BOOK REVIEWS_The Japan Foundation Newsletter

Poetry readings, specifically those at which poetsread their own works, are gradually gaining popularity in Japan today. Such readings are heldin small galleries, community centers, and evenlarge theaters and halls on occasion. Performancemethods are as varied as the settings. For instance, a poet may read his or her poetry overbackground music or as part of an artistic col-laboration with instrumental accompanists,dancers, or other performers. Occasionally, apoet may even provide his or her own musicalaccompaniment while reading. Despite the efforts of some contemporary poets, however,such performances have yet to attain widespreadpopularity due to the prevailing attitude amongmodern poets that the best way to appreciate poetry is still to approach it as text to be readsilently rather than aloud. In this regard, oneshould remember that Japanese is a visual, highlyideographic language that uses Sino-Japanesecharacters (kanji) extensively. In this, it differsconsiderably from more auditory languagesthat employ phonetic symbols, such as charactersof the Latin alphabet. Personally, I not only sup-port oral poetry reading but also wish to be actively involved in its promotion and growth. Iam of the opinion that Japanese poetry readingwould advance to a new level if a performance

method that modifies the traditional linguisticrhythms of Japanese were developed. I myselfhave given experimental performances of oralpoetry, or poems composed without pen andpaper. I will discuss this topic further below.

In this article, I will consider the present stateof poetry reading in Japan and problematicaspects of oral readings of poetry in Japanese.First, however, let us look briefly at the history ofthe written word.

The Power of the Written WordInvented at various times in ancient Mesopota-mia, Egypt, China, and India, writing facilitatedthe transmission of knowledge over time andspace. The development of writing was undeni-ably momentous in the history of humankind. Itis not hard to imagine the mystery and fascina-tion that written characters must have held forpeople when writing first reached Japan. InJapan, the skill with which the imperial family

Katsunori Kusunoki

The Japan Foundation Newsletter XXVI/No. 1 1

ARK MORI BLDG, 1-12-32 AKASAKA, MINATO-KU, TOKYO 107-6021, JAPAN Tel: +81 (03) 5562-3511 ISSN 0385-2318

VOL. XXVI/NO. 1 MAY 1998

The Current State of Poetry Readings in Japan

Katsunori Kusunoki is a well-known poetand video auteur. Among his numerousvideo series are Kazoku [Family; Studioams], Video Zoo (Naoshima Contem-porary Art Museum), and Toi Oto [Dis-tant Sound; Film Art Co.]. His booksinclude Bideo Sakka no Shiten [A VideoAuteurs Perspective; Heibonsha], Pepa Bideo Insutareshon[Paper Video Installation (a video poetry collection); Shichosha], and Kore wa Mienai Mono o Kaku EnpitsuDesu [This Pencil Writes of Unseen Matters; Film Art Co.].

ON OTHER PAGES

CULTURAL HIGHLIGHTSFrom the Japanese Press

(March 1April 30, 1998) 5RESEARCH REPORTSA Comparative Study on Images of

Modernity 7Behind the Veil: Shizuko Wakamatsu

and the Freedom of Translation 8BOOK REVIEWSBooks in Other Languages 11FOUNDATION ACTIVITIESThe Asian Performing Artists

Co-Production Program 15

wielded the written word is thought to have beena key determinant of the extent of its power, indi-cating the written words role as an essentialpolitical instrument. For people who had previ-ously communicated solely through speech andgesture, the effect of the new communicationmedium must have been incalculable. In thosedays, communication with people within therange of ones voice, though comparable to modern-day poetry readings, could often be usedonly for impromptu conversations, discussions toreach a common understanding, and the like.Writing, on the other hand, facilitated communi-cation over great expanses of time and space andwas therefore perceived as something unprec-edented and powerful. For nearly all peoples andcultures worldwide, poetry is said to have servedas the primary means of expressing faith andother basic human emotions following the devel-opment of language. Accordingly, from timeimmemorial countless poems have been com-posed to be recited and performed with voice andgesture. This poetic tradition has been dissemi-nated more widely since the invention of writing.It can even be said that images evoked by writtentexts often make stronger impressions on readers.

The ancient oral-poetry tradition can be trulyrevived only when the written word is vocalizedin our minds. When the sense of hearing is thusstimulated by the sense of sightthat is, whenthe essence of verse is impartedthen, and onlythen, is poetry internalized by the individualreader. This is because the written word, whosechief attribute is universality, cannot be separatedfrom speech. At first, this might seem contradic-tory in the case of written Japanese, whichemploys kanji, each having a specific meaning. Ifone approaches kanji solely in these terms, theirmeanings do appear to be unrelated to the spokenword. The relationship between the written wordand speech becomes more obvious when oneturns to China, the birthplace of kanji. Sinceancient times, Chinese poets have composed witha dual emphasison both the meaning and thesound of charactersas is indicated by the factthat a fundamental element of any Chinese poemis its rhyme scheme. The intimate relationshipbetween the written word and speech becomeseven more obvious when one considers the greatnumber of peoples who write with phonetic char-acters, such as those of the Latin alphabet. Whenwe read poetry recorded in phonetic characters,we are considerably more sensitive to the soundof the characters than we are when reading Japa-nese poetry. This is attributable to the manner of

reading inevitably demanded by the Latin alpha-bet and other phonetic scripts.

The Written and Spoken Word MeetThe poet and literary critic Makoto Ooka(b. 1931) relates an interesting tale in his bookKoe de Tanoshimu Utsukushii Nihon no ShiKin-Gen-dai Shi Hen [Beautiful Japanese Poemsto Enjoy Reading Aloud: A Modern Poetry Col-lection; Iwanami Shoten, 1990]. In the MurasakiShikibu Nikki [The Diary of Murasaki Shikibu],there is a scene in which Emperor Ichijos con-sort Shoshi returns to the mansion of her father,Fujiwara no Michinaga, and gives birth to aprince. Murasaki Shikibu [fl. ca. 1000], one ofthe court ladies who served drinks at the banquetcelebrating the princes birth, wrote in her diarythat she composed a congratulatory poem for thebanquet, which she attended with the intention ofreciting the poem while pouring drinks forguests. She wrote that when court ladies sawShijo Dainagon [Major Counselor] Fujiwara noKinto among the many distinguished guests inattendance, they remarked in unison, Oh, no!How embarrassing! I dont really care whethermy poem is good or bad, but I dont think I canrecite in front of him without my voice faltering.Kinto, considered the preeminent poet and poetryscholar of his day, compiled the famous anthol-ogy Wakan Roeishu [Collection of Chinese andJapanese Poems for Singing; 1013] and was an important member of the Fujiwara clan. Inaddition to being talented at composing waka[Japanese-style poems] and Chinese poems, hewas also an accomplished extemporaneous poetand skilled player of various string and windinstruments. According to Murasaki Shikibusdiary, upon seeing Kinto, the court ladies becameextremely nervous at the prospect of being cho-sen to serve sak and recite their own poems tohim. It is interesting to note that the women weremore concerned about the actual act of recitingaloud than about the quality of their poems.Although Murasaki Shikibu had sufficient confi-dence in the poem she had prepared for thatevening to record it in her diary, she seems tohave been intimidated by the thought of actuallyreciting it in front of Kinto.

