Twice ToldYōkai gendan: how kokkuri came to Japan, and the ship at Shimoda, 1887
- Language
- Japanese
- Reading
- transcribed from the page image
- Translation
- ours
- Retrieved
- 10 October 2026
Spelling, kana and punctuation as printed (no dakuten on many syllables: さる for ざる, へし for べし; no punctuation marks, only the page layout). Line and page breaks are not kept. Page breaks are marked in brackets.
第三段 コックリの傳來を論す 第十四節 今コックリの原因事情を究明するに當り先つ爰に其の起源傳來を叙述するを必要なりとす余其何れの地に始めて起り誰人の發明せしものなるやを究めんと欲し諸國の有志に其流行の有様を問合せたるに今日まて余の手許に達したる報知によるに一昨明治十八年の秋より昨十九年の春にわたりて相豆駿遠尾濃の間に流行し昨年中は西は京坂より山陽南海西國まて蔓延し東は房總常野武信の諸州にも傳播し當年に至りては奥州に漸入するを見る獨り北陸地方に未た其の流行するを聞かさるなり是に由て之を推するに此事は東海諸國に縁起せしを知るへし［p. 32］然るに人の傳ふる所によるに此法は三百年前より已に日本に傳り信長公始めて之を試みられたると舊記に見えたりと云ひ或は徳川氏の代に之を行ふたると古老の言に存せりと云ひ或は薩州より起れりと云ひ或は外國より來ると云ふも皆坊間の風説に止まりて確乎として信を置くへきものなし然れとも其法の本邦に起るにあらすして外國より入り來りしとは疑ふへからさるものゝ如し此説によるに或は數百年前切支丹宗に混して本邦に傳はりしと云ひ［p. 33］或は維新の際日本人の亞米利加にありしものの歸朝して其法を傳へたりと云ふも是れ亦信據すへからさるを知る何者數年前已に本邦に入りしものの何そ久く民間に傳はらすして昨今始めて流行するに至りしや其理甚た解し難し縦令維新前に本邦人中一二人の之を知りしものありとするも一昨年來諸州に流行せしものは他の起源あるによるや疑を容れす 第十五節 余か捜索せし所によるに其流行の情況恰も波及の勢をなせり蓋し其始めて起りし地は豆州にして其地よりコックリの報道を得たるは一昨年にあり其の後數ヶ月を經て尾濃京坂の間に行はるゝを聞き同時に房總諸州に蔓延せるを見る而して其漸く進て東京に入りしは昨秋の［p. 34］事なり其後次第に波及して埼玉群馬信濃地方に入る之れと同時に九州地方に流行するの報を得たり斯くして今年に至り奥州に入るの報道あり余か曩に其始て東京に入りしの風説に接したるは昨夏の事にして深川區を以て起源とす其後日本橋京橋諸區を經て今春に至り牛込小石川邊に流行するを見る是れ余かコックリは東海諸國に起源せりと想像せし所以にして初めに豆州地方より起るならんと云ふ所以なり已にして余昨夏豆州に遊ひ其地の流行の實況を捜索して始めて其説の眞なるを知る 第十六節 一昨々年頃の事とかや亞米利加の帆走船豆州下田近傍に來りて破損したることあり其破船の件に關して亞米利加人中久しく其地に滯在せしものありて此法を同［p. 35］地の人民に傳へたりと云ふ其時亞米利加人は英語を以て其名を呼びたるも其の地のもの英語を解せずして其名の呼び難きを以てコックリの名を與ふるに至りたるなり蓋しコックリとはコックリと傾むくを義として竹の上に載せたる蓋のコックリと傾くより起ると云ふ是れより一般に傳へてコックリ様と呼び其名に配するに狐狗狸の語を用ふるに至りしなり果して然らは此の法は西洋より傳來したるものにして其の流行は豆州下田より起りしこと明かなり當時下田にありし船頭の輩一たび此怪事を實視し其後東西の諸港に入りて之を傳へ西は尾張又は大阪に傳へ東は房總又は京濱の間に傳へしや必然なり故に其東京に入るも深川京橋等の海邊より始まる是に由て之を觀るに昨今流行［p. 36］のコックリは豆州下田に起縁せると殆んと疑ふへからさるなり [second excerpt, p. 38 to p. 39, within 第十七節] 是に由て之れを觀るに下田に來りし亞米利加人は曾て其本國にありしとき此法を知りたるものにして其下田にあるの際手許に適宜のテイブルなきゆへ臨時の思ひ付きにて竹と蓋とを以て之れに代用したるならんと想像せらる［p. 39］ゝなり而して其亞米利加人は此法を呼んでテイブル、トルニングとか云ひて傳へたるも其土地の者洋語に慣れさるを以てコックリの語を代用するに至りしならんと思はるゝなり故に余はコックリは即ちテイブル、トルニングと同一なりと信す
Translation
Ours.
Section 3: how kokkuri came to Japan
- As I investigate the causes and circumstances of kokkuri, I need first to set down where it began and how it arrived. I wanted to find out in which place it first arose and who devised it, so I asked interested people in the provinces how it had spread. The reports that have reached me so far say it spread among Sagami, Izu, Suruga, Tōtōmi, Owari and Mino from the autumn of Meiji 18, the year before last, to the spring of Meiji 19, last year. During last year it spread west from Kyoto and Osaka through the San’yō, the Nankai region and the western provinces, and east to the Bōsō provinces, Hitachi, Shimotsuke, Musashi and Shinano. This year it is moving into Ōshū. Only the Hokuriku region, as far as I have heard, has not yet been taken up. From this I take it that the thing began in the Tōkai provinces.
