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Publication Translating Japanese Boy's Love Dojinshi: The Liminal Space between Art and Text, Content Creation and Consumption(2024-05) Trimmer, BlakeThe main component of this thesis is a complete translation of the amateur manga (dōjinshi) Konya, kimi to te wo tsunaide doko made mo 『今夜、君と手をつないでどこまでも』 or in English, Tonight, I Will Hold Your Hand Wherever You May Go, written and drawn by Monia (モニア). Dōjinshi are self-published, self-financed works that often take the form of amateur manga. The nature of dōjinshi as both a textual and pictorial medium allows creators to exercise their creativity in vastly complex ways. However, this same multidimensional nature poses unique translation challenges. By translating and analyzing Monia's work, this thesis aims to bring attention to the unique characteristics of dōjinshi production and dōjinshi translation and to explore how dōjinshi creation provides a venue for marginalized individuals to express themselves and find self-fulfillment in a safe environment that emphasizes community. I argue that the unique process by which fan consumers become fan producers enables them to take control of a narrative and transform it to fit their needs. Furthermore, these transformed depictions reveal societal problems faced by Japanese women and how they choose to confront or escape them.Publication Darkness as Salvation: A Translation and Critical Analysis of Satsujin Shussan by Murata(2024-05) Lang, CaitlinThis thesis is a translation and analysis of Murata Sayaka’s short story “Satsujin Shussan,” which was published in 2014 in a collection of short stories by the same name. Before presenting my English translation, I give a critical introduction discussing the major themes of the story as well as a commentary on what translation problems I encountered during my translation. Major themes of “Satsujin Shussan” examined in this thesis are nonconformity and transformation of societal values, the labor of childbirth and Japanese society’s devaluation of women’s labor in general, and the underlying rage held by Japanese men and women – but especially women – caused by capitalistic, patriarchal, and inherently misogynistic structures. I analyze these themes as they appear in the story while examining how they correspond with gender inequality issues present in Japan today. Following this analysis, I give commentary on my translation, reviewing the problems I encountered and solutions to those problems, keeping in mind Murata’s uniquely detached style of writing. Finally, I include an afterword where I briefly discuss Murata’s popularity in Japan and abroad, and the value of translating “Satsujin Shussan” into English.Publication Ōe Kenzaburō’s Early Works And The Postwar Democracy In Japan(2012-09) Ono, AsayoThe end of the Second World War and Japan’s surrender are the established paradigm for understanding postwar Japanese society. The formulation of the new Constitution and the establishment of the postwar democracy mark a major historical turnaround for Japan. Since he debuted as a writer in 1958, Ōe Kenzaburō’s (1935 - ) published literary works are closely related to the postwar history of Japan. Ōe has been an outspoken supporter of the pacifist Constitution and “postwar democracy.” Ōe’s stories about the war are characterized by a realistic depiction at the same time as always narrating his stories in an imaginary world. In his works the past history and the future are intricately combined in the depiction of contemporary society. By doing so, Ōe creates an ambiguous image of contemporary Japan. Ōe’s main question in his early works is the achievement of shutaisei both in postwar Japanese society and Japanese literature. The main protagonists as well as the author protest against the emperor-centered history. They attempt to illustrate another history from their own viewpoint.Publication Dream Time and Which Dreamed It: a Translation and Critical Exploration of Kanai Mieko's Yume no Jikan(2012-09) Minto, JarrodThe text that I have translated below, and for which the paper that precedes it is a critical introduction, is Kanai Mieko’s short novel, Yume no jikan. I have translated the title quite literally as Dream Time. The following critique will focus primarily on Yume no jikan, read with special attention paid to its intertextual relationship with Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, and how I see those texts as informing Kanai’s treatment of the perceiving subject not only in Yume no jikan, but also in much of her fiction through the 1970s. In the end, I hope to articulate those elements of this piece that make it utterly fascinating to me as a reader, namely how I see Kanai constructing a Carrollian unsolvable riddle that thoroughly dismantles the authority of the perceiving subject, and by extension, challenges the authority of the narrative itself. I will demonstrate how this deconstruction is achieved through direct questioning of self-identity, omnipresent intertextuality, and persistent use of temporal ambiguity. In Yume no jikan, descriptions of the protagonist's dreams are interwoven into its basic framework, imbuing the narrative with an atmosphere resembling the liminal space/time between sleep and waking. In this narrative universe, dreams operate as