Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring
Asian literatures, most notably
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
and its
literature
Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...
. Early texts were often written in pure
Classical Chinese
Classical Chinese is the language in which the classics of Chinese literature were written, from . For millennia thereafter, the written Chinese used in these works was imitated and iterated upon by scholars in a form now called Literary ...
or , a Chinese-Japanese creole language.
Indian literature also had an influence through the spread of
Buddhism in Japan.
During the
Heian period, Japan's original culture () developed and literature also established its own style, with the significant usage and development of to write Japanese literature.
Following the end of the policy and especially during the increasing westernization of the
Meiji era
The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feu ...
,
Western literature has also had an influence on the development of modern Japanese writers, while Japanese literature has in turn become more recognized internationally, leading to two
Japanese Nobel laureates in literature, namely
Yasunari Kawabata and
Kenzaburō Ōe.
History
Nara-period literature (before 794)
Before the introduction of
kanji
are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...
from China to Japan, Japan had no writing system; it is believed that Chinese characters came to Japan at the very beginning of the 5th century, brought by immigrants from Korea and China. Early Japanese texts first followed the Chinese model,
before gradually transitioning to a hybrid of Chinese characters used in Japanese syntactical formats, resulting in sentences written with Chinese characters but read phonetically in Japanese.
Chinese characters were also further adapted, creating what is known as , the earliest form of , or Japanese syllabic writing.
The earliest literary works in Japan were created in the Nara period.
These include the (712), a historical record that also chronicles ancient Japanese mythology and folk songs; the (720), a chronicle written in Chinese that is significantly more detailed than the ; and the (759), a poetry anthology. One of the stories they describe is the tale of
Urashima Tarō.
Heian literature (794–1185)
The
Heian period has been referred to as the golden era of art and literature in Japan. During this era, literature became centered on a cultural elite of nobility and monks. The imperial court particularly patronized the poets, most of whom were courtiers or ladies-in-waiting. Reflecting the aristocratic atmosphere, the poetry was elegant and sophisticated and expressed emotions in a rhetorical style. Editing the resulting anthologies of poetry soon became a national pastime. The poem, now one of two standard orderings for the Japanese
syllabary, was also developed during the early Heian period.
, written in the early 11th century by female courtier
Murasaki Shikibu
was a Japanese novelist, Japanese poetry#Age of Nyobo or court ladies, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial Court in Kyoto, Imperial court in the Heian period. She was best known as the author of ''The Tale of Genji'', widely considered t ...
, is considered the pre-eminent novel of Heian fiction. Other important writings of this period include the (905), a -poetry anthology, and . ''The Pillow Book'' was written by
Sei Shōnagon, Murasaki Shikibu's contemporary and rival, as an essay about the life, loves, and pastimes of nobles in the Emperor's court. Another notable piece of fictional Japanese literature was , a collection of over a thousand stories in 31 volumes. The volumes cover various
tales from India,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
and Japan.
The 10th-century Japanese narrative, , can be considered an early example of proto-
science fiction
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
. The protagonist of the story, Kaguya-
hime, is a princess from the Moon who is sent to Earth for safety during a celestial war, and is found and raised by a bamboo cutter. She is later taken back to her extraterrestrial family in an illustrated depiction of a disc-shaped flying object similar to a
flying saucer.
[ ( cf. )]
Kamakura-Muromachi period literature (1185–1603)
During the
Kamakura period
The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...
(1185–1333), Japan experienced many civil wars which led to the development of a warrior class, and subsequent war tales, histories, and related stories.
Work from this period is notable for its more somber tone compared to the works of previous eras, with themes of life and death, simple lifestyles, and redemption through killing. A representative work is , an epic account of the struggle between the
Minamoto and
Taira clans for control of Japan at the end of the 12th century. Other important tales of the period include
Kamo no Chōmei's (1212) and
Yoshida Kenkō's (1331).
Despite a decline in the importance of the imperial court, aristocratic literature remained the center of Japanese culture at the beginning of the Kamakura period. Many literary works were marked by a nostalgia for the Heian period.
The Kamakura period also saw a renewed vitality of poetry, with a number of anthologies compiled,
such as the compiled in the early 1200s. However, there were fewer notable works by female authors during this period, reflecting the lowered status of women.