This emphasis on vocal quality over the qualityof the poem is an extremely interesting concept.In modern-day Japan, there appears to be littleconcern over whether someones voice is good orbad. This is because electronically altered voices,rather than natural voices, have become the normas a result of advances in telephony and other

The Japan Foundation Newsletter XXVI/No. 12

POETRY READINGS IN JAPAN

communications technologies. Even at poetryreadings, most poets use a microphone, deliver-ing their electronically amplified voices to theaudience through a speaker system. Though suchamplification may well suit modern performancespaces, I sometimes try to find voices capable ofcarrying in such spaces without the aid of micro-phones. This habit stems from my fondness fornatural voices that can project a living, vibrantpersona.

Ooka also noted several fundamental pointsabout written Japanese. Matsuo Basho[164494], the unrivaled haiku master of theGenroku era [16881704], often told his disciplesthat the secret of writing haiku is to say it aloudagain and again. One would be hard pressed tomake the point more concisely that the essence ofverse is inseparable from speech. Since the past,there were numerous different forms of Japaneseverse, most notably tanka (consisting of lines of5, 7, 5, 7, and 7 syllables) and haiku (with linesof 5, 7, and 5 syllables). One of the primaryattractions of certain modern poetry that has beeninfluenced by these ancient forms is the beauty ofthe harmony and interaction between the lines offive and seven syllables. When such poems werecollected in written texts, punctuation markswere not used. Poetry collections published asmodern, typeset books sometimes include punc-tuation marks, but these have been added for thebenefit of modern readers. Punctuation markswere formerly omitted because people were ableto understand those tanka, haiku, and otherpoems without them.

Despite the obvious benefits of punctuation interms of increased clarity, the use of punctuationin Japanese literary expression dates back onlyabout a century; it was first introduced into theJapanese language early in the Meiji era(18681912) as a means of facilitating compre-hension of meaning. At around the same time,numerous translations of Western books becameavailable, further promoting the use of punctua-tion. Its use in poetry is said to have come aboutduring the Taisho era (191225). Though thereare some poets who used punctuationincludingBokusui Wakayama (18851928) and YugureMaeda (18831951), both of whom used it dur-ing a brief phase in their careers, and ShakuChoku (Shinobu Orikuchi; 18871953), whoused it over a longer periodthey are rare in theworld of tanka.

Even today, punctuation is hardly ever used intanka, much less in haiku. In contrast, in freeverse (modern poetry) written since the Taisho

era, the use of not only commas and periods butalso quotation marks, question marks, and excla-mation points has become the norm. Needless tosay, punctuation was introduced into poetry as aphenomenon inseparable from the increasedemphasis on logical elements and the priorityplaced on meaning in poems. The use of punctua-tion is a major difference between modern poetryand traditional, fixed-form poetry, such as haikuand tanka. Moreover, we can surmise that thisdifference is closely related to the prevailing atti-tude among modern poets that modern poetrymust be read silently. While there may be somebasis for this view, I do not feel many poemsmerit being read only silently. Ooka went so faras to say, If there is even a single verse of suchpoetry, it should be acclaimed as a remarkableaccomplishment, for it would defy the veryessence of language. Indeed, it would be a miraculous work that should be regarded withwonder. Ookas thoughts on this topic mirror my basic attitude toward oral poetry reading.

Another poet who has profoundly influencedmy view of oral poetry reading is Takaaki Yoshimoto (b. 1924). As a literary critic andprominent intellectual, Yoshimoto has influencedmany peoples views on not only Japanese litera-ture but also Japanese politics and ideology. Hisrecent book Isho [Testament; Kadokawa HarukiJimusho, 1998] prompted me to consider theinnate rhythms of the Japanese language. Thevast majority of modern poets merely expresspoetic sentiments that were originally expressedin tanka or haiku, but instead of employing thosetraditional Japanese forms of poetic expression,they go out of their way to present their senti-ments in the style of modern Western literature.

As Yoshimoto pointed out in Isho, if one com-pares the poetry of two modern poets, there willmost likely be no discernible differences. Modernpoets lack individuality. They seem to feel thatpoetry consists in the act of taking something thatis properly suited to a traditional literary style,adapting it, and placing it in a modern Westerncontext. This fallacious belief has tainted nearlyall modern poets, and only a handful have beenable to free themselves from its harmful influ-ence. Indeed, these modern poets regard theadaptation of Japanese poetry to fit a Westerncontext as an avant-garde experiment. Such anapproach could never yield original, innovativework, and if the result is gratuitously calledpoetry, it is poetry in name only. Yoshimoto alsodiscussed the potential of Japanese poetry in thesame work.





The poetry of Takashi Okai [b. 1928] andother modern poets, particularly their experi-ments with free meter and rhythms and metersthat are unrelated to the poetic subject, remainsfaithful to Japanese poetic traditions whileexploring innovative concepts. Takashi Okai isattempting to determine how much modernitycan be injected into the traditional literary stylesof haiku and tanka. Representing a slight depar-ture from traditional Japanese literary styles,Okais work retains only their meter and innaterhythm. The nature of the relationship betweenpoetry and prose remains unclear, since it hasproved extremely difficult to reconcile aspects oftraditional Japanese prosody and metrics withthose of modern Western languages. I am unableto say authoritatively how Japanese literary stylesshould be transformed and applied to new areaswithout losing their intrinsic qualities, but SosekiNatsume [18671916] is one author who wasable to develop such a prose style, while GozoYoshimasu [b. 1939] was a pioneer in terms ofhis poetic style.

The Power of the Spoken WordNot only were Yoshimasus text poems uniquelyinnovative but he also developed a unique per-formance method, not unlike that of a witchchanting incantations, which has demonstratedconsiderable potential for promoting readings ofJapanese poetry. I agree with his view that thefuture of Japanese poetry lies with a return tobasics, that is, accepting the five-seven andseven-five syllabic meters of haiku and tanka asthe standard forms of Japanese verse, adoptingthese traditional forms as the underlying poeticmeter, and then gradually modifying them.Yoshimoto makes a similar point in Gengo nitotte Bi to wa Nani ka [What Is Beauty withRespect to Language?] in volume 6 of the Yoshimoto Takaaki Zen Chosaku Shu [CompleteWorks of Takaaki Yoshimoto; Keiso Shobo,1976]. In a passage on poetic meter, he takes as aspecific example the following tanka: Kokkyoowareshi / Karu Marukusu wa / tsuma ni okurete /shininikeru kana (Pursued to the border / KarlMarx / Will he outlive his wife, I wonder).

In the poems first line, Kokkyo owareshi, theauthor has assumed the persona of Karl Marx,who is being chased to a countrys border. WithKaru Marukusu wa, the author steps into the roleof an objective narrator describing a historicalevent. In the line tsuma ni okurete, the authorseems to resume his own persona when he saysthat Marx has died in exile after having outlived

his late wife. In the line shininikeru kana, the author comes full circle, returning to the originalperspective as he is overcome by Marxs death.While on the surface this poem merely presentsan objective account of a historical event, if it isviewed as a series of high-speed photographswhile analyzing the authors choice of expres-sions, it becomes clear that the poem accom-plishes complex shifts in viewpoint, from Marxbeing chased to the border to objective narrator toauthor, who expresses emotions at Marxs death.Whether this shifting of viewpoint is conscious orunconscious is irrelevant. If the shift is uncon-scious, the author was merely following the con-ventions dictated by traditional syllabic meter. Insuch a case, concerns relating to the traditionalmeter take precedence over the authors inten-tions. I believe that it is most important todevelop Japanese poetry while maintainingproper emphasis on traditional syllabic and met-ric forms, thereby preserving the innate rhythmsof the Japanese language. In addition to poetryperformance methods imported directly from theWest, I believe we also need to experiment withthe creation of original performance methods inJapanese.

