Japanese Literature

I

Introduction

Japanese Literature, literature written by Japanese writers in both the Japanese language and Chinese language. The present article is mainly concerned with works in the Japanese language.

Japanese literature developed primarily in the forms of fiction, poetry, the essay, and drama. This development is usually divided into the Yamato, Heian, Kamakura, Muromachi, Edo, and modern periods; the first five are each named after the site of the main administrative centre of Japan at the time.

II

Yamato Period

(Archaic times to late 8th century ad.) Although no written literature existed before the 8th century, a large number of ballads, ritual prayers, myths, and legends was composed in the previous centuries.

These compositions were subsequently recorded and are included in the Kojiki (712, Record of Ancient Matters), written largely in Japanese rendered phonetically with Chinese characters, and the Nihon shoki (or Nihongi, 720, History of Ancient Japan), written almost exclusively in Chinese. The earliest extant histories of Japan, these works explain the origin of the Japanese people and the formation of the Japanese state, mostly in terms of the associated Shinto myths. Although both works contain much the same mythical and historical material, the Kojiki is clearly intended for exclusive use by the Japanese, whereas the Nihon shoki, showing the influence of Chinese thought, is broader in scope. The lyric poetry that developed from the early ballads included in these works was collected in the first great Japanese anthology, the Man'yōshū (Anthology of a Myriad Leaves), compiled by the poet Yakamochi Ōtomo after 759. In this anthology a primitive syllabary is used, known as man’yōgana, in which Chinese characters serve as phonetic symbols of syllables rather than of words. The two most important poetic forms in the anthology are the chōka (long poem), consisting of alternate lines of five and seven syllables, followed by a final line of seven syllables to which is appended one or more hanka (envoys); and the tanka (short poem), consisting of 31 syllables, written in 5 lines according to a pattern of 5, 7, 5, 7, and 7 syllables. The tanka became the pre-eminent Japanese verse form, maintaining its vitality until the modern period, whereas the chōka soon waned in popularity. The foremost poet of the Man'yōshū is Hitomaro Kakinomoto, who handled freely all forms of verse. The prevailing mood of the anthology is makoto (truth or sincerity), a faculty of near-religious significance associated with the magical kotodama (power of words).

III

Heian Period

(Late 8th to late 12th centuries.) In the late 8th century the seat of government was shifted to Heian-kyō (present-day Kyoto), and a new type of literature emerged among the aristocratic court society. The creation of the Japanese syllabaries (hiragana and katakana) in this century, supposedly by Kukai, aided the development of prose fiction as well as of poetry. The Kokinshū (905, Anthology of Ancient and Modern Poems) clearly reflects the change in mood from that of personal sincerity, which characterized the previous period, to one of mono no aware, or empathy with the essence of things, a bond linking nature and human beings. During this period, verse also lost much of its primal force and diversity, and became more exclusively the elegant coinage of a select aristocracy. The chief compiler, Tsurayuki Ki (died c. 945), who provided the basis for Japanese poetics in his preface, was himself a poet of note, and his poems are included in the anthology.

Most of the poems in the Kokinshū, however, are taken from earlier periods. Tsurayuki Ki is noted also as the author of the Tosa nikki (935; Tosa Diary, 1912), the first example of another important Japanese genre, the literary diary. The work recounts the author’s journey home to Kyoto from Tosa Province and includes moving references to his daughter's death there. The literature of the early 10th century was either in the form of fairy tales such as Taketori monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, 1956), or of poem-tales such as the Ise monogatari (c. 980, The Tales of Ise). The greatest works of Heian literature appeared in the late 10th and early 11th centuries, notably Genji monogatari (c. 1010, The Tale of Genji) by Shikibu Murasaki and Makura-no-sōshi (The Pillow Book) by Sei Shōnagon, another woman of the court. The Tale of Genji, a detailed panoramic picture of Heian court life, is considered by many as one of the first classic novels in world literature. It also includes many tanka written by the characters in various situations. The novel traces in 54 long chapters the life and loves of Prince Genji and Kaoru, his presumed son. It becomes increasingly profound towards the end, probably an indication that the author had perfected her mastery of the craft of fiction. The work of Shikibu Murasaki has frequently been translated into English; a translation of Genji by the British scholar Arthur Waley was published in 1923; another by Edward Seidensticker appeared in 1976. The Pillow Book, the earlier of the two classic works, is a witty, often brilliant, collection of sketches revealing the more worldly aspects of the same court society and is representative of another new literary genre prominent at the time, the zuihitsu (series of random jottings). It was first translated by Arthur Waley in 1928.

IV

Kamakura and Muromachi Periods

(Late 12th to 16th centuries.) The collapse of the manorial system in Japan culminated in the defeat of the Taira clan by the Minamoto clan, who established a military government (shogunate) in Kamakura in 1192. From the end of the 12th until the early 17th century, Japan was under military authority—and this is reflected in the literature of the day. The dominant figures in Japanese society were the samurai, or warrior, who engaged in a life of action, and the Buddhist priest, devoted primarily to a life of contemplation. The finest of several imperial anthologies of poetry, the Shinkokinshū (1205, New Collection of Ancient and Modern Poems), compiled by Teika Fujiwara, reflects the change in national and literary mood to one of gloom and solitude. Japanese scholars use the term yūgen (mystery and depth), a term with distinct religious overtones, to characterize the entire literature of this period. One of the major poets of this anthology is, significantly, a religious figure, the priest Saigyō. The defeat of the Taira by the Minamoto clan became the subject of the most famous prose piece of the period, the Heike monogatari (c. 1220, The Tales of the Heike), a series of vignettes on the period by an anonymous author. Hōjōki (1212; The Ten Foot Square Hut, 1928) by another priest, Kamo no Chōmei, contrasts the vanity of the world with the virtues of Buddhist contemplation. Izayoi nikki (1277; Diary of the Waning Moon, 1951) is a literary diary compiled by a nun, Abutsu, consisting of prose and poetry, the latter sections being of greater importance. Tsurezuregusa (1340; Essays in Idleness, 1967) by Yoshida Kenkō is reminiscent of The Pillow Book but more melancholy in mood, undoubtedly reflecting regret at the disturbances of the times. The major type of fiction of this era was the otogizōshi, collections of popular short stories by unknown authors. The foremost poetic development in the period after the early 14th century was the creation of the renga, or linked verse, a form circumscribed by many regulations. Three or more poets would cooperate in composing one long poem, consisting of alternate verses, one containing lines of seven, five, and seven syllables and the other two lines of seven syllables each. The greatest masters of this form, Sōgi, Shōhaku, and Sōchō, together composed the famous Minase sangin (Three Poets at Minase) in 1488.