#zuihitsu form

[academyoftheheartandmind]

A lot to think about over oatmeal, yogurt, and banana slices And Other Poems

By Peter A. Witt A lot to think about over oatmeal, yogurt, and banana slices In the zuihitsu form Old dog lies on the carpet legs running in place, perhaps trying to futility chase that cantankerous cat who pounced him from the bushes during our late evening walk. Paper person came early today, slung paper in the bushes, where it soaked up moisture from late night watering, saved me the…

[infiniteorbits]

last updated

1.

“amelie” - last updated 3/30/23 at 10:31

likes

- when songs blend into each other

- untangling necklaces

- restoration videos

- doorbells that play songs

dislikes

- when previously melted popcorn butter hardens

- when people laugh or talk at the end of songs

- restoration vids that r actually transformation

- when musical movies have less/no songs in the second half 

2.

“now twitter” - last updated 3/30/23 at 17:03

3/28

- dunkin is very hit or miss. luckily for both of us i will take whatever is given to me in any situation ever. - 07:59

- i’m a good kid just mentally disturbed - 9:49

- why is it always hot as balls in [building] i am DYING! - 9:57

3.

“lyrics” - last updated 3/28/23 at 21:06

are you there? - sbd

- “is there anyone in the audience currently living in vain?”

nights - frank ocean

- “wanna see nirvana but don’t wanna die”

4.

“band names” - last updated 4/2/23 at 17:04

i called it

señor manatee

morph suit with the genitals cut out

western haircut

vape gosh

car moth

snail gunk shoes

banana fever

radiobread

nonconsensual gymnastics routine

goodbye endemic fish

uneven sunburn

bread zeppelin

phoebe breadgers

self-imposed bald spot

turtle crossing

5.

“wowowowow” - last updated 3/19/23 at 21:21 (excerpt 1/3)

i really only wake up to go back to sleep again

i dont wanna leave my house because then i have to put on clothes and look at my body. i hate watching tiktok because i see other people’s bodies and hate mine. i hate existing

do you ever yearn to be loved by someone that doesn’t exist so badly that your body aches. do you ever ever want to pull out ur hair bc ur so ashamed of your own thoughts that you cant exist

6.

“dreams” - last updated 2/2/23 at 06:27

night of 12/22/22

[person 1] and [person 2] shit themselves. it seemed to be a reoccurring event bc [freshman year teacher], [person 3], and [person 4] were disappointed

7.

“try god: 1060 AM” - last updated 3/10/23 at 19:36

(is an atheist station)

9/16/19 : 2

11/5/19 : 1

12/5/19: 1

1/14/20 : 1

5/24/21: 1

7/28/21: 1

8/12/21: 1

9/3/21: 1

12/29/21: 1 (roche bros [town] parking lot)

9/23/22: 1

3/9/23: 1 (the bitch had like 2 stickers tho!!!)

8.

“hm” - last updated 1/22/23 at 22:57

“i’m not like you, other people’s problems don’t make me feel better” - [redacted]

9.

“wowowowow” - last updated 3/19/23 at 21:21 (excerpt 2/3)

how the fuck do candles burn out the wax doesn’t evaporate right

welcome to the achery, what can i get u? vomit, comin right up!

the world is made of orbits

the moon around the earth

the earth around the sun

our solar system around the middle

even little galaxies orbit around ours

i suppose that even we, as people,

orbit too

i like to think

that i orbit around you

10.

“i miss all the angel numbers and i keep getting mad bc i dont have to a reason to keep thinking of u”  - last updated 3/4/23 at 13:09

people kinda just age out of me.

11.

untitled - last updated 3/28/22 at 10:46

i dont know what to write. i dont wanna seem like im not workin gbut i just…. cant do this right now. i had to walk to school today and i wanted to die. i mean realistically thats not truly a bad thing. the walk is like ten minutes and its in Rennes and im lucky to be here and to be able to walk and go to school and breathe clean air and whatnot. but im so tired. so tired. it took my nearly an hour to pick out my clothes today. i decided on a shirt and jeans that dont look good together at all and that are half dry bc the dryer just does not work in this house for some damn reason and its fucking annoying. i did my makeup because i was looking atrocious- my hair was wet because i finally got myself to shower after god knows how long (less than a week i presume - i think i last showered the weekend before this week?) and the lack of shape to my hair and the weird way my face looks after i wake up or shower or do anything made me need to sit down and inevitably still be upset when its over. i dreamt that i saw [redacted #2]. it was another one of those dreams where theres a big storm or tsunami or combination of the two and we all had to huddle in a school building that looks kind of like this one but not really. i was so excited to see her and i almost cried in my dream. but i barely saw her for the rest of the dream, she was off with [redacted #3] and her other friends and not me. i was left behind. they left without me. i’m not mad at her for this because she hasnt done this to me yet but i know she will so i guess im preemptively sad and mad and upset even though i have no reason to be and thats not fair to her. i am at myself and the person in front of me and how she treats me like im stupid and i dont want to be stupid and i know im not stupid but there is nothing i can do. i know that seems dramatic. “nothing i can do.” there is. there probably is. i really hope there is but at the same time i hope there isnt because then its true. i am stupid. i do get my work done or at least the work i know that i need to get done and my grades are fine i have like a 3.67 unweighted which isnt great but not like awful. i know i could do better. i know i could work harder. i have worked harder before but its gone now and shes gone now and im gone now. im gone now. im gone now. 

12.

“favs” - last updated 3/18/22 at 15:19

bc i always seem to forget

music

dirty computer - janelle monae

sawdust - the killers

sgt peppers lonely heart club band - the beatles

rubber soul - the beatles

stranger in the alps - phoebe bridgers

apricot princess - rex orange county

punisher - phoebe bridgers 

ow - pom pom squad

turkey dinner - pinky pinky

death of a cheerleader- pom pom squad

13.

“list of issues (current)” - last updated 8/17/22 at 07:46

- [ ] chronic/crippling fear of death (usually intrusive)

- [ ] shortness of breath/high resting heart rate

- [ ] trouble sleeping (falling asleep, keepingg eyelids closed, fear of dreams [lack of control], fear of unconsciousness)

- [ ] usually naseous or having abdominal issues

- [ ] head hurts all the time

- [ ] lack of control with my thoughts

- [ ] depression :( - am i taking too much of my meds?

14.

untitled - last updated 9/7/21 at 06:51

ah oui!! désolé, j’avais fatigué donc j’ai oublié envoyer un text. on est en bus et on va arriver à 15:16

merci pour ce skype!!! j’ai aimé faire de connaissance de votre famille :) j’étais enthousiaste d’aller avant mais maintenant je suis plus enthousiaste (j’ai pensé que c’est ne pas possible!). mes parents se sentent impatients à l’idée que je vais habiter avec vous. je ne peux pas attendre pour vous rencontrer en personne!!!

15.

“grocery list” - last updated 6/7/21 at 10:37

- [x] watermelon

- [ ] orange juice

- [ ] plants

- [ ] ice

- [ ] muffins

- [ ] 

16.

