A noble and a musician

a biographical account of Nakahara Ariyasu

Abstract

This article is a chronological record of the life of Nakahara Ariyasu, written in the form of Ariyasu's diary. This diary itself does not actually exist, and in this sense the account is fictional.
Nakahara Ariyasu was a musician who served under Kujo Kanezane (1149-1207) from the end of the Heian period to the beginning of the Kamakura period. He taught the biwa to Kanezane, as well as to Kamo no Chomei. A record of his statements and teaching about the biwa, organized and classified by one of his students, exists in the form of Kokin kyoroku. The present author has described its contents and expression in Vols. 1 and 3 of Jochi daigaku kokubunka kiyo (“Bulletin of the Japanese Literature Department of Sophia University”). This article follows on these previous articles as a chronological record of Ariyasu's life. The reasons why it has been written in the form of a diary are, firstly, to demonstrate the close connection between the range of Ariyasu's life and art, and the political stance as well as religious and cultural activities of the Kujo clan, and secondly, by superimposing the daily activities of Ariyasu and Kanezane, to contrast in concrete terms the difference in meaning that music and dance had to the two men, a musician and a noble respectively.
Kujo Kanezane was the son of the Kanpaku (Regent) Fujiwara no Tadamichi, and became Utaisho (Major Captain of the Right) in Oho 1st year (1161) at the age of thirteen, later ascending to Naidaijin (Great Minister of the Centre), Udaijin (Great Minister of the Right), Sessho (Regent for an Emperor who is still a minor) in Bunji 2nd year (1186) and finally Kanpaku (Regent) in Kenkyu 2nd year (1191). He fell from power in Kenkyu 7th year (1196), and died in Jogen 1st year (1207) at the age of 59.
Ariyasu served in the Kujo clan from the time when Kanezane was Utaisho, but at the same time held a number of official posts. According to surviving records, he held at various times the following posts: Minbu-no-jo, Minbu-no-daifu Hida-no-kami, Chikuzenno-kami, and Gakusho-no-azukari.
The time during which this master and servant lived was one of great disturbances. The Hogen and Heiji Insurrections (1156 and 1160 respectively) were followed by the Genpei War, the great war between the Minamoto and Taira clans of 1180-85 that resulted in the victory of the Minamoto. The capital Kyoto was ravaged by great fires, earthquakes, and famines, and political power was steadily passing from the hands of the nobles to those of the warrior class. Kanezane's diary, Gyokuyo, gives a detailed description of movements in the contemporary political scene, and is of immeasurable value as historical source material. There is no source more valuable than this, too, for investigating the state of cultural aspects of the time, such as ceremony, religion, waka poetry, and music.
Kanezane's concept of the ideal member of the noble class envisaged a person with grace who balanced equal ability in the fields of politics, ceremony, literature and the performing arts. Looking at examples from the latter field at the end of the Heian period, we can note the Cloistered Emperor Goshirakawa, who showed an almost deranged fascination for the popular vocal form imayo, while the famous musician Myonon-in Fujiwara no Moronaga devoted all of his energies to completing a comprehensive study and documentation of the gagaku, especially kangen, tradition. This attitude of becoming overly preoccupied with a single thing differed from Kanezane's ideal. This was rather a person who possessed the finest knowledge, understanding and discernment in a wide range of fields, from politics to literature and music, and who showed no special partiality towards any of them. He tried to educate his sons in this way. Kanazane himself pursued this image of the ideal Heian-period noble, and almost realized it; the one great difference between his