The Tale of Genji, also known as Genji Monogatari is a classic work of Japanese literature written in the early 11th century by the noblewoman, poet, 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.
Japanese studies or Japan studies, sometimes known as Japanology in Europe, is a sub-field of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on Japan. It incorporates fields such as the study of Japanese language, history, culture, literature, philosophy, art, music, cinema, and science.
Palm-of-the-Hand Stories is the name Japanese author Yasunari Kawabata gave to 146 short stories he wrote during his long career. The earliest stories were published in the early 1920s, with the last appearing posthumously in 1972. The first Japanese edition to collect these stories appeared in 1971. The title refers to the brevity of the stories – many of which are only two to three pages long – which would "virtually fit into the palm of the hand".
Japan had an official slave system from the Yamato period until Toyotomi Hideyoshi abolished it in 1590. Afterwards, the Japanese government facilitated the use of "comfort women" as sex slaves from 1932 – 1945. Prisoners of war captured by Japanese imperial forces were also used as slaves during the Second World War.
The Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies (HJAS) is an English-language scholarly journal published by the Harvard-Yenching Institute. HJAS features articles and book reviews of current scholarship in East Asian Studies, focusing on Chinese, Japanese, and Korean history, literature and religion, with occasional coverage of politics and linguistics. It has been called "still Americas's leading sinological journal."
In Japanese mythology, Takamagahara, is the abode of the heavenly gods (amatsukami). Often depicted as located up in the sky, it is believed to be connected to the Earth by the bridge Ame-no-ukihashi.
Tadano Makuzu, daughter of an Edo physician, wrote commentaries on Japan's social and political problems.
Ukiyo-zōshi is the first major genre of popular Japanese fiction, written between the 1680s and 1770s in Kyoto and Osaka. Ukiyo-zōshi literature developed from the broader genre of kana-zōshi, books written in the katakana vernacular for enjoyment, and was initially classified as kana-zōshi. The term "ukiyo-zōshi" first appeared in 1710 in reference to amorous or erotic works, but the term later came to refer to literature that encompassed a variety of subjects and aspects of life during the Edo period with the most common being that of the ordinary townsperson. Books of this genre included ukiyo-e illustrations often made by the most prominent artists at the time. The most prominent author of ukiyo-zōshi was Ihara Saikaku, whose works were not regarded as high literature at the time, but became popular and were key to the development and spread of the new genre. Saikaku was preceded by and worked at the same time as many other authors such as Shogetsudo Fukaku and Ejima Kiseki, all of which helped to shape ukiyo-zōshi and inspire future genres. Ukiyo-zōshi continued until the end of the eighteenth century, but its quality steadily declined. Overall, the genre lived for less than a century and died from conventionalization as well as a lack of new ideas for stories.
Father Peter Milward, SJ was a Jesuit priest and literary scholar. He was emeritus professor of English Literature at Sophia University in Tokyo and a leading figure in scholarship on English Renaissance literature. He was chair of the Renaissance Institute at Sophia University from its inception in 1974 until it was closed down in 2014 and director of the Renaissance Centre from its start in 1984 until it was closed down in 2002. He primarily published on the works of William Shakespeare and Gerard Manley Hopkins.
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).
Richard John Bowring is an English academic serving as Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Cambridge and an Honorary Fellow of Downing College. In 2013, Bowring was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun 3rd Class, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon for contributions to the development of Japanese studies, Japanese language education and the promotion of mutual understanding between Japan and the United Kingdom.
Prince Hachiko was the eldest son of Emperor Sushun, the 32nd Emperor of Japan who reigned from 587 to 592. His mother was Ōtomo no Koteko, Sushun's consort.
Mark J. Teeuwen is a Dutch academic and Japanologist. He is an expert in Japanese religious practices, and he is a professor at the University of Oslo. In a 2002 essay called From Jindō to Shinto: A Concept Takes Shape, he traced the evolution of the term "Shinto" from the reconstructed pronunciation Jindō at the time of the Nihon Shoki until today, describing the changes its meaning has gone through.
Marius Berthus Jansen was an American academic, historian, and Emeritus Professor of Japanese History at Princeton University.
The Cambridge History of Japan is a multi-volume survey of Japanese history published by Cambridge University Press (CUP). This was the first major collaborative synthesis presenting the current state of knowledge of Japanese history. The series aims to present as full a view of Japanese history as possible. The collaborative work brings together the writing of Japanese specialists and historians of Japan.
Japanese–Portugal relations are the foreign relations between Japan and Portugal. Although Portuguese sailors visited Japan first in 1543, diplomatic relations started in the nineteenth century.
Chikao Tanaka was a Japanese playwright and dramatist whose plays focused on the mental, physical, and religious hardships of post-World War II Japan.
H. Byron Earhart is an American historian, Ph.D, and author, especially about Japanese religions.
Toyo (臺與/台与), also known as Iyo (壹與/壱与), (235–?) was a queen regnant of Yamatai-koku in Japan. She was, according to the "Records of Wei" and other traditional sources, the successor of Queen Himiko.
Hachikazuki or Hachi Katsugi is a Japanese folktale of the Otogi-zōshi genre. It refers to a maiden of noble birth who wears a bowl on her head and marries a prince.
