ATTACHMENT AND DETACHMENT
The three primary ideological centers in the premodern period were Buddhism, Confucianism, and native beliefs that were later called Shinto. Buddhism and Confucianism were imported from the continent in the ancient period. Buddhism stressed issues of individual salvation, suffering, and protection from various dangers. Confucianism became the guide for ethical behavior and social and political relations, based largely on the model of the family and filial piety. Finally, the local folk beliefs focused on fertility, nature, ancestral worship, purification, and pollution. Dramatic conflict in Japanese literary texts often derives from the interaction among these different ideologies. Much of Japanese literature from the Nara through the medieval era stands in a larger Buddhist context that regards excessive attachments—especially family bonds and the deep emotions of love—as a serious deterrent to individual salvation, particularly in a world in which all things are viewed as impermanent. Each individual is bound to a cycle of life and death, to a world of suffering and illusory attachment, until he or she achieves salvation.
By the mid-Heian period, the Japanese believed that strong attachments, particularly at the point of death, would impede the soul’s progress to the next world, which, it was hoped, would be the Pure Land, or Western Paradise. In a typical nō play by Zeami, the protagonist is caught in one of the lower realms—often as a wandering ghost or a person suffering in hell—as a result of some deep attachment or resentment. For the warrior, the attachment is often the bitterness or ignominy of defeat; for women, jealousy or the failure of love; and for old men, the impotence of age. In Zeami’s “dream plays,” such as the warrior play Atsumori, in which the protagonist appears in the dream of the traveling monk (the waki), the protagonist cathartically reenacts or recounts the source of his attachment to the dreaming priest, who offers prayers for his salvation and spiritual release.
Except for didactic literature composed by Buddhist priests, Heian vernacular fiction and women’s diaries such as The Tale of Genji and Sarashina Diary usually take a highly ambivalent view of Buddhist ideals, focusing on the difficulty of attaining detachment in a world of passion and natural beauty. Indeed, at the heart of Japanese aristocratic literature, particularly from the mid-Heian period onward, lies the conflict between Buddhistic aspirations of selflessness (which eventually merged with samurai ideals in the medieval period) and the sensual, aesthetic, and emotional orientation of early native beliefs. In An Account of a Ten-Foot-Square Hut (Hōjōki, thirteenth century), the waka poet Kamo no Chōmei, confronted with the world of suffering and impermanence—natural disasters, famine, the destruction of the capital—retreats to a small hut outside the capital. In the process of preparing for rebirth in the Pure Land, however, he becomes attached to the tranquillity and pleasures of his rustic retreat and thereupon fears that his attachment to nature and to writing will hinder his salvation.
Conflict tends to be internalized in Japanese vernacular literature, often creating a highly psychological or lyrical work. In Zeami’s nō dramas, for example, the characters usually have no substantial external conflict. Instead, the climax occurs when the protagonist is freed of his or her internal attachment or is reconciled to himself or herself, not when the opposition, if there is any, is vanquished. When the influence of Buddhism abated in the Tokugawa period (a secular age of urban growth, capitalism, and commerce, dominated by urban commoners), more secular plot paradigms became prominent, such as the conflict between human desire or love (ninjō) and social duty or obligation (giri), which lies at the heart of Chikamatsu Mon’zaemon’s puppet plays (jōruri). Even so, the ultimate focus of the literature and drama tends to be on the intense emotions, generated by or in conflict with the irreconcilable pressures of society and social responsibility (supported by Confucian ethics). Although dramatic conflict exists, the primary objective of drama is not always the pursuit and development of dramatic conflict to its logical consequences.
