Japanese Tale Research Articles

Unlawful Homicide of Two Ugly and Disabled Victims in a Japanese Tale Based on a True Story

It is extremely rare for an ugly wife to be killed by her husband because of her ugliness. The aim of this study is to draw inferences regarding the treatment of children and women who were disfigured or disabled during the Japanese Edo period. “Shiryo-Gedatsu Monogatari-Kikigaki”, reportage literature based on a true story was analyzed. Yoemon remarried Osugi, and her son Suke was born with an ugly face and unnatural legs. Yoemon hated Suke and urged Osugi to abandon Suke, and in the end, Osugi threw Suke into the river and killed him. Yoemon and Osugi later had a daughter and named her Rui. Rui had a very similar appearance to Suke. Thus, the village people called her Kasane, saying that Suke was reborn. Kasane married Yagoro, who became the second Yoemon. Yoemon disliked Kasane for her ugly appearance, so he killed her by pushing her into the river and continued to take subsequent wives, but each of them died after marriage. After the sixth marriage, his only child, Kiku, was tormented by Kasane’s spirit. About the appearance of Kasane, Kiku said: “The woman named Kasane had black skin, one eye was rotten, her nose was crushed, her mouth was wide, her face was marred with boils, her hands were bent, and one leg was short. She had the appearance of a scary old woman, like I had never seen before.” Through this story, we learn that there has been widespread hatred for children or women with an ugly appearance.

Aconite-Induced Metamorphosis From Beauty to Ugliness in a Japanese Tale.

The authors present a narrative that details the cause and process of a woman's transformation from beauty to ugliness in a Japanese tale. In " Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan ," the metamorphosis from a beauty to an ugly woman is analyzed. After taking medication to recover from childbirth, Oiwa's face became disfigured and grotesque. Oiwa: It seems to be good for my blood, but when I drink it, it causes fraying and breakdown, causing sudden pain. I feel a numbing dullness. When she looked at herself in the mirror, she was shocked. Oiwa: What's wrong with my face? I hate this, it's such a disgusting thing. Neighbor: It was a lie that the medicine you drank was a helpful medicine that protects the appearance of people's faces. Your face is that of a wicked woman (). Oiwa: Is it really me? Why does she have the face of an evil woman? Her hair falls out in a gruesome combing scene, driving her mad. The poison Oiwa took was aconite, which grows wild in Japan. Both aconite tincture and raw aconite roots contain high concentrations of Aconitum alkaloids, which can penetrate the stratum corneum following the diffusion gradient. As her hair fell out during a horrific combing session, she abandoned her maternal role and sought revenge, having lost what she considered a symbol of her femininity. In treating female patients with facial disfigurement, it is important to be mindful of their psychological state, akin to that of Oiwa, who became disfigured through no fault of her own.

Восприятие ценностей, заложенных в японской сказке, англоязычной аудиторией

The paper identifies the problems the English-speaking readers come across when perceiving cultural meanings and values imparted in the Japanese folk tale. Scientific originality of the study is conditioned by the fact that the researcher analyses the value component of the Japanese folk tales, which has not been previously investigated, and also by the fact that cultural meanings of the Japanese tale are for the first time considered in the comparative aspect. The author shows how these values are representted in the English translation and reveals the factors that complicate their perception among the English-speaking audience. The conducted research allows concluding that problems in perceiving the translated Japanese tales can be divided into two categories: more evident lexico-grammatical and deeper ones, sociocultural. Due to linguistic and cultural reasons, some cultural meanings of the original text are not perceived by the English-speaking audience.

English translations of the Japanese folkloremes in the English-language translations: cultural-cognitive asymmetry

The subject of this research is the linguocultural and cognitive aspects of the original Japanese folkloremes (names of fairy characters, mythical objects, and mythical animals) and their English correlates. The authors refer to folklore as a source of profound understanding of cultural connotation, cultural beliefs, cultural distinctness, traditions and customs. The methodological equivalence of linguistic and cultural-cognitive aspects of folkloremes is underlined. The goal of this work consists in determination of the formal and conceptual transformations of Japanese folkloremes in English translation of a Japanese tale. Folkloremes of a Japanese tale have not previously been an object of special research. Comparison of the text of Japanese folk tale and its English analogue demonstrates the cultural-cognitive asymmetry between Japanese folkloremes and their English correlates. Three types of Japanese folkloremes (unique; possessing distinct characteristics; and having cultural-specific associations) determine different techniques of their translation into the English language and various types of transformations of their conceptual content. Cognitive asymmetry of Japanese and Anglo-Saxon cultures substantiate the insufficient understanding and accentuation in English texts of the Japanese important cultural dominant – social and age hierarchism, as well as the enduring significance of image of the emperor and imperial power associated with this dominant.

