pmjs logs for March 2004. Total number of messages: 35

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* Looking for Engishiki (Joan Piggott)
* Announcement of Book Release/website link exchange (Avia Bell Moon, Royall Tyler, Michelle Li)
* Rene Sieffert (1923-2004) (Michael Watson)
* [Japanese digest] (Janine Beichman)
* "historical" fiction (Rose Bundy, David Pollack)
* Epiphanius Wilson? (Denise O'Brien)
* Cursive Japanese: Reading Workshop, University of Chicago (Philip Brown)
* images and war (Melanie Trede)
* new members: Thomas Ekholm, Itasaka Noriko, Ajder Teodor
* Murasaki's and Genji's relations (Chris Kern, Lewis Cook, Royall Tyler, Aileen Gatten, Michael Watson , Jens Sejrup, Thomas Howell, Michelle I Li, Brendan Elliott)
* Kyoto Lectures: Robert Campbell March 29 (Roberta Strippoli)
* GENJI as pornography and GENJI criticism / "pornographing Genji" (Ingrid Parker, David Pollack, Doris Croissant)
* Symposium: The Culture of Secrecy in Japanese Religion (Bernhard Scheid)
* Writers and vacuums (Jens Sejrup)


Date: Mon, 01 Mar 2004 04:21:36 -0500
From: "Avia Belle Moon" <oydsseapr...@...os.com>
Subject: [pmjs] Re: Annoucement of Book Release/website link exchange

Dear friends,

1) I'd like to announce the release of my book, "A Thousand Years of Love" now available at-

http://www.trafford.com/robots/03-1713.html

A THOUSAND YEARS OF LOVE is a historical novel set in ancient Kyoto, Japan, and Hangzhou, China, a city described by Marco Polo as the "greatest in the world."

I hope you will take a moment to check out the cover, an original design of a Heian Period kimono on the front, and a mountain temple lake scene on the back,done in the style of a Chinese Southern Song painting.

This book will also be available soon at

Amazon: www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1412013356/
Barnes and Noble: www.bn.com [link]
Borders: www.Borders.com(now teamed with Amazon)
www.BookSense.com
Baker and Taylor International
In Canada-chapters.indigo.ca

I am also interested in a website link exchange, if you have a website on Japan/The Heian Period. Please contact me:)

Thanks for listening,

Avia Belle Moon

Oydssea Press-your entry into modern and ancient Japan
http://www.nsknet.or.jp/~lotus/OydsseaPress/OP.htm


Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2004 07:43:18 +1100

From: Royall Tyler <ty...@...aca-s.com>

Subject: [pmjs] Re: Annoucement of Book Release/website link exchange


How did "Avia Belle Moon" get this on pmjs?

I trust there will be a panel on Heian-inspired English pulp fiction at some future AAS. There's a whole world of it out there.


Royall Tyler


Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2004 00:29:32 -0800

From: Michelle I Li <mi...@...nford.edu>

Subject: [pmjs] Re: Annoucement of Book Release/website link exchange


There is also that new novel, The Snow Fox. I remember reading in a review

that Ono Komachi was an inspiration even though the novel is set in a later

period. (Was it Sengoku jidai?) I do find myself curious about what sources

such writers are using for their research and a little envious of the

attention some of those works get.


Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2004 00:00:01 -0800

From: Joan Piggott <joa...@...il.usc.edu>

Subject: [pmjs] Re: [pmjs] Looking for Engishiki


Barbara and others,


When I last checked this (last summer), I was told subsequent volumes were yet to be published.


J. Piggott


At 5:13 PM -0500 2/28/04, Barbara Nostrand wrote:

Dear list members.


Does anyone know of a recent complete edition of the Engishiki?

I managed to borrow volume I (books 1-10) of the edition being

published by Shueisha (2000), but OCLC is not making it at all

clear whether later volumes have entered the system. I am

interested in books 31, 32, 33, 35, 37, 39, and 40.


Date: Wed, 3 Mar 2004 00:50:49 +0900

From: Michael Watson <wat...@...eijigakuin.ac.jp>

Subject: [pmjs] Rene Sieffert (1923-2004)


Since Professor Joly told us of the death of Rene Sieffert, I have been periodically checking the French papers on the Internet for an obituary. Francois Mace of INALCO has contributed a good account of Sieffert's career and publications in "Le Monde" of 26 February. It can be read here:


http://www.lemonde.fr/web/recherche_articleweb/1,13-0,36-354379,0.html


Michael Watson


On 2004/02/15, at 15:33, M.Joly Jacques wrote:


Many of you might know the name of Rene SIEFFERT, one of the leading

French Japanologists, former Professor at the Inalco (Institut National

des Langues et Civilisations Orientales) at Paris and translator, among

others, of Genji Monogatari and Manyoshu. He died Saturday in Aurillac,

Auvergne (his address : 10 avenue de la Republique 15000 Aurillac.).


Jacques JOLY


Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2004 11:41:46 +0900

From: Janine Beichman <jani...@...l1.accsnet.ne.jp>

Subject: [pmjs] Re: pmjs digest


Re the footer, I just want to express appreciation to whoever it is who is translating selected pmjs messages for our Japanese colleagues. This is a service to the profession, as they say on ceevees, and should be recognized.

Janine Beichman


Michael Watson wrote:


pmjs footer: Japanese translation of selected pmjs messages


Japanese translation of selected pmjs messages

http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/~pmjs/jpn/

The usual pmjs password is needed. The translated "pmjs nihongoban" is sent out as a digest twice a month to twenty-seven Japanese members of pmjs.


The translator is pmjs co-editor Midorikawa Machiko. / ed.


Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2004 09:49:48 -0500

From: Rose Bundy <bu...@...o.edu>

Subject: [pmjs] "historical" fiction


I've deleted the message about the novel about the "komachi-like" figure, but coincidentally ran into a description of the novel in the U of Chicago Alum magazine. It apparently has to do with some sort of love triangle, two of the parties being the lady and a warrior. They are exiled and raise foxes, which they name for each other. Whatever that means. The author is a visiting prof. in English I think, at Chicago. (Sorry, I'm doing this from memory.)

