BENSHI. Commercial cinema came to Japan in the 1900s, and early on theaters employed professional narrators called benshi (silent film narrators), stationed on the side of the audience, to describe the action and imitate the dialogue taking place on the silent screen. Narrative mediation or performance, a commonplace in traditional Japanese theater and puppet plays, served to enhance the experience and often provided Japanese filmmakers with more latitude in edits and scene transitions. The benshi were often professional storytellers (see KÔDAN; RAKUGO) who by the 1910s found yose variety theaters, their standard source of income, in decline. Because professional storytelling involved a great deal of improvisation, they made an easy transition to the role of benshi. Before a film screening, they would often give background information on the film, and during the show they would even give their own opinions or break into chanted poetry during scenes with no dialogue, coordinating their roles with the live orchestra, if the theater employed one. Benshi were so popular (theaters employed over 6,000 benshi during the late 1920s) that the silent film era lasted nearly a decade longer in Japan than in other countries. Although benshi have been extinct from mainstream entertainment for decades, there are still several actively practicing benshi today, as well as a movement to revive their art in an effort to find new frontiers in film. See also BUNGEI EIGA.
BETSUYAKU MINORU (1937–). Betsuyaku Minoru is a playwright and children’s author born in Manchuria when it was a Japanese colony. As an infant he lost his father and moved back to Japan with his mother after World War II. He attended Waseda University after high school, was introduced to theater activists there, and joined the jiyû butai (free theater) group. Betsuyaku dropped out of Waseda for financial reasons, however, and began life as a salaryman, writing plays in coffee shops. His hard work paid off, as he was awarded the Kishida Kunio Prize for Drama in 1963 for Matchi uri no shôjo (The Little Match Girl) and Akai tori no iru fûkei (A View with Red Birds). Betsuyaku’s collaboration with leading actors kept him in the mainstream, and he has been working for the Japan Playwrights Association from the 1990s and since 2003 has worked for the Pikkoro shiataa (Piccolo Theater) in Hyôgo Prefecture. Betsuyaku is also known for establishing the Theater of the Absurd in Japan after reading Irish playwright Samuel Beckett’s works. See also CHILDREN’S LITERATURE; MODERN THEATER.
BLACK LIZARD. See KUROTOKAGE.
BLACK RAIN. See KUROI AME.
BOTCHAN. One of the most beloved novels by author Natsume Sôseki, Botchan (1906; tr. Botchan: Master Darling, 1947) mirrors Sôseki’s personal experiences of leaving Tokyo for the first time and working as a provincial schoolteacher. The protagonist, referred to as Botchan (young master), a deferential term of endearment, is a recent college graduate sent from Tokyo to teach mathematics at a middle school on the island of Shikoku. His interactions with the students, his conversations and battles with colleagues, and his rebellious attitude toward corrupt authorities in this often-humorous novel explore the changes Japan was undergoing following the Meiji Restoration.
BROKEN COMMANDMENT, THE. See HAKAI.
BUDDHIST LITERATURE. Although Western philosophy and style underscore many works of modern Japanese literature, Buddhism, which came to Japan in the sixth century, continues to exercise a profound influence on prose and poetry. Thematically, many important modern novels deal with Buddhist concepts, such as mujô (the ephemerality of things) and karma. The novels of Minakami Tsutomu and Itsuki Hiroyuki (1932–), for example, are replete with Buddhist settings and allusions. Likewise Shiga Naoya’s novel An’ya kôro (1921–37; tr. A Dark Night’s Passing, 1976) is explicitly Buddhist in structure and theme. Contemporary writer Setouchi Jakuchô, who has completed a modern Japanese translation of The Tale of Genji (ca. 1008), is a Tendai Buddhist nun. See also AWARE; CHRISTIAN LITERATURE; KITAMURA TÔKOKU; KURATA HYAKUZÔ; MIYAZAWA KENJI; NIWA FUMIO; OKAMOTO KANOKO; YASUOKA SHÔTARÔ.
BUNDAN. The term bundan (literature group) refers to a type of unofficial literary guild that has connected many of Japan’s writers for over a century. The term was first coined in 1889 by Tsubouchi Shôyô to describe the cohesion of the Ken’yûsha as it successfully lobbied for and controlled literary publication in the Yomiuri newspaper. As that group dissolved, naturalists and other writers took up the cause, and bundan played an important role in representing writers’ rights and pressuring publishers to pay decent fees for stories. In the 1920s, Kikuchi Kan served as the de facto head of bundan and, in his capacity as a publisher, brought greater security to writers and helped further solidify the structure of bundan by establishing literary awards that brought new respect to the writing profession.
