{"schema":"https://ver.cy/schemas/card/1.0.0","id":"vr.tr.gesaku","code":"thing-q1047433","url":"https://ver.cy/models/thing/q1047433/","name":"gesaku","alternateNames":["ninjōbon","Sharebon","yomihon","dangibon","kokkeibon"],"kind":"thing","status":"published","version":"0.1.0-research.1","language":"en","classifiers":{"family":"Thing Registry","category":"Information and virtual systems","entryKind":"thing","plane":"INF","domain":["INF.MED"],"industry":[],"navPath":"","tags":[],"facets":{}},"whatItIs":"Gesaku (戯作, roughly 'playful writing') is an umbrella term for popular Japanese prose literature of the Edo period, especially its later decades, encompassing humorous, satirical, romantic and adventurous forms written chiefly for entertainment.","purpose":"Enable an agent to recognise gesaku as a Japanese literary umbrella category, assess evidence for a work's inclusion, and select appropriate interpretation, description, and reuse actions.","scope":{"in":["Evidence-based definitions and historical uses of the term gesaku","Relationships among its constituent literary forms","Entertainment, parody, sentiment, and other documented literary strategies","Interactions among writing, illustration, publishing, and readership","Classification consequences of textual variants, censorship, and modern mediation"],"out":["Japanese literature as a whole","Standalone models of sharebon, kokkeibon, ninjōbon, yomihon, or kusazōshi","Complete biographies of authors, illustrators, and publishers","Physical conservation and ownership histories of individual books","General copyright law and comprehensive publishing regulation histories"],"boundaries":[]},"distinguishingFeatures":["An inclusion decision requires historical or scholarly attribution to gesaku; being Japanese, humorous, or from the Edo period alone is insufficient.","Gesaku functions as an umbrella spanning several literary forms, rather than naming one fixed narrative structure or book format. [Chuo University](https://www.chuo-u.ac.jp/english/features/2019/02/60021/)","Classification must accommodate illustrated narratives, historical fantasy, and romantic fiction; overt comedy is not a mandatory property of every included work. [University of Tokyo](https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/biblioplaza/en/D_00062.html)","A modern translation, transcription, or scan represents a gesaku work but does not independently establish the original work's classification.","Neither an author's reputation as a gesaku writer nor a publisher's other gesaku titles automatically establishes membership for every associated work."],"structure":{"bundles":[{"id":"category-and-boundaries","name":"Category and boundaries","description":"Establish what gesaku denotes in a particular source and why a candidate belongs.","layers":[{"id":"term-and-authority","name":"Term and authority","description":"Record who uses the designation and in what sense.","findings":[{"id":"situated-designation","name":"Situated designation","description":"Treat an attribution to gesaku as a sourced assertion whose date and intended meaning remain visible.","questions":[{"text":"Does this source use gesaku as an umbrella category, a literary practice, or another explicitly defined sense?","id":"situated-designation-q01","kind":"definition"},{"text":"Who applied the designation, when, and to which work or body of writing?","id":"situated-designation-q02","kind":"provenance"}]}]},{"id":"constituent-forms","name":"Constituent forms","description":"Represent internal distinctions without treating all form labels as interchangeable.","findings":[{"id":"qualified-form-membership","name":"Qualified form membership","description":"A scholarly account includes yomihon, sharebon, kokkeibon, ninjōbon, and kusazōshi under gesaku; record the authority for each proposed relationship. [Chuo University](https://www.chuo-u.ac.jp/english/features/2019/02/60021/)","questions":[{"text":"Which constituent form is assigned to the candidate, and what evidence connects that form to gesaku?","id":"qualified-form-membership-q01","kind":"boundary"},{"text":"Do competing classifications describe different aspects of the same work or disagree about its membership?","id":"qualified-form-membership-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]}]},{"id":"literary-operation","name":"Literary operation","description":"Describe how a work produces entertainment and meaning within its documented context.","layers":[{"id":"voice-and-register","name":"Voice and register","description":"Locate relevant effects in narration, dialogue, and shifts of register.","findings":[{"id":"passage-grounded-effects","name":"Passage-grounded effects","description":"Record comic, sentimental, satirical, or didactic effects through passages and contextual evidence rather than imposing