Perhaps it is envy, but I, too, cringe when students say or write in apps that they have learned so much from _Memoirs of a Geisha_, etc.

Rose Bundy


In response to Michelle Li's posting of March 2 about Susan Fromberg Schaeffer's The Snow Fox. /ed.


Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2004 10:34:25 -0500

From: "Denise O'Brien" <obri...@...ple.edu>

Subject: [pmjs] Epiphanius Wilson?


Does anyone know anything about Epiphanius Wilson (whose mellifluous first name comes from an early Church father)?

His life dates are 1845-1916 and around 1900 he seems to have published collections of, or commentaries on, a wide range of "Oriental" literatures including Turkish, Persian, Egyptian, Arabian, and Chinese. Some or all of Suematsu's Genji translation was published in a collection Wilson did re Japanese Literature (New York 1900, London 1902) that I've not been able to see as yet. Wilson's catholic tastes extended to France and he published on Balzac and French Cathedrals. Some of his Oriental material has been reprinted in the last thirty years and as recently as 2003. I'm trying to figure out if Wilson was influential in the reception of Japanese literature by English language readers.

Regards, Denise O'Brien


Denise O'Brien, Ph.D.

Department of Anthropology

Temple University

Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA

FAX: 215-204-1410 E-Mail: obri...@...ple.edu


Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2004 13:32:58 -0500

From: David Pollack <poll...@...l.rochester.edu>

Subject: [pmjs] Re: "historical" fiction


Older members might recall that we went through all this a few decades ago when Clavell's blockbuster "Shogun" came out followed by the film. (I personally loved Mifune as the imaginary Toranaga doing a delightful little jig.) but rather than merely express an all-too-understandable annoyance and chagrin at someone else's raking in the money on our specialization, Henry Smith brought out "Learning from 'Shogun'" (1975) to help the responsible parties steer the masses of "Shogun" enthusiasts in the right direction. Now perhaps we need "Learning from 'The Last Samurai'" and "Learning from 'Memoirs of a Geisha'" for those enthralled by Katsumoto and Sayuri.


David Pollack


Date: Tue, 09 Mar 2004 19:59:05 -0500

From: Philip Brown <brown....@....edu>

Subject: [pmjs] Cursive Japanese: Reading Workshop, University of Chicago


The Committee for Japanese Studies at the University of Chicago will

host a summer workshop on reading kuzushiji (cursive script) for

graduate students and faculty. Professor Hiroshi Kurushima of the

National Museum of Japanese History will lead the workshop, which will

focus on materials from the Tokugawa and early Meiji periods. Sessions

will be held Monday through Friday from July 12 through July 30. The

main language of the workshop will be Japanese. Workshop participants

will need competency in spoken Japanese and a general knowledge of

classical Japanese.


There is no cost for the workshop, although participants will be asked

to cover their own travel expenses and room and board. Inexpensive

housing and meals will be available in a University of Chicago dormitory

on campus. It is recommended that applicants request aid from their

home institutions to cover these costs. For further information on the

workshop and an application form, please contact Professor Susan Burns:


Department of History, The University of Chicago

1126 East 59 Street

Chicago, IL 60637

Tel: 773-702-8934

E-mail: slbu...@...icago.edu


Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2004 14:34:06 +0100

From: Melanie Trede <tr...@...sino.uni-heidelberg.de>

Subject: images and war


Colleagues,

Greetings from sunny Heidelberg and apologies for crosspostings!


Would anyone know of an art work (Japanese/Korean/Chinese and others) produced prior to the 20th century which was commissioned to prevent or negotiate a military/political conflict? Or maybe a piece that was commissioned to ask for divine intervention in military matters on behalf of the patron?

I am not thinking of works such as Goya's cycle “Desastres” which he seems to have composed for himself AS A REACTION to war atrocities, and without the aim of distributing them (only two copies of the etchings were made during his lifetime).

Any hint is very welcome!

I am working on Yoshinori's Hachiman handscrolls of 1433 which I interpret as an appeal for divine support in his ongoing political troubles.


Btw, please find my new address and contact numbers below.


Cheers!

melanie trede


******************************

Kunsthistorisches Institut

Abteilung Ostasien

Seminarstr. 4

69117 Heidelberg

GERMANY

Tel. +49-6221-543969

Fax:+49-6221-543384

tr...@...sino.uni-heidelberg.de


Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 21:34:30 +0900

From: Michael Watson <wat...@...eijigakuin.ac.jp>

Subject: [pmjs] new members


We welcome three new members to the list.


Thomas Ekholm <thomas.ekh...@...ental.gu.se>

Ph.D. Student, Gothenburg University

I study the connection between cha-no-yu, the tea ceremony, and the missionaries in 16th, 17th century Japan. I focus on the tea master and general Oda Urakusai, a brother to Oda Nobunaga.


Itasaka Noriko 板坂 則子 <itas...@...ho.ne.jp>

Senshu University 専修大学

I specialize in Japanese kinsei literature, the literature and culture of the Edo Era, in particular gesaku writing, focussing on Kyokutei Bakinthe author of Hakkenden & Yumiharizuki. I am interested in how Edo literature and culture are related to foreign literatures and cultures, and in what ways they are unique.

日本近世文学、つまり江戸期の文学と文化を研究しています。特に戯作(げさ く)と呼ばれる後期小説を、曲亭馬琴を中心に研究しています。

そして、江戸の文学や文化が、外国の文学や文化とどのように係わっているの か、その独自性は何かなどにも興味を持っています。

どうぞよろしく!


Professor Itasaka's seminar home page can be found here:

http://www.isc.senshu-u.ac.jp/~thb0457/


Ajder Teodor <dor...@...oo.com>

Yokohama National University, Japan

Cognitive science, psychology, psycholinguistics, linguistics, generative grammars, from 2003-2006 Phd program of Media and information department


Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 14:01:06 +0000

From: Michael Watson <wat...@...eijigakuin.ac.jp>

Subject: [pmjs] A Genji question--Murasaki and Genji's relations


I am forwarding a question from Chris Kern, one of our read-only members, who has written to pmjs previously on the subject of Genji manga. This question deals with a question that is perhaps of wider interest. A Japanese translation of Chris' question was posted to the pmjs BBS yesterday, and Niimi Akihito, one of our Japanese members has already written a response. See

http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/~pmjs/logs/bbs/ezml.cgi

[ID: logs password: 2004]

(I have changed references to the mangaka from "Tatsuya" to "Egawa" below.)