“bus writing assignment” - last updated 10/19/21 at 18:05

-doja cat plays

-everyone is on their phone, with wired headphones

-old bus or new? blue model with the facing hanging handicapped seats

-new bus, c3

-woman quiet her phone

-baby blows bubbles than screams, a child laughs

-people look up as siren passes

-12 year olds laugh and play hand games in the back

-girl with dyed hair (color i want)

-its so hot, holding my bag

-i can hear music of man standing near me

- vaguely familiar man walks in

- office man

- u express bag reminds me of my own

-- woman stands to get off, holding an umbrella, clear with ocean designs (why does she have umbrella? its sunny? i have an umbrella but its new. shes holding it like its fragile bht not new)

- almost miss my stop once i realize i dont know where i am

- lost in writing

- nvm got off one too early

- ill walk ig

17.

“wowowowow” - last updated 3/19/23 at 21:21 (excerpt 3/3)

i agree with the catholics sometimes

like when they mention gay people

and get that look in their eyes

i tilt my head down in shame

but i also put my head down to pray

/

i don’t know if being gay is a sin

but it sure as hell is a punishment

i wonder if future me is looking at me now

crying on the bus, mask soaked with tears

i know she is, because can feel her holding me

i feel her hug and her tears on my shoulders

i hope she’s happy in the way i want to be

18.

untitled - last updated 9/19/19 at 07:58

kantism: you must follow your moral code always with no exceptions, which is defined as something that is good in all situations (intent matters, impact does a bit). 

utilitarianism: do what makes the most people happy (intent doesn’t matter, impact does). morality is defined by amount of happiness.

contractialism: if you agree to a contract, explicit or not, you must follow it. while the contract may not benefit you at all times, it is better than living in a world of “natural law”, a world with no contracts and no security.

virtue theory: if we try to be good people, good actions will follow (good intent = good impact). everyone should be good people because it is in our nature, it is our function. you are good if you fulfill your function and bad if you do not

natural law theory: god gave us the ability to be good

[xoshepard]

i don't think im rly back but i said white people were annoying on my PRIVATE!!!! twitter account and they told me they were "limiting my post's reach" for hate speech (LMAOOOO MY REVERSE RACISM....) so imma make a small update post on here

school has been wonderful, we just finished the third week of classes and im starting to actually feel like maybe ppl calling me smart this whole time weren't just saying that to be nice?? like im flourishing in my classes

school-work-life balance is ass, i have a TA meeting on mondays, classes tuesday-thursday, and i spend friday-sunday doing homework and catching up on work, i've been out a couple times and im getting better at getting through my tasks so hopefully i can go out more in the future

my roommate sucks and im moving tomorrow to a place with a private bathroom bc sharing w her is making me lose it

my cohorts are great, out of the 6 first years 4 of them are japanese and i get along w everybody pretty well so far

there's one second year that's 30 and i am going to spend so much time with her bc i neeeeeed someone close to my age sdjkfghsj

we're studying a literary form called zuihitsu in my graduate seminar and even tho i've never been super interested in japanese literature i'm rly enjoying it bc it's basically like a newspaper column or a blog but from these ancient japanese aristocrats and im formulating and stewing and brewing on what my final paper is gonna be.

the adhd is not holding me back as much as i had feared, reading does take me a long time but i've been able to keep up with everything so far and like i said above, i'm getting better at getting shit done in a relatively timely manner. the place im moving to is on campus, so i'll also have some extra time without the commute that i can hopefully use on like. chilling.

i miss my mutuals on here i hope you guys are doing well :)

[hellogirlslikegirlslikeboysdo]

And the lights are not fluorescent, and there are no words on the page. - Zuihitsu/Hybrid Essay

Author's Preface and Ch. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7

Description: My final portfolio for one of the creative writing courses I took based around exploring the creative nonfiction essay in its many literary forms, with any and all identifying names or signifiers censored out.

This essay may not actually, in the most technical sense available, “pass” as a submission to the “Essay 3: Zuihitsu/ Hybrid” assignment.

If you are interested in financial compensation for your loss, feel free to contact us at 1-800-THIS-AUTHOR-IS-PHYSICALLY-ALLERGIC-TO-UNDERSTANDING-BASIC-DIRECTIONS. We are taking the time and liberty to inform you of this upcoming inconvenience not only as a hook for the first line of this essay, nor to plead “ignorance of the literary law” during its grading process, but rather to provide a reference point based in where said essay is coming from, and where it plans on going for the remainder of its duration.

As we’re sure you’ve found in your time as an academic instructor working at [REDACTED], [REDACTED]’s famous claim of a “gradeless” curriculum in the traditional sense (ie. a lack of letters or percentiles) may hold up in the previously mentioned technical sense (excluding the GPA our final evaluations get translated into during the grad school application process), however, most of the expectations and requirements professors hold in their classrooms act as a sort of “pass/fail” grading system anyway, though the unique teaching philosophy shared amongst them and facility tends to inspire only two genuine points of grading criteria: “Is the assignment complete in provable effort and its entirety?” and “Does it follow the awarded instructions?”

After countless scouring on the internet, our class notes, the description and examples left in the Canvas page, and our memory of class the day you explained it, we have come to the dreaded conclusion that this essay may not fit the second criterion.

Our continued rough drafting is committed, rather, to the hope that our confusion on the nature of the hybrid essay, the actual difference between Zuihitsu poetry vs Zuihitsu essay writing, the necessity of following a particular theme or idea throughout, the assigned process behind this essay, each supposed segment’s expected length or whether this portion’s subject matter qualifies it as an actual part of the essay, or even the correct way to separate each section, will somehow act in the spirit of Zuihitsu literature: Following the pen wherever it leads you.

Wish us luck, dear reader.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I found the same kind of fun in the animal diary that I find in all our in-class hands-on work: Obvious, self-explanatory, and buried deep within the depths of the most artistic/freeform aspect of the activity. Like clockwork, it requires me to brush away the specks of uncertainty in the directions, my withered hands revealing the big, bright label plastered on top.

It reads exactly how you imagine it reads: “See!! See, look, I told you I was here! You were so focused on making sure this assignment helped you towards your next essay, you thought you wouldn’t have room for me, but here I am, idiot! You’re having a good goddamn time drawing a funky little platypus, and it’s all thanks to me! Leave your thank you on the way out, ya dumb bitch!”

Apart from the question of why this metaphor requires a labeling gun with such long stickers, one has to wonder what disgusting alleyway all that distracting stress crawled out of. The supposed safety net of my professors, generally speaking, knowing what exactly they’re doing (those PHDs don’t exactly just pop into existence one day) does quite little to sway this approach to learning in all its hypervigilance. I’ve posited many theories over the years, tangentially and never allowing myself the time for a full conclusion; It could be the looming threat of how little time I have to devote to brainstorming how to attack my assignments, maybe the unshakable internal insistence (blame capitalism or the public schooling for that, either’s a fine scapegoat and the “why” is too abstract to help me in the middle of class) that learning has to be productive towards a traceable later goal, instead of myself as a whole and an academic (if I have nothing tangible to show for my efforts, how can I be sure I even followed the directions correctly?).

The most troubling option, embarrassing as it is for someone who claims to prioritize her career as a writer above all else, is that I’m simply trying to justify using the skills and techniques as they are given to me, in hopes that the results they wield in class are shiny enough for me to actually use them outside of the class.

