Kanji

 

 

Hemp in the Japanese Language

 

In Japan's beautiful and bewildering language, hemp is expressed by a kanji (ideogram) character, also adapted from Chinese, and pronounced asa. Since the decline of cannabis hemp production, this term has become a sort-of catch-all term for replacement fibber crops such as Jute, Sisal, Flax Linen, as well as true Hemp making it a bit confusing. However in any dictionary or other language resource, it is unmistakable that this as a character means cannabis.

Hemp & Japanese Culture

I thought that I would provide you with some historical information which involves the US occupation of Japan and the Post WW2 abolition of Industrial Hemp.

 

Circa Post WW2: The Dupont's and the Cotton Cartels of the time wanted Hemp off the map, it was a matter of strategic economic importance.

 

"Industrial hemp is just way too much of a ubiquitous product to be grown by the common man". "It just makes too much $cents$ for the average farmer" " It would displace pulp towns and the Cotton clowns" " It would create a paradigm shift" I know Jeff hates that term, but the big boys don't like change if it doesn't fall into their pockets first.

 

Just to give your readers an idea on how well regarded Hemp was in the Japanese culture:

 

I'll provide you with the following:

 

Hemp was traditionally used by Shinto priests, including the Japanese emperor himself who acts as a kind of chief priest of Shintoism. Several hemp fields are cultivated on Shikoku, one of the four main islands of Japan, to make ceremonial linen clothes for the Imperial family and for Shinto priests.

 

Hemp is also grown in some parts of Nagano prefecture by farmers with a hemp license and the fibre is used for bell ropes and noren (ritual curtains) for Shinto shrines as well as in sumo rituals.

 

The Hemp Control Act

 

Hemp cultivation came to a legal halt in the during the post W.W.II, allied-forces occupation. Allied troops lived in Japan and helped substantially to rebuild the nation battered by the destruction and poverty of wartime.

 

The foreign troops were certainly surprised at the abundance of hemp growing both wild and cultivated. In 1948 when American General of the Army, Douglas Macarthur and his colleagues rewrote the Japanese constitution, they included the Taima Torishimari Hô, the Hemp Control Act.

 

Ironically, it was the Japanese Imperial Army's invasion of the Philippines a few years earlier that acted as a catalyst for USA's "Hemp for Victory" campaign to replace the Manila-hemp used by the armed forces.

 

 

HEMP CULTURE IN JAPAN

 

Japan, has long been a land of mystery to outsiders. Though isolated from the world's progress for thousands of years, Japan still Managed to import and reinvent the wisest ideas from other lands, turning them into something all their own. Hemp is no exception.

 

Yet the passage of time caught the persistent cannabis sativa plant in a confusing vise of tradition and modernization, sustainability and rapid expansion. As Japan begins to realize it's role as a global leader, hemp again rises from the shadows to greet the future in the Land of the Rising Sun.

 

Hemp comes to Japan

 

Since the Neolithic Jomon period, hemp grew in Japan. The term Jomon itself means "pattern of ropes, " which were certainly made of hemp. Archaeological evidence places hemp seeds as a food source during this Jomon period (10,000 to 300 BC). These hunting and collecting people lived a civilized, comfortable existence and used hemp for weaving clothing and basket making. What isn't entirely clear however, is exactly when and how the seeds arrived in Japan.

 

When considering this question, it is often difficult to distinguish the facts of history from the pervasive creation myths that make up the Japanese religion of Shinto. Some scholars insist that hemp was abundant in Japan before contact with China or Korea; however, impartial analysis suggests that, like much of it's culture, hemp was almost certainly imported and adapted by the Japanese from China.

 

To better determine the journey that those first hemp seeds took, one can consider the examples of three other prominent imports which shaped Japanese culture and indeed became standards of Japanese civilization: Buddhism, wet-field rice and Washi paper. The history of paper is easily traced because it was written down on paper. The first real paper in known to have been created in China from hemp rags by a court eunuch, Ts'ai Lun, from a mix of old hemp rags and mulberry bark in around 100 A.D. Experiments using silk and bamboo had been ongoing for a few decades, but most writing was done on small wood panels.

