Japanese literature

Early works of Japanese literature were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese
literature, and were often written in Classical Chinese. Indian literature also had an influence through the
spread of Buddhism in Japan. In the Heian period, Japan's original kokufū culture (lit., "national culture")
developed and literature also established its own style.[1] Following Japan's reopening of its ports to Western
trading and diplomacy in the 19th century, Western literature has influenced the development of modern
Japanese writers, while they have in turn been more recognized outside Japan, with two Nobel Prizes so far, as
of 2020.

Contents
History
Nara-period literature (before 794)
Heian literature (794–1185)
Kamakura-Muromachi period literature (1185–1603)
Edo-period literature (1603–1868)
Meiji, Taishō, and early Shōwa-period literature (1868–1945)
Postwar literature (1945-onwards)
Female authors
Significant authors and works
Nara-period literature
Heian-period literature
Kamakura-Muromachi-period literature
Edo-period literature
Meiji- and Taisho-period literature
Modern literature
Awards and contests
Resources
See also
References
Further reading
Primary sources
Online text libraries
Resources

History

Nara-period literature (before 794)

Before the introduction of kanji from China to Japan, Japan had no writing system; it is believed that Chinese
characters came to Japan at the very beginning of the fifth century, brought by immigrants from Korea and
China. Early Japanese texts first followed the Chinese model,[2] before gradually transitioning to a hybrid of
Chinese characters used in Japanese syntactical formats, resulting in sentences written with Chinese characters
but read phonetically in Japanese.

Chinese characters were also further adapted, creating what is known as man'yōgana, the earliest form of
kana, or Japanese syllabic writing.[3] The earliest literary works in Japan were created in the Nara period.[2]
These include the Kojiki (712), a historical record that also chronicles ancient Japanese mythology and folk
songs; the Nihon Shoki (720), a chronicle written in Chinese that is significantly more detailed than the Kojiki;
and the Man'yōshū (759), a poetry anthology. One of the stories they describe is the tale of Urashima Tarō.

Heian literature (794–1185)

The Heian period has been referred to as the golden era of art and
literature in Japan.[4] During this era, literature became centered on a
cultural elite of nobility and monks.[5] The imperial court particularly
patronized the poets, most of whom were courtiers or ladies-in-
waiting. Reflecting the aristocratic atmosphere, the poetry was elegant
and sophisticated and expressed emotions in a rhetorical style. Editing
the resulting anthologies of poetry soon became a national pastime.
The iroha poem, now one of two standard orderings for the Japanese
syllabary, was also developed during the early Heian period.

The Tale of Genji (Genji Monogatari), written in the early 11th

Murasaki Shikibu, the author of The
Tale of Genji.
India, China and Japan.
century by a woman named Murasaki Shikibu, is considered the pre-
eminent novel of Heian fiction.[6] Other important writings of this
period include the Kokin Wakashū (905), a waka-poetry anthology,
and The Pillow Book (Makura no Sōshi) (990s). The Pillow Book was
written by Sei Shōnagon, Murasaki Shikibu's contemporary and rival,
as an essay about the life, loves, and pastimes of nobles in the
Emperor's court.[7] Another notable piece of fictional Japanese
literature was Konjaku Monogatarishū, a collection of over a
thousand stories in 31 volumes. The volumes cover various tales from

The 10th-century Japanese narrative, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (Taketori Monogatari), can be
considered an early example of proto-science fiction. The protagonist of the story, Kaguya-hime, is a princess
from the Moon who is sent to Earth for safety during a celestial war, and is found and raised by a bamboo
cutter. She is later taken back to her extraterrestrial family in an illustrated depiction of a disc-shaped flying
object similar to a flying saucer.[8]

Kamakura-Muromachi period literature (1185–1603)

