Hyakunin Isshu in Word and Image

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Hyakunin Isshu in Word and Image PICTURES OF THE HEART PICTURES UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I PRESS HONOLULU OF THE HEART THE HYAKUNIN ISSHU IN WORD AND IMAGE Joshua S. Mostow © 1996 University of Hawai‘i Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 01 00 99 98 97 96 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mostow, Joshua S., 1957– Pictures of the heart : the Hyakunin isshu in word and image / Joshua S. Mostow. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–8248–1705–2 (alk. paper) 1. Ogura hyakunin isshu. 2. Waka—History and criticism. 3. Japanese poetry—To 1600—History and criticism. 4. Waka—Translations into English. 5. Japanese poetry—To 1600—Translations into English. 6. Waka— Illustrations. 7. Japanese poetry—To 1600—Illustrations. I. Ogura hyakunin isshu. English & Japanese. II. Title. PL728.5.04M64 1995 895.6'1108—dc20 95–30185 CIP Publication of this book has been assisted by a grant from the Japan Foundation. The excerpt on pp. 90–91 is from The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, trans. E. G. Seidensticker. Copyright © 1975 by Edward G. Seidensticker. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A Knopf Inc. The excerpt on p. 78 is from The Ink Dark Moon by Jane Hirshfield and Mariko Aratami. Copyright © 1990 by Jane Hirshfield and Mariko Aratami. Reprinted by permission of Vintage Books, a division of Random House Inc. University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources Book design by Kenneth Miyamoto Writ in a language that has long gone by . And every margin scribbled, crost, and crammed With comment, densest condensation, hard . And in the comment did I find the charm. —Tennyson, Idylls of the King, Bk. VI To my mother Gloria Margaret Swan Mostow Pelletier .
Recommended publications
  • Katsushika Hokusai and a Poetics of Nostalgia
    ACCESS: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN EDUCATION 2015, VOL. 33, NO. 1, 33–46 https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2014.964158 Katsushika Hokusai and a Poetics of Nostalgia David Bell College of Education, University of Otago ABSTRACT KEYWORDS This article addresses the activation of aesthetics through the examination of cultural memory, Hokusai, an acute sensitivity to melancholy and time permeating the literary and ukiyo-e, poetic allusion, nostalgia, mono no aware pictorial arts of Japan. In medieval court circles, this sensitivity was activated through a pervasive sense of aware, a poignant reflection on the pathos of things. This sensibility became the motivating force for court verse, and ARTICLE HISTORY through this medium, for the mature projects of the ukiyo-e ‘floating world First published in picture’ artist Katsushika Hokusai. Hokusai reached back to aware sensibilities, Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2015, Vol. 47, No. 6, subjects and conventions in celebrations of the poetic that sustained cultural 579–595 memories resonating classical lyric and pastoral themes. This paper examines how this elegiac sensibility activated Hokusai’s preoccupations with poetic allusion in his late representations of scholar-poets and the unfinished series of Hyakunin isshu uba-ga etoki, ‘One hundred poems, by one hundred poets, explained by the nurse’. It examines four works to explain how their synthesis of the visual and poetic could sustain aware themes and tropes over time to maintain a distinctive sense of this aesthetic sensibility in Japan. Introduction: Mono no aware How can an aesthetic sensibility become an activating force in and through poetic and pictorial amalgams of specific cultural histories and memories? This article examines how the poignant aesthetic sensibility of mono no aware (a ‘sensitivity to the pathos of things’) established a guiding inflection for social engagements of the Heian period (794–1185CE) Fujiwara court in Japan.
    [Show full text]
  • A COMPARISON of the MURASAKI SHIKIBU DIARY and the LETTER of ABUTSU Carolina Negri
    Rivista degli Studi Orientali 2017.qxp_Impaginato 26/02/18 08:37 Pagina 281 REFERENCE MANUALS FOR YOUNG LADIES-IN-WAITING: A COMPARISON OF THE MURASAKI SHIKIBU DIARY AND THE LETTER OF ABUTSU Carolina Negri The nature of the epistolary genre was revealed to me: a form of writing devoted to another person. Novels, poems, and so on, were texts into which others were free to enter, or not. Letters, on the other hand, did not exist without the other person, and their very mission, their signifcance, was the epiphany of the recipient. Amélie Nothomb, Une forme de vie The paper focuses on the comparison between two works written for women’s educa- tion in ancient Japan: The Murasaki Shikibu nikki (the Murasaki Shikibu Diary, early 11th century) and the Abutsu no fumi (the Letter of Abutsu, 1263). Like many literary docu- ments produced in the Heian (794-1185) and in the Kamakura (1185-1333) periods they describe the hard life in the service of aristocratic fgures and the difculty of managing relationships with other people. Both are intended to show women what positive ef- fects might arise from sharing certain examples of good conduct and at the same time, the inevitable negative consequences on those who rejected them. Keywords: Murasaki Shikibu nikki; Abutsu no fumi; ladies-in.waiting; letters; women’s education 1. “The epistolary part” of the Murasaki Shikibu Diary cholars are in agreement on the division of the contents of Murasaki Shikibu nikki (the Murasaki Shikibu Diary, early 11th century) into four dis- Stinct parts. The frst, in the style of a diary (or an ofcial record), presents events from autumn 1008 to the following New Year, focusing on the birth of the future heir to the throne, Prince Atsuhira (1008-1036).
