Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology 1600-1900

by Haruo Shirane

• ISBN13: 9780231109918
• ISBN10: 0231109911
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-03-01
• Publisher: INGRAM

Summary

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 Literatureintroduces 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.

Table of Contents

Historical Periods, Measurements, and Other Matters

Early Modern Japan

Kana Booklets and the Emergence of a Print Culture

Ihara Saikaku and the Books of the Floating World

Early Haikai Poetry and Poetics

The Poetry and Prose of Matsuo Bash

Chikamatsu Monzaemon and the Puppet Theater

Confucian Studies and Literary Perspectives

Confucianism in Action: An Autobiography of a Bakufu Official

Chinese Poetry and the Literatus Ideal

The Golden Age of Puppet Theater

Dangibon and the Birth of Edo Popular Literature

Comic and Satiric Poetry

Literati Meditations

Early Yomihon: History, Romance, and the Supernatural

Eighteenth-Century Waka and Nativist Study

Sharebon: Books of Wit and Fashion

Kiby_shi: Satiric and Didactic Picture Books

Kokkeibon: Comic Fiction for Commoners

Ninj_bon: Sentimental Fiction

G_kan: Extended Picture Books

Ghosts and Nineteenth-Century Kabuki

Late Yomihon: History and the Supernatural Revisited

Nativizing Poetry and Prose in Chinese

The Miscellany

Early-Nineteenth-Century Haiku

Waka in the Late Edo Period

Rakugo English-Language

Bibliography

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.