Although sometimes possessing elaborate and complex plot structures, vernacular prose fiction often is concerned with the elaboration of a particular mood or emotion and tends to be fragmentary and episodic. For example, in vernacular fiction, the poetic diary, and drama (nō, jōruri), it is nō accident that one of the most popular scenes is the parting: a poetic topos that can be traced back to the poetry of the Man’yōshū. The Tale of Genji is highlighted by a series of partings, which culminate in the climactic parting: the death of the heroine. The same can be said of The Tales of the Heike, a complex and detailed military epic that repeatedly focuses on the terrible partings that war forces on human beings. The closeness of traditional social ties—between parent and child, lord and retainer, husband and wife, individual and group—make the parting an emotionally explosive situation, which is often presented in highly poetic language.
PERFORMANCE AND NARRATION
The primary vernacular genres in the Heian period were the thirty-one-syllable poem (waka) and related forms, particularly poetic diaries (nikki) and vernacular tales (monogatari). The poetic orientation of Heian vernacular literature, however, should not obscure the fact that Japanese vernacular literature also was rooted in a narrative tradition that often imported texts from the continent and was presented orally to the audience. This narrative, storytelling literature, which came to fore in the late Heian and medieval periods when commoner culture began to surface, included a wide assortment of myths, legends, anecdotes (setsuwa), and folktales, often about strange, supernatural, or divine events. This narrative tradition, which drew on anecdotes from China and India, became particularly prominent in the late Heian period, when Buddhist priests used for didactic purposes popular stories that they recorded and rewrote to preach to a largely illiterate audience. The Konjaku monogatari shū, which was compiled in the late Heian period, is the most famous example of a collection of such anecdotes. This storytelling tradition also appears in the form of extended epic-like narratives like The Tales of the Heike, composed around the thirteenth or fourteenth century, which was memorized and chanted to the accompaniment of the biwa (lute) by blind minstrel-priests.
One major consequence of this narrative, storytelling tradition is that Japanese vernacular fiction tends to have a strong narrational voice: a narrator(s) describes and comments on the action from a subjective point of view. The conventions of oral storytelling are evident in almost all Japanese prose fiction, including highly sophisticated, stream-of-consciousness narratives like The Tale of Genji. In narrational genres like The Tales of the Heike, nō drama, and sekkyōbushi (sermon ballads), this type of narrational voice flows over the action, dialogue, and scenery. First- and third-person narrations overlap. In nō, for example, the dialogue alternates with descriptive passages narrated by both the chorus and the protagonist. The position of the narrator is most prominent in jōruri, in which the chanter (gidayū), on a dais separate from the puppet stage, performs both the puppet dialogue and the narration.
This double structure—action enveloped in descriptive narration—lends itself to extremely powerful lyric tragedy, in which the tone is elegant, poetic, and uplifting even when the subject matter or situation is unpleasant and sorrowful. The love suicide plays by Chikamatsu, the greatest jōruri playwright, are one example. The climactic travel scene (michiyuki)—a subcategory of the parting topos—is one of tragedy and pathos: the lovers, who are traveling to the place of their death, have resolved to be united in death rather than live under their present circumstances. The overriding narration is chanted to music and interwoven with allusions to poetic places and classical poetry. The narration consequently elevates the character even as he or she dies. The same can be said of climactic scenes in The Tale of Genji or in the final chapter of The Tales of the Heike, when Kenreimon’in reflects on the destruction of her clan. In most of these scenes, the poetic descriptions of nature and seasons, so central to Japanese poetry, suggest that death is not an end but a return to nature.
The lyrical character of J
apanese vernacular literature also derives from a fusion of genres and media that in European literature are generally thought of as being intrinsically separate. Except for some folk literature (setsuwa), it is hard to find a work of premodern Japanese prose literature that does not include poetry. Since the Renaissance, European theater has generally been split into three basic forms—drama, opera, and ballet—whereas traditional Japanese theater has combined these elements (acting, music, and dance) in each of the major dramatic forms: nō drama, kyōgen (comic drama), jōruri (puppet theater), and kabuki. Of these, only kyōgen does not depend on music. One of the central principles of nō and jōruri is the jo/ha/kyū (introduction, development, and finale), which regulates the tempo of the play, particularly in relationship to dance and song. This multimedia quality often makes the drama more performative than mimetic; instead of emphasizing the represented world, the work calls attention to itself as a performative medium.