unreliable memory, and the dreaming self as unreliable narrator.Publication "Biography: Details Lacking": Reimaging Torii Kiyotsune as a Kibyōshi Artist(2012-09) Heuer, Jason LIn the late 18th century an artist named Torii Kiyotsune 鳥居清経inherited and mastered a style of ukiyo-e that was soon to go out of fashion. Few of his prints survived and he left little impression on Japanese art history, despite his association with such a prominent school as the Torii. Yet the very association may have contributed to his obscurity. The assumption that Kiyotsune was primarily an ukiyo-e artist led to the overshadowing of his work in another arena, popular books known as kusazōshi. In fact he was quite prolific in that medium, illustrating over 130 kibyōshi, as well as works in other genres. Analysis of one of his kibyōshi, Kaminari no hesokuigane 雷之臍喰金, shows that there is still much to be learned about him and his contributions to early modern Japanese visual culture. Through an analysis of Kaminari no hesokuigane this thesis also explores the unique set of characteristics that distinguishes kibyôshi from other forms of visual-verbal narratives such as comics or illustrated books. Moreover it argues that, despite their having served as cheap, disposable fiction in their time, kibyōshi can serve as an informative lens through which to examine how the ordinary inhabitants of Edo identified with their city, creating a culture of their own and developing the Edokko type that has survived into the modern era.Publication Drops of Blood on Fallen Snow: The Evolution of Blood-Revenge Practices in Japan(2012) Curtis, Jasmin M.Blood revenge – or katakiuchi – represents one of many defining principles that characterize the Japanese samurai warrior; this one act of honorable violence served as an arena in which warriors could demonstrate those values which have come to embody the word samurai : loyalty, honor, and personal sacrifice. Blood revenge had a long and illustrious history in Japan – first, as the prerogative of the gods in the Kojiki, then as a theoretical debate amongst imperial royalty in the Nihongi, and at last entering into the realm of practice amongst members of the warrior class during Japan’s medieval period. Originally, blood revenge served a judicial function in maintaining order in warrior society, yet was paradoxically illegal in premodern Japan. Throughout the medieval period, the frequency of blood-revenge undertakings likely increased, acquiring social legitimacy despite the practice’s illegal standing; however, under the rule of the Tokugawa bakufu, blood revenge was granted the legitimacy of law as well through the legalization of this practice. The social and cultural influences of blood revenge were so profound that the bakufu decided to harness its benefits in order to allow the samurai class, who now existed in a time of peace, a method through which to express themselves, while simultaneously using this practice as a device of social control. Yet, little is known about the evolution of this practice and its reception between the first official accounting of blood revenge in the Azuma Kagami and the legalization of this practice under bakufu law. In this Master’s Thesis, I endeavor to bridge the gap in modern scholarship between the highly ritualized blood-revenge practices of the Tokugawa period and its origins in medieval Japanese history. To this end, I will explore the evolution of blood revenge practices in the sphere of social, political, legal, and cultural history by analyzing the first literary representation of the pioneering blood revenge incident in Japan – the revenge of the Soga brothers – in the Manabon Soga Monogatari and its later Tokugawa ehon adaptation.Publication Writing With the Grain: A Multitextual Analysis of Kaidan Botandoro(2011) Wood, William DAs a text Botandōrō demonstrates bibliographic codes that straddle the border between modern and pre-modern literature. Wakabayashi would present his work as the fruit of his technique of ‘photographing language’ that, by extension, would provide closer and more direct access to the interiority of “author.” In his prologue he presented his shorthand method as a technique that would come to represent the new standard of modern writing. As they created a new system for transcribing language, stenographers were wrestling with the philosophical nature and limitations of language in spoken and written form, and their discoveries and accomplishments would provide a framework for future authors during a highly transformative period in the history of Japanese literature, whether intentional or not. By focusing on these paratextual elements in Botandōrō in the context of the tale’s intertextual construction we find that it is best viewed as a text that exhibits aspects of modern and pre-modern literature in its presentation as a material object, the claims it makes for sokki as a modern writing technique, and its negotiations with the idea of authorship.Publication Kitahara Hakushū and the Creative Nature of Children Through Dōyō(2011) Diehl, GregoryIn 1923, the poet Kitahara Hakushū wrote an essay entitled “Dōyō shikan” 童謡私観 or “Philosophy of Dōyō.” In it, he described a perspective on children that valued their innately creative potential. Hakushū felt that this potential was something that every child