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Origins of The Companion Library: An Anthology of Medieval Japanese Stories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Barbara Ruch
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Abstract

Around 1700, the Osaka publisher Shibukawa seiemon collected and printed twenty-three medieval short stories and put them on sale labelled Otogi bunko, or The Companion Library. Shibukawa's sales techniques, aimed at selling his anthology to female readers, led later scholars to view these stories anachronistically as women's literature from the Muromachi period. Evidence from medieval diaries, however, makes it clear that these stories were not originally written for women. To date close to five hundred of these largely anonymous stories have emerged to form a substantial medieval genre. Although present scholarship tends to seek authorship of the stories through analysis of social classes depicted in them, it is submitted that the more fruitful approach is rather through analysis of textual origins in pre-Muromachi literary traditions: Heian novel, Kamakura military epic, religious narrative, or oral folktale; and that the most important source proves to be the religious narrative tradition, where textual comparison reveals clearly some Muromachi stories are derivations from such works as Shintō shū. Medieval jongleurs and missionaries such as biwa hōshi, etoki hōshi, and Kumano bikuni played a crucial role in spreading medieval tales, popularizing the picture scroll and book, and contributing to the development of the short story genre.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , May 1971 , pp. 593 - 610
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1971

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References

1 Shibukawa's full name, including that of his publishing house and bookstore, appears in book catalogues as Shibukawa Shōkōdō Kashiwabaraya Seiemon. He was located at Junkei-machi, Shinsaibashi, Osaka, in the center of the flourishing seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Osaka publishing district.

2 Like all other products of Shibukawa's press, Otogi bunko bore no date. An examination of contemporary book catalogues suggests that it must have appeared sometime after 1688 but probably before 1730. For all twenty-three titles included in Otogi bunko, see Teiji, Ichiko, ed., Otogi zōshi, Vol. XXXVIII of Nihon koten bungaku taikei [Outline of the Japanese Literary Classics] (Tokyo, 1958)Google Scholar. Hereafter cited as Ichiko, OZ.

3 Italics mine.

4 The terms “medieval” and “middle ages” as employed in these pages refer to the centuries covered by the Kamakura (1185–1333), Nambokuchō (1336–1392), and Muromachi (1333–1573) Periods. These four centuries are the “middle years” between the age of classic Japanese culture in the Heian period and the age of the commercial townsmen in the Edo period.

5 For translations and other bibliography of Sai-kaku's works see Morris, Ivan, ed., The Life of An Amorous Woman (New York, 1963).Google Scholar

6 The first edition was in thirty-nine slim volumes. In the second edition, Shibukawa rebound those of the twenty-three stories that appeared originally in more than one section, making each vstory a one-volume work. The first edition, therefore, has thirty-nine volumes, while the second has only twenty-three, although the twenty-three stories remain the same.

7 See Teiji, Ichiko, Chūsei shōsetsu no kenkyū [Research on Medieval Stories] (Tokyo, 1955), p. 17ffGoogle Scholar. Hereafter cited as Ichiko, CSNK.

8 Such early scholars as Sekine Masanao (Shōsetsu shikō, n.p., 1890, pp. 40 and 61) and Sasano Ken (Muromachi jidai tampen shū, Tokyo, 1935, p. 15ff.) and others discuss these stories in terms of women and children readers and consider them closely related to the category of fairy tales.

9 For a fairly complete list of stories and the location of their manuscripts see Matsumoto Takanobu, “Muromachi jidai monogatari rui gensonbon kanmei mokuroku” [“Concise Catalogue of Extant Muromachi Period Texts of the Monogatari-variety”] Shidō bunko ronshū (Mar., 1962), no. 1, pp. 193–259.

10 The full title of this work is Tempitsu wagō rakuchi fuku kai emman hikXetsu no monogatari.

11 The date, Bummei twelfth year, first month, eleventh day, corresponds to February 22, 1480 on the Western Calendar. A theory exists that this story was written as a first writing exercise for the New Year.

12 His name and family crest are found in the pre-1532 work called Kemmon shokfi mon, which includes information on families related to the Ashikaga shogunate. Ichiko, CSNK, p. 389.

13 Ichiko, CSNK, pp. 429–454.

14 Daijōin jisha zatsu jiki, Tamonʻin nikki, Rokuon nichiroku, and Bonshun nikki.

15 Tenshō thirteenth year, second month, twenty-sixth day in Ise no kami nikki by Uwai Kakuken.

16 For the text of the story see Ichiko, ed., OZ.

17 For the text of the story see Ichiko, ed., OZ. See also Edward D. Putzar, “The Tale of Monkey Genji—Sarugenji-zōshi,” Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 18, nos. 1–4 (1963), pp. 286–312.

18 For example, the name of the hero, Saru Genji, is of course a take-off on Hikaru Genji, the hero of Genji monogatari. Saru Genji falls in love with a courtesan when the wind blows aside the blind of her palaquin as she passes. This is reminiscent of the episode in Genji monogatari where Kashiwagi falls in love with Nyosan no miya when the veranda blinds are accidentally brushed aside revealing her face. The similarity is duly remarked upon in the course of the story.

19 For a discussion of the folk origins see Ōshima Takehiko, “Saru Genji soshi no seiritsu” [“The Composition of the Tale of Saru Genji”], Bungaku [Literature], Vol. XXVII, no. 9 (Sept., 1959), pp. 59–67.

20 Italics mine.

21 Ichiko, ed., OZ, p. 174, li. 11–13.

22 Ōshima Takehiko, “Saru Genji sōshi no seiritsu,” p. 60ff.

