The Shinkokinshū: A New Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern (ca. 1205) is supreme among the twenty-one anthologies of court poetry ordered by the Japanese emperors between the tenth and fifteenth centuries in terms of overall literary art, the high quality of the almost two thousand poems included, and the depth of poetic sentiment. Laurel Rasplica Rodd's complete translation allows the reader to appreciate the elaborate integration of the anthologized poems into a single whole by means of chronological procession or imagistic association from one poem to the next that was perfected in the Shinkokinshū by Retired Emperor Gotoba, himself a serious poet, and the courtiers he appointed as compilers, including Fujiwara no Teika, one of the greatest of Japanese poets.

Japanese zuihitsu (essays) offer a treasure trove of information and insights rarely found in any other genre of Japanese writing. Especially during their golden age, the Edo period (1600–1868), zuihitsu treated a great variety of subjects. In the pages of a typical zuihitsu the reader encountered facts and opinions on everything from martial arts to music, food to fashions, dragons to drama—much of it written casually and seemingly without concern for form or order. The seven zuihitsu translated and annotated in this volume date from the early seventeenth to the late nineteenth centuries. Some of the essays are famous while others are less well known, but none have been published in their entirety in any Western language. Following a substantial introduction outlining the development of the genre, “Tales That Come to Mind” is an early seventeenth-century account of Edo kabuki theater and the Yoshiwara “pleasure quarters” penned by a Buddhist monk. “A Record of Seven Offered Treasures,” composed by a retired samurai-monk near the end of the seventeenth century, starts as a treatise on the proper education of youth but ends as a critique of the author’s own life and moral failings. Perhaps the most famous piece in the volume, “Monologue,” was drafted by the renowned Confucianist Dazai Shundai, a keen and insightful observer of life during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Dazai treats, in turn, poetry, the tea ceremony, comic verse, music, theater, and fashion. “Idle Talk of Nagasaki” is an entertaining record of a journey to Nagasaki by a group of Confucianists in the early eighteenth century. In “Kyoto Observed,” a mid-eighteenth-century Edo resident compares the shogun’s and the emperor’s capital in a series of brief vignettes. An 1814 zuihitsu classic written by a physician, “A Dustheap of Discourses” presents another colorful mosaic of topics related to life in Edo. The book closes with “The Breezes of Osaka,” a lively essay by a highly cultured Edo administrator contrasting the food, life, and culture of his hometown with that of Osaka, where he briefly served as mayor in the 1850s.

For the monumental Poetry Competition in Six Hundred Rounds (Roppyakuban uta’awase), twelve poets each provided one hundred waka poems, fifty on seasonal topics and fifty on love, which were matched, critiqued by the participants and judged by Fujiwara no Shunzei, the premiere poet of his age. Its critical importance is heightened by the addition of a lengthy Appeal (chinjō) against Shunzei’s judgements by the conservative poet and monk, Kenshō. It is one of the key texts for understanding poetic and critical practice in late twelfth century Japan, and of the conflict between conservative and innovative poets. The Competition and Appeal are presented here for the first time in complete English translation with accompanying commentary and explanatory notes by Thomas McAuley.

Donald Keene, a noted authority in the field, offers a guide through the first 900 years of Japanese literature. This period not only defined the unique properties of Japanese prose and prosody, but also produced some of its greatest works.

"This study of the Japanese imperial court in the early thirteenth century focuses on the compilation of one of Japan’s most important poetry collections, Shinkokinshū. Using personal diaries, court records, poetry texts, and literary treatises, Robert N. Huey reconstructs the process by which Retired Emperor Go-Toba brought together contending factions to produce this collection and laid the groundwork for his later attempt at imperial restoration. The work analyzes how poetic discourse of the imperial court animated both other kinds of writing and other activities. Finally, it underscores the inextricable ties between the writing of poetry and court politics. Shinkokinshū—the “New Kokinshu”—has been viewed as a neo-classical effort. Reading history backward, scholars have often taken the work to be the outgrowth of a nostalgia for greatness presumed to have been lost in the wars of the origins of the collection. The author argues that the compilers of Shinkokinshū instead saw it as a “new” beginning, a revitalization and affirmation of courtly traditions, and not a reaction to loss. It is a dynamic collection, full of innovative, challenging poetry—not an elegy for a lost age."

An updated edition of David Lu's acclaimed "Sources of Japanese History", this two volume book presents in a student-friendly format original Japanese documents from Japan's mythological beginnings through 1995. Covering the full spectrum of political, economic, diplomatic as well as cultural and intellectual history, this classroom resource offers insight not only into the past but also into Japan's contemporary civilisation. This volume covers from the late 18th century up to 1995. Three major criteria used in the document selection were that: the selection avoids duplication with other collections - 75% of the documents presented here are newly translated; a document accurately reflects the spirit of the times and the life-styles of the people; and emphasis is on the development of social, economic and political institutions.

A Stanford University Press classic.

In this critically acclaimed autobiography, cultural critic, novelist, and physician Kato Shuichi reconstructs his dramatic spiritual and intellectual journey from the militarist era of prewar Japan to the dynamic postwar landscapes of Japan and Europe. 13 photos.

Shinkei (1406-75), one of the most brilliant poets of medieval Japan, is a pivotal figure in the development of renga (linked poetry) as a serious art. In an age when anyone who wished to signal his denial of mundane concerns or make his way in the world with relative freedom donned the robes of a monk, Shinkei stood out by being a practicing cleric with a temple in Kyoto, the Japanese capital. His priestly duties and his devotion to Buddhist ideals are directly reflected in the intensely pure, lyrical longing for transcendence that is the most notable quality of his sensibility. Shinkei's life and work also provide a vivid portrayal of a tumultuous period of Japanese history that was one of the defining moments of its culture, when Zen Buddhism began to directly influence the arts. The book is in two parts. The first part is a literary biography based primarily on Shinkei's own writings - his critical essays, waka sequences, hokku collections, and commentaries - supplemented by various external sources. What emerges is the compelling portrait of a man who bore witness to the tragic anarchy of his times while clinging to the ideal of poetic practice as a mode of being and access to Buddhist enlightenment. Shinkei became embroiled in the factional struggles preceding the Onin War (1467-77) and died a refugee in what is now Kanagawa. The second part consists of annotated translations of Shinkei's most representative poetry: (1) selected hokku (opening verse of a sequence) and tsukeku (linked pairs of verses), along with Muromachi-period commentaries on them; (2) two 100-verse renga sequences - the first a solo composition from 1467, and the second a collaboration with Sogi and other poet-priests and samurai from 1468; and (3) a selection of one hundred waka poems highlighting Shinkei's most characteristic mode of ineffable remoteness. Throughout, the author's annotations seek to define and clarify the unique genre called "linked poetry."