had and that could be enriched and drawn out through dōyō 童謡 (children's songs.) Hakushū’s views in this sense challenged the prevailing attitudes in the Taishō period toward children and toward the function that children’s songs and poetry should serve. Despite Hakushū’s prominence as a poet, the “Dōyō shikan” has never been translated or closely analyzed in English. The analysis of the “Dōyō shikan” provides a lens through which to view Hakushū’s poetry for children. The principles that Hakushū described in this essay for writing dōyō can be seen both in Hakushū’s own work and the work of children who submitted poetry to Akai tori, a literary magazine for which Hakushū managed poetry. Those principles stressed the need for the poet to replicate the child’s voice, mind, and imagination for the purpose of writing dōyō that were creative, artistic, and meaningful to children.Publication The World of Kanshi and Waka in Heian Period: Literary Study and Translation of Shinsen Rōeishū(2011-09) Bian, XiaobinShinsen rōeishū as a poetry collection of kanshi and waka compiled by Fujiwara no Mototoshi has not been studied as comprehensive as Wakan rōeishū. This thesis focuses on the study of the anthology, the historical and cultural backgrounds, the creator and representative Japanese and Chinese poets, as well as translations and cultural study of several poems. It begins with a broad discussion of the development of poetry recitation and the reception of Chinese literature in Heian period. Next, several more specific aspects of the anthology are discussed, including the emergence and completion of Shinsen rōeishū, the content and its reception, as well as manuscript copies. In the following chapter, discussion about the creator deals with his conservative poetic style and his strained personal relationships with other poets such as Minamoto no Toshiyori. These aspects may lead to a deeper understanding on the relationship between these factors and the spread of Shinsen rōeishū. In the appendices, several representative poems in Shinsen rōeishū are translated. Reasons for the choice of certain target poems are put forward. Meanwhile the translations also include cultural and historical studies for some poems, in order to inspire further study on other poems in Shinsen rōeishū. Additionally, certain influential poets who made great contributions to Shinsen rōeishū as well as the development of kanshi are also discussed, such as Sugawara no Michizane and Bai Juyi.Publication Publication The Gorinsho: Miyamoto Musashi's Five Elements of War(2010) Benson, Paul DMiyamoto Musashi (1584-1645) wrote the Gorinsho ("Book of Five Rings") at the end of his life. The text is divided into five sections, “Earth,” “Water,” “Fire,” “Wind,” and “Space;” the first three introduce and explain both military strategy and warfare of his school, Niten-ichi-ryū. “Wind” is a critique of the tendencies Musashi noticed in other sword schools, and “Space” describes the concept of warfare and how to embody its “true way” (though this scroll is evidently incomplete). There are many English translations, yet I make the claim that one more is necessary. Since its first translation in 1974 to its most recent in 2009, the Gorinsho’s meaning has been ill represented in English and no extant translation is suitable for scholarly reference. These translations suffer primarily from three flaws: fundamental translation errors, the effacing of cultural references, and an apparent lack of knowledge concerning the Gorinsho’s textual history. The source text for these problematic English translations is invariably the Hosokawa family manuscript, a wholly unsuitable manuscript for translation. In recent years, the Harima Musashi Kenkyūkai, a Japan-based research group, has done much worthwhile scholarship on the Gorinsho and has compiled a new annotated edition of the text based on a thorough examination of all extant manuscripts. My translation is based on their authoritative edition and it benefits greatly from their research. This thesis endeavors to make clear the case that a new scholarly Gorinsho translation is necessary and provide a preliminary, annotated translation to fulfill that need.Publication Poems of the Gods of the Heaven and the Earth(2010-09) Olinyk, Christina EThis thesis analyzes the development of the Jingika book in the first seven Japanese waka anthologies (chokusenshū). Jingika are Japanese poems written on the gods of the heaven and the earth and illustrate man’s interactions with them through worship and prayer. They have characteristics in common with what modern scholars term the Shinto religion, and have been referenced as such in past scholarship. However, jingika are more accurately a product of the amalgamation of native kami cults and foreign Buddhist doctrine. Although the first independent Jingika book emerged in the seventh anthology (Senzaishū), poems which can be termed Jingika book predecessors exist as early as the first (Kokinshū). The second chapter of this thesis determines which of those early poems had the most influence over the development of an independent Jingika book. The last chapter provides a full original translation of the thirty-three poems of the first Jingika book and analyzes the intricacies of their arrangement introduced through new methods of association and