23 Tsutomu, Kōsai, “Ebina no Nan'ami,” Yōkyoku kai [The World of Nō Texts] Vol. ILIX, no. 4 (Oct. 1, 1939), pp. 38–41.Google Scholar

24 Hayashiya Tatsusaburō, Chūsei ni okeru toshi to nōson no bunka [The Culture of Cities and Farming Villages in the Middle Ages]. No. 5 of Iwanami kōza Nihon bungaku shi—Chūsei II [The Iwanami Lecture Series on the History of Japanese Literature—Middle Ages, Part II] (Tokyo, 1958), pp. 31–32.

25 Iwaya no sōshi, Fuseya no monogatari, etc. For the texts see Shigeru, Yokoyama and Takeo, Ōda, eds., Muromachi jidai monogatari shū [Collection of Muromachi Period Tales], Vol. Ill (Tokyo, 1962)Google Scholar. Hereafter cited as Yokoyama, MJMS.

26 Nosezaru sōshi, On zōshi shima watari, etc. For the texts see Ichiko, ed., OZ.

27 Mishima. For the text see Yokoyama, MJMS, Vol. I.

28 For a fuller discussion of Kamakura period monogatari see Ichiko, CSNK, p. 71ff.

29 See Ichiko Teiji, Chūsei monogatari no tenkai [The Development of Medieval Tales]. No. 6 of Iwanami kōza Nihon bungaku shi—Chūsei III [The Iwanami Lecture Series on the History of Japanese Literature—The Middle Ages, Part III] (Tokyo, 1959), p. 37, for a discussion of these ten.

30 Hayashiya, p. 23.

31 Hayashiya, p. 22.

32 Also read Keikai.

33 The full title is Nihonkpku gempō zenʻaku ryōi ki (also read reii ki).

34 It is interesting that the Maeda bon text (Son kei kaku sōkan gempō ryōi ki) eliminates the moralizing endings of certain stories and replaces such exhortations with the editorial comment “etc., etc.” Photo-offset copy of this 1236 text in possession of Professor Sakakura Atsuyoshi, Kyoto University.

35 For a translation of Uji shūi monogatari, as well as for a detailed list of Western translations and studies of bodi Konjaku monogatari and Uji shūi monogatari, see D. E. Mills, A Collection of Tales from Uji, Cambridge University Press, 1970.

36 Ichiko, ed., OZ, p. 227, li. 1–p. 228, li. 4.

37 Ichiko, ed., OZ, p. 186, li. 4–7.

38 Ichiko, ed., OZ, p. 101, li. 1–2.

39 There has been considerable speculation as to whether or not the Japanese practice of etoki had its beginnings in China. As early as the Tʻang period (618–907), priests served as popular lecturers and storytellers in Chinese temples, and the texts for these lectures or stories are called pien wen (J. hen bun). Only the accidental discovery of some of these texts at Tun-huang has made study of them possible. To date, however, there is no evidence whatsoever that Muromachi stories themselves are either translations of pien wen or that they are influenced by them. Okami Masao has pointed out, however, in “Etoki to emakiezoshi—Kinko shōsetsu no katachi (zoku)” [“Etoki and Illustrated Scrolls and Books—The Form of Late Medieval Stories (Continued)”] Kokugo kokubun [Japanese Language and Japanese Literature] Vol. XXIII, no. 8 (Aug., 1954), p. 9ff., that during roughly the same period, women in China traveled around the towns with picture scrolls which they described in chanted narratives, but no direct relationship has been clearly established between this practice and the Japanese etoki.

40 Takatō Chūzō, Taiki (Tokyo, 1898), p. 185, entry for the second year of Kyūan (1146), ninth month, twenty-fourth day.

41 Illustrated scroll, Bummei period (1469–1486), on loan to Gotō Art Museum, Tokyo.

42 Araki Shigeru, Chūsei makXi no bungaku [Literature at the End of the Middle Ages]. No. 6 of Iwanami kōza Nihon bungaku shi—Chūsei III [The Iwanami Lecture Series on the History of Japanese Literature—The Middle Ages, Part III] (Tokyo, 1959), p. 7.

43 Zenjin, Ishida, “Chūsei bunka no keisei” [“The Formation of Medieval Culture”], in Kōza Nihon bunka shi [Lectures on the History of Japanese Culture] edited by Nihon shi kenkyū kai, Vol. Ill (Tokyo, 1962), p. 91.Google Scholar

44 Mushakōji Minoru, Emakimono to bungaku [Illustrated Scrolls and Literature]. No. 4 of Iwanami kōza Nihon bungaku shi—Chūsei I [The Iwanami Lecture Series on the History of Japanese Literature—The Middle Ages, Part I] (Tokyo, 1958), p. 35.

45 Okami, “Etoki,” p. 3.

46 Written with the characters for “woman” and “blind” (see Glossary of Characters). The origin of the word is related to that of another word, gozen. Gozen was used during the Kamakura period and later as a polite form of address added to a person's name. Later it came to be used exclusively for women. Sometime during the middle ages the final n was dropped (a phonetic phenomenon occurring frequently during the Kamakura and Muromachi periods) and the word was then pronounced goze. Blind women entertainers were at first referred to by the polite address goze, the current contemporary pronunciation of gozen. Eventually, the descriptive ateji meaning “blind woman” was adopted to transcribe goze. The use of goze (n) as a polite form of address for women in general went out of fashion, and goze was then applied exclusively to blind women performers.

47 Okami Masao, “Setsuwa tangen kaisetsu” [“Commentary for the Unit on Narratives”]. In Kokugoka otsu rui juku dokuhon, koto kokubun [Supplementary Reader for the Upper Level Japanese Course, Upper School Literature], edited by Endō Yoshimoto et al., Vol. I (Kyoto, 1954), p. 115.

48 Yokoyama, MJMS, Vol. I, p. 79a, li. —3–p. 79b, li. 8.