During the Kamakura period (1185–1333), Japan experienced many civil wars which led to the development
of a warrior class, and subsequent war tales, histories, and related stories.[9] Work from this period is notable
for its more somber tone compared to the works of previous eras, with themes of life and death, simple
lifestyles, and redemption through killing.[10] A representative work is The Tale of the Heike (Heike
Monogatari) (1371), an epic account of the struggle between the Minamoto and Taira clans for control of
Japan at the end of the twelfth century. Other important tales of the period include Kamo no Chōmei's Hōjōki
(1212) and Yoshida Kenkō's Tsurezuregusa (1331).
Despite a decline in the importance of the imperial court, aristocratic literature remained the center of Japanese
culture at the beginning of the Kamakura period. Many literary works were marked by a nostalgia for the
Heian period.[11] The Kamakura period also saw a renewed vitality of poetry, with a number of anthologies
compiled,[9][12] such as the Shin Kokin Wakashū compiled in the early 1200s. However, there were fewer
notable works by female authors during this period, reflecting the lowered status of women.[11]

As the importance of the imperial court continued to decline, a major feature of Muromachi literature (1333–
1603) was the spread of cultural activity through all levels of society. Classical court literature, which had been
the focal point of Japanese literature up until this point, gradually disappeared.[13][11] New genres such as
renga, or linked verse, and Noh theater developed among the common people,[14] and setsuwa such as the
Nihon Ryoiki were created by Buddhist priests for preaching. The development of roads, along with a
growing public interest in travel and pilgrimages, brought rise to the greater popularity of travel literature from
the early 13th to 14th centuries.[15] Notable examples of travel diaries include Fuji kikō (1432) and Tsukushi
michi no ki (1480).[16][17]

Edo-period literature (1603–1868)

Literature during this time was written during the largely peaceful Tokugawa
Period (commonly referred to as the Edo Period). Due in large part to the rise of
the working and middle classes in the new capital of Edo (modern Tokyo), forms
of popular drama developed which would later evolve into kabuki. The jōruri
and kabuki dramatist Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653–1725) became popular at
the end of the 17th century, and he is also known as Japan's Shakespeare.

Many different 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. Ihara Saikaku (1642–1693) might
be said to have given birth to the modern consciousness of the novel in Japan,
mixing vernacular dialogue into his humorous and cautionary tales of the
pleasure quarters, the so-called Ukiyozōshi ("floating world") genre. Ihara's Life
of an Amorous Man is considered the first work in this genre. Although Ihara's
works were not regarded as high literature at the time because it had been aimed
towards and popularized by the chōnin (merchant classes), they became popular
and were key to the development and spread of ukiyozōshi.
Self-Portrait by
Miyamoto Musashi
Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694) is recognized as the greatest master of haiku (then
(1584–1645), a
called "hokku") His poems were influenced by his firsthand experience of the
swordsman, writer, and
world around him, often encapsulating the feeling of a scene in a few simple
artist, and the author of
elements. He made his life's work the transformation of haikai into a literary The Book of Five Rings
genre. For Bashō, haikai involved a combination of comic playfulness and (Go Rin no Sho).
spiritual depth, ascetic practice, and involvement in human society. In particular,
Bashō wrote Oku no Hosomichi a major work in the form of a travel diary and
considered "one of the major texts of classical Japanese literature."[18]

Fukuda Chiyo-ni (1703–1775) is widely regarded as one of the greatest haiku poets. Before her time, haiku by
women were often dismissed and ignored. Her dedication toward her career not only paved a way for her
career but it also opened a path for other women to follow. Her early poems were influenced by Matsuo
Bashō, although she did later develop her own unique style as an independent figure in her own right. While
still a teenager, she had already become very popular all over Japan for her poetry. Her poems, although
mostly dealing with nature, work for unity of nature with humanity[19] Her own life was that of the haikai
poets who made their lives and the world they lived in one with themselves, living a simple and humble life.
She was able to make connections by being observant and carefully studying the unique things around her
ordinary world and writing them down.[20]

Rangaku was an intellectual movement situated in Edo and centered on the study of Dutch (and by
subsequently western) science and technology, history, philosophy, art, and language, based primarily on the
Dutch books imported via Nagasaki. The polymath Hiraga Gennai (1728–1780) was a scholar of Rangaku
and a writer of popular fiction. Sugita Genpaku (1733–1817) was a Japanese scholar known for his translation
of Kaitai Shinsho (New Book of Anatomy) from the Dutch-language anatomy book Ontleedkundige Tafelen.
As a full-blown translation from a Western language, it was the first of its kind in Japan. Although there was a
minor Western influence trickling into the country from the Dutch settlement at Nagasaki, it was the
importation of Chinese vernacular fiction that proved the greatest outside influence on the development of
Early Modern Japanese fiction.

