The English translation of “yomachi” in The Tale of Genji: The Jōbō City system and weights and measures system

ABSTRACT This article discusses the interpretation of “yomachi” in the English translation of The Tale of Genji. “Yomachi” describes the size of the house Rokujōin, one of the houses in the story. The construction of Rokujō-in is completed in “the 21st chapter, Otome” volume. To make it easier to visualize the house’s vastness, English translations of books are heavily annotated, but the English translation and the notes show a transition and are not consistent. Heian-kyō was laid out in a grid pattern based on what was called the Jōbō City System. In the Jōbō City System, “yomachi” is a block unit. The “yomachi” that Arthur Waley used in his English-language edition was based on the Japanese Weights and Measurement Law at the time he translated it, likely because the status of Japanese units, which had changed over time, had not been communicated. This story, established in the Heian period, is written in hiragana, and the word is read as “yomachi.” It is important to clearly understand the size of the house Rokujō-in, built by the protagonist, Genji, because the story tells of the actual rituals and events that took place in the aristocratic society at that time.


Introduction
The Tale of Genji, a classic Japanese literary work, has been world-famous since Arthur Waley's English translation was published, and Rokujō-in in particular, built by the hero Hikaru Genji, is an important house.Hikaru Genji called his wife, daughter, and adopted daughters to this house.Rituals and events held in the aristocratic society at that time are told on the stage of Rokujō-in.
"Yomachi" is the size of Rokujō-in, and to help the reader visualize the vastness of the house, the English translation is heavily annotated.However, the translation and the notes show a clear transition and are not constant.Meanwhile, it is necessary to clearly understand the size of the house to accurately understand the narrative.In this paper, I present the exact size dimensions of Rokujō-in "yomachi" while tracing the transition in the English translation.
In Japanese, there are two ways to read the kanji 町: "machi" and "chō".When the Jōbō City System was introduced (Heian era), this kanji was read as "machi" to indicate a block of land.The same unit was used to describe both the area and the Interval distance of the block.Since both area and distance could be expressed in terms of blocks, "machi" served as a term for both.Kokushi Daijiten 1979 1 states, "1 machi was a square of 40 'jō' square meters, including the streets."Thus, 1 "machi" in the Jōbō City System is usually calculated as 120 square meters.A "machi" was never divided into fractions.On the other hand, "chō" has been used frequently since the Middle Ages to describe the size of fields and was often divided into fractions.In this case, a more specific numerical unit, such as "tan" or "bu," could be added to "chō."When indicating an area that exceeded a fraction of "itchō," "itchō-bu" and "bu" were supplemented to avoid confusion with "itchō," which indicates distance."Machi" was never followed by a unit, indicating a further numerical value, and was eventually discarded with the decline of the Jōbō City System.Therefore, it is common to automatically read 町 as "chō" without knowing how to read it in situations when it indicates the division of the Jōbō City System.I believe that the gradual loss of the "machi" reading has affected English translations of The Tale of Genji.
*The areas marked with a note are indicated by 1,2 and more.

The transitions of the English translation of "yomachi"
First, I would like to mention Arthur Waley's English translation of Rokujō-in's "yomachi." Genji had long had it in his mind, if only he could find a site sufficiently extensive and with the same natural advantages as the Nijo-in, to build himself a new palace where he could house under one roof the various friends whose present inaccessibility, installed as they were in remote country places, was very inconvenient to him.He now managed to secure a site of four machi in the Sixth Ward close to where Lady Rokujo had lived and at once began to build.(p.429) As the table above shows, Arthur Waley's translation of "yomachi" as "a site of four machi" advanced to Edward Seidensticker's "four parks" (p.382) 3 and Royall Tyler's "four chō of land" (p.401) 4 , and finally to Dennis Washburn's "four parcels of land" (p.454) 5 .Dennis Washburn adopted Waley's "four machi" and Royall Tyler's "chō.""Yomachi" means four "machi," so the English translation "four machi" is not wrong.As I show later, the manuscript editions say "yomachi" in hiragana, so the English translation should be just "four machi," and there is no need to add "chō."There are two different readings of "machi" and "chō" in the kanji of this word, the units also differ in different periods, and two of the English translations appear to reflect this.However, the "yomachi" part of The Tale of Genji's manuscript editions are originally written in hiragana, and therefore, "machi" is correct.