progression by Fujiwara no Shunzei. The shrines that are mentioned in the poems also correspond to the development of a state religion centered on a small number of shrines designated as protectors of the state. In light of this, the arrangement of the poems in the Jingika book creates a metaphysical pilgrimage to the most important shrines at the dawn of the medieval period and asserts the emperor’s position as cultural center during a time of political turmoil.Publication The Arts of Linking: A Comparative Study on Lian Ju by Han Yu's circle and Haikai by Basho's School(2010) Xie, KaiLinked verse is a communicative and dynamic poetic form in which a series of verses are usually composed by several poets. It existed in both China and Japan and was fully explored by Han Yu’s circle and Bashō’s school, respectively. This thesis is a comparative study of the lian ju (Chinese linked verse) by Han Yu’s circle and the haikai (Japanese popular linked verse) by Bashō’s school, with focus on the arts of linking, the most important and interesting aspect of this unique poetic form. This study begins with a broad introduction and comparison of the two literary groups and their linked verse compositions. Representing the highest level of linked verse compositions in China and Japan, Han’s lian ju and Bashō’s haikai share some similarities. Yet whereas the former never outshone individual poetry in terms of influence and popularity, the latter dominated the entire poetic field, at least in Bashō’s day. In the second chapter, I investigate how the verses are linked. In terms of linking techniques, Han Yu’s circle basically used “close link,” including “word link” and “content link,” which does not exceed the range of the Chinese poetic tradition. In contrast, Bashō’s school valued the “distant link,” which is usually beyond expectation and needs analysis and imagination. In both cases, the linking is usually a combination of “complementary linking” and “competitive linking.” However, the competitive atmosphere prevails in the former while the complementary characteristic is represented more often in the latter. The third chapter continues the topic of linking, but it focuses on how the verses in a sequence are integrated as a whole. The verses in a lian ju sequence share a topic and are organized as in traditional individual poetry. In a haikai sequence, however, verses with different topics and images are disciplined by detailed rules. Finally, I compare the styles of the two schools. Both of them created a “new” poetic style by searching for the “old.” Nevertheless, the content of their poetry and their ways of composing poetry are very different.Publication Taira No Masakado In Premodern Literature Of Japan(2010) Miller, Genesie TThe tenth-century rebel Taira no Masakado occupies a unique place in the literature of Japan. His reception through history is most prominent in the works of Ōkagami, Shōmonki, Konjaku Monogatari, Jinnō Shōtōki, and Ehon Maskado Ichidaiki. The author’s geographic location often determined whether they sympathized with or demonized Masakado. Their occupations also influenced how they wrote about warrior culture, particularly the custom of buntori, or the taking of heads. Ehon Masakado Ichidaiki provides not only textual accounts of the rebellion, but numerous images depicting an Edo-interpretation of Heian-period warrior culture and but also images of the buntori of Masakado and his allies’ heads. Depending on whether authors were Kyōto nobles or officials in the provinces also affected whether or not they address Masakado’s rebellion and Sumitomo’s rebellion as allied-conspiracies or as two separate occurrences. Finally, the aristocratic literature of the capital and the literature in the provinces give different reasons for Masakado’s rebellion which conform to Ted Robert Gurr’s “relative deprivation” theory, but also demonstrate the influence from Buddhist and Shintō episteme.Publication The Go-Tsuchimikado Shinkan-bon ~ Izumi Shikibu Shū: A Translation of the Poems and an Analysis of Their Sequence(2010) Nelson, LisaThe Go-Tsuchimikado Shinkan-bon ~ Izumi Shikibu Shū is a 15th century manuscript of 150 poems by the 10th/11th century poet, Izumi Shikibu. This thesis includes translations for all 150 poems with detailed translation notes and an examination of the arrangement of the poems. It seems likely that the Shinkan-bon would have been organized in a sequence that links poems together in such a way as to create a larger poetical work for the collection as a whole. Sequences are developed through a natural progression of temporal and spatial elements in the poems, as well as connections through mood, theme, imagery, associations, and the repetition of words. This method of anthology arrangement had been common in Japanese literature for hundreds of years prior to the assumed date of creation for the Shinkan-bon in the early 13th century. Three sections of the Shinkan-bon were examined in this thesis to determine if there was continuity between the poems. The first section is made up of the first twenty-five seasonal poems, running from spring to winter. This section does show continuity between some of the poems but does not contain an over-all sequence. The second section is made up of fifteen poems in the middle of the collection and the third section