THE ART OF NOVELLA BY IHARA SAIKAKU (TRADITIONS AND NATIONAL SPECIFICITY)

Literature, as any type of panhuman activity, has its own canons and patterns that have been mastered and expanded by the classic writers of all nations of the worldover the centuries.In particular, Japanese literature is characterized by reliance on traditions, the active use of historical experience of previous periods literature and redefinition of the past, as well as an original and innovative point of view on reality.It is known that in the East the role of traditions has always been very important. Social behavior, the need to adhere to national traditions in the formation of the consciousness of each individual. Undoubtedly, this also applies to the cultural sphere of Japanese life, especially the work of writers. Direct references to past sources in the creative process were considered as important criteria in assessing the value of the work, and for a long time it was an indicator of the authorâ€™s level and extensive knowledge. The paper covers the role of literature traditions, the principles of interpretations classical Japanese and Chinese literary sources in the works of a talented representative of Japanese literature of the seventeenthcentury Ihara Saikaku. For this purpose, a selection of the interpreted works of the author and their analysis with a number of classical primary sources of Japanese and Chinese literature has been made. Through the analysis, the principles of redefinition, an innovative interpretation of examples of Japanese and Chinese literature of the past, as well as shifts in the system of artistic representations of that time have been revealed.


Research Methods:-
Based on the objectives of the article, the methods of cultural-historical, comparative analysis were used.

Results and Discussion:-
As mentioned above, the novellas of Ihara Saikaku was formed in many ways, combining the traditions of the past. Based on this, a number of scientific works have been carried out by Japanese scholars to identify the sources of literature and folklore. In particular, in his collection of fantastic novellas from the collection 西鶴諸国ばなし ("Stories of Saikaku from the Provinces", 1685), the writer uses a number of national folklore plots, motifs. In particular, Saikaku's novella行末の宝船"The Boat of Treasures Sailing Far" which is based on a legend called諏訪の湖にあり"The incident that occurred at the lake Suwa" fromthe collection of Japanese folklore宇治拾遺物語("Stories collected in Uji" XIII) is a good example of this. Before analyzing Saikaku's novella, it is appropriate to give a brief summary of the legend that served as its source. According to the legend, the envoy of the underwater kingdom visited a man living near the lake and invited him to go with him to the palace of his lord, the dragon. The man accepted the envoy's invitation and left, leaving the dragon's palace. [1,[45][46].
In the novella "The boat of treasures floating far away", the writer uses this ancient legend to create a work about the society of his time and its people. Directly, a number of changes made to the system of characters served to achieve this goal. Kannai, who sank and disappeared as the iced surface of the lake melted, and who eventually returned to the lake with a delegation of submarines, is the protagonist and carry outs the role of envoy in the novella. The underwater world, the dragon, and its palace are not directly described in the writer's work, but only mentioned in the answer of the returning Kannai to the people who began to question him. In other words, these images, which are clearly depicted in the legend, exist only in the story of the protagonist and in the imagination of the people around him. In this passage, the author describes the advantages of the underwater kingdom and describes to the reader an ideal, utopian society: Saikaku, who is always seen as an outspoken narrator, indirectly refers to the problems of the society of that time through Kannai's comparisons saying "there ..." and "here ..." in his own style. However, in this work, the author's attention was focused on the peculiarities of human behavior, which are more revealed in certain situations than the social conditions of the period. The author did this with the help of additional characters, the people who were surrounding Kannai. The passage in which the protagonist invites people as in the legend to go to that underwater world confirms this idea: 「あの国の女の、いたづらを皆々、見せましたい事ちゃ」といふ。「それはなる事か」といへば、「そ れがしのままなり。十日ばかりの隙入りにして御越しあれ。銀銭を舟に一ばい積みてまゐらせん」と申 せば、「我はつね々のよしみ」「人よりは念比した」と、行く事をあらそひける。親方をはじめ、その 中にて、七人伴ひける。取り残されし人、これをなげきしに、耳にも聞きいれず。 [2,[92][93] 826 "I wanted to show the skills of the women of that country," he said. "Is it possible?" they asked him. "It will be as I wish. Take ten days off and go with me. Then I'll see you off with the ship full of silver" Kannai replied. Then one man said, "I have been his friend since time immemorial!" "I was his best friend!" the another added. They argued for a long time about who should leave.
