Origins of The Companion Library: An

Origins of The Companion Library: An Anthology of Medieval Japanese Stories
Author(s): Barbara Ruch
Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3 (May, 1971), pp. 593-610
Published by: Association for Asian Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2052463 .
Accessed: 26/05/2012 04:02
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Association for Asian Studies is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The
Journal of Asian Studies.
http://www.jstor.org
Library:
Originsof The Companion
of MedievalJapaneseStories
An Anthology
BARBARA RUCH
S
OMETIME aroundI700, in the cityof Osaka, a publisherand booksellerby the
shortstories,
name of ShibukawaSeiemon' collectedand printedtwenty-three
Companion
or
The
boxed themas a set,and put themon sale labelledOtogi bunko
thecity,a
in
his
fellow
book-dealers
among
he circulated
Library.2Shortlythereafter
books as
set
of
this
catalogueof his mostrecentpublicationsin whichhe described
storiesofformerdays."3
"a collectionincludingall theinteresting
This remarkableclaim was a considerableexaggerationin view of the factthat
his collectionincludednot a single storyfromthe great classicalage of Japanese
the Heian period (782-II67), nor indeed did it includeany of the works
literature,
Japanesefiction.Mr.
judged to be examplesof outstandingpre-modern
traditionally
Shibukawa'sCompanionLibrarywas, in fact,a collectionof artlessmedievaltalesIncluded were storiesof tragiclove and suicide,monsters
all of themanonymous.4
who feastedon youngmaidens,filialsons and theirexamplarbehaviorin the faceof
on the propercompositionof poetry,
instructions
the mosttryingof circumstances,
ofstate.
who becomehighministers
and saltmerchants
step-children,
suffering
thatthesesimpletalessold as well as theydid, sincetheyappeared
It is surprising
in themiddleof the Edo period (I603-I867), at the peak of the secondgreatage of
as The Life of an
and sharedthebook stallswithsuchmasterpieces
Japanesefiction,
Amorous Woman (Kashoka ichidai onna), and Five Women who Loved Love
But
(Kashoka gonin onna) fromthe talentedpen of Ihara Saikaku (i642-i693).'
theydid sell well, and shortlya second editionof The CompanionLibrarywas
published-rebound,but identicalin contentto the firsteditioni6The reason for
BarbaraRuch is AssociateProfessorof Japanese
Head of the East Asian
Language and Literature,
Divisionof the OrientalStudiesDepartmentat the
and Directorof the Inof Pennsylvania,
University
stituteforMedievalJapaneseStudies.An abridged
versionof this paper was originallypresentedat
the 22nd Annual Meetingof the Associationfor
Asian Studiesheld in San Franciscoin April I970.
1 Shibukawa'sfull name, includingthat of his
publishinghouse and bookstore,appears in book
cataloguesas Shibukawa Sh6kodo Kashiwabaraya
ShinsaiSeiemon.He was locatedat Junkei-machi,
sevenbashi,Osaka, in the centerof theflourishing
Osaka publishing
teenth-and eighteenth-century
district.
2 Like all otherproductsof Shibukawa'spress,
of conOtogibunkoboreno date.An examination
temporarybook cataloguessuggeststhat it must
have appearedsometimeafteri688 but probably
titlesincluded
before I730. For all twenty-three
in Otogi bunko,see Ichiko Teiji, ed., Otogizdshi,
Vol. XXXVIII of Nihon koten bungaka taikei
[Outlineof the JapaneseLiteraryClassics] (Tokyo,
Hereaftercited as Ichiko, OZ.
3 Italicsmine.
4 The terms"medieval" and "middle ages" as
employedin thesepages referto the centuriescovNambokuch6
ered by the Kamakura(II85-I333),
peand Muromachi (I333-I573)
(I336-I392),
riods.These fourcenturiesare the "middleyears"
betweenthe age of classicJapaneseculturein the
townsHeian periodand the age of thecommercial
men in theEdo period.
5 For translations
of Saiand otherbibliography
kaku's workssee Ivan Morris,ed., The Life of An
AmorousWoman (New York, I963).
6 The firsteditionwas in thirty-nine
slim volumes. In the second edition,Shibukawarebound
stories that appeared
those of the twenty-three
originallyin more than one section,makingeach
storya one-volumework. The firstedition,therevolumes,while the secondhas
fore,has thirty-nine
stories
althoughthe twenty-three
onlytwenty-three,
remainthesame.
I958).
593
594
BARBARA RUCH
theirsuccessbecomesclear when we examineothernotationsin the contemporary
book cataloguesof booksin print.We findthatMr. Shibukawadescribeshis set of
booksas the"Wedding(go shuigen) CompanionLibrary"and informshis customers
thatit is "a completecollectionof storiesand talesfromformerdays. . . a convenient
for women."7How storiesof maiden-eatingmonsters
guide on self-improvement
reand suicideswere to be construedas convenientguides on self-improvement
however,thatthe reading
scholarlyexamination.It is significant,
mainsforfurther
audienceMr. Shibukawa had in mind was not the cosmopolitanEdo townsman,
who was mostlikelyreadingSaikaku or thelatestguide to thepleasurequarters,but
wife.
underpriviledged
ratherhislonelyand intellectually
The CompanionLibraryhad notbeen advertizedsimplyas reading
Nevertheless,
matterforthe ladies.It had become"The Wedding CompanionLibrary,"suggesting to the customerthatthisset of books would make a mostappropriatewedding
gift.No doubtone of the reasonsthatseveralof thesesets,complete,boxed,and in
good conditionremainwithus todayis becausetheywereindeedreceivedas wedding
gifts.
