Haseo sōshi: A Medieval Scholar’s Muse

Abstract

The picture scroll Haseo sōshi (The Tale of Lord Haseo, dated between the end of the thirteenth century and the early fourteenth century) tells of Ki no Haseo (845–912), a famous scholar-poet, who gambles with an oni (demon or ogre) for a female prize who turns out to be a concoction from parts of dead bodies. With a variety of vivid characters, the Tale of Lord Haseo is a captivating story from the otogizōshi (literally ‘companion tales’) genre. Importantly, the text reveals medieval Japanese thought about the relationship between humans and demons, the creation of life from death, and beliefs in supernatural beings.

Acknowledgements

The article has greatly benefited from the suggestions and insights of two anonymous reviewers and the editors of Japanese Studies. A short version of this article in Japanese was presented at The International Conference on Tradition and Creation in the Culture of Yokai and the Strange, organised by International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto. I am grateful for the perceptive comments of Tokuda Kazuo, Kobayashi Kenji, Nagahara Junko, and Saito Maori at this event. I also would like to thank Anne Morris Hooke, my friend and neighbour, for her invaluable assistance.

Notes

¹ See Tokuda, ‘Sumiyoshi monogatari zakki’, 392–93 and ‘Kitano Shatō no geinō’, 1–22.

² Tokuda, Otogizōshi hyakka ryōran, 2–9.

³ Wakimoto Jūkurō surmises it was at the end of the Kamakura period (1185–1333) (‘Bungaku oyobi emaki’, 421), as does Kuwabara Hiroshi (Otogizōshi, 243). Umezu Jirō conjectures it was at the turn of the fourteenth century (‘Kaisetsu’, 8) and Murashige Yasushi considers the date to be around 1310–20s (‘“Haseo sōshi” no seiritsu to sakufū’, 89). For the text of The Tale of Haseo, see Komatsu and Murashige, Haseo sōshi, 1–39 and 117–19.

⁴ Komatsu and Murashige, Haseo sōshi, 90–98.

⁵ Murashige, ‘“Haseo sōshi” no seiritsu to sakufū’, 83–89.

⁶ Kuroda, Chūsei setsuwa, 363; Umezu, ‘Kaisetsu’, 7. Umezu did not think that the written text of The Tale of Lord Haseo came directly from the Zoku kyōkunshō story, but he believed the latter is close to its prototype.

⁷ Translation by Rimer and Chaves, Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing, 32. For the Japanese text of the entire Haseo verse, see Sugano, Wakan rōeishū, 24–25.

⁸ Kuroda, Chūsei setsuwa, 363.

⁹ Itō, Kuroda, and Miki, Wakan rōeishū kochūshaku shūsei, 1: 7–8.

¹⁰ Kuroda, Chūsei setsuwa, 365.

¹¹ Ibid. Also see Itō, Kuroda, and Miki, Wakan rōeishū kochūshaku shūsei, 2: 20–21.

¹² Kuroda, Chūsei setsuwa, 369.

¹³ Andō, Shōmetsu, 27.

¹⁴ The Suzakumon had already been destroyed by the middle of the thirteenth century, so it did not exist by the time the story of Haseo was first written; Andō, Shōmetsu, 184.

¹⁵ The stone monument for the site of the Rashōmon stands in Karahashi Saiji Park, near Ninth Avenue, south of Kyoto Station.

¹⁶ See Kuroda, Chūsei setsuwa, 359–73. The Tenri version and Kyōdai version take the Suzakumon as the backdrop, and the Tōdai version and Kokkai version take the Rashōmon; Kuroda, Chūsei setsuwa, 366.

¹⁷ Itō, Kuroda, and Miki, Wakan rōeishū kochūshaku shūsei, 1: 355. Yoshika’s Chinese poem is, ‘The weather clears, breezes comb/ the hair of young willows; / the ice is melting, wavelets wash/ the whiskers of old bog moss’ (Ki harete wa kaze shinryū no kami o kezuru, kōri kiete wa nami kyūtai no hige o arau). Translation by Rimer and Chaves, Japanese and Chinese Poems to Sing, 31. For the original version, see Sugano, Wakan rōeishū, 24. This poem appears in the ‘Early Spring’ section of Volume One of Wakan rōeishū, immediately before the poem of Ki no Haseo.