    [Show full text]
  • Murasaki Shikibu: a Reign of One Thousand Years Christine Cousins
    Murasaki Shikibu: A Reign of One Thousand Years Christine Cousins Genji, the Shinning Prince, is a master of painting, music, calligraphy, and poetry, and as such would surely have recognized the mastery in Murasaki Shikibu's writing. The success of Murasaki's fictional Tale of Genji over the next thousand years, as demonstrated by the ten thousand books on the subject by the 1960s, cannot simply be the result of the peculiarity of a woman writer.1 Indeed, the evolution of literature during the Heian time period and its connections to Chinese influences contributed to a phenomenon in which woman were the predominant literary producers.2 A component of Genji's success can be attributed to Murasaki's innovative use of literary form through the previously unknown novel, but even one thousand years later, when the novel is not revolutionary, the work is still part of Japanese culture. Murasaki's execution in writing her work is another necessary component to Genji's success, since her skill in portraying the complex interconnections of the Heian period, as well as her plot and characters, underlie the tale’s merit. People have found value in this work for centuries, but Genji's legacy can be distinctly seen in the significance it has accrued in Murasaki's country during times of increasing modernization and Western influence. Translations of the tale into modern Japanese, including those by Yosano Akiko, preserve a national identity, particularly as it relates to literature and culture. Murasaki utilized the opportunities available to her as a woman in the Heian period to create a master work that would, over the course of a thousand years, influence the very form of culture in Japan.
    [Show full text]
  • The Reflection of the Concept of Marriage of Heian Japanese Aristocracy Revealed in Murasaki Shikibu's
    PLAGIATPLAGIAT MERUPAKAN MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TIDAK TERPUJI TERPUJI THE REFLECTION OF THE CONCEPT OF MARRIAGE OF HEIAN JAPANESE ARISTOCRACY REVEALED IN MURASAKI SHIKIBU’S THE TALE OF GENJI AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters By YUNITA PRABANDARI Student Number: 084214081 ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2015 PLAGIATPLAGIAT MERUPAKAN MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TIDAK TERPUJI TERPUJI THE REFLECTION OF THE CONCEPT OF MARRIAGE OF HEIAN JAPANESE ARISTOCRACY REVEALED IN MURASAKI SHIKIBU’S THE TALE OF GENJI AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters By YUNITA PRABANDARI Student Number: 084214081 ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2015 ii PLAGIATPLAGIAT MERUPAKAN MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TIDAK TERPUJI TERPUJI iii PLAGIATPLAGIAT MERUPAKAN MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TIDAK TERPUJI TERPUJI iv PLAGIATPLAGIAT MERUPAKAN MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TIDAK TERPUJI TERPUJI v PLAGIATPLAGIAT MERUPAKAN MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TIDAK TERPUJI TERPUJI LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma Nama : Yunita Prabandari Nomor Mahasiswa : 084214081 Demi pengembangan ilmu
    [Show full text]
  • Ordinary Women: Murasaki Shikibu
    ActivityORDINARY WOMEN: Sheet MURASAKI SHIKIBU SUMMARY STOPPING POINTS/VIDEO BREAKDOWN “In 10th century Japan, literary prodigy 0:25 Introduction to Murasaki Murasaki Shikibu wrote the first modern 0:45 A cloistered world novel at a time when women’s names 1:00 Literate background were rarely even written down.” 1:30 Tale of Genji “The Tale of Genji is often considered the 1:55 Multifaceted female characters first modern novel because Murasaki 2:30 Issues of fame offered readers not just a chronicle of 2:50 History of women writing events, but deep psychological insight into the characters and their inner lives. Her story made history because it was more than just a story: It was a complex literary portrait of what it means to be human.” DISCUSSION QUESTIONS & THEMES 1. Murasaki Shikibu was born to an aristocratic Japanese family around 970, when aristocratic women were kept hidden from society and “shielded from public view”. Although this practice is not commonplace today, how might we compare contemporary times and phenomena to that of Shikibu’s experience in an “intensely cloistered world”? For example, comparing the still-present and highly problematic societal expectation that women stay at home and give up careers in order to raise a family. 2. Consider her father’s response to Shikibu’s literary talents: “Just my luck. What a pity she was not born a man.” Why would he have reacted this way? How else can we identify a favouring of sons in contemporary cultures throughout the world? 3. Although about a male character, Shikibu’s novel offers valuable insight into what it was like to be a woman in her time through the presence of “multifaceted female characters.” How do novels and other works of art help us begin to understand the experiences of others? 4.
