The Heian Period Was Denoted As The Era Of The Court Aristocracy

The major periods that shaped Japan’s history and future were the Heian-era of Aristocracy and the Kamakura period of Samurai. The Heian-era and the Kamakura period are interesting because of their differences in social structure, tradition, and culture. In the Heian era, the aristocrat’s social class was sought by many because of their social and cultural status. When the warrior rise in the Kamakura age the social classes change dramatically between aristocrat and warrior. The Heian-era (794-1191) was an age of self development in Japan’s culture and tradition. Before the Heian-era, Japan

Not only was Oseki’s experience telling of the constructed nature of feminine ideals and gender roles, it also served to highlight the objectification and commodification of women within male-dominated networks of expectations and ideologies. While Higuchi herself was not pushing for any feminist aims explicitly, the end result of eliciting the reader’s critique of the Meiji Japanese society makes The Thirteenth Night a crucial work in reflecting the gender issues then. Higuchi’s use of Classical Japanese in her writing could also be seen as a deliberate attempt to carve out a uniquely-feminine sphere within the male literary sphere and challenge male hegemonic writing practices. As such, the Classical Japanese that Higuchi employs in her writing can be interpreted as a ‘feminine’ language as

The author who brought to us The Tale of Genji, a novel now regarded as the first written novel in history, left behind an arguably more treasurable artifact: a diary that opens a window into history. The Diary of Lady Murasaki by Lady Murasaki Shikibu gives the reader a glimpse of the imperial court during eleventh century Japan and presents the past in an illuminated vision. Being an attendant in the imperial court, Lady Murasaki is frequently involved with the activities of elite Japanese women. Her day-to-day interaction with the nobles and elites enhance her account with the curious perspective of an elite female. As a woman, Lady Murasaki's descriptions are oriented around clothing

Both Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s “Love Suicide” and Iharu Saikaku’s “A Woman Who Spent Her Life in Love” portray courtesan life in Tokugawa Period Japan. While “Love Suicide” dramatizes the relationship between a patron and a courtesan, Saikaku's play is much less dramatic and follows the different encounters of the courtesan throughout her life. In “Love Suicide,” the drama placed upon the cast members comes from social constraints that existed during the Tokugawa Period. The source of these social constraints revolves largely around family practices during that time. From the courtesan's various escapades in “A Woman Who Spent Her Life in Love,” there is some insight to the various kinds of experiences of the courtesan life.

Japan’s culture developed at a rapid pace compared to some of the other parts of the world in the Heian era. This period had a great impact on Japanese culture when it came to literature. Many people, mostly women, wrote diaries, poetry, and novels. An example would be The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki Shikibu. Her novel gained popularity during this period. After this era came the Kamakura Period. All I know is that this is where samurai were placed as the nobles of Japan.

It was evident to the historians of the present that the Heian era placed great emphasis on beauty. It was evident everywhere, and it was a significant part of the Heian aristocratic life. If one looked with a scrutinizing eye, he/she would have found beauty even in the most meagre things. Men and women alike praised the opposite gender for their beauty, but the praise was not limited to humans, it extended deeper into the Heian daily life. For a Heian aristocrat, a large part of beauty was observed in how he/she communicated with others, and that was through poetry. The poet had to be careful in the prose, the writing style, and the way the letter was presented.

Women who assume the traditional role of staying at home to care for their children and their household responsibilities often need a creative outlet to express themselves, their ideas, or just to get away from monotony they experience in the day after day domestic routine. Many women find various forms of art a fulfilling way to satisfy their need for personal expression. Similarly, in the short story “Seventeen Syllables” by Hisaye Yomamoto, the “stay-at-home-mom”, Tome Hayashi, discovers that she possesses a talent for writing haikus and finds it very fulfilling, as she is able to express herself well through the mere seventeen syllables contained in a haiku. Mrs. Hayashi’s passion for writing haikus

Modern girls were a rising phenomenon in Japan during the 1920s and 1930s, modern girls was a pre-war culture term to name the independent young women in Japan. Occupations opened for young women across the country such as the position of a shop-girl at a department store (Freedman, et al. 21). The role of Japanese women was changing quickly; no longer was there an urgency to become a wife, young women could then enter the job force. Although revolutionary, it subsequently caused a backlash. Modern girls were often viewed as perverted, sexual deviants and a danger to traditional Japanese families (Freedman, et al. 23). The negative view of modern girls translated into Edogawa Rampo’s golden age literature and his perspective on this cultural

At first glance the poem has a harsh tone, but later the one is discovered to be truthful, hinting at some satirical elements.

