[[File:Kumano Shrine 2016-09.jpg|thumb|Kumano Gongen shrine at Usui Pass in 2016]] '''Ansei Tōashi''' or '''Ansei-no-Tōashi''' was a footrace open to samurai of the Annaka Domain, of approximately 30 kilometers, during the Ansei era (1854–1860) of Japan.{{r|Itabashi 2017}}{{r|Annaka City 2016}}{{r|Annaka City 2018}} It has been nicknamed the "Samurai Marathon".{{r|Annaka City 2016}}{{r|Annaka City 2018}} Though forgotten for a long time, this event was re-instituted in 1955, and has been viewed as a cultural resource since then.{{r|Itabashi 2017}} Annaka City now holds a long-distance race annually in commemoration of Ansei Tōashi.{{r|Itabashi 2017}}{{r|Annaka City 2016}}{{r|Annaka City 2018}}
==Background== The place: the place was Annaka Domain, one of parts of Joshū which is modern Gunma Prefecture, which was situated in the north-west part of Kantō plain.{{r|Yajima 1940}} Annaka Domain had a duty to defend Usui Pass, a narrow path, through which the transportation between Edo and north-western regions had to pass, therefore Annaka Domain was an important point of transport.{{r|Yajima 1940}}
The time: the time was the spring of 1855, the second year of Ansei era, two years later from "Arrival of the Black Ships" incident.{{r|Itabashi 2017}}{{r|Takigawa 2005}} This incident created perturbation in Japan and a split of opinion for foreigners.{{r|Takigawa 2005}} Some feudal lords thought that strengthening and fortification were needed against for the invasion of Westerners, and Itakura Katsuakira, the lord of Annaka Domain, was one of them.{{r|Takigawa 2005}}
==Primary sources== Ansei Tōashi had been forgotten for long time until ancient manuscripts were found in 1955, from the underlining of fusuma of the house of shintō priest of Kumano Gongen shrine at Usui Pass.{{r|Itabashi 2017}} The manuscripts tells the story of Ansei Tōashi, and records its date, time and order of arrival.{{r|Itabashi 2017}}
The manuscripts comprises a rule book and a book that records the order of arrival.{{r|Itabashi 2017}} The manuscripts have been typed and studied by historians, and are preserved in the institute for the compilation of historical material of Annaka City.{{r|Itabashi 2017}}
==Event== On the basis of the primary sources, Itakura Katsuakira hoped his vassals would be strengthened, and ordered them to run from the castle gate to Kumano Gongen shrine at Usui Pass.{{r|Annaka City 2016}}{{r|Annaka City 2018}} He believed that it would benefit their mental and physical discipline.{{r|Annaka City 2016}}{{r|Annaka City 2018}}
The primary sources shows that the participants are 98 men, all the vassals of fifty years old and under.{{r|Itabashi 2017}} They were divided into dozens of groups, each group included 6 or 7 men.{{r|Itabashi 2017}} All member within a group started to run at the same time.{{r|Itabashi 2017}} The order of arrival of each groups were recorded.{{r|Itabashi 2017}} Tōashi event took place from May 19 to June 28 of Japan's lunisolar calendar in the second year of Ansei era.{{r|Itabashi 2017}}
thumb|The final steps up to the shrine. The route to run includes lots of ups and downs, and its length is 30 kilometer.{{r|Itabashi 2017}}{{r|Annaka City 2016}}{{r|Annaka City 2018}} The final stage of the route has a mountain path to Usui Pass.{{r|Itabashi 2017}}
The recorder was the shinō priest of Kumano Gongen shrine at Usui Pass.{{r|Itabashi 2017}} In the first day, the recorder was late for the estimated arrival time of samurais because he who took the designation as the recorder by Lord Itakura at the castle in the previous day had to put up at an inn due to rain in the foot of the mountain path.{{r|Itabashi 2017}} Therefore, he had to run and climb the mountain path along with them.{{r|Itabashi 2017}}
Samurai who arrived at the goal dedicated the early-ripening of rice plant to the deity of the shrine, and were given dried radish strips, seasoned cucumbers, rice cakes and tea.{{r|Itabashi 2017}} Itabashi 2017 assumes giving rice cakes have symbolic meaning that they provide strength to donatory.{{r|Itabashi 2017}} When the participants returns their home, it was not needed for them to run.{{r|Itabashi 2017}} However, they were not allowed to ride in sedan chair nor ride on horseback.{{r|Itabashi 2017}} They had to walk.{{r|Itabashi 2017}}
