Hagiwara Hiromichi
Encyclopedia
was a scholar of literature, philology
, and nativist studies (Kokugaku
) as well as an author, translator, and poet active in late-Edo period
Japan. He is best known for the innovative commentary and literary analysis of The Tale of Genji
(Genji monogatari, ca. 1010) found in his work titled Genji monogatari hyōshaku (源氏物語評釈 An Appraisal of Genji ) published in two installments in 1854 and 1861.
(what is now the city of Okayama), Japan. He died on 12.3.1863 in Osaka
, Japan. (Both dates are according to the lunar calendar used in premodern Japan.) Hiromichi’s father, Fujiwara Eizaburõ, was a retainer in service to the Okayama feudal lord (daimyo
). Hiromichi’s name at birth was Fujiwara Keizō 藤原鹿蔵. He adopted the name Hagiwara Hiromichi after relinquishing his status as a samurai and moving to the city of Osaka to pursue a career as a poet and scholar of literature in 1845. He also published works under the literary name (gō
) of Nirazono (garlic garden).
Hiromichi’s social status was nominally that of a samurai, but his childhood did not afford the comforts or stability associated with noble birth. Hiromichi’s father, who received only a meager stipend as a retainer, was plagued by ill health. According to his autobiography, Hiromichi was raised largely in the care of his mother and her family and earned the reputation of being a child prodigy by memorizing the entire Ogura Hyakunin isshu
(Collection of 100 poems by 100 poets) at the age of 2. Following the death of his mother in 1821 he returned to live with his father who had taken to supporting himself as a teacher of Confucian classics.
Hiromichi’s childhood fascination with the Hyakunin isshu developed into a lifelong interest in poetry and poetic criticism. At the age of thirteen he was introduced to Hiraga Motoyoshi (1800-1865) an established poet and avid student of nativist studies. Hiromichi submitted 450 of his own waka
poems to Motoyoshi, asking for corrections and advice. This led to an ongoing exchange concerning both poetry and ideology between the two. Hiromichi’s extant poems are not similar to the classical Man'yōshū style poems associated with Motoyoshi, but like Motoyoshi, he expressed deep admiration for the work of the leading nativist scholars of his age such as Kamo no Mabuchi
and Motoori Norinaga
.
Hiromichi suffered from palsy in middle-age. Health problems diminished his productivity as a calligrapher and author. An acquaintance remarked that despite severe health problems, Hiromichi's devotion to his work remained equal to that of a Buddhist monk. Hiromichi died in Osaka in 1863, without leaving any disciples or heirs. The noted Meiji author and scholar Mori Ogai
includes the description of a solemn visit to Hiromichi's grave in his literary journal Shigarami zōshi (the weir; 1889-94).
) and Western medical techniques in Osaka, known as Tekijuku
. Kõan invited Hiromichi to his residence to provide instruction in literary studies. Hiromichi’s interaction with Kōan and the scholars associated with Tekijuku influenced the course of his scholarship, which stands out among works of premodern criticism for its integration of ideas and techniques from both classical studies and the emerging field of Western Learning. Hiromichi’s literary taste ranged from classical poetry to popular fiction written in both vernacular Chinese
and Japanese. Following the death of Takizawa Bakin
, the most widely-read author of fiction of his time, Hiromichi was commissioned to write a concluding volume to Bakin’s unfinished work Daring Adventures of Chivalrous Men (Kaikan kyōki kyōkakuden; 1832-35). Hiromichi's close reading of the popular works of Chinese fiction upon which Bakin based his novel and his own interest in literary structure are evident in the way he successfully emulated both Bakin's literary style and the interpretive comments he includes for readers of the novel. In praising “the acuity of Hiromichi’s command of language and style” the literary critic Kōda Rohan
observed that Hiromichi’s concluding volume of Daring Adventures is nearly indistinguishable from the earlier chapters written by the great author himself.
