LIFE COURSE S24-310, October 3 - November 21, 2024
Floating World Culture:
The Arts, Entertainment, and Popular Culture of Early Modern Japan
Instructor: Carol Dorman
carol@floatingworldstudy.com
TRAVEL BOOK RECOMMENDATION
Hizakurige or Shanks Mare by Ikku Jippensha
Translated by Thomas Satchell
Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1960
The comic adventures of Yaji and Kita as they travel the Tokaido Road in early 19th century Japan. The original was published in installments from 1802 to 1809. It's an interesting look at life and humour at that time.
NHK World Programs
Kurara: The Dazzling Life of Hokusai’s Daughter
Part 1
Part 2
Oi is working along with Hokusai’s other apprentices. One of the first things we see them working on is a commission for a Dutch doctor named von Siebold, to be done in a western style. Little is known about Hokusai’s early life, but by middle age he was a well known artist, and certain aspects of his life are recorded. The paintings for von Siebold exist. It’s known that his daughter Oi had an unsuccessful marriage and lived and worked with her father in his later years. The details of Oi’s personal life and thoughts are imagined, but the events and the artwork shown are real.
Hiroshige Blue
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Hiroshige is not portrayed as I would have imagined him, but it is a nice historical fiction series about his life. The scenes of everyday life are very good. At the beginning they show him on a fire tower in his capacity as fire warden, and then we see how the Japanese fought fires at that time. The series focuses mostly on the 1830s, when Hiroshige was making his name as a landscape artist. It is also quite a sentimental recreation of his life with his wife and family. It's a nice comparison of his lifestyle and art style with Hokusai’s.
History Uncovered: Chushingura – Tears of 47 Ronin
Play video
A good documentary on the Ako Incident with scenes from a Bunraku production of Chushingura.
The World of Chushingura: The Treasury of Loyal Retainers (Part 1)
From the Kabuki Kool series
Part 1
A summary of the Chushingura kabuki play through Act 6 (skipping act 2). It is mentioned that the play is 12 hours long. That’s because this is the short version. The longer version, with additional scenes, is 16 hours long.
The World of Chushingura: The Treasury of Loyal Retainers (Part 2)
From the Kabuki Kool series
Part 2
Acts 7 through to Act 11 (skipping acts 8 and 10.
KABUKI
The Crown Prince of Kabuki, a segment from 60 Minutes (13:12)
Play segment
This is a segment on Ichikawa Ebizo, when he was preparing to take the name Ichikawa Danjuro. It is a good, short introduction to the Kabuki art form, as well as to how popular the top actors still are in Japan.
NOH & KYOGEN
Just Say Noh, But Also Say Kyogen: Crash Course Theater #11 (12:54)
Play youtube clip
A very good, speedy introduction to the evolution of theatre in Japan and the origins of Noh, plus the basics of Noh. A rather silly, but short, animated example of a Noh play, but otherwise very good.
Noh: Mystery, Myth & Movement (15:32) by Japan Foundation
Play youtube clip
Nicely produced, somewhat more in-depth illustration of Noh, using one particular play as an example.
Kyogen: The Humor of Frailty & Tolerance (15:07) by Japan Foundation
Play youtube clip
Nicely produced, good overview of kyogen theatre and shows examples of several plays. Worth it for the play about the mosquito/human wrestling match.
Behind the Mask of the World’s Oldest Surviving Dramatic Art (9:11)
Play youtube clip
A relatively brief introduction to Noh theatre, focusing on what it means to an actor.
BUNRAKU
Bunraku: Storytelling, Music & Puppetry (14:00) by Japan Foundation
Play youtube clip
Very good introduction to the bunraku puppet theatre.
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
In Week 4 the question of why fox statues at Inari (Shinto) Shrines sometimes wear red bibs was asked. Thomas provided us with the following link to help explain this:
Why do fox statues wear red bibs?
We don't get a definitive answer, but a bit of history and some theories about why they wear bibs (or are they aprons?) and why they are red.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR BOOKS
NOVELS FROM THE EDO PERIOD OR SET IN THE EDO PERIOD:
Shogun by James Clavell
Dell Publishing Co., 1975
This novel is set just before the Edo Period begins, before peace has been permanently established and when foreign traders and missionaries still had influence in Japan. The character Lord Toranaga was inspired by Tokugawa Ieyasu. The main character, John Blackthorne, was based on William Adams, the English pilot of a Dutch ship, who arrived in Japan in 1600.
Shogun was made into a TV miniseries in 1980. It was also made into a Disney+ series starting in 2024.
The Sano Ichiro detective series by Laura Joh Rowland
Sano Ichiro is a detective in Edo at the end of the 17th century/beginning of the 18th century. There are 18 books in the series so far, the first one published in 1994. In #15, The Ronin’s Mistress, Sano investigates why the 47 ronin killed Kira.
The Life of an Amorous Man by Ihara Saikaku
Original published in 1682. English translation by Charles E. Tuttle Co.
Ihara Saikaku was a poet who began writing fiction set in the “floating world”, becoming one of the Edo Period’s most famous novelists. In this, his first novel, Saikaku chronicles the life and sexual exploits of Yonosuke, a man with an insatiable sexual appetite.
If you are looking for really engrossing stories, Saikaku’s fiction may not be for you as the writing style is a little dated. If you are interested in understanding Japanese life at the end of the 17th century, then please consider this or any of Saikaku’s subsequent novels or short stories, many of which are available in translation. Some other titles are: Five Women Who Loved Love, 1685, The Life of an Amorous Woman, 1686, and The Great Mirror of Male Love, 1687. He did write on other subjects, but it is the ones about love that are most available in translation.
The Ghost Brush by Katherine Govier
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd., Toronto, 2010
This is a fictitious story about the life of Oi, daughter of the famous artist Hokusai. Oi was a real person and a recognized artist, but there is very little reliable information about her life. The story may be fiction, but Govier has done her research well and the book is full of wonderful detail about the period.
A Third Gender: Beautiful Youths in Japanese Edo-period Prints and Paintings by Joshua S. Mostow and Asato Ikeda
Published by the Royal Ontario Museum, 2016
This is a catalog that accompanied a ROM exhibit about wakashu. It contains many lovely illustrations, as well as articles about wakashu that give much interesting information about the culture of early modern Japan, including about the art, the brothels, and the kabuki theatre.
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Random House, 1997
This novel is about the life of a geisha is set in the 20th century, but the system it describes is not very different from the system that would have existed in the later part of the Edo Period. It was a popular novel and was made into a movie in 2005.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR VIDEOS
Asakusa Ichiyo Sakura Matsuri Oiran Dochu
This is the event where a courtesan procession is recreated annually on the second Saturday of April, near Asakusa in Tokyo. It begins with the short version, showing just the procession