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The dramatization of the Maeda clan was a remarkable event for Kanazawa for yielding the industry-academia-government collaboration. Toward the particular purpose, they worked together to re-evaluate the feudal past and to get more attention on the glorious history of Kaga-Hyakumangoku in order to involve the whole citizens to the movement. The ambiguous evaluation on the feudal past by scholars and even the city officials has seemingly been united owing to the tourism development based on its legacy.
Kaga-Hyakumangoku is not the past that would prevent the development of the city anymore, but the source of the development.
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In the severe decline of Kanazawa in the Meiji period, cultural activities popular among merchants and samurai in the Kaga Domain, were sharply criticized as explained in the last section. Especially, the then advisor of Hokkoku Shimbun, Ningetsu Ishibashi made a strong critical remark on the Tea Ceremony prevailed in Kanazawa City in the late Meiji period. He regarded the purpose of Tea Ceremony as mental and spiritual discipline and criticized tea masters in Kanazawa for inclining worldly attitude such as praising utensils without proper knowledge, getting drunk, singing, and dancing at a tea ceremony. Finally, he concluded that “The Tea Ceremony would make the youth fusty, effeminate, and cowardly, and weaken their enterprising spirit.” The popularity of the Tea Ceremony in Kanazawa was connected to the backwardness of the city as such.
The re-evaluation of Tea Ceremony by modern tea connoisseurs and scholars advanced since the late Meiji period. Sadō Zenshū (The Complete Works of Tea Ceremony), which is the first comprehensive study of Tea Ceremony, was published in 1937. One chapter was devoted to the history of Tea Ceremony in Kaga, along with that of Nara, Osaka, Nagoya, Awa, and Ise, as places where the Tea Ceremony is in great vogue. By stating that, “If I refer to the Tea Ceremony in Kaga Domain, cannot help but starting from Maeda Toshiie,” (Miyamoto 1937: 445) the author, Kengo Miyamoto, successively explains episodes of feudal lords of the Kaga Domain related to the Tea Ceremony.
Among the successive lords of the domain, most of the pages were given to the third lord, Maeda Toshitsune. Because, according to the author, he was the most enthusiastic about the Tea Ceremony among other successive feudal lords of Kaga Domain. Miyamoto described tea masters and craftspeople he invited or learned the Tea Ceremony from, who are considered to be significant in the whole history of Tea Ceremony. The author almost skipped the fourth lord, as he died young, then he mentioned to the fifth lord, Tsunanori
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quite a little because in the author’s opinion, he was much more interested in scholarly studies than the Tea Ceremony. After Tsunanori, the author almost omitted the rest of the lords, as he found nothing to talk about. In addition, there were less focus on the crafts related to the Tea Ceremony. Miyamoto just listed up major crafts such as Kutani ware, Ōhi ware, and some craftspeople who made tea utensils in the feudal era. At last, he gave an excuse for not describing the Tea Ceremony by townspeople in Kaga Domain because of limited space.
He begins talking about the Tea Ceremony of Kaga from the founder of the Domain as a feudal lord who perhaps learned Tea Ceremony from Senno Rikyu, the originator of Tea Ceremony. The Tea Ceremony of the following lords of Kaga Domain is also explained by their relationship with the originators of the existing schools of Tea Ceremony such as Maeda Toshitsune as an employer of Senso Soshitsu of Urasenke School, and as a pupil of Kobori Enshu of Enshu School and Kanamori Sowa of Sowa School. The Tea Ceremony of Kaga from the early to the middle of Edo period was described by the direct relationship between the originators of Tea Ceremony and the feudal lords.
As mentioned above, in Kengo Miyamoto’s paper, Maeda Tsunanori was less important in the history of Tea Ceremony of Kaga. But the focus on Tea Ceremony by townspeople, which Miyamoto omitted in his paper, foregrounds Tsunanori as a person who promoted cultural activities in the domain. Tomohiko Harada published “The History of Tea Ceremony by Townspeople” in 1979. His devotion to the study of Buraku (discriminated communities) liberation must have led him to study the Tea Ceremony by townspeople after publishing a couple of books on the Tea Ceremony by feudal lords and modern tea connoisseurs. Based on the fact that Tsunanori hired Senso Soshitsu as a
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supervisor of the Tea Ceremony and tea utensils of the domain, he considered Senso Soshitsu as a keyperson for the popularity of Tea Ceremony among townspeople in Kaga Domain.
In the recent descriptions of the Tea Ceremony of Kaga, Tsunanori’s name always accompanies with Toshiie and Toshitsune. Actually, these three persons are considered to be most significant feudal lords for the development of Kaga Domain, from the perspective of the history of Kaga-Hyakumangoku explained in the last section. Although there still were negative evaluation on the popularity of the Tea Ceremony in the past concerning it as a result of obscurantist policy by the feudal lord, tourism development integrated such multiple opinions on the feudal past as explained in the last section.
Eventually, the “cultural policy” by the Maeda clan became a benefactor of the today’s popularity of the Tea Ceremony among the citizens in Kanazawa.
In 2002, a book wholly devoted to Tea Ceremony in the Kaga Domain was published by Tankōsha, which is a publisher established by the second son of the fourteenth head of Urasenke School in order to issue the school’s official magazines and texts. The title of the book, “Kaga Maeda Clan, Tea Ceremony of Hyakumangoku: From Toshiie to the Present Day,” shows its strong focus on the history of Kaga-Hyakumangoku. The publishing year of the book indicates that the book takes advantage of the dramatization of Toshiie and Matsu. The book introduces how successive feudal lords and retainers of Kaga Domain enjoyed and contributed to the development of the Tea Ceremony in the domain, and then modern tea connoisseurs lived or were born in Kanazawa City with utensils they used and their tearooms/teahouses. The last chapter seems like a guidebook for tourists that promotes tea-tourism in Kanazawa City. Tea-related museums, gardens, architectures, and restaurants are introduced with practical information in the chapter. The
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history of Kaga-Hyakumangoku and the Tea Ceremony were tightly connected under the influence of Taiga drama.
The evaluation of Tea Ceremony in Kanazawa fell a little bit behind the re-evaluation of Tea Ceremony itself because of the severe decline of the city. The Tea Ceremony in Kanazawa was accused of hindering the economic development. Yet the popularity of it in Kanazawa did not lose its fame. The history of Tea Ceremony in Kaga Domain was at first explained by the relationship with the mainstream of Tea Ceremony in the beginning of the Showa era. The notion of Kaga-Hyakumangoku developed in the late Showa era to the present resulted in the description of the Tea Ceremony in the context of Kaga-Hyakumangoku, which owes its development to the cultural policy by the Maeda clan.