One possible solution, in my opinion, is thepreviously mentioned oral poetry. Though anextremely difficult experiment, it is not withoutpromise. In my personal attempts to composeoral poetry, I have found Makoto Ookas idea that poems must be vocalized to be extremelyedifying. Likewise, Takaaki Yoshimotos ideathat the innate rhythms of Japanese cannot beignored when composing oral poetry. Similarly,my quest to create an oral poetic tradition cannotbe divorced from the influence of the traditionalrhythms to which I have been exposed, both con-sciously and unconsciously. These rhythms per-meate my being and have naturally influenced the way I communicate with others throughverse. The process of creation has led me to askmyself anew, What is poetry? When I vocalize,I experience a flash of hope that just maybe I cancreate oral poetry by shedding and transformingaspects of traditional Japanese literary styles,sometimes intentionally, other times uncon-sciously. For example, one approach to creatinginnovative oral poetry may be to compose whileinternalizing two, three, or more subjectivebeings within myself. By no means does thisentail uttering words in a schizophrenic state ofmind; rather, it means approaching themes frommultiple viewpoints. This is one of the literaryexperiments currently underway in Japan.

AWARDS

Spring HonorsThe Japanese government announced the namesof 4,514 people to be honored in the spring 1998conferment of decorations. Prominent among thehonors were the Grand Cordon of the Order ofthe Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers to beconferred on former chief justice of the SupremeCourt Ryohachi Kusaba, 72, and the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun to be con-ferred on Nobel Prize winner for physics Reona(Leo) Esaki, 73, former president of the Univer-sity of Tsukuba. The twenty-six foreign nationalsto be honored include former prime minister ofFrance Raymond Barre, 74, and former managerof the Chunichi Dragons professional baseballclub Wally Kaname Yonamine, 72. (S: Apr. 29)

HISTORY

Kitora Tomb Murals Discovered Representations of constellations, or seishuku(celestial maps), were discoverd on the ceiling ofthe late-seventh- or early-eighth-century stone-chambered Kitora Tomb in Asuka, Nara Prefec-ture. Other discoveries in this tomb includepolychrome murals depicting two creatures tra-ditionally considered sacred: the byakko (whitetiger) and the seiryu (blue dragon). The seishuku,in particular, are finer than those in the contem-poraneous Takamatsuzuka Tomb, also in Asuka,which is known for its Chinese-style polychromemurals. The new finds will be vital to compara-tive analyses of the murals of the two ancienttombs, which should provide valuable informa-tion on cultural interaction between Japan, China,the Korean peninsula, and other areas in ancienttimes. (Y: Mar. 7)

MISCELLANEOUS

Ainu Artifacts in Russia CataloguedThe Russian Academy of Sciences Museum ofAnthropology and Ethnography named afterPeter the Great possesses an extensive collectionof artifacts of the Ainu, an ethnic group nowfound chiefly on Japans northern island ofHokkaido. Professor Shinko Ogihara of ChibaUniversity and researchers from both Russia andJapan studied and photographed a total of aboutnineteen hundred items in the museums collec-tionincluding religious implements, huntinggear, woodenware, and clothingmany of whichwere recovered from the Chishima (Kuril)Islands, Sakhalin, and Hokkaido. A trilingual(English, Japanese, and Russian) catalogue ofthese Ainu artifacts was compiled and has beenpublished by Sofukan, Tokyo. (A: Apr. 1)

Bilingual Encyclopedia PublishedKodansha International recently published TheKodansha Bilingual Encyclopedia of Japan,which presents a wide range of information onJapan in both English and Japanese. This richlyillustrated encyclopedia offers a wealth of currentinformation on Japan, with entries grouped inseven sections: Geography and Nature, History,Government and Diplomacy, Economy, Society,Culture, and Life. An indispensable source ofinformation for fostering international and cul-tural exchange, it is ideal for language students oranyone interested in learning more about Japanand its culture. (Y: Mar. 22)

Japan and Europe Discuss Digitization of Cultural DataRepresentatives from Japan and Europe met atEVA-GIFU 98 (International Electronic ImageConference on the Visual Arts), held in Gifu,Gifu Prefecture, to discuss the digitization ofmuseum collections. Their primary goals are toensure the preservation and recording of collec-tions that are subject to deterioration over timeand to increase awareness of cultural treasures bymaking them more accessible for educational and

CULTURAL HIGHLIGHTS

From the Japanese Press(March 1April 30, 1998)


Abbreviations used here:A...Asahi Shimbun M...Mainichi ShimbunN...Nihon Keizai Shimbun S...Sankei Shimbun

Y...Yomiuri Shimbun

commercial purposes. The conference high-lighted a variety of problems that remain to beresolved, such as copyright protection and theneed to improve network technology. Among theproposals approved at the conference were futurecooperation between Europe and Japan to stand-ardize communications technologies and data-storage methods. (Y: Apr. 15)

The Kanagawa Declaration ReleasedThe international symposium Paths to GlobalCitizenship: Networks for the Preservation ofCultural Assets, held recently in Yokohama, wasattended by museum curators from France, Italy,Japan, the United Kingdom, and the UnitedStates. The symposium culminated in theannouncement of the Kanagawa Declaration,which proclaims: We all have an obligation toensure that humanitys irreplaceable heritage ispassed on to posterity. (Y: Apr. 22)

International Cultural Exchange Summit HeldThe International Cultural Exchange Summit 98,intended to establish a network for the restorationof Japanese works of art located overseas, washeld in Shiga Prefecture. Leading members ofJapans museum and art worlds, including IkuoHirayama, chairman of the Art Research Founda-tion, joined representatives from the BritishMuseum, the Freer Gallery of Art (Washington,D.C.), and other notable institutions. The summitconfirmed the participants determination to con-tinue promoting cooperative restoration projectsinvolving both government and private organiza-tions, and this theme was adopted in the ShigaDeclaration on the Restoration of JapaneseWorks of Art. (S: Apr. 28)

World Heritage Sites to Be RecommendedJapans Agency for Cultural Affairs has con-firmed its plan to recommend that the renownedshrine Tosho-gu and several other shrines andtemples in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, be placedon the World Heritage List. The buildings to berecommended cover a total area of approximately500,000 sq m and include Tosho-gu (the mau-soleum of the first Tokugawa shogun, Ieyasu),Futarasan Shrine, the Tendai temple Rinno-ji, and other historic religious buildings. More thanone hundred buildings in the region that typify

architecture of the Edo period (16031868) havebeen designated as either National Treasures orImportant Cultural Properties. (S: Apr. 19)

Hokusai International Conference ConvenedHokusai Hall in Obuse, Nagano Prefecture, wasthe site of the Third Hokusai International Con-ference, an academic gathering focused on vari-ous subjects relating to the famed master ofukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) Katsushika Hokusai (17601849). In his keynoteaddress, Donald Keene, professor emeritus ofColumbia University, described how the national-isolation policy of the pre-modern period led toan unprecedented era of peace and freedom,which allowed the populace to enrich their liveswith a wide range of pursuits and interests andresulted in the development of a culture the com-mon people could call their own. (M: Apr. 20)

