Category Archive

Harvard University’s Law Library has put 22 Heian, Kamakura and Muromachi period documents online. The online exhibit includes a discussion by Professor Mikael Adolphson [pdf] about how to read and interpret these materials.

There’s a review in the NYTimes about an exhibit at the Met: arms and armor of the samurai. For some commentary and criticism of a similar exhibit from San Francisco, see here

One of the beautiful things about the internet is that if you ask for help, often you can get it. I posed the question about the mysterious circular gear on the medieval samurai to my blog audience, and got an answer very quickly: they are  spare bow string spools. The best picture I’ve been able to find of a “tsurumaki” online is this ebay auction, where you can clearly see the groove around the edge which holds the string.

In the discussion today the “Five Colors” of Buddhism came up, and I mentioned the Tibetan Mandalas. If you look at this sand-painting mandala done at PSU last year, you’ll see the five colors:

Note the border around the edge: White, Yellow, Red, Green, Blue, over and over (clockwise). You can see the same colors in this hand drum. As near as I can tell, the five colors predates most of the explanations offered for their meanings — which is to say, there are lots of different explanations, because everyone seems to be making up new rationalizations for an old practice.

In the Amaterasu eclipse story, the gods use a rope to draw her out of the cave. Ropes have a long tradition in Shinto as symbols of divinity and authority. Often you see ropes as part of Shinto shrines, as in this sacred tree:

You see a similar rope as part of the ceremonial garb worn by Sumo Yokozuna — the title is usually translated “Grand Champion” but literally means “horizontal rope”!

There are some truly extraordinary shrine ropes, though, created as part of massive community festivals:

There’s a Michael Dirda essay on the newest translation of one of the great early social satires.

In what is called her Pillow Book — Makura no Soshi — Sei Shonagon celebrates the highly refined and ordered world of the imperial court, in particular what Arthur Waley once called “its rampant aestheticism and sophisticated unmorality.” In lists, mini-essays on love and life, descriptions of rainstorms and religious ceremonies, portraits of witty courtiers and their even more witty ladies, in romantic anecdotes and fragments of short stories and in her own occasional personal confessions, Sei jots down anything and everything that catches her attention. The result is a virtually unique book — a mixture of diary, aide-memoire, naturalist’s journal, gossip column and oral history. It is an early form of what the Japanese call zuihitsu, meaning occasional writings or random notes. At its heart, Makura no Soshi simply records quite ordinary things, memorializing in its darting, quicksilver fashion the wonderful dailiness of life.

He goes on to discuss the book in more detail, and ends up discussing the history of the translations:

As with The Tale of Genji, there are currently three important English versions of The Pillow Book. In 1928 Arthur Waley published a slender volume that mixes in his own commentary with a translation of about a quarter of the original text. In some ways, his is the most appealing version for the general reader: Waley writes beautifully and he emphasizes the best passage of Sei. The most scholarly translation is that by Ivan Morris, first published in 1967, in two volumes, the second being entirely devoted to notes and appendices. Morris’s text generally feels more careful and punctilious, sometimes even academic, as one might expect of a contribution to the Columbia College Program of Translations from the Oriental Classics. But Morris certainly knows Heian literature, as he is also the author of The World of the Shining Prince, the best popular account of “Court Life in Ancient Japan”; it is an absolutely enthralling work of cultural history.

The newest translation of The Pillow Book is Meredith McKinney’s recent Penguin, which uses an alternate base text to that chosen by Morris and gives Sei a more modern, colloquial voice. It also provides excellent maps, glossaries, and notes. This is now the obvious edition for anyone wishing to read the text in its entirety and is the one I quote from. Yet none of the three translators holds an absolute monopoly for the passionate admirer of Sei’s work. Consider that among “Things that make you feel nostalgic,” McKinney includes this item: “On a rainy day when time hangs heavy, searching out an old letter that touched you deeply at the time you received it.” But here is Morris: “It is a rainy day and one is feeling bored. To pass the time, one starts looking through some old papers. And then one comes across the letters of a man one used to love.” The McKinney version is doubtless accurate in its succinctness and may even reflect a slightly different original text, but Morris’s words catch us by the heart.

I’m pretty sure that the Genji translations he’s referring to are the Waley, Seidensticker, and Tyler editions. The McCullough translation of the Pillow Book that we’ll be reading doesn’t include that passage, so I can’t compare it directly, but if McKinney’s version is “doubtless accurate” then Morris’ translation includes interpolations that alter the meaning. Not unusual for older translations, but as an historian (rather than a literateur) I prefer accuracy to imposed emotion.

Japanese history from early years to 1700 covers a lot of interesting ground. You’re welcome to purchase these books anywhere, of course, but the bookstore does have them on order.

The basic textbook, covering all the basic historical narrative, is:

• Conrad Totman, Japan Before Perry, UCal Press, 2nd edition (2008). ISBN 9780520254077

This is actually a revised edition of a textbook I used myself as an undergraduate: it’s well-done, but, like any textbook it has omissions, flaws, and sometimes picks one interpretation from several available. Textbooks are great, but they’re not perfect, and I’ll say so when I think so.

A big part of this course is going to be reading and thinking about primary sources, original materials (in translation). For basic political, religious and intellectual sources, we’ll use:

• David J. Lu, Japan: A Documentary History. Volume 1: The Dawn of History to the Late Tokugawa Period. M. E. Sharpe/East Gate, 1997. ISBN 9781563249075

For a survey of cultural materials from the classical and medieval ages, some of the most interesting literature in world history, we’ll use:

• Helen Craig McCullough, ed., Classical Japanese Prose: An Anthology. Stanford University Press, 1990. ISBN 9780804719605

But a survey isn’t enough, and some literature rewards reading in detail and extensively. To get a closer look at the two great civilizations of Early Japan — aristocratic and warrior — we’ll read large chunks of the landmark works which defined excellence in Japanese society for centuries:

• Helen Craig McCullough, trans., Genji & Heike: Selections from The Tale of Genji and The Tale of Heike. Stanford University Press, 1994. ISBN 9780804722582

FInally, to get a closer look at the 17th century, the early Tokugawa period, and to give you a chance to read and discuss a great work of historical scholarship, we’ll use one of my favorite historians:

• Mary E. Berry, Japan in Print: Information and Nation in the Early Modern Period, University of California Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-520-25417-6

The first three works listed — Totman, Lu and the Prose collection — will be used from the first weeks of class, so if you’re going to order them online, please do so early. The Genji and Heike collection will be used a few weeks in, and the Berry book will be late in the semester.