Yet people say it came to Japan three hundred years ago, that old records show Lord Nobunaga was the first to try it, that old men say it was done under the Tokugawa, that it began in Satsuma, or that it came from abroad. All of these are street gossip. None gives anything firm to rely on. Still, it seems beyond doubt that the method did not arise in this country but came in from abroad. Some say it came centuries ago mixed up with the Christian religion; some say Japanese who had been in America came home at the Restoration and brought it. These too I know are not to be trusted. If it had entered the country years ago, why would it not have been known among the people for a long time, and only begin to spread now? That is very hard to understand. Even if one or two Japanese knew it before the Restoration, there is no doubt that the craze of the last two years in the provinces has a different source.
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What I found is that the spread looks like a wave. It began in Izu. News of kokkuri from there reached me the year before last. A few months later I heard that it was being done in Owari, Mino and Kyoto-Osaka, and at the same time saw that it had spread through the Bōsō provinces. It came into Tokyo last autumn. Afterwards it spread in turn into Saitama, Gunma and Shinano, and at the same time I had word that it had spread in Kyūshū. This year there is news of it entering Ōshū. I first heard the rumour of its entering Tokyo last summer, with Fukagawa ward as the beginning. After that it passed through Nihonbashi and Kyōbashi, and this spring I saw it spreading in the Ushigome and Koishikawa area. This is why I supposed that kokkuri began in the Tōkai provinces, and why I thought it would have started in Izu. Then last summer I went to Izu, looked into what the craze there was really like, and for the first time learned that this supposition was true.
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It was around the year before the year before last, so I have heard, that an American sailing ship came to the neighbourhood of Shimoda in Izu and was damaged. In connection with the wrecked ship, there was an American who stayed in the place for a long time, and it is said that he taught the method to the people there (the text does not say how many Americans were meant). At the time the American called it by its English name, but the local people did not understand English and, since the name was hard to say, ended up giving it the name kokkuri. Kokkuri, they say, takes its meaning from tilting “kokkuri”, and arose from the lid set on top of the bamboo tilting that way. From there it spread generally and people called it “Kokkuri-sama”, and the characters 狐狗狸 were then fitted to the name, it is said. If so, this method came from the West, and it is clear that its spread began at Shimoda in Izu. The boatmen who were at Shimoda at that time must have seen this strange thing for themselves and then carried it into the ports east and west, to Owari or Osaka in the west, and to the Bōsō provinces or the Tokyo-Yokohama area in the east. That is why it began in Tokyo too at the seaside, in Fukagawa and Kyōbashi. Looking at it this way, there is almost no room to doubt that the kokkuri now in fashion has its origin at Shimoda in Izu.
Second excerpt (p. 38 to p. 39)
From this it seems that the American who came to Shimoda had known the method in his own country, and, having no suitable table to hand at Shimoda, used the bamboo and the lid as a stand-in on the spur of the moment. That is what I imagine. The American, passing it on, probably called it “table-turning” or some such, but I suppose the local people, not being used to Western words, came to use the word kokkuri in its place. So I believe that kokkuri is the same thing as table-turning.
Notes
What it is. The first part of the first volume of Inoue Enryō’s Yōkai gendan (“A first talk on yōkai”), which the printed preface dates to early May Meiji 20 (1887). We read the 2nd edition of November 1900, 86 pages, from the NDL. The NDL record notes the first edition as “May Meiji 25 (1892)”, which does not match the preface, and we have not seen the first edition (research/kokkuri/sources.md, “Where sources disagree”).
Who and why. Inoue wrote it as a scientific explanation of a craze for people who were putting questions to a tripod and lid. The preface says he had collected reports for five years and that kokkuri was what people of all classes were talking about. His aim in this section is to find where the practice began, before explaining why the lid moves.
How far to trust it. The passage reports what Inoue says he was told in Izu in the summer of 1886: its markers of hearsay are とかや (“so I have heard”), と云ふ (“it is said”) and, at the end, 想像せらる (“is imagined”). The inference that boatmen carried it to the ports, and the conclusion that Shimoda was the origin, are his own reasoning from the order in which reports reached him. The passage names no ship, no American and no Japanese informant.
Dates. “一昨々年” is the year before the year before last. Counted from a book written in Meiji 20 (1887) that is Meiji 17 (1884); the passage itself gives the year only in that form. A few lines earlier it writes 一昨明治十八年, “the year before last, Meiji 18”, which fixes the writing year as 1887. In his lectures printed from December 1891, Inoue writes 明治十八年ごろ (about Meiji 18, 1885) for the same ship.
Provinces. The text abbreviates provinces to single characters. 相豆駿遠尾濃 is read here as Sagami, Izu, Suruga, Tōtōmi, Owari and Mino, and the translation names them in the usual way. 房總常野武信 is rendered by region (the Bōsō provinces, the Kantō, Shinano); the individual provinces behind 常野 and 武信 are our reading and are not relied on.
Uncertain readings. None that matter to the sense. Two spellings are as printed and not normalised: 縁起 (frame 21) against 起縁 (frame 25), which both appear for “originate”, and 傾むく (frame 24) beside 傾く.