World of the shining prince ebook

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Post a Comment. Read more. If you do not want to spend money to go to a Library and Read all the new Kindle, you need to use the help of best free Read EBook Sites no sign up Burton Watson and Haruo Shirane, renowned translators and scholars, introduce English-speaking readers to the vivid tradition of early and medieval Japanese anecdotal setsuwa literature. These orall… More. Basho is perhaps the best known Japanese poet in both Japan and the West, and yet there has been remarkably little serious scholarship in English on his achievement.

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By building a rude … More. Shelve Hojoki: Visions of a Torn World. The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. Genji, the Shining Prince, is the son of an emperor. These unpolished provincials would ultimately bring [the Heian] world down in ruins. This is a good introduction to the Heian Period. Concise, but not as much fun as this book. View 2 comments. Jun 15, Alex rated it really liked it Recommends it for: Genji enthusiasts and no one else.

Shelves: written-world , japan , The Tale of Genji is a contender for World's First Novel, a contest that will never be settled because "novel" is sortof a subjective term and who cares, but Genji was written around CE which is a very long time ago indeed. It's super good, read it, and the thing is that Japan in CE was balls weird. So you're going to need some explanation of it, and what will you do, friend? Honestly, look, you're going to read the introduction in whatever edition of Genji you pick, that'll do it, you The Tale of Genji is a contender for World's First Novel, a contest that will never be settled because "novel" is sortof a subjective term and who cares, but Genji was written around CE which is a very long time ago indeed.

Honestly, look, you're going to read the introduction in whatever edition of Genji you pick, that'll do it, you don't really need a whole book. You almost never need a whole book. You know what you do when you want to know more about something? See if someone wrote a New Yorker article about it. They did. If you want a whole shitload more, though, here it is, in the consensus best nonfiction book about the World of Genji. Does it contain spoilers? I mean, I don't feel like Genji is one of those books that's hurt a great deal by knowing the plot, but I don't know how you feel about shit like this.

It's thoroughly spoiled. Its closest analogue in Western Civ is, I don't know, maybe the s - Dangerous Liaisons is a fair comparison, with all its letters and intrigues and its many fuckings.

What will you learn in this book that hasn't been covered by my last two amazing sentences? You'll learn about the Fujiwara, who were sorta the Medicis of Japan. Genji's buddy To No Chujo is a Fujiwara. You'll learn that Japan at the time was basically just China's hick cousin, always less civilized and impressive and constantly ripping off all their cool styles. There's lots and lots of other stuff, yeah - I mean, look, this was a super interesting time.

It's cool to learn about. I was so interested that I wanted to know way more about it. Even more, believe it or not, than I could get out of a New Yorker article.

NOTE: If you haven't yet read "The Tale Of Genji", this book has plenty of spoilers for that - so you might wait until you've read if you hate being spoiled. If you've read the book about, the author's diar, Sei Shonagon's "The Pillow Book" and Lady Sarashina's "As I Crossed A Bridge Of Dreams", this one is a good companion to that, giving us a picture of that world, the middle part of the Heian era, though focusing mostly on the world of the court and upper class of the capital, nowadays known a NOTE: If you haven't yet read "The Tale Of Genji", this book has plenty of spoilers for that - so you might wait until you've read if you hate being spoiled.

If you've read the book about, the author's diar, Sei Shonagon's "The Pillow Book" and Lady Sarashina's "As I Crossed A Bridge Of Dreams", this one is a good companion to that, giving us a picture of that world, the middle part of the Heian era, though focusing mostly on the world of the court and upper class of the capital, nowadays known as Kyoto.

The author wrote this in , which kind of shows in thoughts about women though not so severely as it could be , plus maybe in wondering about the looks of the Heian era, and not always being right about what should be in the religion part, and what in the superstitions part of the book - but as the introduction says, it doesn't prevent us from enjoying it today.

The book chapter themes: view spoiler [ About the time and setting - on the capital, the surrounding nature, home design incl. The book won awards and sold well, and after reading it, I can say it's all well deserved.

It's honest about the good and bad sides of the Heian society, the strengths and weaknesses, and helps us understand more the world all the lady writers and the Genji character s lived.

