Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century

About this book

Donald Keene employs his prodigious wealth of knowledge critical insight and narrative aplomb to guide readers through the first nine hundred years of Japanese literaturea period that not only defined the unique properties of Japanese prosody and prose but also produced some of its greatest works. Covering courtly fiction Buddhist writings war tales diaries poems and more Seeds in the Heart explores a vast and variegated treasury of writings. Detailed textual examinations of classic textsfrom the Kojiki to The Tale of Genji from The Pillow Book of Sei Shnagon to Zeamis N playsallow students lay readers and scholars a new understanding and enjoyment of this great literature.