together
withothertreasured
gifts,and putawayin familystorehouses
Mr. Shibukawa's advertizingtechniqueswere apparentlyquite successfulin
sellinghis "talesof formerdays"to theladiesof Tokugawa Japan.But his advertizing
scholand twentieth-century
thanintended,forwhen nineteenthwas moreeffective
ars firstcame upon thesepublications,theytook Mr. Shibukawa at his word and
mistakenlyassumed that these "tales of formerdays," these so-called"guides for
women," had always been guides for women-that, indeed, these storieswere
originally
composedforwomenwhenfirstwrittenduringthemiddleages.8
evidenceto supportthisview.First,manyof
True, therewas somecircumstancial
fantastic
standards,seem remarkably
or twentieth-century
thestories,by nineteenthand naive. How could anyonebut shelteredwomen or perhapseven childrentake
them seriously?And second, threeof the tales, Hachikazuki, a step-childstory,
of Rip
Issun boshi,a taleresemblingTom Thumb,and UrashimaTaro, reminiscent
Van Winkle,have since been simplifiedand rewrittenfor childrenand are today
as nursery
talesbytheJapaneselayman.
viewedstrictly
In short,no one took The CompanionLibraryseriouslywhen it firstcame to the
attentionof scholars,and most likely it would have remained an unconsulted
collectionsin Japanhad not manuscriptsand early
acquisitionin a few university
printedversionsof the same or similarstoriesbegunto appearin greatnumberand
progressed.There were
of earlyliterature
in manyformsas moderninvestigations
illustrated
scrolls,Nara e hon,roughmanuscriptcopies,and earlyprintedtextspredatingThe CompanionLibrary.It graduallybecameapparentthatThe Companion
Libraryhad been selectedfroma much largerbody of materialthan anyonehad
suspected.As a result,Shibukawa'spublicationtookon a new importanceas theonly
as it were,of a newlydiscoveredgenre: the shortstoriesof the
existinganthology,
Muromachiperiod.
At thesame timetheMuromachistorieshe had not selectedbecametheobjectof
7 See Ichiko Teiji, Cht7seishosetsuno kenkyti
[Researchon MedievalStories] (Tokyo, I955), p.
I7ff. Hereaftercited as Ichiko, CSNK.
8Such early scholarsas Sekine Masanao (ShosetsushikJ,n.p., I890, pp. 40 and 6i) and Sasano
Ken (Muromachijidai tampenshu7,Tokyo, I935,
p. i5ff.) and othersdiscussthesestoriesin terms
of women and childrenreadersand considerthem
closelyrelatedto the categoryof fairytales.
ORIGINS OF THE COMPANION LIBRARY
595
considerableinterest.There were themeshe had avoided,perhapsat firstas inappropriateforthe lady readershe had in mind,and then lateras inconsonantwith
the felicitousspiritof a weddinggift: insanity,for example,or homosexuallove,
particularlybetweenpriestsand young acolytes;brutal agonies sufferedby men
and women beforetheywererebornas deities;and battles,apparitions,
and travels
throughhell-none of whichwas likelyto inspirethe properframeof mind fora
youngbride.The discoveryof such themesamong the newlyrecoveredtexts,many
of themchieflyof interestto men, providedthe firsthint that the genre was not
originallyintendedforwomen.
To date, close to five-hundred
storieshave been recoveredwhich indisputably
belongto thegenre.9Yet, of all thesetexts,onlyone includesthe name of its author
and the date of composition.This story,called Hikketsu no monogatari,10
is an
unpretentious
tale about a badger,and was writtenin I48o1l by a samurainamed
IshiiYasunaga afterhe had retiredto thepriesthood
and had takenthenameIho. We
know absolutelynothingabout this gentleman'slife except that his familywas
associatedwith the Ashikaga militarygovernment.12
The qualityof the storysuggests,however,thatthissamuraihad perhapsmore troublewith the pen than with
the sword,since he strugglesunsuccessfully
to bringhis storyto some conclusion
and finallysurrenders
with the sentence:"This tale is about a badger,but like a
rabbit,it has no tail-end."
Of course,it is disappointing
to findsucha largegenreof fictionand to be unable
to determinewho the specificauthorswere,especiallywhen the existenceof Ishii
Yasunaga suggeststhatat leastsome of thesestoriesrepresent
the creativeefforts
of
individualwriters.If we cannotdeterminewho the authorswere,however,we can
at leasttryto findout who thereaderswere.If we can discoverwho read thesestories
we can regain,perhaps,a littleof theperspective
whichwas distorted
duringtheEdo
periodas a resultof Mr. Shibukawa'ssalestechniquesand thelack of sales resistance
on thepartoflaterscholars.
The bestplaceto lookto findoutwhatpeopleweredoingin theirsparetimeduring
the middle ages is in theirdiaries,and fortunately
the Japanesehave alwaysbeen
meticulousdiarywriters.
Here we turnto theworkofProfessor
IchikoTeiji at Tokyo
who has done considerableresearchon medievaldiaries.One of his projUniversity,
ects was to examine all extantdiaries dated between 1340 and I622, as well as
copyists'postscripts
on storymanuscriptsthemselvesfromthe same period and to
compilea listof all fictionalprosenotedas havingbeen eitherread or copied."3It is
apparentfromProfessorIchiko'sdata thatmedievaldiarywritersfall roughlyinto
threeclasses:aristocrats,
priests,and samurai,and as mightbe expected,more than
half of the diariesextanthad been kept by aristocrats.
A large numberof diaries
were writtenby priests,but only fourof thesementionthe readingor copyingof
9For a fairlycompletelist of storiesand the
locationof theirmanuscripts
see MatsumotoTakanobu, "Muromachijidai monogatarirui gensonbon
kanmei mokuroku" ["Concise Catalogue of Extant MuromachiPeriod Texts of the Monogatarivariety"]Shid(5bunkoronshui(Mar., I962), no. I,
pp. I93-259.
10The full titleof thiswork is Tempitsuwago
rakuchiIuku kai emmanhikketsuno monogatari.
llThe date, Bummeitwelfthyear,firstmonth,
eleventhday, corresponds
to February22, I480 on
the WesternCalendar. A theoryexists that this
storywas writtenas a firstwritingexerciseforthe
New Year.
12 His name and familycrestare foundin the
pre-1532 work called Kemmon shoke mon, which
includes informationon familiesrelated to the
Ashikagashogunate.Ichiko, CSNK, p. 389.
