Ryūtei Tanehiko (柳亭種彦) (author 1783 – 1842)

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Biography:

Karl Florenz said (in a Google translation) in Geschichte der Japanischen Litteratur, 1906, pages 510 ff.: "The most outstanding author of Gōkan-mono, the light entertainment works that grew into novel-like volumes, is considered to be Ryūtei Tanehiko (1783—1842), a vassal (Hatamato) of the Tokugawa court, whose real name was Takaya Hikoshirō. He was a man of many talents and learning, and wrote several historically and literary-historically useful collections, such as Kwankon Shiryō, "Leaves of Antiquarian Contents" (2 vols., 1826), and Yōsha-bako, "Box for Everything". He was not to be underestimated as a kyōka and haikai poet. He was an expert in painting, which he had studied ex professo in his younger years, and was said to have been quite skilled in acting: a type of samurai of the Edo Shogunate, who towards the end of the Tokugawa period were increasingly alienated from their original profession and strict military discipline. At first he wrote a few yellow volumes, then romantic historical novellas, For example, the knight stories Asama-gatake Omokage Zōshi (1808) with the sequel Ōshü Shūjaki Monogatari, "The Persistent Love of the Prostitute Ōkū" (1812), both based on an older Jōruri drama, and Moji-tesuri Mukashi-ningyō, "Ancient Puppet Show Behind the Floor-Railing" (1812); furthermore the sentimental love story En-musubi Gekka no Kiku, "The Mediation of Love by a Branch Flower"."

"He also dabbled in quasi-dramatic works, namely in narratives with predominantly spoken dialogue, which were called shōhonjitate, "stage drama-like," because of their similarity to the stage drama. Even the illustrations in them looked as if they had been drawn from theater performances; the characters wore the masks of well-known actors of the time. Although the shōhon]itate were Tanehiko's specialty and no such books were published after his death, they were not entirely his invention. For Kyōden's Oroku-gushi Kiso Adauchi, a revenge story published in 1807, the painter Toyokuni had already depicted the characters in contemporary actor portraits, and Tanehiko had He apparently adopted this style. He wrote eight shōhonjitate, mostly single-volume books of six books each, including adaptations of the folk tales of Osome and Hisamatsu (cf. Bakin's Shōsen Jōshi) and Izaemon and the Courtesan Yūgiri."

"His individuality was most clearly evident in his Gōkan-mono, of which Nise-Murasaki Inaka-Genji, "A Pseudo-Murasaki and a Rural Genji," is by far the best and most famous, and still enjoys a certain popularity today. It is, as the title indicates, a copy of the classic Genji Monogatari, with the court of the Shoguns substituted for the imperial court. Even before Tanehiko, there had been many copies of this old novel, e.g., Fūryū Genji, Wakakusa Genji, Hinazuru Genji, Kōhaku Genji, etc.; but they were all surpassed by Inaka Genji. The action is set in the Muromachi period, describes the luxurious life of the Shoguns of that time, and, like the model, presents us mainly with a series of love adventures. Some well-developed female characters testify to the author's not mean descriptive skill. In Tanehiko's praise, it must be emphasized that, despite his easily misleading subject matter, he avoided anything obscene or low, so that the book was well received not only by ordinary readers, but also, exceptionally, by the public of the upper and more educated classes. Nevertheless, it was not so much the inner literary qualities as the external ones that made this and some of Tanehiko's other publications so popular. The author, himself a man of great artistic connoisseurship, placed the greatest emphasis on careful design and beautiful illustrations; for he believed that "despite talent and beautiful diction, one could not raise the price of paper in the city, i.e., become a widely read author, unless one provided beautiful pictures." The painter Gototei Kunisada (1787 - 1865), a student of the famous genre painter Utagawa Toyokuni (1769 - 1825), known for his portrayals of actors and ghosts, created the illustrations for the novel and thereby made himself a celebrity. The descriptions of the visible things, e.g. the construction of the houses, room furnishings, cut and pattern of the clothes, are presented with painstaking detail; the greatest possible variety of depicted objects is sought in the pictorial decoration. As soon as Tanehiko heard of a rare object, he would go and make a drawing of it for his book. Once, he is even said to have made a pilgrimage from Edo to Utsunomiya (now almost four hours by train) for the sake of a curious stone lantern. The work, begun in 1829, of which about two volumes appeared each year, had progressed to the 38th volume when, in 1842, the new, strict law against immoral literature was passed, according to which, for example, Tamenaga Shunsui and Terakado Seiken, the author of Edo Hanjōki, "Life and Activities in Edo" were severely punished. Tanehiko's novel, too, was blindly suppressed, although its content in no way justified the procedure. The author escaped punishment thanks to influential intercession, but the work was over, and the Inaka Genji remained a fragment, as Tanehiko died soon afterward anyway."

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Donald Keene wrote in 1976 on pages 432-434 in World Within Walls : Japanese Literature of the Pre-modern Era, 1600-1867:

"Tanehiko also had difficulties determining how faithful he should be to the plot of The Tale of Genji. His manuscripts are full of crossings out and additions, indicating his uncertainties, especially at the beginning of the work. It was with great reluctance that he finally dropped an opening paragraph directly modeled on Lady Murasaki’s famous lines, but as a mark of tribute to the original author he pretended that a woman, a court lady named Ofuji, had written his work. This identification accounts for the first part of the title The False Murasaki and the Rustic Genji: Ofuji is an imitation Murasaki. As for the “rustic Genji,” Tanehiko explained in a preface: “Although I have described events that occurred in the capital, I have qualified my Genji as ‘rustic’ because of the countrified language.”The language is in fact classical, and not colloquial, but being easy to understand is “rustic.” Tanehiko’s hero, Mitsuuji, is also many cuts below the aristocratic Genji, if not actually rustic."