 

Paper isn't recorded into the historical record of Japan until the 7th century A.D., when Korean priests and monks delivered this new technology to the Imperial palace in 610 A.D., along with Buddhism and the acceptance of the Chinese writing system.

 

The paper that the Korean monk, Doncho, produced for his royal demonstration was made from hemp rags and mulberry bark, as in the Chinese tradition. The Japanese copied his technique; the skill spread rapidly throughout Japan, with over 80 subtle varieties of paper being made throughout Japan within 50 years. This certainly suggests hemp must have been already long domesticated, to keep up with this rapid growth of papermaking fuelled by the spread of Buddhism and the new form of written communication.

 

Evidence of that vital period of Japanese history is owned by a Nihonga painter named Haneshi. He possesses a piece of brown and slightly brittle, pure hemp paper, dated at 770 AD. It is still intact and he keeps it in a box with a small piece of rare incense. (Hughes, 165) It is clear that by this point in history, Korea and Japan had had a long established relationship, since Japan maintained a territorial foothold on Korea in the fifth and sixth century. Furthermore, there were numerous ships traveling between China, Korea and Japan exchanging new ideas and information even before this period.

 

Another Japanese staple, wet-field rice, made its way from the Middle Kingdom to Japan around 300 BC. The seed stock first went to Korea, then was brought by traders across the narrow but rough channel to Shimonoseki, Japan's southern island of Kyushu which is the closest point to the Asian mainland. It is probable that hemp made the same voyage before or around the same time. There are reports of seeds from prehistoric periods that have been uncovered on the island of Kyushu which would suggest this passage definitely took place before the Common Era; yet scientific dating techniques would have a hard time putting an accurate date on such a small artefact.

 

Hemp in Japanese history

 

As time went on, more people arrived on Japanese shores from China and Korea, some to trade, many to settle, in all taking Japanese culture on to another period. This Yayoi period produced major changes in Japan as "foreigners" imported more advanced practices and quickly made the indigenous Japanese adapt their ways. Most signifant was the spread of agriculture and clan-like social arrangement.

 

The people of these times lived in patriarchal groups and wore clothes made of hemp and bark, a technique which continued on for hundreds of years. At this time also the complex Shinto system of multiple patriarchal deity developed, as numerous clans each adopted a patron saint.

 

By that time, hemp had successfully adapted to the Japanese climate and spread throughout the latitudes. Even on the northern island of Hokkaido, the indigenous Ainu made their colourful costumes from the fibber during the Yayoi period around the 3rd century AD.

 

Thus, hemp was already a well-established crop in many parts of Japan by the time written language was commonly used, and the first "Official" recorded history appears as the Nihon Shoki (Chronicle of Japan), published by Crown Prince Shotoku in 710 AD (soon after the introduction of papermaking, Chinese writing and Buddhism).

 

Trade and communication between China, Korea and Japan faded over the next few centuries as each country led it's own secluded path. Japan did continue for a while to send scholars and students to learn medicine, agriculture and science from the Chinese and bring the best of it back home, including the Kampo (Chinese medicine) ancient pharmacopoeia developed by Lao Tzu. This system of health and treatment utilized many forms of the hemp plant to treat a variety of illnesses.

 

A translated account reads "Hemp preparations are especially used as a laxative, to treat asthma & poisonous bites, worm animals, counteract skin ailments and as a general tonic to promote vigour.

 

During these centuries of feudal society, a leader emerged named Hideyoshi Toyotomi. He came from a typical village to unite Japan. An account of his growing up goes into some detail on daily life in the 1500's.: "The village of Nakamura lies in the rich farming country of south-western Owari in the delta of the Kiso River. Cotton, hemp and rice were cultivated there during Hideyoshi's day by a comparatively well-off community of peasants, many of whom owned their own land."

