Download or read book Tales of Times Now Past written by Marian Ury and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1979 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Tales of Days Gone By A Selection from Konjaku Monogatari shu written by Naoko Matsubara and published by Western Publications Distirbution Agency. This book was released on 2003-05 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tales of Days Gone by is a selection of 17 stories from Konjaku monogatari-shu, a 12th century collection of more than 1000 tales. The stories in this selection are divided into three categories: tales of women, tales of wonder and tales of Buddhism. They were chosen and visualized in dynamic woodcuts by Naoko Matsubara.
Download or read book Japanese Tales from Times Past written by and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2015-08-04 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of translated tales is from the most famous work in all of Japanese classical literature--the Konjaku Monogatari Shu. This collection of traditional Japanese folklore is akin to the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer or Dante's Inferno--powerfully entertaining tales that reveal striking aspects of the cultural psychology, fantasy, and creativity of medieval Japan--tales that still resonate with modern Japanese readers today. The ninety stories in this book are filled with keen psychological insights, wry sarcasm, and scarcely veiled criticisms of the clergy, nobles, and peasants alike--suggesting that there are, among all classes and peoples, similar failings of pride, vanity, superstition and greed--as well as aspirations toward higher moral goals. This is the largest collection in English of the Konjaku Monogatari Shu tales ever published in one volume. It presents the low life and the high life, the humble and the devout, the profane flirting, farting and fornicating of everyday men and women, as well as their yearning for the wisdom, transcendence and compassion that are all part and parcel of our shared humanity. Stories Include: The Grave of Chopsticks Robbers Come to a Temple and Steal Its Bell The Woman Fish Peddler at the Guardhouse Fish are Turned into the Lotus Sutra A Dragon is Caught by a Tengu Goblin The Monk Tojo Predicts the Fall of Shujaku Gate Wasps Attack a Spider in Revenge
Download or read book Japanese Tales of Fantasy and Folklore written by and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2024-09-03 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Supernatural tales from the most famous anthology in all of Japanese literature! The Konjaku Monogatari Shu is a collection of tales from Buddhist and popular Japanese folklore that was compiled in the twelfth century. The stories in this book tell of fearsome demons, tengu goblins, kitsune fox spirits, flying hermits and gods who suddenly appear out of nowhere to rescue foolish humans. There are tales of vengeful animals, robbers, bandits and murderers, as well as ordinary people from all walks of life. This volume contains the largest collection of Konjaku Monogatari stories ever translated into English. It presents the low and the high, the humble and the devout, and the flirting, farting and fornicating of everyday men and women. The ninety tales in this book include: A Clerk from Higo Province Escapes from a Demon's Scheme — A man riding his horse to work loses his way. A woman invites him to rest in her house, promising to help him, but the man soon realizes she is a demon, and flees. He hides in a cave, while the demon woman eats his horse. From deep in the cave comes the voice of another demon, and the man prays to Kannon, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, to save him. His prayers are heard, the demons release him, and he devouts himself to a life of piety. Empress Somedono Is Abused by a Tengu Goblin — A beautiful empress is plagued by an evil spirit, but an exorcism by a mystical high priest banishes the spirit. Delighted, her father asks the priest to live with them in the palace, but the priest ends up falling in love with the empress. The only way he can live with himself is by taking the form of a tengu goblin and casting a spell over the empress so that she will give in to his demands. A Fox Whose Ball is Returned Repays a Man's Kindness — A sorceress called to exorcise a haunted house discovers the spirit is a kitsune fox. A beautiful white ball materializes, belonging to the kitsune. A samurai, watching the exorcism, takes it. Desperate, the kitsune begs for its ball back, promising to protect the samurai, who reluctantly, agrees. One night, lost in the dark, the samurai calls on the kitsune for help and is guided safely home.
Download or read book The Demon at Agi Bridge and Other Japanese Tales written by Haruo Shirane and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Haruo Shirane and Burton Watson, renowned translators and scholars, introduce English-speaking readers to the vivid tradition of early and medieval Japanese folktales. These dramatic and often amusing stories offer a major view of the foundations of Japanese culture.
