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Journal Name: The Journal of Japanese Studies: Summer 2003, Vol. 29, No. 2
Articles
Rivalry, Triumph, Folly, Revenge: A Plot Line through The Tale of Genji
ROYALL TYLER
Abstract:
This essay argues that The Tale of Genji has a four-phase plot: rivalry, triumph, folly, and revenge. In the first phase, Genji struggles against his elder half-brother Suzaku, supported by the emperor, the brothers' father. During his exile the Sumiyoshi deity and the late emperor's spirit intervene to assure his triumph. In phase three, he rashly marries Suzaku's favorite daughter and then provokes the Rokujo lady's spirit, which strikes back with consequences that ruin both his and Suzaku's last years. In the final phase, Suzaku's angry spirit pursues Kaoru, Genji's alleged son, through the women Kaoru loves.
Forging Tradition for a Holy War:
The Hakko Ichiu Tower in Miyazaki and Japanese Wartime Ideology
Walter Edwards
Abstract:
The rapid and widespread circulation of the slogan hakko ichiu ("all the world under one roof") at the end of the 1930s was attended by a subtle but ominous shift in interpretations of mythic first emperor Jimmu. Reading his conquest of Yamato as an expansion of imperial rule, a process destined to continue until it encompassed the entire world, this view recast the nation's founding myth into a charter for holy war. These changes are examined through an analysis of a tower bearing the slogan, erected in 1940 in Miyazaki, to commemorate the 2,600th anniversary of Jimmu's ascension.
Volume 29, Number 2 (Summer 2003)
©2003 Society for Japanese Studies
(This journal is available online at: http://depts.washington.edu/jjs/)
Posted with permission from the publisher.
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