Group+Three+-+Literary+Arts

=Japanese Literature and Poetry =



Japan and the United Kingdom share a long history of artistic interaction. This site seeks to explore a few of the Japanese literary forms that have traveled beyond the shores of Japan to garner a worldwide audience and inspire English-speaking imitators. == Haiku  ==





 Real haiku is the soul of poetry. Anything that is not actually present in one's heart is not haiku. The moon glows, flowers bloom, insects cry, water flows. There is no place we cannot find flowers or think of the moon. This is the essence of haiku. Go beyond the restrictions of your era, forget about purpose or meaning, separate yourself from historical limitations -- there you'll find the essence of true art, religion, and science  - SantokaTaneda (from Paul David Mena's "Haiku Definitions" ([|Haiku in Low Place]s)  When the Western world imagines Japanese literature, the haiku is often the foremost form that comes to mind. The haiku   <span class="t_nihongo_romaji"> <span class="t_nihongo_help"><span class="t_nihongo_icon" style="padding: 0pt 0.1em; color: rgb(0, 0, 238); font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-size: 80%; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; text-decoration: none;">     is a form of poetry consisting of 17 Japanese phonetic units, called //on//, in three metrical phrases of 5, 7, and 5. In Japanese, the poem appears in a single line, unlike the English versions, which appear in lines of three, to equate to the Japanese haiku's three metrical phrases. Traditionally, the haiku is a reflection on the natural world. According to [|The Virtual Museum of Japanese Art], one of the most famous haiku poets is Matsuo Basho (1644-1694). Basho wrote atmospheric poems, combining "sabi" (elegant simplicity), "shiori" (a deep sympathetic feeling for both nature and humanity), "hosomi" (understatement) and "karomi" (a light tone), desiring to create a mood of "yugen" (spiritual profundity) and "kanjaku" (serene desolation). Other early Haiku poets include Yasano Buson (1716-1783) and Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902). Buson used a more sophisticated speech than Busho, while Shiki emphasized the idea of "shasei" (sketching) to create visual descriptions. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; text-align: left; display: block;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; text-align: center; display: block;">//“Calm and serene The sound of a cicada Penetrates the rock”// Matsuo Basho

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; text-align: left; display: block;">The haiku was introduced to the Western World in the early 20th century.

According to Wikipedia "One of the first advocates of English-language hokku was the Japanese poet Yone Noguchi. In "A Proposal to American Poets," published in the //Reader// magazine in February 1904, Noguchi gave a brief outline of the hokku and some of his own English efforts, ending with the exhortation, "Pray, you try Japanese Hokku, my American poets!" At about the same time the poet [|Sadakichi Hartmann] was publishing original English-language hokku, as well as other Japanese forms in both English and French."

The haiku did not truly become a recognized art form in the west until R.H. Blyth, an Englishman living in Japan, published the first volume of //Haiku//, (1949-52). It was a four volume work, describing pre-modern //hokku//. He is the best known interepreter of haiku into English, and is credited with stimulating the writing of English Haiku.

Today, there are many English-speaking practictioners of haiku in America and Great Britian.

[|The World Haiku Club] is an excellent resource for information regarding the world-wide art of Haiku.

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==<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; text-align: center; color: rgb(233, 4, 1);">Manga  ==

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<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; text-align: center; display: block;"> Japanese Manga based on "Star Wars"<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="color: rgb(3, 3, 3);"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">As explained by Wikipedia, Manga is the Japanese word for "comic", or literally translated, "whimsical pictures. Manga are typically serialized episodes presented as part of a continuing storyline. If successful, they can be reprinted as "tank        <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="color: rgb(3, 3, 3);"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">   <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">ō     <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">bon," or paperback manga books. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="color: rgb(3, 3, 3);"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">  <span style="color: rgb(3, 3, 3);"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="color: rgb(3, 3, 3);"> " Widely read in Japan and throughout the world, Manga has developed into an art form, and has even been made a part of [|The British Museum]'s exhibit on modern Japanese art. These <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">comics cover a vast range of subject, including "  <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">action-adventure, romance, sports and games, historical drama, comedy, science fiction and fantasy, mystery, horror, sexuality, and business and commerce." Manga is an important part of the Japanese publishing industry, generating 481 billion yen in 2006 alone. <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Not only is manga valued as entertainment and art, American and European intellectuals are beginning to accept Manga as a literary form, in the same category as novels, <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">short fiction and poetry. For instance, in Stephen E. Tabachinick's article, "A Comic -- Book World," Tabachinick writes,    <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Whereas the graphic novel cannot include sound, it provides many of the advantages of both print and electronic media while creating a unique and subtle experience all its own (including strikingly lettered indications of sound)...the graphic novel gives us the subtlety and intimacy we get from good literary books while providing the speed of apprehension and the excitingly scrambled, hybrid reading experience we get from watching, say, computer screens that are full of visuals as well as text.<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">" <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">  (24)

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">According to the [|Kyoto International Manga Museum] website, Japanese manga and animation have been highly valued around the world since the 1980s. Korea and China have even established colleges and vocational schools for manga, as part of national policies for generating a new industry. In Japan, manga has increasingly been used in education, having been included in langauge and social studies texts, and was even added in 2002 as a new topic in the “Art” subject in the MEXT Junior High School Curriculum Guidelines. Most recently, Manga has been used in government publications, medical, and legal guides.