one tone on the category.","questions":[{"text":"Which passages support the proposed literary effect, and whose voice produces it?","id":"passage-grounded-effects-q01","kind":"provenance"},{"text":"What distinctions of speech or register must an annotation preserve to make that effect intelligible?","id":"passage-grounded-effects-q02","kind":"action"}]}]},{"id":"allusion-and-parody","name":"Allusion and parody","description":"Separate documented intertextual play from speculative resemblance.","findings":[{"id":"recoverable-reference","name":"Recoverable reference","description":"A proposed parody or allusion should identify its target and evidence, with unresolved readings retained as hypotheses.","questions":[{"text":"Which earlier text, performance, convention, or social practice is being invoked, and who supports that identification?","id":"recoverable-reference-q01","kind":"provenance"},{"text":"What contextual explanation is needed before an agent paraphrases or translates the passage?","id":"recoverable-reference-q02","kind":"action"}]}]}]},{"id":"illustration-and-book-form","name":"Illustration and book form","description":"Connect literary interpretation to the visual and bibliographic organisation of the relevant witness.","layers":[{"id":"text-image-reading","name":"Text-image reading","description":"Assess how illustrations, captions, and page arrangement contribute to meaning.","findings":[{"id":"visual-evidence-dependency","name":"Visual evidence dependency","description":"Richly illustrated kibyōshi and gōkan occur within accounts of gesaku; visual dependence must be assessed for the particular work. [University of Tokyo](https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/biblioplaza/en/D_00062.html)","questions":[{"text":"Which narrative information or joke depends on an image, caption position, or page sequence?","id":"visual-evidence-dependency-q01","kind":"boundary"},{"text":"Does the available reproduction preserve the pages and image detail needed to support that interpretation?","id":"visual-evidence-dependency-q02","kind":"measurement"}]}]},{"id":"installments-and-witnesses","name":"Installments and witnesses","description":"Establish what portion and version of an illustrated or multipart publication is available.","findings":[{"id":"witness-completeness","name":"Witness completeness","description":"Record missing leaves, volumes, or installments before using a surviving witness to characterise a work's narrative or presentation.","questions":[{"text":"Which volumes, installments, and leaves are present relative to the bibliographically documented sequence?","id":"witness-completeness-q01","kind":"measurement"},{"text":"Do differences between witnesses reflect an edition change, incomplete survival, or an unresolved cause?","id":"witness-completeness-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]}]},{"id":"production-and-regulation","name":"Production and regulation","description":"Situate gesaku in documented collaboration, circulation, and publishing constraints.","layers":[{"id":"contributors-and-readers","name":"Contributors and readers","description":"Connect credited production roles and evidenced readership to the work.","findings":[{"id":"role-specific-attribution","name":"Role-specific attribution","description":"Distinguish writing, illustration, and publishing credits, including pseudonymous or uncertain attributions; separate intended readership from documented readers.","questions":[{"text":"Which preface, colophon, signature, or scholarly attribution establishes each contributor's role and name?","id":"role-specific-attribution-q01","kind":"provenance"},{"text":"What evidence supports claims about intended or actual readers rather than assuming one uniform gesaku audience?","id":"role-specific-attribution-q02","kind":"provenance"}]}]},{"id":"restriction-and-response","name":"Restriction and response","description":"Relate specific restrictions to supported changes in publication or writing.","findings":[{"id":"documented-intervention","name":"Documented intervention","description":"Research on gesaku publishing examines regulation and author responses during the Kansei reforms, Bunka era, and Tenpō reforms; individual intervention claims still require direct support. [University of Tokyo](https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/biblioplaza/en/D_00062.html)","questions":[{"text":"Which dated evidence connects a restriction, sanction, or revision to this particular work or contributor?","id":"documented-intervention-q01","kind":"provenance"},{"text":"Can a textual change be attributed to regulation, or must commercial revision and other explanations remain open?","id":"documented-intervention-q02","kind":"boundary"}]}]}]},{"id":"modern-access-and-use","name":"Modern access and