The bundan are self-regulating entities that are also highly exclusive, for example, eschewing scholars who also write novels. From the beginning, there were writers (such as Natsume Sôseki and Mori Ôgai) who did not join bundan, and even today Murakami Haruki remains aloof. Nevertheless, while bundan have changed and nearly expired several times, over the years their influence and power continue to shape the world of Japanese literature in very direct ways. See also AKUTAGAWA RYÛNOSUKE PRIZE; JAPAN P.E.N. CLUB; NAKA KANSUKE; PUBLISHING HOUSES.
BUNGAKKAI. Bungakkai (Literary World) describes two separate literary journals, one from the Meiji period and the other in current publication. Shimazaki Tôson and Kitamura Tôkoku founded the first Bungakkai in 1893, but it ceased publication five years later. The journal was one of the main venues for Romantic literature during the Meiji period. In 1933, Kobayashi Hideo and Hayashi Fusao (1903–75) reestablished Bungakkai as a platform for their advocacy of “art for art’s sake.” It was banned, however, in 1938 for publishing Ishikawa Jun’s antiwar story “Marusu no uta” (The Song of Mars). Editor-in-chief Kawakami Tetsutarô was fined, but Kikuchi Kan paid in his stead and the magazine then came to be under the jurisdiction of the Bungei Shunjû Publishing Company, which has subsequently continued to publish the journal. A monthly, it is currently one of the big five literary journals and sponsors the Bungakkai Shinjinshô (Bungakkai Newcomer Award). See also KOBAYASHI HIDEO; KURAHASHI YUMIKO; LITERARY AWARDS; NAKAMURA MITSUO; ODA SAKUNOSUKE PRIZE.
BUNGAKU SHÔ. See LITERARY AWARDS.
BUNGEI EIGA. The term bungei eiga (literary films) denotes a genre that includes both strict and liberal film adaptations of literary works. Adaptation has long been popular in Japanese culture, and soon after the advent of the cinema in Japan film studios began to adapt popular foreign films for Japanese audiences. Literary works soon followed, and these literary films were particularly popular during the 1930s since, as adaptations of established, well-known works, they could avoid censorship because they need not claim the attitudes of the original author. Early bungei eiga include Kawabata Yasunari’s Izu no odoriko (1926; tr. The Izu Dancer, 1964), which appeared as a silent film in 1933, and Tanizaki Jun’ichirô’s Shunkinshô (1932; tr. A Portrait of Shunkin, 1963) that appeared as a “talkie” in 1935. During the 1950s, as Japanese cinema matured and began to capture world notice, many of the most renowned films, such as Kurosawa Akira’s (1910–98) Rashômon, Mizoguchi Kenji’s (1898–1956) Sanshô dayû (Sansho the Bailiff), and Ichikawa Kon’s (1915–2008) Nobi (Fires on the Plains), were adaptations of stories by modern Japanese writers. In the 1960s, director Hiroshi Teshigahara made award-winning films from Abe Kôbô’s novels Suna no onna (1962; tr. Woman in the Dunes, 1964) and Tanin no kao (1959; tr. The Face of Another, 1966). Literary films also include adaptations of non-Japanese literary works; several films by Kurosawa, for example, are adaptations of Shakespeare plays. See also BENSHI.
BUNGEI SHUNJÛ. Bungei shunjû (Literary Chronicle) is a monthly literary journal established by Kikuchi Kan in 1923 and published by the Bungei Shunjû publishing house. The magazine is representative of current style, tradition, and characteristics of Japan and covers topics in politics, economics, management, sports, education, history, military affairs, the Imperial household, and medicine. Each issue has about 30 pieces, ranging from opinion articles to scholarly theses. The magazine is traditionally antileftist and rarely, if ever, publishes material from the Japan Communist, Social Democratic, or other left-wing parties. Bungei shunjû announces the winners of various literary awards each year, including the Akutagawa Ryûnosuke Prize (March and September issues), Matsumoto Seichô Prize (July), and the Kikuchi Kan Prize (December). See also BUNGAKKAI; NAOKI PRIZE; NAOKI SANJÛGO; YAMAMOTO SHÛGORÔ; YOKOMITSU RIICHI.
BUNGEI ZASSHI. See LITERARY JOURNALS.
BURAKUMIN LITERATURE. From ancient times, Japanese society has been stratified into many layers, and among the lowest ranks has existed an “untouchable” class called the eta. Historically they were families living in outlying communities (buraku) composed of those working in “polluted” trades that put them in contact with death or ritual impurity (such as executioners, undertakers, or leather workers). Although they were legally liberated in 1871 and given the designation “new commoner” (shin-heimin), discrimination continues to this day in certain areas of Japan. The oppression experienced by burakumin in Japan was the subject of a Meiji novel, Shimazaki Tôson’s Hakai (1906; tr. The Broken Commandment, 1956). Despite educational disadvantages that burakumin have suffered historically, writers, such as Nakagami Kenji and Sumii Sue (1902–67), have recently emerged from among the burakumin to tell their stories.