Anthology of Japanese Literature: Pre-Modern

I read this book for The Japanese Literature Challenge 15 

Anthology of Japanese Literature: From the Earliest Era to the Mid-Nineteenth Century – Donald Keene (editor)

This 1955 collection gathers the greatest hits of all the historical periods up to and including the Tokugawa era.

The poems from the Manyōshū impressed me much more deeply than they did when I first read them for a college course a long time ago. Reading the scripts of No plays made me want to see them performed, though I wonder where I will find a whole day to make that happen. Meeting old friends again in the Sarashina Diary and The Pillow Book. Sadly, the martial exploits left me cool in The Tale of the Heike from the Kamakura Period but The Account of My Hut had a melancholy totally in keeping with this wretched pandemic. Eye-opening was the literary criticism by Basho and Chikamatsu Monzaemon from the Tokugawa Era.

Reading gluttons can read collections like this through. But I read selections from this between other books I’ve reading since the New Year. Sure both the poetry and prose can seem as thin and wispy as a haiku, but for me, nothing beats Japanese literature when I have a yen for the sense of impermanence of The Tosa Diary or the knockabout fun of Saikaku or Hizakurige.

Other Books about Pre-Modern Japan: Click on the link to go to the review.

·         The Tale of Genji

·         The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan – Ivan Morris

·         History of Japan to 1334 – Sir George Sansom

·         A History of Japan: 1334-1615 - Sir George Sansom

·         A History of Japan: 1615-1867 - Sir George Sansom

·         This Scheming World – Ihara Saikaku

·         Zen and Zen Classics, Volume I General Introduction from the Upanishads to Huineng - R. H. Blyth