“The one I knew – If only she had been an ageless pine!
What need then of these grievous farewells?”
-Tosa nikki(935)
In Japan, the pine tree(matsu) is an important symbol of longevity as well as a symbol that appears very often in Japanese poetry(waka) and Japanese literature as a double meaning, one being the literal meaning of a pine tree, and the other meaning to wait or to long for, as the word matsu written in different kanji can mean 'to wait'. Like a pine tree, Japanese travel journals are eternal, providing amazingly well-detailed glimpses into the travel and life experiences of the writers of these diaries to modern readers long after these authors have passed on. Furthermore, these travel journals can also be compared to a flower pressed into the pages of a book, which reveals its beauty and unique qualities each time it is looked upon. Two examples of such travel journals that were very famous in Japanese literary history are Tosa nikki, written by Ki no Tsurayuki during the Heian period in the year 935, and Oku no hosomichi(The Narrow Road to the Deep North) written by the acclaimed haiku and renga(linked verse) poet Matsuo Bashō from the spring of 1689 to December of 1691 during the Tokugawa period. Despite the separation of these two works by over seven hundred years, these works have many similarities, such as the use of poetry as a way to show the thoughts and feelings of the people on the journey and the detailed accounts of the travels of the authors and their companions. This paper will also describe the differences between these two travel journals.
Although Tosa nikki and Oku no hosomichi are similar in the fact that they both detail journeys to distant areas of Japan, their primary differences lie i...
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... same literary genre, are both travel journals which stand on their own as unique works which both involve journeys to different places and for different reasons. On the other hand, Oku no hosomichi and Tosa nikki differ from each other in the overall mood of the individual journals, as Oku no hosomichi is more lighthearted while Tosa nikki has more of a somber mood due to the tragic loss of the governor's daughter in the story.
Works Cited
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Christopher Benfey’s work The Great Wave is a narrative driven by a collection of accounts, stories and curious coincidences tying together The Gilded Age of New England in particular with interactions and connections to the Japan of old and new. In the context of The Great Wave, Benfey's own personal journey to Japan at the age of sixteen should be understood. Embarking on this voyage to learn traditional writing, language and Judo, his story can also be seen as a not only a historical continuation, but also a personal precursor to the vignettes he discovers and presents to the reader.
Throughout history artists have used art as a means to reflect the on goings of the society surrounding them. Many times, novels serve as primary sources in the future for students to reflect on past history. Students can successfully use novels as a source of understanding past events. Different sentiments and points of views within novels serve as the information one may use to reflect on these events. Natsume Soseki’s novel Kokoro successfully encapsulates much of what has been discussed in class, parallels with the events in Japan at the time the novel takes place, and serves as a social commentary to describe these events in Japan at the time of the Mejeii Restoration and beyond. Therefore, Kokoro successfully serves as a primary source students may use to enable them to understand institutions like conflicting views Whites by the Japanese, the role of women, and the population’s analysis of the Emperor.
Riichi, Yokomitsu. Shanghai. Michigan: The Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan , 2001.
“Until the seventeenth century, Japanese Literature was privileged property. …The diffusion of literacy …(and) the printed word… created for the first time in Japan the conditions necessary for that peculiarly modern phenomenon, celebrity” (Robert Lyons Danly, editor of The Narrow Road of the Interior written by Matsuo Basho; found in the Norton Anthology of World Literature, Second Edition, Volume D). Celebrity is a loose term at times; it connotes fortune, flattery, and fleeting fame. The term, in this modern era especially, possesses an aura of inevitable transience and glamorized superficiality. Ironically, Matsuo Basho, (while writing in a period of his own newfound celebrity as a poet) places an obvious emphasis on the transience of life within his travel journal The Narrow Road of the Interior. This journal is wholly the recounting of expedition and ethos spanning a fifteen hundred mile feat, expressed in the form of a poetic memoir. It has been said that Basho’s emphasis on the Transient is directly related to his and much of his culture’s worldview of Zen Buddhism, which is renowned for its acknowledgement of the Transient as a tool for a more accurate picture of life and a higher achievement of enlightenment. Of course, in the realization that Basho does not appear to be unwaveringly religious, perhaps this reflection is not only correlative to Zen Buddhism, but also to his perspective on his newfound celebrity. Either way, Matsuo Basho is a profound lyricist who eloquently seeks to objectify and relay the concept of transience even in his own name.
