Bunron – Zeitschrift für literaturwissenschaftliche Japanforschung

Yosano Akiko and the Poetry of Kimono

Lucile Druet — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In her extensive corpus of essays, tanka and prose poems, Yosano Akiko clearly articulates her interest in Heian literature and ancient and modern feminine voices. To consolidate these tropes, Yosano repeatedly used modernity and a certain wit pertaining to her own embodied experience of life.
In the intricate web of these multimodal and multi-layered works, which interweave past and present, interiority and sociality, the kimono emerges as a particularly eloquent motif. It is repeatedly present throughout her career, from her seminal volume of poems Midaregami to the Hyakusenkai exhibition pamphlets published by Takashimaya Department Store. By following these kimono threads, we can see that Akiko delicately yet potently delineates the complexity of the intimate and social meanings of the garment, both for her, the narrator in her poems and her readership.
This article explicates the many references Akiko makes to kimono, through an analysis of specific pieces that effectively combine sentimental and physical experiences, formulating the conceptions of somewhat classic allusive beauty and more modern individuality, of Akiko herself as well as of the subjects she describes. Through this analysis, the importance of fashion, reality effect, comparative analysis and literary dress in the construction and expression of Meiji, Taishō, and early Shōwa femininity is revealed and contextualized.

The Poet's Persona — Amicability and Mundane Sensibility in the kanshi Poetry and Poetics of Ōkubo Shibutsu

Victor Fink — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The late 18th and early 19th century saw a renewal of kanshi in the poetic circles of Edo drawing from the works of late Ming and early Qing poets such as Yuan Hongdao, Yuan Mei and others. A professed preference for unaffected verse and everyday topics set the tone for a change in sensibility towards the mundane and entertaining, juxtaposed with the learned and affected tendency of poetry 'in high tone' after the Tang fashion. Ichikawa Kansai's poets' society Kōko shisha and Yamamoto Hokuzan's academy Keigijuku were at the centre of these developments. Among the poets of this new school was the highly successful Ōkubo Shibutsu, who after the publication of his first anthology of poems in 1810 became known throughout Japan. Shibutsu's ambition is readily apparent in his artist's name chosen after one of the epithets of the great Du Fu. At the same time, his persona as an approachable gentleman as well as a serene poet harks back to earlier models of itinerant poets in the Jianghu tradition of China's late Song dynasty. Drawing on Shibutsu's anthologies of travel poetry and writings on poetics the article explores the social embeddedness of Shibutsu's kanshi and the self-fashioning of a professional poet.

『よしの冊子』からみる江戸の読者と黄表紙 ― 武士戯作者の引退の背景を探る

Andrea Csendom — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This paper examines the relationship between the main text of Ōmu gaeshi bunbu no futamichi (1789) and other historical materials from the Edo period, such as Yoshi no sōshi, focusing on several scenes. Harumachi’s kibyōshi has been described in previous scholarship as a work that has led to the author’s death because of its satirical depiction of the Kansei reforms and Matsudaira Sadanobu. This view, that kibyōshi were banned because of their satirical elements, has remained unchanged from the Meiji period to the present. The Edo period, however, had a different view of satire. The shift in evaluation is due to the changing social role of kibyōshi during the Meiji period. By re-examining source materials from the perspective of Edo period readers, rather than later generations, we can reveal how kibyōshi were read and understood at that time. Through the examples presented in this paper, we make clear that kibyōshi’s topicality did not mean more than a theme that began and ended in the same year for Edo readers. Furthermore, this paper aims to explore alternative reasons for the retreat of samurai writers, rather than simply attributing it to the political constraints imposed by the stylistic elements and themes of kibyōshi, as has been the prevailing view.

How Japanese is Japanese Literature? Discourse Analysis on the Question of a Japanese National Literature

Michiko Mae — Sun, 19 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A Japanese national literature and unified Japanese language emerged in the course of the nation-building process, at the start of the country’s modernization in line with Western models. As a national literature (kokubungaku or kokumin bungaku), Japanese literature was to manifest the cultural identity of the new Japanese nation. The new literary canon was also intended to achieve independence from the Chinese cultural model and to establish an independent Japanese culture. The incorporation of Western literary categories led to a reevaluation of Japanese literary history and the literary corpus. The othering of Chinese literature and the background of world literature were constitutive for the establishment of a Japanese national literature.
This paper examines discourses on national literature during three historically important periods in Japan, but also in colonized Korea and U.S.-occupied Okinawa, to provide new perspectives on the relationship between nation, national culture, colonization, and subject. It argues that Japanese literature has always been connected with world literature and that it should be understood as a transcultural literature.

Zur Repräsentation von Autismus in Konbini ningen (2016) von MURATA Sayaka: Relektüre aus Perspektive der Disability Studies

Carolin Fleischer-Heininger — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Konbini ningen コンビニ人間 (Convenience Store Woman), published in 2016 by MURATA Sayaka 村田沙耶香 (b. 1979) is probably the best-known work of Heisei-era literature. Translated into many languages, it is receiving intensive reception in Japan as well as internationally and is the subject of scholarly debates. It is characterized by several attributes considered to be characteristic of the highly heterogeneous Japanese literature of that era, and at the same time, it can be utilized by and is informative for a variety of different perspectives and theoretical approaches. The protagonist of this work, Furukura Keiko, exhibits conspicuous features that, beyond a supposed norm deviating thinking and perception, can be read as signs of autism and thus of a psychological disability.
Drawing on an overview of the author, the novel, and definitional and basic considerations about autism in the context of literary studies, I analyze in close reading three aspects that are pivotal to the negotiation of autism in Konbini ningen, borrowing from literary and cultural disability studies. By focusing on the protagonist, her thought patterns, and her interpersonal relations, I discuss how these can be appreciated in light of contemporary socio-cultural debates and phenomena as well as recent developments in the understanding and representation of psychological disabilities in Japan. Throughout, I follow the assumption that ambiguity as a narrative strategy not only decisively shapes the novel and contributes significantly to its great success, but can also act in the sense of representing neurodivergence and especially people on the autism spectrum.

Rezension – Nora Bartels (2022): Halb im Scherz. Inoue Hisashi und die gesaku-Literatur der Edo-Zeit. München: Iudicium (Iaponia Insula).

Stanca Scholz-Cionca — Fri, 15 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Rezension