OBITUARIES

Tokuho Azuma (born Kikue Yamada), 89, thefourth iemoto (hereditary head) of the Azumaschool of Nihon Buyo dance, April 23. Sheformed the Azuma Kabuki troupe in 1954 andtook it on a two-year tour of Europe and theUnited States, where the troupes performancesdid much to introduce Kabuki to audiencesabroad. The preeminent figure in the world ofNihon Buyo, Azuma was noted for a wide rangeof artistic activities that embraced not only classic works but also creative dance presenta-tions. Azuma was named a Person of CulturalMerit in 1991. (A: Apr. 24)

Isokichi Asakura, 85, Kutani-ware ceramist,April 9. An innovator who improved glaze for-mulas and firing methods, Asakura created numer-ous masterpieces distinguished by their gravityand profoundness. His unique world of color suf-fused with an air of modernity, often dubbedAsakura Color, is a distinctive idiom based onOld Kutani works that favor a basic palette ofyellow, green, and purple. Asakura was named aPerson of Cultural Merit in 1992 and received theOrder of Culture in 1996. (Y: Apr. 10)

(Continued on page 10)


CULTURAL HIGHLIGHTS

A Comparative Study on Images of Modernity


RESEARCH REPORTS

Artists and writers from both Japan and theUnited States have been physically and psycho-logically aloof from the orthodoxy of modernart or modern literature established toward theend of the nineteenth century in Europe, specifi-cally in France. Although both countries havebeen directly and indirectly influenced by theEuropean modernist movement, they have man-aged to develop their own unique modern iden-tity. I have formed a theory of modernity in Frenchart and literature (Hisaki Matsuura, HeimenronSenhappyakuhachiju-nendai Seio [The SurfaceTheory: The Western World in the 1880s; IwanamiShoten, 1994] and Efferu-to Shiron [An Essay onthe Eiffel Tower; Chikuma Shobo, 1995]) and amapplying this theory to the study of Japanese andAmerican poetry to identify characteristics ofmodernity in the light of the transformation offormal rearrangements of literary symbols.

The first step in this process consisted of deci-phering the historical direction of Americanpoetryspecifically from Edgar Allan Poe andWalt Whitman to Robert Frost, William CarlosWilliams, Ezra Pound, e. e. cummings, AllenGinsberg, and John Ashberywithin the theo-retical framework of imagery and representa-tion. The same process was applied to modernJapanese poetry, from the shintaishi (poetry innew forms) of the Meiji era (18681912) to thework of Tokoku Kitamura (186894), AriakeKanbara (18761952), Hakushu Kitahara(18851942), and Sakutaro Hagiwara (18861942) and postwar poetry, including that of theArechi (Wasteland) school. Through these pre-liminary probes, parallel imagery and representa-tions in the literary traditions of both countrieswere identified and then analyzed from a theo-retical and historical perspective.

These studies have clarified a common pre-occupation of Japanese and American poetsregardless of differences in schools, styles, personal mannerisms, or ideologieswith repre-senting and expressing form (i.e., arrangementsof linguistic symbols and narrative structures)rather than content, a preoccupation characteristicof modernity in Japanese and American litera-ture as a whole. The refinement of semiotic forms in literary works has emerged as a parallelphenomenon in the development of both themodern American and the modern Japanesepoetic tradition. Although many similar theorieshave been reported in the fields of comparativeliterature and comparative cultural history, ananalysis of the concept of poetical modernityhas yet to be undertaken from the perspectives ofimage theory, semiotics, media theory, and cul-ture and representation. Needless to say, compara-tive studies of the works of, among others, JohnAshbery, from the United States, and MinoruYoshioka (191990), from Japan, can also beconducted in terms of linguistic consciousness,but it is necessary for such studies to go beyondthematic or ideological similarities and differ-ences to juxtapose poetic texts in the context ofpoetic modernity, thus contributing to the recon-sideration of existing representational forms.

The above-mentioned studies cannot be con-veniently limited to the framework of aesthetic orartistic high culture, however. The period sincethe latter half of the nineteenth century can becharacterized by fundamental changes in the con-cept of image effected by the emergence ofinnovative visual technologies, such as photogra-phy, movies, and television. Throughout thetwentieth century, technologies relating to theproduction, distribution, and consumption ofreproducible visual images have been developedgreatly, together with other mass-society phe-nomena, and have influenced the function andimportance of images in linguistic representationmedia, including poetry and novels. This imagetransformation first emerged in its most radicalform in the United States and seems to have infil-trated Japanese popular culture, as well.

Hisaki Matsuura is a professor of cultureand representation at the University of Tokyo and a published poet. His research on the theme Comparative Studies on theImages of Modernity in Japanese andAmerican Literature at Harvard Univer-sity was supported by a 199798 JapanFoundation Fellowship.

Hisaki Matsuura


Shizuko Wakamatsu (186496), perhaps morethan any of her peers, embodies the early-Meiji-era (18681912) ideal of the woman writer. Achild of the tumult that attended the MeijiRestoration in 1868, she was left at a very young

age to fend for herself. By a stroke of fortune, shereceived a Western-based education and learnedEnglish alongside the Japanese classics. Shedevoted herself assiduously to the improvementof the female condition in Japanall the whileserving faithfully as a wife and mother. Her earlyyears of poverty, frequent childbirths, and con-stant overwork took their toll on her fragile health,however, and she died a few weeks before herthirty-second birthday, but not before accumulat-ing an outstanding record of accomplishmentsJapanese essays on education for women and on home science, English essays on Japanese

Behind the Veil:Shizuko Wakamatsu and the Freedom of Translation

Rebecca L. Copeland

RESEARCH REPORTS

In such a context, literature is also related topopular media phenomena. Studies on modernimages lead necessarily to studies on the moder-nity of images, a field in which the precise areawhere media theories, semiotic image analyses,and literary theories overlap must be clarified.

At the same time, the development of poeticlanguage in this period has coincided with theemergence of modern nation states, in a politicaland economic sense. Consequently, it is also necessary to study the way that nationalistic ideologies and movements have influenced thedevelopment of literary consciousnesscompar-ing Japanese and American literary works andclarifying their relationship to political theories.We should therefore approach literary textsagainst a backdrop of political nationalism andpower and consider other possible meanings oftexts beyond the narrow framework of literaryhistory.

In this regard, I have noted an aspect of Minoru Yoshiokas wartime experience thatseems to be a consequence of the development ofthis nationalistic aspect of literary consciousness.Although Yoshioka is commonly regarded as anaesthete and avant-garde poet who arrangedwords as poetic objets dart, his experiences as asoldier in Manchuria during World War II consti-tuted a vital underpinning of his creative world.War, as an incarnation of modern Japans

nationalistic ideology, was transformed into andexpressed in various grotesque or supernaturalimages by Yoshioka and formed the core of hisliterary activities. Parallels can also be found inthe historical development of modern Americanpoetry, which grew out of a simple, Whitman-like nationalism and eventually led to the birth ofantiestablishment works by such poets as AllenGinsberg.

