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Paper short abstract

Late Edo literati extended the method of annotation used for the classical texts to early- modern popular literature. They not only produced playful works parodying commentaries on the classics but also conducted serious textual research on the early Edo popular works, including practical books.

Paper long abstract

Late Edo literati extended the method of annotation used for classical texts to the world of early modern popular literature. Firstly, the annotation format - dividing pages into two sections, with the bottom allocated to the texts and the top to headnotes - was applied to popular works of the gesaku genre in the late eighteenth century. For instance, Ōta Nanpo (1749-1823) published an anthology of comic Sino-Japanese poems (kyōshi), titled Tsūshisen shōchi (1783), which was a parody of the title, poems and page design of Tōshisen shōko (1764), one of the annotations for Tōshisen (Selected Tang Poems), titled. Santō Kyōden’s (1761-1816)’s Hyakunin-isshu waka hatsuishō (1787) was also a parody of the form of annotations on Hyakunin-isshu (The one hundred poets, one poem each) as well as a deliberate distortion of the original poems’ interpretations. In these works, annotations were merely for appearance; the authors playfully added mocking or sophistical explanations to words and phrases.

On the other hand, Nanpo and Kyōden conducted serious textual research into popular literature from a few generations earlier. They were known for sharing an interest in antiquarian texts from the early Edo period and had collaborated in compiling Takao-kō (Study on the Courtesan Takao) and Ukiyo-e rui kō (Study on the Kinds of Ukiyo-e). The National Diet Library houses a manuscript titled Sasachimaki (Trivial Notes from the Chimaki Library), which is a record of passages that Nanpo extracted in 1811 from as many as 44 publications from the seventeenth to early eighteenth centuries, including popular novels and practical books. He often added bibliographical information to the entries, as well as notes on words or quotations from the related sentences seen in other contemporary texts.

In addition to Nanpo’s comments, Kyōden and Ryūtei Tanehiko (1783-1842) added their thoughts or comparable information. Although Sasachimaki itself is not an annotation on a single work, what they did here was the same kind of academic activity as scholars who penned commentaries on classical literature. In this presentation, I will demonstrate how Nanpo and his colleagues conducted scholarly examinations into older popular publications.