As the importance of the imperial court continued to decline, a major feature of Muromachi literature (1333–1603) was the spread of cultural activity through all levels of society. Classical court literature, which had been the focal point of Japanese literature up until this point, gradually disappeared.
New genres such as , or linked verse, and
Noh theater developed among the common people,
and such as the were created by Buddhist priests for preaching. The development of roads, along with a growing public interest in travel and pilgrimages, brought rise to the greater popularity of travel literature from the early 13th to 14th centuries. Notable examples of travel diaries include (1432) and (1480).
Edo-period literature (1603–1868)

Literature during this time was written during the largely peaceful
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868.
The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...
(commonly referred to as the
Edo period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
). Due in large part to the rise of the working and middle classes in the new capital of
Edo (modern
Tokyo
Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
), forms of popular drama developed which would later evolve into
kabuki
is a classical form of Theatre of Japan, Japanese theatre, mixing dramatic performance with Japanese traditional dance, traditional dance. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily stylised performances, its glamorous, highly decorated costumes ...
. The and kabuki dramatist
Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653–1725) became popular at the end of the 17th century, and he is also known as Japan's
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
.
Many different genres of literature made their debut during the Edo period, helped by a rising literacy rate among the growing population of townspeople, as well as the development of lending libraries.
Ihara Saikaku (1642–1693) might be said to have given birth to the modern consciousness of the novel in Japan, mixing vernacular dialogue into his humorous and cautionary tales of the pleasure quarters, the so-called ("
floating world") genre. Ihara's ''Life of an Amorous Man'' is considered the first work in this genre. Although Ihara's works were not regarded as high literature at the time because it had been aimed towards and popularized by the (merchant classes), they became popular and were key to the development and spread of .
Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694) is recognized as the greatest master of
haiku
is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...
(then called ). His poems were influenced by his firsthand experience of the world around him, often encapsulating the feeling of a scene in a few simple elements. He made his life's work the transformation of into a literary genre. For Bashō, involved a combination of comic playfulness and spiritual depth, ascetic practice, and involvement in human society. In particular, Bashō wrote , a major work in the form of a
travel diary, considered "one of the major texts of classical Japanese literature."
Fukuda Chiyo-ni (1703–1775) is widely regarded as one of the greatest haiku poets. Before her time, haiku by women were often dismissed and ignored. Her dedication toward her career not only paved a way for her career but it also opened a path for other women to follow. Her early poems were influenced by Matsuo Bashō, although she did later develop her own unique style as an independent figure in her own right. While still a teenager, she had already become very popular all over Japan for her poetry. Her poems, although mostly dealing with nature, work for unity of nature with humanity. Her own life was that of the poets who made their lives and the world they lived in one with themselves, living a simple and humble life. She was able to make connections by being observant and carefully studying the unique things around her ordinary world and writing them down.
was an intellectual movement situated in Edo and centered on the study of
Dutch (and by subsequently
western) science and technology, history, philosophy, art, and language, based primarily on the Dutch books imported via Nagasaki. The
polymath
A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, ...
Hiraga Gennai (1728–1780) was a scholar of and a writer of popular fiction.
Sugita Genpaku (1733–1817) was a Japanese scholar known for his translation of
Kaitai Shinsho (New Book of Anatomy) from the Dutch-language anatomy book . As a full-blown translation from a Western language, it was the first of its kind in Japan. Although there was a minor Western influence trickling into the country from the
Dutch settlement at Nagasaki, it was the importation of
Chinese vernacular fiction that proved the greatest outside influence on the development of Early Modern Japanese fiction.
Jippensha Ikku (1765–1831) is known as Japan's
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...
and wrote , which is a mix of travelogue and comedy.
Tsuga Teisho,
Takebe Ayatari, and
Okajima Kanzan were instrumental in developing the , which were historical romances almost entirely in prose, influenced by Chinese vernacular novels such as and .
Two masterpieces were written by
Ueda Akinari (1734–1809): and .
Kyokutei Bakin (1767–1848) wrote the extremely popular fantasy/historical romance over a period of twenty-eight years to complete (1814–1842), in addition to other .
