{"id":63,"date":"2009-03-28T14:51:03","date_gmt":"2009-03-28T18:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/?p=63"},"modified":"2009-03-28T14:51:03","modified_gmt":"2009-03-28T18:51:03","slug":"japanese-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/japanese-literature\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Literature"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m going to recommend\u00a0a classic piece of Japanese literature from the Heian (\u5e73\u5b89<\/strong><\/span><\/span>) period.<\/p>\n

Genji Monogatari (\u6e90\u6c0f\u7269\u8a9e<\/strong><\/span><\/span>) or the The Tale of Genji<\/em>, is a famous and renowned novel about a prince and his romantic dalliances.\u00a0 As much as Shakespeare is respected and praised all over the world, so is the author of Genji Monogatari (\u6e90\u6c0f\u7269\u8a9e<\/strong><\/span><\/span>) in Japan.\u00a0 Her name is, or I should say was, Murasaki Shikibu (\u7d2b\u5f0f\u90e8<\/strong>).\u00a0 You can find translated versions of The Tale of Genji<\/em> in English so there’s no excuse not to read it!<\/p>\n

If you want to take the challenge and try reading it in Japanese, I’m going to warn you that it’s not an easy task.\u00a0 The language is written in the old Heian (\u5e73\u5b89<\/strong><\/span><\/span>) court style of Japanese, which is highly refined.\u00a0 On top of that, Murasaki (\u3080\u3089\u3055\u304d<\/strong>) has an unusual naming convention for her characters.\u00a0 In Heian (\u5e73\u5b89<\/strong><\/span><\/span>) times, it was considered rude to call someone directly by their name.\u00a0 For example, if I were to address the person next to me with a simple “Hello Jonathan” I would be committing a grave social mistake.\u00a0 In The Tale of<\/em> Genji<\/em>, you’ll find many characters with a title such as “the beautiful princess of the east”.\u00a0 This is not to say that the lady was an actual princess, but it’s just a polite title attached to the region from whence the person came.\u00a0 In the same vein, some of the men are referred to as “his excellency” or by the role or occupation the man serves in court.<\/p>\n

It gets confusing when there’s a dialogue between several women and you have to sort out which “princess” is doing the talking and which “princess” is being refered to in the conversation.\u00a0 On top of that, some of the conversations are not direct, but involve some deductive thinking.\u00a0 For example, it’s not unusual to see a character recite a poem in place of an actual conversation.\u00a0 Some of the words have double meanings, which adds to the complication.<\/p>\n

Before I go, I just want to add that the Tale of Genji<\/em> is really a fun read.\u00a0 Once you get the characters down (which number in the hundreds), you’ll find some intricate and fascinating details about the life of upper class women, courtlife in general, and the workings of the Heian (\u5e73\u5b89<\/strong><\/span><\/span>) etiquette and social status system.\u00a0 One more thing that I’ll add is that you might find some of the moral codes of the Heian (\u5e73\u5b89<\/strong><\/span><\/span>) society distateful.\u00a0 In fact, if we were to judge the behavior of Genji (\u6e90\u6c0f<\/strong>) in a modern court of law, he would probably be sentenced to some MAJOR jail time.\u00a0 However, despite that, the book is interesting, so if you get a chance read it anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m going to recommend\u00a0a classic piece of Japanese literature from the Heian (\u5e73\u5b89) period. Genji Monogatari (\u6e90\u6c0f\u7269\u8a9e) or the The Tale of Genji, is a famous and renowned novel about a prince and his romantic dalliances.\u00a0 As much as Shakespeare is respected and praised all over the world, so is the author of Genji Monogatari…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2850],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-the-tale-of-genji"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t