13 Ichiko, CSNK, pp. 429-454.
596
BARBARA RUCH
shortstories-a remarkablefact in view of the distinctly
Buddhistflavorof mos
Muromachistories.14
It is equally significant
thatonlyone samuraidiary,writtenii
I585, saysanythingabout contemporary
fiction.But the notationin this diaryis oi
particularinterest
to us:
TonightMr. Yamada and Mr. Inatomicame to visitme. Mr. Haseba fromr
Chikushuicame too. Their master'swife had requestedthat theytranscribe
theTale of Tamamo(Tamamono mae) fromitsChinesecharacter
editionintoa
phonetic-syllabary
versionforher. Some pointswere unclearto themand they
wantedtoreadthrough
thestory
withme.Andthatis whatwe did.15
The information
in thispassage,supportedby theexistenceof actual manuscripts
ol
medievalshortstoriesemployinglargenumbersof difficult
Chinesecharacters,
makes
it quite clear thateducatedmen,not just women,read theseentertaining
tales and
that,indeed,somestorieshad beenmeantoriginally
fora male audience.
Otherdiariesand postscripts
tellus even more.Throughthemwe know thatthe
readersof medieval shortstoriesincluded Imperial Princes,aristocrats,
ladies-inwaiting,samurai,priests,linked-versemasters,and even some townspeople.The
chiefdifficulty
withthediariesis thatlessthanfifty
of thecloseto five-hundred
stories
in questionare mentionedin them,makingit extremely
difficult
to generalizeabout
readerson thebasisof thismaterial.Even theevidencethatmostof thenotationsare
made by aristocrats
is not particularly
since it merelyreflects
the fact
enlightening,
thatmorerecordsby aristocrats
remainthanby membersof otherclasses.It does not
provethatMuromachistoriescirculatedprimarily
amongaristocrats.
When we have exhaustedall documentsthatmentionmedievalshortstoriesand
are leftwithso littleinformation
as to theoriginsand uses of thesestories,our only
recourseis to examinethe storiesthemselveslookingfor characteristics
thatwould
associatea givenstoryeitherwitha specificsocialclassor witha specificliterary
tradition.Are thesestoriesan outgrowth
of theclassictalesof the court,forexample?Or
can theybe relatedto evangelicaltalesof thepriests?What aboutthemilitaryepics?
Can the storieshave evolvedfromepisodesin theselong semi-historical
accountsof
thewarriorclans?Or, in theabsenceof anysubstantial
evidenceof individualauthorship,arethesereallythefolktalesofthepeople?
The questionof how the social classesare treatedin Muromachifictionpresents
itself.Do theyemergedistinctly?
Or are the class elementsso heterogeneous
as to
invalidatea class approachto the studyof authorshipor storyorigin? A more
detailedlook at a few storiessuggestssome answers.Bunsho5no soshi providesa remarkable,and yetin manyways,typicalexample."'Bunta,theheroof thestory,is a
lowly messengerboy for the head priestat Kashima shrinein Hitachi. He is an
astutebusinessman and soon strikesout on his own as a successfulsalt merchant,
marries,and has beautifuldaughters.His daughtersgain a collectivereputationfor
being inordinately
in the matterof love, and theyrefuseproposals
discriminating
fromeven so elevateda suitoras thegovernorof theprovince.A high-ranking
aristocratfromthe courtin Kyotohearsof Bunta'sdaughters,
and disguisinghimselfas a
peddler,journeysnorthto see ifhe can win thefavorsofone of them.He is eminently
and takesthegirlback withhim to thecourtwherehis mother,givingup
successful,
14Daij6in jisha zatsu jiki, Tamon'in nikki,Ro- sixthday in Ise no kami nikkiby Uwai Kakuken.
18 For the textof the storysee Ichiko,ed., OZ.
kuon nichiroku,and Bonshunnikki.
15 Tenshothirteenth
year,secondmonth,twenty-
ORIGINS OF THE COMPANION
LIBRARY
597
hope of making a brilliantmatch for her son, graciouslyexpressesthe sentiment
thatno matterhow humblethe girl'sbirth,she will be welcomed.And in the end
the lowly salt merchant,Bunta,is made a ministerof state.Here we find a very
loose consciousness
of class: a courtierdisguisesas a peddler; his motherwelcomes
thegirlhe bringshomeeventhoughshe belongsto thelowestclass; thesaltmerchant
becomesa stateminister.
All the impossibleshave becomepossible.Such a storyrebut within
flectsthe aspirationsof the lowerclassesmorethan thoseof the nobility,
mixtureof aristocratic
and priestlyelementsas
thetale can be founda heterogeneous
well.
Anotherexampleis Sara Genji s&shi.'7In thisstorya sardinemonger
impersonates
a daimyoin orderto meeta famouscourtesanwithwhomhe has becomeenamoured
aftercatchingsightof heron the street.He so impressesher withhis skillat poetry
thateven afterhis trueidentityhas been revealed,she decidesto give up her distinguishedand lucrativecalling in the capital and returnwith him to his fishing
village.This storycontainsseveralthemeswhichobviouslyparodythe famousTale
of Genji (Genji monogatari),indicatingthe writer'sacquaintance,sketchythough
it maybe, withthisHeian classic.'8At the same time,while some poems quoted in
thestorycomefromclassicalsources,othersareobviouslyoffolkorigins.'9An astonishing opinion of aristocratic
women is expressedby the hero's father-in-law
when,
curiouslyenough,he is asked by his son-in-lawto help effectthisliaison with the
courtesan.The father-in-law
says: "If the girl in questionwere merelythe daughter
of an aristocrat
or a priestof Imperialbirth,I am sureI could devisea plan. But she
is a courtesan,
devotedto her calling,and will give her favorsto no one but daimyo
or wealthymilitarymen."'4Accuratelyas thismay depictthe moralsof thetime,an
aristocratic
writerwould hardlyrelishthe idea thatwomen of his class were more
easilyavailableto fishmongers
thanwerecourtesans.
