Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle Reading App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Apple
Android
Windows Phone
Android
To get the free app, enter your email address or mobile phone number.
$51.61
FREE Shipping.
Only 8 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Gift-wrap available.
Frequently Bought Together
{"currencyCode":"USD","itemData":[{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":51.61,"ASIN":"0231135246","isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":57,"ASIN":"023113990X","isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":19,"ASIN":"0231135300","isPreorder":0}],"shippingId":"0231135246::G85Tj%2BwOZFnrD2sU7YDv1Qmue4QvQvGRYdSX6m0HWGN88pvoc94lrt7OadjEEHYx6XsiaibNlPtaALu348zFIS3qsyOUp9mIub%2BJUYqZryWb32rJOZWObA%3D%3D,023113990X::Tjz0xgJdFH0iWolpEZEjeUclkE0Rj5nFueE8154vQNH3Lp3xC3vAgs5mKl1O33R1E9CkR32vilKpvCeW5sk9lDu8PdlK9Mvu8lIGJRvv0h1QEvhDxltGVA%3D%3D,0231135300::0rQoAnE%2Bv3O%2BaPZyXd%2FrLruNYJJmTUPFF0rLDF7wR%2BY2ZpUEDi5YhdRordobckAjYi938qjEesAVeckcXzf7MsAhXAl6KgfquQgH68GJpsRFAn6xLRA45w%3D%3D","sprites":{"addToWishlist":["wl_one","wl_two","wl_three"],"addToCart":["s_addToCart","s_addBothToCart","s_add3ToCart"],"preorder":["s_preorderThis","s_preorderBoth","s_preorderAll3"]},"shippingDetails":{"xz":"same","yz":"same","xy":"same","xyz":"same"},"tags":["x","y","z"],"strings":{"addToWishlist":["Add to Wish List","Add both to Wish List","Add all three to Wish List"],"addToCart":["Add to Cart","Add both to Cart","Add all three to Cart"],"showDetailsDefault":"Show availability and shipping details","shippingError":"An error occurred, please try again","hideDetailsDefault":"Hide availability and shipping details","priceLabel":["Price:","Price for both:","Price for all three:"],"preorder":["Pre-order this item","Pre-order both items","Pre-order all three items"]}}
Best Books of the Month
Want to know our Editors' picks for the best books of the month? Browse Best Books of the Month, featuring our favorite new books in more than a dozen categories.
Product Details
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Columbia University Press (July 27, 2005)
This comprehensive guide... includes in-depth explanations, exercises and literary excerpts useful to beginners as well as advanced speakers.
(Columbia College Today)
A significant contribution to the field of premodern Japanese language and literary studies.
(Stephen D. Miller Monumenta Nipponica)
About the Author
Haruo Shirane is Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. He is the author of The Bridge of Dreams: A Poetics of The Tale of Genji and Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Basho; and an editor of Inventing the Classics: Modernity, National Identity, and Japanese Literature and Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600--1900.
A very informative and useful book, unlike any other available text in this field in terms of its accessibility and attention to detail. After an overview of basic sentence structure and orthography, the chapters set out the major inflected parts of speech (verbs, adjectives, adjectival verbs, and verb suffixes or jodôshi), followed by non-inflected parts of speech (particles and nouns). The verb suffixes and particles are grouped by function, allowing the subtle differences between similar expressions to be made clear. The final chapters cover honorifics and Nara-period expressions. In all chapters, the grammatical explanations are clear and concise, and the functions of the expressions under discussion are well illustrated by the example sentences, drawn from classical texts.
More advanced material is clearly marked in the "Advanced Study and Reference" sections found throughout the chapters. The inclusion of such material allows the book to serve as a reference for advanced students, but its clear separation in the "Advanced Study and Reference" sections means that it does not overwhelm beginners. The "Historical Note" sections, also found throughout the chapters, describe the evolution of various Japanese expressions over time. This information is not only of interest to advanced learners, but is useful for demonstrating to beginning bungo students the relationship between some classical and modern Japanese expressions. The exercises appended to each chapter provide a valuable opportunity for students to become familiar with classical expressions within a limited context, before going on to read longer texts, and the tables of grammatical forms in the accompanying booklet are extremely useful for quick reference.
All in all, a highly readable work which should be of great interest to students and scholars of classical Japanese regardless of their level of ability.
Comment
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
This is the only English language textbook of classical Japanese that is readily available, and it far surpasses earlier attempts to create such a textbook. It is well-organized, explanations of grammatical issues are lucid, examples are aptly chosen, and it is eminently suitable both for teaching and for self-study. Teachers and students of classical Japanese have waited years for a textbook of this caliber and may now celebrate its arrival. Contrary to one other reviewer's complaint, the textbook is indeed a "package" accompanied by a 50-page booklet providing answers to exercises and very convenient tables of basic grammatical forms.
1 Comment
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
This grammar is a great textbook/grammar for learning Classical Japanese. The text is kind of like a pedagogical grammar of the language, with many examples from actual Japanese literature. This is perhaps the strongest point of the book. As an earlier book, Introduction to Classical Japanese by Akira Komai, relied on artificial sentences rather then actual sentences.
This book is intended for use by people with some knowledge of modern Japanese, but I would surmise that even someone with little-to-no knowledge of Japanese can get something out of this text. The grammar sections are very clear and have many examples so you can see the language in action. And the vocabulary is introduced in the examples (though not is a conventional way). And with the companion volumes of Classical Japanese A Grammar - Exercise Answers and Tables and Classical Japanese Reader and Essential Dictionary you can get even more out of the text with little-to-no knowledge of Japanese. Of course I'm not advocating this, as a beginner-intermediate knowledge Japanese is advised. But this should give a good idea of the easy to understand nature of the book, and it's clear and concise format.
The historical notes and comparative Modern <-> Classical comparisons are also quite interesting and helpful.
Comment
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
This book is well-written and gives a complete enough grammar of Classical Japanese grammar and spelling, with lots of examples from classics. My one nit- I didn't like the Word-document-esque formatting. The book is much bigger and heavier than it needed to be (although it is a nice-looking hardcover).
Comment
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
As a scholar of Japanese classical literature, I was very excited when I first saw this book on the shelves. I bought it and was very pleased by most of the explanations. However, there are typos and mistakes in the grammar and translations that Shirane admitted to in a reply to an email on these errors. So far, I haven't heard of him doing anything to correct those mistakes...except publish another book.
Aesthetically, it has a nice cover but the inside looks like someone printed out a bunch of pages and bound them together.
The book is expensive. If you're trying to learn classical Japanese grammar it's better to take a class in it rather than teach it to yourself. This book works better to supplement a class rather than self-study.
5 Comments
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