Download or read book Japanese Tales written by Royall Tyler and published by Pantheon. This book was released on 2012-08-22 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two hundred and twenty tales from medieval Japan—tales that welcome us into a fabulous faraway world populated by saints, scoundrels, ghosts, magical healers, and a vast assortment of deities and demons. Stories of miracles, visions of hell, jokes, fables, and legends, these tales reflect the Japanese civilization. They ably balance the lyrical and the dramatic, the ribald and the profound, offering a window into a long-vanished culture. With black-and-white illustrations throughout Part of the Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library
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 Mandarins written by Ryunosuke Akutagawa and published by Archipelago. This book was released on 2011-03-22 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prefiguring the vital modernist voices of the Western literary canon, Akutagawa writes with a trenchant psychological precision that exposes the shifting traditions and ironies of early twentieth-century Japan and reveals his own strained connection to it. These stories are moving glimpses into a cast of characters at odds with the society around them, singular portraits that soar effortlessly toward the universal. "What good is intelligence if you cannot discover a useful melancholy?" Akutagawa once mused. Both piercing intelligence and "useful melancholy" buoy this remarkable collection. Mandarins contains three stories published in English for the first time: "An Evening Conversation," "An Enlightened Husband," and "Winter."
Download or read book Traditional Japanese Literature written by Haruo Shirane and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 601 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traditional Japanese Literature features a rich array of works dating from the very beginnings of the Japanese written language through the evolution of Japan's noted aristocratic court and warrior cultures. It contains stunning new translations of such canonical texts as The Tales of the Heike as well as works and genres previously ignored by scholars and unknown to general readers.
Download or read book Once Upon a Time in Japan written by Japan Broadcasting Corporation NHK and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2015-09-29 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: **Winner of the 2016 Creative Child Magazine Book of the Year Award** **Winner of the 2015 Gelett Burgess Award for Best Multicultural Book** When wily animals, everyday people and magical beings come together in a collection of Japanese fairy tales, wonderful things are bound to happen! Each story is brilliantly illustrated by a different talented Japanese artist. The tales recounted here are among Japan's oldest and most beloved stories. Entertaining and filled with subtle folk wisdom, these retold stories have been shared countless times in Japanese homes and schools for generations. Like good stories from every time and place, they never grow old. Kids (and their parents!) will enjoy hearing these stories read aloud on the accompanying downloadable audio. The fairy tales and classic stories in this collection include: The Wife Who Never Eats--the story of a man who learns the hard way the evils of stinginess. The Mill of the Sea--the story of how a greedy man was responsible for the saltiness of seawater. The Monkey and the Crab--the crabs teach a tricky monkey a lesson in fairness and honesty. The Magical Hood--an act of kindness reaps great rewards. Sleepyhead Taro and the Children--a story about what can be accomplished at the right time, and with the right help and the right spirit. The Fox and the Otter--how a fox pays the price of deceit and selfishness. The Gratitude of the Crane--a story about the rewards of kindness and the danger of curiosity. The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter--a girl who starts life very tiny turns out to be big in many ways.
