JapaneseLit1

• Japanese Literature is one of the major literatures of the world, comparable to English literature in age and variety
• Japanese Literature is one of the major bodies of Oriental Literature, covering the period from the fifth century A.D to the present
• Poems and odes to the Gods were composed in early Japanese Language before the art of writing was known in Japan
• The Tale of Genji, written by Japanese writer Murasaki Shikibu in the 11th century, is generally regarded as the earliest novel in any culture and as the greatest masterpiece of Japanese literature
• The Man’yoshu, the oldest collection of Japanese poetry, was compiled in the 8th century and consists of more than 4,000 poems, some dating from as early as the 5th century
• Child’s Play (1895-96) by Higuchi Ichiyo is a short story set in the pleasure quarters of the late Meiji era, focusing on neighborhood adolescents experiencing the beginning of adulthood
• The Tale of the Heike is a warrior epic of the historic battles between the Genji (Minamoto clan) and the Heike (Taira clan) between 1169 and 1185
• Natsume Soseki, a Japanese author, first gained public attention with his work "I Am a Cat" in 1906, a light-hearted series of observations made by a cat about humans
• Tanizaki Jun’ichirō, another Japanese author, is best known for "Some Prefer Nettles," a novel about a failing marriage