World Literature

 Japanese did not have letters

until chinese introduced their
letters in second or third century.
After then the japanese started
using chinese letters. Of course
ancient japanese used these letters
for learning chinese progressed
culture. As you know, chinese
letters are basically ideograms
that were originally pictograph
and every single letter has its own
meaning.
   For example, the letter for turtle
is 亀 . This letter is simplified
one as compared to original one
but still the shape of turtle is
obvious. Roughly saying,
average japanese can read letters
of 5,000 or more but can write
down 2,000 or less. At
elementary school and junior
high school, 1,800 of letters are
taught.
 The modern Japanese
writing system uses three main
scripts:
 Kanji, ideographs from Chinese
characters,
 Kana, a pair of syllabaries,
consisting of

Hiragana, used for native Japanese
words, and

Katakana, used for foreign
loanwords and sometimes to
replace kanji or hiragana for
emphasis.
 Kanji

癌 gan ("cancer")

峠 tōge (mountain pass)
 Katakana

コンピュータゲーム konpyūta gēmu ("computer
game")

コーヒー kōhī, ("coffee")
 Hiragana

コンニチワ konnichiwa ("hello")

皮膚科 hifuka ("dermatology")
Classical literature (koten
bungaku), meaning literature from
the earliest times up to the Meiji
Restoration of 1868, is customarily
divided by literary scholars into
four major periods: jōdai
(antiquity), chūko (middle
antiquity), chūsei (the middle
ages), and kinsei (the recent
past).
 Jōdai covers Japanese literary
history through the Nara period
(710-794);
 chūko is used more or less
synonymously with the literature
of the Heian period (794-1180);
 chūsei takes in the Kamakura
(1180-1333), Muromachi (1333-
1573),
 Azuchi-Momoyama (1573-1600)
periods;
 kinsei is most often used to refer
to the Edo period (1600-1867).
 Written literature in Japan
dates from the Nara period,
although an oral tradition existed
well before that time. The work
that is usually taken to reveal the
process of change from an oral to a
written tradition and from
communal to personal concerns is
the collection of poems known as
the Man‘yōshū (The Collection of
Ten Thousand Leaves).
 It is the oldest existing collection
of Japanese poetry, compiled some
time around 759 A.D. during the
Nara period.
 The collection is divided into
twenty parts or books, mirroring a
similar practice in collections of
Chinese poems of the time
 The collection contains 265
chōka (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.
 Earlier poems have Confucian or
Taoist themes and later poems
reflecting on Buddhist teachings.
 It is important for using one of the
earliest Japanese writing systems
 It was influential enough to give
the writing system its name: "the
kana of the Man'yōshū". This
system uses Chinese characters in
a variety of functions: their usual
ideographic or logographic senses
Literature in the early Heian
period flourished under Chinese
(Tang) influence, but became
more expressive of native
sentiments as Japan withdrew
into itself and political
institutions based on Chinese
models either collapsed or were
molded into more congenial
forms.
 Chinese poetry was supplanted
by the waka (literally, "Japanese
song") as the preeminent literary
form. Imperial collections of
poetry were compiled, and prose
works, most by women, were
written in the newly developed
phonetic kana script.
The decline of the aristocracy
toward the end of the period was
paralleled by a loss of creative
energy and a growing sense of
pessimism, although collections
of folktales and popular songs
signalled the involvement of a
new social class in the production
of works of recognized literary
value.
 It is a genre of classical Japanese
verse and one of the major genres
of Japanese literature.
 The term was coined during the
Heian period, and was used to
distinguish Japanese-language
poetry from kanshi (poetry written
in Chinese by Japanese poets)
 Traditionally waka in general has
had no concept of rhyme (indeed,
certain arrangements of rhymes,
even accidental, were considered
dire faults in a poem), or even of
line. Instead of lines, waka has the
unit ( 連 ) and the phrase ( 句 ).
(Units or phrases are often turned
into lines when poetry is translated
or transliterated into Western
languages, however.)
 In the Heian period the lovers
would exchange waka in the
morning when lovers met at the
woman's home.
 The exchanged waka were called
Kinuginu ( 後朝 ), because it was
thought the man wanted to stay
with his lover and when the sun
rose he had almost no time to put
on his clothes on which he had
lain instead of a mattress (it being
the custom in those days).
 Much like with tea, there were a
number of rituals and events
surrounding the composition,
presentation, and judgment of
waka.
 There were two types of waka
party that produced occasional
poetry: Utakai and Utaawase.
 Utakai was a party in which all
participants wrote a waka and
recited them.
 Utakai derived from Shikai,
Kanshi party and was held in
occasion people gathered like
