上の田も下の田も穂に穂が咲いて一粒万倍 kami no ta mo shimo no ta mo ho ni ho ga saite ichiryū manbai In the Upper Field and the Lower, Ear upon Ear in Flower: One Grain, Ten Thousandfold
上の田も下の田も穂に穂が咲いて一粒万倍, a New Year 萬歲 planting blessing set in Chikamatsu's 天皷, followed from the puppet stage through the harvest song to money.
Abstract
上の田も下の田も穂に穂が咲いて一粒万倍, in the upper field and the lower, ear upon ear in flower: one grain, ten thousandfold, is one sentence of the planting number of the New Year 萬歲 (manzai), the pair of blessing performers who visited houses at the new year, and the earliest texts of it whole that the National Diet Library's full-text index and the dictionaries yield are two Kyoto puppet plays, 宇治加賀掾's 丹州千年狐 (1699) and Chikamatsu's retitling of it, 天皷 (1701, by its editor's reckoning) [1][2][3]. The scholars who read the plays, 高野辰之 in 1926 and the 近松語彙 of 1930, call it a passage of the 萬歲's own planting song, which the playwright took in; and in 天皷 the planting is answered at once by the number for the streets of Kyoto, where trade flourishes, and the pair part for two gods, the god of the five grains and Ebisu, god of trade [4][5][2]. Apart from the play, 穂に穂が咲いて lived on as the harvest song's own words, from a 1681 example to the Bon dance song of Sōma, and a picture book of 1802 turned it to gold; 一粒万倍 has its own history in this library [6][7][8][9][10]. The history reads the line as one text, a blessing for harvest that the 萬歲 sang beside its blessing for trade.
Overview
The words. 上の田も下の田も kami no ta mo shimo no ta mo, the upper field and the lower field alike. 穂に穂が咲いて ho ni ho ga saite, ear upon ear in flower; the 精選版 日本国語大辞典 gives the phrase 穂に穂が咲く as 稲など穀物がよくみのる。豊作である, rice and the other grains ripen well, a rich harvest, with its first example, in the 精選版, in a book of jokes of 1681, ほにほがさいて、めでたいのといひければ, when he said, ear upon ear in flower, how happy [6]. 一粒万倍 ichiryū manbai, one grain, ten thousandfold: one seed sown returns ten thousand grains, and from that a small beginning that grows great; the phrase and its sources (a sutra, the 新猿楽記, the Jesuits' dictionary of 1603) are told in this library's history of 一粒万倍 [10]. Word for word: upper-field also lower-field also, ear-on ear-flowering, one-grain ten-thousand-fold.
The performers. 萬歲 (manzai), also 千秋萬歲, was the New Year blessing performance: at the new year the pair went from house to house, and to the palace, and sang blessings for the household. The 太夫 (tayū) held the fan and sang the blessings; his partner, the 才蔵 (in these plays the 才若), answered him and beat the drum [11][12]. The 山川 日本史小辞典 names what they blessed: 家業の隆盛と家長の長寿, the prosperity of the family's trade and the long life of the head of the house [11].
Forms. かみの田も下の田も。ほにほがさいて一りうまんばい, in the kana of the full text of 天皷 as the 近松全集 prints it [2]; 上の田も下の田も、穗に穗が咲て一粒萬倍, in the Meiji typeset of 1891 [13]; 上の田も下の田も穗に穗がさいて一粒萬倍, in 若月's quotation of 丹州千年狐 [1]. The design is brushed in modern characters, 上の田も下の田も穂に穂が咲いて, and 一粒万倍 set apart.
The historical record
1699 and 1701: a New Year 萬歲 at the palace, in a puppet play
The full text. Chikamatsu's 天皷, The heavenly drum, opens with the court blessed at the new year. The 近松全集 prints its full text from the eight-line, sixty-three-leaf book (八行六十三丁本を底本とし) [3]. At the word まんざい the two performers strike up, and the 太夫 sings [2]:
ヤイさいわか △なんでござる △たうねんはかのとの巳のとしかみの田も下の田も。ほにほがさいて一りうまんばい。田をばそんぶりそ〳〵。そんぶり〳〵〳〵そ。そんぶりそとうちうへて
Hey, Saiwaka! — What is it? — This year is the year of the junior metal snake; in the upper field and the lower, ear upon ear in flower, one grain ten thousandfold. Into the field, splash, splash … splash, and plant it in. The splash, ぞんぶり, the 日本国語大辞典 gives as the sound of jumping or wading into water [14]; here it is the call of going into the field to plant. The year is named in the line itself, and the play's editor, 藤井紫影, judges the play's date by it: 本曲は初段萬歲の語中に「當年はかのとの巳年、上の田も下の田も、穗に穗がさいて一粒萬倍」とあるから、元祿十四年の出し物と推定せらる, since the first act's 萬歲 has "this year is the year of the junior metal snake, in the upper field and the lower …", the play is judged to have been staged in Genroku 14 (1701) [3]. The volume was printed in 1926 [15].
