Japanese Humour

210 Pages·1995·11.218 MB·English

by  Marguerite Wells

JAPANESE HUMOUR
ST ANTONY'S SERIES
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Japanese Humour
Marguerite Wells
Associate Professor in Japanese
University ofWollongong
Australia
9A
in association with
ST ANTONY'S COLLEGE, OXFORD
m
First published in Great Britain 1997 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 0-333-61602-2
First published in the United States of America 1997 by
& ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 0-312-15978-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wells, Marguerite.
Japanese humour / Marguerite Wells,
p. cm.
ISBN 0-312-15978-1 (cloth)
1. Japanese wit and humor—History and criticism.
PN6222.J3J36 1996
895.67009—<lc20 95-49603
CIP
© Marguerite Wells 1997
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made
without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with
written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by
the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London Wl P 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author or" this work in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and
sustained forest sources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97
Printed in Great Britain by
The Ipswich Book Company Ltd
Ipswich, Suffolk
For my father
Ken Wells
6 January 1913-29 October 1979
A very funny man
* * *
II y a longtemps qu'il est mort
et ses enfants le cherchent encore
dans son vieux fauteuil
Diderot

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Author Notes x
Glossary xi
1 The Rules of Humour 1
What is humour? 3
2 The Ethics of Humour 5
The controversy 8
The tradition 9
Humour and obscenity 15
3 Early Japanese Ideas of Humour 20
The Japanese comic tradition 20
Straw and rush 20
Japan's first comedy performance 23
The Shinsen jikyo 24
The Heian concepts of okashi and omoshiroshi 25
Okashi as comedy 29
The vulgar and the refined 30
Zeami's comic theory 32
Toraaki's comic theory 33
The Edo concept of kokkei 35
Comic theory of kabuki 38
The denial of humour 40
Vulgarity and obscenity 41
Against frivolity 43
4 Ideas of Humour in the Meiji Era 47
Comedy and the reform of the Japanese theatre 47
Tsubouchi Shoyo on humour 49
The showers of sake 51
More comedy and tragedy 53
A Meiji philosopher 55
The Fukuzawa Yukichi joke-book 57
The humour debate 59
The high and the low 61
vn
viii Contents
The Japanese smile 64
Tsubouchi Shoyo and the characters of modern humorists 66
The new conventional wisdom 68
Tsubouchi Shoyo and the psychology of humour 71
Butterflies and angels 73
The ioss of humour', 1889-1905 75
A terrible poisonous snake 79
The trilling of the nightingale 81
Natsume Soseki and the hot chestnut 90
Soseki and the future of humorous literature 92
Taro Kaja and the dark woman with hairy legs 96
The Admirable Crichton comes to Yokohama 101
The long, dark slope 104
Expurgated humour and contained humour 106
Containers within containers 108
5 Ideas of Humour since the Meiji Era 110
The humour debate in the twentieth century 110
The doomsday theory 110
Humour and the value of Japanese culture 114
The reaction 116
Humour and its victims 117
The dilemma of values 122
Kishida Kunio on farce and comedy 123
The man on the roof waving a bamboo pole 127
Education by laughter 128
The outline of Japanese theatre 130
The desire for humour 130
Militarism and humour 132
With love and irony 138
The Allied Occupation 142
The new humour debate 146
More on the rules of humour 156
Games, sport and humour 158
Postscript 163
Notes and References 165
Bibliography 182
Index 189
Acknowledgments
Most sincere thanks are due to Dr B. W. F. Powell formerly of St
Antony's College and now of Keble College, Oxford, and Dr I. J.
McMullen now of Pembroke College, Oxford. While I was at Kyoto
University Research Institute for Humanistic Studies, Associate Pro
fessor Yokoyama Toshio richly earned his title. For their patient eru
dition, their generosity and their many kindnesses, I am deeply grateful
to these most amiable humorists.
My thanks also go to the Japan Foundation which granted me a
fellowship that enabled me to spend fourteen months in Kyoto. This
time immeasurably enriched my life and my book.
By awarding me the Seizan Fukami Scholarship, Curtin University
of Technology in Perth generously provided me with the invaluable
opportunity to spend my study leave completing the book, in both Kyoto
and Perth. To the donor of the scholarship, Mr H. Handa, to Associate
Professor Will Christensen, Dr Neville Saunders and Hilton Lague I
wish to express my most grateful thanks.
For support of many kinds over fifteen years; for encouragement,
bullying and a great deal of aloha, I wish to thank the inimitable Herr
Dr Professor Francis M. Pottenger III and Herr Dr Professor Arthur R.
King Jr of the Curriculum Research and Development Group at the
University of Hawaii.
Many others have helped in various ways. They include: Garth Boomer,
Katharina Byrne, Phillip Cass, Eugene Dayton, Professor Mark Elvin,
David Francis, Associate Professor Fujii Joji, Peter Gadsden, Dr Roger
Goodman, Pamela Hewitt, Professor Thomas Leims, Associate Profes
sor Brian McCarthy, Matsuda Kiyoshi, Professor Brian Moloney, Pro
fessor J. V. Neustupny, Helen Parker, Helen Rees, Jonah Salz, Professor
Arthur Stockwin, Dorothie Storry, Mr M. Sugihara and the staff of the
Kyoto University Libraries who bore patiently with my many
importunities. To all of these I am most grateful.
Most of all I wish to thank Deane.
Wollongong MARGUERITE WELLS
IX