Japanese Literature

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Module no. 4: Japanese literature
Posted by: Beverly Abelon
Sources: http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org


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Early works of Japanese literature were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature, often written in Classical Chinese. Indian literature also had an influence through the diffusion of Buddhism in Japan. Eventually, Japanese literature developed into a separate style in its own right as Japanese writers began writing their own works about Japan, although the influence of Chinese literature and Classical Chinese remained until the end of the Edo period. Since Japan reopened its ports to Western trading and diplomacy in the 19th century, Western and Eastern literature have strongly affected each other and continue to do so.

Japanese literature is one of the major literatures of the world, comparable to English literature in age and variety. From the seventh century C.E., when the earliest surviving works were written, until the present day, there has never been a period when literature was not being produced in Japan. Possibly the earliest full-length novel, The Tale of Genji was written in Japan in the early eleventh century. In addition to novels, poetry, and drama, other genres such as travelogues, personal diaries and collections of random thoughts and impressions, are prominent in Japanese literature. In addition to works in the Japanese language, Japanese writers produced a large body of writing in classical Chinese.

Japanese Literature can be divided into four main periods: ancient, classical, medieval and modern.




Rivers of Stars


Yosano Akiko


Left on the beach
Full of water
A worn out boat
Reflects the white sky --
Of early autumn.
Swifter than hail
Lighter than a feather,
A vague sorrow
Crossed my mind.
Feeling you nearby,
how could I not come
to walk beneath
this evening moon rising
over flowering fields.
It was only
the thin thread of a cloud,
almost transparent,
leading me along the way
like an ancient sacred song.
I say his poem,
propped against this frozen wall,
in the late evening,
as bitter autumn rain
continues to fall.


What I count on
is a white birch
that stands
where no human language
is ever heard.
A bird comes
delicately as a little girl
to bathe
in the shade of my tree
in an autumn puddle.
Even at nineteen,
I had come to realize
that violets fade,
spring waters soon run dry,
this life too is transient
He stood by the door,
calling through the evening
the name of my
sister who died last year
and how I pitied him!


This woman of modern ideas, a counterpart of Mary Wollstonecraft, a "bluestocking", was born near Osaka, Japan in 1868 just as the country restored the emperor to power. The times, along with the ideas, were changing rapidly and Akiko was in the center of change.

Born into a prosperous family of confectioners, she graduated from the Sakai School for Women where she was the foremost poet, evolving into a social critic. She fell in love and openly lived with Yosano Tekkan, a married man and publisher of Myojo, a publication featuring new concepts: the new 31 syllable waka poetry, as well as traditional forms. Akiko was not a woman to restrain her emotions or her voice. She openly criticized the government for entrance into the Russo-Japanese war and, with her colorful vocabulary, condemned them in her writing.

Despite much criticism, she influenced many women to become more open in their views. Akiko was the queen of Myojo the publication, using it as a platform to criticize the government and to foster social changes and rights for women. Many of her poems were unabashedly lusty.

She ultimately married Tekkan and together they had, it is said, a dozen children. In 1912 she went to Paris along with her husband and brought more ideas to plague the government. Although others were put in jail, Akiko was not touched. Akiko continued to write her views concerning politics, economics and women's rights until her death just after the beginning of World War II. Her children were all successful, including doctors and lawyers. Her son, Shigeru, was organizational head of the 1964 Olympics held in Tokyo.

Ancient Literature (until 894)

Before the introduction of kanji from China, there was no writing system in Japan. At first, Chinese characters were used in Japanese syntactical formats, and the literary language was classical Chinese; resulting in sentences that looked like Chinese but were phonetically read as Japanese. Chinese characters were used, not for their meanings, but because they had a phonetic sound which resembled a Japanese word. Modification of the normal usage of Chinese characters to accommodate Japanese names and expressions is already evident in the oldest known inscription, on a sword dating from about 440 C.E.. The use of Chinese characters initiated a centuries-long association of literary composition with the art of calligraphy.

