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Literature

    Contemporary Japanese literature, like much else in Japan, draws its strength from a rich variety of sources, from the classic influences of ancient China, from the diversity of Western thought, and from the enduring qualities of its own traditions.

    A profound influence is exerted to this day by the two oldest surviving literary works in Japan. One of these is the Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters), a prose work believed to have been completed in A.D. 712. The other is the Man'yoshu (Collection of Ten-Thousand Leaves), a 20-volume anthology of poems compiled around 770. It contains some 4,500 poems by numerous men and women in every walk of life, both young and old--from Emperors and Empresses down to frontier soldiers and humble peasants, many anonymous. Many of these poems, which cover a wide variety of subjects, are known for their moving directness and bold simplicity.

    The ninth century was a period of direct contact between Japan and China, and Chinese classics were the molding influence on the literature of the time. Contact was subsequently broken off, and a period followed in which the influence of foreign works was assimilated and Japanese writers evolved a literature of their own.

    Taketori Monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter), which was written around 811, is regarded as Japan's first novel. It was followed by other works, such as Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu around 1010), which is a 54-volume novel describing the love and anguish of noblemen and their ladies. It gives the reader a delightful glimpse of the life of Japan's aristocratic society in the tenth and eleventh centuries, as well as of the elegant culture of the Heian period, especially its aestheticism tinged with gentle melancholy. This first great novel in history was written by one of the Heian court ladies, many of whom were writers and poets of some distinction.

A section of a picture scroll (twelfth century) of the Tale of Genji, written in the eleventh century.

A high literacy rate, combined with a passion for learning, has produced a large reading public and numerous bookshops.

Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy), a pioneering manga (cartoon) written in the 1960s that is still widely read today.

    The daily life of the nobility at the turn of the eleventh century is also vividly described in Makura no Soshi (The Pillow Book), a brilliant collection of essays in a style resembling prose-poems, by another talented court lady, Sei Shonagon, but her descriptive observations are more realistic and show greater humor. Makura no Soshi is marked by a sharpness of wit hardly rivaled in later Japanese literature.
    During this period tanka--31-syllable poems in 5-7-5-7-7 form--became popular among court ladies, nobles, and priests. In 905 Kokinshu (A Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern) was compiled as the first anthology of poems collected under imperial order. Tanka became the classic Japanese verse form, and it is still favored by many poets today. The shortness of the tanka form obliged poets to resort to suggestion as a means of expanding the content of their lines, a literary device which has been characteristic of Japanese poetry ever since.