From: Chris Kern <chrisker...@...mail.com>

Date: 24 March, 2004


The 5th volume (Waka Murasaki) of Egawa Tatsuya's Genji manga that I mentioned earlier has just recently come out, so I've been reading it.


I was a little surprised after reading Tyler and Seidensticker's translations to see that Egawa has depicted Genji as beginning sexual relations with the 10-year old Murasaki as soon as he brings here home. Somehow I had gotten the idea from the English translations that their sexual relationship did not start until later.


Egawa seems to have interpreted every instance of "katarau" as sex -- for instance in the "Hito no hodo mo ate ni wokasiu, naka-naka no sakasira-gokoro naku, uti-katarahi te, kokoro no mama ni wosihe ohosi-tate te mi baya" passage and the "ahare ni uti-katarahi" later. But as Egawa points out in one of the footnotes, "katarau" can also just mean "talk" like in modern Japanese. So how do we know which one it is here? 10 years old seems a bit young even for Heian times but maybe it isn't.


(On an unrelated note, in Kiritsubo, Egawa makes the surprising (to me) claim that the young Genji would have been with the Kiritsubo emperor all the time and that he would have watched his father have sex with various women (including Fujitsubo). Is there any truth to this at all?)


-Chris


Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 13:53:38 -0500

From: "Lewis Cook" <lc...@...thlink.net>

Subject: [pmjs] Re: A Genji question--Murasaki and Genji's relations


The story of Murasaki's age regularly provokes questions from students in my Genji-in-translation class and seems to exert a perpetual fascination on readers (and on scribes, considering the disproportionately marked textual variants on this question in early manuscripts). The details suggest that the author went out of her way to make interesting trouble here.

(I haven't been able to access Prof. Niimi's message -- password help, Michael? -- but would expect he has already answered these questions better than I can.)

The assumption that Murasaki is 10 years old at the time Genji first sees her, which is conventional, is based on the interior dialogue the narrator has Genji conduct with himself while peering at the girl, in which he speculates that 'it would appear that she must be no more than about ten years old' (tou bakari [ni] ya aramu to miete) ("ni" supplied here from variant texts, following the Iwanami SNKBT edition, v. I, p. 157, fn. 21).

The second reference to her age is made by her grandmother, whom Genji overhears saying (following Tyler's translation with one deviation for emphasis) "Not everyone is like this at your age, I assure you. Your late mother was *only* ten ['tou bakari ni te'] when she lost her father, and she perfectly understood what had happened." (According to a footnote in the SNKBT ed., the Meiyu-bon and some other mansucripts give "twelve" instead of "ten" here.) The implication is that Murasaki is far enough older than ten (or 12) to suffer from the comparison.

The third reference to her age is given by the "sozuu" (Tyler: "Prelate" / "His Reverence") who, as uncle to Murasaki's mother (and a man of the cloth, etc.), is presumably cast as a reliable informant. He states that Murasaki's mother died "ten some years ago" (Oshima-bon: "tou yo nen" / Meiyu-bon: "tou tose amari" though according to SNKBT footnote here significant variant texts give "tounen"), which entails that Murasaki must be -- even assuming her mother died in childbirth -- something more than ten years old at the time Genji first sees her.

For the question of when Genji wedded himself to Murasaki, read Chapter 9. It is explicit enough that this is a "niimakura" or defloration or whatever you prefer by way of metaphor.

"katarau" can also mean to trick or deceive.


L Cook


Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 07:51:35 +1100

From: Royall Tyler <ty...@...aca-s.com>

Subject: [pmjs] Re: A Genji question--Murasaki and Genji's relations


There's no possible misunderstanding of the original on this issue. If Genji had done what Egawa apparently has him do, the whole business about his consummating his marriage with Murasaki (after Aoi's death) would no longer make any sense, and in his earlier his conversations with Murasaki's grandmother he would have been an especially nasty liar. In the example cited, "katarau" would make no sense in context as a euphemism for sexual relations (Genji is thinking about bringing her up, teaching her, and so on--you have to have the right context for "katarau" take on its special meaning), and in any case, the "uti" prefix puts that reading out of bounds. "Uti" lightens, casualizes the meaning of the verb. I doubt "uti-katarau" could ever refer to what goes on in bed. (I wish I could see what the Japanese member has written, but the pmjs website refused me access...)


Royall Tyler


In my original mail to the list about the BBS, I forgot to remind members that the ID and password were the usual (logs - 2004). /ed.


Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 15:54:30 -0500

From: Aileen Gatten <agat...@...ch.edu>

Subject: [pmjs] Murasaki's and Genji's relations


First of all, I was unable to access Niimi Akihito's remarks on this topic. My apologies if there is any overlap.

If Mr. Egawa proposes that Genji begins sexual relations with Murasaki as soon as he brings her to live with him in the Nijoin, I'm interested in knowing how Egawa plans to treat the well-known episode in "Aoi" when Genji decides that Murasaki is ready for marriage, spends the night with her, and leaves her feeling upset and betrayed by a man she had thought of as her father. Why would she feel that way if she had been having sex with Genji for 4 years?

At 9 years (or 10 sai), Murasaki would have been considered too young by Heian standards for either sexual affairs or marriage. On the other hand, many 10th- and 11th-century aristocratic girls married at 12 or 13, just as Murasaki does in the "Aoi" scene (Murasaki is 14 sai, or 13 years old).
Apropos the "Kiritsubo" question, it's impossible to know what the "truth" is in Mr. Egawa's interpretation, only what is plausible given what we know of Heian culture. Privacy does not seem to have been so valued in Heian as today, even among the upper classes. Attendants were expected to sleep next to the curtained bed in which the lord and lady slept, so chances are that they heard quite a lot of what went on inside and no one much cared. It would not have been impossible for a child such as Genji in his princely days to have peeped at his father, or others, making love or doing other things we consider private today. Is that what you mean, Chris, by "watching"? Or is Egawa's construct that the emperor invited Genji to watch? If so, the level of plausibility plummets.
Regarding "katarau," English has a similar word, "intercourse," which can apply to various kinds of interactive behavior--social, conversational, sexual. How dreary, how unlike Murasaki Shikibu, that Mr. Egawa sees all "intercourse" as sexual.

