Download or read book Early Modern Japanese Literature written by Haruo Shirane and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2002-07-10 with total page 1054 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first anthology ever devoted to early modern Japanese literature, spanning the period from 1600 to 1900, known variously as the Edo or the Tokugawa, one of the most creative epochs of Japanese culture. This anthology, which will be of vital interest to anyone involved in this era, includes not only fiction, poetry, and drama, but also essays, treatises, literary criticism, comic poetry, adaptations from Chinese, folk stories and other non-canonical works. Many of these texts have never been translated into English before, and several classics have been newly translated for this collection. Early Modern Japanese Literature introduces English readers to an unprecedented range of prose fiction genres, including dangibon (satiric sermons), kibyôshi (satiric and didactic picture books), sharebon (books of wit and fashion), yomihon (reading books), kokkeibon (books of humor), gôkan (bound books), and ninjôbon (books of romance and sentiment). The anthology also offers a rich array of poetry—waka, haiku, senryû, kyôka, kyôshi—and eleven plays, which range from contemporary domestic drama to historical plays and from early puppet theater to nineteenth century kabuki. Since much of early modern Japanese literature is highly allusive and often elliptical, this anthology features introductions and commentary that provide the critical context for appreciating this diverse and fascinating body of texts. One of the major characteristics of early modern Japanese literature is that almost all of the popular fiction was amply illustrated by wood-block prints, creating an extensive text-image phenomenon. In some genres such as kibyôshi and gôkan the text in fact appeared inside the woodblock image. Woodblock prints of actors were also an important aspect of the culture of kabuki drama. A major feature of this anthology is the inclusion of over 200 woodblock prints that accompanied the original texts and drama.
Download or read book Obsessions with the Sino Japanese Polarity in Japanese Literature written by Atsuko Sakaki and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2005-11-30 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using close readings of a range of premodern and modern texts, Atsuko Sakaki focuses on the ways in which Japanese writers and readers revised—or in many cases devised—rhetoric to convey "Chineseness" and how this practice contributed to shaping a national Japanese identity. The volume begins by examining how Japanese travelers in China, and Chinese travelers in Japan, are portrayed in early literary works. An increasing awareness of the diversity of Chinese culture forms a premise for the next chapter, which looks at Japan’s objectification of the Chinese and their works of art from the eighteenth century onward. Chapter 3 examines gender as a factor in the formation and transformation of the Sino-Japanese dyad. Sakaki then continues with an investigation of early modern and modern Japanese representations of intellectuals who were marginalized for their insistence on the value of the classical Chinese canon and literary Chinese. The work concludes with an overview of writing in Chinese by early Meiji writers and the presence of Chinese in the work of modern writer Nakamura Shin’ichiro. A final summary of the book’s major themes makes use of several stories by Tanizaki Jun’ichiro.
Download or read book Tales of Moonlight and Rain written by Akinari Ueda and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2008-12-24 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1776, the nine gothic tales in this collection are Japan's finest and most celebrated examples of the literature of the occult. They subtly merge the world of reason with the realm of the uncanny and exemplify the period's fascination with the strange and the grotesque. They were also the inspiration for Mizoguchi Kenji's brilliant 1953 film Ugetsu. The title Ugetsu monogatari (literally "rain-moon tales") alludes to the belief that mysterious beings appear on cloudy, rainy nights and in mornings with a lingering moon. In "Shiramine," the vengeful ghost of the former emperor Sutoku reassumes the role of king; in "The Chrysanthemum Vow," a faithful revenant fulfills a promise; "The Kibitsu Cauldron" tells a tale of spirit possession; and in "The Carp of My Dreams," a man straddles the boundaries between human and animal and between the waking world and the world of dreams. The remaining stories feature demons, fiends, goblins, strange dreams, and other manifestations beyond all logic and common sense. The eerie beauty of this masterpiece owes to Akinari's masterful combination of words and phrases from Japanese classics with creatures from Chinese and Japanese fiction and lore. Along with The Tale of Genji and The Tales of the Heike, Tales of Moonlight and Rain has become a timeless work of great significance. This new translation, by a noted translator and scholar, skillfully maintains the allure and complexity of Akinari's original prose.
