Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    A Tale of Eleventh-Century Japan: Hamamatsu Chunagon Monogatari
    Unavailable
    A Tale of Eleventh-Century Japan: Hamamatsu Chunagon Monogatari
    Unavailable
    A Tale of Eleventh-Century Japan: Hamamatsu Chunagon Monogatari
    Ebook258 pages5 hours

    A Tale of Eleventh-Century Japan: Hamamatsu Chunagon Monogatari

    By Princeton University Press

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    This book is a complete translation of Hamamatsu Chunagon Monogatari, one of the few extant works of monogatari literature of the Heian period.

    Originally published in 1983.

    The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPrinceton University Press
    Release dateJul 14, 2014
    ISBN9781400856688
    Unavailable
    A Tale of Eleventh-Century Japan: Hamamatsu Chunagon Monogatari

    Related to A Tale of Eleventh-Century Japan

    Titles in the series (17)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Estranged Modernisms

      Apr 12, 2021

      Estranged Modernisms
      6 min read

    • Article

      Portraits Of A Nation

      Dec 23, 2020

      Portraits Of A Nation
      3 min read

    • Article

      How to Read a Squiggle

      Jul 18, 2017

      How to Read a Squiggle
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Stephen Dodson

      Dec 1, 2017

      I wasn’t planning to make Yuri Slezkine’s The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution my lead review as I was reading it; it seemed overlong and somewhat scattered.  But by the time I was done, I realized I had been badly mistaken: Slez

      4 min read

    • Article

      Their Back PAGES

      Dec 31, 2022

      Hardcore political allegory? A feminist fable? Magical realism? A love story? None/all of the above? K.R. Meera’s Qabar (published by Eka), translated from the Malayalam by Nisha Susan, was impossible to pin down, which made reading it a magical as w

      3 min read

    • Article

      Alternative Perspectives

      Sep 1, 2019

      Edited by Kurt Tong Published by Jiazazhi Press/Library, Ningbo, 2019 A decadent sponge cake, a three-tiered arrangement of steamed lotus-seed buns, and a pile of ham-and-cheese sandwiches are spread out among other party foods before a table of chil

      5 min read

    • Article

      Japan Supernatural

      Feb 26, 2020

      Dimmed lights and a sky of paper lanterns at the entrance ‘Japan Supernatural’ demarcates the crossing of thresholds. While these immersive elements transport visitors into the metaphysical realms of Japanese folklore, they are also part of an anthro

      3 min read

    • Article

      Taken By The Wind

      Mar 1, 2024

      Taken By The Wind
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Katie Kitamura

      Dec 17, 2018

      At some point I realized that it was entirely female writers in translation. I trust their work and their taste, and I let that dictate my reading. The post A Year in Reading: Katie Kitamura appeared first on The Millions.

      2 min read

    • Article

      New Literary Magazine Makes Contemporary Japanese Fiction Accessible To English Readers

      Oct 10, 2020

      The literary journal's debut issue translates a plethora of Japanese literature both old and new, and facilitates discussion about the translation itself.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Isamu Noguchi

      Oct 7, 2021

      Isamu Noguchi
      8 min read

    Reviews for A Tale of Eleventh-Century Japan

    4.5/5

    5 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      How can you not like a memoir that starts off: "I was brought up in a part of the country so remote that it lies beyond the the end of the Great East Road. What an uncouth creature I must have been in those days! Yet even shut away in the provinces I somehow came to hear that the world contained things known as Tales, and from that moment my greatest desire was to read them for myself."
    • 4/5
      Diary of a very minor Heian court lady, notable chiefly for its author's delightful girlish reaction to reading the Tale of Genji
    • 4/5
      This was a very interesting book, both by itself and as an addition to the other known Heian-era diaries written by women. The author’s outlook and experience provides a contrast to the other diaries that I’ve read. Of course there are also some similarities. Like Sei Shonagon, Murasaki Shikibu and Michitsuna no Haha (authors of The Pillow Book, The Tale of Genji and Diary of Lady Murasaki, and The Gossamer Years), the author of this diary was from the provincial governor class, and her real name is unknown – she is referred to as Sarashina or Lady Sarashina, after a place rather offhandedly mentioned. Sarashina also doesn’t seem to have much knowledge of the conflicts that were active at that time. And this is another diary where readers get a lot of intimate thoughts and experiences, but not much concrete information about the author – her husband is mentioned casually, for example. But unlike Sei Shonagon and Murasaki Shikibu, Sarashina’s attempt at court service was not successful. Sometimes those two authors are criticized by the too-positive tone of their memoirs (when there was actually a lot of political infighting at the time, not to mention the rebellion against the capital), but Sarashina isn’t enthralled by court service and doesn’t have any sections of the empress favoring her or complimenting her wit. Her focus on all the clothing of the era is also minimal. She describes a number of unhappy events – mostly the deaths of family members, later her husband – but until the end, the overall tone isn’t too unhappy. While I found The Gossamer Years absorbing, it was a pretty depressing book, with the author always unhappy that her highly ranked husband (who also had another wife) never had time for her. Sarashina seems genuinely interested in the pilgrimages she takes – the author of The Gossamer Years also took many trips, but it was only to fill the unhappy times when her husband was away.Who can resist this wonderful opening section?“Yet even shut away in the provinces I somehow came to hear that the world contained things known as Tales, and from that moment my greatest desire was to read them for myself. To idle away the time, my sister, my stepmother, and others in the household would tell me stories from the Tales, including episodes about Genji, the Shining Prince; but, since they had to depend on their memories, they could not possibly tell me all I wanted to know and their stories only made me more curious than ever…I would perform my ablutions and, stealing into the altar room, would prostrate myself and pray fervently, ‘Oh, please arrange things so that we may soon go to the Capital, where there are so many Tales, and please let me read them all.’”From there, Sarashina describes the family’s move from the provinces to the capital. In general, I enjoyed reading about her descriptions of places and trips. The pilgrimages that she took weren’t mainly an excuse for social events, and she doesn’t really comment on everyone she sees and the clothes that they’re wearing.There are some unhappy events – her sister dies and she is separated from her father when he leaves the capital. Sarashina is also devastated when she learns that a woman whose handwriting she admired has died. The intro – a bit dated – suggests that she’s overemotional or something like that, but her grief doesn’t really seem out of place to me. Exchanging letters, judging poetry, and assessing someone by their handwriting were all pretty commonplace in the capital. Sarashina was still fairly young at the time, and, as a woman, she was generally secluded and communicated through writing and behind screens. Her unhappiness over the death of someone she didn’t know doesn’t seem out of character.Sarashina describes her indifferent success at Court and one fleeting hint at romance. Her mentions of her husband are rather muted, but she is unhappy after his death. A running motif in the memoir is her dreams – she describes them as prophetic.Sadly, towards the end, the author decides that some of her bad fortune is due to her excessive focus on tales, in a sort of Northanger Abbey way. She tries to refocus her prayers and writes a lot about her loneliness. However, the end feels like an ending – not like the piece was cut off. Certainly recommended for anyone interested in the Heian era.