Souvenirs for the Capital
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Kendra Strand
Abstract
Around 1350, a wandering lay priest called Sōkyū (dates unknown) left his home of Tsukushi in northern Kyushu, and embarked upon a journey through what is now the Tōhoku region of Japan. The “East Country”, as Sōkyū and his peers in the Imperial Palace call it, was considered a remote and wild land. It nonetheless held a romantic appeal for certain place names that had long been famous in the poetic canon. These famous place names, or utamakura, provide the basic structure for Souvenirs, and it soon becomes clear that one great motivation for Sōkyū’s journey is to view the landscapes of those celebrated places, and to better understand the origins and history of their names. The journal begins by introducing a man who “turned away from the mundane world”, and then shifts immediately to Sōkyū’s first-person perspective. The journey is here within the realm of formal Buddhist practice. Sōkyū’s determination to “follow into the past the tracks left under trees and over rocks” is founded upon the view that wandering supports ascetic practice and facilitates a purposeful rejection of the comforts of the material world. In the translation that follows, each utamakura is rendered into English, followed by its full Japanese name, only when that name’s meaning is highly relevant to Sōkyū’s poetry. Names of provinces, temples, and shrines, as well as utamakura sites mentioned in passing, are left in the Japanese, with an indication of the type of geographical feature they represent.
Original Title
Miyako no tsuto 都のつと, A Travel Journal by Sōkyū 宗久
Abbreviations
- KT
Kokka taikan=Matsushita 1988a.
- ZKT
Zoku kokka taikan=Matsushita 1988b.
- SNKBT
Shinpen Nihon koten bungaku taikei SNKBT 17=Horiuchi and Akiyama 1997.
- NKBZ
Nihon koten bungaku zenshū; NKBZ 73=Kawaguchi and Shida 1960
- SNKBT
51=Asami 1997
- SNKBT
52=Kojima 2001
- SNKBT
87=Hashimoto, Tamotsu, and Fujihara 2002
Additional Resources
In addition to the resources cited directly in the footnotes above, this translation is indebted to the pioneering work of Herbert Plutschow and Fukuda Hideichi (1981). It also relies on an array of important reference works, namely, encyclopedias of literature and poetry (Ariyoshi 1982, Inoue 1999, Ishihara 2000, Kubota 1962); and of utamakura, place names, and historical figures (Kadokawa Bunka Shinkô Zaidan 1999, Kubota and Baba 1999, Yasuda 1985, Yoshihara 2008); as well as the Nihon Kokugo Daijiten (2nd edition, 2000–2002) and the Shinpen Kokka Taikan (1983–1992). These references may also be found in the Bibliography.
Bibliography
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© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editors’ Introduction: The Importance of Translating
- Souvenirs for the Capital
- The Chronicle of Kamatari
- Auslegung der Ausdrücke „Stimme“, „Zeichen“, und „wirkliche Merkmale“
- “Volume on Shintō as Private Law”
- The Record of Women’s Great Treasures
- Rites of Blind Biwa Players
- Die Zukunft des Japanischen Tanzes (1908)
- Über die Idee und das Wirkliche (Teil II)
- Mori Ōgai, “The Grouch” – A Kanshi (Sino-Japanese Poem) about Paintings for Sale in a Modern Department Store
- Der Dämonenpfirsichjunge
- Ford 1927
- Raise your voice in song! The Origins of the New Japanese Literature Association
- University Newspaper Editorial: The Starting Point of the Student Movement
- Gradual Disappearance of the Hisabetsu Buraku Story
- Bedeutungswandel der Zivilgesellschaft oder das Elend der Ideengeschichte: Eine kommentierte Übersetzung von Hirata Kiyoakis Aufsatz zum Begriff shimin shakai bei Antonio Gramsci (Teil 1)
- Rezensionen – Comptes rendus – Reviews
- Geilhorn, Barbara / Iwata-Weickgenannt, Kristina (Hrsg.): Fukushima and the Arts. Negotiating Nuclear Desaster
- Steineck, Raji C. / Lange, Elena Louisa / Kaufmann, Paulus (Hrsg.): Begriff und Bild der modernen japanischen Philosophie
- Steineck, Raji C.: Kritik der symbolischen Formen I – Symbolische Form und Funktion
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editors’ Introduction: The Importance of Translating
- Souvenirs for the Capital
- The Chronicle of Kamatari
- Auslegung der Ausdrücke „Stimme“, „Zeichen“, und „wirkliche Merkmale“
- “Volume on Shintō as Private Law”
- The Record of Women’s Great Treasures
- Rites of Blind Biwa Players
- Die Zukunft des Japanischen Tanzes (1908)
- Über die Idee und das Wirkliche (Teil II)
- Mori Ōgai, “The Grouch” – A Kanshi (Sino-Japanese Poem) about Paintings for Sale in a Modern Department Store
- Der Dämonenpfirsichjunge
- Ford 1927
- Raise your voice in song! The Origins of the New Japanese Literature Association
- University Newspaper Editorial: The Starting Point of the Student Movement
- Gradual Disappearance of the Hisabetsu Buraku Story
- Bedeutungswandel der Zivilgesellschaft oder das Elend der Ideengeschichte: Eine kommentierte Übersetzung von Hirata Kiyoakis Aufsatz zum Begriff shimin shakai bei Antonio Gramsci (Teil 1)
- Rezensionen – Comptes rendus – Reviews
- Geilhorn, Barbara / Iwata-Weickgenannt, Kristina (Hrsg.): Fukushima and the Arts. Negotiating Nuclear Desaster
- Steineck, Raji C. / Lange, Elena Louisa / Kaufmann, Paulus (Hrsg.): Begriff und Bild der modernen japanischen Philosophie
- Steineck, Raji C.: Kritik der symbolischen Formen I – Symbolische Form und Funktion