Aileen Gatten


Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 07:54:46 +1100

From: Royall Tyler <ty...@...aca-s.com>

Subject: [pmjs] Re: A Genji question--Murasaki and Genji's relations


Forgot this one. There's a lot we don't know about life back then, but I gather from what Chris says about this manga that the author is determined to turn the story onto pornography at every opportunity.


Royall Tyler


Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 13:08:17 +1100

From: Royall Tyler <ty...@...aca-s.com>

Subject: [pmjs] Re: A Genji question--Murasaki and Genji's relations


Another comment on this. Chris Kern, whose interest apparently centers on Genji manga rather than on Genji itself (nothing wrong with that), understandably assumed when he noticed the discrepancy that Egawa's version represented a legitimate "interpretation" of the original. This assumption was wrong. Egawa's version represents either a gross misreading or a willful distortion, the latter being far more likely. Egawa is of course entitled to transmogrify the original work in any way he likes. However, his pornographic exploitation of the original should warn us all to be wary when (or if) we blandly and broadmindedly introduce manga version adaptations into courses that claim to be about The Tale of Genji itself.


In any instance, a manga fan is likely (understandably) to make the same assumption Chris did and end up feeling, like Chris, either that the translators of the original got it wrong, or that he/she herself misunderstood the translation. ("Somehow I had gotten the idea from the English translations that their sexual relationship did not start until later.") This "somehow I had gotten the idea..." makes my blood run cold. What else, not explicitly denied by the original narrative, might the likes of Egawa introduce, snappily and memorably, into a porno-Genji?


In short, manga have their own value and significance, but the notion that any particular manga, or manga scene, represents a legitimate "interpretation" of the original is quite wrong. Caveat lector.


Royall Tyler


Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 08:46:40 +0000

From: "Chris Kern" <chrisker...@...mail.com>

Subject: [pmjs] RE: [pmjs] Re: A Genji question--Murasaki and Genji's relations


Thanks for the responses so far.


In fact, I believe that I may have been wrong about the way that Egawa portrays the relationship after reading the parts more closely. At the end of the Waka Murasaki volume, Egawa adds some additional pages, and on one of them Genji is thinking to himself about how lucky he was to get Murasaki. Then he thinks, "shikashi, mada kodomo...saigo made ikanai dokoro ka...kanjiru tokoro made ikan." Going back and looking at the earlier sections, I see that the pictures could be interpreted to indicate that Genji is simply lying naked with Murasaki without any actual sexual activity going on. In light of this comment I believe that I was mistaken and that Egawa is actually *not* portraying Genji and Murasaki as having a full sexual relationship (yet).


Another comment on this. Chris Kern, whose interest apparently centers on Genji manga rather than on Genji itself (nothing wrong with that)

I was afraid that the two posts I made to this list would give that unfortunate impression. My interest does lie with the Genji itself, but as I cannot yet read classical Japanese I am limited to reading Genji in English or modern Japanese translations. Having read both Seidensticker's translation, and your translation (twice), I wanted to try out something different.

Having never read any manga adaptation of Genji before, the reason I was interested in Egawa's manga specifically is that it contains the full text of the original alongside his additions and translation.

In any instance, a manga fan is likely (understandably) to make the same assumption Chris did and end up feeling, like Chris, either that the translators of the original got it wrong, or that he/she herself misunderstood the translation. ("Somehow I had gotten the idea from the English translations that their sexual relationship did not start until later.") This "somehow I had gotten the idea..." makes my blood run cold.

I may have worded the original question poorly -- my assumption was that if there were an error (rather than just a misunderstanding), it would be in Egawa's version.

To respond to one other comment from another mail:
but I gather from what Chris says about this manga that the author is determined to turn the story onto pornography at every opportunity.

Well, one of the curious features of this adaptation is that it's both very scholarly in appearance and also very sensationalistic. On the one hand Egawa seems to have gone to great lengths to "get it right" (the end of the volumes list over 20 books he used in the preparation), and his pictures of the dress, the buildings, the musical instruments, and the like seem to be accurate compared with what I've seen in other reference works. As I said before he includes the full original text. Also, he has some very good ideas on making the text more interpretable in parts -- often the pictures in the frames with the waka will portray the metaphors the waka is representing in more explicit terms.

But on the other hand he puts in some very sensationalistic and needless sex scenes which are drawn in a *very* explicit manner, and I'm not quite sure what he's trying to do with that. It's unfortunate because otherwise I would recommend that you take a look at one of the volumes if you have a chance -- but the explicit art really prevents me from recommending it strongly.

-Chris


Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 09:12:52 +0000

From: Michael Watson <wat...@...eijigakuin.ac.jp>

Subject: [pmjs] Re: A Genji question--Murasaki and Genji's relations


Apologies for all for not including a reminder about how to access the pmjs BBS. The ID and password are the same ones used to see the monthly logs:

ID: logs

password: 2004


I should also have mentioned that as I am in the U.K. for a conference, you will not be receiving pmjs messages in real time. Messages will be sent out only once or twice a day--whenever I drop by a coffee shop with wireless access. This means that messages will arrive in packs, like London buses...