"Yomachi" written in hiragana
Here, I would like to confirm the notation of "yomachi" in manuscript editions.It is a well-known fact that no version of The Tale of Genji in Murasaki Shikibu's handwriting has been handed down to the present, but there are many manuscript editions.The Ōshimabon was copied by Asukai Masayasu.In this book, there is a text dated the 13th year of the Bunmei era (1481).Many of the annotations appearing in modern typeset editions are based on the Ōshima-bon 6 .The textual line in modern Japanese annotations was written by changing the hiragana text into a mixed kanji text and adding furigana "yomachi" to the kanji."Yonchō" and furigana are not attached to the textual line because "yomachi" is written in hiragana in the Ōshima-bon.The relevant part of the photoreproduction of the Ōshima-bon is shown in Photo 1 7 .A reproduction of a manuscript of the Nijō-in no Sanuki, copied in the early Kamakura period, is shown in Photo 2 (The Paleological Association of Japan 1996) for reference.The manuscript of the Nijōin no Sanuki was like the Ōshima-bon version, in that it is written in hiragana, "yomachi." 8e "yomachi" part of The Tale of Genji is written in hiragana in many manuscript editions, according to Tale of Genji Taisei 9 and Tale of Genji Betsuhon Shusei 10 .Some manuscript editions were written in "yokimachi" (Kunifuyu-bon), and others were written in kanji (Arima-bon).However, there are no confirmed manuscript editions written in hiragana as "yonchō."Therefore, even if modern printed books were written in kanji, it would be a mistake to read this word as "yonchō" because the hiragana "yomachi" was converted to kanji and written such that it is easier for modern people to read.
The Rokujō-in depicted in this The Tale of Genji occupies four blocks, including the family home of the Umetsubo Empress, whom Genji adopted.The southwestern block is the family home of the Umetsubo Empress, and the southeastern, northeastern, and northwestern blocks are each described in hiragana as "machi" when speaking of a single block.These four blocks of Rokujō-in include four blocks of alleys, showing that "machi" is not a pure area unit.Because Rokujō-in, built in the era of the Jōbō City System, occupied a fourblock area, it is clear that the word "yomachi" is written in hiragana in the manuscript editions of The Tale of Genji, so there is no need to supplement the English translation "four machi" with "four chō."Equivalent to about 15,000 square meters.Thus, the total size of the land Genji acquired (60,000 square meters) was roughly 6 hectares (about 14.8 acres).
Photo 1. Photocopy of manuscript editions with the applicable portion in the circle.

The Transition of "machi" in the Jōbō City System and how to read it
As mentioned earlier, "町" has two readings.There are two readings for "machi" and "chō."The "machi" was the unit of block in the Jōbō City System.It was not a pure area unit but a distance unit and an area unit.On the other hand, "chō" mainly indicates the area of a field, but unlike the "machi" in the Jōbō City System, it often has fractions.
Since "machi" did not have a fraction, it is possible that with the decline of the Jōbō City System, it was forgotten that it was a unit for indicating area and distance.Thus, it seems to have become common to read "chō" phonetically.
As mentioned above, because it is clear that The Tale of Genji and the manuscript editions of "yomachi" are written in hiragana, likely, the kanji written in the diaries of the nobles of the Heian period was read as "machi" based on a manuscript of The Tale of Genji.The word "machi" appears in the diary of an aristocrat, "Chūyūki." 11The scale of this word has been studied in the field of Japanese architectural history 12 .However, the reading of the word has not been clarified, so I clarified it 13 .Until now, the reading of the blocks in the regular system had not been considered, and they were merely read in general.The diaries and other records left by aristocrats in the Heian period were mainly written in kanji.Kanji has two different readings, on'yomi and kun'yomi.The on'yomi is close to the Chinese language, and the kun'yomi is used to express the traditional Japanese language.The on'yomi reading became common because it was unclear how it was read.The term first appears in an entry in Chūyuki on November 28, the first year of the Chōji era (1104), and there is a gap of about 100 years after the time of Murasaki Shikibu, who served Empress Shōshi.Both works, however, were written in the Nara period (710-794) or later, during the period of national-style culture modeled on China.The twelfth century, when the "Chūyuki" was written, was influenced by the culture of the eleventh century Sekkan period, when The Tale of Genji is said to have been established.In other words, it is safe to assume that "machi" was read in the same way because it was written at a time when the national style was influenced by the culture.Since it is not strictly correct to read without any evidence, it is safer to use the manuscript editions' notation of The Tale of Genji as a basis.
In the current notes on The Tale of Genji in Japan, the uses of "chō," which became the general term with an unknown basis, were mixed.It seems to have been translated into English as a reference, but as I mentioned above, the manuscript editions of The Tale of Genji say "yomachi" in hiragana.Therefore, "four machi" is fine, and it is not necessary to supplement "four chō."

