Materials-focused Research into the Spread and Transformation of Genji Studies through the Lecture and Commentary Activities of Late Muromachi-period Renga Masters

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K23063
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: 0102:Literature, linguistics, and related fields
• Research Institution: National Institute of Japanese Literature
• Principal Investigator: Knott Jeffrey 国文学研究資料館, 研究部, 助教 (30847794)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-08-30 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 源氏物語 / 受容史 / 注釈 / 連歌師 / 宗祇 / 室町 / 戦国 / 中世

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research explored the massively influential Genji scholarship produced by certain renga masters of the medieval and warring-states periods, with a focus on their prolific lecture and commentary activities. Extensive surveys of surviving commentary texts sought to trace both how their teachings came to be so widely diffused and how that very diffusion came to shape those teachings in turn. The investigation centered on the following three topics: (1) the activities of the renga master Sogi, (2) the activities of Sogi's important disciples, above all Soseki and Kensai (along with their respective students), and (3) a broad-based survey of commentary materials that shed light on contemporary renga masters' Genji studies more generally. While facing the constraints imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, by making use of the primary sources accessible, the project was able to make some progress in furthering our understanding of renga masters' important Genji scholarship.

Free Research Field

中世の古典学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

その成立以来千年にわたり、様々な人に様々な形で読み継がれてきた『源氏物語』の歴史は日本文化史の縮図そのもので、またその発掘により、過去の読者が生きた時代はもちろんのこと、今我々が生きている、その過去の積み重ねがあってこその現代に対しても、より深い理解が得られよう。そして発掘現場として読者のため、読者の強い求めに応じて作られてきた各時代の注釈資料は大いに期待できる。本研究はその認識に立って、『源氏物語』の歴史の過渡期となった１５～１６世紀の注釈資料を対象に調査を進め、一時代の源氏学をより明らかにする一方で、こうした歴史的自己理解へのささやかな貢献をも試みたものである。