Jippensha Ikku (1765–1831) is known as Japan's Mark Twain and wrote Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige, which is a
mix of travelogue and comedy. Tsuga Teisho, Takebe Ayatari, and Okajima Kanzan were instrumental in
developing the yomihon, which were historical romances almost entirely in prose, influenced by Chinese
vernacular novels such as Sangoku-shi ( 三国志
, Three Kingdoms) and Suikoden ( ⽔滸伝
, Water Margin).

Two yomihon masterpieces were written by Ueda Akinari (1734–1809): Ugetsu Monogatari and Harusame
Monogatari. Kyokutei Bakin (1767–1848) wrote the extremely popular fantasy/historical romance Nansō
Satomi Hakkenden over a period of twenty-eight years to complete (1814–1842), in addition to other yomihon.
Santō Kyōden wrote yomihon mostly set in the red-light districts until the Kansei edicts banned such works,
and he turned to comedic kibyōshi. Genres included horror, crime stories, morality stories, comedy, and
pornography — often accompanied by colorful woodcut prints.

Hokusai (1760–1849), perhaps Japan's most famous woodblock print artist, also illustrated fiction as well as
his famous 36 Views of Mount Fuji.

Nevertheless, in the Tokugawa period, as in earlier periods, scholarly work continued to be published in
Chinese, which was the language of the learned much as Latin was in Europe.[21]

Meiji, Taishō, and early Shōwa-period literature (1868–1945)

The Meiji period marked the re-opening of Japan to the

West, ending over two centuries of national seclusion,
and marking the beginning of 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 faced a suddenly-broadened horizon of new
ideas and artistic schools, with novelists amongst some
of the first to assimilate these concepts successfully into
their writing.

Natsume Sōseki's (1867–1916) humorous novel Mori Ōgai (left) and Natsume Sōseki (right).
Wagahai wa neko de aru (I Am a Cat, 1905) employed
a cat as the narrator, and he also wrote the famous
novels Botchan (1906) and Kokoro (1914). Natsume, Mori Ōgai, and Shiga Naoya, who was called "god of
the novel" as the most prominent "I novel" writer, were instrumental in adopting and adapting Western literary
conventions and techniques. Ryūnosuke Akutagawa is known especially for his historical short stories. Ozaki
Kōyō, Kyōka Izumi, and Ichiyo Higuchi represent a strain of writers whose style hearkens back to early-
Modern Japanese literature.

In the early Meiji period (1868–1880s), Fukuzawa Yukichi authored

Enlightenment literature, while pre-modern popular books depicted the quickly
changing country. Then Realism was brought in by Tsubouchi Shōyō and
Futabatei Shimei in the mid-Meiji period (late 1880s–early 1890s) while the
Classicism of Ozaki Kōyō, Yamada Bimyo and Kōda Rohan gained popularity.
Ichiyō Higuchi, a rare female writer in this era, wrote short stories on powerless
women of this age in a simple style in between literary and colloquial. Kyōka
Izumi, 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.

