宇治茶御用道中図景
江戸時代後期写
利倉盛庸著
江戸時代、毎年新茶の季節になると江戸城から行列を仕立てて茶壷が派遣され、宇治で将軍家御用の茶を詰めて持ち帰るのがならわしでした。宇治採茶使(うじさいちゃし)、いわゆる「お茶壷道中」です。行列の権威はすこぶる高く、もし道中行き会えばたとえ大名とて道を譲らねばなりません。一行を滞りなく通過させるための沿道の準備もおおごとで、毎年初夏の農繁期に作業に駆り出され、失敗でもあれば厳しく咎められるため、人々にとって物心両面で非常な負担であったことでしょう。ゆえに大変迷惑がられたお茶壷道中ですが、同行する役人たちにとってもまた、簡単なお役目ではなかったようです。将軍様ご飲用のお茶を入れるものとして茶壷そのものが神聖視され、それはそれは大変な気の使いようでした。
『宇治茶御用道中図景』は、採茶使として宇治へ派遣された平茶道（茶坊主）・利倉盛庸が文化７（１８１０）年６月に著した『菟道(うじ)青表紙図彙(あおびょうしずい)』の書写本です。緒言（前書き）によれば、「同勤初役の人の一助になれば」とあり、いわば「お茶壷道中随行員マニュアル」として書かれたもの。江戸城を出立し、宇治で茶の検分を行い、茶壷に詰め、途中朝廷や久能山東照宮などへの献上を済ませながら再び江戸城に茶壷を持ち帰るまで、ほぼ一月がかりの用務過程すべての手順や諸注意が、彩色の模式図１８図を加えてつぶさに記されています。
従来、街道筋の住民など行列を通過させる側の資料によって、その“迷惑ぶり”が強調されることの多いお茶壷道中ですが、本書は実際に道中した側の人が遺したものであり、異なる角度からお茶壷道中を照射する、極めて貴重な資料です。
Uji tea ordering journal
Late Edo era
Writer: Moritsune Hasekura
In the Edo era, each year, many people journeyed from Edo (Tokyo) Castle to Uji in Kyoto, famous for its cultivation of tea leaves, in order to fill up tea urns with the first leaves of the season and bring them back for the shogun’s household. This was called “Ujisaichashi” meaning “The journey to carry tea”. These tea bearers were held in the highest regard. Even daimyo (a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in premodern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings) had to give way when they passed these tea bearers on the road. In order to avoid any problems on the journey, at the start of each summer, even though farmers were very busy, they were forced to improve the road and those who failed to obey or take the job seriously were severely punished. Therefore preparations for the trip were extremely troublesome for everyone and at the same time it was not easy for the tea bearers. The tea urn the shogun would use was deified as a sacred object and treated with the greatest of care.
This book is a copy of “Uji Aobyoushi Zui”, originally written by Moritsune Hasekura in June of the 7th year of Bunka (1810). He was a tea specialist sent to Uji as one of the tea bearers. The introduction states, “This book may be helpful for beginning tea bearers” and therefore Moritsune intended it to be a manual for making “The journey to carry tea”. The trip from Edo Castle to Uji and back including choosing the tea, filling the urns and stopping by Chotei and Kunouzan Toshogu to present some as a gift, took about one month. The order of the entire process and points of caution are documented in detail with 18 color illustrations.
Most other documents describe the journey only in terms of the terrible nuisance it caused for the people who lived along the road and those who had to make way but this extremely valuable book focuses on the journey to carry tea from a different point of view, that of the tea bearer’s side.
Library005 金生樹譜