Through the example of the women of the wonderful underwater world, the people who were offended by Kannai's words about the ship full of silver, Saikaku reflects the vice that is inherent to humankind which is called "greed". The greed deprives them of the ability to perceive the danger that lies ahead (leaving them with the possibility of not being able to return to a world whose existence is unknown). At the end of the novella, the writer introduces readers with another character and concludes it in a unique way:

93]
As they boarded the gleaming boat, one of them realized the situation and said, "I have a very important job to do, so I can't go with you".The others said, "Goodbye,"and the boat plunged into the waves. Although more than ten years have passed, there is no news from them. It is not hard to imagine how much grief the widows of these six men felt. The man, who stayed, on the other hand, is now living a long life as a drafter of official documents.
The author encourages the reader to draw the necessary conclusions independently, as he portrays the image of people who think rationally, understand the situation and, conversely, cannot cope with it. The last sentences about the fate of these people give a didactic tone to the story. As we can see, Saikaku interpreted the plot of the Japanese legend, which tells the story of this strange event, in a new way through a series of changes, additions to the sequence of plot and characters, and based on it, he created a different work.
The number of novellas that have emerged through reference to Japanese folklore, such as the author's above works, The collection "Stories of Saikaku from the Provinces" also contains nollevas that resonate with the plays of No theater, which in turn indicates the wide range of sources used as material for the work of the writer. There is close connection between Saikaku's novella 十二人の俄坊主("Twelve Men Who Became Priests") from the collection closeness andNo play named安宅 "Ataka"[4,1016] that is based on the heroic epic tale義経記 ("The Tale of Yoshitsune", XV) [5,1-2]. The play is dedicated to the story of Yoshitsune, who was persecuted by his brother Yoshimoto. He sets out for Oshu Province in the guise of twelve priests with his vassals led by Benkei. When they reach to the Ataka wall in Kaga Province, Yoshitsune's servant Benkei, intending to cross the border somehow safely, introduces himself as a priest collecting donations for the renovation of the Todaiji temple in response to Togashi's investigation. In an attempt to dispel Togashi's suspicions, Benkei reads a fake kaninjo -a letter sent to repair temples, and even beats his master Yoshitsune. The play ends with the passengers passing through the wall reaching their destination [6,133-142.].
The novella tells about the story about great feudal lord, who accompanied by his samurai vassals, sailed to the Gulf of Kada and his adventures: his landing on the island of Avajima, defeating a giant snake that suddenly appeared on this island, and the creature swallowing the twelve samurai in the feudal's boat as it retreated to the sea and surviving of these samurai aftercoming back from the snake's stomach without a single strand of hair like priests.
In the title of his work, Saikaku points out that he used the play's motif of the twelve men who became priests. If we also pay attention to the phrase 十二人つくり坊主となれり [2, 56] "twelve people have become priests" in the last part of the novella, it is easy to see that this is a slightly modified expression of the opening line 十二人の作り山伏となって[6, 133] "Twelve people became priests" of the play which were interpreted.

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The last part of the play's text, which concludes, 虎の尾を踏み毒蛇の口を、遁れたる心地して、陸奥の国へぞ、下りける [6, 142] "Although Yoshitsune and his companions escaped the venom of the snake, despite being in equal danger by stepping the tiger's tail, they finally sighed and headed for Mutsu Province" explains why the author included the image of a snake in his novella. The metaphor of "escaping from the mouth of a venomous snake that steps the tail of a tiger" which describes the border guard Togashi and conveys the status of heroes who managed to cross the wall, was masterfully incorporated into the plot of the novella by Saikaku.
With regard to the commonalities of the play and thenovella, it should be noted that in the plot of both works there is a passage related to the entertainment of the protagonists. At the end of Ataka's play, there is a scene where Togashi invites passengers to a party, in which Benkei apologizes to his master in the form of a dance performance for his disrespect at the border. As for Saikaku's work, a piece depicting the samurai performing swimming and fencing is placed at the beginning of the plot.
While Ataka is a story about the brave and clever samurai led by Benkei, who relies not only on his strength but also on his intelligence and seeks to save his master, Yoshitsune, from any dangerous situation, Saikaku's novella is the opposite. Saikaku creatively uses motifs of the play to create a satirical novella aboutcoward samurais, parodying a serious heroic play about physically and mentally ideal warriors.
