The Myth Of Normal Kinokuniya

[Ortiz Ullery]

Mostof the threads in this month have long been availablein the public archives. As arule, only the opening question is included here. The links inbold lead to the individual pages where these threads can be readin full.

It has been wonderful the way the list has taken off. Thisweek I've enjoyed taking a back seat and watching the discussionsbloom. I decided it was best to hold my peace and listen to whatmembers thought about the issue of the list's name, tempted asI was at times to intervene and say (in my usual flippant way)"I'm happy to change the name. Let's add a hyphen to 'premodern'!"

Unrepentant as I am about the name, I do admit that when makingthe icon

(see our home page), I couldn't come up with a convincing Japanese

equivalent and simply used the lame and inaccurate "nihonkenkyu." Any suggestions?

If you've looked at the archives ( ),you will have seen how messages are nicely stored by date, butthe "ichiranhyo/list" does not display the author ofmessages. It would help if we would all change the subject ofmessages to something that reflects its contents. There have beenrather too many messages titled "intro" or "herewe are" but dealing with mono-no-ke. Sorry to be boring butit would help...

Not all of you use the Web as frequently as e-mail, I suspect.However for those who do, Web pages offer a convenient place tostore and access information that has been exchanged in the courseof our discussions. Chris Drake commented off-list about the problemof bibliographic information being exchanged in a "piecemeal"manner. Absolutely. We've all had the experience of seeing aninteresting reference in online discussions but not making a noteof it at the time, then not being able to find it later when weactually find we need it some time later. As mentioned before,I have begun a running list of references that are mentioned,either in self-introductions or in our online discussions:

Kornicki, Peter. The Book in Japan: A Cultural History fromthe Beginnings to the Nineteenth Century. Handbuch der Orientalistik/Handbookof Oriental Studies. Vol. 7. Leiden, Boston, Cologne: Brill, 1998.

When works are reviewed, it might be helpful to add a shortnote to that effect. I've seen this done in a Tokyo Universitynewsletter in Medieval English studies, but never in our field.Wouldn't it be handy?

Yang, X. Jie and Sonya Arntzen, kanaCLASSIC...

Reviewed by Aileen Gatten (MN 54.3, 1999)...

Again, I will have to rely on others for information about reviews.Some of us don't get to see the full range of journals in thefield.

Rather than an "opt-out" system, I thought it prudentto have you "opt in" if you want your e-mail addressincluded on this public page. When you submit a comment or self-intro.to the list, it would help if you

could add:

P.S. include/do not include my e-mail address in the database

Or write to me directly to that effect. If I don't hear from you,your address will only be distributed to other list members (i.e.in a message stored in the closed archive). All very mendokusai/bothersomeI know, but I thought it best to respect people's privacy, evenif it involves more work.

The good news is that nearly half the names listed are BLUE,i.e. clicking one will lead to that person's self-introduction.So many of you have now provided good self-introductions. Whilethere is no obligation to provide one, they _are_ appreciatedand help us all to know who we are talking to/listening to. Feelfree to update/emend the information about yourself (minor changesofflist to wat...@k.meijigakuin.ac.jp).

At the beginning of "Sawarabi" the Ajari sends Nakanokimia basket of sawarabi, bracken shoots. I have a lot of brackenon my place, and we spray as much of it as we can. Bracken ispoisonous. In all phases of its life, from shoot to dead leaf,it contains an extremely toxic compound, though in low concentration.We pray whenever we see our animals nibble at it, as they occasionallydo. Cattle that eat a lot of bracken may die of it, though onbeef cattle farms this is seldom a problem because the stock arenot around long enough. It is a cumulative poison.

I am a PhD. candidate in Classical Japanese Literature (seethe brief explanatory note below) at Columbia University, currentlystudying at the University of Tokyo. My dissertation is a historyof Japanese writing systems through the 8th century, with a particularfocus on the emergence of kanbun kundoku and its connection tothe inscription of Japanese texts in works like the Kojiki andthe Man'yoshu.

If there are any of you who have pictures (or know someonewho does) of traditional Japanese performing arts (including modernadaptations, or fusion theater events) which you have the copyrightto and are interested in getting involved in a web archival effort,please contact me directly (kw...@cornell.edu).

The copyright issue is far from clear. However, if you took photographsat a performance event which permitted you to do so, you can probablyclaim copyright. Can't same the same for videos though.

Anyway if this interests you, please contact me.

