Imperial Concubine's Tale

Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-0-231-15854-1
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 280 Seiten, Format (B × H): 163 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 514 g

Japan in the early seventeenth century was a wild place. Serial killers stalked the streets of Kyoto at night, while noblemen and women mingled freely at the imperial palace, drinking saké and watching kabuki dancing in the presence of the emperor's principal consort. Among these noblewomen was an imperial concubine named Nakanoin Nakako, who in 1609 became embroiled in a sex scandal involving both courtiers and young women in the emperor's service. As punishment, Nakako was banished to an island in the Pacific Ocean, but she never reached her destination. Instead, she was shipwrecked and spent fourteen years in a remote village on the Izu Peninsula before she was finally allowed to return to Kyoto. In 1641, Nakako began a new adventure: she entered a convent and became a Buddhist nun.

Recounting the remarkable story of this resilient woman and her war-torn world, G. G. Rowley investigates aristocratic family archives, village storehouses, and the records of imperial convents. She follows the banished concubine as she endures rural exile, receives an unexpected reprieve, and rediscovers herself as the abbess of a nunnery. While unraveling Nakako's unusual tale, Rowley also reveals the little-known lives of samurai women who sacrificed themselves on the fringes of the great battles that brought an end to more than a century of civil war. Written with keen insight and genuine affection, An Imperial Concubine's Tale tells the true story of a woman's extraordinary life in seventeenth-century Japan.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Rowley, G.

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Volkskunde: Sitten, Traditionen, Mythen, Legenden
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Sonstige Religionen Sexualität & Gender in den Religionen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of IllustrationsPreface and AcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1. A Courtier's Life, in and out of the WorldChapter 2. The Year 1600: A World Again at WarChapter 3. At the Court of the DragonChapter 4. ScandalChapter 5. The Tale of KazanChapter 6. ShipwreckChapter 7. The Long ReprieveChapter 8. SalvationEpiloguePrincipal CharactersGlossaryAbbreviationsNotesBibliographyIndex

Leseproben

Read the introduction to An Imperial Concubine's Tale (to view in full screen, click on icon in bottom right-hand corner)

Über Autor(innen)

G. G. Rowley teaches English and Japanese literature at Waseda University in Tokyo. She has written and/or translated several biographies of Japanese women, including Yosano Akiko and The Tale of Genji and Masuda Sayo's Autobiography of a Geisha.