Essays on Japan Brill’s Japanese Studies Library Edited by Joshua Mostow (Managing Editor) Caroline Rose Kate Wildman Nakai VOLUME 35 Essays on Japan Between Aesthetics and Literature by Michael F. Marra LEIDEN • BOSTON 2010 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Marra, Michael F. Essays on Japan : between aesthetics and literature / by Michael F. Marra. p. cm. — (Brill’s Japanese studies library, ISSN 0925-6512 ; v. 35) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-18977-5 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Japanese literature—History and criticism—Theory, etc. 2. Aesthetics, Japanese. 3. Hermeneutics. I. Title. PL708.M37 2010 895.6’09—dc22 2010031856 ISSN: 0925-6512 ISBN: 978 90 04 18977 5 Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Brill has made all reasonable efforts to trace all right holders to any copyrighted material used in this work. In cases where these efforts have not been successful the publisher welcomes communications from copyright holders, so that the appropriate acknowledgements can be made in future editions, and to settle other permission matters. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. To Gianni Vattimo and Sergio Mamino (1956–2003)— The devil is in the details, the fun is somewhere else… CONTENTS List of Original Publications ............................................................ ix Preface .................................................................................................. xiii AESTHETICS 1. Japanese Aesthetics in the World ............................................. 3 2. The Creation of the Vocabulary of Aesthetics in Meiji Japan ................................................................................... 23 3. Aesthetics: An Overview ........................................................... 49 4. Japanese Aesthetics: The Construction of Meaning .............. 57 5. Japan’s Missing Alternative: “Weak Thought” and the Hermeneutics of Slimness ......................................................... 81 6. Coincidentia Oppositorium: The Greek Genealogies of Japan ............................................................................................. 113 7. Conrad Fiedler and the Aesthetics of the Kyōto School ...... 131 8. On Japanese Things and Words: An Answer to Heidegger’s Question ....................................................................................... 149 9. A Dialogue on Language between a Japanese and an Inquirer: Kuki Shūzō’s Version ................................................. 167 10. Frameworks of Meaning: Old Aesthetic Categories and the Present .......................................................................................... 187 11. Paradoxes of Reclusion: Between Aesthetics and Anti-Aesthetics ............................................................................ 203 12. The Dissolution of Meaning: Towards an Aesthetics of Non-Sense .................................................................................... 227 13. Hermeneutics of Emplacement: On Places, Cuts, and Promises ....................................................................................... 249 LITERATURE 14. The Hermeneutical Challenge .................................................. 277 15. Place of Poetry, Place in Poetry: On Rulers, Poets, and Gods ...................................................................................... 295 viii contents 16. Playing with Japanese Songs: Politics or Pleasure? ............... 307 17. Continuity in Discontinuity: Thinking The Tale of Genji with Japanese Thinkers .............................................................. 327 18. The Aesthetics of Tradition: Making the Past Present ......... 349 19. Nativist Hermeneutics: The Interpretative Strategies of Motoori Norinaga and Fujitani Mitsue ................................... 365 20. An Interview with Michael F. Marra by Robert D. Wilson .................................................................. 417 21. Fields of Contention: Philology (Bunkengaku) and the Philosophy of Literature (Bungeigaku) .................................... 423 22. The Poetry of Aizu Yaichi ......................................................... 451 23. Poetry and Poetics in Tension: Kuki Shūzō’s French and German Connections ................................................................. 471 24. History and Comparability ....................................................... 491 Bibliography of Michael F. Marra’s Works ..................................... 