Christina Laffin

This thesis examines the manuscript Amerika shinwa (New Stories about America, 1844) by Maekawa Bunzō, which reports the experience of the Japanese sailor Hatsutarō (1823–1889) in Baja California following a shipwreck. This study offers two primary analyses of the text. Firstly, I examine the scholarly network of the manuscript in the second half of the Edo period (1603–1868). I present examples of manuscript circulation and consider the importance of this medium for the transmission of secret information in the late Edo period. I also provide biographical context for the authors Maekawa Shūkō (1801–1854) and Sakai Sadateru (dates unknown), including their social and scholarly connections with other Confucian scholars. Secondly, I describe some of the paradigms through which foreign knowledge was organized and classified. I discuss the influence of honzōgaku (materia medica) on Amerika shinwa in particular and on early modern study of the natural world more broadly. I contrast the book’s concepts and illustrations of plants and animals with those of influential encyclopedias of the Edo period, such as the Bencao gangmu (Compendium of Materia Medica, 1596), the Kinmōzui (Illustrated Dictionary for Beginners, 1666), and the Wakan sansai zue (Illustrated Dictionary of the Three Realms in Japanese and Chinese, 1712). This comparison sheds light on the categorization and organization of plants and animals in the text. The primary goal of this study is to provide a close reading and contextual analysis of Amerika shinwa, focusing on the circulation of foreign knowledge as well as the tools that enabled comprehension of plants, animals, and utensils from Mexico.

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Completed around 1307, Towazugatari, the work of a Kamakura-era (1185–1333) woman known as Lady Nijō (1258–after 1306), was only rediscovered in 1938. Half court diary and half travel diary, this hybrid work covers the life story of its author from her entry to court at age fourteen to her pilgrimages throughout Japan after becoming a Buddhist nun. Unlike other works of the Heian (794–1185) or Kamakura period, Towazugatari has not enjoyed much reception or adaptation after its completion, until the twentieth century when it was uncovered. However, since its rediscovery the text has inspired a short story, four novel adaptations, a movie, a play, and four different manga adaptations. In this thesis, I focus on the four novelizations of the text, arguing that, because of its late discovery, hybrid nature, and unique content, these novel adaptations have acted as replacements of the original for non-academic audiences. I also highlight two different waves of adaptations by separating the four novels into two categories, chronologically and thematically, suggesting that the earlier works focused on retelling the story of Nijō’s life while the later adaptations create narratives around the text itself as an artifact. First, I carry out a survey and analysis of all of the non-novel adaptations in order to provide a background on which to couch my discussion of the novels. As my critical framework, I utilize Linda Hutcheon’s A Theory of Adaptation and Michael Emmerich’s idea of replacement from his The Tale of Genji: Translation, Canonization, and World Literature. I rely on close readings of the texts, secondary sources, and personal communication with some of the authors to support my argument. Next, I analyze Setouchi Harumi’s (1922–) Chūsei enjō and Sugimoto Sonoko’s (1925–2017) Shin Towazugatari. Finally, I discuss Mori Masako’s (1944–) Kewaizaka and Okuyama Kyōko’s (1966–) Koi goromo Towazugatari.

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This thesis explores the transmission of narratives and cultural memory through medieval Japanese poetic reception by examining how selections from one aristocratic woman’s memoir are borrowed, omitted, or altered in the cross-genrefication from poetic memoir to poetic anthology. I examine the medieval reception and re-presentation of Kenreimon’in Ukyō no Daibu shū (The Poetic Memoir of Lady Daibu, ca. 1220) within the latter thirteen of twenty-one Japanese imperial poetry anthologies of waka (jūsandaishū), compiled from 1234 to 1439. I focus on her reception within Gyokuyō wakashū (Collection of Jeweled Leaves, ca.1312), and Fūga wakashū (Collection of Elegance, ca.1346), as these two anthologies include ten and six of her poems, respectively, which is more than any of the other anthologies. Their selection of so many of her poems indicates a statistically significant interest in rehabilitating her as a poet.Lady Daibu (ca. 1155-1232) grounds many of the poems in her memoir within a context of love, civil war, and loss through a chronological prose narrative that describes the circumstances of the poems’ composition. I argue that the anthologies transmit narratives about her through their selection of poems, contextualizing headnotes, integration of voices, and structural choices in terms of where her poems are placed within the anthology. While the narratives created in this manner have some connection to Lady Daibu’s self-portrayal within her memoir, such as her romantic relationship with Taira no Sukemori (ca. 1161-1185), connection to the Heike clan, and intimacy with the imperial family, they frequently differ from her own story and each other. In other words, the historical narratives within the anthologies create competing cultural histories about Lady Daibu, the time in which she lived, and the focal point of much of her attention—Sukemori and the Heike clan, who lost the Genpei War (1180-1185). Through this, I focus on the gendered roles female poets occupy within the imperial anthologies in relation to love and lamentation. As all of the anthologies were compiled by men, this thesis also considers how women’s self-writings were reframed in a gendered discourse of men compiling canonical works.

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This thesis examines the presence of early Indian narrative elements in Japan through an analysis of tale collections and regional Japanese folklore. Focusing on the reception of the widely distributed monkey and crocodile story, the present study aims to elucidate the role of Indian tales within Japan, and will serve to demonstrate the position of Japanese folklore among globally present motifs and tale types. The project discusses literary and oral forms of the story, examining variants among the Indian Jātakas (ca. 3rd c. BCE – 5th c. CE) and Pañcatantra (ca. 300 CE), the twelfth century Konjaku monogatarishū, and nineteen oral retellings recorded from across Japan. Elements characteristic of the three primary literary versions are identified, while also recording transformations, additions, or omissions of thematic elements, as well as core motifs that have remained consistent across all known stories. This analysis demonstrates that Japanese variants of the tale were not drawn linearly from a single Buddhist text, but instead represent a fusion of themes from across various religious and cultural contexts.The present study also provides some explanation as to the extensive dissemination of the story within Japan, identifying characteristics of the tale that facilitated its lasting and widespread promulgation. The study examines similarly themed myths and legends from the indigenous Japanese tradition that provided the foundations for its assimilation into the existing storytelling culture and the integration of characteristically Japanese motifs into the core framework of this imported narrative.

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This thesis examines language aspects of interaction in dialogue passages of Heike monogatari (The Tale of the Heike, 1371) focusing on the role of language forms in characterization. The main goal of the present study is to assess the role of language variation and analyze how it participates in construction of asymmetries in social status and power between characters. Selected dialogue data is divided into two groups according to the participants and the dominant context: political interaction at court and interaction involving religious matters. Analysis of language forms in each dialogue draws on research by Japanese scholars and covers a wide range of linguistic phenomena such as sound changes, lexical choices, and markers of politeness. Linguistic findings are intended to supplement recent studies of the literary, socio-political, and religious contexts for early medieval narratives. By selecting a specific language style for each interacting character, the author(s) constructed particular images that have shaped audience’s perceptions of the characters. This study brings attention to language variation and clarifies how the socio-political status of characters, their interpersonal relations, and attitudes toward each other are encoded in the language of Heike monogatari dialogues. As such, this study is perhaps the first attempt in English to adopt a sociolinguistic approach to a Japanese pre-modern text, focusing on language properties and shifts in style in Heike monogatari.

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