Mr Gray's Waynflete Project

There has not been a great deal of progress this week (because of Kiss me Kate in the evenings) although I have now fully annotated the 112 pages of Kwaidan.  I have set myself a target of fnishing the initial primary reading by Christmas Eve and hope to stick to that.

MRG

“An adaptation of Lafcadio Hearn’s Kwaidan for performance.”

The adaptation will be accompanied by an analytical and briefly contextual study of ‘substance and absence’ in the Japanese tales of Kwaidan.

………. Am I fully satisfied … No!

………..Do I have a title ……..Yes!

MRG

Dear all

I don’t think that you should use your blogs to chat to each other in the way I am about to do - however as I am, in a sense, an admin figure - I’m breaking a rule even in proposing it (don’t follow me).

Could you all please post your PROVISIONAL titles on your blogs, and e-mail them to me at mgray@mcsoxford.org by Thursday - don’t worry - they will be tweaked / massively reworked over the next few weeks.

The books have arrived and I now have 6 books on my Primary Reading List.  I am currently reading and annotating a copy of Hagakure - a 17th Century ‘handbook’ of Samurai wisdom.  It is completely ‘left-field’ and highly abstract (I think).  I have managed to annotate about twenty pages a night since Friday - and have been keeping a little log in my notebook of general observations on the text (but disciplining myself to three pages).

eText of Hagakure

I have also discovered that some of the stories from Rashomon are available FOR FREE on iTunes - so I will be able to listen to some on the bus.  I think that I will be tied up with JUST reading stories until December, when I will embark on some more Secondary Reading.

The visit to the British Museum was interesting - although I forgot my notebook which was clearly an error.

It would seem that the man has caught up with the misguided soul who was streaming Kwaidan over the net.  This is a shame for my blog, but a triumph for law-abiding folk everywhere.  Piracy is a crime.

So,

I figured I’d had enough education for one Saturday touring the Moctezuma exhibit at the British Museum and subsequently gave the Japan rooms a miss.  However, I notice that there is a tour of the Japanese collection at 11.00 every day so I have put that one in the diary for next weekend.  It has not escaped my attention that there is a focus on Kabuki Theatre …

Link to British Museum Kabuki Theatre Page

I have not yet invested in a ‘grail diary’ - although this will be the next step.

This is one of my favourite of Hearn’s Kwaidan - it may surprise you to know that it’s one of the least weird …

YUKI-ONNA

In a village of Musashi Province (1), there lived two woodcutters: Mosaku and Minokichi. At the time of which I am speaking, Mosaku was an old man; and Minokichi, his apprentice, was a lad of eighteen years. Every day they went together to a forest situated about five miles from their village. On the way to that forest there is a wide river to cross; and there is a ferry-boat. Several times a bridge was built where the ferry is; but the bridge was each time carried away by a flood. No common bridge can resist the current there when the river rises.

Read More

Just the one at the moment …

Hearn, Lafcadio. Kwaidan. Singapore; Tuttle Publishing, 1971.

But …

I have ordered a tonne of books (six) from Amazon’s excellent 2nd hand service (for peanuts - all under £3 each).

They are mostly collections of Japanese Mythology and Folk Tales which will provide me with some useful cultural background and should arrive here in the next week.  In the meantime, I suppose I should get hold of some secondary reading on Japanese myths.  I don’t know much about finding GOOD anthropological material, but I do know a man at the University who may be able to help me …

Since I’m going to be in the British Museum on Sunday anyway, a trip to the Japanese Collection may well be on the cards.