The Rise of Popular Arts in Pre-Modern Japan

Vol. D (1650-1800) Also Called “The Edo Period”

Common images of pre-modern Japan include those of heroic but brutal samurai, beautiful but oppressed geisha, elegant gardens, the tea ceremony, and enlightened Zen monks.

Pre-modern Japan

Chapter Overview• To sustain peace, the Tokugawa shoguns expelled

Portuguese traders and Christian missionaries, who tended to play one feudal baron against another in order to subvert local power, and prohibited any Japanese from traveling abroad.

• During this period of peace and stability, the role of samurai retainers in maintaining shogunal authority shifted from warriors to bureaucrats.

• Often indifferent to tradition, this new merchant class developed a culture of its own, reflecting the fast pace of urban life in woodblock prints, short stories, novels, poetry, and plays.

Overview Continued

• Ihara Saikaku is known as a founder of new, popular "realistic" literature, writing about the foibles of the merchant class in urban Osaka.

• Meanwhile, cultivating the persona of the lonely wayfarer, Matsuo Basho's austere existence was the antithesis to Saikaku's prosperity.

• Ueda Akinari is known for his successful insinuation of the supernatural into everyday life and his keen understanding of the irrational implications of erotic attachment.

Political Realities1. From the middle of the fifteenth century until the

beginning of the seventeenth, Japan was splintered by chaos and bloodshed until the Tokugawa clan reunited it under a strict but peaceful rule.

2. To sustain peace, the Tokugawa shoguns expelled Portuguese traders and Christian missionaries, who tended to play one feudal baron against another in order to subvert local power, and prohibited any Japanese from traveling abroad.

3. This policy of isolation was designed to freeze political, social, and economic conditions.

How the Culture Affected the Arts

• During this period of peace and stability, the role of samurai retainers in maintaining shogunal authority shifted from warriors to bureaucrats.

• Urban samurai developed needs that were quickly met by enterprising merchants, artisans, and laborers.

• Although the new commercial class that emerged from these changes was denied access to political power, as the nation's bankers and suppliers they did control much of the real power.

• Often indifferent to tradition, this new merchant class developed a culture of its own, reflecting the fast pace of urban life in woodblock prints, short stories, novels, poetry, and plays.

• Pun and parody were central to popular literature.

• As publishing is itself a commercial enterprise, books began to circulate in printed form rather than manuscript form, so that literature came to the urban masses.

Japanese Poetry• Japanese poets first encountered Chinese poetry when it was at

its peak in the Tang Dynasty (June 18, 618–June 4, 907)). It took them several hundred years to digest the foreign impact, make it a part of their culture and merge it with their literary tradition in their mother tongue, and begin to develop the diversity of their native poetry.

• For example, in the Tale of Genji both kinds of poetry are frequently mentioned. (Since much poetry in Japan was written in the Chinese language, it is perhaps more accurate to speak of Japanese-language poetry.)

• A new trend came in the middle of the 19th century. Since then, the major forms of Japanese poetry have been tanka (new name for waka), haiku and shi.

Murasaki Shikibu• Not part of this section living as she

did from 1014 or 1025). • Lady Murasaki as she is often known

in English, was a Japanese novelist, poet, and a maid of honor of the imperial court during the Heian period of Japan.

• She is best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, written in Japanese between about 1000 and 1008, which is the earliest known novel in human history.

Early-modern literature (1603–1868)

• Literature during this time was written during the largely peaceful Tokugawa Period (commonly referred to as the Edo Period).

• Due in large part to the rise of the working and middle classes in the new capital of Edo (modern Tokyo), forms of popular drama developed which would later evolve into kabuki.

• The jōruri and kabuki dramatist Chikamatsu Monzaemon became popular at the end of the 17th century. Matsuo Bashō wrote Oku no Hosomichi (1702), a travel diary. Hokusai, perhaps Japan's most famous woodblock print artist, also illustrated fiction as well as his famous 36 Views of Mount Fuji.

Theater Definitions• Joruri, or puppet theater, now more

commonly called bunraku, after the name of the Osaka theater that by 1909 was the only remaining venue for performances.

• For a time, though, joruri was more popular than kabuki, with the dolls acquiring all manner of refinements during the 1730s, such as moveable eyes and articulated fingers. The dolls also came to measure some 1.2 meters in height, which required three men to operate.

• Kabuki is classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.