Santō Kyōden wrote mostly set in the red-light districts until the
Kansei edicts banned such works, and he turned to comedic . Genres included horror, crime stories, morality stories, comedy, and pornography — often accompanied by colorful woodcut prints.
Hokusai (1760–1849), perhaps Japan's most famous
woodblock print artist, also illustrated fiction as well as his famous
36 Views of Mount Fuji.
Nevertheless, in the Tokugawa period, as in earlier periods, scholarly work continued to be published in Chinese, which was the language of the learned much as Latin was in Europe.
Meiji, Taishō, and early Shōwa-period literature (1868–1945)
The
Meiji period
The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...
marked the re-opening of Japan to the West, ending over two centuries of
national seclusion, and marking the beginning of a period of rapid industrialization. The introduction of
European literature
Western literature, also known as European literature, is the literature written in the context of Western culture in the languages of Europe, and is shaped by the periods in which they were conceived, with each period containing prominent weste ...
brought free verse into the poetic repertoire. It became widely used for longer works embodying new intellectual themes. Young Japanese prose writers and dramatists faced a suddenly-broadened horizon of new ideas and artistic schools, with novelists amongst some of the first to assimilate these concepts successfully into their writing.
Natsume Sōseki's (1867–1916) humorous novel (''
I Am a Cat'', 1905) employed a cat as the narrator, and he also wrote the famous novels (1906) and (1914). Natsume,
Mori Ōgai, and
Shiga Naoya, who was called "god of the novel" as the most prominent "
I novel" writer, were instrumental in adopting and adapting Western literary conventions and techniques.
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa is known especially for his historical short stories.
Ozaki Kōyō,
Kyōka Izumi, and
Ichiyo Higuchi represent a strain of writers whose style hearkens back to early-Modern Japanese literature.
In the early Meiji period (1868–1880s),
Fukuzawa Yukichi authored Enlightenment literature, while pre-modern popular books depicted the quickly changing country.
Realism was brought in by
Tsubouchi Shōyō and
Futabatei Shimei in the mid-Meiji period (late 1880s–early 1890s) while the Classicism of Ozaki Kōyō, Yamada Bimyo and
Kōda Rohan gained popularity.
Ichiyō Higuchi, a rare female writer in this era, wrote short stories on powerless women of this age in a simple style in between literary and colloquial.
Kyōka Izumi, a favored disciple of Ozaki, pursued a flowing and elegant style and wrote early novels such as ''The Operating Room'' (1895) in literary style and later ones including ''The Holy Man of Mount'' (1900) in colloquial language.
Romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...
was brought in by Mori Ōgai with his anthology of translated poems (1889) and carried to its height by
Tōson Shimazaki, alongside magazines such as and in the early 1900s. Mori also wrote some modern novels including ''
The Dancing Girl'' (1890), ''
The Wild Geese'' (1911), then later wrote historical novels. Natsume Sōseki, who is often compared with Mori Ōgai, wrote ''I Am a Cat'' (1905) with humor and satire, then depicted fresh and pure youth in (1906) and (1908). He eventually pursued transcendence of human emotions and egoism in his later works including (1914) and his last and unfinished novel ''Light and darkness'' (1916).
Shimazaki shifted from Romanticism to
Naturalism which was established with his ''The Broken Commandment'' (1906) and
Katai Tayama's ''Futon'' (1907). Naturalism hatched "I Novel" () that describes the authors themselves and depicts their own mental states. Neo-romanticism came out of anti-naturalism and was led by
Kafū Nagai,
Jun'ichirō Tanizaki,
Kōtarō Takamura,
Hakushū Kitahara and others in the early 1910s.
Saneatsu Mushanokōji,
Naoya Shiga and others founded a magazine in 1910. They shared a common characteristic, Humanism. Shiga's style was autobiographical and depicted states of his mind and sometimes classified as "I Novel" in this sense.
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, who was highly praised by Soseki, wrote short stories including (1915) with an intellectual and analytic attitude and represented Neo-realism in the mid-1910s.
During the 1920s and early 1930s the proletarian literary movement, comprising such writers as
Takiji Kobayashi,
Denji Kuroshima,
Yuriko Miyamoto and
Ineko Sata produced a politically radical literature depicting the harsh lives of workers, peasants, women, and other downtrodden members of society, and their struggles for change.