Thanks, Karen Brazell

I teach Japanese literature at the School of Oriental and AfricanStudies, University of London. My research has focussed on Tokugawa-perioddrama, especially the plays of Chikamatsu. I am hoping soon tocomplete a translation of five late Chikamatsu plays, four ofwhich are jidaimono. I am also involved in an ongoing group researchproject on 'Kansai in the 18th and 19th centuries'.

Three recent publications:

'Heroic Honor: Chikamatsu and the Samurai Ideal', HJAS, vol. 57,no. 2 (Dec. 1997)

'Gidayuu botsugo no Chikamatsu' in volume eight of the ten-volumeIwanami Kouza: Kabuki, Bunraku, 'Chikamatsu no jidai' (IwanamiShoten, 1998)

'Takemoto Gidayuu and the Individualistic Spirit of Osaka Theater',in Osaka, The Merchants' Capital of Early Modern Japan, ed, byJ. McClain and Wakita Osamu (Cornell, 1999)

The "naming and premodern" thread re-emerged atthis point with messages from Chris Drake, Karen Brazell, JanineBeichman, David Lurie, Peter Kornicki, Joshua S. Mostow, ElliotBerlin, Michael Watson, Morgan Pitelka, Philip C. Brown, GaryCadwallader. See arch02for full text of the remaining messages.

How do you translate the word 'yuujo', written play woman?I have heard 'courtesan,' 'prostitute', 'woman of pleasure'. Perhapsthe word is too broad in meaning to be covered by one Englishword; in this case, I need it to describe the authors of kinseikayou (another term I wonder how to translate: Edo period popularsong? Folksong doesn't seem quite right. ) Any suggestions orcorrections welcomed! I wish Frank Hoff were on this list, hecould help!

This began another thread on "yuujo" that ransimultaneously with the those on "naming" and "bracken[warabi]." For the remaining messages see arch03.Discussants: Royall Tyler, Janet Goodwin, Janine Beichman, KendonStubbs, David Pollack, Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen, RichardBowring, Ivo Smits, Gaye Rowley, John Schmitt-Weigand, Jordi Escurriola

Meanwhile another group, alphabetical this time, have beenthe victims of direct mail, what I hope was a polite request tofurnish a few

bibliographical particulars of recent publications, or more ifthey like. For the web-based database you understand. I'll sendout requests to a dozen or so members at a time so that I canstay on top of what I hope will be a steady stream of mail. Evenif your time has not yet come, dust off that list of publications!

Don Best

Stone Bridge Press: Quality Books & Software About Japan Wepublish books about Japan, and I join as many lists relating toJapan as

I can to gather information. I will more than likely be the ultimatelurker.

I like your translations of Saikaku's haikai verses! Very nice.I also like your spatial sense. Just to fill in, in verse 26,"....How madly

they pull at the love sash," the woman of the "they"is a heavenly sky woman (Amatsuotome, of 'Shinkokinshuu' 1653/-1etc. fame) descending down onto her lover. This is because theheavenly woman appears in verse 25 and continues, linked forward,in verse 26. The cloth sash being stretched seems to be NunobikiFalls itself, the heavenly woman's robe, which the couple is nowlooping around (the back of) both their necks as their tight "lovesash." I believe it's the man who's most commonly horizontalin shunga versions of kubihiki as well, though *very* unfortunatelyI don't have time to check to be sure at the moment.

Thanks for sharing the wonderful hokku. I think making a 'rempai(?)'sequence in English would be great. Are you going to do the wakikufor us? Please don't hesitate. Before we go any further, though,I'd like to ask you about one thing. In my personal experience,alternating verses of four and three lines in English often seemsto approximate the effect of compressed Japanese 'lines' or unitsbetter than alternating three and two English lines. Three andtwo are really tough to work with, and demand great discipline,though of course I'm not opposing that form at all. I just wantto mention this to get your opinion or the opinions of otherswho might want to participate. Then again, changing lineationmight not be so good, since the hokku is already in three lines.Anyway, do you want to try for a kasen or a hyakuin? And how manyverses will be on the first "face"? Six? Eight? Sincethe hokku's so nice, maybe we could just make it the face of themoon and leave it at that.

I left the list on auto-pilot for a full day while I treckedout to the wilds of Saitama to see the new Ninagawa *King Lear*I comment on

separately. Nice to come back and find active discussions ragingon two fronts.

Many thanks, and many apologies to those who felt their armstwisted. If the request comes at a busy time for you, please replyat your own convenience. The average length of introductions hasbeen on the increase, but even two or three lines are welcome.

The list has been joined by two members well known to manyof us, Edward Kamens and Janet Ikeda. Welcome to you both. (Ijumped the gun by sending out Janet Ikeda's self-introductionbefore she had formally joined.)

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