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.