Completion of an Anthology in English of Early Edo-period Japanese Literature, 1600-1750

FAIN: RQ-249806-16

Trustees of Indiana University (Bloomington, IN 47405-7000)
Sumie A. Jones (Project Director: December 2015 to present)

Preparation for publication of the final volume (1600-1750) of a three-volume anthology of Japanese urban literature (1600-1920), with translation into English.

Following the publication of two volumes of an anthology of early modern Japanese literature, one of late Edo-period and the other of Meiji-period works, the proposed project aims to complete a volume representing the early Edo-period. Tentatively entitled, "A Kamigata Anthology: Literature from Japan’s Metropolitan Centers. 1600-1750," it will be the last volume to be published of this series. Focused on the cities of Osaka, a thriving hub of commerce, and Kyoto, the ancient imperial city, Japan saw its first blooming of urban popular culture and the roots of later artistic phenomena including the current fashion of media arts in Japan. Interested in establishing reliable English texts, this volume represents the original style and tone as much as possible, making the works available to a broad range of American readers, including scholars and students. Particular emphasis is placed on the presence and quality of pictocentric features of popular art.

Associated Products

A Tokyo Anthology: Literature from Japan's Modern Metropolis, 1850-1920 (Book)
Title: A Tokyo Anthology: Literature from Japan's Modern Metropolis, 1850-1920
Editor: Charles Shiro Inouye
Editor: Sumie Jones
Abstract: The city of Tokyo, renamed after the Meiji Restoration, developed an urban culture that was a dynamic integration of Edo’s highly developed traditions and Meiji renovations, some of which reflected the influence of Western culture. This wide-ranging anthology—including fictional and dramatic works, essays, newspaper articles, political manifestos, and cartoons—tells the story of how the city’s literature and arts grew out of an often chaotic and sometimes paradoxical political environment to move toward a consummate Japanese “modernity.” Tokyo’s downtown audience constituted a market that demanded visuality and spectacle, while the educated uptown favored written, realistic literature. The literary products resulting from these conflicting consumer bases were therefore hybrid entities of old and new technologies. A Tokyo Anthology guides the reader through Japanese literature’s journey from classical to spoken, pictocentric to logocentric, and fantastic to realistic—making the novel the dominant form of modern literature. The volume highlights not only familiar masterpieces but also lesser known examples chosen from the city’s downtown life and counterculture. Imitating the custom of creative artists of the Edo period, scholars from the United States, Canada, England, and Japan have collaborated in order to produce this intriguing sampling of Meiji works in the best possible translations. The editors have sought out the most reliable first editions of texts, also reproducing most of their original illustrations. With few exceptions the translations presented here are the first in the English language. This rich anthology will be welcomed by students and scholars of Japan studies and by a wide general audience interested in Japan’s popular culture, media culture, and literature in translation.
Year: 2017
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/tokyo-anthology-literature-from-japans-modern-metropolis-1850-1920/oclc/951753955&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: WorldCat listing
Secondary URL: http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/p-9728-9780824855895.aspx
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's listing
Access Model: Book
Publisher: Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press
Type: Translation
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9780824855901
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

A Kamigata Anthology: Literature from Japan's Metropolitan Centers, 1600-1750 (Book)
Title: A Kamigata Anthology: Literature from Japan's Metropolitan Centers, 1600-1750
Editor: Sumie Jones
Editor: Adam L. Kern
Editor: with Kenji Watanabe
Abstract: A Kamigata Anthology is the first installment, though sequentially the last to be published, in a three-volume anthology of Japanese literature spanning the years 1600-1920. This volume covers the first half of the Edo period, 1600-1750, and the second volume represents the latter half of the Edo period, 1750-1868. The third one covers the ensuing periods: the Meiji (1868-1912) and most of the Taisho (1912-1926). The present volume tells the story of the rise of urban popular arts in the context of people’s lives and customs in light of gender and class concerns. The story highlights contemporary responses to earlier medieval models, as well as the competitive and mutually inspiring relationship between the venerable western or Kamigata region of Kyoto, Osaka, and vicinity, and the eastern region of the newly-created metropolis of Edo.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/title/kamigata-anthology-literature-from-japans-metropolitan-centers-1600-1750/oclc/1129395147&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: WorldCat listing
Secondary URL: https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/product/a-kamigata-anthology-literature-from-japans-metropolitan-centers-1600-1750/
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's listing
Access Model: Book
Publisher: Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press
Type: Translation
Type: Edited Volume
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9780824881818
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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