Mayer, Fanny Hagin - Japan's Folk Tale Boom

The Society for Japanese Studies

Japan's Folk Tale Boom Author(s): Fanny Hagin Mayer Source: Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Winter, 1978), pp. 215-224 Published by: The Society for Japanese Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/132081 Accessed: 08/04/2009 06:36 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=sjs. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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FANNY HAGIN MAYER Japan's Folk Tale Boom Folk tales have long been orally transmitted within families In Japan and can still be heard in outlying regions and on little offshore islands. The collection and publication of these mukashibanashi is now thriving and is an activity that deserves the attention of Western Japanologists. The movement to collect these folk tales is not new, but it was slowed down in the years before and during World War Two, eventually coming to a halt because of restrictions and shortages. For a period after the close of the war, times were still too difficult for such work, but interest in it was not lost, and in the last few decades well over 100 new collections have been made and this number is growing each year. In reviewing these efforts, there are several matters of note. The first is the wide geographical range which the collections represent: they cover 27 prefectures and Hokkaido from Amami Oshima in the southwest to Hokkaido to the northeast. The second is the large number of people engaged in the work of collecting. Forty-three collectors are represented in the six series I shall mention. Third, we should recognize the significance of the folk tale in the minds of the writers and the reading public. Finally, I am restricting my discussion here to the materials most accessible abroad, but this does not imply that other collections are of any less value. Miraisha launched its series, Nihon no mukashibanashi, in 1957 with a collection by Mizusawa Ken'ichi of Nagaoka, Niigata prefecture. This may no longer seem current, but in actuality the series continued until 1969 when the thirteenth volume was published. Four of its contributors were experienced collectors, but the volume by Takeda Akira1 was newly collected material. Noda Tayako's collection2 was used in manuscript form under the title of Gonohe mukashibanashi by Yanagita Kunio in his Nihon mukashibanashi meii3 and by Seki Keigo in his Nihon mukashibanashi shusei,4 the 1. TakedaAkira, ed., Sorae baku-baku,Nihon no mukashibanashi,No. 11. Tokyo: Miraisha, 1965. 2. Noda Tayoko, Tekkiriane sama, Nihon no mukashibanashi,No. 7. Tokyo: Miraisha, 1958. 3. Yanagita Kunio, supervisor, Nihon H6s6 Shuppan Ky6kai, ed., Nihon mukashibanashimeii. Tokyo: Nihon Hoso ShuppanKy6kai, 1948;new edition, 1971. 4. Seki Keigo, Nihon mukashibanashishusei, Three Parts (6 vols.). Tokyo: Kadokawa,Part One (1 vol.), 1950;PartTwo (3 vols.), 1955;Part Three (2 vols.), 1958.

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two standardreference works on the Japanese folk tale. The other five collectors in the series were new in the field. The Miraishavolumes gave an opportunityfor the collectors to write introductions based upon their field work. Plates of local scenes and sketch maps focus attention upon the region that transmitted the tales. Each folk tale represents a version recited by a specific narratorwho is named, and usually her age and place of residenceare also stated. In other words, these are not Japanesefolk tales in general, but rathereach belongs to a specific narratorat an identifiablelocation. The first of Mizusawa's four volumes in the series was a volume of 122 tales recited by 90-year old Nagashima Tsuruwho lived in Yamakoshi-murain the hills remote from Ojiya.5 The Miraisha books were produced before tape recorders were readily available, and they representversions taken down by hand. They are renderedin modifieddialect with standardJapaneseeither in a parallel column or in parentheses. Most have a glossary of dialect added as well. Mention should be made here of Miraisha'sNihon no minwa series which beganto appearone year earlier.Althoughit drew upon a few serious collectors, the books were edited for popularreading. No scholar was on the staff, and the series is not taken seriously by studentsin the field of the folk tale, althoughit may have contributed by attractingattentionto mukashibananashiwhich appearedin later collections. The next series of folk tales was the work of the Minzokugaku Kenkyukaiof KokugakuinUniversity. KokugakuinUniversity has long recognized the importanceof the study of folklore. Origuchi Shinobu was a pioneer in the field, YanagitaKunio was a frequent lecturer at the University, and Professor Usuda and others are carrying on an old tradition at this institution. The Minzokugaku Kenkyukaiproducedfive collections between 1964and 1968which were based upon field trips arranged and supervised by Usuda Jingoro and Nomura Jun'ichi. This series, named Densho bungei, was a modest, but sincere effort. The Setsuwa Kenkyfukaiof the same universityalso collaboratedwith Usuda in books publishedby Ofusha. These hard-back editions began to appear in 1967 with contributionsby Usuda, Nomura, and others. I know of nine such volumes. The introductionsusually stress the relationshipof the folk tales to family and local legends, but folk customs and observances 5. MizusawaKen'ichi, Tonto mukashiga atta kedo. Nihon no mukashibanashi, No. 1. Tokyo: Miraisha, 1957.