Arthur Waley's English Translation, Annotated with "chō" weights and measures system
Arthur Waley leaves the note that "a machi is 119 yards," which appears to reflect Japanese metrology in 1925 when the English translation was published."Chō" is defined as 109.09091meters in the fifth section of the Metrology Act enforced in the Meiji era 26 (1893) 14 .Therefore, it is calculated according to the Japanese metrology in place at the time of Waley's translation: One "chō" is calculated using an international yard value of 0.9144 meters: 109.09091 meters÷0.9144yards/meters = 119.3033yards This formula gives nearly the same value, 119 yards, as Arthur Waley gave in his note, but this is the value of "chō" in the weights and measures system.As I mentioned above, it is necessary to use the Jōbō City System value for a town in interpreting The Tale of Genji.If it had been known that the unit was a "machi" under the Jōbō City System, I would have calculated yards using 120 meters for one "machi", and the values would have been different: 120 meters÷0.9144yards/meters = 131.2336yards The result above that calculating size as "machi" in the Jōbō City System would give 131 yards indicates that Arthur Waley was following the "chō" metrology rather than the Jōbō City System's "machi."Waley, who translated The Tale of Genji into English in its entirety, produced a groundbreaking work, but he does not appear to have reflected the changing system of metrology in Japan.The Edward G. Seidensticker edition does not have a numbered note for "He bought four parks in Rokujō," and Royall Tyler notes, "about 14 acres."Using a value of 4,046.8square meters for 1 acre, "about 14 acres" can be calculated as follows: 14 acres × 4,046.8square meters/acre = 56,655.2square meters.
Figure 1.shows a schematic diagram of Rokujō-in.A "machi" in the Jōbō City System is calculated as a square of 40 "jō," as described above; the area of the entire four blocks of Rokujō-in, equal to 120 square meters per block, is given in square meters as follows: 120 meters×120 meters×4 = 57,600 square meters.In other words, the "About 14 acres" that Royall Tyler's edition says is nearly equal to the area of the entire four 120-square-meter blocks of Rokujō-in.If Royall Tyler had calculated a block as 109.09091meters by weights and measures, as Arthur Waley did, Royall Tyler's edition's block would have been "About 12 acres": 119 yards × 119 yards × 4 ÷ 4,840 square yards/ acres = 11.7033acres.
However, it can be seen that Royall Tyler did not use the weights and measures system but instead used the Jōbō City System "machi."Dennis Washburn adds a detailed note to this section: The text specifies that Genji acquired four machi (or chō 町), which was a unit of measure used in laying out the grid pattern of the capital, Heian-kyō.A machi was the area marked out on four sides by surrounding streets or alleys and was equivalent to about, 15,000 square meters.Thus, the total size of the land Genji acquired (60,000 square meters) was roughly 6 hectares (about 14.8 acres), which was certainly an impressive estate.(p.454) One block in the Jōbō City System is given in square meters as follows: 120 meters × 120 meters = 14,400 square meters Which is nearly the same as Dennis Washburn's 15,000 square meters.Following this measurement system, the Rokujō-in "yomachi" would be 60,000 square meters.Additionally, because 10,000 square meters is 1 hectare, the "yomachi" would be 6 hectares, and the following is the conversion of 60,000 square meters into acres: 60,000 square meters ÷ 4,046.8square meters/ acres = 14.8 acres.
In other words, Dennis Washburn uses three different units of measurement, square meters, hectares, and acres, to concretize the size of Rokujō-in and to accurately convey the numeric value of "machi" under the Jōbō City System.He adds the detailed note that Rokujō-in "was certainly an impressive estate."The "yomachi" figure is important and will play a major role in the rest of the story.The report results are shown in Table 2.

Conclusion
With this paper, I trace the evolution of the English translation of Rokujō-in "yomachi" in the classic Japanese literary work The Tale of Genji and present an accurate interpretation and reading of the word.
The "yomachi" values given in Arthur Walley's edition were based on the Japanese system of weights and measures from the period when they were translated into English.Walley probably did not know that the Japanese use of "machi" had changed over time.Edward G. Seidensticker did not give numbered notes, but Royall Tyler's calculation gives nearly the same value as that of a "machi" in the Jōbō City System; Dennis Washburn's edition has more detailed notes.Specifically, Dennis Washburn uses three different units of measurement to describe the size of Rokujōin: square meters, hectares, and acres.Royall Tyler and Dennis Washburn correctly identified "machi" as a unit of the Jōbō City System.This word is read as "yomachi."The Tale of Genji was written in the Heian era and is written in hiragana; there is a manuscript with the word "yomachi" written in hiragana, but there is no manuscript with the word "yonchō" written in hiragana.This indicates that Arther Waley's "four machi" is correct.The "chō" given in  The Jōbō City System *Edward G. Seidensticker's edition does not contain a corresponding description, so it has been omitted.
Royall Tyler's "four chō of land" is incorrect.Dennis Washburn's "(or chō)" in "four machi (or chō)" was not necessary to add it.The fact that "chō" has been written into the annotations indicates that when translating The Tale of Genji into English, the current annotations' mixed kanji text was used as a reference.The scene at Rokujō-in, where the main character Hikaru Genji built a house, is important because the scene describes the rituals and events that were held in the aristocratic society at that time.To understand what the author is describing, it is necessary to have a clear image of the actual size, and no other researcher has focused specifically on "yomachi" to trace its evolution in English translation.What I conclude from my work is that the word is read as "yomachi" and that in The Tale of Genji, a "machi" is not a unit in the system of weights and measures but a unit in the Jōbō City System.

Photo 2 .
Photo 2. Photocopy of manuscript editions with the applicable portion in the circle.

Table 1 .
Changes in the English translation of "yomachi".