Japanese Literature discussion

A new month and a new group read.
This month we are reading The Book of the Dead (死者の書) by Shinobu Orikuchi, English translation by Jeffrey Angles, commentary by Ando Reiji.
Italian translation is by Alessandro Passarella.
Other language translations to follow as requested or noted by forum members.
There is a profile of Jeffrey Angles in the Translation and translator folder.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

First published in 1939 and extensively revised in 1943, The Book of the Dead , loosely inspired by the tale of Isis and Osiris from ancient Egypt, is a sweeping historical romance that tells a gothic tale of love between a noblewoman and a ghost in eighth-century Japan.

Shinobu Orikuchi (折口 信夫, Orikuchi Shinobu, 11 February 1887–3 September 1953), also known as Chōkū Shaku (釋 迢空, Shaku Chōkū), was a Japanese ethnologist, linguist, folklorist, novelist, and poet. As a disciple of Kunio Yanagita, he established an original academic field named "Orikuchiism" (折口学, Orikuchigaku), which is a mixture of Japanese folklore, Japanese classics, and Shintō. He produced many works in a diversity of fields covering the history of literature, folkloric performing arts, folklore itself, Japanese language, the classics study, Shintōology, ancient study, and so on. Yukio Mishima once called him the "Japanese Walter Pater".
(Wikipedia, accessed 1 Sept, 2024)

I'm still in the introduction, but don't know for how much longer. Once it smells of spoilers, I'll be skipping to the text itself.

I read the Italian translation by Alessandro Passarella in a very nice edition in which there were thousands of footnotes, explanations, appendices etc. but this didn't really helped me, it just made it way too complex ; moreover, the “chronological” organization of the book, or rather the disorganization, created more than a few problems for me and moreover I found it a hostile book for people like me who do not have then this big Japanese culture in the background. Still, I am glad I read it because it is certainly different from several books of contemporary Japanese literature we have read lately, but I can't say I would recommend it and maybe I got to the end because it wasn't too long.

I read the Italian translation by Alessandro Passarella in a very nice edition in which there were thousands of footnotes, explanations, appendices etc. but this didn't really helped me, it just made it way too complex ; moreover, the “chronological” organization of the book, or rather the disorganization, created more than a few problems for me and I found it a hostile book for people like me who do not have then this big Japanese culture in the background. Still, I am glad I read it because it is certainly different from several books of contemporary Japanese literature we have read lately, but I can't say I would recommend it and maybe I got to the end because it wasn't too long.

I can definitely understand that, GONZA. There were a lot of ancient Japanese culture references that would be lost on most people.

I'm not too far into it, myself. I'm only reading a few pages a day because it feels to me like a book to read a little at a time. I haven't noticed any great chronological shifts. Most of it so far has taken place in the 'present' as the young woman visits the temple, with flashbacks to her earlier life as is common for any piece of literature.

The one thing that seems out of place is how they refer to certain Buddhist places as 'ancient' when Buddhism had only been in the country for 200 years before the setting of the novel.

I’m 35 pages into the 58 page intro. 😅 I love Angles’s intros! (Isn’t that why we picked this one?) I haven’t considered any of this spoilers yet, just lots of stuff to know. (I also rarely encounter a book that I think is actually “spoiled” by foreknowledge of the plot.)

Half way through the introduction. Academic but intersects multiple interests in modern fiction, historical tales, mythology, fiction around the time of WWII, war impact on writing and censorship.

I stopped reading the introduction on page 24. I'll get back to it after I finish the story, which I'm more than halfway through now.

I wonder if the long digression about Otomo wandering the capital and thinking about stone vs earthen walls has anything to do with the rest of the plot.

Bill wrote: "I stopped reading the introduction on page 24. I'll get back to it after I finish the story, which I'm more than halfway through now.

I wonder if the long digression about Otomo wandering the capi..."

*cough* it was covered in the introduction 😅 *cough*

Yes, but that would be a spoiler! ^_^

I'm done with the novel now and am finishing up the introduction. I'm glad I put off the introduction because I didn't want it to influence my reading of the novel before I had a chance to draw my own conclusions.

If I may call the story of the maiden and the man in the tomb the main plot, then the climax occurs when the maiden gets her closest look at him (eight pages before the end) and reflexively praises the Amida Buddha. Angles sees this (or quotes others as seeing this) as the maiden acting to save the man and send him on to paradise.

Now for my take on this. It could be seen as her inadvertently banishing him; much the same way western folklore says one can chase away a vampire with faith and a cross, Japanese Buddhism has always held that prayers can drive spirits away. Either way, this is the man's last appearance in the novel. She either saved him or drove him off. He remains in her thoughts for a while as she attempts to weave a cloth to keep him warm in the coming winter. But in time she uses the cloth to make the mandala, because he is no longer there and no longer needs it.

