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| In 1809, Ueda died at the age of 76 in ]. | In 1809, Ueda died at the age of 76 in ]. | ||
| ==Ugetsu Monogatari== | |||
| ''Ugetsu Monogatari'' 雨月物語 (Tales of Moonlight and Rain) by Ueda Akinari (1734-1809) was first published in 1776. Comprised of nine independent stories adapted from Chinese ghost stories, ''Ugetsu Monogatari'' is noted for its highly allusive and lyrical prose and is considered to be among the most important works of fiction of the eighteenth century, the middle of the ] (1603-1868). Edo literary achievements are normally associated with the fiction of ] (1642-1693) and drama of ] (1653-1724) in the Genroku period (1688-1704) and the popular literature of ] (1767-1848) in the later Bunka Bunsei period (1793-1841). ''Ugetsu Monogatari'', then, occupies an important yet often overlooked position between these two moments in ] literary history. | |||
| ] | |||
| ===Content and style=== | |||
| The nine stories of ''Ugetsu Monogatari'' are based on supernatural tales of the ] from the works ''Jiandeng xinhua'' 剪灯新話 (circa 1378) and ''Sanyan'' 三言 (circa 1620). In his reinterpretation of these stories, Ueda recast them as historical tales set in Japan, weaving together elements of the source tales with a rich array of references to historical events and personages and literary works, both Japanese and Chinese. The effect is a style that ingeniously blends the style of Chinese vernacular fiction popular at that time with a neo-classical style that hearkens back to earlier works of Japanese literature, including ''The Tale of Genji''. In his skillful use of Chinese compounds glossed with Japanese phonetic readings, Ueda frequently incorporates double meanings and word play into his text. Ueda’s penchant for allusion is evident in the Chinese preface, which is also noteworthy for its presentation of the author’s view of fiction as means of expressing truth. | |||
| Although each story revolves around a supernatural event, Ueda does not stray too far from the affairs of this world. Like other members of the ''kokugaku'' (nativisit studies) movement Ueda relied on fiction as a tool to reinvigorate Japan’s past, by bringing to life the aesthetics of antiquity in the present. At the same time, he presents in ''Ugetsu Monogatari'' some of the moral views of the ''kokugaku'' school. To do so, he employs supernatural elements, such as ghosts who revisit the living to make known the effects they have suffered from the unethical behavior of others. For example, in the famous story “Asaji ga yado” (“The House Amid the Reeds”), upon which ]’s 1953 film '']'' is partially based, a husband who has abandoned his faithful wife returns home only to unknowingly meet her ghost, an experience which leads him to a heartbreaking realization of the effects of his infidelity. However, as Dennis Washburn argues, through his highly literate style and developed narrative technique, Ueda avoids overly emphasizing the moral aspect, and the tales are first and foremost a literary exploration of human emotion. | |||
| ===Publication and influence=== | |||
| ''Ugetsu Monogatari'' was first published in a 1776 woodblock edition, although some scholars maintain that the work was completed eight years earlier in 1768. ''Ugetsu Monogatari'' was one of the first works of “reading books” (''yomihon'') that were published for a smaller, more literate audience. Often centering on historical topics, “reading books” catered to the highly educated, both in Chinese and Japanese classics, and were also connoisseurs of Ming period vernacular fiction. ''Ugetsu Monogatari'' grew in popularity following its publication, and many subsequent authors such as ] (1761-1816) and Bakin modeled their works on the content and style of ''Ugetsu Monogatari''. Although interest in ''Ugetsu Monogatari'' declined for a time in the Meiji period, many twentieth century writers, including ] (1886-1965) and ] (1892-1927) were enthusiastic admirers of the work. | |||
| ==Ueda Akinari Timeline== | ==Ueda Akinari Timeline== | ||
Revision as of 15:10, 16 October 2007
Ueda Akinari or Ueda Shūsei (上田 秋成, July 25, 1734, Osaka - August 8, 1809, Kyoto) was a Japanese author, scholar, and waka poet, and perhaps the most prominent literary figure in eighteenth century Japan. He was an early writer in the yomihon genre, and his two masterpieces, Tales of Moonlight and Rain (Ugetsu monogatari) and Tales of Spring Rain (Harusame monogatari), are central to the canon of Japanese literature.
Biography
Born to an Osaka prostitute and an unknown father, Ueda was adopted in his fourth year by a wealthy merchant who reared him in comfort and provided him with a good education. As a child he became gravely ill with smallpox, and although he survived, he was left with deformed fingers on both hands. During his illness, his parents prayed to the god of the Kashima Inari Shrine, and Ueda felt that this deity had intervened and saved his life. Throughout his life he remained a strong believer in the supernatural, and this belief seems to inform important elements of his literature and scholarship such as his most famous work, a collection of ghost stories titled Tales of Moonlight and Rain.