The play it retitled. 藤井 goes on: 然し此時の新作ではなく加賀掾の「丹州千年狐」の改題である。千年狐には萬歲の語が「當年は卯の年のうの羽重ねに、上の田も下の田も云々」となつて居り, but it was not new then; it is a retitling of 加賀掾's 丹州千年狐, whose 萬歲 reads "this year is the year of the hare, in the hare's layered feathers, in the upper field and the lower …" [3]. 藤井 dates 丹州千年狐 to 1699, a year of the hare, because, he says, the play shows that it was timed to the 1100th memorial of the mountain ascetic En no Gyōja (元祿十二年役の行者千百年忌を當込んだ事を明示して居る) [3]. 若月保治, reading it in 1944, quotes its 萬歲 further: 「歌へや萬歲〳〵、才若、何でござる、當年は卯の年のうの羽重ねに、上の田も下の田も穗に穗がさいて一粒萬倍……」 [1]. So, by 藤井's dating and 若月's quotation, the whole line stood in a Kyoto puppet play of 1699, and in the line, as 藤井 and 若月 quote it, the play of 1701 changed the year.
Harvest, then trade. In 天皷 the 才若 answers the planting with the next number: これさ大夫殿。これからあきなひはんじやうの京のまちをはやしやさふ, now, master, let us strike up the streets of Kyoto, where trade flourishes. The 太夫 sends them each to a god, as every year: これからすぐに五こくのかみ。たんばののせのいなりどのへまいるほどに。さいわかもかれいのとをりあきなひがみはにしのみや。ゑびすどのへさんけい致せ, I go straight to the god of the five grains, the Inari of Nose in Tanba; you, Saiwaka, as every year, go and worship the god of trade, Ebisu of Nishinomiya [2]. The streets song lists the goods sold in Kyoto (damask, satin, Chinese weaves, red pepper) and ends たうねんはいよ〳〵あきなひはんじやう。これもわかゑびすのまもりめがつよいゆへじや, this year trade flourishes all the more; that too is because the young Ebisu's charm is strong [2].
Not the playwright's line: a number of the 萬歲
高野辰之, in 1926, wrote that Chikamatsu used the 萬歲's tunes in many plays, and in 天皷 gave the 萬歲 a scene of its own, and that 田植と京の町とが最も時人にうけたと見えて多くそれが用ひてある, the rice-planting and the Kyoto streets were evidently the numbers the audiences of the day liked best, and they are used often [4]. He names four plays, 松風村雨束帯鑑, 天皷, 平家女護島 and 大経師昔暦, and of the last he says that the Kyoto 萬歲 asks Osan, hiding in inner Tanba (奥丹波), 田植がお好きでございましたな。なんと一つ舞ひましよか, you were fond of the rice-planting; shall we dance one?. Then: この歌は御所で用ひられなかつただけに全文は知り難い。但天鼓の 上の田も下の田も。穗に穗が咲いて … 一粒萬倍。… は慥に其の一節である, since this song was not used at the palace, it is hard to know whole; but 天鼓's "in the upper field and the lower, ear upon ear in flower … one grain ten thousandfold …" is surely a passage of it [4]. The 近松語彙, a dictionary of Chikamatsu's words (1930), says the same under 田植: 萬歲(その條を見よ)の田植唄をいふ。この唄は巢林子作の天鼓に、「……上の田も下の田も穗に穗がさいて一粒萬倍、田をばぞんぶりぞ…」、とあるは即ちその部分である。田植唄とても何れの萬歲も同一の唄を謠つたものではない, the 萬歲's rice-planting song. The passage in Chikamatsu's 天鼓 … is that very part of it. Not every 萬歲 sang the same planting song [5]. The six palace numbers of the 萬歲 named in the 世界大百科事典 include the Kyoto streets (京之町) and no planting song, which agrees with 高野 [12].
