For nearly half a century, an important text for learning about Japanese culture in general and about history in particular has been "Sources in Japanese Tradition" (Ryusaku Tsunoda, Theodore de Bary and Donald Keene, 1958). It is a collection of primary documents translated into English and we learn through the sources themselves, in the accents of their times. Relevant texts are brought together and history speaks.
This valuable two-volume publication (a second edition appeared in 2002) was limited only in that space restrictions prevented a fuller coverage of art and aesthetics. This need has now been answered in the publication for the first time of a similarly structured reader devoted entirely to traditional Japanese art and culture.
As in the 1958 volume, the sources are primary, many here translated for the first time. These readings are grouped by historical periods, then, within these periods, by artistic forms -- poetry, gardens, drama etc. Introductions provide a context and link the sections together to reveal both differences and similarities. All the sources are illustrated and annotated.
The results are extremely interesting. Early architecture, for example, is illustrated by a passage from "The Tale of Genji," which is followed by something similar from Yoshida Kenko's "Essays in Idleness," while details are offered from both the "Record of Ancient Matters" and the "Chronicles of Japan." Attention is then shifted to the kagura, shrine dances that are also an early form of drama, then on into related subjects.
In this manner a constant flow is maintained throughout the book, one discipline being associated with another and reflecting the important editorial point that the connections among individual forms of artistic expression are continually present, subtle and profound.
The section on early literature, for example, insists upon this relevance. Poems from the "Man'yoshu" are given equal weight with passages from the "Lotus Sutra." This interesting conjunction is then followed by a consideration of early painting from both the Yamato-style and the Sino-Buddhist perspectives.
Conflicting authorities can also be brought to define a subject. Illustrations of classical calligraphy give us passages from the "Diary of Lady Murasaki" and several from Lady Murasaki's "Genji" itself. These are placed in context with contrary entries from Sei Shonagon's "Pillow Book." These two ladies much disliked each other and agreed on very little. Yet here they are, usefully yoked together to illustrate the various uses of calligraphy both as art and as social intercourse.
Another of the attractions of this volume is that not only categories but also concepts are defined. Slippery aesthetic terms are delineated and their various meanings examined. The important term "mujo" ("impermanence") is illustrated by the famous opening of "The Tale of the Heike," and supported by the contemporary and equally well-known opening of Kamo no Chomei's "Hojoki." To this is added a passage written a century later, that from Yoshida Kenko's "Essays in Idleness," which finds that (in the words of the editors) "the fact of impermanence now becomes both a spiritual and an aesthetic value, the possibility of a sense for beauty deriving from an inevitable self-awareness concerning one's own evanescence."
From the prehistoric era to the Meiji Restoration of 1867, this valuable volume traces ideas and concepts through time, reflecting changing values using the language of the periods concerned. We see Sesshu painting in a 1476 account by his colleague, the priest Ryoshin. We listen, a century later, to the words of another painter, Sesson, writing on Sesshu's style.
Even more spectacular are those aesthetic shifts from one era to another. Illustrating popular prose in the Edo Period the editors include an extract from a story by Ihara Saikaku, chosen because its humor is based on an assumption that the reader can recognize a reference to a famous passage in Yoshida Keno's "Essays in Idleness." Both passages are given, time is collapsed and changes in aesthetic feeling are apparent.
This admirable and necessary volume allows the original writers to speak to us directly. Though all this is carefully documented, we are at the same time spared any layers of scholarly interpretation. Rather, the richness of the original reaches us complete.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.