Romanticism was brought in by Mori Ōgai with his anthology of translated

Koizumi Yakumo poems (1889) and carried to its height by Tōson Shimazaki, alongside magazines
(Patrick Lafcadio Hearn), such as Myōjō and Bungaku-kai in the early 1900s. Mori also wrote some
naturalized Japanese. modern novels including The Dancing Girl (1890), The Wild Geese (1911), then
He is known best for his later wrote historical novels. Natsume Sōseki, who is often compared with Mori
collections of Japanese Ōgai, wrote I Am a Cat (1905) with humor and satire, then depicted fresh and
legends and ghost pure youth in Botchan (1906) and Sanshirô (1908). He eventually pursued
stories, such as transcendence of human emotions and egoism in his later works including
Kwaidan: Stories and Kokoro (1914) and his last and unfinished novel Light and darkness (1916).
Studies of Strange
Things. Shimazaki shifted from Romanticism to Naturalism which was established with
his The Broken Commandment (1906) and Katai Tayama's Futon (1907).
Naturalism hatched "I Novel" (Watakushi-shôsetu) that describes the authors
themselves and depicts their own mental states. Neo-romanticism came out of anti-naturalism and was led by
Kafū Nagai, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, Kōtarō Takamura, Hakushū Kitahara and others in the early 1910s. Saneatsu
Mushanokōji, Naoya Shiga and others founded a magazine Shirakaba in 1910. They shared a common
characteristic, Humanism. Shiga's style was autobiographical and depicted states of his mind and sometimes
classified as "I Novel" in this sense. Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, who was highly praised by Soseki, wrote short
stories including "Rashōmon" (1915) with an intellectual and analytic attitude and represented Neo-realism in
the mid-1910s.

During the 1920s and early 1930s the proletarian literary movement, comprising such writers as Takiji
Kobayashi, Denji Kuroshima, Yuriko Miyamoto and Ineko Sata produced a politically radical literature
depicting the harsh lives of workers, peasants, women, and other downtrodden members of society, and their
struggles for change.

War-time Japan saw the début of several authors best known for the beauty of their language and their tales of
love and sensuality, notably Jun'ichirō Tanizaki and Japan's first winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature,
Yasunari Kawabata, a master of psychological fiction. Ashihei Hino wrote lyrical bestsellers glorifying the
war, while Tatsuzō Ishikawa attempted to publish a disturbingly realistic account of the advance on Nanjing.
Writers who opposed the war include Denji Kuroshima, Mitsuharu Kaneko, Hideo Oguma and Jun Ishikawa.

Postwar literature (1945-onwards)

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. Haruo Umezaki's short story "Sakurajima" shows a
disillusioned and skeptical Navy officer stationed in a base located on the Sakurajima volcanic island, close to
Kagoshima, on the southern tip of the Kyushu island. Osamu Dazai's novel The Setting Sun tells of a soldier
returning from Manchukuo. Shōhei Ōoka won the Yomiuri Prize for his novel Fires on the Plain about a
Japanese deserter going mad in the Philippine jungle. Yukio Mishima, well known for both his nihilistic
writing and his controversial suicide by seppuku, began writing in the post-war period. Nobuo Kojima's short
story "The American School" portrays a group of Japanese teachers of English who, in the immediate
aftermath of the war, deal with the American occupation in varying ways.

Prominent writers of the 1970s and 1980s were identified with intellectual and moral issues in their attempts to
raise social and political consciousness. One of them, Kenzaburō Ōe, who published one of his best-known
works, A Personal Matter in 1964, became Japan's second winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Mitsuharu Inoue had long been concerned with the atomic bomb and continued in the 1980s to write on
problems of the nuclear age, while Shūsaku Endō depicted the religious dilemma of the Kakure Kirishitan,
Roman Catholics in feudal Japan, as a springboard to address spiritual problems. Yasushi Inoue also turned to
the past in masterful historical novels of Inner Asia and ancient Japan, in order to portray present human fate.

Avant-garde writers, such as Kōbō Abe, who wrote novels such as The Woman in the Dunes (1960), wanted
to express the Japanese experience in modern terms without using either international styles or traditional
conventions, developed new inner visions. Yoshikichi Furui related the lives of alienated urban dwellers
coping with the minutiae of daily life, while the psychodramas within such daily life crises have been explored
by a rising number of important women novelists. The 1988 Naoki Prize went to Shizuko Todo for Ripening
Summer, a story capturing the complex psychology of modern women. Other award-winning stories at the end
of the decade dealt with current issues of the elderly in hospitals, the recent past (Pure- Hearted Shopping
District in Kōenji, Tokyo), and the life of a Meiji period ukiyo-e artist.

Haruki Murakami is one of the most popular and controversial of today's Japanese authors.[22] His genre-
defying, humorous and surreal works have sparked fierce debates in Japan over whether they are true
"literature" or simple pop-fiction: Kenzaburō Ōe has been one of his harshest critics. Some of Murakami's
best-known works include Norwegian Wood (1987) and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994–1995).