Hiromichi focused on textual evidence to substantiate this claim throughout his edition of the text. He argued that the internal consistency of detail and the tale’s unvarnished depiction of human feeling and behavior give the reader a sense that he or she is engaged with a fictional world as real and compelling as a great theatrical production or life itself. To guide inexperienced readers, allowing them to appreciate Genji with the same sense of satisfaction he had discovered after devoting his life to its study, he devised a new interpretive system. He believed that Genji, or any great work of prose fiction, should be valued for its capacity to engage the imagination of readers from all walks of life.
It may seem obvious to contemporary readers that a work of literature should be valued for the ability of its prose to engage the reader’s imagination, but to critics of the Edo period the claims made by Hiromichi were akin to heresy. His immediate predecessors were deeply invested in establishing Genji’s importance in relation to Buddhism
, Confucianism
, and, ultimately, the superiority of Japan’s indigenous culture (see Kokugaku
and Shinto
). These interpretive schemes tied the evaluation of Genji as literature to particular moral, ideological, or cultural values. Following in the footsteps of the greatest scholar of nativist studies of the Edo period, Motoori Norinaga
(1730-1801), Hiromichi, did much to promote scholarship on Genji. Unlike Norinaga and his influential thesis regarding the affective, or mono no aware
oriented approach to reading Genji, however, Hiromichi's interpretation ultimately rested on the internal consistency and literary style of the text, not ideological argument. The first two installments of Hiromichi's commentary were well received and widely reprinted, but only for a brief period. After seeing the publication of the first two volumes of his magnum opus on Genji to print, including the carving of woodblock prints himself, Hiromichi succumbed to protracted illness and died in 1863, leaving his greatest work incomplete. Only five years after Hiromichi’s death, the Tokugawa Shogunate
collapsed and the Meiji restoration
began. Politicians and academics devoted to modernizing Japan in the Meiji period
(1868-1912) sought to revive the nativist rhetoric associated with Genji in the Edo period. Almost immediately, the ideas Hiromichi had used to liberate Genji from the limitations of premodern ideology became a liability while those promoted by Norinaga were easily tailored to serve the needs of scholars and politicians eager to advance both nativism and nationalism. To this day Hiromichi's work remains in the shadow of interpretations that point to Genji as an icon of national culture.
Evidence of Hiromichi's innovative scholarship can be found in Tsubouchi Shōyō
's seminal treatise The Essence of the novel (Shōsetsu shinzui, 1885). While Shōyō makes no explicit reference to Hiromichi, his treatise, shows the influence of Hiromichi's theories on Genji, mono no aware
, and the elaboration of Bakin's views concerning Edo popular fiction (shōsetsu 小説 ) that appear in texts written by Hiromichi.
Kôda Rohan. Rohan Zenshû. 44 vols. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1978.
Noguchi Takehiko. Genji monogatari o Edo kara yomu. Tōkyō: Kōdansha, 1985.
Noguchi Takehiko. “Hagiwara Hiromichi ‘Genji monogatari hyōshaku’ no bungaku hihyō.” Kōza Genji monogatari no sekai 7: Yũikaku, S. 57 321–22.
Noguchi Takehiko. “The Substratum Constituting Monogatari: Prose Structure and Narrative in Genji Monogatari.” Translated by Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi, Principles of Classical Japanese Literature, ed. Earl Miner, 130–50. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985.
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
, and nativist studies (Kokugaku
Kokugaku
Kokugaku was a National revival, or, school of Japanese philology and philosophy originating during the Tokugawa period...
) as well as an author, translator, and poet active in late-Edo period
Edo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
Japan. He is best known for the innovative commentary and literary analysis of The Tale of Genji
The Tale of Genji
is a classic work of Japanese literature attributed to the Japanese noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu in the early 11th century, around the peak of the Heian period. It is sometimes called the world's first novel, the first modern novel, the first psychological novel or the first novel still to be...
(Genji monogatari, ca. 1010) found in his work titled Genji monogatari hyōshaku (源氏物語評釈 An Appraisal of Genji ) published in two installments in 1854 and 1861.
Life
Hiromichi was born on 2.19.1815 in the province of BizenBizen Province
was a province of Japan on the Inland Sea side of Honshū, in what is today the southeastern part of Okayama Prefecture. It was sometimes called , with Bitchu and Bingo Provinces. Bizen borders Mimasaka, Harima, and Bitchū Provinces....
