Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality,
and to see the links to virtual rooms.
Log in
- Convenor:
-
Matthias Hayek
(EPHE-PSL)
Send message to Convenor
- Chair:
-
Didier Davin
(National Institute of Japanese Literature)
- Format:
- Panel
- Section:
- Intellectual History and Philosophy
- Location:
- Lokaal 0.3
- Sessions:
- Saturday 19 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Brussels
Short Abstract:
Focusing on three diverse texts: Yamaoka Genrin’s Taga mi no ue, Soga Kyūji’s Iguchi monogatari, and Isawa Banryō’s Zokusetsuben, this panel seeks to elucidate the potential of the zuihitsu mode of writing to serve as a free space where writers could discuss and establish new traditions.
Long Abstract:
From the second part of the 17th century onwards, amidst the growth of commercial printing, one can notice the production of books resisting an easy classification. They were neither fictional or historical narratives, nor linear commentaries of existing texts. Modern bibliographers and historian of literature put them in a broad category, i.e ‘zuhitsu’ (essays), yet many of these texts were considered as “miscellaneous writings and historical notes” (koji/zakki) by publishers, while some of them, written in vernacular, were marketed as ‘kana zôshi’. In the Columbia Anthology of Japanese Essays, Steven Carter has described such zuihitsu of the Edo period as “products (rhetorically, that is) of idle hours and vagrant interests or byproducts of more serious discourse,” characterized by “diversity in style, voice, and subject matter.”
Indeed, their authors could be Confucian literati, merchants, warriors, monks, physicians, lords, or a combination of any of these statuses, and they could be written in Chinese or Japanese. Some were printed, while other circulated only in manuscript form. As for the topics, one finds reflections on the near and distant past, court culture (ga), popular culture (zoku), language, customs, beliefs etc.
In spite of this diversity of forms and styles, it seems nevertheless possible to identify certain recurring patterns, sources and models, such as medieval Japanese collections of personal thoughts (Makura no Sôshi and Tsurezuregusa), stories (Tôzai zuihitsu) but also Chinese miscellanies.
Focusing on three diverse and influential texts: Yamaoka Genrin’s Taga mi no ue (1657), Soga Kyūji’s Iguchi monogatari (1662), and Isawa Banryō’s Zokusetsuben (1707-1727), the papers in the proposed panel seek to elucidate the potential of the zuihitsu mode of writing to serve as a free space where writers could unfetteredly express their personal, sometimes innovative views on what was ‘appropriate’ or not, in terms of behavior, practice, or even worldview.
The panel shall highlight the way in which these essays allowed authors to freely organize their knowledge and to construct, from fragments of their readings, experiences and discussions, an invisible or implied text they could engage with, eventually producing new discourses on history, society, and Japanese literary and/or cultural 'tradition'.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Saturday 19 August, 2023, -Paul Schalow (Rutgers University)
Paper short abstract:
Iguchi monogatari (Tales for the ignorant; 1662) by Soga Kyūji is “an exemplary didactic book written in vernacular Japanese in the zuihitsu mode." Building upon earlier discourses of frugality and hard work, the text seeks to redefine for merchant-class readers what it means to live a good life.
Paper long abstract:
Iguchi monogatari (Tales for the ignorant; 1662) is described by Suzuki Jun as “an exemplary didactic book written in vernacular Japanese in the zuihitsu mode.” A preface identifies the author as Soga Kyūji, Echigo Province, who is otherwise unknown. The publisher presents the 8-volume text, which consists of 142 separate sections, or chapters, as the work of a person highly knowledgeable in Chinese studies and suggests that the book will appeal to readers untrained in classical Sinitic because it succeeds in presenting difficult religious and philosophical concepts in ways that are easy to understand. A recurring concern in the first few volumes of the text is the question of how to attain wealth. The author clearly owes a debt to Chōja kyō (The rich man’s bible; 1627), a one-volume text from a generation earlier, which reflected the merchant class interest in making money and preached the path to riches through practice of frugality and honest hard work. Iguchi monogatari builds upon Chōja kyō’s discourse of poverty and wealth but also introduces new concepts and intellectual perspectives that reveal a more ambitious project: to broadly define for merchant-class readers what it really means to be rich. The proposed paper explores the author’s use of the zuihitsu mode in Iguchi monogatari to make innovations to old discourses and articulate a new, more “modern,” path to the good life.
