Download or read book Sugawara no Michizane and the Early Heian Court written by Robert Borgen and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sugawara no Michizane (845-902) was one of early Japan's most remarkable men, the best of many Heian poets who wrote in Chinese, and one of the models for the title charcter in The Tale of Genji. This multifacted study offers a well-rounded portrait of Michizane. Based on a wide range of primary sources, it reconstructs and analyzes his career, both at court and in the provinces. Included are many of Michixane's poems, translated for the first time. Winner of the 1990 American Historical Association's James Henry Breasted Prize. Richly illustrated with woodblock prints.
Download or read book Sugawara no Michizane and the Early Heian Court written by Robert Borgen and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 1990 American Historical Association's James Henry Breasted Prize. A great book for anyone interested in the Heian period of Japan.
Download or read book Gateway to Japan written by Bruce L. Batten and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2006-01-31 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thousand years ago, most visitors to Japan would have arrived by ship at Hakata Bay, the one and only authorized gateway to Japan. Hakata was the location of the Kôrokan, an official guest-house for foreign visitors that is currently yielding its secrets to the spades of Japanese archaeologists. Nearby was Dazaifu, the imperial capital of western Japan, surrounded by mountain fortresses and defended by an army of border guards. Over the ages, Hakata was a staging ground for Japanese troops on their way to Korea and ground zero for foreign invasions of Japan. Through the port passed a rich variety of diplomats, immigrants, raiders, and traders, both Japanese and foreign. Gateway to Japan spotlights four categories of cross-cultural interaction—war, diplomacy, piracy, and trade—over a period of eight hundred years to gain insight into several larger questions about Japan and its place in the world: How and why did Hakata come to serve as the country’s "front door"? How did geography influence the development of state and society in the Japanese archipelago? Has Japan been historically open or closed to outside influence? Why are Japanese so profoundly ambivalent about other places and people? Individual chapters focus on Chinese expansionism and its consequences for Japan and East Asia as a whole; the subtle (and not-so-subtle) contradictions and obfuscations of the diplomatic process as seen in Japanese treatment of Korean envoys visiting Kyushu; random but sometimes devastating attacks on Kyushu by Korean (and sometimes Japanese) pirates; and foreign commerce in and around Hakata, which turns out to be neither fully "foreign" nor fully "commerce" in the modern sense of the word. The conclusion briefly traces the story forward into medieval and early modern times. Enriched by fascinating historical vignettes and dozens of maps and photographs, this engagingly written volume explores issues not only important for Japan’s early history but also highly pertinent to Japan’s role in the world today. Now, as in the period examined here, Japan has one principal entry point (the international airport at Narita); its relationship with the outside world (both East and West) is ambivalent; and, while sometimes astonishingly open-minded, Japanese are at other times frustratingly exclusive in their dealings with non-Japanese. Gateway to Japan will be of substantial interest to all students of Japan, East Asia, and intercultural studies.
Download or read book Critical Readings on Pure Land Buddhism in Japan written by Galen Amstutz and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-06-08 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pure Land was one of the main fields of mythopoesis and discourse among the Asian Buddhist traditions, and in Japan of central cultural importance from the Heian period right up to the present. The pieces reproduced in this set have been chosen as linchpin works accentuating the diversity and evolution of Pure Land Buddhism. These selections of previously published articles will serve as an essential starting-point for anyone interested in this perhaps underestimated area of Buddhist studies.
Download or read book The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature written by Haruo Shirane and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-12-31 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature provides, for the first time, a history of Japanese literature with comprehensive coverage of the premodern and modern eras in a single volume. The book is arranged topically in a series of short, accessible chapters for easy access and reference, giving insight into both canonical texts and many lesser known, popular genres, from centuries-old folk literature to the detective fiction of modern times. The various period introductions provide an overview of recurrent issues that span many decades, if not centuries. The book also places Japanese literature in a wider East Asian tradition of Sinitic writing and provides comprehensive coverage of women's literature as well as new popular literary forms, including manga (comic books). An extensive bibliography of works in English enables readers to continue to explore this rich tradition through translations and secondary reading.
Download or read book The Cambridge History of Japan written by John Whitney Hall and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1988 with total page 796 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides the most comprehensive treatment in Western literature of the Heian period, the Japanese imperial court's golden age.
Download or read book Traditional Japanese Literature written by Haruo Shirane and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2012-09-25 with total page 601 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Haruo Shirane's critically acclaimed Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600, contains key examples of both high and low styles of poetry, drama, prose fiction, and essays. For this abridged edition, Shirane retains substantial excerpts from such masterworks as The Tale of Genji, The Tales of the Heike, The Pillow Book, the Man'yoshu, and the Kokinshu. He preserves his comprehensive survey of secular and religious anecdotes (setsuwa) as well as classical poems with extensive commentary. He features no drama; selections from influential war epics; and notable essays on poetry, fiction, history, and religion. Texts are interwoven to bring into focus common themes, styles, and allusions while inviting comparison and debate. The result is a rich encounter with ancient and medieval Japanese culture and history. Each text and genre is enhanced by extensive introductions that provide sociopolitical and cultural context. The anthology is organized by period, genre, and topic—an instructor-friendly structure—and a comprehensive bibliography guides readers toward further study. Praise for Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600 "Haruo Shirane has done a splendid job at this herculean task."—Joshua Mostow, University of British Columbia "A comprehensive and innovative anthology.... All of the introductions are excellent."—Journal of Asian Studies "One of those impressive, erudite, must-have titles for anyone interested in Asian literature."—Bloomsbury Review "An anthology that comprises superb translations of an exceptionally wide range of texts.... Highly recommended."—Choice "A wealth of material."—Monumenta Nipponica
Download or read book Twisted Mirrors Reflections of Monstrous Humanity written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-09-25 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twisted Mirrors is a collection of papers which examine the monstrous in relation to humanity. Culled from an international conference, these essays were written by scholars from a variety of fields and represent a broad cross-section in the scholastic investigation of the monstrous.
