taidan histories

[Melek Ortabasi]

Hi Ann,

This is a topic of interest to me too (Yanagita Kunio was a pretty 
frequent taidan participant). I will be checking out the resources 
that Michael and Asako sent in, also. Thanks!

I have a sort of general observation or question about taidan, which 
is its status as text (of course related to the sokki issue). 
Yanagita and/or the editors of the older Teihon Yanagita Kunio, for 
example, did not include any of his taidan, because they were 
supposedly imperfect as written texts, and were not authored by 
Yanagita alone. You have to find them elsewhere (the editors of the 
new zenshu have tried to include them all). However, the number of 
famous Yanagita texts that are highly edited versions of speeches and 
taidan-like events is quite significant.

Michael's suggestion of a premodern origin for the genre is also 
interesting. I have, incidentally, also come across the use of 
"mondo" in Yanagita's 1930s journal _Minzoku_, where it's sort of a 
"answers to reader's questions" column that Yanagita actually uses to 
air his own opinions on issues. So not as interactive as the title 
might suggest;-)

Thanks again for the ideas.
Melek
-- 
Melek Ortabasi, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Comparative Literature
Hamilton College
Clinton, NY