Banana Yoshimoto, a best-selling contemporary author whose "manga-esque" style of writing sparked much
controversy when she debuted in the late 1980s, has come to be recognized as a unique and talented author
over the intervening years. Her writing style stresses dialogue over description, resembling the script of a
manga, and her works focus on love, friendship, and loss. Her breakout work was 1988's Kitchen.

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.
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. Strikingly, Buddhist attitudes about the importance of knowing
oneself and the poignant impermanence of things formed an undercurrent to sharp social criticism of this
material age. 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 in the 1980s. Many popular
works fell between "pure literature" and pulp novels, including all sorts of historical serials, information-
packed docudramas, science fiction, mysteries, detective fiction, business stories, war journals, and animal
stories. Non-fiction covered everything from crime to politics. Although factual journalism predominated,
many of these works were interpretive, reflecting a high degree of individualism. Children's works re-emerged
in the 1950s, and the newer entrants into this field, many of the younger women, brought new vitality to it in
the 1980s.
Manga (comics) has penetrated almost every sector of the popular market. It includes virtually every field of
human interest, such as multivolume high-school histories of Japan and, additionally for the adult market, a
manga introduction to economics, and pornography (hentai). Manga represented between 20 and 30 percent of
annual publications at the end of the 1980s, in sales of some ¥400 billion per year. Additionally there are light
novels which often have illustrations. Many manga are fan-made (dojinshi).

Cell phone novels appeared in the early 21st century. Written by and for cell phone users, the novels —
typically romances read by young women — have become very popular both online and in print. Some, such
as Love Sky, have sold millions of print copies, and at the end of 2007 cell phone novels comprised four of the
top five fiction best sellers.[23]

Female authors
Female writers in Japan enjoyed a brief period of success during the Heian period, but were undermined
following the decline in power of the Imperial Court in the 14th century. Later, in the Meiji era, earlier works
written by women such as Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon were championed amongst the earliest
examples of the Japanese literary language, even at a time when the authors themselves experienced
challenges due to their gender. One Meiji era writer, Shimizu Shikin, sought to encourage positive
comparisons between her contemporaries and their feminine forebears in the hopes that female authors would
be viewed with respect by society, despite assuming a public role outside the traditional confines of a woman's
role in her home (see Good Wife, Wise Mother/ryosai kenbo). Other notable feminine authors of the Meiji era
included Hiratsuka Raicho, Higuchi Ichiyo, Tamura Toshiko, Nogami Yaeko and Yosano Akiko.[24]

Significant authors and works

Nara-period literature
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (c.660–c.720): numerous chōka and tanka in the Man'yōshū
Ōtomo no Yakamochi (c.718–785): possible compiler of the Man'yōshū

Heian-period literature
Ariwara no Narihira (825–880)
Ono no Komachi (c. 825 – c. 900)
Sugawara no Michizane (845–903)
Ki no Tsurayuki (872–945)
Lady Ise (c. 875 – c. 938)
Minamoto no Shitagō (911–983)
Michitsuna no Haha (c. 935 – c. 995): Kagerō Nikki
Akazome Emon (c. 956 – c. 1041)
Sei Shōnagon (c. 966 – c. 1017): The Pillow Book
Murasaki Shikibu (c. 973 – c. 1025): The Tale of Genji
Izumi Shikibu (c. 976 – c. 1027):
Lady Sarashina (c. 1008 – c. 1059): Sarashina Nikki

Kamakura-Muromachi-period literature
 The Tale of the Heike (c. 1212–1309)
Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (c. 1235)
Fujiwara no Teika (1162–1241)
Yoshida Kenkō (c. 1283–1352): Tsurezuregusa