A Study on the Japanese Tale “Taketorimonogatari”: Princess Kaguya’s mind from a Woman Perspective Based on Jungian Psychology

A Study on the Japanese Tale “Taketorimonogatari”: Princess Kaguya’s mind from a Woman Perspective Based on Jungian Psychology

Essays on Nima Yushij: Animating Modernism in Persian Poetry

Essays on Nima Yushij: Animating Modernism in Persian Poetry

Night and the Japanese Fairy Tale

Time, and particularly night, in folktales can be approached from various perspectives. In the present study, we shall see time in its structural function and will analyze the protagonist’s experience of time, as well as the “anthropic” nature of time and night as structural elements in fairy tales. We shall accomplish this by examining the theme of time, and particularly nighttime with its functions and characteristics, within the framework of the Japanese tale. We shall attempt to rethink the position of night and time in fairy tales as a motif, a background, a facilitator, and an opportunity that exists because of the human factor in the process of storytelling. The present study is based on the subgenre of ordinary folktales (also known as true folktales, or Zaubermärchen). The source material (59 tales out of the total 189 defined as “true”) can be found in volumes ii-vii of Seki Keigo’s Index of Japanese Folktales. All of the 59 tales that form the basis of this study are examined in regard to time, and conclusions are illustrated by a few selected examples. The time-motifs are discussed as originating from the storytelling process; as being part of the binomial world of the folktale; as illustrating the physical and psychological experience of time quantities and qualities; and as forming a framework that facilitates the relationships between the dramatis personae.

Music’s Obedient Daughter ed. by Sabine Lichtenstein (review)

Reviewed by: Music’s Obedient Daughter ed. by Sabine Lichtenstein David Menzies Lichtenstein, Sabine (ed.) Music’s Obedient Daughter. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2014. Pp. 507. An astonishing range and breadth of essays are presented in this text, skillfully curated by Sabine Lichtenstein. The essays contained within hold thought-provoking examinations of the timeless relationship between text and music. Unique to these seventeen essays is a refreshing emphasis on the treatment of music and text on an equal footing—they all treat opera from a literary perspective, [End Page 221] that is, from a basis on the libretto. The essays demonstrate how many of of the greatest works of opera came from this understanding. We are reminded of somewhat tempestuous artistic relationships—beginning with Striggio and Monteverdi, to Mozart and Varesco, to Puccini and Illica and Giacosa. Some composers, such as Pfitzner and Wagner, chose to avoid this struggle and simply wrote their own libretti. The collection begins with Eddie Vetter’s “The Power of Music: Striggio and Montverdi’s L’Orfeo”, presenting the source of the libretto and the treatment of this by both composer and librettist. Jacques Boogaart’s “Octavia Reincarnated: Busenello’s and Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea” explains how Monteverdi and Busenello manage the persona of Ottavia, providing an account of the first opera based on an historical character (9). Tim Carter’s “In the Operatic Workshop: The Case of Varesco’s and Mozart’s Idomeneo” investigates various mutations of the sources for the text, and presents an outline of librettist and composer collaboration. Caryl Clark’s “The Librettist’s Dilemma in London: Badini’s and Haydn’s Orfeo ed Euridice” reflects on the “conditions of possibility” portrayed in Badini’s libretto created for Haydn’s operatic debut in London (107). Irmlind Capelle’s “Hans Sachs—The Relation of Lortzing’s Opera to Deinhardtein’s Drama” demonstrates the challenges Lortzing faced by introducing new elements within the drama, while attending to the original drama. Heather Hadlock’s “Classical Parody and Burlesque in Orphée aux Enfers by Crémieux, Halévy and Offenbach” discusses modern French operetta and the origins of the libretto from the demi-monde of Paris. John Neubauer’s “Burning the Heretics and Saving Don Carlos: Méry’s, Du Locle’s and Verdi’s Don Carlos” presents the various sources of the libretto, from Saint-Réal to Schiller and examines how a writer may choose to deviate from historical sources in the advancement of drama (192). Katherine Syer’s “Tracing Wotan’s Incendiary Past: The Evolution of Storms and Fire in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen” considers the numerous changes that Wagner made to his libretto for the opera, highlighting the “process of reassignment and it’s far-reaching impact on the dramaturgy and the music of the Ring” (218). Vincent Giroud’s “Manon at the Opera: From Prévost’s Manon Lescaut to Auber’s Manon Lescaut and Massenet’s Manon” provides a study of the various incarnations of the Manon character throughout opera, drawn from Abbé Prévost’s original tale. Kasper van Kooten’s “Reflections on the Genesis and Dramaturgy of Illica’s, Giacosa’s and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly” focuses on Puccini’s divergent views from Illica’s and Giacosa’s libretto. Helga Hushahn’s “The End of a Line: Strauss’ and Hofmannsthal’s Elektra” presents a complex relationship between a composer and a librettist, one that resulted in one of the most intriguing operas of the twentieth century. Sabine Lichtenstein does double duty as editor and contributor in her stimulating [End Page 222] essay “Hans Pfitzner’s Palestrina, Eine Musikalische Legende”, discussing the “stillness, mysticism and music” contained within this work (326). Loes Dommering-Van Rongen’s contribution in “The Musical Personality of Don Quixote: Manuel De Falla’s El Retablo de Maese Pedro” introduces the genre of puppet opera and the textual influences commencing with the original Cervantes source. Michal Grover-Friedlander’s essay “Transformations of the Killing of a Boy: Weill’s and Brecht’s Der Jasager” examines the various mutations of the libretto, originating from a Japanese tale, and outlines the transformations this story takes over time. Ruth HaCohen’s “A...

