA family that Norinaga envisioned.

Since there are no traces of raw sketches in the map, it is believed that the nineteen-year-old Norinaga first conceived of the extensive genealogical table before drawing the detailed map on the basis of the elaborate table.

When he subsequently started his career as a scholar, Norinaga repurposed the reverse side of the genealogical table for writing the draft of Kokinsen in order to make effective use of Japanese washi paper, which was a...