Tag - the-tale-of-genji

 
 

THE TALE OF GENJI

Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Dec 18, 2022
A musical history told through centuries of Japanese literature
The modern ear, tuned to the aesthetics of a different timbre, may find that one era's beauty is another's cacophony.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jan 16, 2022
A tragic narrative for women persists even as times change
A Heian Period text reads, "Ladies must often depend on men who are nothing to them u2014 it is the way of the world." In Japanese literature, not much has changed.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jan 2, 2022
Escape into the courtly Heian Period with Genji
As a new year dawns, find calm and beauty in the vanished world of Murasaki Shikibu's 'The Tale of Genji.'
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Jun 20, 2021
One era’s eccentrics are another’s model citizens
Would an outcast from the Heian Period feel more at home in the Edo Period? Or are there general characteristics that unites any societyu2019s eccentrics?
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Dec 19, 2020
Thoughts on healing from the Heian Period
The psychology of health in "The Tale of Genji" suggests that enlightenment may be the cure for what ails you.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History
Oct 9, 2019
Oldest written copy of 'missing' part of classic work 'Tale of Genji' discovered
A manuscript containing a missing part of classic Japanese work of literature "The Tale of Genji," written by Murasaki Shikibu in the early years of the 11th century, has been found among the heirlooms of the family of a former feudal lord, a cultural foundation said Tuesday.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 11, 2019
Award-winning Japanese author Seiko Tanabe, known for modernized version of 'Tale of Genji,' dies at 91
Seiko Tanabe, an award-winning author known for her modernized version of the classic "Tale of Genji" titled "Shin-Genji Monogatari," died of cholangitis, an inflammation of the bile duct, on June 6 in Kobe, her family said Monday. She was 91.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / WORKS BY JAPANESE WOMEN
Apr 20, 2019
Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon: Two pioneering women in Japanese literature
The Works by Japanese Women series wraps up by examining the various English translations of two of Japan's greatest works of literature, both penned by women: "The Pillow Book" by Sei Shonagon and "The Tale of Genji" by Murasaki Shikibu.
Japan Times
LIFE / Travel
Nov 23, 2018
Discovering Kyoto through the eyes of Genji
At the height of the splendor of the Heian Period (794-1185), lady-in-waiting to the Imperial Court, Murasaki Shikibu, wrote "The Tale of Genji," the story of imperial officer Hikaru Genji falling in and out of love with his various suitors. After centuries of war, city-wide fires, rebuilding and tourist development, does anything from Genji's Heian-kyo still remain in modern Kyoto?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / WORKS BY JAPANESE WOMEN
May 12, 2018
Where would we be without the words of Japanese women?
Often overlooked, female writers in Japan, such as Ichiyo Higuchi and Raicho Hiratsuka, have a staying power that surpasses their male contemporaries. To help amplify these female voices, over the next few months we'll be highlighting some of the lesser read in translation but equally deserving Japanese female writers.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Mar 17, 2018
Till death do us unite: Japan's dark tales of love
Has ever a civilized people lived in greater intimacy with death than the Japanese?
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
May 14, 2016
Has pacifism always been doomed to fail in Japan?
Japan had a pacifist "constitution" long before 1947, when the current one went into effect. It was issued in the year 604, its author so esteemed, in his own time and since, as to merit the posthumous name Shotoku Taishi (Crown Prince Sage-Virtue). His lifetime (574-622) spanned an early phase of Japan's astonishing leap from prehistory to history, barbarism to civilization, inchoate nature worship to the Buddhism and Confucianism it was just starting to absorb under the generously proffered, gratefully accepted tutelage of its vast and mighty neighbor, civilization itself to dazzled Japanese eyes — China.
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Apr 16, 2016
Understanding Heian nobles’ snobbishness
Once upon a time — the fairy tale opening is apt, though it's history we're dealing with — peace lay so thick upon the land that war was inconceivable. The capital was a city named "Peace and Tranquility" — Hei-An (modern-day Kyoto). There was a ministry of war, but the war minister was no fighter; nor was anyone else who mattered. A war minister has a major role in the classic 11th-century novel "The Tale of Genji" — his name is Kaoru (fragrance). He is described as being as beautiful as a woman and in a state of unabashed terror on journeys along deserted paths to a remote village. Imagine him on the field of battle! But there was no field of battle to imagine him on.
JAPAN / History / THE LIVING PAST
Oct 18, 2014
Getting to the heart of Murasaki's 'Tale of Genji'
"If any society in the world can be described as unique," wrote historian Ivan Morris, "it is that of Heian Kyo in the time of Murasaki Shikibu."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Aug 23, 2014
A Great Valley Under the Stars
A vibrant collection of subdued observation, the poems in this small volume, "A Great Valley Under the Stars," contemplate meaning everywhere — from a truck-stop toilet, over stones in the New Mexican desert and under the great expanse of sky referenced in the title.
Japan Times
LIFE / Lifestyle
Feb 1, 2014
Pursuit of happiness
The merry residents of Japan have long sought to attain the 'pleasantest of all diversions

Longform

A statue of "Dragon Ball" character Goku stands outside the offices of Bandai Namco in Tokyo. The figure is now as recognizable as such characters as Mickey Mouse and Spider-Man.
Akira Toriyama's gift to the world