Download or read book Samurai written by Constantine Nomikos Vaporis Ph.D. and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2019-03-14 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alphabetically arranged entries along with primary source documents provide a comprehensive examination of the lives of Japan's samurai during the Tokugawa or Edo period, 1603–1868, a time when Japan transitioned from civil war to extended peace. The samurai were an aristocratic class of warriors who imposed and maintained peace in Japan for more than two centuries during the Tokugawa or Edo period, 1603–1868. While they maintained a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence, as a result of the peace the samurai themselves were transformed over time into an educated, cultured elite—one that remained fiercely proud of its military legacy and hyper-sensitive in defending their individual honor. This book provides detailed information about the samurai, beginning with a timeline and narrative historical overview of the samurai. This is followed by more than 100 alphabetically arranged entries on topics related to the samurai, such as ritual suicide, castles, weapons, housing, clothing, samurai women, and more. The entries cite works for further reading and often include sidebars linking the samurai to popular culture, tourist sites, and other information. A selection of primary source documents offers firsthand accounts from the era, and the volume closes with a selected, general bibliography.
Download or read book Breaking Barriers written by Constantine Nomikos Vaporis and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-03-23 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Travel in Tokugawa Japan was officially controlled by bakufu and domainal authorities via an elaborate system of barriers, or sekisho, and travel permits; commoners, however, found ways to circumvent these barriers, frequently ignoring the laws designed to control their mobility, in this study, Constantine Vaporis challenges the notion that this system of travel regulations prevented widespread travel, maintaining instead that a “culture of movement” in Japan developed in the Tokugawa era. Using a combination of governmental documentation and travel literature, diaries, and wood-block prints, Vaporis examines the development of travel as recreation; he discusses the impact of pilgrimage and the institutionalization of alms-giving on the freedom of movement commoners enjoyed. By the end of the Tokugawa era, the popular nature of travel and a sophisticated system of roads were well established: Vaporis explores the reluctance of the bakufu to enforce its travel laws, and in doing so, beautifully evokes the character of the journey through Tokugawa Japan."
Download or read book Early Modern Japan written by Conrad Totman and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1995-08 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A survey of Japan's early modern period (1568-1868) that blends political, economic, intellectual, literary, and cultural history. It also introduces a fresh ecological perspective, covering natural disasters, resource use, demographics, and river control.
Download or read book The Lost Wolves of Japan written by Brett L. Walker and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2009-11-23 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many Japanese once revered the wolf as Oguchi no Magami, or Large-Mouthed Pure God, but as Japan began its modern transformation wolves lost their otherworldly status and became noxious animals that needed to be killed. By 1905 they had disappeared from the country. In this spirited and absorbing narrative, Brett Walker takes a deep look at the scientific, cultural, and environmental dimensions of wolf extinction in Japan and tracks changing attitudes toward nature through Japan's long history. Grain farmers once worshiped wolves at shrines and left food offerings near their dens, beseeching the elusive canine to protect their crops from the sharp hooves and voracious appetites of wild boars and deer. Talismans and charms adorned with images of wolves protected against fire, disease, and other calamities and brought fertility to agrarian communities and to couples hoping to have children. The Ainu people believed that they were born from the union of a wolflike creature and a goddess. In the eighteenth century, wolves were seen as rabid man-killers in many parts of Japan. Highly ritualized wolf hunts were instigated to cleanse the landscape of what many considered as demons. By the nineteenth century, however, the destruction of wolves had become decidedly unceremonious, as seen on the island of Hokkaido. Through poisoning, hired hunters, and a bounty system, one of the archipelago's largest carnivores was systematically erased. The story of wolf extinction exposes the underside of Japan's modernization. Certain wolf scientists still camp out in Japan to listen for any trace of the elusive canines. The quiet they experience reminds us of the profound silence that awaits all humanity when, as the Japanese priest Kenko taught almost seven centuries ago, we "look on fellow sentient creatures without feeling compassion."
Download or read book A Reader in Edo Period Travel written by Herbert Plutschow and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2022-03-07 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Largely ignored hitherto by Western scholars, Plutschow’s Edo Period Travel provides the first in-depth study of the subject which is centred on fifteen of the period’s most notable travellers, some of whom are well known in other fields – as intellectuals, artists, poets, folklorists and natural scientists , for example – but rarely, if at all, as travellers. The first traveller put in the spotlight is the celebrated intellectual and botanist Kaibara Ekiken (1630-1714) and the last is the explorer of Ezo (now Hokkaido) and government official Matsuura Takeshiro (1818-88). Such was the thirst for knowledge in the Edo period that some travel accounts (estimated to number over 2000) became best-sellers in their day, not least for their voyeuristic appeal, including those of Kaibara Ekiken and Tachibana Nankei, which are included in this volume. This important research on how the Japanese discovered their own country and cultural identity has considerable interdisciplinary appeal. Of particular interest also is the author’s discussion on the nature of this new travel writing and the self-centred observation and ‘seeing’ that developed in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, he calls the ‘Japanese Enlightenment’.
