Read Japanese Literature

Enjoy the story of a vengeful would-be lover who turns into a 40-foot snake, a sharp-witted woman with criticisms of her husband’s equipment, and a curmudgeonly Buddhist priest who learns to love poetry. In this episode, we’re talking about setsuwa—medieval Japanese anecdotes. Many of them originate as Buddhist preaching, so we’ll also take a look at “Kamakura Buddhisms”: Pure Land, Zen, and Nichiren. 

For notes, links to the suggested reading, and a great picture of Kiyohime as a fire-breathing snake, please visit the episode's webpage.

We're talking about two central genres of Medieval Japanese literature—the warrior ballad and Noh drama. We’ll see two characters from The Tale of the Heike again, including the valiant female warrior Tomoe. This time, she's a mournful ghost.

https://readjapaneseliterature.com/2021/12/22/episode-4-yoshitsune-ballads-and-tomoe-drama/

The great samurai epic and the rise of the samurai class.

Visit this episode's webpage for information on buying the book and resources for further reading.

The world's oldest novel. A hero who is a paragon of beauty with an extreme Oedipus complex.

(CW: sex, rape, incest, pedophilia.)

Gods having sex, founding of the imperial dynasty, and some of the origins of WWII. Plus thoughts on the role of women in early Japanese history.