I do wonder if I took the animal diary this seriously when I first encountered it. My memory flickers under the winds of time, but I’m leaning towards no.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It does, of course, come to my attention what asking for clarification on the instructions could do, but the things classification has done in the past (make just as little sense as before, confuse me further, led my mind even farther from the intended understanding, you know the drill) brushes the thought away.

Years of fractured, sprawled-out education has taught me my best approach for tasks I’m not fully sure about is to set my concerns aside and simply go with what I think is best, consequences be damned!

(And by damned, I mean, as I’m sure you guessed, professionally dealt with at a later date.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maybe the apologetic, justifying tone gives me away, maybe it's the heavy overarching theme in this freeform-style essay, but I should confess that my current thoughts are mixed in the way they always are. Half are swirling around the task at hand and what little attention I can pay to it (as always). The other half is on what I really wish I was writing (ie. what I am always thinking about, somewhere, way in the back): Whatever nonsense my brain has deemed flashy enough to name my current hyperfixation (The Stanley Parable at the moment I’m writing this, though I’m sure it’ll have changed by the time I come back to edit this).

That latter half, of course, brings me to the conundrum I’ve left out to dry ever since I labeled myself a writer. I want to spend this entire essay rambling on about this stupid little video game, and its two stupid little main characters, and the actually brilliant way they need each other more than the narrative itself needs them in one blog-style expository essay, well underneath 750 words. But that just won’t work, in the same way that what I wish I was writing even more than that (fiction, prose in particular) won’t work either. In the simplest of terms, that’s not what this assignment is about. And in order to actually learn, to grow as a writer, I can’t just write what I want to. I have to write what I need to.

[bookschallenge]

SIMEN HAGERUP ANBEFALER! 🍀🍀🍀 Simen Hagerup trekker frem en japansk klassiker som lesestoff i koronatiden, og skriver ...

[willowstreetstories]

Notes on Zuihitsu Poets share what draws them to the genre By The Asian American Writers’ Workshop

This week we published the 随筆 | Zuihitsu notebook, featuring interpretations on the genre from twenty-one poets. Frequently translated from the Japanese as “following the brush,” the zuihitsu is a Japanese genre of writing tracing back to Sei Shōnagon’s The Pillow Book. A medieval writer and courtier born in 966, Shōnagon chronicled court life with witty anecdotes, lists, sharp observations and opinions on people’s behavior and customs, and poems, among other miscellany. Writers—in particular Yoshida no Kenkō, who wrote Essays in Idleness between 1330 and 1332—followed Shōnagon’s lead and expanded the genre, which is still written today in Japan. In The Columbia Anthology of Japanese Essays: Zuihitsu from the Tenth to the Twenty-First Century, editor Steven D. Carter writes it is now “a supergenre in which one will often find a mix of subgenres, everything from reportage and travelogue to poetry, literary criticism, biography, confession, journalism—and so on, almost ad infinitum.”

We invited notebook contributors, most of whom write primarily in English, to share how they encountered the genre and what draws them to it. Several noted that the poet Kimiko Hahn, who advised The Margins on this notebook, introduced them to the genre. Hahn laid the groundwork for the zuihitsu in American poetry, in particular with her collection The Narrow Road to the Interior (Norton, 2006). Shortly after the book came out, Hahn shared in a BOMB interview that she initially studied zuihitsu in an academic setting but started writing them in the nineties after being invited to do so for a reading at the Poetry Project celebrating Shōnagon’s The Pillow Book. 

While the zuihitsu is frequently compared to an essay, Hahn showed its possibilities as a poetic text. In a 2021 article for the American Poetry Review, Hahn wrote: 

Zuihitsu, literally, “running brush”; This uniquely Japanese genre is a poetic text lacking the formal structural principles we associate with Western verse. Through a variety of techniques—fragmentation, juxtaposition, varying lengths, disparate forms (observation, anecdote, journal, catalog, … and a hybrid text), and an organizing subject—it creates an impression of spontaneity and a quality of “imperfection.”

Many contributors to the Zuihitsu notebook seem drawn to these qualities. Some seem to find within it a fragmentary and intuitive style of thought; others gravitate toward its sense of voice, taking inspiration from Shōnagon, whose tone in The Pillow Book is by turns delighted, irritated, contemplative, disdainful, and bemused. And many contributors noted the freedom and relief found in a genre not within the Western canon and one that encourages voice, hybridity, and imperfection. As Ching-In Chen writes, “Encountering the zuihitsu—a small room opening up with sunlight. Another vantage point.”

—Dana Isokawa

Aimee Nezhukumatahil ​​The zuihitsu is a mimic octopus. It’s the closest form that resembles how I think, how I map the world. One flash displays lyric fragments, another line displays some reportage, another shows some running of the senses, which is of course, a sort of “running of the brush,” that I always try to maintain in my zuihitsu.

Betsy Aoki I had read The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon in undergrad out of curiosity, but I hadn’t studied the actual craft of writing the zuihitsu until taking a weeklong workshop with Kimiko Hahn at the Fine Arts Center in Provincetown in 2015. (The first draft of “Unsuitable for five or six blocks” was written at that time.) I had read some of Hahn’s own zuihitsu prior to taking that class, but hadn’t realized everything the zuihitsu entails when you write one. People talk about wabi-sabi, the beauty of the imperfect, all that jazz—what they don’t tell you about is the freakin’ work it takes to make things look that easy. Also, the form demands a voice. Sei Shōnagon was an aristocratic wit whose court required she dash off perfect and imperfect thoughts on the daily, in verse. Sending tweets or a couple short emails is not the same, but that process gets close to the immediate delivery expected, the pressure to get it right in a timely way, social conventions in play. All this pressure—to be lively, to bring images sharply to the mind’s eyes—are what hone her zuihitsu like diamonds. 

I think I was drawn to this form the way other poets are drawn to the sonnet, to see what it teaches, or to think about the relationship between form and intention, which is what compelled Jericho Brown to invent a form of his own, the duplex. I study technique and form to see what emerges under constraint. Shōnagon leans on lists—but are they really like grocery lists or more like associations of remembrances, philosophy and dreams? How does she contain them and how does she let them run free? (Think of Virginia Woolf’s long sentences in To the Lighthouse, and how she carries you along the winds of time, smoothly and effortlessly, and you get the gist of how far-sweeping a range the zuihitsu can reach.) Shonagon was sniping about people’s hairstyles and behaviors, but she was also in a situation where she could be put to death for offending the wrong person. The humanity in those little bits of etiquette mishaps and transgressions alongside the seasonality of court life saved her work from being denounced as treason. Instead, she could read them aloud to amuse others. And eventually, hundreds of years later, we’d read them to get a flavor of her time. Heady stuff for the modern poet to study!

Ching-In Chen Love Letter to Dear Zuihitsu

As a younger writer, I stayed away from writing in form. I had been introduced to what felt like a very limiting structure that didn’t quite feel like it fit my writing. Encountering the zuihitsu—a small room opening up with sunlight. Another vantage point.

Opened me up to what was possible—I never knew a form could feel blurry and open. More like a pulse to listen to.

Writing zuihitsu revealed me to myself. Unpeeled layers of those other forms I rejected. Helped me understand other ways of entering a relationship with form. Thank you, dear zuihitsu, for these gifts.