Download or read book Crossing Boundaries in Tokugawa Society written by Takeshi Moriyama and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2013-03-27 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Suzuki Bokushi (1770-1842) was an elite villager in Echigo, a snowy province of Japan. Crossing Boundaries in Tokugawa Society presents a vivid picture of the life and world of this rural commoner, focusing on his interaction with the changing social and cultural environment of the late Tokugawa period (1603-1868). Bokushi's life and texts challenge notions of the rigidity of social boundaries between the urban and the rural, between social statuses, and between cultural and intellectual communities. However, his activities were still restrained by the external environment because of geographical remoteness, infrastractural limitations, political restrictions, cultural norms and the complexities of human relationships. His life exemplifies both the potentiality and the restraint of his historical moment for a well-placed member of the rural elite.
Download or read book From Country to Nation written by Gideon Fujiwara and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-15 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Country to Nation tracks the emergence of the modern Japanese nation in the nineteenth century through the history of some of its local aspirants. It explores how kokugaku (Japan studies) scholars envisioned their place within Japan and the globe, while living in a castle town and domain far north of the political capital. Gideon Fujiwara follows the story of Hirao Rosen and fellow scholars in the northeastern domain of Tsugaru. On discovering a newly "opened" Japan facing the dominant Western powers and a defeated Qing China, Rosen and other Tsugaru intellectuals embraced kokugaku to secure a place for their local "country" within the broader nation and to reorient their native Tsugaru within the spiritual landscape of an Imperial Japan protected by the gods. Although Rosen and his fellows celebrated the rise of Imperial Japan, their resistance to the Western influence and modernity embraced by the Meiji state ultimately resulted in their own disorientation and estrangement. By analyzing their writings—treatises, travelogues, letters, poetry, liturgies, and diaries—alongside their artwork, Fujiwara reveals how this socially diverse group of scholars experienced the Meiji Restoration from the peripheries. Using compelling firsthand accounts, Fujiwara tells the story of the rise of modern Japan, from the perspective of local intellectuals who envisioned their local "country" within a nation that emerged as an empire of the modern world.
Download or read book Forty Seven Samurai written by Hiroaki Sato and published by Stone Bridge Press, Inc.. This book was released on 2019-11-26 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A remarkable and true tale of loyalty, vengeance, and ritual suicide. . . . In the spring of 1701, the regional lord Asano Naganori wounded his supervising official, Kira Yoshinaka, during an important ceremony in the ruling shogunate's Edo Castle and was at once condemned to death. Within two years, in the dead of winter, a band of forty-seven of Asano's retainers avenged him by breaking into Yoshinaka’s mansion and killing him. Subsequently, all the men were sentenced to death but allowed to perform it honorably by seppuku. This incident—often called the Ako Incident—became a symbol of samurai honor andat once prompted stage dramatization in kabuki and puppet theater. It has since has been told and retold in short and long stories, movies, TV dramas. The story has also attracted the attention of foreign writers and translators. The most recent retelling was the 2013 Hollywood film 47 Ronin, with Keanu Reeves, though it was wildly and willfully distorted. What did actually happen and how has this famous vendetta resonated through history? Hiroaki Sato's examination is a close, comprehensive look at the Ako Incident through the context of its times, portraits of the main protagonists, and its literary legacy in the haiku ofthe avengers. Also included is Sato's new translation of Akutagawa Ryunosuke's short story about leader Oishi Kuranosuke as he awaited sentencing.
Download or read book Crisis and Disaster in Japan and New Zealand written by Susan Bouterey and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-08-14 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection examines a broad spectrum of natural and human-made disasters that have occurred in Japan and New Zealand, including WWII and the atomic bombing of Japan and two recent major earthquake events, the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Christchurch Earthquake, which occurred in 2011. Through these studies, the book provides important insights into the events themselves and their tragic effects, but most significantly a multidisciplinary take on the different cultural responses to disaster, changing memories of disasters over time, the impacts of disaster on different societies, and the challenges post-disaster in reviving communities and traditional cultural practices. Bringing in humanities and social science perspectives to disaster studies, this collection offers a significant contribution to disaster studies.
