2009 Chuyuki Kambun Workshop

Professor Sanae Yoshida, University of Tokyo
Professor Joan Piggott, University of Southern California

The Project for Premodern Japan Studies at the University of Southern California hosted a two-week reading and translation workshop dedicated to making selections from an important Heian-period courtier diary, the Chuyuki, available to the global English-reading public for the first time.

The workshop was led by two faculty veterans of the recent Kambun Workshops at USC and Cornell University, Professor Joan Piggott of the USC History Department and Professor Sanae Yoshida of the University of Tokyo's Historiographical Institute. Participants read, translated, and annotated sections of the Chuyuki journal kept by Minister of the Right Fujiwara no Munetada (1062-1141). Entries in the journal span the years between 1087 and 1138, in the era when retired monarchs were beginning to take over leadership of the Heian court. Munetada' s journal is one of the most informative and detailed of the journals kept by court leaders in Heian times.

For the workshop, we followed the pattern set during recent Kambun Workshops held at USC during the past five summers. First we read the original Sino-Japanese text. Then we transcribed it into a modern Japanese version. Then we translated and annotated the text in English. All three stages are important for the final product, which can be profitably studied by those interested in history, language, literature, and culture.

Our Chuyuki translation focused on selections of thematic interest. Professor Yoshida, who is the editor of the authoritative Dai Nihon Kokiroku volumes of the Chuyuki for the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo, chose sections of special interest for translation by our group. One concerns scenes of carnival in the streets of the capital; another concerns the birth of the monarch Toba and banquets celebrating his birth; another concerns a fire that destroyed one of Munetada' s homes; and still another tells the story of its reconstruction. All provide important insights into relations between monarch and retired monarch in Munetada' s day, as well as Munetada' s own sharp critique of court affairs of his time.

News: "Four-Week Kambun Workshop for Premodern Japanese Studies"

Participants

Dan Sherer, Kevin Wilson, Michelle Damian, Erin Brightwell, Kristina Buhrman, Aileen Gatten, Miki Wheeler