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Top 5 Things to do in Tokyo | japan-guide.com

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Haruki MURAKAMI: In SEARCH of this elusive WRITER (DOCUMENTARY)

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[Masterpiece of Japanese Literature] I Am A Cat (by Sōseki Natsume) Audiobook

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Japan in the Heian Period and Cultural History: Crash Course World History 227

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Japanese literature, literary works produced in the language of the islands of Japan [1]. See also Asian drama [2]. *Earliest Writings*Although Japanese and Chinese are different languages, the Japanese borrowed and adapted Chinese ideographs early in the 8th cent.

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Stories written by those monks could out-weird even the strangest Murakami dream sequence.

So, what is it?

Old Japanese books, man. And we're talking old. But wait! Old books are the bomb. They've got heart-wrenching tales of courtly love, samurai battles to rival Game of Thrones and fables of creatures equally weird as they are wonderful.

When we speak of classical Japanese literature, we usually mean works dating from the 8th century up until the dawn of Japan's Meiji era in the 19th century.

And like anything cultural, literature has changed with society. So to make this intro easier, I've split up classical Japan into four categories and included recommendations of works with English translations available.

Long, long ago in a world inhabited by gods

Kojiki

Every nation needs an original creation story and the Kojiki ( Records of Ancient Matters) - Japan's oldest historical record - recounts the dawn of Japanese civilization through myths and folk songs. It also answers the question: Why is the Japanese Imperial family divine? Because they happen to be descendants of the sun goddess, Amaterasu.

Nihon Shoki

About a decade later, Nihon Shoki ( Chronicles of Japan) arrived on the scene with more historically accurate material, particularly about the reigns of emperors Tenji, Tenmu and Jito.

If these seem like a bit of a slog, don't worry, the Heian period is just around the corner and brings with it a flourishing of all things fiction - including the first novel and first sci-fi(-ish) short story.

Badass poets and innovative imaginations of the Heian court

The Tale of Genji and The Pillow Book

The two big stars of the Heian period were undoubtedly Murasaki Shikubu and Sei Shonagon. The former having written The Tale of Genji, arguably the first novel ever written, and the latter The Pillow Book ( Makura no Sōshi), an indispensable account of the trials and tribulations of courtly life.

Kokin Wakashu

If you've read anything about life as an Heian aristocrat, you'll know they dedicated themselves to one thing above all: poetry. The styles popular back then, like waka, are extremely short and were the standard method of communication - essentially elegantly crafted Tinder messages.

One of the first collections of poetry was commissioned by the emperor Uda and named the Kokin Wakashu. This meaty volume consists of over 1,111 poems written by the court celebrities of the day.

Taketori Monogatari

More of a sci-fi or fantasy fan? Taketori Monogatari, is a bizarre story dating back to the tenth century and known alternately as The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter. The protagonist, Princess Kaguya, was born on the moon but sent to Earth (sounds a bit Sailor Moon) to escape the chaos of a celestial war. A kindly bamboo cutter finds her nestled inside a glowing bamboo stalk, takes her home to his wife and they raise her as their own. This contender for the first sci-fi story has also been made into a gorgeous movie by Studio Ghibli.

Epic battles, monks and frolicking frogs

The Tale of the Heike

The term "Heian" means peace but our next period was anything but. Japan was in the grip of numerous civil wars. What's useful to have during war? Warriors, and lots of them.

It comes as no surprise that famous literary works from this period are tales of war and death. The Tale of the Heike is a perfect example. Detailing the clash between two warring clans, the Minamoto and Taira, as they fought for control of Japan at the end of the 12th century, it gives an important glimpse into society at the time.

Hojoki

Monks were also putting their pens to paper and churning out some of the best of Buddhist literature. One genre named zuihitsu - often a mixture of personal essays, anecdotes and ideas loosely linked together - was inspired by Sei Shonagon's The Pillow Book. This became popular with the publication of H0joki written by Kamo no Chomei and focused on the Buddhist concept of transience. The court-poet-turned-monk is famous for living in a 10-square-foot hut (proto-LeoPalace?) on Mount Hino in Shiga Prefecture.

Tsurezuregusa

A century later, Yoshida Kenko's Tsurezuregusa followed in its footsteps, recounting anything from humorous incidents to deep discussions about impermanence.

