
Lost transcription of Tale of Genji chapter found in Japanese storeroom - apophasis
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/10/lost-chapter-the-tale-of-genji-murasaki-shikibu-found-japan
======
gwern
It's amazing that a millennium later, Teika manuscripts are _still_ turning
up.

For those not familiar with the context:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujiwara_no_Teika](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujiwara_no_Teika)
was a minor aristocrat of a clan specialized in court poetry. He was one of
the greatest Japanese poets of all time, a striking accomplishment given his
rather ornery personality and the strife-torn times he lived in. Late in life,
however, he also became something of an antiquarian, and began spending a
great deal of time studying old classics and attempting to restore them:
_Genji_, obviously, was one of them, but he also helped study or preserve many
others, like the _Man'yoshu_ (already then almost completely unreadable). If
you read the textual history sections of translations, it'll be not
unsurprising if you happen to see Teika's name come up as involved in the
chain of transmission. We are indebted to him for being able to read as much
of early Japanese literature as we can.

------
idoubtit
I've read this yesterday and thought the Guardian's title was misleading. If I
understood rightly, the chapter found was already known, although it was
through a later copy. So this discovery will bring minor changes, which a few
scholars will enjoy the most.

The original text from around 1010 is lost. From the copy written before 1240,
only 4 chapters, now 5, have been preserved. And all of the 54 chapters are
known through later copies from around 1500.

~~~
dang
Ok, we've edited the title above to make it be the transcription that was lost
and found, not the chapter.

------
mirimir
It's arguably not the first novel.[0]

> Using a very lose definition of a novel as a long prose narrative describing
> fictional characters and events, it’s hard to understand why some older
> works don’t qualify. The Golden Ass, which involves the journey of a man
> whose insatiable curiosity gets him turned into an ass and who ends up
> joining a cult of the goddes Isis, arguably meets these criteria. Still, the
> distinctive writing style, often including verse, interwoven tales
> (including, in the case of The Golden Ass, the myth of “Cupid and Psyche”),
> and distinctive mix of seriousness with satire, humor, and downright
> vulgarity does support differentiating early works of extended prose from
> the “modern novel”—although the boundaries of this differentiation vary from
> one scholar to the next and are being broken regularly by today’s fiction
> writers.

Indeed, some of my favorite novels feature some or all of those "non-novel"
features. But whatever ...

0) [https://latelastnightbooks.com/2016/02/04/first-novel-and-
th...](https://latelastnightbooks.com/2016/02/04/first-novel-and-the-winner-
is/)

------
einpoklum
So, as idoubtit mentions - it's not a lost chapter, it's another copy of the
non-lost chapters.

Anyway, if you want a taste of the "Tale of Genji" \- try here:

[https://www.learner.org/courses/worldlit/the-tale-of-
genji/r...](https://www.learner.org/courses/worldlit/the-tale-of-genji/read/)

------
wazoox
Ah, that's a funny coincidence, I've just read this book last week.

~~~
sramsay
It's been on my list for, well, decades I suppose. But I've always understood
it to be an exceedingly long novel.

I suppose I'm surprised to hear that you read the whole thing in a week?

~~~
wazoox
I was on holidays, so I've read quite a lot. The book is very special; it's
taking place in a very alien world (Japan in the 11th century) and very
poetic.There are lots of characters, which aren't always called by the same
name (they're generally called by their current role in the Imperial palace
administration). Overall it wasn't that tough; and it's much shorter than
"Water Margins" that I've read previously.