use","description":"Control how modern editions, transcriptions, translations, and reproductions support actions involving gesaku.","layers":[{"id":"editorial-mediation","name":"Editorial mediation","description":"Track changes between the historical witness and the version being read.","findings":[{"id":"mediation-disclosure","name":"Mediation disclosure","description":"Record modernised spelling, supplied punctuation, abridgment, translated wordplay, and omitted illustrations where relevant to a proposed interpretation.","questions":[{"text":"Which historical witness underlies this edition or translation, and what interventions does its editor disclose?","id":"mediation-disclosure-q01","kind":"provenance"},{"text":"Must an agent consult page images or another edition before analysing dialogue, wordplay, or text-image relationships?","id":"mediation-disclosure-q02","kind":"action"}]}]},{"id":"reproduction-decisions","name":"Reproduction decisions","description":"Associate proposed reuse with the exact text, image, or derivative resource involved.","findings":[{"id":"resource-specific-reuse","name":"Resource-specific reuse","description":"Assess reuse against the identified historical work, modern translation, editorial contribution, or digital reproduction; the category gesaku itself supplies no permission.","questions":[{"text":"Is the proposed reuse of historical wording, an illustration, a modern translation, editorial notes, or a repository scan?","id":"resource-specific-reuse-q01","kind":"boundary"},{"text":"Which applicable rights information and access terms support the proposed reproduction, distribution, or transformation?","id":"resource-specific-reuse-q02","kind":"action"}]}]}]},{"id":"evidence-and-external-alignment","name":"Evidence and external alignment","description":"What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.","layers":[{"id":"reported-evidence","name":"Reported evidence","description":"Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.","findings":[{"id":"evidence-confidence-notes","name":"Check these first","description":"Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these check these first hold for the sense of gesaku this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-confidence-notes-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-kinds","name":"Kinds and varieties","description":"Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of gesaku this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-kinds-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-real-world-use","name":"Real-world use","description":"Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of gesaku this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-real-world-use-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards","name":"Failure modes and hazards","description":"Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of gesaku this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-regional-variation","name":"Regional variation","description":"Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of gesaku this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-regional-variation-q01","kind":"provenance"}]},{"id":"evidence-neighbours","name":"Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart","description":"Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.","questions":[{"text":"Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of gesaku this model covers, and on what evidence?","id":"evidence-neighbours-q01","kind":"provenance"}]}]}]}]},"agentConduct":{"may":["Describe gesaku, its genres, authors and history from reliable sources.","Translate or summarise public-domain works with credit to their authors and translators."],"mustNot":["Attribute works or translations to the wrong author or translator.","Present modern translations as public domain when they are under copyright.","Present the literature through demeaning stereotypes of Japan or its people.","Pass off its own writing as recovered Edo-period text."],"requiresHuman":["Publishing translations commercially."]},"ethics":{"considerations":["Popular literature shows ordinary life and dissent, and deserves accurate reading.","Translators deserve credit for their work."],"affectedParties":["Readers and students","Translators and scholars","Japanese cultural heritage holders"]},"owners":{"steward":"The public: held in common; libraries and museums keep surviving editions.","roles":[],"masterSystems":["Library and museum catalogues"]},"relations":[{"target":"Q11267743","type":"parent","note":"registry parent class"},{"target":"Q59126","type":"parent","note":"registry parent class"}],"interaction":{"identity":{"applicability":"required","items":["Vercy registry: vr.tr.gesaku","Wikidata: Q1047433 