seasonal party for the New Year,
some celebrations for a newborn
baby, a birthday, or a newly-built
house.
 Utaawase was a contest in two
teams.
 Themes were determined and a
chosen poet from each team wrote
a waka for a given theme. The
judge appointed a winner for each
theme and gave points to the
winning team. The team which
received the largest sum was the
winner.
 The political turbulence
associated with the Gempei Wars
of 1180 to 1185 and the
establishment of the Kamakura
bakufu (1192) gave rise to a
literature that both centered on
military exploits and often
expressed disillusion with such
exploits.
Mujō (impermanence, transience)
became a key concept underlying
the literature of this period,
although at the same time groups
devoted to the composition of
renga (linked verse) were turning
to literature for the purpose of
seeking pleasure there.
 The Edo period was
characterized by the growing
cultural influence exercised by
samurai and townspeople. The
commercial class in particular
benefited from various economic
and technological developments,
the result of which was a great
flowering of culture in the
Genroku period (1688-1704).
The haikai master Matsuo Bashō,
the novelist Ihara Saikaku, and the
dramatist Chikamatsu Monzaemon
are all associated with this
enormous outburst of creative
activity. The nation's cultural
center shifted from the Kyoto-
Osaka region to Edo in the second
half of the eighteenth century,
leading to the production of large
quantities of gesaku (frivolous
works) by the writers who
constituted the last literary
generation before the advent of
Western influence.
 The basis for the
periodization of modern literature
(kindai bungaku) is gradually
becoming problematic as the
"modern" period grows ever
longer. The most common
division is the one based on the
reigns of the emperors who have
ruled since 1868: Meiji (1868-
1912), Taishō (1912-1926),
Shōwa (1926-1989), and Heisei
(from 1989).
 The Meiji period was when
Japan, under Western influence,
took the first steps toward
developing a modern literature.
The major hallmarks up to the
time of the Russo-Japanese War
are considered to be Tsubouchi
Shōyō's theoretical study The
Essence of the Novel (Shōsetsu
shinzui, 1885)
because of its advocacy of
psychological realism, and
Futabatei Shimei's Drifting Cloud
(Ukigumo, 1887), both for its
realistic character portrayal and
because the narrative medium is
an approximation of everyday
speech. Counterpoints are offered
by the highly stylized prose of the
Ken'yūsha (Friends of the
Inkstone) group centering on
Ozaki Kōyō, and the kind of
romanticism evident in the early
stories of Mori Ōgai and,
especially, the poetry of Kitamura
Tōkoku, Shimazaki Tōson, and
Yosano Tekkan. The movement
known as Japanese Naturalism
gained prominence with the
publication of Shimazaki Tōson's
novel The Broken Commandment,
(Hakai, 1906) and Tayama Katai's
short story "The Quilt" (Futon,
1907).
Naturalism predominated on the
literary scene until around 1910,
although such authors as Natsume
Sōseki, Mori Ōgai, and Nagai
Kafū were not associated with it
and might even be considered
antagonistic. The humanistic
idealism of the Shirakaba (White
Birch) writers is taken to mark a
turn away from Naturalism and
toward a broader definition of
literature.
 The intellectual aestheticism of
Akutagawa Ryūnosuke and decadence
of Tanizaki Jun'ichirō characterize this
short period, as do (toward its end) the
introduction of elements of Western
literary modernism in the early work of
Yokomizo Riichi and Kawabata
Yasunari and the first stirrings of
proletarian literature. The Great Kanto
Earthquake of 1923 is sometimes taken
as a major cultural divide in this
process.
 Proletarian literature was the
chief literary movement of the
1920s, supplemented by the
uniquely Japanese genre of
autobiographical fiction known as
the "I novel" (shishōsetsu or
watakushi shōsetsu).
Government suppression of
proletarian literature in the 1930s
was attended by the publication
of "conversion" (tenkō) novels
by writers compelled to renounce
their communist ideals. The
subsequent patriotic writings of
the war years have largely been
forgotten.
 The end of the war witnessed a
resurgent cosmopolitanism that
has resulted in a striking literary
diversity and has led to a
reassessment of  the way in
which tradition and modernity
can be said to contribute to the
Japanese sense of identity.
 This process of reevaluation can
be seen in the choice of the two
postwar Japanese winners of the
Nobel Prize for Literature:
Kawabata Yasunari (1968), who
titled his acceptance speech "Japan
the Beautiful and Myself," and Ōe
Kenzaburō (1994), who in
deliberate contrast chose the title
"Japan the Ambiguous and
Myself."
 Kabuki Theater
 Noh Theater
 Bunraku - Puppet Theater
 Geisha
 Musical Instruments
 Sado - Tea Ceremony
 Kodo - The Way of Incense
 Ikebana - Flower Arranging
 Ukiyoe - Woodblock Prints
 Bonsai - Miniature Trees
 Origami - Paper Folding
 Classical Literature
 Modern Literature
 Imperial Family

