Classical Japanese Literature (to 1867)
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Note that Japanese names are
in Japanese order: family name + given name.
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Chikamatsu
Monzaemon (1653-1724)
Japan's
greatest playwright wrote puppet plays that were
adapted for kabuki.
Ki
no Tsurayuki (868?-945)
Tosa Diary
(Tosa Nikki, 935), Japan's first literary diary,
recounts his sea journey from Tosa to Kyoto as
well as his grief following the death of his
daughter. (Tosa is the former name of the Kochi
region of Shikoku Island.)
Ihara
Saikaku (1642-1693)
The greatest
fiction writer of the Tokugawa Era (1603-1867),
Ihara portrayed the sensual life of urban
Japanese.
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Heike
Monogatari (Tale of the Heike) An early
13th-c. anonymous historical romance depicting
the rise and fall of the Taira (aka Heike) clan
and their defeat by the Minamoto (aka Genji)
clan.
Dogen
Zenji (1200-1253)
Dogen wrote
Shobogenzo (Treasury of the True Dharma Eye),
which developed Zen concepts and practice.
Founded several Buddhist temples in Japan.
Matsuo
Basho (1644-1694)
Japan's
greatest poet was a Zen Buddhist lay-priest.
Composed in 1694, The Narrow Road to the Deep
North (Oku no Hosomichi) is a poetic diary
interspersed with haiku (17-syllable poems in
three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables).
Murasaki
Shikibu (978-ca. 1031)
The world's
first great novel, the 54-chapter Tale of Genji
(Genji Monogatari, ca. 1010) describes
aristocratic society during the Heian Period
(794-1185).
Man'yoshu Japan's first
great anthology of poetry, Man'yoshu (Collection
of Ten Thousand Leaves) consists of 4,500 poems
mainly in the tanka form (five lines of 5, 7, 5,
7, and 7 syllables), composed in the mid-8th c.
by people from all walks of life.
Sei
Shonagon (late
10th c. - early 11th c.)
A court lady
who wrote the incomparable Pillow Book (Makura
no Soshi, 966-1017), a collection of sketches
depicting court life during the Heian Period
(794-1185).
Sogi,
Shohaku, Socho Three 15th-c.
poets collectively known as the Three Poets of
Minase (Minase Sangin). Masters of the renga
form of linked verse, a long poem consisting of
alternate verses of three lines (7, 5, and 7
syllables) and two lines (7 syllables each).
Sogi Iio (1421-1502), and his disciples Shohaku
Botanka (1443-1527) and Socho Saiokuen
(1448-1532), collaborated in One Hundred Stanzas
by Three Poets at Minase (Misae Sangin Hyakuin).
Takeda
Izumo (1691-1756)
One of the
authors of The Treasury of 47 Loyal Retainers
(Kanadehon Chushingura or simply Chushingura), a
tale of loyalty and revenge by 47 ronin
(masterless samurai), based on an actual
incident in 1701.
Taketori
Monogatari
(Tale of the Bamboo Cutter) Regarded as
Japan's first novel, this is an early 10th-c.
fairy tale of a bamboo cutter who raises a
supernatural princess.
Yoshida
Kenko (1283-1350)
This Buddhist
monk is remembered for Tsurezuregusa (Essays in
Idleness, ca. 1335), a collection of
contemplative essays about resignation from this
transient world.
