Of Mice and Maidens: Ideologies of Interspecies Romance in Late Medieval and Early Modern Japan
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2014 Of Mice and Maidens: Ideologies of Interspecies Romance in Late Medieval and Early Modern Japan Laura Nuffer University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Asian Studies Commons, and the Medieval Studies Commons Recommended Citation Nuffer, Laura, "Of Mice and Maidens: Ideologies of Interspecies Romance in Late Medieval and Early Modern Japan" (2014). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1389. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1389 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1389 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Of Mice and Maidens: Ideologies of Interspecies Romance in Late Medieval and Early Modern Japan Abstract Interspecies marriage (irui kon'in) has long been a central theme in Japanese literature and folklore. Frequently dismissed as fairytales, stories of interspecies marriage illuminate contemporaneous conceptions of the animal-human boundary and the anxieties surrounding it. This dissertation contributes to the emerging field of animal studies yb examining otogizoshi (Muromachi/early Edo illustrated narrative fiction) concerning elationshipsr between human women and male mice. The earliest of these is Nezumi no soshi ("The Tale of the Mouse"), a fifteenth century ko-e ("small scroll") attributed to court painter Tosa Mitsunobu. Nezumi no soshi was followed roughly a century later by a group of tales collectively named after their protagonist, the mouse Gon no Kami. Unlike Nezumi no soshi, which focuses on the grief of the woman who has unwittingly married a mouse, the Gon no Kami tales contain pronounced comic elements and devote attention to the mouse-groom's perspective. By elucidating the contrast between Nezumi no soshi and the earliest Gon no Kami manuscript and tracking the development of subsequent versions of Gon no Kami, I demonstrate mounting disenchantment with the irui kon'in trope as a means of telling stories about mice. Tales of interspecies marriage often end tragically; however, in fiction about mice, audience interest came to center on the utopian aspects of the imaginary mouse realm. Thus, mouse-human romance was displaced by storylines more conducive to happy endings, as in mid-seventeenth-century otogizoshi like Yahyoe nezumi ("The Mouse Yahyoe") and Kakurezato ("The Hidden Village"), or slightly later kusazoshi (woodblock-print books) like Nezumi no yomeiri ("The Mouse's Wedding"). The works above belong to a larger body of fiction about mice produced from the late Muromachi to mid- Edo. Previously, mice had received scant literary attention in irui kon'in tales and elsewhere. The sudden boom of "mouse tales" was driven by increased rodent-human contact due to urbanization, and also by the growing popularity of the god Daikokuten, whose iconography prominently featured mice. Mice were simultaneously reviled as vermin and celebrated as good omens, compelling the Gon no Kami stories and other "mouse tales" to negotiate between these contradictory identities. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group East Asian Languages & Civilizations First Advisor Linda Chance Keywords Gon no Kami, Irui kon'in, Nezumi no soshi, Otogizoshi, Tosa Mitsunobu Subject Categories Asian Studies | Medieval Studies This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1389 For my family (and also for N.A., E.D., A.G., D.G., R.G., K.H., B.Z., and all the usual suspects—you know who you are) ἄνασσα κατά καλῶ καλή ἰαὶ ἰαὶ ἰαί νίκη I wish to acknowledge the generous support of the Japan Foundation, and to express my deepest gratitude to the following individuals: Ishikawa Tōru, for graciously sponsoring my research at Keiō University; Cameron Hurst, for inspiring my love of medieval Japan to new heights and depths; William LaFleur, for challenging me to think seriously about the intersection of faith and knowledge; Frank Chance and Nancy Steinhardt, for teaching me how to look at art, and how to write about what I see; Paul Goldin and Victor Mair, for unlocking a world of texts that would otherwise remain closed to me; Julie Davis and Ayako Kano, for providing me with the tools to think critically about gender and modernity, and for offering invaluable advice and encouragement during the writing process; & Linda Chance, for everything ii ABSTRACT OF MICE AND MAIDENS: . Laura Nüffer Linda Chance Interspecies marriage (irui kon’in) has long been a central theme in Japanese literature and folklore. Frequently dismissed as fairytales, stories of interspecies marriage illuminate contemporaneous conceptions of the animal-human boundary and the anxieties surrounding it. This dissertation contributes to the emerging field of animal studies by examining otogizōshi (Muromachi/early Edo illustrated narrative fiction) concerning relationships between human women and male mice. The earliest of these is Nezumi no sōshi (“The Tale of the Mouse”), a fifteenth century ko-e (“small scroll”) attributed to court painter