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Archetypes Unbound: Domestication of the
Chinese "Five Imperial Consorts"
Atsuko Sakaki
University of Toronto
This paper traces the process in which five of the Chinese female
archetypes--Wang Zhaojun, Yang Guifei, Shangyang ren, Li Furen, and
Lingyuan qie--immortalized by Bai Juyi were imported to Japan and
transformed in order to conform to the convention of Japanese literary
practice. Bai's satirical poems (fengyu) were received by
Japanese readers
of waka and wabun not as political critique but as lyrics. Ahistoricizing
and depoliticizing forces are conspicuously at work when the focus of a
poem rests on a woman. Rather than faithfully inheriting Bai's warnings
against negative ramifications of the imperial concubinage, privileging
of
Daoism, and the increasing influences from the non-Han ethnic groups in
and around China, the Japanese readership placed stress on the poetically
verified, universalized and crystalized emotions (longings for the
homeland, lover, family, prosperity, and youth) incited by tragedies and
misfortunes befalling the aforementioned women. By examining
adaptations of the five concubines, ranging from sequences of poems in
high-Heian to medieval anthologies such as Shinsen rôeishû,
Fûboku
wakashô, and Kan koji wakashû to stories in collections
such as
Konjaku monogatari shû and Kara monogatari, to noh plays
including
"Shôkun," "Yô Kihi," and "Hanagatami," I will show that specific
lines
of Bai's poems were highlighted while others confused with attributes of
other women, to the effect that each woman's historical circumstances
and her story's dogmatic overtones were neutralized so as to construct
the
universal image of the ill-fated woman.
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Kambun as Performative Power in Makura no sôshi
and Murasaki Shikibu nikki
Naomi Fukumori
The Ohio State University
Interest in feminist and gender studies has re-invigorated the study of
mid-Heian women’s texts in the last two decades, with attention directed
to
the phenomenon of an early tradition of women’s writing within a national
literary canon and to the various theoretical implications of a "women’s
literature." Foremost in theoretical investigations has been the problematic
of writing in the vernacular language and kana, as opposed to the Chinese
literary language and mana. The Heian polarization of these writing
practices in gendered terms, that is, kana as onnade/women’s script and
mana as otoko-de/men’s script, has spawned studies of the construction
of
gender identities within premodern Japanese culture. Each writing system
indeed seems to have been employed primarily by those of the gender of
its
nomenclature; however, in actuality, women and men practiced the reading
and writing of both systems. What then did the onna-de and otoko-de
scripts
and their corresponding languages Japanese and Chinese signify in their
usage?
Sei Shônagon’s Makura no sôshi (The pillow book) and Murasaki
Shikibu’s
Murasaki Shikibu nikki (The memoir of Murasaki Shikibu), two 11th century
texts by women, offer provocative case studies of the cultural significance
of
women’s usage of mana and their knowledge of Chinese writings (kambun).
In her memoir, Murasaki Shikibu consistently presents her female
knowledge of Chinese writings as socially improper, and in her famous
critique of ladies-in-waiting, she takes Sei Shônagon to task for
her
"sprinkling of mana in her writings." Ironically, what is highlighted through
Murasaki’s modest apologies is her outstanding knowledge of Chinese
writings, abnormal as she may present it to be. Sei Shônagon, on
the other
hand, is forthright in recording a number of exchanges with male courtiers
which showcase her knowledge of the Chinese classics. Although the two
writers seem to present two diverging portrayals of Heian women’s
relationship to Chinese writings, close investigation reveals that both
writers
underscore their connections with specific men in their society through
their
references to their mastery of kambun/mana. In my paper, I will argue that
kambun and mana script are employed as symbolic performances in both
Makura no sôshi and Murasaki Shikibu nikki, serving to illustrate
the
women’s ties to prominent male figures.
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In a "Borrowed
Tongue": The Representation of Japan in the English
Language by Nitobe, Okakura and Uchimura
Matthew Mizenko
Ursinus College
The period from 1895 to 1905 saw the initial publication of three
influential and significant
books by Japanese men born around 1860:
Nitobe Inazo, Okakura
Kakuzo, and Uchimura Kanzo. What made the
books particularly noteworthy
was that they were written in English--a
"borrowed tongue," as
Nitobe put it in the introduction to "Bushido, the
Soul of Japan" (1900).
Nitobe's goal was to make himself "intelligible" as
he sought to bring "Japan
. . . closer to the understanding of foreign
readers." Nitobe was surprisingly
sensitive to the politics of
representation; while
referring appreciatively to Hearn, Chamberlain, and
others who had written
so sympathetically on Japan, he nevertheless
considered them to be,
"at best," Japan's "solicitors and attorneys," and
he argued that it was
now time for him, as the "defendant," to speak for
himself. Although my paper
will focus on Nitobe, I will also suggest that
similar motives may be
discerned behind Okakura's "The Book of Tea"
and Uchimura's "How I
Became a Christian."
Now that texts such as
"Bushido" have been largely dismissed for any
descriptive value, I believe
that it is time to consider them as discursive
acts, and to situate them
within the history of modern Japan's
relationship with the
West. With its concern for the politics of
representation, colonial
studies may provide some useful tools for such an
analysis, with the understanding
that even though Japan during that
period may seem to have
been under the influence of Euro-American
cultural imperialism,
it was at the same time developing its own
colonialist program in
East Asia. This leaves the texts in the somewhat
ambiguous position of
representing a nascent (marginal) Empire writing
to (and against) a more
established imperial Center.
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‘Dreams Come True’: Fukuda Tsuneari and the Shakespearean Sub-Text
Daniel Gallimore
Linacre College, Oxford
Sub-text is essential to the transmission of
Shakespeare’s plays both between and within cultures. For the translator
it matters not only in ensuring that the original texts are understood
but also that they make a difference to the target culture. Resistance
to sub-text is associated with different traditions of organising and receiving
texts, for example the tendency for Japanese kabuki to be organised along
a fragmented series of dramatic moments rather than towards a single cathartic
one. Effective translations, therefore, have usually accompanied
agendas of cultural reform.
Fukuda Tsuneari (1912-94) was a playwright, director,
and professor of English literature with a clear agenda for the cultural
reform of 1950s, war-depressed Japan. My paper will discuss a number
of ways in which sub-texts are articulated in his translation of Shakespeare’s
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (first published in 1957 and first staged
in 1957). Finally, in expounding his own interpretation of the play
it can be seen how Fukuda’s translation also serves to comment on its immediate
cultural context.
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