Pre-war Japan saw the debut of several authors best known for the beauty of their language and their tales of love and sensuality, notably Jun'ichirō Tanizaki and Japan's first winner of the
Nobel Prize for Literature,
Yasunari Kawabata, a master of psychological fiction.
Ashihei Hino wrote lyrical bestsellers glorifying the war, while
Tatsuzō Ishikawa attempted to publish a disturbingly realistic account of the advance on Nanjing. Writers who opposed the war include
Denji Kuroshima,
Mitsuharu Kaneko,
Hideo Oguma and
Jun Ishikawa.
Postwar literature (1945–onwards)
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, and Japan's defeat, deeply influenced Japanese literature. Many authors wrote stories of disaffection, loss of purpose, and the coping with defeat.
Haruo Umezaki's short story shows a disillusioned and skeptical Navy officer stationed in a base located on the
Sakurajima volcanic island, close to
Kagoshima, on the southern tip of
Kyushu
is the third-largest island of Japan's Japanese archipelago, four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa Island, Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Ryukyu Islands, Islands ...
.
Osamu Dazai's novel ''
The Setting Sun'' tells of a soldier returning from
Manchukuo.
Shōhei Ōoka won the
Yomiuri Prize for his novel ''
Fires on the Plain'' about a Japanese deserter going mad in the Philippine jungle.
Yukio Mishima, well known for both his
nihilistic writing and his controversial suicide by , began writing in the post-war period.
Nobuo Kojima's short story "The American School" portrays a group of Japanese teachers of English who, in the immediate aftermath of the war, deal with the American occupation in varying ways.
Prominent writers of the 1970s and 1980s were identified with intellectual and moral issues in their attempts to raise social and political consciousness. One of them,
Kenzaburō Ōe, who published one of his best-known works, ''
A Personal Matter'' in 1964, became
Japan's second winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Mitsuharu Inoue had long been concerned with the atomic bomb and continued in the 1980s to write on problems of the nuclear age, while
Shūsaku Endō depicted the religious dilemma of the , Roman Catholics in feudal Japan, as a springboard to address spiritual problems.
Yasushi Inoue also turned to the past in masterful historical novels of Inner Asia and ancient Japan, in order to portray present human fate.
Avant-garde writers, such as
Kōbō Abe, who wrote novels such as ''
The Woman in the Dunes'' (1960), wanted to express the Japanese experience in modern terms without using either international styles or traditional conventions, developed new inner visions.
Yoshikichi Furui related the lives of alienated urban dwellers coping with the minutiae of daily life, while the psychodramas within such daily life crises have been explored by a rising number of important women novelists. The 1988
Naoki Prize went to for ''
Ripening Summer'', a story capturing the complex psychology of modern women. Other award-winning stories at the end of the decade dealt with current issues of the elderly in hospitals, the recent past (Pure-Hearted Shopping District in
Kōenji, Tokyo), and the life of a
Meiji period
The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...
ukiyo-e artist.
Haruki Murakami is one of the most popular and controversial of today's Japanese authors. His genre-defying, humorous and surreal works have sparked fierce debates in Japan over whether they are true "literature" or simple pop-fiction: Kenzaburō Ōe has been one of his harshest critics. Some of Murakami's best-known works include ''
Norwegian Wood'' (1987) and ''
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle'' (1994–1995).
Banana Yoshimoto, a best-selling contemporary author whose "manga-esque" style of writing sparked much controversy when she debuted in the late 1980s, has come to be recognized as a unique and talented author over the intervening years. Her writing style stresses dialogue over description, resembling the script of a
manga
are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...
, and her works focus on love, friendship, and loss. Her breakout work was 1988's ''
Kitchen''.
Although modern Japanese writers covered a wide variety of subjects, one particularly Japanese approach stressed their subjects' inner lives, widening the earlier novel's preoccupation with the narrator's consciousness. In Japanese fiction, plot development and action have often been of secondary interest to emotional issues. In keeping with the general trend toward reaffirming national characteristics, many old themes re-emerged, and some authors turned consciously to the past. Strikingly,
Buddhist
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
attitudes about the importance of knowing oneself and the poignant impermanence of things formed an undercurrent to sharp social criticism of this material age. There was a growing emphasis on women's roles, the Japanese persona in the modern world, and the malaise of common people lost in the complexities of urban culture.