The Choju-jinbutsu-giga

Literature outside of the norm was also being produced. The Choju-jinbutsu-giga, a contender for the title of first manga, was started in the 12th century and finally finished in the 13th. The three scrolls depict foxes, monkeys and frogs (plus others) acting like humans in various everyday situations. Genuinely hilarious, parts of this satirical piece are on display at the Kyushu National Museum exhibition from October 4 until November 20.

Also, the traditional theater style of Noh was coming into its own during the 14th century alongside renga, a form of collaborative poetry which would pave the way for haiku in the Edo period, which is where we're heading to next...

The Edo cultural explosion

The Complete Haiku

Previously, Kyoto and Nara in the Kansai region had been the center of the Japanese world. All of this changed in the Edo period when the power shifted, along with the emperor and the shogunate, to Tokyo (Edo was the old name for Tokyo). Edo was bustling with samurai charisma, geisha charm and artists inspired by these changing times. Haiku was perfected by Matsuo Basho, who published a collection aptly named The Complete Haiku during the 17th century.

The Love Suicides at Sonezaki

The closing off of the outside world, both physically and culturally, as a result of sakoku (closed country) led to a bourgeoisie class with the time and money to invest in the arts. Costume drama like kabuki and the puppet theater, bunraku, flourished thanks to the plays of Chikamatsu Monzaemon whose work revolved around the life and trials of ordinary people. One such was The Love Suicides at Sonezaki, which tells the story of two lovers driven to death. The tragedies he wrote rivaled those of Shakespeare.

Koshoku Ichidai Onna

Travel guides, essays and satires were being churned out in unprecedented numbers. The Yoshiwara, or pleasure district, was the muse of many a writer. Iharu Saikaku delved head first into this world with his novel Koshoku Ichidai Onna ( The Life of An Amorous Woman). An ironic take on the world of love and lust, an old woman recounts the story of her life as the daughter of a nobleman, courtesan and prostitute.
Did we miss anything? Let us know what other classics you would recommend in the comments!

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An Introduction to: Classical Japanese Literature

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Stories written by those monks could out-weird even the strangest Murakami dream sequence. Old Japanese books, man. And we're talking old. But wait! Old books are the bomb. They've got heart-wrenching tales of courtly love, samurai battles to rival Game of Thrones and fables of creatures equally weird as they are wonderful.

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Japanese Literature genre: new releases and popular books, including The Sakura Obsession: The Incredible Story of the Plant Hunter Who Saved Japan's Che...

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Dring the Heian Period, the Japanese were fascinated with Chinese culture. The Imperial Court emulated Chinese fashion and customs while they pursued the arts. A noble was expected to be well-versed in literature, poetry, painting, dancing, calligraphy, and more. Noble men used the Chinese language in the same way that Medieval European nobles and priests used Latin.

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About Japanese literature and sightseeing spots related to some of its influential authors.

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Introduction to history of Japan's Literature

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Japanese literature traces its beginnings to oral traditions that were first recorded in written form in the early eighth century after a writing system was introduced from China. The (Record of Ancient Matters) and Nihon shoki (Chronicle of Japan) were completed in and , respectively, as government projects.

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Almost Transparent Blue (1976) by Ryu Murakami

Ryu Murakami wrote Almost Transparent Blue while still a student at Musashino Art University, and it's a work that ended up winning him the prestigious Akutagawa Prize. The book follows a group of dissolute Japanese youths in the mid-1970s, and is infused with themes of sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll. Murakami takes the reader on an unnerving journey through the minds and bodies of a set of friends whose main concerns are where they are going to get their next drug fix from. Accused by some critics of being crass and overindulgent, Murakami certainly does not shy away from graphic descriptions of mescaline-induced hallucinations and sudden moments of brutality, which serve to make the lives of his protagonists seem even more hollow and mundane. Almost Transparent Blue unfolds in a haze of debauchery to the soundtrack of The Doors and the urban soundscape of 1970s Japan.

Death in Midsummer and Other Stories (1953) by Yukio Mishima

Death in Midsummer and Other Stories is a powerful collection of Yukio Mishima's short prose, filled with black humor and fraught relationships. The titular story, "Death in Midsummer," is about just that, and the suffocating heat and languid slowness of a long summer's day stands in stark contrast to the immediacy of a sudden, tragic accident. Mishima was an actor, writer, model, playwright, poet, and was rumored to be a strong contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Among the stories is the tale of a monk poised on the brink of enlightenment and transcendence who is drawn back into the mortal world by the sight of a royal concubine, a modern telling of a Noh play, and a visceral account of a Japanese lieutenant's ritual suicide, otherwise known as seppuku. The highly detailed account of suicide is made all the more disturbing by its similarities to Mishima's own death by seppuku at the age of 45.