When Yoshitsune overcomes danger thanks to the samurai, the feudal lord, who is confronted by a giant snake, is forced to save himself, on the contrary. The coward samurais, who had previously showcased their martial arts skills with their performances, were unable to save themselves, let alone their master, when faced with danger. The plot of the novella is based on the sequence of motifs of "entertainment -a confrontation with a snake -twelve people that turned into priest", which first describes the peaceful and then dangerous state of the samurai, highlighting their shortcomings and giving a humorous tone to the work. This, in turn, explains why, unlike the play, the motif of entertainment is mentioned at the beginning of the novella. The humorous tone in the novella is especially noticeable in the last sentences about the samurais on the boat that came back out of the snake's stomach: [2, 56] As they approached the boat and looked at the people sitting on it, they all were unconscious from fear. Not a hair of their heads was left, and the twelve of them became priests.
The image of the twelve priests, referring to the exemplary samurai in the play, was portrayed in Saikaku's work as a symbol of the unprofessional, coward samurais.
While the novella "Twelve Men Who Became Priests" is an unexpected satirical interpretation of the well-known poetic imagery and motifs, the same cannot be said about the next novella 生き肝は妙薬のよし ("It is said that the liver of a living being is a wonderful medicine") from the collection 新可笑記(New Stories Worth Laughing, 1688).
As is known from the title "New Stories Worth Laughing", it is based on the work of Saito Chikamori (1603-1674) 可笑記("Stories Worth Laughing", 1642), created under the pen-name Nyoraishi. Nyoraishi's collection is an exemplary work for the second class, in which the author is deeply concerned about the decline of traditions and moral views in the samurai's environment, and tells about the good qualities of Chinese and Japanese warriors [7,140]. Saikaku also dedicates this collection to illustrating the exemplary qualities of samurai with interesting stories.
The novella "It is said that the liver of a living creature is a wonderful medicine" is the result of Saikaku's inspiration from the play 阿弥陀胸割 "Amida's Wounded Chest" (1614), which is constantly staged from the repertoire of Genroku period's puppet theater -Joruri.The story of a girl and her brother who sacrifice their life to obtain the forgiveness from Buddha for the crimes of their late and sinful parents -Teirei and her brother -Tenju is the content of this play. The parents executed for their deeds can be forgiven by the Buddha only when a memorial stone is placed in their memory.However, orphans do not have money for this.Soon, rumor spread about the son of a local nobleman was seriously ill and that he would be cured by the liver of a girl born on the third day of the third month, that is, under the same number.Upon learning of this, the girl agreed to donate her liver in exchange for placing a memorial stone in her parents'memory.In the culmination of the play that depicts the scene where a girl's liver is being cut, a miracle occurs, typical of the joruri plays tradition.The Buddha -Amida enters the dying girl's 828 body and saves the protagonist from death by taking all the dagger blows.The scene ends with the nobleman's son marrying his savior, and Tenju joining the priesthood [8,.
Saikaku narrates the tragedy of a samurai who unconditionally obeys the bushido code by mastering the fourth and sixth scenes of the play. The novella also features an image of a seriously ill nobleman's son, who can be healed by the liver of a girl born on the certain date, as in the play. Although the boy's image does not appear directly as in the play, he becomes the cause of a tragedy with the protagonist -samurai. It was the samurai who was tasked with bringing the medicine that would cure this little master's ailment. Two characters in the exposition -the mother and her beautiful daughter, who live at the foot of Mount Asakayama in the east of the countrybecome the prey of the protagonist. On a rainy night, through the appearance of samurai in the guise of a travelling priest in front of the mother and child's hut, the author takes the reader to a horrible episode unexpectedly, explaining that a woman who felt sorry for the priest who soaked in the rain offers a place to stay overnight. In the scene where the fraud priest cuts off the girl's liver at night and disappears, throwing away 100 ryo of gold, demonstrates that the novella is actually based on the motif of the play "Amida's Wounded Chest". It was the change in the role of the girl in the plot, that is, the fact that she did not sacrifice her life voluntarily, but became an object of murder, that ensured the tragedy of the novella.The fact that a woman placed a memorialstonefor her child who was killed in order tobecome a cure for a serious illness according to ancient myths also points to the play. While the memorial stone placed for his parents on the money received in exchange for her liver brought joy to Teirei, it is a tragedy for the hero of Saikaku, who lost her child.