Popular fiction, non-fiction, and children's literature all flourished in urban Japan in the 1980s. Many popular works fell between "pure literature" and pulp novels, including all sorts of historical serials, information-packed docudramas, science fiction, mysteries,
detective fiction
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an criminal investigation, investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around ...
, business stories, war journals, and animal stories. Non-fiction covered everything from crime to politics. Although factual journalism predominated, many of these works were interpretive, reflecting a high degree of individualism. Children's works re-emerged in the 1950s, and the newer entrants into this field, many of the younger women, brought new vitality to it in the 1980s.
Manga
are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...
— Japanese
comics
a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...
— have penetrated almost every sector of the popular market. They include virtually every field of human interest, such as multivolume high-school histories of Japan and, additionally for the adult market, a manga introduction to economics, and pornography (
hentai). Manga represented between 20 and 30 percent of annual publications at the end of the 1980s, in sales of some ¥400 billion per year.
Light novel
A is a type of Genre fiction, popular literature novel from Japan usually classified as young adult fiction, generally targeting Adolescence, teens to Young adult, twenties or older. The definition is very vague, and wide-ranging.
The abbr ...
s, a Japanese type of
young adult novel, often feature plots and illustrations similar to those seen in manga. Many manga are fan-made ().
Literature utilizing
new media began to appear at the end of the 20th century.
Visual novels, a type of
interactive fiction, were produced for
personal computer
A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...
s beginning in the 1980s.
Cell phone novels appeared in the early 21st century. Written by and for
cell phone users, the novels — typically romances read by young women — have become very popular both online and in print. Some, such as ''
Love Sky'', have sold millions of print copies, and at the end of 2007 cell phone novels comprised four of the top five fiction best sellers.
Female authors
Female writers in Japan enjoyed a brief period of success during the
Heian period, but were undermined following the decline in power of the
Imperial Court in the 14th century. Later, in the
Meiji era
The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feu ...
, earlier works written by women such as Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon were championed amongst the earliest examples of the Japanese literary language, even at a time when the authors themselves experienced challenges due to their gender. One Meiji-period writer,
Shimizu Shikin, sought to encourage positive comparisons between her contemporaries and their female forebears in the hopes that female authors would be viewed with respect by society, despite assuming a public role outside the traditional confines of a woman's role in her home (see
Good Wife, Wise Mother). Other notable authors of the Meiji period included
Hiratsuka Raicho,
Higuchi Ichiyo,
Tamura Toshiko,
Nogami Yaeko and
Yosano Akiko
, known by her pen name Yosano Akiko (Shinjitai: , Kyūjitai: , ), was a Japanese author, poet, feminist, pacifist, and social reformer, active in the late Meiji era as well as the Taishō era, Taishō and early Shōwa eras of Japan. She is one ...
.
[The Modern Murasaki, Columbia University Press, pages x-2]
Significant authors and works
Nara-period literature
*
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro (–): authored numerous and in the
*
Ōtomo no Yakamochi (): possible compiler of the
Heian-period literature
*
Ariwara no Narihira (825–880)
*
Ono no Komachi ( – )
*
Sugawara no Michizane (845–903)
*
Ki no Tsurayuki
was a Japanese author, poet and court noble of the Heian period. He is best known as the principal compiler of the ''Kokin Wakashū'', also writing its Japanese Preface, and as a possible author of the ''Tosa Diary'', although this was publish ...
(872–945)
*
Lady Ise ( – )
*
Minamoto no Shitagō (911–983)
*
Michitsuna no Haha ( – ): author of
*
Akazome Emon ( – )
*
Sei Shōnagon ( – ): ''
The Pillow Book''
*
Murasaki Shikibu
was a Japanese novelist, Japanese poetry#Age of Nyobo or court ladies, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial Court in Kyoto, Imperial court in the Heian period. She was best known as the author of ''The Tale of Genji'', widely considered t ...
