Danielsen Inkblot #1: So, what actually is The Tale of Jiraiya the Gallant?

Greetings!

My name is Andreas and I am the translator and artwork restorer behind The Tale of Jiraiya the Gallant. In this blogpost, I want to give a short answer to a very simple question: What is The Tale of Jiraiya the Gallant?

I often get asked about what The Tale of Jiraiya the Gallant (let’s call it TJG for short) actually is, in more ways than one, and I often also run into some misconceptions about TJG online. It is only natural that there are some misconceptions out there, as TJG has never been translated before and a lot of facts quickly get mixed up when people are using very few sources.

So, I was thinking I’d talk a bit about what TJG is and what it is not.

TL;DR
The Tale of Jiraiya the Gallant is an illustrated book series consisting of forty-three books. Each of my translated volumes contains around fourteen books with all the original illustrations. The Tale of Jiraiya the Gallant is a fantasy series written in the Edo period, set in the early 1400s. It is not folklore, and it involves historical events and characters (real) as well as magic and fictitious characters (not real).

TJG was a series that started publishing in 1839 and was originally written by Mizugaki Egao. In 1868 the publication ended with forty-three books in the series. These books were usually published in two halves, called the “upper” and “lower” half. Each half-book consisted of eleven centrefold pages, which had both text and a large image, resulting in each book being twenty-two pages long.

Apart from the main pages there was also a title page, a page for ads, and often a colored image, which was divided into two and put in the two halves (great way to boost sales).

Over the years, the author of TJG changed three times, which is why the series has four different authors. The reason for these changes, was that the authors died from old age. From the perspective of the translator (ie. me) this means that, whenever the author changes, the writing style also usually undergoes a bit of a transformation. For the reader, this means that, sometimes plotlines that one author spent time setting up, might be abandoned by the next author, or he might make some mistakes. Believe me, this last one happened A LOT with one of the authors!

For the sake of publishing the translations, I have chosen to put fourteen-ish of the original books into every volume (I count the originals as books and my translations as volumes), which will result in three volumes containing all forty-three books.
As each of the original books gives something along the lines of twenty to thirty pages of translated text and my translation also includes all the original illustrations, this will ultimately result in something along the lines of 1300-1400 pages, divided over three volumes.

Now, I also want to mention another aspect of TJG that people often misunderstand (this one is actually a bit of a pet peeve of mine).

TJG is NOT a folktale.

Many people seem to be confused about this, which I don’t blame them for. After all, it has “Tale” in the title, and because the character Jiraiya was very loosely inspired by a Chinese folktale about a bandit by more or less the same name, people often assume that this means Jiraiya is a character from folklore.

However, to assume that TJG is folklore, would be like saying the Harry Potter series or The Lord of the Rings is folklore because there are references to folklore and fairytales in them. TJG is in fact exactly the same as Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings – a fantasy series.

TJG has fantastical elements in it, yes, but it was conceived and written by a known author, illustrated by known illustrator, and published by a known publisher with very clear publication dates, meaning that it was just like any other fictitious book series of its time.

Folklore is a very different beast altogether (sorry, I also translate folklore, so I can get a bit ranty about this). Folklore is usually a story of unknown origin, which appears and proliferates amongst the folk, normally by word of mouth, in a very organic way. Folklore usually also has a very simple plot, few characters, and a simple structure.

TJG, on the other hand, other than us knowing exactly where it came from, is long, has many characters, deals with moral ambiguity, and complex plots that crisscross in unforeseen ways. It is, in other words, very decidedly NOT folklore.

A final aspect of TJG I want to mention here, is just how fictional it actually is. I compared it to Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings earlier, but between those two, Harry Potter might be the most apt comparison. The reason for this, is that TJG is a fantastical story (it is riddled with magic, spirits, and monsters) but it is set in a very real Japan.

The setting of Jiraiya is sometime around 1406-1416, give or take a few years. It is never mentioned specifically when it takes place, but a part of the story involves what has later been known as The Rebellion of Uesugi Zenshū (上杉禅秀の乱), which happened in 1416.

TJG gets a few historical details wrong, such as distinctions between official titles and positions of the time but gets all the real-life characters more or less right.

That being said, it is also filled with various anachronisms. These include, but are not limited to:

• The presence of arquebuses and pistols.

• Measurements and time keeping from the Edo period

• Money from the Edo period

• Edo period specific culture (especially the systems dealing with courtesans and the pleasure districts)

When reading TJG, it is important to remember that it was written by men who were not modern historians, and who were writing fiction for the sake of entertainment. It is loaded with the sentiments of the time, heavily influenced by kabuki theater aesthetics, and published over a very long period, often with six to twelve months between instalments (thus a lot of recaps in the text).

Ultimately, I think the best way to approach The Tale of Jiraiya the Gallant is to accept it on its own terms. It is not a history book, even though history forms the backdrop. It is not folklore, even though it borrows ideas and motifs from older traditions. It is an Edo-period fantasy novel; a sprawling, serialized adventure full of heroes, villains, impossible magic, political intrigue, comic relief, and more than a few moments that will leave you wondering what on earth the author was thinking.

That, to me, is part of its charm.

It is also one of the reasons I wanted to translate it in the first place. TJG occupies a fascinating place in Japanese literary history, yet outside Japan it is usually known only through the name "Jiraiya" and the occasional reference to a giant toad. Very few people have had the opportunity to experience the story as it was actually written, complete with its original illustrations, its triumphs, its inconsistencies, and all the wonderfully strange turns it takes over the course of forty-three books.

I hope this post has helped clear up some of the most common misconceptions about the series.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you'll enjoy following Jiraiya's adventures as much as I enjoy bringing them into English.

Volume 2 is now available! Check out your preferred online book retailer or ask your local library to order a copy!