==Legacy== After discovering the primary sources, the event written in it came to be known,{{r|Itabashi 2017}} and the name Ansei Tōashi was coined.{{r|Annaka City 2018}} The historical fact that a kind of marathon, which was invented by baron de Coubertin for modern Olympics in 1908, was invented by one of Japanese feudal loads and actually held in 1855, was thought to be interesting for modern Japanese people.{{r|Itabashi 2017}}
Ansei Tōashi has been used as a cultural resource.{{r|Itabashi 2017}} Annaka City has annually held a "Samurai Marathon" and invited runners since 1975.{{r|Itabashi 2017}}{{r|Annaka City 2016}}{{r|Annaka City 2018}} Ansei Tōashi inspired some fictions.{{r|Itabashi 2017}} ''Marathon Samurai'' (1956), a film directed by Kazuo Mori, starring Shintaro Katsu, and ''Samurai Marathon 1855'' (2019), a film directed by Bernard Rose are the films inspired by Ansei Tōashi.{{r|Itabashi 2017}}
==The Conductor== {{main|Itakura Katsuakira}} Itakura Katsuakira (1809-1857), the seventh head of the house of Itakura and the fifteenth ruler of Annaka Domain, was fond of studying and encouraged new industry in his domain.{{r|Yajima 1940}}{{r|Annaka City 2016}} Stone inscriptions which are preserved in Annaka in modern days tell that Katsuakira encouraged farmers to plant Japanese lacquer trees, and, thanks to this, they and their offspring could and would be able to avoid from poverty.{{r|Yajima 1940}}
An exemplary intellectual and political figure in Bakumatsu period, Katsuakira was anti-foreign and chauvinist, and took Japan's situation in global politics seriously.{{r|Takigawa 2005}} He felt menace about the situation that Westerners and Russians often came from overseas to Japan.{{r|Takigawa 2005}} According to Katsuakira's recognition of Japanese history, Japan had not been despised by oversea barbarians since the beginning of the country, and it was the enthusiasm for defence that kept this situation.{{r|Takigawa 2005}}
Under his reign, the Meiji-era educator Joseph Hardy Neesima was born as the son of a retainer of the domain.{{r|Ota 2007}} Hearing young Neesima's talent, Katsuakira ordered him to take up Dutch studies at his age of 14.<ref name="Doshisha History">{{cite web |url=https://one-purpose.doshisha.ac.jp/en/history/index.html |title=History - Doshisha University for foreigners site |publisher=Doshisha University |accessdate=2021-11-12 }}</ref> Neeshima's grandfather was formerly Shugen mystic, and, being expected to utilize his knowledge by the ruler of those days Katsunao, later became a lower-ranked feudal retainer of Annaka Domain.{{r|Ota 2007}}
==See also== * Fukoku kyōhei * Mitogaku
==References== {{reflist|30em|refs= <ref name="Itabashi 2017">{{cite journal |title=Ansei Toashi Samurai Marathon and its Utilization as a Cultural Resource |last=Itabashi |first=Haruo |journal=Study for History of Sports |year=2017 |volume=30 |pages=79–86 |doi=10.19010/jjshjb.30.0_79 }}</ref> <ref name="Yajima 1940">{{cite journal |title=Townscape of Annaka, Joshū |last=Yajima |first=Nikichi |journal=Geographical Review of Japan |date=August 1940 |volume=16 |issue=8 |pages=557–567 |doi=10.4157/grj.16.557 |doi-access=free }}</ref> <ref name="Takigawa 2005">{{cite journal |title=Reflection on Antiforeign Chauvinism in End of Tokugawa Shogunate |last=Takigawa |first=Shugo |journal=Treatises of Legal and Political Sciences |publisher=Japan Association of Legal and Political Sciences |year=2005 |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=19–30 |doi=10.20816/jalps.42.2_19 }}</ref> <ref name="Ota 2007">{{cite journal |title=Takeoff from Rearing in 'Home and Village' -- Thoughts for Reforming Child Rearing between End of Tokugawa Shogunate and Meiji Restoration |journal=Study of History of Early Childhood Education |year=2007 |volume=12 |pages=43–58 |doi=10.20658/youjikyoikushi.12.0_43 |last=Ota |first=Motoko }}</ref> <ref name="Annaka City 2016">{{cite web |url=https://www.city.annaka.lg.jp/gaiyou/files/shiseiyouran2016-12-13.pdf |title=Annaka City Outline 2016 |publisher=Annaka City |date=2016-12-13 |accessdate=2021-11-09 }}</ref> <ref name="Annaka City 2018">{{cite web |url=https://www.city.annaka.lg.jp/gyousei/shimin/shiminsoudan/files/H30May.pdf |date=May 2018 |publisher=Annaka City |title=Monthly Bulletin for Foreign Residents |accessdate=2021-11-09 }}</ref> }}
{{DEFAULTSORT:ansei toashi}} Category:19th-century military history of Japan Category:1855 in Japan Category:History of Gunma Prefecture