 

During the feudal era, hemp cultivation was encouraged by the Daimyo (feudal lords) wanting hempen-ware's high resale value from the wealthy city merchants who favoured hemp for making fine clothing. This brought economic strength and power to the Daimyo of the area (who were often in debt to the merchants) (Stearns). The merchants had an interesting and much maligned position in feudal society. They were ranked near the bottom of the ladder but by building "unions" and creative marketing, they were soon the wealthiest class. The Samurai forbid themselves to handle money as it was unclean and despised and feared the merchants because of there increasing wealth.

 

The merchants again learned the use of money from foreigners. "Merchants dealt not in rice but in coin, and utilized four metals: gold (oban, koban, ichibu kin), silver (chogin, mame-ita, monme), copper (zeni),and iron. They had square holes in the centre based on the Chinese system, and were carried on strings of hemp." (Hidden Variable) (note: the 5 yen coins still have a hole in them left over from this practice)

 

During this time, Japanese agriculture and social structure continued to change despite lack of new influence from outside sources. Indeed as the merchants and daimyo feuded, the farmers started to "unionize to sell their hemp directly to the markets in Edo (old Tokyo). "Cotton was not grown much before the Muromachi period and then it seems to have been confined to mainly to Eastern Japan where growing conditions were not particularly favourable. Toward the end of the 16th century, however cotton found its natural habitat in the Kinai, thereafter the production of raw cotton very rapidly increased . . . The hemp cloth industry of Uonuma county in Echigo Province provides an example of a different kind. This industry dated back to at least the Nara period, when taxes were party paid by the cloth. But the industry here achieved no considerable growth until certain innovations in bleaching and weaving were made toward the end of the seventeenth century. After that the output of hemp cloth increased from about five thousand rolls to about two hundred thousand roll annually until the end of the eighteenth century. By this time, local sources of raw material were no longer adequate to supply producers and hemp had to be imported from Aizu and Yonezawa."

 

While the farmers were supposedly given rights and privilege by the Samurai, they were in fact kept poor, busy and occupied with the agricultural process which was very labour-intensive in low-tech rural Japan. Even then, space was at a premium and the farmers began terracing the hillsides.

 

Hemp (along with silk for the wealthy Samurai class) was the primary source of clothing fibber until the 17th century when cotton was introduced. Cotton began to replace hemp as the fibber crop for the new urban working class because of high yields by heavy fertilizer use and development of mass processing methods.

 

Hemp continued to be used for a variety of specialized purposes, including the straps of geta (high wooden sandals), long-line eel fishing lines and packaging ropes (Mayuzumi), to name few. After short periods of limited trade with some European countries (primarily Holland but only on an off-shore trading zone) in the early 17th century, Japan once again closed the bamboo curtain solidly to the west.

 

In 1853, American Commodore Perry and a fleet of black gunboats pried open the ports for trade and began a new era of change, trade and conflict.

 

Inside, a still feudal, warring nation scrambled to take stock of the impact and learn the secrets of these strange "bearded barbarians". Realizing they had been caught in a very vulnerable position, Japan embarked on an intense, rapid industrialization. In the ensuing chaos, the young Emperor Meiji was restored and the Samurai class dissolved. Massive, sudden change occurred in a short time, and a nation was restarted.

 

This new Meiji era sparked a period of mutual bewilderment and competitive fascination, an awkward dance between the East and West that begat wonderful exchanges of arts, medicine and humanity, and the brutality of war and racism.