"The story follows The Tale of Genji with reasonable fidelity, though sometimes, because of the simplification involved in an illustrated book, the actions of two or three characters are telescoped. On the other hand, in the interests of heightening the Kabuki effects, Tanehiko added characters and episodes that would have been unthinkable in the original. Early in the book a villain named Dorozō makes an attempt on the life of Hanakiri, the “equivalent” of Kiritsubo, Genji’s mother. Dorozō inadvertently kills another lady, and is in turn accidentally killed by his own sister. This working out of the Buddhist principle of cause and effect has an embellishment reminiscent of Kabuki: the characters mistake their intended victims in the dark. The sister attempts suicide when she realizes she has killed her brother, but she is stopped and becomes a nun instead. Later in the book she dies at the hands of bandits, a substitute (in the Jōruri manner) for the hero, Mitsuuji."

"Mitsuuji is the son of the shogun Yoshimasa by Hanakiri, a woman of inferior rank. He himself has no ambition of becoming shogun, but three treasures, necessary to anyone who would succeed to the post, have mysteriously disappeared, and Mitsuuji resolves to find them. Lost treasures were familiar plot devices from Kabuki and, like Sukeroku, Mitsuuji frequents the licensed quarters in hope of discovering information about the treasures. The love affairs that sprinkle the pages are described with conventional skill and heightened by the charm of Kunisada’s illustrations, but there is something unpleasantly cold and deliberate about Mitsuuji’s systematic use of the women he sleeps with to further his investigation. Judged in terms of the samurai morality, Mitsuuji is superior to Genji in that his love affairs are occasioned not by fleshly lust but by a higher purpose, recovery of the treasures. But it is hard for us to feel affection for this love machine or, for that matter, for the women of different social stations who vie to become his slaves. Mitsuuji seems incapable of a spontaneous act of generosity or love, and the women who surround him totally lack the vivid personalities so superbly described in The Tale of Genji."

"Despite the failings of The Rustic Genji for modern readers, it enjoyed amazing popularity in its time. It is hard to understand this today, when The Rustic Genji has lost most of its charm, and the endless ramifications of the plot bore rather than intrigue. The genteel tone maintained throughout—Tanehiko never shocked the sensibilities of even the most refined ladies— is also likely to exasperate us. Even the illustrations seem rather insipid. But for many years readers eagerly awaited each new installment, curious to discover how The Tale of Genji would be altered in this latter-day version."

"Tanehiko published the first part in 1829 rather as a trial balloon, neither the author nor the publisher having much confidence in the sales of a modernized version of Genji. The first part met with a surprisingly favorable reception, and was followed in 1830 with the second and third parts. For several years Tanehiko published two parts annually, but from 1833 he stepped up the pace to three or four parts a year, continuing at this rate until 1842, when he published the thirty-eighth part, in a total of 152 pamphlets. In the summer of 1841 Tanehiko fell sick, and it was rumored he would be unable to continue the work. So great was the consternation aroused by this danger, even in the women’s quarters of the shogun’s palace, that innumerable prayers were offered for Tanehiko’s recovery. One court lady made pilgrimages to a certain temple for seven days running, and offered a copy of The Rustic Genji to the Buddha."

"Tanehiko recovered in the same year and published part 38 in 1842. He had also delivered to the illustrator and calligrapher the manuscript of part 39 when he was unexpectedly summoned by an official of his clan and informed that it was improper for him, as a samurai, to write such books. This strangely delayed reaction to a work that had begun to appear twelve years earlier, a book which was moreover not in objectionable taste, was probably a result of the Tempo Reforms rather than a response to anything specific in The Rustic Genji, though rumors had it that Tanehiko had portrayed in his work the profligate atmosphere of the court of the shogun Ienari, a notorious libertine."

"The action against his book came as a terrible shock to the cautious Tanehiko. Even Bakin, long his enemy, felt intimidated; after expressing thanks that he himself had never had his books banned, he announced his intention of being even more careful in the future.°’ Tanehiko renounced all hopes of publishing parts 39 and 40 (they did not appear until 1928), and agreed to give up his gesaku writings. But the worst was yet to come. He was summoned for a second time to answer charges; their exact nature is not known, but it has been conjectured that someone discovered he had written a pornographic book. This revelation would naturally have been a source of acute embarrassment to a high-ranking samurai, and Tanehiko died soon afterward, a suicide by some accounts."

"As soon as the effects of the Tempo Reforms had worn off, The Rustic Genji quickly regained its popularity, finding many new readers. Young women in particular delightedly pored over the endless volumes. Tanehiko’s gokan were even known abroad: Ukiyogata Rokumai Byōbu ( 1821) was translated into German as Sechs Wandschirme in Gestalten der vergänglichen Welt by the Austrian scholar August Pfizmaier in 1847, the first Japanese novel to appear in a Western language."