Customer Reviews

Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600 (Translations from the Asian Classics)

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A comprehensive selection of Japanese texts from the ancient, Heian and medieval periods, this book is a very valuable addition to the existing range of anthologies of classical Japanese writing available in English. It far exceeds any other anthology of its kind in terms of both the breadth of its selections and the depth of its secondary supporting material.

A wide range of primary texts is included, with extensive excerpts not only from major classics such as The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari), The Pillow Book (Makura no soshi), or The Tales of the Heike (Heike monogatari), but also passages from texts less commonly included in anthologies of Japanese literature, such as the Hitachi Province Gazetteer (Hitachi fudoki) or The Essentials of Salvation (Ojo yoshu). Other genres represented include poetry in Chinese, setsuwa, noh, kyogen, linked verse, and sermon-ballads (sekkyo-bushi). Some texts in this volume have been selected to complement each other: for instance, one can read the account of the death of Taira no Atsumori in The Tales of the Heike, read a dramatization of the event in the noh Atsumori, and also read a letter from Honen, the founder of Pure Land Buddhism in Japan, to Kumagai, the man who killed Atsumori ("Reply to Kumagai Naozane, the Monk Rensei"). Likewise, the anthology includes both the famous essay An Account of a Ten-Foot-Square Hut (Hojoki) and part of the less widely read Record of a Pond Pavilion (Chiteiki), which addresses similar themes. Selections from poetry anthologies such as New Collection of Ancient and Modern Poems (ShinKokinshu) are accompanied by passages from critical works on poetry such as Essentials of Poetic Composition (Eiga no taigai); similarly, the anthology includes both noh plays and excerpts from noh treatises such as Teachings on Style and the Flower (Fushikaden).

In addition to its careful selection of primary texts, the anthology also features well-written and informative introductions to the translations and, more generally, to the historical and cultural background of the texts included. The general introduction to the volume treats broad themes such as "Language and Writing", "Love and Eroticism", and "Performance and Narration", while there are separate introductory essays to each of the major historical periods covered and then more specific introductions to the texts and genres included. These introductions are invaluable in placing the works in their historical and social context within the almost one-thousand-year span of history covered by this anthology.

These features--the selection of texts and the introductions--not only give the casual reader a more multidimensional view of the works included, but make the anthology a extremely useful teaching tool. This anthology should be of great interest to scholars and instructors in the field, and to students or to any reader wishing to gain a comprehensive understanding of early and medieval Japanese literature.

This volume reflects the state of the art in translations of pre-modern (classical) Japanese literature. No interested reader or scholar can afford to be without it.

I am sure that in many respects this is an excellent work. But be forewarned that in at least one instance the story is bowdlerized.

The myth I am referring to is the one about Yamato Takeru and his slaying of the Kumaso brothers. He accomplishes the feat while still a young boy. He dresses as a girl and enters the party where the Kumaso brothers are feasting, and they seat the beautiful "girl" between them and enjoy him tremendously (we can safely assume that they are not discussing the care of koi).

When the two brothers are soused he stabs the elder through the chest, in warrior style. The younger however he stabs through the anus, presumably in revenge for an analogous and dishonorable act just done to him.

But you would be hard pressed to divine that from this translation. Why do translators think that watering down strong wine is what modern audiences want???