Paper short abstract:

Toyotomi Hideyoshi's carefully cultivated relationship with the regental Konoe house also extended to connections with Kaoku Gyokuei, author of two commentaries on The Tale of Genji, and her niece Chaa. My presentation examines these relationships and the literary products they gave rise to.

Paper long abstract:

Kaoku Gyokuei is best known as the compiler of Kaokushō (Kaoku's Gleanings, 1594) and Gyokueishū (Gyokuei's Collection, 1602), two commentaries on The Tale of Genji that make her a significant figure in the history of the reception of the tale in the late sixteenth century.

Gyokuei embodied cultural capital because she was not only related to but also in close touch with those at the pinnacle of power in this era. She is described as "the daughter of Konoe Taneie" (1503-66) in the biographical compilation Kendenmeimeiroku (1652), and thus we may assume that she was born to the regental Konoe house. According to the postscript attached to a copy of Genji monogatari no okori (The Origins of The Tale of Genji) in the collection of Senshū University that has traditionally been attributed to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Kaoku Gyokuei sent the text to her niece Chaa who was in Hideyoshi's service; Hideyoshi made a copy; and this copy was then sent back to Gyokuei, who noted Hideyoshi's interest in this epitome of court culture in a postscript. Hideyoshi, we recall, had had himself ennobled when he was adopted by Konoe Sakihisa (1536-1612) in order to assume the offices of Chancellor (kanpaku) and eventually Grand Minister of State (daijō daijin).

Nonetheless, despite Gyokuei's noble birth, powerful connections, and compilation of several commentaries on Genji, the manuscripts of even her best-known works, Kaokushō and Gyokueishū, remain under-researched and there is no reliable printed edition of either. Nor is there any consensus on who she was, the nature of her relationship with Hideyoshi, or the importance of her achievements.

In my presentation, I shall set out what we know about Gyokuei and examine the key features of her commentaries in order to arrive at a clearer understanding of her place in the commentarial tradition and the cultural value she held for Hideyoshi.