Daniel Struve (Paris Cité University)
Paper short abstract:
In my presentation I will examine the way Yamaoka Genrin in his zuihitsu Taga minoue (1657) uses the Pillow Book to create a new style of writing allowing him to assert his views and express his humanistic ideal of straightforwardness and awareness of one’s position within contemporary society.
Paper long abstract:
The development of commercial publishing in the early Edo period created a demand for newly written works to suit the interest and taste of a new audience of educated citizens, leading to the emergence of writers ready to provide texts for print. One of them was Yamaoka Genrin (1631-1712). A descendant of a merchant family from Ise settled in Kyoto, he was a scholar and a physician, versed in Chinese learning but also trained in haikai poetry and Japanese classics. Yamaoka Genrin actively engaged in editorial activities authoring several haikai publications, as well as commentaries on classic works (Hyakunin isshu, Tsurezure gusa, Hôjôki…). But his first publication in 1657, at the age of 28, was a book of reflections untitled Taga minoue, which is a pun meaning “Talking about whom” as well as “Talking about others and oneself”. Taga minoue is an example of a new genre of works, inspired by the success of the Essays in Idlness, of which the best known is Kashôki (published in 1642) by Saitô Chikamori (1603-1674). These works where seminal in the development of a new style of prose closely related to the vernacular language and proposing reflections on all aspects of life in light of the teachings of the 3 main doctrines (Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism or rather Zhuangzi) to which one should add the esthetics of waka poetry and Japanese classics. A few studies have dwelled on the influence of Tsurezure gusa or Zhuangzi on Yamaoka Genrin’s language and ideas, and on his particular brand of sankyô itchi thinking (“The 3 doctrines are expressing the same truth”). Miura Kunio pointed the frequent allusions to Sei Shônagon’s Pillow Book (Makura no sôshi). In my presentation I will focus on this last aspect. Il will examine the way Yamaoka Genrin uses the Pillow Book to create a new style of writing allowing him to assert his views and express his humanistic ideal of straightforwardness and awareness of one’s position within contemporary society.
Matthias Hayek (EPHE-PSL)
Paper short abstract:
Isawa Banryō published a series of works between 1707 and 1727, titled Zokusetsuben, A Critic of ‘popular stories’. This presentation will show what methods Banryō applied to his sources in order to criticize ‘popular stories’, and establish an ‘correct’ history based on ‘authentic’ sources.
Paper long abstract:
Isawa Banryō (1668-1731), a warrior literati who served the lords of Kumamoto, is a well-known, yet little studied figure of the literary landscape of the ‘long’ 17th century. This Confucian scholar, was, like many of his comrades of the Ansai school, interested in the historical roots of Japanese culture, before the rise of the so-called ‘nativist’ school. In the now ‘pacified’ Japan establishing a correct or ‘proper’ history of the country had become a crucial task since the second part of the 17th century, as can be seen in official works such as Hayashi Razan and Gahō’s Honchō tsugan, but also in the numerous histories of the domains produced by local scholars such as Banryō. The task was made difficult by two main factors: the absence of ‘official histories’ past the 9th century, and the concurrence of ‘popular’ media such as jōruri, otogi zōshi, or even military tales like the Taiheiki. Such works conveyed views, often imbued with Buddhist elements, on the lives of ‘historical’ figures, from the gods of antiquity to emperors, shoguns, famous warriors and specialists. These are precisely what Banryō attempted to tackle in a series of works published between 1707 and 1727, titled Zokusetsuben, A Critic of ‘popular stories’. With eight different titles, this best-selling series exerted a durable influence on literati, authors and scholars until the 19th century at least. Banryō’s alleged goal was to provide his readers with a facilitated access to a ‘correct’ history, devoid of ‘fantasies’, and based on ‘authentic’ sources. Said sources, besides official histories, include collections such as the Uji shûi monogatari, Konjaku monogatari-shū, or chronicles such as Ōkagami, where marvelous tales are far from rare. In this presentation, I will try to show what methods Banryō applied to his sources in order to criticize ‘popular stories’, and establish an ‘authentic’ history.