Playing with samurai

Tue 26 April 2022

Cambridge University Library

Early modern Japan (1600-1867) developed a thriving culture of play. Samurai and their tales, which enjoyed growing popularity in the contemporary publishing industry, were repurposed to fit the logic of game play. Inspired by the 1856 Yoshitsune ichidai kunk? sugoroku (Yoshitune’s life and his military exploits: a picture-sugoroku)—an exquisite board game on display in the Cambridge University Libraries’ exhibition Samurai: History and Legend—this talk explores how the adventures of Minamoto no Yoshitsune and Benkei were appropriated to enable a number of ludic activities. The focus will be on the board game known as j?roku musashi and a witty twist on its rules and logic in a complex graphic narrative issued in 1804 by literary giant Kyokutei Bakin.

Dr Laura Moretti is an Associate Professor in Premodern Japanese Studies at the University of Cambridge and a fellow at Emmanuel College. Her research focusses on early modern Japanese prose, with a specific interest in popular literature. Her new project investigates playful reading in a wide range of early modern materials, including graphic narratives and ephemera. She has published a wide range of articles in English and Japanese and is also the author of Recasting the Past: An Early Modern “Tales of Ise” for Children (Brill, 2016) and Pleasure in Profit – Popular Prose in Seventeenth-Century Japan (Columbia University Press, 2020; named a 2021 Choice Outstanding Academic Title and shortlisted for the 2021 DeLong Book History Prize). Alongside her university teaching, Dr Moretti runs the Summer School in Early Modern Japanese Palaeography, which offers a contribution to the field of Japanese studies globally, by training the new generations in decoding, transcribing, and translating early modern manuscripts and woodblock-printed texts.

Cost: Free