The above-described state of modern Japanesepoetry is of great significance to me as a literaryscholar, writer, and poet. An invitation to delivera lecture and read some of my poems at the JapanSociety in New York last February gave me anextraordinary opportunity to share the nature ofcontemporary Japanese poetry with an Americanaudience. It was also a practical application ofmy studies, which normally focus on theoreticalaspects of poetry. An unexpectedly large audi-ence attended and actively participated in thequestion-and-answer session after the lecture.The event yielded many thought-provokinginsights into differences between American andJapanese ways of enjoying poetry. While it is natural in the American literary milieu to hearand appreciate poems that are read aloud, modernJapanese poetic language has been, in a sense,shaped by silencing the voice. Of course, the sub-ject of voice cannot be divorced from thebroader framework of political media issues.

Rebecca L. Copeland is associate profes-sor of Japanese language and literature at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. Her research on Meiji-erawomen writers, conducted at KokugakuinUniversity, Tokyo, under the direction ofProfessor Yasuyuki Ogikubo, was sup-ported by a 1997 Japan Foundation Fellowship.


RESEARCH REPORTS

literature and culture, prose fiction, poetry in both English and Japanese, and, more notably, aseries of translations from English into Japanese.

Although she translated Henry WadsworthLongfellow, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and sectionsof Charles Dickens, it is for her translation ofFrances Eliza Hodgson Burnetts Little LordFauntleroy that she is most remembered. Hertranslation, Shokoshi (1892; reprint, Tokyo:Nihon Kindai Bungakukan, 1968), contributed tothe contemporary literary scene in numerousways. It opened the door to the entirely newgenre of childens literature. Furthermore, thelanguage she crafted both substantially advancedthe campaign to invent a modern literary idiomand raised the contemporary artistic level of liter-ary translation. Given the significance of herwork, it is difficult to explain why she has beenoverlooked today. As the literary scholarMasahide Yamamoto (190780)one critic whoobviously did not forget herpoints out, she ishardly mentioned at all in the many studies thattreat early-Meiji-era translations or experimentswith genbun itchi (unification of speech andprose). In studies of childrens literature, she isgiven slightly more credit, but her works areremoved from context and abridged so severelythat they lose all value.1 Like so many of herfemale contemporaries, Shizuko Wakamatsu hasbecome a footnote in a history that does notinclude her.

Ironically, it is in part this anonymity, thisrefusal to insinuate herself into the pages of liter-ary history, that is responsible for Shizuko Wakamatsus current standing as an ideal Meiji-era woman writer. Women at the time, whether inthe home or in the literary arena, were not toadvertise their accomplishments too boldly.Those who did were often chastised for theirunlady-like behavior. Those who did not were ofcourse overlooked. A woman had to be a cleverstrategist if she were both to disseminate herwritings publicly and to retain a feminine sub-missiveness. In many ways, translation allowedwomen to enter the literary arena without quiterelinquishing their presumed modesty. As thepoet and novelist Doppo Kunikida (18711908)argued, translation was more natural to womenthan creative writing: Composing original worksencourages publicity; translating invites truemerit. The former calls for arrogance; the latter,humility. The former touches on fantasy; the lat-ter on sobriety. This is why translation is, as Ihave said, a task for women.2

Citing the success of Shizuko Wakamatsu and

her contemporary Kimiko Koganei (18701956),Doppo encouraged women to abandon notions ofbecoming writers and to translate instead. Trans-lation, he continued, was an appropriate pastimefor women because it was so automatic that itrequired little thought. A woman could attend toher children and to her husbandwhom shecould consult on difficult mattersand stilltranslate successfully. Of course, translationrequired diligence, attention to detail, and faith-fulnessbut who better than a woman to meetthese demands! Moreover, with translation shedid not have to worry about losing her inspirationor train of thought.

Doppos misogyny was excessive even byMeiji-era standards, but his comments illuminatethe essential bias against womens writing at thetime (and against translation!). Writing requiredthought. It required not only a space between thebedroom and the kitchen but a mental space, aswell, where a woman could enter at will andindulge in her own ideas and dreams and pas-sions. But indulgence of this kind threatened menlike Doppo, because it required that women placetheir own creativity above their devotion to theirhusbands and fathers. Women who thought forthemselves, who were creative, who had trainsof thought entered a realm that put them beyondthe control of men like Doppo, thus disruptingthe proper balance in the sexual hierarchy.

Shizuko labored over her translators art, andher efforts far exceeded a mere selection ofwords. Even so, she did not draw attention toher labors. She made translating seem simplebecause she made it so natural. And the texts shecreated as a result were equally readable.

In a sense, translation became a mask forShizuko. By presenting herself as a mere trans-lator, she avoided charges of immodesty, selfish-ness, and creativity. Unlike other women writers,she did not require kenagesa (boldness) to pres-ent her workbecause the work she presentedwas not her own. She was merely the conduit,the machine, the helpmeet, the wife. Throughtranslation, however, Shizuko found she couldexplore other realmsrealms she could not reachin her own voice. She could write of seafaringmen and golden-haired boys, and she could usetheir adventures, battles, and aspirations as acipher for her own. More importantly, she coulddare to be inventive. A ventriloquist for Burnett,Dickens, or Tennyson, she could write about thelower classes or experiment with colloquial lan-guage with impunity. In contrast, when Shizukoscontemporary Kaho Miyake (18681943) wrote


from the point of view of stableboys and rick-shaw pullers, she was taken to tasknot becauseher portrayals were inept but because they wereso skillful. How could an innocent schoolgirlhave written with such incisiveness? Shizuko, onthe other hand, was not chastised for writingabout bootblacks and scullery maids because, ofcourse, she hadnt. She had not authored thesescenes and so was exempt from such criticism.

With translation, Shizuko could touch an emo-tional depth she could not quite reach with herown [Japanese] words. Shizuko Wakamatsu,standing before the world unveiled as a jogakushi(lady-scholar)was inclined like Kaho Miyaketo offer moral tales. Her original works, there-fore, were generally narrow and self-consciousand concluded with lessons and warnings. Buttranslating freed her from herself. Translationspermitted her the space to play without beingunduly aware of her lady-scholar self. Cer-tainly, she consciously sought out works that shethought represented her own values and ideas, butshe was free to imbue her renditions with anemotional intensity that she could not impart toher original works. In the process, she was alsoable to express something of herself.

Shizuko was not a feminist by todays stand-ards nor even by Meiji-era standards. As the liter-ary scholar Ryohei Shioda (18991971) notes,she did not try to establish a new morality likeAkiko Yosano [18781942] and the later Seitowomen [self-styled new women associatedwith or influenced by the magazine Seito (Blue-stocking)]. Nor did she cast a doubting eye on theexisting moral system like the other women writers of her own generation. Rather, Shizukoworked within the system.3 By working withinthe system, and behind the veil of translation,Shizuko was able to find the space she needed toaccomplish what she desired. Critics did not try to silence her or change her or redirect heras

they had tried with Kahofor there was no needto do so. She did not threaten. Rather, she pre-sented herself as the ideal, the exemplary newwoman. As one of her American teachersobserved: A new woman undoubtedly she was,not in the sense, however, which has come to beattached to that term on account of the appear-ance of a few monstrosities in modern civiliza-tion, but a new woman in the highest and bestsense. A regenerated woman directed by theforces of a new life.4

Masks, of course, have a way of manipulatingeven their wearer. Shizukos mask, her transla-tors veil, in allowing her to be creative also com-pelled her to retain those signifiers that markedher as properly feminine. She was successful as atranslator, it was believed, because she was sofemininewilling, as Doppo tells us, to forgopublicity, arrogance, and fantasy and thereby ableto yield her own ego to that of a greater mind, anoriginal author. And so it is that Shokoshiremainsa well-loved childrens story and animportant forerunner to the modern narrativebut the name of its translator has faded from his-torical memory.