Jee Leong Koh I was introduced to the zuihitsu in a workshop on Japanese poetic forms taught by Kimiko Hahn and immediately fell in love with it. How fresh Sei Shōnagon sounds across the centuries! What is the secret to such eternal freshness? Trained in traditional Western forms, I was looking to expand my repertoire by looking again to the East, and what I found was not so much a form as a voice. Sure, Sei Shōnagon is a privileged snob, as a literary friend pointed out with a sniff, but I love to put on her beautiful robe, rub some precious rouge on my cheeks, burn a fine incense stick, and wait for my lover to arrive in the night.

Jenny Xie The zuihitsu form is a welcome reprieve from the will: an invitation to clear space for the drift of the mind and observe how it gets assailed by thought, feeling, loosened memories. I’m especially drawn to watching something emerge into being through brushstrokes, and the manner in which fragments get charged by—and take on deeper meaning through—juxtaposition, movement, accrual.

Joseph O. Legaspi Earlier in the pandemic, it seems that all I could write were fragments—inconclusive, untethered, strange. And all I could write about was the pandemic and its periphery, and its dark cloud. The fragments are not akin to my usual poetic practices and aesthetic. Of course I’m fully aware that my writing is a manifestation of our shattered, segmented, isolated, fraught, and dangerous existence.

However, when reintroduced to the zuihitsu for this folio, a proverbial light bulb lit up. After relearning its characteristics and revisiting Kimiko Hahn’s The Narrow Road to the Interior, I realized the fragments I’d collected these past two years were given a vessel. With zuihitsu, I acquired an organizing principle. I enacted “the brushstrokes” in tracing the psyche, illustrating the emotions, and threading the imagery of my fragments into a narrative, both intimate and universal. The zuihitsu allowed me to draw up a map, not solely cartographically but painterly as well. How else to portray this disembodied, disorienting, and mystifying time? The zuihitsu had given my fragments a form.

Juliet S. Kono When I studied with Kimiko Hahn last summer, the class opened a whole new direction of possibilities in my writing. I love the collage element found in the zuihitsu: the intermix of ideas expressed through prose and a diversity of poetic forms.

Rajiv Mohabir I am drawn to the zuihitsu as a form of migrant poem. It was brought into the world of American poetry through the work of Kimiko Hahn and it resists simple genre definition, relying on temperature and voice, arrangement and precision. The idea of an aesthetic practice outside of the “American” (read white) canon opens up so many possibilities for me as a writer with roots in the United States, the Caribbean, and Asia.

Sasha Stiles I was first introduced to zuihitsu through Tina Chang, who I’m very grateful to have studied with on a couple of occasions, and who is responsible for bringing more than one poetic genre into my life. (My first pecha kucha was also written under her guidance.) At first, I was struck by zuihitsu’s resonance with my tendency to collect copious notes, quotes, tidbits from assorted reference materials, stray scraps of ink-covered paper—intuitively pulling together disparate fragments that seemed to want to be in conversation with each other. Later, I found zuihitsu to be an incredibly apt form for curating machine-generated outputs, which reflect a vast array of perspectives, linguistic styles, voices, vocabularies, personas, intentions. I’ve come to think of the training data sets I compile for my AI alter ego as a kind of zuihitsu, too—a diffuse, dynamic pre-poem written for a solitary cybernetic reader who then attempts to create her own.

Sokunthary Svay I was initially drawn to the zuihitsu through my hero-mentor-friend Kimiko Hahn, whose work has influenced me enormously for two decades now, even before I started writing seriously. I love the note-taking aspect of zuihitsu. It’s a genre that works for my short attention span. I often find myself jumping back and forth between ideas, chores, and responsibilities, so it fits in with the way my headspace works. When I wrote “Manchester Chinatown 2022,” I was in Manchester, England, and needed some comfort. I decided to walk to Chinatown for some beef pho broth. I’ve always been conscious of being a member of the Asian diaspora, but it has had a new sense of urgency and hypervisibility since COVID-19, and so I walked with those thoughts. And when I returned to my place, I took notes on this “Asian feeling.” At the time I was also reading books for my PhD orals exam, and that factored heavily into my sense of a racialized and colonized self.

Wo Chan I love the zuihitsu because it feels alive. It floats, twists, and wiggles like unhemmed fabric on a line, an expression uninterested in perfection. The zuihitsu doesn’t ask “what’s good?” or “what’s bad?” but simply “what is?”. And usually the answer to “what is?” is fresh, surprising, and sensitive to the texture of one’s life. Starting a zuihistu feels the same as improvisatory dancing. One is moved by a musical impulse, but in this case the music lives in the sparkling details of daily observations and internal musings. A writer tracks onto the page a texture, a movement with language skimmed off the immediate surface of daily living.

I wrote these poems in the summer of 2021. To process the grief of the pandemic, the amorphous sense of sitting unemployed, the endless scroll of my doomsday phone, I gave myself a ritual of walking to the water around 6 p.m. to sit and say goodbye to the sun. I was meditating every evening on the pier, and I did so all summer so long as the weather permitted. I am glad I had this form to write in. Between zazen and push-ups, this felt like another form (and I used this in a bodily sense) to return to, a way to practice my thinking and feeling with full acceptance and intention.

[hellsparadiseessays]

The Flowers of Jigokuraku

Disclaimer: this essay will refer to fairly recent chapters (53 and forward), so if you are a new reader, I advise you to catch up before you read it. And as usual, I am not Japanese nor Chinese, so my arguments and explanations are based on the research I made, but I won’t pretend I’m absolutely right on everything. My goal is merely to provide a comprehensive understanding of the references used in Jigokuraku, as well as a historical context to give the in-story points of view more perspective. English isn’t my native language as well, so I hope my explanations won’t be too wonky, grammatically speaking. On these words, I hope you’ll deem this essay an enjoyable or educative read. [Originaly posted here]

In this essay, we’ll study the cultural references used for the island and its inhabitants. We’ll see the reason why certain characters seem to have a rough knowledge of the island, providing a historical context that’ll help us understand why and how these legends are known both in-story and from a narrative perspective. The legends mentioned will be related to Xu Fu and the Immortals, since they are the basis for the mystical island in Jigokuraku.

I. Education during the Edo era

The Xianren, the Immortals, are brought up by both Senta and Toma on chapter 16. These characters have generally proved fairly educated and useful to provide insight to the reader through their discussions with other characters (GabiGang and Chôbe). However, one could wonder **why** apparently random characters like them would know about that sort of thing. 

The Tokugawa period represents roughly 250 years of peace and stability throughout Japan and, despite the sakoku, the isolation of the country, it still received influences from Korea, China and Europe (via the Dutch traders). This general stability provided the perfect set up to develop Japanese culture as we know it, and to spread ideas through education. Indeed, education wasn’t solely reserved to the upper Samurai class, and many schools would open everywhere to provide at least a certain level of reading/writing/counting to young Japanese, and going as far as offering classes on Rangaku (Dutch studies), Kangaku (Chinese studies) or military strategy for the ones who could afford it. 

Terakoya, temple schools opened for commoners, flourished during the Tokugawa era with a function similar to our current primary system. These schools developed with the blessing of the Shogunate, which would use them to promote Confucianism – the set of morals used as a basis for Japanese society during the Edo era. Such system would indeed provide all the knowledge necessary for the four main casts (Samurai, Peasants, Artisans and Merchants) to understand where they stood in the hierarchy and how much they could afford to learn as well. Furthermore, the daimyo, the feudal lords, would also create hankô, the schools of their domain (Han), to provide education to the children of their retainers. These *hankô* would follow the model of Shôheiko, the Confucian school administered by the Shogunate itself, in order to promote the study of Kangaku, Confucianism, history and even medicine. 