The Diving Pool (1990) by Yoko Ogawa

Composed of three novellas- The Diving Pool, Pregnancy Diary, and The Dormitory- this book aims to make the reader embody their central characters. The focus is on female protagonists observing from strange places of isolation. The Diving Pool follows Aya, a girl whose parents operate an orphanage, which means she is the only child in her immediate environment to be brought up by her real parents. Aya recounts her acts of love and cruelty in a detached, disinterested manner, as if viewing her life through a tunnel or a telescope. With brilliant writing and razor-sharp observations, Ogawa is famous for being able to turn a phrase like twisting a knife.

Kafka on the Shore (2002) by Haruki Murakami

Kafka on the Shore is a perfect introduction to Haruki Murakami's literary universe. An author who has captured the imagination of a vast international readership, Murakami was considered a strong contender for the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature. The novel contains all that makes his stories instantly recognizable: cats that appear to know more than humans; classical music and pop culture references; lost, wandering protagonists; and ultimately a gradual scratching away at the surface of existence to reveal the unanswerable metaphysical mysteries beneath. Only Murakami could bring to life Johnnie Walker-the striding man found on the world's most popular whisky, drawn by British illustrator Tom Browne-and make him so disturbing as to ensure you never look at another bottle of Johnnie Black in quite the same way again.

Kokoro (1914) by Natsume Soseki

Natsume Soseki is counted among Japan's greatest writers: active in the Meiji era, he was a scholar, a poet, and a novelist. Kokoro -meaning heart, in its various English forms-was serialized in a newspaper in 1914. The novel deals with a young man's relationship to an elderly gentleman who he refers to as sensei, and is a study of isolation and search for identity. The author's prose layers levels of significance through the characters' words and actions, so that by the end of the novel one feels ready to read it backwards, to see if anything more can be learned from the accretion of his nuanced descriptions.

Seven Japanese Tales (1963) by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki

Jun'ichirō Tanizaki is ranked among Japan's most brilliant authors and Seven Japanese Tales is a comprehensive introduction to the writer of The Makioka Sisters and A Cat, a Man, and Two Women. The collection explores national and personal identity, sexual desire, cruelty, and relationships of dominance and submission. In one of the stories in the collection, "A Portrait of Shunkin," a young boy binds himself for life to the musically gifted daughter of a family from a position of higher social standing. The story unfolds around the Shimasen, a traditional Japanese stringed instrument that produces drawn-out mournful cries. The Shimasen calls for players to demonstrate the same life-long devotion that our protagonist shows to his love, Shunkin.

Snow Country (1937) by Yasunari Kawabata

Snow Country is Yasunari Kawabata's seminal tale of isolation and indifference, set in a rural region of Japan where the snow falls the heaviest. The story is told from the perspective of Shimamura, an idle and detached middle-aged man on a visit to a resort village, replete with hot springs and a cohort of country geishas. Shimamura begins a half-hearted love affair with one of the geishas and is largely unrepentant about neglecting his wife and child back in Tokyo. The novel set Kawabata on his way to international recognition and his tight, poetic prose would later win him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968. The writing in Snow Country is lyrical and suggestive, with any emotional warmth hard-won against the backdrop of the perpetually falling snow.

The Tale of Genji (ca. 1008) by Murasaki Shikibu

The Tale of Genji is perhaps the most famous work to come out of Japan, which is a credit to a novel written in the 11th century by a court noblewoman. It is a story of love set in a court of the Heian period, with the central character having to navigate her way through the social and political obstacles of the time. The book is considered a masterpiece and regarded by some as one of the first modern novels. Translations of the work vary in style, form and quality-variation resulting from idioms, grammatical idiosyncrasies and poetic structures needing to be wrested back from a form of the Japanese language used nearly 1,000 years ago.

The Waiting Years (1957) by Fumiko Enchi

The Waiting Years is a beautifully written tale of suffering set in Meiji Japan. Tomo, the novel's female lead, struggles through her life and marriage to her unfaithful husband, with each new woman that enters the picture reaffirming the protagonist's powerlessness to change her situation. Fumiko Enchi was one of Japan's most respected novelists, and her books portray the plight of women in a patriarchal society. While the novel is set during the Meiji period, the characters and their torments remain relevant for a modern readership.

