Nise Monogatari (仁勢物語, occasionally 似勢物語) is a Japanese kana-zōshi written in the early Edo period by an unknown author.

Genre

Nise Monogatari is a work of the kana-zōshi genre.^[1]

It was written as a parody of the famous Heian period romantic poem tale the Ise Monogatari,^[1] specifically the rufubon (popular) text containing 125 short episodes.^[1]

Authorship and date

The author of Nise Monogatari is unknown.^[1] The late-Edo period author Ryūtei Tanehiko speculated that it was the early Edo waka poet and Noh playwright Karasumaru Mitsuhiro,^[1] but modern scholars reject this theory.^[1]

It was written around 1639 (Kan'ei 16),^[1] and first printed around the end of the Kan'ei era in 1644.^[1] The illustrations included in the first printed edition are based on the Kan'ei 6 (1629) edition of the Ise Monogatari.^[1]

Content

Unlike other parodies of classical works, such as Inu Makura (犬枕) and Inu Tsurezure (犬徒然), Nise Monogatari is a beat-for-beat parody of the content of Ise,^[1] with the setting changed from the sophisticated courtly world of the Heian aristocracy to the vulgar society of early modern Japan.^[1]

This work stands out from the other parodies specifically of Ise that appeared later (such as Okashi Otoko [おかし男], Kōshoku Ise Monogatari [好色伊勢物語], Shinjitsu Ise Monogatari [真実伊勢物語] and Nise Monogatari Tsūho-shō [仁勢物語通補抄]) in terms of the consistency of its humour.^[1]

It is centered around puns and humour,^[1] with the plot itself unremarkable and apparently not having been a concern for the author.^[1]

Given the stern reverence afforded the classics in the early Edo period, this work is of interest for the commoner's sensibility it applies to a particularly important literary classic.^[1]

Textual tradition

The first edition was published around 1644^[1] in two volumes,^[1] and saw several reprints^[1] in addition to new editions of the work being produced.^[1]}

The work was also copied in manuscript form,^[1] such as the National Diet Archives copy in one volume,^[1] which provides useful historical data on the era in which manuscripts were still being copied by hand in Japan.^[1]

References

Works cited