Chinese characters were later adapted to write Japanese speech, creating what is known as the man'yōgana, the earliest form of kana, or syllabic writing. The earliest works were created in the Nara Period. These include Kojiki (712: a work recording Japanese mythology and legendary history, Nihonshoki (720; a chronicle with a slightly more solid foundation in historical records than Kojiki, and Man'yōshū (Ten Thousand Leaves, 759); an anthology of poetry. More than 120 songs in the Kojiki and Nihonshoki were written in phonetic transcription, and parts of the Kojiki contain a mixture of Chinese characters used to represent their Chinese meanings, and Chinese characters used to represent a phonetic sound.

Classical Literature (894 - 1194; the Heian period)

Classical Japanese literature generally refers to literature produced during the Heian Period, what some would consider a golden era of art and literature. The Tale of Genji (early eleventh century) by Murasaki Shikibu is considered the pre-eminent masterpiece of Heian fiction and an early example of a work of fiction in the form of a novel. Other important works of this period include the Kokin Wakashū (905, waka poetry anthology) and The Pillow Book (990s), an essay about the life, loves, and pastimes of nobles in the Emperor's court written by Murasaki Shikibu's contemporary and rival, Sei Shonagon. The iroha poem, now one of two standard orderings for the Japanese syllabary, was also written during the early part of this period.

During this time, the imperial court patronized poets, many of whom were courtiers or ladies-in-waiting. Editing anthologies of poetry was a national pastime. Reflecting the aristocratic atmosphere, the poetry was elegant and sophisticated and expressed emotions in a rhetorical style.

Medieval Literature (1195 - 1600)

Medieval Japanese Literature is marked by the strong influence of Zen Buddhism, and many writers were priests, travelers, or ascetic poets. Also during this period, Japan experienced many civil wars which led to the development of a warrior class, and a widespread interest in war tales, histories, and related stories. Work from this period is notable for its insights into life and death, simple lifestyles, and redemption through killing. A representative work is The Tale of the Heike (1371), an epic account of the struggle between the Minamoto and Taira clans for control of Japan at the end of the twelfth century. Other important tales of the period include Kamo no Chōmei's Hōjōki (1212) and Yoshida Kenko's Tsurezuregusa (1331).

Other notable genres in this period were renga, or linked verse, and Noh theater. Both were rapidly developed in the middle of the fourteenth century, during the early Muromachi period.

Modern Themes

Although modern Japanese writers covered a wide variety of subjects, one particularly Japanese approach stressed their subjects' inner lives, widening the earlier novel's preoccupation with the narrator's consciousness. In Japanese fiction, plot development and action have often been of secondary interest to emotional issues. In keeping with the general trend toward reaffirming national characteristics, many old themes re-emerged in modern literature, and some authors turned consciously to the past. Strikingly, Buddhist attitudes about the importance of knowing oneself and the poignant impermanence of things formed an undercurrent of sharp social criticism of modern materialism. There was a growing emphasis on women's roles, the Japanese persona in the modern world, and the malaise of common people lost in the complexities of urban culture.

Contemporary Literature

Popular fiction, non-fiction, and children's literature all flourished in urban Japan during the 1980s. Many popular works fell between "pure literature" and pulp novels, including all sorts of historical serials, information-packed docudramas, science fiction, mysteries, detective fiction, business stories, war journals, and animal stories. Non-fiction covered everything from crime to politics. Although factual journalism predominated, many of these works were interpretive, reflecting a high degree of individualism. Children's works re-emerged in the 1950s, and the newer entrants into this field, many of them younger women, brought new vitality to it in the 1980s.

Manga (comic books) have penetrated almost every sector of the popular market. They include virtually every field of human interest, such as a multi volume high-school history of Japan and, for the adult market, a manga introduction to economics, and pornography. At the end of the 1980s, manga represented between twenty and thirty percent of total annual publications in Japan, representing sales of some four hundred billion yen annually. In contemporary Japan, there is a debate over whether the rise in popular forms of entertainment such as manga and anime has caused a decline in the quality of literature in Japan.