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Ryu Murakami wrote Almost Transparent Blue while still a student at Musashino Art University, and it's a work that ended up winning him the prestigious Akutagawa Prize. The book follows a group of dissolute Japanese youths in the mid-1970s, and is infused with themes of sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll.

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20 Essential Works of Japanese Literature - BachelorsDegreeOnline.com

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Japan's ancient history has imbued it with a diverse literary heritage.

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Japanese literature: Japanese literature, the body of written works produced by Japanese authors in Japanese or, in its earliest beginnings, at a time when Japan had no written language, in the Chinese classical language. Both in quantity and quality, Japanese literature ranks as one of the major literatures of the

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Certains pays n'ont pas d'hiver, ce qui les prive de ce délicieux moment où les promeneurs transis s'assoient dans le salon pour goûter la perle de rosée, la déesse de fer de la miséricorde, ou la cime duveteuse des montagnes jaunes, autant de thés raffinés dont les noms portent au rêve, mais parmi lesquels il faut choisir, car il n'y a le plus souvent qu'une seule théière dans la maison. S'entendre, partager, être unis autour d'une simple chose, c'est déjà faire un premier pas vers la philosophie que nous dépeint avec élégance Okakura Kakuzo dans son célèbre livre. Il faut prendre le temps et savoir écouter la bouilloire qui chante comme

les échos d'une cascade étouffés par la brume...une averse balayant une forêt de bambous..., car il n'existe aucune distinction entre le petit et le grand, un atome étant doué de possibilités égales à celles de l'univers tout entier.

Cette citation révèle de manière frappante la parenté évidente entre la voie du Thé et le taoïsme, mais également avec l'alchimie (qu'évoque d'ailleurs brièvement Kakuzo), et on peut la mettre en exergue avec la célèbre phrase d'Hermes Trismegiste (un philosophe grec de l'antiquité) :

Ce qui est en haut est comme ce qui est en bas.

Les Chinois ont d'ailleurs pratiqué l'alchimie depuis la dynastie Han, c'est-à-dire vers l'an 200 avant notre ère, véritable cosmogonie, qui, comme dans le taoïsme se traduit par des exercices de méditation en trois figures : souffle, essence, esprit. On pourrait citer de nombreux extraits du texte de Kakuzo qui vont dans ce sens. La voie du thé relève d'un ascétisme assumé, elle est celle de la modestie, de la simplicité, du vide, de la fugacité. C'est un art qui, comme tout art véritable, porte en lui- même les émotions que nous ressentons. Un très grand livre, magnifiquement illustré par le fou de peinture Katsushika Hokusai, et ce qui demeure extraordinaire en achevant cette passionnante lecture, c'est lorsque l'on s'aperçoit qu'à aucun moment Kakuso ne nous décrit la cérémonie du thé !
A ce moment, on doit se souvenir, que, comme en alchimie, nous avons affaire à un art profondément mystique, pour lequel c'est le mouvement d'accomplissement qui importe, et non l'accomplissement lui-même.

Un sujet qui nous parle particulièrement puisque nous sommes en train de travailler Le Feu secret, roman sur l'alchimie à paraître fin 2018 chez Nats Editions.

Thierry Erhart et Marie-Hélène Fasquel.

Okakura Kakuzô
né le 14 février 1862 et mort le 2 septembre 1913, également connu sous le nom Okakura Tenshin, est un érudit japonais ayant contribué au développement des arts japonais.

Aurélien Clause, traduction

Interview d'Aurélien.

Merci infiniment à Synchronique Editions pour ce SP passionnant et pour l'offre que vous trouverez ici :

Pour conclure :
Si vous avez apprécié cette chronique, n'hésitez pas à consulter celles-ci :

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Le livre du thé d'Okakura Kahuzô - Chronique

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Certains pays n'ont pas d'hiver, ce qui les prive de ce délicieux moment où les promeneurs transis s'assoient dans le salon pour goûter la perle de rosée, la déesse de fer de la miséricorde, ou la cime duveteuse des montagnes jaunes, autant de thés raffinés dont les noms portent au rêve, mais parmi lesquels il faut choisir, car il n'y a le plus souvent qu'une seule théière dans la maison.

