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Pagoda, Skull & Samurai
Japanese literary history usually classifies Koda Rohan as an idealist writer, and the three stories included in this anthology belong to this genre. The Five-Storied Pagoda , one of Koda's best-known works, is the moving account of a misunderstood carpenter who has been inspired to undertake the construction of a pagoda by himself. It is not merely a story of individualism, however, for the religious implications of such a task are profound.
Encounter with a Skull concerns a fortuitous meeting of two souls not necessarily ordained by karma. The multiple processes of enlightenment are perceptively depicted in this eerie tale.
The last story, The Bearded Samurai , is an historical novella whose setting is the sixteenth-century battle of Nagashino between the forces of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu and those of Takeda Katsuyori. Here, the human side of the warrior and a realistic view of the samurai are delineated.
Such stories, in addition to the essays and notes by the translator, will prove of interest to the general reader and especially to the reader already familiar with Japanese literature.
Encounter with a Skull concerns a fortuitous meeting of two souls not necessarily ordained by karma. The multiple processes of enlightenment are perceptively depicted in this eerie tale.
The last story, The Bearded Samurai , is an historical novella whose setting is the sixteenth-century battle of Nagashino between the forces of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu and those of Takeda Katsuyori. Here, the human side of the warrior and a realistic view of the samurai are delineated.
Such stories, in addition to the essays and notes by the translator, will prove of interest to the general reader and especially to the reader already familiar with Japanese literature.
280 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1982
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About the author
Rohan Kōda
93 books11 followersKōda Shigeyuki who used the pen name Kōda Rohan was a Japanese author in the Meiji period. His daughter, Aya Kōda, was also a noted author who often wrote about him.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 26, 2022
Koda Rohan (1867-1947) was a writer of short fiction, essays and drama born in Tokyo and educated in the Japanese and Chinese classics. Rohan was a Renaissance man, a towering figure who combined immense learning with strong principles - he has been called the last "kunshi," Confucian scholar-gentleman. He captured the constructive idealism and vitality of the Meiji period and was a precursor of Japanese romanticism and symbolism. His most influential stories blend traditional elements such as Buddhist miracles and Noh play structure to create a supernatural atmosphere.
The best 2 stories in this collection are:
- "Tai Dokuro" (Encounter with a Skull) is the story of a young man who, after a terrible trek through the snow, takes refuge in a lonely hut in the mountains where he meets a beautiful woman who invites him to stay the night. After a bath and a simple meal, it is time to go to bed - but unfortunately there is only one bed. The woman offers it to her guest, the guest in his turn asks the lady to sleep in her own bed. When the lady proposes that they share the bed, the highly moral young man shudders and recites a Chinese poem warning against lust.
They then decide to stay up both, and the young man asks the lady to tell him the story of her life. She was brought up in comfortable circumstances, she says, but on her deathbed, her mother gave her the injunction never to marry (the lady refuses to narrate the reason behind this injunction, but it might be that she had been taught the meaningless of the flesh). When a noble young man fell in love with her, she kept refusing him. When her suitor finally died, she felt real compassion and retired to this hut in the mountains.
As dawn breaks, the house and the woman vanish suddenly and the narrator sees only a bleached white skull lying at his feet. Later he learns that a mad beggar woman (who may have been a leper) has strayed into the mountains about a year ago. He apparently has helped release her spirit - this is all in the eerie tradition and style of a Noh play (although her ghost is not a vengeful one). Now it is his task to tell her tale of Buddhist compassion and salvation to the world. The motif of this story (meeting a beautiful woman in a deserted spot, spending the night in her house, and discovering the next morning that she must have been a ghost) is a traditional one in East Asian literature. This story was much admired by Tanizaki Junichiro. The Buddhist rejection of lust and the ideals of love in this story are typical of Rohan.
- "Goju no To" (The Five-storied Pagoda) addresses the theme of art and how it can help achieve enlightenment. The story is about a competition between two master builders who both want to be in charge of constructing a pagoda for the Tennoji Temple in Edo. Such an endeavor is in itself a religious act, as the pagoda stands for the Buddha, his teachings through the Lotus Sutra, and the whole universe.
Genta is a rich patrician of established social standing, Jubei is poor and socially inept (and has been the disciple of Genta). But he comes into his own as the great craftsman he is when he visits the abbot to present his plan. Although the abbot wants both men to cooperate on the project, Jubei is determined to execute the whole project on his own, and Genta finally yields (a Confucian virtue). Jubei's confidence in his own ability is not hubris or individualism (the pagoda is built by the teamwork of his whole crew) but ambition - willpower on the grandest scale in order to do good for mankind is what separates man from animal, according to the Confucian tenets of Rohan.
Jubei builds such a sturdy pagoda that it even withstands the force of a terrible typhoon (the description of the typhoon is famous and was for many decades included in school textbooks). The forces of nature are personified as demons, but note that in Buddhism demons are the guardians of the Law whose mission it is to shepherd erring humans to salvation - intrinsic evil as an antithesis of the Good, as Satan in Christianity, does not exist. Finally Jubei wins even Genta's admiration. Again a story in which the ideals of art and goodness are triumphant. This novella is usually considered as Rohan's best work. Rohan's heroes are not brooding, introspective Meiji protagonists, but masculine heroes who battle with nature and apply their energies positively to their work. Tennoji is located in Tokyo's Yanaka area, but its pagoda unfortunately fell victim to arson (combined with a double suicide) in the 1950s.
Also see my blog: https://adblankestijn.blogspot.com/p/...