One of the points made by Niimi Akihito is that while it is perhaps interesting to look at manga like Egawa's as an example of reception, he does not think it is very "productive" to compare the manga and the original Genji in the search for the "truth." I hope I have summarized fairly.

http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/~pmjs/logs/bbs/ezml.cgi


Michael Watson


Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004 08:50:43 +1000

From: Royall Tyler <ty...@...aca-s.com>

Subject: [pmjs] Re: A Genji question--Murasaki and Genji's relations


I'm grateful to Chris Kern for having brought up Egawa's manga in this way--a way that really caught my attention. I've been keeping a sort of electronic scrapbook of horrors and curiosities related to Genji's reputation as an erotic work, and I've enjoyed working some of them into a lecture or two. But Chris's description of Egawa's manga (below) takes my breath away. Surely nothing like THIS (this combination of ostentatiously exhaustive accuracy and pornographic appeal) has ever been seen in the history of Genji reception. What impact will this work have? Is it selling well? Who/what is its target audience?--men, I suppose. Will it eventually be translated, like ASAKI YUME MISHI? (By the way, I really wanted to translate Koizumi Yoshihiro's wonderful OTSUKAMI GENJI MONOGATARI--MARO, N?, but two major publishers decided, after long discussion, that it would be too expensive to produce, and they turned it down.) Will someone make an X-rated blockbuster movie of it?


How I wish that some talented young scholar (Chris?) would undertake to study the recent pop reception of Genji. It's a remarkable phenomenon, or set of phenomena. What is going on? Why? What does it all mean? If Genji reception in past centuries is worth studying, surely recent pop Genji reception is well worth studying, too. In fact, it would take more than one talented young scholar to do the subject justice. Meanwhile, the academic reception of Genji in the last century or so deserves a good look as well.


Royall Tyler


Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004 11:43:11 +0000

From: "Jens Sejrup" <jenssej...@...mail.com>

Subject: [pmjs] Re: Murasaki's and Genji's relations


Following this little debate on various readings of the Genji, I'd like to submit a few comments as well, which are aimed more at the nature of a discussion of this kind, than on a specific suggestion as to whether or not we can assume that this or that happened at this or that time in the narrative.


Primarily fuelled by Aileen Gatten's answer I'm left wondering if we take into sufficient consideration that the Genji is not a 'historical' documentary at all - but essentially a work of fiction which sets up its own logic and independently constructs matrices that are not attributable to a historical reality. Of course the setting is referred to as a 'miyako' closely resembling Heian-kyoo and there seems to be little doubt that the author had a contemporary 'Japan' in mind when writng the novel, but I fail to see the point in reading staggeringly extra-textual elements and speculations into the narrative, along the lines of whether or not it is likely that a young child would have had the opportunity to hear or see things going on in a typical Heian mansion or palace. We must insist on the integrity of the fictional world, and - strictly speaking - the text is not responsible for affairs that it doesn't depict. If one then wants to explain certain traits in the artificial psychology of any of the tale's characters (as, for instance, if certain experiences in the childhood of a character lead to certain patterns of behavior in the later life of that character...) it seems absolutely necessary to do so with reference to specific instances in the text and not more or less likely occurances speculated into the work or described in other contemporary texts. Otherwise it seems as if the text is made to fit - and a reading made to appear contrived or forced.


Since Murasaki Shikibu doesn't dwell on, in fact doesn't even mention, Genji's knowledge of his father's sex life, how could we get anywhere with that discussion? There is no reality of the tale, be it historically or psychologically motivated, outside of what we are specifically told. The 'miyako' of the Genji is just that - and doesn't exist anywhere else. The history of the Heian period tells us something of the context of the composition of the tale - but can hardly be an explanation of the workings of a fictional universe as well. It can of course be valuable to see certain correspondences - but a literary universe is to all intents and purposes a 'sealed off' territory which cannot be decisively penetrated by a knowledge of things in the reality of the author - however much we would like things to be different. Otherwise, where do we draw the line? For instance, no character in the tale seems in the least reserved or doubtful as to the existence of 'mono no ke' or malign spirits or apparitions of other characters, but rather it appears as if they find their existence just as natural as the existence of any other psychic phenomenon. Does that mean 'mono no ke' existed in the Heian period? Here it would appear obvious that we must accept the fictionality of the fiction - and it seems to me that much could be gained in doing so in the rest of the tale as well. What remains, then, is the need to stick to the rhetorical and literary strategies employed in the work and try to figure out how the story works and what consequences it has.


I hope this doesn't lead the discussion in an all too different direction. I am writing a thesis on the Genji at the moment and have been struck by this problem running through much of the research in the field. I apologize if some of my points seem a bit crude or unnecessarily categorical, but am nonetheless left wondering why a much stricter distinction between history and fiction is not maintained in discussions of this kind.


Jens Sejrup


Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 11:06:59 -0800

From: Roberta Strippoli <rober...@...nford.edu>

Subject: [pmjs] Kyoto Lectures: Robert Campbell March 29


Dear PMJS colleagues:


Here is another interesting lecture on Japan jointly organized by ISEAS and

EFEO in Kyoto. For inquiries please refer directly to the numbers/e-mail

addresses below.


Greetings to all,


Roberta


--------------


Scuola Italiana di Studi sull'Asia Orientale ISEAS

Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient EFEO


KYOTO LECTURES 2004


Monday March 29th 18:00h



Professor Robert Campbell will speak on


Allegory Redressed:

The Shape of Didactic Literature in Nineteenth-Century Japan


Aesop's Fables, retranslated from English on the eve of the Meiji

Restoration by Bakufu scholars, found an audience in the sprawling

readership of popular fiction in Tokyo, 1873. The text was immediately

dismantled and re-interpreted throughout newspaper columns in the capital

and provinces; and within months one can spot efforts to redirect the fable

inwards, so to speak, through the writing of original fables from Japanese

lore. Allegory as a vessel of moral enlightenment continued to inform

literary thinking well into the 1880s, being singled for instance as

something to be left behind in Tsubouchi Shooyoo's Essence of the Novel.

This talk will try to sketch a trajectory from the translation/transmittal of

the Fables by elite samurai scholars across the Restoration and into the 

so-called "cultural enlightenment" years of the late 1870s, when literature 

is said to have yielded pride of place to moral homily.


Robert Campbell is Associate Professor of Japanese Literature in the

Department of Comparative Literature and Cultures, University of Tokyo

(Komaba). He specializes in literature of the later-Edo and early Meiji

period, especially sinological prose and poetry, and has published

extensively on the culture of print media in the early Meiji. His most

recent publication is Yomu koto no chikara (ed., Koodansha Sensho

Metier, Tokyo, 2004).