A shortfolktaleabout a fishmerchantis relatedwithinthe courseof this same
story,21leadingsome scholarsto believethatthe storyof Saru Genji itselfgrew out
of Lake Biwa near Kyoto.22The storyof Saru Genji,
of legendstold by fishermen
however,containsnot only thesearistocratic,
folk,and merchantelementsbut also
a curiouslink to themilitaryworld.The courtesanin the storyis describedas living
at the same addressin Kyoto where,in real life,the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu
(I358-I408) kept his favoritecourtesan,Takahashi. Moreover,thereis the strange
in the storyis called Ebina no Nan'amidabutsu,
coincidencethat the father-in-law
thesame name as thatof an historicalpersonwho was activeas a critic,teacher,and
composerof no and othertypesof dance-dramapopularwith militarymen at the
time.23
17 For the textof the storysee Ichiko,ed., OZ.
upon in the courseof the story.
19 For a discussion of the folk origins see
See also Edward D. Putzar,"The Tale of Monkey
Genji-Sarugenji-z5shi," Monumenta Nipponica, Oshima Takehiko, "Saru Genji s5shi no seiritsu"
["The Compositionof the Tale of Saru Genji"],
Vol. i8, nos. I-4 (I963), pp. 286-3I2.
18For example, the name of the hero, Saru
Bungaku [Literature],Vol. XXVII,no. 9 (Sept.,
on Hikaru Genji,the I959), pp. 59-67.
Genji, is of coursea take-off
20 Italicsmine.
hero of Genji monogatari.Saru Genji fallsin love
21 Ichiko,ed., OZ, p. I
li. II-I3.
with a courtesanwhen the wind blows aside the
22 Oshima Takehiko, "Saru Genji soshi no
blind of her palaquin as she passes.This is reminiscentof the episode in Genji monogatariwhere seiritsu,"p. 6off.
23 Kosai Tsutomu, "Ebina no Nan'ami," YoKashiwagifallsin love withNyosanno miyawhen
the veranda blinds are accidentallybrushedaside kyokukai [The World of N6 Texts] Vol. ILIX,
is dulyremarked no. 4 (Oct. I, I939), pp. 38-4I.
revealingher face.The similarity
598
BARBARA RUCH
exampleof themixtureof social elementsin MuroThis storyis a representative
of thelifeof thetimes.During the
a directreflection
unquestionably
machiliterature,
were no longeras isolatedfromthe restof society
Muromachiperiod,thearistocrats
of the capitalor even in the
Many lived in the outskirts
as theyhad been formerly.
and theircontactswithmerchantsand
modestcircumstances,
provincesin extremely
samuraiincreased,even on a social basis.24In such a situationa greatdeal of interclass culturalexchangewas inevitable,and equally inevitablewas the influenceof
to tryto dividethis
It does not provefeasible,therefore,
such exchangeon literature.
largebodyof medievalproseintostoriesbelongingto one class of societyor another.
Assumingthatnotall or
traditions.
This bringsus to thequestion,then,of literary
even most of the storiesin the genrewere originalcreationsof specificwriters,it
would seem,then,that the originsof Muromachistoriescould best be found by
directingour attentionto the prose fictionof an even earlierperiod,looking for
some specificprecursorswithinthe fourmain traditionsof Heian novel,military
and folktale.Linguisticanalysisis a specializedproblembeepic,religiousnarrative,
yondthe scopeof the presentdiscussion.Sufficeit to say here,however,thatcertain
words and conventionsin Muromachishortstoriestie most of them to one or
From a purelylinguisticpointof view,we are fairly
anotherof thesefourtraditions.
of late Heian tales25;thatothersgrewout of
certainthatsome storiesare rewritings
and
episodes within longer militaryaccountschantedby itinerantperformers26;
priests.27
by
written
narratives
thatotherswerecondensedfromevangelical
to evaluatebecauseso little-remains
The tiewiththeclassicHeian novelis difficult
of late Heian and Kamakura prose.Of all the monogatarimentionedin the Ft7yo
waka sht7,a collectionof poems selectedfromvariousmonogatarifromthe end of
titlesbelong to texts
the Heian period to the year 1271, one-hundredseventy-eight
Mentionof so manylostworksin one sourcesuggests
no longerextant.28
apparently
thateven moredisappearedunnoticed.Examinationof the poemsin theFu7yowaka
sht7,however,togetherwith those which appear in various Muromachiworks of
betweensome of the lost monogatari
fiction,seemsto indicatea directrelationship
and extantMuromachistories-that,in fact,some Muromachistoriesare new vertherecan be no proofof thishypothesis
sionsof earliermonogatari.Unfortunately,
it is reasonableto assume a direct
unlessthe lost textsare recovered.Nevertheless,
when thesame (or similar)poems,used to setthescene,statetheproblem,
influence
appearundera monogatarititlein the Futyowaka
or commenton the denouement,
shu and also in a Muromachistory.To date,however,onlyten of our five-hundred
storiesappear,by evidenceof the poetrytheycontain,to be adaptationsof earlier
storiesin thisclassictradition.29
26 Nosezaru soshi, On zoshi shima watari,etc.
24 HayashiyaTatsusabur5,
Chu7seini okerutoshi
For thetextssee Ichiko,ed., OZ.
to noson no bunka [The Cultureof Cities and
27 Mishima.For the textsee Yokoyama,
FarmingVillagesin the Middle Ages]. No. 5 of
MIMS,
Vol. I.
Iwanamik8za Nihon bungakushi-Chu7seiII [The
28
For a fullerdiscussionof Kamakura period
IwanamiLectureSerieson the Historyof Japanese
monogatariseeIchiko,CSNK, p. 7Iff.
Literature-MiddleAges, Part II] (Tokyo, I958),
29 See IchikoTeiji, Chu7sei
monogatarino tenkai
pp. 3I-32.
etc. [The Developmentof Medieval Tales]. No. 6 of
25 Iwaya no soshi, Fuseya no monogatari,
Iwanami k5za Nihon bungaku shi-Chu7sei III
For the texts see Yokoyama Shigeru and Oda
shu7[Col[The Iwanami Lecture Series on the Historyof
Takeo, eds., Muromachijidai monogatari
lectionof MuromachiPeriodTales], Vol. III (ToJapaneseLiterature-The Middle Ages, Part III]
(Tokyo, I959), p. 37, fora discussionof theseten.
kyo, I962). Hereaftercited as Yokoyama,MIMS.
