Konjaku Monogatarishū
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, also known as the , is a Japanese collection of over one thousand tales written during the late
Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...
(794–1185). The entire collection was originally contained in 31 volumes, of which 28 remain today. The volumes cover various tales from
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
,
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
and
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
. Detailed evidence of lost ''monogatari'' exist in the form of literary critique, which can be studied to reconstruct the objects of their critique to some extent.


Title

Each tale in the ''Konjaku Monogatarishū'' starts with the phrase (lit. now long ago), which in its Japanese reading is pronounced ''ima wa mukashi''. The Sino-Japanese reading of this phrase is ''konjaku'', and it is from the Chinese-style reading that the collection is named. The ''Konjaku Monogatarishū'' is commonly known by the shorter name "''Konjaku Monogatari''". Since it is an
anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...
rather than a single tale, however, the longer title is more accurate.


Structure

The ''Konjaku Monogatarishū'' is divided according to the region of the text. The first five volumes, the section, contain tales set in India. The next five volumes, the section, contain tales set in China. The remainder of the anthology, the section, contains tales from Japan. It is important to note that the arrangement of the stories is in parallel to how Buddhism travelled to Japan. The collection emphasizes the path that Buddhism took to Japan in order to further understand what Buddhism means to Japan. First, Buddhism leaves India and becomes very popular in China. As many things have been borrowed from the Chinese, Buddhism then travels to Japan. Each move leads to a morphing of the basics of this religion so by that time it arrived in Japan, it became a new form of Buddhism for the Japanese.


Contents

The subject-matter is largely drawn from
Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
and popular
folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...
. The anthology contains no
mythology Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...
, and references to
Shinto , also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...
-related themes are notably few. The Buddhist tales cover a wide range of topics; both historical tales about the development, transmission and spread of Buddhism along with
dogma Dogma, in its broadest sense, is any belief held definitively and without the possibility of reform. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, or Islam ...
tic tales which emphasize karmic retribution. The folkloric tales mostly depict encounters between human beings and the supernatural. The typical characters are drawn from Japanese society of the time — nobility, warriors, monks, scholars, doctors, peasant farmers, fishermen, merchants, prostitutes, bandits, beggars, widows. Their supernatural counterparts are
oni An ( ) is a kind of ''yōkai'', demon, orc, ogre, or troll in Japanese folklore. They are believed to live in caves or deep in the mountains or in hell. Oni are known for their superhuman strength and have been associated with powers like th ...
and
tengu ''Tengu'' ( ; , , ) are a type of legendary creature found in Shinto belief. They are considered a type of ''yōkai'' (supernatural beings) or Shinto ''kami'' (gods or spirits). The ''Tengu'' were originally thought to take the forms of bird of ...
.


Date and authorship

The work is anonymous. Several theories of authorship have been put forward: one argues that the compiler was Minamoto no Takakuni, author of '' Uji Dainagon Monogatari''; another suggests the Buddhist monk Tobane Sōjō, and a third one proposes a Buddhist monk living somewhere in the vicinity of
Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...
or
Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent agency of the United States government within the executive branch, charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It is also task ...
during the late Heian period. So far no substantive evidence has emerged to decide the question and no general consensus has formed. The date of the work is also uncertain. From the events depicted in some of the tales it seems likely that it was written down at some point during the early half of the 12th century, after the year 1120.


Suzuka Manuscript

The oldest extant copy of the Konjaku Monogatarishū is the Suzuka Manuscript (). Designated as a National Treasure in 1996, it was assembled by a Shinto priest named Tsuretane Suzuka in the
Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...
(1185–1333). The manuscript was then brought to
Kyoto University , or , is a National university, national research university in Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 1897, it is one of the former Imperial Universities and the second oldest university in Japan. The university has ten undergraduate faculties, eighteen gra ...
by a descendant who was a librarian at the university for donation and archiving. The manuscript has been scanned and made available in digital format on the internet.


Animals in ''Konjaku Monogatarishū''

In this work, specific human traits and characteristics such as the ability to think, feel and speak in a human form of cognition are assigned to various types of animals. By assigning human traits to the animals and through the utilization of these anthropomorphic animals, the authorship was more effectively able to communicate the various motifs, which impart a variety of moral teachings. To be able to implement such a paradigm, the authorship would have utilized pre-conceived common traits which were attributable to specific animals. The animals and their respective traits would have been common and implicit knowledge in ancient Japan and therefore known ubiquitously. The types of tales in ''Konjaku'' which include the use of anthropomorphic animals can be broadly classified into categories, in which a particular moral is accentuated.


Significance

Many of the tales which appear in the Konjaku are also found in other collections, such as ghost story collections. All these tales, having passed into the common consciousness, have been retold many times over the succeeding centuries. Modern writers have adapted tales from the ''Konjaku Monogatarishū'': a famous example is Akutagawa Ryūnosuke's '' In a Grove'' (well known in the West from Kurosawa's film ''
Rashomon is a 1950 Japanese ''jidaigeki'' film directed by Akira Kurosawa from a screenplay he co-wrote with Shinobu Hashimoto. Starring Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori, and Takashi Shimura, it follows various people who describe how a ...
''). Other authors who have written stories based on tales from the Konjaku include
Jun'ichirō Tanizaki was a Japanese author who is considered to be one of the most prominent figures in modern Japanese literature. The tone and subject matter of his work range from shocking depictions of sexuality and destructive erotic obsessions to subtle portr ...
and Hori Tatsuo. The setsuwa ("spoken story") in ''Konjaku Monogatari Shū'' has two main purposes: religious and secular. The religious aspect is important in leading the reader into a deeper understanding of Buddhism and what it means to the Japanese people.Shively, D.; McCullough, W. (1999) ''The Cambridge History of Japan.'' Volume 2. United States of America: Cambridge University Press. These stories try to appeal to average people of the time by presenting Buddhism in a simple yet meaningful way, one that people from any background can understand. In these tales both the reward for faith and the punishment for sin will be immediate. The secular aspect of these tales is that they can entertain an audience as well as provide enjoyment for an individual reader. A cryptic line in Akutagawa's classic
short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...
" Rashōmon" says 「旧記の記者の語を借りれば、『頭身の毛も太る』ように感じたのである。」 (''To borrow a phrase from the writers of the chronicles of old, he felt as if 'even the hairs on his head and body had grown thick'.'') This is a reference to a line from the ''Konjaku Monogatarishū'', the last part figuratively meaning that ''he was scared; he felt as if his hair was standing on end''.


Selected translations

*Chinese ** ** *English (Abridged) ** ** ** ** ** **''Of Birds and Beasts, Fish and Fowl: Japanese Tales of Times Now Past'', De Wolf, Charles, editor and translator, with Masayuki Furuse, Takatoshi Kuhara, Fuyuko Yamamoto, Kenji Yoshida, 2017, Babel Press, Tokyo *French ** ** ** *German ** ** *Portuguese **


See also

*''
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is a (fictional prose narrative) containing elements of Japanese folklore. Written by an unknown author in the late 9th or early 10th century during the Heian period, it is considered the oldest surviving work in the form. The story details ...
''


References


External links


National Treasure - Konjaku monogatari-shu (Suzuka Ed.)
Kyoto University , or , is a National university, national research university in Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 1897, it is one of the former Imperial Universities and the second oldest university in Japan. The university has ten undergraduate faculties, eighteen gra ...
Rare Materials Digital Archive (RMDA) {{Authority control Japanese mythology Japanese Buddhist texts Fiction about Buddhism Late Old Japanese texts Heian period in literature Monogatari Setsuwa 12th-century Japanese books Buddhist folklore Indian folklore