Italian School of East Asian Studies (ISEAS)

Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient (EFEO)4, Yoshida Ushinomiya-cho, Sakyo-ku

Kyoto 606-8302 JAPAN


ISEAS

Phone: 075-751-8132

Fax: 075-751-8221

e-mail: is...@...lcult.or.jp


EFEO

Phone: 075-761-3946

e-mail: efe...@...x.kyoto-inet.or.jp


From: INGP...@....com

Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004 11:41:10 EST

Subject: Re: GENJI as pornography and GENJI criticism


I've been visiting Royall Tyler's GENJI translation lately and so was very interested and highly amused by the Manga version discussed in previous posts. I think the matter about what really happens in GENJI has been settled, but I wanted to comment in Jens Sejrup's post. He said, I believe, that the "literary universe is to all intents and purposes a 'sealed off' territory which cannot be decisively penetrated by a knowledge of things in the reality of the author." In my past life as a literary scholar, albeit of British literature, I became convinced that you have to apply whatever critical approach (including multiple approaches) seems to offer answers and insights. Critical fads and fashions come and go and always involve violent rejection of what went before. Interpretation of sections of the novel based on history strikes me as entirely appropriate and useful.


But I have since become an author (of sorts) and now I find myself going to GENJI for just the sort of historical detail we are not supposed to draw from the novel. It seems to me that, as a woman of her time and of her narrow environment, and one who was engaged in writing for a very particular audience who was also a part of that environment, the author could not but be intensely aware of and use such details. Surely the novel largely arose from the setting she inhabited. As a writer, I am aware of the way in which setting manipulates story and character.


I.J.Parker


From: "Lewis Cook" <lc...@...thlink.net>

Subject: Re: [pmjs] Re: A Genji question--Murasaki and Genji's relations

Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004 16:34:44 -0500


With respect to Royall's comments below, it does sound as though Egawa is doing something unprecedented in Genji reception history, but this is not the first attempt to eroticize (or pornograph) Genji. A bookseller in Tokyo once showed me (not that I had asked) something that must have been an early 19th c. (lurid aniline dyes) 'enbon' (tsuya + hon) version of Genji, crude draughting, altogether tacky. This can't have been unique; I'd guess must have belonged to a sub-genre of its own. Isemonogatari understandably lent itself better to this purpose. Timon Screech refers to several editions of shunga based on Ise in his _Sex and the Floating World_ (but no index and I don't recall references there to Genji offhand). I'm not too surprised Genji scholars have neglected this moment in reception history, given taboos in force until quite recently. But the material is probably out there, somewhere, in abundance.


Lewis Cook


Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004 16:53:38 -0800

Subject: Re: [pmjs] Re: A Genji question--Murasaki and Genji's relations

From: Thomas Howell <thowel...@...thlink.net>


A Japanese scholar I worked with told me of an Edo period illustrated edition of the Genji, in which Genji and one of his lovers (unfortunately I can't remember the specific scene) appear as moveable figures.If the reader oscillated the pages the figures, clothed of course, would do their own version of the wagtail.


So, although not continuous with the modern versions, the impulse to make sex a more explicit fact in the novel predates the manga.


Of course, I didn't see this book myself, so the information is second-hand.


Tom Howell


From: "Lewis Cook" <lc...@...thlink.net>

Subject: Re: [pmjs] Re: Murasaki's and Genji's relations

Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2004 20:10:31 -0500


The following message by Jens Sejrup poses thought-provoking questions to which I wish I had the time to respond thoughtfully. I don't, hope other listmembers might, let me just cut in with some hasty counter-questions for now.


Primarily fuelled by Aileen Gatten's answer I'm left wondering if we take

into sufficient consideration that the Genji is not a 'historical'

documentary at all - but essentially a work of fiction which sets up its own

logic and independently constructs matrices that are not attributable to a

historical reality.


Not to split hairs, but there is no unified or homogeneous "we" here. Among those (Asian, Western, et al..) publishing critical or scholarly writings on Genji in the past several decades, there are certainly many (perhaps even a majority, but it's hardly a matter of numbers) who -- naively or indeed willingly -- conflate historical realities with the fictional world of Genji. One might even draw a distinction between two amorphous schools of post-Meiji Genji scholars in Japan: those who treat the fact that it is a fiction as incidental, and those who don't. And in that case, I would agree with you that the former (I wouldn't include Aileen Gatten among these) labor under the same kind of delusion as -- to trundle out the standard exhibit from western lit crit in this case -- those Romantic critics indicted by L.C. Knight in his classic paper "How Many Children Had Lady Macbeth"


Of course the setting is referred to as a 'miyako'

closely resembling Heian-kyoo and there seems to be little doubt that the

author had a contemporary 'Japan' in mind when writng the novel, but I fail

to see the point in reading staggeringly extra-textual elements and

speculations into the narrative. [... ...] It can of course be valuable to see certain

correspondences - but a literary universe is to all intents and purposes a

'sealed off' territory which cannot be decisively penetrated by a knowledge

of things in the reality of the author - however much we would like things

to be different. Otherwise, where do we draw the line?


All of this is very nearly indisputable. Was Genji _really_, e.g., all that beautiful? What did he *really* look like? etc. Nobody (I can think of numerous exceptions, though) seriously purports to entertain such questions. I sincerely admire your enthusiasm in tilting at these windmills but hope you continue to look closely at the contexts. Whoever authored this book went to great lengths, from the very first sentence, to impose upon the reader the presupposition that everything "recorded" herein is a well-enough attested matter of "fact" or of testimony. Obviously a gesture of metafiction, but also an operation which should undermine your confidence that the territory of Genji is or can be "sealed off." (Sealed off from what? the "hors-texte"?)


For instance, no

character in the tale seems in the least reserved or doubtful as to the

existence of 'mono no ke' or malign spirits or apparitions of other

characters, but rather it appears as if they find their existence just as

natural as the existence of any other psychic phenomenon.


