PMJS Publication Announcement: March 2026
Abigail MacBain
Dear colleagues,
Below please find our monthly bulletin compiling information on publications by and recommendations from PMJS members. All details below were submitted through the PMJS Publication Announcements online form.
Publication type: Article
Title: Kitamura Kigin’s Genji monogatari kogetsushō, 1673 to 2025
Author: J. Christopher Kern
Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Auburn University
Summary: Kitamura Kigin’s Kogetsushō was published in 1673. It soon became the standard edition of the Tale of Genji, and continued in active use well into the 20th century. I compare Kigin’s work to other woodblock printed editions, focusing on page layout and choice of annotation. I also analyze why Kogetsushō remained the standard scholarly edition of Genji despite the challenges of the late-Edo Nativist scholars and the large societal changes of the Meiji period. The result illuminates Kigin’s accomplishment while also analyzing the difficulty of producing an annotated edition of such a long work.
Release Date: 2/11/2026
Website: https://brill.com/view/journals/eaps/16/1/article-p86_3.xml
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1163/22106286-12340003
Contact: jck...@auburn.edu
Publication type: Kindle e-book
Title: The Japanese Imperial Institution in the Eighth Century
Author: Ross Bender
Affiliation: Independent
Summary: The Japanese Imperial Institution in the Eighth Century describes the functioning of Japan’s bureaucratic state in the Nara period. Based on a study of Shoku Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan, Continued) it documents how imperial power actually functioned: the administration of law and rank, taxation and relief, court ritual, deities and political theology, diplomacy with Tang China, Silla, and Balhae, and campaigns on Japan’s internal frontiers. Its seemingly austere lists of edicts, appointments to office, awards of rank, and memorials preserve unparalleled evidence for governance, ideology, and daily political life in early Japan. A lengthy introduction provides an overview of the century. This is followed by chapters on each of the sovereigns, from Monmu to Kanmu.
Release Date: February 2026
Website: Amazon
Contact: rosslyn...@gmail.com
Publication type: book
Title: Torikaebaya Monogatari: A Japanese Tale of Gender-Swapped Siblings
Author: Rosette F. Willig
Affiliation: N/A
Summary: Torikaebaya monogatari is a seemingly unique account of the complications that arise when a high-ranking aristocrat has his daughter and son by different mothers swap identities so that they can secretly embark on adult lives as a man and woman respectively. These gender crossings also resonate with multiple transitions contained within the history of its transmission, including its status as a tale that was transformed from an older version into a newer one (possibly a female retelling of a male-authored original), as a text that transmitted the language of The Tale of Genji while creating transgender versions of its characters, and as a classic work whose adaptations in a variety of media offer multiple perspectives on gender and sexuality in modern Japan.
Release Date: March 2026
Website: https://www.sup.org/books/asian-studies/torikaebaya-monogatari
Contact: Gustav Heldt, gc...@virginia.edu
Notes: The paperback is available in March for 20% off the regular price at www.sup.org using the code WILLIG20
To recommend a title for next month’s announcement, please fill out the online form. Submissions can be submitted by authors themselves or by PMJS members who are eager to share other scholars’ recent publications.
For any questions or comments on the submission format, please contact Abigail MacBain (abigail...@ed.ac.uk). Note: Please do not email requesting a publication to be posted; only those submitted through the above form will be listed.
H. Mack Horton
Apropos of Professor McBain's recent book announcements, I should add my Linked Verse in Medieval Japan: History, Commentary, Performance (Columbia University Press, 2025). As its name indicates, the book begins with a history of linked verse (renga), focusing on the golden age of the art in the medieval era but going back to its written beginnings and then progressing through Bashō, who despite his fame as a composer of what are now called haiku was particularly proud of his skill at composing linked-verse sequences. One theme throughout is the negotiation over the centuries between formal ushin and unorthodox haikai modalities. Part 1 is accompanied by a translation of Nijō Yoshimoto's Renri hishō (Private treatise on linked-verse principles), which includes an early version of what would become the standard rules for the genre.
Part 2 contains a concise overview of renga commentaries and a translation and exploration of one particularly erudite but almost entirely unstudied sequence by Sōchō and Sōboku, together with two coeval commentaries on it (one by Sōboku himself and one anonymous). Such commentaries help us approach the verses as they were read by contemporaries, while reminding us of the inevitable polysemy that lies at the heart of the renga enterprise.
Part 3 explores the performative aspects of the renga session, which were often more important to the participants than a resultant written record. An epilogue traces the revival of renga studies in the Meiji era up to the present. Added are an abbreviated guide to the ushin renga rules, an introduction to linked verse in Japanese and Chinese (wakan renku), and a brief outline of medieval waka schools. Included as well are a list of works cited, indexes to the text and the more than one thousand translated verses, and a dozen color plates.
The book, 1120 pp., is available in hardcover for $90 / £75 and in digital form for $89 / £75, either of which may be acquired through the Columbia University Press website: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/linked-verse-in-medieval-japan/9780231191142/
The publication coincides with my retirement from the University of California, Berkeley, after 36 years.
–H. Mack Horton
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