 

Japan quickly engineered trains, steamships, silk factories and mining operations, surpassing in a few decades the growth of industry that had taken Europe and America close to a century. Shortly after their hasty ushering onto the world stage, Japan sent its first diplomatic mission to USA, sailing across the Pacific only four years after first seeing a ocean going vessel. Among the crew, serving as the Captain Kimura's personal servant and translator, was Yukichi Fukuzawa. He tells in his account of the journey about the crew all receiving a pair of hemp sandals to make the passage. He goes on to say that some crewmen were a bit embarrassed when they arrived in San Francisco and saw how different their footwear and customs were:

 

"All of us wore the usual pair of swords at our sides and the hemp sandals. So attired we were taken to the modern hotel. . . Here the carpet was laid over an entire room and upon this costly fabric, walked our hosts wearing the shoes they had come in from the streets! We followed in our hemp sandals." (Fukuzawa)

 

Young Fukuzawa went on to found Kieo University and inspire Japan's new educational system. His face is now on Japan's 10,000 Yen bill. Regardless of the fact that Japan had become a member of the world community, the country's farmers still bore the brunt of the labour, working long days in treacherous conditions to supply essentials for an increasing urban population. From the humid summers to the freezing winters, hemp provided rugged and functional clothing.

 

In the Meiji and Taisho eras (19th century), country-people continued an ancient technique, combining hemp fiber with other plants like seaweed and broom-straw to make circular, pointed hats which the wet mountain snow would slide right off of. (Seattle Asian Arts)

 

These hats are really more of a solid helmet of hemp fibber intertwined with seaweed, perhaps to let the snow slide off the sloping, conical peak. The farmers also utilized similar materials in making pack-like, back support pads for hauling heavy loads down steep mountainsides. The crafting skill of the traditional artisans endures; the term for this is You no Bi. (Seattle Asian Arts) This tactile feeling of "beauty in utility" evokes a sense of the rugged simplicity and deliberate, elegant workmanship that blends so well with the hemp aesthetic.

 

During this same era when country people fashioned rugged work wear, the textile artist continued using hemp to a different end. The skill of the Japanese textile makers is seen in hemp kimono (traditional clothing) worn especially in the summer. Hemp became a somewhat exclusive fabric used for special garments and upper classes.

 

Hemp's durability allowed the same fibbers to be reused several times for recycled clothing, rags and finally paper. As class structure made labor-intensive hemp unreachable for many, they tried to imitate the properties with cotton. Before the introduction of cotton to Japan, hemp fiber had already long been in use for the weaving of cloth. (Hughes, 77) In fact, the summer cotton kimono, the Yucatan, was the common person's adaptation of the yukatabira (absorbent hemp bathrobes) the wealthy wore to and after soaking in the hot springs.

 

Hemp in Religion

 

In the vast journey from India to China, the teachings of the Buddha were altered considerably, although on the trip from China to Korea and then on to Japan, the tenets remained undiluted. However, upon receiving this wisdom, the Japanese adapted and intertwined Buddhism with the traditional mythological religion of Shinto.

 

Shinto is the ancient "way of the gods." A ritualistic expression of profound respect for the kami (the intrinsic god-like spirit) in nature. Plants, animals, rocks, trees all possess a sort of spirit or reverence which can be terrifying or peaceful. In Shinto, humans are always searching towards purity and responsibility which transcends the traditional religious sense and into day-to-day society.

 

Shinto's creation stories tell of the islands that would become Japan rising from volcanoes and hot springs. God/dess figures descended to people the country with their direct descendants who are more cherished than any other on Earth. Purity and fertility are paramount concepts and from the beginning to the present, hemp is an essential symbol of both.

 

In Kojiki (the Record of Ancient Matters) the story relates: After creating the country the primal pair consulted together saying, "We have now produced the great eight island country, with the mountains, rivers, herbs and trees. Why should we not produce someone who shall be lord of the Universe."

 

This first pair then begat the founding goddess-figure, Amaterasu Omi kami (Sun Goddess). She is enshrined at the holiest of place, the Ise Jinja (shrine) along with the ancient sacred mirror Ameratsu gave to her grandson when he descended from above to reign over the eight island kingdom.

 

At that shrine on the Ise penisula, the special prayer given for the founding Goddess of Japan is called Taima (cannabis). Further, hemp, salt and rice are the sacred staples that are used as part of all the rites at the shrine. (Yamada) Indeed hemp and mulberry fibber and cloth, and paper made from them, as well as salt, sake, and rice are offered to the gods at the Shinto shrines.