Edo-period literature
Miyamoto Musashi (c. 1584–1645): The Book of Five Rings
Ihara Saikaku (1642–1693)
Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694)
Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653–1725)
Yamamoto Tsunetomo (1659–1719)
Yokoi Yayū (1702–1783)
Fukuda Chiyo-ni (1703–1775)
Yosa Buson (1716–1784)
Motoori Norinaga (1730–1801)
Sugita Genpaku (1733–1817)
Ueda Akinari (1734–1809)
Santō Kyōden (1761–1816)
Kobayashi Issa (1763–1828)
Jippensha Ikku (1765–1831)
Kyokutei Bakin (1767–1848)
Edo Meisho Zue (travelogue, 1834)
Hokuetsu Seppu (work of human geography, 1837)

Meiji- and Taisho-period literature

Nakane Kōtei (1839–1913)
Lafcadio Hearn (1850–1904)
Mori Ōgai (1862–1922)
Futabatei Shimei (1864–1909)
Itō Sachio (1864–1913)
Natsume Sōseki (1867–1916)
Kōda Rohan (1867–1947)
Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902)
Ozaki Kōyō (1868–1903)
Doppo Kunikida (1871–1908)
Ichiyō Higuchi (1872–1896)
Tōson Shimazaki (1872–1943)
Kyōka Izumi (1873–1939)
Yonejiro Noguchi (1875–1947)
Takeo Arishima (1878–1923)
Akiko Yosano (1878–1942)
Kafū Nagai (1879–1959)
Naoya Shiga (1883–1971)
Takuboku Ishikawa (1886–1912)
 Kan Kikuchi (1888–1948)
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1892–1927)
Kenji Miyazawa (1896–1933)
Denji Kuroshima (1898–1943)
Motojirō Kajii (1901–1932)
Hideo Oguma (1901–1940)
Takiji Kobayashi (1903–1933)

Modern literature
Kansuke Naka (1885–1965)
Yaeko Nogami (1885–1985)
Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (1886–1965)
Hyakken Uchida (1889–1971)
Edogawa Ranpo (1894–1965)
Eiji Yoshikawa (1892–1962)
Mitsuharu Kaneko (1895–1975)
Juza Unno (1897–1949)
Shigeji Tsuboi (1897–1975)
Chiyo Uno (1897–1996)
Masuji Ibuse (1898–1993)
Jun Ishikawa (1899–1987)
Yasunari Kawabata (1899–1972)
Yuriko Miyamoto (1899–1951)
Sakae Tsuboi (1899–1967)
Fumiko Hayashi (1903–1951)
Tamiki Hara (1905–1951)
Tatsuzō Ishikawa (1905–1985)
Fumiko Enchi (1905–1986)
Ango Sakaguchi (1906–1955)
Osamu Dazai (1909–1948)
Shōhei Ōoka (1909–1988)
Sakunosuke Oda (1913–1947)
Haruo Umezaki (1915–1965)
Ayako Miura (1922–1999)
Shūsaku Endō (1923–1996)
Ryōtarō Shiba (1923–1996)
Kōbō Abe (1924–1993)
Toyoko Yamasaki (1924–2013)
Yukio Mishima (1925–1970)
Osamu Tezuka (1928–1989)
Akiyuki Nosaka (1930–2015)
Sawako Ariyoshi (1931–1984)
Ayako Sono (b. 1931)
Hisashi Inoue (1933–2010)
 Kenzaburō Ōe (b. 1935)
Michiko Yamamoto (b. 1936)
Kenji Nakagami (1946–1992)
Haruki Murakami (b. 1949)
Natsuo Kirino (b. 1951)
Ryū Murakami (b. 1952)
Yōko Ogawa (b. 1962)
Banana Yoshimoto (b. 1964)
Mieko Kawakami (b. 1976)

Awards and contests

Japan has some literary contests and awards in which authors can participate and be awarded.

Akutagawa Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards, and receives wide attention from media.