¹⁸ Asami, Jikkinshō, 394; Geddes, ‘A Partial Translation’, 491–92.

¹⁹ Nishio, Senjūshō, 316–17.

²⁰ Hirota, ‘Jinzō ningen’, 169. For Yoshika’s story in Hokekyō jurin shūyō shō, see Sonshun, Hokekyō, 110–11.

²¹ For the text of ‘Genjō to iu biwa, oni ni toraruru koto’, the 24th story of volume 24 of Konjaku monogatarishū, see Mabuchi, Kunisaki and Inagaki, Konjaku monogatarishū, 3: 308–11. For an English translation, see Ury, Tales of Times Now Past, 146–49.

²² Ury, Tales of Times Now Past, 147.

²³ Komatsu, ‘Biwa o meguru kaii no monogatari’, 223.

²⁴ Li, Ambiguous Bodies 117. For the explanations of oni in English, see Li, Ambiguous Bodies, especially chapters four and five; Kawashima, Writing Margins, especially chapter five; Reider, Japanese Demon Lore, especially chapter one.

²⁵ Mabuchi et al., Konjaku monogatarishū, 3: 245–55.

²⁶ The early thirteenth century is the most accepted time period for when the Hasedera genki was produced. Yokota Takashi, on the other hand, claims that the work was completed around the middle of the thirteenth century; Yokota, ‘Hasedera genki no seiritsu nendai’, 7.

²⁷ Nagai, Hasedera genki, 27.

²⁸ Setsuwa is a Japanese literary genre which broadly consists of myths, legends, folktales, and anecdotes. In the narrow sense of the term, they are ‘short Japanese tales that depict extraordinary events, illustrate basic Buddhist principles or, less frequently, other Asian religious and philosophical teachings, and transmit cultural and historical knowledge. These narratives were compiled from roughly the ninth through mid-fourteenth centuries in collections such as Konjaku monogatarishū’; Li, Ambiguous Bodies, 1. Setsuwa are often considered to have an oral origin and are second-hand stories. They are presented as true, or at least as possibly true, and are short. Also see Eubanks, Miracles of Book and Body, 8–11, especially for an explanation about Buddhist setsuwa literature.

²⁹ See Borgen, Sugawara no Michizane, 135–36. For the text of Gōdanshō, see Ōe, ‘Gōdanshō’, 81–82. For the text of Konjaku monogatarishū, see Mabuchi et al., Konjaku monogatarishū, 3: 311–12.

³⁰ For an English version, see Tyler, Japanese Tales, 232–33. For the Japanese text, see Mabuchi et al., Konjaku monogatarishū, 4: 228–30.

³¹ Tyler, Japanese Tales, 232. Tyler translates in’yō as ‘yin-yang lore’.

³² Ibid., 233.

³³ It should be noted, however, that some famous diviners such as Abe no Seimei (921?–1005) could not only foretell but also use magic. Like superior scholars, those who excel in the way of in’yō (translated by Tyler as ‘yin-yang’) were believed able to see or predict the behaviors of oni. For example, the 16th story of volume 24 of Konjaku monogatarishū tells that Abe no Seimei saw a parade of oni and hobgoblins his teacher could not see; Mabuchi et al., Konjaku monogatarishū, 3: 283. Onmyōji can create human-looking creatures out of paper or wood, but such artificial humans are essentially non-human. They usually revert to their former substance, such as paper, after their usefulness is over, though some non-human creatures may embark on their own lives after the onmyōji discarded them. Tanaka Takako surmises that it is those abandoned creatures who are the hobgoblins that appear in hyakki yagyō (the night processions of one hundred demons); Tanaka, Hyakki yagyō, 141.

³⁴ See note 1.

³⁵ Komatsu and Murashige, Haseo sōshi, 119.

³⁶ This episode appears in the 25th story of volume 25 of Konjaku monogatarishū titled ‘Miyoshi no Kiyoyuki saishō to Haseo no kōron no koto’ (An Argument between Councillor Miyoshi no Kiyoyuki and Ki no Haseo); Mabuchi et al., Konjaku monogatarishū, 3: 311–12.

³⁷ Andō, Shōmetsu; Yang, Oni no iru kōkei; Hijikata, ‘Haseokyō sōshi’; Murashige, ‘“Haseo sōshi” no seiritsu to sakufū’; Wakimoto, ‘Bungaku oyobi emaki’.