ORIGINS OF THE COMPANION LIBRARY
599
The militaryepic traditionis equallydifficult
to deal withbecauseso much here
The biwa
chanters.
dependedupon theactivities
of medievaljongleursor professional
hoshi or lute-playing
priest,for example,played a key role in the transmission
of
the militaryepics throughout
Japan,and in the incorporation
of folk literaturein
theirrecitations,
leadingto an important
folkand epic impacton the medievalshort
storygenre.These men were not reallypriests,but were blind men of the lowest
social class who dressedas priestsand made theirlivingchantingthe troubledtales
of clans in conflict
to the accompaniment
of the lute-likeinstrument,
the biwa. Possiblycertainbiwa h5shiwere actuallypriests,or had connectionswitha temple,but
the termhoshi, as employedhere,was a derogatory
appelation,widelyused during
the Muromachiperiodto referto membersof thesemminclasswho,in theguise of
priests,had takenup one of the performing
arts.30Performers
of dengaku no and
no,
also
members
of
the
semmin
class,
were
referred
to
as dengakuhoshi,
sarugaku
and sarugakuhoshi. The word was also appliedto an enemyas a termof disparage-
ment.Hojo Takatoki(I303-I333),
ofEmdenounced
forhisperemptory
treatment
perorGo Daigo (I288-I339), forexample,was referred
to,as Hbj56Takatoki hoshi
as a signof contempt.
Some biwa hoshi, were no doubt,littlemore than beggers,and theirwretched
existencecontributed
to the worstconnotationsof the termhoshi; but otherswere
highly skilled and successful,and were welcomed beforeboth aristocraticand
militaryaudiences.The word hoshi, then,was oftenderogatory,
but had patronizing
ratherthan maliciousconnotations.
By the Kamakura period,the repertoire
of the
biwa hoshi had been established:theynarratedand greatlymodifiedthe finalforms
ofthefourgreatmilitary
epicsoftheearlymedievalperiod,Heike monogatari,
Hogen
monogatari,
Heiji monogatariand Sh5kyfikassenki.By theNambokuchaand Muromachiperiods,the biwa hoshi were forthe mostpart replacedby monogatariso,
who chanted (or perhapsread) such pseudo-historical
chroniclesas Taiheiki and
Onin ki.YThe importance
of thesemen in the developmentof laterMuromachifictionis thattheytraveledwidely,and thetalestheynarratedbecameknownto people
fromall walks of life.Elementsof theirpeculiarchantingstylebecamea partof the
folktradition,
as people heardthe tales and triedto repeatthemlaterfortheirown
amusement.This processstimulatedthe creationof local legendsabout personages
mentionedin the tales,whichin turntook writtenformas shortstoriesduringthe
Muromachiperiod.
It is whenwe come to theBuddhistnarrativetradition,
however,thatwe discover
gold. By farthe largestnumberof Muromachishortstorieseitherwerewrittenas a
partofthistradition
or wereprofoundly
influenced
byit.Buddhistnarrativeliterature
or bukky5setsuwabegan as earlyas theninthcentury,
when a priestby the name of
Kyokai (ca. 786-822),32 associatedwith the famous Nara temple,Yakushiji, collectedone-hundred
sixteennarratives,
or what mightbe more accuratelydescribed
as folktales
popularamongthepeoplefromas earlyas theNara period(7I0-784). He
translatedthemintoChinese (which of coursecorresponds
to the Latin of medieval
Europe)andproduced,
around822, an anthology
knownas Nihon ryoiki.33Kyokai,
however,was not simplya priestwith an interestin folklore.He carefullyselected
30 Hayashiya, p. 23.
31 Hayashiya,p. 22.
32
Also read Keikai.
B3 The
full title is Nihonkokugemp6 zen'aku
ryoiki (also read reiiki).
600
BARBARA RUCH
storiesthat could be used to teach a moral lesson and that would help to lead
readersor listenersto a stateof enlightenment.
When the originalstorieshad no
apparentmoral he added a paragraphor two of his own expressingappropriately
moralsentiments.34
Althoughhe wrotehis storiesin Chinese,it is clear thathe intendedthattheybe used forpreachingpurposes.Complicatedthoughit seems,it was
the practiceto read aloud from the Chinese,pronouncingthe charactersin the
Japanesewhile automaticallyinsertingthe necessaryJapanesegrammaticallinks.
In short,whenpreachingfromthesetextsthepriestswerelookingat theChineseand
translating
simultaneously
intoJapanesefortheaudience.
Kyokai'santhologylay thegroundworkfora long traditionof writtencollections
of shortnarratives,
thebestknownof whichare,of course,Konjaku monogatariand
Ui shi7imonogatariof the twelfthand thirteenth
centuries.35
These later works,
too, includethe moral or didacticelementsestablishedby Kyokai, with Buddhism
centralto manystories.The practiceof borrowinga storyfromcurrentfolkloreand
embellishing
it witha morallessonor somewordof adviceestablishedas a precedent
in the Buddhistnarrativetraditionbecame an importantfeatureoutside of that
traditionin the latermedievalshortstories.Some storiesare openlydidacticlike
The Storyof a Clam (Hamaguri no soshi), whichconcludes:
This was a signof filialpiety.You readers,
too,who in afteryearslookat this
story,
and,likethehero,are goodto yourparents,
willbecomerichin thisworld.
Your wishesin thisworldand the nextwill be grantedimmediately.
All your
troubleswill disappear,and no harmwill come to you. You will be loved by
everyone,
and all yourdescendants
willprosper.
Clearlyyouwillbecomea Buddha
in thenextworld.Justbe sureyouarefilialto yourparents,
and thatyoureadthis
storyto others.3'6
Otherstoriesaremorepractical,
likeour storyofthesardinemonger,
whichends:
So he tookherwithhimto theBay of Akogiand theybecamewealthyand
prospered.
This was becausetheirmutualfeelingsweredeep and also because
theyhadno smallknowledge
ofpoetry.