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are also mentioned. Althoughthe Densho bungei was not put on the market, the Ofusha volumes are available. In 1968 the Mukashibanashikenkyiishiryo sosho (15 vols.) was undertakenby an editorialcommittee of university men: Inada Koji of Kyoto Joshi Daigaku, Oshima Tatehiko of T6yo University, Kawabata Toyohiko of Chiba University, and Fukuda Akira of OtaniJoshi Daigaku. In 1974a second series of 16 planned volumes was announced.6 Most of the volumes follow a given format in which sketch maps and plates of the area involved are followed by a detailed introduction.Life in the local area where the collection was made is discussed along with some historicalbackground,a presentation of the principalnarratorsand characteristicsof theirtales, and problems met in the field. Following each tale there is the place nameand that of the narrator.Each tale has copious notes to explain words or local customs mentioned in the tale. The series is crossindexed, where applicable, to Nihon mukashibanashimeii, Nihon mukashibanashishusei, and Aarne-Thompson,The Types of the Folk Tale.7 A glossary of dialect and a phonetic rendition of tales recorded on one or two 33 1/3 rpm discs are included at the end of the book. The voices of the narratorsmake these tales come alive. Nihon Hios Shuppan Kyokai began its series of Nihon no mukashibanashiin 1972with InadaKoji as supervisor(kanshu).The format is useful even though it does not contain the wealth of reference material found in the Mukashibanashi kenkyu~shiry6 sosh6. It is obviously intendedfor a wider public. However, it gives exact names of narrators,the place name for each tale, and a few helpful notes. A brief introductionstates the circumstances under which the work was undertakenand the usual acknowledgments.In the explanatory notes at the end of the collection we find greater detail, which links the stories to the locality in which they have been preserved. A description of the topography, principaloccupations, and the relationshipof the specific tales to folk faith, annual observances, and the like are included. The complete list of narrators interviewed, includingtheir place of residence and date of birth, is offered even if a tale by each could not be included. Most of the collectors in series are residentsof the regionin which they did their field work, and in these cases there is a refreshingfeeling of warmth for the narratorsand their tales. There are cross-referencesto Nihon 6. Mukashibanashi Kenkyi Kowakai, eds., Mukashibanashi kenkyu to shiryo, No. 3. Tokyo: Miyai Shoten, 1974, 207. 7. Antti Aarne-Styth Thompson, The Types of the Folktale, FF Communications 184. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia Academia Scentiarum Fennica, 1964.

