An “Ise monogatari” Reader is the first collection of essays in English on The Ise Stories, a canonical literary text ranked beside The Tale of Genji. Eleven scholars from Japan, North America, and Europe explore the historical and political context in which this literary court romance was created, or relate it to earlier works such as the Man’yōshū and later works such as the Genji and noh theater. Its medieval commentary tradition is also examined, as well as early modern illustrated editions and parodies. The collection brings cutting-edge scholarship of the very highest level to English readers, scholars, and students.
Contributors are: Aoki Shizuko, Fujihara Mika, Fujishima Aya, Gotō Shōko, Imanishi Yūichirō, Susan Blakeley Klein, Laura Moretti, Joshua S. Mostow, Ōtani Setsuko, Takahashi Tōru, and Yamamoto Tokurō
Joshua S. Mostow, Ph.D. (1988), is Professor of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia. He has published monographs, translations, and many articles on Japanese premodern literature and visual culture, including Courtly Visions: “The Ise Stories” and the Politics of Cultural Appropriation (Brill, 2014).
Yamamoto Tokurō, Ph.D. (2001) is Professor Emeritus of Kansai University. He is the leading authority on Ise monogatari and author of several monographs and articles, including Ise monogatari ron: buntai, shudai, kyōju (Kasama Shoin, 2001).
Kurtis Hanlon is a graduate student in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia.
Acknowledgments Matters Textual List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors
Introduction Joshua S. Mostow
Part 1: Historical Context
1 The Formation of the Ise monogatari and Its Background Imanishi Yūichirō
2 The Significance of the Composition of the Ise monogatari Gotō Shōko Translated by Imai Kazuhiko
3 The Historical Reality of Ki no Aritsune and the Ise monogatari Fujihara Mika Translated by Yevheniy Vakhnenko and Kurtis Hanlon
Part 2: Antecedents and Descendants
4 From Stories of Female Transcendents to the Ise monogatari: Taking Kaimami as a Clue Yamamoto Tokurō
5 Allusion to and Transformation of the Ise monogatari by “Murasaki Shikibu” Takahashi Tōru Translated by Tamada Saori
Part 3: The Ise and Noh
6 Zenchiku’s Noh Play Oshio: Introduction and Translation Susan Blakeley Klein
7 The Structure of the Noh Play Kakitsubata: Zenchiku’s Method Ōtani Setsuko Translated by Kurtis Hanlon
Part 4: The Commentary Tradition
8 The Methodology of Late-Muromachi Ise Commentaries: Focusing on Sōgi and the Sanjōnishi School Aoki Shizuko
9 Reading the Ise monogatari through The Tale of Genji Joshua S. Mostow
Part 5: The Ise in the Early Modern Period
10 The Landscape of “The Well-Curb” Fujishima Aya
11 Playing Narihira: The Ise monogatari in Eighteenth-Century Kibyōshi Laura Moretti
Appendix
Family Tree of Principal Personages
Index of First Lines of Poems
Subject Index
All interested in classical Japanese literature, its political and historical contexts, intertextuality, commentaries, and early modern reception.