is made up of the final ten poems in the Shinkan-bon. There is no sequencing in the second and third sections, and thus it can be determined that the Shinkan-bon collection has no sequential significance to its order, and that the poems are organized by another method.Publication Red Letters: Translation as Detection in a Sino-Japanese Murder Mystery(2010-05) Grillo, Tyran CIn 2004 Japanese author Ashibe Taku published his novel Murder in the Red Chamber, in which he adapted Cao Xueqin’s eighteenth-century Chinese classic Dream of the Red Chamber as a compelling murder mystery. In 2008 I would take on the challenge of translating Ashibe’s novel into English. This required me to draw on a wealth of primary and secondary materials. Not only did I have to familiarize myself with the novel’s peculiarities, but also with those of its Chinese source. Over these layers of text I fashioned yet another from my own engagements with Western detective fiction. In order to reconcile these disparate cultural understandings of detection and law, I assumed the role of detective myself in navigating at least two cultural milieus at any given time. Consequently, I found myself empathizing with Ashibe’s characters in an entirely new way. This thesis is a case study that investigates two questions: (1) What does it mean when the translator’s method mimics—in the target text—that of the author of the source text? (2) How have murder mystery paradigms been displaced and/or embedded in my chosen text through this process of cross-cultural rewriting? In exploring these questions I have developed a kinship with Ashibe, for we are both rewriters seeking to flesh out the evidence laid before us into admissible testimony. Whether or not I “solved the case” of this translation matters less than the adding of another layer in another language with the intent of enriching the whole.Publication Hearing Voices: Female Transmission of Memories in Okinawan Literature in the 1970s and 1980s(2010) Honda, ErumiIn this thesis, using Ōshiro Tatsuhiro’s “Meiro” (Maze, 1991) and Nakandakari Hatsu’s “Hahatachi onnatachi” (Mothers/Women, 1984) as primary sources, I have pursued two main questions about postwar Okinawan literature: the question of how memory is transmitted, along gender lines, about a traumatic past through the generations and the question of yuta operating as transmitters, mediators, and anchors of cultural identity under the threat of foreign influence. Both “Maze” and “Mothers/Women” address the issue of postwar Okinawan identity in the face of an influx of new ideas and practices by portraying Okinawan women’s struggle to find their identity. These two stories reveal the link between women’s spirituality and the construction of Okinawan postwar identity. In doing so, they demonstrate how the Okinawan religious view of women as spiritual and religious figures have inspired Okinawan authors to construct narratives of postwar Okinawan society and Okinawan people’s lives therein.Publication GESAKU IN EDO FICTION AND AN ANNOTATED TRANSLATION OF "NENASHIGUSA YUME MONOGATARI" BY SHIKITEI SANBA(2005) Brown, Fumiko U.In this thesis Iw ill examine the illustrated fiction gesaku of the Edo period (1600-1868), focusing on Shikitei Sanba (1776-1882) as a gesaku writer and translate one of his gesaku works, Nenashigusa yume monogatari, which was published in 1809. Nenushigusa yume monegaiari has been categorized as gôkan, which is a genre of gesaku literature.Publication Tainted Gender: Sexual Impurity and Women in Kankyo no Tomo(2009) Mizue, YukoThis thesis consists of research on women and Buddhism in light of a medieval Japanese Buddhist tales collection called Kankyo no Ｔomo. This collection reveals the predicament in which women in medieval Japan found themselves. As the focus of sexual desire (towards them and by them), they were also inherently polluted due to their connection with blood (kegare).Publication Genre and Transgenre in Edo Literature: an Annotated Translation of Murai Yoshikiyo's Kyōkun hyakumonogatari with an Exploration of the Text's Multiple Filiations.(2009) Ono, YumikoIn conjunction with raising some questions regarding “genre” in Edo literature, the purpose of this thesis is to introduce a complete annotated translation of Kyōkun hyakumonogatari 教訓百物語 (One Hundred Scary Tales for Moral Instruction) by the Shingaku teacher Murai Yoshikiyo 村井由清 (1752-1813). Published in 1804 and reprinted several times, this text was intended as a guide to self-cultivation and ethical living based on Shingaku 心学, a philosophico-religious movement of great importance in the latter half of the Edo era. The translation is complemented with a transcription into modern script based on publicly available (online) digital images of an 1815 xylographic edition. Considering the work as one example of transgenred literature, in the introduction I explore the intellectual and historical contexts of the work, paying special attention to the contemporary category of textbook called ōraimono 往来物. I also consider for reference a kibyōshi 黄表紙 called Shingaku hayasomegusa 心学早染草, published in 1790 by Santō Kyōden 山東京伝, as another example both of transgenred literature itself and of literary responses to the same socio-intellectual moment, specifically the Edo world in the aftermath of the Kansei reforms (1787-93).