Everyone
shouldlearnthewaysofpoetry.37
A thirdtypehas a morespecifically
religiousintent.Komachino soshi or theStoryof
Komachiends:
For peoplewho hearthisstory,
to saynothingof thosewho readit,it willbe
thesameas iftheyhad madethirty-three
imagesoftheKwannonand worshipped
them.38
In additiontothisdidacticelement,
theplotsthemselves
wereborrowedorcombined
to createnew shortstories.For example,the plot of Kowata gitsune,the storyof a
fox who becomesa man's wife and bears him a child,is commonto both Nihon
ry&ikiand Konjaku monogatari.Rushi ch6ia,thestoryof the Indian millionaire,
is
of two storiesfromUji shu7imonogatari:one in volumesix
obviouslya combination
34 It is interesting
thatthe Maeda bon text(Son
kei kaku s6kan gempo ryoi ki) eliminatesthe
moralizingendingsof certainstoriesand replaces
withthe editorialcomment"etc.,
such exhortations
copy of this I236 text in posetc." Photo-offset
session of ProfessorSakakura Atsuyoshi,Kyoto
University.
35For a translationof Uji shu-imonogatari,as
well as for a detailedlist of Westerntranslations
and studiesof both Konjaku monogatariand Uji
shiuimonogatari,see D. E. Mills, A Collectionof
Tales fromUji, CambridgeUniversity
Press,I970.
35Ichiko,ed., OZ, p. 227, Hi.I-p. 228, li. 4.
87 Ichiko,ed., OZ, p. i86, li. 4-7.
38Ichiko,ed., OZ, p. ioI, li. I-2.
ORIGINS OF THE COMPANION
LIBRARY
601
called Rushi ch5ja,and one in volumesevencalled Go shikino shika no koto.This
storycan be tracedback even further
to Konjaku monogatariand to the Buddhist
scriptures,
but theobviousmodelfortheMuromachistoryin questionwas themore
recentwork,Uji shui monogatari.
The most importantevidencethatthe originsof some storieslie in the earlier
religiousnarrative
tradition,
however,is gratifyingly
textual.We have discoveredthat
a numberof late medievalstoriesare secular embellishments
of storiesfromthe
fourteenth-century
collection,
Shinto shia,an earlyanthologyof fifty
narratives
relating, in Chinese,the former(Buddhist) lives,expiatoryagonies,and reincarnations
as Shintodeities,of the divinitiesfrommanyareas of Japan,togetherwithhistories
of various shrines.The medieval writerof the later storiesmust have had this
Chinesetextof the Shinto shu beforehim as he wrote.Collationshows a word for
wordidentity
in longpassagesthroughout
a numberof stories.
There is anotherfigurewho played an importantrole in the developmentof
medievalfictionand who was instrumental
in thepopularizationof illustrated
scrolls
and writtenstorieswithintheframework
of thereligiousnarrativetradition.He was
the etokihoshi or "pictureexplainer.""9
Illustratedhistoriesof shrinesand temples,
knownas engi monogatari,
existedat leastas earlyas the Heian periodin emaki or
picturescrollformand, indeed,the scripturesthemselveswere renderedin emaki
formas earlyas the Nara period.These carefullyexecutedand highlytreasured
religiousscrolls,however,were not originallyintendedfor the averageman. They
werefirstfortheuse of thepriestsin thetemplesand secondforthe enjoymentand
of the temples'wealthypatrons.A treasuredpicturescrollwould be disedification
playedat the templefromtimeto time and "pictureexplanations"would be given
to etokior "pictureexplanaby requestfor eminentvisitors.The earliestreference
tions"datesfromII46, when Fujiwara Yorinaga (II20-II56)
recordedin his diary
thathe visitedShitenn6jiand listenedto the explanationof the picturebiography
of Sh&tokuTaishi.40
Despite the elevatednatureof boththe Sh&tokuTaishi e den, as thisscrollwas
called,and the audience,the etokihoshi who providedthe oral commentary
on the
picturescroll,likethebiwa hoshi, belongedto thelowestclass.They livedin a partof
the templeor shrineproperty
known as the sanjo and were apparentlyobligatedto
servethe priestsin whatevercapacitytheycould. Like biwa hoshi, theywere blind,
but thatblindnessdid not lead them,as so oftenin Japan,to learna musicalinstrumentas a meansofsupporting
themselves.
It is curiousthatblindmenwereemployed
to explainpictures.Unable to see the picturestheywere to talk about,theywould
39There has been considerablespeculationas to
whetheror not the Japanesepracticeof etokihad
its beginningsin China. As early as the T'ang
period (6I8-907), priestsserved as popular lecin Chinesetemples,and the
turersand storytellers
textsfor these lecturesor storiesare called pien
wen (J. hen bun). Only the accidentaldiscovery
of some of these textsat Tun-huanghas made
studyof thempossible.To date,however,thereis
no evidence whatsoeverthat Muromachistories
themselvesare eithertranslations
of pien wen or
that they are influencedby them. Okami Masao
has pointed out, however,in "Etoki to emaki-
ezoshi-Kinko shosetsuno katachi(zoku)" ["Etoki
and IllustratedScrolls and Books-The Form of
Late MedievalStories(Continued)"] Kokugo kokubun [JapaneseLanguage and JapaneseLiterature] Vol. XXIII, no. 8 (Aug., I954), p. 9ff., that
duringroughlythe same period,women in China
traveledaroundthetownswithpicturescrollswhich
but no direct
theydescribedin chantednarratives,
relationshiphas been clearlyestablishedbetween
this practiceand the Japaneseetoki.
40Takat5 Chfiz6,Taiki (Tokyo, 1898), p. 185,
entryfor the secondyearof Kyfian(II46),
ninth
month,twenty-fourth
day.
BARBARA RUCH
602
necessarily
have to memorizethe subjectmatterportrayedas describedto themby a
sightedperson.It is possiblethatetokihoshi did not actuallyexplain the pictures,
but ratherspokeon the themeillustrated
in the pictures.If the skillsof memorizing
a narrativeor extemporizing
on a themewere the onlyrequirement,
thenblindness
would imposeno handicap.