Well worth adding to the experience of that world, the real and that classic novel - The Tale Of Genji. Oct 01, Janet rated it really liked it. A concise social history of Japan in the Heian period, the s, and especially the tenth century, known as the time of the Shining Prince--the prince being the hero, Prince Genji of the world's first novel, Tale of Genji. That book was written by Lady Murasaki, a lady in waiting to the Heian Empress Akiko, following a remarkably complex set of characters for a couple of generations, and is the touchstone for this social history describing the politics, religion, arts and manners of this ul A concise social history of Japan in the Heian period, the s, and especially the tenth century, known as the time of the Shining Prince--the prince being the hero, Prince Genji of the world's first novel, Tale of Genji.

That book was written by Lady Murasaki, a lady in waiting to the Heian Empress Akiko, following a remarkably complex set of characters for a couple of generations, and is the touchstone for this social history describing the politics, religion, arts and manners of this ultimately civilized, inward aristocratic culture, largely divorced from the actual rule of the country.

Shonagon was a lady in waiting in the court of a rival Heian Empress--Empress Sadako, and her Pillow Book is the collection of impressions of a very keen observer, but without the monumental task and scope of the Tale of Genji. I find the extraordinary aesthetics of the Heian court mind boggling--and its concomitant disinterest in morality or anything practical so foreign, I love reading as much as I can about it.

This history solved many questions I have long had about that society--why did it fall? How could you run a country when nobles were promoted on the basis of how well they wrote poetry rather than how good they were as animinstratrators? The same with military men--generals promoted because of their artistic ability? Morris' book describes a court almost static with leisure, where the real politics, and economics, were lodged in the extra-governmental family politics of a single clan, the Fujiwaras.

The World of the Shining Prince brought to life the mysterious doings of the men in their outer lives, as well as explaining why these two magnificent works, the Pillow Book and The Tale of Genji, and most of the other lasting literature of the Heian period, were all written by women. That phenomenon seemed to arise from two sources. First, men at the time were educated in Chinese classics, were to write Chinese characters, study Chinese poets, which the women were forbidden to study--leaving the native Japanese language, phonetic Japanese characters, contemporary poetry, non-Chinese art, in the province of women.

As very little original could be expressed in the moribund forms of classic Chinese, the vernacular Japanese had a freedom which luckily the women were able to exploit in these works of astonishing freshness and liveliness. Also, in the Heian period, the economic status of noble-women was quite different than it was in the west, and women could inherit and hold land and income generating manors in their own name. This gave them more status than they would have held in a society where women could hold no wealth in their own names.

I learned much about the everyday life of the court, matters glimpsed at in the Pillow Book, but mostly incomprehensible there. All these lovers. Were they lovers? Hard to fathom without this kind of help how the culture treated the rituals and expectations of marriage, concubines, and casual sexual relationships. Extremely helpful.

Best of all, the book contextualizes the Heian cult of beauty, the be-all and end-all of the culture. What an extraordinary society. In was a culture in which beauty was morality, was religion.

Every noble people could play an instrument, draw, write poetry, and they were judged quite harshly on their abilities to do so. Games evaluated the abilities of its participants. It was not enough to be able to write a poem, but they had to be written quickly, in response to occasions--like the morning-after poem which made beautiful the slightest abrupt sexual liaison. These notes would be passed around and judged. Lovers would be passed over if their calligraphy were poor--women as well as men--no matter how beautiful or desirable.

In fact, the gloominess of Heian rooms and the indoor life of the women in particular meant that few people saw them at all. But their handwriting! They were their handwriting, their choice of paper, their poems. A fascinating moment of Japanese history and culture, soon to decay and be swept away by warriors from the provinces.

After reading this book, I might be emboldened to try The Tale of Genji again. View 1 comment. Like many other cultural stereotypes, I associate so many negative characteristics with the Gaijin. The younger version - one that I've become all too familiar with living in Portland - is the manga-crazed-sorta-goth-teen, who just adores Japanese popular culture. I have so many issues with this type, that I just wouldn't even know where to begin.

There is the overzealous foodie, who, so enamored with asian cuisine, will immerse themselves deeply in the culture just for a chance to eat more exot Like many other cultural stereotypes, I associate so many negative characteristics with the Gaijin.

There is the overzealous foodie, who, so enamored with asian cuisine, will immerse themselves deeply in the culture just for a chance to eat more exotic food from Japan. The sort that I've become most familiar with is the cultural critic or academic Gaijin; usually white males in their fifties. Why is it that I think that it's so unfortunate that these are basically the men that I providing me with all of my cultural information on Japan?