Download or read book The Boundless Sea written by David Abulafia and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-09-16 with total page 816 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the beginning of history to the present, a sweep of the world's oceans and seas and how they have shaped the course of civilization. From the author of the acclaimed The Great Sea, ("Magnificent . . . radiates scholarship and a sense of wonder and fun," Simon Sebag Montefiore; Book of the Year, The Economist), David Abulafia's new book guides readers along the world's greatest bodies of water to reveal their primary role in human history. The main protagonists are the three major oceans--the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian--which together comprise the majority of the earth's water and cover over half of its surface. Over time, as passage through them gradually extended and expanded, linking first islands and then continents, maritime networks developed, evolving from local exploration to lines of regional communication and commerce and eventually to major arteries. These waterways carried goods, plants, livestock, and of course people--free and enslaved--across vast expanses, transforming and ultimately linking irrevocably the economies and cultures of Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Far more than merely another history of exploration, The Boundless Sea shows how maritime networks gradually formed a continuum of interaction and interconnection. Working chronologically, Abulafia moves from the earliest forays of peoples taking hand-hewn canoes into uncharted waters, to the routes taken daily by supertankers in the thousands. History on the grandest scale and scope, written with passion and precision, this is a project few could have undertaken. Abulafia, whom The Atlantic calls "superb writer with a gift for lucid compression and an eye for the telling detail," proves again why he ranks as one of the world's greatest storytellers.
Download or read book The Book in Japan written by Peter Kornicki and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2000-12-01 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New in paperback. Of related interest: A History of Writing in Japan, by Christopher Seeley
Download or read book The Book in Japan written by Peter Francis Kornicki and published by BRILL. This book was released on 1998 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study of the history of the book in Japan is an essential reference work covering all aspects of book production and the circulation of texts in pre-modern Japan, including libraries, censorship and readership.
Download or read book The Making of Shinkokinsh written by Robert N. Huey and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-03-23 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This study of the Japanese imperial court in the early thirteenth century focuses on the compilation of one of Japan’s most important poetry collections, Shinkokinshū. Using personal diaries, court records, poetry texts, and literary treatises, Robert N. Huey reconstructs the process by which Retired Emperor Go-Toba brought together contending factions to produce this collection and laid the groundwork for his later attempt at imperial restoration. The work analyzes how poetic discourse of the imperial court animated both other kinds of writing and other activities. Finally, it underscores the inextricable ties between the writing of poetry and court politics. Shinkokinshū—the “New Kokinshu”—has been viewed as a neo-classical effort. Reading history backward, scholars have often taken the work to be the outgrowth of a nostalgia for greatness presumed to have been lost in the wars of the origins of the collection. The author argues that the compilers of Shinkokinshū instead saw it as a “new” beginning, a revitalization and affirmation of courtly traditions, and not a reaction to loss. It is a dynamic collection, full of innovative, challenging poetry—not an elegy for a lost age."
Download or read book SUGAWARA NO MICHIZANE NINTH CENTURY JAPANESE COURT SCHOLAR POET AND STATESMAN written by Robert Sidney Borgen and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Counting Dreams written by Roger K. Thomas and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2021-10-15 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Counting Dreams tells the story of Nomura Bōtō, a Buddhist nun, writer, poet, and activist who joined the movement to oppose the Tokugawa Shogunate and restore imperial rule. Banished for her political activities, Bōtō was imprisoned on a remote island until her comrades rescued her in a dramatic jailbreak, spiriting her away under gunfire. Roger K. Thomas examines Bōtō's life, writing, and legacy, and provides annotated translations of two of her literary diaries, shedding light on life and society in Japan's tumultuous bakumatsu period and challenging preconceptions about women's roles in the era. Thomas interweaves analysis of Bōtō's poetry and diaries with the history of her life and activism, examining their interrelationship and revealing how she brought two worlds—the poetic and the political—together. Counting Dreams illustrates Bōtō's significant role in the loyalist movement, depicting the adventurous life of a complex woman in Japan on the cusp of the Meiji Restoration.
Download or read book Routledge Handbook of Premodern Japanese History written by Karl F. Friday and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-07-14 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholarship on premodern Japan has grown spectacularly over the past four decades, in both sophistication and volume. The new scholarship sees a higher reliance on primary documents, a shift away from the history of elites to broader exploration of social structures, and a reexamination of many of the key tenets which were once the received wisdom. Providing a primarily historiographical review, this handbook highlights the recent innovations and major themes that have developed in the study of premodern Japanese history. Covering Japanese history to 1600, The Routledge Handbook of Japanese History is an essential reference work for any student and researcher on Japanese, Asian and World History.
Download or read book Emperor and Aristocracy in Heian Japan written by Francine Hérail and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book No Moonlight in My Cup written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-01-21 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No Moonlight in My Cup provides translations and commentaries for more than two hundred Sinitic poems (kanshi 漢詩) from the Nara and Heian courts (710-1185) together with a detailed introduction to this important but relatively little-studied literary genre.