Furthermore, knowledge could be more easily spread through time thanks to the development of woodblock printing. As such, even a commoner could have access to various texts and illustrations, which helped the general population learning about both historical facts and legends about both Japan and China. Sinophiles of this period would work to conciliate historical facts and legends and have them work together to integrate Chinese elements in Japan’s history without negating Japan’s own cultural and historical identity, while certain legends would see themselves modified and expanded according to both China’s and Japan’s cultural needs. 

All in all, these facts about education and scholarly pursuits can easily explain why Senta and Toma would know about things such as the Immortals: it could have been part of what they studied before coming to the island, whether it was from a historical, philological or religious point of view. They would at least have a general knowledge of it because of the schooling they’d been provided when they were younger.

II. Xu Fu and the search for immortality

The story of the half-legend, half-historical figure Xu Fu starts in China, with his appearance in the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian) by Sima Qian (145 – 90 BCE). The character quickly gained popularity and his story was expanded in later writings. These writings reached Japan during the Heian period (794 – 1186) and were further developed during the medieval period, yet their peak happened during the Edo era. As previously mentioned, Kanraku, the Chinese studies, became common under the Tokugawa thanks to the Confucian system imposed by the Shogunate. This in turn helped the study of Xu Fu and his quest to integrate it in Japanese history and culture, by notoriously adding that the quest for immortality led him to Japan – something never mentioned in the initial Chinese texts, but that appeared during the 10th century, thus potentially suggesting an influence between China and Heian Japan during that time. This notably led to three theories as to where Xu Fu and his party landed, and what Mount Penglai (where the Immortals are, known as Hôrai in Japanese) is exactly. The first two theories were made during the late Heian period, and situated Xu Fu’s landing near Mount Fuji or in Kumano (currently Mie Prefecture, near Nara). Without entering details (because it’d require a whole post just for Xu Fu), these theories became known during the Ming and Qing dynasties, as Japanese monks and scholars travelled to China and used the story of Xu Fu as a basis of Sino-Japanese friendship through cultural common grounds. The third theory appeared during the following Kamakura era (1185 – 1333), and located Xu Fu at Atsuta Shrine (Nagoya), with the shrine itself being Penglai/Hôrai. During the medieval period, these writings and theories were used as a basis to give Japan a proper position in Chinese culture, but the story really started gaining traction under the Tokugawa, thanks to the cultural exchange between Japan and China as well as the general intellectual development in Japan. 

Historiography became widespread during Edo era, compiling and inventing stories became common to the point even Jesus and Moses had the story of their travel to Japan. Furthermore, these stories became popular with the many works of zuihitsu authors (miscellaneous writings), who used these stories to gain more readers. Edo historian Hayashi Razan even confirmed through his researched that Mount Fuji could indeed be Mount Penglai/Hôrai. According to the stories of that time, Xu Fu brought Chinese methods tied to textile, agriculture and medicine with him, sharing them with the inhabitants of the region and settling down there as well. Yet Kumano remained the most popular theory, leading to the creation of a shrine, Xu Fu’s tomb as well as the tombs of his seven retainers, Jofuku no miya (Xu Fu Palace), Mount Hôrai... These elements were used in numerous texts, travel records and poems, even famous ukiyo-e painter Hokusai drew Painting of Xu Fu Looking Up at Mount Fuji. The legend became larger as the theories about Xu Fu’s location varied and covered Japan (not counting Hokkaido), from Aomori to the North of Honshu to Kagoshima in Kyushu. All of these legends around Xu Fu were supported by the bakufu and the daimyo, who used them to promote the cultural importance of their Han and encourage tourism. 

From an in-story perspective, we can see how and why some characters would be knowledgeable about certain things on the island, or at least recognise certain names, and even why the Shogun himself decided to take the search for immortality so seriously. From a narrative perspective, I commend UG for his twist on the location of Penglai/Hôrai, making it a mysterious man-made island south of the Ryukyu Kingdom (nowadays Okinawa) that fits the descriptions of a paradise... Only at a first glance. It gives the readers a refreshing take on a legend that has been told and modified for centuries to fit all sorts of narratives, and makes the story much creepier.

III. Xianren, the Immortals

Before talking about the Immortals and the material given by UG, we should see where the concept of immortals comes from, and how it evolved in time. 

The concept itself comes from a religious movement called Fangxiandao, the Way of Mages and Immortals. This movement came to existence during the Springs and Autumns period (771 – 256 BCE), but fully developed during the Warring States period (771 - 256 BCE as well) and united scholars of various specialities (alchemy, divination, rituals, exorcism...) around rulers and aristocrats seeking physical immortality and under the belief that Immortals lived in the islands of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea. Theories relating to Yin Yang and the Five Elements emerged during the Warring States period, and seemed to include the Yellow Emperor as well, since he was perceived as a Taoist Immortal (and is referred as one of the first Emperors in the previously mentioned Shiji). It is thanks to this movement that the concepts of the lands of Immortals (Penglai, Fangzhang and Yingzhou – nowadays Mount Kunlun) have been formulated and became the reason of many quests in search of these places. The most famous one is Xu Fu’s search for immortality, for which he’d been provided with a thousand of young boys and girls, and who never came back from his search. The Fangxiandao opened the way to Taoism under the Han dynasty, but the core concept of immortality and Immortals remained despite the religious shift. With Taoism, an Immortal becomes an incarnation of duality, mobile yet without form, residing among the stars and in the deepest caves and giving sacred texts to their most deserving apprentices only. I’m not going to explain the different types of alchemy and the rituals that lead to immortality, as this topic has already been explained by u/gamria and in the manga itself. However, I hope this explanation on what the Immortals are from a cultural point of view helps understand why certains characters in the manga would react to them as if they were somewhat aware of the general ideas about the Immortals and a character like Xu Fu. It is thanks to the use and expansion of Chinese legends that these elements became known from the Japanese population during the Edo era. 

The most famous Immortals are the Eight Immortals, divine beings in Taoism popular both from a religious and literary perspective. The most famous pieces concerning them are The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea and The Immortals Celebrating the Anniversary of the Goddess. The first one relates the crossing of the sea to go to Penglai (or visit the goddess Xiwangmu), during which they renounce to take a boat and decide instead to show their magical skills by transforming their respective amulets into one. This action displeases the Dragon-King, who captures one of the Immortals, which leads to a battle. The situation is solved when Bodhisattva Guanyin reconciles both parties. The second one relates the Peach Festival, a feast of immortality organised by the goddess Xiwangmu, making the Eight Immortals a symbol of longevity and immortality. They are also the basis for a martial art imitating the movements of a drunk person, and based on a text during which the Immortals are drunk. Interestingly enough, counting Mei, we have eight Immortals drunk on Tan in Jigokuraku. And it’s still fine to remove Mei from the count, because it’ll make seven Immortals... Like the seven retainers of Xu Fu, according to the aforementioned writings that could be find during the Tokugawa period. 

