Michael Watson (Meiji Gakuin University): Abstracts of selected conference and symposium papers and panels
Medieval Japanese War Tales and their Reception (Roundtable)
Asian Studies Conference Japan (ASCJ)
Waseda University, Tokyo. June 19, 2010.
Organizer/Chair: Michael Watson, Meiji Gakuin University
Medieval Japanese war tales (gunki mono or gunki monogatari) were among
the earliest Japanese texts to be read by Western readers: versions of
both Heike monogatari and Taiheiki
were studied by the sixteenth-century Jesuit missionaries. W Early in
the Meiji period, war tales began to be translated into Western
languages. By the 1980s, most of the key texts had appeared in partial
or complete translation. Yet until very recently, English-language
scholarship on this important genre was limited to a handful of
articles. The last decade has seen a rapid increase in the number of
non-Japanese scholars actively working on war tales and related texts
like Gikeiki, Soga monogatari,
historical works, and ballad drama (kōwaka-mai), with doctoral
dissertations by Bialock (1997), Oyler (1999), Squires (2001), Watson
(2003), Strippoli (2006), Selinger (2007), and Franks (2009). Others
follow hard on their heels. This roundtable has been organized as an
opportunity for six representatives of the “new wave” of gunki studies
to share ideas with each other and with the audience.
The representation of violence is a major topic in three papers: “Constructing Warfare: Violence in the Taiheiki”
(Jeremy Sather, University of Pennsylvania), “Staging the Birth of the
Shogunate: Sacrality, Violence, and Authority in Images of the East”
(Vyjayanthi Selinger, Bowdoin College), and “Representations of the
Tortured Body in Late Medieval Japanese Narrative” (Todd Squires, Kinki
University). All of the papers deal to a greater or lesser extent with
history and legend, but these are a central topic in “Giō's Temples,
Landmarks, and Documents: When Literature Becomes ‘History’” (Roberta
Strippoli, Binghamton University [SUNY]) and “Petitions and Pedagogy in
the Gikeiki and the Legend of
Minamoto no Yoshitsune” (Mathew W. Thompson, Sophia University). Other
common topics of interest include cultural memory, geographic imaginaire, and ideological structures.
“Light Snow” and “The Dew Prince”: Genre-Bending in Seventeenth-Century Noh
Sesion 224:
Literary Genres and Their Boundaries: A Study of
Cross-Genre/Trans-Genre Mechanisms and Genre Hybridity in Edo- Period
Literature
The Association for Asian Studies (AAS), Philadelphia, March 27, 2010
The creation of new noh plays did not end with the Muromachi period,
but flourished throughout the Edo period, with the production of
thousands of new works. Many plays continue to draw on canonical
sources like courtly monogatari and Genpei war tales, but some also
break with tradition by dramatizing stories from new narrative genres
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Playwrights struggle to fit
contemporary narratives into the framework of noh convention, revealing
much about techniques of adaptation from one genre to another. This
paper will look at two examples from a single manuscript in the library
assembled by the Iwaki daimyō Naitō Fūko (1616–1685), a collection of
one hundred new noh plays for amateur recitation. Tsuyu no miya
(“The Dew Prince”) is a based on an otogi-zōshi about the relations of
a prince with a lady called Asagao, which take an unhappy turn after
she is slandered. In Usuyuki (“Thin Snow”), the eponymous heroine is a married woman who has an affair with a certain Sonobe. The plot is based on Usuyuki monogatari,
a popular kanazōshi that consists largely of love letters. These
letters, like much else in the original, cannot be brought successful
into the traditional noh format. In each case, the playwright had to
find a way to retell a modern plot in the language and form of noh,
while at the same time satisfying the expectations of listeners
familiar with the new narrative genre.
"Songs of Chu on all Sides" (四面楚歌): the Chinese Dynastic Histories
in Medieval Japan
Invited lecture. Binghamton University SUNY, New
York. December 4, 2009.
