Kamakura: Fact and Legend, has long been the definitive work on Kamakura.This classic book is the lifetime achievement of Countess Iso Mutsu (née Gertrude Ethel Passingham), a talented, inquisitive Englishwoman who against all odds married a Japanese diplomat at the turn of the century, and so came to live most of her life in this beautiful city.Iso Mutsu was one of the first to discover that much of the magic of Kamakura today lies in ...
This classic collection of Japanese ghost and folk stories is of enormous importance to the field of Japanese studies.Japanese curios, with sundry cobwebs, excite the curiosity and imagination of a master spinner of tales, and the result is Kotto, another Lafcadio Hearn classic about old Japan. Here Hearn spins tales from old Japanese books to illustrate some strange beliefs. They are only curios, he says laconically, but some of these legends w ...
Delightfully illustrated, this collection of Japanese myths and fairy tales presents readers with a rich folk tradition.Folk Legends of Japan contains of over one hundred Japanese folk legends. These have been selected by a distinguished American folklorist, drawn from expert Japanese transcriptions of oral legends, and carefully translated in such a way as to bring out the charming, unadorned, and sometimes disarmingly frank folk quality of the ...
Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji) is the Japan's earliest novel and the most famous work in Japan's literary history. It remains the finest portrayal of court life in the classical Heian period, some ten centuries ago. The author, Murasaki Shikibu (Lady Murasaki) was a member of the celebrated Fujiwara clan, which virtually created the history and culture of the Heian age.The novel has for its theme the many loves of the radiantly c ...
This Japanese Shinto book profiles each of the «Seven Luck Gods»—important deities in Japanese culture.The Seven Lucky Gods of Japan are a group of deities whose origins stem from Indian, Chinese, and indigenous Japanese gods of fortune. Not all of the gods are mythical beings. One of them is an actual historical person. Each of the seven gods has been recognized as a deity for more than a thousand years and each has had its own large ...
Kagero Nikki, translated here as The Gossamer Years, belongs to the same period as the celebrated Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikuibu.This remarkably frank autobiographical diary and personal confession attempts to describe a difficult relationship as it reveals two tempestuous decades of the author's unhappy marriage and her growing indignation at rival wives and mistresses.Too impetuous to be satisfied as a subsidiary wife, this beautiful ...
SparrowsPlaying hide-and-seekAmong the tea blossoms.—Kobayashi IssaHaiku, the traditional Japanese verse form composed of seventeen syllables, can express a dramatic scene or philosophical idea in a single line of verse. In this collection, haiku poet Yuzuru Miura has selected and translated poems by past masters such as Basho and Buson, as well as haiku by contemporary poets. Fireflies, pheasants, a summer shower, winter snow, camellia ...
This classic collection of Korean folk and fairy tales is of cultural enormous importance for Koreans and Westerners alike.First published in 1913 but regrettably long out of print, this fascinating little volume is now made available once again for the enjoyment of all who love an ancient tale, particularly if the setting is an exotic one. Of the legends collected here, Mr. Gale has this to say in his preface: «To anyone who would like to look ...
These twenty-two Japanese tales open to Western readers the world of fantasy in the legendary literature of Japan—a world of ogres, monkeys, goblins, and priest, of spelling-casting and rescuing people.Rich in variety, Legends of Japan includes tales of the supernatural, magic, and deities, as well as tales of romance and intrigue. The vividness and aesthetic appeal of these stories is enhanced by twenty-two woodblock prints from the s ...