    The rise of local warrior aristocrats as the ruling class led to a period of about 150 years from the end of the twelfth century when tales of war became popular. This century and a half produced a number of major historical romances in which the valiant samurai replaces the effeminate courtier as hero. Two of the outstanding works are Heike Monogatari (The Tale of the Heike), written around 1223, and Taiheiki (Record of the Great Peace), which appeared in the mid-1300s.
    The decline of the power of the Emperor and his court and the destruction left in the wake of the bitter warfare of the time lent a tragic tone to all these writings, which tended to stress the vicissitudes of man's fate.
    The outstanding verse collection of medieval Japan is Shin Kokinshu (A New Collection of Poems Ancient and Modern), an imperial anthology noted for its symbolic expression of delicate emotions and moods. The two-volume collection of essays Tsurezuregusa (Essays in Idleness), written in about 1335 by a Buddhist monk living in seclusion, is a work of a contemplative nature and is pensive in tone. But the lyrical essays teach the reader in a subtle way the joy of this temporal life as well as the Buddhist view of the impermanence of all things. Tsurezuregusa had a great influence on later Japanese writing and on the aesthetic and behavioral ideals of the Japanese people in general.
    One finds a nostalgic note in the noh plays of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, where the world evoked is often that of the dead heroes of a few centuries earlier. These plays are remarkable not only for their dramatic power of refined symbolism but also for their magnificent narrative poetry.
    The sixteenth century was a period of warfare among rival feudal lords, and hardly any literature was produced. But a great literary revival began in the latter part of the seventeenth century, or the early years of the Edo period of peace and a new plebeian culture. The novels of Ihara Saikaku (1642-93), known for their vivid realism and incisive style, and the plays of Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724), with their dramatic composition, were written for a wider audience that included the newly risen merchant class and were of very high literary merit. In these works merchants, shop assistants, and common townspeople take the place of generals as heroes, and their tragic end sometimes comes in suicide rather than in some noble combat. Most of Chikamatsu's plays were written for the puppet theater, but they were later adapted for the kabuki stage. Some of his works are still performed today.
    About this time haiku, a three-line poem of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, emerged as a new form of verse, its greatest exponent being Matsuo Basho (1644-94). Basho developed a simplicity of style and profound subtlety of content that continue to be the ideal form sought by modern-day haiku poets. These important developments in the novel, drama, and poetry continued into the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when Japan was virtually sealed off from the rest of the world.
    Western literature swept into Japan during the nineteenth century like a wave, sometimes invigorating and sometimes confusing. A hectic period of literary experimentation and development followed. Japanese literature was enriched by the different currents of Western thought, such as liberalism, idealism, and romanticism. Japanese writers turned their hand to Western-style novels, and the different trends and currents of thought derived from the West flourished. Outstanding novelists like Mori Ogai and Natsume Soseki produced their works at the turn of the century. These are still widely read today. A large number of Western literary works are translated into Japanese, and the great names of the West, from Shakespeare, Goethe, and Tolstoy to contemporary masters of literature, are perhaps as familiar in Japan as in their own countries.
    Despite the impact of Western literature, traditional Japanese forms still flourish. Tanka and haiku, for instance, are penned today by a huge number of poets, both professional and amateur, with all the skill and enthusiasm of the court aristocrats of the past. The newspapers carry regular tanka and haiku columns for amateur poets.
    Since the war a growing number of Japanese works have been introduced abroad. Contemporary works that have been widely read in English or other languages include Kikyo (Homecoming) by Osaragi Jiro, Kinkakuji (The Temple of the Golden Pavilion) and other novels by Mishima Yukio, and Tade Kuu Mushi (Some Prefer Nettles) by Tanizaki Jun'ichiro. Arthur Waley's The Tale of Genji and other translations of Japanese classics are also widely read.
    In 1968 Kawabata Yasunari (1899-1972) became the first Japanese to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Kawabata is widely known abroad through his many works translated into foreign languages, including Yukiguni (Snow Country), Senbazuru (A Thousand Cranes), and Koto (Kyoto). His style of writing is marked by the pursuit of the beauty of Japanese lyricism with a sharpened sensibility. In 1994 Oe Kenzaburo became Japan's second Nobel recipient in the world of literature. Representative of his works are Kojinteki na Taiken (A Personal Matter), Man'en Gannen no Futtoboru (The Silent Cry), and Rein tsuri o Kiku Onnatachi (Women Who Listen to the Rain Tree). In them Oe has created a world rich in poetry and imaginative power, where reality and myth are inextricably intertwined. In recent years Oe's writings, along with those of Abe Kobo, Endo Shusaku, and Inoue Yasushi, have been translated and widely read in English and other languages.
    The total number of new titles published in Japan in 1994 reached 53,890, an increase of 36% over the figure of five years before. These publications cover a wide range of fields, including nonfiction and critical essays, as well as pure literature. In terms of sales, popular literature, such as mystery, overwhelms all other categories; pure literature ranks at the bottom of the list.

    Comic books are immensely popular in Japan, and a large number of weeklies are published for adults as well as children. The history of Japanese comics goes back to the end of the nineteenth century, when newspapers and magazines began carrying first one-panel and later multipanel cartoons depicting politics, customs, and life in a satirical and humorous manner. In the 1920s and 1930s books of cartoons became popular, especially adventure stories and collections of cartoons for children. The most representative cartoon of this time was Norakuro (Blacky the Stray) by Tagawa Suiho, the hero of which was a dog in the army.

    After World War II most newspapers and magazines began to carry four- panel cartoons, one of the most outstanding of which was Hasegawa Machiko's Sazae-san, a humorous cartoon still popular today that features an ordinary housewife and her family. The 1960s saw the appearance of many children's comic magazines carrying serialized stories. The most popular cartoon of this time was Tezuka Osamu's Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy), which became the first cartoon to be shown on television. In recent years many comics targeted at adults have hit the market, often featuring stories written by prominent writers and pictorialized by well-known illustrators.