The essays in this collection engage with Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale Genji as a work of philosophical significance, analyzing the text from a wide range of perspectives. The essays touch on almost all branches of philosophy and engage with topics such as the exercise of power, the concept of space, construction of personhood, cultural and artistic practices, and gender.

Murasaki Shikibu is from the Fujiwara clan of poets, lawyers and government officials. Her thought is grounded in a combination of Japanese animist Shinto, Japanese versions of Mayahana Buddhism (Tendai and Shigon), as well as Confucianism and its Daoist foundations. Murasaki’s great philosophical epic novel, Genji Monagatori (Tale of Genji), her diary, (Murasaki Shikibu Nikki) and her Poetic Memoirs (Murasaki Shikibu shū) discuss metaphysical issues such as the nature of being, women’s souls, women’s (...) rights, the nature of love, and other topics too detailed to present here. Murasaki is Japan’s first-known female philosopher. Her serially-published epic has been translated into many languages and has never been out of print. (shrink)

Dans le cadre de notre thèse, nous avons confronté les Lais de Marie de France datant du xiie siècle qui présentent la particularité alors inédite d’avoir pour auteur une femme et le Genji Monogatari de Murasaki Shikibu (une femme également), écrit au xie siècle au Japon, qui fait aussi figure d’exception dans un paysage scriptural majoritairement masculin, a fortiori pour une œuvre d’une telle ampleur. Le rapprochement entre les deux œuvres était avant tout motivé par une thématique de (...) fond, l’imaginaire féminin, déployé dans deux cultures géographiquement et sociologiquement éloignées, cependant immergées dans un milieu élitiste, celui de la Cour. Ce choix s’inscrivait surtout dans la perspective d’une approche mythocritique plutôt que strictement littéraire, dont l’intérêt se situait en deçà du cadre du texte, puisqu’il puisait dans la mythologie fondatrice des deux cultures, source de l’émergence d’un imaginaire féminin à des époques chiches de féminité. Or, cette analyse, que nous avons qualifiée de contrastive, a permis l’ouverture de la réflexion sur d’autres perspectives que seul autorisait un tel rapprochement ; elle a également cherché à distinguer, parmi les motifs communs aux deux textes, ceux qui relevaient d’une universalité (contextuelle) de ceux qui relevaient d’une commune origine eurasiatique. La réflexion était axée sur la notion d’altérité selon une acception très large mais concentrée sur la représentation par l’imaginaire féminin de l’Autre sexe et d’un Ailleurs avant tout textuel et narratif. (shrink)

Although we have already entered the twenty-first century, the sexist assumptions that undermine the professional status of women philosophers have not been fully exorcised. Notwithstanding Mary Ellen Waithe's groundbreaking multi-volume A History of Women Philosophers, doubts continue to arise over whether there has been or can be such a phenomenon as a woman philosopher. The very concept remains mired in stereotypical images. Auguste Rodin's famous statue of a naked male, generally referred to as "The Thinker," the self-chosen mascot of many (...) philosophers, is still dramatically posed outside Columbia University's Philosophy Hall. In fact it originally was named "The Poet,"... (shrink)

I approach Murasaki Shikibu’s marvelous literary pearl The Tale of Genji (Genji Monogatari) as analogous to glistening orbs that “come out of the disease of suffering oysters,” the suffering being the death of her beloved husband Fujiwara no Nobutaka (950?–1001). In addition to drawing evidence from the novel itself, I have relied on Murasaki’s lesser-known Poetic Memoirs and Diary that offer important insights into her state of mind and circumspect literary style. The Lotus Sūtra is the key (...) that unlocks Murasaki’s philosophical intent, with its use of parables and poems to provoke deeper understandings of Buddhism and personal realizations. The Buddhist principle of impermanence (Sanskrit anitya; Japanese mujōkan) serves as both the aesthetic of aware and an unavoidable fact that residents of the Heian court (like those in the Lotus Sūtra’s Burning House) choose to ignore or escape by reveling in superficial pursuits of beauty and political power. Various characters in the novel attempt to follow the path to the epistemological awakening the author Murasaki sought for herself. (shrink)

The classical form of the romance (courtly romance or chivalrous romance, the epic, romance tale) was created in the 11th-13th centuries in different countries by an entire series of great poets and authors, among whom Thomas, Chrétien de Troyes, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Gottfried of Strasbourg, Nezâmi, Rustaveli and Murasaki Shikibu had considerable influence on the development of their respective families of literature.

La figure du chat fait son apparition dans la littérature japonaise au ixe siècle, mais son image évoluera de manière inattendue à l’époque médiévale. Des témoignages littéraires du xie et du xiie siècle, tels que les Notes de chevet de Sei Shônagon et Le Dit du Genji de Murasaki Shikibu, montraient clairement l’intérêt porté aux chats par les dames de cour. Pourtant, à partir du xiiie siècle, le félidé fera au contraire l’objet d’une forme de « diabolisation », (...) et c’est cette dimension plus inquiétante du chat que nous aimerions évoquer ici, à travers trois exemples tirés du Kokon chomon-jû, vaste recueil de contes et légendes. Cette œuvre méconnue en Europe est attribuée à Tachibana no Narisue et achevée en 1254. The figure of the cat made its appearance in Japanese literature in the 9th century, but its image evolved unexpectedly in medieval times. Literary evidence from the 11th and 12th centuries, such as the Bedside Notes by Sei Shônagon and The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu clearly showed the interest of court women in cats. However, from the 13th century, the feline became the object of a form of “demonization”, and it is this more disturbing dimension of the cat that we would like to describe here, through three examples taken from Kokon chomon-Jû, a vast collection of tales and legends. This work, unknown in Europe, has been attributed to Tachibana no Narisue and was completed in 1254. (shrink)

This essay considers the way in which 'The Tale of Genji' by Murasaki Shikibu is wholly conceived within a Buddhist world-view, much as 'The Divine Comedy' is conceived within that of Christianity. The entire plot instantiates Buddhist views. Unlike another great work of literature on the theme of time, Proust's 'A la recherche du temps perdu', Lady Murasaki, consistently with her Buddhist outlook, offers us no consolation for the sufferings of this world.