At the end of the Kamakura period,however,sightedpeople began to enterthe
profession.SometimebetweenI3I8 and I330 a sightedsanjo residentbecame an
From this
etokihoshi,resultingin a stormof protestfromthe restof the profession.
timeon etokih5shi (or simplyetoki,as theywerefrequently
called) came to include
bothblind and sightedmen, and some,whetherblind or not,took up the biwa as
accompaniment
fortheir"explanations."The illustration
of an etokias he appearsin
the Sanju7niban
centuryshowsa sightedman in
shokuninuta awase of the fifteenth
samuraigarbminusswords,seatedwitha biwa in his lap and witha pheasant-feather
pointerin his hand.41
The etokiprofession
role in the popularizationof the emaki.
playeda significant
With the continueddeclineof the aristocracy
duringthe Kamakura period,temples
became concernedover the loss of aristocractic
patronageand foundit necessaryto
seek financialsupportfromthelowerclasses.Pictureexplainingbecamea methodof
disseminatingreligiouspropagandaand collectingfundsfor the temple.42At first
peoplefromall walksof lifewereencouragedto cometo thetemplesto heartheetoki
give his lectures,but eventuallyhe became the "travelingsalesman" of the faith.
Illustratedscrollswere made forhim to carryand use in his storytelling
and fund
raising;as he told his storieshe pointedto the appropriatesceneson the scrollusing
a pheasantfeatheron the end of a stickto protectthe painting.During the fourteenthcentury,
at leastone picturescroll,theYuizuinembutsu
engi,was producedby
woodblockmethod,reflecting
the factthatmissionarytravelwas no doubt hard on
picturescrolls,and suggesting
thatlargenumberswerein use.43
The pictureexplainers,then,while popularizingtheillustratedscroll,contributed
to its decline.The picturescrollis ideallysuitedfor displayin the livingroom or
templehall,but when shownat the roadside,or in makeshiftquarterson a journey,
it is awkwardto handle and easilydamaged.The horizontalscrollgave way to the
verticalhangingscroll,like thosefrequently
used to depictmandala and otherreligious subjectsin temples.By the end of the fifteenth
the usefulnessof the
century,
picturescrollas a travelingmissionaryinstrument
had come to an end, and it was
in many areas fastbeing replacedby the illustratedbook." Althoughthe etokifirst
setout to gatherfundsforsupportof thetemple,bythemiddleof theMuromachiperiod he had become simplyan entertainer
gatheringfundsfor supportof himself.
By I440 etokiare listedalong withchanters,
puppethandlers,and no performers
as
artistswho werepaid fortheirservicesbyprivateparties.45
41 Illustrated
scroll,Bummeiperiod(1469-1I486),
on loan to Goto ArtMuseum,Tokyo.
42Araki Shigeru, Chuiseimakki no bungaku
[Literatureat the End of the Middle Ages]. No.
6 of Iwanami k8za Nihon bungaku shi-Chuisei
III [The Iwanami LectureSeries on the History
of JapaneseLiterature-TheMiddleAges,Part III]
(Tokyo, 1959), p. 7.
43Ishida Zenjin,"Chuiseibunkano keisei" ["The
Formationof MedievalCulture"], in K6za Nihon
bunka shi [Lectureson the Historyof Japanese
Culture]editedby Nihon shi kenkyui
kai, Vol. III
(Tokyo,I962), p. 9I.
44 Mushakoji Minoru, Emakimono to bungaku
[IllustratedScrolls and Literature]. No. 4 of
Iwanami k6za Nihon bungakushi-ChuiseiI [The
IwanamiLectureSerieson the Historyof Japanese
Literature-The Middle Ages, Part 1] (Tokyo,
1958), p. 35.
45Okami,"Etoki,"p. 3.
ORIGINS OF THE COMPANION LIBRARY
603
Those who wereblindwereknownas
Women too wereinvolvedin storytelling.
goze and, likemanyof thebiwa hoshi,seemedto have chantedworksin themilitary
epic tradition,
such as theSoga monogatari,
punctuatingtheirchantingwitha hand
scrolls
drum.46Mostimportant
of thewomeninvolvedin thespreadof theillustrated
and books,however,were the nuns of Kumano (Kumano bikuni) who, like the
and carriedscrollsdepictingthe delightsof heavenand
etoki,began as missionaries
less attractive
aspectsof thealternative.
As agentsforthereligiouscenterat Kumano,
thesebikunitouredtheentirecountryaskingfordonations.Sometimestheydirected
theirattentionprimarilyat women,whose responsibilities
at home oftenmade pilgrimagesto Kumano an impossibility,
to persuadethem of the religiousbenefits
thatwould accrueto beliefin the Kumano deities.Gradually,thesenuns gave up
preaching,began to wear makeup,and made religiousstorytelling
with the aid of
illustratedtextsinto a secularprofession.By the end of the medieval period,all
religiouspretenseshad been abandonedtogetherwith the storytelling,
and theybecame loose companionsfortravelerson theroad.47In theirearlyyears,however,the
nuns of Kumano playedan importantpart in introducingillustratedtextsinto the
lives of the commonpeople,sellingthem,exchangingthemfor a contribution,
or
givingthemawayas a partofmissionary
activity.
One Muromachistory,
Kumano no
honji,concludes:
If youreadthisstoryonce,it meansyouhavemadea pilgrimage
to Kumano
once.If youreadittwiceyouwillhavegonetwice.If youreaditfiveor tentimes,
it is thesameas ifyouhad goneto Kumanomanytimes.... If youputa copyof
thisstoryin yourhouse,thentheKumanodeitieswillenteryourhouseand protect
it.You shouldreadthisstoryto thosewhocannotreadand havethemlistento it,
so thatbyhearingit theywill be guidedbothin thisworldand thenextand will
notgo to hell.48
These werethescrollsand books,then,thatcarriedmedievalfictionintothe Edo
periodand intothehandsof Mr. Shibukawa,theastutepublisherof The Companion
of boththe etokiand Kumano bikunihad had two
efforts
Library.The missionary
importanteffectson the developmentof Muromachishortstories:first,more and
morestories,religiousand otherwise,
began to circulatein written,illustrated
form;
and second,thebook becamemorewidelyused. These two factors,
coupledwiththe
riseof increasingly
wealthytownspeoplewho wantedbooks fortheirown pleasure,
at leastby the sixteenthcentury,
led directlyto the development,
of illustratedstory
e
Nara
and
to the printedkana zoshi of the Edo period.The
the
later
books,
hon,
CompanionLibraryitselfwas, both as to contentand format,a legacy fromthe
46 Written
for"woman" and was adoptedto transcribe
withthe characters
goze. The use of goze(n)
"blind" (see Glossaryof Characters).The origin as a politeformof addressforwomen in general
of the word is relatedto that of anotherword, went out of fashion,and goze was then applied
to blind womenperformers.