The famous last battle of the Chu general Xiang Yu 項羽 (232–202 BCE) was
retold many times in premodern Japan, sometimes in admiration for a
cunning stratagem of his victorious opponent, but more often in
sympathy with the vanquished general, who takes leave of beloved
concubine Yu and horse with a song. This talk will focus on
re-enactments for the nō theatre, both in plays that are staged today
and the "non-canonical” works (bangai yōkyoku),
from the very large number of unjustly neglected plays that survive in
textual form, but are no longer in the performance repertoire. Many of
the plays quote a four-character expression that has became proverbial
throughout East Asia: shimen soka 四面楚歌 ("Songs of Chu on all four
sides”). We will look in detail at the play "Hoshi” ("Star”) which
retells Xiang Yu’s last battle by drawing on ancient astronomical lore.
A differing account of the Chu general and his concubine is given in the phantom play Kōu ("Xiang Yu”). Other characters in the final stages of the unification of Han are depicted in the plays Chōrō ("Zhang Liang”) and Kan no kōso ("Emperor Kao Tsu of Han”), while Ryokō
("Empress Lu”) deals with an event later in the victorious emperor’s
reign. The last two of these plays are bangai yōkyoku, from the
unjustly neglected corpus of noh plays that survive in textual form,
but are no longer in the performance repertoire. This paper will trace
the reception of the dynastic histories in medieval war tales and noh
plays.
'L’écho des
vicissitudes humaines': The Tale of the Heike through its Translation
History (keynote)
Workshop "Tales
of the Heike: Variation, Canonization, and Translation and ‘Japan’s
Epic”
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. November 6,
2009.
The Tale of the Heike (Heike monogatari) is a narrative of epic
length and style that gives a highly romantised account of Japan’s
first great civil war of the 1180s. The work rivals the earlier
fictional Tale of Genji in its great influence on Japanese literature,
drama, and the visual arts. Unlike the Genji, however, the Heike is the
product of many hands, surviving in widely different versions, for
reading or for oral performance accompanied by the lute-like biwa.
There are no less than three complete translations of the work in
English, with a new one in preparation. All translations are based
directly or indirectly on the 1371 version for oral performance, but
those published to date have rendered the text as prose, and rarely
attempt to bring out the rhythmical nature or musical elements of the
work. This talk will focus on the famous opening of the work, looking
at how French, English, German, Russian, and Chinese translators have
found different strategies to deal with its style and content. Here is
that famous opening, quoted in the earliest published English
translation (1918):
The sound of the bell of Gionshoja echoes the impermanence of all
things. The hue of the flowers of the teak tree declares that they who
flourish must be brought low. Yea, the proud ones are but for a moment,
like an evening dream in springtime. The mighty are destroyed at the
last, they are but as the dust as the wind.
The French phrase in the title of this talk comes from the earliest
known translation in a Western language of this opening, a slim volume
published in Geneva in 1871, a remarkable achievement for its time and
for the translator François Turrettini, who never visited the Far East.
By looking at the problems faced by translators and readers of a
"canonical” work, from the pioneers of the nineteenth century to those
living today, I hope to touch upon some broader issues in literary
translation and the reception of foreign culture.
'L’écho des vicissitudes humaines' (shogyō mujō no hibiki):
Early Western Reception of Buddhist Themes in Heike Monogatari
New
England Conference of the Association for Asian Studies (NEAAS), Brown
University, Providence, Rhode Island. October 3, 2009.
