Paper short abstract:

Using in particular the case of illustrated scrolls and picture books produced from the Muromachi period to the early Edo period, this paper explores the cross-genre relationship between kana hōgo (vernacular sermons) published in the early Edo period and contemporary works of vernacular fiction.

Paper long abstract:

Many of the illustrated scrolls (emaki) and picture books (ehon) produced between the Muromachi era and the early Edo period concern fictional stories written in the script and language of contemporary Japanese. It has been noted that the popularity of such works, known collectively as monogatari zōshi (vernacular tales), seems to have continued unabated even with the rapid spread of early-modern print technology, and amid all the revolutionary changes that followed in its wake. What has been less explored is the manner in which the new literary environment influenced such tales. In this paper I focus on one particularly salient trend in vernacular stories of the time: the noticeable incorporation within their narratives of contemporary Buddhist discourse, in language reminiscent specifically of sutra lectures and Buddhist sermons published likewise in the vernacular.

The genre of texts known as kana hōgo (vernacular sermons) received wide publication beginning in the early Edo period. Communicating the doctrines of important sect-founding Buddhist masters or other exceptionally learned monks in the vernacular kana script, such works came to exert a broad influence on the larger world of vernacular texts in general. Recent scholarship has tended to preoccupy itself with textual subgenres built around chronological subdivisions, focusing more narrowly on perhaps otogi-zōshi, or kana-zōshi, or even kana hōgo alone. It has thus tended to overlook the potential relationships cross-occurring among vernacular genres, such as between the aforementioned Buddhist sermons and vernacular tales. In this paper, I will explore a number of examples of such cross-genre influence in hopes of making such relationships clearer. By deliberately ignoring conventional distinctions of genre and periodization, I hope furthermore to elucidate some of the more specific circumstances under which vernacular tales were produced.