Help understanding odd usage of という

Question

So I'm reading a novel about the Sengoku period, and I've come across a sentence that just can't figure out. The context is that this guy (whose ancestor is a famous admiral) built a castle with a harbour, but then boat-building got banned by the shogun so he had to make it look like the harbour had been filled in. The sentence before this says the castle looked just like any other castle.

だが城の東側は海への眺望が開けており、重臣が塩見櫓の門を通るのは、一日の始まりにまず海上に異変がないかを見るという水軍の将を祖とする藩の心得と言われていた。

My translation so far (rough): However, on the east side of the castle, the view to the sea being open, the lord goes through the watchtower gate, at the beginning of the day checking that there have been no big changes at sea...

and here's where I get stuck. I don't understand how the という links this bit to the next bit.

Is it 'the act of checking whether there had been any changes at sea was said to be the knowledge of the clan whose ancestor was a naval commander'? If so, I think it's trying to say that they still watched the sea and therefore were still a naval clan even if it looked like they had no harbour, but I can't figure out the grammar. And it doesn't really seem right to be honest. Am I parsing the sentence wrong?

On a separate note, is the まず linked to the 始まりに meaning something like first thing in the morning, or is it linked to the がないか meaning 'hardly any changes'? It doesn't really affect the overall meaning, but it would be interesting to know what people think.

Answer 1

I read that という as linking to 藩の心得, not 水軍, that is 水軍の将を祖とする藩の is a "parallel" clause that also modifies 藩の心得.

Or in other words 水軍の将を祖とする藩の心得 is one big noun phrase, roughly "the knowledge and procedures of a clan descended from the general of the Japanese navy". Then 一日の始まりにまず海上に異変がないかを見る is roughly "at the start of every day, checking if anything unusual is visible on the surface of the ocean". という basically says this habit is "such a procedure".

So overall: "Checking if anything unusual is visible on the surface of the ocean at the start of every day is a procedure of a clan that is descended from a general of the Japanese navy."

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In an earlier version of this answer, I said "The above is what the official was told, as he was passing through the gate", but I was writing this under the assumption that the official was a visitor from the outside (eg a Shogunate official) who was learning of the clan's habits. However, an alternate parsing where 重臣 is actually a member of the clan and the person doing these regular checks, seems to fit better grammatically (many thanks to naruto for pointing this out! I hope I'm interpreting his explanation correctly.)

Thus a full translation might be:

But concerning the (matter of the) east side of the castle having an open view of the ocean, and the (chief vassal? of the clan) passing through the gate of the watch tower, it was said that checking the ocean for unusual signs first thing every morning was the habitual action of (the member of) a clan descended from a general of Japan's navy.

Given my original assumption, my original (mistaken) reading was along the lines of:

But, the east side of the castle had an open view of the ocean. As the visiting official passed through the gate of the watch tower, (he was made aware that) it was often said that checking the ocean for unusual signs first thing every morning was a habitual action for (members of) a clan descended from a general of Japan's navy.

As naruto points out, the second reading can likely be eliminated on the basis that if it was the intended reading, the author would probably explicitly mark just 重臣 with は (and replace 通るのは with a conjunctive form or something along those lines).

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PS: to me まず is indeed "first action of the day".