Uncovering Heian Japan : an archaeology of sensation and inscription
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Uncovering Heian Japan : an archaeology of sensation and inscription
(Asia-Pacific : culture, politics, and society)
Duke University Press, 2000
- : hbk
- : pbk
Available at 30 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
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  France
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  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [207]-216) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The poetry of the Heian court of Japan has typically been linked with the emergence of a distinct Japanese language and culture. This concept of a linguistically homogeneous and ethnically pure "Japaneseness" has been integral to the construction of a modern Japanese nation, especially during periods of western colonial expansion and cultural encroachment. But Thomas LaMarre argues in Uncovering Heian Japan that this need for a cultural unity-a singular Japanese identity-has resulted in an overemphasis of a relatively minor aspect of Heian poetry, obscuring not only its other significant elements but also the porousness of Heian society and the politics of poetic expression.
Combining a pathbreaking visual analysis of the calligraphy with which this poetry was transcribed, a more traditional textual analysis, and a review of the politics of the period, LaMarre presents a dramatically new view of Heian poetry and culture. He challenges the assumption of a cohesive "national imagination," seeing instead an early Japan that is ethnically diverse, territorially porous, and indifferent to linguistic boundaries. Working through the problems posed by institutionalized notions of nationalism, nativism, and modernism, LaMarre rethinks the theories of scholars such as Suzuki Hideo, Yoshimoto Takaaki, and Komatsu Shigemi, in conjunction with theorists such as Derrida, Karatani, Foucault, and Deleuze. Contesting the notion that speech is central to the formation of community, Uncovering Heian Japan focuses instead on the potential centrality of the more figural operations of poetic practice.
Specialists in Japanese history and culture as well as scholars working in other areas of cultural criticism will find that this book enriches their understanding of an early Japan that has exerted so much influence on later concepts of what it means to be Japanese.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii
A Note on Transliteration and Illustrations ix
Introduction: Unstating Heian Japan 1
Part One. The Interpretation of Rebuses
1. Revising the Rebus 13
2. Kana Inscription and Stylistic Differentiation 26
3. Composition and Competition 50
Part Two. Inscription and Sensation
4. Toward a History of Styles 77
5. Heian Calligraphy 93
6. The Multisensible FIgure: Ashide Shita-e Wakanroeisho 116
Part Three. The Song Machine
7. Two Prefaces, Two Modes of APpearance 143
8. Tsurayuki's Song Machine 161
Notes 189
Works Consulted 207
lIllustrations 217
Index 229
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