He inherited the Ueda family oil and paper business when his adopted father died. However, he was not a successful merchant, and he lost the business to a fire after running it unhappily for ten years. During this time, he published several humorous stories in the ukiyo-zōshi style (literally translated as “tales of the floating world”, the name of a style of books of popular fiction published between the 1680s and 1770s).
Taking the fire as opportunity to leave the business world, Ueda began studying medicine under Tsuga Teishō, who in addition to teaching Ueda to be a doctor also taught him about colloquial Chinese fiction. In 1776 he began to practice medicine and also published Tales of Moonlight and Rain. This work places Ueda Akinari alongside Takizawa Bakin among the most prominent writers of yomihon — a new genre that represented a dramatic change in reading practices from the popular fiction that came before it.
In addition to his fiction, Ueda was involved in the field of research known as kokugaku (National Learning), the study of philology and classical Japanese literature. Kokugaku was often typified by a rejection of foreign influences on Japanese culture, notably Chinese language, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Ueda took a highly independent position within these circles, and his vigorous polemical dispute with the leading scholar of the movement, Motoori Norinaga, is recorded in the latter's dialogue Kagaika (呵刈葭 1787-1788). Some argue that Ueda also worked out this conflict in stories such as Tales of Moonlight and Rain by beginning his stories grounded on Chinese stories and moral and intellectual discourses and that he then foregrounded a Japanese sensibility by calling on supernatural elements and having his characters feel deep emotion (as opposed to Chinese reliance on the intellect). However it is also true that he had a strong rational, empirical temper, dismissed as nonsensical the myth-reviving fantasies of kokugaku scholars, and throughout showed an intense curiosity, distinctive for its lack of patriotic superiority, in foreign cultures, both within Japan (the Ainu and Okinawan cultures) and abroad (Korea, and Western countries).
In the years after his wife’s death in 1798 he suffered from temporary blindness, and although eventually sight returned to his left eye from that point on he had to dictate much of his writing. It was at this time that he began working on his second yomihon, and he finished the first two stories of what would be Tales of the Spring Rain (Harusame monogatari) in around 1802. The complete version was not published until 1951, when missing sections of the manuscript were discovered. Spring Rain is quite different from Tales of Moonlight and Rain, and there is some discussion among scholars as to which is the superior work. Among other differences, Spring Rain does not invoke the supernatural, and the stories are of greatly varied length. The story titled “Hankai” is about a disreputable ruffian who suddenly converts to Buddhism and spends the rest of his life as a pious monk. The story anchors the collection by virtue of its length and the literary skill it exhibits.
In 1809, Ueda died at the age of 76 in Kyoto.
Ueda Akinari Timeline
- 1755 Publishes first haikai at the age of 21.
- 1760 Marries Ueyama Tama
- 1761 Adopted father dies.
- 1766 Publishes Worldly Monkeys with Ears for the Arts (Shodō kikimimi sekenzaru).
- 1767 Publishes Characters of Worldly Mistresses (Seken Tekake Katagi)
- 1771 The family oil and paper business is destroyed in a fire.
- 1776 Publishes Ugetsu Monogatari. Begins to practice medicine.
- 1788 Retires from medicine and devotes himself full time to writing and scholarship.
- 1797 Wife dies. He suffers from temporary blindness.
- 1802 Oldest extant versions of “The Bloodstained Robe” and “The Celestial Maidens”, the first two stories of Harusame monogatari (Tales of the Spring Rain).
- 1808 Publishes Tandai shōshin roku (Notes Bold Yet Pithy).
Works
- Tales of Moonlight and Rain (雨月物語 Ugetsu monogatari) (1776)
- Tales of the Spring Rain (春雨物語 Harusame monogatari) (1809)
References
- Hamada, Kengi. “About the Author.” In Tales of Moonlight and Rain. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Keene, Donald. 1976. World within Walls: Japanese Literature of the Pre-Modern Era, 1600-1867. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
- Reider, Noriko T. 2002. Tales of the Supernatural in Early Modern Japan: Kaidan, Akinari, Ugetsu Monogatari. Edwin Mellen Press.
- Shirane, Haruo, ed. “Early Yomihon: History, Romance, and the Supernatural.” In Early Modern Japanese Literature. New York: Columbia University
Press, 2002.
- Takata Mamoru. “Ugetsu Monogatari: A Critical Interpretation.” In Tales of Moonlight and Rain. New York: Columbia University Press, 1972.
- Ueda Akinari. 1974. Ugetsu Monogatari: Tales of Moonlight and Rain Trans. by Leon M. Zolbrod. George Allen and Unwin Ltd.
- Ueda Akinari. 1975. Tales of the Spring Rain. Trans. by Barry Jackman. The Japan Foundation.
- Washburn, Dennis. “Ghostwriters and Literary Haunts: Subordinating Art to Ethics in Ugetsu Monogatari.” Monumenta Nipponica 45.1 (1996)
39-74.
- Zolbrod, Leon M., trans. and ed. Introduction. Ugetsu Monogatari: Tales of Moonlight and Rain. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1974.