Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600-1900 (Translations from the Asian Classics)

This abridged edition of Haruo Shirane's popular anthology, Early Modern Japanese Literature, retains the essential texts that have made the original volume such a valuable resource. The book introduces English-speaking readers to prose fiction genres, including dangibon, kibyoshi (satiric picture books), sharebon (books of wit and fashion), yomihon, kokkeibon (books of humor), gokan (bound books), and ninjobon (books of romance and sentiment). It also features poetic genres such as waka, haiku, senryu, and kyoka, and plays ranging from Chikamatsu's puppet plays to nineteenth-century kabuki. Readers will continue to benefit from the anthology's selection of significant essays, treatises, literary criticism, folk stories, and other noncanonical works, as well as the numerous prints that accompanied these works. They will also find Shirane's introductions and critical commentary, which guide the reader through the allusive and often elliptical nature of these incredible selections.

A Choice Outstanding academic title, Haruo Shirane's comprehensive anthology is the only such collection to focus exclusively on the early modern period in Japanese literature. This abridged edition retains the essential texts that made the original volume such a valuable teaching tool. It introduces English-speaking readers to prose fiction genres, including dangibon (satiric sermons), kibyōshi (satiric and didactic picture books), sharebon (books of wit and fashion), yomihon (reading books), kokkeibon (books of humor), gōkan (bound books), and ninjōbon (books of romance and sentiment). It also features plays, essays, treatises, literary criticism, comic poetry, folk stories, and the reproduction of woodblock prints.