Yosano Akiko and The Tale of Genji
Yosano Akiko (1878–1942) has long been recognized as one of the most important literary figures of prewar Japan. Her renown derives principally from the passion of her early poetry and from her contributions to 20th-century debates about women. This emphasis obscures a major part of her career, which was devoted to work on the Japanese classics and, in particular, the great Heian period text The Tale of Genji. Akiko herself felt that Genji was the bedrock upon which her entire literary career was built, and her bibliography shows a steadily increasing amount of time devoted to projects related to the tale. This study traces for the first time the full range of Akiko’s involvement with The Tale of Genji.
The Tale of Genji provided Akiko with her conception of herself as a writer and inspired many of her most significant literary projects. She, in turn, refurbished the tale as a modern novel, pioneered some of the most promising avenues of modern academic research on Genji, and, to a great extent, gave the text the prominence it now enjoys as a translated classic. Through Akiko’s work Genji became, in fact as well as in name, an exemplum of that most modern of literary genres, the novel. In delineating this important aspect of Akiko’s life and her bibliography, this study aims to show that facile descriptions of Akiko as a “poetess of passion” or “new woman” will no longer suffice.
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Yosano Akiko and The Tale of Genji
Yosano Akiko (1878–1942) has long been recognized as one of the most important literary figures of prewar Japan. Her renown derives principally from the passion of her early poetry and from her contributions to 20th-century debates about women. This emphasis obscures a major part of her career, which was devoted to work on the Japanese classics and, in particular, the great Heian period text The Tale of Genji. Akiko herself felt that Genji was the bedrock upon which her entire literary career was built, and her bibliography shows a steadily increasing amount of time devoted to projects related to the tale. This study traces for the first time the full range of Akiko’s involvement with The Tale of Genji.
The Tale of Genji provided Akiko with her conception of herself as a writer and inspired many of her most significant literary projects. She, in turn, refurbished the tale as a modern novel, pioneered some of the most promising avenues of modern academic research on Genji, and, to a great extent, gave the text the prominence it now enjoys as a translated classic. Through Akiko’s work Genji became, in fact as well as in name, an exemplum of that most modern of literary genres, the novel. In delineating this important aspect of Akiko’s life and her bibliography, this study aims to show that facile descriptions of Akiko as a “poetess of passion” or “new woman” will no longer suffice.
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Yosano Akiko and The Tale of Genji

Yosano Akiko and The Tale of Genji

by Gaye Rowley
Yosano Akiko and The Tale of Genji

Yosano Akiko and The Tale of Genji

by Gaye Rowley

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Overview

Yosano Akiko (1878–1942) has long been recognized as one of the most important literary figures of prewar Japan. Her renown derives principally from the passion of her early poetry and from her contributions to 20th-century debates about women. This emphasis obscures a major part of her career, which was devoted to work on the Japanese classics and, in particular, the great Heian period text The Tale of Genji. Akiko herself felt that Genji was the bedrock upon which her entire literary career was built, and her bibliography shows a steadily increasing amount of time devoted to projects related to the tale. This study traces for the first time the full range of Akiko’s involvement with The Tale of Genji.
The Tale of Genji provided Akiko with her conception of herself as a writer and inspired many of her most significant literary projects. She, in turn, refurbished the tale as a modern novel, pioneered some of the most promising avenues of modern academic research on Genji, and, to a great extent, gave the text the prominence it now enjoys as a translated classic. Through Akiko’s work Genji became, in fact as well as in name, an exemplum of that most modern of literary genres, the novel. In delineating this important aspect of Akiko’s life and her bibliography, this study aims to show that facile descriptions of Akiko as a “poetess of passion” or “new woman” will no longer suffice.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780472903078
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Publication date: 12/19/2022
Series: Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies , #28
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 234
Sales rank: 386,828
File size: 933 KB

About the Author

G. G. Rowley teaches English and Japanese literature at Waseda University in Tokyo. She has written and/or translated several biographies of Japanese women, including An Imperial Concubine’s Tale, Masuda Sayo’s Autobiography of a Geisha, and Ōgimachi Machiko’s In the Shelter of the Pine.

Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgements Abbreviations Preface to the Open Access Edition Introduction. The Tale of Genji in the Life and Work of Yosano Akiko Chapter One. The Tale of Genji: Women’s Romance, Men’s Classic Chapter Two. Secret Joy: Akiko’s Childhood Reading Chapter Three. The Tale of Genji in the Meiji Period Chapter Four. A Murasaki Shikibu for the Meiji Period Chapter Five. The Shin’yaku Genji monogatari Chapter Six. A Genji of Her Own: Textual Malfeasance in Shin’yaku Genji monogatari Chapter Seven. Akiko’s Last Genjis Chapter Eight. The Tale of Genji: “My Whole Life’s Work” Epilogue Appendix A. Akiko’s Publications on the Japanese Classics Appendix B. Selected Translations List of Characters Bibliography Index
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