Interpreting Literary History

r HE second volume of Konishi Jin'ichi's five-volume Japanese Literatarehistory of Japanese literature is primarily a history VOLjTW:P.EARILEaE of Heian literature. The first part of the book focuses 'By 5n'ichi onashi on the development of poetry and prose in Chinese and on the emergence of waka in the early Heian period. The second part offers a definition of the 'middle ages', by which Konishi means the Heian, medieval, and Tokugawa periods, and a description of the fundamental characteristics of the literature in this broad historical span. The third section, which represents the main body of the text, dwells exclusively on the literature of the Heian period, which Konishi refers to as 'the early middle ages', and is divided into five chapters. The first defines certain basic characteristics of Heian literature; the second analyzes poetry and prose in Chinese; the third deals with waka; the fourth and most extensive chapter analyzes different types of vernacular prose (monogatari, nikki, sh/i, etc); and the fifth offers a brief description of the development of kayo, or song. The shape and significance of this extended volume may perhaps be best understood in relation to the existing literary histories (bungakushi) on the Heian period, of which the most prominent are listed below

Aesthetics · Ancient history · Art · China · Chinese literature · History of literature · Japanese literature · Literature · Middle Ages · Period (music · Poetry · Relation (database · Vernacular · History · Japanese History and Culture · Philosophy