gozen. Gozen was used duringthe Kamakurape- exclusively
47 Okami Masao, "Setsuwa tangen kaisetsu"
riod and later as a polite formof addressadded
["Commentaryfor the Unit on Narratives"].In
to a person'sname. Later it came to be used exclusivelyforwomen.Sometimeduringthe middle Kokugoka otsu rui fuku dokuhon,koto kokubun
Readerforthe UpperLevel Japaages the finaln was dropped(a phoneticphenom- [Supplementary
enon occurringfrequentlyduring the Kamakura nese Course,Upper School Literature],edited by
and Muromachiperiods) and the word was then End6 Yoshimotoet al., Vol. I (Kyoto, I954), p.
were II5.
pronouncedgoze. Blind women entertainers
48Yokoyama, MIMS, Vol. I, p. 79a, li. -3-p.
at firstreferredto by the politeaddressgoze, the
of gozen.Even- 79b, li. 8.
pronunciation
contemporary
current
tually,thedescriptive
ateiimeaning"blindwoman"
604
BARBARA RUCH
middle ages, a selectedanthology,in replicaNara-e-honform,of a vast medieval
genre.The wealthof thefive-hundred-story
genrehas barelybeentouchedbymodern
scholarship,
but therichesare apparent.Out of thepages of thesemanuscripts
come
thebeliefsand customsof medievalJapan,a graphiccommentary
on what it meant
to be a humanbeing in thatday and age. Of furtherimportanceis the weightof
evidencethatcontinuesto grow as examinationof the genreprogresses,
suggesting
that,indeed,thenativerootsof themodernshortstorygenrein Japanlie less in the
genius displayedby such outstandingfictionwritersas Murasaki Shikibuor Ihara
Saikaku thanin theinventiveinstincts
of anonymousmedievalpriestsand jongleurs,
whose full impacton the aestheticand literaryjudgementsof later Japaneseshort
storywritersis yetto be explored.
See Glossaryof Characters
on Next Page
605
ORIGINS OF THE COMPANION LIBRARY
GLOSSARY OF CHARACTERS
Araki Shigeru
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu
biwa h7oshi
,
B
E5 v<
Bonshunnikki
bukkyo setsuwa
iI
Bunsho soshi ,
Daijoin
:+
jisha zatsu jiki
dengaku zion
.
Ebina no Nan'amidabutsu
emaki
Endo Yoshimoto
engi monogatari
otoki hoshi
5m q
0It
Fujiwara Yorinaga
f
A
7
Fuseya no monogatari
s.
Fyyo waka shu
JX
)AIR? 7 YK
Genji monogatari
-
Go Daigo Tenn7o
<
q
606
BARBARA RUCH
Go shiki no shika no koto
_
Go shugenotogi bunko
X
Goto Art Museum
M,7,n
<4t
IhL
f}jJ
_iYIr'7
.
goze
gozen
Hachikazuki
4$
Hamaguri no sUshi
Hayashiya TatsusaburS
Heiji
monogatari
4;t/t
F
J?_-Z
5/
PV
b
A&
Heike monogatari
hen bun
Hikketsu no monogatari
HiCgen monogatari
H5jo Takatoki
hIoshi
Ichiko
Teiji
Ihara Saikaku
Iho
a>
44
5
1 2
g
2
ORIGINS OF THE COMPANION
607
LIBRARY
Ise no kami nikki
:
4 k
Ishida Zenjin
Ishii
gt
L
Yasunaga
Issun boshi
Iwaya no soshi
kana z6shi
Jkaik i
shoke mon
Kemmon
u
Komachi no soshi
F1 E-j4
T
Konjaku monogatari
/
g
+
k t
t
KWsai Tsutomu
KiCshokugonin onna
XoKshokuichidai
onna
Kowata gitsune
Kumanobikuni
Maeda bon
MatsumotoTakanobu
monogatari
sB
tJ5t
t
BARBARA RUCH
608
Murasaki Shikibu
Mushak';ji
Minoru
lJ
j
Nambokuchv'
Nara e hon
Nihonkoku gempWzen aku ryoi ki
Nihon ryli ki
-
$Ji
El
Nosezaru sushi
-t)f
3
Oda Takeo
OkamiMasao
3v
/44-
/ILJT
Onin ki
On zoshi shima watari
TklI
&
ifJ7j75
t4-
Oshima Takehiko
Otogi bunko
7k.-')
1WP
pien wen
Rokuen nichiroku
Rushi choJa
Sakakura Atsuyoshi
sanjo
,,
XQ,6a
ORIGINS OF THE COMPANION LIBRARY
Sanjuniban shokunin uta awase
t
_
609
K --
sarugaku enSaru Genji soshi
Sasano Ken.
Sekine Masanao
semmin
;
Shibukawa ShEko-d Kashiwabaraya
Seiemon
;JIf<s.
Shido
bunko ronshiu
Shinto shu
Shitennhi
Shokyu kassen ki
/%
Shotoku Taishi e den
Soga monogatari
7
Son kei kaku sokan gemp' ryoi ki
dF.
Taiheiki
Taiki
Takahashi
Takato Chuzoi
5
t
610
no mae
Tamamo
BARBARA RUCH
X
2
&1
Tamonlin nikki
kai
Tempitsu wago rakuchi fWuku
emmanhikketsu no monogatari
Uji shui monogatari
xEl
tV
t
IE
o
___
Urashima Taroi
Uwai Kakuken
t
Yakushiji
YokoyamaShigeru
Yuzu nembutsuengi
[
J:
i
,
'
T7
LI
i
f
7-1!