Use of “Genji Monogatari” seen in Kigin Kitamura’s Confucian Women’s classics lessons ：Focusing on “Kana Retsujoden” and “Ominaeshi Monogatari”

Abstract

In 1655, eight volumes of “Kana Retsujoden仮名列女伝” were published, and the episodes of this book became overwhelmed by the population. The author, Kitamura Kigin 北村季吟, is a Japanese scholar in the early Edo period and a master of classical annotations such as “Genji Monogatari Kogetsu-shō源氏物語湖月抄”.In this article, first of all, I would like to take up the part of the text, “Kana Retsujoden” and “Genji Monogatari源氏物語”, and compare and examine the two works to show in detail the translation intention of Kigin. In addition, in this article, I would like to mention “Ominaeshi Monogatari女郎花物語”(1661), which is considered to be a the same auther like “Kana Retsujo-den,” centering on “Genji Monogatari”. Using “Genji Monogatari” as a clue, I have been considering the use of Genji found in Kigin’s two Kana-zoshi(仮名草子) works “Kana Retsujoden” and “Ominaeshi Monogatari”. As a result, it was found that Kigin regards “Genji Monogatari” as a book for female lessons.