Japanese Culture: Identity and Tradition

JPS2150/JPS3150
Japanese Culture: Identity and Tradition
Semester I 2006

Examination Question Information

The examination consists of two parts. You are required to answer SIX questions in total, THREE from Part I and THREE from Part II. There are five questions to choose from in Part I and four questions to choose from in Part II. Answers to questions from Part I (worth 20 marks each) should aim to be approximately 300 words (3 paragraphs, or 30 lines) in length, and answers to questions from Part II (worth 10 marks each) should aim to be approximately 100 words (1 paragraph, or 10 lines) in length.

Part I (20 marks ea, 3 paragraphs)
The questions in Part I require you to be able to:

1. discuss the development of/changes in poetry in the pre-modern period
First there was the manyooshuu, and then this progressed into the forms of Waka/tanka, which were natively Japanese. Themes of nature, love and longing, the progressions of a love affair, and impermanence in the Buddhist sense.

along slender threads
of delecate twisted green
translucent dew drops
string as small fragile jewles-
new pillow webs in spring

Henjoo

lost in idle brooding
That swells with the long rains
A river of tears
That soaks only my sleeves -
There is no way to meet you.

Then we have Renga, or linked verse poetry, of the initial and capping verses. 5,7,5. The linked chain does not make a coherent whole. Classical and comic renga, 100 stanzas vs 36. Began as a frivolous diversion from waka / tanka, then develops into a serious form in the muromachi. Desc. of every day life. More spontaneous and speedy. A laracin diversion to serious waka.

Haiku
5,7,5, three lines.
Many topics and themes, everyday to profound.
response to a present moment
microcosm and macrocosm, universal and particular.
Free of conventions apart from the formal structure.
Matsu Basho brought it to full maturity in sixteen hundreds.
The 'present moment' theme.
Formed from the opening stanza of renga - or Hokku
They began to be deemed as being able to be appreciated as verses unto themselves.

It was Basho who wrote the famous:
An ancient pond -
A frog jumps in,
The sound of water

様々の
ことを思い出す
桜かな

Basho
2. discuss the features of Heian prose literature
monogatari

"The Tale of Genji : (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) (Penguin Classics Deluxe Editio)" (Murasaki Shikibu)

The elements of tsukurimonogatari and utamonogatari came together in the 10th century to form the full narrative from. The use of poetry was an integral part of communication in court life. This is where Murasaki Shikibu walks in with her tale of Genji, which uses physiological realism in an organised, structured scheme which makes it often touted as the world's first novel.
This period of literature was dominated by women.
Sophisticated use of anticipation or build-up
repetition, sustained imagery, and of course, transience, impermanence, sadness, greif,
Aware/mono no aware - the essential pathos of life/things. the inevitable awareness of life's/love's impermenance.
Because it was written in 'women's hand', and read mostly by women in court life, the story itself is about a fictional man who actually cared and loved for his wives, even after he had fallen out of love with them. Of course this is fictional but it related to the wants of court ladies, who, much like the women who read romance novels of today, dreamed of the perfect man.

Diaries
Women were pawns in court life, but could be influential if they were strong headed.
Jealousy and rivalry between women, as men several concubines, yet jealousy was a shunned emotion.
Men came and visited as they pleased, and this was kind of the defining quality of a man. therefore the women were always in waiting, listless, and their emotion was consumed by jealousy.
Poetry was central to the communication between men and women, which built up import around the writing of letters etc.
They also wrote diaries concerned with matters that they delt with. Family, death, love, nature, time.

When, then, if not at the ripe age of 27, are you going to turn around and say, no, this is not what I want to do. You need to make the decision!

The literary work and the circumstances are believed to be intimately connected. This is to say that they weren't making this all up. They are an artistic reconstruction of fact. The recordings were irregular and free. Contrasted with the natural/fact diaries kept by men in Chinese - the women wrote about emotions of life in the native script of kana.

Literary expression regarded as an expression of the flow of experience/sensitive response of the writer.
Miscellaneous.
Observations, thoughts, comments on behaviour, and what is proper. (The pillow book, essays in idleness)

"The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon" (Columbia University Press)

Essays in idleness sets the ground for the aesthetic of beauty as bound to perishability (think sakura). The irregular, and asymmetrical, the aesthetic of beginnings and ends, the importance of understatement, restraint and detachment. It is central to the development of Japanese taste, and is at the root of many well known understandings of Japanese culture right up till now.

"Essays in Idleness" (Columbia University Press)

3. discuss the features of Noh as a dramatic art
4. discuss the emergence and development of Kabuki
5. discuss the purpose of the Tea Ceremony

Part II (10 marks ea, 100 words)
The questions in Part II require you to be able to:

1. describe the features of narrative picture scrolls (emaki/emakimono) OR ukiyo-e
2. discuss two of the aesthetic concepts dealt with in the unit
3. discuss the theme of giri-ninjō as it appears in the work of Chikamatsu Monzaemon
(you will be required to be able to give an example of a specific work in which this
theme is operating, explaining how it is operating in the example you give)
4. describe the ways in which the fiction of the writer Ihara Saikaku can be said to
manifest a realism
Alive in the 16 hundreds
Describes life in the pleasure quarters - the books of the floating world.
With the rigid stratification of classes in the Tokugawa/Edo period, there was a strong emphasis on Confucian doctrines like obedience and duty, loyalty and obligation. The alternate attendance system in place, peace brought a boom in economics and transportation. The lower classes, who were literate, began artistic pursuits of their own. Urban culture flourished. Ihara Saikaku's work was popular when he wrote it, but was disregarded in the 18th and 19th centuries as 'not proper', but was rediscovered as a pioneer of realism in literature.

"好色一代男" (作者不詳)

Three categories for his work:
#1 'Love', desire sex - the pleasure quarter.

"Five Women Who Loved Love" (Ihara Saikaku)

#2 Love/fidelity, honour, vengence, duty/obligation/loyalty (giri) of the samurai

"The Great Mirror of Male Love" (Ihara Saikaku)

#3 Focus of the merchants / townsmen
Financial success or failure
Scrambling to pay debts

"This Scheming World (Tuttle Classics of Japanese Literature)" (Ihara Saikaku)

He's noted for his realism, because of the actual depiction of people's lives, everything is plausible - there's nothing supernatural, and he realistically depicted humans, with all their eccentricities. He focuses on detailed descriptions of the material world and its objects.
The plot is simple and straightforward, and is often episodical / in sketches. The use of colloquial language also ads to the realism. It provides a vivid picture of the merchant class.
Despite the social realism, there is no social criticism. He depicts his characters without criticism and as participants in human life.

I'm writing my essay now... being a busy beaver!

But it's a bit of a chore really.


I AM interested in what I'm writing about. The whole wabi thing strangely hits home. Like this one:

"People often say that a set of books look ugly if all volumes are not in the same format, but I was impressed to hear the Aboot Kouyuu say " It is typical of the unintelligent man to insist on assembling complete sets of everything. Imperfect sets are better". In everything, no matter what it may be, uniformity is undesirable. Leaving something incomplete makes it interesting, and gives one the feeling that there is room for growth."
Kenkoo, on wabi-sabi aesthetics.