497 Index .................................................................................................... 501 LIST OF ORIGINAL PUBLICATIONS 1. ‘Japanese Aesthetics in the World,’ in Shinohara Motoaki, ed., Iwa- nami Kōza: Tetsugaku, Vol. 7 (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 2008), pp. 179–202. 2. ‘The Creation of the Vocabulary of Aesthetics in Meiji Japan,’ in J. Thomas Rimer, ed., Japanese Art of the Modern Age (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, forthcoming). 3. ‘Aesthetics: An Overview,’ in James Heisig, Thomas Kasulis, and John Maraldo, eds., Sources in Japanese Philosophy (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, forthcoming). 4. ‘Japanese Aesthetics: The Construction of Meaning,’ inPhilosophy East and West 45:3 (July 1995), pp. 367–386, http://www.jstor.org/ stable/pdfplus/1399394.pdf. 5. ‘Japan’s Missing Alternative: Weak Thought and the Hermeneutics of Slimness,’ in Versus, 83/84 (May 1999), pp. 215–241. 6. ‘Coincidentia Oppositorum: The Greek Genealogies of Japan,’ in Michael F. Marra, ed. Japanese Hermeneutics: Current Debates on Aesthetics and Interpretation (Honolulu: The University of Hawai’i Press, 2002), pp. 142–152. 7. ‘Conrad Fiedler and the Aesthetics of the Kyōto School.’ Paper pre- sented at the Third International Congress for Aesthetics, Taipei, Taiwan (August 26, 2004). 8. ‘On Japanese Things and Words: An Answer to Heidegger’s Question,’ in Philosophy East and West 54:4 (October, 2004), pp. 555–568, http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/philosophy_east_and_west/ v054/54.4marra.pdf. 9. ‘A Dialogue on Language between a Japanese and an Inquirer: Kuki Shūzō’s Version,’ in Victor Sōgen Hori and Melissa Anne- Marie Curley, eds., Neglected Themes and Hidden Variations, Frontiers of Japanese Philosophy 2 (Nagoya: Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, 2008), pp. 56–77, http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/ SHUBUNKEN/publications/EJPhilosophy/PDF/EJP2–Marra.pdf. 10. ‘Frameworks of Meaning: Old Aesthetic Categories and the Present,’ in Atsuko Ueda and Richard Okada, eds., Literature and Literary Theory, Proceedings of the Association for Japanese Literary Studies (PAJLS), Vol. 9 (2008), pp. 153–163. x list of original publications 11. ‘Paradoxes of Reclusion: Between Aesthetics and Anti-Aesthetics.’ Paper delivered at the Second International Symposium “Elegant City Planning: from Kireisabi to Mabusabi,” Kyoto University, Japan (October 26, 2009). 12. ‘The Dissolution of Meaning: Towards an Aesthetics of Non-Sense,’ in The Asian Journal of Aesthetics & Art Sciences1:1 (2008), pp. 15–27. 13. ‘Hermeneutics of Emplacement: On Places, Cuts, and Promises.’ Paper prepared for the International Symposium “Questioning Ori- ental Aesthetics and Thinking: Conflicting Visions of ‘Asia’ under the Colonial Empires,” International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyōto, Japan (November 8, 2010). 14. ‘The Hermeneutical Challenge,’ in Michael F. Marra, ed., Herme- neutical Strategies: Methods of Interpretation in the Study of Japanese Literature, Proceedings of the Association for Japanese Literary Studies (PAJLS), Vol. 5 (Summer 2004), pp. 1–16. 15. ‘Place of Poetry, Place in Poetry: On Rulers, Poets, and Gods,’ in Eiji Sekine, ed., Travel in Japanese Representational Culture: Its Past, Present, and Future, Proceedings of the Association for Japanese Literary Studies (PAJLS), Vol. 8 (Summer 2007), pp. 35–46. 16. ‘Playing withy Japanese Songs: Politics or Pleasure?,’ in Michael F. Marra, Seasons and Landscapes in Japanese Poetry: An Introduction to Haiku and Waka (Lewinston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2008), pp. 1–24. 17. ‘Continuity in Discontinuity: Thinking The Tale of Genji with Japa- nese Thinkers,’ in Genji: Genji Monogatari no Hon’yaku to Hensō (Kyoto: Dōshisha Daigaku Daigakuin Bungaku Kenkyūka, 2008), pp. 55–80. 18. ‘The Aesthetics of Tradition: Making the Past Present,’ in Ken’ichi Sasaki, ed., Aesthetics of Asia (Singapore and Kyoto: NUS Press and Kyoto University Press, 2010), pp. 41–55. 19. ‘Nativist Hermeneutics: The Interpretative Strategies of Motoori Norinaga and Fujitani Mitsue,’ in Japan Review: Bulletin of the Inter- national Research Center for Japanese Studies, Number 10 (October 1998), pp. 17–52, http://shinku.nichibun.ac.jp/jpub/pdf/jr/IJ1002 .pdf. 20. ‘An Interview with Michael F. Marra by Robert D. Wilson: On Motoori Norinaga,’ in Simply Haiku—A Quarterly Journal of Japa- nese Short Form Poetry