• It apparently began with a female priestess or shaman who performed a new style of dance drama in the dry riverbeds of Kyoto

• The structure of a kabuki play was formalized during the Edo period, as were many elements of style. Conventional character types were established. Kabuki theater and ningyō jōruri, the elaborate form of puppet theater (that later came to be known as bunraku) became closely associated with each other, and each has since influenced the other's development.

Katsushika Hokusai• In Japanese: ( 葛飾 北斎 ) September 23,

1760 – May 10, 1849• He was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e (wood

cuts depicting the “floating world” painter and printmaker of the Edo period.

• Born in Edo (now Tokyo), Hokusai is best known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji

Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji ( 富嶽三十六景 c. 1831)

• Many other genres of literature made their début during the Edo Period, helped by a rising literacy rate among the growing population of townspeople, as well as the development of lending libraries. – Yomihon (Reading books) they had few illustrations, and the

emphasis was on the text

• Although there was a minor Western influence trickling into the country from the Dutch settlement at Nagasaki, it was the importation of Chinese vernacular fiction that proved the greatest outside influence on the development of Early Modern Japanese fiction..

• Ihara Saikaku (1642-1693) might be said to have given birth to the modern consciousness of the novel in Japan, mixing vernacular dialogue into his humorous and cautionary tales of the pleasure quarters.

• Jippensha Ikku (1765-1831) wrote Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige, (Shank’s Mare) which is a mix of travelogue and comedy

• Tsuga Teisho, Takebe Ayatari, and Okajima Kanzan were instrumental in developing the yomihon, which were historical romances almost entirely in prose, influenced by Chinese vernacular novels such as Three Kingdoms,Shui hu zhuan, and Journey to the West (Monkey).

Chonin: 町人 ("townsman") was a social class that emerged in Japan during the early years of the Tokugawa period. The majority of chōnin were merchants, but some were craftsmen, as well. ("townsman") was a social class that emerged in Japan during the early years of the Tokugawa period. The majority of chōnin were merchants, but some were craftsmen, as well.

• Two yomihon masterpieces were written by Ueda Akinari: Ugetsu monogatari (Tales of the Moon and Rain) and Harusame monogatari. (Tales of Spring and Rain)

• Kyokutei Bakin wrote the extremely popular fantasy/historical romance Nansō Satomi Hakkenden (106 vols) The Eight Dog Chronicles, in addition to other yomihon.

• Santō Kyōden wrote yomihon mostly set in the gay quarters until the Kansei edicts banned such works, and he turned to comedic kibyōshi (graphic novels).

Beauties of Yoshiwara Admiring Brocade Rolls

Ritarō stands confused, torn between the good and bad souls in the corridor outside the courtesan’s parlor.

• Genres included horror, crime stories, morality stories, comedy, and pornography—often accompanied by colorful woodcut prints.

• Nevertheless, in the Tokugawa, as in earlier periods, scholarly work continued to be published in Chinese, which was the language of the learned much as Latin was in Europe.

• Tokugawa: Refers to a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family during the Edo period.

Ihara Saikaku

• Inheriting his family's business at a young age, Saikaku "retired" after the death of his wife before his thirtieth birthday. A few days after her passing in an act of grief and true love Saikaku started to compose a thousand-verse haikai poem in a matter of twelve hours. When this work was published it was called ‘Haikai Single Day Thousand Verse’ (Haikai Dokugin Ichinichi).

• He is known as a founder of new, popular "realistic" literature, writing about the foibles of the merchant class in urban Japan.

• Scholars have described numerous extraordinary feats of solo haikai composition at one sitting; most famously, over the course of a single day and night in 1677, Saikaku is reported to have composed at least 16,000 haikai stanzas, with some rumors placing the number at over 23,500 stanzas.

• Later in life he began writing racy accounts of the financial and amorous affairs of the merchant class and the demimonde (mistresses). These stories catered to the whims of the newly prominent merchant class, whose tastes of entertainment leaned toward the arts and pleasure districts.

• As Saikaku’s popularity and readership began to increase and expand across Japan so did the amount of literature he published.

• When he died in 1693 at the age of fifty-one Saikaku was one of the most popular writers of the entire Tokugawa period.

Saikaku's 1686 novel Kōshoku Ichidai Onna was adapted in 1952 into Mizoguchi's movie The Life of Oharu (poster pictured).

• Yet at the time his work was never considered high literature because it had been aimed towards and popularized by the chonin.

