This thesis analyzes the development of the Jingika book in the first seven Japanese waka anthologies (chokusenshū). Jingika are Japanese poems written on the gods of the heaven and the earth and illustrate man’s interactions with them through worship and prayer. They have characteristics in common with what modern scholars term the Shinto religion, and have been referenced as such in past scholarship. However, jingika are more accurately a product of the amalgamation of native kami cults and foreign Buddhist doctrine. Although the first independent Jingika book emerged in the seventh anthology (Senzaishū), poems which can be termed Jingika book predecessors exist as early as the first (Kokinshū). The second chapter of this thesis determines which of those early poems had the most influence over the development of an independent Jingika book. The last chapter provides a full original translation of the thirty-three poems of the first Jingika book and analyzes the intricacies of their arrangement introduced through new methods of association and progression by Fujiwara no Shunzei. The shrines that are mentioned in the poems also correspond to the development of a state religion centered on a small number of shrines designated as protectors of the state. In light of this, the arrangement of the poems in the Jingika book creates a metaphysical pilgrimage to the most important shrines at the dawn of the medieval period and asserts the emperor’s position as cultural center during a time of political turmoil.

In this thesis, using Ōshiro Tatsuhiro’s “Meiro” (Maze, 1991) and Nakandakari Hatsu’s “Hahatachi onnatachi” (Mothers/Women, 1984) as primary sources, I have pursued two main questions about postwar Okinawan literature: the question of how memory is transmitted, along gender lines, about a traumatic past through the generations and the question of yuta operating as transmitters, mediators, and anchors of cultural identity under the threat of foreign influence. Both “Maze” and “Mothers/Women” address the issue of postwar Okinawan identity in the face of an influx of new ideas and practices by portraying Okinawan women’s struggle to find their identity. These two stories reveal the link between women’s spirituality and the construction of Okinawan postwar identity. In doing so, they demonstrate how the Okinawan religious view of women as spiritual and religious figures have inspired Okinawan authors to construct narratives of postwar Okinawan society and Okinawan people’s lives therein.

Blood revenge – or katakiuchi – represents one of many defining principles that characterize the Japanese samurai warrior; this one act of honorable violence served as an arena in which warriors could demonstrate those values which have come to embody the word samurai : loyalty, honor, and personal sacrifice. Blood revenge had a long and illustrious history in Japan – first, as the prerogative of the gods in the Kojiki, then as a theoretical debate amongst imperial royalty in the Nihongi, and at last entering into the realm of practice amongst members of the warrior class during Japan’s medieval period. Originally, blood revenge served a judicial function in maintaining order in warrior society, yet was paradoxically illegal in premodern Japan. Throughout the medieval period, the frequency of blood-revenge undertakings likely increased, acquiring social legitimacy despite the practice’s illegal standing; however, under the rule of the Tokugawa bakufu, blood revenge was granted the legitimacy of law as well through the legalization of this practice. The social and cultural influences of blood revenge were so profound that the bakufu decided to harness its benefits in order to allow the samurai class, who now existed in a time of peace, a method through which to express themselves, while simultaneously using this practice as a device of social control. Yet, little is known about the evolution of this practice and its reception between the first official accounting of blood revenge in the Azuma Kagami and the legalization of this practice under bakufu law. In this Master’s Thesis, I endeavor to bridge the gap in modern scholarship between the highly ritualized blood-revenge practices of the Tokugawa period and its origins in medieval Japanese history. To this end, I will explore the evolution of blood revenge practices in the sphere of social, political, legal, and cultural history by analyzing the first literary representation of the pioneering blood revenge incident in Japan – the revenge of the Soga brothers – in the Manabon Soga Monogatari and its later Tokugawa ehon adaptation.

This thesis consists of research on women and Buddhism in light of a medieval Japanese Buddhist tales collection called Kankyo no Ｔomo. This collection reveals the predicament in which women in medieval Japan found themselves. As the focus of sexual desire (towards them and by them), they were also inherently polluted due to their connection with blood (kegare).

The tenth-century rebel Taira no Masakado occupies a unique place in the literature of Japan. His reception through history is most prominent in the works of Ōkagami, Shōmonki, Konjaku Monogatari, Jinnō Shōtōki, and Ehon Maskado Ichidaiki. The author’s geographic location often determined whether they sympathized with or demonized Masakado. Their occupations also influenced how they wrote about warrior culture, particularly the custom of buntori, or the taking of heads. Ehon Masakado Ichidaiki provides not only textual accounts of the rebellion, but numerous images depicting an Edo-interpretation of Heian-period warrior culture and but also images of the buntori of Masakado and his allies’ heads. Depending on whether authors were Kyōto nobles or officials in the provinces also affected whether or not they address Masakado’s rebellion and Sumitomo’s rebellion as allied-conspiracies or as two separate occurrences. Finally, the aristocratic literature of the capital and the literature in the provinces give different reasons for Masakado’s rebellion which conform to Ted Robert Gurr’s “relative deprivation” theory, but also demonstrate the influence from Buddhist and Shintō episteme.

Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645) wrote the Gorinsho ("Book of Five Rings") at the end of his life. The text is divided into five sections, “Earth,” “Water,” “Fire,” “Wind,” and “Space;” the first three introduce and explain both military strategy and warfare of his school, Niten-ichi-ryū. “Wind” is a critique of the tendencies Musashi noticed in other sword schools, and “Space” describes the concept of warfare and how to embody its “true way” (though this scroll is evidently incomplete). There are many English translations, yet I make the claim that one more is necessary. Since its first translation in 1974 to its most recent in 2009, the Gorinsho’s meaning has been ill represented in English and no extant translation is suitable for scholarly reference. These translations suffer primarily from three flaws: fundamental translation errors, the effacing of cultural references, and an apparent lack of knowledge concerning the Gorinsho’s textual history. The source text for these problematic English translations is invariably the Hosokawa family manuscript, a wholly unsuitable manuscript for translation. In recent years, the Harima Musashi Kenkyūkai, a Japan-based research group, has done much worthwhile scholarship on the Gorinsho and has compiled a new annotated edition of the text based on a thorough examination of all extant manuscripts. My translation is based on their authoritative edition and it benefits greatly from their research. This thesis endeavors to make clear the case that a new scholarly Gorinsho translation is necessary and provide a preliminary, annotated translation to fulfill that need.

Xue Tao was one of the Tang Dynasty's best-known female poets. Her poems are beautiful and of her own style, but there have only been a few of studies on them. This study comprises nine close readings of her thirteen poems most of which can be defined as yongwu poems, as well as a conclusion which summarizes the main characteristics in these poems. The methodology of this research is based on the theory of New Criticism and combined with sinology. Every poem is studied as an independent entity, but its allusions and images are examined in the history of Chinese poetry. This study attempts to deepen the study of Xue Tao’s poetry and readers’ understanding of it.

In conjunction with raising some questions regarding “genre” in Edo literature, the purpose of this thesis is to introduce a complete annotated translation of Kyōkun hyakumonogatari 教訓百物語 (One Hundred Scary Tales for Moral Instruction) by the Shingaku teacher Murai Yoshikiyo 村井由清 (1752-1813). Published in 1804 and reprinted several times, this text was intended as a guide to self-cultivation and ethical living based on Shingaku 心学, a philosophico-religious movement of great importance in the latter half of the Edo era. The translation is complemented with a transcription into modern script based on publicly available (online) digital images of an 1815 xylographic edition. Considering the work as one example of transgenred literature, in the introduction I explore the intellectual and historical contexts of the work, paying special attention to the contemporary category of textbook called ōraimono 往来物. I also consider for reference a kibyōshi 黄表紙 called Shingaku hayasomegusa 心学早染草, published in 1790 by Santō Kyōden 山東京伝, as another example both of transgenred literature itself and of literary responses to the same socio-intellectual moment, specifically the Edo world in the aftermath of the Kansei reforms (1787-93).

This is a diachronic study of Shan Gui 山鬼 (the ninth poem of the Nine Songs九歌). The paper is divided into two parts. In the first part, I choose to study Shan Gui from a religious perspective. A lot of effort is made to return to the scenes of sacrifice in the Nine Songs, by studying the sacrificing locations, totems, myths, and rituals. Through the literary appreciation with interrelated materials injected into this poem, Shan Gui would be read as a drama of wu’s巫 (shamans) worship performance in this paper. Western religious theories are used in order to understand primitive Chu people better and to explore the general rules in primitive people’s religious lives reflected by Shan Gui. The second part is an image study of famous Shan Gui paintings, and a lot of attention is paid to the artistic tension through the image re-creation. During this paper, I would like to create a picture of how Shan Gui developed through history from a religious image to a romance figure, and the way this image stepped from people’s common sacred sense into the literati’s private world.

Shinsen rōeishū as a poetry collection of kanshi and waka compiled by Fujiwara no Mototoshi has not been studied as comprehensive as Wakan rōeishū. This thesis focuses on the study of the anthology, the historical and cultural backgrounds, the creator and representative Japanese and Chinese poets, as well as translations and cultural study of several poems. It begins with a broad discussion of the development of poetry recitation and the reception of Chinese literature in Heian period. Next, several more specific aspects of the anthology are discussed, including the emergence and completion of Shinsen rōeishū, the content and its reception, as well as manuscript copies. In the following chapter, discussion about the creator deals with his conservative poetic style and his strained personal relationships with other poets such as Minamoto no Toshiyori. These aspects may lead to a deeper understanding on the relationship between these factors and the spread of Shinsen rōeishū. In the appendices, several representative poems in Shinsen rōeishū are translated. Reasons for the choice of certain target poems are put forward. Meanwhile the translations also include cultural and historical studies for some poems, in order to inspire further study on other poems in Shinsen rōeishū. Additionally, certain influential poets who made great contributions to Shinsen rōeishū as well as the development of kanshi are also discussed, such as Sugawara no Michizane and Bai Juyi.