An Interesting Side Note

 

Yesterday evening Susan and Andy came over to show me a couple of items they had bought at an estate sale. They were two old Japanese fairy tale books that they had got for Kameron because of his interest in Japanese culture. They were somewhat damaged (one lacked a front cover and the other had a chunk out of the detached spine) and I don’t think they paid over ten dollars for them. But you could tell they had been beautifully made and exquisitely printed, on strangely textured, limp, but strong sheets. My curiosity was aroused, and using only the titles (The Serpent with Eight Heads and The Silly Jellyfish) did some quick research.

It turns out they were Volumes 9 and 13 of a “Japanese Fairy Tale Series, Nos. 1-20 (English), complete set of 20 numbers, Tokyo, all but one carry the 17 Kami Negishi address for Hasegawa, small size for a Hasegawa/Kobunsha book, small 18mo (4 x 6 in - 10.3 x 15.1~2 cm), crepe paper in folded sheets. -  http://www.baxleystamps.com/litho/hasegawa/20vol.shtml

Hasegawa Takejirō (長谷川武次郎, 1853–1938) was an innovative Japanese publisher specializing in books in European languages on Japanese subjects. Hasegawa employed leading foreign residents as translators and noted Japanese artists as illustrators, and became a leading purveyor of export books and publications for foreign residents in Japan. – Wikipedia.

Chirimen, or crepe, is a Japanese textile that has a fine, wrinkled texture. For centuries it has been used to make kimono, furoshiki (wrapping cloth), and many other decorative objects used in daily life. I recently learned of the genre of books made not with textile crepe but with crepe paper (chirimen-gami). Called Chirimen-bon (crepe-paper books), their covers and text pages are made entirely of crepe paper. Chirimen-bon were first produced by Takejiro Hasegawa, who began to publish them in 1886, not long after trade reopened between Japan and the West after almost 300 years of isolation. Japonisme was much enjoyed in Europe, and chirimen-e, or chirimen-ukiyoe—woodcut prints that are processed to add texture—were popular by that time.  https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/in-circulation/2016/crepe-paper

Depending on which edition and printing they are from, these books are anything from one hundred to a hundred and twenty years old. Their condition, as I stated, is poor, and they would probably not be worth anything to a serious collector. Still, they are wondrous little things and a connection to the past. It would be curious to know how they came to be in our small Texas town, whether the owner had the whole series, and if they were collectors or just some long ago children who got them as an entertaining present once upon a time. The mind slowly blossoms with musing on it. In the meantime, these orphans of the storm have a new home with a new family and just might stay with them for the next hundred years.   

Tales of China and Old Japan

 

Monkey, by Wu Ch’eng-en, Translated by Arthur Waley.

“Monkey: A Folk-Tale of China, more often known as simply Monkey, is an abridged translation by Arthur Waley of the sixteenth-century Chinese novel Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en of the Ming dynasty. Originally published in 1942, it remains one of the most-read English-language versions of the novel. At the outset of the novel, Buddha seeks a pilgrim who will travel to India. The hope is to retrieve sacred scriptures by which the Chinese people may be enlightened so that their behaviour may accord with the tenets of Buddhism. The young monk Tripitaka volunteers to undertake the pilgrimage. Along the way, he encounters and frees the Monkey King, and he and Monkey thereafter recruit Pigsy and Sandy. They liberate a captive princess and punish her abductor, who has also murdered her father. The father is resurrected and reinstalled as king. They meet several bodhisattvas and fight fierce monsters, before finally arriving at Buddha's palace. Whereas previous abridged versions of Journey to the West retained the original number of chapters but reduced their length significantly, Waley adopted the opposite approach; he translated only 30 chapters out of 100 episodes, but did so nearly in full, omitting mainly the poetry. He is also responsible for inventing the names of the main characters: Sun Wukong as "Monkey", Tang Sanzang as "Tripitaka", Zhu Bajie as "Pigsy", and Sha Wujing as "Sandy". Journey to the West may be roughly divided into three parts: first, the introduction including the origin of Monkey, Tripitaka, Pigsy, and Sandy; second, the actual journey to the west, which has an episodic nature; and last, the ending, telling what happens when the pilgrims reach their destination. Waley chose to translate the entirety of the introductory and ending chapters, as well as three episodes, each several chapters long, of the journey to the west.” – Wikipedia. And of course ‘The Journey to the West’ was the inspiration for ‘Alakazam the Great’ and ‘Dragon Ball’.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Folk Novel. Softcover.

Comrade Loves of the Samurai, by Ihara Saikaku. Translated by E. Powys Mathery.

“In Comrade Loves of a Samurai, the theme of homosexual love between the samurai is explored. To the old Japanese such love among samurai was quite permissible. The sons of samurai families were urged to form homosexual alliances while youth lasted, and often these loves matured into lifelong companionships. Saikaku describes Japanese love scenes of all kinds with a frankness that has made him a favorite with expurgators, but he discusses different types of love with tenderness and compassion. The Songs of the Geisha included in this volume is a collection of geisha folk songs composed to be sung to the accompaniment of the shamisen.” – Google Books. An aspect of older Japanese culture more to understand for its cultural significance than to be tittered over in concupiscence. Discreetly illustrated in woodcut-style.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Cultural Bungholery. Softcover.

Tales of Tears and Laughter: Short Fiction of Medieval Japan. Translated by Virginia Skord.