Resources
Aston, William George. A History of Japanese Literature, William Heinemann, 1899.
Birnbaum, A., (ed.). Monkey Brain Sushi: New Tastes in Japanese Fiction. Kodansha
International (JPN).
Donald Keene
Modern Japanese Literature, Grove Press, 1956. ISBN 0-394-17254-X
World Within Walls: Japanese Literature of The Pre-Modern Era 1600–1867, Columbia
University Press © 1976 reprinted 1999 ISBN 0-231-11467-2
Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature in the Modern Era, Poetry, Drama, Criticism,
Columbia University Press © 1984 reprinted 1998 ISBN 0-231-11435-4
Travellers of a Hundred Ages: The Japanese as Revealed Through 1,000 Years of Diaries,
Columbia University Press © 1989 reprinted 1999 ISBN 0-231-11437-0
Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from the Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth
Century, Columbia University Press © 1993 reprinted 1999 ISBN 0-231-11441-9
McCullough, Helen Craig, Classical Japanese prose: an anthology, Stanford, Calif. : Stanford
University Press, 1990, ISBN 0-8047-1628-5
Miner, Earl Roy, Odagiri, Hiroko, and Morrell, Robert E., The Princeton companion to classical
Japanese literature, Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1985. ISBN 0-691-06599-3
Ema Tsutomu, Taniyama Shigeru, Ino Kenji, Shinshū Kokugo Sōran ( 新修国語総覧) Kyoto
Shobō © 1977 revised 1981 reprinted 1982

See also
List of Japanese writers
List of Japanese classical texts
Japanese poetry
Aozora Bunko – a repository of Japanese literature
Japanese detective fiction
Japanese science fiction
 Light novel

References
1. kokuhu-bunka. (https://web.archive.org/web/20201005083332/https://nihonsi-jiten.com/kokuhu-
bunka/) Nihonshi jiten.com
2. Seeley, Christopher (1991). A History of Writing in Japan (https://books.google.com/books?id=
KCZ2ya6cg88C). BRILL. ISBN 9004090819.
3. Malmkjær, Kirsten (2002). The Linguistics Encyclopedia (https://books.google.com/books?id=u
CrXOLvD7fMC). Psychology Before the introduction of kanji from China, Japanese had no
writing system. It is believed that Chinese characters came to Japan at the very beginning of
the fifth century, brought by immigrants from the mainland of Korean and Chinese descent.
Early Japanese texts first followed the Chinese model,[1] before gradually transitioning to a
hybrid of Chinese characters used in Japanese syntactical formats, resulting in sentences that
looked like Chinese but were read phonetically as Japanese. Chinese characters were also
further adapted, creating what is known as man'yōgana, the earliest form of kana, or Japanese
syllabic writing.[2] The earliest literary works in Japan were created in the Nara period.[1]
These include the Kojiki (712), a historical record that also chronicles ancient Japanese
mythology and folk songs; the Nihon Shoki (720), a chronicle written in Chinese that is
significantly more detailed than the Kojiki; and the Man'yōshū (759), a poetry anthology. One of
the stories they describe is the tale of Urashima Tarō.Press. ISBN 9780415222105.
4. Walter., Meyer, Milton (1997). Asia : a concise history (https://archive.org/details/asiaconcisehist
o0000meye/page/127). Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 127 (https://archive.org/details/
asiaconcisehisto0000meye/page/127). ISBN 9780847680634. OCLC 44954459 (https://www.
worldcat.org/oclc/44954459).
5. Kato, Shuichi; Sanderson, Don (2013). A History of Japanese Literature: From the Manyoshu to
Modern Times (https://books.google.com/books?id=JwGOYBfNdrUC). Routledge.
ISBN 9781136613685.
6. Meissner, Daniel. "web page template" (http://academic.mu.edu/meissnerd/minzlaff.html).
academic.mu.edu. Retrieved 2018-02-17.
7. Waley, Arthur (2011). The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon: The Diary of a Courtesan in Tenth
Century Japan (https://books.google.com/books?id=NYvTAgAAQBAJ). Tuttle Publishing.
ISBN 9781462900886.
8. Richardson, Matthew (2001), The Halstead Treasury of Ancient Science Fiction, Rushcutters
Bay, New South Wales: Halstead Press, ISBN 1-875684-64-6 (cf. "Once Upon a Time" (http://w
ww.emcit.com/emcit085.shtml#Once), Emerald City (85), September 2002, retrieved
2008-09-17)
9. Colcutt, Martin (2003). "Japan's Medieval Age: The Kamakura & Muromachi Periods" (http://ab
outjapan.japansociety.org/content.cfm/japans_medieval_age_the_kamakura__muromachi_per
iods).
10. Miner, Earl Roy; Odagiri, Hiroko; Morrell, Robert E. (1988). The Princeton Companion to
Classical Japanese Literature (https://books.google.com/books?id=BSmMbQhafJoC).
Princeton University Press. p. 44. ISBN 0691008256.
11. Boscaro, Adriana; Gatti, Franco; Raveri, Massimo (2014). Rethinking Japan Vol 1.: Literature,
Visual Arts & Linguistics (https://books.google.com/books?id=bF-2AgAAQBAJ). Routledge.
p. 143. ISBN 9781135880538.
12. Miner, Earl Roy; Odagiri, Hiroko; Morrell, Robert E. (1988). The Princeton Companion to
Classical Japanese Literature (https://books.google.com/books?id=BSmMbQhafJoC).
Princeton University Press. p. 46. ISBN 0691008256.
13. Shirane, Haruo (2012). Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600 (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=E8qq6zhhM5kC). Columbia University Press. p. 413.
ISBN 9780231157308.
14. Shirane, Haruo (2012). Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600 (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=E8qq6zhhM5kC). Columbia University Press. pp. 382, 410.
ISBN 9780231157308.
15. Shirane, Haruo (2012). Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600 (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=E8qq6zhhM5kC). Columbia University Press. pp. 382, 413.
ISBN 9780231157308.
16. Katō, Eileen (1979). "Pilgrimage to Daizafu: Sōgi's Tsukushi no Michi no Ki". Monumenta
Nipponica. 34 (3): 333–367. doi:10.2307/2384203 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F2384203).
JSTOR 2384203 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2384203).
17. Plutschow, Herbert Eugen (1989). "Japanese Travel Diaries of the Middle Ages". Oriens
Extremus. 29 (1–2): 1–136.
18. Bashō 1996b: 7.
19. Patricia Donegan and Yoshie Ishibashi. Chiyo-ni: Woman Haiku Master, Tuttle, 1996. ISBN 0-
8048-2053-8 p256
20. trans. Donegan and Ishibashi, 1996 p172
21. Earl, David Margery, Emperor, and Nation in Japan; Political Thinkers of the Tokugawa Period,
University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1964, p 12
22. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-12-08-tm-233-story.html
23. Goodyear, Dana (2008-12-22). "I ♥ Novels" (https://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/12/22/0
81222fa_fact_goodyear?currentPage=all). The New Yorker. Retrieved 2010-12-06.
24. The Modern Murasaki, Columbia University Press, pages x-2

