The Rhetoric of Death and Discipleship in Premodern Japan
The Rhetoric of Death and Discipleship in Premodern Japan
H. Mack Horton
The Death of Sōgi (Sōgi shūenki, 1502), by Sōchō, and The Death of Master Bashō (Bashō-ō shūenki, 1694), by Kikaku, are among the most important death accounts in the premodern Japanese literary corpus. Written by preeminent disciples of the poets, these accounts provide vital information about two of Japan’s most iconic literary figures. This book provides annotated translations of both memorials, along with an introduction and color images.
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Title information
The Death of Sōgi (Sōgi shūenki, 1502), by Sōchō, and The Death of Master Bashō (Bashō-ō shūenki, 1694), by Kikaku, are among the most important death accounts in the premodern Japanese literary corpus. Written by preeminent disciples of the poets, these accounts provide vital information about the careers of two of Japan’s most iconic literary figures and their circles of disciples. In Buddhist terms, they bear witness to the conviction that poetry itself can constitute a form of prayer that contributes to the repose and rebirth of the deceased.
This book provides annotated translations of both memorials, Sōchō’s account of Sōgi’s death constituting an upper verse to which Kikaku linked his lower verse describing the death of Bashō. They are preceded here by an introduction that outlines how these thanatographies served the departed and the bereaved—death and discipleship—and how both memorials were subjectively fashioned in response to venerable literary precedents and to new standards of taste. Color images of paintings of the masters and their disciples add to the presentation.
H. Mack Horton
Professor H. Mack Horton, Catherine and William L. Magistretti Chair of East Asian Languages and Cultures, teaches premodern Japanese language and literature at the University of California, Berkeley.
Ph.D (Oriental Languages, University of California, Berkeley), M.A. (Regional Studies East Asia, Harvard University)
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“Horton offers excellent translations of the death accounts of Sōgi and Bashō, along with original answers to two important questions: how disciples of a dying master respond to his death in their own relationships and practices and how they represent loss and recovery in their own writing. A masterful study, well researched and elegantly written.” ~Steven D. Carter, Stanford University |
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“Meticulous scholarship and elegant translation combine in this revelatory presentation of the ‘versiprose’ accounts of the deaths of two of the most famous linked-verse masters, Sōgi and Bashō, written by their disciples Sōchō and Kikaku.” ~Laurel Rasplica Rodd, University of Colorado at Boulder |
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“Mack Horton has a deep knowledge of the life and work of these two great Japanese poets, a lifetime of scholarship reflected everywhere in the volume’s introduction, translations, and detailed explanatory notes. This is a model of what an annotated translation should be.” ~Machiko Midorikawa, Waseda University |