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<span style="display: block; text-align: left; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">[|How to Draw Manga] <span style="display: block; text-align: left; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> <span style="display: block; text-align: left; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> <span style="display: block; text-align: left; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">

=<span style="display: block; text-align: left; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"><span style="display: block; text-align: center; color: rgb(218, 1, 1);">The Novel =

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<span style="display: block; text-align: left; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> During the 19th century, when Japan reopened her Island to the West, the literary styles of the East and West began to influence each other. According to Wikipedia, the Japanese novelists were the some of the first Eastern artists to successfully integrate Western stylistic concepts with their own traditions and culture. As the novel developed as an art form, Japanese authors tackled the Enlightenment, Romanticism, Naturalism, and Historical fiction.

Moving into the 20th century, writers such as Takiji Kobayashi, Yuriko Miyamoto, and Ineko Sato explored politcally charged issues, particularily the lives of peasants and their struggle for change. Japan's first winner of the Nobel Prize for literature was Yasunari Kawabata, who debuted during World War II, writing lyrical psychological novels. After World War II, Japanese novelists coped with dissaffection and occupation, and explored these things through their work.

The 1960's gave Japan a second Nobel Prize winner, with Kenzaburo's novel, //A Personal Matter// (1964). Authors during the 1960s and 1970s focused on intellectual, social, moral, and political issues in order to raise social awareness.

Modern Japanese writers tend to focus on their subjects inner lives, overshadowing plot and action in order to emphasize emotional issues. Kazuo Ishiguro, who originally was from Japan, although he now resides in Britian and writes in English, illustrates the Japanese focus on emotional issues and interiority. Wikipedia states, "Ishiguro ends many of his novels on a note of melancholic resignation, whereby his characters accept their past and who they have become, and find comfort in that realization...this can be seen as a literary reflection on the Japanese idea of "mono no aware'" "Mono no aware" is a Japanese phrase describing the transience and the bittersweet sadness of passing.

<span style="display: block; text-align: left; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> <span style="display: block; text-align: left; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> <span style="display: block; text-align: left; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Kazuo Ishiguro



Novels

 * //[|A Pale View of Hills]// (1982)
 * //[|An Artist of the Floating World]// (1986)
 * //[|The Remains of the Day]// (1989)
 * //[|The Unconsoled]// (1995)

<span style="display: block; text-align: left; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">[[image:Remains.jpg align="left"]]

 * //[|When We Were Orphans]// (2000)<span style="display: block; text-align: left; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">
 * //[|Never Let Me Go]// (2005)

Screenplays <span style="display: block; text-align: left; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">

 * //A Profile of Arthur J. Mason// (Original Screenplay for [|Channel 4])[|[8]] [|[9]] (1984)
 * //The Gourmet// (Original Screenplay for the [|BBC]; the script was later published in [|Granta] 43) [|[10]] (1987)
 * //[|The Saddest Music in the World]// (Original Screenplay) (2003)
 * //[|The White Countess]// (Original Screenplay) (2005)

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http://wiredforbooks.org/kazuoishiguro/ <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; text-align: center;">

HOME

Works Cited


 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">"Current Situation of Manga Culture" 3 Dec. 2008. Kyoto International Manga Museum. http://www.kyotomm.com/english/about_5.html <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">"Haiku" 3 Dec. 2008. The Virtual Museum of Japanese Art. 4 Dec. 2008. http://web-jpn.org/museum/others/uta/uta_02.htm
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">"Japanese Literature" 3 Dec. 2008. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_literature
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> <span style="display: block; text-align: left; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">"Kazuo Ishiguro" 3 Dec. 2008. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazuo_Ishiguro
 * 5) <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">"Manga" 3 Dec. 2008. Wikipedia. 4 Dec. 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga
 * 6) <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> "<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Sadakichi Hartmann" 3 Dec. 2008. Wikipedia. 4 Dec. 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadakichi_Hartmann
 * 7) <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Stephen E Tabachnick. "A Comic - Book World . " __ World Literature Today __ 81.2 (2007): 24-0_4. __ Research Library Core __. ProQuest. 2 Dec. 2008 < http://www.proquest.com.libproxy.sdsu.edu/ >

//<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; text-align: center; display: block;"><span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">All images obtained through Google Image Search //