The writer develops the plot line and brings the protagonist, who appeared in front of the woman three years later, back into the narrative in order to clarify what happened. Here the reader is convinced that the work from the passage in the form of a samurai monologue, which introduces himself to the woman and confesses to his actions, is the next novella by Saikaku about duty from the cycle "bukemono".This episode, which conveys the human experience of human suffering due to duty, not only expands and complicates the plot of the work, but also gives it a different mood and new content from the source: disease was a rare one in the world, and it was difficult to find a cure even from medicine. Then, a palace doctor in Kyoto secretly told us that the liver of an unmarried girl born on the fifth day of the fifth month was a wonderful medicine. As we searched the whole country, we were told the news about your daughter. After the consultation, when so many people were standing, they assigned me to do the work, thinking that one of the new entrants seemed to be older. I took your daughter's life without mercy, believing that this was also my duty. This is not a victory on the battlefield, although the little master has recovered indefinitely after recovering from an incurable disease, and the prospect of a further promotion in the future has arisen. The prosperity of my house with such work is contrary to the divine way. Usually, what is gained contrary to the truth is lost in the same way ... " Saikaku's attitude towards samurai morality is once again expressed in this play, which ends with the samurai becoming a priest who killed the girl at the behest of his master "believing that this was also his duty" and felt the weight of his guilt and realized the uncertainty of the world. The situation that a man in a samurai society performs his duty of "faithfulness" but suffers from the fact that it is a sin of murder and enters the path of religion surrounded by a strong sense of remorse is a contradiction in the moral views of medieval society.
While "Amida's Wounded Heart" is a medieval fantastic legend with the religious mood where the protagonist's survives through the divine protection of Buddha Amida, Saikaku's novella, which removes such fantastic elements, is a very realistic and tragic story. Although the motive of cutting off the liver of another living person to save 829 another human's life was considered a similar aspect of both works, it was interpreted in the play as a symbol of the sacrifice of an exemplary child to his parents, and in the novella as the samurai's murder for the sake of duty.
In the collection "New Stories Worth Laughing" it can be seen that Saikaku skillfully used not only Japanese, but also Chinese sources in the process of creating his novellas. For example, there is a novella 炭焼きも火宅の合点("Coal is also the intention of this world of sorrows") [9,[507][508][509][510][511][512] that was inspired by the story from the41st volume of Sima Qian's「史記」 ("Historical Records") 越世家范蠡附("The Go Qiang House. Fan Li") [10,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] is that Fan Li's middle son, could not save his brother who was imprisoned for murder, from the death penalty due to his greed. The novella is one of the rare works of the writer, which is formed through the direct adaption of a Chinese plot.
In his career, Saikaku used sources from Chinese literature in a number of other works, in addition to his collections "New Stories Worth Laughing". In particular, his collection 本朝桜陰比事("Parallel Cases From Under the Cherry Tree", 1689) that includes some of the plots of the collection 棠陰比事 ("Parallel CasesFrom Under the Pear Tree") by Gui Wanrong (1125-1200) is a collection of novellas on court cases in Japanese prose of seventeenth century [11,37].
The novellas in Saikaku's collection are as interesting and sharp as in the Chinese author's short stories, and the events in them are marked by a well-formed conflicts based on the crime and its subsequent investigation. However, there are significant differences in the narrative styles of Saikaku and Gui Wanrong.
To cite the example of Saikaku's novella仏の夢は五十日 ("Fifty Days of Dreams about the Buddha:) is enough to give us a complete picture of the nature of these differences. Gui Wanrong's story 程薄旧銭("Small Old Coins") served as the basis for the novella. It tells the story of Chéng Yí, a man from Henan province and an accident happened with him during his visit to Jingjiao. A man who found coins underground while renting his brother's house and a nephew who demanded that the coins should be returned, claimed that the coins were deliberately buried by his father. The issue will be resolved when the two sides, who insisted, saying "I will not give up the discovery without proof" are brought before Chéng Yí.The process of investigation is briefly portrayed in the formof a dialogue between Chéng Yí, who asks questions in order to get to the truth, and the young man who answers them. When Chéng Yí's asks about the time when coins were buried, boy answers saying "twenty years ago". Having carefully studied the coins Chéng Yí said the coins had been mint long before his father'sbirth and asked why the father had buried only old coins. The story ends with the image of a hesitant young man who didn't know what to answer to that wise question [11,66].
