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- Convenor:
-
Saida Khalmirzaeva
(Okayama University)
Send message to Convenor
- Chair:
-
Hiromi Hyodo
(Gakushuin University)
- Discussant:
-
Hiromi Hyodo
(Gakushuin University)
- Section:
- Pre-modern Literature
- Sessions:
- Friday 27 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Brussels
Short Abstract:
We are proposing a panel that, applying major techniques and methods of narratology, will examine and re-interpret some of the performative, contextual, and textual aspects of The Tale of the Heike's narrative from various perspectives.
Long Abstract:
The Tale of the Heike, an epic account of the war between the Minamoto and Taira clans in the 12th century, is the most significant of all the Japanese performed narratives, generally known as katarimono. For a long time, the stories from The Tale of the Heike were performed by blind monks biwa hōshi and served for entertainment, religious and educational purposes. The Tale of the Heike has been enormously popular and influential since it was first composed sometime in the 13th century. The Heike-derived tales can be found in a variety of katarimono genres, such as nō, kōwakamai, jōruri, higobiwa, etc. It is difficult to overestimate the role The Tale of the Heike played in the development of Japan's literary and cultural tradition. Despite a long history of interest in The Tale of the Heike, researchers are still trying to uncover new possibilities for the interpretation and understanding of the performative, contextual, and textual aspects of The Tale of the Heike.
We are proposing a panel that, applying major techniques and methods of narratology, will examine and re-interpret some of the performative, contextual, and textual aspects of The Tale of the Heike's narrative from various perspectives. Firstly, each panelist will talk about their methodology and findings. Focusing on the narrative text of several episodes describing prominent religious figures, such as Chōgen and Hōnen, the first panelist will attempt to interpret the image of Chōgen and re-evaluate his role in the narrative construction. The second panelist will deal with the performative aspects of The Tale of the Heike and will clarify some characteristics of the narrative material of katarimono. Taking a broader comparative approach to The Tale of the Heike, the third panelist will trace the development of several Heike-related tales across the genres and elucidate the traditional and original elements in each genre, applying narratology and reception theory. Secondly, each panelist and the commentator will reflect on the presentations. Thirdly, we would open it up to the audience to comment on what they learned, to ask questions, or to offer suggestions concerning the presentations.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 27 August, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
This paper will attempt to identify the source of the Heike-related tales in the higobiwa repertory. It will also trace the development of these stories across the genres and elucidate the traditional and original elements in each genre applying narratology and reception theory.
Paper long abstract:
Despite its overwhelming popularity through the centuries, the heike biwa music started to lose its dominating role in the folk performing tradition from around the end of the 16th century. Most biwa hōshi, or blind biwa players, gave up the biwa for shamisen, koto, or kokyū instruments. New genres of oral narratives, such as jōruri, okujōruri performed in Miyagi and Iwate, or gundan of Niigata developed from the performances by blind players with the new instrument shamisen. This new or renewed oral culture rapidly spread all over Japan. After the Edo period, it was only in Kyushu that the biwa was not replaced with the shamisen. In this region, the biwa continued to be a part of the folk performing tradition until the second half of the 20th century due to its primary function in folk religious practices.
The genre of blind biwa music from Kyushu is widely known as the higobiwa. However, the term is relatively new and appears to have been coined not earlier than the Meiji era, as an attempt to distinguish the biwa tradition of Kumamoto from the satsumabiwa and chikuzenbiwa. Today the higobiwa is treated as an independent genre. However, it is evident that over the centuries the higobiwa tradition came into contact with other storytelling genres, borrowed some of the stories, and later reworked them into its own.
In this paper, I will focus on several tales from the repertory of the blind biwa players from Kyushu related to The Tale of the Heike, such as Ichi-no-Tani, Ko-Atsumori, and Kagekiyo. Firstly, I will attempt to identify the source of these tales in the higobiwa repertory, based on the comparative analysis of narrative material in the existing versions and variants of the tales. Secondly, I will trace the development of these stories across the genres and elucidate the traditional and original elements in each genre applying narratology and reception theory.
Paper short abstract:
Based on the previous research focused on Chōgen in The Tale of the Heike, this paper will apply the major techniques and methods of narratology to the interpretation of the image of Chōgen and re-evaluation of the role he plays in the narrative.
Paper long abstract:
Many temples of Nara, including Tōdaiji and Kōfukuji, were turned into a sea of fire by the troops led by Taira no Shigehira in the twelfth month of the fourth year of the Jishō era (1180). The restoration of the heavily damaged Tōdaiji required tremendous effort and dedication. One of the major contributors to the restoration was the monk Chōgen (1121-1206).
Chōgen appears in The Tale of the Heike several times. Many versions of The Tale of the Heike share the chapters which mention Chōgen. For example, the chapter describing the memorial service of Taira no Shigehira who was executed in Nara or the chapter which describes the fate of Taira no Munezane, the son of Taira no Shigemori, after the fall of the Taira. The passage describing the role of Chōgen in the memorial service of Taira no Shigehira is of particular interest since it interprets and demonstrates the attitude of the creators of The Tale of the Heike to the sin committed by Taira no Shigehira. From this point of view, the way The Tale of the Heike narrates the episodes centered on Chōgen, namely the narrative structure and context, deserves a closer analysis and interpretation. In this case, the comparison of these episodes with the passages describing the interaction between Hōnen, another prominent religious figure who appears in The Tale of the Heike, and Shigehira could become one of the effective methods of analysis.
Based on the previous research focused on Chōgen in The Tale of the Heike, this paper will apply the major techniques and methods of narratology to the interpretation of the image of Chōgen and re-evaluation of the role he plays in the narrative.
Paper short abstract:
This paper will apply the major techniques and methods of narratology to the analysis ofThe Tale of the Heike and the interpretation of the phenomena peculiar to literary text representing the genre of katarimono.
Paper long abstract:
Shinobu Orikuchi, a Japanese ethnologist, linguist, and folklorist once referred to The Tale of The Heikeas sekkyō-bushi(a genre of storytelling, or katarimono,that was popular from the late 15thcentury through the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1568-1600)).However, The Tale of the Heikelacks the honjimonoelement (the part of the story which describes how the hero becomes a God or Buddha after enduring all the trials and tribulations) which is considered to be an important feature of the sekkyō-bushi genre.Besides, the literary styles of the two genres differ greatly. At the same time, the "narrative styles" of both genres demonstrate some similarities. For example, one such similarity is that it is difficult to separate the narrator of the events from the voicesof the story's characters. This kind of inseparability of the narrator and characters' voices in a narrative can be interpreted as the product of the dramatic imagination of its creators or explained as a phenomenon caused by the Japanese poetic and rhetoricaldevices or other specific features of the Japanese language.
This paper does not attempt to analyze the process of the production of narrative text. Focusing on "the narrative style," namely the performativeaspects of The Tale of the Heike's narrative text, the paper will apply the major techniquesand methods of narratology to the analysis of The Tale of the Heike and the interpretationof the phenomena peculiar to literary text representing the genre of katarimono.