The Japanese Tale of the Heike

The Tale of the Heike (Heike monogatari) is one of Japan’s largest warrior tales (ikusa monogatari). It exists today in numerous variants that narrate the epochal Gempei War (1180-85 CE) fought between the Minamoto (also called Genji) and Taira (also called Heike) clans. The variants are classified in two primary types, those praising the establishment of Minamoto Yoritomo’s shogunate and those narrating the fall of the Taira clan. Many scholars have focused their attention on studying the numerous extant variant texts in search of a textual history. In particular, work has been dedicated to finding both the author’s ideological position and the version closest to the original form. The question of orally recited texts has been the subject of research by a smaller number of scholars. They focus on written versions of the narrative that appeared around the middle of the fourteenth century and which were the basis for recitations by biwa hoshi, blind raconteurs who accompanied themselves on the biwa lute. Several scholars have focused on how to read these variants written for the biwa hoshi as narrative texts. One fundamental problem faced by scholars examining orally recited texts is the nature of the extant works. Some researchers who have analyzed the surviving tradition of oral performances have doubts about analysis based on written texts, stressing the nontextual nature of performance. They argue that extant Heike texts do not constitute a record of oral performance. The relationship between oral performance and written text therefore continues to be a problematic subject of academic study. (For a comparison of views on orality and the Heike in Japanese, see the works of Hyodo Hiromi [2000], Komoda Haruko, Matsuo Ashie [1996], and Yamashita Hiroaki [2000].) One positive movement in scholarship is a focus on the relationships between individual Heike variants and their influence on other medieval and early modern narrative traditions. The individual recensions all narrate the same fundamental topic: the fall of the Taira clan and the establishment of

The Ōkagami; A Japanese Historical Tale

The Ōkagami; A Japanese Historical Tale

Lili-Tsé. A Japanese Tale in One Act

Lili-Tsé. A Japanese Tale in One Act

Book Reviews

THE mode in which this volume has been produced is rather curious. In 1873 M. Meignan, who had already travelled in the regions around the Levant for pleasure, took it into his head that, by way of contrast to these lands of the sun, he would like to see a land where snow and ice were predominant, and accordingly he undertook to travel from France to China through Siberia. He appears to have had no object in the journey but the pleasure of motion and of seeing new and strange objects. It was undertaken in the winter, and the traveller naturally saw, and was interested in, Moscow, Nijni-Novgorod, the Urals, and so travelled through Siberia by Omsk to Irkutsk. After a short stay in the latter place he pursued his journey through Kiachta, Urga, and Kalgan to Pekin. Many travellers have done the journey before and since; it is a long and tedious one, and perhaps that is as much as can be said for it. Mr. Conn talks of crossing “the trackless Desert of Gobi” on the way, but this is an abuse of language. The only part of the Gobi passed is that between Urga and Kalgan, two considerable trading cities, between which caravans, couriers, and travellers go daily along a high road which is a very good one as roads go in Asia. But M. Meignan, having done the journey, and being of a lively and amusing turn, wrote an account of it some time after his arrival in France. This account of a journey in 1873 Mr. Conn has “edited” in 1885; he has, he says, produced a modified version rather than a translation, the modifications consisting in correcting the slipshod style of the original, in producing “a more just co-ordination of parts and subordination of minor details,” and also in expanding the original here and there. The volume, notwithstanding this dual authorship, is pleasant reading, much as a tolerably written account of a journey in Wales or Scotland would be pleasant. There are not a few errors, especially as the traveller gets farther east, but these cannot seriously interfere with such enjoyment as may be derived from a perusal of the volume. As Mr. Conn has a taste for this species of literary work—having published another volume, an adaptation or translation of a Japanese tale by a French writer, during the year— we would suggest to him that he should select his originals more carefully. A sterling popular work in French or German might very easily prove a sterling popular work in English; there can be little real use in reproducing trumpery French books in English, except to add to the already enormous mass of similar indigenous literature in England.