NOTES1. Masahide Yamamoto, Wakamatsu Shizuko no

Honyaku Shosetsu Genbun Itchi Bun no Shiteki Igi [TheHistorical Significance of Colloquial Language in ShizukoWakamatsus Translation of English Novels], Sen-shuKokubun 14 (September 1973): 2325.

2. Doppo Kunikida, Joshi to Honyaku no Koto [About Women and Translation], in Kunikida DoppoZenshu [The Collected Works of Doppo Kunikida] (1898;reprint, Tokyo: Gakushu Kenkyusha, 1965), 2:364.

3. Ryohei Shioda, Wakamatsu Shizuko, in ShinteiMeiji Joryu Sakka Ron [A Study of Meiji Women Writers,Revised Edition] (Tokyo: Neiraku Shobo, 1965; reprint,Tokyo: Bunseido, 1983), 176.

4. Eugene S. Booth, foreword to In Memory of Mrs.Kashi Iwamoto, ed. Yoshiharu Iwamoto (1896; reprint,Tokyo: Ryukei Shosha, 1981), xi.

RESEARCH REPORTS

(Continued from page 6)Kenji Takahashi, 95, scholar of German litera-ture, March 2. He introduced Japanese readers tonumerous classics of German literature, includingHesses Beneath the Wheel and works by Goethe,Heine, and the Brothers Grimm. Takahashi wasparticularly admired for his accessible, easy-to-read translations and won an international

translation award in 1974. His lifelong quest tobring great works of literature to a larger audi-ence included efforts to introduce Japanese litera-ture to readers overseas, as exemplified by histranslation into German of Ogai Moris 1916 storyTakasebune [The Takase Boat]. He was nameda Person of Cultural Merit in 1985. (A: Mar. 11)


BOOKS IN OTHER LANGUAGES

BOOK REVIEWS

Subsidized Under the Japan FoundationPublication Assistance Program

Picturing Japaneseness: Monumental Style,National Identity, Japanese Film. DarrellWilliam Davis. New York: Columbia UniversityPress, 1996. viii + 304 pp. ISBN 0-231-10231-3.

It is a welcome phenomenon that a number ofscholarly books on Japanese cinema have beenpublished in the last decade, particularly by filmscholars in the United States who are interestedin examining the film medium as a site whereculture, politics, aesthetics, and history areencountered. Darrell William Daviss PicturingJapaneseness is one such effort.

The relationship between cinema and history,between art and politics at any given time and inany given culture is highly complex and subjectto both speculation and analysis. The earlyShowa era (192689), especially in the 1930s, isone of the most enigmatic and problematic periods in Japanese history, a past with which theJapanese still havent come to terms. Davis findsthis era particularly significant because definingJapaneseness was at its highest stake, thoughit has never ceased to fascinate the Japanese.Assuming that filmic representations of Japa-nese identity in the 1930s can reveal the compo-sition of that identityits structure, function, andintended effectsin ways that are not visible to more conventional historical investigations (pp. 89), Davis explores this difficult era ofheightened nationalism within a conceptualframework of national cinema. He argues forthe existence of the monumental style, directlyrelating it to a national attempt to return to thepre-Meiji [pre-late-nineteenth-century] Japanese cultural heritage, a return to a kind of symboli-cally vibrant era of cultural supremacy and spirit-ual tradition best exemplified by kokutai(national policy) ideology. Although one mayimmediately associate this with numerous propa-ganda or kokusaku (national policy) films pro-duced in the period, Davis contends that films inthe monumental style are different from thosefilms because they are more subtle and com-pelling. The monumental style, for Davis, self-reflectively embodies an aura of Japaneseness,a form of spirituality in traditional Japanese her-itage, in a nutshell a cinematic spiritualizationof Japanese identity. Daviss approach to creat-ing a definition of the national cinema in the

1930s through style is challenging andprovocative, providing a new model of historicalresearch that prompts reconsideration of previousdiscussions of the subject.

The first half of the book is devoted to con-struction of the theory of monumental style andto the historical background from which itemerged. In an attempt to articulate cinematicJapaneseness, Davis sheds light on a Japaneseindigenous film genre, jidai geki (period drama),and its political and cultural ramifications. Hissuccinct summary of the milieu that characterizedthe Japanese cinema in a certain vein from theTaisho era (191226) to the Showa era is anexcellent introduction for anyone interested in thesocial and cultural climate of the period. ThusDavis demonstrates that film indeed could nothave been a better site for expressing the contra-dictions and ambivalence between West and East,between tradition and modernism. The conflictwas, moreover, most apparent in the developmentof the jidai geki from a simple recording of tradi-tional theater to an appropriation of Westernmodes of representation. According to Davis,films in the monumental style bear testimony tothe very process of internalization of ideology byappropriating form itself. Unlike blatant propa-ganda films, those in the monumental style spokemore deeply to the Japanese psyche by offering amodel of aesthetic appropriation and invoking themystic past of Bushido (the way of the warrior)as a spiritual form of Japanese culture.

The other half of the book is devoted to in-depth analysis of films exemplifying the monu-mental style. Instead of tracing great directorsartistic and biographical trajectories, Davisattempts to show how the cinematic spiritualiza-tion of Japanese identity is expressed throughthe monumental style. The style is best exem-plified in nine films: Genroku Chushingura (TheLoyal Forty-Seven Ronin of the Genroku Era, intwo parts, 1941 and 1942) and Zangiku Mono-gatari (The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum,1939) by Kenji Mizoguchi (18981956); AbeIchizoku (The Abe Clan, 1938) by Hisatora Kumagai (190486); and six other films, includ-ing two postwar jidai geki by Akira Kurosawa(b. 1910), Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior,1980) and Ran (1985), in which Davis sees thelegacy of the monumental style. It is precisely atthis point that his difficult approach to relatingideology to style reveals itself as contradictory,however. In fact, his work is characterized by amultiplicity of definitions, multiple parts of astylistic complex. Among these definitions are


three pillars of military rule, an extreme concen-tration of Japanese nationality, a hieratic, sacra-mental appropriation of a classical heritage, anda style that works primarily with clusters oftechniques and episodes. Sometimes it is a ques-tion of articulation of space and perception, andsometimes it is a sacramental depiction of theJapanese family system, and the reader is con-stantly called upon to rethink the very basis ofthe argument. This multitude of definitions mightbe attributed to the complexity of the object ofhis analysis itself, i.e., Japanese identity and therepresentation of Japaneseness. But the monu-mental style seems ultimately to work differentlyin each example, thereby stretching the definitionrather than integrating the argument.

The multiple definitions are further compli-cated by Daviss implication that such harkingback to a mythical or culturally symbolic past is aparticularly Japanese enterprise. The notion of acultural sacrament between a mystic past and amilitaristic present may be appropriate in culturesthat value hieratic sacraments, but such an argu-ment in a Japanese context is rather reductive.Furthermore, Davis often uses Western religiousmetaphors (God, kingdom, sacrament, redemp-tion, salvation, etc.) when he defines the monu-mental style, as well as in his in-depth analysis.Such a translation or transposition of one culturalparadigm onto another may obscure the complex-ity of influences in the culture under analysis.

