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Title: The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan (Kodansha Globe) by Ivan Morris, Paul De Angelis ISBN: 1-56836-029-0 Publisher: Kodansha International Pub. Date: June, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.62 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Fascinating
Comment: What do most people think about when someone mentions Japan? Samurai, ninjas, tea ceremony, karate, and kabuki? Can you imagine a Japan without these things? Actually this book describe just such a Japan. In the Heian period (950-1050AD), Japan was dominated by life at the imperial court. The ideal man was a gentle, poetry-writing aristocrat and the women were some of first novel writers in the world. It contrasts greatly from the macho military culture that Japan is known for.
Morris gives a run-down of the world of Heian Japan. As he gives this cultural information, he also offers passages fro "The Tale of Genji," a literary masterpiece written by a woman (Murasaki Shikibu) in this period.
This book is great for people who are reading "The Tale of Genji." It gives you a lot of background and cultural information that will help you understand it. Also it's great for those who want to learn about a totally different Japan. It's a definite must read.
Rating: 5
Summary: A window into a vanished world
Comment: I liken the experience of reading this book to a childhood memory of peering through the glass into a Victorian automata musicbox. Through the protective glass cover, the moving birds and scenery of the automata evokes a strange mix of fascination and mystery. Near enough for you to appreciate the delicate beauty it engenders but far away enough that the poetry of motion is not intruded upon by the sounds of the mechanism that made it possible.
Portrayed in great detail but not mired in it is the cultured and time-obscured world of Heian Japan. All the things associated with "traditional" Japanese culture like Bushido, shear-walled castles, geishas and tea ceremonies were clearly absent in Heian Japan. In their place were values quite alien to our image of modern Japanese history with its martial ethos culminating in the apocalypse of 1945. Heian high society held up ideals for the courtier so diametrically opposed to the samurai that I re-read many of the passages again to relish the contrast in my mind.
The author successfully conjured images of Heian architecture and the characters that peopled it Utopian landscape, a major feat since so little material from that period actually survived the ages. Yet it was in its very fragility that the essence of Heian aesthetics is ascentuated. Later ages of Japan, the bakufu governments of the Kamakura and Tokugawa periods are comemmorated by menacing suits of armor and brooding castles. The Heian period is best remembered by the elegant prose of courtly ladies, as colorful and fleeting as butterflies.
I recommend reading this book together with the Tales of Genji to achieve a more profound understanding of Murasaki Shikibu's masterpiece.
Rating: 5
Summary: Absolutely invaluable! Read BEFORE reading "Tale of Genji"
Comment: Social/historical study of various *aspects* (not a true "history") of Heian Japan that really, REALLY helps one understand the behavior/attitudes of the characters in "Tale of Genji"! The "Genji" genealogical charts & character listing in the appendices - by themselves - justify the price (keep it at your side when reading Genji!). Furthermore, the book is entertaining to read as the author actually knows how to write well. I would also recommend this book to anyone that didn't plan to read "Genji" but was curious about that period of Japanese culture.
AND - if you are a student that has an assignment to read GENJI and don't have time to read all of the 900+ pages of the original - you could probably fake your way through any exam after reading this! (And will later be curious enough to slog through the original).
I will probably read this book a second time.
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Title: Diary of Lady Murasaki by Murasaki Shikibu, Richard Bowring, Murasaki Shikibu, Murasaki ISBN: 014043576X Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 09 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, Royall Tyler, Murasaki Shikibu, Murasaki ISBN: 0670030201 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 11 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $60.00 |
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Title: The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon by Ivan Morris ISBN: 0231073372 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 April, 1991 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: Gossamer Years: The Diary of a Noblewoman of Heian Japan by Edward Seidensticker ISBN: 0804811237 Publisher: Charles E Tuttle Co Pub. Date: June, 1974 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams: Recollections of a Woman in Eleventh-Century Japan (Penguin Classics) by Ivan Morris, Lady Sarashina ISBN: 0140442820 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: December, 1989 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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