Organizer: Thomas Joshua Young, Cornell University
Chair: Elizabeth G. Harrison, University of Arizona
Discussants: Elizabeth G. Harrison, University of Arizona; Thomas Looser, Emory University
In histories of Japanese literature and performing arts, the late medieval and early modern periods are known as a time of increasing popularization. One of the commonly held characteristics of what is called popular is a dynamic physicality, a focus on the expressive body. The panel we are proposing will try to approach the notion of the body as a semiotic ground from a variety of disciplinary and historical viewpoints.
Not the image of the body, nor its use as an expressive machine, but rather its necessity as a ground of understanding and appreciation. This problem was worked over theoretically by kokugakusha ("nativists"), but also has practical manifestations in the arts which should not be assumed to be merely signs of influence from an advanced intellectual sphere.
The papers proposed for this panel are made up of studies looking at the dynamic performance aesthetic of the noh playwright Nobumitsu; the shift from demonic presence to invisible female ghosts in performance literatures of the early modern period; and interest shown by the last Edo period writer Shikitei Samba in the difference between professional and amateur speaking bodies.
The objective of this panel is to start an inquiry into what might be called working conceptions of the popular in premodern Japanese literary and performance arts. We hope to open up the sterile common-sense understanding which links the popular and the physical, and which uses that linkage as a basis for reading creative activity as mere cultural immanence.
Susan B. Klein, University of California, Irvine
I will be discussing how the demonic feminine was represented visually in the Muromachi Noh theater and Edo Kabuki theater and ukiyo-e. From the Muromachi to the Edo period there is a marked change in the level of embodiment of the demonic feminine as vengeful ghosts. Ghosts generally, and especially female ghosts, become much less physically threatening. I will explore why this might have occurred, concentrating on how theatrical and visual representations have affected the way that people have "seen" ghosts, and how changing religious and social attitudes towards women in real life have affected the representation of the demonic feminine in different periods.
Joshua Young, Cornell University
Shikitei Samba’s writings are well-known for their depictions of colloquial dialogue and aural resonances, but too often they are taken as transcriptions documenting natural speech patterns of the time. This paper will look at some of Samba’s writings on professional performers, concentrating on his views of the performing bodies of otoshibanashi and ukiyomonomane storytellers.
Samba’s comic novels (kokkeibon) have been considered to be the expansion to centers of "everyday life" of the sharebon mannerism novels which were centered in the pleasure quarters and which sought to transmit the mannerisms of that specialized locale. Generally this transition is thought to be a matter of the use of sharebon techniques and conventions in a new setting which possessed fresh new characters. However, if we consider the emphasis on acting—which the English word "mannerisms" actually captures quite well—and Samba’s great interest in performing talk, we must acknowledge that there is a need to examine the intersection between the professional performers and the performances of everyday life. This paper will try to bring out the nuances of the cross-relations of performance in Samba’s writings, and try to shed more light on the question of whether writing such as Samba’s or performance arts such as otoshibanashi were part of a cultural popularization which extended the ability to perform, along with the ability to appreciate performance, to the wide body of so-called common people which in the twentieth century would come to be called the masses.
Beng Choo Lim, National University of Singapore
During the late medieval period, the noh theater gradually rose to a stable, and quite prestigious, status in various social sectors, especially the newly formed circles of literati. The initial blossoming period in the history of noh—often epitomized by the works of Zeami—saw a much more literary-oriented mode of presentation of the play. But into the latter part of the medieval period, the use of the performer’s body began to acquire an unprecedented significance. The works produced during this period explored in a much more diversified and versatile manner the use of the performer’s body: the most obvious illustration being the sheer expansion of cast size. Later scholars categorized this group of plays as furyu noh, a category most often linked with the works of Nobumitsu.
This paper will argue that there was a fundamental change in the use of the performing body in the works of the late medieval artists. I plan to explore how in these works a focus on the body of the performer itself conveyed a more dynamic interaction between the audience and the artists. While the boundary between the audience and the performers/artists was blurred, the manipulation of the performing body also heralds a certain later stylization of the genre.