Imaging the Self : Hayashi-Gaho's Ichinoshi-den(<Special Issue>Viewpoints of the Early Modern Times : Colors, Patterns, and Landscapes)

Abstract

In the Edo Period, lots of biographies written in Chinese were published. Among them there is a peculiar sort called "takuden." As is seen in Goryu-sensei-den, the pioneering work by T6-Enmei, the "takuden" biography is actually an autobiography written in a fictional style in which the author takes on the persona to narrate his own life. Here I will pick up Ichinoshi-den, a "takuden" published in the early Edo Period, to see how the Confusianist author Hayashi-Gaho imagines his own self in the person of Ichinoshi. In so doing, I will argue that Hayashi's choice of this form is related to his editorship of Honcho-tori-kagami and the premature death of his son-in-law Baito.