Ki no Tusrayuki’s Tosa Nikki and Matsuo Bashō’s Oku no Hosomichi are both detailed traveling diaries. The writers used a combination of poetry and prose to create their literary work and used their own experiences as the groundwork for their material. However, Oku no Hosomichi has different conventions that reflect the current age, and is more modernized than Tosa Nikki. Bashō enjoys the earlier works of famous poets, such as Saigyō, but some the poems he makes would seem inelegant to readers from the Heian period. Bashō’s negative accounts of his travels would not have been included in early Heian literature. Also, the journey Tsurayuki undertakes is different from Bashō’s. Bashō’s own experiences and knowledge as a traveling monk gives him a closer connection to the commoners, while Tsurayuki’s journal is more for fellow nobles and aristocrats.
Oku no Hosomichi includes poetry that would not be considered as a high literary art form in the Heian period. Most of the imagery he used would not be commonly found in waka poetry. Bashō’s poems included imagery that was not conventional in waka poetry, such as sleeping in an unpleasant house: Bitten by fleas and lice/I slept in a bed/A horse urinating all the time/Close to my pillow (Bashō 120).” This poem serves as an example of how blunt some of Bashō’s poems were. There is no allusion to how terrible the image may have been: he had literally described an unpleasant experience. Heian writers probably did not experience such difficulties because they were members of the court. As aristocrats, they were not subjected to the kinds of tribulations common travelers faced. He also created a poem about sandals he received from a painter: “It looks as if/Iris flowers had bloome...
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...“various contributors.” However, Bashō had a different approach: he used haiku to restate what he had previously said in prose while offering a clearer description of the scene. He had longed to travel and decided to venture north. His journey seemed much more difficult than Tsurayuki’s, and his journey led him to many famous places depicted in earlier Japanese literature. Bashō did not fail to include both the joys and hardships of his traveling. Oku no Hosomichi may have had a stronger connection with common Japanese people in the Edo period, but Tosa Nikki was a major contribution to literature before the medieval era.
Works Cited
Bashō, Matsuo. “Oku no Hosomichi.” Web. 17 April 2011
Keene, Donald. “Anthology of Japanese Literature”. New York: Grove Press, 1955.
Watson, Burton. “The Tales of Heike”. New York: Columbia University Press. 2006.
Since its publication in 1981, Joy Kogawa's Obasan has assumed an important place in Canadian literature and in the broadly-defined, Asian-American literary canon. Reviewers immediately heralded the novel for its poetic force and its moving portrayal of an often-ignored aspect of Canadian and American history. Since then, critics have expanded upon this initial commentary to examine more closely the themes and images in Kogawa's work. Critical attention has focused on the difficulties and ambiguities of what is, in more ways than one, a challenging novel. The complexity of Obasan's plot, the intensity of its imagery, and the quiet bitterness of its protest challenge readers to wrestle with language and meaning in much the same way that Naomi must struggle to understand her past and that of the larger Japanese-Canadian community. In this sense, the attention that Obasan has received from readers and critics parallels the challenges of the text: Kogawa's novel, one might say, demands to be reckoned with, intellectually as well as emotionally.
“Until the seventeenth century, Japanese Literature was privileged property. …The diffusion of literacy …(and) the printed word… created for the first time in Japan the conditions necessary for that peculiarly modern phenomenon, celebrity” (Robert Lyons Danly, editor of The Narrow Road of the Interior written by Matsuo Basho; found in the Norton Anthology of World Literature, Second Edition, Volume D). Celebrity is a loose term at times; it connotes fortune, flattery, and fleeting fame. The term, in this modern era especially, possesses an aura of inevitable transience and glamorized superficiality. Ironically, Matsuo Basho, (while writing in a period of his own newfound celebrity as a poet) places an obvious emphasis on the transience of life within his travel journal The Narrow Road of the Interior. This journal is wholly the recounting of expedition and ethos spanning a fifteen hundred mile feat, expressed in the form of a poetic memoir. It has been said that Basho’s emphasis on the Transient is directly related to his and much of his culture’s worldview of Zen Buddhism, which is renowned for its acknowledgement of the Transient as a tool for a more accurate picture of life and a higher achievement of enlightenment. Of course, in the realization that Basho does not appear to be unwaveringly religious, perhaps this reflection is not only correlative to Zen Buddhism, but also to his perspective on his newfound celebrity. Either way, Matsuo Basho is a profound lyricist who eloquently seeks to objectify and relay the concept of transience even in his own name.
Basho’s journey starts from a 17th Century Japanese city called Edo (present-day Tokyo). He had a cottage in a quiet, rural part of the city. He left Edo in the Spring season, “ It was the Twenty-seventh Day, almost the end of the Third Month.” (p. 2112)
Nearly a thousand years ago, the country we now know as Japan was in the early stages of development. During that time China was considered the “center of the world,” therefore many other countries, including Japan, envied China’s power and wanted to borrow elements of their culture to become more like China. One of the many things that Japan “borrowed” from China was the high art of poetry. In this paper I will discuss elements in two major Japanese works of poetry: Man’yōshū and Kokinshū. By examining literary components of both anthologies I plan to make educated inferences about the roles they played in the time period they were compiled.
... history of the Japanese Islands. The texts where compiled during the 8th Century and are not directly related to shinto doctrine. They are, nevertheless, a collection of mythological narratives and historical chronicles that informe about the cultural traditions of early Japan.
