Asian and African studies blog

This famous English saying - often misattributed to William Shakespeare, but actually a partially paraphrased quotation from William Congreve - could apply to many tragic tales from all over the world through the centuries. Here we will introduce a famous Japanese story featuring one such jilted woman, associated with the ancient temple of Dōjō-ji 道成寺 in Kii province (modern Wakayama) in Japan.

Dōjō-ji is a Buddhist temple dedicated to Senju Kannon 千手観音 or Avalokiteśvara “With a thousand arms and eyes” and his flanking attendants Nikkō Bosatsu (日光菩薩  Suryaprabha) and Gakkō Bosatsu (月光菩薩 Candraprabha). Dōjō-ji is believed to have been established in 701. Senju Kannon’s thousand arms and eyes symbolise the depth of his compassion (慈悲Jihi), keeping his eyes on all living things and extending his hands to anyone suffering from hardship.


Ofuda of Dōjō-ji Senju Kannon (highlighted above). From a collection of ca. 330 Japanese amulets printed up to the 1880's, mounted in 5 albums. [Ofuda harikomichō : Daiei Toshokanzō お札貼込帳 : 大英図書館蔵] British Library, 16007.d.1(2)30-33r
 
Although there are a number of variations on the story of tragic romance and the Dōjō-ji bell, the most famous version is that of Anchin安珍 and Kiyohime 清姫. Anchin is a handsome young trainee monk who catches the eye of a local maiden called Kiyohime. Kiyohime is very attracted to Anchin, but this story doesn’t have a happy ending!
 
As a novice monk Anchin has no intention of falling in love with a woman, and therefore in order to escape from his admirer Kiyohime he tells her he has to go away, but falsely promises that he will come back for her. He dashes away, but she chases after him. He gets to the river and attempts to escape by crossing the river by boat, but Kiyohime does not give up easily, and dives into the water and swims after him.


Kiyohime chases Anchin as he flees across the Hidaka River in his boat. Dōjō-ji emaki 道成寺絵巻.
Manuscript scroll. National Diet Library

As Anchin flees from Kiyohime, he sees her gradually transforming herself from a young girl into a scaly creature while continuing to pursue him. Anchin is horrified and asks the monks at Dōjō-ji to rescue him. The monks sympathise with Anchin and give him a hiding place, inside the bell of the temple, but it is too late: Kiyohime has already turned into a fire serpent. Persistent Kiyohime, who is no longer a woman but a fiery demon, wraps herself around the bell, and burns Anchin to death inside the bell.


Consumed by anger a desperate Kiyohime transforms herself into a fire serpent. Dōjō-ji emaki 道成寺絵巻. Manuscript scroll. National Diet Library

The story has many variations and sequels, and its basic theme of transformation has inspired numerous Kabuki and Bunraku puppet plays as well as other dramatic and literary forms including No drama.


Monks preparing for the ceremony of reinstalling the bell. Dōjō-ji utai ezu 道成寺謡絵図. Manuscript, mid Edo period (ca. 18 century). British Library, Or.977

Returning to the narrative, one spring the restoration of the bell is finished and the monks of Dōjō-ji are looking forward to a ceremony for reinstalling the bell. They forbid women to participate because of the tragic memories associated with the previous bell. However, one girl manages to sneak in to the venue on the pretext that she would like to perform a dedicatory dance for blessing the new bell.


A girl pretending to dance for the dedication for the new bell. Dōjō-ji utai ezu 道成寺謡絵図. Manuscript, mid Edo period (ca. 18 century). British Library, Or.977

As it turns out she is the incarnation of the fire serpent who burned the man to death in the old bell. She deeply opposes the new bell being placed in Dōjō-ji and wants to prevent the monks from celebrating it. The monks are taken by surprise, and immediately pray to exorcise the demon woman, in order to protect the bell and to defend the temple from supernatural interference.


Monks vs the demon woman.  Dōjō-ji utai ezu 道成寺謡絵図. Manuscript, mid Edo period (ca. 18 century ). British Library, Or.977 

Although the monks successfully defeat the vengeful sprit, eventually the bell is sent to another temple in Kyoto. Ultimately all the departed souls related to the Dōjō-ji bell legend, including the jilted woman who changed into a demon and took her revenge on the man who had spurned her, are placated and granted peaceful rest by the virtues of Buddha.

"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor Hell a fury like a woman scorned" is the full quotation from William Congreve's 'The Mourning Bride' (1697). Probably the fundamental message in this story is a lesson for life. Rage is often caused by our own misunderstandings, and we should not lay blame on a fate imposed on us by heaven or hell.

References:

Dōjō-ji Home page

演目事典：道成寺

狂言の絵画資料の収集 その四 - 東洋哲学研究所

"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor Hell a fury like a woman scorned." The Mourning Bride. William Congreve (1670-1729)
「天には、愛が憎しみに変わったような激しい怒りは無く、地獄にも蔑まれた女の烈火の怒りのようなものはない。」

Yasuyo Ohtsuka, Curator, Japanese collections

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In the previous Ofuda blog, we gave a brief introduction to Japanese amulets (Ofuda) which have always reflected the fundamental curiosity of people about the uncertainties of life.
 