Download or read book Writing Violence written by David C. Atherton and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2023-10-31 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edo-period Japan was a golden age for commercial literature. A host of new narrative genres cast their gaze across the social landscape, probed the realms of history and the fantastic, and breathed new life into literary tradition. But how to understand the politics of this body of literature remains contested, in part because the defining characteristics of much early modern fiction—formulaicness, reuse of narratives, stock characters, linguistic and intertextual play, and heavy allusion to literary canon—can seem to hold social and political realities at arm’s length. David C. Atherton offers a new approach to understanding the relationship between the challenging formal features of early modern popular literature and the world beyond its pages. Focusing on depictions of violence—one of the most fraught topics for a peaceful polity ruled over by warriors—he connects concepts of form and formalization across the aesthetic and social spheres. Atherton shows how the formal features of early modern literature had the potential to alter the perception of time and space, make social and economic forces visible, defamiliarize conventions, give voice to the socially peripheral, and reshape the contours of community. Through careful readings of works by the major writers Asai Ryōi, Ihara Saikaku, Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Ueda Akinari, and Santō Kyōden, Writing Violence reveals the essential role of literary form in constructing the world—and in seeing it anew.
Download or read book Matsuo Bash s Poetic Spaces written by E. Kerkham and published by Springer. This book was released on 2006-12-11 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Haikai is an art that parodies and often subverts its linguistic, generic, and personal predecessors, and its intersections include imaginative links to the rest of Japanese literature and culture. This collection of essays explores certain neglected aspects of this haikaimaster's literary and philosophical contributions.
Download or read book The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature written by Earl Miner and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 600 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The description for this book, The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature, will be forthcoming.
Download or read book Asian Comics written by John A. Lent and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2015-01-05 with total page 907 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grand in its scope, Asian Comics dispels the myth that, outside of Japan, the continent is nearly devoid of comic strips and comic books. Relying on his fifty years of Asian mass communication and comic art research, during which he traveled to Asia at least seventy-eight times and visited many studios and workplaces, John A. Lent shows that nearly every country had a golden age of cartooning and has experienced a recent rejuvenation of the art form. As only Japanese comics output has received close and by now voluminous scrutiny, Asian Comics tells the story of the major comics creators outside of Japan. Lent covers the nations and regions of Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Organized by regions of East, Southeast, and South Asia, Asian Comics provides 178 black-and-white illustrations and detailed information on comics of sixteen countries and regions—their histories, key creators, characters, contemporary status, problems, trends, and issues. One chapter harkens back to predecessors of comics in Asia, describing scrolls, paintings, books, and puppetry with humorous tinges, primarily in China, India, Indonesia, and Japan. The first overview of Asian comic books and magazines (both mainstream and alternative), graphic novels, newspaper comic strips and gag panels, plus cartoon/humor magazines, Asian Comics brims with facts, fascinating anecdotes, and interview quotes from many pioneering masters, as well as younger artists.
Download or read book Networks and Practices of Connoisseurship in the Global Eighteenth Century written by Valérie Kobi and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2023-12-31 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Das 18. Jahrhundert war das Zeitalter der Kunstkenner: in und zugleich Ära eines globalen Bewusstseins, das aus dem sich beschleunigenden Handel und imperialen Eroberungen hervorging. Diese Publikation bringt die Kennerschaft, die sich als empirische Methode der Kunstanalyse in Europa und Asien etablierte, in einen Dialog mit der zunehmenden Auseinandersetzung mit unterschiedlichen Formen des Kunstschaffens, die im Verlauf des langen 18. Jahrhunderts durch lokale und globale Netzwerke ermöglicht wurde. Die Autor: innen des Buches nehmen Wechselbeziehungen zwischen Indien, Japan, China und Europa in den Blick und untersuchen, wie sich Begegnungen mit Kunstwerken aus verschiedenen Regionen der Welt auf die Praxis der Kunstkennerschaft in Asien und Europa auswirkten. Praktiken und Netzwerke in Indien, Japan und Europa des 18. Jahrhunderts Komplexität und Asymmetrien der Kunstkennerschaft in einer expandierenden Welt