Now, concerning our Immortals, Rien and his friends, who have been tied to Xu Fu in chapter 53. I have noticed specific references concerning them, aside from Taoism: the flowers associated with them, which in my opinion have been purposefully chosen by UG for their cultural symbolism. I’m not going to make research on their official names though, since I don’t speak Japanese nor Chinese and would rather avoid misinformation caused by my own ignorance. If someone else feels like doing that, I’d certainly be glad to read it!

Rien: as it raises unstained from the mud, the lotus is commonly associated with purity and perfection. It is also one of the Eight Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism, a throne for Buddha, as well as the flower that grew under his feet when he walked. In China, it is one of the 4 major flowers, and it’s associated with Summer as well as He Xian-gu, one of the 8 Immortals.

Mu Dan: the peony has a major significance in China, both at a cultural and political level. It was the national flower during the Qing dynasty (1644 – 1911) and it is considered the King of Flowers, being associated with wealth, honour, aristocracy, love affection and feminine beauty.

Tao Fa: the peach blossom is associated with vitality and immortality, since it blooms before the leaves sprout. Peach wood was also believed to ward off evil spirits, and thus peach wood staves would be used for such purpose, especially to clear the way for the Emperor.

Ju Fa: the chrysanthemum is one of the Four Gentlemen in Chinese culture, along with plum blossom, orchid and bamboo. It is associated with Autumn and the 9th month of the year, as well as joy and long life.

Zhu Jin: the hibiscus is a popular flower associated with fame, riches, glory and splendour, given as a gift to both men and women.

Ran: the orchid is associated with love, beauty, wealth, fortune and unity. As such, it can also be used as a symbol for married couples. It is also associated with scholarly pursuit, nobility, integrity and friendship, as well as Confucius himself. It is a flower of Spring.

Gui Fa: the sweet osmanthus (cassia spice tree) is a flower traditionally praised by poets and associated with the Mid-Autumn festival in China. Osmanthus wine is seen as typical “family reunion” wine. Since it sounds similar to the word for “expensive, noble, valuable”, it is associated with these concepts. According to a legend, the moon has a cassia tree that produces a drug for immortality.

Mei: the plum blossom is both one of the Four Gentlemen and one of the Three Friends of Winter (with Pine and Bamboo). It is a symbol of longevity since, like peach blossom, the flowers bloom before the foliage sprouts. Its five petals are also associated with the Five Gods of Prosperity and the Five Good Fortunes.

As you can see, it looks like UG didn’t pick the flowers used to create Lord Tensen just because they were pretty. These flowers hold a notable cultural importance, and reflect well the high status of Lord Tensen on the island. It’s the botanical equivalent of screaming at the reader “*they are the boss of this place*”, if you will. Interestingly, these symbols are the part I started with for this essay, since in its first form I was seeking an answer to the self-asked question “are the flowers used for Lord Tensen significant one way or the other concerning the plot”, and decided to do some research based on the botanical, cultural and medicinal aspects of the flowers (cue the title of this essay, which I liked and kept because it’s still relevant)... But it was inconclusive on my end, and I’m not educated enough on these matters to dig them properly. Still, it was interesting to learn more about the cultural significance of these flowers and the potential reasons why they have been selected by UG for his characters.

To conclude, we can see through the research on certain references given by the characters in-story that there are two interesting layers: first, education during the Edo era, the interest for Chinese culture and its implementation in Japanese texts and how it is reflected via the comments and explanations provided by some characters. Second, the actual references used by the author, their origin and how they are implemented in the narration to construct a story that provides the reader with a new take on an ancient legend.

While I did my best to keep it short, it also means I didn’t go as in-depth as I could have, but I wanted to provide a general explanation on philology without going in too deep and ending up lost in my own thinking pattern. Still, it was very interesting to read about these elements, which provided a much clearer narrative frame for. I do hope you found it as entertaining or informative as I did!

Sources

Education in the Tokugawa era

Sinophiles and Sinophobes in Tokugawa Japan: Politics, Classicism, and Medicine During the Eighteenth Century

Wai-ming Ng, Imagining China in Tokugawa Japan: legends, classics and historical terms

Fangxiandao ,  Xian ,  Eight Immortals

Taoism in Japan

Chinese Symbols

Flowers and Fruits

[erraticauthor]

Zuihitsu- On the Past

There’s a swarm of noise encompassing me, A buzzing of voices, unintelligible and unending, As I sit by the window, deskless today. The room’s been arrange differently, My usual desk drawn away into what looks like A trial. Or a congressional debate, Something that ends with someone unhappy. The blinds of only a single window are open, letting in The dreary gray light of cliche horror movies. As Beams of it fall on a framed images of six teenagers, Standing tall above sweet Ms. Mahaney. With longer hair, and a hideous fox tank top, I see my own face staring back at me, With the same crook in the smile, and tired eyes. But what I can’t see in the lines of my face Was in that moment of the camera’s click, Was the discomfort of being So close to a girl I wanted only to avoid. But the constant sights from Westminster Abbey To a pretzel stand in a Munich subway, Where the halls were decorated with soccer jerseys And tourist tchotchkes that I bought In a moment of weakness, a moment to remember. And in those moments I found, That I was distracted from the bad.

[morienmacbain]

Things That Quicken a Warrior’s Heart: A List In the Form of Sei Shonagon’s The Pillow Book Composed by Morien MacBain, esq.

Things that quicken a warrior’s heart:

     A score of new arrows, each one perfect, their fletchings rustling together in the quiver like the wind in dry grass.

     The creak of the sun-warmed leather as you throw your leg over your horse’s saddle and sink down, looking forward across the lists.

     The wind rushing into your face from between your horse's ears as she lifts you up a great steep hill.  You are sure her strength will fail before she reaches the top, but it doesn’t.  You stop at the summit and look out over an eternal blue-green valley in the summer sun.

     The pain the next day after a tournament, or two days after working hard with your weapons in the practice yard.  The ache that sighs and moans in your muscles and maybe a cracked rib reminds you that you are alive, and that weapons come to your hands like tame dogs.

     The moment when your lance dips, the instant before the shock, so that there is no time for the motion of your horse to make it shake off target.  You can see it flying straight as a shaft of sunlight to your enemy’s breast as your horses both rush to bring your lancehead home.

     The release of the orchid of one’s thumb and fingers at the moment of the arrow’s going, all tension gone in a fraction of a heartbeat, and the arrow twisting away like a puff of breath.  You know that it will hit, can feel the hit yourself, as if you were the target and already struck.

     To move your sword, and to feel that it is more alive than any other part of you.

     The creak of the trebuchet as its arm swings around through its arc behind you.  Your eyes are forward on the enemy looking over your shield, but you see the missiles spread out over your head as  they fall among them.  

     The sight of a fine  new helm, and then lowering it over your face and smelling the padding and warm leather straps.  Then to look out from it and see the world made clean and plain.  Then to breathe one breath from seika tanden, and to know just who you are, and why.

     To throw your head around like a maddened horse, looking all around for enemies, and to see that the field is now yours, and that you and your comrades still live, while the enemy is fallen.  

     Your opponent takes a stance that seems to make no sense.  You smile inside your helm, and step forward and a little to one side;  One of you is about to learn something REAL.