Another potential source of confusion lies inhis argument regarding the intrinsic system of themonumental style, and this becomes problematicin his discussion of two films, especially GenrokuChushingura, by Mizoguchi, one of the mostbrilliant cinematic stylists in Japan. Mizoguchisescape into formalism to avoid making obviouspropaganda is well-known; however, he is verymuch a product of his time and thus not exemptfrom the nationalist fervor of the period. Suchcontextual dimensions as the question of genre,especially of the rekishi eiga (history films), ofthe process of production, and, most important,of authorship should not be ignored in the actualanalysis. In fact, a copius literature is available inJapanese on the subjects of Mizoguchi and theChushingura films, for example, and dependingonly on English sources may predispose a mono-lithic reading of a highly complex filmic text.

Despite his admirable and rigorous scholarshipin dealing with the relationship between aes-thetics and ideology, Davis seems to be at timescaught by the seduction of defining Japanese-ness as such. His renderings of Japaneseness are

sometimes reduced to the pure representation ofJapaneseness in the most exotic sense (Zen, Japa-nese architecture, gardens, temples, decorativeart, samurai, etc.). However, in spite of such criti-cism, the overall importance of Daviss work cannot be denied. Given the difficulty and com-plexity of the time and the textual richness of thefilms he analyzes, this book can be a point ofdeparture for any scholar, Japanese or not, whowants to grapple with understanding the ways inwhich cinematic form is one of the most multi-layered cultural productions. In fact, PicturingJapaneseness says as much about the myth ofJapaneseness that still prevails as about the Japa-nese cultural environment of the 1930s, and it isthis that makes the book most engaging andrevealing.

Ayako SaitoVisiting Curator

National Film CenterThe National Museum of Modern

Art, Tokyo

Ravine and Other Stories. Yoshikichi Furui.Trans. Meredith McKinney. Berkeley, California:Stone Bridge Press, 1997. 142 pp. ISBN 1-880656-29-9.

All the world is a ravine, and we are but climbersscaling its heights or descending to its depths. In-deed the hills echo with the sound of our troubledcries for help. What is it that we human beingshave to offer to each other in the face of triumph,despair, sickness, suicide, or death?

World as ravine is a central metaphor in theprose of novelist Yoshikichi Furui (b. 1937), andtranslator Meredith McKinney has aptly chosenRavine and Other Stories as the title of heranthology, which also includes Grief Field,The Bellwether, and On Nakayama Hill. Inthe nearly three decades since Furui was first rec-ognized by Yukio Mishima (192570) and hisnovel Yokothe story of a girl found in a ravinebottomwas awarded the Akutagawa Prize in1970, this writer has established a solid reputa-tion in Japaneven a cult following. Yet withthe exception of Howard Hibbetts translation ofTsumagomi [Wedlock],1 Furuis works havebeen largely unavailable in English. Their ascentof the steep rockface to international recognitionhas been slow, but now Ravine and Other Storieshas given them a powerful boost.

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Typical Furui characters are married, some-what marginalized but moderately successfulsalary men who have entered the dangerousyears of middle-age, cancer, and the loss ofyouth. Like their author, they were once amateurmountain climbersveterans of the 1960s whoknew the dizzying heights of both Japans Alpsand its rapid-growth economy. Male bonding iscentral to their lives, but as in the works of Kyoka Izumi (18731939) or Kenji Nakagami(194692), the spectre of a mysterious womanglimpsed in a ravine or leaping over a precipiceand almost never the wifehovers in the back-ground provoking, nurturing, and/or haunting themens dreamlike and highly lyrical journeys intothe cul-de-sac of memory, or what we might callthe snow country of the mind. A woman founddeep in a mountain passage is, as Furui writes,an image that most everyone has seen in adream, and it is the source of all tales wondrousand strange. Not the product of individual imagi-nation, it is communal property that transcendsthe individual like a path that links us to theancients who spun tales of miracles and karmicbeginnings.2 An air of unreality hangs over whathe calls his first-person projections (toei), andwe find ourselves mesmerized by his narcoticprose, drawn along like a sleepwalker who, in theparlous moments prior to wakefulness, slips inand out of a dream.

There is no question that Furui owes a greatdeal to Hermann Broch (18861951) and RobertMusil (18801942). A student of German litera-ture at the University of Tokyo and then a teacherat Kanazawa University and Rikkyo University,Furui began his literary career by translatingBrochs Der Versucher [The Seducer] and MusilsDer Mann ohne Eigenschaften [The Man WithoutQualities]. The Bellwether, for example, takesfrom Broch its central image of the animal that isbelled and sent out to lead the herd. As a com-muter among the silent faces at a Tokyo subwaystation, Furuis salaried worker ruminatesin atext that is more essay than storyon the extraor-dinary orderliness of the crowd, and he wondersaloud at the sort of person who can set the packto stampeding. Even in the ravine of the subway,Furui raises the question of our relatedness. Hasnot each of us, in moving with a crowd, mentallysought to outstrip our anonymous neighborstoget one step aheador taken instant dislike tothose who saunter and will not let us pass? Andwhen frustration turns to heady omnipotence,who is not ready to push that bright red buttonand in a fantasy annihilate the madding crowd?

Still and all, there is something powerfullyJapanese about Furuis prose. To write a novelis a highly shameful act, he says in an essay onhis literary stance. No one wants to lie unneces-sarily. Likewise, no one wants to reveal the truthof his innermost life. The pen of the novelist isslowed by the lead weight of these two contradic-tory forces. In wrestling with two fundamentalkinds of shame, modern Japanese novelists havebeen far more subtle and wet than their Westerncounterparts. Westerners have been saved by anongoing tradition of Art, namely, a supraindi-vidualistic presence that transcends the individ-ual. When they write, they are not thrown backonto the individual self the way Japanese novel-ists are. Still, this means the Japanese writer hasthe advantage of starting from the human stanceof the first-person before formulating any artisticstance.3 If Furuis ideas are couched in the over-worked discourse of the We/They-as-Other of theNihonjinron so pandemic to Japan, it is none-theless interesting to see how he stands the tradi-tional paradigm of the Japanese I-novel as unindividuated and nonessentialist on its head toargue, contrary to the received wisdom, that it isthe very freedom from transcendent Art, Logic,Truth, or God that allows the Japanese novelist tobe a more subtle explorer of the nature of theindividual self. Strict logicality in the West, hewrites ironically, awaits a passion for self-abandonment.4 For Furui, logic alone will notsuffice to grasp the nature of human life. He isdrawn simultaneously to the musicality ofprose, especially as he finds it in the rhythms ofthe oral narration, or katari, of classical Japanese.

An enviable master of English diction, transla-tor McKinney evokes all that is glowingly lyricaland deliciously soporific about these stories. Asanctity of timbre (neiro no tattosa) and analmost paralyzed quietness (mahikan ni nitashizukesa) reign in the beauty of the prose andthe transparency of the translation.NOTES

1. Wedlock, in Contemporary Japanese Literature, ed.Howard Hibbett (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977), 340.Other English language translations of Furuis works areYuki no Shita no Kani [Crab Under Snow], trans. MarkHarbison, Japan Echo 12, Special Issue (1985): 4661;Yoru no Kaori [Night Fragrance], trans. Kathy Merken,Literary Review 30, no. 2 (1987): 14183; and Childof DarknessYoko and Other Stories, trans. with commen-tary by Donna George Storey (Ann Arbor: Center for Japa-nese Studies, University of Michigan Press, 1998).