Ee ja nai ka ええじゃないかwas a convergence of carnival-like religious celebrations which coincided with a rumour that the Ofuda of Ise Shrine would fall down from heaven. Japan, between June 1867 and May 1868. Kawanabe Kyōsai 河鍋 暁斎. ‘Keiō Hōnen odori no zu 慶應四豊年踊之圖’ from the series Egoyomi Harikomichō  [絵暦貼込帳] 1792-1870. National Diet Library

Lafcadio Hearn was a Japanologist who was fascinated by Ofuda. Hearn was born on Lefkada, in the Greek Ionian islands, in 1850 during the British occupation.  He was the son of an Irish soldier and a Greek mother, and moved to Ireland when he was still an infant. He later worked as a journalist in the USA and eventually settled in Japan in 1890 where he married a Japanese woman the following year, and in 1896 obtained Japanese citizenship and took the Japanese name of Koizumi Yakumo 小泉八雲.

Lafcadio Hearn and Bruce Rogers. The Romance of the Milky Way, and Other Studies & Stories. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1905. British Library, 12355.aa.26

Lafcadio Hearn's last book, The Romance of the Milky Way, and Other Studies & Stories, is an anthology of seven different short studies and stories. One of these is ‘Goblin Poetry’, Hearn’s selected translations taken from the Kyōka hyaku monogatari  狂歌百物語. Hearn owned a copy of the original work, which was compiled by Tenmei Rōjin 天明老人 , illustrated by Ryūsai Kanjin 竜斎閑人 and published in 1853 (Kaei嘉永6).  Together with the majority of Hearn's private book collection, it was purchased by Toyama High School (est. 1924), which later became Toyama University, where The Lafcadio Hearn Library is now held. Kyōka hyaku monogatari was listed on p.117 in the Catalogue of the Lafcadio Hearn Library in Toyama High School (1927).

The cover of the first volume, and (in the centre) Fuda Hegashi 札へがし. Poems on One Hundred Ghost Stories (Kyōka hyaku monogatari 狂歌百物語), woodblock print, 1853 (Kaei 6).  Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Department of Asian Art (Rogers Fund, 1918) JIB27_001, JIB27_136
 
In ‘Goblin Poetry’, Hearn wrote an explanation of the Japanese title as follows: 'The Hyaku monogatari or “Hundred Tales” is a famous book of ghost stories, Kyōka is written with a Chinese character signifying “insane” or “crazy” and it means a particular and extraordinary variety of comic poetry' (Hearn & Rogers 1905: 53-54).

The chapter on Fuda Hegashi 札へがし in ‘Goblin Poetry’. Lafcadio Hearn and Bruce Rogers, The Romance of the Milky Way, and Other Studies & Stories. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1905. British Library 12355.aa.26

In his footnote to poem 'XII, FUDA-HÉGASHI', which he explains as “Make-peel-off-august-charm Ghost”, Hearn also refers to his other book Ghostly Japan in which the reader can find a good Japanese story about a Fuda-hégashi (Hearn & Rogers 1905: 92-93).  This is the story ‘A Passion of Karma’, the English translation of Botandōrō 牡丹灯籠.

In Ghostly Japan is a collection of 14 mysterious Japanese short stories. Story No 6  is  ‘A Passion of Karma’. Lafcadio Hearn, In Ghostly Japan. London: Sampson Low, Marston and Co, 1899. British Library, 08631.F.6

In 1934, Hearn’s family published an extremely valuable book on the thirtieth anniversary of his death. It was an endeavour in which his whole family was heavily involved: his eldest son was the editor, his grandson wrote the Daisen題簽 (the book title slip), and the design of the cover cloth was inspired by Hearn’s favourite bedcover.  Yōma shiwa 妖魔詩話 assembled together three elements in one  book: the original Japanese text of the Kyōka hyaku monogatari; ‘Goblin Poetry’, which was Hearn’s published English translation; and Hearn’s own draft notes for the preparation of his publication. For an introduction to the book, and the background to its publication in 1934, see 小泉八雲秘稿画本「妖魔詩話 」/ 寺田寅彦 著. 


This is the page on Fuda Hegashi 札へがし. At top left is a facsimile of Hearn’s manuscript with his original illustration; at bottom left is a modern Japanese transcription of Edo Kyōka poems and explanations in Japanese, based on Hearn’s English translation edited by his eldest son Kazuo Koizumi; while on the right page is the main text of ‘Goblin Poetry’. Lafcadio Hearn and Kazuo Koizumi小泉一雄. Yoma Shiwa: Koizumi Yakumo Hiko Gahon妖魔詩話 : 小泉八雲秘稿畫本. Tōkyō: Hakubunkan Shinsha 東京 : 博文館新社, 2002. British Library, ORB.99/236.  Image courtesy of Hakubunkan Shinsha博文館新社.

The British Library has recently acquired a deluxe facsimile published in 2002 of Yōma shiwa 妖魔詩話, which was originally published in 1934 by Oyama Shoten 小山書店, which affords us a rare opportunity of seeing Hearn’s handwriting.  Although the footnotes for ‘Goblin Poetry’ were omitted in Yōma shiwa, nevertheless, we are still aware of Hearn’s clear intention to link Fuda Hegashi and the well-known episode of Ofuda-hagashi お札はがし in ‘A Passion of Karma’ in his two books, The Romance of the Milky Way, and Other Studies & Stories and In Ghostly Japan.

From a collection of c.330 Japanese amulets printed up to the 1880's mounted in 5 albums. [Ofuda harikomichō : Daiei Toshokanzō お札貼込帳 : 大英図書館蔵] British Library, 16007.d.1(1)71-73

Further reading:

Chronology of Lafcadio Hearn. Sanin Japan-Ireland Association.