Other 萬歲 songs. A 萬歲 dance song in a collection of dance ballads (踊口説), in a group the editor judges mostly of the Genroku to Kyōhō years (1688–1736: 元祿より享保頃にかけての作と認めたいものが多い), opens with the 萬歲's standard blessing, 常盤嘉に御萬歲と、君も榮えまします, passes through a market cry, and comes to the planting girls: 加賀の國の早乙女が、一寸出て歌うた、田をばぞんぶりぞ〳〵、先へもえぞんぶりぞ、後へもぞんぶりぞ [16]. It shares 天皷's planting call, 田をばぞんぶりぞ, and not the line. Chikamatsu's 平家女護島 (1719) has the planting call in a rice-planting scene of its third act [14]. The 日本国語大辞典 gives a 萬歲 song taken into the puppet theater (万歳 ③) with a first example from 1747, and the splash ぞんぶり with one from 1719; 天皷 is older than both, in the 精選版 [11][14].
The harvest song: 穂に穂が咲いて on its own
The phrase lived apart from the 萬歲. The 日本国語大辞典's first example of 穂に穂が咲く is the 1681 book of jokes, where it is already a happy thing to say [6]. In 1703, by the editor's list of his plays, 紀海音's puppet play 忠臣靑砥刀 has a rice-planting song: 今年や世の中穗に穗がさいて、升が隙無ふてみではかる、ひま無ふて升が、升が隙無ふてみではかる, this year, in all the world, ear upon ear in flower; the measure has no time, so we measure with the winnowing basket; no time for the measure, the measure has no time, so we measure with the basket [7]. That is a second shape: not the 萬歲's fields and grain, but the harvest so big that the rice is measured by the basket. A collection of the provinces' songs, 山家鳥蟲歌, its preface dated 1771, has the phrase twice: under Yamashiro, 稻は刈り取る穗に穗がさいて、何處に寢さしよぞ親二人, the rice is cut, ear upon ear in flower; where shall I put my two parents to sleep?, and under Settsu, 今年世がよて穗に穗がさいて、殿も百姓も嬉しかろ, this year the world goes well, ear upon ear in flower; lord and farmer alike will be glad [16]. The Meiji books print it as a harvest dance song, 世がようて穂に穂がさいて桝であまつて箕ではかる (1890) [17]; a collection of 1898 has it with 道の小草に金がなる, gold grows on the grass by the road [18]; a teachers' manual of 1910 quotes the rice-planting song (田植の歌) printed in the third volume of the primary-school reader, ことしはほうねん、ほにほがさいて、みちの小ぐさも、米がなる, this year a rich harvest, ear upon ear in flower; even the grass by the road bears rice [19]. A geography journal of 2000 gives it as the Bon dance song of Sōma, 相馬盆唄: 今年ゃ豊年だョ穂に穂が咲いてョ道の小草にも米がなるョ [8]. The 1890, 1898 and 2000 forms are read in the index's windows.
Harvest turned to money: 1802
曲亭馬琴's picture book 種蒔三世相 (preface 1802), a comic tale of planting and reaping, has a man at a counting board under a gate hung with vines of coin, and the caption 金銀の實入, the harvest of gold and silver. The text above has きんのほにほがさいて もとでの … とりつきしゆゑ, ear upon ear of gold in flower, … catching hold of the vine of capital [9]. The harvest formula reads as money there, a century after the plays, as it does again in the 1898 song, gold grows on the grass by the road [18].
The line in print since
In print since the war, as far as the index's windows reach, the line is carried by the editions of Chikamatsu. A 1998 annotated edition of 大経師昔暦 glosses the 萬歲's planting dance with it: 万歳の曲目の一つ。近松作の「天鼓」に、その一部が載る, one of the 萬歲's numbers; Chikamatsu's 天鼓 carries a part of it, and quotes the line [20]. The dictionaries of proverbs carry it as the example under 一粒萬倍: 藤井乙男 (藤井紫影), who later edited the 全集, set it first among his sources in his 諺語大辞典 of 1910, breaking off at 穗に穗がさいて (told in this library's history of 一粒万倍) [10], and a dictionary of proverbs of 1933 quotes it whole, after the gloss a figure for receiving boundless happiness from a small root of good (小善根より無量の幸福を享くるに喩ふ) [21]. The words 穂に穂が咲いて are sung on their own in the Bon dance and harvest songs of several regions, in the index's windows [8]. No use of the whole line as a New Year or shop blessing apart from the plays and the dictionaries of proverbs was found in the index's windows.
