Japanese Culture

Notes

Notes Chapter 1 The Emergence of Japanese Civilization 1. Keiji Imamura, Prehistoric Japan, p. 26. 2. Scholars continue to debate how rice got to Japan: From south China? From central China? Via the Korean peninsula? See ibid., pp. 130–31. 3. Even more recently, some scholars have hypothesized that this “cultural transformation ” was accompanied by a great influx of people from the continent over a long period of time. One scholar, for example, estimates that several million people entered Japan during the thousand years following commencement of the Yayoi period. Ibid., p. 155. 4. Quoted in Ryûsaku Tsunoda, William T. deBary, and Donald Keene, eds., Sources of Japanese Tradition, p. 8. 5. Quoted in Agency for Cultural Affairs, ed., Japanese Religion, pp. 37–38. 6. W. G. Aston, tr., Nihongi, p. 77. 7. They calculated in Chinese-style units of sixty-year periods. 8. See Gari Ledyard, “Galloping Along with the Horseriders: Looking for the Founders of Japan.” 9. Walter Edwards, “Event and Process in the Founding of Japan: The Horserider Theory in Archaeological Perspective.” 10. Many scholars, especially Korean historians, insist that Mimana, which was supposedly in the territory the Koreans called Kaya, never existed: in other words, Japan did not establish a territorial enclave in Korea during this early age. 11. Tsunoda, deBary, and Keene, Sources of Japanese Tradition, pp. 9–11. Chapter 2 The Introduction of Buddhism 1. This date appears in Nihon Shoki. Other sources give 538 as the year of the “official” introduction of Buddhism to Japan. 2. Another term for Hinayana is Theravada, “Doctrine of the Elders.” 3. A translation of the Constitution can be found in Tsunoda, deBary, and Keane, Sources of Japanese Tradition, pp. 50–53. The quotations here are from this translation. 4. Another term for this form of poetry is tanka or “short poem.” 5. Donald Keene, ed., Anthology of Japanese Literature, pp. 37–38. 6. Ibid., pp. 46–47. 7. Ibid., pp. 51–52. 8. Donald Keene, tr., Essays in Idleness: The Tsurezuregusa of Kenkò, p. 7. 9. Keene, Anthology of Japanese Literature, p. 80. Chapter 3 The Court at Its Zenith 1. Tsunoda, deBary, and Keene, Sources of Japanese Tradition, p. 122. 2. G. B. Sansom, Japan, A Short Cultural History, p. 228. 354 Notes to Pages 51–95 3. There are two forms of kana: katakana and hiragana. Hiragana is the principal form used, along with Chinese characters, in writing Japanese. Use of katakana is restricted primarily to the phonetic reproduction of foreign words and names, and to printing on public signs and the like. 4. There were two titles for regent: sesshò for a minor emperor and kampaku for an emperor who had reached his majority. 5. A mission was planned for 894 but was never dispatched. 6. Keene, Anthology of Japanese Literature, p. 80. 7. Quoted in Earl Miner, ed., Japanese Poetic Diaries, p. 26. 8. Keene, Anthology of Japanese Literature, p. 76. 9. Tsunoda, deBary, and Keene, Sources of Japanese Tradition, p. 180. 10. Keene, Anthology of Japanese Literature, pp. 90–91. 11. Ibid., p. 82. 12. Edward Seidensticker, tr., The Gossamer Years, p. 167. 13. Keene, Anthology of Japanese Literature, pp. 67–68. 14. Lady Murasaki, The Tale of Genji, translated by Arthur Waley, pp. 22–23. 15. Ivan Morris, tr., The Pillow Book, 1:7–8. 16. Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji, translated by Edward Seidensticker, 1:437. 17. William and Helen McCullough, trs., A Tale of Flowering Fortunes, 2:515–16. 18. The chronological and annals and biographies forms of organizing history derived from China. An annals and biographies history was basically a topically, rather than a chronologically, arranged work. The two principal topics were the annals of emperors and the biographies of court ministers and other prominent people. 19. Helen McCullough, tr., Òkagami, p. 208. 20. Namu Amida Butsu or “Hail Amida Buddha!” 21. Tsunoda, deBary, and Keene, Sources of Japanese Tradition, pp. 202–3. Chapter 4 The Advent of a New Age 1. The term “samurai,” although generally used today when speaking of Japan’s premodern warriors, was in early times only one designation among many for these fighting men. Probably the most common term was tsuwamono; another was bushi, which means something like “military gentry.” 2. Taira (also known as Heike) and Minamoto (also known as Genji) were two surnames given to princes who were excluded from the imperial family in a process of “dynastic shedding” that was used periodically to reduce the family’s considerable...