JPN Folklore Midterm 2

Proverbs

Short generally known sentences that contain wisdom truths morals and traditional views in a metaphorical fixed and memoizable form and that are handed down orally generation to generation.

Or

Sentence with certain features

Sympathetic magic

Mechanism of superstition

Contagious Magic

Objects formerly in contact with each other will have some kind of invisible/magical connection

Homeopathic magic

Objects that are similar (in shape or sound) can affect each other

Contagious magic examples

Magic of touch/Law of contact

Lucky clothing, etc.

Homeopathic magic examples

Magic of likeness/Law of Similarity

Ex: Kit kat and Kitto Katsu

Verbal folklore major genres

myth, legend, narrative

Verbal folklore minor genres

graffiti latrinalia proverbs tongue twisters mnemonic devices, etc.

Common Proverbs Features

• Metaphor

  • Bird in the hand is worth in the bush

• Easy to remember

• Fixed phrase (word and word order dont change much)

• Parallel Structure

• Rhyme

• Alliteration

• Personification

Structure of proverbs

Topic comment structure

A=B (Boys will be boys)

A≠B (Two wrongs don’t make a right)

A > B (Two heads are better than one)

Japanese Proverbs

Kotowaza

Exs: Even monkeys fall from trees

A wise hawk hides its talons

Shinwa

Myth

Myth features

Truthful and Remote

Recounted by special person in ritual or formal context

Creation myth

Ex Nihilo (creation from nothing)

Chaos (state of non-differentiation)

Differentiation in creation (Such as light and dark)

Etiological Narrative

Tales that explains the origins of things

Religions in Japan

Shinto

Buddhism

Shinto

A way of kami

Tends to believe Kami can be anywhere

Kojiki Record of Ancient matters

712 CE

Nihonshoki Chronicles of Japan (Nihongi)

720CE

What are the earliest texts in Japan

Kojiki Record of ancient matters

Nihonshoki Chronicles of Japan; also called Nihongi

How long has Japan been inhabited for?

> 100,000 years

What occurred within the Yamato Period (c. 300-710)

Kofun period (300-538)

Asuka period (538-710)

Around 4th century CE: small states became more unified

Province of Yamato is dominant

• Strong political authority

Kofun culture (from 300CE)

• Grave for important people (keyhole shape)

• Small and large kofun

• Kofun with Haniwa (grave figures for accompanying person to next world)

What happened in the mid-6th century Japan?

Buddhism introduced

Chinese writing systems

Tax and reforms

legal system based on Chinese laws

When was the Japanese coin established

708

when was the first permanent capital in Nara established

710

When was the Haian Period

794-1185

Kamakura period

1185-

Who’s idea was it to write the Kojiki

Tenmu and Genmei

Why was the kojiki made

To demonstrate legitimacy of rule

Who did it?

O no Yasumaro? (MOST LIKELY)

Hiede no Are?

How is the Kojiki divided?

Myth (Kami)

Legend (human and kami interacting)

History (Mainly humans)

Kotodama (in the Kojiki)

Power contained within words/speech

Power of reciting/speaking words out loud

How is the Kojiki written

Japanese with Chinese characters

NIhon shoki (720CE)

Nihongi

4x longer than Kojiki

Writing more like Chinese

Explicitly linked to new state of Japan

Various accounts

Major characters of Kojiki/Nihon shoki

Izanagi, Izanami, Amaterasu, Uzume, Susanowo, Yamato no Orochi, Ninigi

Tale of Izanagi and Izanami

Kami are born from orifices, tear, sweat, random creation

Izanagi died from giving birth to fire deity

Izanagi’s journey tells us about the reality of life and death

Amaterasu story

Hides in cave to get a mirror to find someone more beautiful than her

Susanowo/Yamato no Orochi

Place he comes across where family has to give up daughter to Yamato no Orochi, Susanowo helps in exchange for their daughter and kills Yamato no Orochi by luring him with alcohol, gets Kusanagi

What was the first written Japanese poem about?

eight-fold fence of Izumo

What does the 8 mean?

Multitudes, many, countless (like infinity sign)

Yao Yorozu no kami = Multitudes of Kami

Shape of the word (curved: /\)

Lucky number

Ninigi-no-Mikoto

Great grandson of Amaterasu

Descends to earth with retinue of helpers and sacred regalia

What are the sacred regalia

Mirror, Kusanagi, Magatama (curved jewels)

Establishment of imperial rule

Emperor Jimmu

Descendent of Ninigi

First emperor of Japan

Ascended throne 660 BCE

What was the Kojiki/Nihon Shoki made for

National narrative

• Japan as one nation

• Emperor being linked to Kami

Nara period (710-794)

• Nara Capital near Kyoto

• 712: Kojiki

• 720: Nihonshoki

• Fudoki (regional gazetteers with historical records, legends, folktales, etc.)

Heian Period (794-1185)

• development of court life

• Refinement of the capital

• Tale of Genji (early 11th-century)

• Buddhism taken hold (in court)

• Heian (Kyoto) capital

  • Center of the universe

  • Everywhere else is considered distant (potentially dangerous)

Kamakura period

(1185-1333)

Setsuwa

• Word is modern designation

• Literature that circulated from 800s-1300s (mostly Heian)

• Spoken stories, short tales, anecdontes

• Many from oral tradition

• Multiple versions

• Set in India, China, and Japan (Buddhism)

• Most Buddhist, some secular

Nihon Ryoiki by who and when?