In pioneering surveys of Japanese
literature published in 1899 and 1906, W. G. Aston and Karl Florenz
introduced Western readers to what the German scholar referred to as
"romantic war histories.” Foremost among them are two accounts of the
Genpei War (1180–85): the vulgate text of Heike monogatari (Tales of the Heike)
and Genpei jōsuiki (the Rise and Fall of the Genji and Heike). The
authors included a generous selection of passages in translation, both
selecting accounts of the climatic last sea battle to illustrate how
the two variants differ in style and content. Aston and Florenz are
deservedly remembered for their contribution to Japanese studies, but
they were by no means the first in Europe to read the war tales—that
distinction belongs to sixteenth-century Jesuit missionaries. Nor were
they the first to publish annotated translation, or to compare
variants. That honour goes to two French-speaking scholars, François
Turrettini and Charles Valenziani, authors of a series of pamphlets
published in Geneva between 1871 and 1893. Turrettini’s publication of
just twenty-three pages includes two of the episodes that show greatest
influence of Buddhist thought: the "Gion shōja” and "Giō” episodes. As
one might expect, discussion of religious concepts make up a
considerable part of the detailed footnotes in his edition. The same is
true also of Valenziani’s work, which translates four different
narrative and dramatic retelling of the story of Atsumori. This paper
will consider what success they had in conveying Buddhist ideas and
expressions.
“Songs of
Chu on all Sides (四面楚歌): the Chinese Dynastic Histories in Medieval
Japan.”
Paper read in panel “"Japan, China, Elsewhere: Literary and
Cultural Interplay in Pre-modern and Early Modern Japan”
(日本、中国、およびその他：中古・中世・近世日本における文学的・文化的な相互作用). Japanese Studies Association
of Australia (JSAA) - International Conference on Japanese Language
Education (ICJLE). Sydney, Australia. July 13, 2009.
In the Tale of Genji, we hear how the diligent young Yūgiri, succeeds in reading through The Records of the Grand Historian
in “four or five months.” Tested on his ability to read and understand
difficult passages from the Chinese text aloud, he passes with flying
colours. The importance of the Shiji
史記 of Sima Qian 司馬遷 for Heian society is clear in other passages of the
work, perhaps nowhere more memorably than in the scene in “The Green
Branch” chapter where a nobleman is able to to suggest that Genji
harbours treasonable intentions simply by reciting a short phrase from
the history.
There is nothing unusual in the fact that men like Genji or his son
should devote time and energy learning ancient Chinese history. The
dynastic histories were as central to East Asian education as Homer and
Virgil were once to education in the West. What is perhaps more
remarkable is the way that Sima Qian’s work has retained its importance
to the present day. Episodes from the history are regularly included in
high school kanbun textbooks and introduced in books for the general
public. Common expressions in modern Japanese derive from phrases
coined by Sima Qian, such as the vivid phrase haisui no jin 背水の陣. Another is the four-character expression shimen soka
四面楚歌 (“Songs of Chu on all Sides”), an allusion to a crucial battle in
the formation of the Han empire. This term can appear without further
explanation, as in a newspaper headline describing the dilemma of a
politician under attack by former allies.
The famous last battle of the Chu general Xiang Yu 項羽 (232–202 BCE) was
retold many times in premodern Japan, sometimes in admiration for a
cunning strategem of the enemy leader, but more often in sympathy with
the general himself, who takes leave of beloved concubine Yu and horse
with a song. A ninth-century poem in Chinese on this subject,
anthologized in the influential Wakan rōeishū (“Collection of Japanese
and Chinese Poems to Sing”), ends with the phrase shimen soka no koe.
In Heike monogatari, the phrase is recalled by Shigehira when he is a
prisoner in Kamakura, and occurs in the related play Senju. A differing
account of the Chu general and his concubine is given in the phantom
play Kōu 項羽 (“Xiang Yu”). Other characters in the final stages of the unification of Han are depicted in the plays Chōrō 張良(“Zhang Liang”) and Kan no kōso 漢高祖 (“Emperor Kao Tsu of Han”), while Ryokō
呂后 (“Empress Lu”) deals with an event later in the victorious emperor’s
reign. The last two of these plays are bangai yōkyoku, from the
unjustly neglected corpus of noh plays that survive in textual form,
but are no longer in the performance repertoire. This paper will trace
the reception of the dynastic histories in medieval war tales and noh
plays.
Patterns
of Human Sacrifice in the Ballad-Drama Tsukishima (‘Artificial
Island’)
Paper read in conference "Illustrating the Dharma: Popular
Buddhism in Medieval Japanese Fiction.” University of Colorado.
