38 - Introduction to early modern Japanese literature

Summary

One of the most dramatic transformations in Japanese literary history was the transition from the medieval period to the early modern era, which gave birth to a whole new body of vernacular and Sinitic literature. Most of the high points of early modern literature, the Genroku era, the Horeki-Tenmei era, and the Bunka-Bunsei era, came before or after major Tokugawa shogunate reforms, when writers were relatively free and uncensored. Heian vernacular classics such as Hyakunin isshu, Kokinshu, The Tales of Ise, and The Tale of Genji became basic reading for educated women in the Edo period, but these works, particularly the longer ones, were generally read in digest form, often with pictures, The early modern period produced few women writers in the field of vernacular fiction. Confucian virtues of filial piety and loyalty afforded the bakufu a basis for reinforcing the rules of social hierarchy and the institutions of inheritance.