810-823 by Monk Kyokai

Konjaku monogatari shu ca. 1120 how many tales

1039

Shaseiki shu by who and when

Muju Ichien (1226-1312)

Uji Shui How many tales and when

194 tales, early 13th C

Opening and closing of many tales

• Ima wa mukashi (now it is long ago/in a time long past)

• To namu Katari tsutaetaru to ya (so it has been passed down and so it is told)

Process of being collected

• Narration: telling the story (oral)

• Recording: Writing down the story

• Editing: Organizing written stories in a particular order

Buddhism

Introduced to Japan in mid-6th century

• Various dates such as 552/538 (unreliable)

• Possibly from Korea (kingdom of Baekjie)

Buddha

• Enlightened one

• Siddhartha Gautama (5th-4th BCE; India)

• Born in what is modern-day Nepal

• Shakyamuni Buddha (Japanese: Shaka Nyorai)

Samsara

• Cycle of mundane existence: birth→death→rebirth repeat

• Suffering

• No beginning no end

Nirvana

liberation from samsara

Karma

• Law of cause and effect; in Hinduism and Buddhism

• Effect of one’s actions have a consequence in this life or the next

Lotus Sutra

• All beings have the potential to become Buddhas

• Recitation/copying of the sutra can be beneficial

  • Namu-Myoho-renge-kyo - Praise of the lotus sutra

Nenbutsu

• Chanting or uttering of the name of Amida Buddha

• Amitabha (principal Buddha of pure land Buddhism)

• Namu Amida Butsu

Bodhisattva (Bosatsu)

A person who has the ability to reach Nirvana but chooses to remain an earthly presence out of compassion for others (to help other sentient beings achieve enlightenment)

Kannon

• Avalokitesvara (Sanskrit)

• Guanyin (Chinese)

• One who sees all

• Goddess of mercy/Lord of compassion

Mudras

Meaningful hand gestures/positions

Vitarka Mudra

mudra of discussion; gesture of discussion and transmission of Buddhist teaching

Fear not Mudra

Bestowing fearlessness

Welcome mudra

from blessing or granting of wishes

Syncretism

Amalgamation of 2 religions

Honji-Suijaku

Original substance, manifest traces

Buddhism and local beliefs?

Syncretism

Honji-suijaku

Idea that kami are the manifest traces of the original substance of Buddhas or Bodhisattvas

Example of syncretism

Amaterasu is considered the manifestation of Dainichi Nyorai (Great sun Buddha)

What kind of narratives are most of setsuwa?

Legends

Common elements in setsuwa

• Centered around an (often extraordinary) event

• Often have moral (added on)

• Focus on a famous person

• Appearance vs reality

Oni

Demon/ogre

Setsubun (feb)

• Around feb 3

• Day before beginning of Spring in the lunar calendar

• People throw beans at oni

Shuten-Doji

Picture scroll = emaki

Liminal times and spaces

Liminal: of, relating to, or being an intermediate state, phase, or condition

In between/transitional

Zone of uncertainty

Examples of Liminal times and spaces

Spaces: bridges, tunnels, borders, forests, mountains

Times: dawn, dusk, twilight

Epics of War

• Gunki monogatari

  • Military narratives

  • Warrior tales

• Most famous is the tale of the heike

• Details what happened during Genpei war 1180-85

When was the rise of stable aristocracy in Kyoto

Heian period

What were the two big clans in the Genpei war

Taira (Heike)

Minamoto (Genji)

1156 Hogen Rebellion

• Go-Shirakawa comes to power

• Warriors established as independent force

1160 Heiji Rebellion

• Taira no Kiyomori becomes very powerful

• Spares the children of his enemy (Minamoto no Yoshitomo)

  • Yoritomo

  • Yoshitsune

Heike - Taira family

Taira no

Kiyomori

Shigemori

Atsumori

Genji - Minamoto family

Minamoto no

Yoritomo

Yoshitsune

Who won the Genpei war

The Genji

Tale of heike

• Long episodic tale

• Historically orally recited

• Never told 1 setting

Why was the tale of heike told

• Entertainment

• Reporting

• Recording deeds of warriors

  • Morale

  • War ethic

• Pacification

Teleological ideological reasons

Narration of the past to explain situations of the present

Versions of the tale of Heike

Dozens of vers.

Two main lineages

Read Lineage (Yomihon)

• Glorified victors and tried to give them religious authority, etc.

• Most famous: enkyo bon; 1307

Recited lineage (Kataribon)

• Kakuichi bon; 1371 (set down by kakuichi)

• performative ritual text (losers tale?; more sympathetic to the Heike)

Gion Shoja

Sound of the gion shoja bells echoes the impermanence of all things

Color of the sala flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline

The proud do not endure they are like a dream on a spring night

The mighty fall at last, they are as dust before the win

Idea that life is fleeting

• Like cherry blossoms

• Evanescence/ephemerality

Taira no Kiyomori

1118-1181

Minamoto no Yoritomo

1147-1199

Minamoto no Yoshitsune

1159-1189

How do the biwa hoshi remember everything

Oral formulaic theory

Oral composition as opposed to oral reaction

Composed anew with each performance

• themes

• formulas

  • An expression that is regularly used, under the same metri al conditions, to express a particular essential idea - Milman Parry

Interchangeability

• Descriptions of clothing

• Weaponry

• Nanori

Immanent tradition

Audience knows what is going to happen but still wants to hear it

Like greatest hits or singing a cover

Placatory power/pacification of the dead

Drowning of the former emperor

Emperor Antoku (1178-1185)

Imperial regalia (Kusanagi never recovered)