In English
No English rendering of the line was found on the library's shelf or in the Internet Archive's full-text index (the record's I1 and I4). Miyamori's English retelling of 大経師昔暦 (first published 1926; read in the 2011 revised edition) names the rice-planting number of that scene: the 萬歲 dancer says to Osan, Every year when New Year's Day came round we danced in your courtyard … You used to like the Rice-Planting tune. Shall we dance it now, madam? [22].
What is not a source, and what is not claimed
- The 1701 print. 天皷 survives in an illustrated print dated 1701 by its catalogue, at the University of Tokyo [23]. 藤井 says the illustrated book titled 天皷 is the 丹州千年狐 block reissued, the old title cut and 千年 still in the margin [3], so that print may read the 1699 year. Its 萬歲 was not found at the leaf; the year is cited through 藤井 and 若月 [3][1].
- 丹州千年狐 is read only in 藤井's and 若月's quotations [3][1], not at a print.
- The 萬歲 dance song is dated only with its group, which the editor judges mostly Genroku to Kyōhō [16]; it is not a witness older than the plays.
- The line is not claimed as Chikamatsu's, nor as 加賀掾's: the readers of the plays call it a part of the 萬歲's song [4][5], and the 萬歲's planting song is not found written down whole.
A reading
I read the line as one text. In every witness read that has its second half, 一粒萬倍 follows 穗に穗がさいて directly, in the sentence the fields open (a comma between them in [21], the singing mark カカル in [4]), and the 太夫 sings it before the splash of the planting call [2][1][13]. The design sets 一粒万倍 apart, and that suits the brush, but the 萬歲 sang one wish: that every field, high and low, bear so heavily that one grain sown return ten thousand.
The words are harvest. The occasion is the household's whole fortune, and in it harvest and trade stand side by side. In 天皷 the planting number is answered at once by the number for the streets of Kyoto, where trade flourishes, and the pair divide their worship between the grain god and Ebisu [2]. 高野 judged 田植 and 京の町, side by side, evidently the two numbers the audiences liked best [4]. In 大経師昔暦, in Miyamori's English, the 萬歲 had danced the planting tune every New Year in the courtyard of the 大経師, the head of Kyoto's mounters, who held the right to issue the calendar, and the lady of the house liked it [4][22][24]. So the line belongs to a house of trade as well as to a farm. As a harvest scroll it is the blessing in its own words. As a business scroll it is the half of the New Year 萬歲 that, in Chikamatsu's play, a Kyoto house of trade had danced in its own courtyard, and by 1802 the formula itself could mean gold [9].
Notes
- The year. かのとの巳 (辛巳) is 1701; the 1891 typeset prints 乙 with the gloss かのと, its own slip for 辛 [13][2]. 卯 is 1699 [1].
- 才若 and 才蔵. The plays write 才若 (saiwaka); the dictionaries' 才蔵 names the same partner [11].
- The 全集's pages. The 近松全集 prints arabic folios at the foot: the headnote is pp. 69–72, the court's New Year from p. 74 and the 萬歲 pp. 75–77 [3][2].
- 一粒万倍 is told in its own history [10], and is not retold here.
Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase
Sources not seen
- The 1701 illustrated print of 天皷 at its 萬歲 leaf (University of Tokyo, 霞亭文庫 881): located by catalogue, not read [23].
- 丹州千年狐 at a print: the one imaged copy known to the 国書データベース (東京藝術大学) was opened; it carries the play's opening, its own title and first section, and a picture of the court with the 萬歲 pair, but the line was not found in its cursive, so it is cited here only through 藤井's and 若月's quotations [3][1].
- 前田勇, 『上方まんざい八百年史』 (1975), a history of the Kyoto–Osaka 萬歲; and 新編日本古典文学全集 75 at its page: both readable only in Japan (snippet windows only).
- The 1924 article in 国語と国文学 that carries 高野's sentence on the planting song word for word: its author was not read.
- Keene's The Almanac of Love at its pages (Major Plays of Chikamatsu, 1961): not on the shelf; the online copy is for print-disabled readers only.
A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.
