Genji Monogatari (1966)
The names of the chapters became a central element in a incense-based game called Genjikō, part of the larger practice of Monkō popular among the nobility. In Genjikō, players must match the scents of a series of five incense samples without being told the names of said samples. Each possible combination was matched to a symbol, called a genji-mon, that represented a chapter from the story.[44]
Genji monogatari (1966)
Harper, Thomas and Haruo Shirane, ed. Reading The Tale of Genji: Sources from the First Millennium. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015.See: -ithe-tale-of-genjii/9780231166584For a thorough review in Japanese, by Araki Hiroshi of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken), see:
Producer: Masaichi Nagata; screenplay: Matsutaro Kawaguchi, from Yoshikata Yoda's adaptation of two stories, "Asaji ga yado" ("The Inn at Asaji") and "Jasei-no in" ("Serpent of Desire"), from the collection of stories Ugetsu monogatari by Akinari Ueda (1768); photography: Kazuo Miyagawa; editor: Mitsuji Miyata; sound: Iwao Otani; production designer: Kisaku Ito; music: Fumio Hayasaka and Ichiro Saito.
Cast: Machiko Kyo ( Wakasa ); Kinuyo Tanaka ( Miyagi ); Mitsuki Mito ( Ohama ); Masayuki Mori ( Genjuro ); Sakae Ozawa ( Tobei ); Ugetsu monogatari Sugisaku Aoyama ( Old priest ); Kikue Nori ( Ukon ); Mitsusaburo Ramon ( Commander of the clan NIWA ); Ryosuke Kagawa ( Village chief ); Kichijiro Tsuchida ( Silk merchant ); Syozo Nanbu ( Shinto priest ); Ichiisaburo Sawamura ( Genichi ).
Ugetsu monogatari was not the first Kenji Mizoguchi film to be shown in the West, but it was the first to reveal him to the West as a major artist. Swiftly establishing itself (especially in France) on many critics' "Ten Best" lists, the film opened the way for the acclamation of the work of Mizoguchi's final period. For some, he became the supreme filmmaker, the cinematic Shakespeare, realizing to the fullest the potential of film as an art form. That was at the time when the "potential of film" was generally felt to have been identified and adequately expounded by André Bazin; and assessment which can still be accepted if we add the proviso that Bazin accounted for only one of film's many potentials.
The relationship between aesthetics and politics is incredibly complex: the critical problems it generates have never been successfully resolved. It is true that Ugetsu monogatari is ideologically more conservative than, say, Sisters of Gion or My Love Has Been Burning . The crux lies in the treatment of women. From the radical feminist protest of his earlier films to the celebration of woman as self-sacrificer, redeemer, and mother in Ugetsu is certainly a large and disconcerting jump. (Mizoguchi's conversion to Buddhism in the early 1950s is doubtlessly a related factor.) Further, Ugetsu can be read as advocating the resignation to and the acceptance of one's lot. This withdrawal from the active struggle in favor of a spiritual transcendence makes the hardships of the material world not so much endurable as irrelevant. The film encourages such a reading, yet cannot be reduced to it.
Kotenseki kenkyū gaidansu: ōchō bungaku o yomu tame ni (Kasama shoin, 2012)Part 1 of this text shows concrete examples of research in the fields of waka, monogatari, rekishi monogatari, diaries, essays (zuihitsu), and the performing arts. Part 2 concerns bibliography as the method that supports the readings given in Part 1 and provides simple explanations of how to handle primary sources, etc.
Genji monogatari to Murasaki Shikibu: kenkyū no kiseki. Kenkyūshi (Kadokawa gakugei shuppan, 2008)Genji monogatari to Murasaki Shikibu: kenkyū no kiseki. shiryō (Kadokawa gakugei shuppan, 2008)These texts contain the most important theories related to Tale of Genji and Murasaki Shikibu. Each essay has a explanatory section that explains its significance which aids in understanding. Another work in the same style is the four-volume Tēma de yomu genji monogatari ron (Benseisha, 2008-2010) which I also recommend.
Coeval with the era of transition from stagnating aristocracy to enterprising military' rule, the Japanese literary genre known as Gunki Monogatari, war tales, is manifested in accounts loosely based on the Gempei battles, 1180-1185 (Butler 1996). Reflecting, albeit indirectly, the warrior spirit of late Heian and Kamakura times (ca. 1100-1333). these various martial stories boast at least one crown jewel, namely, the "Heke-monogatari" (Tales of the Heike, or of the House of Taira). In thirteenth-century versions both written and transmitted orally--whether following the poetic tradition of Yukinaga, Kamakura, or Kakuichi (Butler 1966)--this traditional heroic narrative describes the rise of the Taira warrior clan and its final and total annihilation by a rival, the Minamoto or Genji family.
In imitation of the "emaki" or artistic and picturesque painted scrolls of the period, which exploit parallel perspectives, this paper aims first to bring into sharper focus the contrasting lifestyles of the elegant medieval Japanese courtier--the so-called kuge--and the unsophisticated feudal samurai warrior--also referred to as countrified buke or bushi. While a cliche and a difficult distinction for some scholars, the divergence yet bears further study. Inspired by the pioneering research by Sasaki along these lines, this brief survey will deal with a few relevant themes related to courtly topoi mindful of Old French romance. It will also highlight some of the varieties of tragic and frustrated love in the Heike monogatari. manifested, in my opinion, as artistic devices to delay the inescapable denouement, i.e., the fall of the house of the Heike--so reminiscent of the fall of Troy. Further, a special explication of a stereotypical sequence in the oral style--the hero's departure for battle--as recounted by Homer and two of his distant imitators, will provide a foil to similar events in the Japanese narrative. I will then take up some illustrations of the ways of the Bushido warrior, focusing mostly on Kiyomori's actions. Occasionally, and merely for reference, parallels from contemporary Japan will be drawn. So that by inference, contrast and comparison, I hope both to highlight the resemblances between Western "courtly" notions and their counterparts or analogues is Japanese traditions. This effort should thereupon shed light on the courtly tradition in medieval Western Europe. 041b061a72