SOURCE: Mostow, Joshua S. “Modern Constructions of Tales of Ise: Gender and Courtliness.” In Inventing the Classics: Modernity, National Identity, and Japanese Literature, edited by Haruo Shirane and Tomi Suzuki, pp. 96-119. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2000.

In the following essay, Mostow explores twentieth-century critics' views of the Tales of Ise, considering how the rise of the modern nation-state has affected interpretations of the work, examining how readings of the tales have responded to the changes in Japanese culture, and contending that issues of gender have profoundly influenced the modern reception of this literary classic.

Ise monogatari (Tales of Ise) has been a canonical text since at least the late tenth century and a subject of commentary and exegesis since at least the early thirteenth. In every historical period, scholars and poets have read, quoted, and written about Ise. When we speak of “canonization” with regard to texts...