Natural History, Satire, and the Politics of Hell

This talk will explore the sharp satire of Tokugawa-period politics and society cleverly disguised in Honzō Mōmoku, a work of comic fiction compiled and published in the second half of the eighteenth century. While narrating the entertaining story of Haraga Bannai’s descent to the Underworld and his encounter with Enma, the King of Hell, this work alludes to period gossip on politics and economics. Making use of contemporary sources, I shall unravel the plot of Honzō mōmoku, demonstrating that the events narrated therein made a mockery of the bakufu administration and, in particular, of the fiscal and economic policies introduced by the senior councilor Tanuma Okitsugu (1719-1788) during the Meiwa (1764-1771) and An’ei (1772-1780) eras.