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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how Nativist scholar Murata Harumi (1746-1811) viewed Sagoromo. He compared the 1654 printing and other texts, adding his own interlinear notes. I argue that he was both aware of the tale's variants and interested in them; indeed, creating a variorum was his goal.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines how Edo-period Nativist scholar Murata Harumi (1746-1811) researched The Tale of Sagoromo. Kyoto University owns Murata's text of the tale's 1654 printing. It reveals Murata's research into Sagoromo's diverse textual corpus.

Murata's book contains numerous interlinear and marginal notes, written in black or red ink. All of these comments are annotations to the tale, but only some of them are in Murata's handwriting. Why did he annotate the printed text? One reason is surely the special nature of his book. Murata's text also includes notes by the poet-priest Keichu (1640-1701), sometimes considered the founder of Nativist scholarship (kokugaku). Today, Keichu is known for his groundbreaking research on the poetic anthology Manyoshu (ca. 759). Murata's text of Sagoromo bears Keichu's seal. This means that Keichu owned this book first. It also means that Murata, having acquired Keichu's book, decided to add his own thoughts to this century-old book. Keichu's notes probably inspired him to do this.

Murata presumably also added his notes for another reason: his strong interest in Sagoromo's diverse corpus. Some passages of the tale vary wildly across manuscripts. Murata's notes often quote from alternate versions of the tale. He did not collate these texts to create a new manuscript, as did other scholars—including Satomura Joha (1524-1602), whose groundbreaking commentary on the tale was bound with the 1654 printing. Instead, Murata tried to clarify the relationships among several texts of Sagoromo, using comparing them to the 1654 printing. As a way to compare different versions, juxtaposing them like this is extremely effective. Moreover, by placing these competing versions next to the exegesis, Murata made it possible to view all of this material in one place. In short, he created a variorum, which preserves fragments of versions of the tale that are now lost.