Characteristics of

Japanese Literature
Presented by : Griffin F. Bingil
• Japanese literature can be difficult to read
and understand
• Statements are often ambiguous, omitting
as unnecessary the particles of speech
which would normally identify words as
the subject or object of a sentence, or
using colloquial verb forms from a specific
region or social class.
• In many cases the significance of a simple
sentence can only be understood by
someone who is familiar with the cultural
or historical background of the work.
• The nature of the Japanese language influenced
the development of poetic forms.
• All Japanese words end in one of five simple
vowels, making it difficult to construct effective
rhymes.
• Japanese words also lack a stress accent, so that
poetry was distinguished from prose mainly by
being divided into lines of specific numbers of
syllables rather than by cadence and rhythm.
• These characteristics made longer poetic forms
difficult, and most Japanese poems are short,
their poetic quality coming from rich allusions
and multiple meanings evoked by each word
used in the composition.
 Main Periods of
Japanese Literature
 • Before the introduction of kanji from China,
there was no writing system in Japan.
• Chinese characters were used in Japanese
Ancient syntactical formats, and the literary language
was classical Chinese; resulting in sentences
Literature that looked like Chinese but were
phonetically read as Japanese.
(until 894) • Chinese characters were used, not for their
meanings, but because they had a phonetic
sound which resembled a Japanese word.
• Chinese characters were later adapted to write Japanese speech,
creating what is known as the man'yōgana, the earliest form of kana,
or syllabic writing.
• The earliest works were created in the Nara Period.
•  Kojiki (712: a work recording Japanese mythology and legendary history)
•  Nihonshoki (720; a chronicle with a slightly more solid foundation in historical
records than Kojiki)
•  Man'yōshū (Ten Thousand Leaves, 759); an anthology of poetry.
 • consider a golden era of art and literature.
• The Tale of Genji (early eleventh century)
by Murasaki Shikibu
Classical • Kokin Wakashū (905, waka poetry anthology)
Literature • The Pillow Book (990s), an essay about the life,
(894-1194; loves, and pastimes of nobles in the Emperor's
court written by Murasaki Shikibu's
The Heian contemporary and rival, Sei Shonagon
Period) • During this time, the imperial court patronized
poets, many of whom were courtiers or ladies-
in-waiting. Editing anthologies of poetry was a
national pastime.
 is marked by the strong influence of Zen
Buddhism, and many writers were priests,
travelers, or ascetic poets

Medieval Japan experienced many civil wars which led to

Literature the development of a warrior class, and a
(1195 - 1600) widespread interest in war tales, histories, and
related stories

The Tale of the Heike (1371), an epic account of

the struggle between
the Minamoto and Taira clans for control of
Japan at the end of the twelfth century.
Early-Modern Literature (1600-1868)
The literature of this time was written during the generally peaceful
Tokugawa Period (commonly referred to as the Edo Period).

forms of popular drama developed which would later evolve

into kabuki(traditional Japanese theater).

Many genres of literature made their début during the Edo Period,

inspired by a rising literacy rate among the growing population of
townspeople, as well as the development of lending libraries.
Meiji, Taisho, and Early Showa literature
(1868-1945)
The Meiji era marked the re-opening of Japan to the West, and a period of
rapid industrialization.

Young Japanese prose writers and dramatists struggled with a whole galaxy of
new ideas and artistic schools, but novelists were the first to successfully
assimilate some of these concepts