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Dans l'introduction de cet élégant ouvrage, André Vandevenne nous rappelle que Bashô était aussi calligraphe. La calligraphie et le haïku : deux arts de l'instant, de l'instantané - dirait un photographe- et ce n'est peut-être pas un hasard si les écrivains occidentaux se sont intéressés à cette forme poétique à la naissance de la photographie.
En effet, lorsqu'on lit ou qu'on écoute un haïku -puisqu'il est fait pour être dit- on est frappé par ce moment de beauté saisi sur le vif, mais aussi par la sensation d'étrangeté qui en émane. C'est que, contrairement au français, la langue japonaise n'utilise pas les articles, d'où cette impression de vers superposés, voire empilés comme les strates d'un sol.
Toute poésie est bien sûr un défi à traduire, et particulièrement celle-ci, profondément ancrée dans la culture japonaise, celle des lettrés et des philosophes bouddhistes et Zen. Pour mieux comprendre ce problème, on peut citer le célèbre haïku de la grenouille :

Un vieil étang et
Une grenouille qui plonge
Le bruit de l'eau

Le dernier vers de cette poésie contient, en japonais, une assonance qui évoque le son de la grenouille entrée au contact de l'eau. Intraduisible. Et l'on pourrait multiplier les exemples.
Pourtant cette poésie nous parle. Pourquoi ?
Le haïku est une triade souvent organisée ainsi : Un vers évoque un animal (cheval, singe, etc...), un autre un végétal (cyprès, bambous, hibiscus), et le dernier vers, le temps qu'il fait (pluie, brouillard, tempête).
C'est que le poète est un marcheur. Il chemine autour du Mont sacré des japonais, le Fujiyama. Et il observe. Tout un jour, c'est long pour celui qui gravit heure après heure des pentes escarpées. Mille sensations l'envahissent. Mais il est à l'écoute, car c'est la raison de son voyage, un voyage intérieur, dicté par la douleur due à la perte d'un être cher. Et il choisit, il choisit les mots les plus forts, passés au tamis de ses efforts sur la montagne. Cette force, nous la ressentons. Nous la goûtons. Nous pouvons même la renouveler, en psalmodiant le haiku comme un mantra.
Le haïku résonne aujourd'hui en nous d'une manière à laquelle n'avait sans doute pas pensé notre poète. Son minimalisme naïf, mais puissant, qui renvoie à l'essentiel, s'inscrit dans la démarche de ceux qui -de plus en plus nombreux- voient nos Sociétés comme des machines pillant sans état d'âme les ressources de notre planète. La nature est notre cocon. Bashô la respecte infiniment. Et, plusieurs siècles plus tard, nous aussi devons la respecter, car elle recèle bien des réponses à nos angoisses. Bashö, meurtri, y cherche un nouveau sens à sa vie.
C'est ce que nous cherchons tous.

Pour conclure :
Si vous avez apprécié cette chronique, n'hésitez pas à consulter celles-ci :

En outre, pour les lecteurs de L'élève au cœur de sa réussite, cette chronique est un clin d'œil ! (Voir page 73, chapitre 4, la classe inversée).

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Chronique littéraire : Haïkus et notes de voyage -- Bashô -- Synchronique Editions

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Dans l'introduction de cet élégant ouvrage, André Vandevenne nous rappelle que Bashô était aussi calligraphe. La calligraphie et le haïku : deux arts de l'instant, de l'instantané - dirait un photographe- et ce n'est peut-être pas un hasard si les écrivains occidentaux se sont intéressés à cette forme poétique à la naissance de la photographie.

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French students' questions about Japanese literature

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French students' questions about Japanese literature

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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Book review -- Beauty and Sadness by Kawabata 

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Book review -- Beauty and Sadness by Kawabata 

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Shimamura is tired of the bustling city. He takes the train through the snow to the mountains of the west coast of Japan, to meet with a geisha he believes he loves. Beautiful and innocent, Komako is tightly bound by the rules of a rural geisha, and lives a life of servitude and seclusion that is alien to Shimamura, and their love offers no freedom to either of them. Snow Country is both delicate and subtle, reflecting in Kawabata's exact, lyrical writing the unspoken love and the understated passion of the young Japanese couple.

I had read Snow Country years ago in French and wanted to reread it. It is not an easy task to review such a masterpiece! When I reread it, I felt as I had when I read Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu. This work, through its poetry, the doomed love story, the inescapable real life, made me analyse life, and made me think about my own. It enables you to discuss with your inner self, about the meaning of life, of love... and that is a wonderful way of interacting with a story.

Yasunari Kawabata was a Japanese short story writer and novelist whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal and are still widely read. ( goodreads)
To go further:

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Review: Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata (Penguin)

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Shimamura is tired of the bustling city. He takes the train through the snow to the mountains of the west coast of Japan, to meet with a geisha he believes he loves.