The author's deployment of 'mononoke' (among other 'supernatural' phenomena) seems to me a crucial index of her designs upon the reader's willingness to assent in blurring the lines between 'history' and fiction, and this is the one statement in your message with which I have to disagree. Quoting Tyler's impeccably faithful translation, (p. 174, "Heart to Heart"): "Alas, what he {Genji} had dismissed so far as malicious rumor put out about by the ignorant now proved to be patently true, and he saw with revulsion that such things really did happen." Isn't this clear evidence that Genji (and we hear Rokujo sharing such doubts later on in this chapter) was skeptical of the existence of mononoke? Isn't it apparent that the author here exploits the fallibility of Genji's 'mentality' to validate her program?


Does that mean 'mono no ke' existed in the Heian period? Here it would appear obvious that

we must accept the fictionality of the fiction - and it seems to me that

much could be gained in doing so in the rest of the tale as well. What

remains, then, is the need to stick to the rhetorical and literary

strategies employed in the work and try to figure out how the story works

and what consequences it has.

I hope this doesn't lead the discussion in an all too different direction. I

am writing a thesis on the Genji at the moment and have been struck by this

problem running through much of the research in the field. I apologize if

some of my points seem a bit crude or unnecessarily categorical, but am

nonetheless left wondering why a much stricter distinction between history

and fiction is not maintained in discussions of this kind.


No need to apologize; I hope you will tell us more about your thesis.

Given more time, I'd elaborate, but my impression is that the faltering distinction in question here is a relatively modern phenomenon, possibly an effect of Kokugakusha 'literary romanticism.' If you go back to the 14th c., you will find that Genji exegetes were concerned with literal (or textual -- not pseudo-historical) precedents. And many of your troubles vanish there, for better or for worse.


L Cook.


Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 10:36:28 -0500

From: Aileen Gatten <agat...@...ch.edu>

Subject: [pmjs] "Genji" and history


I must have given Jens Sejrup the wrong impression. Obviously "Genji" isn't history, but a literary artifact with its own artistic boundaries. I've published a few things on this and related subjects. On the other hand, it was written in a certain society at a particular time by a certain person, and so inevitably reflects something of the society in which it was produced. Murasaki Shikibu wasn't writing in a vacuum. She wrote for a small, homogeneous audience with many shared values.

Chris Kern's questions are concerned with plausibility--that is, whether such-and-such an event in this manga takeoff on "Genji" make any sense in Heian cultural terms. That was what I addressed. I don't think either he or I intended to rewrite, reinterpret, or supplement "Genji" itself.

Aileen Gatten


Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 09:07:00 -0800

From: Michelle I Li <mi...@...nford.edu>

Subject: [pmjs] Re: Murasaki's and Genji's relations


I wish I had more time to work out a formal response to Jens' remarks, but

I don't, so this will be brief. I found Jen's comments disturbing, though,

perhaps because they seem to suggest a form of the now, old, New Criticism.

I certainly agree that the fictional world should come first, but I also

think that knowledge of history (and other fields such as religion) can

enhance our understanding of literature. After all, writers don't live in

vacuums. Surely, there must be a middle ground. Actually, I think Aileen

Gatten and the other Genji scholars are generally cautious in their use of

their knowledge of history; I don't think any of them see Genji as a

'historical' documentary, in a way that Ivan Morris appears to have had at

times.


Michelle Li


Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 19:44:06 -0800

From: Brendan Elliott <b...@...u.edu>

Subject: [pmjs] Re: Murasaki's and Genji's relations


I have a few comments that I would like to add to the discussion of manga

adaptations of Genji. As an undergraduate graduation thesis I've compared

thirteen such adaptations, although I feel as if I've only scratched the

surface of the topic.


Mr. Egawa's version is not the only manga to show Genji watching/hearing his

father having sex. In volume 1 of Teradate Kazuko's YOUHEN GENJIMONOGATARI

(2001-2002), not only does Genji watch, but Fujitsubou sees Genji watching.

Sakurazawa Mai's COMIC GENJI KOI MONOGATARI (2000) shows the young Genji

sleeping outside the curtain and he awakens and sits up in bed horrified

when he hears them together (Vol. 1, page 17-18). Granted, however, that

these are both Ladies' Comics adaptations that are composed of chapters that

focus on Genji's relationship with one particular woman at a time and

combine events from various chapter that focus on a particular relationship.


From what I've examined, it seems to be fairly common among the manga

adaptations for the author to invent scenes that they feel must add some

kind of additional psychological/romantic depth. ASAKI YUME MISHI seems to

do this on a regular basis (an early example is a scene in which Genji's

parents meet). In Maki Miyako's version (1998-1990), she even invents a

scene in which Genji meets Lady Rokujou for the first time. Since they have

clearly had to cut some scene due to space limitations, it does seem a bit

puzzling that some authors then go out of their way to invent such scenes.

It would be interesting to see what kinds of trends would show up in a more

thorough analysis of these adaptor inventions/elaborations.


As for Royall Tyler's questions about recent pop reception of Genji, there

is one Japanese scholar who I know to be involved with the topic, Tateishi

Kazuhiro, who also has a useful website that is one of the most

comprehensive I've seen on the topic:

http://homepage3.nifty.com/genji_db/

You'll find a listening for no less than 20 different comic book

adaptations, along with listings of plays, movies, tv dramas, books, etc.

He seems to have a couple related publications on the topic (in Japanese).

The only English article I've found that is a serious discussion on the

topic is Hirota Akiko's 'The Tale of Genji: From Heian Classic to Heisei

Comic' (Journal of Popular Culture, 31.2 [Fall 1997], p. 26-68).


As MARO,N is also one of my favorite manga versions, I must say that I am

disappointed to hear that Royall Tyler was not able to find a publisher for

an English translation of it.


Brendan Elliott

Japanese Studies and Computer Science

4th Year Undergraduate, Case Western Reserve University


Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 14:53:59 -0500

From: David Pollack <poll...@...l.rochester.edu>

Subject: [pmjs] "pornographing Genji"


As Lewis Cook's comments suggest, just as there is no dearth of Edo-period Genji literary parodies, there are also plenty of Edo-period Genji shunga takeoffs. See for example the chapter (punningly) entitled "Enzetsu: Genji monogatari" in Fukuda Kazuhiko's "Enpon [or Ehon]: miwaku no ukiyo-e" (KK Bestoserazu, 1988), pp. 6-31. Fukuda discusses revealing examples from Utagawa Kunisada's "Genji karuta," "Genji-e," "Shou-utsushi aioi Genji" and "Kachou yojou Azuma Genji," among others. Kunisada is better known in the more puritan present for his illustrations of several non-shunga Genji series including the 1835 illustrations of Ryuutei Tanehiko's famous parody "Nise Murasaki Inaka Genji." I haven't seen Egawa's much-discussed book, but it would seem doubtful that he could have thought of much that hadn't already occurred to the febrile minds of the Edo period.