Yasuyo Ohtsuka
Curator, Japanese Collections

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Ofuda: in with the good, out with the bad (Part 1)

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In a previous blog post, ‘Till death us do part – or not?’, we introduced the well-known episode of Ofuda-hagashi お札はがし(‘removing the ofuda’) in the story of the ghostly lover, Botandōrō 牡丹灯籠.  Ofuda-hagashi is one of the most thrilling scenes in the story where the servant betrays his master by removing the protective ofuda (paper amulets), allowing the ghosts to slip into the house where the hero is barricading himself from his ghost lover.


A sample page from the BL Ofuda collection. From left to right, Buddha, possibly in the Western Paradise; the figure of a high-ranking Buddhist monk; and the back of a mirror dedicated to the Sun goddess Amaterasu. From a collection of c.330 Japanese amulets printed up to the 1880s, mounted in 5 albums. Ofuda harikomichō : Daiei Toshokanzō  お札貼込帳 : 大英図書館蔵]. British Library, 16007.d.1(5) 71-73r

What are Ofuda? It is hard to give a quick and easy definition of these paper amulets, because there are so many varieties with different functions. If we attempt to give a general description of Ofuda for readers who have never come across them, we could say that an Ofuda is usually a piece of paper or a wooden amulet, on which is written or printed religious material such as figures of Shinto deities, Buddhas, high-ranking monks, Buddhist sutras, etc.  In the majority of cases, they are issued by Japanese religious bodies such as temples and shrines for their followers. Then, the owner of Ofuda can make devotional visits to the places from which they received their Ofuda to pray and renew them on a regular basis. In general, we can distinguish at least two types of Ofuda: one to give protection from bad spirits, and the other to bring good luck to the owners.


An Ofuda of Tsuno Daishi角大師, which featured in the previous blog post.  Ofuda harikomichō : Daiei Toshokanzō お札貼込帳 : 大英図書館蔵. British Library, 16007.d.1 (2) 15-19r

Shown above is an example of a protective Ofuda. In the story of Botandōrō, as long as the hero stays inside his house with the protection of the Ofuda, he is safe. But later in the story the Ofuda is secretly removed by someone else, allowing the ghost to slip into the house and take his life. From this story line, we can guess that the Ofuda which were put up to prevent ghosts from entering the house might be similar to Tsuno Daishi which is typically placed outside entrances to houses.


Daikoku 大黒, a god of wealth. One of the Seven Deities of Good Fortune in Japan. Ofuda harikomichō : Daiei Toshokanzō お札貼込帳 : 大英図書館蔵. British Library, 16007.d.1 (1) 3-6

And shown above is an example of an Ofuda as a good luck amulet. Daikoku 大黒, who is known as Mahākāla in the original Hindu pantheon, became Maheśvara in the Buddhist pantheon with the spread of Buddhism into East Asia. Eventually when he reached Japan, he was not only accepted as one of the Buddhist Devas, but also merged with Japanese god Ōkuninushi 大国主 and transformed into the god of wealth.


Daikoku with the Seven Deities of Good Fortune in Japan. [Ofuda harikomichō : Daiei Toshokanzō  お札貼込帳 : 大英図書館蔵]. British Library 16007.d.1 (2) 21-25r


Kosazuke Kishimojin 子授鬼子母神, who is the guardian of women who wish to become pregnant, as well as the protector of childbirth and children. [Ofuda harikomichō : Daiei Toshokanzō  お札貼込帳 : 大英図書館蔵]. British Library 16007.d.1(4)40-44r

Items such as Ofuda and other types of talismans and amulets reflect fundamental human concerns about the uncertainties of life. The Kansai-kan of the National Diet Library, Japan, recently held a display of items from their collections showing how people prayed for good things, what they were afraid of, and how their wishes were transformed into objects, such as amulets, talismans and incantation spells.


Osore to inori : majinai no katachi おそれと祈り : まじないのかたち, "Awe and prayer – the forms of incantation," The 19th Small Exhibition at the Kansai-Kan of National Diet Library, 18 February – 15 March 2016.
    
Incidentally, it was Lafcadio Hearn (1850–1904), the author of ‘Kwaidan: stories and studies of strange things’ who translated Botandōrō into English as ‘A Passion of Karma’ and collected Japanese Ofuda himself. Many of his Ofuda are now kept at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford.

In the second part of this blog post, we will explore further Hearn’s ‘A Passion of Karma’ and his other work ‘Goblin Poetry’ in which he described ofuda-hagashi, and introduce a newly acquired deluxe facsimile version of Goblin Poetry, Yōma shiwa 妖魔詩話, published in 2002.

Further reading:
Josef A. Kyburz, Ofuda: amulettes et talismans du Japon : actes du colloque international, Ofuda-images pieuses du Japon, Fondation Hugot, 1-2 mars 2012 = on Japanese charms.  Paris : Collège de France, Institut des hautes études japonaises, 2014. British Library JPN.2014.b.73
Josef A. Kyburz, ヨーロッパに来ている日本のお札 – その三つのコレクション
The Seven Deities of Good Fortune

Yasuyo Ohtsuka, Curator, Japanese Collections

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Ghoulish images from East Asia

The British Library holds what is probably the most important collection in the world of early printed works from Malaysia and Singapore, from the start of printing in the region in the early 19th century, right up until the independence of Malaya in 1957 and of Singapore in 1963. The strength of the collection is mainly due to colonial legal deposit legislation, which started with the Straits Settlements Book Registration Ordinance of 1886. The Ordinance required publishers in Singapore, Penang and Melaka to deposit three copies of each work registered, one copy of which was to be sent to the library of the British Museum (now the British Library) in London. All types of publications were despatched, from religious works and literature to school text books and ephemera, as well as complete runs of newspapers and periodicals, in all the languages of the region: Malay, Chinese, Tamil, Arabic and English.

