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Existence of complete version of The Tale of Genji from Muromachi period confirmed (July 12, 2008)

The existence of a complete version of The Tale of Genji dating from the Muromachi period has been confirmed by Ikeda Kazuomi, a professor at Chuō University in Tokyo who has been studying the 54-volume set since April of last year. Each of the 54 chapters of the hand-copied manuscript is bound separately into a volume measuring 19.6 cm. in height and 15.1 cm. in width. The Akashi chapter contains a pasted note identifying the transcriber as the poet Reizei Tamekazu (1486-1549), and given the similarity in the size and format of the volumes, it appears that Tamekazu may have played a central role in producing the set, which was stored inside in a lacquerware box. The famous scholar Ikeda Kikan had noted the existence of one of the volumes of the set in his variorum edition of the tale, but this represents the first confirmation that it was part of a complete set. Since about half of the 54 volumes belong to the "miscellaneous versions" manuscript category (that is, versions that belong to neither the "blue-cover version" category deriving from Fujiwara Sadaie nor the "Kawachi version" category associated with Minamoto no Mitsuyuki and Minamoto no Yomoyuki), it is hoped that the manuscript will give researchers a glimpse into what The Tale of Genji may have looked like before the standard collations were produced in the Kamakura period.

Complete first edition of Love Suicides at Sonezaki discovered (July 13, 2008)

A complete first edition of Chikamatsu Monzaemon's jōruri (puppet) play Love Suicides at Sonezaki (1703) has been discovered at the Kurobe City Library in Toyama Prefecture. Kōzu Takeo, a visiting associate professor at Waseda University, confirmed the woodblock-printed book as authentic after it was found among materials donated to the library by a prominent local family. The book is 50 pages long (25 folded sheets of paper) and contains a colophon permitting clear identification. It is the only complete version of the first edition extant; another copy is held by the Nakanoshima Library in Osaka, but it is missing two pages (one sheet of paper) and lacks a colophon.

Death of Ōno Susumu (July 14, 2008)

Ōno Susumu, Japanese philologist and proponent of the controversial theory that the Japanese language ultimately derives from Tamil, died of heart failure in Tokyo early this morning. Ōno was known for his early research into the phonetic use of Chinese characters during the Nara period (the orthographic technique of man'yōgana) and taught for many years at Gakushūin University. He published his theory on the derivation of Japanese from Tamil in 1979, and although it has its supporters, it is not widely accepted (apparently Ōno has argued that Tamils came to Japan to harvest pearls). Although the English press referred to him as a linguist, Ōno was actually a kokugo gakusha ("scholar of the national language"), a rather different academic breed that brings a distinctive cultural perspective to bear on the study of the language. Ōno's opinion was often sought regarding the "proper" use of Japanese. He was 88 years old

139th Akutagawa and Naoki Prizes announced (July 15, 2008)

The 139th Akutagawa Prize has been won by Yang Yi (pronounced Yan Ii in Japanese) for her story Toki ga nijimu asa (A Morning Steeped in Time, published in the June issue of Bungakukai). Yang, who emigrated from China to Japan in 1987, thus becomes the first nonnative speaker of Japanese to win Japan's most prestigious literary award for new writers. The 139th Naoki Prize will go to Inoue Areno for Kiriha e (At the Tunnel's Face, published by Shinchōsha). The presentation ceremony will be held in Tokyo on August 22.

Four farewell letters written by Akutagawa Ryūnosuke discovered (July 17, 2008)

Four farewell letters (isho in Japanese) written by novelist Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (1892-1927) have been discovered by his granddaughter Teruko (daughter of Akutagawa's oldest son Hiroshi) at her home in Tokyo. Two of the letters are addressed to Akutagawa's wife Fumiko, one is addressed to his children, and the fourth is addressed to a friend (presumed to be Kikuchi Kan). The text of these letters -- along with that of two other letters Akutagawa is known to have written and fragments of which exist-- appear in the collected works published by Iwanami Shoten; but because Akutagawa had instructed that they be burned immediately after reading, the originals had been regarded as lost. Since several discrepancies in wording have been found in the newly discovered versions, some doubt exists about whether or not they are the final versions of the letters, but their discovery is nevertheless an important event for literary scholars. Copies of the letters will be put on display at the Museum of Modern Japanese Literature in Tokyo beginning on July 19.

Complete version of The Tale of Genji from Kamakura and Muromachi periods reemerges (July 21, 2008)

A complete version of The Tale of Genji dating from the Kamakura and Muromachi periods has been rediscovered. This version -- which is transcribed in a variety of caligraphic styles that may be imitations of the styles of such literary figures as Saigyō and Emperor Go-Daigo -- is older than the one whose existence was announced on July 12. It is known to have been in the possession of the Ōsawa family of Nara during the Meiji period, but its whereabouts were uncertain after the end of World War II. The scholar who announced the discovery -- Ii Haruki, director of the National Institute of Japanese Literature -- has declined to make public any information regarding the current owner. This version of The Tale of Genji, known as the Ōsawa version, comprises 54 separately bound volumes measuring between 14 to 15 cm. in height and 15 to 16 cm. in width, and is in excellent condition. The set contains 28 volumes that do not belong to either of the two main textual traditions mentioned in the earlier entry, and some unique textual variations have already been identified, so scholars hope that it, too, will permit a determination of what might have been lost before Fujiwara Sadaie's version of The Tale of Genji became the accepted standard. It might be noted that one reason for two major announcements about transcriptions of The Tale of Genji being made in such rapid succession is that 2008 is being celebrated as the 1,000th anniversary of the first confirmed historical mention (in The Diary of Lady Murasaki) of this literary masterpiece.

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