The Tale of Genji is a classic work of Japanese literature written in the early 11th century by the noblewoman and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu. The original manuscript, created around the peak of the Heian period, no longer exists. It was made in "concertina" or orihon style: several sheets of paper pasted together and folded alternately in one direction then the other. The work is a unique depiction of the lifestyles of high courtiers during the Heian period. It is written in archaic language and a poetic yet confusing style that make it unreadable to the average Japanese person without dedicated study. It was not until the early 20th century that Genji was translated into modern Japanese by the poet Akiko Yosano. The first English translation was attempted in 1882 but was of poor quality and incomplete.
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is a monogatari containing elements of Japanese folklore. Written by an unknown author in the late 9th or early 10th century during the Heian period, it is considered the oldest surviving work in the monogatari form.
Monogatari is a literary form in traditional Japanese literature – an extended prose narrative tale comparable to the epic novel. Monogatari is closely tied to aspects of the oral tradition, and almost always relates a fictional or fictionalized story, even when retelling a historical event. Many of the great works of Japanese fiction, such as the Genji Monogatari and the Heike Monogatari, are in the monogatari form.
Shin'ichirō Nakamura was a Japanese author.
Lady Fujitsubo (藤壺) is a fictional character in Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji.
Eiga Monogatari is a Japanese monogatari which relates events in the life of courtier Fujiwara no Michinaga. It is believed to have been written by a number of authors, over the course of roughly a century, from 1028 to 1107.
Kazashi no Himegimi (かざしの姫君), also known as Kazashi no Hime (かざしの姫), is a Japanese Muromachi period story. It is one volume in length, and the text is accompanied by illustrations. The author is unknown.
Tsutsumi Chūnagon Monogatari is a post late-Heian period Japanese collection of short stories.
The Takamura Monogatari, also called the Takamura Nikki or the Ono no Takamura shū, is a Japanese uta monogatari that was written any time between the mid-Heian period to the early-Kamakura period. It is in one volume and consists of two distinct sections. The first section describes a young Ono no Takamura's tragic love affair with his half-sister. The second section is taken to be by a different author, and is dated somewhat later than the first. Both authors are unknown, and the poems attributed in the tale to Takamura are treated as dubious at best.
Torikaebaya Monogatari, translated into English as The Changelings, is a Japanese tale from the late Heian period by an unknown author, or possibly more than one author. It is four volumes in length.
Utsubo Monogatari is a late 10th century Japanese story. It is Japan's oldest full-length narrative.
Sumiyoshi Monogatari (住吉物語) is a late 10th century Japanese story. Along with Ochikubo Monogatari, it is representative of Japanese Cinderella-type literature dealing with stepmother bullying and harassment. It belongs to the tsukuri monogatari genre.
Yoru no Nezame is a c. 11th century Japanese story. It is one of the major representative Heian period texts. It is a courtly romance and belongs to the tsukuri monogatari genre.
Mumyōzōshi is an early 13th-century Japanese text. One volume in length, it is the oldest existing Japanese text on prose literary criticism. The author is unknown, but the leading candidate proposed is Shunzei's Daughter. Other candidates who have been proposed include her maternal grandfather Shunzei himself and the monk Jōgaku (上覚).
Fūyō Wakashū (風葉和歌集) is a late 13th century collection of poetry from Japanese literature.
The Matsuranomiya monogatari is an unfinished monogatari written by Fujiwara no Teika, the famous waka poet of the Kamakura period. It was written at the end of the 12th century or the very beginning of the 13th century.
The Okamoto Kyōsai Zatcho (岡本況斎雑著) is the 226-volume collected works of the Japanese kokugaku scholar Okamoto Yasutaka. It was compiled after Yasutaka's death by an unknown editor, based on Yasutaka's manuscripts that had entered the holdings of Seikadō Bunko.
The Tale of Genji is one of the best-known works of classical Japanese literature, and the number of manuscript copies of it is very large. It was originally written by Murasaki Shikibu, a lady-in-waiting at the Heian court, at the beginning of the eleventh century, but the earliest extant manuscript was copied by Fujiwara no Teika roughly two centuries later.
Genchū Yoteki (源註余摘) is a commentary on The Tale of Genji by the Edo period kokugaku scholar Ishikawa Masamochi. It criticizes earlier Edo commentaries by Keichū and others, based on Masamochi's original linguistic scholarship. Its date is unknown, but it took its current form at some point between 1799 and 1830. It is in 54 books, and has been published in various numbers of volumes, most commonly 20.
The Sumiyoshi Monogatari Emaki (住吉物語絵巻) is an emakimono or emaki from the Kamakura period of Japanese history (1185–1333). It depicts the Sumiyoshi Monogatari (住吉物語), a 10th century novel that narrates the misadventures of a young girl mistreated by her stepmother and her romance with a high-ranking soldier. The work is classified as Important Cultural Property and is preserved at the Tokyo National Museum, but four fragments became detached during the 19th century.