The only significant gap in this coverage of 150 years of printing from the Malay peninsula and Singapore is the period of the Japanese occupation during the Second World War, from late 1941 to 1945. Not surprisingly, during the war years almost no publications were sent to London, and sources from this crucial period are generally only found in Malaysian and Singapore libraries.

Masthead of The Perak Times, 10 April 2603 (i.e. 1943). British Library, ORB.99/234

The British Library was therefore delighted and very grateful to receive as a donation copies of a rare Japanese-occupation era propaganda newspaper. The Perak Times was published in Ipoh, Perak from 1942 until at least the end of 1943. It was a daily newspaper in English, usually consisting of just one broadsheet page, which appeared every day of the week except Sunday. According to the colophon the paper was printed and published at 62-64 Belfield Street, Ipoh by John Victor Morais (1910-1991), a prominent Malaysian writer and journalist of south Indian origin, who later edited the Malaya Tribune and the Ipoh Daily News. Until recently, the only known copies of The Perak Times were held in the National Archives of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur and in the Penang Public Library. Now a four-month run, from April to July 2603 (i.e. 1943) can be consulted in the British Library (ORB.99/234).

The Perak Times, 1 April - 31 July 2603 (i.e. 1943), Ipoh, Perak. British Library, ORB.99/234

According to the historian of the Japanese occupation of Malaya, Paul Kratoska (1998: 143), the Japanese placed the press in occupied Malaya under the control of the Domei Press Agency, which published newspapers in Malay, Tamil, Chinese and Japanese as well as in English. Looking through the individual issues of The Perak Times, the front page headlines mainly trumpet the war triumphs of Japan and her Axis allies Germany and Italy, with headlines like 'Our Troops Wipe Out Main Enemy Force On Indo-Burmese Border' (9 April 2603), 'Another Smashing Attack On Enemy Fleet' (17 April 2603) and 'Rommel Determined To Fight To  Finish' (24 April 2603), while also emphasizing Japan's alliances with Asian nationalist and anti-colonial parties: '"Burma Must Forge Ahead With One Voice, One Blood & One Command" - Dr. Ba Maw' (19 April 2603); '"No Going Back, No Faltering" Subhas Chandra Bose Broadcasts To India' (28 June 2603); and 'Premier Tojo In Manila: Exchanges Views About Philippine Independence' (13 July 2603).

Front page headlines from The Perak Times, 22 July (top) and 7 July (bottom), 1943.

The back page of The Perak Times usually contained more local news, including results of sporting fixtures (soccer, hockey and keiba, horse racing) as well as advertisements for entertainment. Kratoska reports that at the start of the Japanese occupation there were 23,000 reels of American, English, Chinese, Malay and Indian films in circulation in Malaya, and these continued to be shown for the first year and a half. Thus The Perak Times contains advertisements for 'Only Angels Have Wings' starring Cary Grant and Jean Arthur; a Laurel and Hardy film, 'Star On Parade'; and the film of the Daphne du Maurier novel, 'Rebecca', as well Cantonese, Hindi and Tamil hit movies. It was only on 1 September 1943 that the Japanese ordered cinemas to stop screening British and American productions (Kratoska 1998: 141). Of greater local historical interest are the numerous performances in July 1943 by the Sri Arjuna Bangsawan group, including the shows 'Anak Di Luar Nikah', 'Raja Laksamana Bintan', 'Pulau Pandan Gunung Diak [sic, i.e. Daik?]' and 'Dan Dan Stia' [i.e. Dandan Setia], described as 'That Grand Malai Historical Play You've All Been Anxiously Waiting To See! To Be Completed In 5 Nights'.

Local Perak news on the back page of The Perak Times, 24 April 2603 (i.e. 1943).

Advertisements for American, Indian and Chinese films (29 May) and for a Sri Arjuna Bangsawan performance (12 July) in Ipoh in The Perak Times in 1943.

The copies of The Perak Times have been donated to the British Library by Ian Sampson, who found them amongst his family papers. Ian’s father, Geoffrey Sampson, was an engineer who had worked in Malaya for the Public Works Department (PWD), and Ian himself was born at the General Hospital in Alor Setar, Kedah, in May 1941, just before the Japanese invasion at the end of that year. The papers are bound together in months, and a stamp on one issue reads 'District Office Dindings', indicating the origin of this collection. As can be seen from the photos above, the paper is very brittle, and we plan this year to digitise these historic copies of The Perak Times, to ensure that they will continue to be accessible as a valuable resource for this period of Malaysian history.


Ian Sampson, with copies of The Perak Times which he has kindly donated to the British Library.

References:
P. Lim Pui Huen, Singapore, Malaysian and Brunei newspapers: an international union list.  Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1992.
Paul H. Kratoska, The Japanese occupation of Malaya: a social and economic history. London: Hurst, 1998.

Annabel Teh Gallop, Lead Curator, Southeast Asia

And Did Those Feet In Ancient Times…?

Recent ultraviolet photography of a 17^th century map of the Japanese port city of Nagasaki has revealed the unsuspected paw prints of a cat.