In the early Meiji era (1868-1880s), Fukuzawa Yukichi and Nakae Chomin

authored Enlightenment literature, while pre-modern popular books depicted
the quickly changing country
• Higuchi Ichiyo, a rare woman writer in this era, wrote short stories on
powerless women of this age in a simple style, between literary and
colloquial. Izumi Kyoka, a favored disciple of Ozaki, pursued a flowing
and elegant style and wrote early novels such as The Operating
Room (1895) in literary style and later ones including The Holy Man of
Mount Koya (1900) in colloquial language.
• Mori Ogai introduced Romanticism to Japan with his anthology of
translated poems (1889), and it was carried to its height by Shimazaki
Toson and his contemporaries and by the
magazines Myōjō and Bungaku-kai in the early 1900s.
• Shimazaki shifted from Romanticism to Naturalism,
which was established with the publication of The Broken
Commandment (1906) and Katai Tayama's Futon (1907). 
• Naturalism led to the “I” novel. Neo-romanticism came
out of anti-naturalism and was led by Nagai
Kafu, Junichiro Tanizaki, Kotaro Takamura, Kitahara
Hakushu and others during the early 1910s. Mushanokoji
Saneatsu, Shiga Naoya and others founded a
magazine, Shirakaba, in 1910 to promote Humanism.
• War-time Japan saw the début of several authors best
known for the beauty of their language and their tales of
love and sensuality, 
• Japan's first winner of the Nobel Prize for
Literature, Kawabata Yasunari, a master of psychological
fiction.
 • Japan’s defeat in World War II influenced
Japanese literature during the 1940s and
1950s.
Post-War • Many authors wrote stories about
disaffection, loss of purpose, and the coping
Literature with defeat.
• Dazai Osamu's novel The Setting Sun tells of
a soldier returning from
Manchukuo. Mishima Yukio, well known for
both his nihilistic writing and his
controversial suicide by seppuku
• Prominent writers of the 1970s and 1980s were identified with
intellectual and moral issues in their attempts to raise social and
political consciousness.
• Oe Kenzaburo wrote his best-known work, A Personal Matter in 1964
and became Japan's second winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
• Murakami Haruki is one of the most popular and controversial of
today's Japanese authors. His genre-defying, humorous and surreal
works have sparked fierce debates in Japan over whether they are
true "literature" or simple pop-fiction: 
 • Although 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
Modern • In keeping with the general trend toward
reaffirming national characteristics, many old
Themes themes re-emerged in modern literature, and
some authors turned consciously to the past.
• There was a growing emphasis on women's
roles, the Japanese persona in the modern
world, and the malaise of common people lost
in the complexities of urban culture.
 • Popular fiction, non-fiction, and children's literature
all flourished in urban Japan during the 1980s.
• Many popular works fell between "pure literature"
and pulp novels, including all sorts of historical
serials, information-packed docudramas, science
Contemporary fiction, mysteries, detective fiction, business stories,
war journals, and animal stories.
Literature • Manga (comic books) have penetrated almost every
sector of the popular market. They include virtually
every field of human interest, such as a multi
volume high-school history of Japan and, for the
adult market, a manga introduction to economics,
and pornography. 
Japanese Haiku
 “Lighting One Candle” by Yosa
Buson
The light of a candle
Is transferred to another candle—
Spring twilight
• Haikus focus on a brief moment in
time, juxtaposing two images, and
creating a sudden sense of
enlightenment. A good example of
this is haiku master Yosa Buson’s
comparison of a singular candle
with the starry wonderment of the
spring sky.
“The Old Pond” by Matsuo Bashō
An old silent pond
A frog jumps into the pond—
Splash! Silence again.
• This traditional example comes from Matsuo Bashō, one of the four
great masters of Haiku. Historically, haikus are a derivative of the
Japanese Hokku. Hokkus are collaborative poems which follow the
5/7/5 rule. They are meant to comment on the season or
surroundings of the authors and create some sort of contrasting
imagery separated by a kireji or “cutting word” (like “Splash!”).
Rashōmon by Akutagawa Ryūnosuke

The story, set in 12th-century Kyōto, reveals in spare and elegant language the
thoughts of a man on the edge of a life of crime and the incident that pushes him
over the brink. Combined with Akutagawa’s later story “Yabu no naka” (1921; “In
a Grove”), “Rashōmon” was the starting point for Japanese director Kurosawa
Akira’s classic film Rashōmon (1950).

the lesson is most probably this. Human beings are inevitably duplicitous and
self-serving, but if only they would develop the courage and decency to admit
the “truth” about themselves, the world would be a better place.
• The story was first published in 1915
in Teikoku Bungaku. Akira Kurosawa's
film Rashomon (1950) is in fact based
primarily on another of Akutagawa's
short stories, "In a Grove"; only the film's
title and some of the material for the
frame scenes, such as the theft of a
kimono and the discussion of the moral
ambiguity of thieving to survive, are
borrowed from "Rashōmon".