          Sei Shinagon (her “court name”, her real name being unknown), was a courtesan/poet  who served as a personal retainer to the Empress Teishi (Sadako) during the middle Heian Period (this service lasting from approximately 990-1001 CE, ending with the death of the Empress). 

     She is best known as the author of The Pillow Book, a collection of observations of court life rendered in a mixture of  “assorted writings” (zuihitsu) including prose anecdotes, verse, and elegant  and insightful lists. Her wry, arrogant, witty, and confrontational writings form one of the most important literary windows into court life of her period. 

      Shonagon was the rival of Lady Murasaki Shikibu, lady-in-waiting, poet, and author of The Tale of Genji.  

     Seika tanden is the energy center in the abdomen.

Exemplars from Sei Shonagon’s The Pillow Book:

“26. Things that make your heart beat fast –

      A sparrow with nestlings. 

     Going past where tiny children are playing. 

     Lighting some fine incense and then lying down alone to sleep. 

     Looking into  one’s Chinese mirror that’s a little clouded. 

     A fine gentleman pulls up in his carriage and sends in some request.

   To wash your hair, apply your makeup and put on clothes that are well-scented with incense. Even if you’re somewhere where no one special will see you, you still feel a heady sense of pleasure inside.

     On a night when you’re waiting for someone to come, there’s a sudden gust of rain and something rattles in the wind, making your heart suddenly beat faster.”

Bibliography

Murasaki Shikibu (author), Kencho Suematsu (translator). The Tale of Genji: The Authoritative First Translation of the World’s Earliest Novel. Tuttle: 2018. ISBN-13 : ‎978-4805314647

Sei Shonagon. Arthur Waley, translator. The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon: The Diary of a Courtesan in Tenth-Century Japan. Tuttle: 2018.  ISBN-13 :  978-4805314623

25. Infuriating things

A guest who arrives when you have something urgent to do, and stays talking for ages. If it’s someone you don’t have much respect for, you can simply send them away and tell them to come back later, but if it’s a person with whom you feel you must stand on ceremony, it’s an infuriating situation.

A hair has got on to your inkstone and you find yourself grinding it in with the inkstick. Also, the grating sound when a bit of stone gets ground in with the ink.

[…]

A very ordinary person, who beams inanely as she prattles on and on.

[…

A baby who cries when you’re trying to hear something. A flock of crows clamoring raucously, all flying around chaotically with noisily flapping wings. A dog that discovers a clandestine lover as he comes creeping in, and barks.

[…]

I hate it when, either at home or at the palace, someone comes calling whom you’d rather not see and you pretend to be asleep, but then a well-meaning member of the household comes along and shakes you awake with a look of disapproval at how you’ve dozed off.

Some newcomer steps in and starts interfering and lecturing the old hands as if she knows it all. This is quite infuriating.

[…]

26. Things that make your heart beat fast

A sparrow with nestlings. Going past a place where tiny children are playing. Lighting some fine incense and then lying down alone to sleep. Looking into a Chinese mirror that’s a little clouded. A fine gentleman pulls up in his carriage and sends in some request.

To wash your hair, apply your makeup and put on clothes that are well-scented with incense. Even if you’re somewhere where no one special will see you, you still feel a heady sense of pleasure inside.

On a night when you’re waiting for someone to come, there’s a sudden gust of rain and something rattles in the wind, making your heart suddenly beat faster.

29. Elegant Things

Things That Quicken a Warrior’s Heart:

A List In the Form of Sei Shonagon’s The Pillow Book

Composed by Morien MacBain, esq.

Things that quicken a warrior’s heart:

     A score of new arrows, each one perfect, their fletchings rustling together in the quiver like the wind in dry grass.

     The creak of the sun-warmed leather as you throw your leg over your horse’s saddle and sink down, looking forward across the lists.

     The wind rushing into your face from between your horse's ears as she lifts you up a great steep hill.  You are sure her strength will fail before she reaches the top, but it doesn’t.  You stop at the summit and look out over an eternal blue-green valley in the summer sun.

     The pain the next day after a tournament, or two days after working hard with your weapons in the practice yard.  The ache that sighs and moans in your muscles and maybe a cracked rib reminds you that you are alive, and that weapons come to your hands like tame dogs.

     The moment when your lance dips, the instant before the shock, so that there is no time for the motion of your horse to make it shake off target.  You can see it flying straight as a shaft of sunlight to your enemy’s breast as your horses both rush to bring your lancehead home.

     The release of the orchid of one’s thumb and fingers at the moment of the arrow’s going, all tension gone in a fraction of a heartbeat, and the arrow twisting away like a puff of breath.  You know that it will hit, can feel the hit yourself, as if you were the target and already struck.

     To move your sword, and to feel that it is more alive than any other part of you.

     The creak of the trebuchet as its arm swings around through its arc behind you.  Your eyes are forward on the enemy looking over your shield, but you see the missiles spread out over your head as  they fall among them.  

     The sight of a fine  new helm, and then lowering it over your face and smelling the padding and warm leather straps.  Then to look out from it and see the world made clean and plain.  Then to breathe one breath from seika tanden, and to know just who you are, and why.

     To throw your head around like a maddened horse, looking all around for enemies, and to see that the field is now yours, and that you and your comrades still live, while the enemy is fallen.  

     Your opponent takes a stance that seems to make no sense.  You smile inside your helm, and step forward and a little to one side;  One of you is about to learn something REAL.

          Sei Shinagon (her “court name”, her real name being unknown), was a courtesan/poet  who served as a personal retainer to the Empress Teishi (Sadako) during the middle Heian Period (this service lasting from approximately 990-1001 CE, ending with the death of the Empress). 

     She is best known as the author of The Pillow Book, a collection of observations of court life rendered in a mixture of  “assorted writings” (zuihitsu) including prose anecdotes, verse, and elegant  and insightful lists. Her wry, arrogant, witty, and confrontational writings form one of the most important literary windows into court life of her period. 

      Shonagon was the rival of Lady Murasaki Shikibu, lady-in-waiting, poet, and author of The Tale of Genji.  

     Seika tanden is the energy center in the abdomen.

Exemplars from Sei Shonagon’s The Pillow Book:

“26. Things that make your heart beat fast –

      A sparrow with nestlings. 

     Going past where tiny children are playing. 

     Lighting some fine incense and then lying down alone to sleep. 

     Looking into  one’s Chinese mirror that’s a little clouded. 

     A fine gentleman pulls up in his carriage and sends in some request.

   To wash your hair, apply your makeup and put on clothes that are well-scented with incense. Even if you’re somewhere where no one special will see you, you still feel a heady sense of pleasure inside.

     On a night when you’re waiting for someone to come, there’s a sudden gust of rain and something rattles in the wind, making your heart suddenly beat faster.”