Chapter 1
THE ANCIENT PERIOD
THE BEGINNINGS OF JAPANESE LITERATURE
Chinese writing was first brought to the Japanese archipelago around the first century C.E. For many centuries, however, the use of writing was largely limited to inscriptions on stone and metal (mirrors, swords), thereby serving a primarily symbolic function. It was not until the seventh century that Chinese writing began to be used widely for administrative, religious, and commercial purposes. The oldest extant literary and historical texts date from the beginning of the eighth century. The Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters, 712) and Nihon shoki (Chronicles of Japan, 720) were written in order to legitimize the new state order by providing an account of how the world came into being and by tracing the origins of the emperor to the age of the gods. In 713, an imperial order was issued to record the origins of the names of various places and products, and the result was the fudoki, or provincial gazetteers, which included reports by provincial governors from five different provinces: Hitachi, Harima (present-day Hyōgo Prefecture), Izumo, Bungo, and Hizen (the last two are in Kyushu). Anthologies of Japanese poetry began to be compiled in the late seventh century, and the Man’yōshū (Collection of Myriad Leaves), an encyclopedic collection of poetry, was compiled throughout the eighth century. An anthology of Chinese poetry, the Kaifūsō, was completed in 751.
Before the late seventh century, songs and narratives were transmitted orally in a variety of ways, sometimes as part of tales and at other times as part of festivals and rituals. Traces of these oral narratives (katari) survive in the myths and stories of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki, albeit in a different form. Ancient poems (uta) of courtship and praise for the ruler also survive in these two texts and in the Man’yōshū. The fudoki contain examples of courtship songs known as utagaki (literally, “fence songs”) or kagai, which were sung to the accompaniment of song and dance.
The need to make Chinese writing accessible to non-Chinese speakers led scribes in the Yamato court from the archipelago and the continent to devise methods of reading Chinese script in Japanese. This process gave rise to the development of new hybrid styles of writing that required a knowledge of both the Chinese script and the Japanese language. For instance, in contrast to the Nihon shoki, which is written almost entirely in orthodox classical Chinese, the Kojiki, which places more emphasis on the spoken word and claims to be a record of oral transmissions, uses Chinese characters arranged with both Chinese and Japanese syntax, with the addition, for clarity, of some characters representing phonetic syllables. In the Man’yōshū, poems are written in a variety of ways, ranging from a style close to orthodox classical Chinese to one using Chinese characters as phonetic syllables. All these works, however, were read in the aristocratic Japanese dialect of the Yamato nobility.
Under the influence of Chinese literature, genres of Japanese poetry (uta) such as sōmon (exchange poems) and banka (laments) developed, and the myth-histories of the Yamato court were divided into emperor reigns (as in the Chinese dynastic histories) and chronologized according to the Chinese cosmological calendar (in the case of the Nihon shoki). These early written texts were compiled as the products of a court culture that would rival that of the Chinese court. As such, they were primarily literate texts. However, while writing represented a new medium that could be transmitted as a material object, it also created a new type of oral culture in which the written text was used as the base and cue for oral and public performance.
Major Events in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries
622
Death of Prince Shōtoku (b. 574)
645
Taika Reforms
667
Move of the capital to Ōmi
671
Death of Emperor Tenchi (r. 662–671)
672
Jinshin war
686
Death of Emperor Tenmu (r. 672–686)
701
Taihō Code
702
Death of Empress Jitō (r. 687–696)
710
Move of the capital to Nara (Heijō)
712
Completion of the Kojiki
713
Order to compile the fudoki
720
Completion of the Nihon shoki
731
Death of Ōtomo no Tabito (665–731)
733
Death of Yamanoue no Okura (660?–733)
746
Compilation of the Man’yōshū, vols. 1–16?