2. Yoshikichi Furui, Yoko no Iru Tani [Yoko in theRavine], in Furui Yoshikichi Sakuhin [Works of YoshikichiFurui] (Tokyo: Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 1983), 7:30. Origi-nally published in Chunichi Shinbun, February 24, 1971.

3. Yoshikichi Furui, Watakushi no BungakutekiTachiba [My Literary Stance], Ibid., 19. Originally published in Tokyo Shinbun, November 56, 1970, eveningedition.

4. Yoshikichi Furui, Honyaku kara Sosaku e [FromTranslation to Creative Work], Ibid., 2829. Originally published in Asahi Shimbun, February 15, 1971, eveningedition.

William J. TylerAssociate Professor of Japanese

LiteratureOhio State University

Reflections on Japanese Taste: The Structureof Iki. Shuzo Kuki. Trans. John Clark. Sydney:Power Publications, 1997. 168 pp. ISBN 0-909952-30-2.

This book is an English translation of Iki no Kozo[The Structure of Iki], the best-known work ofthe Taisho- and Showa-era (191289) philoso-pher Shuzo Kuki (18881941). The study firstappeared in the philosophy journal Shiso[Thought], nos. 92 and 93, and was published inbook form by Iwanami Shoten in 1930. It ana-lyzes the structure of the Japanese concept of iki,using the phenomenological method that Kukihad mastered while studying in Europe. The bookconsists of six chapters: Introduction, TheIntensional Structure of Iki, The Extensional

Structure of Iki, The Natural Expression of Iki,The Artistic Expression of Iki, and Conclu-sion. The author first presents iki as the productof the following three elements: the dualistic relations seen in flirtation between the sexes; ikiji(brave composure) as seen primarily in Bushido(the warrior ethical code); and akirame (resig-nation), derived in part from Buddhist thought.He further distinguishes it from such aestheticconcepts as johin (refined), hade (showy), andshibumi (astringent) and analyzes its modes ofexpression, both natural and artistic. Thisapproach reflects Kukis intention to apprehendthe culture of Japan through an entirely rationalprocess; the result was a major contribution bothto the history of Japanese thought and to theoriesof Japanese culture.

As a work of Japanese cultural theory by anauthor intimately familiar with modern Westernculture and philosophy, Iki no Kozo is a classicthat ranks with the works of the earlier culturalinterpreters Tenshin Okakura (18621913) andInazo Nitobe (18621933). As such, it deservesto be widely known and studied outside Japan,and it is thus one of the texts for which a goodEnglish edition has long been needed. The publi-cation of this English translation, making Kukisstudy available to a wide audience in the West, isa significant and felicitous step in introducingJapanese culture abroad and fostering under-standing between the cultures of East and West.


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Introducing the Japan Performing Arts Net

http://www.jpan.org

The Basic Information Page of the Japan Performing Arts Net (JPAN) providesgeneral information about the performing arts of Japan, as well as links to the WorldWide Web home pages of a network of participating individuals and organizations inthe performing arts.

For further information, please contact:

Japan Performing Arts NetE-mail: [email protected]

Fax: +81 (03) 5562-4423


The Asian Performing Artists Co-Production Program

FOUNDATION ACTIVITIES

The Asian Performing ArtistsCo-Production Program for fis-cal 199798 invited stagedirector and playwright HidekiNoda to produce and present ajoint Japanese-Thai productionof his work Akaoni (Red Giant). The project is cospon-sored by the Setagaya PublicTheater.

Akaoni , whose primary theme is cultural conflict, wasdirected jointly by Noda andNimit Pipitkul, a stage directorand playwright from Thailand.The cast consisted of fourteenThai actors and actresses andone British actor, in the role ofAkaoni . The play was per-formed in the Thai language inTokyo in December 1997 and in Bangkok in May through June 1998.

Designed specifically for Thailand, this projectsought to (1) create new performing arts througha blending of Japanese and Thai cultural sensibil-ities; (2) promote mutual understanding andestablish a network of performing artists in thetwo countries; (3) help promote modern Thai theater arts, provide training in technical theater(particularly lighting and sound), and inspireThai theatergoers and specialists in the perform-ing arts; and (4) stimulate modern Japanese thea-ter, which has been heavily influenced by Westerntheater. The third of these goals, in particular,

was clearly achieved. The nine-teen performances in Bangkokwere widely acclaimed in themedia, and their immense suc-cess had a major impact onmodern Thai performing arts.The high-tech stage equimentfrom Japan operated by theThai stage crew and the highquality of the stage productionare among the projects consid-erable achievements.

In both Tokyo and Bangkokall performances sold out, andthe production received consid-erable media attention. It waspraised as an important inter-national collaboration, anendeavor widely considereddifficult to achieve success-fully. For this joint production,

it was necessary to overcome differences amongthe languages, customs, and artistic perspectivesof the participants countries. The unfailingenthusiasm of the Japanese and Thai directors,performers, and staff members helped them findways to communicate effectively.

Such collaborative international productionsnot only yield new forms of artistic expressionthrough the melding of different cultural perspec-tives but also foster the establishment of collabo-rative relationships among the participants. Thusthey have attracted considerable attention as aneffective means of achieving deep cultural

The Asian Performing Artists Co-Production Program was inaugurated in 1995 under thePeace, Friendship, and Exchange Initiative announced in 1994 as part of Prime MinisterTomiichi Murayamas foreign policy. The program aims to provide opportunities for artistsfrom other Asian countries to rehearse and perform together with Japanese groups, and inthis way help the two groups develop new forms of artistic expression through mutual understanding.

Under the program, performers and technicians involved in performing arts in otherAsian countries go to Japan for technological training and then mount joint productionswith Japanese groups. The works created through such collaborative efforts are performedin Japan and in the non-Japanese artists home countries.

Akaoni: A Japanese-Thai Theatrical Collaboration


exchange. Recently, many theatrical companiesin Japan have sought to undertake collaborativeproductions, but the participants often seem toencounter certain difficulties communicatingtheir intentions clearly. With the experiencegained through the Akaoni production, the JapanFoundation would like to promote the Asian Per-forming Artists Co-Production Program moreeffectively and in this way contribute to furthercultural exchange.

FOUNDATION ACTIVITIES

The Japan Foundation Newsletter is distributed free ofcharge to individuals and organizations interested inJapanese Studies and international cultural exchange.Requests for subscriptions, or for copies of articles thathave appeared in the Newsletter, should be addressed to:

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Newly Published

An Introductory Bibliography for Japanese StudiesVol. X, Part 2: Humanities 199394

The twentieth in the series of bibliographies compiled by the Toho Gakkai and published underthe auspices of the Japan Foundation has been completed. This series is intended to facilitateaccess by non-Japanese researchers to scholarly works in the humanities and social sciences.

The present book covers works published in Japan in 1993 and 1994 in the humanities, includingarchaeology, ancient history, medieval history, early modern history, modern and contemporaryhistory, religion, philosophy, Japanese language, ancient and medieval literature, early modernliterature, modern and contemporary literature, history of fine art, and performing arts.

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