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mukashibanashi meii, where applicable, and if not, to Nihon mukashibanashi shusei where possible. A reprint of an earlier series should also be included here. It is the Nihon mukashibanashi kiroku, formerly known as Zenkoku mukashibanashi kiroku. It was edited by Yanagita Kunio and Seki Keigo, and its 13 volumes were published by Sanseido in 1942-44. The present edition came out in 1973-1974. The original titles are prefaced by the prefecture represented, and two of the volumes have been replaced. Suzuki Toz6 requested that his original collection on Sado Island be published instead of the edited and abbreviated one of the first series. Seki Keigo's Shimabara work was withdrawn and a new collection from Tokushima by Takeda Akira takes its place. This series furnished many examples in the reference works by Yanagita and Seki. Since the books have long been out of print, the new edition is of particular value. The latest series to appear is Zenkoku mukashibanashi shiryo shusei published by Iwasaki Bijitsusha. My two volumes among the first three bear the dates of 1974 and 1975. The editorial committee of Usuda Jingor6, Seki Keigo, Nomura Jun'ichi, and Mitani Eiichi assures high quality for the series. This series of 20 volumes is to be followed by another of the same length. This first series has six pre-war titles listed which are revised and enlarged editions of works that have also been out of print for many years. They were also drawn upon heavily for source material by Yanagita and Seki. One of the volumes is a printing of what was in manuscript form, Fukuoka d6wa shu, and which was used to a great extent by Yanagita and Seki.8 I was permitted to make a copy of the manuscript that Yanagita had. Although there is a sprinkling of dialect, for the most part it is in rather proper late Meiji style which provides an amusing contrast to the earthy humor and harsh realities found in the tales. The other item which I have is the collection by Sakuma Jun'ichi, which he presented to Yanagita in a card file for comment.9 I saw this work in the form of cards and Yanagita's notations. These notations have been retained, with a key to the symbols, in the printed edition. He was interested in dialect, some elements which 8. Fukuoka-kenKy6iku Iinkai, ed., Fukuoka mukashibanashishu. Zenkoku mukashibanashishiryoshutsei,No. 11. Tokyo: IwasakiBijitsusha,1975.This collection was made in 1911or 1912,but the collectors have never been identified.Items were probablycontributedby studentsof FukuokaHigh School, and the manuscript was in the hands of the local broadcastingstation for many years. 9. Sakuma Jun'ichi, Kitakambara mukashibanashi shu-. Zenkoku mukashibanashi shiry6 shusei, No. 2. Tokyo: Iwasaki Bijitsusha, 1974.

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were unusual, and others which he considered recent additions. Yanagita was in his 80's when he went over the cards. He was always generous with his time for young men trying their hand in the field and gave them his encouragement. Although the discussion so far-representing 90 volumes-does not give a complete picture of the situation, it should justify the claim that there is a boom in the publication of folk tales in Japan. In order to illustrate the type of collectors and their approaches to their work, I will select one or two from each of the series for a closer view. Mizusawa, who launched the Miraisha series, might be considered a series in himself, for he has produced 20 volumes already and is planning others. I have already written about him elsewhere, and it is not necessary here to go into much detail.10 His approach to folk tales was through his interest in local history, a field he still pursues. His skill in rendering the rhythmical, musical recitation of the narrator is outstanding. The pauses he marks on the page represent the pauses in the voice, not syntax. The tales seem to flow along evenly, just as the voice would. In addition to Mizusawa's skill in recording tales, his notes and reports on them show his deep interest in folk faith and local observances. His style of writing is crisp. Others would write whole pages to cover points he sums up in a few words. I His comments are based upon firsthand observations and at present he is sorting out variants of several themes found in tales. He has already published two such collections, Echigo no Shinderera (Cinderella)l2 and Kuroi tama, aoi tama, akai tama (the "Three Charms" theme).13 Mizusawa has confined his activity to Niigata prefecture, mainly in the central part, where he was born. In 1969 he retired early from principalship of a large city elementary school after 21 years of service, during which he had devoted weekends and vacations to field work in hunting for narrators and setting down their tales. He has received an impressive list of city, prefectural, and national citations, but his efforts have been supported mainly from his own resources. For the benefit of young scholars who think that with recording 10. Fanny Hagin Mayer, "Ken'ichi Mizusawa,a Modem Collectorof Japanese Folk tales," Asian Folklore Studies XXVI 2 (1967), 149-159. 11. MizusawaKen'ichi,Mukashibanashinoto. Sanjo-shi,NojimaShuppan,1969. 12. MizusawaKen'ichi,Echigo no shinderera.Sanjo-shi,Nojima Shuppan,1964. 13. Mizusawa Ken'ichi, Kuroi tama, aoi tama, akai tama. Sanjo-shi, Nojima

Shuppan, 1972.

