The Structure of Detachment: The Aesthetic Vision of Kuki Shuzo

Translator’s Preface

9 Translator’s Preface Kuki Shūzō’s writing on iki in the form most familiar to us originallyappeared as Iki no kōzō (The structure of iki) in a series of two articles in the philosophy journal Shisō (Thought) in 1930. These articles were then published in book form by Iwanami shoten that same year, with a few minor editorial changes; the book has since been reprinted many times. This translation of Iki no kōzō is based on the book in the twelve-volume complete works Kuki Shūzō zenshū, hereafter referred to as KSZ, and on a twenty-third printing of the book in the Iwanami bunko series. Kuki’s handwritten notes, his scribbles in the margins of the books he consulted, and his manuscripts themselves were enormously useful in preparing this translation. Kuki’s manuscripts were written in fountain pen on boxed manuscript paper, with a great amount of rewriting and rearranging of sentences. His thinking on iki changed over the years he devoted to this project, and some of his personal musings and notes on iki are now published as ‘‘Iki ni tsuite’’ (Concerning iki) in KSZ. ‘‘Iki no honshitsu’’ (The essence of iki), a draft of Iki no kōzō, was completed in December of 1926, in Paris, which brought together in coherent prose for the first time his thinking on iki. These manuscripts are stored in a special collection at the Kuki Memorial Library at Konan University, Kobe. I have tried to maintain Kuki’s easygoing style, as far as possible, and instead of always translating Japanese words into their closest English equivalents (e.g., iki to ‘‘chic’’), I have left untranslated certain pivotal words in Kuki’s argument when they carry heavy semantic burdens and cultural connotations .This is in keeping with Kuki’s central thesis that words do not have translation equivalents in another language. Thus, in this translation, these words are given in transliteration, followed bya short semantic gloss in single quotation marks. Fuller connotative and denotative meanings, if pertinent, appear in the notes. The modified Hepburn romanization system is used throughout for Japa- 10 The Structure of Iki nese words. Unlike the standard system, the n is maintained even when followed by homorganic consonants (e.g., shinbun, not shimbun). In addition, vowel lengths are indicated with a macron, and the nasal mora followed by a vowel or the letter y is marked by an apostrophe. This system of romanization is used for all Japanese words, except for those few judged to be English words (e.g., Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, kimono). Japanese words and phrases quoted in the original text in Japanese quotation brackets are given their romanized equivalents in italics, followed by English equivalents in double quotation marks. In some cases, however, the Japanese in romanization was judged to be more appropriate than providing its gloss in English, because it would otherwise be disruptive to the prose or not easily translatable parsimoniously to English. In such cases, the quoted item is not translated and is given in romanized Japanese and set in italics. Kuki’s own notes as well as the translator’s notes appear as endnotes. The translator’s comments are enclosed in square brackets and end with ‘‘—trans.’’ Any comments regarding the contents of Kuki’s notes are added at the ends of these notes, again enclosed in square brackets and followed by ‘‘—trans.’’ When Kuki’s bibliographical citation in his notes is incomplete, I have added information to complete it. Titles of woodblock-print series and essays appear in double quotation marks,sometimes followed by their English translation in parentheses,where needed. Names of books enclosed in Japanese quotation brackets in the original are given in italics and in the original language (in romanization if Japanese). Kuki placed single or double circles next to words in the original edition, and dots (bōten) in later paperback editions, to indicate emphasis. In this translation, the emphasized text appears in bold type. Three works proved useful in translating Kuki’s works. One is a German translation of Iki no kōzō by Emi Schinzinger,with herown commentary, entitled ‘‘Die Structurdes ‘iki’ von Kuki Shūzō,’’ published as a part of her master’s work at the University of Tübingen in 1985, kindly brought to my attention by Jon Mark Mikkelsen.The other two are John Clark’s 1978 draft translation and his more polished 1997 translation published as Reflections on Japanese Taste: The Structure of...