Ultraviolet photography revealing cat paw prints on Nagasaki ezu. (Photo: Christina Duffy, British Library)

The untitled map – traditionally referred to as Nagasaki ezu 長崎絵図 (‘Illustrated Map of Nagasaki’, BL shelfmark Or.75.g.25) – is part of the collection acquired by Sir Hans Sloane, ‘father’ of the British Museum, from the family of the German physician and naturalist Engelbert Kaempfer (1651-1716). Kaempfer was the author of The History of Japan, published posthumously in 1727, one of the most influential early works introducing Japan to a Western audience. Employed by the Dutch East India Company, Kaempfer stayed in Japan from 1690-1692. He served as medical officer in the Dutch trading factory on Deshima, the artificial island in Nagasaki Bay constructed by the Japanese authorities to house the small number of Western merchants permitted to trade. During his time in Japan Kaempfer amassed a large number of books, manuscripts, paintings, botanical drawings and artefacts which he used as sources for his writings on his return to Europe, However his work on Japan remained unpublished at his death in 1716 and between 1723 and 1725 the draft manuscript along with his collections were acquired by Sloane. It was Sloane who arranged for its translation into English and publication. Of the sixty items listed as being bought by Sloane forty-five have so far been identified. They are chiefly maps, dictionaries, travel guides, chronologies, directories and popular literature – all typical of the printed material that would have been readily available at the time. Although the individual items were not remarkable when first published, this small collection is now one of the earliest, if not the earliest to survive in Europe.


Nagasaki ezu ‘An illustrated map of Nagasaki’. Printed c.1680 (British Library Or.75.g.25) 

The Nagasaki ezu was printed using woodblocks and then hand-coloured. It is undated but shows bridges over the River Nakashima which were constructed before 1681. It was clearly already out of date by the time Kaempfer acquired it because he made amendments -such as adding the Chinese merchants’ settlement (Tōjin yashiki 唐人屋敷) built in 1689 - when he copied the map in his manuscript. A version of this appears in The History of Japan as ‘Urbs Nangasaki’. The Nagasaki ezu shows in detail the city and harbour with the fan-shaped Deshima island near the centre and is decorated with depictions of Dutch and Chinese ships and of “exotic” foreigners including a Dutch man and woman.


‘Urbs Nangasaki’ in The History of Japan was based on Kaempfer’s Nagasaki ezu – without the paw prints! (British Library 150.k.9-10) 

Colour composite UV photography revealed a pair of feline paw prints just below Deshima island, near where the river enters the harbour. Sadly, the identity of the mystery moggy will never be known nor when or under what circumstances it sauntered across the map. No doubt there were cats on Deshima - as well as dogs, cattle, pigs, goats, chickens, parrots, monkeys and even a porcupine and a cassowary which all appear in paintings of the Dutch factory. Kaempfer certainly wrote about Japanese cats in The History of Japan, “They have a particular beautiful kind of cats [sic] which is a domestick animal with them, as with us. They are of a whitish colour, with large yellow and black spots, and a very short tail, as if it has been purposely cut off. They don’t care for mousing, but love mightily to be carried out, and carress’d, chiefly by women” (The History of Japan. Book I Chapter X)

Left: Self-portrait of Engelbert Kaempfer from a drawing of the Dutch merchants’ official journey to Edo. (British Library Sloane Ms 3060 fol. 501) 
Right: Japanese tricolour mikeneko. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

So it is appealing to imagine it was Kaempfer’s cat that stepped on the map, trying to distract its master from his studies – in a way familiar to any cat owner.

Or perhaps Sir Hans Sloane had a cat which ventured into his cabinet of curiosities when the map was lying open.

A third possibility, albeit more worrying from a ‘collection security’ point of view, is that the paw prints were left by one of succession of cats which patrolled the British Museum keeping the mice in check (more on this at ʻBlack Jack, Mike and the British Museumʼ). The most famous of these was Mike who lived at the Museum for twenty years and whose death in 1929 was marked by a memorial poem and an obituary in the Evening Standard!
 

Further reading

Kenneth B Gardner, Descriptive Catalogue of Japanese Books in the British Library Printed before 1700. London: The British Library, 1993.  Contains detailed descriptions of all Japanese books in the Kaempfer collection

Yu-Ying Brown, “Japanese Books and Manuscripts: Sloane’s Japanese Library and the Making of the History of Japan”, in Arthur MacGragor (ed.), Sir Hans Sloane: Collector, Scientist , Antiquary, Founding Father of the British Museum. London: British Museum, 1994, pp. 278-290.  On Sloane’s acquisition of the collection

Hamish Todd, Head of East Asian Collections, with thanks to Christina Duffy, Conservation

Nineteen beautifully illustrated manuscripts from the British Library’s Japanese collections have now been made available on our Digitised Manuscripts webpage.

Detail from Aoba no fue no monogatari [The Tale of the Flute with Green Leaves]. Late 17^th century (British Library Or 13131)

All but one of them [1] are what are often called Nara ehon 奈良絵本 or “Nara picture books”.  There is academic debate as to the validity of the term Nara ehon but it is generally applied to lavishly illustrated manuscripts, produced from the mid 16^th to late 17^th centuries, of popular tales known as otogizōshi 御伽草子.  Otogizōshi are a genre of short prose narratives written primarily from the late Kamakura Period (1185−1333) until the Muromachi period (1333−1568), covering a wide range of subjects from fairy tales to war epics, Shinto myths to Buddhist legends - nearly always with an uplifting moral message.