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1047433)"]},"properties":{"applicability":"not-applicable","items":["Classification evidence: supported; disputed; provisional; unassessed, with source and stated criterion","Use of the category term: contemporary designation; later scholarly classification; catalogue designation; unresolved","Constituent form: Source-qualified links to sharebon, kokkeibon, ninjōbon, yomihon, kusazōshi, or another documented form; multiple links permitted","Historical and publishing location: Dated links to composition, publication, circulation, and reception places, each with evidence","Literary strategies: Evidence-qualified parody; satire; verbal play; comic dialogue; sentiment; didactic framing; other; unresolved","Text and image dependence: Text-led; image-led; interdependent; minimally illustrated; unassessed","Witness and mediation: Links among work, expression, edition or impression, individual copy, scan, transcription, and translation","Intervention evidence: Documented restriction or revision; suspected intervention; no evidence located; unassessed"]},"recognition":{"applicability":"optional","items":["Woodblock-printed books with illustrations integrated into the text, often in small paperbound volumes."]},"capabilities":{"applicability":"required","items":["Classify a candidate work as supported, disputed, or provisional gesaku with an explicit rationale.","Connect a work to constituent forms while preserving overlapping or conflicting classifications.","Identify allusions, speech registers, and image-dependent passages that need annotation.","Compare editions and translations to distinguish historical features from later editorial choices.","Select suitable textual and visual witnesses for reading, teaching, transcription, or analysis.","Determine what evidence and object-specific permissions must be checked before reproducing a passage, illustration, translation, or scan."]},"hazards":{"applicability":"required","items":["Fragile paper editions decay and can be lost.","Satire in the works can be misread without historical context."]},"interfaces":{"applicability":"not-applicable","items":[]},"context":{"applicability":"required","items":["Gesaku is encountered in collections and studies of popular Japanese literature from the Edo period.","The category helps readers and cataloguers relate entertaining prose works to their publishing context, audiences and literary forms.","It supports interpretation of humour, satire and social commentary across several related genres."]}},"sources":[{"title":"Wikidata item Q1047433: gesaku","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1047433","note":"identity and sense of the item"},{"title":"Wikipedia: Gesaku","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesaku","note":"general description of the item"}],"openQuestions":["Which scholarly definition should govern registry membership when gesaku denotes an umbrella category in one source and a narrower literary practice in another?","How should early Meiji continuations and later deliberate revivals relate to the category without imposing an unsupported chronological cutoff?","Where should boundaries with ukiyo-zōshi, dangibon, and adjacent popular literary practices be drawn, and which authorities support those decisions?","Which constituent forms require overlapping relationships rather than a single hierarchy, particularly within illustrated book traditions?","Which representative works and accessible witnesses should anchor classification examples, including disputed cases and works whose entertainment is primarily sentimental or fantastical?"],"resources":{"spec":"/models/things/publications/thing-q1047433/spec.json"},"provenance":{"origin":"thing registry research (pass 2)","builtFrom":["models/things/publications/thing-q1047433/spec.json"],"providers":["Codex"],"researchStatus":"unreviewed","generatedAt":"2026-09-12T09:59:29Z","builder":"tools/build_cards.py@1.0.0"},"completeness":{"sections":{"classifiers":"filled","whatItIs":"filled","purpose":"filled","distinguishingFeatures":"filled","structure":"filled","agentConduct":"filled","ethics":"filled","owners":"filled","relations":"filled","interaction.identity":"filled","interaction.properties":"not-applicable","interaction.recognition":"filled","interaction.capabilities":"filled","interaction.hazards":"filled","interaction.interfaces":"not-applicable","interaction.context":"filled","sources":"filled"},"notes":{"_gate":"Published through the thing publication gate 1.0 on 2026-10-07T10:10:25+00:00: completeness 1.00; sense: Wikidata description; 2 live sources; review by codex: pass","interaction.properties":"Plane INF: no invented physical properties.","interaction.interfaces":"No single governing standard, law or official classification defines membership in this literary umbrella category."},"score":1.0}}