(what is now the city of Okayama), Japan. He died on 12.3.1863 in Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
, Japan. (Both dates are according to the lunar calendar used in premodern Japan.) Hiromichi’s father, Fujiwara Eizaburõ, was a retainer in service to the Okayama feudal lord (daimyo
Daimyo
is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
). Hiromichi’s name at birth was Fujiwara Keizō 藤原鹿蔵. He adopted the name Hagiwara Hiromichi after relinquishing his status as a samurai and moving to the city of Osaka to pursue a career as a poet and scholar of literature in 1845. He also published works under the literary name (gō
Art-name
An art-name is a pseudonym, or penname, used by an East Asian artist, which they sometimes change. The word and the idea to use a pseudonym originated from China, then became popular in other East Asian countries ....
) of Nirazono (garlic garden).
Hiromichi’s social status was nominally that of a samurai, but his childhood did not afford the comforts or stability associated with noble birth. Hiromichi’s father, who received only a meager stipend as a retainer, was plagued by ill health. According to his autobiography, Hiromichi was raised largely in the care of his mother and her family and earned the reputation of being a child prodigy by memorizing the entire Ogura Hyakunin isshu
Hyakunin Isshu
is a traditional anthology style of compiling Japanese waka poetry where each contributor writes one poem for the anthology. Literally, it translates to "one hundred people, one poem [each]"...
(Collection of 100 poems by 100 poets) at the age of 2. Following the death of his mother in 1821 he returned to live with his father who had taken to supporting himself as a teacher of Confucian classics.
Hiromichi’s childhood fascination with the Hyakunin isshu developed into a lifelong interest in poetry and poetic criticism. At the age of thirteen he was introduced to Hiraga Motoyoshi (1800-1865) an established poet and avid student of nativist studies. Hiromichi submitted 450 of his own waka
Waka (poetry)
Waka or Yamato uta is a genre of classical Japanese verse and one of the major genres of Japanese literature...
poems to Motoyoshi, asking for corrections and advice. This led to an ongoing exchange concerning both poetry and ideology between the two. Hiromichi’s extant poems are not similar to the classical Man'yōshū style poems associated with Motoyoshi, but like Motoyoshi, he expressed deep admiration for the work of the leading nativist scholars of his age such as Kamo no Mabuchi
Kamo no Mabuchi
was a Japanese poet and philologist of the Edo period.Mabuchi conducted research into the spirit of ancient Japan through his studies of the Man'yōshū and other works of ancient literature...
and Motoori Norinaga
Motoori Norinaga
was a Japanese scholar of Kokugaku active during the Edo period. He is probably the best known and most prominent of all scholars in this tradition.-Life:...
.
Hiromichi suffered from palsy in middle-age. Health problems diminished his productivity as a calligrapher and author. An acquaintance remarked that despite severe health problems, Hiromichi's devotion to his work remained equal to that of a Buddhist monk. Hiromichi died in Osaka in 1863, without leaving any disciples or heirs. The noted Meiji author and scholar Mori Ogai
Mori Ogai
was a Japanese physician, translator, novelist and poet. is considered his major work.- Early life :Mori was born as Mori Rintarō in Tsuwano, Iwami province . His family were hereditary physicians to the daimyō of the Tsuwano Domain...
includes the description of a solemn visit to Hiromichi's grave in his literary journal Shigarami zōshi (the weir; 1889-94).
Works
In Osaka Hiromichi taught nativist studies with a focus on classical literature. His poetry and poetic criticism appeared widely in literary publications of the time. He also established an enduring friendship with a fellow Okayama native, Ogata Kōan (1810-1863), who founded the nation’s preeminent school of Dutch Learning (RangakuRangaku
Rangaku is a body of knowledge developed by Japan through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima, which allowed Japan to keep abreast of Western technology and medicine in the period when the country was closed to foreigners, 1641–1853, because of the Tokugawa shogunate’s policy of national...