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equipment slung over the shoulder they can make one-stop interviews to gathertales, I will set down some of the rules for collecting that I observed from Mizusawain fieldtripsin which he arrangedfor me to accompanyhim. I have previouslywrittenabout the second of these experiences.14Althoughhe had workedout tight schedules, he never appearedto be in a hurry. Our calls were prearrangedwhich meant they were second contacts for him. He never tries to collect on the first round. The occasion should be enjoyable-in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere. In spite of his preparationsone old woman at each of two stops went into shock over seeing a white woman for the firsttime, and she could not uttera single word of the stories she had planned to tell! Another rule is always to have a little gift of thanks for the narratorsuch as a towel, a fan, or a bit of ame to acknowledge the favor of the tales. Mizusawa explained an old adage for me: never visit a shrine or a benjo empty handed. He includedin it: nor a story teller. The visits should extend over a period of time to let the old narratorrecall tales without pressure. Using this method he was able to draw out 241 tales from Shimojo Tomi during ten years of occasional visits.15

Usuda Jingoroof KokugakuinUniversity needs no introduction to Japanologists.His young assistant professor, NomuraJun'ichi,is a graduateof the university and has been trained in its traditions. Nomura was active in planningand supervisingstudents in collecting tales, particularlyin the volumes of Densho bungei. He is a Tokyo man, but his wife Keiko is from Mogami-gun, Yamagata prefecture. She was able to introduce him to narratorsaround her home, creatinga friendly, neighborlystartingpoint for him, and she has assisted him with renderingdialect. They make a good team. He has acknowledgedall this in his introductionsand placed her name along with his as co-editor in Gobujiro.16 Nomura gives good background materialto show how tales reflect the history of the family that has transmittedthem. By tracingtheir line of transmission,one can see how they are rooted back into the past. A narratorcan always tell from whom she has heard her tales and there is little crossing over lines. A bride coming into a family will bring her stories with her, but a bride from outside is always a bride, an outsider, and while she tells her stories to her children, these are 14. FannyHaginMayer,"In Searchof the JapaneseFolk Tale," Japan Quarterly VI 2 (1959), 175-189.

15. MizusawaKen'ichi, Akai kikimimizukin. Sanjo-shi,Nojima Shuppan,1968. 16. NomuraJun'ichiand NomuraKeiko, eds., Gobujir6.Tokyo: Ofusha, 1971.

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kept separate from those passed along by the grandmother, the mother-in-law. Inada K6ji, a member of the editorial committee of Mukashibanashi kenkyu shiry6 sosho and supervisor of the Nihon H6so Shuppan Ky6kai series, is a graduate of Hiroshima Bunrika University with a degree in Japanese literature, specializing in kodai setsuwa (ancient tales). For over twenty years he has collected tales and has led many of his students in groups to collect them. In fact, he even gave them credit as editors for one of his collections.17 He is an Okayama man, and his experiences in collecting have been mainly in the central and western parts of Honshu, but he shows a splendid overall contact with the field, all-Japan in scope, and an acquaintance with many local collectors. The two volumes he contributed to the Mukashibanashi kenkyu shiryo sosho were joint efforts with Fukuda Akira. Perhaps his little volume, Mukashibanashi wa ikite iru,18 best shows his broad command of source material, his trudging up mountain paths in search of more narrators, the value he places upon their tales as cultural history, and his appreciation of their contents. A group of young men around Yanagita Kunio in the 30's have made a good accounting for his guidance in their field work of collecting tales. Several of them are still actively collecting tales. Among them represented in the revised edition of Nihon mukashibanashi kiroku of Sanseid6 is Takeda Akira. Besides his two earlier collections he has a new one listed in the series. He had contributed a collection to the Miraisha series of mukashibanashi and his volume in the minwa series is due to be revised and enlarged in the Iwasaki Bijitsusha series. Takeda has been a central figure in the study of folklore on Shikoku for many years. His interest focuses on dialect and local life in the area where the tales have been transmitted. In recent years he has turned his attention to folk faith, particularly to attitudes toward death and the souls of the dead. For many years he was editor of Sanuki minzoku, published in Tadotsu, Kagawa prefecture, and in 1955 he published a book on folklore in Iyayama.19 The Nihon no mukashibanashi series of Nihon Hdos Shuppan Kyokai presents a list of old and new collectors. It is difficult to 17. Kyoto Joshi Daigaku Setsuwa Bungaku Kenkyfikai, eds., mukashibanashi, Nihon no mukashibanashi, No. 13. Tokyo: Nihon Kyokai, 1975. 18. Inada Koji, Mukashibanashi wa ikite iru. Tokyo: Sanseid6, 19. Takeda Akira, lyayama minzoku shi. Tokyo: Kokon Shoin,