    [Show full text]
  • Japanese Studies Review, Vol. XX (2016), Pp
    ISSN: 1500-0713 ______________________________________________________________ Article Title: Performing Prayer, Saving Genji, and Idolizing Murasaki Shikibu: Genji Kuyō in Nō and Jōruri Author(s): Satoko Naito Source: Japanese Studies Review, Vol. XX (2016), pp. 3-28 Stable URL: https://asian.fiu.edu/projects-and-grants/japan-studies- review/journal-archive/volume-xx-2016/naito-satoko- gkuyojoruri_jsr.pdf ______________________________________________________________ PERFORMING PRAYER, SAVING GENJI, AND IDOLIZING MURASAKI SHIKIBU: GENJI KUYŌ IN NŌ AND JŌRURI1 Satoko Naito University of Maryland, College Park Introduction The Murasaki Shikibu daraku ron [lit. “Story of Murasaki Shikibu’s Fall] tells that after her death Murasaki Shikibu (d. ca. 1014) was cast to hell.2 The earliest reference is found in Genji ipponkyō [Sutra for Genji] (ca. 1166), which recounts a Buddhist kuyō (dedicatory rite) performed on her behalf, with the reasoning that the Heian author had been condemned to eternal suffering in hell for writing Genji monogatari [The Tale of Genji] (ca. 1008). Though Genji ipponkyō makes no explicit claim to the efficacy of the kuyō, its performance is presumably successful and saves the Genji author. In such a case the earliest extant utterance of the Murasaki-in-hell story is coupled with her subsequent salvation, and the Genji author, though damned, is also to be saved.3 It may be more accurate, then, to say that the Murasaki Shikibu daraku ron is about Murasaki Shikibu’s deliverance, rather than her fall (daraku). Through the medieval period and beyond, various sources recounted the execution of kuyō rites conducted for The Tale of Genji’s author, often initiated and sponsored by women.4 Such stories of Genji kuyō 1 Author’s Note: I thank those who commented on earlier versions of this paper, in particular D.
    [Show full text]
  • The Disaster of the Third Princess
    6. Two Post-Genji Tales on The Tale of Genji Two roughly late twelfth century works represent a transition in the reception of The Tale of Genji. The first, Genji shaku by Sesonji Koreyuki (d. 1175), begins the long line of scholarly commentaries that are still being written today.1 The second, Mumyōzōshi (ca. 1200, attributed to Shunzei’s Daughter), can perhaps be said to round off the preceding era, when Genji was simply a monogatari (tale) among others, enjoyed above all by women. In contrast with Koreyuki’s textual glosses, Mumyōzōshi gives passionate reader responses to characters and incidents in several monogatari, including Genji. The discovery of something like it from much earlier in the preceding two hundred years would be very welcome. Fortunately, some evidence of earlier reader reception survives after all, not in critical works, but in post-Genji tales themselves. Showing as they do demonstrable Genji influence, they presumably suggest at times, in one way or another, what the author made of Genji, or how she understood this or that part of it. This essay will discuss examples from Sagoromo monogatari (ca. 1070–80, by Rokujō no Saiin Senji, who served the Kamo Priestess Princess Baishi)2 and Hamamatsu Chūnagon monogatari (ca. 1060, attributed to the author of Sarashina nikki). Chief among them are the meaning of the chapter title “Yume no ukihashi”; the question of what happens to Ukifune between “Ukifune” and “Tenarai”; and the significance of Genji’s affair with Fujitsubo. Discussion of these topics, especially the second, will hark back at times to material presented in earlier essays, although this time with a different purpose.
