The Manyoshu (meaning the "collection to be handed down throughout ten thousand eras" or the "collection of ten thousand leaves") is known as the oldest existing collection of Japanese poetry and was compiled during the Nara period. This anthology is highly revered in Japan because of this and contains some 4,500 poems spread among 20 volumes. The collection contains 265 choka (long poems), 4,207 tanka (short poems), one tanrenga (short connecting poem), one bussokusekika (poems on the Buddha's footprints at Yakushi-ji in Nara), four kanshi (Chinese poems), and 22 Chinese prose passages(Man'yōshū). Of particular note is that unlike later anthologies, the Manyoshu does not have a preface and included poems from common people as well as nobles and royalty. Of the 400 identified authors Otomo no Yakamochi stands out as the last great poet that not only added many of his own poems to the collection but also edited and compiled them as well.
The role of the Manyoshu at the time was to differentiate Japanese poetry from Chinese poetry by striking out away from the traditional Chinese method. Many entries of the Manyoshu still had Chinese based Confucian, Taoist, or even Buddhist roots, but as a whole had a mainly ancient Japanese theme leaning towards Japanese based Shinto. It is because of this that it stands out as a Japanese piece of literature showing the transition from Chinese literature to become something original.
Not only did it have an impact on Literature but it also was of great importance in changing the Japanese writing system, being composed in manyogana. Though manyogana was used earlier, it wasn’t until Manyoshu that it became influential enough to get its name. This system used Chinese character to represent Japa...
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...splay. This in turn led to increased exposure to the public and made it less of an aristocracy only activity.
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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.
Gatten, Aileen. "Review: Criticism and the Genji." The Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese 22.1 (1988): 84. JSTOR. Web. 26 Feb. 2011.
“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.
21 Pitts, Forrest R., Japan. p. 113. -. 22. Davidson, Judith. Japan- Where East Meets West, p. 107.
Secrets of the Samurai: A survey of the Martial Arts of Feudal Japan by Oscar Ratti and Adele Westbrook
Brazell, Karen. Traditional Japanese Theater: An Anthology of Plays. New York: Columbia UP, 1998. Print.
Poems, Poets, Poetry: An Introduction and Anthology. 3rd ed. Ed. Helen Vendler. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s,
The Kokinshū is the first of the Nijūichidaishū, the 21 accumulations of Japanese verse assembled at Imperial ask. It was the most powerful acknowledgment of the thoughts of verse at the time, directing the shape and organization of Japanese verse until the late nineteenth century; it was the principal compilation to separation itself into regular and love lyrics. The power of lyrics about the seasons spearheaded by the Kokinshū proceeds even today in the haiku tradition.The Japanese introduction by Ki no Tsurayuki is likewise the start of Japanese feedback as particular from the significantly more predominant Chinese poetics in the artistic circles of its day. (The compilation likewise incorporated a Classical Chinese prelude composed by Ki no Yoshimochi.) including old and in addition new lyrics was another essential development, one which was broadly embraced in later works, both in exposition and verse. The lyrics of the Kokinshū were requested transiently; the adoration sonnets, for example, however composed by various writers crosswise over huge ranges of time, are requested in a manner that the pursuer may comprehend them to portray the movement and vacillations of a cultured relationship. This relationship of one lyric to the following imprints this compilation as the progenitor of the renga and haikai conventions. The text discusses that, “The book
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.
The Tale of Murasaki, by Liza Dalby, is about Murasaki, a young woman who lived in the Heian period (794-1185) of Japan. She writes a story called The Tale of Genji, and earns so much recognition for it that she is invited to court to attend the empress. Not only was she known for her writing, but she drew attention by learning Chinese. In the story, a Chinese education is essential for a man hoping to be a high-ranked member of society. Because the Japanese considered Chinese culture as superior, waka, a popular form of Japanese poetry, carries less cultural value in the novel. Therefore, both high-class women and men have to learn about wakas and use them daily. A woman who can compose good wakas and is beautiful would have the best chances of going to court, which is the best way to guarantee a comfortable life. Liza Dalby’s The Tale of Murasaki accurately portrays the abilities of each sex, the importance of Chinese learning, and the role of Japanese poetry in the Heian period of Japan.
Poets were very prevalent in ancient China. Their poems often included vivid imagery of the land, romance, and praising of their leaders (“Chinese Poetry”). One of the most famous poets was Li Bai. Li Bai was also known as Li Po (“Li Bai”). Li Bai is now considered one of the greatest of the ancient Chinese poets, if not the greatest. Beginning at an early age, Li Bai had a deep love for words (“Biography of Li Bai”). When he grew up, he became a “wandering poet” (“Li Bai”). As a wandering poet, he got to meet a lot of people; eventually he became a very influential person in the Tang Dynasty. His influence would continue all the way to modern times. People often wonder what contributes to the influence a poet has on his or her community. For Li Bai, it was his love for travelling, his political positions, and his celebrity status which helped to increase the influence of his poems on everyday life in ancient China.
Noh theatre came about at the same time Buddhism started having an influence on Japanese culture. They each affected the other. Noh theatre took the beliefs and the ideas of Buddhism and intertwined it with ancient Japanese beliefs to create a magnificent form of drama. Buddhism took those ancient Japanese beliefs and rituals to make a unique religion. Zeami took all of it and wrote some of the most influential plays of Japan. In fact, Zeami’s Noh plays are classified as the highest classics of Noh drama and of Japanese literature (Tsuchiya 104). Noh drama had a major influence on Japanese culture. A quarter of the eight hundred plays ever written and performed are still performed today (Magill 2423). This shows how important Noh theatre was in not only the fourteenth century, but in present day.
The Man’yōshū (Collection of a Myriad) is an anthology of poetry with some 4,500 poems. The Man’yōshū is one the first anthologies of Japanese poetry but by some scholars it is considered one of the finest. In his book Japanese Culture author Paul Varley describes the poems of the Man’yōshū as follows, “Some of the Man’yōshū poems are spuriously attributed to emperors and other lofty individuals of the fourth and fifth centuries, an age shrouded in myth, and a great many more are anonymous” (43). Many poem anthologies have come and gone over the rich history of Japan but there are some key features of the Man’yōshū that keeps it apart from the many other anthologies. One of the key features is that it can be said that the poems found therein were not just written by the nobility but the hand of many classes of society contributed to the works of poetry within the anthology. From the peasants to the frontiers guards men to even the paupers of Japans societies contributed to this great anthology. Though some modern scholars believe tha...
Magistrale, Tony. The. The Art of Poetry. Student Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Westport, Conn. ;London: Greenwood, 2001.