Boulder, Colorado. March 16, 2008.
As a rare praiseworthy deed by Taira no Kiyomori, the Kakuichi-bon
Heike monogatari singles out his construction of a man-made island to
protect ships on the Inland Sea. Sacred texts were written on stones to
form "Sutra Island” after the suggestion of carrying out human
sacrifice was rejected as sinful. By contrast, a chronicle for the year
1173 reports that both Buddhist inscriptions and live burial were used
to placate the hostile dragon god of the sea. Later accounts return to
the threat or actual use of hito-bashira ("human pillars”). Variations
include an example from the kōwakamai or ballad-drama tradition, a
sekkyō-bushi, several bangai nō, and a gazetteer (chishi).
The ballad-drama Tsukishima ("Artificial Island”) is a tale of
involuntary sacrifice averted by self-sacrifice. Here Kiyomori himself
overrides objections to insist on the death of thirty men and women as
hito-bashira. The narrative focusses on the family of the last person
to be captured. His daughter and son-in-law come separately to his
rescue in a sequence drawing on many popular Buddhist motifs. Reunited
with each other at the place of sacrifice, they offer their lives for
her father’s. Kiyomori accepts the substitution. Just as he orders the
immediate drowning of all captives, one of his own page-boys steps
forward to offer his own life for all thirty. Ten thousand copies of
the Lotus Sutra are copied and brought to the Hyōgo coast to be sunk
into the waters. Accepting this offering, the dragon god permits Sutra
Island to be completed.
「謡曲翻訳の歴史」("The History of Noh translation")
法政大学国際日本学研究集会「能の翻訳を考える—文化の翻訳はいかにして可能か—」
(International
symposium on the translation of noh, Hosei University Center for
International Japan-Studies, Tokyo). December 16, 2006.
謡曲の翻訳は約１２０年ほどの歴史がある。その長い謡曲翻訳の歴史においても、本報告においては、まず明治時代の翻訳からはじめ、様々な試みを通して方法
が少しずつ確立していった形跡を追う。ただし、よく知られたパウンド・フェノロサ、ウェイリーについてよりも、現在さほど注目されていないと言ってもよい
１９２０年代から５０年代にかけてなされた翻訳を取り上げる。その５０年代の翻訳である、日本学術振興会によってなされた30曲の翻訳（1955年〜
1960年）を見てみたい。翻訳において使用される表現の変化というのはもちろんあるが、特に横書きの英文の書物として印刷されることによる、様々な情報
のレイアウトの変遷などを検証し、更には英訳の盛んな時期、仏訳その他の言語への翻訳の盛んな時期などの詳細についても考察を加える。
Spirits of the Drowned: Sea Journeys in Bangai Noh from the Genpei War
Paper read in panel "Fantastic Journeys in Muromachi Fiction and Drama,"
Association of Japanese Literary Studies (AJLS), Josai International
University, Tokyo, July 1, 2006.
Descriptions of crossing rivers, lakes, and seas are a regular feature
both in the current repertoire of noh plays and in the much larger
group of plays that are no longer performed, bangai yōkyoku. In most
cases, a character’s journey across water is described in the
introductory michiyuki, and the main events of the play take place
after he or she has crossed to the other side (a riverbank, island, or
land beyond the sea). This paper will focus on exceptions, bangai plays
where a key part of the action is played out at sea, with the
appearance of the spirits of the drowned. In Matsuo no ura (“Matsuo
Bay”), the spirit of Kozaishō recounts how she drowns herself after
hearing that her husband has been killed in the battle of Ichi-no-tani
(1184). Bangai plays describing the final moments of the Taira at
Dan-no-ura (1185) are set either on the shore of Nagato or over the
watery site of the naval battle itself. In Sentei (“Former Emperor”),
for example, the spirit points out where the child emperor Antoku
drowned (“There, where the fishing boat is”) and where Naritsune
(“There, where the seabirds are flocking”). Accounts of journeys on
land can draw on a known set of familiar place-names, but tales set at
sea must invent their own topography.