In the novella Saikaku tells the story of a deceitful pious Shakaemon who seeks to make money through a similar trick, using the motif of mismatch between the year of the coin's burial and the years mentioned by the young man. However, unlike the simple lie of the young man in Chinese story, Shakaemon's trick, which was carried out in several stages, was consistent and much more carefully planned. This is directly reflected in the development of events of the work. Leaving the watchmaking profession as if he was dreaming of divine dreams, the protagonist, who has been devoted to religion for fifty days, claims in his dream that a prophecy is being made that a golden statue of the Buddha is buried under the house where he lives.After convincing the landlord, he secretly buries the statue in the first excavation of the house, claiming that he had the same dream the next day, digging the ground deeper and "finding" the statue that had been buried by himself a day ago, he reveals himself to people around him as a person with a divine power.
Reconsidering and complicating the motif of Chinese story, the author portrays the image of the protagonists in the novella accordingly with a peculiar ingenuity that is convincing and distinct. In particular, Saikaku's protagonist is much more cunning than the image of a young man who tries to deceive Cheng Yi and those around him with a simple lie in order to get the money. In the novella, the character, who plays the role of a judge, is even smarter. The fact that the pious man, as the person who found the golden Buddha statue, and the landlord as the owner of the place where the object was found, insists that it is his property and that they turn to the shogun viceroy to resolve the matter points to the episodes in the Chinese source plot.
Through shogun's clever viceroy, Saikaku offers a reasonable and realistic (convincing) way to expose this pious trick. This shogun's viceroy not only gathers sculptor craftsmen to find out when the statue was made and how long 830 it has been underground, but also calls representatives of the city court to find out when the house was built. Unlike Cheng Yi, who declares coins to be obsolete solely on the basis of his own knowledge, the viceroy achieves them through the evidence based on a solution to the problem.
Another aspect that distinguishes Saikaku's novella from the Chinese work is the existence of a punitive motif in response to the crime cited in its solution. This is directly explained by the fact that the author has shaped this act of the protagonist not in the form of mere lies, but in the form of fraud aimed at making money by deceiving people through involvement of the Buddha.
In this work, Saikaku is embodied not only as a master of a puzzling and complex plot line, but also as a creator who skillfully illuminates life scenes and the unique character of people who appear only in unexpected situations. This is especially evident in the passage of the novella, which depicts the conflict between an instantaneous landlord who initially took the pious's words lightly, but changed his mind after founding that the statue was golden and the fraud pious who do not expect the situation to take such a turn: The landlord greedily said, "That's mine!". The renter (Shakaemon) did not understand the situation and said, "The Buddha belongs to me because I have covered all the expenses." "Never. You wanted to dig my house anyway, and I agreed. But I did not promise that the Buddha would be yours!" The author writes about the situation of Shakaemon when he was revealed by the viceroy: さま々、詮議の仕やう有と仰出されし時。釋迦右門驚き貧より惡事をたくみ申すよし心底殘さす申上る 。[12, 108.] Shakaemon, out of fear that he would be interrogated with various questions, said that he did not hide anything, that this bad deed was caused by need.
Here the new principles of analysis of reality and human character have served to the expansion their scope through the conflict adopted from the story of Gui Wanrong. As observed as the result of a new interpretation the Chinese source had lost its original content and became as an integral part of the Saikaku's artistic system.

Conclusion:-
In conclusion, in Saikaku's works, the material adopted from the literary sources of the past has undergone a new process of interpretation in the form of a complete plot template, a motif from the plot structure, a prototype of characters. In interpreting the classical Chinese and Japanese literary sources, the writer did not repeat them, but through expansion and several changes of its plot line, reconsideration of the system of images, complication of its conflicts and situations with an unexpected mood and content, depending on the purpose and events of the story writer created completely new works. As observed above, Saikaku used the sources of the past to create works about his period and its people, to create certain and unusual situations that allows to reflect the peculiarities of an unusual behavior of a real human being, the changes that occurred in his way of thinking, to reflect the contradictions in the moral views of early modern society. It has also been observed that Saikaku relied on the method of parody in his innovative interpretation of Japanese stories of epic heroes and changed the traditional method of adapting such works. References:-