The Byakuren Incident and Its Performativity : On Media Coverage and the novel Ho-o ten wo utsu

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  • メディアとしての白蓮事件 : 事件報道と「鳳凰天に搏つ」をめぐって
  • メディア ト シテ ノ ビャクレン ジケン : ジケン ホウドウ ト 「 ホウオウテン ニ ハクツ 」 オ メグッテ

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Abstract

This paper analyses the discourse surrounding the so-called Byakuren incident, that is a string of events referring to tanka poet Yanagihara Byakuren’s eloping with her lover from her husband’s place. In this paper, I will, on the one hand, clarify the social problems brought to the fore by the incident and its media coverage, and, on the other hand, look into the connection between the incident and the novel Ho-o ten wo utsu, published by Byakuren afterwards. This incident caught the attention of the media in the first place as a result of the publication of Byakuren’s break-up letter to her husband, Ito Den’emon. This letter included sharp criticism directed at the power of money, and was interpreted as a woman’s cry for freedom from the financial pressures of marriage. On the other hand, Den’emon himself made his answer to Byakuren public; in his letter, he criticized her exaggerated pride and hysterical behaviour, which, he implies, stem for her aristocratic background. Thus, his letter was, in fact, a criticism of noble families, and was ultimately ignored by the media. Byakuren’s novel Ho-o ten wo utsu, a biography of the Chinese queen Sokuten Buko, published under the above-mentioned circumstances, describes the difficulties of Chinese court ladies, while indirectly referring to Byakuren’s own problems; it also criticizes the tendency of the media to consider any reference to Japanese aristocracy a taboo, and explains the reasoning behind this convention. This paper shows how the media discourse surrounding the Byakuren incident took aim at the issue of social class in modern Japan, and how Byakuren’s subsequent novel further deepened this discussion from a different point of view.

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