The term Nara Ehon has only been in use since the beginning of the 20^th century and no one is certain who coined it or when.  Many scholars prefer the term Muromachi Monogatari 室町物語 or “Muromachi Period Tales” although this does not reflect the important pictorial component.  One widely quoted theory has it that the first examples of this style of illustrated manuscript were produced by artists attached to major Buddhist temples in and around Nara such as the Tōdaiji and Kōfukuji or the Kasuga Shrine.  The upheavals of the 16^th century led to economic problems for these religious centres and their in-house artists may have switched from the production of Buddhist texts and images to these more secular and, presumably more commerical, works.  Whether this derivation is correct or not, the varied quality of the extant Nara ehon suggests that not all were the handiwork of skilled artists.  Moreover, given the numbers of manuscripts produced, other centres must also have been involved.

Detail from Yuriwara daijin [Minister Yuriwaka]. Ca. 1640-1680 (British Library Or 13822, scroll 1)

Still, whatever its origins, the term is well established and has yet to be replaced by the more “correct” alternatives devised by modern scholars. To complicate matters further, Nara ehon is loosely used to refer to manuscripts in both book and scroll formats.  We should perhaps make a distinction between Nara ehon (Nara picture books) and Nara emaki (Nara picture scrolls) but even this is not straightforward as some manuscripts that started life as scrolls have subsequently been turned into orihon or concertina-style books (orihon), while some Nara ehon have been remounted as scrolls.

‘Musashino’. Ise monogatari [Tales of Ise] Chapter 12. Ca. 1520-1560.(British Library Or 904)

The manuscripts were originally digitised in collaboration with the Humanities Interface (HUMI) Project of Keio University and can be viewed on the British Library’s Digitised Manuscripts webpages.  Users can search by shelfmark, title (omitting diacritics) or use the keywords ehon or emaki.  The works published are: Aoba no fue no monogatari  青葉の笛の物語 (Or 13131), Bunshō no sōshi  文正草子 (Or 13130), Genji monogatari kobota  源氏物語詞 (Or 1287), Hachikazuki  鉢かずき (Or 12885 and Or 12897), Hashidate no honji  橋立の本地 (Or 12174), Horikawa youchi monogatari  堀河夜討物語 (Or 12468), Ise monogatari zue  伊勢物語図会 (Or 904), Iwaya  いわや [岩屋] (Or 12570), Kachō fūgetsu  花鳥風月 (Or 12909), Karaito  からいと(Or 876, Or 877), Matsutake monogatari  松竹物語 (Or 13385), Shijūni no monoarasoi  四十二の物あらそい (Or 903), Taishokan  大織冠 (Or 12440, Or 12690, Or 13129), Tengu no dairi  天狗の内裏 (Or 13839) and Yuriwaka Daijin ゆりわか大臣 [由利若大臣] (Or 13822)

Hamish Todd, Head of East Asian Collections

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[1] Or 1287 Genji monogatari kotoba is an album of paintings of scenes from the Tale of Genji accompanied by calligraphy by imperial princes and court nobility.

 

Related articles

An alternative Cinderella: The girl with a kneading bowl

The highlight of most wedding ceremonies is two people making their vows to each other by promising to be true to each other ‘for better, for worse … till death us do part’. But what happens when they die? Where does all the eternal love sworn by innumerable couples go? We first explored the subject in East Asian ghoulish images & stories last year; this year we concentrate on one particular story to investigage the possibilities of love after death.


A lover heading for an assignation escorted by a maid holding a peony lantern. Taisō, Yoshitoshi 大蘇芳年.  “Botandōrō ほたむとうろう” from the series Shinkei Sanjūrokkaisen 新形三十六怪撰 Tōkyō: Matsuki Heikichi東京 : 松木平吉, 1889 - 1898. Nishikie print. National Diet Library
 
Otogibōko 伽婢子 (1666) by Asai Ryōi 浅井了意 , a pioneering early modern Japanese work of terror and wonder, contains 68 stories mainly inspired by ghost and supernatural stories from the Asian mainland. Not only did the author translate the story lines into Japanese, but he localised situations to meet the expectations of Japanese popular fiction readers in the early Edo era.  Although a number of episodes in Otogibōko fired the imaginations of later authors, perhaps the most loved story is ‘The Peony Lantern’ (Botandōrō 牡丹灯籠), which originated in China as Mudan deng ji牡丹燈記as a part of ‘New stories told while trimming the wick’(Jian deng xin hua 剪燈新話).
 

Volumes 1-3 of a 16-volume set of Otogibōko.  Asai Ryōi 浅井了意. Otogibōko 伽婢子. Kyōto: Nishizawa Tahē 京都：西澤太兵衛, 1666. British Library, 16107.c.45

This is the story of a young widower, Shinnojō新之丞, who re-encounters his beautiful beloved without realising that she has in fact already died. His neighbour hears the young couple cheerfully chatting and laughing, and accidentally sees that Shinnojō is with a skeleton. He warns Shinnojō that he is in danger, and strongly urges him to find out the true identity of the woman he believes to be his newfound love. In the end, Shinnojō finds the grave of his lover and faces the shocking truth that she is indeed a ghost, and realises that he must not contact her any more.
 

