Part 3: You Cannot Read Literature Without Knowing the Culture

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Up until the last article, I wrote about the Japanese linguistics classes I took at a women's university in the late Showa period.

Classes that read Natsume Soseki's 'Kusamakura' as a logical structure.
And classes where logical symbols like ∀ and ∃ appeared as a matter of course, despite being Japanese linguistics classes.

However, that was not the only characteristic of Professor Mizutani's classes.

Another thing that remains strongly in my memory is

the idea that cultural background is necessary to read literature

.

A class on reading Mantaro Kubota's 'Sabishikereba'

In class, works by Mantaro Kubota were also covered.

I still remember the words the professor said at that time.

"You cannot read it if you don't have a map in your head"

It was a literature class.
However, what the professor made an issue of was not the psychology of the characters.

It was the geography of Tokyo.

You cannot read it if you don't have a map in your head

Mantaro Kubota's works feature the downtown area of Tokyo.

Now, I understand that it is a story about the Yanaka and Negishi areas.
However, at the time, I had just moved to Tokyo from the countryside and had absolutely no sense of the geography of the downtown area.

Living on the west side of Tokyo, I had no idea about the sense of distance or direction.

But the professor...

If you cannot visualize the spatial relationships of the locations in your head, you haven't really read the work.

That is what I said.

I think that was quite a high hurdle for female college students.
This was an era without smartphones or Google Maps.
And on top of that, how was it considered 'normal' to keep a map of the Taisho era in one's head...?

Sasanoyuki and 'Ankake'

In the work, there is a scene where the protagonist and their parent go to

Sasanoyuki

to visit.

Sasanoyuki is a long-established tofu restaurant in Negishi.

However, at the time, I didn't even know that.

Furthermore, the characters order dishes there such as

ankake
nori

and so on.

But I didn't even know what kind of dish 'ankake' was.

The teacher explained it to me as

'Tofu with a starchy sauce on it,'

but

'Is that even good...?'

I thought to myself, which, looking back now, was a truly rude thing to think.

It was quite difficult for a student who had just arrived in Tokyo to imagine.

Interpretation of "Rappa-bushi"

This kind of class was not limited to Man-taro Kubota.

We also covered "Rappa-bushi", which was popular from the Meiji to the Taisho era.

Who is speaking these lines?

It is a problem of deducing.

Moreover, one must list all the expressions that serve as evidence in the form of answering the hints above.

As written in my notes, the "familiar person" referred to here is

not a courtesan.

Without understanding the vocabulary and human relationships of Edo culture, one cannot interpret it.

By the way, I will try to answer the questions from back then a little (I don't remember the class, so maybe this is common sense I acquired later?). I apologize if I am wrong.

1. Using old-fashioned language is a characteristic of intentionally making a big deal out of something. It's like saying "Ms. So-and-so?" instead of "you" to a child.
2. Limited to between men and women.
3. A customer (from long ago), someone who was a regular.
4. Something that "naturally" follows from what was said before. It means the speaker deduced it themselves, not that they heard it through rumors (it is not "if you listen").
5. "O-nasaru" (to do) contains the intention of the person performing the action, more so than "o-ni naru" (to become/do).
6. "Ja-no-mi-cha-he-bi" means that even if they are not in the exact same profession, you can understand them because they are in the same genre.
7. It means you understand it naturally, not because you thought about it intentionally.
8. They were saying "kochi no hito" (this person here), but it turned into "omae" (you).
It is not even a polite way of speaking like "omae-san," but just "omae" (it doesn't have the rude meaning it has today, but it feels like the honorifics have been dropped).
9. The implied meaning is "Don't make a fool of me (don't underestimate me)." "Teka" is an abbreviation of "te iu no ka" (are you saying that?).
10. They were sharing a Japanese umbrella, so he is holding it over her so she doesn't get wet. By the way, at the time, just sharing an umbrella was an expression of "being in that kind of relationship."
11. They live together, and the woman does the housework. The man has returned from an affair, and the woman first takes his outer garment (haori) (he is changing clothes), folds it, and begins to question him about the affair in a normal manner.
12. Since he returned in a wet haori, it is unlikely he took it off at some point. So it is morning, or rather, today's rain. However, he went out yesterday, so it is a morning return (perhaps there is a theory that it was late at night or early morning?? I'm not confident).
13. The man insists that he was not sharing an umbrella because he was with two people, but since one sleeve is wet, it is clear he was sharing an umbrella with someone.
The person making a man share an umbrella is likely a professional woman.



But with this many detailed questions (hints), I can actually understand quite a bit now.
I wrote that, but I would feel terrible to the teacher if I were wrong.

You cannot read a work without knowing the culture

Through these classes, one thing left a strong impression on me.

That is that literary works

cannot be understood by reading only the words.

ということだ。

To read literature,

• Geography

• Culture

• Daily life

• Common sense

—such background knowledge is necessary.

Professor Mizutani always said that only by understanding such cultural premises

can one truly say they have read a literary work

.

And this experience had a major influence on my subsequent reading.

Literature is not made of words alone. If you do not know the culture and life behind them, you cannot read them in the true sense.

Next time: The reason I became interested in Japanese linguistics

Next time, I would like to write about why I chose the Japanese Literature department at this university.