Paper short abstract:

This presentation focuses on Ihara Saikaku's treatment of Buddhist priests in his 1685 anthology Shokoku banashi (Tales from Various Provinces). In most of the text's tales, Saikaku used priests as foil and catalyst, satirizing the clergy within largely lay stories of the mysterious and fantastic.

Paper long abstract:

Ihara Saikaku's 1685 multi-volume anthology, _Shokoku banashi_ or Tales from Various Provinces, contains thirty-five short stories Saikaku had transcribed and edited during his travels in the seventeenth century. Saikaku noted in his preface that among all of mysterious phenomena he had encountered, humans were the twisted ones and that nothing exists outside of our visible world. This statement sets the tone for the remainder of the volume, as each story features an odd but remarkable event that transpired in both well-trodden and tucked-away locales of pre-modern Japan. Despite the work's divergent tales, one point is remarkably consistent throughout: the dual use of priests as a comic foil and narrative catalyst.

This presentation offers a close analysis of Saikaku's treatment of Buddhist priests in a handful of selected tales from the anthology. The lead-off story itself, "The Un-smashingly Successful Complaint," details a dispute between Nara Temples where priests humorously argue over possession of a ritual drum while city magistrate inspectors must reconcile the competing sides. In "The Umbrella Oracle," the only anthology piece published thus far in English, an umbrella is blown away into a remote village untouched by Buddhism only to become the object of worship and unfulfilled amour. Then, "The Lady Carpenters of Unseen Places" relays an account from Kyoto where ladies of the court were haunted by a Yamori gecko from Enryaku-ji Temple. In these accounts and two others--"The Fox's Four Guardian Priests" and "Fake Mustaches in the Month of Frost"--the clergy plays a pivotal and comical role in advancing the plot. Rarely do the priests serve as primary protagonists or antagonists; instead, they reflect if not amplify the more worldly yet unusual dilemmas facing the lay characters. This study thus aims to offer a fresh analysis of Saikaku's satire of pre-modern and early modern Japan.