Japanese Literature as a world literature, its brief history and its contributions through its drama and poetry.

1. Presented by:
Cherish Angelic Mondilla
Japanese Literature

2. The modern Japanese writing system uses :
• 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.
Japanese Writing System

4. • Ancient Literature
• Classical Literature
• Medieval Literature
• Modern Literature
• Edo Period
• Meiji Period
• Post-War Japan
• Contemporary Literature
The Period of Japanese Literature

5. Two of the oldest Japanese literature:
• Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matter)
relates to the creation of the world, describes the gods and
goddess of the mythological period, and contains facts about
ancient Japan
• Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan)
tells the history of Japan in poetry and shows the profound
influence of Chinese.
Ancient Literature

6. The Heian Period, referred to as the golden era of Japanese
art and literature.
• Man’yoshu (Collection of Myriad Leaves)
The oldest collection of Japanese poetry collected in the
year 800
• Genji Monogatari(The Tale of Genji)
written by court lady named Murasaki Shikibu is
considered the pre-eminent masterpiece of Heian fiction and
the first example of a work of fiction in the form of a novel.
Classical Literature

7. GenjiMonogatari

8. • Japan experienced many civil wars which led to the
development of a warrior class, and subsequent war tales,
histories, and related stories.
• Work from this period is notable for its insights into life and
death, simple lifestyles, and Seppuku
• Tale of the Heike, an epic account of the struggle between
two clans for control of Japan at the end of the twelfth
century.
Medieval literature

9. Tale of the Heike

10. • The Tokugawa Period is commonly referred to as the Edo Period.
The capital of Japan moved from Kyoto to Edo (modern Tokyo)
• Scholarly work continued to be published in Chinese, which was
the language of the learned much as Latin was in Europe
• Chikamatsu Monzaemon, a kabuki dramatist, known as the
Japan's Shakespeare
• Many genres of literature made their début during the Edo Period,
helped by a rising literacy rate among the growing population of
townspeople, as well as the development of lending libraries
Edo Period

11. Japan’s Shakespeare
ChikamatsuMonzaemon

12. • The importation of Chinese vernacular fiction that proved the
greatest outside influence on the development of Early Modern
Japanese fiction.
• Genres included horror, crime stories, morality stories, comedy,
and pornography—often accompanied by colorful woodcut prints.
Edo Period

13. • The Meiji period marks the re-opening of Japan to the West,
and a period of rapid industrialization.
• The introduction of European literature brought free verse
into the poetic repertoire. It became widely used for longer
works embodying new intellectual themes.
• Young Japanese prose writers and dramatists struggled with
a whole galaxy of new ideas and artistic schools, but
novelists were the first to assimilate some of these concepts
successfully
Meiji Period

14. • War-time Japan saw the début of several authors best
known for the beauty of their language and their tales of love
and sensuality.
• Kawabata Yasunari, for his narrative mastery, which with
great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese
mind" became Japan's first winner of the Nobel Prize for
Literature.
Meiji Period

15. Japan's first winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature
Kawabata Yasunari

16. • World War II, and Japan's defeat, deeply influenced
Japanese literature. Many authors wrote stories of
disaffection, loss of purpose, and the coping with defeat.
• Prominent writers of the 1970s and 1980s were identified
with intellectual and moral issues in their attempts to raise
social and political consciousness.
• Modern Japanese writers covered a wide variety of subjects,
one particularly Japanese approach stressed their subjects'
inner lives, widening the earlier novel's preoccupation with
the narrator's consciousness
Post-War and Contemporary Literature

17. • In Japanese fiction, plot development and action have often
been of secondary interest to emotional issues. In keeping
with the general trend toward reaffirming national
characteristics, many old themes re-emerged, and some
authors turned consciously to the past.
Post-War and Contemporary Literature

18. • Noh play
the national theatre of Japan, which was originally
reserved for the nobility. Legend says that the Noh dance was
invented by the gods.
• Joruri play
a puppet play or doll theatre wherein the dolls are
beautifully made and life-like in size.
• Kabuki
the play for the masses. It is less intellectual and more
realistic, even sensational.
Japanese Drama

19. NohPlay

20. JoruriPlay

21. Kabuki

22. • Tanka (5-7-5-7-7)
It is a five line poem. The first and third lines have five
syllables each and the others seven, making a total of thirty-
one syllables per poem.
• Haiku (5-7-5)
It is a seventeen-syllable poem of three lines arranged in
lines of five-seven-five.
Japanese Poetry

23. Autumn moonlight—
a worm digs silently
into the chestnut.
Haiku
A cool wind blows in
With a blanket of silence.
Straining to listen
For those first few drops of
rain,
The storm begins in earnest.
Tanka
Japanese Poetry