Bibliography

Murasaki Shikibu (author), Kencho Suematsu (translator). The Tale of Genji: The Authoritative First Translation of the World’s Earliest Novel. Tuttle: 2018. ISBN-13 : ‎978-4805314647

Sei Shonagon. Arthur Waley, translator. The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon: The Diary of a Courtesan in Tenth-Century Japan. Tuttle: 2018.  ISBN-13 :  978-4805314623

[sannypro]

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Johnson's essays show up during the 1750s in different comparable publications.[6] because of the emphasis on diaries, the term additionally obtained an importance inseparable from "article", albeit the substance may not the exacting definition. Then again, Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding isn't an essay by any stretch of the imagination, or group of essays, in the specialized sense, yet at the same time it alludes to the test and provisional nature of the request which the rationalist was undertaking.[6] In the eighteenth and nineteenth hundreds of years, Edmund Burke and Samuel Taylor Coleridge composed essays for the overall population. The mid nineteenth century, specifically, saw a multiplication of incredible essayists in English—William Hazlitt, Charles Lamb, Leigh Hunt and Thomas de Quincey all wrote various essays on different subjects, resuscitating the prior elegant style. Later in the century, Robert Louis Stevenson likewise raised the structure's scholarly level.[8] In the twentieth century, various essayists, like T.S. Eliot, attempted to clarify the new developments in craftsmanship and culture by utilizing essays. Virginia Woolf, Edmund Wilson, and Charles du Bos composed abstract analysis essays.[7] In France, a few journalists created longer works with the title of essai that were false instances of the structure. Nonetheless, by the mid-nineteenth century, the Causeries du lundi, paper segments by the pundit Sainte-Beuve, are abstract essays in the first sense. Other French scholars stuck to this same pattern, including Théophile Gautier, Anatole France, Jules Lemaître and Émile Faguet.[8] Japan Principle article: Zuihitsu Similarly as with the novel, essays existed in Japan a few centuries before they created in Europe with a class of essays known as zuihitsu—approximately associated essays and divided thoughts. Zuihitsu have existed since practically the beginnings of Japanese writing. A large number of the most noted early works of Japanese writing are in this kind. Striking models incorporate The Pillow Book (c. 1000), by court woman Sei Shōnagon, and Tsurezuregusa (1330), by especially famous Japanese Buddhist priest Yoshida Kenkō. Kenkō portrayed his short compositions comparatively to Montaigne, alluding to them as "silly considerations" written "out of gear hours". Another critical distinction from Europe is that ladies have customarily written in Japan, however the more formal, Chinese-affected works of male authors were more valued at that point.

[infiniteessay]

Working with Sei in Hopes of Working with myself

Text: The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon by Sei Shōnagon and translated by Ivan Morris

This was a piece that stuck out to me since the inception. The structure, content, and approach was a refreshing break from some of the other essays we worked with; the genre that was birthed through Shōnagon’s collection of essays, entries, gossip, lists, critiques, and observations that come together to form an environment that is painted through Shōnagon’s words a perspective that was quite unique. Being a woman of the court, Shōnagon did retain a certain amount of power and autonomy, however, under the patriarchy of the Heian Empire, Shōnagon, along with other women of the court, had certain limitations, this is where Shōnagon’s writing comes in. Zuihitsu comes from the two kanji “at will” and “pen” which shows the free and unrestricted structure of Shōnagon’s signature genre; she worked within an area that allowed her freedom in various aspects and allowed her to construct her perspective of reality that was very unique to her, but also relatable to others. Shōnagon opts for a concise and streamlined approach to writing that allows for vulnerability and candor that not only entertains but teaches the reader through engaging narratives, recollections, rants, and imaginaries. Shōnagon not only established her environment but also her self and others in a way that is seamless, this, along with the other reasons mentioned above is why Sei Shōnagon made a name for herself in the creative nonfiction genre. I also attempted to emulate her style in my video sets in which I establish myself, my environment and the people that I coexist with. Through an attempt of imitating Shōnagon, I learned...a lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U0-lAxN5dE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gDQnTsg1Ik

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Vita Sexualis by Mori Ōgai

Holiday. I am taking a break from Sōseki and decided to finally read Mori Ōgai’s Vita Sexualis (1909). It has been sitting on my shelf for months; a library copy, no less. And it’s very short, about 150 pages in English, so I don’t know why I didn’t get to it sooner.

I have been reading Sōseki for the last million years for my thesis–so it feels–but embarrassingly, I had never really read Mori Ōgai, a major contemporary of his. The only thing I have read is “Dancing Girl” (Maihime), his most famous short story, often assigned to college undergraduates. Vita Sexualis is the first…”novel” of Mori’s I’m reading.

But “novel” is really just a placeholder for whatever genre Vita Sexualis really is. Drawing on Heian-period zuihitsu–another difficult genre to explain; think miniature sketched essays–Vita Sexualis is a collection of sketches, most of which represent one year of the narrator’s sexual development. But in this case, it’s more like sexual non-development. We begin when the narrator is six years old; end when he is just 21 years old.

I must say, the narrative is fascinating. This is NOT your normal bildungsroman in which the protagonist discovers the joys and sorrow of sex. Our protagonist in Vita Sexualis is what we might retrospectively call asexual. According to him, he feels almost no sexual desire, even during his teenage years. The thought of sex often repels him; he judges his fellow schoolmates for indulging in their carnal desires.

Instead, the narrator dreams of romance–different from sexual desire. A pure romance that reflects the great Chinese literature of the past. Once, he happens to see a girl in front of a shop. He doesn’t know who she is, never meets her. But in his imagination, they are lovers (again, not in the sexual sense); this illusionary figure sustains him and pains him; he is lonely.

For me, the most revelatory aspect of the story was the completely natural place of homosexuality (again, anachronistic here; I’m sorry). I am not well-versed in Edo culture, but if I remember my professors’ lectures all right, male-male sexual relationships were an Edo practice that died out with the emergence of modernity and Western prudeness. At the narrator’s secondary school, the male population is divided roughly into two groups: the “mashers” and the “queers.” Basically, the straights and the gays. But the narrator rejects both these groups; somehow, he manages to make two friends who likewise do not seek sexual desire (or at least, less than the typical teenage boy). The trio form their own comradeship, bashing the vulgar exploits of the mashers and queers.

Let me say a cliche: this is a psychological novel. The narrator is actually a man in his 40s who appears in the beginning and end. In between, he is writing a memoir–the bulk of the story we read. In fact, he is essentially psychoanalyzing himself; trying without exception to write down the truth. He is open about his insecurities about his physical appearance. There are plenty of moments that discuss masturbation without explicitly mentioning the word. Oh yeah, I forgot to say that this was banned almost immediately in Japan. Obviously.

I want to read more Mori after this. What a refreshing, corporeal read after surviving the puritan, mental contortions of Sōseki. Perhaps we should all write our own autobiographical sexual development. Though I’m not sure I’m ready for that rabbit hole.

The translation was published in 1972 through Tuttle by Kazuji Ninomiya and Sanford Goldstein.

[matildazq]

Write the Year 2019—Week 28: Haunt

Write the Year 2019—Week 28: Haunt

This is not quite this prompt from Poets & Writers for this week: “The zuihitsu is a Japanese form and genre comparable to the lyric essay comprised of casual, loosely connected fragments and ideas, often in haphazard order, such as in Sei Shōnagon’s The Pillow Book. Write a zuihitsu-inspired essay, collecting a dozen or so random thoughts and personal notes about your surroundings, and…

[saalene]

COAT @ Battersea Arts Centre

Originally a spoken word artist, Yomi Sode puts on a one man show capturing beautifully the

struggle that is faced by many – trying to navigate two worlds but feeling you can never quite get your footing in either.

COAT began as a poem – Confessions of a Teenager – in the Japanese form zuihitsu – which is a journal style which captures and documents life. Yomi uses this style in the piece to…