References
- 若月保治, 『古浄瑠璃の研究』, 1944, p. 三八二 (on 丹州千年狐), National Diet Library pid 1125537, scan 204. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1125537/1/204
- 近松門左衛門, 「天皷」, in 『近松全集』 第6巻, 藤井紫影 (藤井乙男), editor, 朝日新聞社, Osaka, 1926, pp. 74–77, National Diet Library pid 979001, scans 47–48. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/979001/1/48
- 藤井紫影, headnote to 「天皷」, 『近松全集』 第6巻, 1926, pp. 69, 70 and 72, National Diet Library pid 979001, scans 41–43. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/979001/1/41
- 高野辰之, 『日本演劇の研究』, 1926, pp. 二三四–二三五, National Diet Library pid 1870280, scan 129. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1870280/1/129
- 上田万年 and 樋口慶千代, 『近松語彙』, 1930, p. 二一八, headword たうゑ, National Diet Library pid 3430314, scan 118. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/3430314/1/118
- 「穂に穂が咲く」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%A9%82%E3%81%AB%E7%A9%82%E3%81%8C%E5%92%B2%E3%81%8F-626707
- 紀海音, 「忠臣靑砥刀」, in 『紀海音淨瑠璃集』, 水谷不倒, editor, 1899 (colophon 明治三十二年一月, scan 551), p. 一五三, National Diet Library pid 1882675, scan 86; the editor's list of the plays by date, scan 7. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1882675/1/86
- 『地理』, 2000, on 相馬盆唄 (search window only), National Diet Library pid 7893711. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/7893711
- 曲亭馬琴, 『種蒔三世相』, preface 享和2 (1802), National Diet Library pid 10301826, scan 13. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/10301826/1/13
- Takase Studios, Philology library, 一粒万倍 ichiryū manbai. https://takase.com/library/philology/ichiryu-manbai
- 「万歳」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, デジタル大辞泉, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 and 山川 日本史小辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%B8%87%E6%AD%B3-137919
- 「千秋万歳」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%8D%83%E7%A7%8B%E4%B8%87%E6%AD%B3-88353
- 近松門左衛門, 『天鼓』, typeset, 1891, p. 三, National Diet Library pid 876728, scan 7. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/876728/1/7
- 「ぞんぶり」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%81%9E%E3%82%93%E3%81%B6%E3%82%8A-2058058
- 『近松全集』 第6巻, colophon (大正十五年六月十五日發行), National Diet Library pid 979001, scan 420. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/979001/1/420
- 高野辰之, editor, 『日本歌謡集成』 卷七, 1942 printing: 第二 踊口說集, 三 今道念節, song 二七 萬歲をどり, pp. 五〇–五一 (scan 43); the section's contents, p. 三二 (scan 34); the 解説, p. 八 (scan 13); 第九 山家鳥蟲歌, its preface (明和八年), p. 三五〇, and 山城國風, p. 三五一 (scan 193), 攝津, p. 三五五 (scan 195); the 解説 on it, p. 一六 (scan 17), National Diet Library pid 1883737. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1883737/1/43
- 『修身要話』, 1890 (search window only), National Diet Library pid 756682, scan 15. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/756682/1/15
- 大和田建樹, editor, 『日本歌謡類聚』, 1898, the volume National Diet Library pid 1874629 (search window only, the index's page 221; the book is readable only in Japan, so its scan is not confirmed). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1874629
- 普通教育研究会, editor, 『尋常小学国語教授細案』 卷七, 1910, pp. 五七–五八, National Diet Library pid 812251, scans 38–39. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/812251/1/38
- 新編日本古典文学全集 75, 小学館, 1998, note to 「大経師昔暦」 (search window only), National Diet Library pid 13491165. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/13491165
- 中野吉平, editor, 『俚諺大辞典』, 東方書院, 1933, p. 九八, headword 一粒萬倍, National Diet Library pid 1766149, scan 57. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1766149/1/57
- Asatarō Miyamori, Masterpieces of Chikamatsu, the Japanese Shakespeare, revised by Robert Nichols, first published 1926; Routledge Library Editions: Japan, vol. 58, Routledge, London and New York, 2011, The Almanac of Love (the library's copy, text layer; the title verso reads First published in 1926).
- 「天鼓」, 東京大学総合図書館 霞亭文庫 881, 刊 元禄14 (the catalogue's date, bracketed there), at the 国書データベース. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/300079620
- 「大経師」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 世界大百科事典 (旧版, under 経師屋: 京都の経師仲間の長), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%A4%A7%E7%B5%8C%E5%B8%AB