Jiang Xingchou, aka Shin-Etsu, Dong Gao (Toko)

Jiang Xingchou (1639-1695)¹ went from Hangzhou to Japan in 1676. Here, as the Buddhist monk Shin-Etsu, he taught qin to many students. In Japan he also had a number of other names, including Toko Zenji (Zen Master Toko) and Toko Etsu the Monk.²

Born in Puyang, south of Hangzhou,³ Jiang had studied qin with Zhu Xuzhou⁴ and with Zhuang Zhenfeng.⁵ Zhuang, from Nanjing but later living in Hangzhou, was well-known as the creator of a number of new qin melodies. His style included both pure music and qin songs. Qinxue Xinsheng (1664) consists mostly of his new melodies.

In 1676 Jiang was living at Yongfu Si, a Chan (Zen) Temple in Hangzhou.⁶ From here he went to Japan, arriving in Nagasaki in 1677.

In Japan Shin-Etsu originally lived in Nagasaki, but in 1685 he moved to Mito, on the coast northeast of Tokyo. Here he engaged in many scholarly activities and founded Gionji, the Gion Temple.⁷ He was buried there with great honor after his death in 1695.

It is not clear what qin materials he took to Japan in 1676. Apparently these included his teacher's Qinxue Xinsheng, as parts of this have been included in writings by his students, and at least one of its melodies (Li Yun Chun Si) appears in a Japanese handbook. He is also known to have recommended Songxianguan Qinpu to students. He may also have found in Japan handbooks brought to Mito by the recently deceased Zhu Shunshui.⁸

Perhaps Shin-Etsu also brought what is apparently the earliest of the Japanese handbooks with the repertoire he taught to beginners, Hewen Zhuyin Qinpu (Wabun Chuyin Kinpu). The many later Japanese handbooks with melodies from this tradition are generally called Toko Kinpu (or Toko Kimpu).

It seems likely that at that time educated Japanese confused the qin with the zheng, an instrument commonly played in Japan, where it is called a koto, and there were few if any qin players. Unlike other Chinese instruments brought to Japan, the qin was never localized. Instead it was generally played in a conscious effort to do something Chinese. This perhaps helps to explain why most Japanese were content to play these fairly simple songs, apparently following the Chinese pronunciations indicated alongside the Chinese characters.

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1. 蔣興疇 Jiang Xingchou
32570.xxx. There is considerable information on him in R. H. Van Gulik, Lore of the Chinese Lute, pp.217ff. Van Gulik calls him 蔣興儔 Jiang Xingtao. As for 東皋 Donggao, my computer does not have the gao used in the original text (自 over ^二_十^二), but the alternative 東睾 Donggao does not work for internet searching. (There is a similar problem with the gao of He Ming Jiugao.)

Chen Zhimai discusses Van Gulik's research into Shin-etsu as follows,

When (VG) was doing research on the guqin, he became interested in finding out how the guqin and its music were introduced into Japan. It was his contention that a Chinese Buddhist monk named Tung-kao, who came to Japan as a missionary in 1677, was responsible for developing the lore of the guqin in Japan. For many years he painstakingly traced the footsteps of this rather obscure monk, personally visiting all the temples and shrines in which the monk had resided, collecting the monk's writings and relics from old bookshops and curio stores all over the country. The sudden outbreak of the Pacific War forced Dr. van Gulik to leave Japan in a hurry, and much of the materials he so laboriously assembled had to be abandoned. But he managed to carry enough of them to Chungking to publish a select collection of the monk's poems and essays....
(Return)

2. Names for 蔣興疇 Jiang Xingchou in Japan include:

東皋心越 Toko Shin-Etsu
心越 Shin-Etsu
東皋禪士 Toko Zenji (Zen Master Toko)
東皋越杜多 Toko Etsu the Monk (杜多 dhuta [sanskrit] = monk; see Entry 321 of Qinshu Cunmu)
東皋懶衲 Donggao Lanna, Toko the Lazy Monk (Rando? 11722.xxx; see Qing Ping Yue).

All these names may be used at various places in Hewen Zhuyin Qinpu. (Return)

3. "金華浦陽人"; Puyang is a north-flowing river south of Hangzhou. (Return)

4. 褚虛舟 Zhu Xuzhou (Return)

5. 莊臻鳳 Zhuang Zhenfeng
The table of contents of his Qinxue Xinsheng 琴學心聲 (1664; XII.1) is now moved. (Return)

6. 永福寺 Yongfu Si (Return)

7. 水戶 Mito; 祗園寺 Gion Temple. Today it is known for its Zen gardens. Shin-Etsu was brought to Mito by 德川光囧 (? last character should have 方 on bottom) Mitsukuni, Lord of Mito. (Return)

8. Zhu Shunshui 朱舜水 (1600 - 1682)
Zhu Shunshui was a scholar brought to Mito by Mitsukuni in 1665. He evidently brought with him several qins as well as qin handbooks, but it is not known whether he himself actually played. (Return)