Chōnin ( 町人 ?, "townsman") was a social class that emerged in Japan during the early years of the Tokugawa or Edo period.

Yomihon• ( 読本 , yomi-hon, "reading books") is a type of

Japanese book from the Edo period (1603–1867), that was influenced by Chinese vernacular novels.

Men take their misfortunes to heart, and keep them there. A gambler does not talk about his losses; the frequenter of brothels, who finds his favorite engaged by another, pretends to be just as well off without her; the professional street-brawler is quiet about the fights he has lost; and a merchant who speculates on goods will conceal the losses he may suffer. All act as one who steps on dog dung in the dark.

Ihara Saikaku, "What the Seasons Brought to the Almanac-Maker" (1686)

The HaikuFrosty morn, sun cloudsSmall hand, chattering high voice,Dad walks girl to school.

• Haiku ( 俳句 ) is a mode of Japanese poetry which developed from the combination of Hokku (the opening stanza of an orthodox collaborative linked poem, or renga), and of its later derivative, renku (or haikai no renga).

• By the time of Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694), the hokku had begun to appear as an independent poem, and was also incorporated in haibun (a combination of prose and hokku), and haiga (a combination of painting with hokku). the late 19th century revision by Masaoka Shiki of the older hokku ( 発句 , hokku?), the opening verse of a linked verse form, haikai no renga. The traditional hokku consisted of a pattern of approximately 5, 7, 5 on.

• The Japanese word on, meaning "sound", corresponds to a mora, a phonetic unit similar but not identical to the syllable of a language such as English. (The words onji, ("sound symbol") or moji (character symbol) are also sometimes used.) A haiku contains a special season word (the kigo) representative of the season in which the renga is set, or a reference to the natural world.

• In Japan Hokku usually combines two (or rarely, three) different phrases, with a distinct grammatical break (kireji) usually at the end of either the first five or second seven morae.

Graphic taken from http://www.benybont.co.uk/moreword/haiku.htm

• These elements of the older hokku are considered by many to be essential to haiku as well, although they are not always included by modern writers of Japanese "free-form haiku" and of non-Japanese haiku. Japanese haiku are typically written as a single line, while English language haiku are traditionally separated into three lines.

• Japanese hokku and haiku are traditionally printed in one vertical line, though in handwritten form they may be in any reasonable number of lines. Here are some examples of classic hokku by Bashō:

古池や蛙飛込む水の音　 Furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto Old pond Frog jump-in Water sound

初しぐれ猿も小蓑をほしげ也 Hatsu shigure saru mo komino wo hoshige nari the first cold shower; even the monkey seems to want a little coat of straw.

[At that time, Japanese rain-gear consisted of a large, round hat and a shaggy straw cloak.]

Haiku in English• This is a development of the Japanese haiku poetic form in the

English language.

• Contemporary haiku are written in many languages, but most poets outside of Japan are concentrated in the English-speaking countries.

• It is impossible to single out any current style, format, or subject matter as definitive. Some of the more common practices in English include:

* Use of three lines of up to 17 syllables;

* Use of a season word (kigo);

* Use of a cut or kire (sometimes indicated by a punctuation mark) to compare two images implicitly.

Matsuo Basho • Even before his "retirement," he was well

known as an "amateur" poet, particularly for the new form of "chain poetry" that involved the collaboration of several poets in a stream-of-consciousness-like manner.

• Restrained by poetry, he turned to prose fiction at age forty.

• After the death of his friend and poetry companion, Matsuo Basho moved to Edo (now Tokyo) to better his chances at establishing a career as a teacher and corrector of poetry.

• Cultivating the persona of the lonely wayfarer, Matsuo Basho's austere existence was the antithesis to Saikaku's prosperity.

• As a prose equivalent of a linked sequence of haiku, Basho embedded haiku into the travel narrative of The Narrow Road of the Interior.

• Some 250 years after his death, the publication of the second diary of Sora, Basho's traveling companion, revealed that Basho was more practical and wily than in his own recording and that he had altered details of their trip in order to cultivate patrons and students.

Ueda Akinari • A physician and scholar, (although he

started as a merchant) Ueda Akinari is best remembered as a writer of ghost stories. (Healed as a child)

• Ueda Akinari is known for his successful insinuation of the supernatural into everyday life and his keen understanding of the irrational implications of erotic attachment.

• He was a student of Japanese classics, medieval Japanese folktales, Chinese literature, and the theater.

