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Genre and Transgenre in Edo Literature: an Annotated Translation of Murai Yoshikiyo's Kyōkun hyakumonogatari with an Exploration of the Text's Multiple Filiations.
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Abstract
In 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).
Type
thesis
Date
2009