In these essays, the authors are telling a story about the characters life. The stories are directed towards the audience to express the kind of pain and suffering the characters went through to learn and apply what they had been yearning for.
The Tale of Murasaki, by Liza Dalby, is about Murasaki, a young woman who lived in the Heian period (794-1185) of Japan. She writes a story called The Tale of Genji, and earns so much recognition for it that she is invited to court to attend the empress. Not only was she known for her writing, but she drew attention by learning Chinese. In the story, a Chinese education is essential for a man hoping to be a high-ranked member of society. Because the Japanese considered Chinese culture as superior, waka, a popular form of Japanese poetry, carries less cultural value in the novel. Therefore, both high-class women and men have to learn about wakas and use them daily. A woman who can compose good wakas and is beautiful would have the best chances of going to court, which is the best way to guarantee a comfortable life. Liza Dalby’s The Tale of Murasaki accurately portrays the abilities of each sex, the importance of Chinese learning, and the role of Japanese poetry in the Heian period of Japan.
Suzuki, Tomi. Narrating the Self: Fictions of Japanese Modernity. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1996.
The Tosa nikki, or The Tosa Diary as it is referred to in English, was the first diary of literary value. The Tosa nikki was composed in kana by Ki no Tsurayuki, who was a government official and well respected poet. During the Heian period, the proper convention was for men to compose their works in Chinese, as this practice was considered more masculine and elegant. Kana was used mainly by women, so it was considered more feminine, and was less valued than Chinese. Ki no Tsurayuki wrote under the guise of a woman when composing the Tosa nikki in order to avoid criticism for writing in kana, although it was still obvious that he had written it due to the masculinity of the jokes that appeared throughout the diary.
Mastery of the material an author writes about is not merely enough to get one’s point across, yet Butor uses his mastery of how to travel wherever you are in life and, in addition, uses language that presents the picture in such a manner that one does not have to delve deep into the meaning behind the words to retain the full idea portrayed in them. The higher arching purpose to his work, though, turns out to be the overall connection of ties between the book and travel ultimately depends on the book’s “literariness” to determine what journey one might have while reading (83). All in all, the tone of voice and writing style that Butor uses in this piece are second to none in their ability to influence a reader of following his procedure of travel transformation, and a rhetorical analysis essay on his work only reassured the authenticity of the section about how Butor chose to entertain the reader as the main purpose behind his essay. His attitude toward the audience was strong enough to elicit advice that originated straight from the heart, and in doing that, he empowered readers with the ability to look at books and reading differently for the rest of their
Shirane Haruo. et al. Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology 1600-1900. New York: Colombia University Press, 2002. Print.
In comparison, tone of medieval age Japanese literature becomes more intense, realistic, and darker in scope as focus shifts more to the lives and interests of people outside of court. In particular, the warrior class contributed a lot to Japanese literature during the Kamakura and Muromachi periods, because of the increase in civil wars and shift in political power. This is clearly evident in the works of gunki monogatari, especially “Heike Monogatari,” because the tales depict inelegant things that were not to be mentioned in Heian period literature, such as blood and gore.
Within the traditional Japanese literature of kiko, or traveling journal, there are many similarities due to being a part of the same category. But, even though they may be part of the same genre, there is a great increase in differences that come with the time period that they are written in. The two kiko that I will be comparing are Tosa Nikki, written by Ki no Tsurayuki, and Oku no Hosomichi, written by Matsuo Basho, both involve traveling away from the capital. In the case of Tosa Nikki, which was written in the Heian period, it was looked down upon for men to write about emotions so he wrote it in the perspective of women to make it look fictional. Oku no Hosomichi, which was written in the Tokugawa period, a time in which things that were not spoken about before, like discomfort and drinking tea, was common.
Short stories like Hisaye Yamamoto’s Seventeen Syllables, reveals something about the time period and how the author lived; we recognize these connotations in her essay “Seventeen Syllables” -- A Symbolic Haiku, through her logical outlook of everything. Yamamoto wants to educate American readers of the multicultural struggles that are brought upon by the immigrated, (mostly women), to America for freedom. She shows her purpose of everything through her special attention, the roles in woman, both Japanese and American, the metaphorical meaning of haikus, the seasons figurative meanings, the number three and seventeen and finally, the social obstacles between both the West and eastern hemispheres.
This novel also provided a very detailed, and seemingly accurate, account of the lives of the Ibo. The Ibo were an extremely spiritual people who answered to their gods daily. A hardworking people who based their personal worth on their community and crop achievements. Their yam crops were the backbone of the community and he who possessed the largest crops were usually respected by all in the community. The Ibo were a very gendered people. The men normally made all the rules and the woman were taught to respect their husbands decisions. In particular, Okonkwo ruled his household with an iron fist. He often beat his wives for small reasons and felt little to no remorse for doing so. While it was not uncommon for the men of the Ibo tribe to beat their wives if they disobeyed orders, Okonkwo was a character that oftentimes took it too far. In one point in the novel he badly beat one of his wives, Ojiugo, during the sacred week. During this time no one in the tribe is to commit such acts, as it is a time for peace. By beating his wife, he defied the gods and was forced to offer up animal sacrifices and payment to them. This one of Okonkwo's major character flaws, he is stubborn and self-righteous, and wishes to answer to nobody but himself. This even leads to eventual fate, when he refuses to join the Christians when most everyone else of the tribe gave in to their ideas.