    [Show full text]
  • Dying in Two Dimensions: Genji Emaki and the Wages of Depth Perception
    R EGINALD J ACKS ON Dying in Two Dimensions: Genji emaki and the Wages of Depth Perception !e Gotō Museum’s “Yomigaeru Genji monogatari emaki” exhibit of – was an ambitious attempt to “resurrect” (yomigaeru) the museum’s legendary illus- trated handscrolls of !e Tale of Genji (the Genji monogatari emaki) by analyz- ing the flaking, faded twelfth-century scrolls scientifically and having artists paint a series of new, more polished and more vibrant but ostensibly “faithful” copies to be exhibited alongside the originals. In its apparent attempt to make the scrolls more accessible and appealing to modern audiences, the exhibit was nothing less than an attempt to produce a contemporary viewing public in relation to art of the Heian period (–).¹ But such a desire to consoli- date the audience’s impressions of the artwork does away with facets of the scrolls that might endanger the construction of a unified viewership. In par- ticular, the refabrication of the scrolls strategically excludes the narrative cal- ligraphic kotobagaki sections that in fact compose the lion’s share of the extant Genji scrolls, effectively severing an intimate bond between narrative text and narrative image. Even more significantly, the redacted reproduction fails to account for the calligraphic performance of dying that figures so prominently in the climatic deathbed scenes of the Tale of Genji protagonists Kashiwagi and Murasaki no Ue. In this article, I would like to consider some of the potential 150 implications of this omission. My primary goal will be to think through the spatial and temporal dimensions of artistic representations of death in rela- tion to the composition—and decomposition—of the Genji emaki.
    [Show full text]
  • Japanese Literature and Poetry of the Heian Period Sei Shōnagon - Makura No Sōshi and Murasaki Shikibu - Genji Monogatari
    Humanities 1B Lindahl Japanese Literature and Poetry of the Heian period Sei Shōnagon - Makura no sōshi and Murasaki Shikibu - Genji Monogatari (from last time) Japanese forms of Buddhim, Zen Bushido – “the way of the warrior” The Martial Arts: Budo – the way of war (Kendo, Kyodo, Judo, Aikido) Beyond combat – Buddhism and Art (mono no aware and the sakura) Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645) Woodblock print of Miyomoto Musashi by Utagawa Kuniyoshi Self-Portrait, Miyomoto Musashi, 1640, Miyomoto Musashi – Shrike on a Withered Branch (1640ish) The Golden Pavilion of Rokuon-ji (Kinkaku), Kyoto, 1390 CE Tsukiyama – landscape garden Kare-sansui - dry garden (sometimes “zen garden”) Zen Garden, Ryoanji Temple, Kyoto, 15th c., Garden, Daisen-in Temple, Kyoto, 1513 Chaniwa – tea garden, Chado – the way of tea Wa = harmony, Kei – respect, Sei – purity, jaku – tranquility Tea Bowl (called "U-no-hana-gaki"), Shinoware, 3 2/3" 16th c., Tea bowl "mine-no-momiji" Kado – the way of flower arranging (Ikebana) Heian Period and/or Fujiwara Period (794-1158 CE), Heian-Kyo / Kyoto Literature and Poetry in 11th c. Kyoto Writing – Kana/Hiragana, The "Heian aesthetic" – “mujokan” and “mono no aware” Sei Shōnagon (966- sometime after 1017) Makura no sōshi – The Pillow Book Empress Teishi (977-1000) Kokinshū and the form of the Waka (57577) and Haiku (575) Shodo – the way of brush writing (Calligraphy) The Thirty-six Immortal Poets Scroll - Lady Kodai no kimi, color on paper, 13th c. Fujiwara Nobuzane Page from the Anthology of the Thirty-Six Poets, Nishi Honangan-ji, 12th c. Page from the Anthology of the Thirty-Six Poets, Sanjuroku-nin Kashu, fragment from the Ise-shu, ink on colored paper, 12th c.
