Hagiwara Hiromichi

Hiromichi was born on February 19, 1815, in the province of Bizen (what is now the city of Okayama), Japan. He died on December 3, 1863, in Osaka, Japan. (Both dates are according to the lunar calendar used in premodern Japan.) Hiromichi's father, Fujiwara Eizaburō, was a retainer in service to the Okayama feudal lord (daimyō). Hiromichi's name at birth was Fujiwara Keizō 藤原鹿蔵. He adopted the name Hagiwara Hiromichi after relinquishing his status as a samurai and moving to the city of Osaka to pursue a career as a poet and scholar of literature in 1845. He also published works under the literary name (gō) of Nirazono (garlic garden).

Hiromichi’s social status was nominally that of a samurai, but his childhood did not afford the comforts or stability associated with noble birth. Hiromichi’s father, who received only a meager stipend as a retainer, was plagued by ill health. According to his autobiography, Hiromichi was raised largely in the care of his mother and her family and earned the reputation of being a child prodigy by memorizing the entire Ogura Hyakunin isshu (Collection of 100 poems by 100 poets) at the age of 2. Following the death of his mother in 1821 he returned to live with his father who had taken to supporting himself as a teacher of Confucian classics.

Hiromichi’s childhood fascination with the Hyakunin isshu developed into a lifelong interest in poetry and poetic criticism. At the age of thirteen he was introduced to Hiraga Motoyoshi (1800–1865) an established poet and avid student of nativist studies. Hiromichi submitted 450 of his own waka poems to Motoyoshi, asking for corrections and advice. This led to an ongoing exchange concerning both poetry and ideology between the two. Hiromichi's extant poems are not similar to the classical Man'yōshū style poems associated with Motoyoshi, but like Motoyoshi, he expressed deep admiration for the work of the leading nativist scholars of his age such as Kamo no Mabuchi and Motoori Norinaga.

Hiromichi suffered from palsy in middle-age. Health problems diminished his productivity as a calligrapher and author. An acquaintance remarked that despite severe health problems, Hiromichi's devotion to his work remained equal to that of a Buddhist monk. Hiromichi died in Osaka in 1863, without leaving any disciples or heirs. The Meiji author and scholar Mori Ōgai includes the description of a solemn visit to Hiromichi's grave in his literary journal Shigarami zōshi (the weir; 1889–94).

In Osaka Hiromichi taught nativist studies with a focus on classical literature. His poetry and poetic criticism appeared widely in literary publications of the time. He also established an enduring friendship with a fellow Okayama native, Ogata Kōan (1810-1863), who founded the nation’s preeminent school of Dutch Learning (Rangaku) and Western medical techniques in Osaka, known as Tekijuku. Kõan invited Hiromichi to his residence to provide instruction in literary studies. Hiromichi’s interaction with Kōan and the scholars associated with Tekijuku influenced the course of his scholarship, which stands out among works of premodern criticism for its integration of ideas and techniques from both classical studies and the emerging field of Western Learning. Hiromichi’s literary taste ranged from classical poetry to popular fiction written in both vernacular Chinese and Japanese. Following the death of Takizawa Bakin, the most widely read author of fiction of his time, Hiromichi was commissioned to write a concluding volume to Bakin’s unfinished work Daring Adventures of Chivalrous Men (Kaikan kyōki kyōkakuden; 1832–35). Hiromichi's close reading of the popular works of Chinese fiction upon which Bakin based his novel and his own interest in literary structure are evident in the way he successfully emulated both Bakin's literary style and the interpretive comments he includes for readers of the novel. In praising “the acuity of Hiromichi’s command of language and style” the literary critic Kōda Rohan observed that Hiromichi’s concluding volume of Daring Adventures is nearly indistinguishable from the earlier chapters written by the great author himself.

• Kokugaku
• Tale of Genji
• Japanese poetry
• Japanese nationalism

Caddeau, Patrick. Appraising Genji: Literary Criticism and Cultural Anxiety in the Age of the Last Samurai New York, SUNY Press, 2006.
Kôda Rohan. Rohan Zenshû. 44 vols. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1978.
Noguchi Takehiko. Genji monogatari o Edo kara yomu. Tōkyō: Kōdansha, 1985.
Noguchi Takehiko. “Hagiwara Hiromichi ‘Genji monogatari hyōshaku’ no bungaku hihyō.” Kōza Genji monogatari no sekai 7: Yũikaku, S. 57 321–22.
Noguchi Takehiko. “The Substratum Constituting Monogatari: Prose Structure and Narrative in Genji Monogatari.” Translated by Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi, Principles of Classical Japanese Literature, ed. Earl Miner, 130–50. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985.