Further reading
Aston, William George. A history of Japanese literature (NY, 1899) online (https://books.google.
com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=YogLAQAAMAAJ)
Karatani, Kōjin. Origins of modern Japanese literature (Duke University Press, 1993).
Katō, Shūichi. A History of Japanese Literature: The first thousand years. Vol. 1. (Tokyo; New
York: Kodansha International, 1979).
Keene, Donald. Japanese literature: An introduction for Western readers (1953).
Konishi, Jin'ichi. A History of Japanese Literature, Volume 3: The High Middle Ages (Princeton
University Press, 2014).

Primary sources
Keene, Donald. Anthology of Japanese literature: from the earliest era to the mid-nineteenth
century (Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 2007).

Online text libraries

Japanese Text Initiative (https://web.archive.org/web/20050121101920/http://etext.lib.virginia.e
du/japanese/), University of Virginia Library Electronic Text Center
Premodern Japanese Texts and Translations (http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/~pmjs/trans/index.ht
ml), Michael Watson, Meiji Gakuin University

Resources
 Japanese Literature Publishing Project (http://www.jlpp.go.jp/en/), the Agency for Cultural
Affairs of Japan
Japanese Book News Website (https://www.jpf.go.jp/e/publish/jbn/index.html), the Japan
Foundation
Electronic texts of pre-modern Japanese literature by Satoko Shimazaki (http://www.columbia.e
du/~hds2/BIB95/00e-texts_shimazaki.htm)
List of literary awards (https://web.archive.org/web/20071015150501/http://jlit.net/awards/award
s_a_to_m.html#top) for fiction and nonfiction.

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