Download or read book ME A Novel written by Tomoyuki Hoshino and published by Akashic Books. This book was released on 2017-06-06 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In Hoshino's dystopia, identities are fluid and any one is as good as another. . .Hoshino's ambitious novel is pleasingly uncomfortable." --Publishers Weekly "Hoshino's latest-in-translation (rendered by De Wolf) begins as black comedy and devolves into an antisolipsistic treatise on the impossibility of individual identity." --Booklist Online "Part existential fable, part 'Night of the Living Dead,' Mr. Hoshino's inventive novel, accessibly translated by Charles De Wolf, paints a nightmare vision of Japan's rootless millennials, who work grinding dead-end jobs that leave them little time for family or individual passions...At first Hitoshi and his fellow MEs are happy to band together against an uncaring world. But the camaraderie doesn't last, since every time one reveals a character flaw the others take it as an indictment of themselves. As the MEs' failures and weaknesses become intolerably magnified onto the 'living but useless rabble' they're gripped by a suicidal impulse that unleashes a crazed murder spree. The frenetic, knife-wielding finale reaches its climax in--a McDonald's, of course. None of them can think of any place else to eat." --Wall Street Journal, included in Best New Fiction column "A Kafkaesque journey of a lonely narrator being absorbed by an impersonal system." --Los Angeles Review of Books "The imaginative story of a rather unimaginative camera salesman, ME features Hitoshi Nagano; his troubles begin with his impulsive theft of a cell phone from another customer at a McDonalds. They end with a post-apocalyptic future for everyone in Japan." --New York Journal of Books "[Some passages] surpass even Kobo Abe. . .The author has leaped to a higher level." --Kenzaburo Oe, Nobel Prize-winning author of The Silent Cry, from the afterword With an afterword by Kenzaburō Ōe. Translated from Japanese by Charles De Wolf. This novel centers on the "It's me" telephone scam--often targeting the elderly--that has escalated in Japan in recent years. Typically, the caller identifies himself only by saying, "Hey, it's me," and goes on to claim in great distress that he's been in an accident or lost some money with which he was entrusted at work, etc., and needs funds wired to his account right away. ME's narrator is a nondescript young Tokyoite named Hitoshi Nagano who, on a whim, takes home a cell phone that a young man named Daiki Hiyama accidentally put on Hitoshi's tray at McDonald's. Hitoshi uses the phone to call Daiki's mother, pretending he is Daiki, and convinces her to wire him 900,000 yen. Three days later, Hitoshi returns home from work to discover Daiki's mother there in his apartment, and she seems to truly believe Hitoshi is her son. Even more bizarre, Hitoshi discovers his own parents now treat him as a stranger; they, too, have a "me" living with them as Hitoshi. At a loss for what else to do, Hitoshi begins living as Daiki, and no one seems to bat an eye. In a brilliant probing of identity, and employing a highly original style that subverts standard narrative forms, Tomoyuki Hoshino elevates what might have been a commonplace crime story to an occasion for philosophical reflection. In the process, he offers profound insights into the state of contemporary Japanese society. Charles De Wolf, PhD, professor emeritus, Keio University, is a linguist by training, though his first love was literature. Multilingual, he has spent most of his life in East Asia and is a citizen of Japan. His translations include Mandarins, a selection of short stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa (Archipelago Books) and collections of folktales from Konjaku Monogatari-shu. He has written extensively about The Tale of Genji; and is currently working on his own translation of the work.
Download or read book The Buddhist Poetry of the Great Kamo Priestess written by Edward Kamens and published by U of M Center For Japanese Studies. This book was released on 2020-08-01 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Senshi was born in 964 and died in 1035, in the Heian period of Japanese history (794–1185). Most of the poems discussed here are what may loosely be called Buddhist poems, since they deal with Buddhist scriptures, practices, and ideas. For this reason, most of them have been treated as examples of a category or subgenre of waka called Shakkyoka, “Buddhist poems.” Yet many Shakkyoka are more like other poems in the waka canon than they are unlike them. In the case of Senshi’s “Buddhist poems,” their language links them to the traditions of secular verse. Moreover, the poems use the essentially secular public literary language of waka to address and express serious and relatively private religious concerns and aspirations. In reading Senshi’s poems, it is as important to think about their relationship to the traditions and conventions of waka and to other waka texts as it is to think about their relationship to Buddhist thoughts, practices, and texts. The Buddhist Poetry of the Great Kamo Priestess creates a context for the reading of Senshi’s poems by presenting what is known and what has been thought about her and them. As such, it is a vital source for any reader of Senshi and other literature of the Heian period.
