Please note that this talk will be in Japanese with translation.
Nansō Satomi hakkenden (The Lives of the Eight Dogs of the Satomi of Southern Fusa), penned by bestselling author Kyokutei Bakin in the first half of the nineteenth century, features eight heroes bound in adverse destiny, all fighting for their master. This historical narrative is full of entertainment: fights, ninjutsu techniques, monsters, love, and much more. At the time it enjoyed great popularity and was remediated into two graphic narratives, countless kabuki plays, and ukiyo-e prints. Despite being criticized in modern times for depicting human stereotypes, this text has been reappraised in recent scholarship. By focusing on the birth of the eight dogs warriors, this talk reflects on the balancing act between the deployment of narrative motifs inherited from past literature and the incorporation of rituals associated with childhood, children, and their healthy growth in Bakin’s time.
曲亭馬琴作の『南総里見八犬伝』は八人の勇者が数奇な運命と絆によって集い、主君のために力を合わせて戦う物語です。歴史小説ですが、チャンバラや忍術、妖怪や恋愛も描かれる娯楽小説です。当時は大変な人気で、江戸時代末期には二種類の合巻化を機に、繰り返し歌舞伎化もされ、浮世絵にも描かれました。明治時代には類型的な人情描写に批判もされましたが、最近、評価が見直されています。八犬士誕生の場面を中心にご紹介し、旧来の物語の「型」を活用する一方で、幼少期の子供の成長を祈る、馬琴と同時代の風習が反映されていることについて考えます。
Prof Ōya Taeko was awarded her PhD in 2009 at the University of Tokyo. She is currently Professor at Aoyama Gakuin University (Department of Japanese Language and Literature). Her research on early modern Japanese literature focusses on the genre of yomihon and on author Kyokutei Bakin, with a specific interest in the crosspollinations between Bakin’s works of narrative fiction and theatre (both puppet theatre and kabuki). Recently she has been exploring Bakin’s creative ingenuity, with emphasis on the intertextual relationship with contemporary fiction and the appropriation of daily-life customs and rituals in Bakin’s time. Her publications include the monograph Bakin to engeki (Kachōsha, 2019) and the edited volume on yomihon titled Yomihon jiten: Edo no denki shōsetsu (Kasama shoin, 2008), alongside a wealth of articles in highly regarded peer-reviewed journals. She is currently working on a new edited volume titled E kara miru kabuki no bunka, which promises to explore the kabuki theatre through visual culture (forthcoming with Kachōsha in 2025).
博士（東京大学2009）。 （文学部日本文学科）。研究分野は日本近世文学、読本、曲亭馬琴。
馬琴作品における演劇の利用や、馬琴作品の浄瑠璃化・歌舞伎化について主に研究してきました。最近は『南総里見八犬伝』の趣向について、同時代の小説との関係や馬琴の日常生活の風習の反映について関心を持っています。『馬琴と演劇』（花鳥社、2019）。企画・編集『絵から見る歌舞伎の文化』（花鳥社、2025刊行予定）。共著『〈読本〉事典－江戸の伝奇小説』（笠間書院、2008）。