) and Western medical techniques in Osaka, known as Tekijuku
Tekijuku
Tekijuku was a school established in Senba Osaka, in 1838 during the Tenpō era of the late Edo period. Its founder was Ogata Kōan, a doctor and scholar of Dutch studies...
. Kõan invited Hiromichi to his residence to provide instruction in literary studies. Hiromichi’s interaction with Kōan and the scholars associated with Tekijuku influenced the course of his scholarship, which stands out among works of premodern criticism for its integration of ideas and techniques from both classical studies and the emerging field of Western Learning. Hiromichi’s literary taste ranged from classical poetry to popular fiction written in both vernacular Chinese
Vernacular Chinese
Written Vernacular Chinese refers to forms of written Chinese based on the vernacular language, in contrast to Classical Chinese, the written standard used from the Spring and Autumn Period to the early twentieth century...
and Japanese. Following the death of Takizawa Bakin
Bakin
Bakin may refer to:*Kyokutei Bakin*the Indonesian intelligence service Bakin *the Esperanto name adopted by Li Yaotang, aka Ba Jin...
, the most widely-read author of fiction of his time, Hiromichi was commissioned to write a concluding volume to Bakin’s unfinished work Daring Adventures of Chivalrous Men (Kaikan kyōki kyōkakuden; 1832-35). Hiromichi's close reading of the popular works of Chinese fiction upon which Bakin based his novel and his own interest in literary structure are evident in the way he successfully emulated both Bakin's literary style and the interpretive comments he includes for readers of the novel. In praising “the acuity of Hiromichi’s command of language and style” the literary critic Kōda Rohan
Koda Rohan
who used the pen name was a Japanese author in the Meiji period. His daughter, Aya Kōda, was also a noted author who often wrote about him.Kōda wrote "The Icon of Liberty", also known as "The Buddha of Art" or "The Elegant Buddha", in 1889. A house in which Kōda lived was rebuilt in 1972 by the...
observed that Hiromichi’s concluding volume of Daring Adventures is nearly indistinguishable from the earlier chapters written by the great author himself.
Interpreting The Tale of Genji
Hiromichi’s ingenuity and sensitivity to literary style found their ultimate expression in his efforts to make the most revered work of the classical canon, The Tale of Genji, accessible to a wider readership. Having successfully lectured on Genji to a popular audience, he began to raise funds to publish a new edition that incorporated interpretation and revised commentary on the original text in 1851. Undaunted by the well-established views of generations of scholars, Hiromichi chose deliberately simple language to turn the world of Genji commentary and criticism on its head. The introduction to his Genji monogatari hyōshaku he explains to readers why this classical text has achieved such renown in the following manner :
The more one reads Genji the more difficult it becomes to express how exceptional it is… The text is remarkably detailed and complete. Put simply, it is written in a way that allows one to scratch in all the places that itch.
Hiromichi focused on textual evidence to substantiate this claim throughout his edition of the text. He argued that the internal consistency of detail and the tale’s unvarnished depiction of human feeling and behavior give the reader a sense that he or she is engaged with a fictional world as real and compelling as a great theatrical production or life itself. To guide inexperienced readers, allowing them to appreciate Genji with the same sense of satisfaction he had discovered after devoting his life to its study, he devised a new interpretive system. He believed that Genji, or any great work of prose fiction, should be valued for its capacity to engage the imagination of readers from all walks of life.
It may seem obvious to contemporary readers that a work of literature should be valued for the ability of its prose to engage the reader’s imagination, but to critics of the Edo period the claims made by Hiromichi were akin to heresy. His immediate predecessors were deeply invested in establishing Genji’s importance in relation to Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
, Confucianism
Confucianism
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...
, and, ultimately, the superiority of Japan’s indigenous culture (see Kokugaku
Kokugaku
Kokugaku was a National revival, or, school of Japanese philology and philosophy originating during the Tokugawa period...
and Shinto
Shinto
or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...
). These interpretive schemes tied the evaluation of Genji as literature to particular moral, ideological, or cultural values. Following in the footsteps of the greatest scholar of nativist studies of the Edo period, Motoori Norinaga
Motoori Norinaga
was a Japanese scholar of Kokugaku active during the Edo period. He is probably the best known and most prominent of all scholars in this tradition.-Life:...