Download or read book The Grand Old Man and the Great Tradition written by Luisa Bienati and published by U of M Center For Japanese Studies. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1995, on the thirtieth anniversary of Tanizaki Jun’ichiro’s death, Adriana Boscaro organized an international conference in Venice that had an unusally lasting effect on the study of this major Japanese novelist. Thanks to Boscaro’s energetic commitment, Venice became a center for Tanizaki studies that produced two volumes of conference proceedings now considered foundational for all scholarly works on Tanizaki. In the years before and after the Venice Conference, Boscaro and her students published an abundance of works on Tanizaki and translations of his writings, contributing to his literary success in Italy and internationally. The Grand Old Man and the Great Tradition honors Boscaro’s work by collecting nine essays on Tanizaki’s position in relation to the “great tradition” of Japanese classical literature. To open the collection, Edward Seidensticker contributes a provocative essay on literary styles and the task of translating Genji into a modern language. Gaye Rowley and Ibuki Kazuko also consider Tanizaki’s Genji translations, from a completely different point of view, documenting the author’s three separate translation efforts. Aileen Gatten turns to the influence of Heian narrative methods on Tanizaki’s fiction, arguing that his classicism, far from being superficial, “reflects a deep sensitivity to Heian narrative.” Tzevetana Kristeva holds a different perspective on Tanizaki’s classicism, singling out specific aspects of Tanizaki’s eroticism as the basis of comparison. The next two essays emphasize Tanizaki’s experimental engagement with the classical literary genres—Amy V. Heinrich treats the understudied poetry, and Bonaventura Ruperti considers a 1933 essay on performance arts. Taking up cinema, Roberta Novelli focuses on the novel Manji, exploring how it was recast for the screen by Masumura Yasuzo. The volume concludes with two contributions interpreting Tanizaki’s works in the light of Western and Meiji literary traditions: Paul McCarthy considers Nabokovas a point of comparison, and Jacqueline Pigeot conducts a groundbreaking comparison with a novel by Natsume Soseki.
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 The Teeth and Claws of the Buddha written by Mikael S. Adolphson and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2007-02-28 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japan’s monastic warriors have fared poorly in comparison to the samurai, both in terms of historical reputation and representations in popular culture. Often maligned and criticized for their involvement in politics and other secular matters, they have been seen as figures separate from the larger military class. However, as Mikael Adolphson reveals in his comprehensive and authoritative examination of the social origins of the monastic forces, political conditions, and warfare practices of the Heian (794–1185) and Kamakura (1185–1333) eras, these "monk-warriors"(sôhei) were in reality inseparable from the warrior class. Their negative image, Adolphson argues, is a construct that grew out of artistic sources critical of the established temples from the fourteenth century on. In deconstructing the sôhei image and looking for clues as to the characteristics, role, and meaning of the monastic forces, The Teeth and Claws of the Buddha highlights the importance of historical circumstances; it also points to the fallacies of allowing later, especially modern, notions of religion to exert undue influence on interpretations of the past. It further suggests that, rather than constituting a separate category of violence, religious violence needs to be understood in its political, social, military, and ideological contexts.
Download or read book Diamond Sutra Narratives written by Chiew Hui Ho and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-07-08 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contextualizing the sutra within a milieu of intense religious and cultural experimentation, this volume unravels the sudden rise of Diamond Sutra devotion in the Tang dynasty against the backdrop of a range of social, political, and literary activities. Through the translation and exploration of a substantial body of narratives extolling the efficacy of the sutra, it explores the complex social history of lay Buddhism by focusing on how the laity might have conceived of the sutra and devoted themselves to it. Corroborated by various sources, it reveals the cult’s effect on medieval Chinese religiosity in the activities of an empowered laity, who modified and produced parasutraic texts, prompting the monastic establishment to accommodate to the changes they brought about.
Download or read book Strange Tales from Japan written by and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2021-08-10 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prepare to be spooked by these chilling Japanese short stories! Strange Tales from Japan presents 99 spine-tingling tales of ghosts, yokai, demons, shapeshifters and trickster animals who inhabit remote reaches of the Japanese countryside. 32 pages of traditional full-color images of these creatures, who have inhabited the Japanese imagination for centuries, bring the stories to life. The captivating tales in this volume include: The Vengeance of Oiwa--The terrifying spirit of a woman murdered by her husband who seeks retribution from beyond the grave The Curse of Okiku--A servant girl is murdered by her master and curses his family, with gruesome results The Snow Woman--A man is saved by a mysterious woman who swears him to secrecy Tales of the Kappa--Strange human-like sprites with green, scaly skin who live in water and are known to pull children and animals to their deaths And many, many more! Renowned translator William Scott Wilson explains the role these stories play in local Japanese culture and folklore, and their importance to understanding the Japanese psyche. Readers will learn which particular region, city, mountain or temple the stories originate from--in case you're brave enough to visit these haunts yourself!