「寿永三年 （1184）の源平争乱を描いた番外謡曲」("Bangai noh depicting year 1184 of the
Genpei War") [Plays concerning Tomoe-gozen and related characters, and
the battle of Ichi-no-tani].
清華大学日本言語文化国際（中国 北京 清華大学外国語学部 日本言語文化研究所主催)
(Conference presentation at
International Japanese Studies Forum, Tsinghua University, Beijing,
China, May 27, 2006.)
源平の争乱（1180-1185）は、中世文学における最も重要な物語のひとつである『平家物語』として結実しているが、同時に３０曲以上の謡曲のテーマ
となっている。この３０曲は、現行曲の数であり、現在の５流派では演じられていない番外曲に至っては１００曲以上の曲のテーマとなっているのである。本発
表においては、この番外曲の中から、木曽義仲の最期と一ノ谷の合戦を扱ったものを取り上げる。
『平家物語』１２巻のうち最も長い巻は、寿永３年（１１８４年）の１月と２月のわずか２ヶ月間の出来事が描かれている巻９である。１月の部分は木曽義仲の話であり、２月が一ノ谷の合戦の話である。
大きな戦功をたてた源氏の大将、木曽義仲が討ち死にする。北陸で平家を打ち破った後に、義仲は都を手中に収めた。その義仲を殺すのは、敵の平家ではな
く、従兄弟である源頼朝が送り込んだ兵士なのである。頼朝の義仲追討軍は、近江の粟津で義仲に迫る。義仲に最期まで従ったのは、従者今井兼平と側室巴御前
の二人の最側近であった。兼平は義仲の乳母子であり、巴は、一説には兼平の妹でもあったともある。つまり、この三人の関係は大変近いものであった。謡曲に
おいては、義仲最期は、夢幻能に属する「兼平」と「巴」という２曲が今日上演されている。しかし現行曲ではないいわゆる番外曲を浚ってみると、義仲の死を
題材に取ったものが、管見によれば、６曲ほどある。例えば、「義明」と「無庵上人」という曲がある。どちらの曲にも番外能が持つ欠点が見受けられるのであ
るが、そもそも『平家物語』のどの本文をとってみても、義明と「無庵上人」のシテである、義仲側室山崎がどのように死んだのかについては一切触れられてい
ないわけであるから、当該番外曲の作家にとって、参考として、引用することのできる文献も伝承もほとんどなかったと考えて良いであろう。その点において、
『平家物語』に題材を採った現行曲、『兼平』、『敦盛』、『頼政』、『実盛』などとは、大きく相違するのである。逆に、番外曲の作者には自由な創作の余地
が残されていたということでもある。本発表においては、まず木曽義仲の最期まで従った巴関連の番外曲に注目してみる。
次に一ノ谷の合戦について取り上げるが、これは説明するまでもなく、義経が源氏軍大勝利に大きく貢献した戦いであった。先の木曽の最期と同
様に、これに題材を採った多くの謡曲があり、既出の『敦盛』などがその筆頭にあげられよう。一方、巴の場合と同じく、この合戦に題材を採った番外曲は、管
見によれば、約１８曲ほどある。ちなみに一ノ谷合戦関連の現行曲は７曲であり、番外曲はその倍以上あるということになるが、その特徴としては、平家公達の
話ばかりではなく、『河原太郎』のように、これは兄弟の話なのだが、身分の低い武士達の話も出てくる。また修羅能としてはめずらしく、女性を扱った曲、
『広沢姫』と『松尾浦』の２曲が現存している。一ノ谷合戦における番外曲はこれらの曲を中心に見ていく。
以上、発表において取り上げた番外曲が現行の曲とどのように相違しまた、どのようなディテールを持つのかという具体的な検証を通して、中世と徳川期にお
ける『平家物語』受容の具体的な諸相を見ることが出来、また当時の受容者層の嗜好などについての理解が深まり、合戦物語である『平家物語』のどこがその時
代の人々に受け入れられたのかという実際を知ることができるのではないかと考える。