Shinnojō and his lover, who is actually a skeleton. Otogibōko. British Library, 16107.c.45, vol. 3, f. 16r

Shinnojō is given a talisman (ofuda お札) by a Buddhist monk in order to protect his house from the dead. After about fifty quiet nights have passed, Shinnojō goes to see the monk to thank him for his protection. He thinks he is safe, but on his way back home he passes close by the woman’s grave and starts thinking of her again. Suddenly she appears and captures the unprotected Shinnojō whom she blames for betraying all her devotion and true love.  Later his body is found with the skeleton in her grave.
 

His ghost lover captures Shinnojō. Otogibōko. British Library, 16107.c.45, vol. 3, f. 21r

San'yūtei Enchō I 三遊亭 圓朝 (1839-1900) wrote a rakugo 落語 version of this story and titled it Kaidan Botandōrō 怪談牡丹燈籠. Rakugo is a highly distinctive genre of comic monologue performed by professional storytellers, rakugo-ka 落語家. Enchō I added more episodes which extended the story lines of the Botandōrō , renaming the hero as Shinzaburō新三郎 and the ghost heroine as Otsuyu お露 and relocating the setting from Kyōto to Edo. Enchō I’s adaptation was later translated by Lafcadio Hearn as ‘A Passion of Karma’ in his book In Ghostly Japan.
 
One of the added highlights of Enchō I’s version is ‘The scene of removing the protective charms’, ofuda-hagashi お札はがし. After Otsuyu’s true identity as a dead woman is revealed, Shinzaburō barricades his house with the talisman or ofuda and constantly keeps his protective golden statue of the Buddha close to him. Otsuyu continues grieving over her separation from Shinzaburō because of the ofuda and becomes very angry. Otsuyu plots against Shinzaburō by bribing a pair of his servants to swap his golden statue of the Buddha for a copper one, and removing the ofuda from his house. As soon as all Shinzaburō’s protections were removed, Otsuyu merrily slips into the house and takes Shinzaburō to the world where they will never be separated again – by ending his life.
 

The ofuda is removed by the servant (seen in his right hand), and the ghosts of Otsuyu and her maid slip into the house to embrace her lover, Shinzaburō. San'yūtei, Enchō三遊亭円朝, and Suzuki Kōzō 鈴木行三 (eds.). Enchō Zenshū: 2 円朝全集 : 第2巻. Tōkyō: Shun'yōdō 東京 : 春陽堂, 1928. National Diet Library

An interesting difference between the two versions is the way in which the hero is captured by the ghostly woman.  In the earlier version, the ofuda is not removed, and as long as the hero stays inside his house with the protection of the talisman, he is safe. In the later version however, the talisman is secretly removed by someone else, allowing the ghost to slip into the house.

Ofuda of Tsuno Daishi角大師, one of a collection of approximately 300 Japanese ofuda in 5 albums. Early Meiji period (ca. 19th century). British Library, 16007.d.1

Shown above is an example of a famous talisman or ofuda to protect people within a house by sticking it on the outside of the entrance door, and thus preventing all evil spirits from entering the house. This figure, called Tsuno Daishi角大師, meaning the Horned Master, is an avatar of Ryōgen 良源. Ryōgen was a high-ranking Buddhist monk in the 10th century. In the legend of Tsuno Daishi, Ryōgen dared to transform himself into a powerful demon in order to defeat evil spirits by scaring them off.  Tsuno Daishi protects people as if he is fighting in the front line in the war between Good and Evil. Therefore the ofuda used in the Shinzaburō’s house could well have been of Tsuno Daishi.
 
It is said that true love never dies. However, it could cost the lover’s own life as well….
 

The graves of Otsuyu and her maid with their peony lantern. Lafcadio Hearn,  In Ghostly Japan. Boston: Little, Brown and Co, 1899. British Library, 08631.f.6.

References

General information on Rakugo:
Shinji, N. "Rakugo: Japan's Talking Art." Japan Echo, 31 (2004): 51-56.

How to place ofuda:
Gofu 護符 Kawagoe Daishi Kitain 川越大師　喜多院

About Ryōgen & Tsuno Daishi:
Hazama, Jikō 硲慈弘. Densetsu no Hieizan 伝説の比叡山. Kyōto: Ōmiya Shoten 京都: 近江屋書店, 1928, pp 67-69. National Diet Library

Yasuyo Ohtsuka, curator for Japanese 

Tracy Chevalier’s 1999 novel Girl with a pearl earring was inspired by the magnificent painting by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. Griet, the heroine of the Chevalier novel, always wore a distinctive white cap. Chevalier explained that behind Griet’s symbolic cap was an idea originally from the Bible, which considered women’s hair to be seductive and therefore subversive. Chevalier built upon that idea, as if Griet's cap served to shield the wilder and more sensual side of her persona that she did not want to reveal to others.

In Japanese folklore, more specifically the stories known as Otogizōshi 御伽草子,  we find another girl who always wore an impressive object on her head. This extremely odd piece of headgear led her to be known as “the girl with a kneading bowl” (Hachikazuki 鉢かづき).


'The girl with a kneading bowl' (Hachikazuki 鉢かづき), early Edo period (ca. 17th century). Naraehon manuscript. British Library, Or.12897.