Tosa Mitsunobu. Nezumi no sōshi was followed roughly a century later by a group of tales collectively named after their protagonist, the mouse Gon no Kami. Unlike Nezumi no sōshi, which focuses on the grief of the woman who has unwittingly married a mouse, the Gon no Kami tales contain pronounced comic elements and devote attention to the mouse-groom’s perspective. By elucidating the contrast between Nezumi no sōshi and the earliest Gon no Kami manuscript and tracking the development of subsequent versions of Gon no Kami, I demonstrate mounting disenchantment with the irui kon’in trope as a means of telling stories about mice. Tales of interspecies marriage often end tragically; however, in fiction about mice, audience interest came to center on the utopian aspects of the imaginary mouse realm. iii Thus, mouse-human romance was displaced by storylines more conducive to happy endings, as in mid-seventeenth-century otogizōshi like Yahyōe nezumi (“The Mouse Yahyōe”) and Kakurezato (“The Hidden Village”), or slightly later kusazōshi (woodblock-print books) like Nezumi no yomeiri (“The Mouse’s Wedding”). The works above belong to a larger body of fiction about mice produced from the late Muromachi to mid-Edo. Previously, mice had received scant literary attention in irui kon’in tales and elsewhere. The sudden boom of “mouse tales” was driven by increased rodent- human contact due to urbanization, and also by the growing popularity of the god Daikokuten, whose iconography prominently featured mice. Mice were simultaneously reviled as vermin and celebrated as good omens, compelling the Gon no Kami stories and other “mouse tales” to negotiate between these contradictory identities. iv CONTENTS -Introduction- ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, LITERAL: Tracking the Tier An Sich in Pre- and Early-Modern Tales of Interspecies Marriage -1- -Chapter One- FUZZY BOUNDARIES: Titles and Taxonomy -24- -Chapter Two- “SOMEONE, ANYONE”: The Mitsunobu Nezumi no sōshi and Interspecies Marriage in the Ko-e of Tosa Mitsunobu -82- -Chapter Three- THE LADY OR THE MOUSE: Taking Sides in the Gon no Kami Tales -168- -Epilogue- THE TURN OF THE HELIX: Of Mice and Modernity -191- -Appendix I- Otogizōshi Associated with the Title Nezumi no sōshi -203- -Appendix II- Translation of the Mitsunobu Nezumi no sōshi -205- -Appendix III- Translation of the Suntory Gon no Kami -207- -Bibliography- -226- -Index- -247- v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1: Details of Nezumi no sōshi (Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum) 29 Fig. 2: Detail of Nezumi no sōshi (Kōshien University) 41 Fig. 3: Detail of Yahyōe nezumi (Keiō University) 46 Fig. 4: Detail of Nezumi no sōshi / Kakurezato (Keiō University) 51 Fig. 5: Detail of Daikokumai (National Institute of Japanese Literature) 53 Fig. 6: Pages from Nezumi no yomeiri (National Diet Library) 56 Fig. 7: Detail of Daikokuten-zu by Ogata Kōrin (MOA Museum of Art) 60 Fig. 8: Detail of Shironezumi Yahyōe monogatari (Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Musuem) 64 Fig. 9: Triptych of Ebisu, Daikokuten, and mice by Kawanabe Kyōsai (Rumyantsev Museum) 64 Fig. 10: Plate from Ehon hyakumonogatari by Takehara Shunsen (Brooklyn Museum of Art) 65 Fig. 11: Illustration from Wakan sansai zue by Terajima Ryōan (National Diet Library) 71 Fig. 12: Illustration from Yōsotama no kakehashi (National Diet Library) 73 Fig. 13: Details of Nezumi no sōshi by Tosa Mitsunobu (Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Musuem) 84 Fig. 14: Detail of Fujibukuro no sōshi by Tosa Mitsuhisa (Suntory Art Museum) 87 Fig. 15: Detail of Kitsune no sōshi by Tosa Mitsunobu/copy by Morizuma (Waseda University) 91 Fig. 16: Details of Nezumi no sōshi by Tosa Mitsunobu (Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Musuem) 93 Fig. 17: Details of Nezumi no sōshi by Tosa Mitsunobu (Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Musuem) 100 Fig. 18: Details of Nezumi no sōshi by Tosa Mitsunobu (Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Musuem) 102 Fig. 19: Detail of Tsuru no sōshi by Tosa Mitsunobu (Kyoto National Museum) 113 Fig. 20: Detail of Tsuru no sōshi by Tosa Mitsunobu (Kyoto National Museum) 114 Fig. 21: Detail of Tsuru no sōshi by Tosa Mitsunobu (Kyoto National Museum) 114 Fig. 22: Detail of Kitsune no sōshi by Tosa Mitsunobu/copy by Morizuma (Waseda University) 122 Fig. 23: Detail of Kitsune no sōshi by Tosa Mitsunobu/copy by Morizuma (Waseda University) 123 Fig. 24 Detail of Kitsune no sōshi by Tosa Mitsunobu/copy by Morizuma (Waseda University) 125 vi Fig. 25: Detail of Jizōdō sōshi by Tosa Mitsunobu (Private collection) 131 Fig. 26: Detail of Tsukumogami-ki (Kyoto University) 140 Fig. 27: Detail of Bakemono no sōshi by Tosa Mitsunobu or Mitsumochi (Boston Museum of Fine Arts) 135 Fig. 28: Detail of Fujibukuro no sōshi by Tosa Mitsunobu/copy by Sumiyoshi Jokei (National Diet Library) 152 Fig. 29: Detail of Fujibukuro no sōshi by Tosa Mitsunobu/copy by Sumiyoshi Jokei (National Diet Library) 153 Fig. 30: Detail of Nezumi no sōshi / Tenri Gon no Kami (Tenri University) 175 Fig.