A woman’s beauty can easily captivate a man’s mind at first sight. The way a man describes a woman illustrates his perception towards her. In the poems “My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun” by William Shakespeare and “She Walks in Beauty” by Lord Byron each poet describes a woman’s quality and the reason why they are attracted to the woman. The aspect of the tone in each speaker contradicts each person’s perspective. The speaker of “She Walks in Beauty” uses enchanting tone to enhance the nature of her beauty. In contrast, the speaker of “My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun” tone is insulting and cruel. In these two poems, the point of view and images reveal

The example of the adulterous husband of the fourth princess is particularly interesting as his debasement is not the princess’s doing but his own. He degraded himself by performing grotesque behaviour to make his wife suffer. He staged “mock” marriages, here “mock” is a pun representing forgery and mockery of marriage; mockery being showcased through the mentally disturbed girls wearing shroud and holding a bunch of carrots as bouquet, with mentally disturbed girls which further degraded the sacredness of the religious institution: Never the less he soon got his equally grotesque punishment for his horrendous

Periods of time with peace and stability politically and religiously, paired with flourishing arts, are called "Golden Ages". One thriving, revolutionizing time like this occurred in Heian, Japan from 794 to 1185 C.E., under the rule of the Fujiwara family. Succeeding the Nara period, many aspects of the Heian culture, such as Buddhism and the writing system, were borrowed from China. However, in this time, Japan took those preconceived ideas and really made them their own, adding many new ones along the way. The peace and stability, as well as influential literature greatly contributed to this period’s golden legacy. Poetry during this time, most importantly Lady Murasaki 's novel, "Tale of Genji", reflected this time period and forever changed today 's writing, making this era a truly prosperous golden age.

The 17th century provides a treasure trove of literary greatness. The authors cultivated such a tight circle so that everyone's work kept in dialogue. Aphra Behn uses her poem, "The Disappointment," as an opportunity to respond to common tropes found in male-authored writing. In lines 111-140, Behn dismantles Lysander's masculinity in "The Disappointment" through comparisons to figures from Greek mythology, thus creating situational irony around his character's ego. In stripping Lysander of "all his awful fires" (ll. 113) in this selection, Behn reveals Lysander's true feelings of impotence and, by extension, women.

As one of Japan’s most celebrated authors of the Post War Era, Osamu Dazai’s work, as well as his own life, has been examined and analyzed by countless students and researchers from multiple perspectives. Many such readers find themselves fascinated by the symbolism Dazai employed in his novels to express his views on cultural, socioeconomic, and even feministic issues that plagued his conscious mind. Kazuko, the main character and narrator of The Setting Sun (1947, translated in 1956 by Donald Keene), can certainly be praised as a strong female character who overcomes economic collapse. However, Dazai places incredible focus on the psychological aspects of the fallen Japanese aristocracy through Kazuko, who has low self-esteem and a critical superego paired with a fear of intimacy at the beginning of the novel, but who eventually finds the will to struggle against her own mind.

A famous Japanese writer Ihara Saikaku, born in 1642, was a son of a wealthy merchant in Osaka. He had a wife and three kids, one of which was blind and in addition to taking care of his family, he learned to write haikai poetry and comics at a young age. Since his wife died at a young age, he became adventurous as “he traveled extensively writing about the various parts of the country” (Rollins, para.4). One of his first novels is called Koshoku Ichidai Otoko in 1682, which led to Saikaku becoming the first Japanese writer able to reflect the life of the modern city Japan and how he supported equality.