pdf

It is usual practice in no studies to analyse no scripts as texts, from a literary point of view. In this paper I shall take Izutsu as an example and analyze its interpretations from the point of view of what is usually considered the social background to literature. To put it differently, I intend to reconsider the way interpretation is usually thought to reveal the "universal" meaning of a text―a meaning that would go beyond the interpreters' differences of gender, class and living epoch. First, I would like to have a look at interpretations of Izutsu in contemporary society. As opinion polls show, when Izutsu is performed at Nogakudo, the audience evaluates the leading character's attitude in various ways. This is related, I think, with the diversification of opinion towards the marriage system in nowadays Japan. I would like then to question the existence of multiple interpretations of Izutsu in medieval society. The story of Izutsu is based on Kamakura period commentaries on Ise Monogatari (as the well-known article "Yokyoku to Ise Monogatari no Hiden" by Ito Masayoshi has shown). Researchers do not agree whether the 24th dan of Ise Monogatari and its medieval commentaries are inserted or not in the text of Izutsu. If one takes into account medieval poetry treatises (such as Seiasho) about honkadori, one can say, I think, that the 24th dan of Ise Monogatari is not alluded to in Izutsu. I would like to consider the interpretation of the 24th dan of Ise Monogatari as seen in medieval commentaries, as well as its not being included in Izutsu from the point of view of the medieval marriage system. According to Tabata Yasuko, aristocrats (kuge) and warriors (buke) had rather different marriage systems. Would not this fact have had an influence on the way Izutsu was interpreted in the middle ages? The above analysis touches on the larger problem of the power-relationships that exist behind what is usually considered to be a unique "correct" interpretation of a text/play.