Kii hanto no H6so Shuppan 1970. 1955.

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single out one or two of the splendid collectors, but we should be particularlygratefulto Asai Toru, an assistant in literatureat Hokkaido University, for his presentationof Ainu tales.20In his introduction he expressed the hope that readerswould put away the old image of the Ainu as hairy primitivesliving in Hokkaidoand recognize them as people (hito) with splendidcharactersand high intelligence. The central figure in the collection is Sunazawa Kura, a woman who shared many of her stories with him. She had an elementary school education and undertookto write her stories in katakana for him. He has transcribedthese literally into the usual hiragana and kanji style in his collection. The stories of the other four narratorsare renderedin Ainu in katakanaon the upperhalf of the page with the Japanese translationon the lower half. He uses Ainu titles in his Table of Contents, but Japanesetitles for the text. In this way he wanted to focus attentionupon what the Ainu had to say. Asai was born in Gifu, but his acquaintancewith MiuraNobu, one of the narrators,dates from 1951and with Kurafroma-fewyears later. His explanatorynotes are written with the warmthof a man who has lived amongthe Ainu for many years, not with the detachment of an outsider. The other outstandingcontributorto the series is TakedaTadashi of Yamagata.21He is bringingto lightan amazingstore of tales in the same area which Densho bungei introduced and in which the Nomuras have worked. In Inada's Introduction,which is the same for each of the books in the series, he quoted Takedaas saying that he knew of a narratorwho could tell 2,000 stories. AlthoughTakeda has included only 10 stories told by Sato Koichi, the man whose grandfatherknew so many tales, three collections of tales by the Sato family publishedby Takedaare listed in Mukashibanashikenkyut to shiryo, No. 2.22

The history of Japanis largely a history written by conquerors. Ura-Nihon, the part of the conquered land beyond the mountains "over there," has never been well representedexcept through reports or diaries of officials of the centralgovernment. But there is a deep pride and loyalty to their land in the hearts of men to the east. Old traditions are treasured. Takeda captures this feeling in his 20. Asai T6ru,Ainu no mukashibanashi,Nihon no mukashibanashi,No. 2. Tokyo: Nihon Hoso ShuppanKy6kai, 1972. 21. TakedaTadashi,Uzen no mukashibanashi.Nihon no mukashibanashi,No. 4. Tokyo: Nihon H6s6 ShuppanKy6kai, 1973. 22. MukashibanashiKenkyuiK6wakai. ed.: Mukashibanashikenkyuito shiryo, No. 2. Tokyo: Miyai Shoten, 1973, Sat6-ke no mukashibanashi,201.