( – ): ''
The Tale of Genji''
*
Izumi Shikibu ( – ):
* Lady
Sarashina ( – ): author of
*
Saigyō Hōshi (1118–1190)
Kamakura-Muromachi-period literature
* ''
The Tale of the Heike'' (–1309)
* ()
*
Fujiwara no Teika (1162–1241)
*
Yoshida Kenkō (–1352):
Edo-period literature
*
Miyamoto Musashi (–1645): ''
The Book of Five Rings''
*
Ihara Saikaku (1642–1693)
*
Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694)
*
Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653–1725)
*
Yamamoto Tsunetomo (1659–1719)
*
Yokoi Yayū (1702–1783)
*
Fukuda Chiyo-ni (1703–1775)
*
Yosa Buson (1716–1784)
*
Motoori Norinaga (1730–1801)
*
Sugita Genpaku (1733–1817)
*
Ueda Akinari (1734–1809)
*
Santō Kyōden (1761–1816)
*
Kobayashi Issa (1763–1828)
*
Jippensha Ikku (1765–1831)
*
Kyokutei Bakin (1767–1848)
* (
travelogue, 1834)
* (work of
human geography, 1837)
Meiji- and Taisho-period literature
*
Nakane Kōtei (1839–1913)
*
Lafcadio Hearn (1850–1904)
*
Mori Ōgai (1862–1922)
*
Futabatei Shimei (1864–1909)
*
Itō Sachio (1864–1913)
*
Natsume Sōseki (1867–1916)
*
Kōda Rohan (1867–1947)
*
Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902)
*
Ozaki Kōyō (1868–1903)
*
Doppo Kunikida (1871–1908)
*
Ichiyō Higuchi (1872–1896)
*
Tōson Shimazaki (1872–1943)
*
Kyōka Izumi (1873–1939)
*
Yonejiro Noguchi (1875–1947)
*
Takeo Arishima (1878–1923)
*
Akiko Yosano (1878–1942)
*
Kafū Nagai (1879–1959)
*
Naoya Shiga (1883–1971)
*
Takuboku Ishikawa (1886–1912)
*
Kan Kikuchi (1888–1948)
*
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1892–1927)
*
Kenji Miyazawa (1896–1933)
*
Denji Kuroshima (1898–1943)
*
Motojirō Kajii (1901–1932)
*
Hideo Oguma (1901–1940)
*
Takiji Kobayashi (1903–1933)
Modern literature
*
Kansuke Naka (1885–1965)
*
Yaeko Nogami (1885–1985)
*
Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (1886–1965)
*
Hyakken Uchida (1889–1971)
*
Edogawa Ranpo
, better known by the pen name , was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese mystery and thriller fiction. Many of his novels involve the detective hero Kogoro Akechi, who in later books was t ...
(1894–1965)
*
Eiji Yoshikawa (1892–1962)
*
Mitsuharu Kaneko (1895–1975)
*
Juza Unno (1897–1949)
*
Shigeji Tsuboi (1897–1975)
*
Chiyo Uno (1897–1996)
*
Masuji Ibuse (1898–1993)
*
Jun Ishikawa (1899–1987)
*
Yasunari Kawabata (1899–1972)
*
Yuriko Miyamoto (1899–1951)
*
Sakae Tsuboi (1899–1967)
*
Fumiko Hayashi (1903–1951)
*
Tamiki Hara (1905–1951)
*
Tatsuzō Ishikawa (1905–1985)
*
Fumiko Enchi (1905–1986)
*
Ango Sakaguchi (1906–1955)
*
Osamu Dazai (1909–1948)
*
Shōhei Ōoka (1909–1988)
*
Sakunosuke Oda (1913–1947)
*
Haruo Umezaki (1915–1965)
*
Ayako Miura (1922–1999)
*
Shūsaku Endō (1923–1996)
*
Ryōtarō Shiba (1923–1996)
*
Kōbō Abe (1924–1993)
*
Toyoko Yamasaki (1924–2013)
*
Yukio Mishima (1925–1970)
*
Osamu Tezuka
Osamu Tezuka (, born , ''Tezuka Osamu'', – 9 February 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist and animator. Considered to be among the greatest and most influential cartoonists of all time, his prolific output, pioneering techniques an ...
