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Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century

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Even if we make allowance for the impressive multi-volume literary histories of Konishi Jin'ichi and Kato Shuichi (as the first reader [1997] has noted), Professor Keene's four-volume opus is surely now the standard English general survey of Japanese literature. Seeds in the Heart, the last volume to be published, covers the very earliest period -- from the Record of Ancient Matters (712) to the "Late Sixteenth Century," spanning some 9 centuries. That leaves 3 volumes for the next four centuries, an indication of the author's personal leanings.

Of course, we all have our own preferences. Since I happen to be interested in Tale Literature (setsuwa), I feel that out of the book's 1265 pages devoted to the early period, setsuwa might have been given a bit more space than the 41 pages between p. 568 and p. 609 (see below). Others will doubtless have a different take; so I think it will be useful to the potential buyer/reader to see what is offered in the table of contents, along with the pagination.

Preface xiii, Introduction 1
EARLY AND HEIAN LITERATURE: 1. The Kojiki 33; 2. Writings in Chinese of the Nara Period 62; 3. The Man'yoshu 85; 4. Poetry and Prose in Chinese of the Early Heian Period 181; 5. The Transition from the Man'yoshu to the Kokinshu 218; 6. The Kokinshu 245; 7. Late Heian Collections of Waka Poetry 277; 8. Late Heian Poetry and Prose in Chinese 341; 9. Heian Diaries 358; 10. The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon 412; 11. The Beginnings of Fiction 433; 12. The Tale of Genji 477; 13. Courtly Fiction After The Tale of Genji 515; 14. Mirrors of History 551; 15. Tale Literature 568.

THE MIDDLE AGES: Introduction 609; 16. Tales of Warfare 613; 17. The Age of the Shin Kokinshu 643; 18. Waka Poetry of the Kamakura and Muromachi Periods 699; 19. Buddhist Writings of the Kamakura Period 749; 20. Courtly Fiction of the Kamakura Period 789; 21. Diaries of the Kamakura Period 825; 22. Essays In Idleness 852; 23. Medieval War Tales 868; 24. Renga 921; 25. Diaries and Other Prose of the Muromachi Period 971; 26. No and Kyogen as Literature 999; 27. Literature of the Five Mountains 1062; 28. Muromachi Fiction: Otogi-Zoshi 1092; 29. The Late
Sixteenth Century; Glossary 1176; Selected List of Translations into English 1184; Index 1189.

. . . in short, a highly informative, useful resource which I recommend to anyone curious about early Japanese literature.

Keene has written a book that, though using an immense range of Japanese scholarly sources, is easily accessible to the interested reader.
His narrative style is clear and appealing.
He not only describes the Japanese classical literary canon, and quotes large chunks of it, but also evaluates the poetry and prose he treats with a careful and cultivated aesthetic sensibility.
The book is a delight to read.
Nothing like it exists on Japanese literature in the English language.

Konishi Jin'ichi's literary history is designed for specialists, and Kato Shuichi's similar 3-volume history does not have the depth and breadth of Keene's book with its characteristic attention to detail as Kato wrote his study mainly with Japanese readers in mind.
In short, 'Seeds in The Heart" is the culmination of a lifetime's scholarship, and provides an extraordinarily moving feast for readers

Donald Keene's "Seeds in the Heart" is the first of his 4 volume History of Japanese Literature. This one covers the works from the beginnings of the said literature till the late sixteenth century (Momoyama Period). The other 3 are about literature of the Edo period ("World within walls") and the post-Meiji restoration pieces, with 1 volume for prose, another one for the rest ("Dawn to the West").

Keene's book is an authentic Tour de Force, and arguably, the best History of the Japanese Literature that anyone who reads in English can access. This first volume include a stagerring 1200 pages of essays and work, and cover in a very high (and sometimes, detailed) degree the main productions of the literature of the times: from Heian diaries, Imperial Anthologies, Prose Romances, Renga... You name it.

The scholarship is very well done, and yet the book remains very readable and enjoyable, with lots of excerpts and explanations. Information on translations is also ubiquitous.

In conclusion: if you're interested in having a detailed and well written summary of Japanese literature in English, this is were you'll get it. The only criticism I can make of the work is, perhaps, that the author clearly judges Japanese works from the standpoint of Western aesthetic discourse (privileging for example 'depth', 'subjectiveness', 'realism' and 'originality'). I totally share this stance, but I imagine there's others who wouldn't be so happy with it.