The Columbia anthology of Japanese essays : zuihitsu from the tenth to the twenty-first century / edited and translated by Steven D. Carter.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Carter, Steven D., editor, translator.

Language:

English

Japanese

Subjects (All):

Japanese essays--Translations into English.

Japanese essays.

Genre:

Translations.

Physical Description:

xi, 540 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, [2014]

Language Note:

Translated from the Japanese.

Summary:

A court lady of the Heian era, an early modem philologist, a novelist of the Meiji period, and a physicist at Tokyo University. What do they have in common, besides being Japanese? They all wrote zuihitsu-a uniquely Japanese literary genre encompassing features of the nonfiction or personal essay and miscellaneous musings. For sheer range of subject matter and breadth of perspective, the zuihitsu is unrivaled in the Japanese literary tradition, which may explain why few examples have been translated into English. The Columbia Anthology of Japanese Essays presents a representative selection of more than one hundred zuihitsu from a range of historical periods written by close to fifty authors-from well-known figures, such as Matsuo Bashb, Natsume Soseki, and Koda Aya, to such writers as Tachibana Nankei and Dekune Tatsuro, whose works appear here for the first time in English. Writers speak on the experience of coming down with a cold, the aesthetics of tea, the physiology and psychology of laughter, the demands of old age, standards of morality, the way to raise children, the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the thoughts that accompany sleeplessness, the anxiety of undergoing surgery, and the unexpected benefits of training a myna bird to say "Thank you." These essays also provide moving descriptions of snowy landscapes, foggy London, the famous cherry blossoms of Ueno Park, and the appeal of rainy vistas, and relate the joys and troubles of everyone from desperate samurai to filial children to ailing cats. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction

Beginnings. The pillow book / Sei Shonagon

Essays in idleness / Yoshida No Kenko

The Late Medieval Era. Conversations with Shotetsu / Shotetsu

"To unify the nation and restore civil society" / Ichijo Kaneyoshi

"Cottage of dreams" and "Three loves" / Shohaku

A Tenbun miscellany / The Fujiwara Lay Monk

The Edo period. Laughs to keep you awake / Anrakuan Sakuden

"On Ohara" / Kinoshita Choshoshi

Haikai prose / Matsuo Basho

Amusements / Amenomori Hoshu

Window musings / Matsuzaki Kanran

A miscellany of stories / Morita Morimasa

Chats with myself / Dazai Shundai

Jeweled comb basket / Motoori Norinaga

Idle chats beneath a northern window / Tachibana Nankei

Blossoms and the moon / Matsudaira Sadanobu

Year by year: a miscellany / Ishiwara Masaakira

Behind the koto / Murata Harumi

Shunparo's jottings / Shiba Kokan

Unusual people of the modern age and Kanden's crop of jottings / Ban Kokei

Hoary stories / Tadano Makuzu

Haikai prose / Natsume Seibi

Clouds of floating grasses

The Modern Period. Autumn ensemble / Higuchi Ichiyo

"A cat's grave" and "London fog" / Natsume Soseki

"Snow" / Tokutomi Roka

"Desk" / Tayama Katai

"Fireworks" / Nagai Kafu

"Laughter" / Terada Torahiko

"Various thoughts on the Great Kanto earthquake" and "my moral precepts for everyday life" / Kikuchi Kan

"Master Hyakken's idle fantasies," "Bumpy road," and "A long fence" / Uchida Hyakken

"The image of an author" / Dazai Osamu

"Baby sparrow," "Turtledoves," and "Morning glories" / Shiga Naoya

Esprit and humor / Kawamori Yoshizo

"Sleepless nights" and "A bed for my books" / Osaragi Jiro

"On being down with a cold" / Kawakami Tetsutaro

"The road" / Shono Junzo

"Kitchen," "Raindrops," and "A memento of the season" / Koda Aya

"On surgery" and "Rainy day" / Kono Taeko

"Looking for gloves" / Mukoda Kuniko

One, we count, then / Takenishi Hiroko

Sunday musings / Hiraiwa Yumie

"Dust mogul" and other short essays / Dekune Tatsuro

"Myna bird" / Kizaki Satoko

"Concerning the order of culture" / Shiroyama Saburo

"On zuihitsu" / Sakai Junko.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9780231167703

0231167709

9780231167710

0231167717

OCLC:

863195542