Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature
- The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Book part
- A note on Romanization and conventions
- Glossary
- General introduction
- Part I The ancient period (beginnings to 794)
- Part II The Heian period (794–1185)
- Part III The medieval period (1185–1600)
- Part IV The Edo period (1600–1867)
- 38 Introduction to early modern Japanese literature
- 39 Publishing and the book in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
- 40 A forest of books: seventeenth-century Kamigata commercial prose
- 41 The rise of haikai: Matsuo Bashō, Yosa Buson, and Kobayashi Issa
- 42 Ihara Saikaku and Ejima Kiseki: the literature of urban townspeople
- 43 Representing theater: text and performance in kabuki and bunraku
- 44 Puppet theater: from early jōruri to the golden age
- 45 From the beginnings of kabuki to the playwrights Nanboku and Mokuami
- 46 Early to mid-Edo kanshi
- 47 Kanshibun in the late Edo period
- 48 Waka practice and poetics in the Edo period
- 49 Literary thought in Confucian ancient learning and Kokugaku
- 50 Bunjin (literati) and early yomihon: Nankaku, Nankai, Buson, Gennai, Teishō, Ayatari, and Akinari
- 51 Satiric poetry: Kyōshi, Kyōka, and Senryū
- 52 Picture books: from akahon to kibyōshi and gōkan
- 53 The birth of kokkeibon (comic novellas)
- 54 Ninjōbon and romances for women
- 55 Development of the late yomihon: Santō Kyōden and Kyokutei Bakin
- Part V The modern period (1868 to present)
- Bibliography of English secondary sources and translations
- Index
54 - Ninjōbon and romances for women
from Part IV - The Edo period (1600–1867)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2016
Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature
- The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Book part
- A note on Romanization and conventions
- Glossary
- General introduction
- Part I The ancient period (beginnings to 794)
- Part II The Heian period (794–1185)
- Part III The medieval period (1185–1600)
- Part IV The Edo period (1600–1867)
- 38 Introduction to early modern Japanese literature
- 39 Publishing and the book in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
- 40 A forest of books: seventeenth-century Kamigata commercial prose
- 41 The rise of haikai: Matsuo Bashō, Yosa Buson, and Kobayashi Issa
- 42 Ihara Saikaku and Ejima Kiseki: the literature of urban townspeople
- 43 Representing theater: text and performance in kabuki and bunraku
- 44 Puppet theater: from early jōruri to the golden age
- 45 From the beginnings of kabuki to the playwrights Nanboku and Mokuami
- 46 Early to mid-Edo kanshi
- 47 Kanshibun in the late Edo period
- 48 Waka practice and poetics in the Edo period
- 49 Literary thought in Confucian ancient learning and Kokugaku
- 50 Bunjin (literati) and early yomihon: Nankaku, Nankai, Buson, Gennai, Teishō, Ayatari, and Akinari
- 51 Satiric poetry: Kyōshi, Kyōka, and Senryū
- 52 Picture books: from akahon to kibyōshi and gōkan
- 53 The birth of kokkeibon (comic novellas)
- 54 Ninjōbon and romances for women
- 55 Development of the late yomihon: Santō Kyōden and Kyokutei Bakin
- Part V The modern period (1868 to present)
- Bibliography of English secondary sources and translations
- Index
Summary
The first genre in the long history of Japanese literature to be published commercially for a readership consisting primarily of commoner women, ninjobon became immensely popular. Tamenaga Shunsui stands at the center of this genre with such representative works as Shunshoku umegoyomi or Plum Calendar of Spring Colors, Shunshoku tatsumi no sono, and Harutsuge dori. This chapter discusses the story of Plum Calendar of Spring Colors. Women began entering the workforce, albeit in auxiliary roles, around the nineteenth century, implying a higher rate of literacy. Furthermore, as may be gathered from the growing popularity of kabuki, a new tendency prevailed whereby city women, endowed now with a surplus of both time and money, participated more actively in the various modes of public entertainment in cities. Reading Shunsui's ninjobon, everyone gain an understanding of just how different the concept of romance in Edo was in comparison to the authors own modern one.
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- Information
- The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature , pp. 532 - 538Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015