In Heian era Japan, the way people expected young women to look and act differs strongly from today’s standards. Aristocratic women faced the harshest scrutiny, and those who didn’t live up to the cultural values faced judgement from people. Every action, outfit and sentence uttered faced the criticism of maids, parents, and suitors. Many of these were based on the Buddhist religion, while others stemmed from the popular culture. One is able to better understand what these expectations specifically included in the Lady Who Admired Vermin. By observing her appearance and behaviour, the life of a young aristocrat is revealed. The cultural expectations of young, aristocratic women in the Heian era included beauty, the separation of, and the interactions between men and women.
Through cultural studies, one is able to better understand and appreciate literature in different societies. It has broadened what literary theory once looked at in terms of non-western literature. Non-western literature, specifically Japanese literature, has gone from something that needs to be counted to something that needs to be read (Culler, 46). Literary theory, in hand with cultural studies, helps to understand the context of Japanese literature and to read the texts without “common sense.” By knowing the background of a culture, one can read a text as if they are a native of that culture. In the Lady Who Admired Vermin, cultural expectations can be examined with cultural studies in order to reveal how the culture influenced word choice and phrasing. Both literary theory and cultural studies create a dynamic lense for which to analyze how women are treated and their expectations in The Lady Who Admired Vermin.
The Lady Who Admired Vermin tells the st...
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...e Assistant Director, show how men and women interacted with each other. Together all of these give a realistic picture of the cultural expectations of young, aristocratic women living in the Heian era.
Works Cited
Citations
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Minamoto Junko, "Buddhism and the Historical Construction of Sexuality in Japan," U.S.-Japan Women's Journal: English Supplement 5 (1993): 87-115.
Sometimes people are judged by their looks, and preferences will be made towards the more beautiful people before the less beautiful people. What individuals don’t put into account is that the person’s personality is part of their beauty. In Gail Tsukiyama’s novel, The Samurai’s Garden, through the characterization of Sachi’s personality and adversities, Gail Tsukiyama conveys the message that beauty is deeper than just the outside and this message is important because one shouldn’t judge someone just by their looks.
Fallows, James. "After Centuries of Japanese Isoation, a Fateful Meeting of East and West." {Smithsonian} July 1994: 20-33.
Based on Murasaki Shikibu’s “The Tale of Genji” the ideal man and the ideal woman of the Heian Court can easily be discerned as not truly existing, with the main character, Genji, being the nearly satirical example of what was the ideal man, and descriptions of the many women in the story as prescription of the ideal woman with the young Murasaki playing a similar role to that of Genji in the story.
24 Amore, Roy C. and Julia Ching. The Buddhist Tradition. In Willard G. Oxtoby, Ed. World Religions: Eastern Traditions. P. 221
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21 Pitts, Forrest R., Japan. p. 113. -. 22. Davidson, Judith. Japan- Where East Meets West, p. 107.
Brazell, Karen. Traditional Japanese Theater: An Anthology of Plays. New York: Columbia UP, 1998. Print.
Saikaku, Ihara. Life of a Sensuous Woman. The Longman Anthology of World Literature. (Vol. D) Ed. Damrosch. New York: Pearson, 2004. 604-621. [Excerpt.]
Murasaki Shikibu’s Tale of Genji, set in the Heian Period, gives a good idea of what the model Heian man and Heian woman should look like. Genji himself is like a physical embodiment of male perfection, while a large portion of the Broom Tree chapter outlines the ideal of a woman—that it is men who decide what constitutes a perfect woman, and the fact that even they cannot come to decide which traits are the best, and whether anyone can realistically possess all of those traits shows that the function of women in the eyes of men of that period was largely to cater to their husbands and households. Broken down, there are similarities and differences between the standard for Heian men and women, and the Tale of Genji provides excellent examples of characters who fit into their respective gender roles.
Throughout ancient civilizations, women were lower than men. In some civilizations like Mesopotamia society, women were below slaves. It is not shocking that they would still not be equal to men. In Roman society, women had more independence and people were more encouraging of women being educated in philosophy. In the Hans society, women did not have any freedom. They were required to follow what the men told them. By examining Gaius Musonius Rufus’ essay and Ban Zhao’s essay, the views of women were different. Woman in Roman society had more freedom and women in the Han’s society were required to fulfill her responsibilities.
Making the transition from living a naïve existence under the protection of the father to presiding over the oikos under the supervision of the husband was the essential social norm for youthful citizen Athenian women. It is unsurprising, then, that in a patriarchal society, the young female could only fulfill her societal role as manager of the oikos when her assumed empty vessel was filled by her husband with the proper knowledge.
Shirane Haruo. et al. Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology 1600-1900. New York: Colombia University Press, 2002. Print.
... aggressive taking of Utsusemi. Thus, the female ideal is one of resignation and feigned timidity. The whole courting process is basically a superficial coating for the male dominated view of women as sexual objects. Therefore, the female ideal during the Heian period is primarily one based upon the male objectification of women during that time.
Deal, William E. 2006. Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan. Facts on File, Inc., 2006. eBook