Because they didn't grow up in Japan. Because they're not Japanese. Because they're distant observers. Because Gaijin loosely translated, means "outside person". Of course this is just something that I'm going to have to get over. After all, I now consider myself one; not just an outside observer, but one who is interested enough in getting closer to Japan through language, culture, and books. For the sort of person who harbors an intense and passionate amount of curiosity about the external world, eventually focusing this amount of intellectual energy on one aspect of it seems like a level-headed idea.

This process aids in the global, and generally social, exchange of information and ideas that a variety of specialists seem to engage in. We can't all be William T. It also makes intellectual curiosity much easier to deal with, less stressful, and lends knowledge a more utilitarian aspect.

At least I think that this is the case. I've chosen Japan; its language, politics, architecture, literature, art, cinema, and pastoral beauty. I've also chosen this particular country as an intellectual interest and focal point because it's a notoriously difficult culture to understand, and the spoken and written language is incredibly complex and beautiful. I adore culture, in the most general sense. I have this natural tendency to speak in a hyper-critical manner, whether I really know what I'm talking about or not.

I don't necessarily have a mathematical mind. I can understand it after enough practice and rote memorization, but it doesn't come naturally to me, or algorithmic proficiency just isn't an innate tendency that I have. Biology interests me, but hardly enough to sustain an academic career. The social sciences are just too obscure and opinion-driven to really hold enough solid motivation for me to take them seriously enough, and, I don't know, I just can't think of anything else.

Learning another language seems like a pragmatic academic pursuit. More importantly, I can't imagine there being much room for made-up bullshit in the process of learning another language. I'd probably find some of that in papers on Japanese politics or literary criticism, but that's basically unavoidable. Learning this language could be put to good use, maybe in a diplomatic context? Sure, it's more complicated than that.

One doesn't merely learn another language, begin communicating overseas, and suddenly a solid cultural bridge is formed. There's history; some particularly gruesome memories between the U. I'd like to strengthen this bridge though; help myself to understand as much as I can, teach other Americans what I know about Japanese language and culture, and utilize my ability to speak Japanese to share my culture with Japanese people.

Of course, American Gaijins get a bad rap. We have our ancestors to speak for. Even many of our fellow citizens who are morons seem to think that our interest in a country such as Japan is primarily motivated by our "imperialist gaze", and they're quick to begin quoting Edward Said about our misinterpretations of the Orient, even though he was really only referring to the Middle East.

That and he was just Oh, and he wasn't a very accurate historian anyway. What I'm trying to articulate here is that I truly believe that I have a sincere interest in Japan, that is motivated by a desire to understand as much as I can about another country, and attempt to put this information to use in the most humane, selfless way possible.

That, and I'm really just a huge fan. Since then, I've cultivated a pretty sensitive palette for Japanese cinema, and I've recently begun exploring the world of Japanese literature. Thanks to a recommendation from D. The World of the Shining Prince is basically a literary supplement to Murasaki Shikubu's The Tale of Genji , which in and of itself is a work of fiction that provides most scholars with a majority of the information that we have on life during the Heian period. That in mind, I'd mainly recommend this book to people who are currently reading that, or have plans to do so eventually because it's a notoriously difficult narrative to follow, and an understanding of the marriage politics, role of female writers, and the idleness of court life is sort of essential information if you really want to enjoy the full extent of Murasaki's artistic prowess.

Also, I've always found Morris, as literary critic, wonderfully concise and perceptive. He contributes so much to the West's comprehension of Japanese literature and history with the wisest, self-deprecating skepticism. His writing is completely confident, yet he's also aware of the difficulty inherent in attempting to translate the meaning and context of a work so invariably obscure to so many people. The writing is great too, as I've always enjoyed his prose. Here is an excellent example of Morris paraphrasing the aspect of otherworldly salvation to be found in the practice of Buddhism.

If the origin of universal suffering was desire, and if this was inseparable from normal life, then the only answer was to abandon the fleeting world of sorrow shaba and thereby to eliminate desire, above all the desire for individual survival. And it's relatively devoid of Genji plot spoilers, which probably won't make a difference anyway because I can only assume that one only truly remembers the actual plot of that book after reading it at least four or five times.

In other words, trust me, you need help. View all 9 comments. Apr 06, Smiley rated it really liked it Shelves: japan , history. His Japanese scholarship, therefore, could rest assured to those Japanese literature enthusiasts regarding his Japanese authority; however, writing this book seems formidable to us because, first published in , it was and is unthinkable to write such a standard depicting events, episodes, contexts, etc. It was a brilliant climax.

The Court Nobles also pour water over the statue, make obeisance, and withdraw in a leftward turn.