 

This element of purity is stressed again as undyed hemp was an important part for the household of the new bride. This undyed hemp came to symbolize the womanly virtues of faithfulness, chastity and obedience. Like the undyed cloth, an old saying goes, the woman must allow herself to be dyed any colour her husband chooses. (Hughes, 49)

 

In a shrine ritual, a Shinto priest shakes a short wand with hemp attached called a gohei over the head of patrons in a cleansing ceremony.

 

Originally the actual hemp and mulberry fibbers were attached to a stick but eventually paper made from the same and cut into distinctive zig-zag strips and attached to a sakaki branch became standard. The priests dressed in robes made of a sort of starched hemp paper so as to be pure to perform these purification rites.

 

 

Another Shinto tale tells that every October, all the deities from around Japan gather at a sacred site in rural Shimane prefecture (Sea of Japan side of Honshu, south of Tottori) at Japan's largest jinja (shrine) called Iizumo taisha. During this month, the rest of the nation is left unprotected from calamity while the Gods hold a harvest and match-making ritual celebration. (JNTO) Shimane-ken is far out of the way of any urban centre and, besides being "Home of the Gods," it was the home to bounteous hemp harvests up until about 50 years ago.

 

Although initially widely accepted, Buddhism faded and didn't really gain widespread acceptance again until an enterprising royal adjusted it significantly to make it more inviting to the masses by combining the search for enlightenment a sense with Zen asceticism (again borrowed from the Chinese).

 

At Shinto Jinja (shrine), and Buddhist Tear (temple) certain objects are symbolically made from hemp. For example, the leg-thick bell ropes must be hempen, as is the Noreen (a short curtain), which acts as a symbolic purification "veil", meant to cause evil spirits to flee from the body as the head brushes lightly under the short curtain.

 

It is in death that Shinto and Buddhism mix into a braid. The relatives continue to visit the graves leaving offerings and praying in the Buddhist way. Yet at home, a family shrine with the departed picture and memorabilia is tended in the Shinto tradition with claps, incense and worshiping the kaki within.

 

The Japanese wound paths around their country as they traveled long distances for salt, enlightenment and pilgrimages. In olden times, these wandering pilgrims and traveling believers were obliged to leave an offering of rice and hemp leaves to the path-side phallic-fertility statues of the She no Kari (protective deities) before embarking on a journey.

 

"These deities were represented by phalli, often of gigantic size, which were set up along highways and especially at cross-roads to bar the passage against malignant beings who sought to pass . . . Standing as they did on the roadside and at cross-roads, these gods became the protectors of the wayfarers; travelers prayed to them before setting out on a journey and made a little offering of hemp leaves and rice to each one they passed." (Moore)

 

In another old tradition, rooms of worship were purified by burning hemp leaves by the entrance. This would invite the spirits of the departed, purify the room and encourage people to dance.

 

An account of this event states:

 

"On the first evening fires of hemp leaves are lighted before the entrance of the house, and incense strewed on the coals, as an invitation to the spirits. At the end of the three days the food that has been set out for the spirits is wrapped up in mats and thrown into a river. Dances of a peculiar kind are a conspicuous feature of the celebration, which is evidently an old Japanese custom."

 

This seems to coincide with a Buddhist "giving respect and making amends with departed ancestors" holy day. The current tradition at this August "O bon" festival involves the similar practice of first, traveling to the family plot, and then leaving offerings of the departed favorite foods on the grave, perhaps to purify or satisfy the restless soul. At some point, the same hemp leaves were probably part of this ritual.

 

Partly as a political power move, Buddhism was assigned as the official religion of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the period (from1600 -1868). During this time, all citizens were obligated to register as members with one of the three main branches of the sect. (Religions of Japan, Monk)

 

As time went on, various sects developed, chopping up and combining doctrines as they chose. In later years, the battle for reinstallment of the Shinto tradition and Emperor figure-head sparked a manic revolution that overthrew Ieyasu Tokugawa's descendants.