    [Show full text]
  • Wittkamp: 'Genji Monogatari Emaki'
    Separatum from: SPECIAL ISSUE 7 Sebastian Balmes (ed.) Narratological Perspectives on Premodern Japanese Literature Published August 2020. BmE Special Issues are published online by the BIS-Verlag Publishing House of the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg (Germany) under the Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Senior Editors: PD Dr. Anja Becker (Munich) and Prof. Dr. Albrecht Hausmann (Oldenburg). http://www.erzaehlforschung.de – Contact: [email protected] ISSN 2568-9967 Suggested Citation: Wittkamp, Robert F.: ‘Genji monogatari emaki’ as Trans- and Intermedial Storytelling. Previous Knowledge and Time as Factors of Narrativity, in: Balmes, Sebastian (ed.): Narratological Per- spectives on Premodern Japanese Literature, Oldenburg 2020 (BmE Special Issue 7), pp. 267– 299 (online). Robert F. Wittkamp ‘Genji monogatari emaki’ as Trans- and Intermedial Storytelling Previous Knowledge and Time as Factors of Narrativity Abstract. The ‘Illustrated Handscrolls of the Tale of Genji’ (‘Genji monogatari emaki’) are based on ‘Genji monogatari,’ a literary work written at the beginning of the eleventh century by Murasaki Shikibu. The handscrolls were manufactured between approximately 1120 and 1140. This paper scrutinizes certain relationships between the literary work and the excerpts contained in the handscrolls as well as the relationships between the textual excerpts and the pictures of the handscrolls. The leading question of the examination is the extent to which the description of time is included in the excerpts and pictures, and how this sheds light on the prob- lem of ‘potentially narrative paintings.’ These issues will be discussed by taking the hypotheses of two Japanese scholars into account. While Sano Midori claims that an adequate reception of the handscrolls requires the knowledge of the original text, Shimizu Fukuko takes the opposite standpoint.
    [Show full text]
  • Poetry: the Language of Love in Tale of Genji
    Poetry: The Language of Love in Tale of Genji YANPING WANG This article examines the poetic love presented by waka poetry in the Tale of Genji. Waka poetry comprises the thematic frame of Tale of Genji. It is the language of love. Through observation of metaphors in the waka poems in this article, we can grasp the essence of the poetics of love in the Genji. Unlike the colors of any heroes’ and heroines’ love in other literary works, Genji’s love is poetic multi-color, which makes him a mythopoetic romantic hero in Japanese culture. Love in Heian aristocracy is sketched as consisting of an elaborate code of courtship which is very strict in its rules of communion by poetry. Love is a romantic adventure without compromise and bondage of morality. The love adventure of Genji and other heroes involves not only aesthetic Bildung and political struggle but also poetic production and metaphorical transformation. The acceptance of the lover’s poetic courtship creates an artistic and romantic air to the relations between men and women. Love and desire are accompanied by a ritual of elegance, grace and a refined cult of poetic beauty. There are 795 poems (waka) in the Genji. They are used in the world of the Genji as a medium of interpersonal communication, as a means to express individual emotions and feelings, as an artistic narrative to poeticize the romance and as an artistic form to explore the internal life of the characters.1 Nearly 80 percent (624) of these 795 poems are exchanges (zotoka), 107 are solo recitals and 64 are occasional poems.2
    [Show full text]
  • Biographies MA.B-Ttlpgs
    MA.b-ttlpgs. qxp 3/31/04 10:07 AM Page 1 Biographies MA.b-ttlpgs. qxp 3/31/04 10:07 AM Page 3 Biographies Volume 2: J-Z JUDSON KNIGHT Edited by Judy Galens Judson Knight Judy Galens, Editor Staff Diane Sawinski, U•X•L Senior Editor Carol DeKane Nagel, U•X•L Managing Editor Thomas L. Romig, U•X•L Publisher Margaret Chamberlain, Permissions Associate (Pictures) Maria Franklin, Permissions Manager Randy Bassett, Imaging Database Supervisor Daniel Newell, Imaging Specialist Pamela A. Reed, Image Coordinator Robyn V. Young, Senior Image Editor Rita Wimberley, Senior Buyer Evi Seoud, Assistant Production Manager Dorothy Maki, Manufacturing Manager Pamela A. E. Galbreath, Senior Art Director Kenn Zorn, Product Design Manager Marco Di Vita, the Graphix Group, Typesetting Middle Ages: Biographies Cover photograph of T’ai Tsung reproduced by permission of the Granger Collection, New York. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Knight, Judson. Middle ages. Biographies / Judson Knight ; Judy Galens, editor. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7876-4857-4 (set) — ISBN 0-7876-4858-2 (vol. 1) — ISBN 0-7876-4859-0 (vol. 2 : hardcover) 1. Biography—Middle Ages, 500-1500. 2. Civilization, Medieval. 3. World history. I. Galens, Judy, 1968- II. Title. CT114 .K65 2000 920’.009’02—dc21 00–064864 This publication is a creative work fully protected by all applicable copyright laws, as well as by misappropriation, trade secret, unfair competition, and other applicable laws. The author and editors of this work have added value to the underlying factual material herein through one or more of the follow- ing: unique and original selection, coordination, expression, arrangement, and classification of the information.
    [Show full text]