japanese literature

• kanji - ideographs from chinese characters, kana, a pair of syllabaries
• hiragana - used for narative japanese words
• katakana - used for foreign loanwords and sometimes to replace kanji or hiragana for emphasis
• two oldest japanese literature: kojiki and nihongi
• kojiki (records of ancient matter) - relates to the creation of the world, describes the gods and goddess of the mythological period, and contains facts about ancient japan
• nihongi (chronicles of japan) - tells the history of japan in poetry and shows the profound influence of chinese
• heian period - referred to as the golden era of japanese art and literature
• man’yoshu (collection of myriad leaves) - the oldest collection of japanese poetry collected in the year 800
• genji monogatari (the tale of genji) - written by court lady named murasaki shikibu is considered the pre-eminent masterpiece of heian fiction and the first example of a work of fiction in the form of a novel
• medieval literature - work from this period is notable for its insights into life and death, simple lifestyle, and seppuku
• tale of the heike - an epic account of the struggle between two clans for control of japan at the end of the twelfth century
• tokugawa period - is commonly referred to as the edo period. the capital of japan moved from kyoto to edo (modern tokyo)
• chikamatsu monzaemon - a kabuki dramatist, known as the japan’s shakespeare
• meiji period - marks the re-opening of japan to the west, and a period of rapid industrialization.
• kawabata yasunari - for his narrative mastery, which with great sensibility expresses the essence of the japanese mind became japan’s first winner of the novel prize for literature
• post-war and contemporary literature - world war II , and japans defeat, deeply influenced japanese literature. many authors wrote stories of disaffection, loss of purpose, and the coping with defeat.
• 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
• japanese fiction - plot development andd action have often been of secondary interest to emotional issues
• noh play - the national theatre of japan, which was origanally reserved for the nobility
• joruri play - a puppet play or doll theatre wherein the dolls are beautifully made and life-like in size
• kabuki - the play for the masses. it is less intellectual and more realistic, even sensational
• tanka (5-7-5-7-7) - it is a five line poem. the first and third lines have five syllables each and the others seven, making a total of thirty one syllables per poem
• haiku (5-7-5) - it is a seventeen-syllable poem of three lines arranged in lines of five-seven-five