The best 2 stories in this collection are:
- "Tai Dokuro" (Encounter with a Skull) is the story of a young man who, after a terrible trek through the snow, takes refuge in a lonely hut in the mountains where he meets a beautiful woman who invites him to stay the night. After a bath and a simple meal, it is time to go to bed - but unfortunately there is only one bed. The woman offers it to her guest, the guest in his turn asks the lady to sleep in her own bed. When the lady proposes that they share the bed, the highly moral young man shudders and recites a Chinese poem warning against lust.
They then decide to stay up both, and the young man asks the lady to tell him the story of her life. She was brought up in comfortable circumstances, she says, but on her deathbed, her mother gave her the injunction never to marry (the lady refuses to narrate the reason behind this injunction, but it might be that she had been taught the meaningless of the flesh). When a noble young man fell in love with her, she kept refusing him. When her suitor finally died, she felt real compassion and retired to this hut in the mountains.
As dawn breaks, the house and the woman vanish suddenly and the narrator sees only a bleached white skull lying at his feet. Later he learns that a mad beggar woman (who may have been a leper) has strayed into the mountains about a year ago. He apparently has helped release her spirit - this is all in the eerie tradition and style of a Noh play (although her ghost is not a vengeful one). Now it is his task to tell her tale of Buddhist compassion and salvation to the world. The motif of this story (meeting a beautiful woman in a deserted spot, spending the night in her house, and discovering the next morning that she must have been a ghost) is a traditional one in East Asian literature. This story was much admired by Tanizaki Junichiro. The Buddhist rejection of lust and the ideals of love in this story are typical of Rohan.
- "Goju no To" (The Five-storied Pagoda) addresses the theme of art and how it can help achieve enlightenment. The story is about a competition between two master builders who both want to be in charge of constructing a pagoda for the Tennoji Temple in Edo. Such an endeavor is in itself a religious act, as the pagoda stands for the Buddha, his teachings through the Lotus Sutra, and the whole universe.
Genta is a rich patrician of established social standing, Jubei is poor and socially inept (and has been the disciple of Genta). But he comes into his own as the great craftsman he is when he visits the abbot to present his plan. Although the abbot wants both men to cooperate on the project, Jubei is determined to execute the whole project on his own, and Genta finally yields (a Confucian virtue). Jubei's confidence in his own ability is not hubris or individualism (the pagoda is built by the teamwork of his whole crew) but ambition - willpower on the grandest scale in order to do good for mankind is what separates man from animal, according to the Confucian tenets of Rohan.
Jubei builds such a sturdy pagoda that it even withstands the force of a terrible typhoon (the description of the typhoon is famous and was for many decades included in school textbooks). The forces of nature are personified as demons, but note that in Buddhism demons are the guardians of the Law whose mission it is to shepherd erring humans to salvation - intrinsic evil as an antithesis of the Good, as Satan in Christianity, does not exist. Finally Jubei wins even Genta's admiration. Again a story in which the ideals of art and goodness are triumphant. This novella is usually considered as Rohan's best work. Rohan's heroes are not brooding, introspective Meiji protagonists, but masculine heroes who battle with nature and apply their energies positively to their work. Tennoji is located in Tokyo's Yanaka area, but its pagoda unfortunately fell victim to arson (combined with a double suicide) in the 1950s.
Also see my blog: https://adblankestijn.blogspot.com/p/...
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June 2, 2016
Koda Rohan (1867-1947)
It had never been in my nature to affect dandyism or to pursue elegant avocations. I was merely a five-foot snail gadding about in all directions, driven by a desire to see as much of the world as could be perceived with the uncertain eyes of my antennae. - Encounter With a Skull
A man's life, as short as a plant's, is of course nothing but a temporary illusion woven by the working of causes and effects, useless to cherish and impossible to prolong. - The Five-Storied Pagoda
Notes to myself.
Further translations of early work by Koda Rohan:(*) the widely recognized chef-d'oeuvre of his youth Gojunoto (The Five-Storied Pagoda, 1891-2), a didactic but engaging novella of pride, obsession and emotional extremes imbued with Buddhist mysticism; Taidokuro (Encounter With a Skull, 1890), an unusual, Noh-influenced short story focused on moral precept with a bodhisattva-like "ghost" and a startling finish; and the entertaining historical novella Higeotoko (The Bearded Samurai, 1896), set during the war between the Takeda and the Oda/Tokugawa forces that led to the founding of the Tokugawa bakufu, in which the (historical) characters' personalities and attitudes towards bushido are portrayed. One rather doubts that samurai were so voluble.
Chieko Irie Mulhern's translations are spendid.
(*) His pen name, meaning companion of the dew, derives from a haiku he wrote on a trip to the north:
Far from towns,
I share with the dew
A pillow of grass.
March 2, 2010
i really, really enjoyed the first story ( The Five Story Pagoda) and was very interested in the second (Encounter With a Skull) but the last one (The Bearded Samurai) was not my style - historical fiction. otherwise, if you're looking for one truly great story about hope and the persistence of man, or one great story about the path to enlightenment, the first two thirds of this book will satisfy.
March 12, 2013
If you enjoy folk tales and parables, this is a nice collection of three stories. Similar to a Greek Tragedy the conflict in these stories is not between good and evil, but between men beholden to their virtues. This first story is the most touching, but all benefit from the charm of the period, long impassioned speeches that no one would be polite enough to sit through in the here and now.
September 9, 2017
Its first two stories were increasingly interesting while reading because of their unique characters, settings and resolution; however, the third one was a bit disappointing due to some of its lengthy dialogs.
February 5, 2016
All the stories have an interesting moral in them.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews