Old Stories, Original Retellings: Domestic Conflicts and Family Relationships in the Blind Biwa Tradition of Kyushu

Although, today, higobiwa is treated as an independent genre, it is apparent that it came into contact with other narrative traditions, borrowed some of their stories, and later reworked them, thus creating a unique world of Kyushu tales.
In this paper, I first provide an overview of this tradition. Then, I will discuss two famous pieces focusing on domestic conflicts and family relationships from the repertory of blind hiwa players from the Kyushu region: Azekakehime あぜかけ姫， the story of a poor young woman, who is tormented by her evil mother-in -law, and Shuntokumaru 俊徳丸， afamous Japanese tale about a wicked stepmother, which is found in several Japanese storytelling genres.