Week 5: Heian Japan (2) and The Tale of Genji

Check you have completed your end of week 4 assignments by the start of Tuesday’s class!

IMPORTANT: PASSWORD ACCESS TO PDFs:

Username and password can be found on the Canvas Homepage

Remember to post questions, queries, musings and ideas on the Pad! As always, prepare the assigned readings before class: read, take notes, and think of questions you want answered or explored.

New! You can annotate the PDFs hosted on the “docs” site, using hypothes.is. Please use group HST267 to leave questions or comments at specific points in the text; get the conversation started before we even get to class!

Tue Feb. 11: Heian literature and worldviews
  • Varley, pp. 58-76 (from “Of all the arts that flourished…” to the end of the chapter)
    • pp. 64-67: skim, we will go into more detail in the Tale of Genji on Thursday.
  • Primary sources:
    • Selection from the Kokinshu (Collection of Ancient and Modern Poems). From: Shirane, Haruo, ed. Traditional Japanese Literature : An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600. Abridged ed. Translations from the Asian Classics. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012. (PDF)
              • For the poetry fans: a selection of poems with extensive footnotes.
              • Varley explains some of the key concepts in Heian aesthetics, such as miyabi and mono no aware. Can you find specific examples in the poems that help you understand this concept better?
    • “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter” (Taketori monogatari).In Traditional Japanese Literature : An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600. Abridged ed., edited by Haruo Shirane. Translations from the Asian Classics. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.  (PDF)
              • The introduction to the tale states “the author uses satire to reveal the greed, duplicity, pretense, excessive attachment and materialism of the different suitors, to expose their excessive belief in the power of calculation.” Where in the text can you see specific examples of this? Is the writer using this tale to send a message to the Heian aristocracy? Why (not)?
    • “Minister Kibi’s Adventures in China”, from Reider, Noriko T. Seven Demon Stories from Medieval Japan. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2016. (PDF)
              • The story is set during the Tang dynasty, but was created in the late twelfth century, long after the official missions to Tang China had ceased (and after the demise of the Tang in 907 CE)
              • What does the story tell you about the way the Japanese see their earlier relation with China? Give concrete examples from the text.
              • Does this view differ from what you learned earlier about the relations between China and Japan? If so, what do you think caused that change?
              • Useful additional material: excerpts from the “Minister Kibi’s Adventures in China” scroll, MFA. (Gdrive folder)
    • Slides (Gdrive link)
Thu Feb. 13: The Tale of Genji (Genji Monogatari)

Check your inbox on Monday night for your personal assignment:

Everybody reads the section on fiction, and one additional section which you have been assigned. Check your e-mail on Monday night.

  • “Murasaki Shikibu: On the Art of Fiction.” In Sources of Japanese Tradition, Volume One: From Earliest Times to 1600. 2nd edition, edited by Ryūsaku Tsunoda, Wm. Theodore De Bary, and Donald Keene, 201-202. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
      • pp. 221-222: “Murasaki Shikibu: On the Art of Fiction” (PDF)
  • Helen Craig McCullough, translator. Genji & Heike: Selections from The Tale of Genji and The Tale of Heike, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994.
  • Slides (Gdrive link)