Mary Ellen Waithe has put together another collection of essays on seventeen different women philosophers. In addition to serving as the general editor, Waithe authors lengthy chapters on Murasaki Shikibu, a Japanese literary writer; Heloise, a French writer on love and friendship; Oliva Sabuco de Nantes Barrera, a Spanish writer in natural philosophy; and a short summary chapter on Roswitha of Gandersheim, Christine Pisan, Margaret More Roper, and Teresa of Avila.

Diogenes, Ahead of Print. The Tale of Genji is the probably the earliest prose fiction in the world that still lives today as a masterpiece since the first decade of the 11th century. This 1200-page Japanese classic was written by a noble court woman, Murasaki Shikibu, and it spans almost three quarters of a century. The first part has to do with the life and loves of the nobleman known as “The Shining Genji”, and the final chapters follow (...) the fate and fortunes of the characters that survived after Genji’s death. There have been four English translations of the novel: one partial translation by a Japanese translator and three other complete translations by different English native speakers in the 20th century. This paper studies the Turkish translation process of The Tale of Genji from Edward G. Seidensticker’s English version. It points out the plentitude of potential translation choices and tries to explore the reasons of translators for their decisions. It compares the translators’ strategies and assesses their impact on the meanings and functions of the allusions and the connections between the adopted strategies. (shrink)

The Tale of Genji (Genji Monogatari) is the probably the earliest prose fiction in the world that still lives today as a masterpiece since the first decade of the 11th century. This 1200-page Japanese classic was written by a noble court woman, Murasaki Shikibu, and it spans almost three quarters of a century. The first part has to do with the life and loves of the nobleman known as “The Shining Genji”, and the final chapters follow the fate (...) and fortunes of the characters that survived after Genji’s death. There have been four English translations of the novel: one partial translation (1882) by a Japanese translator and three other complete translations by different English native speakers in the 20th century. This paper studies the Turkish translation process of The Tale of Genji from Edward G. Seidensticker’s English version. It points out the plentitude of potential translation choices and tries to explore the reasons of translators for their decisions. It compares the translators’ strategies and assesses their impact on the meanings and functions of the allusions and the connections between the adopted strategies. (shrink)

The 1000-year-old novel The Tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu around 1002 CE, shows the operation of general principles of sociobiology. Isolated from western influences and cloaked in Japanese traditions, the common traits associated with reproductive processes are clearly evident. The novel depicts the differential investment of males and females in offspring, male competitive behaviors, and concerns for paternity, kin selection, reciprocal social exchange, species-typical emotional expression, female mate choice, positive assortative mating, and acknowledgment of hereditary transmission (...) of physical and psychological traits. The nature of human behavior in Genji’s time seems little different than now and has all the attributes of species-specific and universal traits. Indeed, it can be argued that the fundamental characteristics of Homo sapiens have never changed, being influenced only in form by culture. The qualitative and quantitative evaluation of ancient texts is a strong methodology for understanding the invariant nature of human behavior. (shrink)

Mary Ellen Waithe has put together another collection of essays on seventeen different women philosophers. In addition to serving as the general editor, Waithe authors lengthy chapters on Murasaki Shikibu, a Japanese literary writer; Heloise, a French writer on love and friendship; Oliva Sabuco de Nantes Barrera, a Spanish writer in natural philosophy; and a short summary chapter on Roswitha of Gandersheim, Christine Pisan, Margaret More Roper, and Teresa of Avila.

Tsunesaburo Makiguchi is best known as the founder of Soka Gakkai, the association of lay members of the Nichiren Shoshu sect of Buddhism that has grown to number more than ten million followers throughout the world, including some 200,000 Nichiren Shoshu of America adherents in the United States. But Makiguchi had spent a lifetime as an educator, developing his "value creating" educationai philosophy, before he founded Soka Gakkai. In the 1930s he proposed educational reforms that were fully as (...) revolutionary as those advanced by his American counterpart John Dewey. He is one of Japan's most significant yet perhaps least recognized educators. Makiguchi said that Japan's educational system was haphazard, unplanned, fragmented, and useless. Convinced that the pursuit and creation of values are the ultimate purpose of life, he proposed a "value creating" educational system. Defining the three greatest values in life as goodness, beauty, and gain, Makiguchi held that through education people should increase their ability to create values and thus find happiness. (shrink)

Soka Gakkai is one of the world’s fastest-growing religious movements and Italy figures among the western nations where this religious group has been most successful. This article aims at explaining this success-story: why has Soka Gakkai, and particularly its Italian affiliation, grown so rapidly in recent years? This research question gives the opportunity to assess the applicability of the economic theory of religion to the growth of new religious movements. Hence, in order to explain the expansion of Soka (...) Gakkai, this work begins with an examination of the adaptive strategies developed by a Japanese organization in the Italian religious market. It is claimed, however, that a rational choice explanation cannot stand on its own and that we must take into account the dynamics of pre-contractual solidarity that promote trust, especially when the expected benefits promised by this organization to its adherents do not materialize. Moreover, these solidarity dynamics generate intense emotional gratification that works as a highly motivating incentive to sustain members’ commitment and to prevent them from dropping out. This pre-contractual solidarity is actively produced and continuously reproduced by means of ritual interaction along the lines suggested by Collins’s theory. (shrink)