J7A readings access for students still trying to register for the course

Session 02

Required—to be completed for today's session

Read in the order below, please.

✓ Read in full About Readings [on site / click here, HTML] so you know how I expect you to approach the texts assigned.

✓ Read in full: Shinto comments by Kasulis [PDF]. The initial part of the selection, on rice, can be skimmed. The primary material are the basic elements of Shinto that Kasulis proposes. This is an interesting work in that it is written from "inside" the religion, so to speak, rather than strictly as an academic object of analysis.

✓ Read in full: Norito Great Purification at Sixth Month's End. [PDF] Norito are explained on the terms list. While I would like you to read the norito in full, to get a sense of Norito, it is assigned at this point to support the next reading selection and, for that, please look closely at the "sins" and think of what a "sin" / "pollution" is.

✓ Read in full: Kojiki I.16 Susano-o rages. [PDF] Remember to read the footnotes that are side-barred. The Japanese is provided but of course not required.

✓ Two PPTs are presented. It is not especially necessary to view these ahead of the session, but you should review them later, to help formulate ideas on how uchi-soto can be used interpretively in multiple situations. They are: Reading the Kojiki [PPT] and Uchi-soto inner spaces and purity [PPT].

Session 03

Required—to be completed for today's session

✓ Read in full Izumi Shikibu Diary - first visit [PDF]. Seeking entrance.

✓ Read in full Murasaki Shikibu Diary - Izumi and Sei [PDF] Read noting the difference in the estimation of these Izumi Shikibu (protagonist in Diary of) and Se Shonagon (author of Pillow Book) by the writer of the journal, Murasaki Shikibu (author of The Tale of Genji).

✓ Read in full Confessions of Lady Nijo: her ejection from the palace [PDF]. An example of exile. The earlier pages can be read more quickly, but the whole does work together to give the moment full impact. Nijo was given to the emperor (Go-Fukakusa) by her father but already loved someone else. Nijo slept with a number of men (including the Ariake of this passage—a code name because this is an autobiographical work and she cannot mention real names), on both sides of the political divide of her time and lived a dangerous life. She became a nun. While this work is several hundreds of years after the others assigned for today, it retains the same sensibility of court life. One huge exception: it is written after the Buddhist reforms of the 13th c. and Buddhism colors this text more deeply than the others.

✓ One passage from Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book. In McCullough's anthology (purchased for this class) it is Pillow Book: 91. Once while Her Majesty was staying in the Empress's Office ...". In Meredith McKinney's translation is it Section 82. In Ivan Morris's translation it is section 83. This episode shows uchi-soto from two perspectives: an outsider ridiculed and games "insiders" play among themselves. It seems like two different stories, but they are definitely joined by the concept of "who is outside, who is inside?"

Multimedia notes

❖ Uchi and soto: connectedness [PPT]