Introduction

This chapter continues the analysis of early seventeenth century historical documents containing the personal marks or “signatures” of commoners. The seventeenth century is a critical period for understanding literacy in Japanese history. It was a time when use of the written word spread rapidly, as shown by the rapid increase in the circulation of written documents. It is important to realize that even at the very beginning of the early modern period there was a core of villagers who were capable of a minimum level of reading, writing and calculation skills which were necessary for local village administration within the larger bakuhan state. Yokota Fuyuhiko labeled this developing class of village leaders a “cultural middle class.” In short, by the late seventeenth century through the eighteenth century, an educated, literate class had emerged, even in farm villages.

How did a literate class emerge in villages to make a successful administrative system possible? This subject is important not only for the history of early modern education but also when considering more broadly the relationship between the Japanese people and the culture of letters. In order to come to grips with such fundamental questions, it will be necessary to go beyond the traditional methods of educational history research, such as looking at school institutions like tenaraisho (writing schools) or educational materials like ōraimono (textbooks).

During the first half of the seventeenth century, before educational materials were widespread, popular literacy is a more useful theme in determining cultural development than schools. This approach requires the use of historical documents that survive in adequate quantity to reveal how individuals identified themselves on documents in the form of signatures: ciphers (kaō), simplified ciphers (ryakuō), stem stamps (the blunt ends of brushes, called fude jikuin), fingerprints and other personal marks. Yokota Fuyuhiko has shown that early seventeenth century historical documents reveal small landholding farmers who signified their membership in a corporate village (sōchū) with simplified ciphers. Even with the development of the corporate village and large landowning peasants (sōbyakushō), subordinate or small landholding farmers came to have their signatures included on village documents. In other words, signatures made by most of the population can be found on documents from this period.