Lesson 3: Japan: Tryst of the Old and the New

• Japan opened its door to foreign trade in the middle of the nineteenth century
• Jippensha Ikku is known as the Japanese Mark Twain
• All the arts enjoyed patronage from the Imperial family in Kyoto during the Classic Age
• Chikamatsu wrote around fifty dramas intermingling comedy and tragedy, different from the classics
• Japanese literature historically developed from the Chinese but has a distinctive individuality
• The Classic Age was marked by verse compilations and a number of prose romances and tales
• The eighteenth century marked the revival of the novel in Japan
• Ryunosuke Akutagawa's stories show three phases: the aesthetic phase, the realistic phase, and the critical phase
• The setting in a story tells when and where it takes place
• Ryunosuke Akutagawa's short story In the Groove was made into a film titled Rashomon
• Jippensha Ikku wrote a humorous novel titled Shank's Mare
• A folktale is a simple story using human or animal characters, often representing human qualities and involving a struggle between good and evil
• Under new influence, a new period of literature began in Japan, greatly influenced by trends in the West, particularly by England and Russia
• Chamber theater differs from a regular play or drama by using a narrator, not requiring stage props, and focusing on the actors and actresses
• Folktales are made-up stories set in the distant past
• Humor and magic are common elements in folktales
• The characters in a story are the people and animals involved
• The Spider's Thread and Rashomon are part of Akutagawa's aesthetic phase
• The period between the ninth and twelfth centuries was the Classic Age of Japanese Literature
• Chikamatsu, a Japanese playwright, has been called the Shakespeare of his country
• Two great writers in the eighteenth century were Kyokutei Baken and Jippensha Ikku
• Baken's masterpiece is New Moon, still popular in Japan
• Ryunosuke Akutagawa had an intensely creative career
• A folktale includes setting, characters, and plot
• Folktales were first told thousands of years ago and passed down through oral tradition
• Elements of a story

  • Setting
  • Characters
  • Plot
• Haiku poems consist of three lines with the first and third lines having five syllables and the second line having seven syllables
• Yasunari Kawabata won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese and Asian prose writer to do so
• Kawabata's dominant themes include the search for beauty and admiration of it, often manifested in innocence, purity, and devotion
• Ways to enjoy reading a folktale

  • Picture the setting and action
  • Learn about the characters
  • Note how events lead to one another
  • Predict what will happen
  • Be on the lookout for surprises
• Plot

  Series of events in a story, usually centers on a problem and the action taken to solve it. Builds suspense with each event until reaching the climax, the turning point of the story
• Setting

  Tells when and where a story takes place. Sometimes clearly stated at the beginning of a story, other times figured out through story details
• Haiku is a Japanese verse form known for its brevity, pithiness, and symbolism
• Characters

  The people and animals in a story. Main characters are more important and the story revolves around them
• Tanka is a Japanese poem consisting of thirty-one syllables spread out in five lines: 5-7-5-7-7
• Matsuo Basho: 'Real poetry is leading a beautiful life with nature. To live poetry is better than to write it'
• Understanding the meaning of a word can sometimes be done by knowing the base word and its affixes
• Words with script as base word

  • superscript
  • subscript
• Correct stress on the second syllable is important for pronunciation
• Listening to Take Down Notes

  1. Listen for key ideas

  2. Don't try to write down every word your teacher says

  3. Use abbreviations, symbols, even pictures to help you write quickly