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Paper short abstract

This paper analyzes two nineteenth-century Japanese vernacular fiction texts by Miki Kussai, analyzing how his nonlinear tales captured Edo City’s 1830s literati network. These works embedded critiques of urban literati identity in rumors and gossip during shifting hierarchies of early modern Japan.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines two vernacular fiction texts from nineteenth-century Japan to trace how urban literati life was portrayed by a Confucian scholar, Miki Kussai (birth and death years unknown), and how his depiction encapsulated the literati network of Edo city in 1830s Japan. Despite his lack of reputation today, Miki Kussai was a sociable guest among the literati circle in Edo’s urban areas. His works of vernacular fiction captured friends and rivals in this circle through messy narratives and nonlinear plots. Compared to works by his contemporary authors, however, these “fiction” works—sometimes loosely categorized as Peculiar Tales (Jpn. myōmyō kidan)—raise the question about their purpose, creation, and circulation.

In this paper, I focus on two texts, one written in vernacular Japanese and one in vernacular Sinitic, to examine how the author Miki Kussai expressed his critiques of urban Edo’s entertainment life under the guise of rumors and gossip. I argue that despite the lack of consistency in these texts, when analyzed together with other forms of materials such as diaries and playbills, they concoct a story of prosperous Edo literati life where popular cultural producers wove a complicated network of support and competition, which in turn helped these producers negotiate their identity while reimagining the community of popular culture during the breakdown of the official cultural hierarchy in the nineteenth century.