Nikki bungaku is a traditional Japanese literary genre in the form of diaries. These diaries were traditionally written in Chinese characters due to the fact that they were originally modeled after the diaries of Chinese government officials; it is also important to note that diaries were written by men, until Ki no Tsurayuki in his Tosa Nikki, which was written in 935 and the first diary of literary value, took on the persona of a woman to escape the limitations his position entailed. Through using the point of view of a woman, Ki no Tsurayuki was able to write the diary using kana rather than the kanji that he would have had to use otherwise. As time progressed, moving into the Medieval period, the way of writing changed as well. Kiko, a form of travel diary, of which Tosa Nikki is an example, became much more frequent. An example of a kiko written during the Medieval period is Matsuo Basho’s Oku no Hosomichi in 1694, Which chronicles his 156 day journey into the northern regions of Honshu. Both the Tosa Nikki and Oku no Hosomichi are very important examples of kiko literature. However, partly due to the long period of time between the two, there are many differences between them. Oku no Hosomichi describes things that are dirty and inelegant, which can not be found in Tosa Nikki; the reasons for the author to write the kiko are very different, and the paths the authors travel are incredibly different; both Tosa Nikki and Oku no Hosomichi use poetry differently, and Oku no Hosomichi uses sketches as well which can not be seen in Tosa Nikki.
Throughout Matsuo Basho’s Oku no Hosomichi he describes many things that would have been considered inelegant, dirty, and even humorous. Writing about these types of topics was alm...
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...Tosa Nikki has a more formal feeling to it since it was supposed to be from the perspective of a lady in the Tosa Governor’s party on their return to Kyoto. Both these works of literature are very important in what they represent. While they are both Kiko, they are written in very different ways, which shows the difference in values and opinions between literature written during the Heian period, and literature written during the Medieval period.
Works Cited
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In 2002 Yuki Tanaka published a book titled, “Japan’s Comfort Women. On the military use of women during the Japanese war. The subtitle, “Sexual slavery and prostitution during World War 2 and the US occupation,” gives a short description on what the book will be about. In the introduction to the book Tanaka starts with how sex is a beautiful thing that is shared by two people. That is suppose help bring life into the world, but as soon as someone involves sex in wartimes it becomes ugly and “exploited” (pg. 1). It shows the dominance of a conquered country. Sex becomes a twisted organized system that was used as a way to control the VD rates of Japanese soldiers. Even though this was seen as a way for women to support their country. The fact that there was comfort houses and comfort women during the war was secretive, “My father and my uncles were particularly silent about the issue of comfort women” (pg.2). The morale these men followed seemed to be correct to them. Just like his father and his uncles Tanaka believed that Japanese soldiers, “adhered to high moral standards during...
writings of The Diary. In Japan, it was also a rise of the warrior class and the samurai.
Wendy Doniger and Sudir Kakar call the sexually violent Kama Sutra ‘bright and shiny,’ but when people hear the words ‘bright and shiny’ sexual violence is not usually paired together with those terms. This idea of ‘bright and shiny’ contrasts the idea of intercourse being ‘dark and heavy.’ Sexual violence can be relatively cheerful though it lacks emotional eroticism. Emotional eroticism is not so constrained and is more focused around the idea of love. The violence used during intercourse helps one to obtain continuity through physical eroticism. Bataille said, “Physical eroticism has in any case a heavy, sinister quality. It holds on to the separateness of the individual in a rather selfish and cynical
These two journals or kiko have basically the same ideology of telling the readers of their journey from one place to the other. The details within every stop they made, every scenery that they come across and the literature that were involved through their experiences. Both encountered ups and downs during their journey and saw much beautiful scenery as well. However, the key difference in the two journeys is that, in Oku no Hosomichi, seemed to have no particular destination of where to go, where as Tosa Nikki, and had a set destination for their journey to Kyoto. They both had religious components that reflected upon their journey. On Tosa Nikki, the religious aspects are focused very much on the worship side, while the Oku no Hosomichi showed self focused matters. Though there are many obvious differences such as the method of travel, but that is not what we are looking for. So how are these two literatures alike and how are they different? I believe that the main difference lies within the view of the writer and the way the journey is told.
The indigenous Japanese culture, arts and literature have flourished in the Heian period of Japan. One can tell that exchanging short poems and messages between each other was the most prominent device of communication for both men and women at the time. Composing and exchanging love poems and messages were mostly us...
Savas, Minae. "Feminine Madness In The Japanese Noh Theatre." Electronic Thesis or Dissertation. Ohio State University, 2008. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. 11 Mar 2014.
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.
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The Japanese medieval age consists of the Kamakura and Muromachi periods (from approximately 1185 to 1600). During this time, the political power was switching from the imperial family to a militaristic government. In addition, civil wars (from 1156 to 1568) were increasing throughout Japan. This change of centrality in society’s focus from court to warriors shifted the perception and style of Japanese literature.
The Tale of Heike." Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600. Ed. Haruo Shirane. New York: Columbia UP, 2007. 736-39. Print.