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presentation of Yamagata and his introduction of Sat6 Koichi. Sato's grandfather's hanashi included stories of how place names came about, the development of tools, and other local lore. The value of such local traditions is recognized by Inada, and he thinks that they should receive attention before they are lost to memory. I should add that Inada himself presented the first volume in the series, Mimasaka no mukashibanashi. The area covered is a valley surrounded by mountains; stories tell of the danger of meeting with demons at mountain passes or they picture a beautiful land without troubles beyond the peaks. Since I have already discussed two works published by Iwasaki Bijitsusha, I hardly need to single out a collector for further comment, but I will point to Suzuki T6zd. He was another of the young men around Yanagita in the 1930s. His first collection, Kawagoe chiho mukashibanashi shu, 23 is to be included in the present series. Suzuki did field work in widely scattered areas-Saitama, Gifu, and the islands of Sado and Tsushima. This work was made possible with the help of subsidies, but with the approach of World War Two funds became unavailable. When I met Suzuki in 1965, he recalled his early days of collecting tales with enthusiasm although he is now known as a critic and etymologist. His Tsushima work has been included in the Miraisha series,24 the Sado Island tales have been published by Sanseidd, which I have already mentioned, and now the Saitama stories will be republished. Perhaps one day the tales he contributed to Hidabito25 will come out in a single volume. His work was included by both Yanagita and Seki in their reference works and the republication of his collections shows their lasting value. In discussing the folk tale boom in Japan I have thus far presented a sampling of the collections and introduced a few of the collectors. The nature of current interest in the tales remains to be discussed. In 1968-1969 I made a survey in Niigata prefecture to ascertain how folk tales were regarded. I received replies to questionnaires from around 3,000 children and over 4,000 adults. The samples were from rural, fishing, and lumbering communities and centers of trade and industry in the four divisions of the 23. Suzuki T6z6, Kawagoe chiho mukashibanashi shu. Minkan Densh6 no Kai,

1937. 24. Suzuki T6oz, Kuttanjii no hanashi. Nihon no mukashibanashi, No. 7. Tokyo:

Miraisha, 1958. 25. Hidabito, Vols. III, IV, V, VII, and IX. This journalwas publishedby Hida K6do MinzokuGakkaiin Takayama.Eleven volumes were publishedbetween 1933 and 1944.

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prefecture-Jo, Chu, Katesu, and Sado Island. The children were about evenly divided between boys and girls. Only 1.9% of the total had neither heard nor read folk tales. The titles to stories they knew corresponded to those now being collected. Thus the survey showed that published collections are reaching children and also that nearly all liked them. An overwhelming majority of adults expressed a liking for folk tales and said that they thought they represented a cultural heritage that should be preserved and handed down. Many said that folk tales provided an escape from the confusion and stresses of modern days. Popular Kokumin shukusha (national lodgings)26 invite young people to points all over the country and bring them into touch with regions far from the cities. There is an increasing sentimelt among city folk that they need these contacts with their land. The flocks of young skiers in winter and mountain climbers in summer are searching for the "feel" of their land. Although most village observances continue on a local level, the mass exodus from cities to the local regions at Bon and New Year shows that ties to them are still strong. I believe that in the same way the folk tales are linking Japanese to their land and to their past. The evening edition of Yomiuri Shinbun on July 7, 1977 carried a 6-column spread by Inada K6ji about folk tales in its Culture (bunka) section. He claims that 100,000 have been recorded to date, and calls them a link from ancestors to the future, pointing to tales in old literature, Nihon shoki and Nihon ryoiki, which have their counterparts in folk tales recited today. In its early days the field of Japanese studies was undertaken in the West along three lines: literature, history, and religion. It has broadened considerably since those days. Along with statistical tables, documented books, and excavated sources, the folk tale should also begin to receive serious attention for the insight it provides into Japanese thought and character. 26. Tabi to Shiry6 no Kaisha, Kokumin shukusha, zenkoku han, Kyuka mura annai, 11. Akimoto Shobo, 1969. I have the 1969 edition of what I believe to be an annual publication, a guide to Kokumin shukusha, inexpensive lodgings run on a more or less self service plan.