Short Abstract

We explore Edo-period commentaries as intellectual ventures, showing how scholars from diverse backgrounds expanded the classic commentarial tradition, directing it at new subject areas and broader audiences, and how these approaches shaped scholarly and creative writing of later generations.

Long Abstract

Commentaries have a long history in the East Asian literati tradition as the major vehicle for investigating and discussing classical texts. During the Tokugawa period, this tradition took on new dimensions as scholars of diverse backgrounds engaged in writing commentaries, extended their scope to new subject areas, and targeted a wider audience. Bringing together researchers of different regional and disciplinary backgrounds—history, literature, and anthropology—this panel spotlights the influence of such novel commentarial forms on both scholarly and creative writings.

Focusing on Kitamura Kigin’s (1624–1705) Shunshoshō (1674), a groundbreaking annotated version of The Pillow Book, the first speaker shows how Kigin applied commentarial procedures to a text on the fringes of the traditional classical corpus. By bringing extensive cultural and historical background information into his commentary, Kigin also made Shunshoshō into an encyclopaedia of Heian court life.

The second presentation takes up a short volume later appended to Shunshoshō: Makura no sōshi shōzokushō (The Study of Attire Figuring in the Pillow Book, 1729) by Tsuboi Yoshichika (1657–1735). The son of a farmer and a self-made authority on court manners (yūsoku), Tsuboi responded to a growing demand for information about court traditions while also building his own area of expertise within the field of commentaries on Heian kana literature.

The third presenter explores creative uses made of Kogetsushō (1673), Kigin’s renowned commentary on The Tale of Genji. Focusing on Ryūtei zasshū, a manuscript by the popular writer Ryūtei Tanehiko (1783–1842) that includes excerpts from Kogetsushō and other illustrated Genji editions, the presentation examines how Tanehiko utilized and transformed commentarial information in his bestseller Nise murasaki inaka Genji (1829–1842).

The last presentation highlights the innovative application of the format and methodology of classical annotation to new areas in the later Tokugawa period. Literati such as Ōta Nanpo (1749–1823), Santō Kyōden (1761–1816), and Ryūtei Tanehiko produced playful works that parodied the classical commentarial format, while also engaging in serious textual research into recent popular literary works and subjects outside the boundaries of traditional scholarship.

Together, the panel aims to promote lively and transdisciplinary discussion of the rich early-modern culture of commentaries.