21 - Introduction to medieval literature

Summary

During the early medieval period the samurai were drawn to aristocratic and court culture of the capital, as the Heike had been. The prominent samurai waka poet was Minamoto no Sanetomo, who took an interest in Manyoshu-style poetry. One of the main characteristics of medieval literature is that much of it was produced by groups rather than by individuals, in military chronicles like The Tales of the Heike and the Taiheiki. Aristocratic literature in the medieval period was characterized by strong nostalgia for the Heian past and an emphasis on preserving court traditions. Two literary figures of the late Muromachi period were Shotetsu and the renga master Sogi, of uncertain origins, who wrote influential treatises on renga and numerous commentaries on the classics. Setsuwa literature were collected from as early as the Nara period and appeared in the late Heian period in the massive Konjaku monogatari shu. Buddhist writings in the Heian period were always written in Literary Sinitic.