³⁸ Both Yasha and Rasetsu are Buddhist guardian deities. They are said to devour human flesh.

³⁹ For the texts of the Illustrated Legends of Kitano Shrine, see Komatsu, Nakano, and Matsubara, Kitano Tenjin engi, 118–37; Sakurai, Hagiwara, and Miyata, ‘Kitano tenjin engi’, 141–68.

⁴⁰ Komatsu and Naitō, Oni ga tsukutta kuni, 117.

⁴¹ Michizane’s story reveals the relationship between kami and oni proposed by Komatsu. That is, angry spirits turn into kami by way of people’s worship; Komatsu, Yōkaigaku shinkō, 193. Indeed, these fearful aspects of kami – or rough and rowdy kami at any rate – seem to earn them the name oni simply for want of a better word. Orikuchi asserts as well that the negative and fearful aspects of kami came to be considered oni; Orikuchi, Orikuchi Shinobu zenshū, 2: 283–84.

⁴² Yang, Oni no iru kōkei, 226–27.

⁴³ This is before Sugawara Michizane was given the status of Tenjin.

⁴⁴ Nagai, Hasedera genki, 46–50; Nojiri, ‘Yoki tenjin’, 5.

⁴⁵ Nojiri, ‘Yoki tenjin’, 7.

⁴⁶ See Yokota, ‘Hasedera to Tenjin shinkō’, 12–13.

⁴⁷ Ibid., 413.

⁴⁸ For an English text, see Tyler, Japanese Tales, 68–70. For the original Japanese text, see Nishio, Senjūshō, 198–202.

⁴⁹ Translation is by Tyler unless noted otherwise. Tyler, Japanese Tales, 69; Nishio, Senjūshō, 199. I have added the square brackets.

⁵⁰ Tyler, Japanese Tales, 69; Nishio, Senjūshō, 199.

⁵¹ Also known as Tsuchimikado Minister of the Right (1008–1077).

⁵² This translation by the author of this article, since Tyler did not provide one. For the Japanese text, see Nishio, Senjūshō, 201–02.

⁵³ Tyler, Japanese Tales, 69; Nishio, Senjūshō, 201.

⁵⁴ This date is given by Murayama, Nihon onmyōdō, 323–24.

⁵⁵ Mashimo and Yamashita, ‘Hokinaiden’, 106.

⁵⁶ See Hirota, ‘Jinzō ningen’, 159–69.

⁵⁷ Jikidanmono include many tales and poetry for easy understanding of Buddhist teachings.

⁵⁸ Hirota, ‘Jinzō ningen’, 159.

⁵⁹ Ibid., 159–60; Eishin, Hokekyō jikidanshō, 135–36.

⁶⁰ Kuroda, Rekishi to shite no otogi zōshi, 212–13.

⁶¹ Komatsu and Murashige, Haseo sōshi, 117.

⁶² Ibid., 118.

⁶³ Ibid.

⁶⁴ Li, Ambiguous Bodies, 128–29.

⁶⁵ Unlike the ivory statue transforming into a real human being because of Aphrodite’s (divine) intervention, the oni’s woman is extinguished because of Haseo’s (human) intervention.

⁶⁶ For the study of setsuwa and bodies, see Michelle Li’s Ambiguous Bodies, especially chapter four; Charlotte Eubanks’ Miracles of Book and Body, especially chapter three; Terry Kawashima, Writing Margins, especially chapter five.

⁶⁷ Komatsu, Yōkaigaku shinkō, 12.

⁶⁸ Oni are customarily portrayed with one or more horns protruding from a disheveled scalp, with skin that varies in skin color, often red, and a wide mouth with large fangs.

⁶⁹ Yang, Oni no iru kōkei, 107, 117–24.

⁷⁰ Appearing first in Japan in 1997, the manga was so successful that it was made into a television anime series and it inspired four feature length films. For the Japanese manga texts, see Takahashi, Inuyasha. For the English manga texts, see Takahashi, Inu Yasha.

⁷¹ The Japanese text is found in Umehara, Chūsei shōsetsushū, 35–58; an English translation is found in Umehara, ‘Haseo’s Love’.

⁷² Umehara, ‘Haseo’s Love’, 53.

⁷³ This is the pseudonym of Yoneyama Mineo.

⁷⁴ For the text, see Yumemakura and Amano, Kitan sōshi, 61–161.