Short stories like Hisaye Yamamoto’s Seventeen Syllables, reveals something about the time period and how the author lived; we recognize these connotations in her essay “Seventeen Syllables” -- A Symbolic Haiku, through her logical outlook of everything. Yamamoto wants to educate American readers of the multicultural struggles that are brought upon by the immigrated, (mostly women), to America for freedom. She shows her purpose of everything through her special attention, the roles in woman, both Japanese and American, the metaphorical meaning of haikus, the seasons figurative meanings, the number three and seventeen and finally, the social obstacles between both the West and eastern hemispheres.
But during this period in Japan, the elegant literature was changing, going almost hand in hand with the changes that were happening. In the Heian Era, literature was popular in the court, for both the men and the ladies. They took part in reading and writing literary prose, and waka was especially popular. Waka was used not only as a pastime but to be exchanged between men and women as love letters are. An important and popular collection of waka, proves to be an example of what the Heian period was about.
The Heian period(794-1185), the so-called golden age of Japanese culture, produced some of the finest works of Japanese literature.1 The most well known work from this period, the Genji Monogatari, is considered to be the “oldest novel still recognized today as a major masterpiece.”2 It can also be said that the Genji Monogatari is proof of the ingenuity of the Japanese in assimilating Chinese culture and politics. As a monogatari, a style of narrative with poems interspersed within it, the characters and settings frequently allude to Chinese poems and stories. In addition to displaying the poetic prowess that the Japanese had attained by this time period, the Genji Monogatari also demonstrates how politics and gender ideals were adopted from the Chinese.
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During the Heian period, waka (Japanese poetry) was very prominent in society especially among women of the court. Most were written in kana (language used by women). Waka during this period often used the tanka style which is 5-7-5-7-7 syllables per line totaling 31 syllables for the whole poem. The tanka form was popular for people of every social class but it was especially popular among aristocrats and people of the court. In the courts, poems were used politically to increase one’s status or in competition with a rival from court. It was also commonly used as a form of courtship where you would try to win a girl over with a poem rather than by looks and appearance such as in today’s society. Therefore love poems were especially common during this period where lovers would send poems back and forth to each as a form of communication. Poetry can also be seen in a lot of works during this period such as in monogatari and nikki bungaku. Although many poems and stories during this period deal with love, among other things, very few of them deal with hope or end in happiness. The role that poetry served in these works was to serve as a way to express unhappiness and unfulfilled desires during the period which could be attributed to the strong and constant rivalry in the courts. For the purposes of this paper, I will only go over the monogatari and nikki bungaku found during the Heian period.
Within the traditional Japanese literature of kiko, or traveling journal, there are many similarities due to being a part of the same category. But, even though they may be a part of the same genre, there is a great increase in differences that come with the time period that they are written in. The two kiko that I will be comparing are Tosa Nikki, written by Ki no Tsurayuki, and Oku no Hosomichi, written by Matsuo Basho, both involve traveling away from the capital. In the case of Tosa Nikki, which was written in the Heian period, it was looked down upon for men to write about emotions so he wrote it in the perspective of women to make it look fictional. Oku no Hosomichi, which was written in the Tokugawa period, a time in which things that were not spoken about before, like discomfort and drinking tea, was common. The paths of the two men leaving the capital are practically polar opposites.
...Tosa Nikki has a more formal feeling to it since it was supposed to be from the perspective of a lady in the Tosa Governor’s party on their return to Kyoto. Both these works of literature are very important in what they represent. While they are both Kiko, they are written in very different ways, which shows the difference in values and opinions between literature written during the Heian period, and literature written during the Medieval period.
Poetry is used to convey one’s feelings in an abstract writing of profound perception. When writing poetry, one’s perception must have inspiration in order to breathe life and produce picturesque imagery upon paper. During late 19th century Japan, a linked-verse form of poetry called haiku, formerly known as hokku, was created. It was utilized to signify an autonomous poetic form originating from medieval comic linked verse. Haikus often describes the occurrences of nature or seasons. A poet by the name of Matsuo Bashō mastered the form of haiku. He wrote a travel narrative called, “Narrow Road of the Interior”, by which haikus were inserted to convey his feelings towards the natural settings. Bashō provokes inspiration for his haikus from the historical foundation of the various landmarks engulfed in its natural setting. By doing this, he enhances the antiquity of the historical sites, while at the same time, appreciating the natural tranquility and beauty.
When people hear of the countries China or Japan they think of technology or all the products America gets from China and Japan. People don’t realize the connections through literature and writing from Eastern Asia. Many poems and short stories were written in the nineteen hundreds. The musical based poems had a clear structure which was parallelism. The main themes in the poems and short stories were also mainly in the other writings. Many of the themes included nature, true feelings,and hardship.