751
Compilation of Kaifūsō
784
Move of the capital from Nara to Nagaoka
785
Death of Ōtomo no Yakamochi (717?–785), final compiler of the Man’yōshū
794
Move of the capital to Heian (Kyoto)
KOJIKI (RECORD OF ANCIENT MATTERS, 712)
According to its preface, the Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters) was commissioned by Emperor Tenmu (r. 672–686) and was completed and presented to Empress Genmei (r. 707–715) in 712 by a scribe named Ō no Yasumaro. It is a mythology and history in three volumes, starting with the creation of Japan in the age of the gods and the descent to earth of the ancestor of the imperial family through the reign of the legendary first sovereign, Emperor Jinmu, and successive rulers up to the reign of the thirty-third sovereign, Empress Suiko (r. 592–618).
The key concept of the creation myth, which describes the origin of Japan but not of the universe, is musuhi, or “creating force,” a spontaneous power through which the gods come into existence. After seven generations of gods are created by this force, the last generation, a male and a female god called Izanagi1 and Izanami, create the islands of Japan. This creation begins with the present-day Shikoku (Tosa, Iyo, Sanuki, Awa), then moves west to Kyushu (Tsukushi), and finally to Honshū. Izanagi and Izanami also give birth to the gods of various natural phenomena, including the gods of the sea and rivers, of the mountains and plains, of the wind, and finally of fire, who causes the death of the female deity Izanami. The male deity Izanagi then gives birth by himself to the central figure in the Kojiki mythology, the Sun Goddess Amaterasu. It is Amaterasu’s descendant, the god Ninigi, who comes down from heaven to earth and becomes the ancestor of the Yamato emperors.
The Kojiki is a bricolage of various myths woven together into a story of the divine ancestry of the Yamato emperors. According to the Kojiki cosmology, the earth is dependent on heaven, and the Yamato emperors, as the descendants of the heavenly gods, are entitled to rule the earth. Although some of the myths contained in the Kojiki may date from long before the eighth century, their primary function in the narrative was to legitimate the world order of the early-eighth-century Japanese state. Within the various mythical accounts are explanations of the origin of place-names, of the hierarchical relationships between different clans, and of ritual ceremonies.
Genealogy of the Gods
One key feature of the Kojiki is the importance it places on the power of speech. For example, conquests are often described in terms of
a verbal pledging of subjection. In the Kojiki the word for “subdue” (kotomuku) means literally “to make (someone) speak his subjection.” The magical power of words is also emphasized in the story of Luck of the Mountain and Luck of the Sea, as well as in the tragic end of Prince Yamato Takeru.
Key Japanese Names and Places
Takama-no-hara
Plain of High Heaven
Ashihara no kuni
Central Land of the Reed Plains
Izanagi
He Who Invites God
Izanami
She Who Invites God
Amaterasu
Great Heaven-Shining Goddess
Tsukuyomi
Moon God (Moon-Counting God)
Susano-o
Ferocious Virulent Male God
Ho-deri
Fire-Shine, Luck of the Sea
Ho-ori
Fire-Fade, Luck of the Mountain
Ōkuni-nushi
Great Land Master
Ninigi
(descendant of Amaterasu)
Book 1
THE BEGINNING
When heaven and earth first appeared, there came into existence in the Plain of High Heaven a deity named Lord Midst-of-Heaven God; then High Creative Force God; and then Divine Creative Force God. All these three deities came into existence as single deities, and their forms were not visible. Next, when the land was young, resembling floating oil and drifting like jellyfish, a thing sprouted forth like reed shoots, and from this there came into existence a deity named Splendid Reed Shoot God and then Eternally Standing Heaven God. These two deities also came into existence as single deities, and their forms were not visible. The five deities in the preceding section are the Separate Heavenly Deities.
Traditional Japanese Literature Page 3