I have finished the introductory section and the main story. I will slowly go through the essays in the second half of the English translation by Jeffrey Angles.

NHK produced a beautiful short video “The sun sets on Mount Futakami”.
This provides a sense of what the maiden may have seen at the end of the day.

https://youtu.be/OG2twEB5LkI?si=KNe52...

I am still working out my impressions of the story. The beginning of Book of the Dead left me with a feeling that it is a combination of Noh and Ancient Greek theatre. The fictive use of historical characters like Ōtomo no Yakamochi will also impact my future (i hope) rereading of the Man’yōshū.
I will work through the three essays by Andō Reiji and perhaps reread the story again before the month is over.

I'll probably be able to start this book tomorrow. So you all recommend skipping the introduction for now? (I don't enjoy spoilery introductions either, if that matters.)

I stopped the introduction at page 24, and then got back to it later. I think I picked a good spot.

I think it would be better to read the introduction 2nd or do what Bill did and only read the early part.
I am going to read the intro over after I finish the 3 essays in the 2nd half of the book. So far, the essays are interesting but heavy reading.

Carola wrote: "I'll probably be able to start this book tomorrow. So you all recommend skipping the introduction for now? (I don't enjoy spoilery introductions either, if that matters.)"

I, for one, don't recommend that at all. This is the kind of book where knowing the context really makes reading richer. He's writing a novel that incorporates tale of his dead lover (maybe more than one), anti-imperial sentiment, and his love of Classical Japanese history and culture. I wouldn't have caught *any* of that without the intro.

I know you and I differ about spoilers, but on a scale from 1-10 where 1 is "un-spoilable" to 10 is, say, "The Sixth Sense", this is pretty close to a 1.

And the intro doesn't even give away the ending. Although Bill I believe Bill just has. (Again, not that I think he in any way ruined the book. Plus I think the standing policy is spoilers are fair game after the 15th day of the month in book club discussions because spoiler tags don't work on mobile.)

Mea culpa. I waited for more than half the month, thinking people had already read it, and then Carola said she's hadn't started it yet.

Next time I'll use spoiler tags.

Yeah I had a slow start this month! Anyway, I'm currently reading the intro and am completely drawn in by it, so I'll probably finish it before starting the book itself after all.

I have one more essay to go. Then, if I have the cycles left this month, I will start over with the introduction and story again. For me, the essays are tough going, although I am working through them.
(Update) I have finished a first read through the complete book. I thought the last essay, The Revolution of Religion in the Meiji Period, was the most interesting, although it was still tough going. I am just starting on some personal study of the Meiji period and it added a dimension of the impact of worldwide esoteric religion on Japan intellectual thought in that time.
I plan to go through the story itself and the introduction one more time before shelving the book. (No spoilers)

Finished reading while the power is out in ATL this am. 😅

I don’t think you can respond straight to comments on mobile, but I’m responding especially to Bill.

Bill, i don’t think spoiler tags work right on mobile either. That’s why we’d roughly worked on no spoilers until halfway through the month.

I’m with Bill on this significant ambiguity about the prince—whether he’s a sinister or holy figure, whether he’s a holy or unholy longing on the part of the maiden, and whether he’s “saved” or “banished” by the invocation of Amida.

I’m interested generally in the biographical elements here, especially the reading of Orikuchi as the maiden. (Jack, does that come back up in the essays?) Suppose the ambiguity is intentional (as it might well be in a story like this), how might that play into an autobiographical reading?

And one more thought—I was really pleased and impressed with Orikuchi’s sympathy for how circumscribed women’s roles were in Nara Japan. He engages with how the servant women might feel being let out of their stuffy rooms in the capital and even how the maiden might feel jealous of their freedom when they come home covered in mud. He talks about women’s “work” across different social classes… it’s just all very well done.

People defend Dazai’s misogyny as though men of his era could have done any better writing women. 😑 Orikuchi has honestly engaged with life as a woman in very early Japan. Bravo to Orikuchi and also fascinating to read.

Alison wrote: "Finished reading while the power is out in ATL this am. 😅

I don’t think you can respond straight to comments on mobile, but I’m responding especially to Bill.

Bill, i don’t think spoiler tags wo..."

I have gone off reading other essays about this work (i really will stop this at the end of the month!). I don’t know if I am adding brain cells or burning them off…

So one of many interpretations of Iratsume (a proactive form of the Princess Chūjō legend) is that she is the author, and the spirit of Prince Ōtsu (Shigatsuhiko) (663–686CE) is the author’s male lover who died in WWII.

Whereas this might be our first introduction to the historic characters, a Japanese reader might be familiar with both so the story would have deeper resonance for them. Prior to reading this, I only had a passing knowledge of Shigatsuhiko and none of Princess Chūjō.