Ariwara no Narihira

Japanese literature in the Heian period was most popular for its domination of women’s culture (Hooker, Richard). During this time, a new writing technique was implemented called hiragana. This was especially accepted as a woman’s way of writing since a woman knowing Chinese characters was considered unladylike. For many years Chinese characters was the only accepted way of writing, thus the birth of a new writing technique was like a revelation. This incorporation made a huge impact on Japanese

been promised to’ the future Emperor Suzaku (Bowring, 2004). Similarly, Narihira is described in Episode 6 of the Tales of Ise to have ‘for years courted a most inaccessible lady’, who is identified in the same episode as ‘the future Empress from the Second Ward’ (Tales of Ise, 72-73). The discovery of the ‘affair with the consort’ is thus a common plot element within the two texts that lead to the exile of Genji and Narihira (Commons,

The origins of kiko, or travel literature, in Japan spans to well over 1000 years ago. One of the earliest examples of kiko is Ki no Tsurayuki’s Tosa nikki, a diary which Tsurayuki wrote most likely in 935 during the Heian period of Japan. Another important example of kiko, which is similar in ways yet also very dissimilar to Ki no Tsurayuki’s Tosa nikki, due in part to the many years that the two are separated by in terms of when they were composed, is Matsuo Basho’s Oku no hosomichi, or Narrow

As seen in examples of monogatari such as Tales of Ise or nikki with The Tosa Diary, poetry is a very much used tool in the writings. While other examples of the two writing styles use poetry, these two examples best demonstrate the breaks in the writing style changes from a narrative and turns into something that takes on a more personal voice when it clearly goes into its poetic style. These poems are made to compliment the setting, such as in a poem credited to the former governor in The Tosa

In the same way Japanese poetry often alludes to or derives from the canon of poetry that precedes it, noh plays are often based off of classical Japanese literary sources that form the framework for the play’s themes and moral message. Many of these plays reference poems from revered anthologies, such as the Shinkokinshū, within the play’s dialogue, but it is the monogatari or tales that provide the foundation for certain noh plotlines because of their vast array of character references and plotlines

Imagine two mimes wearing masks and colorful robes, the image would not be too terribly far off from a common Noh play. Originating in Japan during the fourteenth century, the Noh Theatre uses few actors wearing colorful clothing and depictive masks to perform beautiful plays pertaining to the afterlife. Due to the dark times it came from and the sad way it was performed, Noh Theatre is one of the most dramatic of its time. O’Donnell states the origins of Noh start in the Muromachi period of Japan

Haruo Shirane in the essay "Double Voices and Bashō's Haikai" in Kerkham's Matsuo Bashō's Poetic Spaces: Exploring Haikai Intersections, is that all of these writers are considered to be reclusive poets. Though the Genji ("the famous lovers"), Ariwara no Narihira and Ono no Komachi were all well

For over 250 years, Japan was under a strict military dictatorship, oppressing the social classes of their freedom to explore literature and the arts. However, from the 1670s through 1865 was the Tokugawa period, also known as the Edo period, where Japan was guided to internal peace and economic growth (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica). Not only had Japan found stability in the Edo period, creativity flourished from the lower class of artisans and merchants through the exploration of ukiyo-e