“The stories in this collection constitute just a small portion of a vast body of some four hundred short narratives known as otogizoshi. They represent a cross section of medieval Japan in its richness and complexity, a panoply of life teeming with all the possibilities and contradictions of the age.” – Amazon. I can’t find a precise translation of ‘otogizoshi’;  the closest I can find is “prose narratives written primarily in the Muromachi period (1392–1573). These illustrated short stories, which remain unattributed, together form one of the representative literary genres of the Japanese medieval era.” -Wikipedia. They were not written for an aristocratic audience, but the closest thing in Western literature I can compare them to is ‘The Canterbury Tales’. Browsed in, not completely read. Traditional wood-cut style illustrations.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Folk Tales. Japanese. Softcover.

Tales of the Samurai, Retold by James S. de Benneville.

“Originally published in 1915, a masterful retelling of the great Japanese classic Oguri Hangwan Ichidaiki, the l5th century saga that follows the life of Sukeshige, the young Lord of Oguri, as he struggles to restore the fortunes of his noble family amidst the intrigues and battles of the turbulent Askikaga era. An engrossing saga which embodies all the Samurai virtues - skill in martial arts, the code, the exploits, etc. - in a Japanese tale which has survived through the centuries virtually unchanged. James S. de Benneville was an American author, translator and scholar long resident in Japan and well known for his superb rendition of Japan's great historic literary classics.” Except for that idiosyncratic use of quotation marks in the printing, which is very distracting, so distracting that I haven’t read it. But it was a bargain! Forty-four black and white illustrations. A Dover reprint.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: ‘Novel’. Softcover.

Myths and Legends of Japan, by F. Hadland Davis. With 32 Illustrations by Evelyn Paul.

“The most popular myths and legends of Japanese culture are charmingly retold in English in this handsomely illustrated book. Here are myths of gods, heroes and warriors; legends of Buddha, and of the goddess Benten and the god Daikoku; tales of the sea and of Mount Fuji; accounts of superstitions and supernatural beings; observations on the spiritual properties of fans, flowers, dolls and butterflies and much more. The collection begins with the early myths of Japan, which the author describes as "quaint, beautiful, quasi-humorous." These are followed by legends celebrating early heroes and warriors, and the earliest examples of the Japanese romance, "The Bamboo-Cutter and the Moon-Maiden." Many of the legends that follow reflect a poetic love of beauty and of nature. But as the author points out, "there is plenty of crude realism in Japanese legend. We are repelled by the Thunder God's favorite repast, amazed by the magical power of foxes and cats; and the story of 'Hōïchi-the-Earless' and of the corpse-eating priest afford striking examples of the combination of the weird and the horrible." - Goodreads. Dover.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Myth. Legend. Softcover.

Tales of Old Japan, by A. B. Mitford.

“Classic folklore, fairy tales, ghost stories and tales of the samurai.” A Wordsworth Myth, Legend and Folklore reprint. With illustrations by Odake. “The member of a distinguished British literary family, A. B. Mitford traveled widely with his parents as a youth and lived in various European countries. From 1866-70, he served as an attaché with the British legation at Edo (Tokyo) — one of the first foreign diplomats to do so. During his brief stay there, Mitford lived through a period of dramatic and tumultuous change in Japanese history. A feudal nation on his arrival, Japan had entered the era of “Westernization” before he left some three years later. During that time, however, he quickly and thoroughly mastered the Japanese language and acted as an interpreter between the young Japanese Emperor and British royalty. Mitford’s famous collection of classic tales (the first to appear in English) covers an engrossing array of subjects: grisly accounts of revenge, knightly exploits, ghost stories, fairy tales, folklore, a fascinating eyewitness account of a hara-kiri ceremony, gripping narratives of vampires and samurai, Buddhist sermons, and the plots of four Noh plays. A treasury, as well, of information on most aspects of Japanese life, with information on locales, customs, and characters, the illustrated volume delights as it entertains, chronicling acts of heroism, devotion, ruthlessness, and chivalry that illuminate the island nation's culture.” – Amazon.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Myth. Legend. Softcover.

Monkey: A Journey to the West. A Retelling by David Kherdian.

“Part spiritual pilgrimage, part historical epic, the folk novel Journey to the West, which came to be known as Monkey, is the most popular classic of Asian literature. Originally written in the sixteenth century, it is the story of the adventures of the rogue-trickster Monkey and his encounters with a bizarre cast of characters as he travels to India with the Buddhist pilgrim Tripitaka in search of sacred scriptures. Much more than a picaresque adventure novel, Monkey is a profound allegory of the struggle that must occur before spiritual transformation is possible. David Kherdian's masterful telling brings this classic of Chinese literature to life in a way that is true to the scope and depth of the original.” – Goodreads. Woodcut style illustrations.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Folk Novel. Retelling. Softcover.

Japanese Tales, Selected, Edited and Translated by Royall Tyler.

One of the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library books. “Here are two hundred and twenty dazzling tales from medieval Japan, tales that welcome us into a fabulous, faraway world populated by saints and scoundrels, ghosts and magical healers, and a vast assortment of deities and demons. Stories of miracles, visions of hell, jokes, fables, and legends, these tales reflect the Japanese worldview during a classic period in Japanese civilization. Masterfully edited and translated by the acclaimed translator of The Tale of Genji, these stories ably balance the lyrical and the dramatic, the ribald and the profound, offering a window into a long-vanished though perennially fascinating culture.” – Goodreads.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Myths. Folktales. Softcover.