Nise Monogatari
Nise Monogatari (仁勢物語, occasionally 似勢物語) is a Japanese kana-zōshi written in the early Edo period by an unknown author.
Genre
Nise Monogatari is a work of the kana-zōshi genre.[1]
It was written as a parody of the famous Heian period romantic poem tale the Ise Monogatari,[1] specifically the rufubon (popular) text containing 125 short episodes.[1]
Authorship and date
The author of Nise Monogatari is unknown.[1] The late-Edo period author Ryūtei Tanehiko speculated that it was the early Edo waka poet and Noh playwright Karasumaru Mitsuhiro,[1] but modern scholars reject this theory.[1]
It was written around 1639 (Kan'ei 16),[1] and first printed around the end of the Kan'ei era in 1644.[1] The illustrations included in the first printed edition are based on the Kan'ei 6 (1629) edition of the Ise Monogatari.[1]
Content
Unlike other parodies of classical works, such as Inu Makura (犬枕) and Inu Tsurezure (犬徒然), Nise Monogatari is a beat-for-beat parody of the content of Ise,[1] with the setting changed from the sophisticated courtly world of the Heian aristocracy to the vulgar society of early modern Japan.[1]
This work stands out from the other parodies specifically of Ise that appeared later (such as Okashi Otoko [おかし男], Kōshoku Ise Monogatari [好色伊勢物語], Shinjitsu Ise Monogatari [真実伊勢物語] and Nise Monogatari Tsūho-shō [仁勢物語通補抄]) in terms of the consistency of its humour.[1]
It is centered around puns and humour,[1] with the plot itself unremarkable and apparently not having been a concern for the author.[1]
Given the stern reverence afforded the classics in the early Edo period, this work is of interest for the commoner's sensibility it applies to a particularly important literary classic.[1]
Textual tradition
The first edition was published around 1644[1] in two volumes,[1] and saw several reprints[1] in addition to new editions of the work being produced.[1]}
The work was also copied in manuscript form,[1] such as the National Diet Archives copy in one volume,[1] which provides useful historical data on the era in which manuscripts were still being copied by hand in Japan.[1]
References
- Ogami 1983, p. 601.
Works cited
- Ogami, Shintarō (1983). "Nise Monogatari". Nihon Koten Bungaku Daijiten 日本古典文学大辞典 (in Japanese). 4. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten. p. 601. OCLC 11917421.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)