“Bewitched”Ueda Akinari (1734-1809):Real name: UEDA SENJIRO

My thanks to Dr. Theresa Thompson

Who made the following slides for her English 2130 class

Fall 2009

More of Ueda Akinari’s Biography• Probably born in Osaka in 1734, in the Sonezaki pleasure quarter,

to an unwed mother by the name of Matsuo Osaki.• When Akinari was four years old he became the adopted son of

Ueda Mosuke.• Shortly before death he said, "Born in Naniwa [Osaka] I have

been a guest in the Capital for sixteen years. I had no father; I do not know the reason why. When I was four years old my mother also cast me away. Fortunately I was taken in by Mr. Ueda.”

• 1776: Tales of Moonlight and Rain • Died August 8, 1809, age 76.

“Bewitched”The actual title “Jasei no in” has been

translated as (“Lust of the White Serpent” also “The Serpent's Lust”)

Screen shots from the 1953 film version of Ugetsu monogatari -- Tales of the Moon and Rain

Some Literary Western Gothic Features• Ancient prophecy, especially mysterious, obscure, or hard

to understand.• Mystery and suspense.• Sex and Death: Fainting, frightened, screaming,

near-naked women. Women threatened by powerful, impetuous male.

• High emotion, sentimentalism, but also pronounced anger, surprise, and especially terror.

• Supernatural events (e.g. a giant, a sighing portrait, ghosts or their apparent presence, a skeleton).

• Omens, portents, dream visions.

• Ancient spaces and places: castles, etc.

• The metonymy (part for the whole) of gloom and horror

• (wind, rain, doors grating on rusty hinges, howls in the distance, distant sighs, footsteps approaching, lights in abandoned rooms, gusts of wind blowing out lights or blowing suddenly, characters trapped in rooms or imprisoned).

• The vocabulary of the gothic (use of words indicating fear, mystery, etc: apparition, devil, ghost, haunted, terror, fright).

Japanese Gothic Features• The universe is governed by rules.• The rules of the universe are beyond

human understanding.• Society offers no protection from spirits

and ghosts.• Perseverance in the face of utter

destruction.• Dank, confined spaces are most

conducive to the appearance of ghostly spirits.

.

• Yuurei: ghosts or spirits stranded on this world because they have unfinished business or died in the throes of intense emotion

Fear Depends on Cultural Belief Systems

An Obake (shape-shifter)

• Shinto is Kannagara (Kami no michi: “The way of the kami”)– Not a revealed religion with a

divinely inspired scripture

– Tradition and the family, physical cleanliness, Matsuri festivals to worship the kami (spirits).

– Love of nature

– Little emphasis on death or afterlife.

– Obake undermine the certainties of life as we usually understand it.

• Buddhism– Independent sense of self creates alienation &

suffering– Six Realms of Existence: Skandhas, not soul,

reincarnate (think Avatar and Yang’s series of chakras.)

– Ambivalence about immortality (not about reincarnation)

– Concept of non-attachment– Characterization & Radical non-dualism– Uncanny Beings: not-natural

“Bewitched” and its Gothic Elements

• Mythic / dreamlike qualities • Subversion of religious &

social norms • Ancient spaces • Obsession with sex and

death • Presence of the supernatural

or unknown (uncanny) • Reflection of “unspeakable”

social issues

What actions make Toyo-o a man?• If Managa is desire

incarnate (made physical), what is the (physical) nature of desire?

• Significance of serpent?

• How does Tomiko compare to Managa?

• What does the dead snake indicate about Toyo-o’s conquest of desire?

Cited Sited• Grove, Richard ”Tales of Moonlight and Rain” Booklad

http://booklad.blogspot.com/2011/03/tales-of-moonlight-and-rain-by-uyeda.html 8 March 2012

• "Ihara Saikaku" Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ihara_Saikaku 11 March 2010

• Matsuo Basho's "Narrow Road to the Deep North“ http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~kohl/basho/index.html6 March 2007.

• “Matsuo Bashō” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsuo_Bash%C5%8D 6 March 2007.

• Norton Anthology of World Literature http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/worldlit2e/short/ch/17/summaries.aspx6 5 March 2011

• "Ueda Akinari” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 11 March 2010.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ueda_Akinari

• The Wizard and the White Snake Video Trailer http://youtu.be/eova0lSmxGw

• HAIKUS: BASHO & ISSA <http://www.wisdomportal.com/RobertBly/Bly-Haikus.html>