(1928–1989)
*
Akiyuki Nosaka (1930–2015)
*
Sawako Ariyoshi (1931–1984)
*
Ayako Sono (1931-2025)
*
Hisashi Inoue (1933–2010)
*
Kenzaburō Ōe (1935–2023)
*
Michiko Yamamoto (b. 1936)
*
Kenji Nakagami (1946–1992)
*
Haruki Murakami (b. 1949)
*
Natsuo Kirino (b. 1951)
*
Ryū Murakami (b. 1952)
*
Yōko Ogawa (b. 1962)
*
Banana Yoshimoto (b. 1964)
*
Mieko Kawakami (b. 1976)
*
Sayaka Murata (b. 1979)
*
Natsuko Imamura (b. 1980)
*
Akira Otani (b. 1981)
*
Ao Omae (b. 1992)
Awards and contests
Japan has some literary contests and awards in which authors can participate and be awarded.
The
Akutagawa Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards, and receives wide attention from media.
See also
*
Aozora Bunko – A repository of Japanese literature
*
Japanese detective fiction
*
Japanese poetry
Japanese poetry is poetry typical of Japan, or written, spoken, or chanted in the Japanese language, which includes Old Japanese, Early Middle Japanese, Late Middle Japanese, and Modern Japanese, as well as poetry in Japan which was written in th ...
*
Japanese science fiction
*
Light novel
A is a type of Genre fiction, popular literature novel from Japan usually classified as young adult fiction, generally targeting Adolescence, teens to Young adult, twenties or older. The definition is very vague, and wide-ranging.
The abbr ...
*
List of Japanese classical texts
*
List of Japanese writers
Explanatory notes
Citations
General and cited references
*
Aston, William George. ''
A History of Japanese Literature'', William Heinemann, 1899.
* Birnbaum, A., (ed.).'' Monkey Brain Sushi: New Tastes in Japanese Fiction''. Kodansha International (JPN).
* Carol Fairbanks. ''Japanese Women Fiction Writers'', Scarecrow Press, 2002.
*
Donald Keene
** ''Modern Japanese Literature'', Grove Press, 1956.
** ''World Within Walls: Japanese Literature of The Pre-Modern Era 1600–1867'', Columbia University Press. 1976, reprinted 1999
** ''Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature in the Modern Era, Poetry, Drama, Criticism'', Columbia University Press. 1984, reprinted 1998
** ''Travellers of a Hundred Ages: The Japanese as Revealed Through 1,000 Years of Diaries'', Columbia University Press. 1989, reprinted 1999
** ''Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from the Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century'', Columbia University Press. 1993, reprinted 1999
* McCullough, Helen Craig, ''Classical Japanese prose: an anthology'', Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 1990,
* Miner, Earl Roy, Odagiri, Hiroko, and Morrell, Robert E., ''The Princeton companion to classical Japanese literature'', Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1985.
* Okada, Sumie. ''Japanese Writers and the West'', London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003,
* Ema Tsutomu, Taniyama Shigeru, Ino Kenji, Kyoto Shobō. 1977, revised 1981, reprinted 1982
Further reading
* Aston, William George. ''A history of Japanese literature'', NY, 189
online* Karatani, Kōjin. ''Origins of modern Japanese literature'', Duke University Press, 1993.
* Katō, Shūichi. ''A History of Japanese Literature: The first thousand years. Vol. 1.'', Tokyo; New York: Kodansha International, 1979.
* Keene, Donald. ''Japanese literature: An introduction for Western readers'', 1953.
* Konishi, Jin'ichi. ''A History of Japanese Literature, Volume 3: The High Middle Ages'', Princeton University Press, 2014.
* Shirna Haruo, Suzuki Tomi, Lurie, David (eds.), ''The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature'', Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2016.
Primary sources
* Keene, Donald. ''Anthology of Japanese Literature: From the Earliest Era to the Mid-Nineteenth Century'', Grove/Atlantic, 2007.
Online text libraries
Japanese Text Initiative University of Virginia Library Electronic Text Center
Michael Watson, Meiji Gakuin University
External links
Japanese Literature Publishing Project the
Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan
Japanese Book News Website(), the
Japan Foundation
Electronic texts of pre-modern Japanese literature by Satoko Shimazakifor fiction and nonfiction.
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