Session 7: Evil Asia
Session 7: Evil Asia
Chair: Nancy Mardas
Evil, Responsibility, and Shintoism in The Ghost Story of Yotsuya
Colette Balmain
Department of Arts and Media, Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College, United Kingdom
The Ghost Story of Yotsuya known as Yotsuya-Kaidan is the most famous of all Japanese ghost stories. Adapted for the screen over 30 times, with its deceitful Samurai, Iemon, and its wronged woman, Iwa, The Ghost Story of Yotsuya is the archetypical Edo Gothic narrative. Based upon the old Japanese folktale of Iwa in which a man brings about the death of his wife, only to have her spirit wreck vengeance on him from beyond the grave, the Kabuki play written by by Tsuruya Nanboku IV was first performed in 1821. Since then the story has been the base for numerous theatrical productions and film versions, and is still performed on a yearly basis in Japan during the hot summer months.
In this paper, I explore concepts of evil and responsibility in two cinematic versions of the tale, Nobuo Nakagawa’s 1959 version, and the 1968 film by Shirô Toyoda. In Shintoism, Japan’s indigenous religion, the subject is constituted through the relational interplay of the sacred (uchi or inside) and profane (soto – outside). Further as Hamabata points out, ‘the uchi […] is set without the context of the ie, the framework of authority, the organization of individual lives by a formal social order and for a common goal.’ (1994: 194). In The Ghost Story of Yotsuya, the central protagonist, Iemon, puts personal greed and desire (ninjoo), over giro or social obligations, an act which threatens the very foundations of the ie system which regulates identity in Japanese society. As a result, the home (uchi) becomes infected with an internal darkness, captured through the gloomy mise-en-scene, and transgresses the systems of obligations that construct the larger community, or House (ie). Responsibility for evil actions, however, shifts depending upon the version of the ghost story, but as I shall argue that the end result is the same, the breakdown of traditional spatial temporal relations between the subject and the larger societal framework against which his (her) identity is performed.
The Idea of Evil in Early China
Yuet Keung Lo
National University of Singapore, Singapore
In human cultures around the globe, the idea of evil is often intimately linked to a religious tradition, and the Judea-Christian tradition is one of the most prominent examples. In contrast, early Chinese culture perhaps presents a counter-example that may shed light on the nature of “evil” as there was never a monotheistic religion in ancient China. This paper has a twofold purpose. It attempts to ascertain if there was indeed an idea of evil in early China, and if so, what it actually meant and how it was practiced in real life. Specifically, this paper will analyze some of the most influential doctrines on human nature which debate whether it is good or “evil” as the understanding or presupposition of human nature often guides and informs actual human conduct. What did early Confucian philosophers such as Mencius and Xunzi mean when they argued that human nature is good or “evil”? On the other hand, when the Taoists fundamentally abandoned the duality of good and “evil” in their understanding of human nature, what did they have in mind with regard to the constitution of “evil”? In this connection, a family of terms that are associated with mistakes, errors, crimes, disobedience, or transgressions will be examined as they will provide a conceptual map of contraventions that can help us unravel the meaning of “evil” in early Chinese culture. The paper will conclude with an examination of how the idea of “evil” or wickedness was embodied in early Chinese legal codes and enforced in punishments.
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