Episode Details

Today on the Books on Asia Podcast, host Amy Chavez talks with the co-editors of Yamamba: In Search of the Japanese Mountain Witch, just released by Stone Bridge Press. Rebecca Copeland is a professor of Japanese literature, a writer of fiction (The Kimono Tattoo) and literary criticism, and a translator of Japanese literature (Grotesque, The Goddess Chronicle). Linda C. Ehrlich is an independent scholar and poet who has published on world cinema and traditional theater.

Podcast Show Notes

Amy asks Linda and Rebecca how they came to publishYamamba: In Search of the Japanese Mountain Witch, and why, of all Japan'syōkai, they chose the mountain witch.

Rebecca starts off explaining that the Yamamba is often depicted as a wicked old woman who takes advantage of hapless travelers. But she is also described as a nurturing entity who helps the weaver at the loom and the farmer with the fields. She is complex, representing all the mysterious and unexplainable as played out on the noh stage, the setsuwa and folklore stories over the centuries. Rebecca is interested in modern, 20th-century portrayals of the Yamamba image and how contemporary women writers have drawn on her subversive powers. This led both the co-editors to explore how art inspires and how it is diverse and dynamic, resulting in this anthology that includes poems, shorts stories, and interviews, comprising an eclectic array of presentations of the Yamamba.

Amy asks about the image of the Yamamba as old crones living in the mountains, and Rebecca confirms this is so, adding that it is usually villagers who encounter the Yamamba on their way through the mountains.

Linda Ehrlich, who comes from a background of traditional theater from the University of Hawaii, explains more about the noh play that appears in the beginning of the anthology. She says that Ann Sherif translated the interview about the production, which was unique in that the two noh performers were women. In the play, she says, "Yamamba is mysterious but not as grotesque as she is portrayed as elsewhere. She is a force of nature but controlled by nature, so she is beyond all binaries. So we have different voices for the Yamamba that work together." Rebecca later conducts an interview with a performer who portrays a more current, updated version of the Yamamba reflecting the body, gender, and so on.

Rebecca discusses Ōba Minako's "The Smile of the Mountain Witch" describing how she was one of those 20th-century writers who reappropriated the Yamamba image, challenging the idea of the Yamamba as always being an old woman. Perhaps she could have been a young girl at times too? How did she become a Yamamba? The story charts how a young girl who can mind-read and who has a capacity for great joy is taught to deny her talents in order to fit in. So to Rebecca this suggests all women have a Yamamba potential for strength and reliance that we've been taught to deny ourselves. Oba uses an ancient legend to comment on contemporary gender discrimination.

Amy mentions that Aoko Matsuda has, with her recent book Where the Wild Ladies Are, done something similar, recasting and updating traditional Japanese folktales with strong contemporary female characters.

Amy asks Linda and Rebecca about how they put together the anthology. They relate there was lots of editing, discussion, compromising, and refining and they mention the uniq