Otogizōshi is an umbrella term used to identify a miscellaneous body of Japanese short narratives, covering a wide range of subjects such as fairy tales, war epics, stories from Shinto myths, Buddhist legends, and so forth. These texts were produced from about the late Kamakura period (1185−1333) until the Muromachi period (1333−1568), but their popularity continued into the Edo period (1603-1868). Otogizōshi circulated in both manuscript form and printed versions. Between the late Muromachi and mid Edo periods they were often reproduced as fine manuscripts, called Naraehon 奈良絵本, which were enriched with colourful hand-painted illustrations elegantly illuminated with gold and silver foil. From the Edo period onwards, these stories also began to be circulated in various printed versions, most notably Otogi bunko 御伽文庫, a collection of 23 otogizōshi published in Ōsaka by Shibukawa Seiemon 渋川清右衛門 in the early 18th century. The British Library Japanese collection holds several Naraehon manuscripts and printed versions of otogizōshi, including various editions of the Tale of Hachikazuki.
 

'The girl with a kneading bowl' (Hachikazuki 鉢かづき), early to mid Edo period (ca. 17th-18th century). Naraehon manuscript. British Library, Or.12885, f. 24.


The same Hachikazuki story in a woodblock printed version, Otogizōshi ( お伽草子), early Edo period (ca. 17th century). British Library, Or.75.g.15.

It is possible to identify the basic storyline of Hachikazuki as a subspecies of the classic story of Cinderella. Hachikazuki loses her mother, suffers from the maltreatment of her wicked stepmother, and eventually meets a handsome young man with prospects who has all of the essential features of the ideal husband of her time.

In actual fact, the prototype of the Cinderella story originated in China. It is believed that this was first recognised by a renowned Japanese scholar of the 19th century. Minakata Kumagusu (南方熊楠 1867-1941) was a multi-talented researcher with many interests; amongst other things he was a naturalist, biologist and folklorist. In an article of 1911 (details below), Minakata compared European and Oriental folk stories in order to identify significant similarities in the story patterns. He was interested in  prior research by Pedroso on Portuguese folk-tales which had already categorised some stories of the Cinderella type, but which had overlooked the Chinese version.

The study by Pedroso mentioned by Minakata in his 1911 article: Portuguese folk-tales collected by Consiglieri Pedroso, and translated from the original ms. by H. Monteiro.  ([S.l.] : Folklore Society, 1882.) British Library, 7062.900000

In the year 853, during the Tang dynasty, the scholar Duan Chengshi (段成式) wrote a series of stories, some of them taken from legends and folk tales, collected together under the name of Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang (Youyang za zu 酉阳杂俎). It is in this work that the story of a girl called Ye Xian (葉限), set during the 3rd century BC, appears for the first time.


First page from an 1849 copy of the Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang, in the version called重刊酉陽 雜俎正續 (Zhong kan Youyang za zu zheng xu), by Duan Chengshi, published by小嫏嬛山館 (Xiao lang huan shan guan). British Library, 15297.b.14.

The list of similarities between Cinderella and Ye Xian is quite extensive:
1) Both lost their own mother
2) Both were mistreated by their stepmothers
3) Both obtained or were given magical treasures to enable them to surmount obstacles   
4) Both met ideal husband figures
5) Both their future husbands found the girls by means of the right-sized shoe

The Story of Ye Xian, which Minakata highlighted, has been widely accepted as an early version of Cinderella. In contrast to the tale of Ye Xian, the tale of Hachikazuki is not always categorised as a Cinderella-type story because of two significant differences:
1) The method of obtaining her magical treasures
2) The method of proving she was the one her future husband was destined to marry

Hachikazuki obtained her magical treasures from her kneading bowl, which no one (including herself) had previously managed to remove from her head. It was her mother who had put the kneading bowl on to her daughter’s head just before she passed away. All she wanted to do was ensure the happiness of her daughter who she was leaving behind, and so she prayed to the Avalokiteśvara, and then acted in accordance with a revelation from the Avalokiteśvara. Hachikazuki had to endure wearing the kneading bowl on her head until the right moment eventually came. Although she found love with a gentle young man, she had to pass a test. This test was not fitting her foot into the right-sized shoe like Cinderella and Ye Xian. Instead, Hachikazuki had to convince her future husband’s family that she was a truly suitable bride for him. Miraculously, at this moment, the bowl fell off from her head, and she discovered that she possessed all the highly sophisticated acoutrements and attributes of a refined beauty.


Hachikazuki and her trousseau emerging from her kneading bowl. From 'The girl with a kneading bowl' (Hachikazuki 鉢かづき), early Edo period (ca. 17th century). Naraehon manuscript. British Library, Or.12897.


The same scene in a different naraehon manuscript. 'The girl with a kneading bowl' (Hachikazuki 鉢かづき), early to mid Edo period (ca. 17th-18th  century). British Library, Or.12885, f. 36.


The same scene in a woodblock printed edition of Otogizōshi (お伽草子), early Edo period (ca. 17th century). British Library, Or.75.g.15.

Regardless of the differences and similarities between the stories of Hachikazuki and Cinderella, in both we can enjoy a traditional well-loved folk tale with a happy ending.

References

Tracey Chevalier. Girl with a pearl earring (London: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1999). For a description of Griet's cap, see p.11; see also 'Tracy Chevalier Q&A', Mail Online (July 5th 2002).

Minakata’s 1911 article: 南方熊楠「西暦九世紀の支那書に載せたるシンダレラ物語」『東京人類学会雑誌』26巻300号 (1911) is available online as a part of Minakaga zuihitsu (南方随筆) at Kindai Digital Library service, the National Diet Library.

With special thanks to:
Alessandro Bianchi, Asian and African Studies and PhD student, University of Cambridge
Sara Chiesura, Curator for Chinese

Yasuyo Ohtsuka, Curator for Japanese