(1730-1801), Hiromichi, did much to promote scholarship on Genji. Unlike Norinaga and his influential thesis regarding the affective, or mono no aware
Mono no aware
, literally "the pathos of things", also translated as "an empathy toward things", or "a sensitivity to ephemera", is a Japanese term used to describe the awareness of , or the transience of things, and a gentle sadness at their passing.-Origins:...
oriented approach to reading Genji, however, Hiromichi's interpretation ultimately rested on the internal consistency and literary style of the text, not ideological argument. The first two installments of Hiromichi's commentary were well received and widely reprinted, but only for a brief period. After seeing the publication of the first two volumes of his magnum opus on Genji to print, including the carving of woodblock prints himself, Hiromichi succumbed to protracted illness and died in 1863, leaving his greatest work incomplete. Only five years after Hiromichi’s death, the Tokugawa Shogunate
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...
collapsed and the Meiji restoration
Meiji Restoration
The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...
began. Politicians and academics devoted to modernizing Japan in the Meiji period
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
(1868-1912) sought to revive the nativist rhetoric associated with Genji in the Edo period. Almost immediately, the ideas Hiromichi had used to liberate Genji from the limitations of premodern ideology became a liability while those promoted by Norinaga were easily tailored to serve the needs of scholars and politicians eager to advance both nativism and nationalism. To this day Hiromichi's work remains in the shadow of interpretations that point to Genji as an icon of national culture.
Evidence of Hiromichi's innovative scholarship can be found in Tsubouchi Shōyō
Tsubouchi Shoyo
__NoTOC__ was a Japanese author, critic, playwright, translator, editor, educator, and professor at Waseda University. He was born Tsubouchi Yūzō , in Gifu prefecture...
's seminal treatise The Essence of the novel (Shōsetsu shinzui, 1885). While Shōyō makes no explicit reference to Hiromichi, his treatise, shows the influence of Hiromichi's theories on Genji, mono no aware
Mono no aware
, literally "the pathos of things", also translated as "an empathy toward things", or "a sensitivity to ephemera", is a Japanese term used to describe the awareness of , or the transience of things, and a gentle sadness at their passing.-Origins:...
, and the elaboration of Bakin's views concerning Edo popular fiction (shōsetsu 小説 ) that appear in texts written by Hiromichi.
Sources & Bibliography
Caddeau, Patrick. Appraising Genji: Literary Criticism and Cultural Anxiety in the Age of the Last Samurai New York, SUNY Press, 2006.Kôda Rohan. Rohan Zenshû. 44 vols. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1978.
Noguchi Takehiko. Genji monogatari o Edo kara yomu. Tōkyō: Kōdansha, 1985.
Noguchi Takehiko. “Hagiwara Hiromichi ‘Genji monogatari hyōshaku’ no bungaku hihyō.” Kōza Genji monogatari no sekai 7: Yũikaku, S. 57 321–22.
Noguchi Takehiko. “The Substratum Constituting Monogatari: Prose Structure and Narrative in Genji Monogatari.” Translated by Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi, Principles of Classical Japanese Literature, ed. Earl Miner, 130–50. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985.
Major works by Hagiwara Hiromichi
- Ashi no ha wake 葦の葉わけ (Collection of comic prose, 1863)
- Genji monogatari hyôshaku: kōsei yakuchū (An Appraisal of Genji, 1854–61)
- Honkyō tei 本教提綱 (also as Hongaku taigai; Presentation of the main teachings, 1846)
- Kogen yakkai 古語訳解 (Dictionary of terms from classical texts, 1848)
- San’yōdō meisho 三陽道名所 (Guide to the San’yô Region; unpublished ms from 1840’s)
- Seijū on’yakujiron (Treatise on Methods of Transliteration of Western Weaponry Texts, 1845)
- Tamazasa(Collection of Miscellaneous Writings,1844)
- Te–ni–o–ha keijiben て•に•を•は係辞辨 (A Discourse on Grammar;1846)