Kyokutei Bakin（1767-1848） [本・書評]
Bakin（1767-1848）
Also known as Takizawa Bakin and Kyokutei Bakin.
Scholar,novelist,critic,diarist, and Haiku poet. Real name Takizawa Okikuni. Born in Edo, he wrote kusazo:si (chapbooks) and yomihon (reading books), two popular genres of Edo-period (1600-1868) prose fiction, and is most famous for his historical romance Nanso Satomi Hakkennden (1814-42 Satomi and the eight Dogs).
Life
Bakin was the fifth son of a low-ranking samurai. Misery, suffering, and the death of family members filled his youth. After a period of drifting, he gave up his samurai status in 1789 and lived as a townsman, depending almost entirely on writing for his livelihood. In 1793 he married Aida Hyaku, a widow three years his senior who was the owner of a shop in the Iidamachi district of Edo. She bore him two daughters and a son, So:haku(1797-1835), who was sickly. Although Bakin himself had irrevocably forsaken his samurai status, he tried his utmost to preserve samurai privileges for So:haku and to secure for him the best education possible. So:haku's early death meant continued hardship for Bakin as family head. Aside from his writing activities, Bakin' major goal was the restoration of the family's fortunes. While composing the celebrated romance Hakkenden he lost his eyesight, the work was completed with the aid of his daughter-in-law in 1841.
Works
Bakin's career as an author may be divided into three periods. For more than a decade(1790-1802)
after becoming a pupil of popular contemporary writer Santo: Kyo:den, he wrote mostly kusazo:shi. Later after journeying to Nagoya, Kyoto, and O:saka, he turned his efforts to yomihon and zuihitsu (miscellaneous essays) during the years 1803-13, becoming the leading author in Edo. From the time he began publishing Hakkenden in periodic installments in 1814 until the end of his life, he devoted himself to long romances, scholarship, correspondence, and his diary.
Bakin in best remembered for his yomihon, of which he published more than 30 titles. Next to his masterpiece,Hakkenden, his most widely read work is Chinsetsu Yumiharizuki (1807-11 Crescent Moon: The adventures of Tametomo), an adventure tale about a historical 12th-century bowman of legendary skill who strives to restore his family's fortune. Loyalty, filial piety, and the restoration of samurai families like his own were his main themes. His special interest in Chinese and Buddhist philosophy was tempered by a belief in the efficacy of the Japanese gods and a concern for language and style. Underlying his writings is a deeply moral sensibility, seasoned by compassion and a belief in human dignity.
Among his nonfiction writings, his diary is a rich source for information on everyday life in early-19th-century Edo. His autobiographical works Aga hotoke no ki (1822, The Lineage of Our House) and Nochi no tame no ki ( 1835,For the sake of Survival) are important sources for social history. Among his achievements, Bakin is remembered as a pioneering critic of the novel and a historian of developments in Edo-period prose fiction. In Kinsei mono no hon: Edo sakusya burui(1834, Edo Authors: The Categories of the Modern Novel) he categorizes 17th- to19th-century literature into two broad divisions: an early period centered in the Kyo:to-Osaka area and a later one concentrated in Edo; scholars still accept this view. Bakin remains one of the giants of Japanese literature.
Also known as Takizawa Bakin and Kyokutei Bakin.
Scholar,novelist,critic,diarist, and Haiku poet. Real name Takizawa Okikuni. Born in Edo, he wrote kusazo:si (chapbooks) and yomihon (reading books), two popular genres of Edo-period (1600-1868) prose fiction, and is most famous for his historical romance Nanso Satomi Hakkennden (1814-42 Satomi and the eight Dogs).
Life
Bakin was the fifth son of a low-ranking samurai. Misery, suffering, and the death of family members filled his youth. After a period of drifting, he gave up his samurai status in 1789 and lived as a townsman, depending almost entirely on writing for his livelihood. In 1793 he married Aida Hyaku, a widow three years his senior who was the owner of a shop in the Iidamachi district of Edo. She bore him two daughters and a son, So:haku(1797-1835), who was sickly. Although Bakin himself had irrevocably forsaken his samurai status, he tried his utmost to preserve samurai privileges for So:haku and to secure for him the best education possible. So:haku's early death meant continued hardship for Bakin as family head. Aside from his writing activities, Bakin' major goal was the restoration of the family's fortunes. While composing the celebrated romance Hakkenden he lost his eyesight, the work was completed with the aid of his daughter-in-law in 1841.
Works
Bakin's career as an author may be divided into three periods. For more than a decade(1790-1802)
after becoming a pupil of popular contemporary writer Santo: Kyo:den, he wrote mostly kusazo:shi. Later after journeying to Nagoya, Kyoto, and O:saka, he turned his efforts to yomihon and zuihitsu (miscellaneous essays) during the years 1803-13, becoming the leading author in Edo. From the time he began publishing Hakkenden in periodic installments in 1814 until the end of his life, he devoted himself to long romances, scholarship, correspondence, and his diary.
Bakin in best remembered for his yomihon, of which he published more than 30 titles. Next to his masterpiece,Hakkenden, his most widely read work is Chinsetsu Yumiharizuki (1807-11 Crescent Moon: The adventures of Tametomo), an adventure tale about a historical 12th-century bowman of legendary skill who strives to restore his family's fortune. Loyalty, filial piety, and the restoration of samurai families like his own were his main themes. His special interest in Chinese and Buddhist philosophy was tempered by a belief in the efficacy of the Japanese gods and a concern for language and style. Underlying his writings is a deeply moral sensibility, seasoned by compassion and a belief in human dignity.
Among his nonfiction writings, his diary is a rich source for information on everyday life in early-19th-century Edo. His autobiographical works Aga hotoke no ki (1822, The Lineage of Our House) and Nochi no tame no ki ( 1835,For the sake of Survival) are important sources for social history. Among his achievements, Bakin is remembered as a pioneering critic of the novel and a historian of developments in Edo-period prose fiction. In Kinsei mono no hon: Edo sakusya burui(1834, Edo Authors: The Categories of the Modern Novel) he categorizes 17th- to19th-century literature into two broad divisions: an early period centered in the Kyo:to-Osaka area and a later one concentrated in Edo; scholars still accept this view. Bakin remains one of the giants of Japanese literature.
- 作者:
- 出版社/メーカー: 講談社
- 発売日: 1993/11
- メディア: ハードカバー
- 作者:
- 出版社/メーカー: 講談社
- 発売日: 1999/10
- メディア: 単行本