David Pollack


Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 11:49:38 +0200

From: "Bernhard Scheid" <bernhard.sch...@...w.ac.at>

Subject: [pmjs] Symposium: The Culture of Secrecy in Japanese Religion


The Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia of the

Austrian Academy of Sciences would like to invite you to our next

symposium


The Culture of Secrecy in Japanese Religion


Date: May 18 - 21, 2004

Location: Austrian Academy of Sciences

Dr. Ignaz Seipel-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna, Austria


Topic:

This symposium deals primarily with the dialectics of concealing and unveiling religious "truth," which played a significant role in what is known as Esoteric Buddhism (Jap. mikkyo). Esoteric Buddhism developed in almost all Buddhist countries of Asia, but was of particular importance in Tibet and Japan. In the latter case, its impact went far beyond the confessional borders of Buddhism, also affecting Shinto and non-religious forms of discourse. Thus the topics of this conference will cover a wide range of Japanese religion and culture as well as general aspects of Asian religious history.


For further information:

http://www.oeaw.ac.at/ias/archiv/japan_symp2004.htm


List of participants (in alphabetical order):

William Bodiford (University of California, Los Angeles), Ronald

Davidson (Fairfield University, Conn.), Albert de Jong (Leiden

University), Lucia Dolce (SOAS), Bernard Faure (Stanford University),

Iyanaga Nobumi (Tokyo), Kadoya Atsushi (Tokyo), Susan B. Klein

(University of California, Irvine), Martin Lehnert (University of

Zurich), Kate Wildman Nakai (Sophia University, Tokyo), Fabio Rambelli

(Sapporo University), Bernhard Scheid (Vienna), Mark Teeuwen (Oslo

University), Ann Walthall (University of California, Irvine).


(please excuse cross-postings)

_________________________


Bernhard Scheid


Institute for Asian Studies

Austrian Academy of Sciences


Strohgasse 45/2/4

A-1030 Vienna

Austria


Tel +43-1-515 81-6424

Fax +43-1-515 81-6427


Internet: http://www.oeaw.ac.at/ias/


Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 18:59:58 +1000

From: Royall Tyler <ty...@...aca-s.com>

Subject: [pmjs] Re: A Genji question--Murasaki and Genji's relations


Edo-period Genji pornography! Why, of course! Thank you, everyone who brought it up. There must indeed be mountains of it. No wonder manga tend that way too--it's an old and inevitable tradition. I wonder what secret stuff Nijo Yoshimoto and his friends used to pass around under the table.


Royall Tyler


Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 23:52:36 +0000

From: "Jens Sejrup" <jenssej...@...mail.com>

Subject: [pmjs] Writers and vacuums


I am very grateful for the answers to my comments - and obviously have to agree with Lewis Cook that, indeed, it seems as if a certain scepticism as to the existence of 'mono no ke' is expressed by Genji characters. Thank you for pointing that out to me.

Furthermore, I feel that the point made by several people (I. J. Parker, Michelle I Li, and Aileen Gatten, in their respective responses) that a writer is part of a certain society and that this influences her work is so obviously true that I was somewhat surprised to have given the impression I didn't think so. I did specifically say that the fictional world of the Genji closely resembles Heian Japan, and that Murasaki Shikibu must have had a historical 'Japan' in mind when writing the tale. By that I mean all the cultural, historical, and artistic layers of experience that would be recognizable to her limited, hermetic audience. In that case, a writer is of course never divorced from a cultural and historical context - and the world of her fiction will (conceivably in order to be comprehensible to a reader at all) be constructed according to principles embodying and modifying elements and structures from the 'real' world of her audience. However, this is not sufficient to describe the difference between, say, a palace in a historical universe and one in a fictional world. What I meant by 'sealed-off' territory (indeed, as Lewis Cook suggested, inspired by a Derridean idea of 'nothing outside the text') is that the world of fiction is an artifice, a construction specifically designed to give the reader the impression of reality, of presence, historicity etc. But it is impossible for the world of the reader to come into contact with whatever constitutes the world of the fiction outside of the specific authorial formulations. Thus my aversion to extra-textual speculations. Anything might happen, all the characters might turn blue or start conversing in Ainu at any moment, or at least, nothing could formally prevent them from doing so except the intentions of the author divorced from the workings of an 'actual', historical world. I was only reacting to the idea of 'probability' in a phantasy world.


Jens Sejrup


Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 22:14:17 +0200

From: "Doris Croissant" <ledder...@...mail.com>

Subject: [pmjs] Genji pornography


One more comment on Genji pornography in manga:


There is reason to believe that the sexualization of Genji imagery did not result from the appropriation of the classics by commoners, but had already taken place during the middle ages under the tutelage of the imperial court. As discussed by Karen Brock (in: The Shogun's Painting Match, Monumenta Nipponica 1995, 469 ff., note 109) "the "Diary of Things Seen and Heard" (Kanmon Gyoki) by Prince Fushimi no Miya Sadafusa, father of emperor Go-Hanazono (1419-1471; reigned 1429-1465) has the following entry: In 1435 the prince commissioned for the seventeen year old emperor two Genji emaki. Three years later in 1438 when the emperor had reached the age of twenty, his father asked the court painter Awataguchi Takamitsu to paint a new set of Genji scrolls for which he and his son copied the text. These scrolls transposed Genji imagery in the genre of pornographic parodies (osokuzu e) which belonged to the repertor y of court painters, perhaps as early as the 12th to 13th centuries.


Doris Croissant


University of Heidelberg

Institute of Art History

East Asian Department

Seminarstr. 4

69117 Heidelberg

Fax:06221-543384

Tel:06221-542352



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