The government of Japan is
a constitutional monarchy where the
power of the Emperor is very limited. As
a ceremonial figurehead, he is defined by
the [[Constitution of Japan|
constitutionby the Prime Minister of
Japan and other elected members of
the Diet, while sovereignty is vested in
the Japanese people.  The Emperor
effectively acts as the head of state on
diplomatic occasions. Akihito is the
current Emperor of Japan. Naruhito,
Crown Prince of Japan, stands as next in
line to the throne.
 Annual Festivals
 Annual Holidays
 Four Seasons
 Hanami - Cherry Blossom
Viewing
 Kimono
 Footwear
 The Basics of Japanese
Cuisine
 Popular Dishes
 Alcohol - Sake, Beer and more
 Haiku is a poetic form and a
type of poetry from the
Japanese culture.
 Haiku
combines form, content,
and language in a meaningful,
yet compact form.
 Many themes include nature,
feelings, or experiences.
  Usually they use simple words
and grammar. 
 The most common form for
Haiku is three short lines.
 The first line usually contains
five (5) syllables, the second
line seven (7) syllables, and the
third line contains five (5)
syllables. 
 Haiku doesn't rhyme.
 A Haiku must "paint" a mental
image in the reader's mind.
First day of spring--
I keep thinking about
the end of autumn.

Spring rain
leaking through the roof
dripping from the wasps' nest.
Fallen sick on a journey,
In dreams I run wildly
Over a withered moor.

An old silent pond...

A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.
The first soft snow!
Enough to bend the leaves
Of the jonquil low.

In the cicada's cry

No sign can foretell
How soon it must die.
No one travels
Along this way but I,
This autumn evening.

In all the rains of May

there is one thing not hidden -
the bridge at Seta Bay.
The years first day
thoughts and loneliness;
the autumn dusk is here.

Clouds appear
and bring to men a chance to
rest
from looking at the moon.
Harvest moon:
around the pond I wander
and the night is gone.

Poverty's child -
he starts to grind the rice,
and gazes at the moon.
No blossoms and no moon,
and he is drinking sake
all alone!

Won't you come and see

loneliness? Just one leaf
from the kiri tree.

Temple bells die out.

The fragrant blossoms remain.
A perfect evening!
Green frog,
Is your body also
freshly painted?

Sick and feverish

Glimpse of cherry blossoms
Still shivering.
At the over-matured sushi,
The Master
Is full of regret.

Pressing Sushi;
After a while,
A lonely feeling

A whale!
Down it goes, and more and more
up goes its tail!
Covered with the flowers,
Instantly I'd like to die
In this dream of ours!
In my old home
which I forsook, the cherries
are in bloom.

A giant firefly:
that way, this way, that way,
this -and it passes by.
Right at my feet -
and when did you get here,
snail?

My grumbling wife -
if only she were here!
This moon tonight...
A lovely thing to see:
through the paper window's hole,
the Galaxy.

A man, just one -

also a fly, just one -
in the huge drawing room.

A sudden shower falls -

and naked I am riding
on a naked horse!